News Stories Which Highlight the Structure of the System

[Cain]

The Family is getting busy...in Sudan, of all places.

http://barthsnotes.com/2015/02/05/national-prayer-breakfast-highlights-the-fellowships-support-for-sudan/

The Fellowship has been busy in Europe, as I discussed here, and in June it held a Prayer Breakfast in Ukraine. There has also been particular controversy over its influence in Uganda.

But how could an Islamist regime be assimilated into such a vision? The answer is in the Fellowship's vague theology of "Jesus Plus Nothing"; its "elite fundamentalism" (to use Jeff's term) is quite distinct from the religious right rhetoric of televangelists and mega-church leaders.

[minuspace]

I've been saying for years, the people making the decisions have no idea how the technology works that they're making decisions about. I can see this because IT is my field but now I'm wondering if this disparity is across the board. Would certainly explain a hell of a lot 

I hate to say it might be a trend.  It is easier to manipulate a person that is insecure about their competence because they generally need to be told what to do.

[Cain]

More bad news for The Intercept

http://jimromenesko.com/2015/02/22/ken-silverstein-resigns-from-pierre-omidyars-first-look-media-blasts-dishonest-leadership/

Investigative reporter Ken Silverstein has resigned from First Look Media's The Intercept after 14 months, saying he and others were hired "under what were essentially false pretenses [by being] told we would be given all the financial and other support we needed to do independent, important journalism, but instead found ourselves blocked at every step of the way by management's incompetence and bad faith."

Also, just one last comment on First Look Media: The fact that that it hired so many talented people to create Racket and spent millions of dollars on it and in the end fired everyone and Racket never published a single story is probably the greatest squandering of money and example of criminal ineptitude in the history of modern journalism.

But let me just say that while I admire them both, Matt is definitely more likable than Glenn. Glenn's role at FL is troubling in some ways, especially standing by silently (as far as I can tell) and tolerating the terrible actions of corporate management. Glenn's work is excellent but Matt would never put up with the bullshit from management that Glenn has.

You know what's cool about being a former employee of First Look/The Intercept? That Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, Betsy Reed and Pierre Omidyar all believe in Free Speech and the First Amendment so they won't mind my writing about my time working for and with them. Tentative title: "Welcome to the Slaughterhouse."

[Cain]

Those swell, stand-up guys from the DEA are at it again:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11498214/US-agents-had-sex-parties-prostitutes-paid-for-by-Colombia-drug-cartels.html

In a scathing report from the US Justice Department, agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) are accused of leaving their weapons in the hands of Colombian police so they could go have sex with the women.

Seven of the ten men accused admitted their role in the sex parties and were suspended from duty up to ten days before being allowed to return to work. The parties are alleged to have taken place over a three-year period between 2005 and 2008.

The report also alleges that three DEA supervisors were "provided money, expensive gifts, and weapons from drug cartel members".

The allegations are the latest in a long string of claims of misbehaviour by American law enforcement agents while stationed abroad.

[Junkenstein]

Still classy. Good old DEA. It's shit like this that makes me think we need a "I can't believe it's not satire" thread.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Those swell, stand-up guys from the DEA are at it again:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11498214/US-agents-had-sex-parties-prostitutes-paid-for-by-Colombia-drug-cartels.html

In a scathing report from the US Justice Department, agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) are accused of leaving their weapons in the hands of Colombian police so they could go have sex with the women.

Seven of the ten men accused admitted their role in the sex parties and were suspended from duty up to ten days before being allowed to return to work. The parties are alleged to have taken place over a three-year period between 2005 and 2008.

The report also alleges that three DEA supervisors were "provided money, expensive gifts, and weapons from drug cartel members".

The allegations are the latest in a long string of claims of misbehaviour by American law enforcement agents while stationed abroad.

BUT IT'S OBVIOUSLY JUST A FLUKE, CAIN, MOST DEA AGENTS ARE STAND-UP GUYS AND THERE IS NO DEEPLY EMBEDDED CORRUPTION.

[Cain]

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/04/uk-intelligence-services-attack-snp/

The FCO "memo" reporting that Nicola Sturgeon would rather have a Tory government, is a remarkable document. Firstly, its provenance is very strange. It has been leaked ostensibly by the FCO to the Telegraph. According to the Guardian:

"The leaked document was drafted by a Whitehall official after Coffinier called the FCO, as protocol requires, to pass on a confidential account of several of the ambassador's meetings in Edinburgh, which included a meeting with Alistair Carmichael, the Scottish secretary."

The extraordinary thing is, this is just a lie. As someone who worked in the FCO for over twenty years and was an Ambassador myself, I can assure you there is absolutely no protocol requirement on the French Ambassador to give the FCO the content of the meetings she, her Consul-General or anybody else from the French Embassy held in Edinburgh. That claim is absolute nonsense.

Look at it from the Embassy's point of view. If you repeated everything Nicola Sturgeon told you to the FCO, do you not think she would shortly stop telling you anything at all interesting? That is why diplomats absolutely do not retail such conversations to their host governments.

The second quite extraordinary thing is that both sides of the alleged conversation categorically deny it was said. Nicola Sturgeon denies she said it and the French Embassy deny she said it. So we have a leaked account of a conversation which all the participants say is untrue, yet the unionist media all feel this evidently untrue account is worth splashing as their lead story? The collusion of security services and corporate media is terrifying.

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/04/frenchgate-definitely-the-security-services/

It damages the French Embassy, it damages the SNP, and it damages Miliband by repeating the meme about his being weak and unfit. Those would all seem good results to the security services. Only Miliband has been stupid enough to go along with it.

It seems to me the overwhelming probability is that this document, whether it purports to be a FCO or Scottish Office document, was originated by the Security Services, possibly with the active collusion of someone in the Scottish Office, or equally possibly without their knowledge. Whatever it purported to be, it never entered the normal civil service distribution systems, as the FCO would have a copy, and it would have raised alarm bells all over the place as seriously weird and improbable. It is in that sense a fake, even if it were physically produced inside the Scottish Office. Its purpose was to be leaked to the media and influence the election.

[Demolition Squid]

Interesting thing here: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/14/how-much-of-the-conservatives-2010-election-manifesto-was-implemented

Given that the Tories were in coalition, it looks like a surprisingly high proportion of their manifesto was actually implemented. (40/60 met or partially met by my count - counted pretty quick though as I'm at work).

Although some of the most important and high profile cases haven't been met (no top down reorganization of the NHS!) it does cast the importance of the manifesto in new light. Especially the Europe Referendum provision with how many Tory back benchers are likely to hold them to the fire over it.

I'd been under the impression that the manifesto was broadly irrelevant; the stereotype is that nothing in it has any bearing on what happens after the election. 2/3 isn't a bad hit rate, though, and I may bother to actually read the Conservative manifesto as a result. I wish I'd thought to look at manifestos vs outcomes in more detail when I was at university.

[Junkenstein]

http://boingboing.net/2015/04/14/cops-have-killed-way-more-amer.html

Police have killed more Americans on U.S. soil since the year 2000 than the Islamist terrorists.

Map is a nice touch:

[Demolition Squid]

Well this is heartbreaking.

"But when they took [the prisoners] out of the cells ... and when they put these bloody chains on them, he said to me, 'Am I being executed?' " Burrows said.

"I said, 'Yes, I thought I explained that you.' He didn't get excited – he's a quiet sort of a guy – but he said, 'This is not right.'

"He's lost because he's a schizophrenic. He asked if there was a sniper outside ready to shoot him, and I said no, and whether somebody would shoot him in the car, and I said no," Burrows said.

After Gularte was strapped to a wooden plank, Burrows was permitted to see him again: "He said, 'This is not right, I made one small mistake, and I shouldn't have to die for it.' So he was annoyed more than anything else, because he's a soft-spoken, quiet and sensitive man."

After our recent discussion re: the death penalty, this seemed like a good story to highlight where that can wind up going at the extreme end.

[minuspace]

Well this is heartbreaking.

"But when they took [the prisoners] out of the cells ... and when they put these bloody chains on them, he said to me, 'Am I being executed?' " Burrows said.

"I said, 'Yes, I thought I explained that you.' He didn't get excited – he's a quiet sort of a guy – but he said, 'This is not right.'

"He's lost because he's a schizophrenic. He asked if there was a sniper outside ready to shoot him, and I said no, and whether somebody would shoot him in the car, and I said no," Burrows said.

After Gularte was strapped to a wooden plank, Burrows was permitted to see him again: "He said, 'This is not right, I made one small mistake, and I shouldn't have to die for it.' So he was annoyed more than anything else, because he's a soft-spoken, quiet and sensitive man."

After our recent discussion re: the death penalty, this seemed like a good story to highlight where that can wind up going at the extreme end.

I only skimmed article b/c it nearly broke my puter, but, yea, it made me grow a new heart in under five seconds...

[ ED.  In retrospect, moor than only unjust, a metaphor of life]

[Demolition Squid]

Some of y'all might remember I brought up my prediction we'd see a lot more cases of abuse and corruption because the probation service it being privatized.

Turns out I was behind the times!

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/may/20/misconduct-youth-jail-rainsbrook-ofsted-g4s

An Ofsted report on the G4S-run Rainsbrook secure training centre, near Rugby, says some staff were on drugs while on duty, colluded with detainees and behaved "extremely inappropriately" with young people, causing distress and humiliation.

It says poor staff behaviour led to some young people being subjected to degrading treatment and racist comments.

The inspectors reveal that one child, who had suffered a fracture potentially as a result of being restrained, did not receive treatment for 15 hours because senior staff overruled clear clinical advice that he needed medical treatment.

At least they're pressing ahead with getting as many private companies involved in the justice system as possible anyway, though. We wouldn't want them to miss a chance to turn a buck.

[Cain]

"Extremely inappropriately" is usually bureaucrat-ese for some kind of sexually related offense which is not direct molestation or abuse.

What the fuck are they doing there?

[Demolition Squid]

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jun/10/george-osborne-public-finances-victorian-values

The chancellor will use his annual Mansion House speech on Wednesday to exploit the political advantage of the Conservative victory in the general election with a "new settlement" that would allow the government to borrow only in exceptional circumstances.
...
Governments were expected to at least balance the books in the 19th century and in the first three decades of the 20th century, when the public finances were run on the Mr Micawber principle that income exceeding spending equalled happiness and spending exceeding income equalled misery.

Osborne will drive home his desire to bring back the days of sound finance by announcing he will convene the first meeting in more than 150 years of the committee of the commissioners for the reduction of the national debt.

Set up by William Pitt the Younger to help repair the damage to the public finances caused by the Napoleonic wars, the body last met in 1860 when William Gladstone was chancellor. Commissioners include the chancellor, the governor of the Bank of England, the speaker of the House of Commons, and the lord chief justice.

I for one am glad to see that our economic policy is being dictated on the realities of the world today and not through some insane ideological beli-- oh wait, damn.

The fact that he's directly trying to drag Britain back to the Victorian era, and has already laid out commitment plans to slash public spending to levels pre-WW2 (when there was no NHS, for instance) is just... 

I'm seriously thinking it might be time to start stashing my cash under the bed rather than trust the bank will continue to even be there in a year or three.

[Rev Thwack]

The banks will be there, you just have to take the advice of the Nazis and use the right banks in the right countries.