I can't believe it's not a democracy!

Paper of record, my ass:

Correspondence and collusion between the New York Times and the CIA. I wouldn't use a copy of the New York Times to wipe my ass. That said, there are only two reasons to even glance at it: (1) Paul Krugman and (2) Maud Newton's contribution to the Sunday magazine.

Here's something the US corporations who outsourced jobs to India may not have considered:

Panic grips India as ethnic tensions rise. Aljazeera reports: Police in Bangalore have been placed on alert following a massive exodus from India's technological hub of workers originating from the country's north-eastern states, sparked by rumours of an imminent attack on their ethnic group.

"Special forces and commandos are being deployed in areas where north-easterners are concentrated," senior Bangalore police official Vincent D'Souza, said on Saturday.

At least 20,000 natives from the north-east, who have faced discrimination and harassment in the past, have now fled India's southern cities of Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune.

Banaglore is a huge tech hub. Now 20,000 tech workers may not be much in a country as big as India, but what percentage of workers hired to fill outsourced jobs are held by Indians from northeastern states? No doubt moves are being made to bring the ofices to the workers in the northeast, but that can't happen overnight. I assume that the executive boards look at how much XYC corp. claimed it saved by outsourcing to India, and they followed suit without considering issues that could have significant impact on performance, like ethnic tensions. This reminds me of the chip problem that occurred when Thailand had those unprecedented floods last year. Many manufacturers moved all their production to Thailand and they were shit out of luck when the floods started. Oh well.

They are making it up as they go along:

UK threatened to arrest Assange inside embassy, says Ecuadorean minister. So apparently David Cameron's govenrment believes that they can ignore international law and violate the sovereignty of the Ecuadorean government's embassy. This should make it clear how badly the Obama administration wants Julian Assange, because you know that the this government is behind the attempt to break Assange and Wikileaks. Will someone remind me why I have to vote for Obama again?

If true, excellent news:

NYC throws Anthony Bologna under the bus. Long and short, according to the Wall Street Journal (don't click or Rupert fucking Murdoch gets another shiny penny) "New York City has distanced itself from a high-ranking police official accused of firing pepper spray at Occupy Wall Street protesters, taking the unusual step of declining to defend him in a civil lawsuit over the incident." This is excellent news. I mean, if the city won't discpline these rogue cops (or are they rogue?), then the next best way to ensure that thug cops will stop violating our constitutional rights is if they think they will suffer for their criminal acts. Knowing that Tony Baloney might have to piss through every goddamn cent he has squirreled away might finally make these mooks show the kind of respect to their fellow citizens that we are due. Personally, I hope the civil suits destroy that bastard and he spends the rest of his miserable fucking life in a gutter. Sociopaths cannot be rehabilitated, so the best we can hope for is that he serves as an example of what not to do.

Thanks for JDM for the link.

Looks like the land of some of my people is moving forward:

Gay marriage to be introduced in Scotland. Naturally, this march towards enlightenment is being "strongly opposed" by the Church of Scotland and, get this, the catholic church. Said some asshole catholic spokeswhore:

The Scottish government is embarking on a dangerous social experiment on a massive scale.

We strongly suspect that time will show the Church to have been completely correct in explaining that same-sex sexual relationships are detrimental to any love expressed within profound friendships.

You mean in the same way that the church was completely correct to hide pedophiles, motherfucker? Honestly, whenever the catholic church makes an objection about anything on moral grounds, the statement should be accompanied by a laugh track.

No, really?

NYPD 'consistently violated basic rights' during Occupy protests – study. The subhead reads: Report by NYU and Fordham law schools found 'shocking level of impunity' and department that acted beyond its powers. What would be really shocking is if the proper punishment were meted out to those evil filthy bastards who abused the Occupy patriots. Not holding my breath. Instead, I am waiting for Police Chief Kelly to extend his wrist for a soft rap.

It was all just a simply mistake:

HSBC 'sorry' for aiding Mexican drugs lords, rogue states and terrorists. Christ, you know the bankers are working hard when they almost make the catholic church look good in comparison. The answer to this is simple: Since bankers will do anything for a penny, take away all their pennies and throw them in jail (and I mean real jail) forever. All of them. If you only nab one or two, future sociopaths will assume they will be one of the "smart" ones who will get away with it and this filthy behavior will continue. Only by destroying scores of lives will this stop. It's only fair, they are trying to kill us, after all. Well, enslave us. Same thing.

UK bows to US pressure:

Julian Assange loses extradition case. But he has two weeks to ask the UK supreme court to reopen his case. I wonder if Anonymous will respond. More importantly, has anyone figured out what that "insurance policy" Assange and Wikileaks distributed a while back might be? As I understand it, if Assange or Wikileaks feels threatened--as in Assange being railroaded by the compliant Swedes on behalf of the U.S., who he believes will try to extradite him to punish him for Wikileaks publication of the materials given to them by Pvt. Bradley Manning, among other things--then a key will be sent to everyone who downloaded the insurance file. It has to be explosive, but what exactly is in it? We may very well find out in two weeks.

Because the rich and powerful are special, that's why:

Christine Lagarde, IMF boss who caused international outrage when she suggested that Greeks should pay their taxes, pays no tax. What she suggested is that somehow some poor fool who perhaps paid a few Euro less than he should have was responsible for the current mess in Europe. Not the greedy fucking rich. Not the banks. No, that guy, the waiter at the local taverna, or the guy who takes tickets on the ferry, him. Well, it was easy to rile up the others by suggesting that the Greeks were lazy tax evaders, but when they come after you? And slowly the other Europeans are coming to the realization that that which the Germans could not achieve with bombs and tanks, they are attempting to achieve with the Euro. Won't win this time, either. No one wants to be Germany's bitch.

Spain's (nationalized bank) Bankia denies run on deposits:

CEO says "savers must remain calm." Really? Or what? And how about the bankers who allowed the created fiscal crisis to occur? What must they do? At least the Europeans know what is going on and are reacting. Meanwhile, on this side of the Atlantic, our media is keeping the masses distracted with the dead celebrity du jour and the Kardashian sisters tits. It's going to be a very interesting summer.