Tag: 1984 was a Warning not a Blueprint

We’re Literally Serfs Now

I often use the term serf as an example of how the state thinks of the people under it’s rule. It appears that my statement may be more literal than I thought:

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, or NDAA, signed into law by Hope/Change enthusiast Barack Obama on December 31, 2011, potentially ends right to due process and habeas corpus for US citizens. You can now be detained by military forces and imprisoned, without trial or charges, for as long as the government deems necessary.

The Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011, or Trespass Bill, signed into law by Barack Obama on March 9, 2012, “potentially makes peaceable protest anywhere in the U.S. a federal felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.” Nice. More specifically, peaceful protest within proximity to those protected by the Secret Service, including presidential candidates and the President, may be a federal felony now. So much for that First Amendment, huh? (Source.)

The Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011, or H.R. 1981, is the brainchild of SOPA author Rep. Lamar Smith. The bill, according to VentureBeat and others, “would alter U.S. code Chapter 18 section 2703 ‘Required Disclosure of Customer Communications or Records’ so that all Internet service providers would need to store your IP address for at least 12 months, along with any highly sensitive personal information such as credit card data.” Keep in mind, this would be used on ALL Americans who use the Internet, including you and I. Just in case, you know, we are harming children. Police state surveillance: it’s all for the kids!

[…]

The National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order, or NDRP, was released by Barack Obama’s administration on March 16, 2012 — it received very little broadcast media attention. According to a columnist at The Washington Times, “It states that, in case of a war or national emergency, the federal government has the authority to take over almost every aspect of American society. Food, livestock, farming equipment, manufacturing, industry, energy, transportation, hospitals, health care facilities, water resources, defense and construction…

In short, the order gives Mr. Obama the ability to impose martial law. He now possesses the potential powers of a dictator. The order is a direct assault on individual liberties, private property rights and the rule of law. It is blatantly unconstitutional.”

The United States, land of the formerly free.

Tapping Phones is Expensive

It’s nice to know I’m not the only person being gouged by cell phone providers:

But at least one document also details the day-to-day business of telecoms’ handing over of data to law enforcement, including a breakdown of every major carrier’s fees for every sort of data request from targeted wiretaps to so-called “tower dumps” that provide information on every user of certain cell tower. The guide, as provided by the Tucson, Arizona police department to the ACLU, is dated July 2009, and the fees it lists may be somewhat outdated. But representatives I reached by email at Verizon and AT&T both declined to detail any changes to the numbers.

Here are a few of the highlights from the fee data.

  • Wiretaps cost hundreds of dollars per target every month, generally paid at daily or monthly rates. To wiretap a customer’s phone, T-Mobile charges law enforcement a flat fee of $500 per target. Sprint’s wireless carrier Sprint Nextel requires police pay $400 per “market area” and per “technology” as well as a $10 per day fee, capped at $2,000. AT&T charges a $325 activation fee, plus $5 per day for data and $10 for audio. Verizon charges a $50 administrative fee plus $700 per month, per target.
  • Data requests for voicemail or text messages cost extra. AT&T demands $150 for access to a target’s voicemail, while Verizon charges $50 for access to text messages. Sprint offers the most detailed breakdown of fees for various kinds of data on a phone, asking $120 for pictures or video, $60 for email, $60 for voice mail and $30 for text messages.
  • All four telecom firms also offer so-called “tower dumps” that allow police to see the numbers of every user accessing a certain cell tower over a certain time at an hourly rate. AT&T charges $75 per tower per hour, with a minimum of two hours. Verizon charges between $30 and $60 per hour for each cell tower. T-Mobile demands $150 per cell tower per hour, and Sprint charges $50 per tower, seemingly without an hourly rate.
  • For location data, the carrier firms offer automated tools that let police track suspects in real time. Sprint charges $30 per month per target to use its L-Site program for location tracking. AT&T’s E911 tool costs $100 to activate and then $25 a day. T-Mobile charges a much pricier $100 per day.

Here I was thinking my bill was high, the state’s bill must be insane considering the cost of obtaining customer data and the frequency in which they attempt to buy it. Just remember, when you carry a cell phone you’re carrying a personal state spy around in your pocket.

More Surveillance State Coming to the United Kingdom

You know what the United Kingdom (UK) doesn’t have enough of? Orwellian surveillance. Realizing this sever deficiency the governing body of the UK has moved to increase surveillance:

The government will be able to monitor the calls, emails, texts and website visits of everyone in the UK under new legislation set to be announced soon.

Internet firms will be required to give intelligence agency GCHQ access to communications on demand, in real time.

The Home Office says the move is key to tackling crime and terrorism, but civil liberties groups have criticised it.

When you redefine crime and terrorism to mean any anti-state advocacy this move makes sense. In the UK one can go to prison for merely owning a firearm and protesting is seen as a terrorist activity, so I’m not surprised the government is moving to monitor all individuals instead of those who are suspected of wrongdoing. After all everybody is a potential terrorist because everybody, at some point, criticizes the government.

You Might be a Terrorist

The New Jersey Department of Motherland Homeland Security has released a document that explains the signs of terrorism [PDF]. After reading this document I’ve come to realize that we all may be terrorists without even realizing it. Why? Because some of the signs of being a terrorist are:

Be alert to the indicators regarding actions, individual behaviors, personal interactions and social dynamics, vehicle characteristics and movements. Use your judgment in determining whether or not they are unusual or suspicious in your community or work environment. Be wary of people who depart quickly when seen or attempt to conceal something. Look for signs of nervousness in the people you come in contact with. Signs will become particularly evident in a person’s eyes, face, neck, and body movements. The following is a list of things to look for:

Eyes

  • Glances: directions, duration, timing
  • Wide open “flashbulb eyes”
  • Cold penetrating stare
  • Trance-like gaze

Face and Neck

  • Exaggerated yawning when engaged in conversation
  • Protruding or beating neck arteries
  • Repetitive touching of face, tugging on or covering ears
  • Increased breathing rate, panting
  • Excessive fidgeting, clock watching, head turning

Body

  • Pacing or jumpy
  • Trembling
  • Unusual perspiration
  • Goose bumps
  • Rigid posture with minimal body movements and arms close to sides

Basically everybody who has ever shown signs of nervousness is a potential terrorist. Another way to detect a terrorist is to look for common equipment used by their kind:

Individuals may be observed:

  • Drawing or taking pictures in areas not normally of interest
  • Taking notes or annotating maps
  • Sitting in a parked vehicle

Some of the tools terrorists might use during surveillance include:

  • Cameras- video, still, or panoramic
  • Laptop computers or PDA’s (Personal Data Assistants)
  • Diagrams or maps
  • Binoculars or other vision-enhancing devices
  • GPS (Global Positioning System) devices

Not only is every person who has ever been nervous a potential terrorist but so is every tourist. Russia Today has a list of potential terrorists that you should be on the lookout for.

Just in case this document gets thrown down the memory hole I’ve uploaded a copy here.

United States Government Expands Record Keeping Powers

Being a little jealous of how quickly France is moving towards fascism the United States government has made a move to further expand its own police state:

The U.S. intelligence community will be able to store information about Americans with no ties to terrorism for up to five years under new Obama administration guidelines.

Until now, the National Counterterrorism Center had to destroy immediately information about Americans that already was stored in other government databases when there were no clear ties to terrorism.

Giving the NCTC expanded record-retention authority had been urged by members of Congress, who said the intelligence community did not connect strands of intelligence held by multiple agencies leading up to a failed bombing attempt on a U.S.-bound airliner on Christmas 2009.

The part that really galls me is that Congress is using a failed bombing attempt as justification for this regulatory change. If the bombing attempt failed then everything worked as planned. As Bruce Schneier pointed out the attempted bombing was an example of where airport security actually did its job:

With all the talk about the failure of airport security to detect the PETN that the Christmas bomber sewed into his underwear — and to think I’ve been using the phrase “underwear bomber” as a joke all these years — people forget that airport security played an important role in foiling the plot.

In order to get through airport security, Abdulmutallab — or, more precisely, whoever built the bomb — had to construct a far less reliable bomb than he would have otherwise; he had to resort to a much more ineffective detonation mechanism. And, as we’ve learned, detonating PETN is actually very hard.

Now, almost a year and a half later, Congress is using the failed bombing attempt to justify an expansion of state power and nobody is even raising an eyebrow. You would think somebody would say, “Hey Congress, the attempted bombing on Christmas of 2009 failed. Shouldn’t you use a bombing attempt that succeeded to justify your power grab?”

How to Guarantee a Law Passes

France has either forgotten what it was like under Nazi rule or greatly enjoyed it because they continue down the road to fascism. With the recent gunman who terrorized the people of France gone the state is looking at ways to exploit the situation to further solidify its power and one of those ways is advocating a law that will give jail time to those who visit “extremist” websites. Nicolas Sarkozy, the current dictator under threat of being ousted, has been pushing this law and is pulling out all the stops:

On Thursday, Sarkozy used a televised address to propose a new set of laws that criminalize the use of websites affiliated with terrorist sympathizers and hate groups. “From now on, any person who habitually consults Web sites that advocate terrorism or that call for hatred and violence will be criminally punished,” he said.

The pronouncement came on the heels of the police manhunt for and 32-hour standoff with Mohamed Merah, a 23-year old French citizen accused of murdering three French paratroopers, a rabbi, and three Jewish schoolchildren. “Don’t tell me it’s not possible,” Sarkozy said. “What is possible for pedophiles should be possible for trainee terrorists and their supporters, too.”

Emphasis mine. Sarkozy not only played the terrorism card but also managed to play the pedophile card. Either card in of themselves can guarantee the passage of a law but when you combine the two it has to be a surefire win. What politician is willing to vote down a law that could get them accused of being a terrorist pedophile?

It’s pretty obvious this law is going to be slammed through and that will require even more state monitoring of French denizens’ Internet activities. I’m sure that the law will be expanded in the future to give jail time to denizens who visit sites with other types of unapproved information like pornography and websites providing anti-government news.

Yet Another Reason to Hate the United Nations

The collectivists absolutely adore the United Nations (UN), which isn’t surprising since the UN is basically a conglomerate of world governments that believe the world needs more powerful governments. It seems many people buy into the UN propaganda and believe it to be a force for good, which leads people to instantly scoff at the idea of the United States pulling out of the UN. Via episode 392 of the No Agenda podcast I came to this wonderful article that describes this official UN document [PDF]. The linked article goes through numerous items listed in the UN document but Article 33 is easily the most tyrannical:

Parties shall develop or strengthen demographic policies in order to achieve
sustainable development. To this end, the Parties shall:

(a) conduct studies to estimate the size of the human population their
environment is capable of supporting and develop programmes relating
to population growth at corresponding levels;

(b) cooperate to alleviate the stress on natural support systems caused by
major population flows;

(c) cooperate as requested to provide a necessary infrastructure on a
priority basis for areas with rapid population growth;

(d) provide to their populations full information on the options concerning
family planning; and

(e) provide for long-term resettlement of persons displaced by changing
environmental conditions.

Article 33 is intended to give effect to Article 16 (Integrated Policies) of the Draft Covenant, by requiring that Parties adopt demographic policies that are supportive of sustainable development.285 This provision favours action by each Party on an individual basis, with assistance from other Parties only when requested. Sustainable development is to be understood as an individual goal of each Party. It is to this end that “appropriate” demographic policies are to be developed and strengthened (see Article 12 (Common but Differentiated Responsibilities)).

The provision includes four mandatory actions, although the list is not exhaustive. Subparagraph (a) contains a two-fold obligation for each Party: the first is to conduct a regular census of its population and then on the basis of the results to estimate the carrying capacity of its environment; the second is to develop or strengthen appropriate programmes adapting population growth accordingly. The means of so doing are left to the discretion of each Party, consistent with other international obligations.

So signatories to this document are expected to calculate the maximum population sustainable by their environment and take action to ensure their population doesn’t exceed this maximum. The method used by each signatory to control their population is left to their discretion. This leads to an interest question, what happens if the chosen method of population control is genocide? Will the UN oppose the genocide or will they be OK with is so long as it’s being done to control the population?

I’m currently reading Undercurrents by Robert Buettner. In it there is a planet called Yavet that has stringent population control, if you have a child without a license that child is ruled guilty of a capital crime and is summarily executed. Illegally born children who manage to survive and escape the planet are turned over to bounty hunters who get paid for retrieving and/or executing the illegal. This sounds like a plan the UN could get behind.

Either way this becomes far more interesting when you look at the requirements, namely each signatory is supposed to calculate the maximum population that their environment can support. How the fuck is anybody supposed to calculate such an unknowable ever-changing thing? Such a thing is very similar to the economic calculation problem presented by Ludwig von Mises. There is no feedback mechanism available when calculating something like a maximum sustainable population, and ever-improving technologies mean the maximum sustainable population is ever-increasing. Furthermore the market is best suited for determining such things as a reduction in available resources brought on by a higher population will lead to an increase in the price of said resources, an increase that will likely cause parents to have fewer children.

We see population explosions in less technologically developed nations for many reasons including the need for labor on subsistance farms, high infant mortality rate, and high mortality rate of other people due to disease and famine. All of these problems can be greatly alleviated by advancements in technology, which is why the population that is sustainable in more technologically developed nations is higher. The market helps with this process as innovators are motivated to develop replacements for resources that become increasingly more expensive as they diminish due to use. As markets can’t be calculated, maximum populations that can be sustained by an environment also can’t be calculated.

The UN is a despicable organization that attempts to bring socialistic central planning to the entire world. Central planning, like so many other failed ideas, won’t work simply because it’s done again harder. They say a sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over against while expecting different results. If that’s the case then the UN, and the people who believe in it, are some of the most insane individuals on the planet.

To All Subjects of the Realm

Hear ye, hear ye, all subjects of the realm. Our Supreme Emperor, His Holiness, our dictator, Lord Obama has brought forth decree today that gives those he deems secretaries the power to take by force, any and all resources within the United States that are deemed to be necessary for the war effort. His decree states:

Sec. 201. Priorities and Allocations Authorities. (a) The authority of the President conferred by section 101 of the Act, 50 U.S.C. App. 2071, to require acceptance and priority performance of contracts or orders (other than contracts of employment) to promote the national defense over performance of any other contracts or orders, and to allocate materials, services, and facilities as deemed necessary or appropriate to promote the national defense, is delegated to the following agency heads:

All resources of the realm shall be first given when needed by those involved in helping production of materials necessary for the war. Any other contracts shall be deemed invalid if they interfere with the war effort. Furthermore:

(1) the Secretary of Agriculture with respect to food resources, food resource facilities, livestock resources, veterinary resources, plant health resources, and the domestic distribution of farm equipment and commercial fertilizer;

All foodstuffs will be first shipped to the front lines. Farm machinery will be put to use to produce food for the army. Peasants working the land are hereby informed by His Holiness that they are not allowed to sell foodstuff to non-state entities. The state will take care of food distribution to the people of the realm if any remains after feeding the army. Furthermore:

(2) the Secretary of Energy with respect to all forms of energy;

All materials used in the production of energy will be first given to the military. This includes power production facilities, coal, oil, and materials required for nuclear fission. Furthermore:

(3) the Secretary of Health and Human Services with respect to health resources;

The army will be given priority in access to medical supplies and treatment. All medical personnel are hereby informed that they are expected to render aid to our brave men and women on the front line. No doctor is to render medical assistance to non-military personnel unless His Holiness give permission to do so. Furthermore:

(4) the Secretary of Transportation with respect to all forms of civil transportation;

All highways, train tracks, airports, and other transportation infrastructure is hereby confiscated for use in the war effort. Subjects of the realm are not to use any means of transportation unless given written permission by the state. Any subject caught driving without state permission will be severely punished. Furthermore:

(5) the Secretary of Defense with respect to water resources; and

His Holiness has decreed that all water resources will be put towards the war effort. Rationing of water is not in place, subjects may visit their local Resource Allocation Center to receive water ration stamps. Furthermore:

(6) the Secretary of Commerce with respect to all other materials, services, and facilities, including construction materials.

Any materials not previously mentioned are hereby reserved for the war effort. This includes metal, plastics, cotton, wool, electronic components, and any other known material. Subjects are required to surrender any materials in their possession that may be used in the war effort. Refusal to surrender materials will be met with harsh punishment. Furthermore:

(b) The Secretary of each agency delegated authority under subsection (a) of this section (resource departments) shall plan for and issue regulations to prioritize and allocate resources and establish standards and procedures by which the authority shall be used to promote the national defense, under both emergency and non-emergency conditions. Each Secretary shall authorize the heads of other agencies, as appropriate, to place priority ratings on contracts and orders for materials, services, and facilities needed in support of programs approved under section 202 of this order.

The above mentioned decrees are to be respected during times of emergency and times of peace. His Holiness has spoken.

Several subjects of His Holiness have raised objection to this decree and were told by His Holiness to, “Blow it out your ass, I’m your mother fucking god, I rule this country.”

The Propaganda Arm of the Federal Reserve

I didn’t know this but it looks like the Federal Reserve has its own propaganda arm. The site includes games to indoctrinate children in kindergarden, publications full of economic falsehoods, and even lesson plans for teachers who want to get the kids believing in planned economies early.

I wonder how much funny money the Federal Reserve printed up to pay for this site? After digging through the site for a better part of an hour I can say that it contains no actual educational material. So far I haven’t found a single document explaining how the Federal Reserve’s printing of money causes inflation, which reduces the value of each person’s currently held dollars and therefore is nothing more than legalized theft. No document explains how the Federal Reserve has been bailing out European banks in secret. Hell, the name Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard doesn’t appear on the site anywhere, without referencing their material you can’t even teach economics properly.

What really gets me is the fact this site was funded through ill gotten means. The Mises Institute, which actually provides economic education, is entirely funded through voluntary donations and transactions.