Random News Stories

[Cain]

Never Yield to Police Power could be their first album's name.

[Demolition Squid]

Not gonna lie, I was half-asleep when I saw the headline and at first I thought the artist's name was Vagina Kayak.

I wish I'd seen that kickstarter though. The world needs more genital-based modes of transport

[Demolition Squid]

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/dec/04/tony-blair-defends-business-dealings-cites-henry-kissinger-role-model

The Guardian and Vanity Fair seem to be playing up the wealth/Henry Kissinger angles. What I found interesting was the statement that he feels he understands the Middle East far better now than he did when he was PM - without the intelligence services and foreign office getting in the way.

He'll never admit he was wrong, of course, but it is as close to an admission that he was getting told what they felt he wanted to hear as I can see us getting.

[Cain]

Hey, so do you think this means the CIA now counts as an ongoing security risk to the USA?

Security has been stepped up at US facilities around the world ahead of the release of a report expected to reveal details of harsh CIA interrogations, the White House says.

Embassies and other sites were taking precautions amid "some indications" of "greater risk", a spokesman said.

A 480-page summary of the Senate report is due to be released on Tuesday.

It is expected to detail the CIA's campaign against al-Qaeda in the aftermath of 9/11.

As well as detailing the controversial methods used by CIA operatives in an effort to extract information from high-value suspects, the report is expected to say harsh interrogations failed to deliver appropriate results.

Also, I am so surprised.  Torture is not only a moral abomination, but one that doesn't even work very well?  It's not ALL OF RECORDED HISTORY has taught us this.

Though I do wonder if at least some of the torture was intended to make testimony from key Al-Qaeda figures both unreliable and not admissable in court (Riyadh must be protected at all costs, after all).

[LMNO]

Hey, so do you think this means the CIA now counts as an ongoing security risk to the USA?

I must remember this when I go on FaceBook next.  Brilliant.

[LMNO]

Incidentally, it appears that at some point, someone thought it would be a good idea to shove hummus up a suspect's ass.



Oh look -- there goes another bit of my respect for humanity.

[LMNO]

Are you having a good day?

If so, don't click this.

[Junkenstein]

Further examples of the shamelessness of UK media outlets.

Major stories lately could include such thing as:

More massive hacks at Sony, to the point where it's looking like "Everything's gone. EVERYTHING". Emails, full details of employees, management, customers, the lot. Early releases apparently include details of exec's pay. I hear it's considerable, particularly considering how well Sony have been doing of late.

Indications that "Everything's gone" include films due to be released in 2015 appearing on torrent sites. Not one or two, we're talking at least 5. DVD screener quality.


Obviously totally unrelated to this, Various torrent sites are currently offline with rumours abound of the Pirate bay being raided (again) and shut down (again).


Yet most places, no mention of either, at all. Almost as if it's not worth mentioning. Depressingly, Sony losing all their shit really isn't. It's more the scale (and distribution) of loss and the highly co-incidental timings that I'm looking at here.

[xXRon_Paul_42016Xxx(weed)]

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/senate-torture-report-public-opinion/

Data shows that popular opinion on the use of torture by the U.S. government has subtly shifted since 2004, when Pew Research Center began polling Americans on the subject. Pew asked whether torture used against suspected terrorists to gain important information is justified, finding a majority of respondents (53 percent) said torture could never or only rarely be justified. But over the next five years, public opinion slowly reversed.

[Junkenstein]

Nothing unusual here either:

http://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-is-not-a-fugitive-court-hears-141209/

The U.S. claims that these assets were obtained through criminal activities. In a recent motion to strike the DoJ added that Kim Dotcom and his fellow defendants have no right to oppose the forfeiture request as they are fugitives.

"Claimants Bram van der Kolk, Finn Batato, Julius Bencko, Kim Dotcom, Mathias Ortmann, and Sven Echternach, are deliberately avoiding prosecution by declining to enter the United States where the criminal case is pending," U.S. Attorney Dana Boente noted.

Yesterday evening Megaupload's legal team filed a response to the Government's motion, noting that the U.S. heavily distorts the "fugitive" status concept.

No shit.

"These Claimants never fled the United States to evade prosecution. To the contrary, they remain precisely where they have long been residing and carrying out the very business enterprise that the Government characterizes as criminal—in New Zealand."

So it seems that the US stance is now on the lines of "If we say you're wanted for X and don't turn up to defend yourself(get punished) then you're super guilty".

The potential implications here are quite amusing, Mainly as this was driven by the MPAA. So realistically, we could be hearing about fugitives from the US government worldwide quite soon. There's a fairly strong chance that this number is actually larger than the current population of the USA.

I'll say one thing for it, it's a ballsy way to try and implement a prison pipeline. I can only assume that "fugitives" who end up in the USA will get charged (as in billed. Ignore the "criminal" thing) for everything and anything you can name. Bed, board, heating and light in the jail cell for sure, flights and any transport costs as well.

If the court decides to move forward, Megaupload's legal team want the "fugitives" claim to be converted to a request for summary judgment. This would allow them to conduct discovery and find out what role the MPAA played in the criminal investigation. (Junkie note - It's a large one. A very large one)

Shortly before the investigation began the MPAA hired former Assistant Attorney General, Cybele Daley, for lobbying purposes. Daley had a budget of over $1 million a year to lobby attorneys at the Department of Justice, and Megaupload's lawyers want to find out where the U.S. was overreaching.

And so we again see the hand of lobbyists fucking about. Here's the odd thing though, a budget of that size is fuck all in lobbying terms. A cynical man might think that this is the stated budget and the black budget for bribes, corruption, corporate gifts, sponsorship and all the other ways you can do dodgy business must be involved here. I'd put good money on Daley not being able to withstand serious scrutiny of his finances and activities.

[Cain]

Are you having a good day?

If so, don't click this.

But how can that be?  Torture is AWESOME.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Do we have a best guess at the percentage of the US population whose brains are dictated by Fox news?

[Cain]

Probably 20-30%.

[MMIX]

Further examples of the shamelessness of UK media outlets.

Major stories lately could include such thing as:

More massive hacks at Sony, to the point where it's looking like "Everything's gone. EVERYTHING". Emails, full details of employees, management, customers, the lot. Early releases apparently include details of exec's pay. I hear it's considerable, particularly considering how well Sony have been doing of late.

Indications that "Everything's gone" include films due to be released in 2015 appearing on torrent sites. Not one or two, we're talking at least 5. DVD screener quality.


Obviously totally unrelated to this, Various torrent sites are currently offline with rumours abound of the Pirate bay being raided (again) and shut down (again).


Yet most places, no mention of either, at all. Almost as if it's not worth mentioning. Depressingly, Sony losing all their shit really isn't. It's more the scale (and distribution) of loss and the highly co-incidental timings that I'm looking at here.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-30189029

[LMNO]

Are you having a good day?

If so, don't click this.

But how can that be?  Torture is AWESOME.