News You Need to Know – Page 73

A Metal Funeral for a Metal Man

Earlier this year the great Oderus Urungus, the now former lead singer of GWAR, left us. It was a sad day for the metal community as Oderus brought us so much quality entertainment. But two days ago he was given an appropriate funeral:

This past Saturday, August 16, the vocalist was given his second memorial service, which entailed sending out his costume on a raft filled with various offerings into the middle of Hadad’s Lake in Virginia, and setting it ablaze with a flaming arrow. The band’s annual Gwar-B-Q took place following the public memorial service.

Fucking metal! May Valkyries carry his spirit to Valhalla so he can do battle against the enemies of metal! By the way, this is what I want for my funeral.

Highway Patrol Placed in Charge of Ferguson, Missouri

I guess the police operating in Ferguson went too far when they roughed up and arrested a few reporters because, well, that’s how you get reporters to cover your police state shenanigans. Now that the press is actually covering Ferguson the governor of Missouri has decided to finally step in and make it appear as though he cares by ordering the Highway Patrol to deal with the civil unrest:

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon on Thursday ordered the state Highway Patrol to take over security in Ferguson, the St. Louis suburb roiled by four nights of unrest over the police killing of an unarmed black teenager.

The governor moved after police came under intense criticism for their handling of the protests, including firing tear gas into crowds Wednesday night and arresting two reporters.

Now the Highway Patrol can come in looking like liberators:

Highway Patrol officers — wearing no SWAT gear — arrived in Ferguson late Thursday afternoon. Cheers greeted the announcement by the head of the patrol, Capt. Ron Johnson, over a megaphone that he and his officers were “going to march with you.”

In reality this will merely ensure that the police officers who committed violent acts against nonviolent people will go unpunished. The people of Ferguson will jump for joy that they have been liberated from the oppressive Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT) teams and forget that those bastards should be locked in a cage like any other violent gang member. It’s a wonderful ploy that probably saved the SWAT team members’ asses.

If Mr. Nixon really gave a damn about the people of Ferguson he would have ordered the Highway Patrol to arrest every SWAT team member involved in perpetrating violence on nonviolent individuals.

What Happens When a Blind Def Man Uses the Internet

I’m lead to believe Paul Waldman is both blind and def. Why is this? Because he doesn’t believe libertarians are speaking up about what’s going down in Ferguson, Missouri:

The shooting death by police of Ferguson, MO teenager Michael Brown, and what has happened in the aftermath, has been blanketing the news for the past few days. It’s a story about race, but it’s also become a story about the power of the state and how it’s wielded, and against whom.

So my question is this: Where are the libertarians?

[…]

You would also have thought that libertarians would be using the police reaction to the protests over Brown’s killing as a case study in the needless and dangerous militarization of the police.

Can Mr. Waldman really be this naive? After all, he works for the same damned publication as Radley Balko who has been covering this story on the Washington Post. Prominent libertarian magazine Reason has also been covering this story. The front page of the Libertarian subreddit (which I wouldn’t call overly libertarian but it’s libertarian enough for Mr. Waldman) is filled mostly with articles about this story. So what the Hell is Mr. Waldman prattling on about? Well, as you will soon see, he isn’t actually asking about the libertarians. He’s asking about Rand Paul:

But there has been a near-total silence from prominent libertarians on this issue. Senator Rand Paul, right now America’s most prominent libertarian (yes, I know, some don’t consider him a real libertarian), hasn’t said anything about the case — no public comments, no news releases, nothing on Twitter, nothing on Facebook.

Mr. Waldman is correct in that some don’t consider Rand Paul a real libertarian. For example, Rand Paul doesn’t consider Rand Paul to be a real libertarian. So it’s dishonest to say he is America’s most prominent libertarian when the man doesn’t consider himself a libertarian. This just goes to show that if you narrow the field enough you can make up whatever claim your heart desires.

If Mr. Waldman can’t find the libertarians discussion this story he needs to overcome his own laziness, pick up his phone, and call his coworker Mr. Balko up.

Freest Country on Earth

Yesterday the police of Ferguson, Missouri were telling news reporters to get the hell out. Some of them didn’t listen and decided to exercise their press rights and were duly arrested:

Two reporters covering the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri were arrested and physically assaulted by police on Wednesday.

Ryan Reilly, the justice correspondent for The Huffington Post, and Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery were working in a McDonald’s when a SWAT team suddenly invaded the restaurant. After being told to stop recording the proceedings, and refusing, both men were then violently arrested. (Recording police officers is a legal act.) Lowery was shoved into a soda machine. An officer slammed Reilly’s head against glass.

In defense of the brave men and women of the Ferguson SWAT team the reporters were told to get the hell out yesterday. Since they didn’t listen the city’s heroes did what they had to do to make a point: beat the fuck out of the reporters and throw them in a cage. That will teach those disobedient reporters what the First Amendment is all about!

What’s ironic is that the biggest criticism people wield against anarchy is that it would be a state of perpetual chaos where the strong prey on the weak. The reason that criticism is ironic is because we currently live in a society that has a state that creates perpetual chaos and preys on the weak. What is happening in Ferguson right now is the product of statism. A gang of thugs working for the state are able to beat people with impunity, even those who supposedly have a legal right to report on the disturbance, because they are soldiers of the state and have shiny badges pinned to their chest that grant them legal immunity. This is why I don’t take that criticism seriously.

Great Organic Fair Trade Conflict-Free Product For Sale

I must say that I love the Internet. If there is a want out there somebody on the Internet will eventually serve it. For example:

At the more extreme end of socially progressive marketing strategies used by online dealers are those that involve the promotion of drugs on the basis of supposedly “ethical”, “fair trade”, “organic” or “conflict-free” sources of supply.

The story is talking about cocaine and opium, not coffee. This shouldn’t surprise anybody since hipsters need their fix as well. I’m greatly amused by the fact that the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) managed to shutdown the original Silk Road and were rewarded by a notable increase in website selling unpatentable drugs. Now the online drug dealers are marketing to hipsters, which probably means they are making a nice premium (if Whole Foods is any indicator hipsters are willing to pay quite a bit more for the same product with the words “fair trade”, “organic”, or “conflict-free” on the label).

Hidden services have no only reduced violence in the drug trade but now they’re ensuring more drug users’ needs are met.

680,000 Names on the Government’s Various Terrorist Watch Lists

When the government announced the Terrorist Screening Database (TSD), which is the source for the various terrorist watch lists, most people probably assume that it would only contain a handful of names. After all, if the government had evidence that somebody is a terrorist they would arrest them, right? Wrong. As it turns out there are 680,000 names in the TSD and almost half of them aren’t believed to be affiliated with any known terrorist organization:

Nearly half of the people on the U.S. government’s widely shared database of terrorist suspects are not connected to any known terrorist group, according to classified government documents obtained by The Intercept.

Of the 680,000 people caught up in the government’s Terrorist Screening Database—a watchlist of “known or suspected terrorists” that is shared with local law enforcement agencies, private contractors, and foreign governments—more than 40 percent are described by the government as having “no recognized terrorist group affiliation.” That category—280,000 people—dwarfs the number of watchlisted people suspected of ties to al Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah combined.

Now we know for a fact that the database has nothing to do with people affiliated with known terrorist organizations. That means everybody is a potential terrorist. What’s even funnier (in a sick sort of way) is that the man who promised to save us from George W. Bush’s police state is responsible for most of the names appearing in the database:

The documents, obtained from a source in the intelligence community, also reveal that the Obama Administration has presided over an unprecedented expansion of the terrorist screening system. Since taking office, Obama has boosted the number of people on the no fly list more than ten-fold, to an all-time high of 47,000—surpassing the number of people barred from flying under George W. Bush.

This is why I laugh every time somebody tells me that we live in the freest country on Earth. Only a police state could have a list 680,000 names long of suspected enemies. I wonder if getting on the list qualifies an individual as a potential drone target.

Down the Memory Hole

In the book 1984 the Party uses a device called a memory hold to dispose of information that it wants censored. A little known fact is that the United States government (and probably every other government) also have memory holes in the form of classified information. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) recently got to see this wonderful eraser of information as the National Security Agency (NSA) attempted to rewrite the history of a court transcript:

On June 6, the court held a long hearing in Jewel in a crowded, open courtroom, widely covered by the press. We were even on the local TV news on two stations. At the end, the Judge ordered both sides to request a transcript since he ordered us to do additional briefing. But when it was over, the government secretly, and surprisingly sought permission to “remove” classified information from the transcript, and even indicated that it wanted to do so secretly, so the public could never even know that they had done so.

Read the story, it’s an eye opener if you’re one of those poor unfortunate souls who still trusts the state. What’s more worrisome is that an unknown number of court case transcripts may have been altered in the past. In other words even the reliability of the judicial system is in question in this country. It’s pretty hard to set precedents when the information regarding a case is classified.

Mixed Messages

The United States, in many ways, can be viewed as Israel’s father. It gives Israel money, stands beside it even when it fucks up, and jumps to its defense. But being a father isn’t always easy, especially when you have a father like the United States. If there’s one thing the United States sucks as it’s keeping a consistent message. Recently Israel’s father decided to scold Israel:

The US has said the shelling of a UN shelter in Gaza is “totally unacceptable and totally indefensible”.

In its strongest criticism yet of Israel’s offensive in the Palestinian territory, the US – Israel’s closest ally – urged Israel to do more to protect civilian life.

This scolding has upset may of Israel’s friends. There are a lot of calls for Obama’s head being made over this. Yet I’m left believing that Israel is very confused at the moment. While it’s receiving a tongue lashing from its father one moment it’s being sold munitions the next:

The United States, meanwhile, agreed to Israel’s request to resupply it with several types of ammunition.

It’s not an emergency sale, a U.S. defense official told CNN.

Among the items being bought are 120mm mortar rounds and 40mm ammunition for grenade launchers, officials said. Those will come from a stockpile the United States keeps in Israel, which is worth more than $1 billion.

You can’t scold and reward a child at the same time. It creates confusion that makes it difficult for them to know whether or not what they did was right or wrong. The United States really needs to be a better father is either reward or punish Israel. Doing both is just silly and inconsistent.

Minnesota is a Weird Place

Living in Minnesota can best be surmised by extended lengths of time with nothing of great interested happening peppered with HOLY FUCK WHAT’S GOING ON?! Yesterday a police officer from Mendota Heights was shot dead during a traffic stop:

A Mendota Heights police officer died Wednesday afternoon after being shot in West St. Paul by a wanted fugitive, police sources said.

The shooting happened not long after 2 p.m. near the area of Dodd Road and Smith Avenue while the officer was performing a traffic stop, the Dakota County Sheriff’s Office said.

According to a Mendota Heights City Councilmember, the officer who was killed was Scott Patrick.

But that wasn’t all:

Later in the afternoon, at about 3:20 p.m., police were engaged in a high-speed chase on Interstate 494. The chase ended with a pit maneuver that caused the suspect’s vehicle, a green Saturn sedan, to spin out on the Lake Road exit. More than a dozen officers with guns drawn arrested the suspect shortly after.

If you’re thinking the second incident is related to the first you’re incorrect. They were two separate and apparently unrelated incidents. The person suspected of murdering Mr. Patrick was apprehended last night but not much additional information is currently available. I’m curious to find out why the man shot Mr. Patrick. My only guess is that there was a warrant out for his arrest.

San Diego Police Department’s Ploy to Bypassed Strip Club’s Cover Charge Results in Lawsuit

There are so many excellent jokes that could be made from this article:

Nothing screams “fuck the police” quite as much as a few dozen strippers slapping the San Diego Police Department with a fat lawsuit this month. The suit refers to an incident back in March, when ten police officers—who were armed and wearing raid vests—busted into Cheetahs Gentlemen’s Club in San Diego and allegedly harassed the strippers for nearly two hours. The media has made this out to seem like an isolated incident, but this kind of behavior is pretty standard for the SDPD’s vice unit, which is the law enforcement equivalent of a bunch of party-hungry frat bros.

[…]

Brittany Murphy is a dancer at Cheetahs who told me that the police raid left her feeling “creeped out” and “humiliated.” Murphy doesn’t have any tattoos, but the officers insisted on taking photos of her anyway. She was wearing the outfit she wears when she dances: two sheer leotards layered on top of each other.

“The flash was going off, and I’m sure they could see my nipples,” she told me. “I mean, I am a stripper, but… there were girls ahead of me who were saying, ‘Do you have to do this?’ and the police officers, like, reached for their gun holsters, in a threatening way. Like, what are you going to do, shoot her if she doesn’t take semi-naked photos?”

Another San Diego club, Exposé, reported similar harassment from the police during an inspection, and now 30 strippers from both clubs are suing the SDPD for violating their Fourth Amendment rights.

But I think I’ll take the high road and discuss the irony in this paragraph:

The vice unit is a special division of the police force that maintains regulatory control over “morality crimes” like underage drinking and prostitution. Vice detectives basically spend their week attending peep shows and strip clubs, hanging out in bars, searching for prostitutes on Craigslist, and cruising down El Cajon Boulevard, San Diego’s famous hangout for hookers.

Having police enforce “morality crimes” is kind of like having foxes guard hen houses. Modern policing is about the most amoral thing there is. They wield civil forfeiture laws to steal property from people who haven’t even been convicted of a crime, shoot family pets during no-knock raids, beat people whose skin contains a bit too much melanin, expropriate wealth from motorists, and otherwise be amoral individuals. Unlike police officers, strippers provide a service that people voluntarily pay them for. If anything the strippers should be overseeing police departments. This country has it all backwards.