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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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LMNO

Quote from: Cain on October 16, 2013, 12:00:51 PM
If true, this is pretty amazing:

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/politics/2013/08/saudi-russia-putin-bandar-meeting-syria-egypt.html

Quote"I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics in the city of Sochi on the Black Sea next year," Bandar reportedly said. "The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us."

You're playing a dangerous game, Bandar.  Putin isn't just some two-bit thug like Assad, who you can threaten without consequence.  You might have friends in Russia, but Sochi represents a lot of political favours and a lot of money for elements of the Russian elite.  If anything...untoward were to happen to their investments, I'm sure Putin would be happy to point them in your direction.  And the next thing you know, you'll be taking polonium with your tea.

This also puts Saudi information on the Boston Bombing in an interesting new context.  Saudi Arabia said, in the aftermath of the attack, that they passed on information to the USA regarding the brothers.  At the time it was widely ignored, so the question of how the Saudis knew anything about the case did not get asked.

This is certainly relevant to my interests.

Cain


LMNO

UNPOSSIBLE!  The Saudis are our allies.

[/straight face]

Junkenstein

Quote from: Cain on October 16, 2013, 03:31:51 PM
My guess would be the training camp Tamerlan attended was run or supervised by a Saudi asset.

This makes a disturbing amount of sense. Consider Bandar pretty much implied this as well it I would suggest that the US must have been aware of these activities too.

After all, Allies share intelligence, right?
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Cain


LMNO


Telarus

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minuspace

Re: Fascist appeal in eurozone.  It's strange how easy it is to seduce the young ones by hijacking figures like Gabrielle D'Anunzio to serve right-wing propaganda.

Cain


Demolition Squid

Yeah.

Some of the things Ed Milliband has been coming out with lately have been interesting (government-mandated energy prices, possible renationalisation of the railways, subsidized housing and actually making corporations pay taxes)... but he tends to just capitulate to criticism and fails to make his case. He says he'd do these things, then doesn't explain how, and winds up looking weak as a result.

I think the UK is suffering from a horrific Thatcherite hangover, and the only response anyone can articulate is 'the hair of the dog'. It doesn't help that the press practically enshrined Thatcher as the single reason for UK economic success when she died this year, and now flirting with even further right policies is given a gloss of legitimacy because hey, it worked in the 80s and this current crisis is basically just the same old boom and bust, right?
Vast and Roaring Nipplebeast from the Dawn of Soho

minuspace

Quote from: - on October 23, 2013, 09:47:02 AM
-
So I was waiting to reply to what once was there, and then, just when I musters the guts to admit that the problem may have been beyond my capacity for a polite and considered response...  Poof.  Problem solved  :horrormirth:

Telarus

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Q. G. Pennyworth

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/13/life-without-parole_n_4256789.html

QuoteBooker is one of more than 100 prisoners featured in an extensive new report from the American Civil Liberties Union on the rise of life sentences without the possibility of parole -- the harshest penalty faced by defendants in the American criminal justice system apart from death. Many such inmates are there "off the laws," as Booker put it, meaning they were incarcerated because of drug laws and not because they committed acts of violence. The report calculates that 3,278 prisoners were serving life without parole for drug, property and other nonviolent crimes as of 2012, comprising about 6 percent of the total life-without-parole, or LWOP, population.

Junkenstein

Quote from: Telarus on October 27, 2013, 06:12:34 PM
http://poorrichardsnews.com/post/65069957264/texas-judge-resigns-after-being-caught-texting

My favourite part of this:
QuoteUPDATE: via the research of Poor Richard's Reader Bob, let's play guess the political party affiliation of this corrupt judge! Ready to play? 

Yep. You guessed it.  She's a Democrat....

How this isn't subject to investigations and considerable criminal charges is a mystery. It's pretty much textbook "Perverting the course of justice".

QJ - That link - Wow. Fastest growing sector of the prison population too. I guess that's what we can call "Future secured profits". I'm guessing these numbers will need to be a lot higher before anything changes. These seem largely to be victims of the war on drugs.

Best guess here on the way to progress would be mass information about Jury nullification. I suspect many of these people did not face a jury which makes it a little moot, but it's probably the best chance minor offenders have to not spend life incarcerated.

What's also startling here is the number of people facing life in prison on conspiracy charges and really sketchy testimony. It's not particularly surprising, more the inevitable and depressing result of plea bargains.
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Q. G. Pennyworth

LWOP is rarely the result of a plea bargain, most of this is mandatory sentencing that even the judges don't like. Juries may not be aware of the sentencing before handing down a verdict, so education is key, but the problem is that courts actively work to weed out educated jurors.