Those coming from Central Asia, Bahrain, Qatar or Saudi Arabia to the Olympics, interested to see what life in a democracy feels like, will find it seems exactly like life at home in their dictatorship. 17,000 soldiers will be glowering over the venues, checking identity documents, stopping and searching. The mlitary will occupy residential buildings, be buzzing overhead, rolling down the streets and patrolling the river. There will be missiles on land, sea and air, though nobody knows what the threat is that this is supposed to counter.
What will make our dictatorship resident visitors feel especially at home is the contempt for the ordinary citizen. Not only will they have the military all over them and be subject to frequent stopping and questioning, they will be expected continually to get out of the way of their betters. Special VIP lanes on the road will allow officials to sweep by, while normal citizens will simply have to sit in gridlock and stew. Who cares? The military will stick missiles on your roof if they wish. What they are going to shoot down, and which bit of London it will land on, is not to be questioned.
Here in Ramsgate we are losing our regular train service to London completely for the duration. All the HS1 trains are being commandeered to run a shuttle service between Ebbsfleet and Stratford. 22 trains a day from Ramsgate are simply cancelled. Slow trains are available, but a journey normally 70 minutes will become – at the fastest possible – 2 hours and 35 minutes. A large number of commuters will simply be unable to get to work anything like on time, and have to spend door to door over seven hours a day in travelling as well as their working day. Nobody was consulted. Quite a few don’t yet know – there has been no determined effort to tell people. Leaflets are available in the ticket office if you ask for one.
But the leaflets might as well just say, “You are fucked, and we don’t care”.
The extra 3,500 military personnel it was today announced will be used at the games cover a shortfall in Group Four personnel. Group Four were providing 4,000 paid staff and 6,000 unpaid volunteers. It is the unpaid volunteer numbers which are short by 3,500.
Most people are not stupid. They may volunteer happily for sport or for charity, but to work for nothing to make tens of millions of pounds of profit for Group Four as it exploits them, plainly does not have universal appeal. Those 2,500 who have volunteered to work for nothing for G4S are the idiots in this story. How gullible can you be?
Bob Russell, MP for Colchester, today in parliament made the excellent point to Teresa May that Group Four (or G4S as they now call themselves) should not be employed because of their role in aiding and abetting Israel’s illegal activities in the West Bank and human rights abuse there. With breathtaking chutzpah Teresa May replied that it was this kind of valuable international experience that made Group Four the right company to provide security for the games.
Which brings me back to my point at the start. Those visiting from oppressive regimes will feel absolutely at home. That is the one and only thing you can trust Teresa May to ensure with grim efficiency.
Has my post last comment gone into the queue?
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[Mod: yes it had. Released now.]
Can’t be (b). Not allowed to shoot duck in Macdonalds-controlled airspace.
Komodo,
What a hoot? Talk about redundancy? A laser targeting system on a shotgun, this just shows too much military expenditure to aid the bottom lines of the corporates involved in the business of killing.
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Clark,
DARPA is researching that one. Have you taken a patent on your new idea?
Clark
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My criticism on USSR refers to both political and indeed economic system. At times it is very hard and almost impossible to distinguish between economy and politics. Lenin said that politics is concentrated expression of economy, he was of course referring to the economy and politics of imperialists, but then soviet socialist republic at times followed the same (imperialists) path.
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As I said social guarantees that soviet system provided were much better than those in many developed western societies at that time. But then because of political model that prevented political (and any other kind of except possibly military)competition that in turn stagnated soviet economy, resulted in soviet system was no longer able to provide social guarantees to its citizens. This in turn led to the revolt of citizens against the government.
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Economy and politics are connected very closely, in some cases in such a way that political system is used to economically benefit very few selected members of the society and that is what causes trouble.
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And as I understand it corporation are called corporations because they become too big to be called anything else. And thus their size and their economic weight allows them to influence politics, for their own benefit of course.
Could his scatter gun be for flying low over a riotous crowd and shooting at them? Balloon’s of any kind would descend gradually after being hit with small pellets, would it not? a sort of controlled descend, just in case the payload is anything else than a home made organic burger on its way to the penthouse missile site.
Clark
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https://startpage.com/uk/protect-privacy.html
Komodo: Nor is the current chaos in Syria likely to benefit Israel – sorry, mentioned it – much in the long term, unless a compliant puppet can be installed. In Belloc’s immortal words:
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Thanks for the poetry, Komodo. But does that make Assad Israel’s nurse? Interestingly, Assad is Arabic for lion.
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Hi Clark, thanks for the welcome back. Yes, that was an unfortunate mistake on my part and I am sorry for the misunderstanding. I hope you’re back in shape again and I was sorry to hear of your family circumstances.
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Oh, and you’re right, I am not an Arab-hater although that is really a low bar to hurdle.
Guest, you might want to disable “Block reported attack sites” and “Block reported web forgeries” in your browser preferences. Both seem to rely upon your browser frequently contacting Google, though, of course, Google promise that these features are never abused.
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OR you may prefer to leave these active, trading privacy for some protection on the Web.
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Thanks for the link.
“Nor is the current chaos in Syria likely to benefit Israel”
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That’s right. Israel wants strong neighbours, especially those allied to Iran. Israel will give back the Golan Heights to Syria as soon as the US led, NATO installed, Western backed administration is up and running. After all, it’s not as if the Americans are influenced by Israel and it’s regional ambitions or anything.
Angrysoba: “…although that is really a low bar to hurdle”.
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It certainly should be, but it’s remarkable how many fail to get over it. Just yesterday, I heard a BBC report refer to somewhere as “The Mecca of organised crime”.
Clark: Just yesterday, I heard a BBC report refer to somewhere as “The Mecca of organised crime”.
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Well, I didn’t hear the broadcast but “The Mecca of X” is a lazy formulation for a gathering point which is not used exclusively to talk about negative things. I think I have even read somewhere that Osaka is a Mecca for good food! In fact, here’s an example:
http://www.osaka-info.jp/en/search/detail/sightseeing_2045.html
How about “the Canterbury Cathedral of rape and pillage”? My point is that this sort of association goes unnoticed, and it shouldn’t.
I have read Greenwald since it was Unclaimed Territory.
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I am really disappointed about the move to The Guardian. I don’t know how he can square it with their active smearing of Julian Assange, whose case GG has pleased at such length.
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It is, however, practically impossible to put this question to him on Salon, because he is surrounded by a self-appointed guard who trash any perceived criticism of him. Therefore, I read his columns but almost never comment.
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And, despite my disappointment, I will read him and see where it goes. One thing not mentioned in the bit quoted on here about the move is how GG’s columns won’t likely be the decisive factor, what will unleash mayhem is if The Guardian’s moderation policies are too heavy-handed.
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And the key issue won’t be what he writes about US media and if he absolves The Guardian. The writer clearly doesn’t read GG much, or he’d know that GG has basically never felt the need to attack Salon (due to his independence) and has extremely occasionally criticized one of their other writers. No, the true test will be GG’s writings on Israel, and if The Guardian is going to follow the usual policy (like other broadsheets) of switching off comments on practically all things Israel-related.
‘pleased’ = pleaded
Dear God, it’s late.
Clark: How about “the Canterbury Cathedral of rape and pillage”? My point is that this sort of association goes unnoticed, and it shouldn’t.
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An important thing about cliches and collocations is the frequency in which they are used. As I said, “The Mecca of…” is familiar and seems to work when describing a particular place that people flock to and it doesn’t have to be good or bad. Similarly the something Bible is often used to describe things that could be good or bad; The Michelin guide could be the Gourmet’s Bible, and the Anarchist Cookbook could be the Terrorist’s Bible. The words Bible and Mecca in these contexts are unlikely to be pejorative against Christianity or Islam (the latter, by the way, shouldn’t be considered as synonymous with the word “Arab” given that there are plenty of non-Arab Muslims and plenty of non-Muslim Arabs).
Clark, maybe just to emphasize the point, I did a search of “the mecca of” with the word “cliche”:
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“Everything is the Mecca of something,”
The mecca of all bloggers
‘the Mecca of furniture production in Sweden′.
Paris Is the Mecca of Bread
herds of nerds walking to the mecca of epicness
They ain’ t the mecca of shopping
he needs to send his son to the Mecca of cricket
the mecca of “bobo” chic Paris
the mecca of avant garde art in Korea
admittedly not the mecca of hip hop reading
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In Korea, Daechi-dong is called the ‘Mecca of private education’
“The Mecca Of Hair” is on Facebook
skillful writer identifying himself as The Mecca of Rhymes
The ‘Mecca of meat?’
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Unless there was more to the context than you have told me I would doubt that there was anything sinister about the use of “mecca of organized crime”.
Sweden says freed Guantánamo captive was not suicide bomber in Bulgaria
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http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/19/2902593/pentagon-checking-reports-that.html
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“We can confirm that it was not Mehdi Ghezali,” Mark Vadasz, head of communications for the Swedish security services told The Miami Herald on Thursday afternoon …“We can’t go into more details regarding that part of our operations,” said Vadasz. “But we can definitely confirm that it’s not him.”
“The mecca of all bloggers”
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Where would that be? ‘Your mother’s basement’, as they fling at each other?
All true, Angrysoba, but I still think such an association should have been intercepted by someone along the BBC production path, but it wasn’t, and that says something about prevailing mind-sets. This wasn’t a casual conversation, it was a peak hours BBC News item. Like Frank Zappa once said: “There’s a big difference between picking your nose at home, and doing it in front of 10,000 people”
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You deserve some credit here. When you confronted Larry from St Louis about his “towelhead” remark, I’d actually already read his comment without really noticing, and it was your comment that brought it to my attention. In my own defence, maybe it was just the sort of thing I expected from him.
Mary, Muslim athletes do NOT have to fast during Ramadan if they are competing in the Olympics. They can engage in charitable acts and/or do their fasting later. It is 30+ years of Islamism that has rendered a lumpen, unimaginative attidude among too many Muslims on such matters. If you are travelling or are a young child or are pregnant or ill or are in a situation where it is impossible or dangerous to fast, etc., you don’t need to fast – yet many diabetics, for example, do fast and it’s just plain stupid, in my view. It’s piety for piety’s sake, to show off, really – and so is against the spirit of the whole thing.
Yes thanks Suhayl. A friend who is Muslim explained.
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The Commander Land Services is in overall control of Operation Olympics. He is General Sir Nick Parker whose son lost both legs in Afghanistan. Parker was second in command to McChrystal in Afghanistan for a time and prior to that was in Iraq, Sierra Leone and Northern Ireland. All good war experience for his current role.
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http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/FactSheets/OperationOlympicsDefenceContributionToOlympicAndParalympicGames.htm which includes a brief list of assets employed.
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The flame (just like that produced from a match or a cigarette lighter!) will be taken from Guildford tonight by RN helicopter and abseiled into the Tower of London for ‘safe keeping’. Then round London boroughs next week. What tripe. Another YCNMIU.
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{http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5iAVufsal6GayDuJk2FcQPqmLx4gA?docId=B41204531342716823A0000}
The capitalist fundamentalists who seem to be running the Olympics in the UK seem to have a very narrow and anti-entreneurial view of the ‘brand’. They ought really to be encouraging everyone to take up the brand – that in fact would be likely to bring more business their way because the psychologial impact would play well for the actual licenses products – it would be a win-win situation. Instead of which, there is this Stalinist attitude. Monopoly Capitalism, as Clark suggested – the worst of both worlds.
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Hey – Angrysoba, you’re back from the Sea of Holes!
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:))
Individuals are ‘controlled’ in a myriad of circumstances ‘Uzbek’ – In certain situations I myself am influenced by checks and balances from people I trust. This is a natural part of human progression.
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I am not influenced by idiotic slaves who for instance label rebels as ‘freedom fighters’ as was the case during the Reagan administration when the United States created Al-Qaeda as an interim policy according to interim interests. Years later these rebels or fighters became terrorists financed by Saudi Arabia and others. These were the ‘death squads’ in Iraq, in Libya and now Syria. The proxy slaughter.
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It is this knowledge, this blueprint, derived from some secret sources and the confessions from Al-Qaeda fighters and British SAS caught in Iraq planting bombs and executing death that shapes and embodies the trust and credence I assert here.
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It is why, right now, I trust the passive conciliatory indicators behind Churkin’s response to the UN more than the hegemonic desires and geopolitcal manoeveres of a Western alliance intent on totalitarian world control bankrolled by the elite and their think-tanks, a perverse collectivism where the individual, you, me, us, are discardable.
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Look around for evidence; the poor are poorer, the sick are dying, the elderly forgotten, the young unemployed and the comfortable anxious. Only lies and deception prevent anarchy, only naivety and ignorance repress fear and alarm. I believe those with strength of character and reason must be prepared to share and care going forward from now into the future.
Thanks a lot you for the link Clark. I’ll have a look at it when I get more time. I don’t know whether it is your email provider or mine. I have actually had emails vanish from my inbox when I had already accessed them. And of course I know when I delete something. This happened within minutes. It is one of the reasons I want my emails scrambled.
If it’s Tuesday, it must be… Syria!
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The Syrian regime is perfectly capable of mass murder (see 1982). I think it likely that as in all wars, all sides are committing atrocities. The Islamists/Turkish/CIA-based paramilitaries from various parts of the Middle East and beyond, as well as from Syria itself, are notorious for the slitting of children’s throats. “Truth is the first casualty of war” – how very true.
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It seems to depend on whom one asks – one gets very different views from different people. Robin Yassin-Kassab (Syrian English journalist) is pro-rebels, as is Simon Assaf (Lebanese English SWP activist) and as indeed is the SWP in general (which also seems pro-Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt). Other parts of the Left view this as a struggle b/w different forms of oppressor. I also know some Syrians who are against the rebels. There is a lot of pro-US/UK/NATO blogging going on social media networks, a veritable army of supposedly progressive people throwing in their lot with Empire. It is clear that this is part of a proxy war b/w the USA/NATO and China/Russia and b/w the USA/NATO and Iran. It’s clearly been very well-organised. But the Syrian people have agency too. Right now, they are dying in large numbers. What a disaster.
The funeral of General Dawoud Rajiha, Syrian Minister of Defence:
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUp_sRD0Oto
Undisclosed recipient, I just wrote back about your laptop – you know who you are, but I don’t know if you’d want your communication with me publicly announced. If that doesn’t worry you, post to that effect here. I just thought I’d mention that in public, as so many of my e-mails have been disappearing without trace recently.
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John Goss, I have sent e-mails via two e-mail providers, from three accounts in two locations, to accounts with three different providers, for you and Mark Golding. The only thing the e-mails have in common is that they all concerned e-mail encryption. Other e-mails continue to get through. If this pattern continues, I’ll be forced to conclude that some higher authority is interfering with e-mail communications.
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Martial Law Britain, indeed.
Suhayl Saadi,
Last night I was listening to a journalist who was in Syria and had dispatched copious material to BBC and Sky, only to find his material was rejected, and upon enquiry as for the reasons of his dispatches not getting aired? He had been told :”air time is limited and there are too many stories to cover, hence there is not enough time for everyone’s dispatches”!
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You guessed it, the material he was sending unlike the BBC correspondent sitting in Beirut and divining the news (a regular practice by the various BBC correspondents to sit outside their assigned hotspot and wax lyrical about the events there in the target location), was about the normality of life and the interviews with the ordinary people, and their complaints about the terrorists and their ilk destroying their country and plaguing their lives, and the destroying the quality of life and harmony of the people and their country. IN fact this chap was advising me to go and take a holiday in Syria, he was telling the place is cheap as chips (obviously not the chips in this country) and people are lovely, food is great and the Med and the sun are revitalising.
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He was talking about the war of propaganda that is raging, and making possible the militarists’ war, his suggestion was now that we have the internet everyone ought to turn journalist and fight the corporate propaganda and stop the crazy warmongers in their tracks.
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Ironically, there were two Syrians in the meeting too, and incidentally one of the so called Syrians was obviously an isreali asset (traditions are too precious to the zealot syanim, and anyone with a keen eye can spot the wankers miles off) fact that the israeli asset and the so called Syrian had been suddenly confronted with a journalist calling their bluff and a burly rough bastard who was pushing them to answer unpleasant questions and take responsibility for the crimes of their so called “freedom fighters” was not something they enjoyed, in fact the fear in their eyes, and careful demeanour, was telling.
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Soon the notions of the foreign intervention and pleadings for establishment of no fly zones were replaced with; you guarantee no involvement of Russians and Iranians and we will handle Assad ourselves! However, soon the so called Syrians were confronted with the fact that unlike the “FSA” (Free Syrian Army) the proper Syrian Army has enough men and equipment to fight a few handfuls of rioting marauders, and unlike the mercenaries they need not rely on outside forces, and sponsors.
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At this stage the Syrian dissidents were obviously distressed and fearing a possible drubbing, started to become democratic and “we want to be democratic too” and the Sunnis are the majority crap, to which the response was, in other words, as sort of a mob rule to beat upon the minorities is their notion of democracy? These clearly had no idea of what really constitutes democracy and how in a democratic system everyone has to be heard regardless of the size of their constituencies, with a view to come to some kind of an accommodation. At this stage the isreali handler could see the swaying affect of the debate on his charge, and he politely reminded the Arab chap of the next meeting they must attend!!!!!!
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Discarding the sayanim, the Syrian Arab was either a bought and paid for chap, or a misguided soul filled with promises of the riches and rewards to come. In any case their primitive reasoning and justifications demolished, one could sense the discomfort of these attending the meeting, they had no idealogical anchoring of any sorts, and truly dependent upon the propaganda to take a free ride in its wake.
John Goss, I’ve just re-sent the two e-mails that apparently didn’t reach you last time. I sent each by a different e-mail provider. Make sure you check your ‘spam’ or ‘junk’ folders. If your e-mail provider has sent them to ‘spam’, you’ll have to log into your webmail account and look in the ‘spam’ folder there. While you’re there, see if you can turn off spam filtering in the webmail settings.
Another fear is that when the rebels win (and win they will, since they have enormous logistical and covert ops support from the CIA/Saudi/Qatar/Turkey), they may start to massacre the Christians and Alawites of Syria. They may also start fighting among one another to gain ascendency. Chaos! The ultimate strategic objective. Wait, then, for the invasion of the liberal foundation-funded NGOs. And the reconstruction bonanza! And the redemptive plays and radio dramas here, to calm the soul and infude it with gratuitous emotion. Mass murder is good for business of all kinds! Present more throats for slitting! Stainless steel in the heart, iron in the soul.