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News Stories Which Highlight the Structure of the System

Started by Telarus, February 16, 2012, 01:06:06 PM

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The Good Reverend Roger

" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

tyrannosaurus vex

Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on August 16, 2013, 04:17:36 AM
Quote from: V3X on August 16, 2013, 04:09:33 AM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on August 16, 2013, 03:41:23 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lee-camp/anti-occupy-law-passes-nea_b_1343728.html

Doo bee doo bee dooooooo

Um

Oh, I know.

Just enjoying the moment.

I have a weird... gnawing feeling in the back of my head. It's like my nerves all want my body to laugh hysterically, but they keep getting overruled by whatever part of my brain controls abject horror. And now my stomach is getting in on the action. I can't really tell whether I should cry, scream, or just run to the bathroom and hang on to the toilet for whatever is about to happen.
Evil and Unfeeling Arse-Flenser From The City of the Damned.

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: V3X on August 16, 2013, 04:31:04 AM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on August 16, 2013, 04:17:36 AM
Quote from: V3X on August 16, 2013, 04:09:33 AM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on August 16, 2013, 03:41:23 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lee-camp/anti-occupy-law-passes-nea_b_1343728.html

Doo bee doo bee dooooooo

Um

Oh, I know.

Just enjoying the moment.

I have a weird... gnawing feeling in the back of my head. It's like my nerves all want my body to laugh hysterically, but they keep getting overruled by whatever part of my brain controls abject horror. And now my stomach is getting in on the action. I can't really tell whether I should cry, scream, or just run to the bathroom and hang on to the toilet for whatever is about to happen.

My favorite part of this - and, to be honest, it was my first reaction myself - is when people say, "well, that only strengthened the existing article 1782 sec 18.

Which is sort of like saying that cancer spreading from your liver to your brain is no big deal because your liver already had it.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

tyrannosaurus vex

Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on August 16, 2013, 04:33:03 AM
Quote from: V3X on August 16, 2013, 04:31:04 AM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on August 16, 2013, 04:17:36 AM
Quote from: V3X on August 16, 2013, 04:09:33 AM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on August 16, 2013, 03:41:23 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lee-camp/anti-occupy-law-passes-nea_b_1343728.html

Doo bee doo bee dooooooo

Um

Oh, I know.

Just enjoying the moment.

I have a weird... gnawing feeling in the back of my head. It's like my nerves all want my body to laugh hysterically, but they keep getting overruled by whatever part of my brain controls abject horror. And now my stomach is getting in on the action. I can't really tell whether I should cry, scream, or just run to the bathroom and hang on to the toilet for whatever is about to happen.

My favorite part of this - and, to be honest, it was my first reaction myself - is when people say, "well, that only strengthened the existing article 1782 sec 18.

Which is sort of like saying that cancer spreading from your liver to your brain is no big deal because your liver already had it.

It could be worse. I mean, they could have...

Oh, they did. Well at least they haven't...

Oh, they did that, too.

Fuck.
This.
Century.

All I can say is, if they're going to make it this mandatory to be a Good American™, they damn well better start making being an American FUN again, god dammit.
Evil and Unfeeling Arse-Flenser From The City of the Damned.

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: V3X on August 16, 2013, 04:40:28 AM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on August 16, 2013, 04:33:03 AM
Quote from: V3X on August 16, 2013, 04:31:04 AM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on August 16, 2013, 04:17:36 AM
Quote from: V3X on August 16, 2013, 04:09:33 AM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on August 16, 2013, 03:41:23 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lee-camp/anti-occupy-law-passes-nea_b_1343728.html

Doo bee doo bee dooooooo

Um

Oh, I know.

Just enjoying the moment.

I have a weird... gnawing feeling in the back of my head. It's like my nerves all want my body to laugh hysterically, but they keep getting overruled by whatever part of my brain controls abject horror. And now my stomach is getting in on the action. I can't really tell whether I should cry, scream, or just run to the bathroom and hang on to the toilet for whatever is about to happen.

My favorite part of this - and, to be honest, it was my first reaction myself - is when people say, "well, that only strengthened the existing article 1782 sec 18.

Which is sort of like saying that cancer spreading from your liver to your brain is no big deal because your liver already had it.

It could be worse. I mean, they could have...

Oh, they did. Well at least they haven't...

Oh, they did that, too.

Fuck.
This.
Century.

All I can say is, if they're going to make it this mandatory to be a Good American™, they damn well better start making being an American FUN again, god dammit.

Well, we could go kick Mexico around again.

Might even get another Arizona out of the deal.

" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

tyrannosaurus vex

Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on August 16, 2013, 04:47:56 AM
Well, we could go kick Mexico around again.

Might even get another Arizona out of the deal.



Definitely. In fact, if there's anything America could use right now, it's two Arizonas.
Evil and Unfeeling Arse-Flenser From The City of the Damned.

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: V3X on August 16, 2013, 04:57:52 AM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on August 16, 2013, 04:47:56 AM
Well, we could go kick Mexico around again.

Might even get another Arizona out of the deal.



Definitely. In fact, if there's anything America could use right now, it's two Arizonas.

This implies two Tucsons.

And two Sheriff Joes.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Cain

http://www.madcowprod.com/2013/08/20/up-in-smoke-24-tons-of-cocaine-in-no-peek-burn-run/

QuoteIt started with a question that hardly ever comes up. "How are we going to get rid of all this cocaine?"

But law enforcement officials in Costa Rica were asking it several months ago. Or, at least, "allegedly" asking it.

Because while no one is questioning that Costa Rica sent 24 tons of cocaine to the US to be incinerated, the operation has been received with what can be characterized as somewhere between skepticism and disbelief.

For one thing, the atmospherics are all wrong. Like the ritualized perp walk every notorious drug baron endures when caught, drug burnings are spectator events in Latin America, filled with ritual pomp. If he's there, El Presidente wears the sash of office. Generals in mirrored Raybans, decked out like beauty queens, medals shining like bling.

When Latin American drug agencies incinerate huge amounts of seized narcotics, which happens on a regular basis, there's often a reviewing stand. Representatives from all the federal agencies involved in the bust stand around and smile. They watch each other. They eye the drugs. There's a couple of speeches. There's the traditional group picture in front of the piled-up dope.

Only then do they fire up the torches, and set fire to the bonfire. Spectators discreetly move downwind.

But not this time.

QuoteMost Latin American nations get rid of seized drugs by piling it up in a field and lighting a match. So why not Costa Rica?

"It had to do with new regulations from the Costa Rican EPA," said the DEA's spokeswoman. Cocaine, she insisted, requires special incinerators that burn at 816 Celsius (1,500 Fahrenheit), with multiple chambers that filter out the hazardous fumes and leave nothing but carbon dioxide.

Pieced together from several Costa Rican newspapers, the story of how 24 tons of cocaine flew to Miami on a US Government plane goes like this:

Prior to the massive airlift of cocaine to Miami in late July, Costa Rica's Justice Dept (the OIJ) used to destroy seized drugs at a cement factory incinerator, until several unfortunate incidents resulted in the cancellation of the contract.

Bags holding 20 kilograms of pure cocaine began to go "missing."

QuoteWhile DEA officials are understandably reluctant to look a 24-ton gift horse made of cocaine in the mouth, Costa Rica's big donation raises a puzzling question: Why doesn't the math add up?

Where exactly did Costa Rica get the 24 tons of cocaine they're turning over to the gringos?

"The cocaine had been seized over the course of the last two years during anti-drug operations in the country," reported Costa Rica's online newspaper CRHoy.com.

Two years. Two years worth of seizures would be June 2011 through June 2013.

In 2012 Costa Rican drug seizures totaled 15.5 tons. In 2011 they seized 7.4 tons. This year, when the US Air Force came calling, they were at about 5 tons.

Take half of the 2011 total (3.5), all of 2012 (15.5 tons) and year to date through July in 2013(5 tons.)

That's roughly 24 tons, about the same amount they turned over to the DEA.

Except... remember that mini-incinerator the cement factory gave them that broke, but not before successfully incinerating what newspapers said was up to 300 kilograms per hour, for an unspecified length of time?

If the mini-incinerator worked for just one day before it broke down, Costa Rican officials would have shaved 7 tons of cocaine off their total. The C-17 cargo flight to Miami would have had just 14 tons of cocaine aboard.

So—in addition to the cocaine seized by Costa Rica over two years—where did the additional 7 tons of cocaine the USAF flying to Miami come from?

And that's not the only cocaine weirdness out of Costa Rica:

http://www.madcowprod.com/2013/07/22/costa-ricas-president-flew-narco-jet-to-hugo-chavez-funeral/

QuoteAn American-registered drug plane has been plying the airspace over Central and South America carrying cargoes of cocaine for a good long while (authorities admit they've been "investigating" it since 2011) without apparent incident, until recently, when a newspaper in Costa Rica reported that the President of Costa Rica had been seen using it to fly to Hugo Chavez's funeral, as well as the recent wedding of the son of Peru's Vice-President in Lima.

QuoteAs it turns out, a number of Latin American politicians and celebrities have at one time or another flown on the plane. Topping the list of travelers would be Laura Acuna, a television presenter and one of Colombia's top models.

Also aboard has been Andres Fernandez Acosta, Colombia's former Minister of Agriculture; as well as Juan Pablo Ortiz Bravo who occupied the strategic position of Director of Customs under President Alvaro Uribe.

And Marilu Mendez, the former head of Colombia's Directorate of Public Prosecutions (CTI), who just today (July 22) was charged with embezzlement, influence peddling and forgery of public documents.

http://www.madcowprod.com/2013/08/12/narco-jet-in-costa-rica-scandal-tied-to-iran-contra-figure/

QuoteA key employee in Bogotá of the Canadian oil company owners of the drug plane flown by Costa Rica's President Laura Chinchilla was at the heart of the Contra Cocaine pipeline profiled by the late author Gary Webb in his 1996 best-seller "Dark Alliance."

David Scott Weekly was both a CIA agent and drug trafficker, according to Webb's book. His nickname was "Dr. Death."

Today he is in Bogotá, reports Colombian newspaper "El Tiempo," lobbying the Colombian government for oil leases for a company exploring for oil in the jungles of the Amazon Basin.

"Why does a Vietnam veteran, an expert on weapons and the training of mercenaries, so frequently visit the offices of the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) in Bogota?" asked the paper.

QuoteToday the Contras are nothing more than a long-forgotten nightmare. But David Scott Weekly is very much alive, and working in Bogotá, for an outfit called Montco Energy.

But the "oil company" which owns the Citation 3 drug plane is THX Energy.

Thus Montco Energy and THX Energy would seem to be competitors, seeking the same prize: oil leases granted by the government of Colombia.

In theory, perhaps. In real life, not so much.

Because Montco Energy and THX Energy are owned by the same person.

QuoteThe drug plane was controlled by Gabriel Morales Fallan, a man of many aliases, none of them truly convincing.
In Panama in 1995 Fallan incorporated a company called Thorneloe, which is the name the plane is listed under in official FAA documents.

Thorneloe, a Panamanian-registered company, has since changed its names three times. It has been listed variously as Thorneloe Corp, Thorneloe Energy, THX Energy, and, currently, THX Oil & Gas SA.

THX is owned by a Canadian equity firm called Birch Island Capital.

Birch Island, in turn, is owned by Delavaco Capital, a US firm located in—of all places—Fort Lauderdale, Florida, America's long-standing drug smuggling capital.

Delavaco Capital is owned by Andy DeFrancesco.

In 2003, Gabriel Morales was fingered by officials as a lieutenant of Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia, alias el Chupeta, who ran Colombia's largest remaining drug cartel, the Norte del Valle Cartel.

El Chupeta, from one of Columba's wealthiest and most prestigious families, was trained as an economist before seeking employment—despite his fine manners and careful elegance—as the boss of the Norte Valle Cartel.
Fallan, also Colombian, spent much of the past decade pretending to look for oil—incorporating a dozen companies in Panama with names implying brawny men in hard hats facing down the elements—while working, according to numerous published reports, for El Chupeta, one of Colombia's biggest drug traffickers.

He left Colombia in 2002, afraid, he said, of retaliation from the FARC for snitching on the drug trafficking. He spent several years in Texas, about which little is known, but much suspected, before settling in Costa Rica, where he changed his name, married a local girl and became a citizen.

El Chupeta was captured in Brazil in 2007 and extradited to the United States a year later.

On learning this, Fallon flew to the U.S. to come to an arrangement with the DEA that in exchange for information about the drug trafficking and money laundering would allow him to relocate in Costa Rica.

The details of this agreement were kept from her, says Laura Chinchilla.

Cain

And some Mike Lofgren and Joseph Britt, both former aides to Republican senators, on the American "deep state".

Lofgren:

QuoteYour posts go some way in explaining the current political situation, but by no means do they go the whole way. A more complete explanation has to acknowledge the paradox of the contemporary American state. On the procedural level that the public can see, Congress is hopelessly gridlocked in the worst manner since the 1850s; that is true. The objective of the GOP is, obviously, to render the executive branch powerless, at least until a Republican president is elected (and voter suppression laws in the GOP-controlled states are clearly intended to accomplish that result). As a consequence, Obama cannot get anything done; he cannot even get the most innocuous appointees in office.

Yet he can assassinate American citizens without due processes (Holder's sophistry to the contrary, judicial process is due process); can detain prisoners indefinitely without charge; conduct surveillance on the American people without judicial warrant; and engage in unprecedented -- at least since the McCarthy era -- witch hunts against federal employees (the so-called insider threat program). At home, this it is characterized by massive displays of intimidating force by militarized federal law enforcement agencies and their willing handmaidens at the state and local level. Abroad, Obama can start wars at will and pretty much engage in any other activity whatever without so much as a by-your-leave from Congress, to include just recently forcing down a plane containing a head of state. And not a peep from congressional Republicans, with the exception of an ineffectual gadfly like Rand Paul. Democrats, with the exception of a few like Ron Wyden, are not troubled, either -- even to the extent of permitting obvious perjured congressional testimony by certain executive branch officials.

Clearly there is government, and then there is government. The former is the tip of the iceberg that the public who watches C-SPAN sees daily and which is theoretically controllable via elections. The subsurface part is the Deep State, which operates on its own compass heading regardless of who is formally in power. The Deep State is a hybrid of national security and law enforcement agencies, key nodes of the judiciary (like FISC, the Eastern District of Virginia, and the Southern District of Manhattan); cleared contractors, Silicon Valley (whose cooperation is critical), and Wall Street.

This combination of procedural impotence on the one hand and unaccountable government by fiat on the other is clearly paradoxical, but any honest observer of the American state must attempt to come to grips with it. I will note in conclusion that in order for the Senate to pass major "social" legislation like immigration reform, it was necessary to grant an additional $38-billion tribute to Deep State elements, i.e., military and homeland security contractors. Clearly the GOP wanted it, but the Democrats didn't object; the $38 billion had been an internal "wish list" of the Deep State node called the Department of Homeland Security.

And Britt:

QuoteFirst:  with respect to how the federal government functions, the level of continuity over the last dozen years or so doesn't get nearly enough attention.  In the Bush as in the Obama administration, Executive Branch agencies had little policy autonomy -- except for the security services, DoD and the intelligence agencies, who operated with little oversight even from within the administration in spite of major policy failures.

Republicans in Congress didn't defend the Bush administration so much as they repeated verbatim what they were told to say on national security affairs.  Meanwhile, other federal agencies dealt with a White House hypersensitive about political message discipline by undertaking as few potentially controversial initiatives as possible -- something that hasn't changed all that much under Barack Obama.

Second:  the absolute primacy of the permanent campaign industry in the policy making process gets rather taken for granted by many commentators.   Organized interest groups have traditionally been thought to exercise outsized influence within the two national parties, especially the Democratic Party.  One thing that's changed in recent years is the emergence of the people who do campaigns for a living as a powerful and effectively organized interest group themselves.

It is the pollsters, "strategists," and other campaign operatives, after all,  who are the chief beneficiaries of the continual fundraising that Senators and Congressmen now do.  Not only do these electioneering hands now work on campaign business full-time, but they have also gotten used to a standard of living requiring high and predictable levels of income.

The influence of campaign primacy on policy flows outward from Capitol Hill and the White House, enveloping agencies engaged in work that might offend any monied interest.  The military and intelligence agencies tend not to do work of this kind; their budgets, increased substantially after 9/11, tend therefore to receive little scrutiny, and their senior officials are normally treated with deference.

Is campaign primacy worse than it has ever been?  I'd say it is.  The very transparency celebrated by some in the media (because, among other things, it takes some of the hard work out of political reporting) makes it harder to do politically controversial business out of the view of rent-seeking monied interests.  Advocacy of causes with no potential to support the permanent campaign infrastructure -- from reducing unemployment to preparing for climate change to adhering to regular order on appropriations bills in Congress -- is effectively deterred.  The influence of campaign primacy on tax policy can't be overestimated.

The root cause of the latest crisis in Washington is that, for the party that came up short in the last election, the campaign never ended.  There is nothing but the campaign for Congressional Republicans -- and mostly for Democrats on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue as well, with the difference that they feel they have to at least look as if they want the government to function.

Telarus

I appreciate you passing these along. The cocaine stories are a bit odd, aren't they?
Telarus, KSC,
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Junkenstein

It's one of those situations where you could probably find out eventually that everyone's involved. Just seems more probable to me. The US has never been averse to getting narcotics onto it's shores. The problem was summed up perfectly here:

QuoteIt started with a question that hardly ever comes up. "How are we going to get rid of all this cocaine?"

Who-ever had any of it no doubt easily converted it to currency and cleaned it. Rather than a dozen little cogs it just strikes me as easier for a few big cogs who control some medium cogs. Filter the blame, distribute the profit enough to keep people quiet. Pay the right people or put the right people in place. Business as usual.

Can't help but think about this guy too though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22Freeway%22_Rick_Ross

Can't help but think how many more people there are in similar positions. I'd guess multiple analogues in every state, just better protected/"just vanish" if any problems arise.  Ignore crazy paranoid ramblings.
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Cain

http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2013/08/03/maroc-le-pedophile-gracie-est-il-un-espion-espagnol_3457196_3212.html

Quote"International disgrace" deplored by thousands of Moroccans after the grace given to a Spanish pedophile is explained by the profession of the person sentenced? This is the theory of the Moroccan newspaper Lakome, who assured Thursday that Daniel Galvan, sentenced to thirty years in prison for sexual abuse of young boys in 2011, was gracie at the urging of the Spanish intelligence services .

Daniel Galván is the latest in a list of 48 released Spanish prisoners Friday, August 2 by the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, at the request of his Spanish counterpart Juan Carlos. But, according to Lakome, citing an anonymous source close to the folder its presence on the list would result in reality a "favor" granted by Rabat to the CNI, the Spanish intelligence agency.

SMUGGLED AFTER THE IRAQ WAR

Faced with the outcry caused by this decision, the Minister of justice Moroccan, Mustapha Ramid, assured in a statement that Galvan was released for "reasons of national interest". However, Lakome and the Spanish newspaper El País research has assumed that it could well be a spy of the CNI.

Mohamed Benjedou, counsel for Galvan, has indicated that his client had entrusted to him be an officer of thearmed Iraqi who had collaborated with foreign services to overthrow the dictator Saddam Hussein. In addition, El Pais found no trace of him in the Department of ocean sciences of the University of Murcia, where he claimed to have been a professor.

Cain


Cramulus

There must be a memo lying around somewhere which says "Right, but training the country du jour's pilots is only dangerous if they're mad at us." I wonder if we'll ever see it.

Let's say it becomes [more] public that Mohamed Atta was trained by the USAF... (which I'm inclined to believe) what do you think the public outcry would be? I don't think that fact in itself pins the US as having orchestrated the attacks---just that they trained the guy to fly planes. Which itself isn't so incriminating, right? Then why such a runaround regarding that fact?


Maybe you can fill in another blank for me - why is 9/11 in the news again right now? Judging from gossip I've heard, there are more truther cannons firing, did something kick this off?

tyrannosaurus vex

I don't think these guys being trained by the USAF or any other American school is that earth shaking in itself. They had to be trained somewhere, and the attacks were carried out here, so why not here? More interesting to me personally is the immediate blackout and cover-up of this information.

As for 9/11 being in the news around now, well, it's September and it happens a lot. We higher apes have surprisingly little room in our heads for emotional experience, so we like to stick to a loop that takes about a year to repeat. And truthers, well, they're just running on a slightly modified emotional experience reel. I do not buy their tales of controlled demolition, but there are a lot of "financial coincidences" surrounding the events that suggest that some important people were -- at least -- complicit in the event.
Evil and Unfeeling Arse-Flenser From The City of the Damned.