January 2015 – Page 4 – A Geek With Guns

David Cameron Joins the Legion of Naive People Who Think They Can Stop the Progress of Technology

David Cameron, the fascist prime minister of the United Kingdom, has decided that us serfs have no need for secure communications. He has expressed a desire to make the use of end-to-end encrypted communications illegal:

The prime minister has pledged anti-terror laws to give the security services the ability to read encrypted communications in extreme circumstances. But experts say such access would mean changing the way internet-based messaging services such as Apple’s iMessage or Facebook’s WhatsApp work.

This is just another battle in the crypto wars that have been waged between the state and the people. Needless to say the state hasn’t been faring so well. Nobody should be surprised by this though. History is littered with examples of power hungry despots trying to control commonly available technology and failing miserably. For example, the Inquisition was very interested in controlling access to printing presses in order to prevent the spread of anti-Church literature. It didn’t end well for them.

Today states are interested in restricting our access to secure communications. We’re told that these restrictions are necessary for the state to keep us safe but history has shown that such restrictions are put into place to bolster the state’s power. History has also shown us that any restrictions unpopular with the people fail in time.

Secure communication tools are now so pervasive that they cannot help but hold popular support. Nobody wants to transmit their authentication credentials in a way that anybody can intercept them (and if the state can intercept them then anybody can). People suffering from embarrassing medical conditions don’t want the world to know about it when they’re searching for related material online. And few people want others to know what kind of porn they watch.

We have need for secure communications and the tools to enable it are widely available. That means Cameron’s desires cannot be realized. Even if he passes a law making end-to-end encryption illegal people will use it coupled with anonymity tools to protect themselves from prosecution. You can’t put the djinn back in the bottle once it’s out no matter how many laws you pass. The fact that Cameron doesn’t realize this shows how delusional of his power he truly is.

The Government is Quite a Trickster

The United States government is pretty famous for its ability to trick the populace into believing lies. But bullshit unemployment numbers aren’t its best trick. That honor would go to its ability to convince people that the United States is no longer at war:

The holiday headlines blared without a hint of distrust: “End of War” and “Mission Ends” and “U.S. formally ends the war in Afghanistan”, as the US government and Nato celebrated the alleged end of the longest war in American history. Great news! Except, that is, when you read past the first paragraph: “the fighting is as intense as it has ever been since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001,” according to the Wall Street Journal. And about 10,000 troops will remain there for the foreseeable future (more than we had a year after the Afghan war started). Oh, and they’ll continue to engage in combat regularly. But other than that, yeah, the war is definitely over.

This is the new reality of war: As long as the White House doesn’t admit the United States is at war, we’re all supposed to pretend as if that’s true. This ruse is not just the work of the president. Members of Congress, who return to work this week, are just as guilty as Barack Obama in letting the public think we’re Definitely Not at War, from Afghanistan and Somalia to the new war with Isis in Iraq and Syria and beyond.

What’s sad is that I know people who buy into this fairytale. I’ve heard from several friends that Obama ended Bush’s wars. When I point out that we’re still bombing people in the Middle East they either cover their ears, stick their heads in the sand, of call me a neocon. More and more I realize that people don’t care about the truth but only choose to believe what they want. And you know what? I don’t blame them. Because the truth is fucking horrible.

Breathe Easy

Eric Garner died when an officer put him in a choke hold. Even though choke holds are against New York Police Department (NYPD) policy the officer was not fired or even disciplined. To make matters worse NYPD officers are still using choke holds despite all of this:

Back in 1994, just over a year after the police commissioner at the time, Raymond W. Kelly, categorically banned officers from using the maneuver, a Bronx man named Anthony Baez Jr. died when an officer, enraged that a football had hit his patrol car, put Mr. Baez in a chokehold.

Two decades later, complaints about officers using chokeholds continue to flow into the independent city agency responsible for investigating police abuse. From 2009 to June 2014, the agency, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, found enough evidence to substantiate complaints against 10 officers accused of using the move on duty.

In July, the use of a chokehold emerged again, this time in the fatal encounter on Staten Island between Mr. Garner and Officer Daniel Pantaleo. The confrontation, much of it captured on video, provided a direct look at the potential effect of an officer’s arm being wrapped around a person’s neck.

The tough on crime crowd will tell you that you’re safe so long as you don’t break the law. What these authority apologists won’t tell you is that the average American unknowingly commits an average of three felonies a day. Good luck with that whole not breaking the law strategy.

Welcome Back CISPA

While some politicians are exploiting the shooting in Paris to justify the National Security Agency’s (NSA) illegal actions others are exploiting the Sony hack to build on the already sizable police state. Remember the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA)? It’s back:

A senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee on Friday will reintroduce a controversial bill that would help the public and private sectors share information about cybersecurity threats.

“The reason I’m putting bill in now is I want to keep the momentum going on what’s happening out there in the world,” Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), told The Hill in an interview, referring to the recent Sony hack, which the FBI blamed on North Korea.

The question is not whether or not the bill can be passed; It’s when will a tragedy scary enough make the people beg Congress to pass it. What the politicians aren’t saying is that CISPA wouldn’t have prevented the Sony hack. First of all Sony is a Japanese company. Second of all words on a piece of paper don’t stop malicious people form being malicious. But none of that matters when the goal isn’t to stop crime but to increase control over the populace.

The NSA is Probably Celebrating the Shooting in Paris

Most of the world mourned the deaths of those shot in Paris. But some have been celebrating those deaths. Neocons have been enjoying their raging anti-Muslim erections and the National Security Agency (NSA) has probably been celebrating because the scrutiny of their illegal surveillance program is being silenced:

The push to reform the National Security Agency isn’t getting any easier.

After a reform bill was narrowly blocked on the Senate floor late last year, civil libertarians hoped that an upcoming deadline to reauthorize some of the spy agency’s controversial powers would give them another opportunity to force changes.

But the attacks in Paris last week, where gunmen killed 12 at a satirical newspaper and 4 at a kosher market, is making that job harder, and strengthening the resolve of the NSA’s backers.

“I hope the effect of that is that people realize … the pendulum has swung way too far after [leaker Edward Snowden],” Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) told reporters on Thursday.

“Hopefully people realize that the NSA plays a very, very important role in keeping Americans safe, and my guess there will be less of a desire to hamstring them unnecessarily,” he added.

You almost have to admire these NSA apologists. Even though the current surveillance apparatus failed to detect the Paris shooters’ plans beforehand its apologists are claiming it’s necessary to thwart the next one. And people are going to lap up this bullshit because they trust people in authority.

There should be a new rule in politics. If an agency’s illegal actions failed to stop a tragedy then nobody should be able to use that tragedy to justify the agency’s illegal actions. But then there wouldn’t be any justification for the state and I would be enjoying a world where a handful of people aren’t dictating what the rest of us can and cannot do.

Monday Metal: Rasputin by Turisas

I’m amused when metal bands cover songs from other genres. Turisas made a cover of Rasputin, which is a disco song from the ’70’s and makes me smile just because it exists. We’re going to listen to it this week just because it’s funny to me:

All Hail Discordia!

Are you feeling so edgy you can cut yourself from all those jokes you’ve been making about Islam in the aftermath of the Paris shooting? Are you the most euphoric that you’ve been in years? If you’ve answered yes to these questions, or even if you’ve answered no, why not take the next step? Join the religion that’s actually a joke! Discordianism is a simple Pope Card away! Just print out this card and you’re in the elite Paratheo-Anametamystikhood Of Eris Esoteric (POEE)!

In fact you don’t even have to print out this card because I just made you a pope by visiting this site! Congratulations! Take a moment to read our most holy book, The Principia Discordia. Or don’t. We don’t have any rules.

Hail Eris!

North Korea’s Web Browser

North Korea has its own operating system called Red Star OS. Not surprisingly it’s a distribution of Linux. What makes it interesting is that it’s the official operating system of one of the most closed nations on Earth. Recently it leaked onto the Internet and people have been playing with it. So far the most interesting article I’ve found involves the operating system’s web browser:

If you want to send a request to a web address across the country, you need to have a hostname or an IP address. Hostnames convert to IP addresses through something called DNS. So if I want to contact www.whitehatsec.com DNS will tell me to go to 63.128.163.3. But there are certain addresses, like those that start in “10.”, “192.168.” and a few others that are reserved and meant only for internal networks – not designed to be routable on the Internet. This is sometimes a security mechanism to allow local machines to talk to one another when you don’t want them to traverse the Internet to do so.

Here’s where things start to go off the rails: what this means is that all of the DPRK’s national network is non-routable IP space. You heard me; they’re treating their entire country like some small to medium business might treat their corporate office. The entire country of North Korea is sitting on one class A network (16,777,216 addresses). I was always under the impression they were just pretending that they owned large blocks of public IP space from a networking perspective, blocking everything and selectively turning on outbound traffic via access control lists. Apparently not!

Yup, the entire country is apparently treated as one giant intranet. The zany doesn’t stop there though. Check out the article because North Korea certainly made some intriguing design decisions.

Minnesota Law Makers Making Big, Empty Promises

I actively avoid following politics these days. There’s just no point. Everything politicians say is vapid and empty. Nothing they do changes anything in any meaningful way. But sometimes they do something that amuses me a bit and the Minnesota laws makers have done exactly that. They’re hinting at doing all the business of their two year terms in one year:

Minnesota lawmakers may consider completing the entire 2015-16 Legislative session this year alone, opting to stay home next year as renovation is expected to shut down much of the Capitol.

So far, the idea has simply been floated among House and Senate leadership, Senate Minority Leader David Hann, R-Eden Prairie said Tuesday, shortly after the House and Senate opened the session.

Hann said it was routine for the Legislature to meet only once every two years before the 1970s, when lawmakers alternated between a short session during bonding years, and long sessions during budget years.

I fully support this. In fact they should take every year after 2016 off as well. Hell, I’d even be willing to pay them to not show up. It’s a win-win for Minnesota since the only thing law makers do when they’re at the marble building in St. Paul is cause damage.

I Visit the Dark Side of Twitter So You Don’t Have To

Some rather unpleasant Twitter harassment ended up in me digging deep into the bowels of Twitter’s neoconservatives. It’s a shitty place, pun intended, that one should only venture if they’re prepared to see hatred in its purest form. Because of the shooting in Paris yesterday the neocons were finally able to achieve the full erection that so often eludes them. What that means is that social media sites were on fire with masturbatory hatred. What follows are a few of the highlight I came across.

Let’s start with this gem:

The neoconservative movement, being mostly composed of zealous “Christians”, always claim that “moderate Muslims” don’t protest the actions of extremists. This accusation is an implication that all Muslims secret support these acts. Of course these same “Christians” always seem to be silent when organizations such as the Lord’s Resistance Army commits a heinous crime or a self-proclaims Christian attacks an abortion clinic. I guess they must support those actions.

This isn’t the only tweet made by this account. It also inflicted this stupidity on the Internet:

You can see the account holder’s raging neocon erection from here! Nothing gets a neocon off as effectively as the thought of American soldiers being sent to the Middle East for no reason to kill people who, by and large, are uninvolved in any of these hostilities. But the American military is composed heavily of Christians so neocons get to fantasize about them being the modern Crusaders. And, you know, the fact that we’re invading Middle Eastern countries for no reason has nothing to do with the fact that violent extremists periodically attack Western nations.

It’s time to look at a new account spewing the same shit:

19,250 attacks? I wonder where they got that number. It was probably pulled out of their asses. Because of how large the number is I’m assuming it includes any engagement between American military forces and Middle Easterners. As the American military is composed heavily of Christians one could just as easily as that there have been 19,250 deadly Christian attacks since 9/11/01. After all, if we’re going to pull numbers out of our asses they might as well be fairly evaluated.

Do you know what’s fun? Disrespecting everybody who subscribes to a religion for the actions of a few:

Islam prohibits the consumption of pork, much like Judaism. Obviously that means it’s hilarious to put pork products in the halal meat section. That way you can cost the business, which is entirely uninvolved in any of this shit, money while disrespecting people who are also entirely uninvolved (because those Muslims shopping at your local Cubs Food for their weekly groceries probably aren’t shooting Christians in the fact).

What do neocons hate almost as much as Muslims? Black people! Somewhere out there a neocon was going to try to combine the Paris shooting with the killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. Here it is:

Because people protesting killings of black people by police officers is the exact same thing as some nutjobs storming a building and gunning down innocent people. But in the eyes of neocons if you oppose any actions by police officers, no matter how gruesome, you’re supporting murderers of all kinds (except the ones with badges, of course).

Besides being cantankerous asses, neocons also enjoy very childish humor. Nothing makes an ideological point like potty humor:

So much edge you can cut yourself on it! Like many neocons, Mr. O’Halloran has a radio show. What hat means is that nobody besides the 10 or so remaining neocons actually listen to him. Everybody who is culturally relevant have moved onto more modern mediums such as YouTube, Twitter, and podcasts.

It was this point that I decided to turn off the Internet for the night. This was too much for even me to take. Yet I felt it was important because neocons always complain about “liberals” hating on them and seem entirely ignorant as to why. This is why. Every tweet I linked to is being written by a neocon and reads like it was written by a complete asshole (because it was). People don’t hate neocons because they’re not liberals, people hate neocons because so many of them sound like complete jackasses.