Category: Wall of Fame Assholes

Microsoft and the NYPD are Partnering to Spy on You

Fascism, the marriage between the state and private entities, is a lucrative business for both parties. Sadly, unlike mutual exchange, fascism involves more than the exchangers, it involves everybody who falls under the tyranny of the state, and those people always suffer from the unholy union. Last year Microsoft and the New York Police Department (NYPD) announced their partnership in expanding the police state. The two collaborated to create the Domain Awareness System, a system that integrates city-wide surveillance technology to assist the state in spying on the general populace. As it turns out this marriage stands to be very profitable for both parties as other cities are looking to implement the system:

A unique public-private partnership that joined gut-level police acumen with advanced computer algorithms is proceeding toward two goals that rarely coincide: The policing system is making New York safer and it will also make money for the city, which is marketing it to other jurisdictions.

In the six months since the Domain Awareness System was unveiled, officials of Microsoft, which designed the system with the New York Police Department, said they have been surprised by the response and are actively negotiating with a number of prospective buyers, whom Microsoft declined to identify.

“The interest from the United States has come from smaller municipalities, from sheriff’s departments, and police chiefs from several major cities,” said Dave Mosher, vice president of Microsoft Services. “Outside the U.S., large sporting events have approached us, and also law enforcement — people who are interested in providing public security.”

Buyers would pay to access the software (at least several million dollars and more depending on the size of the jurisdiction and whether specifications have to be customized). New York City will receive 30 percent of the gross revenues from the sale of the system and access to any innovations developed for new customers. The revenue will be directed to counterterrorism and crime prevention programs.

The state loves surveillance because it offers a method to expropriate wealth from the general populace without having to hire and pay additional enforcers. I’m not even slightly surprised that Microsoft and the NYPD have been met with such high demand. Let’s face it, most municipalities are hurting for money. The only way those books can be shored up is if more wealth can be expropriated from the general populace. In order to increase expropriation the governments of those municipalities must increase taxes, increase the number of issued citations, or both. Technology like the Domain Awareness System assists in increasing the number of issued citations because it allows enforcers to see more taxable vices (speeding, parking violations, etc.) and record evidence for a court case if a citation is challenged.

There is some goods news. Surveillance systems are vulnerable to a type of exploit known as smashing cameras and audio recording devices.

Absolute Equality

The left, progressives, collectivists, or whatever you want to call them have an overall obsession with equality. They want to see a world where everybody is perfectly equal in all regards. It’s a noble goal, although one that is impossible to achieve. Being impossible has never stopped the state from attempting something, and it periodically attempts to level the playing field, at least for the serfs (the state will never create a level playing field, it wants power to lord over the serfs). The state’s desire for equality manifests in odd, at least from an outside observer’s vantage point, ways. For example, the state continues to leverage its monopoly on declaring individuals criminals to create equality by declaring everybody a criminal. Having created enough decrees to label most adults criminals the state has moving on to declaring children criminals:

During his first term, President Barack Obama declared October 2009 to be “National Information Literacy Awareness Month,” emphasizing that, for students, learning to navigate the online world is as important a skill as reading, writing and arithmetic. It was a move that echoed his predecessor’s strong support of global literacy—such as reading newspapers—most notably through First Lady Laura Bush’s advocacy.

Yet, disturbingly, the Departments of Justice (DOJ) of both the Bush and Obama administrations have embraced an expansive interpretation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) that would literally make it a crime for many kids to read the news online. And it’s the main reason why the law must be reformed.

Equality an be achieved in our lifetime. No longer will there be a lower, middle, or upper class. There will only be a ruling and subservient class. Members of the subservient class will enjoy perfect equality as they all live in tiny concrete cells, eat gruel, and work as slave laborers for the ruling class. The only thing needed to secure this future is for the state to declare everybody a criminal, kidnap them, and lock them in a cage. At the rate things are going this utopian future isn’t far away.

Paying Twice for Information

California is such an interesting state to watch. Not only is it the state that shows us what happens when you rely on the state for everything, it is currently giving us a glimpse of the aftermath of state reliance. One of the more laughable proposals being put forth by California’s state is double charging denizens for access to public information:

A proposal under consideration in California would significantly limit access to public information by levying a $10 fee any time anyone—including members of the public and the media—wants to look at a court case record in person. While EFF is certainly sympathetic to the budgetary woes facing all levels of government in California, this measure would trade transparency, citizen engagement and the power of a free press for a short-sighted fiscal stop-gap. On the whole, such a fee would do little to fix institutional spending problems while inflicting massive damage to the public trust.

Not only do you pay for the creation of this information through taxes, state issued fines, and other regulatory fees but now you can get pay to read it! On top of soaking California denizens for more money this proposal, from a more cynical point of view, may also discourage individuals from investigating the goings-on of the state they suffer under. If you want to know what dirty little deeds the political bureau of California is up to you’ll have to pay for the privilege.

Never Talk to the Police

Although it has probably been covered ad nauseam I don’t think one can emphasis not talking to the police enough. The police are not your friends, they are not there to protect you, and they are not there to uphold the law. Their primary job is to expropriate wealth from the general populace for the state. Most of their time is spent handing out traffic and parking citations and arresting nonviolent individuals who are in possession of a verboten plant or chemical. When you talk to the police you must keep one fact in mind: their job is to put you in a cage. In addition to those facts there is another reason you shouldn’t talk to the police, it may land you in court:

Steve Bohnen wishes he had never called police.

What he says he believed was a good-faith effort to report a possible theft of a campaign sign and possible public safety hazard in the fall of 2010 has turned his world upside down.

He was sued twice by the man whom he reported and, after countersuing, now faces legal bills in excess of $500,000. The demands of the court process have pulled him away from work, and the stress has strained his family life.

[…]

He later filed three lawsuits naming Bohnen, Bohnen’s supporter Keith Mueller, the county, the city of Grant and others. In his lawsuits, he said that he had been unfairly targeted and that his rights were violated. He accused Bohnen and Mueller of conspiring with law enforcement to get him charged.

Mr. Bohnen called the police because he witnessed a possible theft. In return he was sued by the man her reported to the police and neither the police or the courts have offered any form of assistance with the lawsuits. Instead Mr. Bohnen has been left high and dry for doing what we’re all told to do: if you see something, say something. Another risk of talking to the police is the potential of being used for improperly reporting a suspect. If this happens you will receive no help from the police even though there are laws that supposedly protect those who report crimes to the police:

The Minnesota Sheriffs’ Association says that by allowing Bohnen to be sued for reporting an alleged crime, the courts are endangering the important relationship between citizens and law enforcement. The association points to state law that protects people who report potential crimes in good faith and has asked to participate in Bohnen’s appeal as a friend of the court.

When you deal with the state you’re dealing with an entity that wants to take your shit. It may bust into your home and physically take your shit or it may do it through court fees or other such nonsense. Either way you’re going to lose something when you interact with the state.

Exploiting Aaron Swartz’s Memory to Expand State Tyranny

After Aaron Swartz committed suicide several politicians claimed they would make an effort to reduce the penalties of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which was the law being used to nail Swartz to the wall. I’m not surprised to find out that the politicians are planning on doing the exact opposite of what they promised:

So, you know all that talk about things like Aaron’s Law and how Congress needs to fix the CFAA? Apparently, the House Judiciary Committee has decided to raise a giant middle finger to folks who are concerned about abuses of the CFAA. Over the weekend, they began circulating a “draft” of a “cyber-security” bill that is so bad that it almost feels like the Judiciary Committee is doing it on purpose as a dig at online activists who have fought back against things like SOPA, CISPA and the CFAA. Rather than fix the CFAA, it expands it. Rather than rein in the worst parts of the bill, it makes them worse. And, from what we’ve heard, the goal is to try to push this through quickly, with a big effort underway for a “cyberweek” in the middle of April that will force through a bunch of related bills. You can see the draft of the bill here (or embedded below. Let’s go through some of the pieces.

Exploiting the dead to push an agenda is nothing unusual for statists, in fact it’s their standard mode of operation. It’s unfortunate that this is the outcome of Swartz’s death, but we need not worry for there are solutions to state’s encroachment on the Internet.

Potential Winner of the Worst Father of the Year Award

I think I may have found a contender for the Worst Father of the Year Award. Not surprisingly the father is a state thug:

A policeman has shopped his 13-year-old son for fraud after he ran up a £3,700 bill playing iPad games.

PC Doug Crossan, 48, was horrified when his credit card company informed him that son Cameron had blown a small fortune in the App Store.

He claims the teenager, who now faces the possibility of being arrested and questioned by his father’s colleagues, was unaware he was being charged for the in-game purchases and wants Apple to scrap the charge.

But the technology company has refused and his only way of recouping the money is to report the purchases as being fraudulent.

What kind of father would have his kid charged with fraud to recoup a measly £3,700? By having his kid charged the father has put the son at risk of being kidnapped and caged, not to mention the effect such charges could have on the kid’s future. A father willing to sell his son out in the hopes some nebulous entity will refund his money is no father I’d want to suffer. If I were the father I would make the kid pay back the money he spent. Scratch that, if I was the father I wouldn’t have given the kid a password to my iTunes account. Since app and in-app purchases require a password be entered before a purchase has been confirmed the kid wouldn’t have been able to purchase anything.

The lesson here is that you should understand technology before handing to a teenager. Master your technology less it master you.

Arizona Looking to Make Using the “Wrong” Bathroom a Criminal Offense

I’m not sure what’s going on in Arizona but I’m left believing that they don’t have enough slave laborers in their prisons because there is no justifiable reason to make using the “wrong” bathroom an act that will land you in a cage:

Lawmakers in Arizona are considering a law requiring transgender people to use public toilets of the gender on their birth certificate.

[…]

Penalties could include six months in prison.

Why does the state even care about this? Hell, why does anybody care about this? Is it really that offensive to people that somebody would use the bathroom of the gender they identify with? Considering the number of women I’ve seen use the men’s bathroom when the line at the women’s room was too long I can’t bring myself to believe most people care either way. I’m guessing this law stems from an act of self-hating politicians. That is to say I think one or more politicians in Arizona get hot and bothered when they see a transgendered person. Since many of those individuals were likely brought up to believe transgendered persons are bad they also hate their attraction and want to find a way to remove the temptation. When you combine politicians with unwanted (by them) temptations you get ridiculous laws.

Honestly, that’s the only reason I can fathom for why this law is even being considered.

A Shocking Accusation

Raise you hand if you find this accusation shocking:

A former member of the Westboro Baptist Church who recently published a book about leaving the hate-mongering group has also revealed that founder Fred Phelps’s anti-gay ideology may have spawned from a gay experience.

Nobody? I didn’t think so. When a person hates another person or persons with an high amount of zeal it often means that person sees in themselves, at least some of, what they hate in their targets. It shouldn’t surprise me if we later hear that Phelps participated in one or more gay orgies.

Obama Threatening Iran

Over the last four years Obama has proved to be quite the war monger. Besides continuing Bush’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama has been using his personal arsenal of drones to bomb people all around the Middle East, including two American citizens. As his term continues it is becoming more apparent that Obama wants to instigate a war with Iran. During a speech, supposedly meant for the Iranian people, Obama first blamed Iran for current international tensions:

In a video to the Iranian people, Mr Obama urged Iran to take “immediate and meaningful steps” to reduce tension with the international community.

I’m not sure how Iran is supposed to reduce tensions with the “international community” when the “international community” is the one who placed and is enforcing sanctions (an act of war) on Iran, continues to threaten Iran, and has made it impossible for Iran to satisfy demands because the demands aren’t concretely defined:

“To date, however, they have been unable to convince the international community that their nuclear activities are solely for peaceful purposes.

“Now is the time for the Iranian government to take immediate and meaningful steps to reduce tensions and work toward an enduring, long-term settlement of the nuclear issue.”‘

Perhaps it would help if the “international community” would tell the Iranian state what it needed to do to satisfy them. I continue hearing murmurs about Iran failing to ease the concerns of outside countries but nobody has really stated what Iran can do to ease those concerns. Looking at the situation objectively it appears that the “international community” wants war and is therefore ensuring Iran cannot satisfy their needs. We know that the “international community” has been at odds with Iran ever since Iran threw out the puppet government established by the British and United States in 1953. At this rate Obama will have the United States embroiled in yet another war, which is rather ironic because he was whisked into power, in part, by support from the anti-war movement.

The United States is Opening All Financial Data to Spy Agencies

Things are about to get even more Orwellian in this country:

The Obama administration is drawing up plans to give all U.S. spy agencies full access to a massive database that contains financial data on American citizens and others who bank in the country, according to a Treasury Department document seen by Reuters.

The proposed plan represents a major step by U.S. intelligence agencies to spot and track down terrorist networks and crime syndicates by bringing together financial databanks, criminal records and military intelligence. The plan, which legal experts say is permissible under U.S. law, is nonetheless likely to trigger intense criticism from privacy advocates.

Welcome to the United States where your every move is watched by the state. News like this is the reason I laugh whenever I hear somebody say that the United States is the freest country in the world. The United States is a police state and like most police states most of the people living here don’t realize it’s a police state. Oh well, this is another reason to start looking into Bitcoin. There’s no reason the United States spy agencies need to know what you’re buying and selling and Bitcoin is an means of keeping those transactions private.