News Stories Which Highlight the Structure of the System

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I ask partly because of the lack of any connection whatsoever of tortoise habitat or preservation or any mention of the above at all in all previous stories. I'm also curious about your source.

[hirley0]

I ask partly because of the lack of any connection whatsoever of tortoise habitat or preservation or any mention of the above at all in all previous stories. I'm also curious about your source.

eveN though i have no idea what you are referring too.. this anyway}
A wooden $poon is a wooden SPOON
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[Bruno]

I haven't been able to find any good sources on the story either. It's mostly right-wing loony sites saying it's a conspiracy between George Soros and Warren Buffet to steal his land because it's full of gold, platinum and uranium, also Buffet needs it for his solar panels or something.

The rest is mostly left-leaning sites just saying "Sheesh! These guys, again. Amirite?"

It seems the original legislation in question was an executive order from Reagan, but then in 1993 the Bureau of Land Management changed the rules on account of the endangered tortoise, and he stopped paying.

Reagan's executive order on grazing fees:
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/21486b.htm

A short article from Mediamatters:
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/04/11/the-nevada-tortoise-war-is-a-right-wing-false-f/198860

[Bruno]

We know one thing. We know that armed "Militia" can run around ready to engage government officials, and there doesn't seem to be much that anyone is going to do about it.

Makes me wonder what would happen if a bunch of people with guns showed up to show their support for the government.

[Junkenstein]

What, like some kind of Armed Force that's operated and owned by the government directly?

That'll never catch on.

[Telarus]

That's what I'm saying, this story has become Overly Politicized. You can't read a story about it without running into "X political party's memes/narrative".

Point in case, this is a good look at the story but is written from an attack PoV (although, this story _does_ link to some court case documents which is rare from the stories I've read):
http://aattp.org/debunked-cliven-bundy-cattle-not-seized-by-blm-for-fracking-or-chinese-solar-panel-projects/

Libertarians and teanuts far and wide have gathered unto Cliven Bundy's sacred sheath of land for one purpose: LIBERTY! Or something. Nevermind that said liberty comes by way of simply ignoring federal claims on land that their hero doesn't own. This isn't about a bunch of people simply crying because they don't like the law, or having to obey it. Nor, is it about using threats of violence to affect government policy — i.e "terrorism."

Nope...this one's all about Harry Reid, the Chinese, Fracking, and Illuminati Lizard Men cunningly disguised as desert tortoises.

Here's a local story that give some more details on the lead-in to the current situation:
http://mesquitelocalnews.com/sections/opinion/editorials/cliven-bundy-hero.html

I've even used "Million Short" (a search engine which scrapes the first million hits from a google search, and shows you what's left), and all I get is current stories. After ignoring a million hits.

So, regardless of this rancher's position or "rights", this has become a narrative to fight over. Winner take all, baby.

[von]

Makes me wonder what would happen if a bunch of people with guns showed up to show their support for the government.

There are militiae like this, but they are far less prolific in their media presence because they're simply less interesting...plus most of the people they would attract are already into forces/movements that are more..."normal".

Anyway, they exist in two forms for the most part.

The first are so-called "state defense forces" that some states maintain. They're typically volunteer forces that have a military command structure, and are even integrated into the official state political system. Most of these, however, are unarmed and primarily used as volunteer relief units for shit like minor natural disasters or other things like that.

The second group here would be simply non anti-government "unorganised" militiae. In this sense, "unorganised" means that they do not answer to the official political system directly, but often try to contract with the official government and tend to be more politically moderate than the "obama is a bolshevik nigger" crowd.
These groups often are armed, but they claim it is primarily for hypothetical invasion scenarioes, and because one of their more frequent uses is as a sort of cheap security solution for poor counties to contract with for public events, etc.
Although they try to maintain the aire of legitimacy by contracting with official governments, often times they can only find clientele within the ranks of underfunded county-level governments who need things like traffic control or event security on the cheap -- and even in these cases, the sheriffs that hire them tend to be buddy-buddy with the militiamen themselves to some degree.
Outside of state work, this type of militia tends to do "unofficial" relief work in remote regions that would normally be too difficult for official emergency management agencies to reach...however, in most cases, because they are armed, don't answer to political authority directly, and aren't privy to an EMAs plan of operations, they tend to be moreso bumblingly obstructionist than helpful in a "captain linger" sort of way.
...and of course, there's always the chance that such a unit is really a sneaky anti-federalist militia that's simply making local level government contacts so as to appear legitimate for PR reasons.

[Telarus]

A well rounded look at the issues:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/04/the-irony-of-cliven-bundys-unconstitutional-stand/360587/

[Trivial]

http://www.thewildlifenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Order-US-v.-Bundy-7-9-13.pdf

[Junkenstein]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-27032642

A food bank charity says it has handed out 913,000 food parcels in the last year, up from 347,000 the year before.

The Trussell Trust said a third were given to repeat visitors but that there was a "shocking" 51% rise in clients to established food banks. It said benefit payment delays were the main cause.

In a letter to ministers, more than 500 clergy say the increase is "terrible".

The government said there was no evidence of a link between welfare reforms and the use of food banks.

Yes, I live in a land where we use the word "Austerity" multiple times daily yet there is no connection at all between austerity and poverty.

NO CONNECTION. AT ALL.

The clergy from all major dominations, who include Archbishop of Wales Barry Morgan and several senior Church of England bishops, describe the increase in the use of Trussell Trust food banks as "terrible", in a letter to the government.

They insist it does not give a full picture of hunger in the UK because it does not include people who are too ashamed to use food banks and others who are cutting the size of meals.

I really wish numbers were available on that. I'm sure it's happening and I'm reasonably certain about which age ranges it's probably happening the most in. But no worries eh? We're a modern nation capable of anything including starving folk. It's how we show ourselves to be more civilised than others.

[Cain]

Prince Bandar, international politics tutor to George W Bush, Iran-Contra player, former Saudi Ambassador to the USA, has stepped down as head of Saudi intelligence.

No reason has been given so far, and he is currently tipped to be replaced by his deputy, General Yousef Al Idrissi.

No reading tea leaves on this one today, but worth making a note of.

[Junkenstein]

Very interesting.

At a total guess, I'd say he was becoming a bit too high profile and had made a number of potentially damaging statements. Probably best for him to get back into the shadows where he can get up to shit with a little less oversight and attention.

Total speculation, but like you say, worth watching.

[Junkenstein]

http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/we-talked-to-matt-taibbi-about-criminalized-poverty-and-why-wall-street-is-above-the-law

Broadly speaking, how does the justice system treat you when you don't have money?

You get the individual attention of a human being in the criminal justice system if you're a person of means, whereas if you're a nobody you fall into this machine. It's very merciless, as I tried to document in the book—once you get put into this meat grinder, it's very very difficult to get somebody to listen to you and to your individual story, whatever it may be, while if you're a person on the other side, you get to pay a phalanx of lawyers to have a sit-down with people at the highest levels of the criminal justice system and make a personal plea, and they may very well listen to you. That's the difference: a machine for the people at the bottom and a human being for the person at the top.

Are judges basically just tax collectors now, appropriating wealth from the poor?
There is actually a bizarre financial motive that drives a lot of this behavior. There are all sorts of little and not-so-little financial unfairnesses that are built into the system. One that drove me nuts was this idea that whenever you get arrested, you have to have a DNA test done and you have to pay for that. You have to pay for your own lab test, your own disenfranchisement. There are other little things, like the fact that when you are at Chase or HSBC and get fined a gazillion dollars, you can write that off as a deduction, whereas if you get a speeding ticket or you have to pay for your DNA test or pay a $250 processing fine for a prostitution conviction, you can't write that off. We're almost subsidizing white-collar crime at the top, whereas at the bottom there are all these ways we're squeezing people who don't have money anyway. There's this really awkward comic element to the whole thing, where if you're sitting and watching this over and over again, it does start to become funny and upsetting at the same time.

Taibbi describing Horrormirth.

[Telarus]

Good find!

Now this.

http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/index.ssf/story/homeland-securitys-top-watchdog-altered-reports-senate/c03d9eef5b015793671dfb296e39a9f1

[Telarus]

L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. used spy plane to watch Compton
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-compton-surveillance-20140424,0,3710359.story#ixzz2zpkCWlmw

After secret air surveillance of Compton, mayor wants protections
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-air-surveillance-compton-mayor-wants-protections-20140424,0,6911829.story#ixzz2zpkHbvRO