nostate.com

Somebody’s Watching Me

Who’s watching
Tell me, who’s watching
Who’s watching me

I’m just an average man
With an average life
I work from nine to five
Hey, hell, I pay the price
All I want is to be left alone
In my average home
But why do I always feel
Like I’m in the twilight zone

And (I always feel like)
(Somebody’s watching me)
And I have no privacy
Whooooa-oh-oh
(I always feel like)
(Somebody’s watching me)
Tell me, is it just a dream

When I come home at night
I bolt the door real tight
People call me on the phone
I’m trying to avoid
But can the people on TV see me
Or am I just paranoid

When I’m in the shower
I’m afraid to wash my hair
‘Cause I might open my eyes
And find someone standing there
People say I’m crazy
Just a little touched
But maybe showers remind me
Of Psycho too much
That’s why

(I always feel like)
(Somebody’s watching me)
And I have no privacy
Whooooa, oh-oh
(I always feel like)
(Somebody’s watching me)
Who’s playin’ tricks on me

[Instrumental Interlude]

(Who’s watching me)
I don’t know anymore
Are the neighbors watching me
(Who’s watching)
Well, is the mailman watching me
(Tell me, who’s watching)
And I don’t feel safe anymore
Oh, what a mess
I wonder who’s watching me now
(Who)
The IRS

(I always feel like)
(Somebody’s watching me)
And I have no privacy
Whooooa, oh-oh
(I always feel like)
(Somebody’s watching me)
Tell me, is it just a dream

(I always feel like)
(Somebody’s watching me)
And I have no privacy
Whooooa, oh-oh
(I always feel like)
(Somebody’s watching me)
Who’s playin’ tricks on me
(Who’s watching me)
(I always feel like)
(Somebody’s watching me)
Oooooooh
Whooooa-oh-oh
(I always feel like)
(Somebody’s watching me)
So ? who can it be
(Who’s watching me)
(I always feel like)
(Somebody’s watching me)
Whooooa-oh-oh
(I always feel like)
(Somebody’s watching me)
Who’s playing tricks on me
(Who’s watching me)
(I always feel like)
(Somebody’s watching me)
Can I have my privacy
Whooooa-oh-oh
(I always feel like)
(Somebody’s watching me)
Who’s playing tricks on me

Feature article on me, and a plea for help

Dear Friends,

My renunciation of citizenship is the subject of a feature article at Global Post:

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/111205/stateless-slovakia–renounce-us-citizenship-mike-gogulski

Many have burned their passports as a form of political protest. But Gogulski is one of only two Americans known to be ballsy enough to have filed the paperwork needed to officially become stateless. And he’s hoping to inspire others to do it, too.

[...]

Gogulski says it’s all been worth it. It’s all about proving a point, he says — that the system can’t control him and that citizenship is a silly, anachronistic construct.

He could apply for Slovak citizenship but he likes being stateless. For one thing, it certainly is quite the conversation starter.

Gogulski’s ultimate goal: To start a revolution of sorts in which Americans begin giving up their citizenship and become stateless en masse. Maybe, he says, he can be the symbolic beginning of this movement.

“I know the chances of that are about this small though,” he says, holding his index finger and thumb together in the air.

With that, the bleg. Folks, I could use your help — financial help. With my Bitcoin mining operation blowing up in my face in early August, I’m only now pulling myself out of what has been a long, dark bout of severe depression. A depression awful enough that I haven’t been able to work until just recently.

Needless to say, that leaves a massive hole in my budget. Many things are past due, and I’m not certain how I’m going to make rent this month, just before Christmas.

If you have a bit to spare, please visit my support page, with my gratitude.

Peace,
Mike

Suggested additions to the Occupy Wall Street program

Never Forget

This 9/11, please take a moment for this important message from AnonOps Communications:

How to be Transformed into a Young Woman

Apparently there’s a woman running around out there named Michaela Gogulski, with the same birthday as my own.

A correspondent brought my attention to this important video from Howcast: How To Replace a Lost or Stolen Passport

At 1:34 you can see that the scanned image of my canceled US passport from here has been doctored ever so slightly.

Seeing as we must have shared a womb and all, I do find it strange that Michaela never calls…

“The necktie is a serpentlike symbol of evil worn by humales.”

Because it will likely be deleted in short order, I give you my response to a fairly disgusting post at sovereignman.com:

At $77 bucks a pop for Mister Oh-So-Necktied Coxon’s magic words, it’s rather clear that this posting is even less admirable than conventional vulgar libertarian “kill the poor” tropes. Not a grain of compassion shines through, except, perhaps, for:

“France’s GDF Suez, UK’s Rurelec, Italy’s Telecom Italia, Spain’s Repsol YPF, Brazil’s Petrobras, France’s Total, Switzerland’s Glencore, and a host of other international resource companies.”

Jeez, I guess I really hadn’t realized how truly virtuous the successor firms to government monopolies like Petrobras and Telecom Italia are! I guess I missed out on the memo describing the greatness of Total’s exploitation of Burmese — er, Myanmyarese, or whatever, but who cares about them — slaves. What paragons of goodness the elite management of imperial rump-state France’s appointees to the board of GDF Suez are. Best, in fact, if we ignore the stories on Wikipedia of Glencore which say that “ABC Radio reported that Glencore “has been accused of illegal dealings with rogue states: apartheid South Africa, USSR, Iran, and Iraq under Saddam Hussein”, and has a “history of busting UN embargoes to profit from corrupt or despotic regimes”. Specifically, Glencore was reported to have been named by the CIA to have paid $3,222,780 in illegal kickbacks to obtain oil in the course of the UN oil-for-food programme for Iraq.”

I mean, hell, if you can’t get the goddanged CIA on your side in dirty dealings in Latin America what *is* the world coming to?

Incidentally, my assessment of Evo Morales runs directly to “scumbag” and “moron”. But at least the man doesn’t wear a fucking necktie.

The Ballad of the Bitcoin Miner (v0.1-alpha)

The Ballad of the Bitcoin Miner (v0.1-alpha)

(To the tune of “Rawhide” by Frankie Laine, though preferably performed a bit more like the Dead Kennedys’ cover: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuEnSaZC_kA)

I hereby dedicate these lyrics to the public domain under the terms of the Unlicense (http://www.unlicense.org/)

Hashin’, hashin’, hashin’,
Hashin’, hashin’, hashin’,
Hashin’, hashin’, hashin’,
Hashin’, hashin’, hashin’,
Bitcoin!
Hah! Hah!

Keep hashin’, hashin’, hashin’,
Oh my box is thrashin’,
Keep them miners hashin’, Bitcoin.
Fifteen machines in tandem,
But it’s so bloody random,
An’ I got this achin’ in my groin.
All the things I’m missin’,
Good vittles, love, and kissin’,
Will be waitin’ for me in Des Moines

Ain’t no fool, gigajoule,
Power tool, keep ‘em cool.
Ain’t no fool, gigajoule:
Bitcoin.
Mine ‘em out, cash ‘em in,
Join a pool, keep ‘em cool,
Mine ‘em out, cash ‘em in:
Bitcoin!
Hah! Hah!

Hashin’, hashin’, hashin’,
Though the market’s crashin’,
Keep them miners hashin’, Bitcoin.
Just let me solve the next block,
And I’ll go back to Bangkok.
I’ve had my fill of Des Moines.
Em dee-five’s calculatin’,
My true love will be waitin’:
Waitin’ for me with sirloin.

Ain’t no fool, gigajoule,
Power tool, keep ‘em cool.
Ain’t no fool, gigajoule:
Bitcoin.
Mine ‘em out, cash ‘em in,
Join a pool, keep ‘em cool,
Mine ‘em out, cash ‘em in:
Bitcoin!

(Hashin’, hashin’, hashin’,)
(Hashin’, hashin’, hashin’,)
Hah!
(Hashin’, hashin’, hashin’,)
Hah!
(Hashin’, hashin’, hashin’,)
Bitcoin.
Hah!
Bitcoin!

Introducing The Bitcoon!

Eric Cartman is… The Bitcoon!

UPDATE: New spiffier version courtesy of Crystal Pistol of A Saucerful of a Cook’s Secrets.

Superman renouncing US citizenship

Well, finally.

If wee Kal-El came to Earth today the way he did back in the late 1930s, he would be arrested on arrival as an illegal immigrant and disappear into an ICE detention camp for decades… assuming that the SuperToddler wasn’t just blown out of the sky by the US Air Force.

From ComicsAlliance:

The key scene takes place in “The Incident,” a short story in Action Comics #900 written by David S. Goyer with art by Miguel Sepulveda. In it, Superman consults with the President’s national security advisor, who is incensed that Superman appeared in Tehran to non-violently support the protesters demonstrating against the Iranian regime, no doubt an analogue for the recent real-life protests in the Middle East. However, since Superman is viewed as an American icon in the DC Universe as well as our own, the Iranian government has construed his actions as the will of the American President, and indeed, an act of war.

Superman replies that it was foolish to think that his actions would not reflect politically on the American government, and that he therefore plans to renounce his American citizenship at the United Nations the next day — and to continue working as a superhero from a more global than national perspective. From a “realistic” standpoint it makes sense; it would indeed be impossible for a nigh-omnipotent being ideologically aligned with America to intercede against injustice beyond American borders without creating enormous political fallout for the U.S. government.

P.J. Crowley: A double cone of rightdoing, please, with exceptionalist sprinkles on top

Some of my allies recently celebrated now-former US Department of State spokesdroid P.J. Crowley’s condemnation of the treatment of Bradley Manning in custody as “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid”.

The words were valuable, sure, and within the ongoing saga of Bradley Manning served to call out Emperor Obama to (simperingly, predictably) defend his administration’s actions. But I didn’t celebrate the man. Crowley didn’t say that the way Manning was being treated was evil, barbaric, unjust, unfair, illegal, inhuman, inhumane, sick, perverted, sadistic, etc. All he said was “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid”.

Some of my allies took his statement to mean that Crowley has a good bone somewhere in his loathsome body. I knew better, but didn’t have enough information on hand to really, strongly object, until this:

From The Guardian:

Part of our strength comes from international recognition that the United States practises what we preach. Most of the time, we do. This strategic narrative has made us, broadly speaking, the most admired country in the world.

[...]

The release placed the lives of activists [ed note.: read: spies, saboteurs, agents provocateur, thugs, liars, assassins, arms dealers, etc.] around the world at risk.

Julian Assange and others have suggested that the release of the cables was to expose wrongdoing. Nonsense.

While everyone can point to an isolated cable, taken as a whole, the cables tell a compelling story of “rightdoing” – of US diplomats engaged in 189 countries around the world, working on behalf of the American people, and serving broader interests as well. As a nation, we are proud of the story the cables tell, even as we decry their release.

Much like the George W. Bush administration, Crowley has clearly divorced himself from the “reality-based community”. A little torture here, a few cruise missiles there, a wee bit of multi-billion-dollar bribery and smidge of rampant corporate imperialism over there, and we’ll just wrap that up in a delicious, low-carb, fat-free, totally non-threatening “strategic narrative” and sell it to the dumbass punters all over the world, with American Exceptionalist sprinkles on top.

P.J. Crowley spoke the truth. But he didn’t speak the truth some of my allies perceived. No, what Crowley said, very clearly, was this: “If the American government (and its fully-vested shareholders, who are not, incidentally, the electorate) intends to perpetuate the animating, exceptionalist mythos which supports its planet-dominating imperial aspirations, it must at least pretend in such a high-profile case that it cares about human rights, the rule of law, etc. For, if it does not, some people might, just for a second, truly perceive the maggot-ridden death’s head face behind the stars-stripes-uncle-sam-and-apple-pie mask, and we can’t have that.”

And from the Empire’s perspective, Crowley’s statement was not out of line. No, Crowley’s unforgivable sin lay not in his words, but that he let them be heard by the public.

I’m off to the ice cream shop. I hear they have a new flavor called “rightdoing”. I’ll bet it’s red, white and blue.