Make Your Stand on 09/11/2013

August 21, 2013 · Filed under Don't That Beat All, dumbass government stunts, Stomping on the Constitution

SwampDaughter and I were talking on the phone about collaborating on writing a Kindle murder mystery book just for the fun of it. My killing technique was more low tech and left no trace once the soft tissue was gone; hers was more high tech and we argued about whether that would leave chemical tracers and might appear in bone pieces. We agreed that that needed further research. We shared imaginative ways in which to dispose of the bodies. Again, her ways were higher tech than mine, but my ways left nothing that could be tracked back which could be a bummer in a murder mystery where there have to be SOME breadcrumbs left to follow.

We both fell silent suddenly, and I remarked “You know, somebody from the government is recording this conversation.”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking! It’s pretty creepy, isn’t it?” answered daughter. “There is no such thing as a private conversation anymore!”

“When we both start Googling chemical tracers and how long various chemicals stay in dead bodies, we’re REALLY going to be raising some flags at government agencies, I suppose, considering that the government seems to be more fixated on citizens than terrorists.” Especially Republicans or Tea Party members.

We stopped talking about our potential book and started talking about loss of freedom that begins slowly, incrementally, then suddenly the older folk notice that there isn’t any, and the younger folk don’t understand the fuss because they’ve always been under surveillance.

When I read this at Market Ticker, it resonated with everything that I had been feeling and speaking about lately. I decided to sign on:

I keep getting emails that are of the general form “you ought to run for office.”

And I keep saying No.

Why?

Because when it comes to fundamental liberty interests there are two facts that nobody wants to talk about — but are inescapably true.
•Free people need no “leader”; the very premise of unalienable rights precludes one, for the most part.

•If you need someone to lead you to do the right thing you don’t deserve the fruits of doing the right thing.

This much is clear — the NSA isn’t going to stop their crap until and unless the people demand it and start holding government — and the private businesses that make what they do possible — accountable.

It has been proved that the people will not vote out of office even those who are known to have committed outrageous acts even when it happens days in front of an election. I point to 2008 as the prime example of exactly this fact.

We all should be able to walk into a doctor’s or dentist’s office and plunk down $100, see said dentist or doctor, and have no record of anything transmitted to or kept by anyone other than us. Today, this is impossible.

We should all have the 4th Amendment right to be secure in our papers, effects and lives, including electronic transmissions, until and unless there is a warrant issued detailing a specific alleged offense and identifying the specific items to be searched for or seized. This includes our emails, it includes our phone calls, text messages and the location data generated as a necessity to provide us with mobile services, which we did not consent to be used for any purpose other than providing those services. It includes no “automatic license plate readers” on cop cars, light poles and similar. This is what The Constitution says; it is not a suggestion.

And we should all have every single law enforcement officer, who work for us and are paid for by us, have at all times a video and audio recording device on and working while they are on the job and the lack of any said record, any delay in turning over such a record, or any evidence of editing or tapering thereof with said record shall be cause for dismissal with prejudice of any charge brought by or through any act of said person irrespective of any other evidence, with one exception — if the suspect is the one who caused the record to be tampered with or destroyed. We have two shining examples right here in NW Florida, one of a county Sheriff’s office that thinks shooting innocent people and breaking into homes without probable cause is just fine and a second city police department that appears to think that outrageous acts up to and including sexual assault, extortion and intentionally ramming a citizens car by sworn members of the force are ok as well.

All of these reforms we can have right now.

But none of it we will have until and unless we demand it and further, the only peaceful means we have of demanding it is to withdraw our consent and support of each and every business enterprise that makes possible the violation of our rights until and unless they stop it and stand against it.

In short, we either threaten to and do destroy through peaceful and lawful means — the simple act of refusing to spend money — every single firm that does not stand with us or we deserve what we get as a society, and all who claim to me that someone should come and “save them” are going to see me erect the middle finger in response.

So here’s the challenge.

On 9/11/2013 if you run an Internet site you go dark.

If you use the Internet you go dark.

And whatever you were going to buy, whatever you were going to do on 9/11/2013, you do not do on 9/10, 9/12, or at any other time.

You get your friends to do it, or you decide they’re not your friends any more.

You get your business associates to it, or they’re not your business associates any more.

If just 10% of the people in this nation will demand and enforce these changes, they will happen. They will happen because if they don’t and we demand and enforce that demand via peaceful, non-violent economic means we will destroy the businesses that have over-levered themselves under the premise that we are sheep and will not act in such a fashion.

On 9/11/2013, I will display this — and only this — on both The Market Ticker and Tickerforum.

And then I will look at the results to see who also does this, and who not only unplugs themselves during that day but in addition does not simply shift their activity to the surrounding days.

I will know whether the claims that people “did” do it are crap or not from Internet traffic data that is collected in real-time by a number of firms and I will confirm it via 3rd Quarter earnings reports where I will look critically at the revenue numbers from all of the major retailers with Internet components in the United States, including but not limited to Amazon.

There will either be at least a 1% q/o/q decline on US revenues, or there will not.

And if the lawmakers do not respond, then in October it will be two days instead of one. In November it will be three days, spanning Thanksgiving — yes, intended to screw “Black Friday”, and we will add to it no Internet purchases of any sort for holiday shopping.

And again, I will measure and see whether any material percentage of the people will get behind this.

From this data, preliminary and ongoing, I will decide exactly how far I will personally go in unplugging and walking off. I will decide whether it is worth continuing to put forward effort in this regard — or not.

It’s time for me to throw down the gauntlet.

You either believe in what America was founded on, or you do not.

To paraphrase the band “Rush”:

If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice, and “no action”, in my opinion, answers the above question as NOT.