A Price for Truth
What a bizarre and crazy ride this year has been in such a short period.
To say the Trump administration is unlike anything we've experienced before would be a massive understatement. We speak for many when we say that we were expecting a degree of crackdowns, closures, regressions, anger, fear, and the like, but what we've gotten so far leaves us almost speechless.
Almost.
We've been through a good amount of administrations. It's hard to believe, but Ronald Reagan was the president when we first started publishing. Since then we've gone through two Bushes, one Clinton, and an Obama. At no point can we say that we've lived under a hacker-friendly administration. But that was never really something we expected. Ignorance is pretty much the theme when it comes to government understanding of technology and all of its nuances, doubly so when you inject social issues and rebelliousness into the mix. Reading through our pages over the past 33 years, you see that we've always been fighting an uphill battle, whether it be testifying before Congress, condemning raids on hackers and overreaching by federal authorities, or campaigning against the latest ill-advised piece of legislation.
Let us be clear for those who may feel we have a specific political agenda. Far and away the worst threats came under the Clinton administration, when the government finally seemed to get a grasp of what technology was all about - and then sought to control it in every way imaginable. We had the Clipper Chip, the Digital Telephony Act, the Communications Decency Act, and a long list of others, all of which were fought - and many of which were overturned after lengthy court battles. And under the Obama administration, we saw more clampdowns on leaks using the Espionage Act than with all other administrations combined, as well as the laying of groundwork for massive surveillance that helps make widespread abuse in the future a foregone conclusion. While the level of understanding and sophistication of technical discussion may, in fact, have risen during these administrations, this didn't always translate into a better scenario for the people.
The point is that no matter who is in charge, we're going to be fighting these battles. And sometimes the people you see as having a better grip on things will wind up causing us more problems precisely because they believe they have it all figured out. In short, this is not about Democrats and Republicans. At least, not on this level. We know that no matter who happens to be in power at the moment, we're going to have our work cut out for us in trying to stop bad things from happening and in educating people as to what the best policy is regarding technology and privacy - and why.
However, all of this default antagonism that we're always prepared for in any administration doesn't begin to cover what seems to be ahead on the Trump agenda. In an incredibly brief time, we've seen the press defined as the enemy of the people, the demonization of undocumented immigrants (Note: They are not "undocumented," they have plenty of "documentation" in their home countries) with a nationalistic zeal that should worry anyone who's ever picked up a history book, statements that unfairly castigate entire religions and nations, racial insensitivity, embracing of conspiracy theories, lack of meaningful dialogue, favoritism of an epic proportion resulting in unelected individuals being catapulted into positions of great power huge and damaging conflicts of interest that are willfully ignored, unprecedented incompetence in vital posts, lack of knowledge or interest in history and world affairs, threats of military action within our own borders, a wanton disregard for the fragile environment of our planet, extreme insecurity and hostility when confronted with criticism, accusations with no supporting evidence... we could keep going, but odds are you're already aware of most of this. And all of these are ingredients vital to the rise of fascism, something we've never really experienced in our country. Sure, we have problems that need to be dealt with, as does any country. How such issues are handled is what defines a society and we are far from alone in being exceedingly troubled with what has happened so far.
Perhaps the core of what's most disturbing here is an attitude that somehow Trump and his ilk believe they don't have to abide by the same rules as everyone else. "As you know, I have a no-conflict situation because I'm president... it's a nice thing to have... I have something that others don't have..." We've seen this assumption of privilege rear its ugly head before in Trump's previous life. It's up to all of us to make sure we remind him and his supporters at every opportunity that this is not how it works. Because once it is, any hope for a functioning free society is lost.
We all know it's possible "legally" to come up with all kinds of words to allow great injustices to be gotten away with. But morally... that's another story. That is where we must apply our efforts without any hesitation.
This brings us to the infamous tax returns, the ones that Donald Trump believes nobody cares about, the ones that he can continue to hide from the American public. It's no secret that the majority of people do care and, while legally he can hide them from us while lying about the reasons, morally it's indefensible. How can anyone assert that we don't have the right to know what is being claimed on this form while we're entrusting him with such great power and responsibility? Mistruths and cheating will quickly be revealed if they are there. So too will the absence of these things, a revelation that will help the healing process begin and instill some much needed trust.
While members of the public can claim the right of privacy in not sharing such information, it's pretty much an unwritten rule in our society that our leader should display his honesty in this public manner. Yes, it's unwritten, meaning he doesn't have to do it. But the consequences of rejecting this tradition, as with many other voluntary actions that are expected of a president, could have a very detrimental effect on our society... and the resulting ripples would be felt throughout the world. Being in such a privileged position means sacrificing some of one's privacy - as has been done for decades - in the interests of open and transparent democracy.
Clearly, he has not been willing to do this. And, equally troubling, his allies are prepared to prevent this information from becoming public. In February, Republicans voted unanimously to block Democratic efforts to obtain Trump's tax returns. Yes, they have the power to obtain them and put this all to rest, but they chose to continue covering it up instead.
Last year, we half jokingly offered $10,000 to anyone who could get us these elusive returns for then candidate Trump. Now that he's the "leader of the free world" with more scandals and cover-ups in the first few weeks of his administration than most presidents have had in their entire terms, this can no longer be thought of as remotely funny. We all have the right to know just who is running things. That is why we are reinstating our offer and making it potentially much bigger.
Here's the deal. We're offering ten grand to anyone who gets us the returns in question before any other media outlet. If you want to add to this amount (and we know that many people do), simply email trump@2600.com and tell us how much you want to add. That's it. If we receive the documents we're asking for, we will contact you and ask you to make good on your pledge in the method of your choice. Once the full amount has been received and awarded, the tax return(s) will be released.
If you want your email to be more secure, we suggest using PGP. Our PGP key can be found in the submissions section of our web page. (Yes, metadata will still show that you emailed us, but nobody else will know what the contents of your email are. We've already gotten a ton of email to that address containing everything from pledges to condemnation of who we are and what we stand for.)
We will continue to add pledges to the total amount. If someone actually sends us one of the tax returns (which, in all honesty, we believe is extremely unlikely), we will have it authenticated and keep it safe while we collect the pledges and then work out an anonymous way to issue the payment. We will do everything we can to keep the names of leakers and pledgers confidential. This is a responsibility we don't take lightly.
A couple of important points: we do not want people breaking the law to obtain these documents, trying to hack the IRS, or anything like that. There are numerous individuals who already have legitimate access to this information. That is the key. Also, this applies to any unreleased tax returns within the past five years, not counting 2016, as those presumably haven't been filed yet and we don't know what will happen on April 15th. Also, we're only doing this for as long as Trump is in power, since that's as long as this remains urgently relevant.
Now, of course, we know this is going to really bother some very powerful people and that we could easily be prosecuted for even attempting to do this. But there comes a point where a choice has to be made and, for us, the choice was a simple one. We could just do nothing and watch from the sidelines. Or we could call upon people with access and a conscience to do the right thing and shine some light on the truth. The hacker community is quite familiar with this kind of decision; we've seen some real heroes step forth in recent years to get us the truth while enduring great sacrifices as a consequence. We've also seen it throughout our entire existence on more localized levels as kids are disciplined by schools and employees punished by companies simply for revealing the unwanted truth about one thing or another.
While it's admittedly terrifying to prepare to take on this kind of an adversary, our words over the years would mean very little if we didn't step forward if we had even the slightest chance of getting closer to the truth.
