Supreme Gentlemen

[ryukisgod]

[val-ritz]

The problem with forcibly seizing the assets of, say, Jeff Bezos is that his net worth of $161 billion does not mean he has that in cash. That’s the worth of everything he owns, including stock in his own company.

And the problem with seizing THAT is that it isn’t real. It’s based on confidence and what people might conceivably pay for it. And if you just seize it, that confidence tanks. And then that wealth evaporates.

The problem with capitalism isn’t that there’s a bunch of old dudes sitting on hoards of cash. It’s that they’ve collectively created a system by which they have ludicrous social and economic power based on the PROMISE of hoards of cash. That don’t exist. They have created a social stratum in which debt is money.

That’s why the exhortation is to SEIZE THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION, not GO GRAB ALL THE MONEY. Because the money isn’t real, and the need to go out and get it is blinding people to the fact that it doesn’t need to exist.

[truecrimebutnot]

Everyone in the tcc and tcrc have all agreed that TJ Lane deserves no rights, and I live for it.

I mean look at that motherfucker

[maaarine]

Vice: Shelter in Place with Shane Smith & Edward Snowden

“People in power who see that there is a political advantage to disguising, or concealing, or massaging, or denying numbers, may choose to lie about it.

It’s happened before and it’s almost certainly happening now.

We see the Chinese government recently working to expel Western journalists at precisely this moment where we need credible independent reporting from this kind of region.”

[romanmarch]

Coronavirus isn’t the only thing creeping into our lives. Governments around the world are resorting to high-tech surveillance to contain the COVID-19 outbreak According to Edward Snowden, intelligence agencies will soon think up new uses for emergency powers, and governments will make them permanent post-pandemic Snowden believes draconian measures might be tolerable to get us through the current crisis, but it’s important to think about the world we want to live in once it passes

[radicalgraff]

“I love Chelsea Manning” seen in Berlin. Chelsea Manning is a former US Army soldier & whistleblower who was imprisoned from 2010-17 for leaking nearly 750,000 military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks. Manning is currently in jail once again for her continued refusal to testify before a grand jury against Julian Assange.

[shirbertflavoured]

In good news, Chelsea Manning is to be released from jail:

Ordering Manning’s release, Judge Anthony J Trenga wrote: “The court finds Ms Manning’s appearance before the grand jury is no longer needed, in light of which her detention no longer serves any coercive purpose.”

[caseremains]

The Pans were a Vietnamese immigrant family who took up residence in Scarborough, Canada.  After arriving as refugees in the late 1970’s, Bich Ha and Huei Hann married in Toronto, and later had 2 children, Jennifer and Felix.  Tragedy struck in November of 2010, when 3 intruders entered the house, making demands for the Pans to hand over their money.  When Huei Hann could not produce more than $60 from his wallet, both he and his wife were shot multiple times in the head, killing Bich Ha instantly.  Jennifer, meanwhile, had been tied to the bannister, and made a frantic call to the emergency services reporting the incident.  Felix was away at college at the time.

Miraculously, Huei Hann survived his injuries, however after waking from an induced coma he began to cast doubt on his daughter’s version of events.  Once confronted by authorities, Jennifer admitted that she had hired the ‘intruders’ to kill not only her parents, but also herself.  The Pans had exerted extreme pressure on their children academically, and when Jennifer’s grades began to slip she resorted to doctoring her report cards to meet their high expectations.  She even went so far as to pretend she had gained a place at the local college, studying at the library and filling a pad with notes to avoid any suspicion.  When the time came, she even purchased a college certificate online, and fobbed off her parents when they wanted to attend her graduation.  Under the ruse of staying with a girlfriend a few days a week, Jennifer had really been living with her boyfriend, Daniel Wong, who her parents had forbidden her from seeing.

Under further investigation, it transpired that Jennifer and Daniel had arranged the hit together, paying Lenford Crawford $10,000 to carry out their bidding.  Despite insisting that she had called the whole thing off, Jennifer had texted Lenford and his associates David Mylvaganam and Eric Carty on the evening of the crime, signalling for them to come into the house.  Jennifer, Daniel, and 2 of the hit men were found guilty of first-degree murder, and each is serving life in prison.

[channel-the-flannel]

“the immoral cannot be made moral through the use of secret law.”

— edward snowden

[studieswithoutcoffee]

“You literally ought to be asking yourself all the time; what is the most important thing in the world I could be working on right now, and if you are not working on that why aren’t you?”

— Aaron Swartz 

[crimeonthemind-deactivated20210]

In a year in which few states have carried out any executions, the aggressive execution practices of a single state — Texas — stand in sharp contrast. The Lone Star State has scheduled thirteen executions for the last five months of 2019, more than the rest of the country combined. And a DPIC review of the circumstances in which the warrants were issued raises troubling questions as to whether the state is executing the most morally culpable individuals for the worst of the worst crimes or the most vulnerable prisoners and prisoners who were provided the worst legal process.

The cases of the thirteen men scheduled for execution include two with strong claims of innocence, two whom authorities admit did not kill anyone but were sentenced to death under Texas’ controversial “law of parties,” and eight who exhibited significant mental or emotional vulnerabilities as a result of intellectual impairments/brain damage, serious mental illness, or chronic trauma. Three prisoners were age 21 or younger at the time of the crime for which they were convicted. (Click here to enlarge the graphic.) Four prisoners scheduled for execution had raised claims that their attorneys did not provide them with constitutionally adequate representation, and six received other forms of deficient legal process — including false testimony at their trials, trial before a racially or religiously biased judge, or execution dates that interfered with ongoing judicial review.

Texas’ aggressive execution schedule also illustrates its status as an outlier in its use of the death penalty and the stark differences in approach between the decisionmakers empowered to end prisoners’ lives and those evaluating whether new defendants should be sent to death row. Nationally, executions have remained near historic lows for the past five years, but Texas has carried out more than any other state. In 2018, Texas executed more prisoners than the rest of the United States combined and, if most of the scheduled executions go through, could do so again in 2019.

Prisoners sentenced to death in Texas are executed at a rate triple the national average. The process of rubberstamping — in which state court judges adopt as fact the pleadings submitted by prosecutors — is commonplace, and the Texas federal courts routinely defer to this state court “factfinding.” The Texas state and federal courts are also outliers in denying resources to defense counsel and in resisting enforcement of constitutional rights, even in the face of clear directives from the U.S. Supreme Court.

The state’s disproportionate pace of executions continues even as prosecutors are seeking and capital juries are imposing significantly fewer new death sentences. New death sentences have fallen from an average of more than 40 per year in 1998-2000 to five per year in 2016-2018. Fewer death sentences have been imposed in Texas in the last five years than in any other five-year period in the modern era of capital punishment.

[steals-dreams]

[forensicfairy]

On August 22, 1972, John Wojtowicz attempted to rob a bank in Gravesend, Brooklyn. He later told the Los Angeles Times that he planned to use the money from the heist to pay for his wife, Eden’s gender reassignment surgery.

He was sentenced to 20 years in Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary, but only served 5.

[murdermanager]

Linda O’Keefe was walking home from summer school in June in Newport Beach California. She was last scene talking to a stranger in a Turquoise van. Her body was later found in a ditch. She had been strangled.

Her murder was unsolved for more than 4 decades. 

A DNA sample had been taken and preserved from her body. Using modern DNA testing, it was tied to  72 year old man living in Colorado. He was arrested just this week, (2/19/19). Both of Linda’s parents have passed on but she does have to surviving sisters who are hoping to put an end to a 46 year old cold case. 

[truecrimefiles]

Megan Kanka was a seven-year-old girl raped and murdered by her neighbor Jesse Timmendequas. The girl’s death inspired Megan’s Law, a statute requiring that information about convicted sex offenders must be available to the public. The information varies from state to state and includes the criminal’s name, address, photographs, date of conviction and type of crime.

Megan’s law has caused a number of controversies. Some critics stated that such an alert is an invasion of privacy, in which the offender is deprived of the opportunity to start a new life. In addition, civil rights and reformist organizations highlight the adverse collateral effects on the family members of registrants, and question the fairness of the registries as indefinite punishment.

[dailyjosephgordonlevitt]

[lecataste]

Ted Rall | Snowden | 2016