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.
“Water is the new oil..how are you fixed in the UK?”
Plenty about where I am. Take as many bucket fulls as you want.
Macky, the pattern of attacks by now ought to be so obvious to anyone. First wave of attacks are started by dreo; having a go at Mary (she should be getting so used to all the negative attention by now), needless to point out I am in the mix along with you too of late. Although today Craig has been subject to a dressing down too, because he is providing a free gratis service with obligations he cannot just get on with his life, and ought to be tending his blog instead!
Then the fucking lectures start; don’t think for yourselves, when there is dreo to do the thinking for you! What kind of a fucking world is this coming to, where everyone goes and makes their own fucking minds up? There should be a fucking law against that. Everyone should only read and think what they are told pronto! No fucking ifs and buts! You hear!
This is then lamely corroborated by a phony baloney reference, to Craig him say, and you bastards are going against his wishes by not thinking what dreo fucking tells you!
Although in the midst of all the fucking lectures there is an effort to rehabilitate villageCtechniCanonC her mates in the tag team. As well as the threats of leaving this blog, despite the long service record that is (soon she will come back and point out she will not leave here , because she has every right to post here, and I have fucking upset her, so there!).
Then dreo leaves, and in walk the villageCtechniCanonc who remonstrate with the “bullies” busy “bullying” a lill old lady (cuz no one bought dreo shit). Then the abusive comments start building to a crescendo in which villageC or anonC the ultra evil ultra egos of the sweet techniC let rip. Post the shit storm the place goes quiet absent the fucking evil duo of ultra egos, and once more the clareting and clanking of the zimmerframe is heard from yonder, and in walks dreo; wash and rinse over again!
Fact that now and again there has been a couple of posts about the current affairs are the disguise and the smoke screen to keep the fucking hasbara spetsnaz milling around the place until the crucial fucking point calls for the tag team to jump into fucking action.
Meanwhile habkooky still sprays crap all over the place, and now that the mod is gone, there is no one single authority to confront the anti ziofuckwit forces hence the forlorn and wistful reminiscences of the days when mod used to come to the rescue and extricate the ziofuckwits and delete their enemies posts as a punishment.
However fact that all these fucking democracy and freedom merchants given the chance of governing themselves are far too busy asking for watchers, and enforcers is a funny as fuck experiment that ought to be making any observer of this blog to piss themselves as they are laughing their tits off at the cry and hue for the reintroduction of some form of authority, to keep order and enforce the peace!!!!!
“Take as many bucket fulls as you want.”
Two gallons at a pop? I want 100.000 litres for the long-term on a weekly basis. Can you handle that outlfow? You must have a bottomless well of benevolence.
“Two gallons at a pop? I want 100.000 litres for the long-term on a weekly basis. Can you handle that outlfow? You must have a bottomless well of benevolence.”
No problem, just pay the postage I’ll let you have the water for nothing.
“I’ll let you have the water for nothing.”
I was being facetious. I thought you were being facetious. Are you serious? You think there is no water problem?
Ben,
Lack of fresh water is not something we tend to worry about much in Scotland 🙂 As you point out, the same can’t be said everywhere else though.
“I was being facetious. I thought you were being facetious. Are you serious? You think there is no water problem?”
You asked how we were fixed in the UK.
I replied in the part of the UK I am the problem is too much water right at the moment. It’s been pissing it down for the last two days. There has been severe flooding in the south of the UK.
We honestly don’t have a water shortage problem here in the north of Scotland, climate change looks set to make that more so. We get a lot of rain. An awful lot of rain.
“You asked how we were fixed in the UK.”
It was an assholerish comment to make. Water issues abound. The narcissism of that comment weighs, in theory, upon one’s conscience. Try to catch up.
“It was an assholerish comment to make. Water issues abound. The narcissism of that comment weighs, in theory, upon one’s conscience. Try to catch up.”
You asked a question. I answered it truthfully.
If you have a problem with that it’s your problem not mine.
Water is not just going to vanish from the world. While some areas will get less other areas will get more and too much water is just a great a problem as too little.
Ever had your home washed away in a flood?
“You asked a question. I answered it truthfully.”
Ever heard of NIMBY? An acronym for ‘not in my backyard’. That places you in a unique position.
Fuck anyone who lacks empathy.
Oceans are a bit warmer [but it all still fluctuates, of course]
Typhoon [hurricane/cyclone] season lasts a bit longer [but it all still fluctuates, of course]
Typhoons [hurricanes/cyclones] suck in Arctic/Siberian air on their way to the north [otherwise Taiwan/China, Philippines and sometimes Korea]
Hokkaido gets snow 36 days early
Thus some argue ‘No change you can believe in.’
What does the total amount of water vapor amount to?
“Ever heard of NIMBY? An acronym for ‘not in my backyard’. That places you in a unique position.
Fuck anyone who lacks empathy.”
You asked about the UK, I answered about the UK.
If you didn’t want to know why did you ask? Were you hoping I would lie to you and pretend we we have a water shortage problem?
” Were you hoping I would lie to you and pretend we we have a water shortage problem?”
Too funny. I confess I’m a bit skeptical of everyone until they display their bona fides. I give everyone a blank slate; then as I add notes, it becomes a Ben Franklin close. In essence, that entails taking a sheet of paper and drawing a line down the center. On one side you list the PROS; on the other, CONS. Logical and helpful decisions can be made on this basis.
Good luck to you, Fred. You are gonna need it. Buh bye…
Ben, the water issue has been all the rage for the past fifteen years. Enron principles are all in vogue, that is despite the flawed and fucked up history of the “smartest boys in the room” legacy!
The theory goes; create an artificial shortage and then cater for and make good the shortfall! As we are sanguinely debating this, potable water is a luxury in most parts of Africa, south America, and parts of Asia. Just think the amounts of money that can be made out of supplying fresh water to these parts, but first there has to be a comprehensive package of measures that ties the potential fucking customers or more to the point victims to the would be suppliers.
Then presto the problem is addressed and the price goes up and up , just check the energy prices, and food prices. The green energy meant taking arable land for human food and turning it into car fuel, whilst the war on terror went so far as making sure the Iraqi, and Libyan oil fields are out of commission, and then the sanctions were put on Iranian oil! The price of energy goes up and of course the green energy is then viable, all the while the food prices are rocketing up, tow birds with one fucking stone and shit.
Now put the water on the short-list.
Did you know a Thai scientist has been making use of old and useless computer CD disk to purify water? Of course this kind of unwelcome news just is not needed to be broadcast now, does it? The fucking parasites and their disaster capitalism is the only fucking alternative and nothing else can be allowed to compete.
@Mike 29 Oct,6:49pm “The state is spying on all of us, building searchable personal profiles, which goes way beyond targeting potential terrorists. This, of course, was always the intention.”
I do know this during the 1960`s and the 1970`s the CIA had planted agents throughout the university were I worked especially the physics department. Every time we exposed one and they were forced to leave. They were replaced within six months and so the game started over again.
“Good luck to you, Fred. You are gonna need it. Buh bye…”
No, good luck to you Ben.
I don’t know if you missed it or not but just two days ago the UK was hit by a severe storm. Four people lost their lives. There was extensive flooding across the south of England and Wales.
Bye.
Anyone have a take on James Corbett’s view of Noam Chomsky? I think it’s much too harsh, and neglects totally the fact that Chomsky mostly advocates pragmatic progression, avoiding issues where there’s little to be gained and much to be lost to ridicule and so on.
I like James’ work, but perhaps he’s just showing a bit of inexperience.
http://www.corbettreport.com/episode-285-meet-noam-chomsky-academic-gatekeeper/
Unless of course the concrescence is virtually upon us, and the game changed totally, utterly…
Russell Brand was great on Newsnight, raising consciousness beyond the bureaucratic tedium of a very stuffed Paxo. Excellent, in fact.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEPHqoG_mmc
Yes, during this now notorious interview Brand described profit as being a “filthy” word. A pity Paxman didn’t ask him how much “filth” his own production company, Vanity Projects Ltd, had earned for Brand over the years.
AlcAnon 30 Oct, 2013 – 8:49 pm
I think you ought to take a close look at her father before you are won over by the carefully crafted and scripted narrative which is promoted relentlessly by the Western press.
He’s a pro-Western political mover who’s money comes from running a number of private schools and he now enjoys diplomatic immunity in Britain after being appointed as an attache to Pakistan’s consulate in Birmingham. Gordon Brown even gave him a salaried job as an adviser, complete with expenses. Hardly run-of-the-mill is it?
Just out of interest can you name either of the other two girls who were also wounded in that attack?
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/01/03/malala-father-pakistan-attache_n_2400284.html
http://educationenvoy.org/press/gordon-brown-appoints-ziauddin-yousafzai-as-his-special-adviser-on-global-education
http://www.crescent-online.net/2012/11/was-malala-yousafzai-used-for-a-larger-us-plan-zafar-bangash-3412-articles.html
I’ve not had a lot of time for Chomsky in the past, some of his ideas have been a bit hare-brained and he’s just been plain wrong on occasions but after his recent demolition of a “truther” he’s gone up in my estimation.
http://www.anorak.co.uk/372091/tv/anorak-tv/noam-chomsky-wipes-the-floor-with-a-911-truther-the-building-7-debate.html/
Not surprising that the truth movement is having an open season on him at the moment.
Hi again, Kempe.
“Yes, during this now notorious interview Brand described profit as being a “filthy” word. A pity Paxman didn’t ask him how much “filth” his own production company, Vanity Projects Ltd, had earned for Brand over the years.”
Thanks for that, but:
Doesn’t history show that revolutionary change emerges from a rupture within these filthy profiteers?
Remember all those guys from school who were too dumb to go to real college, so their dads got their congressman to write a letter and got them into a service academy for five years of janissary servitude and brainwashing? Or they couldn’t get merit scholarships so they signed their lives away to ROTC? Or they couldn’t get into college at all so they had to try OCS, or just submit to authority as mindless arms and legs and take their chances? What ever happened to those guys?
http://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2013/10/army-intelligence-watching-tubes-2.html
They know what happened to you. They’re tracking you, sniffing your scat like dogs. They’re scared you might believe in rule of law.
Drawing up lines of allegiance
The shameless ziofuckwits have no inhibitions and are not backward in being forward, are they?
Brand is a useful fool, channeling the disgruntled ignorant masses into the land of totally unrealistic wishfull thinking where they can do no harm or will be too embarrassed to admit they agree with his wildly stated views because, let’s be honest, they sound ridiculous even without the Frank Spencer whine. On the other hand if people took him at his word and started revolting then the laws of the uber-police state are already in place to deal with that, so no problem there either.
His position offers nothing apart from the accompanying self-publicity and ego-stroking, which appears to have replaced Heroin as his drug of choice. If he was truly serious about political reform of the red/blue system and corporate control of politics why dosen’t he, for example, join Respect and get the younger generation voting for George Galloway’s party instead of coming out with the half-baked nonsense he’s been promoting? The problem is not with democracy or voting, it’s with corrupt politicians controlled by corrupt business. He has an opportunity to get young people voting for real humans and sincere political parties but he tells them it’s all a waste of time – who does that favour?
Kempe
Chomsky is a chronicler of facts from official documents.
He’s mostly challenging “hare-brained ideas”, and indeed from the Aristotelian rather than the Idealist approach.
Some media bozo pushes the official public myth, he counters with the official record.
” He has an opportunity to get young people voting for real humans and sincere political parties but he tells them it’s all a waste of time – who does that favour?”
There is a fundamental theory that the system is unsalvageable, and to insist it’s not, favors whom?
I see an emergent attitude of revolutionary aspect approaching. The young seem to recognize corruption’s zenith means there is only one direction for it to proceed; down.
Anyone, or almost anyone in politics today could be called the biggest part of the problem.
Not sure if revolution is the solution, but I’m approaching an ascendant optimism.
MAT
I think RB is just trying to raise consciousness about what’s going on, and he’s been using his celebrity to do precisely that.
It’s not a new idea that the old system of democratic govt has given way to rule by a bureaucratic elite, and history shows that you don’t play by your opponents rules should you wish to win the game.
The party politics game is dead.
I’m sure that any revolution will come by way of the increasing connectedness amongst us, and who can unimagine that.
Fedup 11 23pm yesterday
The theory goes; create an artificial shortage and then cater for and make good the shortfall! As we are sanguinely debating this, potable water is a luxury in most parts of Africa, south America, and parts of Asia. Just think the amounts of money that can be made out of supplying fresh water to these parts, but first there has to be a comprehensive package of measures that ties the potential fucking customers or more to the point victims to the would be suppliers.
CD water purifier. AKA spanner in the works?
http://www.myce.com/news/researchers-use-optical-discs-to-purify-water-68897/
Neat!
…
Herbie. 11 34am
Good to see you back.
Thanks for the link.
An interesting take and a brilliant compilation of interviews.
”James Corbett’s view of Noam Chomsky? I think it’s much too harsh…”
I just finished listening. I’ll need to sleep on all that.
My first impression. Chomsky’s tone on the three issues is inconsistent with his customary style of presenting ideas .
Does for example “911 …who cares?” accord with the way he presents and examines ideas in his books and interviews on other issues?
Why does he issue presented conclusions and avoid discussion on three issues, the Fed, JFK and 911?
Has James Corbett made a sieve here through which only questioners can pass?
Bad news for believers maybe.
And your post has woken Kempe from his/her slumbers. It’s issue is flagged then! Thanks Kempe.
Thrope,
Malala mentions the two girls in the interview I was talking about. She didn’t name them but they perhaps they don’t want their names broadcast to the world. They were relattively anonymous before-hand. Malala as the daughter of the school-headmaster was not.
Anyway if you watch the CNN segment, it is her who dominates the interview. Not her father and not even Amanpour. If some did want to use her for their own ends then they might be on a loser there.
Interview again at http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/21/full-interview-malala-yousafzai/
Skip to 8 mins for the start of the interview.
Brand is a fake,a straw man,a nudged unit,a Tavistock product.
He’s either been bought or blackmailed by the establishment to foster necessary illusions.