"No crime in the UK by 2029!" The Slog - How to reduce crime: don’t report it, turn a blind eye to it, don’t detect it…

…and add a politician

On and off for over a year now, The Slog has been interviewing local leaders, ordinary policemen, barristers, social workers and crime victims, while drilling down into UK crime statistics. This very brief resume represents the output of that process.

 I can’t bring to mind any set of figures quite so meaningless, bent, massaged and misleading as UK crime statistics. Target setting, promotion ambitions, time starvation, and a sense of utter hopelessness together mean that any system based on police reporting of crime is doomed to fail as an even vague measurement of what’s actually happening on the ground.
Way back in the 1950s, Soviet Five Year Plan reports were a standing joke in the USSR. The classic gag was of the conversation between a collective farmer and a commissar. The commissar asks where the new tractor is, and the farmer points to a rusty old wreck with saplings growing through it in the next door field. That’s not a new tractor, says the commissar. That’s funny, says the farmer, your report says it is.

ECB Found To Lie About Collateral Haircuts, So Spanish Banks May Face €17 Billion Margin Call

Submitted by Tyler Durden: Mario Draghi has reassured the world that no matter how much 'crap' collateral is taken on to the ECB's balance sheet, their risk management process is rigorous and ensures the safety of the entity's capital thanks to well-devised haircuts and collateral. Once again, it appears from a report in Die Welt (via Bloomberg), Draghi lied, as the ECB is now checking terms on some lending to Spanish banks that may have already contravened the ECB's mandate allowing overly generous terms to be offered on the Spanish banks' collateral. As Bloomberg notes, the issue surrounds EUR80bn relatively short-dated T-Bills which were wrongly classified as rated 'A' instead of the 'B' that agencies - except DBRS! - had assigned (a vast difference) - which would imply (if the ECB re-assigns the correct rating) the affected Spanish banks would have to produce up to EUR16.6bn in additional collateral (cash or quality collateral that is non-existent in Europe). This of course "casts doubt on the quality of the ECB's risk management" and merely serves to confirm the Juncker-ian lies we have come to expect from Europe's leaders (economic and political).

As a reminder, we warned of exactly this back in April and it seems the ECB has merely chosen to ignore it for months:

...The first is 5%. This is the haircut increase that ECB collateral will require once all ratings agencies shift to BBB+ or below (meaning massive margin calls and cash needs for the exact banks that are the most exposed and least capable of achieving said liquidity)...

G.I.A.B.O. 5th of November - A day that is sadly no longer remembered - Let's chat.

Nazi Gulag: The role of activism in breaking Gaza siege - Remember Palestine

The Swedish vessel "Estelle" has now set course to Gaza with a cargo of 41 tons of cement, as part of the campaign to help Palestinians repair damages caused by the war with Israel. The initiative is part of the Ship to Gaza campaign and the freedom Flotilla. Their first attempt to break the blockade was in 2011 when they prepared to send the boat" Julliano" however, a sabotage prevented it's sail. There have been reports of Israel pressure to stop Estelle from leaving a port in Italy and in Greece there were attempts to bar the way of the vessel.

I am a nuclear reactor and this is what I know

By Christina Consolo, host of Nuked Radio: You know me. There are lots of us around. We sit behind concrete walls and high fences, and most of us can boast of a killer view.
Note: be sure read Christina’s two most recent articles — “a day in the life of a Fukushima researcher” and “BYOG: Bring Your Own Geiger counter and Hazmat gear“
My outside is pretty plain, but inside I have 10,000 parts. As a nuke plant, you are lucky, because you almost always get waterfront property. This is so if my insides ever get too hot, or the power goes out (oops!) it’s easy to scoop up water and dump it on me.
If my emergency diesel generators go out, which happens a lot, they can sometimes use fire hoses to cool me off, too. I’m glad the NRC spokesman brought that up the other day when Hurricane Sandy happened. A lot of people were probably worried about that. This exact same thing happened to some of my friends in Japan! Fire hoses seemed to work OK for them, but I’m not sure, because no one really talks about it. I think there might have been some explosions or something. Man do they have a nice view from there though! And I heard Pacific sushi is really good!
Some us of are right next to big cities too, so we never get lonely. When people see you a lot, it makes you seem like you belong. Sometimes they paint pretty pictures on us, to make us look more friendly! I hope they paint some birds and butterflies on me, I don’t see too many of those around anymore.
Some days I look around me and I see all that wind, water, and sun and I wonder why people haven’t used those things to generate power, too. Maybe they are just lazy. After all, they use it like crazy in third-world countries like Morocco!

Bunga Bunga vs Brrrrrm: Ferrari Boss To Challenge Berlusoni In Italy Premier Race

Submitted by Tyler Durden: A week ago we reported that as part of the surge in the Italian anti-austerity movement, the time had come for none other than that forced exile (courtesy of the ECB's bond yield tactics) whose political career ended prematurely precisely one year ago, Silvio Berlusconi, to announce not only his political ambitions, but his desire for vengeance when he made it clear he is willing and ready to scuttle Mario Monti's cabinet. It appears that in the April elections, Silvio may now be challenged by none other than Ferrari head, Luca de Montezomolo, boss of the Scuderia, who Ansa reports "has hinted he might rethink his recent No to stepping into the political ring after April elections."

From Ansa:

In an interview, Montezemolo did not rule out accepting a request to be premier if that served to "unite" conservatives who have lost their main rallying point because of turmoil in ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PdL) party.

He said the time for uniting conservatives and "regenerating politics" after a string of scandals that has deepened public disaffection with traditional parties was "now or never again".

He is not the only one: unelected leader, and Goldman appointee, Mario Monti has also warned he may do something rather drastic, and run for the popular vote.

Current technocrat Premier Mario Monti has also said he might serve again if the elections ended in a tied parliament.

Max Keiser: 'Barack Obama is clueless. Mitt Romney will bankrupt the country' and the UK is "probably fucked."

Angelo: Any UK resident who has paid attention to Max's reports as long as I will have got a chill from the news he and his partner Stacy Herbert had moved to London. He has a tendency to appear moments before financial destruction. Iceland, Greece the middle East... It must be our turn! As Max confirms, "If you see me walking the streets of your town, then you're probably fucked."
 
Robert Chalmers: A serf in the days of King John, Max Keiser argues, was in many ways better off than some US voters in 2012. "Because in the age of Robin Hood," Keiser says, "at least the process of theft was transparent. The barons came to your house. They whacked you over the head then they took all your money." Even if the poor didn't exactly empathise with their oppressors, Keiser adds, they could at least comprehend their methods. "And the serfs," he continues, "did enjoy a modicum of stability. They got something in return for their enslavement. A small plot of land. Shelter. A relationship with the lord of the manor." In the modern age of "financial tyranny" orchestrated by what Keiser refers to as "the banksters" in charge of the major financial institutions in the US and Europe, he believes, "We have reverted to a more pernicious kind of neo-feudalism. The instruments of larceny have changed; that's all."

What better time, you might ask, to have the opportunity to vote in a presidential election? But the real forces which shape the destiny of his homeland, Keiser says, have long been impervious to democratic pressure.
"Barack Obama," he maintains, "has been a huge disappointment. He reneged on every one of his campaign promises except one: he did buy his kids a dog. Of course he could be replaced in this election, but if that happens we will simply inherit a different version of the same thing, just as we have done in the US for the past 30 years. The guy in the White House," he believes, "is really taking his orders from finance."

Property rights vs. human rights - Max Keiser with Danny Schechter

Max interviews Danny Schechter from newsdissector.net. He talks about the governments' failure to protect their citizens against financial criminals. Danny Schechter is a television producer, independent filmmaker, blogger, and media critic who writes and lectures frequently about the media in the United States and worldwide. Source

Gulag USA: Tasered 10-Year-Old Boy Sues Police

By Lida Alikhani: A 10-year-old boy attending a Tularosa, N.M., Intermediate School’s Career Day expected it to be fun and educational, but instead he ended up in the emergency room.
The boy, identified as R.D., blacked out after receiving 50,000 volts of electricity when struck by a police officer’s Taser gun.
Rachel Higgins, a guardian appointed by the court to protect the child’s privacy  filed a lawsuit Oct. 26 in 1st Judicial District Court in Santa Fe County against Police Officer Chris Webb and the New Mexico Department of Public Safety on behalf of R.D., claiming that Webb fired his electronic control weapon at the boy on May 4, 2012.
Webb has been charged with battery, failure to render emergency medical care, unreasonable seizure and excessive force.
Higgins will appear in court to represent the boy because the family members live in a small town and do not want to reveal their identities.
The lawsuit claims police officers drove their patrol cars onto the intermediate school campus, where Webb asked a group of boys which one would like to clean his patrol unit.
R.D. raised his hand to say he did not want to clean the police officer’s car.
Webb then said, according to the lawsuit, “Let me show what happens to people who do not listen to the police.”  He then “shot his Taser gun at the boy’s chest,” said the family’s attorney Shannon Kennedy of the Kennedy Law Firm of Albuquerque.
Kennedy said  instead of calling paramedics over, who were also on campus for the Career Day event, Webb pulled the barbs from the Taser out of the boy’s chest.
“He grabbed the wires, he yanked them and it came out of the prongs, and then he went up to me and he ripped the prongs out of my chest,”

Gaddafi Tribute - Sukant Chandan Excerpts

By Morris: A meeting was held in memory of Gaddafi. And this is excerpts from Sukant Chandan's introduction. Stating that Gaddafi championed every anti imperialist cause, even wanting a SATO to counteract NATO. And how Africom never got a foothold while Gaddafi was around. It is almost Guy Fawkes night in Britain which is when fireworks are let off. So if you hear explosions they are just fireworks. Source

David vs. Monsanto

China: “Addicted to Credit”

By James Parker: Whilst the economic data shows at least some signs of an anaemic turnaround, China’s corporate results are demonstrating just how difficult things have been.   China’s companies are busy reporting their 3^rd quarter 2012 results and there have already been some disappointing results – pretty much explained by the general slowdown. Connected to this however, a worrying trend is developing on many companies’ balance sheets.
Some big names have already seen disappointing profit growth. State owned-Sinopec,  China’s (and Asia’s) largest oil refiner, saw its 3^rd quarter profit fall 9.4% and January-September profits slump by 30%. Sinopec is trapped between high crude costs and government mandated price ceilings on sales to consumers.  Oil giant PetroChina also suffered, with its 3^rd quarter net profit down 33% compared to last year, driven in part by a $6 billion refining loss over the year-to-date (YTD), and part by a similar squeeze on its natural gas import business (in which its YTD profits have fallen 93% compared to 2011).
China Southern Airlines saw third quarter (3Q) net profit fall 29%, whilst China Life, the largest Chinese insurer measured by premiums, swung to an outright loss in the July-Sept. period.  Meanwhile Sany Heavy Industry Co. Ltd, China’s largest maker of heavy machinery and construction equipment, was hit by 59% fall in 3Q net profit.  Baosteel, one of the largest producers of the metal, saw net profit down 4.88% from a year earlier.