Category Archives: Technology

UPDATED: Snowden As A Litmus Test For Libertarians

Propaganda, Rights, Russia, Technology, Terrorism, The State

If you have not been rooting for Edward Snowden to evade his tormentors–you are not a libertarian.

If you have not been praying (it’s a figure of speech, not a statement of religious faith) for Vladimir Putin to stand firm against the biggest bully in the world—you are no libertarian.

Today, those proverbial prayers have been answered. The man who has been the laughing stock in US media (a laughable proposition in itself) for his displays of machismo has manned up.

“Although President Vladimir V. Putin and President Obama both sought to avoid a direct diplomatic clash over Mr. Snowden, Mr. Putin and other officials here made clear they would under no circumstance extradite him, despite direct appeals from Secretary of State John Kerry and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.”

And finally, on August 1, 2013, “Russia Granted Snowden 1-Year Asylum,” reports the New York Times.

Russia’s decision, which infuriated American officials, significantly alters the legal status of Mr. Snowden, the former intelligence analyst wanted by the United States for leaking details of the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs. Even as those leaks continued, Mr. Snowden now has legal permission to live — and conceivably even work — anywhere in Russia for as long as a year, safely out of the reach of American prosecutors.
Mr. Snowden, 30, departed Sheremetyevo Airport unexpectedly at 3:30 in the afternoon after his lawyer, Anatoly G. Kucherena, delivered to him a passport-like document issued by the Federal Migration Service on Wednesday and valid until July 31, 2014.

Let us hope that this young man remains free, and that “the temporary refugee certificate” is renewed, or is a loadstar for other countries thinking of following Putin’s lead.

UPDATE: “Manning, Snowden and Assange were the ones who took risks to expose crime.” This is a bit of a dumb statement:

Manning’s supporters expressed relief that he was found not guilty of the most serious charge, aiding the enemy, which would likely have carried a sentence of life in prison. He was convicted on 20 of 22 charges, and could face up to 136 years in prison. The sentencing hearing is underway.

Seattle Parasite-To-Resident Ratio

Business, Government, Taxation, Technology, The State

In SEATTLE, the parasite-to-resident ratio (public-sector workers per population) is one to 56. To give you an idea of how big a government workforce Seattle labors under consider the bankrupt Detroit, at one to 61. I find this a remarkable statistic for Seattle. What it tells me is that despite the drag that is “the Evergreen State’s Profligate Oink Sector”—an oink sector, in places, comparable to Detroit’s—there are other variables even more powerful, which, against all odds, overcome the economic drag imposed by the unproductive, “public” sector.

Washington State’s prosperity is a function of the quality of the state’s productive sector. The state attracts a highly productive cognitive elite that works in the high-tech industries of Microsoft, Boeing, Amazon and other great companies.

Public sector workers, of course, are net wealth consumers; they do not produce wealth. They do vote themselves exorbitant salaries (averaging $81,488 in Seattle) on the backs of the productive (one of whom is my own).

A breakdown of parasite-to-resident ratios in other cities, many worse than Detroit, is courtesy of EPJ (read my weekly column, also on the Economic Policy Journal).

Turning The State Against Itself

Barack Obama, Ethics, Government, Homeland Security, Intelligence, Morality, Technology, Terrorism, The State

Morality as you and I think of it is already in short supply in government. Barack Obama has taken the initiative to weed out any vestiges of ethical impulses in government workers, the kind of urges that motivate whistleblowers, for instance.

The tyrant has launched the “Insider Threat Program,” “an unprecedented government-wide crackdown under which millions of federal bureaucrats and contractors must watch out for ‘high-risk persons or behaviors’ among co-workers. Those who fail to report them could face penalties, including criminal charges.”

Correction: The creep-in-chief issued the edict way back, after he jailed Army Pfc. Bradley Manning for exposing US war crimes. (There is a hell of a lot we don’t know about the foolish filth that is in office, as media have been unwilling to track this man’s infractions.)

The state spying on itself could turn out well for its subjects. Let the oink sector turn on itself. Let these pampered state workers be permanently consumed with and distracted by suspicion and fear, lest they end up in jail.

UPDATED: ILANA MERCER Twitter Identity Hijacked & Is Google Now A Proxy For The NSA? (DuckDuckGo.com’s NSA-Proof)

Fascism, Ilana Mercer, Internet, Media, Propaganda, Technology, The State

The ILANA MERCER handle on Twitter—name and identity—has been hijacked by at least one rogue actor on Twitter, acting maliciously to impersonate me.

The holder of this fraudulent account has, naturally, altered his account’s URL, but is otherwise masquerading as me, down to my description on the original Ilana Mercer Twitter account. This shameless fraud calls his account “Live It Up.”

Another likely bad actor using my name (ILANA MERCER) on Twitter calls herself “Ilana Mercer (Viola_ti_do).” She has not appropriated the identity/description associated with my Twitter account.

What’s really suspicious is the results of the latest Google Search for “ILANA MERCER Twitter.” On a search for “ILANA MERCER TWITTER,” Google has suddenly (literally starting today) begun to throw up first these imposter handles and their puerile postings.

Understand: The impersonators’ posts are not current. Mine are. Yet a Google sweep has placed them first up on a search for “ilana mercer twitter,” and has made it well-nigh impossible to trace the authentic “ilana mercer twitter” account on its Search.

Questioning Google operations is far from unreasonable in light of the revelation that “the National Security Agency has ‘direct access to the systems of Google.” This writer, like many other libertarians, has moreover, written of Google’s collusion with the administration in “‘Thank You For Your Service, Mr. Snowden,'” the widely read WND, EPJ and American Daily Herald column.

Well before the National Security Agency (NSA) scandal broke, when the teletwits—legal experts included—were deferring to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) respectfully as a protector of rights—this column had warned against the filthy FISA Court. In “From Sexting To Snooping In Surveillance-State USA,” I cautioned, in particular, that “Companies that give up … information to the government have ‘immunity,’ which has been ‘built into a 2008 revision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.’”

Name and shame impersonators and mischief-makers on social media.

Question the search engine whose search algorithms appear to favor the “Statist Quo,” as opposed to reality.

Share, Re-tweet, and Like this post on social media.

And remember, this could happen to YOU!

UPDATED: The NSA-Proof DuckDuckGo.com search engine gets it right. We are blessed with pockets of free-market innovators. One of them is an NSA-proof new search engine, DuckDuckGo.com. Guess what? Plugged into this NSA-proof search engine, the search “ilana mercer twitter” yields the authentic account, rather than the imposter accounts.

This is interesting.

Will freedom-lovers ditch Google for DuckDuckGo.com?