Your Government Doesn’t Love You – Page 99

Punishing The People Because Of Terrorism

The San Bernardino attack is just another tragedy on a long list of tragedies exploited by the State. Again we’re seeing the tired claim by the political body that the people must be severely punished:

Obama said he will “urge high-tech and law enforcement leaders to make it harder for terrorists to use technology to escape from justice,” without going into details, and order a review of the visa waiver program that allowed one of the San Bernardino terrorists into the US. Obama also called on Congress to ban people on no-fly lists from buying guns. “What could possibly be the argument for allowing a terrorist suspect to buy a semi-automatic weapon?” he asked. “This is a matter of national security.”

Mr. Obama may not have gone into specifics but we know what he’s hinting at. “Making it harder for terrorists to use technology to escape from justice,” is a euphemism for prohibiting the use of effective cryptography. In other words the basic security tools every one of us relies on every day must be broken so the State can further expand it’s already too expansive surveillance apparatus.

Reviewing the visa program is a euphemism for finding more ways to restrict people from crossing the imaginary lines often referred to as borders. Anybody who has been paying attention to recent political maneuvering is aware that the State is becoming more interested in tightening the borders. Just remember that a secure border prevents tax cattle from leaving.

Finally the question, “What could possibly be the argument for allowing a terrorist suspect to buy a semi-automatic weapon,” is a euphemism for removing due process from decided who can and cannot own a firearm. Apparently having to go through the process of finding somebody guilty of a crime before they can be prohibited from owning a firearm is just too damn inconvenient.

Notice how each of these proposals requires punishing the entire population of almost 319 million for the actions of two individuals. Also notice how none of these proposals will do anything to curtail terrorism. Just because domestic companies can’t release tools that use effective cryptography doesn’t mean foreign entities can’t. According to the United States government the border is 102,514 miles long. Any thoughts of effective controlling over 100,000 miles of territory is nothing but a fantasy. Prohibiting more people from owning firearms only ensures attackers will be met with lighter resistance.

There are many ways of making a society more resilient to attacks. Punishing everybody in society whenever attack occurs is not one of them.

Immanentizing The Eschaton

If ever there was reason to give up hope on the entire political process this year’s presidential candidates are it. Each an ever one of them is an honest to goodness terrible human being. The Democrats are deciding whether they want Bernie “Promise You Free Shit Nobody Can Pay For” Sander or Killary Clinton. On the other side of the isle there is a contest to see which candidate can say the most horrible thing. Donald Trump has openly stated a desire to take out the family of ISIS members like some kind of mafioso. Ted Cruz, who has been relegated to near obscurity, has decided to trump Trump by flat out saying he wants to nuke the Middle East:

Texas Senator Ted Cruz intensified his rhetoric this weekend in Iowa as he sought to compete with Republican frontrunner Donald Trump on tough talk about killing Islamic State terrorists.

“We will carpet bomb them into oblivion,” Cruz said at a multi-candidate event in Cedar Rapids sponsored by the Tea Party-aligned FreedomWorks group. “I don’t know if sand can glow in the dark, but we’re going to find out.”

Cruz received loud applause throughout his speech from the more than 1,500 people in attendance and got a standing ovation as he left the stage.

I’m not sure whether Cruz openly supporting the use of nuclear weapons or receiving applause from his audience are scarier. All I know is that this country is fucked.

For those of you who still believe we can vote our way out of this nosedive, assuming there are any of you left, how exactly does the voting process work when every single candidate is a war monger, economically illiterate, and openly hostile towards freedom? The option of damage control doesn’t even exist this election cycle because all of the candidates want same thing: a continuation of the seemingly endless war that is guaranteed to bankrupt the nation (mind you, I’m not against the State bankrupting itself, I just wish it would find a way to do it that didn’t require so many dead bodies).

Furthermore, each of these candidates has supporters. Even if a decent candidate existed and you supported them you would almost certainly be a very small minority voting against an army of psychotic voters who want the very war their candidates are selling.

Eliminating Due Process

We’re going back to 2009!

Talk about preventing “terrorists” from acquiring firearms is in the news again proving that everything old is new. With the shooting in San Bernardino in recent memory several politicians have taken the opportunity to introduce an amendment to a bill that would, amongst other things, prohibit people on the terrorist watch lists from buying firearms. This maneuver is being heralded as a tool to prevent terrorists from acquiring firearms but, as I noted back when this shit was being argued in 2009, the terrorist watch lists are secret lists. How do you end up on one of the lists? Who knows? It’s a secret. Are you already on one of the lists? Who knows? It’s a secret. All we do know is that the lists exist and a lot of names are on them.

Prohibiting people on the terrorist watch lists from buying firearms isn’t about prohibiting terrorists from buying firearms. It’s about removing due process before prohibiting people from buying firearms.

Unlike many people my support for due process isn’t dependent on whether or not an accused party shares my philosophical beliefs. I oppose any punishment issued without due process. Do you know why? Because not performing a full investigation and trial leads to shit like this:

A Guantanamo Bay prisoner locked up for 13 years has been found to be a victim of mistaken identity, originally thought to be a member of al-Qaeda.

Mustafa al-Aziz al-Shamiri was kept in a secret prison camp for 13 years without charge because somebody mistook him for somebody else. The only reason this is known is because some kind of hearing was finally held. In that hearing it was determined that he was just some low level schmuck and not the evil mastermind trainer he was originally sold as. Of course some may point out that he was still a fighter in al-Qaeda so his incarceration was justified. To that I would point out that no such fact was known because no investigation or hearing had been conducted. All we know is he was locked in a secret prison camp for 13 years based on accusations so weak no charges were even filed against him. That’s the kind of shit that happens when you don’t have due process.

I’m not going to mince words. Anybody who endorses their philosophical and political opponents being punished by governments without requiring any manner of due process is an asshole. They are what’s wrong with the world. They are the reason we can’t have nice things. I’d consider rounding them all up and putting them in a secret prison camp for the good of humanity but, you know, I believe in due process so I could never support such a thing.

Interrogation Trump Card

Shortly after the 2016 presidential election an ISIS member is captured. After extensive sleep deprivation and waterboarding he still refuses to talk. He’s sitting in the same unfurnished interrogation cell that has been his home for the last two weeks awaiting more of America’s worst. Suddenly the door opens and in comes an a person he hasn’t seen before. At first the ISIS member believes the mystery man is another interrogator. “Let him do is worst,” the ISIS member thinks, “I can withstand any pain.” The mystery man stares at the ISIS member for a few silent minutes then squats down. From his suit coat he pulls out a small photograph and slides it to the ISIS member. Picking it up the ISIS member sees it is a photograph of his family standing in front of their house. No words are spoken but the message is quite clear.

Unproductive Is Better Than Undoing Productivity

Since the news has hit national headlines I’m assuming most of you reading this blog are aware of the Black Lives Matters protest at the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) Fourth Precinct. If not here is your thumbnail storyline.

Two members of the MPD were involved in the shooting of Jamar Clark. A lot of questions surround the shooting, including the conflict of interest of having law enforcers investigate law enforcers. The protesters are demanding any video footage of the shooting be released for public scrutiny and the investigators are refusing claiming it could hinder the investigation. Although the protest has remained mostly civil five people were shot one night last week.

As with any protest there are both advocates and opponents. Of the two I find the opponents most interesting. Not because the protesters shutdown Highway 94 during rush hour one night but because they keep saying the protesters need to get jobs and be productive members of society. It’s the same argument the tough on crime crowd tends to fall back on whenever people are protesting police.

For me this brings up an interesting question. Is it better to be productive or to undo productivity? Even though many of the people at the protest are employed let’s consider their productivity. Although the protesters have not completely shutdown the precinct they are interfering with its day to day operations to some extent. A lot of officers are on duty guarding the precinct instead of driving around hoping to issue some petty traffic citations. And therein lies my issue. Even if the protesters are being productive the police are actually undoing previous productivity.

Consider what happens when an officer witnesses somebody driving above the arbitrarily posted speed limit. First the officer will turn on his bright flashy lights that divert everybody’s attention to them and cause epileptic people to have a seizure. Then the officers race down the highway and demand the offending motorist pull over to the side of the highway. Because of the way Minnesota’s traffic laws are written other people driving down the highway need to either merge over a lane or slow way down when passing the cop car. While motorists are creating legally mandated conditions that are more likely to cause an accident the officer is walking over to the pulled over car to write him a citation. Most people view the citation as a dollar amount but it really should be viewed as hours of a life. That citation effectively undoes a number of hours of productivity of the motorist. Instead of being able to, for example, buy a new television the motorist now has to give that money to the State.

Traffic citations are just one of many ways police actively undo productivity. Raiding cannabis growers results in a lot of already grown cannabis being destroyed. Civil forfeiture laws result in a lot of productivity being stolen in the form of property an office claims is related to a drug crime.

To me the protest is, at worst, a debate between unproductive people (although I don’t actually see the protesters as unproductive) and people who undo productivity. I’d much rather have a group of unproductive people than a group of people who are working to set back my productivity any day of the week.

What The FBI Demands When It Sends A Gag Order

The first rule about National Security Letters (NSL) is you don’t talk about NSLs. If you do the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) gets to put you in a cage. But a resent lawsuit has allowed us to get the first glimpse of an NSL. Specifically what the FBI demanded an Internet service provider (ISP) hand over about one of its customers:

The National Security Letter (NSL) is a potent surveillance tool that allows the government to acquire a wide swath of private information—all without a warrant. Federal investigators issue tens of thousands of them each year to banks, ISPs, car dealers, insurance companies, doctors, and you name it. The letters don’t need a judge’s signature and come with a gag to the recipient, forbidding the disclosure of the NSL to the public or the target.

For the first time, as part of a First Amendment lawsuit, a federal judge ordered the release of what the FBI was seeking from a small ISP as part of an NSL. Among other things, the FBI was demanding a target’s complete Web browsing history, IP addresses of everyone a person has corresponded with, and records of all online purchases, according to a court document unveiled Monday. All that’s required is an agent’s signature denoting that the information is relevant to an investigation.

This looks like a fishing expedition more than an investigation. Investigations are supposed to involved people who are suspected of specific crimes and any information demanded from investigators should be specific to those suspected crimes. What the FBI demanded in this case was basically all information the ISP could have about their customer and some information it probably didn’t have (such as a history of online purchases). Such a vast amount of unspecific data would be useful if the FBI wanted to find evidence of a crime and charge the target based on that. Because of the secrecy of NSLs it’s impossible to know the exact motives of the FBI so there’s really nothing stopping it from going on fishing expeditions.

I’d like to see more NSLs disclosed because I’m betting most of them will look more like fishing expeditions than investigations.

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity

Liberté, égalité, fraternité! It’s the national motto of France and in the only important language it means libero, egaleco, frateco. For you English readers it mean liberty, equality, fraternity. For a country that uses emergency powers to suppress free speech it’s an ironic motto to have:

At least 24 activists who advocate for climate change have been placed under house arrest ahead of the highly anticipated United Nations talks in Paris. France used emergency laws that were implemented after the Paris shootings to arrest the green campaigners, the French government confirmed on Saturday. Earlier, the Guardian had reported the news, noting that the warrants delivered to the activists cited state of emergency laws that were imposed after 130 people were killed in terrorist attacks earlier this month.

You have to hand it to France, it sure knows how to milk a crisis for everything it’s worth. The terrorist attacks occurred 17 days ago and the French government is still has a state of emergency in place and is using its fancy emergency powers to lock people in their homes under the threat of imprisonment (or death).

I wonder how long the French government will keep these emergency powers in place and who else they’ll suppress with them. Maybe it can make the powers permanent and use them to silence everybody who disagrees with it.

One thing is certain, freedom is entirely dead in France. The nation is just another giant police state.

The United States Isn’t A Wealthy Nation

Several of the Bernie bots were sharing more economic ignorance spouted by their preferred presidential candidate. This time it was Bernie saying that the United States is the only wealthy country that doesn’t guarantee health insurance. How can he claim a nation that is tens of trillions of dollars in debt is wealthy? It’s the kind of lunacy only made possible through political doublespeak. War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength, and debt is wealth!

The United States is at that point where it has stretched itself so thin for so long that it can no longer even keep up the appearance of wealth. Like the man who used an extensive line of credit to buy his mansion that was just foreclosed and Ferrari that was just repossessed, the United States is no longer able to even maintain what it already purchased. A good illustration of this is the transportation infrastructure:

Imagine you’re driving. Maybe on the Kennedy Expressway in Chicago, or down Interstate 95 through New Haven, or I-94 in Milwaukee. Chances are you’ll encounter a truck-swallowing pothole, or lanes strewn with orange cones, or traffic at a standstill. After all, Illinois, Connecticut, and Wisconsin have the worst roads in the nation. And the Highway Trust Fund — the source for most federal spending on roads, bridges, highways, tunnels, and public transit — is almost out of money. Again.

[…]

The fund’s primary source of revenue is the federal fuel tax of 18.4 cents per gallon on gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon of diesel. That tax hasn’t gone up since 1993, and isn’t pegged to inflation. A dollar in 1993 is worth only 60 cents today. If the gas tax had kept up with inflation, it would be 30 cents a gallon today and pull in nearly twice the amount of revenue. The tax brings in around $34 billion each year, but while that seems like a lot of money, it barely scratches the surface of what’s needed to maintain the nation’s highways in a state of good repair.

The federal government spends roughly $50 billion annually on infrastructure, leaving a $16 billion hole in the Highway Trust Fund. Over the last decade, Congress has signed off on a series of short-term extensions to prevent the fund from completely drying up. The one just approved by the Senate would mark the 36th such funding extension for the fund since 2009.

The article argues that the gas tax needs to be increased to pay for infrastructure maintenance. If this was a new problem that arose in a wealthy nation a simple gas tax increase might be enough of a bandage. But the infrastructure has been in decay for decades so the costs of fixing everything is so astronomically high that it’s not even a feasible project anymore:

So what needs fixing? Almost everything. Today, more than 60,000 bridges in the United States are considered structurally deficient, according to the Department of Transportation, and 32 percent of US major roads are in poor or mediocre condition, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. In its most recent report, the ASCE gave the nation’s overall infrastructure — everything from airports to wastewater — a D+. The US would need to spend an estimated $3.6 trillion by 2020 to bring its infrastructure into decent shape. That’s more than one-third the nation’s entire gross domestic product.

Emphasis mine. The infrastructure is in such a dilapidated state that the federal government would need to steal one-third of the entire nation’s gross domestic product just to bring it up to date in four years. That, ladies and gentlemen, is point where your income can’t even pay off the interest on your debt. And it’s only one of a practically uncountable number of government programs. No amount of additional plunder will allow the United States to get back on its feet.

People saying the United States is a wealthy nation should be laughed at. When they use that claim to justify creating yet another government program that will add more debt they should be publicly shamed. Their names should become common insults. Instead of saying “You’re an idiot,” the new insult should be, “OK, Bernie Sanders.”

The empire is collapsing. No amount of voting will save it, thankfully.

New South Wales Bans Possessing Knowledge

3D printers have ensured gun control laws will continue to become less enforceable. How can a government enforce a ban on something anybody can download a schematic for and print in their own home? It can’t. But that’s not going to stop the government of New South Wales from trying:

Possessing files that can be used to 3D print firearms will soon be illegal in New South Wales after new legislation, passed last week by state parliament, comes into effect.

Among the provisions of the Firearms and Weapons Prohibition Legislation Amendment Bill 2015 (PDF) is an amendment to the Weapons Prohibition Act 1998 stating that a person “must not possess a digital blueprint for the manufacture of a firearm on a 3D printer or on an electronic milling machine.”

The maximum penalty is 14 years’ jail.

The provision does not apply to any person with a licence to manufacture firearms or the police.

‘Possession’ is defined as “possession of a computer or data storage device holding or containing the blueprint or of a document in which the blueprint is recorded” or “control of the blueprint held in a computer that is in the possession of another person (whether the computer is in this jurisdiction or outside this jurisdiction)”.

Enforcing this would require knowing every file on every person’s computer and knowing every purchase every person has made. Even banning 3D printers or requiring they be registered wouldn’t make this law enforceable because schematics exist for 3D printers that can print 3D printer parts and be built at home.

With that said, this is yet another law that should encourage people to utilize strong cryptographic tools. Ensure every data storage device you possess is encrypted. Only access websites through encrypted connections. And use anonymity tools like Tor to download any potentially illegal data (which is all data). Laws against possessing information requires the authorities be capable of finding out whether or not you’ve learned something. So long as you can conceal that from them they cannot enforce such prohibitions.

Pfizer Joins The Ranks Of Intelligent Companies Fleeing The American Empire

Pfizer is joining the elite club of American companies fleeing the empire. Wanting to avoid the oppressive tax environment of the American Empire, Pfizer has started merging with a foreign company so it can move its headquarters to the much friendly nation of Ireland:

Pfizer Inc on Monday said it would buy Botox maker Allergan Plc in a deal worth $160 billion to slash its U.S. tax bill, rekindling a fierce political debate over the financial maneuver.

The acquisition, which would shift Pfizer’s headquarters to Ireland, would be the biggest-ever tax inversion.

Just as expatriation has forced the government of the United States to put laws into place that prevent individual tax cattle from fleeing, this decision by Pfizer has renewed efforts to prevent corporate tax cattle from fleeing:

U.S. President Barack Obama has called inversions unpatriotic and has tried to crack down on the practice.

Senator Bernie Sanders, another Democratic candidate for president, called on the Obama administration to stop the deal, which “would allow another major American corporation to hide its profits overseas.”

“Congress also must pass real tax reform that demands that profitable corporations pay their fair share of taxes,” Sanders said.

Their reaction demonstrates once again that property rights don’t exist under the State. Politicians are unhappy because Pfizer is choosing to merge with another company so it can take its supposed property to a friendlier environment. Because of this they’re looking to change the rules. In other words they’re stating that Pfizer’s property is actually owned by the State and the temporary usage privileges may soon be revoked.

It really makes you wonder why anybody would consider starting a business in this forsaken country. You can never been certain when the rules will change and the only thing that seems consistent is the rate of plunder going up over time.