Shut Up Slave – Page 72 – A Geek With Guns

Australia Shows Us How a Police State is Done

Listen up. Our friends down under are showing us how a police state is done. So far the United States government hasn’t sunk to the level of prohibiting people from staying in their homes when an “important” event full of “important” people is taking place in the vicinity. But now that Australia has paved the way I’m sure the United States government will be quick to jump on the bandwagon (after all, if there’s one thing the United States hates it’s being out police stated by another police state):

MASS criminal background checks will be used to find and remove potential troublemakers living near G20 summit venues in Queensland, the state government says.

Police Minister Jack Dempsey says people living inside special security zones in Brisbane and Cairns will be barred from their homes and given up to $200 to stay elsewhere if they are identified as a risk by federal authorities.

The G20 bill, passed by the state parliament late on Tuesday, approved payments covering accommodation for those with a criminal background, plus their dependents.

We’ve witnessed similar behavior recently. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has begun a more widespread program of performing background checks on passengers before they even arrive at the airport. But we haven’t seen a case of the feds performing background checks of people living near an “important” event and kicking any potential troublemakers out of their homes. What we have seen is a propensity for police states to implement the polices of other police states. When Britain, for example, implements a new draconian law the United States has a tendency to pass a similar law. Therefore it shouldn’t surprise anybody if a law passes in the future that prohibits potential troublemakers from living in their homes if “important” people stop by the neighborhood.

Descendants of the British Empire and current members of the Commonwealth of Nations seem determined to turn George Orwell’s 1984 into a nonfiction title.

Everybody was a Communist

We’re used the government labeling everybody terrorists. But the game isn’t new. Before the label of terrorist was applied to everybody the term communist was used. As a result of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) files on Isaac Asimov we now know that the agency accused Mr. Asimov of being a communist because of his science fiction:

By September 14, 1960, Isaac Asimov had been a professor of biochemistry Boston University for 11 years, and his acclaimed “I, Robot” collection of short stories was on its seventh reprint. This was also the day someone not-so-subtly accused him of communist sympathies in a letter to J. Edgar Hoover.

The FBI’s file on the author, who died in 1992, indicates that the FBI had its own suspicions about Asimov, based primarily on his extensive science fiction corpus and academic ties.

Hoover’s tipster questioned Asimov’s position “with respect to whether the Soviets had the first nuclear power plant.” He enclosed for the Director a letter he had written Asimov on the subject, and two postcards Asimov had sent in reply.

Today we play the same game by a slightly different name. I’m sure the FBI readily accuses anybody who questions America’s glory of being a terrorist. In all likelihood the agency has a file on me and many of my friends. Trying to label an individual as a dissident is the state’s way of isolating potential threats to the status quo from the remainder of society. Fortunately for us, and unfortunately for the state, these labels being to lose their meaning when they being to be applied to anybody and everybody with a dissenting opinion. Willingness to apply the label communist or terrorist to a wide number of people makes the general population realize that the labels are nonthreatening. Once that happens the isolation tactic fails and people often begin listening to the so-called communists and terrorists.

Mr. Anarchist Keeps the Politicos Honest

I think it’s time for me to start a new series on this blog. Welcome to the first post in the Mr. Anarchist Keeps the Politicos Honest series. In this series I will take political maneuvering, speech, and other oddities and explain them in such a way that normal people can understand what’s actually going on.

On this maiden voyage I will be discussing the Minneapolis mayoral elections. A lot of butthurt is going around the politico circles as of late because the $20.00 filing fee has allowed almost anybody wanting to run for mayor to run for mayor. Now there is a proposal to raise the filing fee to $500.00.

Where the political deception enters is the justifications given by those advocating to increase in the filing fee. Some of these justifications are doozies. My favorite justification is that anybody unable to raise $500.00 will be unable to win an election so allowing them to run is a moot point. That justification implies that everybody who runs for mayor is doing so to win the race. Many people who run for office do so in an attempt to raise awareness of an issue. For example, a member of the Pirate Party may run to raise awareness of Hennepin County’s Sheriffs Departments widespread use of surveillance devices. Even though the Pirate Party candidate knows he can’t win he feels that this issue would otherwise remain entirely ignored during the mayoral debate.

But that doesn’t matter because the people arguing in favor of the filing fee are really using their justifications to coverup their true intent. You see, for many people, the only thing worse than a dictatorship is having too many options for rulers. They want democracy but not too much democracy. What these people really want is their person to be the ruler but also to maintain the illusion of democracy. Every additional name on the ballot, at least in their eyes, stands the potential to harm their desired ruler’s chances of obtaining power. They believe other candidate could take away votes from their desired ruler or another potential ruler could win against their desired ruler. Of course the ideal solution would be to have a ballot composed only of candidates from their preferred political party. That way the illusion of choice is maintained and no result will go against their political desires too much.

In layman’s terms they want to eliminate their desired ruler’s potential competitors. Raising the filing fee would get rid of some of the, shall we say, riffraff. After all, if a candidate isn’t on the ballot they can’t win the election. The first step to ensuring their desired ruler wins is to eliminate as many challengers as possible.

I’m not asking everybody to oppose raising the filing fee. The only thing I’m asking is to dump the political deception and express intentions honestly.

Minneapolis Looking to Rig Future Mayoral Votes

A lot of people have been bitching about the fact that the Minneapolis mayoral race had 35 candidates. Yes, people were whining because there were too many choices on the ballot. The only reason one would complain about such a thing is because they felt the additional choices would take away votes from their preferred candidate, which is bullshit.

But I decided to do a little kitchen match and see exactly how much of the eligible population of Minneapolis appeared on the ballot. To perform this feat I discovered that the United States Census Bureau is good for something. Here are the democraphic numbers I used to come up with my results.

The population of Minneapolis is approximately 392,880. Of that population approximately 313,518 are 18 years or older. Out of a candidate pool of approximately 313,518 we only had 35 filings at the nominal rate of $20.00. That means that only .01116363335 percent of the eligible population filed.

Even with a filing fee as low as $20.00 only one percent of one percent of eligible people are willing to run for mayor in Minneapolis. I think a vast majority of the people living there realize the position or mayor is pointless or, at least, more pointless than their current positions in life. The problem of “joke” candidates doesn’t seem to be too big of an issue. But that doesn’t matter, somebody besides Republican and Democratic candidates are appearing on the ballot and that means the game has to be rigged:

Less than 24 hours after Minneapolis voters finished hacking through a 35-candidate ballot, the Charter Commission voted unanimously to raise the entry fee from $20 to $500, matching St. Paul’s.

The lower fee, in place for at least 40 years — according to commissioner Lyall Schwarzkopf, who remembered it from when he was city clerk in 1972 — had enabled candidates, in the absence of a primary, to make “a mockery” of recent mayoral elections, said Commissioner Devin Rice.

Making a mockery of the mayoral race? I’m glad somebody is giving the position the respect it deserves. More importantly a mere one percent of one percent of eligible individuals were willing to pay the $20.00 fee required to even mock the position in such a public way. But this has nothing to do with people mocking the position of mayor. The power players are merely upset that the serfs are getting on the ballot. Higher ups in both the Democratic and Republican parties want to have a duopoly on ballots. While they want to allow a nominal number of third party candidates on the ballot to cover up the oligarchy they’ve established, they don’t want more than a handful. Politicians are monopolists after all, they don’t want actual competition.

When Law Enforcement Turns Parody Into Reality

Do you know what I find frightening? When law enforcement turn parody into reality. Take this story:

The incident began January 2, 2013 after David Eckert finished shopping at the Wal-Mart in Deming. According to a federal lawsuit, Eckert didn’t make a complete stop at a stop sign coming out of the parking lot and was immediately stopped by law enforcement.

Obviously the officers wrote him a ticket and sent him on his way, right? Wrong:

What Happened

While there, Eckert was subjected to repeated and humiliating forced medical procedures. A review of Eckert’s medical records, which he released to KOB, and details in the lawsuit show the following happened:

1. Eckert’s abdominal area was x-rayed; no narcotics were found.

2. Doctors then performed an exam of Eckert’s anus with their fingers; no narcotics were found.

3. Doctors performed a second exam of Eckert’s anus with their fingers; no narcotics were found.

4. Doctors penetrated Eckert’s anus to insert an enema. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found.

5. Doctors penetrated Eckert’s anus to insert an enema a second time. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found.

6. Doctors penetrated Eckert’s anus to insert an enema a third time. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found.

7. Doctors then x-rayed Eckert again; no narcotics were found.

8. Doctors prepared Eckert for surgery, sedated him, and then performed a colonoscopy where a scope with a camera was inserted into Eckert’s anus, rectum, colon, and large intestines. No narcotics were found.

This reminds me of a certain fictional law enforcement agent:

Frightening, isn’t it?

You’re Not Voting Your Way Out of This

How many times has somebody asked you to vote for one person or another? People still seem to think that we can vote our way out of America’s downward spiral. This is a fairytale. Even if we put aside the fact that the two major political parties have the entire system locked up we still have to face the fact most of the major powers in the political system aren’t elected, they’re appointed. Former lobbyists seem to constantly find their ways positions of power. They go from persuading politicians to pass laws to creating and enforcing regulations themselves. The newest chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), for example, happens to have been employed as a lobbyist for the cable and cellular industries:

Tom Wheeler will take over as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission after receiving unanimous approval by the Senate today.

Wheeler, a venture capitalist and former head of the National Cable Television Association (NCTA) and Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA), was nominated by President Obama in April.

A vote on his confirmation “was delayed for two weeks by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who expressed concern about Wheeler’s views on political disclosure rules,” The Hill reported after tonight’s vote. “Cruz lifted his objection after Wheeler assured him in a private meeting Tuesday that tougher disclosure requirements for the donors behind political TV ads are ‘not a priority’ for him.”

Obviously this doesn’t bode well for companies like Netflix or cheaper cellular competitors. In fact I assume regulations will be created and/or enforced in such a way that companies such as Time Warmer, Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon will become much more powerful while their competitors languish or die off altogether. We’ve seen this story play out a thousand times before and it will most likely play out a few more times before this country collapses under its own regulatory weight.

Let this story be a lesson. The number of elected bureaucrats pales in comparison to the number of unelected bureaucrats within the state.

You Can’t Own Property, Man

One of the more quaint beliefs people commonly hold in the United States is that individuals can own property. It would be wonderful if we could own property in this country but we can merely rent it form our landlord, the state. At any point the state can choose to evict us with its power of eminent domain. Statists argue that eminent domain powers are critical because it allows the state to reclaim property that would better serve the “public interest” (which is a fancy statist term for the state’s interest). More often than not eminent domain is used for really stupid shit, like this:

SEATTLE — The city is forcing a 103-year-old Spokane woman to sell her parking lot in Seattle to make way for, well, a parking lot.

The Seattle City Council voted Monday to take the lot near the waterfront by eminent domain, using a portion of the $30 million provided by the state to take care of parking issues around the waterfront. Hundreds of public parking spaces will be lost when the state begins dismantling the Alaskan Way Viaduct for the digging of the tunnel. The construction will last until 2020.

The lot is owned by Spokane resident Myrtle Woldson. She doesn’t want to sell, so the City Council voted unanimously to use it’s power of eminent domain to take it after paying Woldson “fair market value.”

My guess is that the Seattle City Council had dollar signs in their eyes when they voted for seize the parking lot. As it currently stands a privately owned parking lot doesn’t add much for the city’s coffers. If the city owns the parking lot it gets to keep all of the parking fees, which can be a very profitable endeavor for a large city.

Eminent domain isn’t only used for stupid shit, it’s also used to line the pockets of the politically well-connected:

The proposed Keystone XL pipeline faces a court challenge in Nebraska, where three property owners contend state lawmakers gave the governor illegal power to take away their land for the project.

The Nebraska Legislature transferred to Governor Dave Heineman and, through him, to Calgary-based pipeline builder TransCanada Corp. (TRP), its authority over eminent domain in violation of the state constitution’s separation of powers, the landowners said in a court filing.

Much of the Keystone XL pipeline has only been made possible through the state’s use of eminent domain. Individuals wanting to keep their property have had it forcefully seized by the state so it could help its corporate buddies build a pipeline. If you have enough money to buy the politicians you can have whatever property you desire seized.

So long as eminent domain powers exist individuals cannot own property. Like serfs we can only live on a piece of land and make use of it for as long as our feudal lords allow.

Getting Them Used to the Surveillance State

Colleges are great places where students can be subjected to years of rabid neo-liberalism in their pursuit of getting a piece of paper. On top of being beat over the head with statist propaganda, college students also have something else to look forward to: widespread surveillance:

It monitors email and social media accounts, uses thousands of surveillance cameras to track behavior and movement, is funded by billions of dollars from the federal government, and has been called “the most authoritarian institution in America“.

The National Security Agency? Nope. It’s your average college or university.

This makes sense. In fact, I would be shocked if colleges weren’t surveilling students. Colleges have been little more than an arm of the Ministry of Truth for decades now. Students are fed bullshit ranging form social contract theory to Keynesian economics. Anything that may justify the actions of the state are shoved down the throats of students who just want to get a piece of paper that says they’re qualified to do a job so they can join the ranks of the unemployed with everybody else.

But colleges are supposed to prepare students for the real world. Spying on them will ready them for being spied on for the rest of their lives.

American Justice

America is supposed to be the land of law and order, at least according to my public school education. A more accurate description of America would be the land of privilege and subjugation. If you’re part of the state you are privileged and able to skirt or outright ignore the law. Everybody else is subjugated to the state’s will at the point of a gun. No more prefect example of this exists than the police office at the University of California Davis who pepper sprayed a peaceful student and was found innocent of all wrongdoing. But this is America, we either go big or go home. Merely clearing the officer of charges wasn’t enough of a disregard for law and order, he had to be given a reward because people were mean to him after he acted like a complete asshole:

Former UC Davis officer John Pike, famous for casually pepper spraying a group of students in the face during a 2011 protest, was awarded a $38,000 settlement for psychiatric injuries for the way he was treated afterwards. Pike, who was eventually fired, filed a workers compensation claim this summer.

It takes balls to pepper spray an innocent student, be cleared of wrongdoing, get fired, and demand workers compensation. In any just society Mr. Pike would be sharing the same fate as any random Joe off of the street would face for pepper spraying another person without reason. Instead he’s given $38,000 as compensation because people were mean to him.

Is there any wonder why I hold no regard for the justice system in this country?

Tag: Shut Up Slave