News Stories Which Highlight the Structure of the System

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I wouldn't necessarily say "sinister" Looks more like it's about filthy lucre. Colour me surprised 

It's news to me, but I am utterly unshocked.

[Cain]

I do recommend the book.  Hopsicker went down in person to interview these people, which is more than any arm-chair conspiracy theorist has ever done.  He also helped blow the lid on Iran-Contra, so the drugs angle is one he has experience in pursuing.

His conclusion is tentative, but the suggestion that drugs, Saudi Arabia and certain financial interests in the US were somehow involved in the intrigue around Dekkers, Atta and Hilliard is one that is hard to ignore, given the evidence presented.

[Cain]

So this is interesting:

http://www.harrowell.org.uk/blog/2013/03/09/best-wanktank-pitch-ever/

Here's someone from Policy Exchange arguing that what the prime minister needs is an internal thinktank made up of partisan Tory special advisers, not civil servants like the people in the No.10 Policy & Implementation Unit.

Is someone at Polex trying to change the procedure? The key question is usually under what circumstances a PM who calls an election and doesn't get a working majority can call another, which is governed by the so-called Lascelles principles. Sir Alan Lascelles' statement of them, in an anonymous letter to the Times, is as follows:

(1) the existing Parliament was still vital, viable, and capable of doing its job;
(2) a General Election would be detrimental to the national economy;
(3) he could rely on finding another Prime Minister who could carry on his Government, for a reasonable period, with a working majority in the House of Commons

Peter Hennessey, and Sir Gus O'Donnell, both hold that point 2) was dropped from the civil service handbook on the change of government some time between 1950 and the present day.

Consider this. At some point between here and 2015, the Lib Dems drop out of the coalition or split. David Cameron wants to stay as prime minister, perhaps fighting on as a minority government or trying to stick to some "National Liberal" splinter group. If there is a general election, obviously, he will be swept away. Or perhaps there is an election and somehow he doesn't quite lose. I can certainly see how appealing to the state of the economy as a reason not to have an election might be attractive. We must not spook the markets!

Something to keep an eye on.

[Junkenstein]

I wouldn't necessarily say "sinister" Looks more like it's about filthy lucre. Colour me surprised 

If "Doing it for the cash" isn't responsible for most of the shittiest and most sinister historical fuckups I'd be surprised.

That's pretty much why I go straight to the "Who stands to gain" angle immediately on any event. Some fucker makes a fortune out of every event. At a minimum media entities do.

[Cain]

So, back to Iraq:

The Pentagon sent a US veteran of the "dirty wars" in Central America to oversee sectarian police commando units in Iraq that set up secret detention and torture centres to get information from insurgents. These units conducted some of the worst acts of torture during the US occupation and accelerated the country's descent into full-scale civil war.

Samari claimed that torture was routine in the SPC-controlled detention centres. "I remember a 14-year-old who was tied to one of the library's columns. And he was tied up, with his legs above his head. Tied up. His whole body was blue because of the impact of the cables with which he had been beaten."

Gilles Peress, a photographer, came across Steele when he was on assignment for the New York Times, visiting one of the commando centres in the same library, in Samarra. "We were in a room in the library interviewing Steele and I'm looking around I see blood everywhere."

The reporter Peter Maass was also there, working on the story with Peress. "And while this interview was going on with a Saudi jihadi with Jim Steele also in the room, there were these terrible screams, somebody shouting: 'Allah, Allah, Allah!' But it wasn't kind of religious ecstasy or something like that, these were screams of pain and terror."

[Juana]

Oh good.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Well, it's a good thing we haven't turned into the monsters we set out to fight, or anything.

[Junkenstein]

I do recommend the book.  Hopsicker went down in person to interview these people, which is more than any arm-chair conspiracy theorist has ever done.  He also helped blow the lid on Iran-Contra, so the drugs angle is one he has experience in pursuing.

His conclusion is tentative, but the suggestion that drugs, Saudi Arabia and certain financial interests in the US were somehow involved in the intrigue around Dekkers, Atta and Hilliard is one that is hard to ignore, given the evidence presented.

I've watched the video version while waiting for processed tree. Thanks for the recommendation 

[Cain]

So, how about that Beppe Grillo, huh? Setting out a left-wing, populist program, fighting austerity and corruption.  He's a real go-getter, isn't he, a man who should be supported in his aims.

Or maybe not.

Some of you may have Italian friends who used to place themselves to the Left and recently chose to vote for the 5SM, or even become 5SM activists. We bet they didn't tell you about the more right-wing aspects of the movement, because you'd certainly ask them: "I beg your pardon? You're doing political work side by side with fascists? You've joined a movement that rejects the very notion of antifascism? A movement that wants to abolish trade unions?! You voted for a guy who praises Ron Paul and US-style 'libertarianism'? Mate, what's wrong with you?", and they'd have to scramble for self-justifications.

Not that Grillo doesn't mention capitalism, the faults of bankers etc. He does it. However, there's no peculiarity in that part of his discourse, he simply revives all the cliches of European right-wing populisms. The issue is framed in a simplistic neo-nationalist way: "real" capitalism (ie productive capitalism) is described as good because it is rooted in the territory, whereas financial economy is degenerate because it's in the hands of evil transnational cliques and lobbie groups. Since the Euro is the main cause of the present crisis, if Italy leaves the Eurozone and gets rid of politicians and kicks "tens of thousands" of (unionised) employees out of the public sector, then we'll have the conditions for entering a new golden age.

We all know that there's often an antisemitic streak underlying this kind of talk about "nationless" enemies. Is it a coincidence that antisemitic tirades and insults are frequent in the below-the-line section of Grillo's blog? In November 2012 a guest-blogger on beppegrillo.it attacked Gad Lerner, a Jewish journalist who dared criticise Grillo, by calling him "Gad Vermer". Verme is italian for "worm", a classic insult in the antisemitic repertoire.

Despite all the talk about direct democracy or online liquid feedback, the 5SM is a top-down organisation with no intermediate bodies between Grillo and Casaleggio and the populace of fans/activists. Every major decision is taken by those two wealthy sixty-somethings, and "direct democracy" only amounts to calling on the base to approve it in a tele-plebiscitarian way.

In the 2011-2012 period, the 5SM of Emilia-Romagna (the region whose capital is Bologna, the city in which we live) was stormed by a wave of expulsions. "Dissidents" like Giovanni Favia, Valentino Tavolazzi, Federica Salsi and many others dared question the absence of internal democracy. As a consequence, they were kicked out and exposed to angry online mobs. Expulsions were decided by Grillo and Casaleggio and communicated to the world by short posts on beppegrillo.it.

It is far from incomprehensible that many fascists, berluscones and leghisti are now looking to Grillo. Not only they like many of the things he says, but he also embodies their idealtype of the Strong Man mesmering enthusiastic crowds. To these people, Berlusconi and Bossi were no longer strong/fascinating enough, for they became too compromised with «old politics« and «the Caste». That's why these angry petty bourgeois are making an emotional investment on someone they see as a new leader.

Moreover, there are deep similarities between Berlusconi and Grillo. They are both living testimonies of how the 1980s entertainment and television industry reshaped Italy's national life. Journalist Giuliano Santoro wrote a very interesting book about this, it is entitled Un Grillo qualunque: Il populismo digitale nella crisi dei partiti italiani [A Grillo whatsoever: Digital populism in the crisis of Italian parties].

As a matter of fact, one cannot fully understand Grillo if s/he didn't understand Berlusconi. Three years ago, in a piece for the London Review of Books, we easily predicted that after the fall of Berlusconi there would be a Berlusconism-without-Berlusconi. Nowadays things are even worse, because Berlusconi "fell" but is still around and 29.1 per cent of voters have chosen him for the umpteenth time. As a result, we have both old, classic berlusconism-with-Berlusconi, and a new kind of berlusconism without him. Giuliano Santoro wrote that "Grillo is the continuation of Berlusconi by other means."

[Cain]

Leveson may be over, and the papers commited to a new regulatory body (which they run...much like the old regulatory body which failed to stop phone hacking), but the arrests continue:

The Sunday People editor, James Scott, has become the first serving newspaper editor arrested over alleged phone hacking, relating to his time at the Sunday Mirror a decade ago.

Scott was one of four former Sunday Mirror senior journalists arrested in dawn raids on Thursday on suspicion of conspiracy to intercept voicemail messages. Tina Weaver, the ex-Sunday Mirror editor who is seven months pregnant, was also arrested on Thursday morning.

The other two were Nick Buckley, the deputy Sunday People editor, and Mark Thomas, the former People editor, who also both formerly worked for the Sunday Mirror.

Here's the interesting quote:

It is believed that detectives at the Met Police team have found a new witness who worked both at Mirror Group Newspapers, the Trinity Mirror subsidiary that publishes its national titles, and News International.

Now, what kind of witness would that be?  Are we talking about a private investigator who worked for all three groups?

[Junkenstein]

I would strongly suspect so, or a police officer who sold information to all parties.

Good to see it's still going, real reform looks dead in the water but I can hope for a few more high profile arrests.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

First I've seen of this. Googling for verification.

Clusterfuck in Flatbush

ETA: http://www.youtube.com/results?filters=today&search_query=brooklyn+riots&lclk=today

[Bu🤠ns]

First I've seen of this. Googling for verification.

Clusterfuck in Flatbush

yeah same...although the term 'media blackout' seems far fetched...how does this NOT get coverage eventually and, furthermore, wouldn't the blackout eventually generate MORE attention?

[LMNO]

I've turned off TV news in the morning a month or so ago, but we have been listening to NPR... And there's freakin NOTHING about this. Honestly, PD has been the first time I've heard of it.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

It's fucked up when you have to depend on something like youtube for news. */obvious*