Month: August 2014

Something is Wrong on the Internet

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As you are no doubt aware, the film Guardians of the Galaxy opened this weekend.

As the archetypal summer blockbuster, it got a lot of reviews, and one, at the Village Voice, Stephanie Zacharek, was less than charitable, which resulted in a torrent of sexist abuse directed her way:

“She’s just pissed because she lives in the Village full of gay men and no one wants any of her old, dried out pie.”

………

 “We live in a world where 1000s of people are being beheaded and murdered throughout the world each and every day and this harlot has the nerve to knock it because it’s too fun?”

Harlot? Seriously?

“She should stick to reviewing chick flicks only.”

What is wrong with these people?

You can castigate a movie critic, or for that matter any critic for being unfair.

In fact the (sometimes delightfully and sometimes tediously) bitchy Rex Reed has made a career out of being this.

But simply posting misogynist rants sucks wet farts from dead pigeons, or, as Guardians of the Galaxy writer* Brian Michael Bendis observes, ” You love Captain America? Well, you know what Captain America would never do? Go online anonymously and sh$# on a girl for having an opinion.” (%$ mine)

H/t xkcd for the top comic.

*To be clear, Bendis writes for the comic book, he did not do the screenplay.†
†Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Of Course Obama Expresses Confidence in John Brennan

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Because Barack Obama has made it quite clear that spying on Congress and shilling for torturers is no big deal:

President Obama said on Friday that he has “full confidence” in John Brennan, the director of the C.I.A., despite Mr. Brennan’s admission this week that his agency improperly searched the computers of the congressional committee that is preparing to release a report on the use of torture in the fight against terror.

………

Asked about the upcoming release of a report that documents American interrogation techniques, Mr. Obama said the C.I.A. exercised “very poor judgment” in its handling of the report. But he said that Mr. Brennan had apologized for the incident to Senator Dianne Feinstein, the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

“I have full confidence in John Brennan,” Mr. Obama said, noting an inspector general’s conclusions about the C.I.A. spying on the committee. “It’s clear from the I.G. report that some very poor judgment was shown in how that was handled. Keep in mind that John Brennan was the one who called for the I.G. report.”

Let us be clear: The CIA did not exercise, “poor judgement,” people exercised poor judgement.

People spied on Congress.

People broke cyber crime laws.

People showed contempt for the Constitutional separation of powers.

People, in this case John Brennan specifically, went on the Sunday shows and explicitly lied about this.

People were responsible, and people should be fired, prosecuted, etc. over all of this.

Barack Obama Just Admitting to Covering Up Crimes Against Humanity, Which is a Crime Against Humanity

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Barack Obama has blithely stated that, “We tortured some folks,” but continues to insist that there will not be any sort of accountability for this:

In startlingly blunt phrasing, President Obama on Friday acknowledged the CIA’s use of brutal interrogation tactics in the years after the Sept. 11 attack, even as he defended the agency’s top spy, who is a veteran of the era.

 “We tortured some folks,” Obama said to reporters during a news conference Friday. “We did some things that were contrary to our values.”

 ………

 He sought to put the interrogation program in context, recalling Americans’ fear after the Sept. 11 attacks and the “enormous pressure” on law enforcement to prevent more attacks.

 “You know, it is important for us not to feel too sanctimonious in retrospect about the tough job that those folks had,” Obama said. “And a lot of those folks were working hard under enormous pressure and are real patriots.”

No, they weren’t patriots, they were “Good Germans”.

He also further makes it clear that not only will there be no prosecution of torturers, there won’t even be a real investigation of who gave the orders.

As Richard Nixon’s head in a jar might attest to, sometimes it’s the cover up that constitutes a crime, and Obama has thrown his lot in with the coverup.

Whoever performed, authorized, or ordered torture, at a very minimum, should be stripped of their security clearances and fired.  (I would argue that the same should apply to those who did not report torture through the chain of command)

He was forced to make this statement, since the Senate report on this reveals that the torture was more common and more brutal than was reported to Congress of the public, as well as the fact that it never produced meaningful actionable intelligence.

It is also important to note that many of the people tortured were guilty of nothing, and had just been swept up in a panic driven dragnet and bounty program.

Finally, it should be noted that torture comes home.  National guardsman who observe or participate in torture, and then come home to work in civilian law enforcement, are more likely to engage in torture themselves.

Prosecution, and public shaming, are essential to stopping this.

India Stands Firm, and the Rest of Us Benefit

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The latest round of WTO talks have collapsed over the issue of allowing Wall Street to loot food supplies:

The World Trade Organization failed Thursday to ratify an agreement designed to streamline the global trade system, frustrating a late push by U.S. officials to convince India to reach a compromise that would have secured a deal.

“I do not have the necessary elements that would lead to me to conclude that a breakthrough is possible,” WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo said. “We got closer—significantly closer—but not quite there.”

The WTO reached an agreement in December on the Indonesian resort island of Bali to streamline customs procedures. The deadline to ratify that agreement was Thursday, but India declined to do so without a parallel agreement allowing developing countries more freedom to subsidize and stockpile food.

Some economists have estimated that the Bali agreement, which seeks to standardize customs practices and remove red tape, could save WTO members more than $1 trillion eventually.

Failure to achieve a consensus before the WTO’s own deadline deals a severe blow to the Geneva-based body’s credibility, already tenuous after years of stalled talks on tariff reductions. The trade-easing deal was viewed as a way to create some momentum.

As a raft of regional trade deals moves ahead, the WTO’s ability to act as a catalyst for global trade liberalization is in doubt.

India had insisted for weeks that it wouldn’t sign off on the Bali pact unless the group comes to a faster accord on exempting food-subsidy and stockpiling programs like India’s from current WTO rules that limit them.

Remember when international food prices spiked a few years ago because of aggressive market manipulation by Wall Street in the US and the City in London?

The “subsidies” in question are providing sub-market price food to poor people in those countries, and stockpiles to mitigate market manipulation by the banksters.

India wants a permanent solution to this, they (correctly) consider it a matter of national security, but what they got was non-binding language that would render any attempt to protect their citizens from the vicissitudes of the market inoperative by 2017.

I approve.

Fabulous!

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The Uganda constitutional court has ruled their Kill the Gays (lite) bill unconstitutional:

Gay rights campaigners in Uganda and around the world are celebrating a decision by the country’s constitutional court to strike down a widely condemned anti-gay law on a legal technicality.

Activists in the courtroom cheered after a panel of five judges ruled on Friday that the speaker of parliament acted illegally when she allowed a vote on the measure despite at least three objections that not enough MPs were in attendance.

“The speaker was obliged to ensure that there was quorum,” the court said in its ruling. “We come to the conclusion that she acted illegally.”

While celebrating the ruling, activists warned that homosexuality remained a criminal offence in the east African country under colonial-era laws.

While much of the blame for this rests on the politicians of Uganda, who are, after all, human beings with their own capability of agency, but I really do think that we should be investigating members of “The Family” in the United States for conspiracy to commit genocide.  (Click the link, the Family is a scary bunch of people)

It’s nice that Uganda cannot throw people convicted of “aggravated homosexuality” into jail for life, but it would be nicer still if they were to repeal the colonial-era laws.

Burning Political Question of the Day

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Why can’t we Nickelback Sarah Palin?

Seriously, why do pop bands seem to have a sell-by date, where they go from beloved to loathed (I was unaware of Nickelback until people started hating in them, because I am, well, square), but figures in the political media complex don’t.   (See also, “Blowfish, Hootie and the”)

I burn for the day that I can place the beast from Wasilla  on my list of They Who Must Not Be Named.