Dear patient readers,
Apologies re the thinness of my own posts. I desperately need to get back on a less abnormal sleep cycle.
Where cats are more popular than dogs in the U.S.—and all over the world Washington Post (Stephen V)
Climate Skeptic Scientists Are Extremely Overrepresented in the Media Vice
Antarctica could raise sea level faster than previously thought PhysOrg
Study: Popular, Ineffective Antibacterial Chemical Found In 100% Of Pregnant Women, May Interfere With Fetal Development Consumerist. A biomedical engineer turned FDA lawyer long warned me against antibacterial soaps, that if they did what they claimed they did, they’d need to be licensed as drugs.
Desperate, Vulnerable Research Subjects, Cost-Cutting Contract Research Organizations and Threats to the Integrity of Clinical Research Health Care Renewal
Fukushima Spews Radiation World-Wide George Washington
U.S. can’t deliver on FATCA promises Cayman Financial Review (furzy mouse). This is amusing. This isn’t the most credible source, but FACTA is another example of US financial imperialism.
Banking with a Difference, Part I Triple Crisis. An assessment of the new BRICS development bank.
Commonwealth Bank chief Ian Narev rejects housing market warning Sydney Morning Herald. EM: “Right … it’s not Australia’s but rather China’s housing market which is a systemic risk to the Australian economy.”
China’s shocking data has a message MacroBusiness
New Yuan Loans and Shadow Banking Collapse in China; Record Bank Deposit Slump Michael Shedlock (EM)
How to Blindly Score 43% Profit Overnight in China Stocks Bloomberg (EM)
Occupy Central protest ‘would need 20,000 participants for effective blockade’ South China Morning Post. Lambert: “It’s pretty amazing that this article is even being written. They actually do the calculations.”
German Economy Contracts as France Stagnates Wall Street Journal. As predicted, austerity at the periphery has infected the core.
Gaza
Israel and Palestinians begin tense five-day Gaza truce BBC
Henry Siegman, Leading Voice of U.S. Jewry, on Gaza: “A Slaughter of Innocents” Democracy Now (Bob V)
Ukraine
Russian Convoy Rolling Again Toward Ukraine New York Times
Cheese-loving Russians turn to Emmental as Swiss dodge embargo Sydney Morning Herald (EM). Where is Marc Rich when you need him?
The Way Out of the Ukraine Crisis Atlantic. Lambert: “Making Hillary’s meddling all the more mischievous.”
Iraq
Iraq And The “Replacing The Head” Fallacy Moon of Alabama
US scales back Iraq rescue mission plans Financial Times
سنقاتل أى دولة ستقف ضد نشر الإسلام على أراضيها Memri TV (David L). Notice the female interviewer’s body language. Decidedly not comfortable.
The Empire Reaps the Jihadist Whirlwind Glen Ford
Syria: The Other Threat New York Review of Books
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Meet MonsterMind, the NSA Bot That Could Wage Cyberwar Autonomously Wired (David L)
Automatic Scanning for Highly Stressed Individuals Bruce Schneier
Obamacare
Solving a 2014 Obamacare problem pushes premium hikes in 2015 Politico
Thousands might lose health insurance over missing documents McClatchy (Chuck L)
How Money Warps U.S. Foreign Policy Atlantic
White House loosens restrictions on lobbyists Reuters. EM: “Cognitive dissonance by Reuters: How can this be ‘a setback to the president’s efforts to tamp down special interest influence in Washington’ if it is the president himself who is loosening the restrictions?”
Zephyr Teachout: The modern trust buster Aljazeera
Police State Watch: Ferguson
Ferguson: Militarized police use force against protesters, arrest journalists Boing Boing. Lots of images. This is what America has become.
Michael Brown shooting: Tensions rise in Missouri BBC
I am Mike Brown Live from Ferguson, MO (Deontos)
Huffington Post Reporter Arrested In Ferguson Huffington Post (furzy mouse)
Statement On The False Arrest Of Reporters Ryan Reilly And Wesley Lowery Huffington Post
Manager Of Ferguson McDonald’s Where Reporters Were Arrested: ‘It’s Just A Terrible Thing’ Huffingto Post. Lambert: “Very good twitter feed at bottom. Cops out of control is the story, but nobody seems to be trying to get them under control, as the tweets on political leaderz show.”
The situation in Ferguson, MO Financial Times. The fact that the FT is weighing in is significant, plus the story has links to reporters who are on the ground.
America Is Not For Black People Dead Spin (barrisj)
New York suburbs hit by flash floods after record rainfall versus Amid drought, California Democrats seek Republican votes on water plan Reuters (EM)
California police use of body cameras cuts violence and complaints Guardian (furzy mouse)
State ethics panel again proposes fining CalPERS board vice president Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles To Vote On Killing Major Wall Street Deal As City Drowns In Financial Fees David Sirota, IBT. The big deal is that LA intends not to pay the termination fee.
Why Gross, Rubin and Feldstein Are Fighting the Fed Bloomberg
Rail CEOs to Investors: “Bomb Trains” Safe At Almost Any Speed DeSmogBlog
Cisco Cutting 6,000 Jobs as CEO Forecasts Stagnant Growth Bloomberg
Class Warfare
Here are the job descriptions for Gannett’s ‘Newsroom of the Future JimRomensko. I regard this heavy use of corporate-speak and rigidity as a form of class warfare.
Deconstructing Fed Vice Chair’s Grim Economic Forecast Real News Network
Significance of MMT for Progressives and the Left heteconomist (BLM)
Antidote du jour. Richard Smith: “A missed snack for Minsky [one of his Bengals].”
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
285 comments
Comments are closed.
scary police tactics in ferguson. protecting and serving in the new america.
Have to admit, even I was a little shocked to see people getting tear-gassed for protesting in their own front yard.
In case you haven’t noticed, our democracy is dead, dead, dead. I wonder how the Ferguson 5-O feel about their part in transitioning us to a police-state dictatorship?
well, at least some of them seem to regard citizens as the enemy. I hope there’s a “silent majority” that doesn’t, but as they say “hope in one hand…”
The “silent majority” may be fighting off the growing realization that everything about how their lives are ordered has or is slipping out of their hands. Local cops seem no more under our control than the NSA or CIA. Politicians in our towns are no more likely to stand up to powerful interests like the cops and the DA than the guys in Washington are to call out the spooks or the Attorney General. The power of the people is shrinking and the power of institutions is rising. Computers have made the centralization of power, surveillance, and money-making easy, perhaps inevitable. It is a race between this tendency and the centrifugal power of collapsing ecological systems and our oil resource base. My growing conviction is that in 30 years we’ll either be in a state of collapse or a state akin to 1984.
How do they feel?
” ‘We’re dealing with 4,000 animals in there, & you want to give me attitude?’ The deputy yelled, mad I was taking a pic”
https://twitter.com/EliKMBC/status/499732942361337856
“You guys are in the middle of a war zone… You guys gotta realize that if you guys get your butts in a jam, we can’t come get you. You guys are going to have to roll out.”
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2014/08/welcome_to_the_ferguson_war_zone.php
Next thing, you’ll demand that people be safe and secure from the state INSIDE their own homes.
What are you, some kinda of looney left wing radical (for those whose parody detection powers are deficient, that is a parody of those who always defend whatever the police do)
“Every year now, there are approximately 50,000 SWAT raids in the United States, according to Professor Pete Kraska of Eastern Kentucky University’s School of Justice Studies. In other words, roughly 137 times a day a SWAT team assaults a home and plunges its inhabitants and the surrounding community into terror.
In a recently released report, “War Comes Home,” the American Civil Liberties Union (my employer) discovered that nearly 80% of all SWAT raids it reviewed between 2011 and 2012 were deployed to execute a search warrant.
Pause here a moment and consider that these violent home invasions are routinely used against people who are only suspected of a crime. Up-armored paramilitary teams now regularly bash down doors in search of evidence of a possible crime. In other words, police departments increasingly choose a tactic that often results in injury and property damage as its first option, not the one of last resort. In more than 60% of the raids the ACLU investigated, SWAT members rammed down doors in search of possible drugs, not to save a hostage, respond to a barricade situation, or neutralize an active shooter…
If community policing rests on mutual trust between the police and the people, militarized policing operates on the assumption of “officer safety” at all costs and contempt for anyone who sees things differently. The result is an “us versus them” mentality.
Just ask the parents of Bou Bou Phonesavanh. Around 3:00 a.m. on May 28th, the Habersham County Special Response Team conducted a no-knock raid at a relative’s home near Cornelia, Georgia, where the family was staying. The officers were looking for the homeowner’s son, whom they suspected of selling $50 worth of drugs to a confidential informant. As it happened, he no longer lived there.
Despite evidence that children were present — a minivan in the driveway, children’s toys littering the yard, and a Pack ‘n Play next to the door — a SWAT officer tossed a “flashbang” grenade into the home. It landed in 19-month-old Bou Bou’s crib and exploded, critically wounding the toddler. When his distraught mother tried to reach him, officers screamed at her to sit down and shut up, telling her that her child was fine and had just lost a tooth. In fact, his nose was hanging off his face, his body had been severely burned, and he had a hole in his chest. Rushed to the hospital, Bou Bou had to be put into a medically induced coma.
The police claimed that it was all a mistake and that there had been no evidence children were present. “There was no malicious act performed,” Habersham County Sheriff Joey Terrell told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It was a terrible accident that was never supposed to happen.” The Phonesavanhs have yet to receive an apology from the sheriff’s office. “Nothing. Nothing for our son. No card. No balloon. Not a phone call. Not anything,” Bou Bou’s mother, Alecia Phonesavanh, told CNN.”
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175881/tomgram%3A_matthew_harwood%2C_one_nation_under_swat/
Where’s the cavalry that rode to the defense of Calvin Bundy, the hamburger rancher who was stealing Federal land for his profits from cattle feeding, for free, from you and me, the taxpayer? No heavily armed defenders against the Zionist, scratch that, Secret Moozlim Occupided Government, SMOG? How come the anti-government open carry types aren’t taking a stroll with pink pistol packing mamas? Where are brave from the land of the free who worry about tyranny now? Where are the Libertarians? HMMMM? Doesn’t look like liberty to me! It’s only a despotic dictatorship when the IRS is involved and a tax is proposed otherwise, let armed white men rally on para-military parade, but don’t be an uppity dread lock wearing Black Kid complaining about getting shot. Of course, no open carrying Black men here. What if they started doing that tonight in Ferguson? Would Fox News be on the scene to protect the HOLY HOLY HOLY US Gunstitution?
The Calvin Bundy folk aren’t going to ride to the defense because they inhabit a different subculture, period, and the U.S. is a culture of subcultures (income, race, urban/rural etc.). THERE IS NO COMMON CULTURE pretty much. But I’m not sure the actual people who got their butts to the Calvin Bundy camp are the problem (they are useful idiots ok, useful idiots for corrupt interest that want to get rich of national parks. But I doubt they even *understand* the causes you are pushing.).
But the conservatism (authoritarianism) that most worries me would never joined any real protest (not even a wack a doodle one – though maybe the tea party). The authoritorianism that worries me most: HAS MONEY. THEY HAVE MIDDLE CLASS PROFESSIONAL JOBS (AND UP, WAY UP). They are priviledged. They are the authoritarians who will cling to what they have until the bitter end. And in the bitter end what they have is everything to them, everything. It’s a cruelty born of crushing everything all in the end to keep what you have.
Libertarians are a mixed bag. There are sincere libertarians, but I think the sincere ones are mostly getting pretty up there in years, they came of age in another era. And there is a lot of authoritarinism increasingly it seems to me going under the banner of “the constitution” “libertarianism” “freedom”. This is I suppose a natural development of a society getting more and more authoritarian period. I guess it has some mirror in those who support the Dem party although I don’t think the authorianism is anywhere near as strong there but the apoligetics for it in actual practice is.
It is as strong or more, but softer.
As it happens, I know somebody who got their butt to the Bundy camp. Their recent posts have been heavily weighted toward border-related issues and concerns. But they did post this, and got a fair number of “likes,” and several shares:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/08/12/the-little-covered-aspect-of-the-unrest-in-ferguson-the-alarming-militarization-of-local-police-photos/
Good. I’m seeing the same thing with some of my libertarian-leaning friends. I’m not sure we’d want the Bundy defenders coming, fully armed, to Ferguson. But it would be nice to see a battalion of them, hands raised, facing the police and saying “Don’t shoot me.”
People also point, rightly, to the vast disproportion between the Federal response to the Bundy standoff, which was, in essence, to stay out of range and then back off, to the response of the local PD in Ferguson. And to my recollection, nobody at the Bundy ranch got shot by a cop, and no body was left lying in the street, uncovered, for several hours.
Okay, I’ve seen that in some of the more journalistic coverage too, but have you looked at the comments under these articles/ blog posts?
And they’re usually educated. Kind of need to be to have gotten so much money. The authoritarians who would KILL to keep their stash.
I tweeted when the Bundy defenders were out with their rifles, where are you regarding defending the people from foreclosure? poof……the defenders are gone……because, of course……Fox advertises for the bankers that the foreclosure victims are deadbeats.
When that story was breaking, there was a comment on an FDL post that suggested that if the Feds did not act against the armed wingnuts, then it meant that they intended to use them as storm troopers against the rest of the people.
Sadly, that made a lot of sense to me then, and it still makes sense to me now.
“A primary purpose of the police is to enforce the delusions of those with lots of green paper.”
Derrick Jensen, Endgame, Vol. 1: The Problem of Civilization
with that said…
“Whether the mask is labeled fascism, democracy, or dictatorship of the proletariat, our great adversary remains the apparatus—the bureaucracy, the police, the military. Not the one facing us across the frontier of the battle lines, which is not so much our enemy as our brothers’ enemy, but the one that calls itself our protector and makes us its slaves. No matter what the circumstances, the worst betrayal will always be to subordinate ourselves to this apparatus and to trample underfoot, in its service, all human values in ourselves and in others.”
Simone Weil
everything being cyclical…welcome back to the Dark Age
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
——————————————————————————-
Hmmmm. I don’t see anything that says there are time limits. Or number limits. Or limits on people with more melanin.
There was a time when the constitution meant something, and to curtail a constitutional right demanded extraordinary circumstances (like a civil war – and many argued that even that should not have curtailed habeas corpus). Not vague social media threats, not someone thinking that they could have heard something that maybe possibly was a gunshot.
Losing our rights because we are afraid of the boogey man….
The last refuge of a scoundrel is public safety.
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
Yes, and you have the spectacle of “patriots” parading around the country brandishing all manner of weaponry where “open-carry” laws are in force, “exercising their rights under the Second Amendment”, largely unfettered by local coppers or alarmed citizens. Needless to remark that these “patriots” are virtually all-white, and that should a latter-day Black Panther Party contingent attempt to do the same, there would be open warfare in the streets, full stop. And, despite several coppers already shot dead by extreme-right “patriots”, these armed crazies just don’t get the attention that young black men draw from the police. What does this tell you about the state of American society today?
The picture in the front page NY article is startling and very telling: all white “police officers” in camouflage, toting machine guns, lined up in front of a Hum-Vee. If that doesn’t look like war, I don’t know what war looks like.
Who is the enemy?
Sorry, that’s NYT article. Here’s the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/14/us/missouri-teenager-and-officer-scuffled-before-shooting-chief-says.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=LargeMediaHeadlineSum&module=photo-spot-region®ion=photo-spot&WT.nav=photo-spot
Yes, an interesting experiement might be to get those who haven’t seen the pic to guess where it came from. Or to try to pass it off as a pic of Iraq or something (although the background infrastructure is a little different). But with a small bit of photoshopping.
Remember when police used to wear blue, then they switched to black (I should be glad it’s not brown I suppose), and now it’s full army camoflauge.
From the article:
“On Wednesday night, scores of police officers in riot gear and in armored trucks showed up to disperse protesters who had gathered on the streets near the scene of the shooting. Some officers perched atop the vehicles with their guns trained on the crowds while protesters chanted, “Hands up, don’t shoot.”
Now imagine what it takes to protest when police officers are perched atop armoured vehicles with their guns pointed at the protestors. Yes of course you imagine they won’t shoot because of how bad the optics will look to the whole wide world. But nontheless. And what passes for much of the progressive blogosphere doesn’t think this country has any protest movements and continually wrings it’s hands over “why do people just take it, why won’t they protest anything?. Wouldn’t know a snake if it bit them. Or is why won’t the priviledged white upper middle class protest? Is that all that counts? Well actually some definitely would in the right circumstances, they aren’t all on the side of the corrupt system. But mostly duh.
i saw a similar picture on another site with the caption “they hate us for our freedom”.
Who is the enemy?
socialists, unionists, Jews, Catholics, homosexuals, transgenered, liberals, blacks, browns, yellows, greens, purples, libertarians, NC readers……
If I left anyone out, it is because there are not enough pixels in the universe to cover all the enemies
I’m hoping if I butt kiss enough, they’ll make me Hall Monitor.
The Glen Ford piece linked above has a good pithy summary of how we got to this ugly place:
“The Black Panther Party’s vigorous assertion of the right to self-defense prompted the U.S. government to double-down on its monopoly on the use of force – first, with a massive campaign of assassination and false imprisonment against Black radical leadership, many of whom still remain behind bars. Then, as the decade of the Seventies began, mass Black incarceration became the universal policy of the United States – north, south, east and west. A new class of Black politicians filled the void that police repression had created. These were men and women who were quite amenable to corporate rule and made comfortable homes in the Democratic Party. Even as the prison population rose to nine times 1970 levels, the Black Misleadership Class blissfully celebrated its own upward mobility.”
I urge everyone to read the fascinating writings of one falsely imprisoned Black Panther, who still remains behind bars: “Maroon the Implacable,” by Russell Maroon Shoatz, edited by Fred Ho and Quincy Saul (Oakland: 2013)
Elizabeth Warren tweets….
“This is America, not a war zone. The people of #Ferguson just want answers. We all want answers.”
https://twitter.com/elizabethforma
Actually, Senator, events on the ground in Ferguson are a war zone. Whatever version of an America you’d prefer to see is moot while militarized police rule the streets and the no-fly zone above them, in total violation of our national Constitution.
Your words offer hope that this kind of military response will not prove acceptable on some coming day.
But it is not this day.
Where are the Senators from Missouri today? Where is the elected House Representative of this District today? Why are they not all of them standing in the street in front of 70 armed SWAT officers, and reading the Constitution to them?
That would be America.
Amen.
What Katniss said.
I don’t disagree. At least Warren posted something, no matter how tame.
So “tweeting” is what passes for “action” these days.
Exactly how much further down can responsibility be defined? The hairs are getting almost too fine to split.
The Congress Critters can shut down the government for budget kabuki AND support the militarization of the local constabulary against citizens because they no longer represent the public but the global oligarchy.
Ferguson reminds me of the story, “First they came for the …. and they were colored so I did nothing…..”.
Just how slippery is the slope we are on?
The rest of the world sees what’s going on. They see what is going on in this fascist police state against it’s own people. The same fascist police state that spies on the rest of the world’s leaders, that wiretaps the world. That supports Isreali genoicide against the opinion of much of the world. Yea they may depend on the American government, they may fear it, but they also see. And they see when our ruling class talks about blah blah blah freedom blah blah blah an enema blah blah democracy blah blah blah a colonoscopy blah blah blah self-determination.
No moral authority.
We the people are the enemy, apparently. When Rummy sent my unit to Iraq we did not have armored Humvees, we had to make our own armor plating, whereas Ferguson police has the armored Bearcat. Draw your own conclusions about whom your government considers to be the more dangerous enemy.
And again. Amen.
What Katniss said.
Indeed, the American people are the enemy and Homeland Security has been frantically preparing to crush perceived challenges to the kleptocracy. It is also easy to envision that any contagion crisis would be brutally managed (round ’em up style).
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2014/08/what-will-happen-if-ebola-arrives-in.html
“It is not any stretch of imagination to speculate how police state tactics might be utilized in the near future in America. Under a false flag pretense or an economic collapse, or any natural disaster that presents a convenient excuse to declare martial law, it would in turn mobilize a massive campaign by both military and police forces to quell civil disobedience and unrest, or round up dissidents on growing NSA-government watch lists into waiting FEMA camps to finally fill all those countless refurbished empty prisons.”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-militarization-of-police-state-usa/5377240
A caption above one of the pictures of the Ferguson clash on the HuffPo piece said it all: “Police disburse protestors…”
Now even protest has been financialized!
We’re being pun-ished!
They locked ’em up in a bank vault???
I love the smell of spell-check-induced (or revealed) analphabetism in the morning (and afternoon, as well). :)
So by “disbursing protestors” the police “diffused the tense situation”, yes? Please confirm or deny, someone – I’m on “tender hooks” here.
Ah, yes – drives me crazy…. where’s my red/blue editing pencil when I need it !!! (Sorry, old school here.)
where’s Marvin Gaye when you need him?
Picket lines and picket signs
Don’t punish me with brutality
Talk to me
So you can see
Oh, what’s going on
What’s going
Ya, what’s going on
Ah, what’s going on
-Marvin Gaye WHAT’S GOIN ON
Pure Genius from a genius . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDQ_EA5DJqI
That gum I liked is coming back in style.
War, “The World Is a Ghetto”
Via the Saker: “The Russian Appeal to Germany”
Great link. Memorable line: “It turns out that when the Americans spoke loudly and sharply with the German chancellor, whom they for all these years have kept under surveillance like some sticky-fingered housemaid, the entire German society leaped up like a submissive dog running obediently to its American master….”
I like reading SV, mainly because I don’t get that POV anywhere else. Saker does seem to be under the illusion that the US is some single entity controlling everything. I find that curious, being from the US. Does he not see that this great power he ascribes to the US is more accurately the power of an international elite, owing no allegiance to any country. Is the decline of living standards and institutions in the US invisible? It is not.
Does anyone think that Merkel was spied on, but Obama is not? Highly doubtful. I’m sure Obama is under tight surveillance. The CIA spied on the Senate. We as citizens are spied on continuously and potentially put onto terrorist watchlists. The US military wears the US flag, but the wars it fights in are the wars of a global elite, not of the US. The alliances among the global elite factions may shift, but anyone who thinks it is the US, or even a US specific elite that is controlling all of the world’s intrigues needs to look a bit deeper.
From the link
“it suits Germany because Russians are “Untermensch”, because Russians are Jews whose blood for Germans is worth nothing”
A little over the top, no? Maybe the Germans are being good poodles like the Brits for the usual reason….money. After all while the US and Russia don’t conduct that much trade, the US and Germany conduct a lot of trade. Our local SC BMW would be one example. So defying the US would be a big step for Germany.
Perhaps the problem is more that many in D.C. regard Russians as the “Untermensch.”
Yes, on the DC bit. Though I would expand the “untermensch” category to include all Slavs. Poland being the host of the ABM shield means that the US will “protect” itself from Russia to the last Pole. Very delicious, isn’t it, to put the “untermensch” in position to kill one another for the greater glory of the US Empire.
OIFVet,
Its a well known fact that during the Cold War the US warmongers in DC were prepared not only to sacrifice all of Western Europe, but most of the population of Continental USA.
My own little country, and where I actually hail from would have received multiple megatons of missiles in a Soviet attack, based on airbases, munitions works and the heavy industry that was based throughout the South Wales corridor – the years 1981-1983 were particularly frightening to grow up in, particularly with the Iron Lady ranting how she’d rather be dead than red.
And still the imbeciles in the former Eastern satellite states cling to the myth that somehow the USA is their best friend, as the USA’s treatment of the UK after WWII conclusively proves, with friends like the USA, who actually needs enemies.
Right you are, the Euro poodles, Eastern or Western, continue to live with the illusion that America is their friend. It is not. But as a Slav, it is hard not to discern a pattern of Slavophobia in certain quarters. There was no Marshall plan for Slavs after 1989, only Shock Therapy. In the conflict the US is so hellbent to instigate, the first casualties will be Slavs. The front lines were moved further east with NATO’s expansion after all, thus giving the West some Slavic buffer.
“particularly with the Iron Lady ranting how she’d rather be dead than red”: figment of your imagination.
dearieme,
As a politics junkie, particularly in my teenage years, which coincided with the rise of Thatcher, I was want to watch all politically-themed programmes emanating from BBB1, BBC2 and ITV – Mrs. Thatcher is on record with the likes of Brian Walden professing her view that she’d rather us all dead, than give in to Communism and Soviet alleged threats.
So, respectively hardly a figment of one’s imagination as actually grew up with Thatcher and suffered greatly as a result of the economic and social policies she and her cohorts inflicted on South Wales.
Putin is incorruptible ?
This article, written by a USA citisen with thirty years inside experience of Russia, Sharon Tennison, presents a clear insight and understanding of Putin.
“Is-Putin-incorruptible-US-insiders-view-of-the-Russian-presidents-character-and-his-countrys-transformation.”
http://www.sott.net/article/278407-Is-Putin-incorruptible-US-insiders-view-of-the-Russian-presidents-character-and-his-countrys-transformation
link is to a sign-of-the-times website page. originally posted Mon, 21 Apr 2014
Fíréan,
Lets just hope that this canvas of Putin is correct, suffice to say, at least in the UK, anyone deemed a threat to the Elite is demonised in spas in much of the media, one only has to look back at all the bile that was heaped on the last actual Socialist to lead the UK’s Labour, Michael Foot – who I had the pleasure to meet and interact with on several occasions in the 90s – here was a man who had stood up against fascism, stood up for democratic socialism and wished to set the UK on a more equal and democratic footing, which meant taking on the warmongers and their hound dogs.
The Labour Party’s 1983 Election Manifesto has been described as the longest suicide note ever written, and yet when one returns to it now it reads more like our last hope from damnation, which regrettably the electorate spurned in favour of Thatcher’s neoliberalism and outlandish greed.
To be perfectly honest, such glowing praises trip my BS detector as much as vitriolic hit pieces. Power corrupts, and I don’t think Putin is an exception. I am sure he has amassed a decent fortune over the past 14 years. To me, the reason behind the Putin Derangement Syndrome is that he won’t sell out Russia and her interests, that being the Grand Prize our neocons are trying to get their grubby little hands on. So in the end, whether he is corrupt or incorruptible is rather beside the point. He won’t sell what really matters, he won’t be a comprador for the US destruction of Russia. That’s the bottom line, and that’s the source of foaming vitriol.
Putin seems to embody the idea of realpolitik, of acting according to national interests rather than the moralistic motives espoused by many of our “indispensable nation” apologists in the US. For the R2P crowd foreign affairs boil down to “good versus evil” whereas for the realists it’s more a matter of “rational versus irrational.” Of course the rhetorical moralism of the former is often quite false whereas the putative amorality of the latter can be more humane when the choice of not blowing people up is also good policy.
Which is a long way of saying I agree that it may not matter whether Putin is a “good guy” or bad as long as he seems to be acting rationally. Whereas with our own government the national interest–the good of the majority of the population–seems to take a back seat to irrational activity whose purpose is obscure. The US ruling class is desperately in need of some fresh thinking.
If you think of the Western world being ruled by a global elite and not a US one, the irrational activity of the US puppet government makes more sense.
Its all about ongoing control by the elite of global finance and further entrenchment of unfettered inheritance and accumulating private ownership of property world wide.
Upon what facts, information obtained or personnal experience do you base these thoughts and sureties which you have expressed ? Examples of corruption and the amassed fortune ?
Is not Putin’s reluctance to play the role of “comprador for the US destruction of Russia” or to selling Russia out to the USA a measure of his incorruptibility by USA, other world dominant powers ?
Thank you for the reply.
Just because Putin is not corruptible by external actors does not exclude internal corruption. Russia is traditionally corrupt, and it’s leaders have hung on to power by doling out and receiving favors. Second, it is a resource economy and those are hotbeds of corruption in any part of the world. Third, the oligarchs in control of the energy giants got their start in Putin’s inner circle in St. Petersburg. Two examples are Igor Sechin of Rosneft and Alexei Miller of Gazprom. After assuming power Putin did crack down on the oligarchs, as the article you linked to indicated. The ones who refused to submit were destroyed or exiled, and replaced with Putin loyalists. Such is the case of Sechin and Miller, who rose to the rank of oligarchs after Putin cleaned house.
None of this is meant to pass any kind of moral judgement on Putin, particularly since our own leaders are just as corrupt. I would even argue that they are infinitely more corrupt than Putin since, as Carolinian observed above, they have sold the interests of the people and our country to MNCs loyal to no one but their executives and shareholders’ bottom lines. Putin, on the other hand, has de facto saved Russia from the economic and demographic death spiral that the drunken traitor Yeltsin and his Fifth Column put it in by following the “helpful” advice of his imported American economic advisers. The standard of living of all Russians increased substantially, the demographic collapse was checked and reversed, public health measures taken, oligarch criminality reigned in. There is much to admire about a leader who does what is necessary for his nation and its people, and I respect Putin for that. And so do an overwhelming majority of the Russian people, something our “democratic” leaders can only dream of. For all the charges the West levels at Putin for being a strongman, the Russians like him all the same. Culturally Russian people view a benevolent strongman as preferable to a malevolent “liberal democrat,” and I am rather strong proponent of state solutions based on local customs and culture, however distasteful we “enlightened” westerners find them to be. Again, by that standard Putin is a resounding success as a leader of the Russian people. But if you think that the Sechins and Millers repay Putin solely with their undying loyalty then you are very naive indeed. Still, I couldn’t
Continued due to itchy submit finger: Still, I couldn’t care less about it, he is not my leader and I prefer to worry about my so-called leaders as they have immediate impact on my life. And while I respect Putin and view him and Russia as important check on the insane US drive toward hegemony, I am not about to forsake my right to hold a nuanced view of Putin.
Thank you for your replies. My initial posting of the link was posed as a question for consideration and opinions of, and to add to the discussion here, the perspective of Sharon Tennison .
I believe that i do not have enough solid factual evidence and knowlegde to drawn a strong and valid conclusion on the matter, therefore all and any input is welcome.
Link for Politico Obamcare story:
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/obamacare-premium-increase-2015-109979.html
“If insurers have their way, some residents in politically key states like Florida, North Carolina and Iowa would face hikes of 11 percent to nearly 18 percent — far beyond the average 7.5 percent increase in proposed rates for much of the country.”
No inflation there! No, seriously
http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpifact4.htm
“Although medical insurance premiums are an important part of consumers’ medical spending, the direct pricing of health insurance policies is not included in the CPI. As explained below, BLS reassigns most of this spending to the other medical categories (such as Hospitals) that are paid for by insurance. The extreme difficulty distinguishing changes in insurance quality from changes in its price forces the CPI to use this indirect method. ”
——————————————————————————
Soooooo, the fact that you have to buy it, and you spend more and more money on health insurance every year….is not an elephant….uh, I mean irrelevant. Because it all goes to health care…Only some cynical, tinfoil hat wearing people, like fresno dan, would ever posit that our noble, patriotic insurance companies would raise prices not commensurate with the true typical medical inflation rate. That’s just unpossible….
Government subsidies are playing a significant role in keeping premium costs down. Risk corridors are doing this as well. Take away these subsidies and most, if not all, of the 8 million or so Americans, whose incomes are low enough to qualify for these subsidies, won’t have enough money to afford their premiums and thus will drop their insurance plan. Remove the risk corridors and even upper income Americans will have a hard time paying their premiums, putting them at enormous risk of dropping their insurance plan.
Oh sure, the subsidies benefit lower income Americans, and the risk corridors benefit upper income Americans, but ultimately the biggest beneficiaries of both are the healthcare insurers. Which is why it should be abundantly clear to all that ObamaCare was specifically designed to be a profit-making scheme for the health insurance industry. The question we all should be asking is, why are we subsidizing an industry that is so flushed with cash that it can afford to hand out multimillion dollar salaries to its top executives without making so much as a tiny dent in its profit margins?
It should also be abundantly clear to all that all of these government subsidies, as well as the risk corridors, do absolutely nothing to reduce overall healthcare costs. If anything, they are making overall healthcare costs go up. What the subsidies and the risk corridors do is merely shift costs from the private sector to the government. Americans may see their premiums trending down and may even see their deductibles and copays leveling off, but that’s only because the government is picking up the tab.
Therefore, the only way to reduce overall healthcare costs, while still maintaining a for-profit healthcare system, is to cut out all government subsidies and get rid of the risk corridors. But that will never happen as it will cause the entire healthcare industry to become unprofitable, and Wall Street won’t stand for that. Wall Street will see to it that our for-profit healthcare system will continue to get its huge corporate welfare checks from Uncle Sam. Even though the Wall Street crowd will never, ever admit it, they know good and well that our healthcare system can’t survive on its own in a free market economy.
re, 1000’s might lose Health coverage over missing documents…”“We **want as many consumers as possible** to remain enrolled in marketplace coverage, so we are giving these individuals a last chance to submit their documents before their coverage through the marketplace will end,” said Marilyn Tavenner, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services at HHS.”
Hunkerdown post yesterday: “Neoliberals define shopping as “staring dejectedly at cruel, marginally relevant numbers then sacrificing your money to support the brand”, don’t they?”
US Stress Stats from Staticbrain:
Percent of people who regularly experience physical symptoms caused by stress 77 %
Regularly experience psychological symptoms caused by stress 73 %
Feel they are living with extreme stress 33 %
Feel their stress has increased over the past five years 48 %
Cited money and work as the leading cause of their stress 76 %
Ka-Ching
So the new law-enforcement gadget that Schneier is discussing today will get lots of false-positives…big surprise there…
FORT WAYNE, IN—Explaining that his sole concern is serving and protecting his community, Fort Wayne police officer Vincent Turner told reporters Wednesday that he does not see any difference between black and light-skinned black suspects. “As an officer of the law, I am committed to administering justice swiftly and evenhandedly, regardless of whether the suspect has dark skin or really dark skin,” said Turner, adding that he has no problem giving a full pat-down to any potential criminal or hauling them down to precinct headquarters in the back of his patrol car, even if they are more of a light mocha color. “When you’re responding to reports of gunshots fired, or sprinting down an alleyway, you’re not thinking about where the suspect falls on the spectrum of African-American skin tones—you’re thinking about doing your job. Heck, the guy could be a very dark-looking Latino, for all I care—I treat every one of them the same. He’s still just a suspect to me.” Turner added that his dedication to upholding the law stems from a belief that all local residents should be able to walk their streets without fear, whether they come from an affluent white neighborhood or a working-class white neighborhood. (The Onion)
I moved away from Indiana 3 years ago. I read your comment all the way through and believed it was completely legit until the very end. The only thing I couldn’t figure out was what the question that elicited that response was.
Worth a read:
The New Cold War and the Necessity of Patriotic Heresy US fallacies may be leading to war with Russia Stephen F. Cohen
@YY. Thanks for this. It is an excellent read. Some of what Cohen says seems to me to echo comments jackrabbit made yesterday about the need for multilateral institutions. Cohen’s description of the decline in American political discourse and the disappearance of President Obama as statesman are very depressing. I just wish Cohen had said something about the impact, if any, of the Budapest Memorandum on the current situation.
YY,
Thank you for the Stephen F. Cohen Nation link, the paper, although containing no surprise to us “heretics”, detailed succinctly many of the views and ideas detailed on these boards since the Ukrainian crisis became formalised early this year. Its just a huge shame that the US elites and its whores in the UK, EU and NATO simply ignore sage advice and accuse all and sundry of some kind of despicable treachery for having the audacity to speak out, never mind dissent over this particularly nasty US adventure, and numerous other failed US adventures over the years.
Great link. I hope that the local purveyors of the neo-McCarthyite “anti-American” smear take some time from their busy schedule of propaganda and smear dissemination to read this truly eloquent response to their madness.
I’m confident the US “benevolent and exceptionalist” mob will be all over this like a crazed mob on crack cocaine and angel dust, with a little bit of crystal meth thrown in for good measure.
I find it comical that some of our posting peers will seemingly praise the content before doing a “deconstructionist” job on it for supposed inadequacies and slights of hand, before going off on massive tangents praising how wonderful the USA is, or used to be – evidently they are not subscribers to Noam Chomsky’s point of view that the USA, particularly in its foreign policy is the epitome of evil.
If the West & Russia do got to war I imagine that TPTB will insist that measures must be taken to crackdown on dissent ( Fifth columns, the enemy within, the unpatriotic or whatever ). Places like this would surely be under threat & if shutdown would leave us at the mercy of the MSM flunkeys, who would no doubt under those circumstances be more creative in the ways that they can stick their tongues down the backs of the trousers of their sugar Daddies.
Wouldn’t be too hard to organise a war time coalition in the UK with the 3 slightly different flavours of shite that we have. ” Sacrifices must be made ” etc – A great way to accelerate the turn of the Neoliberal screw, or perhaps most of us will be simply vapourised leaving the turds that rise to the top to crawl out of their hidey holes at the end of it. We sure as hell havn’t learnt much in the 100 years that have elapsed since ” The war to end all wars ” started.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fugBkJ7UnQ&list=UUHavDAeDMMItTuPCAqIIPUA
If you’re referring to me, I read the article, and sang its praises in a comment that somehow got caught in the moderation tripwire. I though the Atlantic article “The Way Out of the Ukraine Crises” was also exceptionally fine.
Well, it may be pleasant to see you and Abe,NYC comment on the ” Fíréan” post and link of 12.14PM, seems like your elite has a bugbear with Mr. Putin that’s driven by his “incorruptibility”, which is an anathema to our neolib and neocon friends – just go ask our former Premier, Mr Tony Blair – a money grabbing sleaze bag with an equally appalling wife, certainly not a chip of her fathers block, one Tony Booth, who was a staunch socialist – he’s spinning in his grave over his sleaze ball son-in-law and equally sleaze ball daughter.
Your open-mindedness is very encouraging.
@Doug Terpstra. That Atlantic article contains a tidbit which relates to some of our previous discussions. The article states that Senator Corker’s proposed legislation would explicitly provide funding for NGOs. Thus, we have clear evidence of US funding. This is what I like to see in other contexts when assessing claims of USGovt or CIA involvement. I realize the CIA has been involved in all sorts of evil and nefarious activities worldwide. But I feel fairness requires acknowledging that some may exaggerate the CIA’s role at times, perhaps in order to deflect attention away from problems that might have originated locally regardless of CIA or USGovt involvement.
You have heard that not all CIA funding is actually made public, right? If anything, judging by what has come to light of covert operations past, we under, rather than overestimate CIA nefariousness (and the rest of the “intelligence community”). That’s what the Church Commission was all about, for example; discovering that.
@Lambert Strether. Understood. From what I’ve read, I’m inclined to agree with George Kennan’s late-in-life view that creating the CIA was a mistake and maintaining a vast covert operations apparatus is fundamentally corrosive to American ideals. Even so, I think some foreign leaders exaggerate the CIA’s involvement (if any) in their local problems. For them, the CIA is a convenient “bogeyman” which can be invoked at whim to rile up the local populace and distract attention away from the local government’s home grown corruption.
Right, those who wait only for official confirmation, for a congressional spreadsheet, despite overwhelming circumstantial evidence, as in Ukraine, Honduras, Benghazi, Syria, etc. are implausibly naive. Some allowance should be made for credulous patriotism, for not wanting to believe the evil done in their name, but with the CIA’ rap sheet, only the proverbial serial killer’s mother could excuse it. The CIA is an unaccountable covert army that has a long history of heinous crimes, has no legitimacy and should be abolished…IMNSHO.
Bay of Pigs, Iran, various Central and Latin American countries. Rich pickings.
Professor Cohen: “Indeed, some people who privately share our concerns—again, in Congress, the media, universities and think tanks—do not speak out at all. For whatever reason—concern about being stigmatized, about their career, personal disposition—they are silent. But in our democracy, where the cost of dissent is relatively little, silence is no longer a patriotic option.”
Very true. But in this society of ours where selfishness is held to be a virtue and selflessness is anathema, we will not get many who will exercize the patriotic option. From ‘American Pravda: Who Shot Down Flight MH17 in Ukraine?’: “One of our left-liberal readers was shocked to read facts totally absent from the pages of The Nation, the Huffington Post, or any of the other left-liberal sites she visits. Out of curiosity, she contacted a very prominent left-liberal American academic, someone with special expertise in exactly that area of Europe. To her considerable surprise, he largely confirmed the outlandish “conspiracy theory,” saying that the evidence increasingly indicated that the American-backed Kiev government had shot down Flight MH17, either accidentally or otherwise.
Based on his remarks, it sounded like he and his friends had devoted 100x the time and effort that I had to investigating the incident, thereby reassuring me that my casual conclusions were at least not wholly ridiculous. Yet it also appeared that neither he or any of the other American experts in his circle who apparently share his views had seen fit to publish their opinions in any of the numerous media outlets to which they have easy access, presumably for fear of being denounced and stigmatized as “conspiracy nuts.” They may regard the possibility of an American military confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia as a terrible danger, but it pales compared to the horrifying risk that the 22-year-old bookers at MSNBC chat shows might decide to put a black mark down next to their names.” http://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-who-shot-down-flight-mh17-in-ukraine/
So there you have it: in this fair “democracy” of ours, 22-year old MSNBC bookers are the Cerberus who keeps the truth hidden by scaring off the week-kneed and the vain careerists with withholding screen time. No wonder this country is fucked.
Based on this excerpt, I think it’s reasonable to conclude that “22-year old MSNBC bookers” are an attractive and good-looking group of people.
In all seriousness, I respect Unz and if he questions the MSM narrative this much I pay attention. (I had previously posted a link to his article in this thread below.)
re Climate Skeptic Scientists Are Extremely Overrepresented in the Media
Of course they are. As are industry-funded scientists in myriad areas- food, agriculture, all aspects of the environment (the more-study stall is a favorite tool of our “elected” oligarchs).
And I don’t believe half these “skeptics” are really skeptics at all. They’re Climate liars. Actually far more than half.
perfect example of stall tactic. Study: Popular, Ineffective Antibacterial Chemical Found In 100% Of Pregnant Women, May Interfere With Fetal Development (links).
“The antibacterial agent is currently under review by the FDA, which in 40 years has never formally found it to be either safe or unsafe.” 40 years! The profits made in that time, screw the public, the environment…
When I go to the supermarket, I marvel that there is a whole aisle filled end to end with soaps, scents, lotions, and potions. You have to look hard to find old-fashioned bar soap. Add to that makeup. And turn around and see ointments and anything else that can be applied. But the thing is, when you rub that stuff on your skin, how do you know that any hundreds of the chemicals used to make these products are not entering your body and circulating in your system? People know that a patch can dose nicotine to you, but perhaps they don’t figure myriad other chemicals can penetrate the skin as well? There is no way to know, it seems. I encounter people who smell like water mellon or mountain fresh breeze hours after they left home in the morning. Perhaps any one of these chemicals is safe. But is it safe when you have absorbed dozens?
So true.
Came cross the anti-bacterial soap issue a little over a year ago when I decided maybe it was time to brush up on my food, vitamin, supplement and related health knowledge before I die of something. (as an aside, now when I walk thru a supermarket I totally marvel at all the stuff I have absolutely no reason to buy. When I exit I feel like a rich guy. Truly weird.)
But to zero in on the soap issue, I began reading that anti-bacterial soap is poison, which you will read about everything and anything when researching this field on the innertubes. But I persisted anyway and found out soap used to be glycerin soap, and it worked very well.
This triggered a memory. My hippie chick college girlfriend used glycerin soap and she always smelled really good! Then I remembered in the shower there was always this translucent golden color bar of soap. Couldn’t have cost much either, because hippie chicks got zero money.
So off to Walgreens I went since they are always close by wherever you happen to be. After browsing the isles a while keeping an eye out for anything else I needed, (pleasant rich vibes building the whole time) I found myself in the womens’ shoe and sundress isle section.
Decided it was time to ask an employee for help so I said, “Where do you have the glycerin soap?” She gave me a blank stare, waved her supervisor over, and another employee wandered over out of curiosity. We all wandered back over to the soap isle and searched shelves of designer soap products to no avail. (FYI: Bert’s Bees make soap, but not honey)
This did trigger a short term memory and I realized glycerin soap has been renamed to something else. The price of the product was outrageous compared to the days of Free Soap, so without letting on to the employees I had figured out the game, I just said “Thanks anyway, I’ll have to keep looking elsewhere.”
Off to Wal-Mart. Kirk’s Castile Soap – about a buck a bar. Not translucent – just looks like a bar of white soap. But essentially the same thing.
Live and re-learn.
Craazyman:
Skip the glycerine and go for Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint. If you’re near a Trader Joe’s, it’s $10 for 32oz (probably a 12 month supply).
https://www.drbronner.com/
Already narrowed that brand down to number #1, but discovered it after Kirks.
Bought a small bottle of it and it’s great. Hardest thing is to use a small enough bit of it so you don’t feel like you are wasting it.
Comes in all sorts of nutty and flowery fragrances too. I went for almond. Hippi chicks might like lilac.
I am in awe of the synchronicity between us. I have been buying Kirk’s Castille for years. I switched to it because it makes suds easier and rinses off better than any other brand I’ve tried. And you don’t need softened water. Anti-bacterial soap is redundant, because washing with soap removes bacteria from the skin mechanically. For actual germ killing on the skin if you can’t get to a lavatory, alcohol gel hand sanitizer can be used.
Memri TV (David L). Notice the female interviewer’s body language. Decidedly not comfortable.
That fellow need to have a beer or two and reflect on his wasted life.
Is the delicious irony that he’s dressed himself in western attire and having his image reproduced by the devil’s tools lost on him???
The best argument for embracing the superiority of his notion of a theological transnational State are by his example.
So unfortunately he’ll be lacking any creds. until he sheds the infidel’s trappings and embraces his principles by taking his rather dodgy message exclusively to pure islamic mass media technology … like minarets.
Willful participation in his image being reproduced by the infidel’s tools of blasphemy against the teachings of All ah bear stark witness of his hypocrisy.
What exactly is the antidote du jour? Is it a bat?
looks like a baby bird. I wondered about “missed snack.” what are “his Bengals”
His 2 Bengal cats, Fisher and Minsky. They’re the cutest thing. I wouldnt mind having a picture of them everyday as an antidote.
Oh, thanks.
I love all cats (especially rescued strays). another reason I belong (back) up north (links).
I used to put big bells on my cats (till I, alas, didn’t have any) especially during fledging season.
shucks…I was hoping we’d find out that he moonlights as a stage magician in Vegas…
Is that a Black Cygnet waiting to grow up into a Black Swan?
Perfect. I am beginning to suspect its a baby chicken but I like the idea of a black swan much better.
I thought it was a false mustache. Bird sounds more likely.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/13/the-true-stereotypes-behind-michael-brown-s-death.html
“A few weeks ago, white 18-year-old Steve Lohner could tote a gun around in Aurora, Colorado (where in 2012 James Holmes gunned 12 people to death and injured 70 others), practically taunting law enforcement to mess with him, in a quest to make a showy point about gun rights. Who among us can pretend that if a black kid was doing the same thing he wouldn’t be much more likely to wind up killed? Those inclined to pretend might note that meanwhile, black 22-year-old John Crawford was killed two weeks later for holding a toy gun at a Wal-Mart in Ohio.
This kind of thing sits in black American minds and creates a sense of alienation. I first started writing about race 15 years ago, perplexed that so many people seemed convinced that nothing had changed on race in America since about 1960. Having grown up in quiet neighborhoods, I didn’t get it. I quickly learned—the sticking point was, and still is, the cops.
Incidents like what happened to Michael Brown should teach three lessons.
One: Stereotyping. As most will agree, cops need to get past the idea that what’s cocky for a white kid is potentially lethal coming from a black kid. Clearly, whatever training cops are getting to avoid unnecessary profiling is not zeroing in on this kind of Implicit Association Bias, which is hardly so complicated that it couldn’t be discussed and worked against more diligently. As a linguist, I suggest one focus be speech: outsiders can read black men’s speech as confrontational at times when it isn’t intended that way.”
Two: The War on Drugs. However, getting rid of biases like these is hard. I have rarely encountered such sneering, glowering disrespect, almost gleeful in its menace, from any human beings as from New York and Jersey City cops amid minor incidents, such as when the driver of a cab I was in got a ticket and I asked if I could just get out and walk the rest of my way, or when I was deemed to be following one of their traffic-directing gestures too slowly, etc.”
====================================================
http://fox40.com/2014/08/12/triplegic-man-accuses-sacramento-police-of-abuse/
“He said he was physically unable to get out of the car, despite police orders. He’s been confined to a wheelchair for the last four years after a gunshot injury.
“They’re saying that I am refusing to get out of the car when I can’t get out of the car myself,” Hogan told FOX40.
Video of the ordeal, shot by Hogan’s cousin, shows him being pulled from the car and dragged on the ground. He adds that his left wrist, the only one not paralyzed, was fractured.
Sacramento Police Officer Michele Gigante says a two-minute video doesn’t capture the 50-minute incident.
“(Hogan) didn’t want to go. It’s not that he couldn’t,” Gigante said. “The officers gave him all kinds of options.”
=====================================
I can’t get the video to play.
To me, the issue is if Hogan is paralyzed. If he is, and I find it highly implausible that he has been faking it for 4 years, I would truly like to know what were the options that the officers gave him. Was it:
1. Miracle performed by protestant clergy so that he could walk
2. Miracle performed by Catholic clergy so that he could walk
3.Miracle performed by Jewish clergy so that he could walk
4. Miracle performed by Hindu clergy so that he could walk
5. Miracle performed by Muslim clergy so that he could walk
6. Wicca incantations that restore the power of ambulation
etcetera, etcetera
Do police actually believe if they order a paralyzed man out of the car, their orders have the power to restore the man’s ability to walk??? We’re talking indoctrination that has instilled delusions into our police forces….
Being a police officer is a dangerous job and I do not want to compare it with being in a real war zone. But the fact remains that under the very best of circumstances it is a dangerous job that can at times be akin to being in a war zone. That said, even our soldiers who also have a very dangerous job, are subject to more restrictive rules of engagement. And they are quite often held to account. As a Viet Nam veteran who survived Tet in 1968 I can tell you that that particular portion of my life was one in which there was a very high probability that I would be killed or seriously wounded. (I obviously wasn’t killed but I was wounded enough to qualify for a 60 percent disability rating) Nevertheless, I was called and served as the law provided. The point I am making is that the police seem to always be able to err on the side of caution and it is indeed a very rare occasion when they held to account for their actions, regardless of the color of the victim. Too often it is ready, fire, air for them. I say again, the job is dangerous. You might get killed or wounded. Just like our military. But we have to stop this. If they don’t want to be in a dangerous occupation, find work elsewhere. We cannot continue to, in virtually every case, find that the police acted with proper care solely because we empathize with them and want their support when we need it. What we need is an independent body that reviews each officer involved shooting INDEPENDENTLY AND HONNESTLY, and then holds the police to account for their actions. What we have now is a sham. Sorry to disagree with all, but this is not a black v. brown v. white issue, and that discussion is counterproductive. The issue is how to properly police our police. They want to work at a dangerous job, then they can get over it.
Being a cop these days is nowhere near as “dangerous” as being an unarmed, black male just minding his own business anywhere in the vicinity of those same cops.
And, unless whites stop thinking of these commandos as Andy Griffith, those sainted “peace officers” are going to be bringing the hammer down on them too.
These are not “heroes.” They are heavily armed thugs, drunk with power and immunized against the very “law and order” they purport to dispense.
It’s white supremacy without the cloak. The KKK has found a way to legalize lynching.
And call it “law enforcement.”
Exactly.
Very good comment and analysis – and I agree. As I noted in my posting about Brian Beaird yesterday, I noted that he was white. I note in the article I posted from McWhorter, the war on drugs, whether INTENDED, or not, has devolved into a war on black men. We haven’t been too successful in all the “wars” we constantly are waging and declaring, and putting ever greater percentages of Americans in prison isn’t the kind of solution any self respecting society should strive for.
FYI
http://criminologycareers.about.com/od/Career_Trends/a/Dangers-In-Criminal-Justice-Careers.htm
The fact is, police work isn’t nearly as dangerous as quite a few other occupations. Now we sure as hell should NOT make police work more dangerous. We should try and make it safer, and the same goes for other occupations. I’m sure its a nerve wracking occupation, where every encounter has the potential for extreme violence. And I’m sure the things police see take a toll on their psychic health.
As they say, hate the sin, love the sinner. The fault lies not with the police officers themselves most times, but with those overseeing the police. More prosecutions and more firings would do more to right the situation than all the “retraining” proposed….
But we have to face the fact that we are getting the police we want.
When I was young, I met someone who had just emigrated from the old Soviet Union. I asked her how was it to live in such a repressive society. She replied that it didn’t feel repressive to most people….
Most people really don’t need to use their constitutional rights every day. They slip away incrementally, unnoticed, rationalized by those who demand perfect safety (while hypocritically always saying you can’t have a perfectly safe product – funny how that goes…..). We pay a lot of lip service to our freedoms, but they really are becoming nothing more than a branding mechanism, devoid of substance.
just to be clear, my
fresno dan
August 14, 2014 at 11:03 am
comment was to
Whine Country
August 14, 2014 at 10:03 am
Sorry, Fresno, but what we should “try” to do is make being a CITIZEN safer.
And WTF? The police are out of control so we need to “police” them???? As I recall, that was the basis of the Christopher Dorner incident. He tried to blow the whistle on dirty cops. And they hunted him like a dog and burned him alive.
After they shot up a bunch of innocent citizens who, according to you, just weren’t doing enough to keep the cops “honest.”
I agree
Well, the cops are certainly better armored than we were when we were sent to Iraq, a war zone. You will not convince me that Ferguson and the 99% enclaves in general are not current or potential war zones as far as TPTB and their militarized police forces are concerned.
Obedience to law is the worst reason to kill. In your loyalty to “your” country, you betrayed humanity. The only option available to you to avoid confronting the crushing shame of what you did 50 years ago is to lie to yourself.
Bingo. I do not “empathize with police” and I challenge “Whine’s” assertion that most people do. It’s been clear for ages that people like him, who are motivated to join armies and police forces, are inclined to violent psychopathology. You’d be right about them confronting the “crushing shame” but for the fact that they have none and the ability to lie to themselves is in the job description. The sham notion of “police oversight” has existed for decades and has served to do nothing more than rubber stamp most every abuse and murder that the boys in blue have gotten away with…
This coming on the heels of the murder-by-choke-hold of a black man in Staten Island for selling single cigarettes is beyond ghastly… nevermind NYC’s wretchedness re Eleanor Bumpers, Michael Stewart and Amadou Diallo etc…
Unfuckingbelievable.
” It’s been clear for ages that people like him, who are motivated to join armies and police forces, are inclined to violent psychopathology”. Hold on there Chris, many who do join do it for idealism, for a steady paycheck, or because it is a way out of Bumfuckville. You paint with too broad a brush and frankly it is insulting to the many of us who served and came to the truth by way of the service. Many of us subsequently dissent. Veterans for Peace is an organization that not only stands up against war but also stands for social justice and social movements. Just search YouTube for footage of VfP standing up with Occupy Boston and getting beaten up by the cops for it. Do not paint us all with your broad brush, it is not helping anyone.
Veterans for Peace are awesome!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veterans_for_Peace
I would agree with that – Many of my ancestors fought in wars & they all did it because they thought they were doing the right thing. I have to admit to my shame at getting all patriotic & attempting to join up for the Falklands – The Belgrano incident woke me up. Young men are at the mercy of the propaganda that is spewed out in order to have them sign up. One reason for the authorities clampdown on the WW! Christmas truces was to make sure that the opposing forces didn’t realise that their supposed enemy was basically the same as themselves, & not the baby bayonetting monsters they were made out to be.
StevieFinn,
Whislt the Falkland’s escapade may have seemed exciting as teenagers – I was actually a member of the Army Cadets at the time, and like you attempted twice to join the UK military, however, I certainly did not desire to join our Armed Forces out of an act of patriotism, quite the reverse, it was to escape the nihilism caused by the Dole and massive youth unemployment is South Wales at the time.
Further, a number of school friends were already in our armed services, as well as their older siblings, so the horror of war was quite real to us, not only with what was going on in Northern Ireland, but by actually having first hand contact with survivors of the Sir Galahad attack, many of the casualties hailing from our area, it being the stomping ground of the Royal Regiment of Wales. I think I’ll leave patriotism to rascals and scoundrels, who at the end of the day are the only ones who drape themselves in flags, without actually ever wishing to put their necks on the line – say what you will about the British Royal Family, but at least these pampered fools have actually served their country, which is more than ever the likes of the Cameron’s, Blair’s and the Osborne’s of the world have ever done, obviously epitomised by that great war President, George W. Bush and now one Obama.
I totally agree with you – I was a kid, I was naive, what can I say ? It was my only bout of patriotism & I can assure you I never draped myself in a flag. it was the start of a long education, besides the Belgrano, I started to wonder why the old witch cared so much for a small community in the the South Atlantic while being happy to destroy similar communities in the UK.
As for NI – Since living here I have learnt a whole different truth about that situation.
Re: Northern Ireland.
I have stated in other posts that I had the great pleasure of meeting with Colin Wallace whilst at University in Leicester and have many memories of friends and associates from both sides of the religious divide – most were very much on the Left. Further, one of my colleagues here in Asia is the brother of one of the two Lieutenants who led the Paras at the “Bloody Sunday” slaughter, he was hung out to dry shall we say by the establishment, but here’s a sneaky fact, he was a Roman Catholic, whilst the other person rose to lead the entire UK’s armed services. I’ll let you fathom out the names yourself – but sometimes as someone with an incredible interest in history and politics its nice to actually have first-hand knowledge from some of the central figures themselves.
I agree. I recently read an article on Stars and Stripes on the militarization of the police forces. The comment section was a real eye opener assuming most of the comments were from military and ex-military. Almost unanimous condemnation of militarization of the police.
Got a link? I’d like to look at those quotes.
Ok, here is the Stars and Stripes article from 2 Aug. Comments are what caught my attention: http://www.stripes.com/news/us/more-military-armored-surplus-going-to-police-departments-1.296565/mrap-police-1.296566
Also here is an opinion piece in todays Stars and Stripes from a Slate staff writer. The writer discusses the Ferguson problems. It is the sort of opinion you would read here.: http://www.stripes.com/opinion/the-militarization-of-the-police-on-display-1.298318
And one more. Military vets see flawed response in Ferguson. http://www.stripes.com/news/us/military-veterans-see-flawed-police-response-in-ferguson-1.298326
Stars & Stripes and Armed Forces Radio are surprisingly objective and unbiased given what they could be potentially. Actually puts mainstream private media to shame.
thanks for that. Maybe an eye opener for some, but the military makes an effort at racial tolerance that probably far surpasses any other American institution, and has what some might characterize as a “socialist” mindset of taking care of our own.
Most military I have come in contact with fully understand “civilian command” and have a greater respect for the constitution than either current party.
“Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman” by Jon Krakauer
Rolling up on an unarmed young man and killing him without justification is not a dangerous job.
Maybe we should try Cliven Bundy’s trick for making the cops back down. Apparently police don’t like to deal with people who have the capacity to return fire.
Even with the militarization of the police, the police would be neutralized within 2 months by even a low level insurgency with as little as 10-30 percent support of the populace. When police are afraid to respond to calls for fear of ambush, they are neutralized. Look at the history of insurgencies.
https://twitter.com/occupythemob/status/499718454778142722/photo/1
re: Zephyr Teachout
She probably does not have much chance of defeating Cuomo, but will be interesting to see if she can maybe get 40% of vote—another plus is she is a true Jazz fan:
—“A few hours later, in an air-conditioned room in a midtown building where her headquarters are located, she compared herself to the jazz musician Rahsaan Roland Kirk, who used circular breathing to play more than one instrument simultaneously. “It was the only way he could play the harmony and the melody at the same time,” she explained, crushing sushi between two chopsticks.”—
I remember Roland Kirk with pleasure; I’m mildly surprised that someone a generation younger than me does. Still, she’s a pol, so I’lll just assume she’s faking it.
“I remember Roland Kirk with pleasure; I’m mildly surprised that someone a generation younger than me does”
Someone only truly dies with the last person that knew them…
paraphrasing a sentiment I heard someplace
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF5yN4_mkNs
Rahsaan at the Zoo, I love this. There’s a longer version but I couldn’t find it.
Ya! makes you wonder who invented jazz, man or animal? Then he rolls into a blues tune…
I’ll cast a wider net.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McZsu4riOm8
Like It Is – Yusef Lateef
This is so good..
Zephyr Teachout: The modern trust buster Aljazeera
“But they missed their connection in Kingston and found themselves stuck at an empty roadside bus station. Was it a sign? It was late. They asked if there was another way to get to Albany. There was an extra bus somewhere, someone at the ticket office said. And just like that, they were driven in the relative luxury of an empty bus to Albany. That, they decided, was the real sign. She was going to run anyway.”
So, in rural NY, they will check out the back and, “just like that”, if there is an extra bus, they will roll it out for you and get you on your way! Huh! NYorkers please check in and tell me about this feature of NY transport. What would be the fee, please?
And, Crystal-Ballers: is getting a free, luxury empty bus ride a good predictor of electoral success? Romney should have ditched that Wagon with the dog on top.
Tune in next week when Aljazeera will fully explain ZIRP, QE and MMT all in one concise article!
CT alert
http://www.wired.com/2014/08/edward-snowden/ ….getting some buzz
….‘Holy shit.’ And they think it’s still out there.”
Gee, it’s probably not previously unknown facts about the Gulf of Tonkin incident or a new Bill Clinton White House affair. Fun to speculate, anyway.
As if the smoking guns we know about shouldn’t already be enough to provoke people to revolution, if that’s all it took?
That they planned the Iraq War in advance of 9/11. That they knew about and did nothing to prevent the 9/11 hijackings. That they assassinated both literally and figuratively world leaders. That they facilitated corporate interests over those of the nation. That they financially supported corrupt dictators. That they knowingly and purposefully violated civil rights. That they paid for propaganda.
They being the small plutocracy who control this nation.
None of this should really come as a surprise. Concrete evidence just makes it hard to ignore.
“Concrete evidence just makes it hard to ignore.”
Until the next news cycle.
Well, there is that. Look, Kim Kardashian! Or whoever the pain du jour is…
Pulling our leg I take it. As of course there’s concrete evidence for most if not all of that. Now there could be more, assasinating world leaders is old news, but what if we found out they were behind Chavez illness?
Pat Lang’s Sitrep on the Middle East just up:
http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2014/08/httpwwwhaaretzcomnewsdiplomacy-defense1610493.html
Never send a boy to do a dual israeli-american “citizen’s” job:
“American officials say they believe they have been able to exert at least some influence over Mr. Netanyahu during the Gaza conflict. But they admit their influence has been weakened as he has used his sway in Washington, from the Pentagon and Congress to lobby groups, to defuse U.S. diplomatic pressure on his government over the past month.
And:
“Israeli officials, in turn, describe the Obama administration as weak and naive, and are doing as much as they can to bypass the White House in favor of allies in Congress and elsewhere in the administration.”
They think they can just wait until Obama is gone. So, if you think HRC’s hawkish tone will be detrimental to her almost bid for the presidency because it is so at odds with the “wishes of the people,” think again. She’s playing to the REAL power behind the throne. And that ain’t “women.”
http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-sway-over-israel-on-gaza-at-a-low-1407979365?KEYWORDS=*
It may be cheaper be much cheaper, and no doubt more honest, for the US elite and its corporate masters to dispense with the farce of a gubernational Presidential election, and just Crown Hilary Clinton instead.
given they have abandoned all protections afforded under the Constitution and its attendant Bill of Rights, now seems a good time to revert back to the Monarchy that they seems to yearn for – obviously, someone of the calibre of Elizabeth II may be a bit too much, for at least she has an affinity with her subjects, which seems sorely lacking in DC and the Beltway presently – indeed, the two leading contending families to become “sovereigns”, the Bush clan and the Clinton clan already have offspring to continue the lineage, indeed, in the interests of national unity, would it not be in the nations interest for Chelsea Clinton to marry one of the Bush heirs, such a uniting of the warring factions is quite common in Europe and most important in building Dynastic Empires – just remember folks, ever a King or a Queen has to bow before an Emperor.
That should read: ” It may be much cheaper.”
I think I would actually prefer Jenna and Barbara Bush over Chelsea Clinton as our new RoyalPrez. The twins seem less mendacious than the Goldman Sachs related Chelsea.
A new version of the Julio – Claudian dynasty ?, I shall fortunately be long dead before the Caligula & Nero equivalents arrive.
It’s been 23 years since a U.S. president publicly confronted the Lobby:
Shoshana Cardin, president of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, confronted President George H.W. Bush after his dramatic September 1991 press conference, claiming he was “one lonely little guy” facing “powerful political forces” as 1,200 Israel activists lobbied Congress seeking loan guarantees to help Israel resettle emigrating Soviet Jews.
In a private meeting, Cardin explained that talk of Jewish lobbyists out-muscling the president echoed traditionally bigoted exaggerations about Jewish power. Bush pointed out that he “didn’t use the word ‘Jews.’ ” Cardin explained he did not have to. “Everyone understood that the people you were referring to were Jewish. That’s why the White House switchboard lit up with so many messages of support from anti-Semites.”
“I never intended to hurt anyone,” Bush said, teary-eyed, “Or give encouragement to anti-Semitism.” He then apologized to the American Jewish leaders gathered to meet him.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/12/19/hagel-not-an-anti-semite-just-a-slob.html
————
Note how casually Shoshana Cardin equated ‘messages of support’ to ‘anti-Semites.’ Many Americans were delighted that Bush opposed a $10 billion giveaway to fund illegal settlements. But since the Lobby never argues the facts, slander is always its first and final resort.
Jim,
According to the Israeli lobby and fundamentalist Zionists, nearly everyone on the Left of the political spectrum is now a anti-Semite. They have now placed so many trip wires and zeroed in on language to such a fine degree that even the mildest of mild criticism against Israel and the warmongering Zionist xenophobes is immediately attacked, their biggest bucket of bile is saved for the Jewish “self hating brigade”. However, despite their best efforts, they have failed to close Noam Chomsky down, who’s a bit of a saint in my eyes.
There is, believe it or not, a bit of a movement afoot to try to put a crimp in that.
The censorship case:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-illinois-professor-israel-20140813-story.html#page=1
The movement:
http://coreyrobin.com/2014/08/14/over-1500-scholars-to-university-of-illinois-we-will-not-engage-with-you/
JT,
Many thank’s for the links, which obviously I have read, as well as comments posted on the links provided. I’m most opposed to “closing down” academic dialogue and debate and would never remove the right of those I’m flatly opposed too to vent their opinions in any medium – regrettably the same rights we adhere too and extend to them, they wish to remove from us, which essentially means they are opposed to freedom of speech, freedom of expression and freedom of religious belief, whilst allegedly espousing support for said beliefs and freedoms, but only as long as they apply to themselves – which, is hypocrisy if ever I’ve encountered it.
Iraq And The “Replacing The Head” Fallacy Moon of Alabama
WARNING – comments contain sarcasm……
“It is a U.S. foreign policy fallacy that changing the man at the top, always likened to Hitler, will solve everything. The fallacy is somewhat self enforcing. Some “senior administration official” leaks to the media that X is probably not such a good man. The media then go around and collect anecdotes, rumors and quotes which support the unspecific claims about X. The next day the “senior administration official” reads the New York Times or watches CNN and fells affirmed in his position because, you know, X is really a very bad man and the sole problem and all you need to confirm that is right there in the media.”
————————————————
Oh, how silly. Of course changing the guy at the top changes everything….Why, remember when the US assassinated ….uh, I mean replaced with extreme prejudice, Diem of South Vietnam????? Immediately all our problems were solved and we went on to a glorious victory, vanquishing communism In Southeast Asia. As a by product, the increase in this country of ramen, nail salons, and pho soups tripled GDP, paid for that war and all subsequent “police actions” and led to heaven on earth, as least in the USA…
Indeed, our own history shows that replacing our wall street back commander in chimp Bush with the angelic, Nobel prize winning President Obama, who has reversed every single Bush policy, and has made America an improved super duper heaven on earth, what with our flawlessly run health care and increased leisure….
Now, some malcontents, demons, and devil worshippers (we won’t mention any names….cough, cough,….poster of this comment, coughs lung out…..) might say that how we are Always bitching, moaning and whining about who we install to begin with (Karzai…..et al), what makes us think we can do better the second time than we did the first????????
but that’s just being a troll……..
I’m trying to figure out why they even think a political solution for Iraq is still on the table. Not a clue.
You forgot massage parlor, but yeah, no happy ending with those stories.
Friends;
A thought struggled its way into my mind while looking at the photographs of the Ferguson affair. The police do look like military. In fact, they remind me of the National Guard. So, inferring from that ‘insight’ I realized that this is a manifestation of the terminal stress that the “real” military is under. The National Guard has been used as reserve troops with the “real” military since at least the Gulf Wars. This is supposedly a result of the shrinkage of full time troop musters. With the National Guard off on ‘adventures’ around the world most of the time now, the local police are the logical ‘forces’ to pick up the slack. What I can foresee coming next in this chain of cause and effect is the legitimization of “Citizen Volunteer” Police Forces. “Ride Along” with regular police is quite a big thing. Someone I know who is doing this says that the training is rigourous, and the vetting is also quite strict. “H—! If I didn’t know better, I’d think they were signing me up to be a real cop!” was his half unbelieving assessment of the process. Once you’re fully vetted, many police forces will let you ride along with a regular policeman, armed with your own side arm, and “help out” where needed. A regular schedule and everything is provided, for some ones convenience. Since this is presently a roughly self selecting population, yahoos and wild boys predominate, a ramping up of “rough trade” police can be seen a way off on the horizon. That’s not the Cavalry coming to the rescue pardner!
This would the logical extension of the all volunteer fire departments. Growing up in the big bad city, firemen and cops were the professionally paid municipal workers. Living on and off in the surrounding suburbs, I was amazed at how well equipped and supported the volunteer fire departments were and how effective. On a national basis, the dark side of volunteer firemen was the high amount of arson fires started by volunteers who would then have something to go out and fight for real. If you think of the moral hazard of expanding volunteer cops to people who would foment riot situations, to enhance their personal authority on the basis of an out of control looting and burning down the god damn town riot, you have a civil war waiting to happen.
http://6abc.com/archive/7413229/
“On a national basis, the dark side of volunteer firemen was the high amount of arson fires started by volunteers who would then have something to go out and fight for real.
Oh fer cryin’ out loud.
I’m sure this absurd innuendo has nothing to do with the fact that firefighters are unionized and call volunteers “scabs” because volunteers undermine the union salary and pension negotiating position of the “professional” (unionized) firefighter.
It makes much more sense to intimate that many volunteers are arsonists. I’m sure that’s it.
Not sure what is the source of Paul Tioxon’s claim of a high number of arson fires by volunteers. But as an anecdotal observation, two friends of mine (brothers) were almost killed in an arson attack by a volunteer firefighter. After setting the fire with an accelerant and fleeing to his house half a mile away, he then showed up an hour later to serve coffee to the firefighters. Sounds like a cliche, but it really happened.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/07/sussex_county_firefighter_gets.html
The brothers were saved by their hero cat, the late Bachalagu.
And then there was “Backdraft.” A Ron Howard film.
Katniss,
And I mean this sincerely, but you are complete asshole.
Ouch! So was that a stick or a stone?
considering the times Paul and this wonderful blog…we’re all upset and tempers borderline. its in our best health not to turn on each other here…and yes i include learning from my own frustration(s).
“Buddha was walking through a village. A very angry and rude young man came up and began insulting him. “You have no right teaching others,” he shouted. “You are as stupid as everyone else. You are nothing but a fake. “Buddha was not upset by these insults. Instead, he asked the young man, “tell me, if you buy a gift for someone, and that person does not take it, to whom does the gift belong ?” The man was surprised to be asked such a strange question and answered, “it would belong to me because I bought the gift.”Buddha smiled and said ” that is correct. And it is exactly the same with your anger. If you become angry with me and I do not get insulted, then the anger falls back on you. You are then the only one who becomes unhappy.”
I don’t know where your town or burg is, but down here in the Deep South, there are almost no unionized volunteer fire departments. One case known to me personally is in the hinterlands above Biloxi Mississippi. In the way back, this VFD was staffed by members of one extended family exclusively. Everyone was related by blood or marriage. They were not the sole gene pool for the region. (Cue twangy banjo music.) Self selection at its’ best.
The portion of fires started by “volunteers” is much higher than supposed, ie. the true figures are suppressed, for one important reason: Insurance.
Remember. Only you can stop the Fires of Insurrection! (When did Lord Kitchener become a Bear, anyway?)
I once remarked, over dinner at the home of a relative and volunteer firefighter, I mentioned the high incidence of pyromaniacs working for fire departments.
I was immediately informed that “we did not speak about firefighters that way, in this house.”
Oops!
A week later, the Chief of the FD — a good friend of my relative/firefighter — was arrested for a string of arsons.
Ha! (I did not rub it in).
May I suggest the term “House Molester” ?
But seriously, I didn’t even know that was going on. I remember the stories in early American history where the volunteer bucket brigade would start the fire, then go in and loot the place. But I thought that was, well, history.
when I was a kid, we had a string of arsons in my hometown and it turned out to be a volunteer firefighter.
firebugs drawn to firefighting…doesn’t seem surprising.
The black shirts are not far off… :(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deputy_Dawg
Cisco Cutting 6,000 Jobs as CEO forecasts increasing executive bonuses.
There, I fixed it.
Look, somebody has to make sacrifices for the good of the company, its shareholders and thieving senior management – all those issued “pink slips” will be issued with a Certificate of Merit for making the ultimate sacrifice in the interests of greed and continuation of the pillaging of the commons – they are only workers after all and quite unnecessary for the continued success of the business and senior thieves who run it.
Forget the pink slips, forget the Certificate of Merit, what we need is a new medal.
I propose the Purple Fart (for those without a golden parachute). Maybe the Order of the Purple Petard sounds better.
To a certain extent I give conditional credibility to blogs and web sites that make the NC links list. I know that it isn’t possible for Yves and Lambert to verify the integrity of the linked content, but I assume they have reason to view the linked sites as worthy of readers time and consideration. But, NC might want to reconsider linking to George Washington’s Blog for information about Fukushima. Following the links there takes you to a news aggregator called ENENEWS whose “About” page gives no information about the people who created it – no names, no photos, no backgrounds, professional qualifications. Just a general description of the site as a news aggregator. The only reason to give the site the benefit of the doubt is that NC links to GW’s Blog, which relies on ENENEWS’ links for its Fukushima stories. I don’t think GW or ENENEWS deserve even that much endorsement. Why the total anonymity of ENENEWS’ creators?
http://www.theherald.com.au/story/1837908/ian-kirkwood-reliability-in-the-printed-word/
General Washington provides links on his site regularly. He includes dozens when they exist. He provides a table to lay it all out on for dicussion. Without as many points of view as are possible, how can we consider our own subjectivity objective?
I’d comment on the BS that masquerades as information but choose now to ignore it as just alarmist horseshit that actually has the effect of misinformation.
the drug war made everyone a suspect- What kind of person is attracted to police work? Answer: racists, bigots, xenophobes, sociopaths, violent people and dumb shits in general. All this BS about better training is ridiculous. ITS THE SCREENING ! Now the upper brass- the screeners-in cop shops around the country have been thoroughly infiltrated by sickos, those that aint sickos are ignoring/enabling the sicko cops around them. The police culture has changed in a huge way. Ex-military should not be allowed to become police officers. Throw in the MSM and the military industrial congressional complex and here we are. Dead innocents that include family dogs across the country due to psychotic overreactions by weirdos. You tube ‘police brutality’. The drug war was a major catalyst.
a gun and a badge and, voila, small men have big power (getting bigger) in their little worlds. If they couldn’t beat up on “criminals” they’d be home beating their wives and kids.
Of course, a democracy with constitutionally-protected and enforced civil liberties would put necessary constraints on their power…but, alas, civil liberties and justice for some (to take from Greenwald’s excellent book).
Apparent murder of an unarmed black boy followed by a demonstration of militarized thuggery by the local (94% white) police force.
Is this Ferguson Missouri 2014 or Birmingham Alabama 1964 ? Even the abuse and jailing of journalists is from the same bloodstained playbook.
Is this the way America chooses to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act ?
In fact I don’t seem to recall *any* national acts of celebration or commemoration … but maybe I’ve just missed this.
But, but, but, but, we have a black president!
So what if it is in color only. That is a feature, not a bug, don’t you know?
Wow, you’re right.
On the police state hates black people tip:
A young black bystander gets pepper sprayed and arrested in Seattle while bigoted troublemaking supporter goes free
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2014/08/12/westlake-mall-cop-ignores-agitator-maces-african-american-bystander-at-israel-protest
WSJ:
Mondoweiss has more including WSJ link
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/08/without-approval-bombshell.html
Mondoweiss is an excellent site, very helpful in cutting to the reality.
I want a list of the people fired for going behind the backs of White House and State department. They have the blood of Gaza on their hands. And we need to know why they did what they did. For money or misplaced loyalties or whatever. You can’t have this going on.
Yeah … yeah, that’s it, caught completely off guard I tell ya … yeah. In this case, the WH and State are like the fox standing in a pile of feathers, no plausible deniability whatsoever. But strike Obama’s name from any list anyway; the buck always passes him by, always, never even slows down.
Any reason to doubt Russia’s honesty in providing humanitarian aid to East Ukraine? That convoy of trucks rolling towards Ukraine is under heavy suspicion, as if it could be carrying military supplies to Russian separatists. Is such extreme distrust warranted? Or is it bad faith from Ukraine and the West to obstruct delivery of this aid?
There is a very simple solution: The Red Cross examines all cargo. But Russia has not agreed to this yet.
http://www.rferl.org/content/history-russia-humanitarian-aid/26527433.html
If Russia WAS giving the rebels weapons… Wouldnt that actually be a good thing?
No. Allowing Russia to supply weapons to separatists in East Ukraine is a really bad idea. What are you thinking? Nor should the USA or any other Western nation be supplying weapons to Ukraine. Duh! You seem to think that escalation of warfare is a good idea.
Problem: America IS sending weapons to Ukraine. Russia has to do it too to make it fair.
Do you have any clear evidence that the USA has sent weapons to Ukraine? When I say weapons, I do not mean bullet proof vests and night visions goggles. Those are not weapons. I talking about guns and bombs. I’m waiting for your web links. If they exist. Or is it only a fantasy in your mind that the USA is now a major arms supplier to Ukraine?
Wait a few months and the truth will come out. It took months for the truth that we were arming Syrian rebels with weapons to be admitted publicly.
Oh, I see! You make a broad allegations of misconduct by the US government, but you have absolutely no facts and no proof. And why should you have any need for facts or proof? It’s much easier just to smear peoples, institutions, and countries you don’t like.
Irony is alive and well, and totally lost on you.
Oh, I see! You make a broad allegations of misconduct by the Russian government, but you have absolutely no facts and no proof. And why should you have any need for facts or proof? It’s much easier just to smear peoples, institutions, and countries you don’t like.
Ouch! Wicked!
Let’s see, so far in addition to an unspecified number of “military advisors”, officially acknowledged by Army Times: “night vision goggles and additional communications … 300,000 Meals Ready to Eat … medical supplies … helmets, sleeping mats and water purification units, as well as explosive ordnance disposal equipment and handheld radios … 20-person shelters, sleeping bags, fuel filter adapters, barbed wire, patrol flashlights, perimeter alarm systems, fuel pumps, concertina wire, vehicle batteries, spare tires, binoculars excavators, trucks, generators, food storage freezers, field stoves, and communications gear.”
http://www.armytimes.com/article/20140605/NEWS08/306050088/U-S-sending-advisers-military-gear-Ukraine
Nope, no missles on the official inventory. But all that, money, the CIA, Blackwater and whatever armaments they may happen to have in their cargo holds. We’re only awaiting confirmation in the form of an official denial. Perhaps it would be appropriate for Russia to provide separatists with similar aid.
http://rt.com/news/158212-academi-blackwater-ukraine-military/
Say, why not kill two birds with one stone, and hire some of those right wing Ukrainian dudes, maybe the ones with that keen Wolfsangel rune sigil, and have them fight ISIS? Maybe we could arm them with Stinger missiles, or sumpin.
Murky – You are well named.
Definition according to Dictionary.com.
1.
dark, gloomy, and cheerless.
2.
obscure or thick with mist, haze, etc., as the air.
3.
vague; unclear; confused:
A clear case of self-incrimination.
I think giving people weapons to defend themselves from aggression is a good idea. If someone hits you and you hit back, I guess its ‘escalating the conflict’, but its also called ‘self defense’.
It’s only escalating if the instigator declines to get the message.
Very smooth operator you are. I agree we shouldn’t give the Kiev Junta weapons, it already does have a vast stockpile of Soviet weapons to murder ethnic Russians with.
Perhaps it is an ESL problem on my part, but where in the link provided does it say that the Red Cross will not be allowed to examine the cargo? Also, where does it say that Ukie customs will not be allowed to examine it? Try again Murky.
“That convoy of trucks rolling towards Ukraine is under heavy suspicion…
That’s quite an indictment.
For what it’s worth, the downing of MH 17 is under “heavy suspicion” as well.
There is a pattern there, and proof his paymasters are too cheap to tailor the talking points to the individual incidents.
I dont like him, but isnt accusing Murky of bad faith a bit too far? Hes just brainwashed like the rest of the population, IMO. I dont think hes some kind of American hasbara.
Tit-for-tat on my part :) Funny thing though, he is a naturalized American by way of Bosnia, so brainwashing is just a tad doubtful as an explanation. Perhaps it could be that Russia is Serbia’s historic ally, perhaps something else. But given his propensity to quote Snyder’s hasbara, I can hardly resist yanking on his chain when the opportunity presents itself. Which is often, BTW.
Why should a Bosnian be such a xenophobe to Russia, did not Russia come to Bosnia’s aid in 1914, or at least to the aid of the Slavs in the Balkans. Further, Yugoslavia under Tito was able to remain outside of the Soviet leash and was highly regarded in the West – things only went tits up in Yugoslavia once baboons became xenophobes within Serbia, by far the largest of the Federal republics. And, its not as if the West rendered too much assistance to halt the slaughter of innocents – I was ashamed to be British at the time, particularly given the involvement of David Owen, Lord Carrington and Paddy Ashdown in the debacle – not one of them invoked the conditions of the Peace of Westphalia, which by the way was still a legal document has it been invoked by all the Western European powers.
The thing about the Balkans is, no one’s hands are clean. Yet the overwhelming majority of any particular nation will claim its country to be as pure as the morning dew, the other guys are the devil. A small minority will acknowledge their own country’s responsibility, but insist that it was provoked by the evil other into defending itself. A few individuals here and there will actually be willing to publicly state the truth and criticize their country. It takes guts, as they are roundly condemned as traitorous scum by the ever present nationalists, or accused of digging up old history and disturbing the mental well-being of the nation by the more moderate elements who fashion themselves open minded and enlightened. My birthplace is no exception.
As to Murky’s Russia problem, I really think it is the historical connection between Russia and Serbia. In any case, it is best to ask him, but given that it took me two months to drag out the truth about his national origin, I won’t hold my breath for an honest or timely answer.
@OIFVet. You wrote: “Yet the overwhelming majority of any particular nation will claim its country to be as pure as the morning dew, the other guys are the devil.”
Hear! Hear! And it is important to keep this in mind when evaluating claims made by foreign rulers or populations when they try to blame all of their country’s ills on USGovt or the CIA. Again, well put!
I will try to remember that as NATO inexorably expands toward Russia’s borders, and blame it on Putin. Or not. Wake the fuck up FF, our government is an insane asylum, with the insane in charge.
please to not insult the insane by equating them with the evil dempublicans…..
“. . . any particular nation will claim its country to be as pure as the morning dew, the other guys are the devil.”
Either there’s no true Scotsman, or they’re (we’re?) all true Scotsmen.
If its humanitarian aid, leave it at the border under the auspices of the Red Cross to distribute. Problem solved.
Sure, wanna place odds on how much of it would be lost to the sticky little fingers of Ukie officialdom? Red Cross is far from lily white fount of purity either.
Then again, under the current circumstances, some AK-47s could be considered eating utensils, just in case some unwanted neighbors drop in and try and disturb the feast.
“AK-47s could be considered eating utensils’
Sporting goods..
“wanna place odds ”
I might, but against what? The equitable distribution of “humanitarian aid” by Russian truck drivers?”
But their all excellent truck drivers, ex-KGB!
Well who should the supplies go to, the fine people of Lvov? As far as I know the fighting is in the east, the supplies should go there. It will not happen under Ukie auspices, at least part of it will be diverted under ICRC auspices. It’s that simple. Like I said, these trucks will be thoroughly inspected by Ukie customs at the border entry. Nothing of military use could possibly slip, and besides there are other channels for that. Such as the one which the alleged “rebel BUK” allegedly slipped “in and out of Russia”. Putin is mounting a propaganda operation for the whole world to see the civil war as the ethnic cleansing it is meant to be, and the Ukies, the Murkies and such are playing right into his hands by raising so much fuss about humanitarian supplies for the East.
With amassed arms and men on the very permeable border, it wouldn’t be all that sensible to take a visible/unprotected convoy all the way from Moscow to deliver ordinance in cereal boxes. The convoy more than aid is carrying a message. But then that’s symbolism and metaphor which is somehow unfamiliar to those who shout Trojan horse.
Insightful comment. There is a bit of theatre going on here. Russia now has a humanitarian mission in Ukraine, in addition to its military mission. That’s a slice of positive publicity out of this very nasty war. And wouldn’t you know, Ukraine now has its own convoy of humanitarian aid trucks racing into Luhansk; seems they are imitating Russia’s moves and want to get in on the act. We are all humanitarians today. Compassion overwhelms us. Guns, knives, and bombs tomorrow.
The scenes in this international theatre have interesting turns of plot. That Russian humanitarian aid convoy was originally going to pass through the Kharkov region, but there has been a change of plan. That convoy veered east directly to the Russian controlled area of East Ukraine. It’s now waiting to cross the border into Ukraine, without any oversight by Ukrainian border guards or the Red Cross. What next? If this convoy does cross the border, Ukraine will declare it as a ‘Russian invasion’ of its territory. And here is where mistakes can be made. Will Ukraine attack and bomb a humanitarian aid convoy? What if it’s true that there is only humanitarian aid in those trucks? No weapons. And dead Russians. If ever there was ‘justification’ for Russia to go to full scale war against Ukraine, this could be it. I doubt Ukraine will be stupid enough to fire on this humanitarian aid convoy, but you never know, nation states sometimes do incredibly stupid things, like shoot down passenger aircraft.
This regional conflict appears to be escalating into a direct Russian intervention. A smaller Russian military convoy has already been sighted crossing the border into Ukraine. Complete details here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/11035401/Russian-armoured-vehicles-and-military-trucks-cross-border-into-Ukraine.html
From the Cayman Financial Review article:
‘FATCA’s champions are in the executive branch and come from the political left, where an ideological desire to grow government fuels the never-ending hunt for tax revenue. Congressional Republicans, on the other hand, largely believe that overseas Americans shouldn’t even be paying tax on foreign earnings, preferring the international norm of territorial taxation to the current uniquely American worldwide approach.
‘In all likelihood, the upcoming midterm elections will strengthen the hand of Republicans and further weaken what is soon to be a lame-duck administration. The Senate may even change hands from Democrats to Republicans, increasing the likelihood of the nascent FATCA repeal movement bringing legislation to the fore.’
————
Nice fantasy. Republicans LOVE growing government. Just look at all the great new departments George W. Bush brought us, such as Homeland Security.
Republicans (despite what they claim) also love taxes. Republican Bill Archer sponsored HIPAA in 1996, which imposed a Soviet-style exit tax on expatriating Americans (namely, a presumption of tax avoidance if an expatriate’s five-year average net income tax exceeded $100,000, or if the expatriate’s net worth was $500,000 or more). Harassing expats is a Republican specialty.
This same dynamic is in play right now with Obamacare. After the House voted thirty-odd times to repeal it, polling has convinced windsock Republicans to ‘mend not end’ Obuggercare.
Rule #1 in US politics is ‘never trust a Republican.’ (Rule #2 is ‘never trust a Democrat,’ but that’s another post.)
Republicans hate taxes. OTOH, other than giving it lip service, they don’t seem to mind saddling the taxpaying public with massive debt.
Trickle up.
Well, at least they were honest enough to qualify them as the political left.
On CISCO cutting jobs… Arnt most of those jobs white collar jobs in the STEM careers we have a supposed ‘shortage’ of that we supposedly need to get more of with H1B Visas?
And the white collar middle class still thinks its immune to offshoring/replacement by immigrants. How quaint.
Well, then, it’s a good day. We’ve just added 6000 more souls to our now less pitiful STEM stockpile.
More proof the Law Squaw is a Warhawk in the same cloth as the other neoliberals
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/08/elizabeth-question-israel.html
Title of article:
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, 1, ducks question on Gaza, 2, plans trip to Israel, and 3–
JP Updates is real up-front about it:
Want to oust the incumbent? Travel to Israel! Roy Cho, the Democrat challenger to Republican Congressman Scott Garrett of New Jersey, is embarking on a 60-hour visit to Israel next week, The Star Ledger reported Friday.
Cho, a 33-year-old corporate lawyer, is seeking to unseat New Jersey’s most conservative congressman in the Bergen County 5th Congressional district that has a large Jewish population.
“It’s really important that I go over there right now,” Cho told the Ledger.
The visit includes, according to the itinerary, a tour in Jerusalem’s old city, a visit the Knesset and a drive down South to the town of Sderot.
http://jpupdates.com/2014/08/08/bergen-county-nj-dem-challenger-rep-garrett-visit-israel/
————
Be sure to bring a lawn chair to Sderot, Roy, so you can join all the folks watching the fireworks show.
I’d say astounding….but the word simply lacks the power to convey the absurdity and bizarreness of where we now find ourselves. Astoundtastic?????
here’s a breakdown of the many arsenals used on ‘crowd’ control: Crowd control: Riot police techniques from Ferguson to France http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/8/14/crowd-control-techniques.html
“Reading isn’t an occupation we encourage among police officers. We try to keep the paperwork down to a minimum.”
Joe Orton, Loot
U.S. Bank Profits Near Record Levels (WSJ)
Industry Posts Second-Highest Profit in 23 Years in Quarter Ended June 30; Improved Credit Quality Helps
&
Large banks have agreed to pay almost $110 billion to settle cases (stay out of jail) related to the 2008 credit crisis, including lawsuits over mortgages, foreclosures and some of the fire-sale deals made at the height of the financial meltdown. (interactive) Select bars to see more information.
http://graphics.wsj.com/documents/legaltab/?mod=e2tw
Anyone noticing a huge uptick in US-centered propaganda/’Us vs Them’ comments online lately? This ranges across all topics, from Ukraine/Russia/economics/criticism-of-domestic-US/Iraq/everything.
It’s probably just my (overinflated) anecdotal experience, but people are getting really fond of dismissing people they disagree with as ‘putinbots’ and similar idiotic stuff like that, and are starting to associate peoples views with RT (Russia Today), as a stick to beat people with by-association.
Obviously this is not-unexpected when it comes to Ukraine, but I’m starting to see it in a lot of other topics – and it looks consistent enough to be organized.
We really need whistleblowers who can ‘out’ online propaganda groups, like Hasbara and such have been outed – it’s getting important now, because paid propaganda online, is becoming a seriously effective way of controlling or at least disrupting discussion on a lot of topics, and the groups that are out there doing this badly need to be outed.
What if all those potential whistleblowers are working in an SCI/STRAP compartmented operation? The British seem to be very good about deniably disposing of people who develop inconvenient consciences.
Well, there’d be no way to compartmentalize this information, there would just be people getting paid to promote certain viewpoints, and to disrupt discussion over other certain viewpoints – all they would need to do is blow the whistle on that.
The most that this can be obfuscated, is to hide who is paying for it, but the knowledge of what viewpoints are being funded for promotion/suppression, is vitally important all by itself – regardless of whether or not you can prove who is paying for it.
Where I live, on the outskirts of Eastern Rednkistan, VA (in the late Congressman Cantor’s district), the “conservative” middle class has gone plum insane trying to balance the dissociation between what they have brought on themselves (reality), and their strongly-held gut feelings (expectations). I swear to god, every time I engage one of these dimwits in political discussion, I hear what sounds like a washing machine with an unbalanced load on full spin. If these folks’ heads weren’t attached to their bodies, I do believe they’d shimmy across the basement floor.
They hate Obama, but for all the wrong reasons (they cite signing statements, gun laws, and tax increases, for Christ’s sake). They hate brown people (I know, because I’m white and am assumed to be a ‘good ol’ boy — it also doesn’t hurt that many of my extended family are in this group (so there is absolutely no self-censorship), until one of their kids marries one — and then they can’t remember having ever been racist). They hate on “liberals” without benefit of knowing what that word means. They claim that they are worse off than they were Before “Barry”, but they obviously aren’t. They hate science, and history, and facts (the latter, only when they don’t support their gut feelings).
They love guns — shooting guns, buying guns, talking about guns, teaching their 5 year-olds how to shoot HANDguns (I shit you not). Recently, some smart fucker opened a “cowboy” church. Gone are the days when side arms and Roy Rogers/Dale Evans costumes are confined to the conservative bedroom — now, you can wear that stupid shit to church. (I hope the dude who opened this church gets rich, and that some pseudo-wrangler gets a non-fatal shot in the ass when they kneel next to their imaginary horses, to pray to Cowboy Jesus).
Which brings me to religion. These folks ALL identify as Christians, although I don’t believe any of them has had a chance to read the book. If they have, there’s no way to know it (cognitive dissonance, once again).
Same goes for the Constitution.
Furthermore, and perhaps most alarmingly, they have utterly failed to heed Snoop Dog’s advice on money management. They know nothing about economics. They are generally active or retired government workers or contractors for the M/I complex, and they can see neither the hypocrisy in their politics, or the damage their support for trickle-down and tax cuts have done to the middle class. They seem to love the highly stratified corporate structure, as long as they are in middle management, or better. They are all self-made.
They also love the police and the military (rigid stratification, once again). Hell — they love authority so much they don’t seem to mind being on the receiving end of it (they might be expecting a reach-around, but I doubt they’ll get it — or an engagement ring).
Meanwhile, “liberals” cower in the corner — afraid that words WILL break their bones. Worried that the boss might find out. Worried that they’ll get punched-out, or worse, for speaking up (anyone has ever stood up to a loud-mouthed “conservative” bully, will understand how unaccustomed they are to being challenged and how ill prepared they are to actually defend against an aggressive counter-stance — especially if the counter comes from someone they’re not too sure about or who from whom the were expecting a timid response).
The officials elected by liberals — who are anything but liberals, themselves — need only be slightly left of their “opposition” to remain viable alternatives to radically eccentric right wing candidates.
The crux of all this?
We’ve gone full right. No wonder black citizens are being shot dead on the streets and in stores. No wonder peaceful protest is met with overwhelming firepower.
As soon as we have a Kent State moment, things might change (although we might be too numb to react).
The so called middle and lower middle classes have been cleverly herded off into a niche, all their own. What got the Anti Vietnam War protests going in force was the increasing number of boys coming home in a box. That was a result of the Draft. When you hear about someone you knew and remembered being buried after giving that last full measure, War becomes personal. You have a face to put on it.
Kent State was almost an aberration of sorts. The Public was primed already for massive dissent. The victims and perpetrators were youngsters that the Middle Class could relate to. A direct assault on “people like us” had occurred. That was when America was mainly “White.” Now America is turning into a more global nation. Whites are beginning to lose their grip on power. The previously held down peoples are flexing their political and economic muscles. What we have to beware of at this time is what is clearly a class struggle being diverted into a fabricated race struggle.
Divide and Conquer. A strategy that has stood the test of time.
The only color the Power Structure respects is green.
“White” America is in for a(nother) hard kick to the ass, when they find out that they are not among the “real” Americans, strictly by virtue of pigmentation. The color of the slave matters not a whit to his master. Green. Why, even the shackles are green.
Thank you. Yes. We’ve gone full authoritarian right. And it’s why I say though I”m not sure if poor right wingers can be spun left (and to what? the Dem party? some good that will do them! we’d need an actual workers movement…) the hardest authoritarianism comes from the middle class and up conservatives, those ultimately driven by the need to keep their stuff. It’s not a case of “what’s the matter with Kansas”. As they are “haves” not “have nots”. It’s not a case of not having formal education, they usually do as that is part of being priveledged and staying that way. They are often haves because they have worked for the MIC or the public sector, in some cases because they got rich in the private sector, but yea they overwhelmingly indentify with keeping their stuff and they actually have stuff.
“They love guns — shooting guns, buying guns, talking about guns, teaching their 5 year-olds how to shoot HANDguns ”
That would be the “Brutalization Stage”. Still salvageable , but most are probalbe doomed.
http://www.csudh.edu/dearhabermas/tchessay64.htm
Lonnie Athens sees the social process of violentization as occurring in four stages: (at pp. 112 – 140 of Rhodes, Why They Kill.)
A.Brutalization Stage:
This is the stage in which the subject is first forced into subjugation by a member of his/her primary group. We would like you to consider, at this stage, the extent to which the subject has
1.Violent subjugation: the subject must comply with an order or face physcial or verbal force, up to and including violence. (at p. 112) In coercion, the violence ends upon submission. In retaliation, the violence does not end upon submission, the authority figure continues with the violence to gain long-term submission and/or respect. Athens speaks of this as denying the “precious luxury” of “choosing when to end the assault by submitting.”
2. Personal horrification: the subject must experience the violent subjugation of a member of his/her primary group — “mother, sister or brother or a very close friend.” Builds conflict in that the subject begins to feel guilt behind the helplessness.
3. Violent coaching: someone appoints himself/herself as the coach who insists that the subject must defend himself/herself, depend only on himself/herself, and that it is their “personal responsibility which they cannot evade, but must discharge regardless of whether they are a man or a woman, young or old, large or small, or what their prior beliefs . . . about hurting others may have been.
Means of coaching vary, and there may be more than one coach at a time.
Methods include:
a. Vainglorification, which “glorifies violence through storytelling
b. Ridicule, which “promotes violence through belittling and derision.”
c. Coercion. “Some coaches threaten novices not with psychological punishment, as in ridicule, but with physical punishment.” “Stand up and fight, or I’ll beat you myself.”
Now, I’m really worried.
I do what I can to counter it — maybe that sends conflicting messages. Passive resistance from a position of strength and seniority is all I’ve got (otherwise, I validate the violence being taught).
Oy.
They ought to make people take a test before having kids.
Just finished this book. really creeped me out.
Just nails it with individual historical examples, BTW one being L. H. Oswald
Q: What is Why They Kill about?
A: Why They Kill reports and extends the breakthrough work of the American criminologist Dr. Lonnie Athens, who has discovered through in-depth interviews with several hundred violent criminals what causes people to become seriously violent — to commit murder, rape and violent assault.
Q: Are violent people crazy?
A: No. Most of the violent criminals Dr. Athens studied were not mentally ill. Most people who are mentally ill are not violent, and if they are, it isn’t because they’re mentally ill. People confuse violence with mental illness because violence is unusual in a civil society and seems self-defeating and “out of control.” The violent don’t see it that way.
People also confuse violence with mental illness because some mental health professionals believe violent behavior by itself, without other indications of pathology, is a sign of mental illness. It’s an old belief, going back to 19th-century medicine. There has never been good evidence to support it.
Q. Can violent people be cured?
A. Once people have completed violentization — once they have begun to use serious violence against other people with little or no provocation — no one, including Dr. Athens, has found a way to de-escalate their violent behavior. That’s not surprising, since violence pays powerful dividends from the violent person’s point of view: it reduces his risk of being violently dominated, rewards him with violent notoriety and enables him to dominate others. Since most acts of criminal violence are committed by young people between the ages of fifteen and thirty, it does appear that violent people decide to use violence less frequently as they get older. Since there is no known cure for violent criminality, Why They Kill endorses a public policy of selective incarceration: focusing scarce public resources on identifying the most seriously violent offenders, prosecuting them and incarcerating them under long prison sentences without parole.
But the most important consequence of Dr. Athens’s work is that it offers solid scientific evidence to support programs of violence prevention. If a violent novice must fully experience and complete all four stages of violentization to become a dangerous violent criminal, then intervening at any point along the way should prevent that destructive outcome. Preventing child abuse and violent domination, sheltering and protecting battered spouses, teaching negotiation skills to counter violent coaching, giving belligerent children counseling and better alternatives rather than simply expelling them from school, punishing initial violent performances to make sure their perpetrators consider them defeats rather than victories — these and other interventions can prevent violent novices from becoming full-blown violent criminals.
Q. What can parents do?
A. First, stop worrying about media violence making their children violent. It doesn’t. Second, make sure that their children are not being brutalized by family members, at school, in gangs or on the streets. If they are, they’re likely to show traumatic stress disturbances — anxiety, avoidance, disturbed sleep, depression, inappropriate anger — if not actual physical injury. Third, recognize that violence is a community problem for which community members bear personal responsibility. Bystanders encourage violent behavior, because violent people take indifference or neutrality for endorsement. Violentization can be prevented or interrupted. Many people believe they have a right to attack people physically who unduly provoke them, especially their spouses and children. Parents and other citizens need to identify and support school and community programs — there are many — designed to exemplify and teach nonviolent alternatives to bullying and violent disputes, violentization. Such experience calls for
immediate intervention, which will be more effective if the violent young person has suffered a defeat. At this point, he needs resocialization into a nonviolent primary group. Wildcat High School in the Bronx attempts to do that with violent and potentially violent students. The Menninger Peaceful Schools Project uses defensive martial arts training, which incorporates an ethical code of gentleness and compassion, to teach young people nonviolent values.
Unfortunately, once someone has committed a serious act of violence, signalling virulency, official intervention may add to his violent notoriety and increase his commitment to violence. No one has discovered how to reverse virulency in a dangerous violent criminal. Until such understanding is available, society has little choice but to segregate violent criminals from other people.
The best way to prevent the development of dangerous violent criminals is to prevent the brutalization of children. The United States is losing that battle. The number of children killed by abuse has increased by fifty percent in the past decade. A 1998 Gallup poll found that almost five percent of U.S. parents report punishing their children by punching, kicking, throwing them down or hitting them with a belt, hairbrush, stick or some other hard object elsewhere than on the bottom — a percentage that corresponds to some three million children. Parents also reported that 1.3 million of their children had been sexually abused within the past twelve months. In another study of teenage boys and girls commissioned by Children Now, a child advocacy group, and Kaiser Permanente, a health-care company, forty percent of teenage girls reported having a friend their own age who had been hit or beaten by a boyfriend. More than twenty-five percent of teenage boys reported having a friend who had been a victim of gang violence; almost half had a friend who had been threatened with a weapon. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
The last time that I made a libertarian point in public, several months ago, a guy who overheard walked over and told me that I should be killed for holding that view and not holding the liberal view. He was well over a foot taller than me. There are scary bullies among the liberals, I can tell you, at least here in liberal-land.
I hope you or someone in your group stood up to the guy.
I can’t say that I know many, actually, any, violent liberals (‘though I do know a passel of violent criminals from the ol’ neighborhood, I don’t think they were of any particular political persuasion).
He came up to me when I was standing there by myself, the person I had been talking with had just headed off to do something. I stood up to him myself. Fortunately I pretty much lack physical fear, since otherwise it would have been very frightening. My group, haha, that would be nice.
Best approach is to be kind, it’s very frustrating to a**hats like that.
you: Thank you! Your suggestion has been noted Comrade Beria!
him: My name isn’t Beria.
you: Ahhh, my mistake…
He wouldn’t have gotten it. He was too angry. Snide would have been lost on him.
Divide-et-impera. Whatever else can be said about it, it works.
All hell broke loose when the decision was made to “update” the King James Bible to the New Revised Standard and other “contemporary” massacres of the true word of God.
If some gun packing flag waving bozo actually reads the Bible in King James English — he immediately becomes thoughtful and contemplative and embarrassed at his own foolish vanity. He subdues himself and regains control.
,
But if he can toss out a few lazy phrases from some contemporary version, there’s no force of words that penetrates his boned head and he retains the full illusion of piety as he parades around in his Roy Rogers hat and tattoo-infested bicep waving a revolver like a clown in a circus.
It’s undeniable, the catastrophe of contemporary Biblical translations. No man or woman can walk in the sight of the Lord with a Bible translated after 1900 or even 1700. When God speaks English, He doesn’t need to be improved upon.
and they hate “welfare” (and blacks and mexicans, the supposed big welfare-suckers) until THEY need some kind themselves…and still they don’t see it. Clueless about corporate welfare.
I live amid a lot of these rednecks you describe in NC. I am amazed -though I shouldn’t be- when I still hear the word nigger slip out…
(and re family, just yesterday my son said, wow, uncle scott “likes” to some really right-wing sites. facebook (which I don’t do). My twin brother is a northern narrow-minded bigot high-wage redneck-in-a-suit. sad. Don’t see my family much…too hard.)
In other words, things might change when the police/SWAT/Army murder white people in the streets for fighting the power.
Sorry for the repetition, since i’ve already posted messages about this several times in recent months, but if we’re not satisfied with the faux-progressive politicians currently in office, then we need to vote for third party candidates.
Many here do. It amounts to a few drops of water in the bucket of crap that is America’s electoral system. It was designed to maintain the illusion of choice on behalf of the two wings of the Corporatist Party, and all recent SCOTUS decisions have made third party win even more remote. Money shouts, and the elections are drowned with corporatist cash. Do not take this a call to boycott elections, but to me the inordinate attention given to national races is plain wrongheaded. We should aim to start electing third party candidates on the local level, and go up from there. It will take a lot of legwork, but it is the only realistic starting point IMO.
That’s how the Evangelicals grabbed Texas and other states by the b—s.
I’m in a quandary about what would the Lefts equivalent of the Religious Church organizational framework be.
There is left and there is “left”. We must figure out which of the two we are talking about.
I maintain that a good strategy is just voting the bums out. I have been trying to do it since ‘05, when I quit my party membership. Since I apply this to all incumbents, I have to be consistent by not recommending one party or other. The reason is that voters who identify as Democrats or Republicans tend to vote the party line, and that slate always includes their incumbents. So I recommend being independent in using this strategy. Even if incumbents win, they take notice if their margin of victory diminishes because of people voting against them. I can’t be rigid in this, because sometimes the challenger is crazier than the incumbent, but in those cases I have no problem leaving the ballot blank.
In my simple mind, I’ve narrowed American politics down to a choice between corporate vs. not so much corporate. Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, and Independent are all decidedly corporate in varying shades of grey ranging from bat shit crazy to willful benign neglect.
I am increasingly discouraged with what the options are even at the local level. At this point, I feel we would be better served if the House of Representatives was chosen by lottery with the caveat that no lobbyist or firm could work in Washington for more than 2 years in any 6 consecutive year period. Because lobbyists never term out.
People vote to belong and nurse their fantasies of megalomania. Under the circumstances, that’s a fairly rational repurposing. The parties are little more than identities. All politics is identity politics. To get votes, you have to deliver the goods.
How do we guarantee that third party officials, once elected, will continue to stand aloof from the majors and continue to prosecute the policies they were elected to advance? Even Bernie Sanders is getting uncomfortably blue these days. If we can’t guarantee that *and credibly and reliably stop the plans we consider undesirable before they come to fruition*, then what’s the difference what color shirt they wear? You’re asking for good-natured people in government. If they are just about completely absent, might there be structural defects that need repair before anything but hamburger and horse meat comes out of this machine?
Divide-et-impera was the Framers’ favored national policy and continues to this day.
And that was supposed to be a reply to Johann Sebastian Schminson’s 2:03 message. Oh well.
Regarding the general atmosphere which Fukushima leads to . . . here is a Rigorous Intuition post called
We Are The Monsters We Have Been Waiting For.
http://rigint.blogspot.com/2011_09_01_archive.html
Hey vatch, instead of haranguing the dwindling ranks of dupes who still think voting gets you somewhere, wouldn’t it be easier to go to the guys who stuff the ballots? FBI surveillance contractor and Booz Allen revolving-door VP Dominic Endicott could flick a finger and put Jill Stein in there, if you asked him nicely.
And score another one for the Conspiracists! Ron Unz (who has recently launched The Unz Review – a website that might appeal to some of the NC Commentariat) – has just posted an article in which he concludes (tentatively) that the downing of Flight MH17 may very well have been a US-sponsored false flag operation.
http://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-who-shot-down-flight-mh17-in-ukraine/
The article is also noteworthy for some insider gossip re how some left-leaning publications have hesitated to state similar views for fear of losing MSM visibility.
It was obviously the US. Or the Russians. Or the Ukrainians. Or the Maylasians. Or the Dutch. Or some combination of any or all of these.
The seeds of doubt have been sown. Deniability is now plausible for all parties.
Just in case there was any doubt that Missouri was a live-fire exercise for full COG deployment. The deep state is surfacing. The only thing that can contain it now is elite faction compounded by international pressure, fair and foul. Everyone will take sides, like it or not.
Main-stream MO Dems, MIA for several days, now piling on Ferguson debacle – hypocritical mo’fo’s waiting to see which way the wind is blowing, then realising they are WAY behind the curve, and now trying to get some face-time to “do the right thang”:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/14/1321549/-Missouri-Governor-announces-St-Louis-County-Police-to-be-relieved-of-their-duties-in-Ferguson?detail=email
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/14/1321605/-Mo-Gov-Nixon-Promises-Operation-Shift-in-Policing-Sen-McCaskill-Says-County-Police-Out?detail=email
What is the American expression for this sort of thing: “A dollar short and a day late”, is it not?
A day late and a dollar short (yours is inverted).
Agreed: these opportunistic cowards should have been out in front of their constituents from the start.
It is time for Black people to realize what Glen Ford and friends at BAR have been saying all along: the Democrats are not their friends. Up to and including the first half-black President Barry O, the top dog in the Black Misleadership hierarchy.
Close – a day late and a dollar short.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/seven-reasons-police-brutality-is-systematic-not-anecdotal/
In central New Jersey, for instance, 99 percent of police brutality complaints are never investigated
Those officers who are found guilty of brutality typically find the settlement to their victims paid from city coffers. Research from Human Rights Watch reveals that in some places, taxpayers “are paying three times for officers who repeatedly commit abuses: once to cover their salaries while they commit abuses; next to pay settlements or civil jury awards against officers; and a third time through payments into police ‘defense’ funds provided by the cities.”
Simply put,” says University of Florida law professor Katheryn K. Russell, “the public face of a police brutality victim is a young man who is Black or Latino.” In this case, research suggests perception matches reality. To give a particularly striking example, one Florida city’s “stop and frisk” policy has been explicitly aimed at all black men. Since 2008, this has led to 99,980 stops which did not produce an arrest in a city with a population of just 110,000
During President Obama’s gun control push, he argued that “weapons of war have no place on our streets;” but as Radley Balko has amply documented in his 2013 book, Rise of the Warrior Cop, local police are often equipped with weapons powerful enough to conquer a small country. Police use of highly armed SWAT teams has risen by 1,500 percent in the last two decades, and many police departments have cultivated an “us vs. them” mentality toward the public they ostensibly serve.
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COMMENT – They don’t serve us, we serve them. It was an interesting experiment, limited government, but its over
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Here’s the real clincher. A Department of Justice study revealed that a whopping 84 percent of police officers report that they’ve seen colleagues use excessive force on civilians, and 61 percent admit they don’t always report “even serious criminal violations that involve abuse of authority by fellow officers.”
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Remember the “don’t be a snitch” movement. Looks like the boys in blue do it too…..
Joe Scarborough, totalitarian douchebag: “On Morning Joe today, Scarborough characterized Lowery and Reilly as some kind of disobedient fame-seekers. “There is a lot of unanswered questions here, but I do know this,” Scarborough said. “When a police officer asks you to pick up—I’ve been in places where police officers said, ‘All right, you know what? This is cordoned off, you guys need to move along.’ You know what I do? I go, ‘Yes, sir,’ or ‘Yes, ma’am.’ I don’t sit there and have a debate and film the police officer, unless I want to get on TV and have people talk about me the next day.” http://www.thenation.com/blog/181285/reporter-arrested-ferguson-rips-joe-scarborough-running-his-mouth.
This after demonizing Edward Snowden. In Scarborough’s America, journalism and wistleblowing should always be subordinated to the needs of the emerging totalitarian state and its henchmen. Total compliance comrades, now go have a Starbuck.
In the no doubt unrelated war on the crime of committing journalism in newly democratic Ukraine: “Ukraine should immediately clarify the whereabouts of Rossiya Segodnya photographer Andrei Stenin, who went missing in Ukraine on August 5, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his Ukrainian counterpart Thursday…Ukraine’s Interior Minister Adviser Anton Herashchenko said Tuesday that the journalist was arrested by Ukrainian security services for allegedly “aiding terrorists.”…An OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic called in a statement for Stenin’s immediate release, as the “dangerous practice of detaining and abducting media workers is unacceptable and must end.” http://en.ria.ru/russia/20140814/192013041/Ukraine-Should-Immediately-Clarify-Whereabouts-of-Missing.html. There you have it comrades, we done modeled Ukraine in our likeness. Or perhaps we modeled ourselves after the Ukraine. It is all so confusing to me right now.
Yes indeed, good sir, it is “Western values” bringing “freedom and justice” to eastern Ukraine, with Nato and the EU at the beck and call of their paymaster, Herr Obama, liberating the peasants from the yoke of Russian irredentism…or, NOT. And who do you think is complicit in burying all the forensic evidence that would implicate Ukrainian AF in downing MH-17? An absolute contrived false-flag operation well below the pathetic standards of Tonkin Gulf. Only possible with the contrivance of Western media and the laughable, risible “intelligence” services, full stop. Does anyone SERIOUSLY believe that the Malaysian authorities will be able to get unadulterated “forensic evidence” from the Dutch or Brits? Anyone who has read even a quarter of John Le Carre’s so-called “fictional” novels will eventually get the drift: it’s a put-up job, results of “enquiry” known well before conclusions reached. “The evidence will fit the policy”, end of story.
http://code3.jalopnik.com/how-police-departments-became-armies-1621517225/+TylerRogoway
Well, there probably is a logical reason for it. All these soldiers come back from overseas duty, dust off the resume and get a job at the police dept. The police department finds out they can’t work a cop issue .38, so the police department has to get equipment their people know how to use. Perfectly natural. Plus it’s good for the economy. We got a missile plant in town and Senator John has been very, very, good to us.
The problem with this mingling of domestic policing with military operations is that the two institutions have starkly different missions. The military’s job is to annihilate a foreign enemy. Cops are charged with keeping the peace, and with protecting the constitutional rights of American citizens and residents. It’s dangerous to conflate the two.
As former Reagan administration official Lawrence Korb once put it, “Soldiers are trained to vaporize, not Mirandize.” That distinction is why the U.S. passed the Posse Comitatus Act more than 130 years ago, a law that explicitly forbids the use of military troops in domestic policing.
Animals don’t need to be Mirandized: ‘Chicago zoo, Catholic university among agencies getting Pentagon assault weapons’. “Since June 2012 Illinois officials have tried to block release of information we’ve requested concerning high powered automatic weapons, armored battlefield vehicles and combat helicopters” being doled out by the Pentagon to public and select private agencies. This includes the “arsenal of automatic combat rifles” given to Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo.” http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=241596.msg1401672#msg1401672.
The fucking zoo too?! I have long refused to set foot in animal prisons, this just reinforces my determination.
Beyond the obvious inappropriateness of providing this military infrastructure to communities, the financial darkside all of this crap turns rolls into a yearonyear maintenance training operational exercising municipal funding pit.
Don’t you know the zoo is where it’s all happening?
This looks like one of those redline things.
Russian military pass Go. Next move to western monopolist.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/14/russian-military-vehicles-enter-ukraine-aid-convoy-stops-short-border
N̶e̶o̶l̶i̶b̶e̶r̶a̶l̶ ̶i̶m̶p̶e̶r̶i̶a̶l̶i̶s̶t̶s̶ The honorable US military will prevail!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlSQAZEp3PA