Tag: Your Government Doesn’t Love You

Why Pay More? Save Money with Slave Labor Today!

Slavery never ended in the United States, the rulers were just altered slightly. Instead of declaring people slaves based on their ancestry the United States now declares it based on being labeled a criminal. That’s quite convenient since we’re all criminals. In addition to changing the criteria on who is and isn’t a slave the state also changed the rules on who gets the money. Under the previous rules the slave owners received the profits gained through slave labor but now the state gets it all! Hoping to boost profits the state has been advertising its slave labor service to people interested in outsourcing:

Searching for the “best kept secret in outsourcing,” one that can “provide you with all the advantages” of domestic workers, but with “offshore prices”? Try prison labor!

That’s the message of Unicor, also known as Federal Prison Industries, a government-owned corporation that employs federal workers for as little as 23 cents an hour to manufacture military uniforms, furniture, electronics and other products.

The “best kept secret in outsourcing” is literally slavery. And the slave owner in this case gets to create as many slaves as it wants by voting amongst itself to create new crimes. Talk about a win-win situation.

Many people point out that Chinese labor is practically slave labor. But Chinese laborers can demand higher wages and even leave their job if their demands aren’t met. Slave laborers in American prisons can’t demand higher wages because they can’t quit and go elsewhere. Their options are either to work for a quarter an hour or rot in a cell all day long.

Welcome to the freest goddamn country on Earth.

I’m Glad Minnesota Republicans can Find Time to Address the Really Important Issues

After the Minnesota Sports High School League announced a pretty decent solution for transgender students wanting to participate in sports the Republicans of this state have whining like the little bitches they are. Their belief in government so small that it can fit in your bathroom has moved them to overturn the Sports High School League’s policy by enacting a state law:

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Minnesota House wants to restrict transgender students’ access to school locker rooms and bathrooms.

Minority Democrats objected fiercely to a Republican move to include the provision in an education budget bill Saturday. The House approved the proposal in a divided voice vote.

Rep. Tim Miller’s provision says group locker rooms, bathrooms and showers designated for one sex can’t be used by the other. It doesn’t preclude schools from offering single-use bathrooms or changing rooms to transgender students.

Once again I’m left asking why. Why do Minnesota Republicans care about this? As supposed advocates of small government shouldn’t they support each school being allowed to make its own policy? Shouldn’t be they be happy that an independent organization created a policy that schools can abide by? How come their advocacy for small government always has an exception for issues regarding voluntary interaction?

Republicans are spending a lot of time complaining about the so-called war on Christianity. What they mean is they’re unhappy that people are using government to overturn discriminatory laws and, sometimes, punish people for discriminating against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals. Anybody with even a basic education in physics knows that for every action there is an equal but opposite reaction. So long as the Republican Party sees it as necessary to use the state to dictate social issues the other side will see it as necessary to use the state for the same. When one person detonates a nuclear warhead the other guy wants to do the same in retaliation.

Without Government Who Would Raise the Gas Tax to Build the Shitty Roads

It’s no secret that the roads here in Minnesota are shit. This state will forever be known as the one that let a major bridge deteriorate to the point of collapse. In addition to shitty bridges the potholes here are so numerous that you practically need an off-road vehicle to go to the grocery store. Fortunately the state has been bleeding tax victims pretty hard so it now has a $1 billion surplus that can be used to fix the roads. Just kidding. The Senate just passed a bill that would raise Minnesota’s gas tax. To justify this even greater theft the Senate is bullshitting us about using the money to fix the roads:

The Minnesota Senate has passed a bill that funds road and bridge repairs by raising the state’s gasoline tax.

The plan would raise more than $6 billion for infrastructure repairs by adding a 6 1/2-percent wholesale tax on gas sales and hiking license tab fees. It also funds mass transit projects with a sales tax hike in the seven-county metropolitan area.

I guess that surplus is needed for better things such as a fancy new building for our rulers to rule from. With $1 billion of extra cash on hand they could make the entire facility out of marble and have a solid oak desk for each member of the ruling class!

It’s only a short hop for me to cross the river into Wisconsin and that sounds more appealing every day. That’s not to say Wisconsin is some kind of paradise but at least the rulers there will allow me to own a suppressor and seem less determined to bleed me completely dry immediately.

Everything Old is New Again

Remember the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) Gang Strike Force? It made the news a few years back after it was caught stealing vehicles, beating people, and stealing cash:

The stories and payouts to 96 victims of the now-defunct Strike Force, cited in 600 pages of documents released last week in a class-action lawsuit, provide the most detailed picture yet of an out-of-control police squad, and put a price on every wrongful seizure, unjustified punch or dubious raid.

The force was disbanded after the MPD couldn’t cover its misdeeds up any longer. But everything old is new again. Guess what police department just announced a new gang unit? That’s right, the MPD:

Hoping to stem retaliatory shootings this summer, the Minneapolis police department is launching a new unit solely focused on gang-related crime.

Chief Janeé Harteau announced the change Wednesday during a City Council briefing about summer crime strategies. Details were sparse Wednesday, but she said the unit would consist of five officers and one sergeant.

Welcome to modern policing. Bad ideas are, at most, disappeared for a short time while the public forges about them. Once a bad idea has faded from memory it is brought back under a slightly different name. If anybody does point out how poorly the idea worked out last time they’re told “This time will be different.” I’m sure it will only be a few years until evidence surfaces that this new gang unit is involved in the same shit as the old one.

Jeb Bush Offers to Be Four More Years of Obama

If you’re paying attention to the upcoming presidential race, and may the gods have mercy on your soul if you are, you know that the selection of candidates is even worse than last year (which is saying something). Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Hillary Clinton are all terrible individuals and there is another terrible individual that everybody knows is going to run: Jeb Bush. In a press conference Jeb Bush promised that he would deliver four more years of Obama, which is kind of funny since Obama has deliver eight years of Jeb’s father:

Jeb Bush, a likely presidential contender, said Tuesday that President Obama’s greatest accomplishment was keeping in place controversial spying programs at the National Security Agency.

“I would say the best part of the Obama administration would be his continuance of the protections of the homeland using the big metadata programs,” Bush said in an interview on the Michael Medved radio show.

Bush argued the NSA programs had been “enhanced” under Obama, even if the president “never defends them or openly admits it.”

What’s that say about a man when he thinks the best part of Obama’s administration has been the continuation of an unaccountable, illegal (not that that means anything), and entirely ineffective surveillance apparatus? It says that he’s a police state fuckwit who probably read 1984 and thought the Inner Party sounded pretty good.

Unfortunately if he decides to run, and he will, the Republicans will nominate him and we’ll have a Jeb Bush versus Hillary Clinton race, which means we’ll have a neocon versus another neocon. Fortunately we have hope in Vermin Supreme.

Calling the Police is Dangerous

Most situations can only be made worse by involving the police. For example, if somebody breaks into your home and you shoot them the situations has concluded. Unless the police show up. Then they might gun you down:

Huntsville police spokesman Lt. Darryl Lawson tells AL.com the woman’s estranged husband came into the house she shared with her mother armed with a gun Sunday afternoon. The woman opened fire with a shotgun, wounding him.

Her mother called 911 and when police arrived, they heard gunshots and saw the woman in the garage holding the shotgun. They demanded she drop the weapon and when she turned toward them with the gun in her hand, at least one officer fired.

Officers say the estranged husband’s injuries are life threatening. The woman is expected to survive.

I’m sure some will put the blame on the woman for “turning towards the police” but we need to remember that that claim is from the officers who are most likely trying to cover their asses. Either way the woman would have been better off shooting her estranged husband, leaving the house, and then calling the police so she wouldn’t be around when one of those trigger happy fucks decides to get his rocks off by blasting an innocent bystander.

Never call the police unless not doing so could hold terrible legal liability. In those cases make sure you’re away from the immediate area so the police won’t assume you’re a bad guy who they can shoot at will.

A Good Use of Religious Freedom Laws

When you heard the phrase “religious freedom laws” your mind probably jumps to thoughts of business owners discriminating against patrons based on their sexual orientation. That has been the primary motivation of the politicians who passed these laws and the angle being covered by the press. But these laws can also be used for good. Let’s take the state’s war against the homeless as an example. One woman has cited a religious freedom law in response to the state trying to stop her from feeding the homeless:

Joan Cheever of San Antonio has been serving meals to the city’s homeless for 10 years. But last week, police officers handed her a ticket with a potential fine of $2,000. Despite having a food permit for the food truck she cooks out of, which she calls the Chow Train, she was cited for transporting and serving it from a different vehicle.

But that hasn’t stopped her from continuing to hand out three-course meals to the homeless. On Friday, she went back to Maverick Park with 50 supporters to hand out food, and this time she wasn’t ticketed. Cheever has argued that she has a right to feed the homeless under Texas’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act because she considers it exercising her religious beliefs.

Christianity teaches compassion for the poor and afflicted so it’s not extent to claim feeding the homeless is a protected act under religious freedom laws. Now the question becomes whether the state will find and act that goes against its interest a lawful act of religious freedom.

Metal and Antistatism

Anarchism and metal are like fish and water. Metal has a long history of counterculture and antistatism. In fact in many areas of the world metal is illegal but bands exist anyways (proving once again that laws can’t control behavior). Vice recently did an interview with members of Al-Namrood. Al-Namrood, for those who are unfamiliar with Middle Eastern metal, is a Saudi Arabian black metal band. They’re worth nothing not only for their music but also for the fact that they stand the real chance of being executed for playing their music:

Black metal bands have never been keen on religion. However, in parts of the world where religion can actually be oppressive, bands inspired by Bathory and Mayhem and Burzum are few and far between.

That’s presumably because it’s a lot easier to be in an anti-Christian metal band in the US, than in an anti-Islamic metal band in Saudi Arabia. In America, your obstacles extend to overhearing your mom tell a friend you’re just “going through a phase.” In Saudi Arabia, you face social ostracism and the possibility of imprisonment or death.

With that in mind, you’ve got to give it to Saudi Arabia’s only black metal band, Al-Namrood, whose lyrics include all sorts of things that could get them executed. I got in touch with guitarist and bassist Mephisto for a chat.

It’s an interesting interview. Al-Namrood is one of those bands that I look up to for its willingness to give a giant middle finger to the state. It also gives me hope because even the oppressive Saudi government can’t find the members of Al-Namrood. If an oppressive regime such as Saudi Arabia can’t find a single band that sells physical merchandise then there’s hope for all of us agorists.

Officer Safety

Police officers like to justify their trigger happy nature but uttering the magical words “officer safety”. When an officer beats and unarmed man to death? Officer safety! When 10 officers unload 1,000 rounds into a truck that wasn’t even being driven by a suspect? Officer safety! What happens when officer safety puts officers at risk though? That’s what happened when a group of Miami police officers when all officer safety on a couple unarmed individuals:

As the car was wedged helplessly between a light pole and a tree, nearly a minute passed before officers opened up – firing approximately 50 bullets at the car and the two unarmed men inside the vehicle.

The two men inside the car survived that initial volley of gunfire, according to witnesses, who said they could see the men moving inside the Volvo. Everything went quiet for nearly two minutes before the officers opened up a second time – unleashing an unrelenting torrent of bullets that lasted almost 25 seconds. By the time it was over, the two men inside the car were dead.

CBS4 News has learned a total of 23 officers fired a total of at least 377 rounds.

Nothing unusual about this story, right? But wait, there’s more:

Montesano and Valdes were killed by the dozens of rounds that tore through their bodies.

But Montesano and Valdes weren’t the only ones struck – two Miami Dade police officers were hit as well – caught in the crossfire. One officer was shot in the arm and the second was hit in the arm and grazed in the head. If the bullet had struck just a half an inch to the side the officer would have been killed.

The officers were going officer safety so hard on the unarmed suspects that they ended up hitting two of their own in the crossfire. Considering this was the unloading of 377 rounds into two unarmed suspects really defensible under the magical words “officer safety”?

Don’t Stay at Motel 6

As a general principle I avoid doing business with snitches. What this means is that I don’t do business with individuals or organizations that I know voluntarily hand over customer information to law enforcement personnel (I understand they can’t do much about it when a warrant is issued though). This isn’t a big deal since most businesses aren’t handing over customer lists to local law enforcers. Motel 6, on the other hand, has decided to do exactly that:

WARWICK, R.I. — City police have arrested four people staying at the Motel 6 on Jefferson Boulevard as a result of the hotel chain’s agreement to provide police with a daily guest list, Mayor Scott Avedisian said Tuesday.

The names of Motel 6 guests, which police then check for outstanding warrants, is one of five steps Motel 6 corporate managers agreed to take in response to a string of high-profile incidents and concerns the establishment was becoming a haven for passing criminals.

The other measures listed in an agreement Motel 6 executives signed Tuesday include raising the minimum age to rent a room from 18 years old to 21, hiring a police detail every night, sharing their national “do not rent list” with police and conducting regular training, including on how to spot human trafficking.

I don’t understand this strategy. To alleviate concerns that Motel 6 is a haven for passing criminals the company is going to get more deeply involved with the biggest gang of criminals wherever it operates. That doesn’t make sense. But it looks like a good deal for the gangs. In addition to receiving customer lists the local agencies are looking to make some extra cash on the side since Motel 6 will be hiring officers for “protection”.

Mind you, I’ve never really planned to stay at a Motel 6 before but I will make sure to avoid the chain wherever I travel. The last thing I’m going to do is hand over cash to a company that has gotten into bed with the most dangerous local gangs.