Tag: Shut Up Slave

Michael Bloomberg’s Brand of Racism

Michael Bloomberg recently displayed is more, shall we say, colorful side when he complained that the New York Police Department (NYPD) was stopping too many white people and not enough minorities. No, I’m not making this up:

NEW YORK (AP) — Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday that police “disproportionately stop whites too much and minorities too little” as compared to murder suspects’ descriptions, sparking criticism from activists and some politicians in a city that has been immersed in a debate about law enforcement and discrimination.

Thanks to a previous lawsuit the NYPD was forced to release its numbers for its “stop and frisk” program. As it turns out many precincts were focusing almost exclusively on minority groups. Of all the persons stopped and frisked by the 73rd precinct, 98% were either Black of Hispanic.

I guess Bloomberg wants a city where minorities are stopped exclusively.

The NSA Has Been Collecting E-Mails Since 2001

The list of known crimes perpetrated the National Security Agency (NSA) keeps growing and growing. So far the agency has been caught intercepting Internet traffic, and accessing customer data directly from corporate systems. As this information has continued to roll out people have assumed that those practices are relatively new. Not surprisingly, the NSA has been spying on us for a long time:

The Obama administration for more than two years permitted the National Security Agency to continue collecting vast amounts of records detailing the email and internet usage of Americans, according to secret documents obtained by the Guardian.

The documents indicate that under the program, launched in 2001, a federal judge sitting on the secret surveillance panel called the Fisa court would approve a bulk collection order for internet metadata “every 90 days”. A senior administration official confirmed the program, stating that it ended in 2011.

The collection of these records began under the Bush administration’s wide-ranging warrantless surveillance program, collectively known by the NSA codename Stellar Wind.

The NSA claims that the program ended in 2011 but the only reason it ended was because they had a new program to accomplish the same things. Same shit, different name.

How Do You Sign “Shut Up Slave”

I often hear people say that the right to free speech much have reasonable restrictions placed upon it. Usually these people are hyper sensitive ninnies whose skin is so thin that it’s penetrated by even the most childish of insults. A school board in New Jersey, a state that is well ahead of the average American police state curve, have found another reason to curtail the freedom of speech, safety:

School officials have threatened a hearing-impaired girl with suspension if she uses sign language to talk to her friends on the school bus, the girl’s parents say.

Danica Lesko and her parents say sign language is the only way to for the 12-year-old to communicate, especially while riding to school on a noisy bus.

But officials at Stonybrook School — which is not a school for the hearing-impaired — and district officials in Branchburg, N.J., apparently believe signing is a safety hazard. They have sent a letter to the Lesko family ordering Danica to stop using sign language on the school bus or risk a three-day suspension.

[…]

In a statement released through the school district’s attorney, David Rubin, the Branchburg Board of Education refused to discuss the details of Danica’s case, saying only that its version of events differs from the parents’ version.

However, the board insisted it has not violated anyone’s rights and is only trying to protect other students who must ride on the school bus.

“The Board is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to all students with disabilities, and is satisfied that there has been no violation of that policy in this case,” officials said in the statement. “The Board is also committed to assuring the safety of all students who travel on District buses, and will continue to take appropriate steps to accomplish that goal.”

It appears that little Danica’s reliance on sign language to communicate is a danger to her fellow students. By Odin, she could have expressed ideas that haven’t been expressly approved by the Thought Police! Imagine the damage she could cause if she incited her fellow slaves to throw off the shackles of the public education system. There could be freethinkers running around in a few years!

The Government Learned Its Lesson, Kill the Whistleblower Before He Blows the Whistle

Michael Hasting’s mysterious death last week left a lot of unanswered questions. Somehow the man managed to die in a car accident, that was so horrific his vehicle burst into flames, shortly after contacting WikiLeaks with concern that the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) was investigating him. More evidence has been brought to light that gives credence to the idea that Hastings was murdered by the United States government:

Hours before dying in a fiery car crash, award-winning journalist Michael Hastings sent an email to his colleagues, warning that federal authorities were interviewing his friends and that he needed to go “off the rada[r]” for a bit.

[…]Here’s the email, with the recipients’ names redacted.

Subject: FBI Investigation, re: NSA

Hey (redacted names) — the Feds are interviewing my “close friends and associates.” Perhaps if the authorities arrive “BuzzFeed GQ,” er HQ, may be wise to immediately request legal counsel before any conversations or interviews about our news-gathering practices or related journalism issues.

Also: I’m onto a big story, and need to go off the rada[r] for a bit.

All the best, and hope to see you all soon.

Michael

I think the federal government learned its lesson with Edward Snowden, kill the whistleblower before he has a chance to blow the whistle. Anything is possible considering how out of control the federal government has proven to be.

We’re Accountable Because We Say We’re Accountable

Whenever anarchists challenge statists about rampent abuses of power such as the National Security Agency (NSA) spying on anybody and everybody, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) creating terrorist so it has somebody to bust, or the United States bombing of children in the Middle East the standard response is that a more accountable state is needed. An accountable state is a paradox because a state maintains a monopoly on creating and enforcing laws. In order to be prosecuted the state must first find itself guilty of breaking the law.

Case in point, agents of the FBI has been involved in numerous shootouts but not once has the FBI decided any of those agents were in error:

But if such internal investigations are time-tested, their outcomes are also predictable: from 1993 to early 2011, F.B.I. agents fatally shot about 70 “subjects” and wounded about 80 others — and every one of those episodes was deemed justified, according to interviews and internal F.B.I. records obtained by The New York Times through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

The last two years have followed the same pattern: an F.B.I. spokesman said that since 2011, there had been no findings of improper intentional shootings.

In most of the shootings, the F.B.I.’s internal investigation was the only official inquiry. In the Orlando case, for example, there have been conflicting accounts about basic facts like whether the Chechen man, Ibragim Todashev, attacked an agent with a knife, was unarmed or was brandishing a metal pole. But Orlando homicide detectives are not independently investigating what happened.

How can a monopoly holder of justice ever be held accountable? Advocates of democracy will claim the people can hold the state accountable by voting out agents that do wrong. The first problem with such a claim is that most employees of the state, including FBI agents, aren’t elected officials. The second problem is that justice becomes a decision of a voting majority. If a voting majority believe a murder was justified then the murderer remains unaccountable.

Monopoly holders of justice can’t be held accountable because they hold a monopoly on the very thing that would otherwise make them accountable and that’s one of the biggest failures of statism.

Why Third Parties Will Never Succeed in Politics

Inevitably, when people become disenfranchised with one or both of the two major political parties, somebody suggests that they go a third party to “really change things.” While working in a third party is certainly better than one of the two major parties that reason is simply because third parties are impotent so people working in them aren’t able to use the state’s capacity for violence to inflict their will on the general populace. The reason for their impotency is because the two major parties already control the state and can rewrite the rules whenever they want:

Last year, Republican Jonathan Paton lost his bid for Congress to Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick by about 9,000 votes. Meanwhile, Libertarian Kim Allen in the race got just over 15,000 votes.

But for the Libertarian, Paton would be a congressman today – assuming, as Republicans do, that Libertarian votes would logically slide over to the R column.

What’s a good Republican to do about a bunch of spoilers who are keeping them from electoral glory?

Well, today we found out.

This afternoon, Gov. Jan Brewer signed an elections bill that basically wipes out Libertarian and other third-party candidates, boosting their signature requirements to unattainable levels. Green Party candidates would actually have to collect more signatures than they have party members.

This is exactly the kind of shenanigan that I predicted would happen if Gary Johnson would have obtained anywhere near the 5% of the popular vote needed to qualify for federal campaign funds. Whenever a third party begins to obtain any meaningful power the two major parties rewrite the rules. In Arizona the Green Party is effectively through since they need more signatures than they have party members and, if the Libertarian Party is able to achieve anywhere near enough signatures, the requirement will be increased again.

Working within the political system will never lead to liberty because the system is rigged against change.

There’s Something Fishy Going on Around Here

Michael Hastings, the journalist who effectively ended Stanley McChrystal’s career, died in a car crash early this week. What makes this story even more interesting is that Mr. Hastings had supposedly contacted WikiLeaks shortly before his death and was concerned that the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) was stalking him:

CULVER CITY (CBSLA.com) — Questions persist following the death of Michael Hastings Tuesday, after reports that the award-winning journalist told WikiLeaks the government was watching him.

WikiLeaks tweeted a message to their millions of followers Wednesday stating that the 33-year-old author and war correspondent had contacted the organization’s lawyer to say he was being watched by the FBI.

Michael Hastings contacted WikiLeaks lawyer Jennifer Robinson just a few hours before he died, saying that the FBI was investigating him.—
WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) June 19, 2013

“Michael Hastings was a journalist who definitely gave the government trouble, the Pentagon trouble, so if they were surveilling him it wouldn’t be that surprising,” said friend and fellow journalist Cenk Uygur.

Had this occurred last year I would have likely written Mr. Hastings’s death off as a coincidence. I was more ignorant of the federal government’s corruption back then. Things have obviously changed since then. We now know that the National Security Agency (NSA) have worked in cooperation with private corporations to intercept our communications, actively listen to our phone conversations, and exploiting flaws in at least one operating system before patches are released. We also know that the FBI has been creating terrorists for years, arming Mexican drug cartels, and spying on Americans with drones. In other words, the federal government is completely out of control and currently accountable to nobody.

Today I take the whispers that Mr. Hastings was murdered by the federal government seriously. If the federal government is willing to go so far as to develop an advanced surveillance state and create terrorists in order to drum up fear then it’s no small stretch to believe it would also knock off people who became inconvenient. We live in dark, albeit interesting, times.

Using the Legal System to Maintain Monopolies

People seem to mistaken the legal system in the United States for a justice system. The legal system isn’t setup to administer justice, it’s setup to protect monopolies. Whenever competition threatens a major corporation that corporation turns to the state for protection and the state is always willing to listen to anybody with deep pockets. Meet Rajul Zaparde, Shri Graneshram, and Kevin Petrovic the founders of FlightCar:

The idea was this: At every major airport, acres of cars sit idle, left parked by owners who have jetted off. Why couldn’t these same cars be rented to arriving travelers? Rates could be dramatically cheaper than those charged by traditional car rental companies, since, under this model, the rental company wouldn’t have to pay for or maintain the fleet.

Owners would have a fourfold incentive to participate: free parking, a free car wash, a cut of the rental fee and a guarantee their car would be waiting for them when they returned.

With financing from angel investors, FlightCar, the trio’s brainchild, began renting cars in February to passengers arriving at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), for rates start as low as $21 a day, depending on the make and model of the car.

Sounds like a pretty sweet deal. I wish FlightCar would have been available where I’ve flown to because paying $21.00 for a car is far better than almost $100.00. As you can guess this business was looking to succeed so it was inevitable that somebody was going to sue them:

Foes of FlightCar, however, have started to shoot back.

It’s easy to see how traditional rental companies might not be amused to have their prices undercut. But San Francisco International is crying foul, as well.

Doug Yakel, public information officer for SFO, tells ABC News that FlightCar refuses to play by the rules that govern other rental car companies. It doesn’t pay the same fees, he says, and it doesn’t abide by the same regulations.

SFO’s objections have taken the form of a complaint filed last month against FlightCar by the city attorney of San Francisco.

When the San Francisco International (SFO) airport says FlightCar isn’t playing by the rules it really means FlightCar isn’t giving it a piece of the action:

or example, SFO wants FlightCar to pay it 10 percent of its gross profit and a $20 fee for each rental car transaction — the same as what the airport gets from every other rental car company.

The fact that FlightCar operates from a base outside airport property, Yakel says, makes no difference: SFO has three other rental companies that also operate off-property. According to the complaint, those three paid SFO over $2 million in fees in 2012. FlightCar, too, should pay, thinks Yakel.

What makes SFO think it has any right to expropriate wealth from other entities, especially when those entities aren’t on its property? While the three rental companies currently paying SFO fees may be doing so willingly, likely for preferential treatment involving direct shuttle access from the airport to the rental car center, there is no reason SFO is entitled so such fees. I’m sure SFO is worried that FlightCar will succeed and that success will drive its competitors out of business, which would deprive SFO of roughly $2 million annual.

A justice system would have thrown this complaint out the window as soon as it was informed that FlightCar isn’t stationed on SFO property. Sadly, judging by the history of similar legal issues in this country, SFO, which is owned by the city and county of San Francisco and therefore the same entities that own the local legal system, is likely to win this case or, at least, drag it on long enough to bankrupt FlightCar (in court, if you can’t beat them you can bankrupt them).

Your Child Belongs to the State

Remember when MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry started a great deal of controversy by claiming that children belong to the community? It turns out the New Jersey Supreme Court agrees with her:

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled this week that authorities can seek custody of a child, even where there’s no evidence of abuse or neglect.

The case involved a divorced Camden County mother of 9-year-old twin girls. In 2007, she asked New Jersey’s Division of Child Protection and Permanency for help, claiming she was unable to care for the girls who had psychological and developmental disabilities and needed to be placed in residential care.

“You can turn to the Division for help, but it may come with a cost,” says Diana Autin, executive director of Statewide Parent Advocacy Network of New Jersey. The group filed an amicus brief in the case.

Autin says under the court’s ruling, the state can get custody of a child with behavior problems if it proves that the parent can’t provide the type of services the child needs and the services are in the child’s best interest. She says the division can get custody without using the state’s abuse and neglect law.

In layman’s terms your child is the property of the state. You may be allowed to raise the state’s child if you are the biological or adoptive parent but that privilege may also be revoked if the state decides you are unworthy of the task. Or, to be put even more tersely, shut the fuck up slave and raise “your” child as you’re told to.

Seriously, how much more ridiculous does the legal system in this country have to get before people finally see it as illegitimate?

You Have the Right to Remain Silent… So Long as You Specifically State It or are Being Arrested

The Nazgûl have finally ruled on whether or not your decision to remain silent when confronted by the police can be used against you in a court of law. As you can guess they ruled that your silence can be used against you:

In a 5-4 decision the Supreme Court ruled today that a potential defendant’s silence can be used against him if he is being interviewed by police but is not arrested (and read his Miranda rights) and has not verbally invoked the protection of the Fifth Amendment.

In other words you only enjoy your Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination if you’ve specifically invoked it or are being arrested and have been read your Miranda rights. If, on the other hand, you simply remain silent your act of not talking can be used against you.

At this point the entirety of the so-called Bill of Rights, with the exception of the Third Amendment, have been turned into a Bill of State Granted Privileges. I’m sure that the only reason the Third Amendment remains unmolested is because the state hasn’t found a sufficient way to exploit it without a war breaking out here. Then again, with the way the current administration is continuously murdering people in foreign countries with remote controlled killing machines, a war in the United States isn’t entirely out of the question.