Tag: Shut Up Slave

Explain to Me Again How We Don’t Live in a Police State

People keep telling me that I’m living in the freest country on Earth. If that’s the case then the rest of the world must be one giant supermax prison:

Police in Aurora, Colo., searching for suspected bank robbers stopped every car at an intersection, handcuffed all the adults and searched the cars, one of which they believed was carrying the suspect.

[…]

Police in Aurora, Colo., searching for suspected bank robbers stopped every car at an intersection, handcuffed all the adults and searched the cars, one of which they believed was carrying the suspect.
Police said they had received what they called a “reliable” tip that the culprit in an armed robbery at a Wells Fargo bank committed earlier was stopped at the red light.

“We didn’t have a description, didn’t know race or gender or anything, so a split-second decision was made to stop all the cars at that intersection, and search for the armed robber,” Aurora police Officer Frank Fania told ABC News.

Officers barricaded the area, halting 19 cars.

“Cops came in from every direction and just threw their car in front of my car,” Sonya Romero, one of the drivers who was handcuffed, told ABC News affiliate KMGH-TV in Denver.

People were removed from their vehicles and handcuffed with no probably cause, no reasonable suspicion, and no warrant. The only thing the police had to go on was a “reliable” tip. That’s not even the worst part of this story:

“Most of the adults were handcuffed, then were told what was going on and were asked for permission to search the car,” Fania said. “They all granted permission, and once nothing was found in their cars, they were un-handcuffed.”

Shame on every person who gave the police permission to search their vehicle. Each and every one of you demonstrated one of the worst aspects of modern American society, mindless subservience. If a costume-clad thug pulls you out of your vehicle, handcuffs you, and asks for permission to search your vehicle the only correct response is, “Go fuck yourself.” Seriously. At such a point you should say, “Officer, I don’t consent to a search of my person or property.”

I would be livid if the police did that to me. In fact I would likely lose my typical professional demeanor and go straight to the stereotypical anarchist mode of yelling, “Fuck you pig!” When the police are acting like this they’re no longer deserving of well-mannered responses. In fact every police officer involved in this stunt should be tossed in the slammer for kidnapping and every person who granted the police permission to search their vehicle should attend a course on Constitutional protections.

We need to stop kowtowing the state and its thugs and rekindle the American tradition of rebelliousness.

Liberty Will be Crushed

First the Republican National Committee (RNC) threatened to prohibit Nevada from seating any delegates if the state sent “too many” Ron Paul delegates, then higher ups in the Massachusetts Republican Party moved to invalidate votes because “too many” Ron Paul delegates were elected, now members of the Old Guard in the Louisiana Republican Party sicked the dogs on Ron Paul supporters are a conventions:

“I’m handicapped! I need a doctor!” “Sir, this is the chairman!” The Louisiana State Republican Convention descended into chaos Saturday morning, with several delegates being arrested and the convention chairman being thrown to the ground by police. Sources report that state party officials panicked when it became clear that Ron Paul delegates commanded a decisive majority of the delegates on the floor – at least 111 of 180 (62%).

[…]

At this point, a motion was made to elect a new convention chairman. Henry Herford, Jr., was elected by an overwhelming majority. Nevertheless, Mr. Villere – who had appointed himself the convention chairman – refused to relinquish control of the gathering. As the delegates began turning their chairs around, Mr. Herford, the newly elected chairman, rose to call the convention to order. Sources report that, in an act of desperation, Mr. Villere and state party officials then ordered police to attack Mr. Herford.

Video footage shows an older gentleman in a blue shirt being violently dragged away by police and then shoved to the ground. When Mr. Herford protests that he is handicapped and would like to press charges for assault against the police officers, a Shreveport police officer is seen smirking in response. Sources report that Mr. Herford, 57, has a prosthetic hip that was dislocated during the assault.

There are videos at the link as well. Needless to say this demonstrates how the state works, when it starts feeling threatened it unleashes violence in a desperate attempt to protect its power. When people said Ron Paul was unelectable they were correct, but not for the reasons they believed. They thought Paul wasn’t electable because of his ideas and philosophy, in reality he’s unelectable because the Republican Part has actively rigged the game, they’ve gone so far as to use actual violence to stop Ron Paul from getting delegates.

I hope everybody remembers this election because it is the first one, that I’m aware of at least, where the Old Guard has openly flaunted its power. Previously they rigged the game through procedure, now that they lack the people to continue this task they’re outright lying, cheating, and using violence. We no longer have a government by the people, it’s a government by the government.

A New Wave of Transparency

I use the Library of Congress THOMAS system to look up bill quite frequently. Whenever a rumor is going around about a bill I start digging to see if they’re true, false, or somewhere in between (which is the usual case). Unfortunately THOMAS is a clunky pile of shit and, thanks to Congress, will remain that way:

But if you know anything about our federal government, you know that if you if really want to see what Congress is up to, looking at one bill at a time often won’t tell you much. You often need to review multiple bills, or hundreds of bills, such as all the legislation filed by a certain senator or dealing with a certain issue.

For instance, if you really want to see what kind of oddball stuff members of Congress are trying to get exempted from import tariffs this year, like my colleague Mark Flatten recently did, you’ll have to look at more than 2,000 bills.

A web interface that lets us call up and download one bill at a time was really innovative once — say, 15 years ago. But that won’t cut it anymore.

Folks with computers — notably, professional and citizen journalists — would be able to take information about massive numbers of bills and analyze them in myriad ways — if Congress would allow such information to be downloaded from THOMAS in bulk.

It won’t. And, according to a new draft report from the House Appropriations Committee, it won’t be allowing bulk data downloads from THOMAS anytime soon.

Instead of taking a step towards greater transparency, the committee got hung up on whether people would know if the data they’re seeing on the Internet were accurate and really from Congress — “authentication,” they call it.

Their excuse doesn’t even make sense. If we allow bulk downloads of bills people may not be able to “authenticate” them? Bullshit.

THOMAS is one of the best tools in the arsenal of anybody pointing out the failures of the state. Digging through the Library of Congress grants me access to every stupid little bill that is working through the legislative process. Every bill meant to strip us of more freedoms, every bill designed to control our actions, every bill that will redistribute more wealth can be found on THOMAS and the denizens of the Internet are making great use of it. Because of this the state wants to prevent it from being even more useful, in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if legislation was passed that deteriorates the already abysmal user experience of THOMAS.

Information is power and the state wants to maintain a monopoly on power.

The State Doesn’t Desire Justice, Only Punishment

Read the following excerpt and try to guess what the convicted man did:

The government seized both cars and charged Beno with a spate of offenses, including two felony counts of conspiracy to commit fraud, one felony count of owning a vehicle without a vehicle identification number tag and two misdemeanors tied to those missing VIN tags.

If you guessed the man tried to run drugs with those vehicles you would be… wrong. The crime committed by this most dastardly of individuals, this man charged with several felony crimes, was owning cars that were not approved by the state for importation:

Authorities in Wisconsin are bound and determined to crack down on gray market vehicles. According to Stevens Point Journal, In 2010, the state government orchestrated a sting to catch Justin Beno selling two Nissan Skyline models, one of which played a role in the Fast and Furious franchise. A Wisconsin Department of Transportation investigator spotted both a 1995 and a 1996 Skyline up for sale and pretended to be a buyer. The investigator asked if it were possible to get the cars titled, and Beno said he believed the vehicles could be titled in Florida, then retitled in Wisconsin.

This story demonstrates a number of things I hate about our justice punishment system. First, it demonstrates how controlled the markets are, one can’t even own an imported car unless it is on a state-approved list. Second, it demonstrates the absurdity of stripping somebody of their rights merely because they’ve been convicted of a felony. Felons aren’t allowed to own guns or vote in this country and I can think of no logical reasons a man charged with owning a vehicle that didn’t have a vehicle identification number tag shouldn’t be allowed to do either. Third, this story also demonstrates that the system is all about punishment:

Brown County Deputy District Attorney Dana Johnson offered Beno a plea deal wherein he would accept the misdemeanor charges and give up both fully restored Skylines. After offering to pay the fines and help the authorities find buyers for both machines overseas, the prosecutor declined. Instead, both cars will be crushed and sold for scrap. That’s particularly heartbreaking after Beno spent years assembling both from parts bought from all over the world.

Two perfectly good automobiles are going to be destroyed just so the state can get its jollies off by throwing around its authority. They might as well just say, “If you disobey our decrees we will do whatever it takes to hurt you as much as possible.” Beno put years of his life into restoring those two automobiles and then offered to help the state find foreign buyers for the illicit machines. This didn’t satisfy the state’s bloodlust though, if the cars were sold it wouldn’t have completely crushed Beno’s spirit, he wouldn’t be hurt enough. After all, the state needs to inflict the maximum amount of pain possible on any slave who steps out of line otherwise they may get the crazy idea they can step out of line again.

Anybody who believes the United States is the land of the free isn’t paying any attention.

Feeling the Wrath of the State

Unions are an interesting beast. They claim to fight for the working man while demanding large tributes that end up lining the pockets of union bosses. I don’t oppose all unions, just the public ones that I’m forced to pay for. Unions, at a very basic level, are nothing more than groups of workers who come together to fight for better wages, benefits, and less hours. In this sense they are a form of voluntary association that I support.

Then there is the other side of unions, the side that tries to use the state’s gun to enforce their desires. They demand the state force employers to pay a minimum wage, provide mandatory benefits, and only allow employees to work a fixed number of hours. What these unions don’t realize is that the state is a vicious monster that lashes out against anybody and everybody. One moment the state will be your best friend, the next moment it will move against you because you no longer serve its desires:

Talks between Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd and the union representing 4,800 striking locomotive engineers have broken down, paving the way for the government to bring in legislation forcing them back to work, the company said on Sunday.

The Canadian government, concerned that a rail strike could hurt an economy still struggling with the aftermath of the last recession, had said it was prepared to introduce the legislation.

Railroad employees in Canada have gone on strike and talks between the union and employer have broken down. In a free society this part of negotiation could take several directions: the union could negotiate for less than they previously wanted, the union could except the current conditions, the employer could meet the union’s current demands, the employer could put forward a better deal that doesn’t meet the union’s current demands, or the employer could fire all the striking employees and hire people willing to work under current conditions. Unfortunately for the employees and union Canada isn’t a free society. Because of this either side can attempt to use the state’s gun to force the other party to comply. At times the unions benefit the state and they will provide the unions with benefits and protections, and at other times the unions are not useful to the state so they are struck down. In this case Canadian Pacific are more useful to the state so the state is going to enter the debate on their side and force the railroad employees to return to work.

The state is like the One Ring, it can’t be used for good. It is an entity of violence that can only perpetuate violence. While you may feel it’s doing an act of good when supporting your interests it will eventually attack your interests, devastating them.

A Failure to Address the Problem

Let’s say you’re in charge of the state’s indoctrination education centers and students have been missing “too much” school. While they’re grades haven’t suffered they have obviously disobeyed the state’s decrees and thus must be punished, what can you do? If you answered, “Throw them in jail.” then you may have a future career in public education:

Judge Lanny Moriarty said last month Diane Tran was in his Justice of the Peace court for truancy and he warned her then to stop missing school. But she recently missed classes again so Wednesday he issued a summons and had her arrested in open court when she appeared.

Tran said she works a full-time job, a part-time job and takes advanced placement and dual credit college level courses. She said she is often too exhausted to wake up in time for school. Sometimes she misses the entire day, she said. Sometimes she arrives after attendance has been taken.

The judge ordered Tran to spend 24 hours in jail and pay a $100 fine. Judge Moriarty admitted that he wants to make an example of Tran.

How does putting the girl in jail accomplish anything? Her “crime” is missing school so the judge decided to put her in jail, an act that will ensure she misses more school. That’s kind of like cutting off your head to cure your headache. Furthermore if the girl is an honors student and still has time to work a full-time job, a part-time job, and take advanced placement for college level courses it’s pretty obvious that high school is holding her back.

With all the talk about oil pipelines in the United States we seem to ignore the other great pipeline this country has, the school to prison pipeline.

It’s for the Children

One thing that appears to be universal is that any legislation can be passed so long as you can tie to to preventing terrorist or child pornography. I’m not sure if a majority of people have a built-in kill switch and disengages their ability to critically think when they hear either term but that appears to be the fact. This is the reason the copyright lobby loves child pornography:

The date was May 27, 2007, and the man was Johan Schlüter, head of the Danish Anti-Piracy Group (Antipiratgruppen). He was speaking in front of an audience where the press had not been invited; it was assumed to be copyright industry insiders only. It wasn’t. Christian Engström, who’s now a Pirate Member of the European Parliament, net activist Oscar Swartz, and I were also there.

“My friends,” Schlüter said. “We must filter the Internet to win over online file sharing. But politicians don’t understand that file sharing is bad, and this is a problem for us. Therefore, we must associate file sharing with child pornography. Because that’s something the politicians understand, and something they want to filter off the Internet.”

Politicians know that censorship is the death knell of a political career, citizens don’t generally like having their speech shut down after all. As no logical argument exists in favor of censorship the politicians wanting to pass such legislation need to resort to ad hominem, setting up a scenario where they can claim any opponents of said legislation must support child pornographers.

The trick for the copyright lobby is to somehow tie copyright offenses to child pornography, which they’ve done:

“We pointed out to [the governor] that there are overlaps between the child porn problem and piracy,” Mr. Sherman [The RIAA president] said, “because all kinds of files, legal and otherwise, are traded on peer-to-peer networks.” (New York Times)

Once the link is established you can ram through any legislation you want, just make sure there is some mention about fighting child pornography mixed in with the hundreds of pages describing how the bill will be used to fight copyright offenses through censorship. This is why the state always ends up thieving rights from people, the people put in charge of the state are corruptible and will force their own desires and the desires of those who make them wealthy onto the populace.

Unapproved Protests in Canada

In a strange twist of ironic fate it appears as though it’s illegal to protest the Canadian government without get approval first:

Those arrested were released on Thursday and issued with fines of more than C$600 (£370), AFP news agency reports.

Authorities invoked Bill 78, which requires eight hours’ notification before public demonstrations.

Bill 78, passed last Friday, requires marches to follow pre-approved routes, but protesters say it infringes their democratic rights, and have pledged to legally contest it.

Since the passing of the public assembly law, more than 300 people were arrested overnight at a protest in Montreal last Sunday and another 100 were detained in the city on Tuesday.

Maybe I’m missing something but isn’t the whole point of protesting to oppose an action or actions by the state? Was the Canadian government trying to be ironic by passing a law that requires you ask the state for permission in order to air grievances with the state? Is the Canadian government full of fixie-loving hipsters?

This does show that the United States doesn’t have a monopoly on police state behavior, even our supposedly polite neighbors to the north have a little police state going.

Why Nobody Wants to Help Anybody Anymore

It’s often said that people don’t help one another anymore. Some blame television and others blame the lack of religion but the real answer is probably because it’s illegal:

The ticket cited Section No: 613.06 of Cleveland’s Municipal Codes, which is littering from a motor vehicle.

His offense was listed as, “Throw paper out window,” and in parenthesis, “money to panhandler.”
John said he was confused because money is paper but it’s not trash.

Cleveland police can’t comment on the ticket at this time but according to a spokesperson there is another code that may have been violated.

There is a code which states that it is illegal to panhandle or give money to panhandlers near a highway or street including a berm, shoulder, treelawn or sidewalk.

Section No: 471.06 states in part that “No person shall stand on a highway for the purpose of soliciting…contributions…”

You know those Federal Reserve notes you get handed in exchange for your labor? You can use them to buy a great many things but if you give them to a panhandler in Cleveland you’re violating the law. How can giving money to somebody who is likely homeless be illegal? Probably because large cities are waging war against the poor. This is probably being done in the hopes of running the poor out of town in order to boost the average income statistic of the city so a bunch of bureaucrats can trot around and claim their leadership has lead to more prosperity for all.

Ever since the state decided to enter the welfare market they’ve made it harder and hard for individuals to voluntarily help one another. It seems new prohibitions against helping those in need are put into the law books everyday. You can’t even hand out food to the hungry without getting a stamp of approval from the state, which requires an inspected and approved kitchen staffed by state-sanctioned personell serving food that has been blessed by the state as meeting arbitrary nutritional requirements.

People haven’t largely stopped helping one another because of any societal issue, they’re just watching out for themselves because they know helping another person in need can lead to fines or being thrown in a cage.

Copyright Infringement and Restitution

Ladies and gentlemen it’s time again for and rant regarding the United States legal system. The Supreme Court just refused to hear a case involving copyright infringement, which may cost the defendant $675,000:

The U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to hear the case of Joel Tenenbaum, who illegally downloaded music during college and now faces a $675,000 fine.

Tenenbaum’s been battling the music industry since 2007, over charges that he downloaded 31 songs online. A federal jury slapped Tenenbaum with a $22,500-per-song verdict in 2009, but a year later, U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Gertner reduced the fine to $67,500, calling the original amount “unconstitutionally excessive.” Then, last November, an appeals court raised the verdict back to its original amount.

For the act of downloading 31 songs Tenebaum is being nailed with a $675,000 fine, or $22,500 per song. Copyright infringement in the United States has nothing to do with protecting copyright holders or restitution, it has everything to do with punishment. Tenebaum isn’t being made to make amends for his infraction, he’s being made an example of because he dared to challenge the state’s cronies. The state doesn’t like it when you challenge it or its cronies and will usually bring down the biggest hammer possible as a demonstration of its power.

Under a just system what would Tenebaum be made to pay? I would argue nothing because I don’t believe infinitely plentiful resources should be protected with violence but let’s assume copyright laws are somehow just, what should Tenebaum be made to pay? He should be made to pay restitution, that is the value he took. Assuming each song can be purchased for $0.99 on the iTunes store the grand total of Tenebaum’s fine should be $30.69 plus all fees paid by the copyright holder to recover the money. Instead Tenebaum is being forced to pay 21,994.134897 times the value he “stole.” How the hell is this just? It’s not, but it is legal:

(c) Statutory Damages. —

(1) Except as provided by clause (2) of this subsection, the copyright owner may elect, at any time before final judgment is rendered, to recover, instead of actual damages and profits, an award of statutory damages for all infringements involved in the action, with respect to any one work, for which any one infringer is liable individually, or for which any two or more infringers are liable jointly and severally, in a sum of not less than $750 or more than $30,000 as the court considers just. For the purposes of this subsection, all the parts of a compilation or derivative work constitute one work.

(2) In a case where the copyright owner sustains the burden of proving, and the court finds, that infringement was committed willfully, the court in its discretion may increase the award of statutory damages to a sum of not more than $150,000. In a case where the infringer sustains the burden of proving, and the court finds, that such infringer was not aware and had no reason to believe that his or her acts constituted an infringement of copyright, the court in its discretion may reduce the award of statutory damages to a sum of not less than $200. The court shall remit statutory damages in any case where an infringer believed and had reasonable grounds for believing that his or her use of the copyrighted work was a fair use under section 107, if the infringer was: (i) an employee or agent of a nonprofit educational institution, library, or archives acting within the scope of his or her employment who, or such institution, library, or archives itself, which infringed by reproducing the work in copies or phonorecords; or (ii) a public broadcasting entity which or a person who, as a regular part of the nonprofit activities of a public broadcasting entity (as defined in subsection (g) of section 118) infringed by performing a published nondramatic literary work or by reproducing a transmission program embodying a performance of such a work.

Looking at the law the fact that it was written to punish instead of deliver justice is obvious by the fact that the minimum fine for infringing a copyrighted work is $750.00. This was actually an increase from what the fine once was:

The Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988 amended section 504(c) as follows: 1) in paragraph (1), by inserting “$500” in lieu of “$250” and by inserting “$20,000” in lieu of “$10,000” and 2) in paragraph (2), by inserting “$100,000” in lieu of “$50,000” and by inserting “$200” in lieu of “$100.” Pub. L. No. 100-568, 102 Stat. 2853, 2860. The Digital Theft Deterrence and Copyright Damages Improvement Act of 1999 amended section 504(c), in paragraph (1), by substituting “$750” for “$500” and “$30,000” for “$20,000” and, in paragraph (2), by substituting “$150,000” for “$100,000.” Pub. L. No. 106-160, 113 Stat. 1774.

Apparently a $500.00 fine for “stealing” a $0.99 song wasn’t enough and thus it had to be increased to $750.00. I find this to be ridiculous. How the hell is this legal? Oh, I almost forgot, Disney and the Recording Industry Association of American (RIAA) are politically well-connected and therefore get special protection from the mob state.

Let’s consider what copyright infringement is for a minute. When you steal a car from somebody you have effectively taken away another person’s right to said car. Two people cannot be in possession of the car at the same time so in order for one person to use it another must go without. If you steal a $30,000 car I would argue that anywhere between $30,000 and $60,000 restitution, plus recovery fees, would be just compensation. The reason I would set an upper limit of $60,000 is because stealing the car really took away the owner’s right to the car and therefore a just punishment would be to have the thief lose his right to a car. Copyright is different since no actual theft takes place.

If I download a song via BitTorrent I’m not depriving another human being of that song. No theft has occurred because theft implies taking another’s right to something, copyright infringement merely implies you violated a state granted monopoly over an infinitely reproducible good. Of course many followers of Ayn Rand have argued that by downloading said song you’re taking away the copyright holder’s “right to a sale” but that implies that the downloader was actually planning to buy the song if it wasn’t available freely, an assumption that is often false. Either way you’re not denying anybody the copyrighted work when downloading a digital copy and thus should not be made to pay double the “damages” incurred.

Justice is supposed to imply righting a wrong, not enriching politically well-connected favorites of the state. Unfortunately our “justice” system is really a punishment system. It’s not about righting wrongs, it’s about making examples out of those who dare disobey the decrees of the state. Courts aren’t used primarily for mediation in disputes but for striking fear into the people.