This Isn't About Baby Seals

baby & momma.jpg

"You're going to take this club, and go to the arctic, and kill baby seals."

"I was hired as a butcher, a BEEF butcher. I'll cut up a side of beef, and package it and put it on display, but I ain't going to the arctic and killing baby seals."

"The FBI says its a matter of national security, and I'm all for national security, so you're going."

"The FBI is using some ancient law that basically says the government could use your bucket if the house next door is burning down. The FBI is using this law in an exploitive manner and trampling our personal rights. If there's a fire could the government order you to build a fire truck factory? Or, could the FBI tell CNBC, because of national security, that every half-hour they must say, "Trump is an asinine clown face"?"

"This isn't about a fire truck, or Trump's clown face. Now take this club and get to the arctic. What are you, soft for baby seals?"

"This isn't about baby seals, this about our civil rights. If the FBI can order anybody to do whatever, then why can't a cop require you to kiss his ass? This is just the corporate equivalent of a forced labor camp. If the FBI succeeds, then the government can force anybody to do anything, I don't see how that doesn't upset anybody else. And talking about baby seals, or computers, or national security, or whatever, is just a distraction. The FBI is trying to use the cloak of the law to gain unwilling forced labor. This is bullshit! So what, if I don't do this, I just 'disappear' in the middle of the night?"

"Yes, so get your mind right."

Apple employees are already discussing what they will do if ordered to help law enforcement authorities. Some say they may balk at the work, while others may even quit their high-paying jobs rather than undermine the security of the software they have already created ...

If Apple employees refuse to write the code for the software, Apple could potentially face hefty fines for non-compliance...

http://www.macrumors.com/2016/03/17/apple-engineers-could-refuse-fbi-order/

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kharma's picture

This is so true and worthy of being seen far and wide. Tweeted and rec'd.

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There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties.. This...is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.--John Adams

GreyWolf's picture

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pfiore8's picture

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“There are moments which are not calculable, and cannot be assessed in words; they live on in the solution of memory… ”
― Lawrence Durrell, "Justine"

GreyWolf's picture

And people worry that Trump will usher in a fascist state ... the fascist state is already here, and elects folks like Trump.

"First they came for Apple, but I did not protest because I'm not Apple ..."

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ChemBob's picture

I wonder if Trump might actually be better on issues such as this than Hillary? Does anyone know if he's taken a position on this specific issue?

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hecate's picture

that everyone should "boycott Apple" for the company's "disgraceful" disinclination to do whatever the government says.

"We should force them to do it. We should do whatever we have to do," Trump said.

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ChemBob's picture

I figured if he would fight for anyone it would be corporations and their privacy. I guess I was wrong about that. Other than racism, does he stand for anything?

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hecate's picture

He stands for hurting people, and killing people, all over the world. He will deport Mexicans at home, and kill Muslims abroad. He will assassinate Kim Jong-un, and execute Edward Snowden. He will kill the families of people he deems "terrorists," and urge his herrenvolk to physically assault people at his rallies. He is Thanatos.

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Given his record for consistency, I am pretty sure he would fight for the privacy of HIS OWN corporations, and have the FBI spy on his competitors.
What, do you think he'd take this lousy $400K / year temporary job without expecting some extra perks? he's a businessman - a SUCCESSFUL businessman! YOOGE! (for what it's worth, I would have suspected Romney of similar tendencies, he'd only have done it more discreetly. See also Cheney, R.).

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Gandalf and Saruman unite, demand to bring back Greywolfe359!

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Gandalf and Saruman unite, demand to bring back Greywolfe359!

detroitmechworks's picture

They need a new name.

State
Terrorist
And
Security
Investigations.

Or STASI for short. Blum 3

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Alison Wunderland's picture

COINTELPRO on steroids.

Used to be they had to tap phones and steam open letters.

Now it's "If you don't have anything to hide, you don't need any privacy. And We're going to make sure nobody has anything to hide by reading everybody's everything."

We are well and truly f***ed.

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Raggedy Ann's picture

perhaps the middle - either way, we are there, folks. I stand with the Apple workers who want to protect my freedoms. They are soldiers without guns, fighting for us. Peaceful, but no less powerful demonstration of courage. If we don't fight for Apple, who will they come for next? If we stay silent, we condone the action and are complicit in future attacks.

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Jazzenterprises's picture

everything is theirs.

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Progressive to the bone.

B. Joe King's picture

that would be appropriate for the right wing nuts to rally around. Not public land administration.

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Gold is the wealth of kings; silver is the wealth of commoners; barter is the wealth of peasants; and debt is the wealth of slaves.

ChemBob's picture

that many of the Hillbots were also saying Apple should do what the government tells them to do, because "terrorism." Shockingly out of the bounds of reality.

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zentrainer's picture

I hope they pay whatever fines and I hope they are willing to do jail time. I think it's that important.

To me, an admitted Luddite, this seems like the police asking the company who built my house in 1957 to come and search it. It's not their job.
The police have the legal right to do it and I accept that. They also have to right to any architectural blue prints that are on file. They have no legal right to compel the poor schmuck who built the house to conduct a search or in any way help their search.

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Tracy B Ann- technically that is my signature

Tommymac's picture

Different situation and Alphabet agency, but the underlying presumptions are exactly the same.

Get down and kiss Authorities ass.

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FEEL THE BERN: "But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing." - Thomas Paine
"Here I Stand, I can do no other." - Attributed to Martin Luther, 1521