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Saturday, December 29, 2012

Saturday Morning News: Fake Undercover Cops, WiFi in the Sky, and Jay Inlsee

Posted by on Sat, Dec 29, 2012 at 8:09 AM

Posted by news intern Al Jacobs

Family Planning for Free: The Philippines passed a new law that offers free access to contraception for citizens.

Crazy redneck sheriff Joe Arpaio says he plans to send an armed volunteer posse to patrol schools that fall under his jurisdiction.

Jay Inslee is shopping for cabinet members. I'm looking at you, future Employment Security commissioner.

Can't Buy Common Sense: A guy posing as an undercover cop in Volunteer Park is suspected to have stolen a credit card and cash after victims handed their wallets over for inspection.

Toward Justice: New Delhi police have charged six suspects accused of fatally raping a young woman aboard a moving bus.

Babes in Toy Land: If you've ever wondered what photos of people making toys in China might look like, Happy Saturday.

Obama signed the Countering Iran in the Western Hemisphere Act, mandating that the State Department develop a confidential plan to stifle the dubious Iranian menace in Latin America.

More Airplane WiFi: The FCC stepped toward allowing even more commercial air passengers to tap into mid-flight wireless internet.

Thank Me Later: Craft your own bacon.

 

Comments (53) RSS

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DOUG. 1
Just because he stole money doesn't mean that the guy in Volunteer Park wasn't a real undercover cop.
Posted by DOUG. http://www.dougsvotersguide.com on December 29, 2012 at 8:55 AM
2 Comment Pulled
Vancouverite 3
Makin' Bacon looks easy and delicious!!! Thank you, unpaid intern!
Posted by Vancouverite on December 29, 2012 at 9:18 AM
4
If you're going to bother making your own bacon, I'd highly recommend making English-style bacon, instead.
Posted by Brooklyn Reader on December 29, 2012 at 9:33 AM
rob! 5
Congress had no difficulty on Friday extending FISA wiretapping to 2017; Obama is expected to sign.
Posted by rob! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZBdUceCL5U on December 29, 2012 at 9:36 AM
chinaski 6
I agree with @2 and found it strange that slog has ignored that story. The comments would have been interesting.
Posted by chinaski on December 29, 2012 at 9:47 AM
Cato the Younger Younger 7
@2 & 6, Slog can't / won't cover every story out there but yeah..the comments would have been interesting to read
Posted by Cato the Younger Younger on December 29, 2012 at 9:57 AM
8
Wait a minute... that's not the wallet inspector!
Posted by maccoinnich on December 29, 2012 at 9:59 AM
Bauhaus I 9
I was one of those....patsies, as it turned out, who once believed that globalization was a good thing - that there were a lot of very poor, hungry people in the world and that they needed work, paychecks, and all the things that follow. I bought the all-boats-rising metaphor. I didn't realize at the time that in order for the people in poor countries to be gainfully employed, the American middle class would have to be unemployed. I thought there was enough to go around. I still believe there's enough to go around, but where I was wrong - and stupid and short-sighted - was thinking that some of this new wealth would be siphoned off from those who have so very much. Don't worry, they told us when jobs started disappearing. The world will always need our technical and managerial expertise.

And we keep signing trade agreements that - as far as I can tell - are a net loss for the US and a huge net gain for the other parties. They get our jobs. We get more cheap shit at Wal-Mart.

Does anyone have a solution or is this the end - as some suggest - of the "American Empire?"
Posted by Bauhaus I on December 29, 2012 at 10:03 AM
10
@2, 6, 7
"Interesting", meaning more racist trolling and veiled racist trolling.
Posted by pragmatic on December 29, 2012 at 10:07 AM
Cato the Younger Younger 11
@10, I thought it would be interesting to talk about how that shows a failure of part of our justice system. But if you think it would just be racist trolling...well I think you let slip your agenda
Posted by Cato the Younger Younger on December 29, 2012 at 10:16 AM
MacCrocodile 12
@1 - You can tell he wasn't SPD because he never beat the everloving shit out of any of his victims.

Remember: always ask to see a badge, and verify the authenticity of your police beating before giving any information to a wallet inspector.
Posted by MacCrocodile http://maccrocodile.com/ on December 29, 2012 at 10:19 AM
In your heart you know he's right 13
@10 "interesting" because when you take away all the mall, school, and cafe shootings (far less than 1%) the other 99% of shootings are never addressed or mentioned. Why is that?
Posted by In your heart you know he's right on December 29, 2012 at 10:21 AM
MacCrocodile 14
@11 - I found myself conflicted in that I actually kind of wanted to see the Stranger cover the story the troll is going on about. But yes, given the way she frames the story, she clearly intends it as race-baiting.
Posted by MacCrocodile http://maccrocodile.com/ on December 29, 2012 at 10:21 AM
15
The Sinister State of the American Economy

(An explanation even a Kardashian can understand!)

A little over twenty years ago, the Soviet Union dissolved.

The popular mythology holds that nothing occurred to the U.S. economy --- that even though David Rockefeller accompanied President Nixon and Henry Kissinger on their trips to Beijing and Moscow, where Rockefeller established banking operations in those two countries dating back to 1973, there was supposed to be absolutely no economic nor financial connections between American and the old Soviet Union.

Gorbachev was honest about the demise of the Soviet Union, but Wall Street was its usual duplicitous self and dissembled about the collapse of the American banking system around the same time.

With the 1990s came an explosion of credit derivatives, what's been referred to as "shadow banking" and created originally to alleviate the S&L meltdown losses --- even than a specious solution.

We'd have to wait until 1996 for Blythe Masters, at JP Morgan, to concoct that insurance fraud instrument, the credit default swap (another credit derivative), and a few more years until its epidemic spread across the globe.

Remember, the USA invaded Iraq when Saddam stopped selling oil in US dollars --- Petrodollars --- but switched to Euros?

Remember when the sanctions and drones and outright aggression began against Iran by America --- after Iran switched from US dollars to Euros for oil exchange?

To remain the world's reserve currency, countries must use American currency to buy and sell oil --- otherwise it loses its value, especially when enough countries begin to dump US dollars with the resultant collapse of the American economy.

That's the cause behind those American attempts on the life of President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, and the American government's bellicosity against that country (backed by the corporate propaganda network, frequently referred to as "the media").

(America exporting democracy? Tell that to Honduras, Guatemala, Columbia, Ecuador, Bahrain and the Palestinians!)

Now imagine if a neighbor, or complete stranger, broke down your door and invaded your property because they didn't agree with the way you spent your money?

The super-rich varmints and vermin have been dismantling the American economy over the past thirty-some years, leaching as much value and wealth from it as possible; offshoring the manufacturing base, offshoring the jobs in all sectors, and ignoring the country's infrastructure --- or worse --- selling it off!

You really think a "consumer-only economy" can survive?

I've nothing personally against Robert Reich, he seems like a decent enough fellow, but did you really believe Bill Clinton would have appointed such a complete idiot?

A pseudo-economist who doesn't understand arithmetic or large data sets? The author of the pile of crap, The Work of Nations --- the temporary fantasy being pushed by Wall Street, the Peterson Institute and the super-rich while dismantling everything?

The other day Reich said that 70% of the GDP activity is consumption --- but that doesn't mean anything of and by itself --- the important number is the percentage composition of the consumer demographic which is doing the vast amount of consuming. (Answer: the top 15%, used to be the top 20%, but the super-concentration of wealth has accelerated --- and that ain't a consumer-based economy, that's a plutocracy!)

Are you beginning to get an idea of what's taking place?

Please understand, this is basic economics, not even Econ 101, but the pre-Econ 101 course, and the purpose of economics is to justify why that pirate over there has all the money, while you have little or nothing.

A farce based upon a farce.
More...
Posted by sgt_doom on December 29, 2012 at 10:38 AM
16
@2, who described The Stranger staff as "progressive" ...,

Puuuhlease, while it may be true that The Stranger is a hotbed of debauchery and bestiality, it is quite the stretch to describe it as "progressive" --- completely unwarranted.

Remember, it was their editor, Dano "let's invade Iraq" Savage, who originally supported the Bush crime family's illegal invasion of that country, with the resulting deaths of at least hundreds of thousands, and the displacement of millions of people.

Frizzelle, another staff member, is ambivalent on the torture and illegally-long term incarceration before trial, of Real American Hero, Bradley Manning.

I believe a retraction is in order, unregisted dood.
Posted by sgt_doom on December 29, 2012 at 10:45 AM
17
@14 Andrew S. would show up and shied us stats! So many stats!
The failure of the justice system is interesting, especially in light of how young Jones was when he went down his fucked up path.
But Tuba Man, as sad as he death was, has even more tragically became a rally point for northwest white dudes who are scared of black teens. A real shame, I don't even of them even knew the guy. He never struck me as the kind of guy, who wanted his death to stoke hatred of a whole race.
Posted by CbytheSea on December 29, 2012 at 10:50 AM
18
@16

I've seen some pretty sexist shit from you, and I don't see you getting much fired up on gender posts, so you're hardly one to judge progressiveness.
Posted by seatackled on December 29, 2012 at 10:53 AM
19
@13 because there would be more than 150 posts since Newtown. That's how many have died since then. This blog would only be about fun violence. That's why, any other questions?
Posted by CbytheSea on December 29, 2012 at 10:54 AM
20
@19 weird typo. Gun violence.
Posted by CbytheSea on December 29, 2012 at 10:56 AM
zivilisierter Wurm 21
@20 I dunno if you've ever shot, but it's fun violence too
Posted by zivilisierter Wurm http://peregrinari.tumblr.com/ on December 29, 2012 at 11:17 AM
22
@11 Yeah, my agenda of not wanting to see more racist bullshit from posters like @2.
Posted by pragmatic on December 29, 2012 at 11:27 AM
In your heart you know he's right 23
@19 yes. What is it about the recent Bellevue shooting that renders it undiscussable? It's local and the animal involved has a history of terrorizing the city. Isn't it obvious fodder for the Stranger's agenda? Fair question.
Posted by In your heart you know he's right on December 29, 2012 at 11:31 AM
24
@23 Sports related perhaps?
Posted by CbytheSea on December 29, 2012 at 11:55 AM
25
@23 sorry meant add more to that. It is a fair question. But I suppose you could just cut and paste all the other comments on all the other gun death posts, which have pretty dominated a lot of the posts lately, and you'll end up with nearly the same results. Except you'd get a bunch of 'tuba man' unregistered comments in addition.
Posted by CbytheSea on December 29, 2012 at 11:59 AM
Posted by j2patter on December 29, 2012 at 12:06 PM
Pope Peabrain 27
If the case of Pussy Riot didn't tell you what a small, mean man Vladimir Putin was, then maybe his signing of a bill banning adoptions by Americans will. This is not the act of a thoughtful leader. This is the act of a petty man who's willing to throw thousands of needy kids under the bus for his own ego. Sad that such a great nation should have such a small leader.
Posted by Pope Peabrain on December 29, 2012 at 12:11 PM
Some Old Nobodaddy Logged In 28
I'm not interested in what someone who chooses to insult their audience in the first sentence thinks is important.

If it is important to me, I'll find it from another source that has made it past the toddler level of emotional maturity.
Posted by Some Old Nobodaddy Logged In on December 29, 2012 at 12:19 PM
Pope Peabrain 29
@28 If I insulted you, than I apologize. I assure you I had no intention.
Posted by Pope Peabrain on December 29, 2012 at 12:45 PM
30
@29 wait a minute! Is Some Old Nobodaddy Putin?!
Posted by CbytheSea on December 29, 2012 at 1:02 PM
mikethehammer 31
@ 28,

I wear my "naive white Seattle "progressive" libtard hipster" badge with pride! (even if not a Seattle-ite.) Seriously, that guy's sad and juvenile excuse for rhetoric essentially argues against itself more effectively than I could ever hope to.
Posted by mikethehammer on December 29, 2012 at 1:06 PM
32
@5 (rob!): I noticed that story, and I'm glad that at least one other Stranger reader thought it was significant enough to mention. Here's Glenn Greenwald's take on it:

GOP and Feinstein join to fulfill Obama's demand for renewed warrantless eavesdropping
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/…
The California Democrat's disgusting rhetoric recalls the worst of Dick Cheney while advancing Obama's agenda

Posted by PCM on December 29, 2012 at 1:29 PM
Hernandez 33
Wait...didn't the Munchbar shooting at least get a mention in a "Morning News" post when it happened? But yeah, because it happened so close to home and the nature of it (man shot to death in crowded restaurant by man with long history of violence), I thought it would be a bigger story in general. I mean, who expects to see that in the sterilized atmosphere of downtown Bellevue?

Re: Volunteer Park - you mean to tell me that people actually fell for the ol' "Wallet Inspector" routine? Jeez, that didn't even work when we tried to prank people in elementary school.
Posted by Hernandez http://hernandezlist.blogspot.com on December 29, 2012 at 1:33 PM
34
Apparently the troll might be NotFan (also known by another name on another blog), who's the only person who puts quotes around progressive.
Posted by sarah70 on December 29, 2012 at 1:39 PM
35
Well the Bellevue shooting helps explain why Kemper doesn't want more folks from th CD trainin' it out to Bellevue Square to settle their drug disputes.
Posted by Sound Thuggit on December 29, 2012 at 1:59 PM
36
I thought "mean mugging" in Bellevue meant giving the floor salesman at Nordstrom a nasty look when they don't have your size Manolo Blahnik's? Since when did they go ghetto?
Posted by Kemper Freeman will need to build a bigger moat on December 29, 2012 at 2:05 PM
37
Actually, what should be covered/acknowledged here are the first same-sex marriages in Maine last night/today.

Maybe when people come back to work Monday or Wednesday. . .
Posted by seatackled on December 29, 2012 at 2:26 PM
Some Old Nobodaddy Logged In 38
Guys, I don't mind being called a faggot, because it's not insulting to me, but I recognize when the speaker is intending it as an insult.

And seriously, this story is a week old. 1st ::swing & a miss:: There's also a handy link above the Slog logo, "Slog Tip?" where you can inform the Slog writers of stories you find of interest. 2nd ::swings & misses:: This shooting is not a spree shooting, so it has nothing to do w/ Sandy or the NY firefighters or the PDX Mall or any other recent spree shooing. 3rd ::BIG swing & miss:: not even close.

It's just another Slog troll blaming Obama or "libtard morans" or feminazi Pelosi for why there are kids playing on his lawn. He can't get it up, he doesn't understand why his friends and family don't appreciate him and he's still pissed that Tiffany Tightjeans back in HS ignored him. So he comes here for vindication. Nice way to spend a Saturday, I guess.
Posted by Some Old Nobodaddy Logged In on December 29, 2012 at 2:28 PM
39
@34 Mister G also is a fan of "progressives". I guess that's some weird slur in their world. It's a pity that they don't seem to understand why so few people take them seriously.
Posted by CbytheSea on December 29, 2012 at 2:36 PM
In your heart you know he's right 40
@38 wait. When someone begins shooting in a crowded bar or restaurant it's irrelevant? Because the animal in question had a certain target and there was certainly no chance of anyone else being hit? If the only shootings that count are these "shooting sprees" why are you worried about shooting sprees? There's only roughly the same that die from botcholism. Also did this paper stop reporting about Samdy Hook after 7 days exactly? FYI the dumb animal that starting shooting in Munchbar hasn't been caught yet. I think that's relevant.
Posted by In your heart you know he's right on December 29, 2012 at 2:55 PM
41
@9 (Bauhaus I): I don't see what specific news item your comment speaks to, but we have indeed been conned into a global race to the bottom, and American workers are the biggest losers. (And the small minority of Americans who have been our country's biggest winners care about the rest of us only slightly more than King Leopold II cared about the native people of the Belgian Congo.) Some of the solutions are:
  • An effective program to curb global overpopulation (to reduce bidding up of scarce and depleted resources, parasitic rent-seeking, and exploitation of labor)

  • A return to considerably more progressive taxation, on both federal and state levels, including a progressive annual tax on wealth (to reduce the outsized power and influence of the super-rich)

  • A return to heavily subsidized, free or practically free high-quality public education at all levels

  • Greater public investment in productivity-enhancing and environmentally sound infrastructure

  • Greater public investment in and ownership of basic and applied scientific research (in health, energy, etc.)

  • Much greater federalization of labor, environmental, and tax law (to prevent interstate races to the bottom)

  • A much more extensive package of mandatory employee rights and benefits, including paid sick leave, paid family emergency leave, paid vacations and holidays, and limits on the at-will termination doctrine

  • A considerably higher minimum wage

  • Daily calculation of overtime, with no exemptions

  • Trade agreements with significant labor and environmental standards (to prevent international races to the bottom, protect labor and environmental gains in developed countries, and promote labor and environmental gains in less developed countries)

  • National, tax-funded single-payer health insurance (to put an end to the for-profit health sector's trillion-dollar-a-year protection-racket skim)

These are only a few of the things that will be required -- and they will never happen so long as corporations and the super-rich fund our electoral campaigns and control (through outright ownership or commercial advertising leverage) the news that most Americans rely on, and are able to buy government by offering public officials and their relatives sweet private-sector payoffs. Short of a revolution, some major constitutional amendments, or a congressional and judicial self-correction that nothing leads me to believe will happen, I don't anticipate that these corruptions will be eradicated in my lifetime. But take heart: it's not the end of the American Empire -- our super-rich and mega-corporations will continue to do just fine -- it's just the end of the American Dream for the rest of us.

More...
Posted by PCM on December 29, 2012 at 3:03 PM
42
I'm confused by the headline "Can't buy common sense"

When a purported police officer demands ID, usually, you let them see it right? I guess after the fact internet tough-guys might question why the victims didn't demand to see a badge first. I can see how in the moment you just let them see the badge. Further, I have a hunch that these men in bathrooms were quite likely cruising and already felt guilty?

Ask for ID, folks!
Posted by six five on December 29, 2012 at 3:50 PM
43
@39: Ah yes, Mr. G -- they're probably all the same person.
Posted by sarah70 on December 29, 2012 at 3:54 PM
Bauhaus I 44
@41: Those pics of toys being made in China.
Posted by Bauhaus I on December 29, 2012 at 4:02 PM
45
@42: if a cop asked for my ID, I'd open my wallet myself and fork over just my driver's license. I would not hand over the entire wallet so he could help himself.
Posted by originalcinner on December 29, 2012 at 6:11 PM
blowdart 46
@4 Or just buy it at a farmers market. There's a butcher in auburn that does it, along with wonderful black pudding, proper sausages, and even haggis. http://www.properbritishbacon.com/

They deliver to Microsoft once a month, there's a queue of furtive ex-pats in the basement of one of the car parks queuing up for our fix.
Posted by blowdart on December 29, 2012 at 8:43 PM
47 Comment Pulled
48
@47 Didn't Cafe Racer dude help the spread for white hipsters?
Posted by That must have messed up the curve? on December 30, 2012 at 8:52 AM
49
@18, seadouche --- you've seen nothing sexist from me, and I effing doubt I've seen you over the past forty years at all the volunteer activist work I've done on behalf of women's rights (along with workers' rights, national housing and transportation issues, etc., etc., etc.)

The fact of the matter, douchebagger, is that unlike a douchetard as yourself, a real progressive and life-long one at that as myself, can tell the difference between far rightwingers who falsely call themselves democrats, and real progressives.

Morons like yourself believe the latest Wall Street puppet in the Oval Office, Drone Master Obama with his Nobel Peace Prize, is a dem, for chrissakes!!!!!

The last authentic democrat in the White House was President Kennedy, and we witnessed what happened to him, and those of us with any balls (that would leave you out, douchetard, and you still can't find your vagina) long ago read that Dulles-McCloy crapfeast called the Warren Commission Report, and know the real score.

Your homework assignment, seadouche, is to read the following:

The Hellhound of Wall Street by Michael Perino

Wealth, Power and the Crisis in Laissez Faire Capitalism by Donald Gibson

The Billionaires’ Ball by Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks

Extreme Money by Satyajit Das

Treasure Islands by Nicholas Shaxson

Debt: the first 5,000 years by David Graeber

The Web of Debt by Ellen Hodgson Brown, JD

Retirement Heist by Ellen Schultz

The Fine Print by David Cay Johnston

Battling Wall Street: the Kennedy presidency by Donald Gibson

The Bubble and Beyond by Michael Hudson (All of Prof. Hudson’s books)

Wall Street Capitalism: The Theory of the Bondholding Class by E. Ray Canterbery

Greenspan’s Fraud by Ravi Batra

Other People’s Money: the corporate mugging of America by Nomi Prins

The Rich and the Super-Rich by Ferdinand Lundberg

Into the Buzzsaw by Kristina Borjesson

Thy Will Be Done by Gerard Colby and Charlotte Dennett (if you can obtain his books on Du Pont, they will be highly rewarding!!!!)
More...
Posted by sgt_doom on December 30, 2012 at 1:09 PM
50
@49

difference between far rightwingers who falsely call themselves democrats, and real progressives.

And that is the root of your whole problem: you seem to see people as either one or the other, not as a individuals holding any number of complex, sometimes seemingly contradictory ideas and beliefs. So because of that, you have indeed effing seen me at every single volunteer activist event you've ever done. I'm the person who didn't agree with you 100% about everything, and was therefore either a stooge or a plant. Usually there were many of me there.

And you're being misleading, because I have seen sexism from you. I don't remember exactly what--you might have referred to some woman in a news item as a bitch, or as ugly or fat or something like that--but it stood out precisely because it came from you. I remember thinking, oh, here's somebody who goes on and on about progressive issues, but then uses a sexist insult. And if it wasn't a sexist insult, then it was a homophobic one, which I would regard as close enough for me to have been accurate when I called you sexist.

As for the volunteerism you're claiming, you don't need to prove anything to me, because I don't really care, and I don't need to prove anything to you, so the comparison you're imagining is pointless.
Posted by seatackled on December 30, 2012 at 6:36 PM
Sandiai 51


"because I have seen sexism from you"

@50, see @49.
Posted by Sandiai on December 30, 2012 at 11:24 PM
Pmasp 52
oh no a fake undercover cop! not like the real undercover cops who'll slam your head into the side of the Cinerama and leave you a vegetable breathing through a tube the rest of your life?
Posted by Pmasp on December 31, 2012 at 8:56 AM
srslywut 53
Yes sgt_doom, someone that uses the having of a vagina as an insult clearly possesses a deep and long-abiding respect for women.
Posted by srslywut on January 1, 2013 at 4:58 PM

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