Tag: Shut Up Slave

Baseless Finger Pointing

You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before. — Rahm Emanuel

Emanuel laid bare for us the way in which people descend like vultures on tragedies in order to push their personal agendas. Soon after the attacks in Paris hit the headlines people were descending on the crisis. Most were using it call for the dead of Muslims, even before any details of who perpetrated the attacker were known. But some used the crisis to call for the head of Edward Snowden:

In the years since Snowden revealed the vast surveillance and spying done by Western governments, strong encryption has become an increasingly popular way for people to shield their Internet activity from prying eyes. Encryption is used by everyone from e-commerce websites and human rights activists to American soldiers and Islamist terrorists.

It’s the latter group’s adoption of strong encryption in particular that has attracted so much fiery rhetoric.

Fox News hosts Greg Gutfeld and Dana Perino, George W. Bush’s former press secretary, took to Twitter to directly blame and even curse at Snowden.

How did Snowden’s act of leaking slides from National Security Agency (NSA) presentations allow the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to thwart surveillance to successfully pull off the attacks in Paris? It didn’t. Those who think it did are making to incorrect assumptions.

First, they are assuming a massive surveillance apparatus would have thwarted these attacks. Even before the Snowden leaks the NSA’s surveillance programs failed to thwart a single terrorist attack. How could this be? Easy. Massive untargeted surveillance isn’t an effective means of discovering planned future events. When you collect everything you end up with far more noise than signal. In fact the amount of noise is so large it drowns out the signal. The only thing pervasive surveillance is useful for is gathering evidence post facto when you have a target.

Second, they are assuming ISIS is the Middle Eastern version of the three percenters, which is to say they are assuming ISIS is an uncoordinated ragtag group. This is a notion everybody needs to get over. ISIS didn’t rise to prominence through luck. It rose to prominence by waging a successful war against rival nations. Waging that war required military tactics, equipment, and coordination that is only possible with a lot of very capable people working together. People need to stop looking at ISIS as a loose terrorist group and acknowledge it as a fully fledged nation state. And it didn’t become a nation state by letting its enemies read its communications. It became a nation state by utilize effective means of concealing communications. That requires experts, which isn’t something somebody can become by reading the slides Snowden leaked.

Mass surveillance was useless before Snowden leaked the NSA’s dirty laundry so there are no grounds to claim it would have thwarted these attacks had Snowden not blown the whistle.

Men In Magic Robes Ruining Lives

I’ve heard people claim that the courts act as a check and balance against law makers. Who, pray tell, acts as a check and balance against courts:

Last year, Utah couple Beckie Peirce and April Hoagland decided to get married. Last summer, in a decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide, the Supreme Court confirmed that this was okay. Then, Peirce and Hoagland wanted to take in a foster child. So, because the Supreme Court had signed off on gay marriage, Utah child services officials licensed the couple earlier this year. And, in August, Peirce and Hoagland welcomed a 1-year-old girl into their home, where she joined the couple’s two biological children. Plans for adoption, approved by the baby’s biological mother, were in place — soon, this would be a family of five.

But on Wednesday, a Utah judge decided to end this plan, ordering the girl removed from her foster home because he said she would be better off with heterosexual parents.

[…]

A copy of the court order by Judge Scott Johansen, a juvenile court judge in Utah’s Seventh District, was not immediately available, but the Salt Lake Tribune confirmed its contents. Hoagland told KUTV that Johansen said that “through his research he had found out that kids in homosexual homes don’t do as well as they do in heterosexual homes.”

Some may argue that the law makers can act as a check and balance here by writing and passing a law allowing same-sex couples to adopt children. But such a process could take years if it would pass at all. Others may argue that higher courts can act as a check and balance but there’s no guarantee a higher court would overturn this ruling. In other words a man in a magic robe ruined a family and they have no recourse.

This is the problem with handing people power over others. Even though the couple, who are already raising children, and the biological mother (the child, being only one year-old, is unable to voice her opinion) agreed to the adoption it hasn’t been allowed to take place because it offends the delicate sensibilities of a single man who wouldn’t have a say in the matter if it wasn’t for his position of power.

Statist Logic

Secession continues to be popularly supported in Catalonia much to the chagrin of Spain. The Spanish government, desperate to maintain its dominion, is trying to find a way to justify using force when the Catalonians decide to strike out on their own. Justification for the State usually takes form of very formalized rituals that are somehow supposed to absolve it of sin. One such formalized ritual is the court decision:

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said he would not allow the secessionists to achieve their aim. “They want an end to democracy,” he said.

He said Monday’s Catalan vote was a “clear violation” of the constitution.

The motion called on the regional parliament to aim for independence within 18 months.

It gives the assembly 30 days to start legislation on a Catalan constitution, treasury and social security system.
Catalan nationalist parties secured a majority of seats in September elections but fell short of winning half the vote. They had said before the vote that they considered it a de facto referendum on independence from Spain.

Spain’s state prosecutor had called on the Constitutional Court on Wednesday to suspend the Catalan resolution immediately, the prime minister said after an emergency cabinet meeting.

This is logic only a statist could accept. First the Prime Minister is claiming that Catalonia wants to end democracy but the Catalonians voted the secessionist into the assembly and the motion to establish a Catalan constitution, treasury, and social security system. How is it democratic if the Spanish government votes on a matter but not democratic when the Catalan government votes on a matter? Rajoy’s claim makes no sense.

The second thing that makes no sense is Spain’s state prosecutor asking the Constitutional Court for a ruling. Since the Catalonians want to secede why does the Spain government think they give two shits about what its Constitutional Court thinks? Its decision also makes no difference. If it rules to suspend the Catalan resolution what happens next? Spain marches troops into Catalonia to terrorize and kill anybody who resists. No sane person would claim the Constitutional Court ruling would absolve those troops of murder. Only a statist could argue that a formalized ritual performed by robed members of a government court can make the act of murder not murder.

I truly hope Catalonia secedes and I hope its secession kicks off a trend of sescession that continues until each individual has seceded from every manner of government in that region.

Paid Propaganda, Err, Patriotism

I don’t watch football but I know the National Football League (NFL) has a hard-on for the war effort. Football games are chock-full of American flags, soldiers in uniform, socialist pledges, and people covering their hearts to do a shitty job of singing a shitty anthem. This entire dog and pony show appears to be put on voluntarily by the NFL as an act of piety but it’s actually paid good money to propagandize:

WASHINGTON — The Department of Defense doled out as much as $6.8 million in taxpayer money to professional sports teams to honor the military at games and events over the past four years, an amount it has “downplayed” amid scrutiny, a report unveiled by two Senate Republicans on Wednesday found.

Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake began looking into the Defense Department’s spending of taxpayer dollars on military tributes in June after they discovered the New Jersey Army National Guard paid the New York Jets $115,000 to recognize soldiers at home games.

The 145-page report released Wednesday dives deeper, revealing that 72 of the 122 professional sports contracts analyzed contained items deemed “paid patriotism” — the payment of taxpayer or Defense funds to teams in exchange for tributes like NFL’s “Salute to Service.” Honors paid for by the DOD were found not only in the NFL, but also the NBA, NHL, MLB and MLS. They included on-field color guard ceremonies, performances of the national anthem, and ceremonial first pitches and puck drops.

The NFL has to be one of the largest welfare recipients in this country. Not only does it receive government funding to build stadiums and receive sweetheart tax breaks (it is, after all, a “nonprofit”) but it’s also getting money to promote the war effort.

In all fairness the NFL’s other sportsball siblings are on the dole as well, which is why it’s almost impossible to go to a sporting event without having to first sit through an hour of vomit inducing propaganda. And it makes sense when you think about it. How else could you get people to surrender their wealth so it can be used to bomb people all around the world? Unless you brainwash them into worshipping everything the military does few would be terribly happy about it.

We Should Just Start Referring To London As Airstrip One

I bitch about the surveillance state here in the United States but even it has nothing on mum. The United Kingdom (UK) has pretty much become a real life panopticon. This week alone the UK has proposed two major expansions to Big Brother’s gaze. The first proposal is to ban companies from using effective encryption:

Internet and social media companies will be banned from putting customer communications beyond their own reach under new laws to be unveiled on Wednesday.

Companies such as Apple, Google and others will no longer be able to offer encryption so advanced that even they cannot decipher it when asked to, the Daily Telegraph can disclose.

Measures in the Investigatory Powers Bill will place in law a requirement on tech firms and service providers to be able to provide unencrypted communications to the police or spy agencies if requested through a warrant.

The only way to comply with such a restriction is to put their users’ data at risk. If one unauthorized party can access encrypted data then any unauthorized party potentially can. Weaknesses in cryptographic systems aren’t selective. If, for example, you have a special law enforcement key that all user data is encrypted with anybody who obtains that key will be able to gain access to every user’s data. You turn the system form one where a very limited amount of data can be nabbed if any single key is compromised to one where all data can be nabbed if one of the keys is compromised.

But that’s not all. The UK is also proposing to require all Internet Service Providers (ISP) to keep records on their customer’s Internet usage for one year:

On Wednesday, the UK’s Home Secretary Theresa May announced the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill, which, if made into law, will force internet service providers to retain the web browsing history of every customer for up to one year. Those records can then be requested by law enforcement.

These two proposals would complement each other well. The first one gives law enforcement unfettered access to user data and the second one ensures data continues to exist for one year. Of course the second proposal pushes notable costs onto ISPs because storing that much data for so long isn’t free. But I very much doubt the UK government cares about such things.

More and more it’s obviously why 1984 took place in London. I won’t be surprised if (I should probably say when) a law is proposed in the UK that makes it a criminal offense to utilize strong cryptographic tools like Tor, PGP, OTR, etc.

What To Be Treated Like A Criminal? Work For The Government!

Are you working for an employer who doesn’t require you to submit to loyalty tests, lie detector tests, drug tests, and any number of other tests that are performed under the assumption you are a criminal? Is that constant lack of being treated like a criminal making you miserable? If so I have some good news. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will soon begin treating its employees even more like criminals:

The House passed legislation on Monday to mandate the Department of Homeland Security to establish a program to identify and mitigate insider threats from rogue employees.

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), the bill’s author, gave examples of Edward Snowden releasing classified information about national surveillance programs, U.S. Army P.F.C. Bradley Manning providing classified documents to WikiLeaks, and contractor Aaron Alexis killing 12 people during a shooting at the Washington Navy Yard in 2013 while holding a security clearance. He suggested each case could have ended differently had they been under more scrutiny.

You know what this means, right? Loyalty tests for everybody!

The DHS is facing the same problem every criminal organization faces: members ratting them out for their illegal activities. Snowden and Manning, despite the State’s already numerous controls, ratted out their employer’s criminal activities. As with most criminal organizations the State is focusing on how to ensure more members don’t rat it out instead of focusing on not committing criminal acts.

As an anarchist I take great joy in seeing actions like this from the State. The more miserable it makes the working environment of its employees the more difficulty it will have with recruiting talented employees.

Law Enforcement To Subjects: Don’t Have Fun On Halloween

Halloween is easily the most fun holiday of the year. For adults it’s an opportunity to don a costume, head to a party, and get blitzed. Unless they have kids, because for kids it’s an opportunity to don a costume, fill bags with candy, and eat until the sugar rush turns into a crash. Since it is the State’s holy mission to turn nations into gigantic no-fun zones it’s no surprise that United States law enforcers are trying to make people fear Halloween.

I thought the economically nonsensical fear mongering over drug dealers handing kids hundreds of dollars worth of ecstasy was as pathetic as it could get but the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has upped the ante. The agency best known for creating terrorists and then thwarting them is claiming that us evil anarchists are planning to kill cops on Halloween:

The FBI has issued an alert to law enforcement about a possible “Halloween Revolt” by a dangerous anarchist group, an official has confirmed to CBS News.

Federal officials issued a bulletin to local police departments about the potential for attacks against their officers, CBS News has learned.

As first reported by the New York Post, a group known as the National Liberation Militia may be planning to dress in costume, cause a disturbance, and then ambush police who come to help. The Post reports the group has recommended members wear typical holiday masks and bring weapons like bricks and firearms.

Us anarchists have better things to do on Halloween than harass cops (you know, that whole donning a costume and getting blitzed thing). This fear mongering exists solely to feed the nonexistent war on cops. It gives local law enforcement justification to thump skulls, because anything they do is justifiable so long as they can claim they felt their safety was at risk, and the tough-on-crime crowd something to excuse acts of police brutality on.

Don’t let the terrorists win. Go out and enjoy your Halloween.

When You Want To Be A Ninja But Live In California

Some people become cops because they want to beat people without suffering consequences. Other people become cops because they believe the uniform and authority will help them pick up chicks. And there are those who become cops because they want to become ninjas but live in California:

ANDERSON, Calif. – The Anderson Police Department will start using nunchucks as a way to forcibly restrain suspects.

Though nunchucks are not new to law enforcement, they are making a come back in Shasta County.

They originated in Japan and have been used in martial arts for years. APD said they want to start using them because they are a multipurpose weapon.

Nunchucks are illegal for citizens to own in California; however, police can be certified to use them within the state.

Emphasis mine. Also, as an aside, nunchucks originated in Okinawa. Anyways, in the no-fun zone of California the only way one can become a true ninja warrior is to become a cop. And wanting to become ninjas is the only reason the Anderson Police Department could justify learning to use nunchucks because they serve no practical purpose. Nunchucks are basically batons combined with an almost infinite chance of failure if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing (and knowing exactly what you’re doing take more than some idiotic police certification program). Like a baton, nunchucks are striking weapons. Unlike batons, nunchucks work on the same principle as flails and therefore the end you’re striking somebody with is moving really fucking fast.

If the Anderson Police Department actually wanted to improve the ability of its officers to forcibly restrain suspects it would teach them something practical like judo, aikido, or Brazilian jujitsu. But empty hand martial arts are as sexy and don’t stroke the ego of attention whores the same way two sticks tied together with rope do.

Halloween Fear Mongering

Every year around this time the police try to scare parents about trick or treating. I’m pretty sure it’s either a ploy by law enforcers to reduce their work load by getting kids off of the street or make themselves look important to the safety of the community. This year police are again claiming that drug dealers are going to be handing out drugs to trick or treaters:

The Jackson, Miss. Police Department issued a warning for pressed Ecstasy pills that could be mistaken for Halloween candy if they ended up in children’s hands.

While stories of kids being given poisoned or tainted Halloween treats are mostly the stuff of urban legend, it’s always a good idea to check your child’s candy before letting them eat it.

Stuff of urban legend is right. Drug dealers aren’t fucking idiots. They’re in a business to make a profit. Ecstasy is a popular illicit drug, which means it commands a pretty penny. What drug dealer is going to hand out thousands of dollars in profit to a bunch of brats in costumes? If your neighborhood drug dealer is handing out anything to trick or treaters it’s going to be the same candy as everybody else.

Whenever the police try to drug up fear by insinuating somebody is going to do bad things to children ask yourself if the claim even makes sense. A drug dealer handing out ecstasy doesn’t make any goddamn sense so any warnings about it happen should be discarded.

ISIS Has Been Defeated

I’ve got some great news. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) has been defeated once and for all! I guess their headquarters was located in that hospital the United States blew up. Anyways, now that the threat of ISIS is gone the Department of Justice (DoJ) has time to focus on the real threat facing this country: the citizenry!

Washington (CNN) — Domestic terror groups pose a greater threat to America than ISIS or al Qaeda, a Justice Department official said Wednesday.

To help combat them, the department has created a new counsel that will coordinate the investigation and prosecution of anti-government and hate groups.

Adam Yahiye Gadahn, an alleged al Qaeda propagandist from California, was indicted in 2006 on charges of treason and offering material support for terrorism. He was believed to be killed in January in a U.S. counterterrorism operation.

Assistant Attorney General John Carlin, who oversees national security at the Justice Department, announced the new position — the Domestic Terrorism Counsel — following a number of violent attacks or plots against the U.S. that he said were motivated by “anti-government views, racism, bigotry and anarchy, and other despicable beliefs.”

Emphasis mine. It appears the DoJ views the philosophy of anarchism, which is the philosophy that believes nobody should be a slave, on the same level as racists and other forms of bigots! I love it when the State demonizes my existence, it lets me know I’m on the right path in life.

But it’s this part that really makes me bust out laughing:

More Americans have died at the hands of domestic terror than the international terror groups that federal law enforcement focuses so much attention on, Carlin said, pointing to such high-profile attacks as the racially motivated Charleston church shooting in June or the murder of two Las Vegas police officers by anti-government extremists last year.

Do you know what’s killed more people in this country than anti-government extremists? Pro-government extremists (that’s right, the police in this country have almost killed their 1,000th person this year!). But, hey, who am I to judge?