Month: October 2025

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and five states sued Zillow and Redfin on Wednesday in two separate lawsuits, which argue that the companies schemed to stop competition in the online housing rental market. 

Officials from New York, Arizona, Connecticut, Washington and Virginia jointly filed the lawsuit Wednesday over a February deal in which Zillow “paid Redfin $100 million to shut down its apartment rental advertising business and transfer its clients to Zillow,” New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office announced in a press release. 

“This agreement is nothing more than an end run around competition that insulates Zillow from head-to-head competition on the merits with Redfin for customers advertising multifamily buildings,” the lawsuit reads, adding that the agreements violate federal antitrust laws and may harm renters. 

The lawsuit also claims that Redfin fired hundreds of workers and then worked with Zillow to rehire some of them.

“Millions of New Yorkers rely on online apartment listings to find an affordable and safe place to live,” James said in a statement. “Zillow’s attempt to shut down its competition could drive up costs for advertisers and leave renters with fewer options when searching for a new apartment.”

Zillow, Redfin and Apartments.com account for roughly 85% of all market revenue, according to James’ office. 

The AG lawsuit seeks an injunction to bar the two companies from continuing to scheme and proposes a possible restructuring to maintain competition. 

The FTC, meanwhile sued the companies for the same thing. Filed in the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, the second lawsuit similarly claims that Zillow and Redfin have previously “competed fiercely” to sell advertising space to property managers trying to rent units.

“But Zillow has no interest in continuing to compete with Redfin on the merits of its rental advertising offering,” the FTC complaint reads. “Instead, on February 6, 2025, Zillow and Redfin executed an unlawful agreement to remove competition from this already highly concentrated market, starting with a $100 million payment to Redfin to exit the ILS advertising market.”

As the Epoch Times notes further, under the agreement, Redfin agreed to stop selling advertising for multifamily properties, terminate all such existing contracts, and transition these ad customers to Zillow, according to the lawsuit.

“Redfin has agreed to stay out of the market for up to 9 years,” it said.

Subsequently, Redfin terminated hundreds of employees supporting this business at the company, agreeing to help Zillow hire its preferred candidates from this pool, the complaint stated. As it wound down the multifamily ad business, Redfin also handed over certain sensitive information to Zillow.

As a result, Redfin’s multifamily business ceased to exist. Going forward, the company’s websites will only act as syndicates hosting listings from Zillow, according to the lawsuit.

“This agreement is nothing more than an end run around competition that insulates Zillow from head-to-head competition on the merits with Redfin for customers advertising multifamily buildings (that is, buildings with 25 or more units),” the complaint reads.

“Zillow and Redfin’s unlawful agreement eliminates competition in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act. Considered as an acquisition, it is unlawful under Section 7 of the Clayton Act.

“The wholesale elimination of critical competition in this highly concentrated space will harm rental advertisers and the Americans who rely on ILSs to find their next home.”

In a statement, a Zillow spokesperson maintained that the company’s “listing syndication with Redfin benefits both renters and property managers,” adding that it had “expanded renters’ access to multifamily listings.” The Seattle-based company said the agreement was “pro-competitive and pro-consumer.”

In an emailed statement to The Epoch Times, Redfin said it “strongly disagrees” with the allegations made by the FTC and expressed confidence that the company “will be vindicated by a court of law.”

“Our partnership with Zillow has given Redfin.com visitors access to more rental listings and our advertising customers access to more renters. By the end of 2024, it was clear that the existing number of Redfin advertising customers couldn’t justify the cost of maintaining our rentals sales force,” the company said.

“Partnering with Zillow cut those costs and enabled us to invest more in rental-search innovations on Redfin.com, directly benefiting apartment seekers.”

The Epoch Times reached out to Zillow for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

In the FTC statement, Daniel Guarnera, director of the agency’s Bureau of Competition, said a company paying off competitors to stop competing against it is a violation of federal antitrust laws.

“Zillow paid millions of dollars to eliminate Redfin as an independent competitor in an already concentrated advertising market—one that’s critical for renters, property managers, and the health of the overall U.S. housing market,” he said.

“The FTC will do our part to ensure that Americans who are looking for safe, affordable rentals receive all the benefits of robust competition between internet listing services like Zillow and Redfin.”

This lawsuit is one of the latest actions federal authorities have taken against companies in the rental market.

“American greatness has always depended on free-market competition, and nowhere is competition more important than in making housing affordable again,” said U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. “We will continue to vigorously pursue President Trump’s pro-consumer agenda.”

Authored by Evgenia Filimianova via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Passengers on the Global Sumud Flotilla, which attempted to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza, are being escorted to Israel, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said on Oct. 2.

The ministry said that all passengers are “safe and in good health.” According to the update, the activists will be deported to their home countries.

The convoy, which set sail from Greece in September, included European activists, lawmakers from Italy and other countries, and humanitarian workers. Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was also on board.

Organizers described it as a “peaceful civilian mission” to deliver aid to Gaza despite Israel’s repeated warnings that it wouldn’t allow the flotilla to breach the naval blockade or enter an active combat zone.

Israel has called the convoy the “Hamas-Sumud flotilla,” alleging it serves the interests of Hamas, the group behind the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that killed about 1,200 people and led to more than 250 hostages.

In a statement on Oct. 1, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said the purpose of the flotilla is provocation. Last week, Israeli intelligence also said that some flotilla leaders had ties to terrorist organizations.

The Global Sumud Flotilla told The Epoch Times at the time, “We do not have a comment on these latest tactics by the Israeli government to distract from their war crimes.”

Italian PM Calls for Calm

A U.S.-led peace plan, announced on Sept. 29, which outlines a process to end hostilities in Gaza, has been welcomed by the international community, including Italian Prime Minister Girorgia Meloni.

Meloni urged the activists on Oct. 1 to halt their mission, warning it could inflame tensions during peace negotiations.

She confirmed the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was monitoring the situation closely and assisting Italian nationals on board.

“We will do everything we can so that these people can return to Italy as soon as possible,” Meloni said on Oct. 2. “After that, beyond this matter, I continue to believe that all of this brings no benefit to the Palestinian people.”

Meloni criticized Italian unions for calling a general strike on Oct. 3 to show support for the flotilla.

She said that Italy had already led humanitarian efforts, including medical evacuations and aid corridors, and warned that domestic protests could cause unnecessary disruption.

International Reaction

In the early hours of Oct. 2, flotilla members said Israeli forces boarded their vessels in international waters, cutting livestreams and communications.

They described the interception as an “illegal attack on unarmed humanitarians” and urged governments to demand their “immediate safety and release.”

The United Kingdom, a supporter of the U.S. peace plan for Gaza, called for restraint.

A UK Foreign Office spokesperson said that the situation must be resolved “safely, in line with international law and with due respect for the rights of all those on board.”

“The aid carried by the flotilla should be turned over to humanitarian organisations on the ground to be delivered safely into Gaza. It is the responsibility of the Israeli government to resolve the atrocious humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” the spokesperson said. “That means immediately and unconditionally lifting restrictions on aid so that the U.N. and NGOs can deliver food, medicine and other essentials to civilians in desperate need.”

The French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs said staff at its Consulate General in Tel Aviv are in contact with French nationals who joined the flotilla and are prepared to provide them with consular support.

Spain’s Foreign Ministry, along with its embassy in Israel and consulates in Jerusalem and Nicosia, said it is closely monitoring the situation of the Global Sumud Flotilla and is ready to provide diplomatic and consular protection to Spanish citizens.

“Spain demands that the physical integrity​ and rights of Spanish citizens be respected,” the ministry said in a statement. “The Global Sumud Flotilla is a peaceful and humanitarian civil society initiative.”

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry denounced the interception, calling it a violation of international law and of Palestinian territorial waters.

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry claims more than 65,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023. The figure does not distinguish between combatants and civilians and includes some deaths from natural causes. The Epoch Times cannot verify the figure.

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

The lines of dominoes being toppled run through every nook and cranny of the economy.

As we all know, the problem with euphoria is the inevitable collision with reality and the resulting disillusionment. But wait–it gets worse.

The new love of your life, your savior who is going to make everything right again, is not just impossibly flawed–they’re a con artist. Now that really hurts. They not only stole your heart, they stole your money.

Which brings us to the AI Boom / Bubble. The euphoria is literally immeasurable, but the disconnect from reality is easily visible and can be broken down into measurable bits:

1. AI revenues are orders of magnitude lighter than the sums being invested (capex, i.e. capital investment). The euphoria is based on the idea that revenues will catch up, but the second date is raising doubts about Prince Charming’s non-flim-flammed revenues and prospects.

This report has raised eyebrows, and the real question is: OK, so let’s say it underestimates revenues by 50%. That means we’re at 3% of revenues needed to justify the capex rather than 2%. Maybe this is why Prince Charming invites his amour to poorly lit bistros–he’s had, um, work done and he’s wary of bright lighting.

$2 trillion in new revenue needed to fund AI’s scaling trend (Bain & Company)

2. AI tools are inherently untrustworthy and lend themselves to generating “going through the motions” slop that gives the superficial appearance of value but actually has negative value as it’s incomplete, misleading and/or incoherent. Sorting the wheat from the chaff actually takes more time because AI is so adept at generating a superficial gloss. In other words, AI generates time sinks rather than productivity.

AI-Generated ‘Workslop’ Is Destroying Productivity (Harvard Business Review)

People Overtrust AI-Generated Medical Advice despite Low Accuracy.

Add in that AI slop looks similar to authentic research and that AI tools have a measurable preference for AI-generated content (i.e. AI slop), and we have a toxic cocktail of untrustworthy output.

3. The rate at which major companies are adopting AI is rolling over. This chart reflects the peak of euphoria has been reached by those with the most resources to figure that out and the real-world utility of AI tools is yet to be determined.

The claim making the rounds is that it’s not Prince Charming’s fault that he’s disappointed his enamored amour; she’s making unrealistic demands on poor PC. In other words, it’s the companies’ fault that AI is underperforming. Is this the great promise of AI, to blame the mark and not the con-artist?

4. AI data centers are competing with other users for electricity, water and capital. The apologists’ claim is that AI data centers are only a tiny little straw sipping on the grid’s total energy, but this overlooks that price is set on the margins and demand for electricity and water by those with unlimited bank accounts will push prices up at rates far above the total additional consumption of AI data centers.

This reality is reflected anecdotally in household complaints that their utility bills have shot up from $250 to $800 a month. Yes, there are other factors at work–the need to invest in grid upgrades, higher insurance rates for catastrophic weather events, etc., but to ignore AI data centers’ insatiable demand for water and electricity is like seeing Prince Charming palm your wallet and then making excuses for him.

How Can We Meet AI’s Insatiable Demand for Compute Power? (Bain & Company)

By all means fact-check that 60% of Santa Clara’s electricity goes to AI data centers: I did. It’s true.

This is not to say there isn’t a use-case for AI. The point here is the excesses of capital and resources heedlessly thrown at AI in the frenzy of euphoria will crash the economy. I know it seems like there are endless trillions to toss around, but back in the real world, capital isn’t infinite, and capital squandered in mal-investments that have little to no real return is capital that could have been invested more productively elsewhere.

The same is true for water and electricity / energy. These resources are not infinite, and when someone with a bottomless bank account enters the market, prices will rise, which means consumers will be devoting scarce income to utilities, leaving them less to spend on other goods and services.

Companies spending scarce capital on AI will be forced to assess the actual financial costs and return on capital invested, and they will pull back. This retrenchment will reverse the parabolic rise of spending on AI, and that will deflate the AI Bubble that has inflated the entire stock market into a euphoric bubble that has now exceeded the extreme euphoria of the dot-com era bubble that popped 25 years ago.

So will AI crash the economy? Malinvestment on an unprecedented scale, disappointing revenues, soaring costs for utilities stripping discretionary income from consumers and the inevitable reversal of investment euphoria and the crash of stock market bubbles bursting–these are not drivers of positive economic development.

Once the stock market euphoria bursts, the wealth effect reverses, and since people feel poorer (and are poorer), they slash borrowing and spending. Those who’ve maxed out their credit have no choice: stop paying the car loan or rent to keep the lights on.

One domino falling, OK, no big deal. This is different: the lines of dominoes being toppled run through every nook and cranny of the economy. What’s been untouchable will be touched–by a hammer.

*  *  *

Check out my new book Ultra-Processed Life and my updated Books and Films. Become a $3/month patron of my work via patreon.com. Subscribe to my Substack for free

Authored by Savannah Hulsey Pointer via The Epoch Times,

A judge has rejected claims that voters in two North Carolina legislative districts were the victims of racial gerrymandering.

U.S. District Judge James Dever ruled on Sept. 30 that Republicans did not illegally manipulate the boundaries of the two northeastern state districts to favor candidates.

The case stemmed from a suit against the GOP legislative leaders in November 2023, brought by two plaintiffs, one of whom is now a Democratic state House member.

The pair claimed that the state Senate districts, as approved by the General Assembly, were illegal.

According to the suit, they argued that the map violated Section 2 of the U.S. Voting Rights Act via race-based discrimination, and that lawmakers should have created a majority-black district instead of the current districts. 

The two areas in question cover about 20 counties in a region that has a significant African American population.

In 2024, white Republicans were elected to the two district seats. 

Dever wrote a 126-page order, saying that plaintiffs Moses Matthews and Rep. Rodney Pierce lacked standing to challenge one of the districts, because neither lived in the area, and they failed to provide evidence that the lines, as drawn, watered down black residents’ voting power. 

The judge also stated that Republican lawmakers didn’t have access to race-based data while mapping the new districts.

Dever pointed out that the 2024 elections, held under the 2023 maps, resulted in 38 of 170 seats going to African American candidates—roughly proportional to their population in the state.

“This case does not involve the General Assembly engaging in race-based districting or the odious practice of sorting voters based on race,” Dever wrote.

“Black voters in northeast North Carolina and throughout North Carolina have elected candidates of their choice (both white and black) with remarkable frequency and success for decades.”

A number of states are currently considering redistricting in some form.

A request from the Department of Justice prompted Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to add redistricting to a state congressional special session.

California took up redistricting in response to the possible loss of seats for Democrats in the House of Representatives.

Missouri was the third to join the push after a Sept. 12 decision by the Missouri Senate to approve a redrawn congressional map to increase Republicans’ odds in a longtime Democratic district. 

Ohio was already in the midst of a legally required congressional map redraw, due to the 2022 map passing without sufficient Democratic support to satisfy state laws. 

Additionally, Maryland and Indiana lawmakers are considering changes that could change their congressional delegation makeup.

In Maryland, however, the change would likely impact the state’s sole Republican, and in Indiana, Republicans believe they could increase their footprint if redistricting takes place. 

Redistricting is also being considered in Illinois, Florida, New York, Nebraska, Utah, and Kansas.

In a striking move for an administration that caters to the State of Israel and its American supporters, the FBI has severed its ties with the staunchly pro-Israel Anti-Defamation League (ADL), with Director Kash Patel saying the bureau refuses to team up with “political fronts masquerading as watchdogs.” 

The move comes after the ADL found itself facing a conservative uproar over including the recently-assassinated Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA in its “Glossary of Extremism and Hate.” On Tuesday, the ADL announced it was retiring the glossary, a measure that failed to spare the 102-year-old group from an extraordinarily rare rebuke from a senior US official. 

The ADL is a hate group https://t.co/E7SXOajgoU

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 1, 2025

“James Comey wrote ‘love letters’ to the ADL and embedded FBI agents with them – a group that ran disgraceful ops spying on Americans,” wrote Patel on X. “That era is OVER. This FBI won’t partner with political fronts masquerading as watchdogs.” 

Patel’s jab at Comey referred to a speech the then-FBI director gave at the ADL’s National Leadership Summit in 2017, where he declared his “love” for the ADL. He called his previous 2014 speech a “love letter to the ADL,” adding, “from the perspective of the FBI, we’re still in love with you.”

FBI Director James Comey gushing about the ADL in 2014: “If this sounds like a love letter to the ADL, it is, because I intend it so.”

Comey to the ADL in 2017: “We are still in love with you.”pic.twitter.com/cdfHIpH8AM

— Decensored News (@decensorednews) November 2, 2023

As it announced the termination of its controversial 1,000-entry glossary, the ADL didn’t acknowledge any regrets about the content. Instead, the group said it “saw a number of entries intentionally misrepresented and misused,” casting itself as a victim and ignoring those whom the group has vilified as bigots for criticizing the Israeli government.  

Categorized under “Extremism, Hate or Terrorism,” the ADL’s now-deleted entry on Turning Point USA claimed the group had a history of “bigoted statements,” “attract[s] racists” and offers a “vast platform for extremists and far-right conspiracy theorists.” In July, pro-Israel groups and individual were outraged when the Turning Point USA 2025 Student Action Summit gave a platform to the likes of Dave Smith and Tucker Carlson, who condemned Israel’s conduct in Gaza and American interventions in the Middle East on Israel’s behalf, and said Jeffrey Epstein was an Israeli intelligence asset. The Grayzone reported that, after the event, “Kirk was bombarded with infuriated text messages and phone calls from Netanyahu’s wealthy allies in the US, including many who had funded TPUSA.”   

The FBI was taking their “hate group” definitions from ADL, which is why FBI was investigating Charlie Kirk & Turning Point, instead of his murderers … https://t.co/xTAfSY8vqr

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 1, 2025

The ADL has long delivered workshops on hate crimes, extremism and antisemitism to not only the FBI but many other law enforcement agencies and police departments across the country. In the past, the ADL has also facilitated programs where American police officers receive training from Israeli officers. That program was paused following significant backlash springing from concerns about the often-heavy-handed tactics employed in Israel, particularly against Palestinians. 

The ADL has also furnished the FBI with data on hate crimes since the 1940s. The group has faced significant criticism for using an expansive definition of an “antisemitic incident” that includes vocal opposition to the political philosophy of Zionism or comparing the actions of the Israeli government to those of Nazi Germany. For example, by counting the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” as inherently antisemitic, every rally in support of Palestinians has presented an opportunity to pad the numbers and cast antisemitism as a far larger problem than it actually is.  

Where the FBI is concerned, all the data sharing, workshops and alleged embedding of FBI employees at the ADL are a thing of the pst. As Patel told Fox News with a heavy sense of finality, “The FBI formally rejects any partnership with the ADL.”

*  *  *

For Him // For Her // Save the planet

Authored by Victoria Friedman via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Sept. 30 that it removed five senior officials from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), accusing them of weaponizing a now-abolished aviation security watchlist to target innocent Americans.

The department said in a statement that the dismissals were the result of an internal investigation into alleged abuses committed by officials, in relation to the TSA’s “Quiet Skies” program, which was scrapped by the Trump administration in June.

DHS and TSA will be referring the matter to Congress and the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, DHS added.

The department said that the dismissed officials had “systematically watchlisted and denied boarding to those who exercised their individual rights and resisted mask mandates on airplanes nearly six months after the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] relaxed its indoor mask mandate.”

Homeland Security added that the TSA had used the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol protests “as an excuse to target several dozen U.S. citizens.”

“These Americans were watchlisted and harassed despite there being no evidence of wrongdoing or illegal behavior,” the department said. “This targeted campaign of harassment continued through June 2021, six months after the events in question, despite no clear or immediate threat to aviation security.”

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem wrote in a Sept. 30 post on X that the TSA had “wildly abused their authority, targeting Americans who posed no aviation security risk under the banner of political differences. President Trump promised to end the weaponization of government against the American people, and we are making good on that promise.”

Quiet Skies

The Quiet Skies program, abolished on June 5, was established by the DHS in 2012 under the Obama administration to ensure that higher-risk passengers are more thoroughly searched before they board commercial aircraft.

Once a passenger was identified and put on the list, he or she would be subjected to more invasive security screening by TSA officers at airports.

Conservatives had criticized the program for allegedly targeting them for their political views, rather than for posing a genuine security risk.

The DHS referenced an earlier internal investigation that found the TSA had conducted surveillance on former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard—the current director of national intelligence (DNI)—under the Quiet Skies program.

In May 2025, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee heard from its chairman, Rand Paul (R-K.Y.), that he had received records regarding Gabbard’s placement on the watchlist, which he said confirmed suspicions that she had been surveilled by federal air marshals during domestic flights in 2024.

“I am horrified by the idea that we took a former congresswoman and we are surveilling her and riding on jets with her,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said during the hearing. “I want repercussions to come from this.”

On Sept. 30, the same committee held a hearing to examine the “weaponization of the Quiet Skies Program,” adding new documents to the record. The chairman said in a statement that he welcomed the ending of Quiet Skies, but said more work needed to be done to ensure that the program does not come back in the future with a different name.

“Every official who directed or approved surveillance of Americans for protected speech must be removed from office. Full transparency must become the rule rather than requiring a year of investigation,” Paul said.

Gabbard said via the same statement that the Quiet Skies program “has been used for nearly two decades to target and surveil everyday Americans, violating our constitutional rights and civil liberties, targeting political opponents, and costing taxpayers approximately $200 million per year, all while failing to stop a single terrorist.”

Noem said that the TSA’s critical security functions will be maintained and that the Trump administration “will return TSA to its true mission of being laser-focused on the safety and security of the traveling public. This includes restoring the integrity, privacy, and equal application of the law for all Americans.”

Arjun Singh contributed to this report.

Tesla shares jumped 3.5%, rising to a fresh 2025 high and pushing Elon’s wealth above $500 billion, after the company reported stronger-than-expected third-quarter delivery figures. Deliveries came in at 497,099 vehicles, a 7.4% increase from a year earlier and smashing Bloomberg consensus estimates of 439,612. The numbers also beat the recently-boosted guidance from Goldman and UBS.

The bulk of the growth came from the company’s mass-market lineup: Model 3/Y deliveries reached 481,166, up 9.4% year-over-year and surpassing expectations of 424,828. Deliveries of Tesla’s other models totaled 15,933, representing a 53% jump from the previous quarter but slightly below estimates of 17,184.

On the production side, Tesla built 447,450 vehicles, down 4.8% from a year earlier and just under the consensus of 450,313. Model 3/Y production totaled 435,826, a 1.8% decline but still ahead of forecasts. Production of other models slipped to 11,624, down 13% from the prior quarter.

The strong delivery numbers likely reflect the pull-forward effect ahead of changes in US tax credits. Federal incentives that provided buyers with up to $7,500 for new EVs and $4,000 for used EVs expired on September 30 under new legislation passed by Congress. Tesla and its rivals had been factoring these credits into competitive lease and purchase offers, boosting demand in the final weeks of the quarter.

As we noted a week ago, Goldman recently raised raised both its delivery estimates and price targets into today’s report. UBS analysts also lifted their delivery forecast. “We believe our new forecast is more in line with buy-side expectations in the 470-475k range,” UBS analyst Joseph Spak told clients about a week ago.

Spak also predicted the stock wouldn’t move much as a result of a beat. He continued, “Despite a print that may be inline with buyside expectations, we tend to find the stock does react to beat/misses vs. the headline number.” 

UBS said in their note that a push to take advantage of the tax credit would help delivery numbers: “Strong deliveries in the US as Tesla pushes, and consumers take advantage of, the $7,500 IRA EV tax credit before its expiry at the end of September 2025. We believe 3Q25 could be the highest quarterly US deliveries since mid-2023 and potentially the highest ever. We believe demand is very likely being pulled forward so we’d expect a q/q drop in 4Q25, even if the new “lower cost” Model Y is introduced.”

He also said improved European and China sales, combined with strong delivery growth in Turkey and South Korea, could also help. 

While deliveries beat expectations, investors will be closely watching upcoming earnings results for more clarity on margins, particularly given the production decline and the impact of incentive-driven sales.

Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

In 2009, I received an email from an obviously brilliant young software developer named Ross Ulbricht. We discussed a “venture to create a free market computer simulation based on the Austrian theory.” His idea was to use many of the newest digital tools to create a digital marketplace, one that would experiment with a new form of digital money called Bitcoin. It was obvious from my correspondence that Ross’s interest was entirely in applied economics with an idealistic bent.

The result was the Silk Road, the world’s first distributed marketplace using digital money, existing outside the bounds of physical space and thereby traversing the regulatory limits of nation-state rules. Ross was a builder and admin, not a merchant. The main product that ended up selling on the site was marijuana, then mostly illegal but now widely for sale in every major city. The site had rules and limits but as with all such experiments, it was a work in progress.

That work was massively disrupted on October 1, 2013, when he was surrounded by feds who arrested him and took his laptop. In the trial later, he was declared guilty of distributing narcotics, money laundering, engaging in criminal enterprise, and distribution of fake ID documents. The judge sentenced him to more than two lifetimes in prison. He served 11 years, until Donald Trump commuted the sentence. He now lives a normal life while giving speeches on the ideals that motivated him in the first place.

The incredible feature of this story is that Ross never touched a narcotic. He never hurt anyone (the fake “murder for hire” charges were not raised in trial). What he did was build a website that became a huge marketplace, one that bypassed the cartels and provided peer-to-peer contact between buyer and seller. It was in fact a fascinating experiment, one for the ages. It was the product of a time of over-the-top techno-utopianism infused with a libertarian ethos.

The difference between the pure theorists of this period and Ross is that he wanted to try out what a free market would be like in real life. His motivation was not about money, much less power, but libertarian idealism. He had other partners in the enterprise who were never touched by the feds (probably because they cooperated with them.)

In any case, it was due entirely to the passion and love shown by his mother Lynn Ulbricht that his cause stayed alive and the movement to free him from the cage grew and grew, to the point that Trump himself promised his release upon election. He kept his promise. Now Ross is a folk hero. I will add, too, that he is a very nice person, brilliant and humble. Just imagine that he received two lifetimes in jail for creating a website! Obviously this sentence was deeply unjust.

Why is this crucial to discuss now?

Kamala Harris’s new book criticizes Ross as a “fentanyl dealer” and attacks President Trump for commuting his sentence after he spent 11 years in a high-security prison. The charge is completely untrue. He never dealt fentanyl or any other drug. He made a peer-to-peer website as an experiment in freedom. Such markets still exist on the dark web, so arresting and charging Ross made no difference whatsoever. What happened to him was cruel and capricious, and he has suffered greatly for his mistakes. It is beyond belief that Kamala would say this about such an earnest young man.

She might be heavily misinformed but there is ever less excuse in our times to make such errors, since any fact-check engine could have caught the error in no time. She was just looking for some excuse to attack Trump. But one wonders if it ever occurred to her that Ross is a real person, with a mom and siblings and now a wife and a life. It is inconceivable that she would use her platform now to say such things.

How well I recall those early days of the Silk Road. It was not just an experiment in a free marketplace. It was an opportunity to try out the world’s first truly successful attempt to use the internet to deploy a non-state money. Decades had gone by with failure after failure. Bitcoin was different because it was the first to solve the double-spending problem. It created a property-like object out of 1s and 0s and limited their creation rate so that it could function as a real money.

In 2010, I had my doubts that Bitcoin could work. But by early 2013, I came to understand that this technology had cobbled together the magic combination of factors that led it to become real money: double-key cryptography, a distributed network, a finite and unhackable creation rate, and the capacity for peer-to-peer exchange. In developing a marketplace that accepted it, Ross was engaged in a grand experiment that probably should have won him the Nobel Prize in economics. Instead, he was put in the slammer merely for visionary technological development.

His arrest was something I had not anticipated. I was naive about the power of the state and its agents, how they are skilled at getting insiders to turn against each other, and how they like to find one person to serve as an example to the world. They were anxious to prosecute Ross as a way of humiliating the techno-utopians of the day who believed that the Internet could be used as an experiment in perfect freedom.

There are many grave ironies of this whole period.

Bitcoin is a major market player and no longer lives under a cloud. The crypto industry itself has a market capitalization that is approaching $4 trillion. Remember that Bitcoin was priced at only a few dollars when the Silk Road first opened. And the product that mostly dominated its sales is now available in every major city. I was just in San Francisco where it seems like there is a dispensary on every city block.

I deeply regret what drugs—legal and illegal—have done to our society. Whether it is legally and scientifically approved psych drugs or fentanyl on the streets, no society can function with a substantial part of its population mentally wrecked by this stuff. I feel the same about weed, with many examples of people in my own life who have suffered from terrible addiction. I suspect that Ross agrees with me here. He was never accused of buying or selling a single illicit product, contrary to Kamala’s claims.

What the Silk Road achieved was to remove the cartels from their monopoly on distribution. Surely that is a notable achievement. As much as I would like to see a world without these products, that is not a realistic aim. Getting the high monopoly profits out of the underground markets, however, is a reasonable goal, one that Ross did have some success in achieving. Meanwhile, we seem to be headed to a place where governments are starting to see the point. Even the Trump administration is experimenting with a new government website that will bypass the middlemen and allow direct to consumer sales of prescription medications.

For Ross’s part, he is thrilled to be a free man again. He spends his time influencing others to live better and more centered lives in the real world, applying some beautiful lessons from his many years in prison. He paid a heavy price for his youthful error, and gained some valuable lessons. He deserves better than to be caricatured and smeared in a wicked partisan struggle.