"The national security state has an annual budget of around $1 trillion."

Stories via NYOccupy and PFailBlog.

Meet the Contractors Turning America's Police Into a Paramilitary Force

January 30, 2013  |  

The national security state has an annual budget of around $1 trillion. Of that huge pile of money, large amounts go to private companies the federal government awards contracts to. Some, like Lockheed Martin or Boeing, are household names, but many of the contractors fly just under the public's radar. What follows are three companies you should know about (because some of them can learn a lot about you with their spy technologies).

http://www.alternet.org/meet-contractors-turning-americas-police-paramilitary-force?paging=off

Gun Shoots Criminals With DNA Tags, Marking Them For Later Arrest 

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-01/new-dna-gun-shoots-criminals-genetic-tags-marking-them-later-arrest

Riots are a tough nut for law enforcement in part because of the sheer number of people involved--it’s impossible to stop and arrest every person involved in a skirmish. That’s why cops have some pretty high-tech methods for catching suspects, from facial recognition software to debilitating sonic cannons. But none is as bizarre as this new DNA gun from a UK security firm.

Petition to Repeal the USA Patriot Act in its entirety.

http://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/repeal-usa-patriot-act-its-entirety/QysS2RXg

WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:
Repeal the USA Patriot Act in its entirety.
The USA Patriot Act is in direct violation of the 4th, 5th, 6th & 14th Amendments to the Constitution, contained in the Bill of Rights. The powers included in the USA Patriot Act are explained in detail here: http://secure.downsizedc.org/etp/repeal-the-patriot-act/ .
The USA Patriot Act should therefore be repealed. (If deemed necessary, the Act may then be replaced in its entirety with an Act that conforms the Constitutional rights of US Citizens, whether natural born or naturalized, within or outside the borders of the USA.)
Upon repeal, all measures and activities of or by agencies in support of the USA Patriot Act should therefore be suspended immediately until such time as a fully Constitutional Bill be authorized and enacted by Congress and the President of the US.
Created: Jan 08, 2013
Issues: Civil Rights and Liberties, Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement, Defense
Learn about Petition Thresholds
SIGNATURES NEEDED BY FEBRUARY 07, 2013 TO REACH GOAL OF 25,000 23,727
TOTAL SIGNATURES ON THIS PETITION 1,273

 

 

A non-exhaustive list of things that are wrong.

-Citizens United = unlimited donations and campaign spending by corporations and rich businessmen. $2 billion spent upon this election cycle. Mussolini's definition of Fascism says it should be called corporatism, because it is a merger of state and corporate power.
-No wall street regulation or punishment, same with the banks
-A multiple hundred-fold disparity in income between CEOs and workers, which remains unchanged even a year after OWS
-Drones used for summary execution of foreigners and US citizens abroad suspected of terrorism or terrorist ties
-Hundreds of children killed by these drones in more than five countries
-The NDAA signed again for another year, allowing indefinite detention of US citizens without trial or representation
-The Bush-era FISA warrantless wireless wiretapping bill was just signed into five more years of activity.
-The TPP is a secretive corporate alliance creating international law.
-The ALEC is a secretive national corporate alliance creating US law, such as "stand your ground". (Mussolini: Fascism/Corporatism)
-7400+ Occupy members bloodied and arrested for peacefully protesting the above with nary a whisper from the White House. Silence is consent.
-Glass-Steagall remains removed, and the banks remain unregulated. Reinstate it now.
-There are 64 drone bases being built within the US as you read this. Did you vote for this? No. No citizen did.
-Drones will be used by increasingly militarized law enforcement, who are now tentacles of the illegal DHS. See Los Angeles iWatch and Special Order 11. All your information are belong to us.
-The DHS have membership who are blatantly anti-Occupy (Peter King) and have lied about spying upon Occupy from the beginning. "Trust your mechanic..."
-The FBI have been raiding Occupy activists' apartments for "literature", creating terrorists by offering bomb-making materiel to Americans, and spying upon Americans in general.
-Yes, militarized police and sheriffs. Have you seen the armored vehicles and weaponry being handed out by DHS, much less the hundreds of millions of hollow point munitions purchased by DHS (who will not discuss it)?
-Word of microphones being installed on buses to record citizen conversation. "Americans as terrorists" is making big money to arms and war tech dealers who are only interested in creating a new market...inside the US.
-Obama just signed life-long protection from protesters for himself and W Bush, via permanent Secret Service protection. HR347 makes it a Federal crime to protest where there are secret service present. He's protected a war criminal who desperately requires protesting! Life long protesting!
-The US government have known about "robosigning", the illegal foreclosure mill used by big banks, for over two years and have done nothing as citizens have their homes stolen. Yes, wall street are among the buyers at the quarterly bulk sales.
-Amber Lyon found and revealed that CNN take money from the Bahrain government to report that "everything is okay" while it IS NOT. Where is the government oversight upon this and truth-telling in mainstream media?
-Clarence Thomas (Supreme Court judge) was a lawyer for Monsanto, yet he will not recuse himself from Monsanto cases brought before him. There is now a Monsanto person in the FDA. WTF.
-Goldman Sachs. Enough said. Perhaps not. Did you know GS execs are in power in Greece, Italy, and other countries that are being savaged by "austerity", which is nothing more than socialized debt and theft? And power grabs?
-The multinational Trans-Canada Keystone XL pipeline and the horrifically toxic Tar Sands development. Stealing the environment and people's land with a nod from government.
-Private, for-profit prisons (taxpayer-funded) advertising a 90% occupancy rate. Thank you "war on drugs", with some 46% of inmates incarcerated on drug-related offences. Research the prison-industrial complex and those profiting (don't overlook Wells Fargo's massive investment in one of these companies).
-The military industrial complex and the now-endless war budget (continues on US soil under the concept of "Americans are terrorists").
-The TSA, who have been testing out on buses. Don't need them everywhere, please!
-812+ gun-related deaths since the December 14 Sandy Hook/Newtown massacre. 
-There is more but I have other things to do this morning. Do your own research. Of course you haven't heard about most of these things on mainstream media. They're owned by six corporations (Romney/Bain are involved in Clear Channel, yes?) who don't want certain truths made known.

The first and fourth Amendments are dead and gone. More are on their way out. This is increasingly a militarized, mechanized police state. Wake up and smell the Trend. Don't believe any of this? Google each item. And Google the definition of Democracy. It means "The will / voice of The People." Where's my Democracy? Where's your outrage?

Monsanto and the coming food crisis

Climate change is real and present. Farmers are feeing candy to their cattle because grain is increasingly expensive; drought perseveres, frost alerts in southern California...if these conditions increase and in all likelihood they shall, food production at home will become increasingly imperative for a very good reason, aside from increasing prices and shortage:

Monsanto.

A few days ago I saw a few pages of the Wall Street Journal, discarded at a restaurant. I saw an article on Monsanto experiencing a 27% increase in GMO seed sales to South America, which evidently is still fertile and productive.

This means more GMO foods will be on their way to the US, where GMO labelling has yet to take any serious hold. I believe the article specified grains as being the focus; WSJ have a paywall so I can't link to the article.

Making your own bread becomes important. I love the Ezekiel 4:9 bread, which is taken from a Bible verse (!). It's a good recipe, find it there.

Also, know which grains go into what foods. Soybeans? That's a lotta GMO. Etc.!

To the First Nations, Idle No More

Complete solidarity for your causes. The younger brothers seek your forgiveness, unity and victory.

In reply to

Earle Danyluk ‏@EarleDanyluk

@IdleNoMore4 aw damn Media< they show what they want to use and leave out key information to purposely mislead the public.

Retweeted by Idle No more

This is of course the truth. Occupy have long since become painfully aware of it, and have become their own media, and sought alternative coverage where available. Know that you will possibly never reach everyone (unless you have the budget for repeated television commercials citing how your cause also directly and immediately effects the viewer) but you, and we, cannot stop. This is not a cause for discouragement. 

Occupy use Twitter and Facebook more and more. Allies in media have been found in the Spanish-speaking channels such as Telemundo and Noticias, Spanish-speaking newspapers, the Iranian state television/internet channel PressTV, and the Russian state television/internet channel RT News.  

The Spanish-speaking channels can share your outrage at mistreatment and lies and injustice. PressTV and RT delight in clearly detailing anything embarrassing to the US (and Canadian) governments.  

Who are your allies, who have this experience? The Quebec student movement who just beat tuition increases are extremely effective and would have a great deal to share. They used a tactic of full-time protesting; people would come in groups assigned for 8-hour shifts, so that there were always rested, energetic protesters present at any target. All day and all night! Banging pots and pans! If the government knows they can outwait you, that you'll simply go home after a period of protest, they win. If they know you're not going anywhere, and are gaining sympathy and attention, you win. 

You already know that violence of any sort would give them the opportunity to crack down. You also know they love to send undercover agents to attempt to start violence, acting as if they are one of you and with you, so you will be blamed. And worst, they can seek to offer weapons and explosives to any who may be frustrated. Let all your people know to never cooperate with these types and situations. 

If they begin sending the police to break up protests and dances, record everything and make internet alerts including video. Create sympathy. Everyone hates a bully. Know that police will work to frustrate and anger you in order to create arrestable responses. This includes them targeting the young and old to induce outrage and again, arrests. Don't feed the trolls! Sing happy songs at them, laugh and be joyous! They have no idea what to do. 

The tactics of Martin Luther King, Jr. come to mind. The Civil Rights Movement endured, and gained ground.  

The papers and television will continue to lie. This shows you that you have been noticed and are considered dangerous enough that they have to respond. Good. You are winning. The "comments" sections of related stories online will bring out the absolute worst in the absolute worst people. This is normal. Do not be discouraged, as they wish. Some of them are government officials posing as citizens, hoping to create despair, to defeat you. Media will attempt to interview anyone they feel will give them something they can use against you. Have media representatives who will be the only ones who will talk to media at any protest/dance, and let all present know to simply and always refer media to them. (I've seen US media cameramen mock and attempt to anger Codepink members into giving them an angry response, which they'd of course use over and over against them...)

You are already having a massive effect. Do not stop! Persevere! We are with you! Tell us how to help. Gather those similar and build the power to change everything! I of course only speak for myself and not the entire Occupy movement, but I am seeing interaction and pray it continues and increases! 

You already know these things. My pardon for presumption and best wishes for all the People! 

 

It is now a Federal crime to protest W(ar criminal) Bush in person.

Obama has signed a lifetime secret service protection law for himself and W.

http://www.politico.com/politico44/2013/01/obama-grants-himself-lifetime-secret-service-protection-153854.html?hp=f1


HR347 makes it a Federal crime, if they wish to press charges, to protest where you know secret service are present.

http://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=aclu+hr347&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

Which also makes this a Federal crime:



It's not Democracy if they don't listen. Democracy translates as "The will/voice of The People."

How LAPD are made into a tentacle of the DHS

In LA, there is a Special Order 1 (previously Special Order 11) making LAPD a tentacle of DHS. I've seen the Lt. who is responsible for it at one LAPD attack upon a peaceful Occupy action, where they brought a less-lethal shotgun to our chili-eating party. iWatch says "see something, say something (to police so they can funnel it up through fusion centers to DHS).

http://lapdonline.org/iwatchla

(Which does not mention that under this program, LAPD work for the DHS. They DO say that it's okay to turn in individuals due to their "behavior":

"Remember that the iWATCH program is about behaviors and activities, not individuals."

You are turning people over to the federal government for suspected terrorist activities. No wait, you're turning over behaviors and activities, not individuals. Remember the sign in Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" which said, "Don't suspect your neighbor, turn him in!" We're there.)

However, this is strictly a DHS initiative:

http://www.lapdonline.org/newsroom/news_view/47770

"Los Angeles: At a news conference this morning, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck and others gathered at the Port of Los Angeles, the nation's largest port, where they announced increased new training and security measures and the official launch of the combined national and local community terrorism reporting program If You See Something, Say Something™ go to iWATCHLA.org."

Yesterday on a city bus I saw one of the iWatch Homeland Security posters. "Americans as terrorists" is big business for drone manufacturers (64 bases planned inside the US), DHS subsidies (the manufacturer who is selling to them millions upon millions of hollow-point rounds of ammunition), lobbyists for manufacturers who profit from fear and the neocons who set in motion a burgeoning police state as a power grab. "Project for a new american century" which depends upon a Pear Harbor-like event. Ahem, 9/11, however it came to be.

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What is the result in Los Angeles of these issues? There is a citizens' resistance movement as listed herein:

http://stoplapdspying.org/

Note that photographers who take pictures of buildings are subject to investigation and being detained. Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt.

How LAPD Collects SO 1 Information About You

http://stoplapdspying.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/SO-1-Process-small.pdf

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How has it been for Occupy? Last week, Occupy Fights Foreclosures followed up the Rose Parade with a float including several people either in foreclosure fraud or at close risk. Last year, Wells Fargo sponsored the parade as Occupiers peacefully demonstrated. This year? From the LA Times, straight out of a cop's mouth:

Cop strongly implies Occupy presence means increased terrorism threat; Federal agents at parade

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-occupy-rose-parade-20130101,0,7679289.story

A 15-foot-high float, with "Mr. Monopoly" riding a red wagon, will wheel its way down the 5.5-mile route at the conclusion of the parade, organizers said. The board game character, intended to represent bankers, will have strings attached to participants who are on the verge of losing their homes or have lost their homes to foreclosure.

snip

There will be an increased law enforcement presence, including federal agents, at the 2013 parade because of the Occupy demonstration, Sanchez said.

"The big thing we'd like to get out there is that if someone sees something, they should say something," Sanchez said. "It's the best way we can prevent something from occurring."

(Compress these sentences and you get: "There will be increased law enforcement presence, including federal agents..because of..Occupy..It's the best way we can prevent something from occurring.")

Someone has told them we're terrorists, or potential terrorists. And/or, they're spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt. "Americans as terrorists". "Don't suspect your neighbor, turn them in!"

And the banks and a very unregulated wall street laugh and laugh at the fate of their opponents.

“Independent” Reviews Were Controlled by Banks, Suppressed Findings of Harm to Foreclosed Homeowners

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022137367


So. Back on March 17 2012, OccupyLA had a peaceful chili-eating party on a sidewalk, a quiet celebration of Occupy's 6-month anniversary. Cops swarmed us and took many provocative, irritating actions to justify what they'd wanted to do from the beginning:



Or, were told to do all that...

Even after that, we went and protested the involvement of a Goldman Sachs executive in the Human Rights Coalition.

LAPD Lt. Paulson is the person responsible for oversight of Special Order 1 (among other evil things since discovered such as the purposeful criminalization of the local homeless as a service to a lobbying group seeking to gentrify Skid Row). She was there at the attack; here she is sneaking photos of the HRC protest:






Photos which no doubt go straight to the DHS fusion centers.

If you are an activist, even a peaceful activist, DHS the FBI, and the federal government know you.

So why should anyone worry about DHS being impartial? Because they absolutely are not:






Peter King: Occupy Wall Street Protesters Are 'Losers'

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/16/peter-king-occupy-wall-street-protesters-losers_n_1098425.html

"First of all, you try to listen to them and they make almost no sense," King said. "These are people who were living in dirt, these were people who were involved with drugs, there was violence, there was rape. You're talking about a small number of people -- you could probably get more people in a Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral on Sunday than you've got in Zuccotti Park."



Congressman Peter King Calls Occupy Protesters "Angry Losers! Living In Their Own Filth"

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Both the FBI and DHS have lied about having monitored Occupy from the beginning. FOI-acquired documents show they both were. Now the FBI are ransacking activist's apartments for "literature", offering bomb-making materials to Occupiers, creating terrorists where there were none, and failing to deal with someone who was planning upon killing Occupiers (page 61 of the recently-revealed documentation on the subject).

By omission, they have allowed a terrorist threat against Occupy to go uncontrolled. Sam Seder via limpyhobbler:

FBI Uncovers Assassination Plot AGAINST Occupy, Does Nothing



FBI Documents Reveal Secret Nationwide Occupy Monitoring

http://www.justiceonline.org/commentary/fbi-files-ows.html

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Jason Leopold ‏@JasonLeopold

Here are sum long-awaited FBI docs on #OWS released under #FOIA. Abt 100 pgs. I still hve pending FOIA lawsuit for all http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/549518-fbi-ows-documents.html …
Retweeted by Courtney Harrop

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I don't much care for Trends such as these. Add last week's extensions of the Indefinite Detention bill NDAA and the BushCo warrantless wireless wiretap bill FISA to the mix and it's just plain ugly. This is how it happens, in increments.

What's it like in your town? Have the TSA yet begun riding buses and trains as they've begun elsewhere?

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Additions, Oct. 2013:

Bringing the argument home about domestic spying (Look no further than LAPD) 

http://www.laactivist.com/2013/06/21/bringing-the-argument-home-about-domestic-spying/

Is Increased Police Militarization Necessary?

http://www.exposingthetruth.co/police-militarization/#axzz2j4tppMyI 

Police using protest video footage to get people fired, because nothing says progress like repression.

http://privacysos.org/node/1221

Police claim Snowden leaks threaten ability to use new technologies

http://rt.com/usa/iacp-keenan-police-internet-496/

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Less-lethal LAPD shotgun photo by Ulises. Lt. Paulson sneaking photos photo by Damon.