The London Olympics are already achieving the number one aim of the politicians who brought them here, which is making our politicians feel very important indeed.
The media is quite frenetic in its efforts to make us all believe we should be terrifically proud of the fact we are hosting the Olympics, as though there were something unique in this achievement. If we can’t competently do something that Greece, Spain and China have done in recent years, that would be remarkable. Of course the Games will be on the whole well delivered, sufficient for the media and politicians to declare it an ecstatic success. Some of the sporting moments will be sublime, as ever.
But did it have to be in London? We won’t know the total cost of the Games for months, but it will cost the taxpayer at least £9 billion and I suspect a lot more. I also suspect the GDP figures will, in the event, show that the massive net fall in visitor numbers has hurt the already shrinking economy further.
But to take the most optimistic figure, holding the Olympics in London has cost every person in the country an average of £150 per head in extra taxes. That is £600 for a family of four. Actually it is in the end going to be well over £2,000, as of course the money has been borrowed on the never never, and taxpayers are going to be paying it off their whole lives, along with the sum ten times higher they are already paying direct into the pockets of the bankers through their taxes.
The very rich, of course, don’t pay much tax, so they are not worried.
But to take just the figure of £600 extra taxes for a family of four, the lowest possible amount, and not including the interest. Is having the Olympics here really worth paying out £600 for? If Tony Blair had approached the head of the family and said “We are going to have the Olympics in London, but it’s going to cost you £600, would the answer have been from most ordinary people: “Yes, great idea, this is that important to us”?
People are not disconcerted because they don’t see that they have to pay. There is no special Olympics tax, and they pay their taxes in a variety of ways, and individuals are not the sole source of taxation. But this is nonetheless real money taken from the people in pursuit of the hubris of politicians.
I love sport. I hate the corruption of the International Olympic Committee, Fifa and the rest; I hate the vicious corporatism and militarisation of our capital and absurd elitism of the transport lanes; the sport itself I love. But with the economy contracting, and the NHS being farmed out for profit, is it really worth £600 for a family – and many families are really struggling in a heartbreaking way – is it worth the money to have the Olympics here rather than in Paris?
Of course it isn’t. I think many of us will feel an extra pleasure watching the Opening ceremony because it is British. Patriotic pride will surge. It is not wrong to enjoy the spectacle tonight on TV. The corporate well connected and ruling classes will enjoy it in the stadium.
But after you have watched it on TV, ask yourself this question. How much more did you enjoy it than enjoy watching the Beijing ceremony, and was that margin of extra enjoyment something that everybody in the room would have paid out £150 for?
Because they just did.
Krokodil: The drug that eats junkies
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…………… flesh is falling off and she can hardly move anymore,” says Sasha. Photographs of late-stage krokodil addicts are disturbing in the extreme. Flesh goes grey and peels away to leave bones exposed. People literally rot to death.
More novel ways of population control.
The capital visiting revolutionaries’ dilemma:
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“There’s only 2 hours left till we have to be back on the bus home. Should we storm Parliament now, or find somewhere selling chips first?”
Alex Jones has trodden on his own feet at times yet one has to admit the man has stamina and his film is backed up by credible people:
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Please sit back, watch and reconsider before Syria falls and Iran is decimated.
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http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7911848558644973912&ei
Awww shucks they remember me =p
There has been some talk about food prices in this post, I just came across the following which seems like a step in the right direction:
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“Germany’s Commerzbank has removed agricultural products from a commodity index fund after accusations that speculation has pushed up food prices and fuelled unrest in some poor countries.
Commerzbank followed at least two other German banks in restricting investments in agriculture, while most banks and fund managers have defended investment in commodities, saying that price jumps have been due to heavy demand and shortages.”
smh.com.au/business/world-business/german-bank-drops-agriculture-from-fund-on-food-fears-20120810-23xys.html
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Food pricing has become a big issue in Asia. I know in Thailand the price of coconuts has been fluctuating massively, from 3 Baht to 17 Baht a coconut. Coconuts are a staple in Thailand and many people earn only 200 baht a day. I have heard similar stories from India, where mangoes are becoming a luxury item when they were once affordable by most people. Traditional dishes are dying because of huge price increases and worse, the poor can’t even afford fruit any more.
But where’s the chap who owns this blog gone ?
If he cant be bothered to turn up at least once a week and start a new topic off then why should anyone else be bothered ?
It appears that Craig Murray has lost all interest in his own blog !
Thirteen items in the queue, a whole load of them by “Apostate”, “Steelback”, “Freeborn”; all quite clearly made by one person pretending to be many. That, or a bunch of people all huddled around the same connection, with no need to talk amongst themselves here.
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Still, racists like me that “[blame] ‘immigrants’ for everything wrong in our society” (Technicolour, 11 Aug, 2:22 pm) had better not go interfering with freedom of speech, eh? We don’t need any “Clark and Jon show” because Apostate’s Sock Puppet Theatre is much better.
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Fuck this, I can’t even be arsed to click the Approve button.
Looks like Apostate/Steelback/Tungsten/Freeborn/Juniper has ideas about ‘infiltration’ again.
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(Was that really only July 2010? Cripes …)
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“Apostate, Freeborn and Steelback (who may or may not all be the same person) are not welcome on this site, under these or any other names, for persistent anti-semitism and holocaust denial.
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“I have deleted the comments which were the last straw. This blog is very tolerant, but not absolutely tolerant.”
– Craig Murray July 6, 2010
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2010/07/not_wanted/
I cross-posted with you, Clark, sorry. I had just Googled and found Craig’s post.
Glenn_uk 9 Aug, 2012 – 1:15 am
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Fuck it. You can only expect so much from volunteers.
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I still vote to close comments.
…. the poor can’t even afford fruit any more.
Indeed can they not eat Cakes?
This kind of disinformation is the pits of propaganda, to highlight the lack of access of poor, never mind the basics of diets such as bread, but there again bread these days is a fucking luxury in this country.
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Just note the price hikes in bread, therefore highlighting the expensive bread would be too close home, hence the fruit that poor cannot afford.
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What kind of wanker thinks of this sort of crap to feed the punters with, and keep these great unwashed misinformed, and pacified?
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As already has been mentioned, the huge amounts of money given to banks so freely under the guise of “quantitative easing” (Orwell spinning in his grave) is fanning the flames of greed of the speculators targeting foodstuff and commodities. Alas, with one bank pulling out of the immoral speculative frenzy, the problem of price hikes will not be solved. There is a desperate need for stringent regulations and legislation to regulate the foodstuffs and basic commodities trading. (will never happen)
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During the last depression foodstuff and commodities perished at the farms and source of origin, whilst the prices soared, and people went hungry and tried to stay alive by finding the nearest charity soup kitchen.
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This time around in the current depression, prices are soaring because the speculators are busy investing their free monies in the foodstuff and commodities, whilst people are going hungry and are reliant on food charities. At least the last time around there was the comfort of watching the greedy bastards jumping off the high buildings in Wall Street, this time around none of the fuckwits jumped because these were certain their hand-picked vassals in government will ensure they are to be looked after.
Sock Puppet Cries “Censorship” shocker!”
Steelback, 11 Aug, 5:43 pm
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No, wrong. Moderator on strike, actually. Dickhead.
“Fuck this, I can’t even be arsed to click the Approve button.”
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Well, you now seem to be approving Apostate/Steelback/Freeborn/etc under the name “Holocaust Denier”. I give up too. 😉
Clark,
Already there are those whom wish to sabotage this blog, and suppress the kind of open debate we have enjoyed, and are enjoying. You are in the best position to see/discern/read this fact, and you have already alluded to the same address, setting up a multi line conversational track filling the thread with absolute bilge.
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Why do you want to join the ill wishers and close the comments off?
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If we the people cannot even organise a piss up in a brewery, or live with the slights in a thread, then what the fuck is there to hope for?
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The calls for closure of comments is an all too evident sign of the disarray and incapability of we the people to actually do something on our own terms and initiative. Craig has left the thread open, he is the proprietor so to speak, yet you call for its closure?
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I know you are annoyed and angry, also as we all have already acknowledged, we are aware you are a volunteer doing a thankless job, and getting a lot of stick for it too.
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Clark take it for granted that we all and I am “unanimous at this” (shades of Grace Bro.) appreciate your time and effort to keep the place tidy so that we can enjoy picking on you as well as contribute to the debate on this thread!
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Stop being so angry please, and if you want write a comment specifically attacking those whom have slighted you, and then don’t approve their reply comments at least for the next twenty four hours if that will make you feel better, but stop being angry, and start being the Clark that we are all used to.
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Thanking you for your hard work to keep this place tidy from bilge (unconscious drivel), and robots advertising all manner of products, ranging from; “enlarge your nose products” to “get slim in the next twenty minutes eating doughnut and cakes”.
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Ta ta folks. I’m off again. Maybe regular contributors would like to make a list of people they’d approve of to moderate here. I declare myself ineligible as I’ve done my bit.
Fedup, I just saw your comment. I used to come here to join in the discussion. Comments on this thread state that “moderators” shouldn’t express their opinions here. So if I have to stay out of the discussion, my incentive to take care of the place has gone, hasn’t it? If I’m to be seen (cleaning up) but not heard, I expect to be paid. I don’t mind looking after an environment that I share, but if it’s everyone else’s environment but mine (and Jon’s) then fuck it, I expect some external reward.
There’s a little lesson about human nature here. If someone serves you, a proportion of you start treating them as a servant. They are assigned a lower social status. They have to accept insults from the higher-ups, and they shouldn’t express their opinions, or otherwise interfere with the more important activities of their betters.
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Humanity is fucked. Give up.
Apostate, the blog software stops things according to its own inscrutable rules. Two links in a comment will get it queued. So will one link, sometimes, I don’t know why. It doesn’t like “-online”. Why? Unknown. It doesn’t like “penis”. I don’t know the majority of the blacklist keywords.
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But why should I approve a load of obvious sock puppetry from a banned contributor who keeps insulting me in any case?
Demo. Censorship applied to “Apostate”, 12 Aug, 2012 – 11:25 am.
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Your other 21 comments are still in the queue. I didn’t put them there.
Fedup:
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“Just note the price hikes in bread, therefore highlighting the expensive bread would be too close home, hence the fruit that poor cannot afford.”
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Living in Thailand I don’t keep up with the price of bread, I eat it rarely, and the Thais eat far less than me. Coconuts are maybe equivalent to potatoes in the UK, the milk or flesh is in more foods than I can name. With the trees so common even the poorest could pick up fallen coconuts or buy them for next to nothing, now that’s not possible, all the coconuts are picked up and sold. Imagine if suddenly all the poor in the UK suddenly had potato removed from their diet with nothing to replace it. Sorry if I have just been /whooshed 😉
And stop fucking sock-puppeteering or I’ll publish your IP address.
Clark, no-one here thinks you’re “a racist git”, quite the opposite. Please read what Fed Up and Nuid wrote. Don’t let the obvious return’d troll get you down. Also, I don’t think people were really suggesting that you shouldn’t comment (at all), just that it was a potentially invidious position for you to be trying to be both moderator and commentator in such a heated thread. One senses that in this – whatever their view on the subject at hand – they were trying to help.
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Song of the Day:
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1OAuV-bPpk
Apostate, your IP address is ###.###.###.###.
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Anyone want to DDoS Apostate? Just open a new tab, put ###.###.###.### into the address bar, and press Return or click the Go button.
Clark,
You have done a great job so far. Call me thick but I had not noticed you were a Mod, until recently, so you have managed to keep you Mod, and Clark Persona separate. However the fact that some of participants may have been overly zealous in winning an argument, and may have tried to mix up your Clark,and Mod persona to win the argument, ought not sower your attitude, and dampen your enthusiasm.
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Further, fact that you have taken offence at getting “called/classified” ase
The positive aspect of posting under “Mod” separate from “Clark” , or “Jon”, is to clarify your position as the contributor to the debate or umpire the proceedings respectively. This practice however is not as parsimoniously observed by some of the combatants/contributors so to speak, and that is where the difficulties arise from.
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As you have rightly highlighted: “if I don’t get to enjoy privileges as a contributor why am I not getting paid as aMod”? I should like to point to the blog owner himself, who is eking a living through his various endeavours, and it costs him to keep this blog going, and for his thanks, every so often some fancy pants lawyer is on his case, to “cease and desist……. etc.” aside. Taking note of those of us who are commenting here, we are using our own free time and juice to come and comment, in addition to the costs born by some of us who are then targeted by the unsavoury sleuths, and spies as in the case of Mark Golding, et al. We the people have had to work harder in getting our voices heard, and our wishes realised, and this work has always been unrewarding and at costs to ourselves. However the thirst for justice, equity, and peace, have always been the driving force that has compelled many to accept many hardships and take on many sacrifices, in an effort to realise the order and justice that we all crave.
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You are not alone in feeling that you have been taken advantage of, that is the system, that is precisely how the predatory bastards have separated us from one another and preyed upon us all with ease. Clark, having got to know you in a cursory fashion, I know you cannot be a racist even if you were to join the KKK and be a card carrying member. You know that too, and anyone else who has known you for any length of time would have come to realise. If someone has been naughty to come that line of argument to win their point that is only the shortcoming of the proof on the side of the contender of this conjecture.
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Therefore, to take offence at such tactics is not becoming of you, after all we are all taught to turn the other cheek and forgive our trespassers, not because the Lord would be happy, but because we won’t be pissed off twice! The first being when insulted/slighted, and the second being when we come to recollect and our ire rises and our tempers ruin a perfectly calm Sunday afternoon that ought to be complemented with a flagon of cider, some bread, and cheese, to savour the magnificence of life, and recharge our batteries for fighting the bastards on Monday all over again.
Jon,
I’ve got to get off-line, or it’ll ruin my day. Do whatever to this if/when you find it.
Clark,
ROFLROFLLMAO,
Clark don’t let them push your buttons like that. You should delete the above post.
I suppose I’d best blank Apostate’s IP address. Done. Power cycle your router, Apostate.
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Bye for now.
Clark,
I have not had a laugh as much as today, you have made my day. However what I found to be touching, was your advice; ” Power cycle your router,….”.
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HUGE BEAR HUG @ ye
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PS please keep this line off the comment @
Fedup
12 Aug, 2012 – 12:13 pm
” Further, fact that you have taken offence at getting “called/classified” ase”
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PPS that is you get to read it.
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CheebaCow
Glad you qualified that you were commenting on Thailand. Here the bastards on BBC are tying to claim “bread” is a luxury, to explain away the price hikes. Potatoes are expensive too, I know of families who are eating meat of any sorts once or twice a month, these are working families BTW.
Dear Clark (since you refer to my comment) no-one has accused you of being a racist, and I, since you specifically asked me, explained in detail why this would be ridiculous, twice. My comment about ‘blaming immigrants for all the ills in society’ was aimed at those commentators who attempted to, and at those in society who find it a convenient group of people to target, too.
I may not have been able to connect with, or understand, your point of view on this, which is doubtless upsetting, as I usually do. But I have not been dishonest, or arguing in ‘bad faith’ or evading anything, as I hope this thread has made clear. It is perfectly all right to challenge and disagree on a board like this. One does not have to take it personally, even if it occasionally feels so, and even if people try and make it so. It is obviously about a far larger issue – much larger than immigration, as Fedup and others point out.
As for moderation and commenting, I have only said that I think it is a hard task. Moderating on its own is time-consuming and exhausting and hopefully comes with some back-up (I have moderated in my time too). And commenting – well.
I’m reminded that Apostate and these other little shriekers are banned by Craig, for obvious reasons, and you do not have to wade through their abuse as a result.
The moderators here have my sincere admiration and appreciation for their work.