Ray McGovern and the Sam Adams party have presented the Sam Adams award to Edward Snowden. I am delighted. This from Ray’s account of the event:
In brief remarks from his visitors, Snowden was reassured — first and foremost — that he need no longer be worried that nothing significant would happen as a result of his decision to risk his future by revealing documentary proof that the U.S. government was playing fast and loose with the Constitutional rights of Americans.
Even amid the government shutdown, Establishment Washington and the normally docile “mainstream media” have not been able to deflect attention from the intrusive eavesdropping that makes a mockery of the Fourth Amendment. Even Congress is showing signs of awaking from its torpor.
In the somnolent Senate, a few hardy souls have gone so far as to express displeasure at having been lied to by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and NSA Director Keith Alexander — Clapper having formally apologized for telling the Senate Intelligence Committee eavesdropping-related things that were, in his words, “clearly erroneous” and Alexander having told now-discredited whoppers about the effectiveness of NSA’s intrusive and unconstitutional methods in combating terrorism.
Coleen Rowley, the first winner of the Sam Adams Award (2002), cited some little-known history to remind Snowden that he is in good company as a whistleblower — and not only because of previous Sam Adams honorees. She noted that in 1773, Benjamin Franklin leaked confidential information by releasing letters written by then-Lt. Governor of Massachusetts Thomas Hutchinson to Thomas Whatley, an assistant to the British Prime Minister.
The letters suggested that it was impossible for the colonists to enjoy the same rights as subjects living in England and that “an abridgement of what are called English liberties” might be necessary. The content of the letters was so damaging to the British government that Benjamin Franklin was dismissed as colonial Postmaster General and had to endure an hour-long censure from British Solicitor General Alexander Wedderburn.
There has been a determined attempt by government to justify the need to intercept everybody’s communications, all the time. We have, yet again, had MI5 claim there are many thousand violent Islamic terrorists running around the UK, (yet somehow not managing to kill anybody). The cry of “paedophiles” is raised, as always. I can imagine them suggesting the entire population be shot dead, and justifying it as making sure they get the paedophiles. The tabloids would go with that.
There still had not been a single credible claim by the mainstream media that any named individual has died, despite that contingency being trotted out all the time as the reason Snowden and Manning should not have revealed state crimes and abuse of power. I am hopeful that, with the internet still largely free to the dissemination of information, out next massive whistleblower is only weeks away.
Macky,
Clear history. It’s in the form history. You could delete it individually but that’s much more complicated.
@Brian & AlcAnon, thanks for the comments & advice guys; because I was posting about somebody impersonating Mary on the Stormfront site, it seems such a devilish coincidence that that very Post should mysteriouly impersonate her also ! Just hope she sees the irony !
Damn thing has kept me up so damn late; Goodnight !
Dreoilin, it is so clear that you are not a z!onist that it is hardly worth stating. You are one of the very few easy-going commentators here, so please take some comfort in knowing that I know that.
A lot of lies about people are being thrown around here to muddy the waters and spoil relations. St.Mary has taken up Doug Scorgie’s mission of falsely painting me as a “racist”. She even had the temerity of claiming to having “outed” me as one. Well, I think it might have been Technicolour who was first to strongly imply that I am a knee-slapping German, neo-Nazi racist when I started posting here – so Mary will need to get in the queue. My original posts were about ideas and it wasn’t too long before the focus turned on the character of the messenger – standard tactic of politically minded creeps who fail at argument but excel at ad hominem.
What I find most disappointing in some of the other reasonably intelligent and moderate regulars is their passive assent of Fedup’s consistently hostile, offensive and obnoxious posts. I am unsure whether it is because they approve of his dirty work or that he serves a useful function as St.Mary’s thuggish goon. In any case, unlike the obviously false slurs against Dreoilin, the silence is revealing.
Do any have the courage to speak their minds? Or will good men do nothing?
Habbabkuk, thank you and welcome back.
I guess that makes three interested readers – you, Villager and me! The foundations of a possible triumvirate. You will observe very soon that any congenial interaction between us will be characterised as a conspiracy to distract, derail, disrupt and disenturpulate this blog’s mission. StF.Mary once stated – “they even talk to each other”. – hah!
Pepe Escobar.
Amazing in the light of the mayhem that already exists in the region.
“Our” Weaponized Wahhabi Bastards
by Pepe Escobar / October 20th, 2013
‘This week, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced it had notified congress about selling more state-of-the-art heavy metal for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). That breaks down into “various munitions and associated equipment, parts, training and logistical support” to Riyadh for US$6.8 billion and to Abu Dhabi for $4 billion.
Weaponizing “our” Wahhabi bastards is the sweetest deal for the industrial-military-Orwellian Panopticon complex. Sequestration? Tight budgets? Who cares? There’s a never-ending contractor bonanza in the Gulf — inbuilt in the narrative of the benign superpower “benefactor” of those helpless oil and gas monarchic monopolies defending them against assorted evildoers; one day the evildoer is Iraq, the next day Iran, the next day could be their own people, so one’s gotta be prepared.
Once in a while Israel exhibits the requisite raised eyebrow, but that’s just for show. Israel and the GCC have a de facto alliance against the bloc regionally known as the axis of resistance — Iran, Iraq, Syria and Hezbollah. Israel would not prevent the GCC from gorging on F-15 Eagles, F-16 Desert Falcons, assorted air-launched cruise missiles, satellite-guided bombs and plenty of high-tech communication gear. Just your average, innocent “military and defense cooperation”.’
http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/10/our-weaponized-wahhabi-bastards/
There is one update. Saudi Arabia have rejected a seat at the UN Security Council. Why? Because the UN has failed to deal with the region’s wars. And yet Saudia Arabia ia supplying the Syrian rebels!!
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-snubs-seat-on-un-security-council–hours-after-winning-coveted-place-8890581.html
Mary Macky. 1.42am
Thanks for your careful work reminding us of what we are dealing with.
Maybe RD has a perfectly innocent explanation(s) for why he was trawling through Stormfront. I’d love to hear it. The record shows he has a problem with replies so maybe someone else can help him out with this one.
So the dreaded ‘cut and paste’ has maybe claimed another victim. “…difficult words that I had to check the spelling of, so definately would not have just cut & posted the word “Mary”…”
Ah, those difficult words are a bit of a bummer! You have my sympathy.
But, looking on the bright side, this means it’s possible something coherent will turn up in Dad’s name.
And why did a brick come through my window at 1 36 this morning with a message to the biblical scholar Ben on it? Is there a pattern here?
Thanks Macky. Appreciated. I was actually off the blog at the time of the impersonation and was shocked to read about it when I returned. Horrible and if Dreoilin thinks I am coming to her aid after all the sniping she’s done and siding with the trolls, she has another think coming. Common decency would normally prevail but I do not feel very benevolent at the moment as I see this blog deteriorate and hear the trolls crowing.
Meanwhile this is my watchword. Keep Calm and Carry On. Created by the propaganda machine to keep spirits up in the Second World War when my father’s generation were fighting fascism.
THE CLOSET ZIONISTS IN OUR MIDST.
For those following the Assange drama, it looks like the movie ‘The Fifth Estate’ is bombing at the box office. It beggars belief that a studio would produce a negative movie about a controversial, contemporary figure like Julian Assange and expect both his haters and supporters to pay good money for this fictionalised account of a very important development in journalism.
Meanwhile, WikiLeaks has produced a doco called “Mediastan” which is variously downloadable for free or paid, as well as being available as a high-def torrent.
any Muslim country that embraces spying on its citizens and driving them to sex drugs and drink ×(like KSA) will have enough brownie NWO points to join the club, but thats something tn keep from Muslim ears. Grand Masonism.
Sky News have just had this American born person on to defend Agent Cameron and Gideon’s deal with EDF and the Chinese. Many others disagree especially on the strike price (double that currently per megawatt) and whether we should be building nuclear anyway in the light of its safety record.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara,_Lady_Judge A lawyer, former chair of the UKAEA and married to Sir Paul Judge, chairman of a Schroders fund and with many establishment appointments including the Crown Agents.
He is currently involved in litigation with ENRC, a Kazakhstan mining group.
Knighted by Major in 1996. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Judge
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/epic/enrc/10192817/Sir-Paul-Judge-threatens-ENRC-with-countersuit-over-leak-claim.html
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose….etc.
Perhaps more important than journalists merely declaring whether they are Z!onists or not, is their justification of their support for Z!onism in a world that is increasingly secular. Similarly, I’d like to hear justifications from secularists who are indifferent or supportive of theocracies such as those in the Middle East. Shouldn’t we be simultaneously demanding the dismantling of Z!onism together with that of the Islamic state?
Sorry, last post re Daniel Rich’s link to article about journalist disclosures.
Next member of the energy cartel announces price increases.
NPower From 1 December elec up 9.3% and gas 11.1%
The local log supplier’s price has just gone up from £90 to £100 per load. One day soon we will be burning our furniture or be out collecting firewood.
http://www.goldenstatephoto.com/photos/julian/Julian31_RJ.jpg
There are Tory donors and connections in the list.
Tax Special Investigation: Firms running NHS care services avoiding millions in tax
Companies running care services are among many avoiding millions in tax through a legal loophole.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/tax-special-investigation-firms-running-nhs-care-services-avoiding-millions-in-tax-8892925.html
[..] The firms are cutting their taxable UK profits by taking high-interest loans from their owners through the Channel Islands Stock Exchange, an investigation by Corporate Watch and The Independent has found. By racking up large interest payments to their parent companies, they are able to reduce their bottom line and cut their tax bills.
The news will increase concern about NHS reforms that are seeing private companies take more responsibility for services. It also raises questions about the Government’s commitment to tackling corporate tax avoidance, which David Cameron has said “corrodes public trust”.
Over the course of this week, The Independent will reveal how more than 30 UK companies, including some of the UK’s most recognisable brands, are benefiting from this legal tax loophole, known as the quoted Eurobond exemption. HMRC considered restricting the use of the loophole in 2012 but never took action.
The care companies known to benefit from the loophole are: Partnerships In Care (several of whose mental health facilities have recently failed inspections), Independent Clinical Services, Priory Group, Acorn Care, Tunstall, Lifeways, Healthcare At Home, Spire Healthcare and Care UK.[..]
Lord Patten and Alan Milburn are on the board of Bridgepoint who own Care UK and part own Tunstall.
See No 2 here ref Care UK’s chairman.
Architect of the Health and Social Care bill – John Nash, the chairman of Care UK, gave £21,000 to fund Andrew Lansley’s personal office in November 2009. In a recent interview, a senior director of the firm said that 96 per cent of Care UK’s business, which amounted to more than £400 million last year, came from the NHS. – Hedge fund boss John Nash is one of the major Conservative donors with close ties to the healthcare industry/..
http://socialinvestigations.blogspot.co.uk/p/mps-with-or-had-financial-links-to.html
Mary.
Thanks for the picture.
The audio accompanying audio file must have got deleted, but I think it went something like this.
“Jemand dear, will you come out from under that log?”
http://www.goldenstatephoto.com/photos/julian/Julian31_RJ.jpg
On Topic. (Well no one’s perfect!)
“…During interviews, I found it easy to put the Snowden disclosures into perspective regarding the seriousness of the Bush and Obama administration crimes against the Fourth Amendment by simply reciting that key part of our now-fractured Bill of Rights; it’s just one sentence:
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper may be able to tell Congress with impunity (in his own words) “clearly erroneous” things, but neither he, nor his duplicitous sidekick NSA Director Keith Alexander, nor complicit Senators and Representatives, nor the President himself can easily bend the Fourth Amendment that far out of shape once people read the text.”
From, https://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/10/15-8
Awesome. An unmoderated blog. Let me tell you about my sis. She made so much money working only a few hours a day on her kitchen table that she bought a brand new Maserati. And enough left over to buy me a new skateboard too.
NR.
You did’nt mention Little Bro’s new tricycle.
Jokermand
You think zionism has some connection to religion?
One-liner of the day in the record time of 1h47m (or 5 mins from the posting at 1h42m)!!! And the winner is:
Ben
21 Oct, 2013 – 1:47 am
Nice takedown Mary. Where did you go this evening, a screening of the Avengers? You sound like Emma Peel.
____________
I haven’t laughed so loud at waking up time in *years* 🙂 x a few.
Good to see the MacKlown living up to his name. Sorry to hear about the infection — laughter, your best medicine and Freud your best mirror. All in all, a brilliant MFM production though you’ve set such a high standard, this gem is going to be difficult to beat! 🙂 LOL again.
@Mary: Awesome. Dreoilin makes some comments about your grammar, along with some objections to cut and pasting – along with Nextus and others btw – and your response is to sit back smugly while she is viciously verbally abused and falsely accused by your supporters. Are you sure this blog is good for your character?
@Macky: yes, that’s right, calling people stupid and making stuff up always wins an argument. Who taught you that tactic, I wonder. And now you’re attacking Resident Dissident with the same tactics – I remember that he gave a perfectly logical reason for coming across that Sf post at the time – what a convenient lapse of your memory to allow you to smear him. Is there anyone you disagree with who you actually get on with?
@Jemand, like all actually human things I agree with you about some things and not about others.
Jemand: “StF.Mary once stated – “they even talk to each other”. – hah!”
And, ‘they’ even exchange names and identities(?)…Funnneee!
One could speculate that the reason why Macky’s name appears as Mary and has come up unprompted from the form history is that he has posted as Mary in the past – but that would be very naughty.
Now Habba has made a welcome return – I have decided to rename myself as ESLO – which taking the theme from one of my heroes stands for “Exposing smelly little orthodoxies” – you know ones along the line of all those who challenge anti-semites are by definition supporting the IDF abuses of Palestinians or that all those doctors, nurses and aid workers whose humanitarian instincts get them involved in helping the victims of the Syrian civil war are looking to escalate the war against the brave lion Assad – that sort of thing.
TC: Dreo’s ‘mistake’ vis-a-sis Mary was to “siding with the trolls”. At least she’s being honest and open about it.
As for, “And now you’re attacking Resident Dissident with the same tactics”, are you sure about that? Or are you referring to WhackyMacky’s ‘act’ of !h42, followed by:
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/10/edward-snowden-gets-sam-adams-award/comment-page-7/#comment-434443
Mary’s too sane to be up posting at 2 in the morning! AND she doesn’t do dissertations.
For the return of Habba and Free Speech. 10 50am
21 Oct, 2013 – 10:50 am
“…all those who challenge anti-semites are by definition supporting the IDF abuses of Palestinians or that all those doctors, nurses…
…and aid workers whose humanitarian instincts get them involved in helping the victims of the Syrian civil war are looking to escalate the war against the brave lion Assad…”
Can you provide an example. Yet again I seem to have missed them.
Thanks
Another ‘you could not make it up’. I re-read this Wikipedia account about Lady Judge (nee Barbara Singer and then Barbara Thomas) supporting Hinkley Point C. She is on the board of TEPCO (Fukushima) Nuclear Monitoring Committee.
‘Around that time, Barbara Thomas was also involved with Lincoln Savings and Loan Association and American Continental Corporation, two companies whose collapse in 1989 would cause a major financial scandal.[14][18][19] Both companies were run by Charles Keating, for whom she gave a character reference to the SEC in 1988.[14][17] Later she was one of many named in a resulting class action suit and settled out of court.[17][20]
In February 2010, she was also appointed to the International Advisory Board for the development of nuclear energy in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Lady Judge is the chairman of the nuclear power plant industry start-up Hyperion Power Generation.
In April 2010, Lady Judge was appointed Chairman of the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), a position that she took up in July 2010.[25] Between 2007 and 2010, Lady Judge was a Public Member of the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants, a body which develops ethical standards and guidance for use by professional accountants.[11] Additionally, from 2004 until 2007, Lady Judge was Deputy Chairman of the UK Financial Reporting Council which regulates UK corporate governance and accountants.[26]
Lady Judge is chair of the Energy Institute at University College, London.[27] In January 2006, she was appointed by the School of Oriental and African Studies in London (SOAS) as Chairman of its governing body, and is also Chairman of the advisory board for the London Middle East Institute at SOAS.[28] Elsewhere, Lady Judge is a member of the International Board of Overseers of Sabancı University, Istanbul, and a visiting fellow of the University of Oxford Saïd Business School, at the Centre for Corporate Reputation.[27] In May 2012 she was appointed Chairman of Executive Alumni Ltd, an organisation that helps senior executives who have finished their corporate careers to remain productively involved in business.
In September 2012, Lady Judge was appointed member of TEPCO Nuclear Reform Monitoring Committee.’
What function does the latter committee perform? Record the massive emissions of radioativity being washed out into the oceans and also sinking into the earth as the core of doomed reactor melts?
I believe Japan is running 2 out of 25 nuclear power stations now.
Nice one, ESLO. Look forward to more rationale and non-linear, lateral thinking.
PS to the trolls. I have NEVER impersonated anyone in real life including here on this blog.
Technicolour. You do not know what you are talking about and you are also making trouble. There has been more to it than just a critique of my punctuation and writing style. I am not going to add any fuel to any fires btw but will always defend my position and integrity.
Sofia
If you want examples just read this weekend’s contributions with an open mind.
Now why has Mary alighted on the Judges and why the interest in her name before marriage?
What are we to read into the comment re “c’est la meme chose”?