From: frissell@panix.com (Duncan Frissell)
Date: Wed, 14 Sep 94 13:22:49 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: US Fascist Dictatorship?
Message-ID: <199409142021.AA03068@panix.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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So is the US about to grab all the guns, seal the borders, make foreign
trade a crime, and change the color of the money?

Some posters here seem to think that we are moments away from a full
Nazi/Commie style totalitarian state.  Is this likely?

Even in the more coventional areas of political discourse, there seem to be
people who think that we can -- for example -- "seal the borders." Do any of
these people happen to know how many people cross US borders each year?
Would you believe 40,000,000!  It seems unlikely that we can go from 40
million to zero without some problems.  This is travel in both directions of
course.  Most of the crossings are of the US-Canada and US-Mexico borders.
Mexican, US, and Canadian citizens have equal rights to cross each other's
borders with minimal documentation.

The New York Times is doing a series this week on how hopelss the INS is at
any part of its job.  How it is totally demoralized, unable to deport more
than a few of even the felonious aliens living in the US, and unable to even
answer its phones when its boss (the Butcher of Waco) calls.

"Nobody wants to do his case because he is believed to carry a weapon and be
dangerous." -- Deportation agent speaking of a felon they deported so that
the New York Times could watch.  This was a guy they picked up at his
employer whose name they got from his INS file. He was shipped off to
Nicaragua and promised to be back in a week.  Each Deportation Officer has
4,000 cases assigned and is allowed to deport about one alien a month.  You
do the math.

Note that the DDR was better than most countries at sealing its border but
it still failed.  It is no longer with us. 

The fgailure of border sealing shows the general inability of modern
governments to cope with there enforcement problems.  1984 is no where in sight.

DCF
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