Random News Stories

[Junkenstein]

And it's really not a good week for planes.

Algeria's national airline, Air Algerie, says it has lost contact with one of its planes flying from Burkina Faso to Algiers across the Sahara.

Contact was lost about 50 minutes after take-off from Ouagadougou, it said. The plane was last seen at 0155 GMT.

Flight AH 5017 had 110 passengers and six crew on board, Spanish airline Swiftair, which owns the plane, said.

[Junkenstein]

Instead of the latest health scare being (random animal) Flu, we've just gone straight to Ebola.

I'm rather tempted to call in sick to work claiming to have it.

[Junkenstein]

Republicans apparently trying to sue Obama.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-28565772

The US House of Representatives has passed a resolution to sue President Barack Obama for allegedly exceeding his constitutional powers.

The 225-201 vote along party lines means House lawyers will now draft legal documents to launch a lawsuit.

Its supporters say Mr Obama exceeded his powers when he delayed an insurance deadline in his healthcare law.

The president himself has dismissed it as a waste of time. "Everyone sees this as a political stunt," he said.

"If they're not going to do anything, we'll do what we can on our own," the president added.

"And we've taken more than 40 actions aimed at helping hardworking families like yours. That's when we act - when your Congress won't."

The action is reportedly the first time either the House or Senate has brought legal action against a president over the legality of his powers, although members of Congress have sued the president before.

I'm going to be amused to see how far this goes. All I really know for sure is that before it's finished a lot of people are going to say a lot of very dumb things.

[Trivial]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/07/31/trolls-quickly-drown-reaganbook-social-media-site-in-sea-of-profanity-pornography/

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/07/31/trolls-quickly-drown-reaganbook-social-media-site-in-sea-of-profanity-pornography/

[Cain]

The Dagestani insurgents have gone all weaksauce all of a sudden.  They've put a blanket ban on suicide bombings against non-military targets, and denounced ISIS.  Shamil Basayev is probably spinning in his graves.  All 57 of them.

[Junkenstein]

What. The Fuck.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-28656050

German prosecutors say they would accept an offer of $100m (£60m) from Formula 1 chief Bernie Ecclestone to end his trial on bribery charges.

The Munich state court is expected to agree to the offer later on Tuesday.

The 83-year-old billionaire went on trial in April, charged with bribery and incitement to breach of trust.

He is accused of paying a German banker 33m euros (£26m; $44m) to ensure that a company he favoured could buy a stake in F1. He denies wrongdoing.

To get out of a Bribery trial, the man is essentially bribing the German prosecutors/state.

How does this work again exactly? Seriously, help me out here. I can't figure out which bit is the most corrupt.

[minuspace]

What. The Fuck.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-28656050

German prosecutors say they would accept an offer of $100m (£60m) from Formula 1 chief Bernie Ecclestone to end his trial on bribery charges.

The Munich state court is expected to agree to the offer later on Tuesday.

The 83-year-old billionaire went on trial in April, charged with bribery and incitement to breach of trust.

He is accused of paying a German banker 33m euros (£26m; $44m) to ensure that a company he favoured could buy a stake in F1. He denies wrongdoing.

To get out of a Bribery trial, the man is essentially bribing the German prosecutors/state.

How does this work again exactly? Seriously, help me out here. I can't figure out which bit is the most corrupt.

The one closest to the fulcrum is considered the most corrupt.

[LMNO]

What. The Fuck.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-28656050

German prosecutors say they would accept an offer of $100m (£60m) from Formula 1 chief Bernie Ecclestone to end his trial on bribery charges.

The Munich state court is expected to agree to the offer later on Tuesday.

The 83-year-old billionaire went on trial in April, charged with bribery and incitement to breach of trust.

He is accused of paying a German banker 33m euros (£26m; $44m) to ensure that a company he favoured could buy a stake in F1. He denies wrongdoing.

To get out of a Bribery trial, the man is essentially bribing the German prosecutors/state.

How does this work again exactly? Seriously, help me out here. I can't figure out which bit is the most corrupt.

I'd say the courts; if the guy's a billionaire, then at most he's giving up 0.001% of his total wealth.

To put that in perspective, it's like an average person making $30,000 a year paying a one-time $30 fine.

[Junkenstein]

The fact that this kind of deal is even on the table is astonishing to me. The ratio makes it even worse.

It's certainly one of the best examples so far this year of a very blatant two-tier justice system. Once you're beyond a certain point of wealth, a different set of rules apply. What's worse is this is actively enabled by people who seem to think they'll eventually reach that tier themselves.

[LMNO]

Sadly, I think it's mainly the innumeracy of most people who just don't immediately see how little $1,000,000 is when compared with $1,000,000,000.  The numbers are simply too big, and mental anchors are in place that make a percentage of income just feel wrong.

I mean, let's say an adequate fine would be one-third of total wealth.  That would mean this guy would be paying Three Hundred Million dollars.  I'm sure most people would say that's far too heavy a penalty to pay for a corruption case, but the guy would still have Seven Hundred Million dollars at the end of the day.

[Junkenstein]

There's that problem again. The fine. The deal.

The stated penalty for what he's (allegedly) done is jail. What percentage of your wealth would you value your freedom at? Personally, mine's a damn higher than 33%.

What I take offence to here is that it essentially is no real penalty at all. Jail, of any kind, would at least carry some kind of stigma and restrict his movements somewhat. All I really want to see is equitable punishment for when wealthy idiots like this are foolish enough to get caught. He's rich enough that he shouldn't have had to have been anywhere near the impression of wrongdoing. That's sloppy, stupid and deserves punishment.

I'm acutely aware that I'm getting hung up on the "Actually punish the bastard" side of this as well. I guess that's partly because I see no hope whatsoever for reform.

[LMNO]

I agree that there should be some sort of punishment.  One of the problems I'm having, and is being thrown into high relief, is the difference between a bribe and a fine:

(1) When you bribe someone, the question is, "how much do I have to pay to get what I want?"
(2) When you fine someone, the question is, "how much do they have to pay to dis-incentivize* the behavior?"

Because 1/1000 of someone's wealth doesn't feel like an undue burden, the entire thing truly looks like one bribe covering another, especially since the wording was that the court would "accept the offer" rather than "impose a penalty", the whole situation fits into category (1) rather neatly.
















*I'm pretty sure this isn't a word.

[minuspace]

(2.2) How much will they pay/ask in order to avoid trial.

[LMNO]

Pretty sure that's a combination of 1 and 2, buddy.

"How much will they pay" falls under the "acceptable losses" of 1.
"How much will they ask" falls under the "acceptable punishment" of 2.