Shot in the Dark

Digital Theft

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

The US government seized funds without notice or hearing and doesn’t plan to give the money back. It plans to spend the money.

“Good,” you say. “That person deserved it. He lives in a country we don’t like. He belongs to a religion we don’t like. He believes in medical treatments we don’t like. Glad they did it, ought to do more.”

But what about the Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment? “The Constitution is a living document which must be reinterpreted to fit changing circumstances. The Founders never meant a guarantee of property rights to shield enemies of society from just retribution. Merely by asking the question, you’ve lowered your Social Credit Score and put yourself on The Watch List.”

It’s the latest fad, all the Kool Kids are doing it. Last quarter, it was Canadian truckers’ money. This quarter it is Russian citizens’ money. How long before it is your money? No arrest, no conviction, no Summons, no hearing, no appeal – a click of a button and your life savings disappears, your ‘hoarded wealth’ redistributed to those more deserving. Welcome to the Digital Economy.

Joe Doakes

It’s one of those reasons, among many others, that “a cashless society” needs to be resisted.

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Mitch Berg

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26 responses to “Digital Theft”

  1. Mammuthus Primigenesis Avatar
    Mammuthus Primigenesis

    I trust RT even less than I trust CNN.

  2. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    MP, are you saying it is not happening? What if you substituted US with EU? Does that make it right? I am sure you WILL agree it happened in EU, whether you read RT or CNLOL. no?

  3. Mammuthus Primigenesis Avatar
    Mammuthus Primigenesis

    JPA, I was simply stating my belief that RT is not a reliable source. If CNN ran a story on ANYTHING & I wanted to discuss it, I would find a source more reliable than CNN to reference.

  4. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    then you were threadjacking, gotcha.

  5. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    I confess to struggling with this, as the horrendous nature of politics in what used to be the Soviet Union appears to be that those “connected” to the KGB and such got sweetheart deals on the nationalized industries that needed to be privatized. Those deals were conditioned on allegiance to the powers that be in government, and often meant in practice that Russian (etc..) government funds appeared to be privately held. Reminds me a lot of the Mob, really.

    Rogue nation, assets held clandestinely, people aren’t coming to stand trial, what do you do?

  6. Mammuthus Primigenesis Avatar
    Mammuthus Primigenesis

    You have an interesting idea of what the word “threadjack” means, JPA. I commented directly on the topic of Joe Doakes post, which was an RT article about Russians having their property outside of Europe seized by foreign governments.

  7. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    It’s more than Russia and Canada. It’s The New Hotness. Lesko Brandon proposes a Wealth Tax to take money from the rich.

    https://www.barrons.com/articles/future-returns-a-wealth-management-take-on-bidens-billionaire-tax-01649787061

    Right now, it only applies to billionaires (of course, the income tax when originally proposed only applied to them, too, and look how that turned out). The interesting part is the enforcement mechanism. If you own a pile of appreciated stock but you never actually sell your stock to realize the gain, how much is the tax, when is the tax due, and who collects it?

    Simple. It’s due when the government bureaucrat at the computer keyboard decides it’s due and automatically deducts from your account however much she feels like taking. In the olden days, it was called ‘hacking’ and was considered a form of theft. Nowadays, it’s called “paying your fair share” and anybody who objects is a hoarder, wrecker, and saboteur.

    I’m all in favor of the idea. I’m happy for You to pay for a better Minnesota out of your mutual funds and investment accounts. Myself, I’m buying more rolls of silver quarters and a Mason jar. There’s a nice spot in the corner of the garden that needs digging.

  8. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    I trust RT even less than I trust CNN

    How is that – veracity of RT, is ON topic of Russians having their property outside of Europe seized by foreign governments

    I actually TIRED to steer you ON topic by asking whether you thought Russians having their property outside of Europe seized by foreign governments is OK by you and you doubled down on veracity of RT vs CNN.

    You obviously understand what the topic of JD’s post is and yet it seems it is you that has an interesting idea that somehow veracity of RT is part of the post. And if veracity of RT has nothing to do with the topic of the post: Russians having their property outside of Europe seized by foreign governments then veracity of RT is a threadjack. Interesting, no?

  9. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    So, bike, EVERY rich person in Russia has gotten their wealth via mob connections? EVERY…. ONE…??? How about Ukranians? Greeks? Italians? Americans? It amazes me how YUOU can be so sure and would deny due process because YOU think it is OK. I guess Canadian fascist government freezing accounts of truckers AND supporters flew right over your head, and you fully support that action – because goobernment knows best and damn the due process.

  10. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    JPA, did I say that every rich person in Russia was corrupt? I don’t believe so. I simply said that there was a class of corrupt oligarchs who got there through ties to the old Soviet government, and that they are the powers behind the little twit in power. Dealing with that is a lot like dealing with the finances of the Mob.

  11. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    JD;
    I’m also waiting for the DemoCommies to propose taxing the “unrealized gains” on the equity of our houses. These rat bastards don’t care. Their goal is to trash the economy and go scorched earth, because they know they’re in a death spiral. They are very good at this, because, as the GOP gets more afraid of being called names, the crap they’re enacting will take four years to undo. By then, they’ll lie, cheat and steal elections to get back in power again.

  12. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    Bike, how can you tell who is who without due process? That is one of the points of the article. You stating a truism does not make the process of wanton confiscation without due pricess right, even for mobsters.

  13. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    One best practice is that when you fight an enemy, you do not hide your cash under your enemy’s mattress.

  14. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    JPA; that’s why my original comment noted discomfort with what is being done, and my final sentence in that comment noted that it’s rough when you’ve got a group of crooks who aren’t going to stand trial any time soon. Due process is difficult there.

    The main thing I can say in defense of what is being done is that after 30 years, if our CIA and other intelligence services are any good (yes I agree that can be readily contested these days), we ought to have a good idea who the corrupt oligarchs are, how they got their money, and how they are connected to the power structures that are treating Ukraine like an abusive ex-boyfriend treats his ex-girlfriend (“If I can’t have you, no one will because I’ll destroy you”).

    If we have a half decent CIA, and yes, that can be debated.

  15. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    I don’t think they should be confiscated outright. Instead, the Ukranian government should sue and then the currently-frozen money will naturally have a lein put on it against the Russian reparations. That’s the civilized way that leads to the same result, but with much less ability for Putin to effectively cry foul.

    It would also be precedent-setting for future wars by formalizing the cost of nation-rebuilding.

  16. Blade Nzimande Avatar
    Blade Nzimande

    One best practice is that when you fight an enemy, you do not hide your cash under your enemy’s mattress.

    Exactly right.

    Or in their harbors, businesses, or banks. Putin and Xi are not idiots. The ruble is now tied to hard currency (gold) and China is quickly moving to digital currency.

    This will end badly. Only fucking morons like rAT and Pedo Joe’s string pullers don’t see the secondary consequences.

  17. Blade Nzimande Avatar
    Blade Nzimande

    Instead, the Ukranian government should sue

    The rump government Russia leaves in place will be lucky to keep the power on.

  18. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    The main thing I can say in defense of what is being done

    If you believe in freedom and due process, there is no defense for what is being done. Even if CIA was 100% correct, there… was… no… due… process…

  19. Mammuthus Primigenesis Avatar
    Mammuthus Primigenesis

    Something no one seems to have caught onto yet — if we live in a world where giant multinationals can impose there own sanctions on a country they don’t like —
    — Which country is next? We are talking about a multi-trillion dollar corporation like Apple having its own foreign policy.
    — Suppose some accord between Ukraine and Russia is reached that includes the lifting of sanctions against Russia and Russian citizens, and Apple and some financial firms refuse to lift their own sanctions until Russia changes it’s anti-homosexual laws?
    — We accord legitimacy to other governments being political actors on the world stage because they represent sovereign nations, even if those sovereign nations are not run on democratic principles. What is the basis for accepting the idea that Apple Inc. has legitimate interests in global policy on par with a nation state. What does Apple Inc. represent other than the interests of its shareholders and bankers?

  20. Mammuthus Primigenesis Avatar
    Mammuthus Primigenesis

    The money that the oligarchs used as seed money to gain control of Russia’s industry & natural resources was money once kept by the CPUSSR in European banks as foreign reserves. The KGB kept an eye on the party officials who controlled the accounts.
    After Yeltsin dissolved the Communist Party, the KGB gained complete control of the accounts, consisting of hundreds of millions of dollars.
    That’s how we got Putin.

  21. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    MP, Putin was in charge of those accounts, and they were clandestine.

    And you are absolutely correct in 10:10. Great example of Apple which has more money than most country’s GDP’s. Rotten fruit is all-in against Russia and praises and bending the knee to China. Hypocrisy overload, but then how is that different from a sovereign nation. Look what’s happening in Florida, where Mickey thought he was in charge and wanted to flex his muscle – his cheese was taken away.

    And what is the definition of a “sovereign nation?” Borders? GDP? The globalist elites want us to believe it is no longer borders and language and common ancestry and interests and yet they are all agog about Russia invading Ukraine – gotta protect sovereign borders – another hypocrisy overload. Look at Pope advocating open borders yet having none of that at Vatican City.

  22. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    No doubt a comment will appear from some Putin apologist banging on about NATO aggression and the Azov battalion.

    Putin’s war on the Ukrainian people is exposed for exactly what it is. An attempt to expand his dictatorship by subjugation of other countries. The Soviet Union’s aggressive expansion was the reason NATO was formed in the first place.

  23. Mammuthus Primigenesis Avatar
    Mammuthus Primigenesis

    ^^Jingoism.

  24. Mammuthus Primigenesis Avatar
    Mammuthus Primigenesis

    The USSR did not expand at all after WW2.
    The world order after WW2 was created with the idea that no nation may conquer another country and replace its citizens with citizens of the conquering country.
    As usual, it would be difficult to get it more wrong than Emery got it.

  25. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    Quite frankly — I’m be more concerned about cash being seized in the US. The police, a group that looked at organized crime and collectively declared: ‘Amateurs’.

  26. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    MP, actually, the USSR did expand after WWII. They took the Kuril Islands from Japan, the eastern part of Poland (Poland received most of Prussia in return), and of course those in Eastern Europe, China, and Mongolia were effectively ruled from Moscow–all but China until really 1991.

    Regarding the wealth of the oligarchs, the roots of their wealth are pretty obvious. For example, Sergei Chemezov’s wealth derives from his friendship with Putina in East Germany–the latter appointed him head of Rostec in 2007.

    It’s not a gimme that innocents won’t be hurt by sanctions, but you can indeed trace some of where all that money has gone from corrupt enterprises and put the hurt on those who are putting the hurt on Russia and Ukraine both. And really, let’s remember; we did a lot of the same thing to German and Japanese enterprises during WWII. Example is Bayer aspirin, which became an american company after the German company was locked out of the U.S. market.

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