A Geek With Guns

Last week I gave my predictions for France, most of which were pulled from the book Pictures of a Socialistic Future [PDF]. Pictures of a Socialistic Future was a took written at the end of the 1800s that property predicted many things that would happen in socialist countries. One of the predictions was the socialist state would face a massive exodus of people and would implement laws preventing unapproved departures from the country. Such laws have been implemented in many socialist countries and are put into place to keep wealth and labor in the country by force. Guess what? The United States is officially announcing plans to implement such laws:

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has a status update for Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin: Stop attempting to dodge your taxes by renouncing your U.S. citizenship or never come to back to the U.S. again.

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At a news conference this morning, Sens. Schumer and Bob Casey, D-Pa., will unveil the “Ex-PATRIOT” – “Expatriation Prevention by Abolishing Tax-Related Incentives for Offshore Tenancy” – Act to respond directly to Saverin’s move, which they dub a “scheme” that would “help him duck up to $67 million in taxes.”

The senators will call Saverin’s move an “outrage” and will outline their plan to re-impose taxes on expatriates like Saverin even after they flee the United States and take up residence in a foreign country. Their proposal would also impose a mandatory 30 percent tax on the capital gains of anybody who renounces their U.S. citizenship.

The process of preventing people from leaving the United States has been underway for a while. Earlier this year legislation was announced that would prevent those who owe taxes from leaving the country. Now the state is moving to make laws that will make it legal for the state to plunder a great deal of your wealth if you decide to renounce your citizenship. Ladies and gentlemen, it doesn’t get much more blatant than this.

You are not a citizen, you are not a free individual, you are a slave according to the state. In their eyes they own you, you are their property. Honestly, if you have any wealth whatsoever get the fuck out of this country now. The ship is sinking and the state is looking to transfer any and all wealth from the people to its cronies and agents before there is no wealth left to take. Eugene Richter warned us what socialism would bring in Pictures of a Socialistic Future and nobody felt it was worth heading his warning. Right now the state is targeting the wealthy because they have the most to take but you can rest assured that laws preventing the departure from the United States will only expand.

Also, the the Expatriation Prevention by Abolishing Tax-Related Incentives for Offshore Tenancy Act? EX-PATRIOT Act? Really? Really?! Who the fuck is paid to come up with these acronyms?

I hat tip to Snarky Bytes for this revealing story.

Not wanting to be outdone, our neighbors to the north are looking to bring more tyranny upon its people:

A proposed private members’ bill would make it a crime for protesters to wear a mask or disguise while participating in a riot or unlawful assembly, and this week the Harper government put its weight behind the legislation.

The Conservative majority on a House of Commons committee that’s examining the bill took matters a step further Thursday by doubling the proposed maximum prison term to 10 years from five.

Government MPs passed the amendment over the objections of the NDP opposition, who argue the bill is a sham because wearing a mask to commit a crime is already an offence under the Criminal Code.

So it’s going to be illegal to wear a mask while participating in a riot or “unlawful assembly?” Isn’t participating in a riot already illegal? What the hell is an “unlawful assembly?”

What is the point of laws like this other than to expand the police state? I can think of none as these laws simple make acts that are already illegal more, uhh, illegaler I guess. Whether somebody is wearing a mask while participating in a riot should be irrelevant, the only things that are relevant are whether or not they hurt anybody or damaged property. Masks aren’t enchanted items that give +2 to melee or +2 to smashing shit and thus are not relevant regarding any crimes.

Oh well, this does demonstrate that the police state is expanding everywhere, not just in the United States of America.

The news has been covering the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) foiling of the “updated underwear bomber.” I didn’t bother to cover this because I was waiting for the punchline and it has been delivered:

The would-be bomber in the recently-uncovered plot to blow up a U.S.-bound airliner leaving Yemen was an undercover intelligence agent. The plot was revealed to U.S. intelligence officials based on a tip by Saudi intelligence services, and had been revealed by a Saudi intelligence source who had been inside Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and providing information to the Saudis and the CIA for some time.

CBS News correspondent John Miller, a former assistant director at the FBI, reports that the double-agent revelation goes right to the heart of an intelligence agency’s nightmare, which is identifying a source that they’ve placed inside an organization.

Great job guys, you did some bang up investigatory work. You managed to not only foil an “updated underwear bomb” scheme but you also managed to catch one of your own agents. With quality work like this I feel safer already.

Last year I decided to abandon third-party Internet services such as GMail, Google Calendar, and even WordPress.com. Everything now sits securely on a server in my apartment where I maintain the exclusive right to access it. Why would I go through the trouble of maintaining my own server when there are many great free service providers out there? Because things have gotten to the point that you can’t trust anybody to maintain your secrecy:

he FBI is asking Internet companies not to oppose a controversial proposal that would require firms, including Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, and Google, to build in backdoors for government surveillance.

In meetings with industry representatives, the White House, and U.S. senators, senior FBI officials argue the dramatic shift in communication from the telephone system to the Internet has made it far more difficult for agents to wiretap Americans suspected of illegal activities, CNET has learned.

The FBI general counsel’s office has drafted a proposed law that the bureau claims is the best solution: requiring that social-networking Web sites and providers of VoIP, instant messaging, and Web e-mail alter their code to ensure their products are wiretap-friendly.

As the police state ramps up it’s going to be harder and harder to know your data is secure on servers you don’t directly control. Most people probably don’t care because they feel as though they have nothing to hide but the golden rule of backdoors is that anybody can use them. If there is a backdoor one need only discover how to access it, which is why most manufacturers don’t like putting backdoors into their software. There is also the fact that the state doesn’t need to know what I’m doing, if they want to know they can get a fucking warrant.

If you don’t believe the United States is a police state you’re not paying attention.

The United States likes to declare war on everything. We have the War on Poverty, the War on Drugs, and the War on Terrorism. Now Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is working hard on declaring a war on climate change:

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta declared global warming a national security threat yesterday during a speech before an environmentalist group in Washington, D.C.

“The area of climate change has a dramatic impact on national security,” Panetta told the Environmental Defense Fund last night. “Rising sea levels, severe droughts, the melting of the polar caps, the more frequent and devastating natural disasters all raise demand for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.”

I’m sure a Global Warming Enforcement Agency is being created and drones are being deployed to bomb those who working to forward global warming. Those who deny global warming or release research demonstrating global warming as a fallacy will likely be arrested and tossed into federal prisons.

On top of being a pagan holiday and International Workers’ Day May 1^st is also Loyalty Day:

On Loyalty Day, we rededicate ourselves to the common good, to the cornerstones of liberty, equality, and justice, and to the unending pursuit of a more perfect Union.

Wow, talk about doublespeak. It’s actually an official holiday that enjoys its own entry in United States code:

(a) Designation.— May 1 is Loyalty Day.

(b) Purpose.— Loyalty Day is a special day for the reaffirmation of loyalty to the United States and for the recognition of the heritage of American freedom.

(c) Proclamation.— The President is requested to issue a proclamation—

(1) calling on United States Government officials to display the flag of the United States on all Government buildings on Loyalty Day; and

(2) inviting the people of the United States to observe Loyalty Day with appropriate ceremonies in schools and other suitable places.

A special day for reaffirmation of loyalty to the United States? If that doesn’t scream nationalism I don’t know what does. Why don’t they just call it Obedience Day and designate its purpose to dedicate one’s self to being an obedient slave of the state? How the hell did we go from a country founded by individuals who espoused rebellion and seemed to hold no desire of mindless loyalty to the state to a country populated by people who believe it’s a good idea to reaffirm their loyalty to the state on an annual basis?

Nationalism is a plank of fascism so I guess having Loyalty Day in the United States makes nothing but sense.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) dirty little secret is that the terrorist plots they’ve “stopped” have all been ones of their own creation. Earlier this year the FBI “stopped” a bombing attempt on the United States Capitol, which was made possible by the FBI who not only encouraged the supposed bomber but gave him the “bomb” to as well. This practice has become so common that even the New York Times is no longer able to overlook it:

THE United States has been narrowly saved from lethal terrorist plots in recent years — or so it has seemed. A would-be suicide bomber was intercepted on his way to the Capitol; a scheme to bomb synagogues and shoot Stinger missiles at military aircraft was developed by men in Newburgh, N.Y.; and a fanciful idea to fly explosive-laden model planes into the Pentagon and the Capitol was hatched in Massachusetts.

But all these dramas were facilitated by the F.B.I., whose undercover agents and informers posed as terrorists offering a dummy missile, fake C-4 explosives, a disarmed suicide vest and rudimentary training. Suspects naïvely played their parts until they were arrested.

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This is legal, but is it legitimate? Without the F.B.I., would the culprits commit violence on their own? Is cultivating potential terrorists the best use of the manpower designed to find the real ones? Judging by their official answers, the F.B.I. and the Justice Department are sure of themselves — too sure, perhaps.

The FBI knows two things: nobody pays attention to the details of stories anymore and fear is the state’s most powerful weapon. Point one relates to how easy it is for the FBI to pull off their little scams. They know 90% of the population isn’t going to bother looking into the details of any story about terrorist plots stopped by the FBI. In addition that 90% won’t listen to the 10% of us who do look into the details because they think we’re crazy conspiracy theorists. Point two’s value is pretty obvious, if people are afraid they’ll submit to the state in the hopes of receiving protection from the communist muslim extremist terrorists who are bent on bring Sharia law by bombing our country.

For the FBI it’s a pretty sweet scam… until people start to notice. Eventually even the 90% who pay no attention to the details of these stories wake up and notice something is amiss. Usually this happens when some mainstream media source finally reports on it, such as the case with this New York Times article. It looks like the FBI may have to find another way of cowing the American public into obedience.

Stephen King wrote an article that has the entire progressive movement cheering his name. In the article King expresses his desire to have the state tax him more. While I give a great deal of credit for the comedic value in this article (seriously, I never knew King was such a vicious writer, kudos to him) I have to take that credit away from him due to his total lack of understanding of the nature of the state. His closing paragraph says it all:

What charitable 1 percenters can’t do is assume responsibility—America’s national responsibilities: the care of its sick and its poor, the education of its young, the repair of its failing infrastructure, the repayment of its staggering war debts. Charity from the rich can’t fix global warming or lower the price of gasoline by one single red penny. That kind of salvation does not come from Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Ballmer saying, “OK, I’ll write a $2 million bonus check to the IRS.” That annoying responsibility stuff comes from three words that are anathema to the Tea Partiers: United American citizenry.

King wants the government to tax him more so they can pay for maintaining roads, education, repairing the faltering infrastructure, and caring for the sick and poor. Unfortunately that’s not what the state will do with the extra money. What will the state do? Buy more bombs.

This is something I don’t get, a vast majority of my friends who demand the rich be taxed more also claim oppose the police state and war. They’ve been duped into holding hypocritical beliefs. On one hand they decry any expansion of the police state and military intervention but on the other hand they advocate people give more money to fund the same beast that’s implementing the police state and killing innocent people overseas. Giving the state more money enables it to buy more military hardware such as drones, tanks, bombs, and bullets. The more money they have at their disposal the more they can spy on you here and the more people they can kill overseas. During the Vietnam War people actually advocated tax protests in an attempt to starve the beast that was sending American men and women to die needlessly in a foreign country that never attacked us. What does it take to get these people to wake the fuck up? Do we have to kidnap their children and send them off to war? Do we have to install spy cameras in their homes?

Let’s address King’s next claim of “American responsibility.” He claims that charity and private investment cannot fix environmental issues (he specifically states global warming but I would like to give him a little more credit than just using a random talking point). What’s the solution than? Give the state more money? The very same state who causes most of our environmental problems in the United States by granting legal protection to polluters? Yeah, that’s worked out well so far. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an organization that exists solely to protect wealthy polluters. Terry Anderson wrong an excellent book titled Political Environmentalism that goes over some of more egregious instances of environmental cronyism. Instead of protecting the environment the EPA protects its cronies by ensuring the business environment is hostile to competition while allowing the emission of as much pollutants as their cronies demand. Does King really want to give the primary instigators of our environmental problems the power to further intervene on environmental matters? That would be akin to handing a serial killer a chainsaw and telling him has full immunity from legal prosecution for any murders he commits with that chainsaw.

The state has mastered duping people. They can get the same people who demand the banks be allowed to fail support a bank bailout. How the fuck did they get so good at fooling people? Is the average person so lacking in the department of critical thinking that they’re unwilling to stop and consider issues more deeply than the talking points they’re fed by the 10 o’clock news? Do these people not actually read bills before stating their support of them? These aren’t even clever scams, anybody who spends 15 minutes looking into them can see what is really going on.

It’s amazing how the state gets so many suckers to back mutually exclusive demands. Are you against war? Demand more taxes to fund the war machine! Do you want the banks to fail? Support a bank bailout! Want the environment cleaned up? Fund the political machinery that allows polluters to dump toxic waster into the water and air from lawsuits! Do you believe two plus two equals four? Believe it equals five instead!

Remember all the uproar about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)? There was an Internet blackout to raise awareness and eventually passage of the bill became toxic to political careers. Obviously we won a great victory for liberty with that one! Or did we? The rule of thumb with politics is this: if there is money backing a bill it will be passed. Meet the HR 3523, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). CISPA is the new SOPA. This time the critters in Congress were smart and decided to leave out any mention of piracy in the bill’s name and, as expected, the serfs have remained relatively quiet and therefore passing it will be a walk in the park:

The House on Thursday approved cybersecurity legislation that privacy groups have decried as a threat to civil liberties.

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA, sponsored by Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Michigan) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Maryland), passed on a vote of 248 to 168.

Its goal is a more secure internet, but privacy groups fear the measure breaches Americans’ privacy along the way. The White House had weighed in on Wednesday, threatening a veto unless there were significant changes to increase consumer privacy. The bill was amended to provide more privacy protections, but it was not immediately clear whether the Senate or the White House would give the amended bill its blessing.

Obama is threatening a veto. Remember when he threatened to veto the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)? His supporters claimed he was threatening to veto the NDAA because he was a proponent of civil liberties when in fact he merely wanted more power. When his desire for power was fulfilled he signed the bill without hesitation. I’m guessing CISPA has something that reduces his power so he’ll threaten to veto the bill until Congress adds in a clause to increase Obama’s power and the bill will get signed right away.

Now my question is this: where is the outrage? When SOPA was making its way through Congress we had a veritable uprising on the Internet. SOPA was one of the few bills that actually got responses from the general population. Shouldn’t the populace be doing the same thing against CISPA? Yes, but this time the bill title doesn’t mention piracy so nobody cares. Much like the Student Loan Forgiveness Act, CISPA has a warm fuzzy title that promises security but is really something far more sinister.

You have to love politicians. First they create a problem and when everybody gets into an uproar they claim to have a fix for the problem but the fix really isn’t a fix at all. This is exactly what’s happening with the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA):

Late yesterday, Congressman Scott Rigell and 26 other members of Congress introduced a bill, H.R. 4388, which he is trying to sell to the American people as a “fix” for the National Defense Authorization Act. But in fact, it is a useless bill that might actually end up causing harm.

That’s right. The plan in the House of Representatives seems to be to try to fool Americans into thinking that they are fixing the indefinite detention problems with the NDAA and the Authorization for the Use of Military Force, when in fact, they are doing nothing good.

Don’t be fooled!

Here’s how they hope their trick will work. H.R. 4388, which was sneakily mistitled as the “Right to Habeas Corpus Act,” states that no one in the United States will lose their habeas rights under the NDAA. That might sound like something good, but it’s meaningless.

The question with the NDAA was never whether habeas rights are lost. Instead, the question is whether and when any president can order the military to imprison a person without charge or trial. The NDAA did not take away habeas rights from anyone, but it did codify a dangerous indefinite detention without charge or trial scheme. And nothing in the proposed bill by Rigell would change it. The Rigell bill won’t stop any president from ordering the military lockup of civilians without charge or trial.

I’m sure nobody is too surprised by this hand waving. Much like the Student Loan Forgiveness Act is actually a bank bailout hidden in a warm fuzzy name the Right to Habeas Corpus Act is a bill that actually does nothing to fix the NDAA as its sponsor promises.