A Face is Given to Big Brother

The Big Takeover

"The global economic crisis isn't about money - it's about power. How Wall Street insiders are using the bailout to stage a revolution."

By Matt Taibbi The Rolling Stone

Ever wonder what the hell a credit default swap was anyway? Well, that's not the only thing Matt Taibbi explains in this article. (And he does a damn good job of explaining the prior.) There are many, myself included who want the Federal Reserve to be abolished. However, I do not think any of us dissenters knew that the Fed in-and-of itself, as an establishment, isn't the culprit. (Now I've really got your attention, huh?)

Many pundits (almost all on alternative news networks) have called Obama a corporate puppet. And those of us who have a clue have realized this, especially with his administrative picks. However, I do not think we could have imagined exactly how closely they are all tied together. And it will shock you.

Europe Sticks It to the US

EU summit rejects US demands

I just have one thing I really want to say, /clap. I am unbelievably proud of Europe at this moment. Since I have such high disdain for my country, I have been dying to see someone to just tell the US to fuck off and mind their own business. Europe has the loudest voice to do this with because of our close ties.

In the article, Germany says that you cannot just print money to get out of the crisis and that it would lead to hyperinflation. Well, they would know. Post-WWI they tried doing precisely that because of demands to repay their massive war debts. Their currency went to practically zero and their economy collapsed. That was bad enough in and of itself, however that was not the end of Germany's woes. Those precise measures [to just print more money] that blew up in their faces led to Hitler's rise to power.

When the US dollar collapses (and it will), we can only hope that we do not see the rise of a modern-day Hitler to power in the US. For if one did, it would not be the Jews this time around (we kiss Israel's ass), but the Muslims. Bin Laden, al Quadea, the Taliban...... we've already seen the lack of popularity and dissent against those groups arise in the US because of lies perpetrated by our government.

*A note, I by no means advocate violence against any group, especially the aforementioned. I also oppose and detest any notion that would imply or explicitly implicate the above groups as guilty in any such way of the calamity of the US, directly or otherwise. I by no means think that these groups are responsible for any American troubles and would defend them against any such claim. They are the victims, not the guilty. America's problems are American made home grown by the military-industrial complex and I am forever sorry to every nation and their peoples for our gross foreign policy and destruction of their governments to serve the greed of our shadow government. It is my sincerest desire to see justice brought to those guilty in the US who have wrecked havoc internationally and I offer my deepest personal apologies.

What Aaron Russo Missed

In my previous post I linked, Aaron Russo's film: America: Freedom to Fascism.

Well, I did eventually make the trip to Wikipedia to get the Cliff Note's version on American tax laws and a link in the article led me to the bit on tax protesters. While I remain skeptical of the legality, the information on Wikipedia definitely makes a strong assertion that we are required to pay federal income taxes (note my word choice). After my spring semester ends, this is something I'd definitely like to look further into as Russo's film does not cited specific court cases, as I recall.

However, that is a bit off topic for this post. Russo's film, along with other tax protesters, miss the bigger issue in regards to the federal tax code. A popular argument against the requirement is that the 16th amendment was never properly ratified, Wikipedia disputes this claim.

The 16th amendment is objectionable, not because of claims against its ratification but because of its constitutionality. But, like Jay Leno said, "Let's just give our Constitution to the Afghans, we're not using it."

We all remember studying the Boston Tea Party and what it stood against: Taxation without Representation. Because of this strong belief when drafting the Constitution our Founding Fathers included taxation laws in the document. Most importantly (paraphrased), that taxes will be apportioned based on population of the states.

I feel that it is own these grounds that one should protest the 16th amendment; as unconstitutional in-and-of itself.

Granted this argument does not give wiggle room around tax requirements (the IRS can be quite ruthless).

The constitutionality of the 16th amendment was a key element overlooked in the film. However, I imagine if Aaron Russo was still alive, there would be an America: Freedom to Fascism Part II in which this would have been discussed.

Hopefully someone else will, since I own neither a video camera nor mad editing skills.

Welcome to the Brave New World

America: Freedom to Fascism
The Director's Cut

I don't know how to critique this film and still do it justice. [edit: I forgot to add this earlier, at this time I haven't personally looked up the laws discussed in this film, and thus can't say if they're valid or not.] This is the second film I've linked on this blog that references George Orwell. I'm starting to wonder why 1984 isn't required reading in all high schools across America. The scarier thought I had immediately following this was, would it even make a difference? I think we have all heard references to Big Brother at some point in our lives, but I don't see a mass protesting in the streets against things. But maybe, even if there was such a group, I wouldn't see it on the news.

While watching this film it reminded me of a quote from my favorite TV show, Joss Whedon's Firefly. Jayne had said:

"Do you want to know what the chain of command is? It's the chain I go get and beat you with."

Nifty T-Shirts

AnarchTee Political and Social Activist T-Shirts

I stumbled across this site while surfing the web, and I thought their t-shirts had unbelievably witty slogans so go forth and spend ye ole prosperity, err, I mean credit card.

A Must Watch Documentary

Orwell Rolls in His Grave

Wake up! Orwell is perhaps one of the most famous authors. Best known for his novel 1984. Written in 1948, it tells of a future run by Big Brother. The Patriot Act and the Real Id Act are prime examples.

Orwell did warn us about totalitarian governmental control, which does make us wary of big government. However, maybe we mistook Big Brother to only be Big Government. If so, this film should be regaled as the Orwell warning of its time. This film draws upon parallels from the Orwellian world to illustrate where Big Brother has been hiding in ours.

Value Free Speech? A Must Read Poem

Pastor Niemöller Quote

The following is reproduced here because of its relevance to this critical moment in history. This is adapted from a statement by a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps (Pastor Martin Niemöller).

First they came for the hackers.
But I never did anything illegal with my computer, so I didn't speak up.

Then they came for the pornographers.
But I thought there was too much smut on the Internet anyway, so I didn't speak up.

Then they came for the anonymous remailers.
But a lot of nasty stuff gets sent from anon.penet.fi, so I didn't speak up.

Then they came for the encryption users.
But I could never figure out how to work PGP anyway, so I didn't speak up.

Then they came for me.
And by that time there was no one left to speak up.

— Alara Rogers, Aleph Press

In September 1996 anon.penet.fi ceased operations (as a result of attempts by the Scientology organization to force the operator to reveal the identity of people who had posted anonymously certain documents concerning that organization).