A fairy tale

by liberal japonicus

This story recently caught my eye

https://www.salon.com/2017/10/03/nypd-cop-who-assaulted-tennis-star-james-blake-is-suing-him-the-city-and-many-many-more/

In "Ways of Grace," Blake details the arrest, using it as a springboard to talk about broader issues of social justice and how law enforcement treats black Americans. Frascatore said that he became "very angry and upset while reading it," telling the Post and that he plans to sue for emotional distress and slander.

The suit, or more specifically, the threat of it, prompted the fairy tale below the fold

Once upon a time, there was a group which organized itself when the kingdom they were in was booming. There was lots of money and the flow never seemed to stop. People joined the group and everyone had a great time. The group nor the people in it, were not really a part of the kingdom, strictly speaking, though many wanted to be and some thought they were but sometimes, they were disabused of the notion. Some had made their homes in the kingdom while others wanted to make their time in the kingdom as fruitful as possible.

Then, a decade of no growth hit, and the group had to cut back. This led to arguments and accusations about who was spending what money and why it wasn't going to what other people wanted.

The group overcame this, but it never really acknowledged what had happened. At the same time, the group had to become an NPO, because the bureaucrats of the kingdom wanted to keep track of money going in and out. Some people said that they also wanted to keep track of these groups and there was some question as to whether the group should or should not comply. However, the group in question were mostly guests in the kingdom and so had little recourse to refuse.

After this, the group busied itself with understanding all the new laws and how it had to comply with them. However, the economy of the kingdom didn't really change. And many in the group were looking to restore the group to its former glory, when big projects were easy to finance and constant growth was a given. One possibility was to unite with similar groups. Some came to be in positions of authority in the group and made an alliance with one group that professed to have similar goals.

Because the first group had precarious finances, any threat to those finances was an existential threat to the group. A scandal that would encourage 10% of the members to leave would have the group, if not fall apart, be crippled.

The law that the group fell under provided that a council of elders be elected every two years and with that council, a watcher be elected. The watcher was a person elected to raise concerns when things that could cause bad things happened. The post was often considered ceremonial. But, when the new board came in, the new watcher, after asking for information, asked the council of elders to step away from the group that professed to have similar goals. However, the elders said that nothing had been proved and refused.

Then the watcher started looking into this group. He found that this group, while apparently keeping within the letter of the law (though there was no way to know if they were or not, because the laws were byzantine and in another language) engaged in practices that were outside the norms if not outside the laws. Things such as offering to participants, in exchange for payment, the appearance of a presentation that would then allow the person to use that information to keep their job or enhance their status. 

They say that the best con is where one cons the con man. Many of those 'participants' who were paying for this 'virtual attendance' wanted a short cut, so, the thinking goes, they deserve what they get. Perhaps that is true, but it was hard to know if they were trying to take a shortcut or they just didn't know how the game worked.

The watcher, rebuffed by the council, went looking for evidence, thinking that there must be something to present to the council to convince them. The watcher contacted a person and his staff, which had that person threaten the council of elders with a suit. The senior elder on the council felt that the threat was too great to the council, as they might find themselves in court, so he asked the watcher to step down. The senior elder then asked the board to support him in this, which they did. The watcher said that he wouldn't, but offered the compromise that if some other arrangement were organized, he would step down. Amazingly, the head elder said that this arrangment could be done within 2 days, even though previously, the head elder took no such action. Faced with that, the watcher stepped back, but formally presented the accusations to the council. What the council will do is anyone's guess.

So now the former watcher sits and wonders. The former watcher thought that if he had brought irrefutable proof to the elders (some of whom agreed with him), it would have them take the steps he wanted without bringing this to the group. He thought that his threat to tell the entire group would be sufficient. When it wasn't, he searched out more information, but then overstepped. However, even if he did overstep, that doesn't meant that the group that he was looking at was innocent.

He also wonders if some on the council of elders demanded proof knowing that the (former) watcher would overstep. He'd been in the organization for 20 years and the last thing he wanted to do was tear down the group. That was his weakness, something to be exploited.

The watcher also received an education from all this. There were some people who seemed to draw out and dismiss the idea, other people said that they trusted other people who vouched for the group, while others said that because it couldn't be proven, the group couldn't question the partnership. This perplexed the watcher, many of these people weren't getting anything out of the partnership, but it seemed that they were so tied to not admitting they were wrong that acknowledging the watcher's points seemed impossible.

The watcher was also worried because it was easy for him to see his story as the truth. Righteous and correct, he was the only person who could speak truth to power. Or he was ignored so he would show everyone that he was right and they were wrong. But the watcher did not believe in fairy tales and wondered how much of his own flaws played into all this.

The watcher has talked to a few people. Other people have not returned calls. Depressing, but understandable.

But at this point, the story ends. Not a very good fairy tale, as fairy tales are supposed to end with happily ever after. That's why they are fairy tales.

 

 

Comments

[Snarki, child of Loki]

"fairy tales are supposed to end with happily ever after"

For this story, that only happens after:

"...and they threw the evildoers down a well"

[Countme-a-Demon]

This has the structure and follows all of the tropes of evildoers in fairy tales .... witches having children over for lunch, kings luring princesses into beds full of peas, wolves in drag licking the earlobes of under aged blondes for a preliminary taste .... as the victims themselves whisper with nearly erotic complicity "Tell us":

'OTUS and FLOTUS stood side-by-side in the middle of more than a dozen couples who were lined up for an official photo. CJCS Dunford and his wife stood to their left. An unidentified military leader and his wife stood to POTUS’ right.

“Tell us when you’re ready,” POTUS told the photographer. “Be careful, don’t push.”

“Our faces are tired,” one of the spouses joked.

A couple of seconds later, POTUS pointed around the room and asked members of the pool, “you guys know what this represents?”

“Tell us,” one reporter responded.

“Maybe it’s the calm before the storm,” POTUS replied.

“What’s the storm?” another reporter asked. “On Iran? On ISIS? On what?”

“We have the world’s great military people,” POTUS replied. “Thank you all for coming.”

Kristen Welker of NBC News asked, “what storm Mr. President?”

“You’ll find out,” POTUS replied.

“Give us a hint on your Iran decision,” another reporter asked.

POTUS said “thank you, everybody” and pool was ushered out of the room.'

Add a drum roll for suspense and the frisson of pure terror of the storyteller as he observes his victims flinch as the lights suddenly go dim.

We are in the presence and the United States is in the hands of EVIL unsullied by human alloy ... rump and the Republican Party:

Like a Corleone putting the final touches on the next and consolidating round of the murders of his enemies, the villain is going to strike multiple targets.

The only question is whether the body count will be higher domestically than it is internationally.

Iran has a plan for what is coming, and I hope it is producing, with Russian and Chinese help, as many nuclear weapons as possible and starting negotiations with Mexico, Cuba, and Puerto Rico to get those weapons as close to the targeted center of EVIL as possible.

I doubt those on Obamacare have a plan after their plans are sabotaged.

The well is not big enough to handle the EVIL it was dug to accommodate.

[Countme-a-Demon]

The new republican finger-f*ck-their- mistresses-and-get-thee-to-an-upper-class-abortionist law (thinking even their trigger fingers possess powers no one else may wield):

"The new rules, which could be issued as soon as Friday, fulfill a campaign promise by President Trump and are sure to touch off a round of lawsuits on the issue.

More than 55 million women have access to birth control without co-payments because of the contraceptive coverage mandate, according to a study commissioned by the Obama administration. Under the new regulations, hundreds of thousands of women could lose birth control benefits they now receive at no cost under the Affordable Care Act."

[wj]

Technically, all POTUS has done is decline to certify that Iran is in compliance (even though they are). But that certification is a requirement imposed by the US Congress, not by the treaty.

Which is to say, we are still participants in the treaty. And will only have abrogated the treaty when and if the Congress acts to reimpose sanctions or otherwise contravene it.

Given POTUS' fondness for empty gestures, this might be nothing more than another one. Even though it will doubtless reduce the chances that North Korea, for example, will be willing to enter into a new treaty on nuclear weapons with someone who has just demonstrated (yet again) that his word is worthless.

[Countme-a-Demon]

This isn't funny any longer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRP_uMWFueY

[Countme-a-Demon]

As part of the George Kennan model for the containment of Evil, the rest of the world needs to isolate the dangerous waffle: America.

Start with forbidding any of their collective citizenry from shaking hands with a lying, treaty-breaking, deal-transgressing, back-stabbing Americano, whether it is the smallest business deal or ANY gummint gambit.

Airports across the world must install the tightest, most intrusive security procedures for American visitors and travelers of all walks of life. Anal cavity searches at the borders for every American going abroad must be de rigueur to rigorously investigate the roots of our forked tongues.

Keep automatic weapons trained on us as we lie about needing some sun at the seashore when really all we really intend is to f*ck something or someone in our own self-interest.

Security officers must be trained to know that during interrogation of every American a yes answer means no and a no answer means yes and a maybe means if you turn your back we will shoot you, and believing the eyes over the moving lips is pointless when in contact with Americans, practiced liars, deceivers, and traitors all, genetically incapable of a truthful answer, our self-dealing brain stems already skipping ahead to how we gonna f*ck these people in the end.

And to think I had such travel plans.

Maybe I'll be stuck with canoeing through downtown Houston.

[Countme-a-Demon]

I hope he wins and his fairy tale becomes reality:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/roy-moores-sugar-daddy-has-deep-ties-to-secessionists

[wj]

Better, I think, that he loses. To a Democrat! And thus makes clear just how whacko the GOP in Alabama has become . . . even compared to the general view of Alabamans.

[Countme-a-Demon]

As the President of no one but the 62 million deplorable Gunimals in America plays a cute, suspenseful game of twenty questions with the threatened unveiling of our military might and the use of our nuclear arsenal some time next week, why wouldn't our nuclear-armed enemies launch their arsenals this weekend?

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/sanders-wait-and-see-military-threat

[Countme-a-Demon]

Thomas Day, Jr.

[liberal japonicus]

Snarki, one of the problems is that if I were to throw the evildoers down a well, I'd have to put on my captain Ahab hat and chase them down.