I read that article a little while ago, and I had that vertiginous feeling that old people must get when they shake their heads at how incomprehensible the world is becoming. We are turning into an oligarchy at a speed I can't understand.+
Terrifying. This isn't the first time I've heard of people (companies) paying/hiring police for corporate use; is this common? How is it possible to do that? Why aren't they hiring private security firms?
As fucked up as this particular instance is, it should hardly come as a surprise after the post-Seattle militarization of police forces which has, as often as not, been mostly for the benefit of private industry, even if there's a fig leaf of public benefit for conferences and summits and conventions.
We will recall that, in the First Age of Robber Barons, the constabulary, Pinkertons, freelance strikebreakers and National Guard were used fairly interchangeably at the convenience & connivance of the bosses for whatever purpose was most appealing.
But at least morphine was legal then.
The Target and Home Depot I use are on the site where the Homestead Strike and all that occurred.
4: Catilo Paennim, who was just spayed, got Buprenex (buprenorphine), which is like 20X more effective as an analgesic than plain morphine.
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A comparison of headlines for the same story:
BBC: Dutch review backs UN climate panel report
Washington Post: Review finds issues on climate panel
Associated Press: Dutch agency admits mistake in UN climate report
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It's pretty common (ie it's standard) for football clubs in the UK to pay the police for security on matchday. There's less of a sense that the police are working for the football clubs though. It's more that the police are doing what they would do anyway, but they're charging the clubs for bringing about the situation.
7: By the time it hits the denialist blogs, it'll be "IPCC forced to retract all claims."
8: I see one or two things that aren't parallel between the two situations.
10: Both situations involve British people behaving badly.
10: Sure. I was just mentioning an instance I know where companies pay the police (other than bribes, obviously).
I'm very concerned about this development, but this is just plain being dumb: "[T]o create a blanket rule that everyone has to stay 65 feet away from boom and boats, that doesn't sound like transparency," [said Cooper].
65 feet is a perfectly reasonable safety standoff distance, perhaps even a little too close for some operations. Bitching about reasonable restrictions just clouds the issue, which is the wholesale purchase of police departments by private entities.
Good article in the now-deprecated alternative newsweekly here last week about the insanely open-to-corruption method by which downtown bars hire off-duty cops. Apparently, it's basically an influence racket, where individual cops run teams of off-duties, who are paid in cash to watch the bars (they're not allowed to actually work the door anymore, after an incident where a locally-renowned thumper beat up a private college hockey player 20 years ago), and the cops who do the brokering are also paid in cash. The department has no control over it, other than enforcing a rule that officers must be working a minimum number of shifts in order to qualify (because the bar security pays significantly more per hour than regular police work).
But that's just business as usual.
A minimum number of actual police shifts that is.
7, OP: Goddammit.
My understanding was that it's not uncommon for police officers to supplement their income with after-hours private security work. Now, I basically don't want BP to have any private security at all, since they're deploying security to keep the public out of public lands and away from the views that would galvanize public response; but I wonder how different from the wholesale PD-hiring it would be to have lots and lots of individual officers with burgeoning BP loyalty (especially since their checks would come directly from BP).
Yeah, getting hired by corporations for events isn't unusual. But anyone who thinks you're going to become their personal bully gets a firm reminder that we enforce the law, not their personal whims. Unfortunately, I think small town southern govt. is pretty susceptible to getting bought off. I wonder how they think they're going to avoid a shitload of federal lawsuits. It's one thing to have your local court at your back, but I can't imagine these little sheriff depts. getting the same treatment at the federal circuit level.
Granted there's some shady shit going on, but maybe Anderson Cooper isn't the guy to make this case. "Stay 65 feet away from the boats and booms" is a big govt. coverup? Really? Did you guys forget how to use the zoom feature on the cameras or something?
But anyone who thinks you're going to become their personal bully gets a firm reminder that we enforce the law, not their personal whims.
65 feet detail aside, the article certainly makes it sound like law enforcement has become BP's personal bully.
the article certainly makes it sound like law enforcement has become BP's personal bully.
I should be clear I'm referring to my specific PD.
The kind of stuff like stopping someone for taking pics sounds like an obvious illegal detention, and would be an excellent way (at least out here) to end up in trouble with your own PD as well as on the wrong end of a civil rights suit.
Damn it. Why is Obama letting this happen???
21:The pitcher nods at the catcher's sign. Pitch gets into position, winds, delivers...wait...a slip! Oh noes. What could have been an low inside curve is straight, slow, and dead on the center of the plate. McManus has all the time in the world to settle his weight on a rear foot, lean way back, point the bat at the centerfield bleachers and twirl the bat in a sneering circle above his head...
...cause Obama's a fascist.
Roger Griffin and his like are essential to understanding the first half of the 20th, but I think probably pernicious in effect in the 21st. The ways the elites learned from their failures in Italy and Germany, improved the techniques of propaganda and cultural hegemony, and discarded the baggage and unproductive elements of nationalist fascism to create a global totalitarianism are not covered by Hardt & Negri, for instance, in a way that explains the impotence of the left and the objective hopelessness of process liberalism and reform and yet supports an optimistic praxis. "Fascism" is a rhetorical tool that works, precisely because of the popular misunderstandings of fascism.
"Fascism" is a rhetorical tool that works, precisely because of the popular misunderstandings of fascism.
Calling Obama fascist is certainly going to help create more popular misunderstanding of fascism. So, you know, win-win situation.
I have now read about 2 1/2 books by Griffin To me he is like saying:"This giraffe has three spots on the left side of his neck. If you try to says giraffes have long necks, fine, but that doesn't really adequately describe this giraffe."
"a palingenetic and populist form of ultranationalism." ...RG
Obama:
palingenetic nope
populist nope
ultranationalism nope
big lie? constantly
symbol over substance
corporatism yup
militarism yup
building paramilitary orgs yup (you need to check out what Petraeus is doing)
top down Arendt eye of hurricane yup
identity politics as a mean of distraction and building loyalty yup
bob, I thought that the "brownshirt" teapartiers were generally opposed to Fuehrer Obama. Am I misinformed?
Bowers says the Senate is in play.
Let's get imaginative
Obama and BPO are building a paramilitary along the coast, and Petraeus is developing his Sardaukar in Southwest Asia.
So both houses of Congress flip Republican in November, the 2nd dip in the Depression hits hard, the Catfood Commission smashes entitlements, a Vat and gas tax are enacted...what does the Democratic Party look like in the summer of 2011?
Wall-to-wall committee investigations of Obama and a probably impeachment. All party power and loyalty will go to Obama, all Democratic dissent marginalized and demonized. The DLC paradigm is not policy or program or party (in a grassroots sense), it is about personal power. After Clinton Gore, with no other options.
If the Teabaggers get crazy enough, Obama will have an excuse to bring Petraeus home. Once home, the Teabaggers would not actually become the primary focus of counterinsurgency, because the authoritarian Right can swiftly and easily be brought into line once their enemies on the left are destroyed.
because the authoritarian Right can swiftly and easily be brought into line once their enemies on the left are destroyed.
I think I spot the hole in your cunning plan, Baldrick.
Those who blame the KPD for the collapse of Germany need to think about 27 last. Yes, the Brownshirts were on the streets, but only until the center capitulated and the commies and unions were eliminated. Then the Brownshirts were a trivial problem.
Obama will maintain the liberal rhetoric, hell, Republicans spout the correct platitudes. The rhetoric will be enough to quiet Obamabots and other loyalists.
But on policy, perhaps "reluctantly" Obama will flip so far to the right an honest person won't recognize him as a Democrat.
A "Democratic" President with a Republican Congress has always been the plan and goal, as it was the goal of the first Clinton term.
Let's get imaginative
We'll add "imaginative" to "fascist" in the list of words that bob defines idiosyncratically.
Then the Brownshirts were a trivial problem
Tell me about it.
32: Based on your Wikipedia page, you kind of look like Vernon Dursley.
Meet me in the room under the stairs and we can "discuss" that, sweetie.
Speaking of mcmanus, Jonathon Bernstein thinks Republicans are quite likely to try to impeach Obama if they gain control of the House. I was surprised by the idea, but it makes sense. Boy, wouldn't that be fun?
21, 22 -- And here I thought it was because Obama isn't on the city (or parish) council in any of the affected communities.
37: Well, of course they will. What else do you think their priorities are?
DUDE. I saw that letter and felt outrage, and all sorts of sympathy for the letter writer, and I disagreed with Savage which is rare. I understood the letter writer's disgust and revulsion well. When you are acutely vulnerable to people, like your former and intermittent lover and also your own brother, and hadn't known them to be sociopaths, they have a duty of care to you. These two betrayed her trust in a particularly nasty fashion. I didn't remotely understand Savage's response, and wouldn't have considered his advice possible, even if it were good.
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I ordered some sandals that I was hoping were brown, even though they were called "orange" because they looked passably brown in the picture. They arrived. They're definitely orange.
It's probably a big pain to change the colors of your sandals, and probably with stain your feet the first time it rains, and I should not contemplate this. Right?
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It's probably a big pain to change the colors of your sandals...
Right. Far easier to dye all of your pants orange.
Serves you right for being the sort of person who can get away with ordering footwear without trying it on first.
They won't accept your credit card online?
Nobody will sell me sandals because of my toes.
That fungus stuff got two of the nails.
On the internet, nobody knows how nasty your toes are.
While Dan Savage may not be Megan, we now know that Terry Savage embodies all that's wrong with America.
52: And those damn freeloading kittens should be shipped to the Gulf and deployed in burlap bags to absorb oil with their fur.
41: You want brown, right? Lucky for you that's what all colors converge towards if you add enough other colors. You can simply buy a passel of cheap dyes in random colors and go to town.
Once you are in town be sure to get a book at the library about how to dye things made of sandal material (it's not wood! those are clogs! It should be called clogwood!).
Has anyone suggested 53 to BP? There are an awful lot of stray kittens around, and I'm sure the burlap industry could use the boost.
55: Just remember that it's your patriotic duty to demand appropriate royalties for the idea.
How fucking great is Les parapluies? Watch that clip.
Well, besides the insane but brilliant use of color, how bout the fact that that most beautiful cheek wetting musical theme surrounds a mutual life-destroying lie?
That lie not being "I will wait forever" but actually "Rebellious young love is a beautiful and timeless joy?"
Umbrellas is a great argument for arranged marriages.
that most beautiful cheek wetting musical theme
God, that part is sure right. That movie makes me sob, for reasons I can't quite figure out. I saw it five or six years ago in the theater and thought it was serving as an outlet for other emotional things going on in my life at the time, but every time I see parts of it I still get all weepy.
Somebody in comments calls Les parapluies "so romantic"
It's the anti-romantic movie par excellence. These are miserable people miserable together bad for each other who only attain happiness and social worth when they each marry for money. That people cry through it ten times and not get it marks it as some special kind of genius.
Terry Savage embodies all that's wrong with America
This may well be true. Though on the general subject of lemonade stands, I do think it is important for the kids to know how much all of the inputs cost. I care not what they charge, because it is really hard to gauge the market of thirsty neighbors. IME the kids charge $.50 per cup, and people don't ask for change from their folding money, so the profits add up quickly. Of course this is in sunny Socal, where the lemons grow on trees in the backyard, so one might have a different experience in Minnesota.
I thought that a lemonade stand meant setting up on a street and then nobody comes by all day, and sometimes cars drive by, and you're not exactly sure how many days you're expected to waste out there in order to turn a profit, and you're bored beyond belief. Eventually you get sunburnt.
It is an exercise in ironic effect, a little trompe l'oeil
Is it photographed beautifully? Watch it again.
Just as the gracenotes in oversaturated primary colours distract you from the unspeakable dreariness of the mise-en-scene, and the sungspeech distracts you from the banalities in the dialogue, so the attractiveness of the actors distracts you from their contemptible characters and behaviors.
Proto-situationist, Les parapluies is really about the overwhelming and irresistible power of the simulacrum.
The Umbrellas of Obama.
62 is my favorite bob comment ever ever.
61. Heebie your neighbors are either communists or rude or both. It is the duty of all good Americans to buy the lemonade from a child's stand. Maybe you needed to shake your moneymaker a little more.
I do think it is important for the kids to know how much all of the inputs cost.
While I agree with this generally, and have wanted to teach my daughters about costs and profits in their own lemonade-selling endeavors, that piece made me appreciate their generous instincts and also wish that Terry Savage would come by our place for lemonade just so I could surreptitiously pee in it.
wish that Terry Savage would come by our place for lemonade just so I could surreptitiously pee in it
And charge him double for the privilege.
41 -- You can definitely wear orange to watch the world cup final.
I like the way you think, Leech. We should go into business.
You can definitely wear orange to watch the world cup final.
Pretty serendipitous that a local water god morphed into a homophone for a bright color.
Terry Savage is an insane dickhead. Also, the correct thing to rail against regarding lemonade stands is Country Time.
Last, for the next time you watch Umbrellas
I just read 75 comments at IMDB about the end scene intentions, children, snow rather than rain, happy/sad, closure, music etc. The inversion from the beginning, collected circles to isolated rectangle.
One thing that I have not seen mentioned, part of which may involve my ignorance of 60s France.
But I think she is driving a Rolls Royce, and that service station with Xmas tree station islanded on asphalt looks so very American to me. Compare it with the original auto workplace. A political dimension/reading?
Nothing is accidental here.
I actually think I'd share his "you're missing the point; that's not how lemonade stands are supposed to work" reaction to a lemonade stand at which the lemonade was free. Although, I wouldn't say anything to the kids about it. And I certainly wouldn't think it demonstrated anything broader about the decline of economic literacy, or individual responsibility, or the capitalist spirit, or whatever the hell it was that he was ranting about the decline of in that column. (I'm not sure he really had a solid grasp of his supposed point himself, so I don't feel too bad for missing it.)
And that's the Savage Truth!
s/b "And that's how Sue 'C's' it!"
72: There might be more than one point one could take from running a lemonade stand. For example, those children have now learned that some adults are dicks, unable to comprehend generosity.
For redfoxtailshrub:
http://www.sunkist.com/takeastand/
Fred Savage embodies everything that's wrong with the hobbit casting in the Lord of the Rings films.
41 re sandals, or other shoes for that matter, avoid Clarks unless you don't mind having things wear out in record speed. Normally sandals last me two and a half to three years, the ones I bought last August are already dying. Grrh. Next time I'll shell out an extra twenty bucks and save some money.
It looks like gay civil unions have been vetoed in Hawaii. Apparently the governor, Linda Lingle, was afraid of having to face the same kind of legal hellscape that has befallen Connecticut, Vermont, Iowa, Massachusetts, DC, and New Hampshire. God knows all we hear out of those places is legal misery, sorrow, and endless straight divorces.
Goddamn it.
Urban data trivia of the day, the population of the central core of Krakow has dropped from 61,000 in 1961 to 5,000 today. During that same period the population of the city as a whole has gone from under half a million to over three quarters of a million. It's basically turned into tourist wonderland, with a gazillion hotels, bars, restaurants, boutiques, and tourist apartments, plus pied a terres for wealthy foreigners. No supermarkets, no pre-schools or kindergartens, very noisy, very expensive. Plus folks aren't cramming into apartments the way they used to. Sort of sad, my mom and her mom as well grew up in an apartment overlooking the planty between the old town proper and the Wawel.
I don't see what's wrong with the Terry Savage piece. He's clearly in favor of higher taxes in order to fund government-provided services. It's not like he told them to stop providing lemonade to the people.
80: There was a time when she probably would have signed it, and there seemed to be some hope even now. She's relatively sane for a Republican, or used to be, but her hopes of succeeding to one of the Senate seats are pretty much gone now and apparently she needs to stay right enough with the national Republican party to have some hope of finding indoor work when she lives office in December. Yuck.
It looks like gay civil unions have been vetoed in Hawaii.
What, really? In Hawaii?! So we now have gay marriage in the culturally conservative* and starched-underwear province of Ontario, but no gay civil unions in the liberal 'light out for the territory' paradise of Hawaii? I guess I don't understand anything anymore.
*But it's a different ('red Tory'-ish) kind of conservative.
84: Hawaii is more socially conservative than you might think.
i thought hawai'i had gay marriage a long time ago. i guess that was abortive, after wikiing it
You know free markets are a religion when a believer like Terry there can get so upset about other people giving away their stuff when it doesn't cost them a cent.
I once confused some economics graduate students by giving away a bunch of stuff when I was moving to a new place. I told them the marginal utility to me of messing with their theories far exceeded that of the money I'd get by selling everything.
Also,
"That's not the spirit of giving. You can only really give when you give something you own. They're giving away their parents' things -- the lemonade, cups, candy. It's not theirs to give."
...but you can *sell* whatever you can put your grubby little paws on.
Not even families have community property, apparently.
Would Terry Savage feel better about America if the free lemonade stand turned out to be a front for a highly profitable illegal drug operation?
90: Tell me about it. Dad would never spot me even a single cigarette despite the fact that he usually had a full carton and I wasn't legally old enough to buy any.
You know what's more important than clean beaches? Racial Purity Immigration enforcement. No, really.
My sister and I were very fond of the concept of family property, coining the new possessive, "extra". Most of Dad's flannel shirts were "extra", for example.
92: When I was a kid, my mom would send me to the store to buy cartons of cigarettes.
95: Yes, it was illegal, but nobody ever carded me for buying smokes either.
I'm fairly sure I went to buy tobacco for my Dad sometimes. My wife remembers being sent across the road with a little jar to fetch draught beer from the pub. I don't think that would ever have happened here in the UK.