Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[ChairmanPoo]

Police agent provocateurs are a simple fact in the world of activism.  They're in effect at every major protest.  This isn't conspiracy theory.  They've been forced to admit to these activities in court repeatedly over the last 15 years, and caught on video trying to initiate assaults against police with the entire group of genuine activists opposing them.  They've been discovered dozens of times among Occupy chapters.  Some quick googling easily turns up a lot of material on the subject.

And they just got exposed hilariously in Spain, when one of the riot police thugs started mauling a provocateur, with the latter yelling loudly "I'm a fellow! I'm a fellow!" While scrambling for his ID. It's all on video and it's hilarious. And sad. But hilarious

[SalmonGod]

I've only been browsing for 20 minutes since I got home from work...

What appears to be another murder by police.  The suspect led an officer on a chase.  The officer trapped him in a cul-de-sac, rammed into the (unarmed) suspect's truck with his patrol vehicle, and then fired 41 shots into the vehicle...

A 13 year old in a poor quality public school compares her situation to one of Frederick Douglas' experiences, and is subsequently harassed out of the school system.

Plastic pollution in the ocean is more widespread than previously thought.

[kaijyuu]

A 13 year old in a poor quality public school compares her situation to one of Frederick Douglas' experiences, and is subsequently harassed out of the school system.

\
Someone give this girl a medal.

[Ancre]

A 13 year old in a poor quality public school compares her situation to one of Frederick Douglas' experiences, and is subsequently harassed out of the school system.

\
Someone give this girl a medal.

I think someone actually did From the article, "The conservative Frederick Douglass Foundation gave Williams a special award" perhaps not a medal, but fitting nonetheless !

[Duuvian]

It seems to me that private interests may be specifically targeting police through funding and producing inspiring media in order to inflame some influenceable members of the force against segments of the population which the private interests in question are not affiliated with.

Namely less wealthy people of various descriptions and localities.

Either way though, there sure have been a whole lot of movies lately in the last year putting police up on a pedestal and while some might disagree with me I see them being over marketed as they are being sold in every store at 25$ for a DVD. This speaks to me that someone is simply throwing these niche market productions at dirt cheap prices at National Chain Stores. Who can blame the middleman (meaning the local manager peon) for peddling it if they get it for 5 cents and they sell for 20$. I know you are doing the best you can and we're in similar shoes so my hat's off to ya)}You get two stars towards a promotion at some point down the line. It's not difficult to assume that police officers would purchase those movies and if they are decent action movies that they might take them to heart.

So next time you see those strangely priced movies that might have a political spin on them on sale on a special rack you might want to consider

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

the right wing media conspiracy

that put them there. The irony is that the left doesn't have much of a 'left wing media conspiracy' because it's us; the people who know what's going on.

It's probably a bullet point somewhere on an evil mastermind's checklist.

Spoiler: No one should love him (click to show/hide)

EDIT: Also if any of our friends in blue read this it wouldn't hurt if you start spreading the word to cool it on the rambo stuff a bit. Times are crazy yo. Life isn't movies and I'm sure out of all the respectable people in the world the police at least would know this.

[SalmonGod]

Yeah, that's something that's long been noted by counter-cultural observers.

Especially of note is how police (or other enforcing agents of authoritative institutions) in fiction are always used as a way to set up boogeymen in our culture.  They're always trying to prevent (in the most over-the-top heroic manner possible) whoever is politically unpopular from doing something destructive.  This slips the unquestioned premise into people's minds that those people want to do those things.

"I heard Tom Cruise is going to be in this movie where he's this intrepid CIA agent trying to stop anarchists from poisoning the world's water supply... which is of course bullshit, because none of my friends are gonna do that.  I think the movie would be great if they'd change just one thing, though.  Make Tom Cruise this intrepid anarchist who's trying to stop the capitalists from poisoning the world's water supplies.  I'd be all over it." -- Derrick Jensen 'The Other Side of Darkness'

Of course, I've never heard of that movie... but it's still an illustrative quote, because it reads like a very standard action movie premise.

[SalmonGod]

Finally got around to watching this.

Episode 8 of the Julian Assange Show.   (inb4 comments about the guy being self-absorbed from disapprovers)

He talks with three other influential internet privacy/information freedom activists.  There are some really good moments here.  Need to watch the episode with Noam Chomsky next.

[Reelya]

What. The. Hell.

That is beyond any explanation. Why would anyone do that?

Super aggressive guys with guns and immunity to prosecution.

Frankly, it's a surprise they don't murder people more often.

Dude thought himself a failure because he couldn't do everything himself. Why do people think that?

Welcome to the dark side of American culture.

Most people, but men more so, are culturally expected to be able to take care of their own lives entirely and without placing a burden upon anyone else. Especially taxpayers, because taxpayers are as close to leeching off of everyone as you can get. This is why things like welfare are so stigmatized. Culturally speaking, you have failed if you can't do everything yourself in America, because you have failed to be a totally self-reliant individual. Imposition upon another person's life to supplement your own becomes not just a voluntary option but a total necessity, and that is the biggest thing you can do wrong in American society.

I wouldn't trade the independence that American society values, but it can turn very bad.

I think that part of American culture is BS. Not the value itself, the idea that goes with it that everywhere else in the world people just love leeching. Just isn't true, and it's highly insulting and is one of those statements that makes everyone else think Americans are brainwashed morons.

"third world" types do self-reliant like you wouldn't believe, kill their own food etc. Raise their own goats. TAKE CARE of their own elderly, because there's no Medicare or anything like that. Very few of the poorest countries have ANY welfare system at all. It makes westerners look very coddled in comparison. We may say we're "self-reliant" individuals, but we let the state take care of seniors, people's "individuality" in this case allows them to totally SHIRK what is seen in many parts of the world as a moral duty. And there's a TON of shit we don't have to worry about because of being in wealthy industrialized states. All but the very toughest "rugged individualists" in the USA or other Western states, would be dogmeat if they had to make their way in most third world countries.

And there is NO culture that has a welfare system (which are all the wealthier countries) where people think it's "cool" to be on welfare.

[SalmonGod]

Not sure how credible this is, and I'm surprised this is the first I've heard of it...

The NDAA Legalizes The Use Of Propaganda On The US Public

Also heartbreaking and makes me want to escape the country so badly for the sake of my children... The education system isn't designed to do anything but churn out identical cogs for the corporate machine.

[scriver]

Also heartbreaking and makes me want to escape the country so badly for the sake of my children... The education system isn't designed to do anything but churn out identical cogs for the corporate machine.

Once again the old Progg song the State and the Capital hits right on the nail.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The schools' duty is as it should be to school the working force
If the brush is to sweep well you mustn't trifle with the shaft
Stops and quotas and testing programmes, it's a system for separating
The wheat from the chaff and bring each and one to their rightful fold

It's remarkable how a bunch of 70's hippies could be so relevant today.

[Graknorke]

I'm not entirely sure what you expect schools to be doing.
It is their job to ensure than society has a distribution of people in a way that will ensure everything still works with the old system,so, mostly people who do baseline work (primary and secondary industrial work), a smaller, but still large amount who do service jobs (though in western countries most work is actually in tertiary industry), and a small amount of owners and managers.

That's what they do and they do it well.

[Reelya]

Proof that the IMF "Makes shit up" as it's economic projections based on politics

Those are the IMF's "projected" (i use the term loosely) inflation figures for Venezuela from 2009. up to 2008 is the real data, 2009+ (in green) is the IMF's "projected data". Note that the projected rise in inflation for EVERY year is exactly 3.000% and they all fall on a "0.500%" boundary. EVERY other country in the IMF database has projections calculated correctly to 3 decimal places. Also, inflation in Venezuela is actually falling since 2009 whilst the IMF data claims it should be massively increasing.

The most recent annualized inflation figure is 18.6%, whilst the IMF claims it should have been 49.500%. note that inflation has always been lower under Chavez than every year in the decade before he was elected (he took office in 1999). Blaming Chavez for high inflation is quite like blaming Obama for the recession i think.

Moral to the story: never trust the IMF.

EDIT: Haha they were in an anti-Chavez hysteria the year the published THAT data. but the NEXT year, there's still something fishy about the data. in the 2010 report they acknowledge that inflation was actually dropping, but the forecast is now exactly a 2.300% drop every year, and they're on 0.050% boundaries. Other countries show no such odd patterns.

[scriver]

...Wrong thread?

[Reelya]

IMF is related to economics and wall street. there wasn't really a thread for this. Also it's to do with the media / government manipulating economic data for political ends against left-wing governments, so it was sort of relevant.

Chavez = challenging neoliberal economics + people power. Relevant.

[Sheb]

Don't they explain this oddity in the report? It might just be that they don't have access to real data and had to do with guesswork.