Comments on: The Rule Of Law

By: Badtux

Badtux — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 15:09:57 +0000

“If you refused to confess, you were considered mentally unstable” …

meaning that if these streamers got arrested, they’re guilty, and if they refuse to confess their guilt, they’re crazy, either way, the New York Times wants nothing to do with them. Alrighty, then!

– Badtux the Sovok Penguin

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 05:34:04 +0000

Actually, they wouldn’t try you under the Soviet system until you confessed. Purpose of your ‘defense’ counsel was to help you write the confession. If you refused to confessed, you were considered mentally unstable and sent to a psychiatric hospital. The court system hasn’t changed noticeably since the fall of the Soviets.

The media is so corrupt.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 04:47:54 +0000

It’s just like the Soviet system, Bryan. If you were arrested, there is no need for a trial before punishing you, because perfect socialism err capitalism would *never* arrest an innocent person. So the NYT must of course cut off contact with these criminals who, uhm, committed the crime of journalism, because, well, because that’s official Soviet doctrine for dealing with those guilty of crime, duh.

– Badtux the Snarky Penguin

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 17:57:07 +0000

Back when we had real news reporting, the arresting reporters problem would have trumped everything else. Now you have NYT breaking off its connection to its freelancers who get arrested.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 07:07:22 +0000

Well, 26 journalists (that we know about) have thus far been arrested for covering OWS, so clearly the smell ain’t exactly roses. Funny, that’s the sorta thing Ghadaffi or however you spell his name used ta do, back when he was on this mortal coil I mean ;).

– Badtux the “Something smells” Penguin

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 04:23:22 +0000

Now they are trying to get laws passed to make it illegal to record cops being jerks. It obviously won’t pass the smell test, but they seem hellbent on doing anything to make themselves unaccountable.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 03:45:42 +0000

Regarding the taped-over badge numbers, it took the police weeks to realize the simple fact that almost literally everybody carries in his or her pocket the equivalent of a camera and/or a videocam. Remember when the video of the Rodney King beating caused such a stir and a riot? I’ll bet there are literally hundreds of such videos from Occupy Oakland alone, and the best (i.e., worst) of them are already well-known on the web. There’s a lot of formerly hidden shit that a law officer can’t get away with today.

Oh, for the days when police officers mostly didn’t do things they wouldn’t want video-recorded!

By: Bryan

Bryan — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:17:54 +0000

Badtux, I hope that defense attorneys pick up on that, because it will invalidate the arrests of a lot of people. Judges care about those ‘technicalities’, and will be happy to clear their dockets with an excuse like that. I remember an extended discussion over the fact that the NY legislature misspelled a word in a change to the Penal Law.

Hey, Kryten, the Marines have to go somewhere, after being kicked out of Okinawa and Japan for bad behavior. Being south of the Equator will mess with the heads of the navigators, and they might actually have to stay awake for the flights. I wonder about certain systems and how they will be affected.

Yes, Australia should at least be getting the same lease rates as the Kyrgyz, and the Marines should be stationed well away from anything breakable.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 08:54:11 +0000

Chinacan send a man into space today. The United States cannot. That pretty much says it all about who's going up, and who's in decline... - Badtux the Space Penguin

By: Kryten42

Kryten42 — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 08:22:23 +0000

This pretty much sums it up:

…
Could anyone have imagined then that China would be the giant it is today? No-one – with the possible exception of Gough Whitlam, who travelled to China in 1971 and met with Zhou En–lai just weeks before Nixon opened his historic dialogue with the Chinese.

Back then China was perceived as a threat – today it is our principal trading partner. That is the reality Australia and the Americans have to recognise. China needs Australia and we need China.

America should not ask us to choose.

Our relationship with the United States remains critically important to us but it must be tempered with the knowledge that our present and future prosperity will be largely dependent on China’s growth.

The American empire which replaced the British empire is in turn starting to recede. The United States will get through its current problems in time, but it will never reassert itself as the sole superpower it has been since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

China will be the next superpower sitting beside the United States – and that means that Australia will have to finesse its relationship with these two great nations.

The easy old slogans like “all the way with LBJ” just won’t cut the mustard any more.

Australia, the US and China: a diplomatic love triangle