Brazilian crowd whiter than a Broederbond meeting. Hard to enjoy the match without thinking of the 25 billion dollars squandered on the tournament by the Brazilian government – and plainly attendance is restricted to rich white people.
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The Bristling Badger reminds us this Labour Home Secretary was worse than a Tory: Bye Bye Blunket
Thanks for the report from the ‘its all the same, same, same day demo’ demo Phil, haven’t missed much then to waste the energy to get down there.
Anyway, I’m without my noise, vuvuzela has gone on holiday to Brazil to watch some footie.
Ben – Israeli “Honey-trap” is still alive and on the rise.
In November 2013, Israeli justice minister, Tzipi Livni had claimed that she had sex with Erkat and Abbed Rabbo, the two negotiators representing West Bank president Mahmoud Abbas. The Israeli paper Yedioth Ahronoth republished an interview with Livini by Time Magazine in which she admitted that during her years working for Mossad, she performed “special operations, including having sex (honey-pot) with prominent political figures and then blackmailing them.
http://rehmat1.com/2014/05/16/britain-hosts-israeli-war-criminal-tzipi/
Blunket is/was a thug, a liar and a disgrace.
I was in South Africa and got a phone message from a relative in the UK. My granddaughter’s boyfriend took the call and the message came over as ‘Mr Blanket has resigned’. I thought that was really funny as he was carrying on (under a blanket presumably) with Mrs Kimberley Quinn at the time.
The free train ticket, the security warning, the pillow talk….
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4056577.stm
Here he defends his military vehicles at Heathrow move and tries to wriggle out.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/jul/09/terror-olympic-runup
Well Nevermind it was all so rudely blatant. The stage in Parliament square, the line of Labour speakers, the sea of anti-Tory posters. An anti-austerity march promoting a pro-austerity party. Fucking idiotic. Stage managed dissent. The type of political charade the BBC mocks when it happens in some Johnny Foreigner land.
Soul destroying. In fact so soul destroying many people ignore the implications and pretend it was a great day. Take the positives. Like we must with the footy. Wave the “Tories Out” flag handed out by the thousand.
Anyway. Germany for the cup!
“What an inspirational man Julian Assange is.”
Who can not agree with that statement? We all know who of course.
After publishing this article I was contacted by a Swede who informed me that because of Swedish rape laws some 100 rapes a day are reported but less than 1 in 30 leads to a conviction.
http://newsjunkiepost.com/2014/06/17/swedens-politically-motivated-persecution-of-wikileaks-assange/
‘In February 2012, Blunkett renewed a contract with News International as an adviser on Social Responsibility at a salary of £49,500 pa. [61]’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Blunkett
Ironic in view of the fact they hacked into his phone.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/apr/16/andy-coulson-phone-hacking-trial-david-blunkett
A true socialist, he has coined it as the saying goes. £thousands upon thousands.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/10050/david_blunkett/sheffield%2C_brightside_and_hillsborough#register
And a Labour Friend of Israel. Shame on him.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=10050
Phil, I sympathise with you…
“This is the professional left taming the left.”
About 10 years ago, this musician friend of mine invited me to this “Left” TUC major event…cos he wanted me to video him and his band…
I claim no allegiance to any political party…so far as I can tell..They are all The Political Establishment…It was far more fun…when there actually was a difference…but Now…They are All the same…
At this event….Something had happened the day before…I don’t remember what…but all The Political Speeches…which I didn’t video…were so sad…and all the banners of the Working Class (of which I claim still to be a member – even though I have been retired for 10 years). The Real Labour Party…sorry that sounds like the Real IRA…but its not..I am talking about People who Really Care…were Slagging Off The Fascist Nu-Labour Government – something rotten…No ire for the Tories…But they did recognise and kick out a few individuals from the BNP…which was fair enough. I had been there before..but am not a member. Politics like it is now..is like watching England trying to play football whilst being totally outclassed. It really ain’t worth the bother. Go and see a live band instead.
Tony
It looks as if Iran is holding Argentina to a goalless draw!
There seems to be some confusion over the events in Iraq.
Some are saying that it’s a US/Israel plan finally coming right.
Some are saying that it’s the neocon plan all going horribly wrong.
Others are saying that it’s the Saudis own independent op to thwart Iranian regional dominance.
These positions may of course amount to the same thing.
But there has been for example much pushing in mainstream media of the idea that the Saudis are very pissed with the US. All sorts of threats and whatnot, from both sides.
Interesting discussion of these positions here:
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/thread/1403295677.html
Notice how people disagreeing on very fundamental issues can be quite productive. There’s something of that going on between Guano and Ben above.
But what isn’t productive at all is the continual yah boo babytalk from our own resident trolls, Res Diss, habby, anons etc. That’s just distraction.
These trolls can’t say what’s going on. They just tell you whom you should support and whom you shouldn’t support. They never say why, other than habby’s “my country right or wrong” juvenilia.
Zionism in practice – Israel’s Daily Toll on Palestinian Life, Limb, Liberty and Property
24 hours to 8am
18 June 2014
5 attacks – 63 raids including home invasions – 1 beaten – 8 injured – 5 acts of agricultural/economic sabotage – 99 taken prisoner – 11 detained – 123 restrictions of movement
Israeli Navy opens fire on fishing boats off Beit Lahiya
Israeli Army opens fire on farmland in refugee camp and al-Qarara
Israeli Army shoots its way onto Khan Yunis district farmland and bulldozes crops
Armed settler terrorist shoots West Bank villager’s goats
17-year-old youth injured in Israeli Army raid
1:20am: Israeli soldiers abduct two 15-year-old boys
Home invasions – medical patient tear-gassed
Israeli Army occupies Palestinian homes for use as military posts
Night peace disruption and/or home invasions in 4 refugee camps and 50 towns and villages
http://www.sapienspromise.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=3180
Messi again. Right at the death, again. Amazing.
I was so wrong. Argentina have just scored in the 90th minute. Now in extra time. Nail biting stuff. Crowd delirious. Messi was the scorer. Whistle just blew.
Of course, the Israelis obstruct the Palestinians’ football playing.
Could FIFA Suspend Israel?
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/blogs/sports/12247-could-fifa-suspend-israel
‘Jennings is author of the report and is a student at George Washington University in international affairs and history. She said today: “What surprised me as a young researcher is the ubiquitous nature of the occupation that has seeped through every pore of Palestinian society to the extent that soccer was a ‘security-threat.’ The overwhelming malfeasance of the Israeli authorities towards Palestinian soccer are both ridiculous and heart-wrenching.” She can also do interviews in Spanish and Italian.
The report “outlines five major areas of Palestinian victimisation:
1.Obstruction of movements of Palestinian players, coaches and officials,
2.hindering delivery of football equipment,
3.construction restrictions of sports facilities,
4.Israeli dissuasion of visiting teams,
5.and violence against Palestinian players.” ‘
In case anyone gives a **** about democracy, this blogger manages to combine BBC disgrace and football:
http://tompride.wordpress.com/2014/06/21/bbc-and-press-ignore-massive-demonstration-against-austerity-in-london/
I’m wondering whether, now Tony Benn is no more, the BBC thinks they can get away with it…
@Phil: I’ve just caught up with your post from the demo. I went to the TUC demonstration a few years ago, so know what you mean…
However… even this stage managed professional left event got no UK media coverage at all; most of the tweets from that demonstration are incandescent about it.
The trolls have been joking with me about it all afternoon, but there is a serious point here…
Austerity is a central plank of the elite agenda.
Labour has signed up to that agenda.
All that the mainstream left now offer is identity politics. This is supposed to replace economic wellbeing.
It’s worth pointing out that the switch happened some time ago.
People need to be a bit more imaginative than expecting those who sold them into austerity, to rescue them from it.
Well, Herbie, I’ve never known a demonstration of that size to be completely ignored by all our MM. Even the trolls were perplexed, I think, with the argument presented that the MM would probably wait until the event has finished. Well it finished several hours ago!
This is exactly the sort of (non) reporting we’ve been getting over Ukraine, and I can’t understand how reporters, journalists, and editors can sleep at night knowing that stories are being suppressed in this way.
Webster Tarpley discusses these pseudo leftists here:
http://tarpley.net/
Related to this is Rosa Luxemburg’s discussion of Reform or Revolution:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Reform_or_Revolution
If the elites are able to create division through pitting one group against another then it follows that they themselves exist beyond such trifles such as creed, race, gender and so on.
Earlier leftists understood that the real division is one of economic wellbeing, which is in tune with the only thing that matters to elites.
That’s the real struggle, but one which mainstream leftists seem to have forgotten.
Peacewisher
That blogger simply falls for the illusion. It was not a march against austerity. It was a march in support of the Labour party and thus a march FOR austerity.
Yes Herbie, identity politics is promoted as another divisive diversion from the economic class war.
Well they are so used to trusting labour… many still can’t accept that Blair was/is a neocon. Mainstream leftists had better wake up pretty quickly, Herbie… the signs aren’t looking good.
Peacewisher
The mainstream left hasn’t been worth tuppence since 1997. The shift happened much earlier, but few noticed, since they could still wallow in the oppositionalism of Opposition throughout the 1980s and 90s up until Blair showed just how much they’d changed.
The likes of Ken Loach and George Galloway seem to have the correct analysis, and have acted upon it, but they are just a puddle compared to the ocean of real leftism in the early part of the 20th century, in the UK, Europe but also importantly in the USA.
The history of the Left is interesting, but only in so far as it tells us just how such powerful mass movements can be so easily manipulated to conform to elite interests.
That’s the real lesson, and it continues to apply today.
@Phil: There are two separate (perhaps interlinked) issues here
1. Our country’s riches being taken away from the people and put into the hands of “the 1%”.
2. The activities of the media in supporting 1.
The media can’t all be “the 1%” and it makes me very angry that they are not supporting their fellow Brits, but supporting those who are impoverishing them.
PS One exception… Sarah Firth.
@Herbie: Yes, but people didn’t notice or mind too much because they were still relatively well off. Now they are being squeezed, and if the 1% get away with some squeezing, they will continue, and continue to get richer… how can any of us continue to be proud of a country that is allowing this to happen to itself, and seems helpless to say STOP!
Peacewisher
“The media can’t all be “the 1%” and it makes me very angry that they are not supporting their fellow Brits, but supporting those who are impoverishing them.
PS One exception… Sarah Firth.”
You’re grasping at straws, in hoping for anything from mainstream media.
The traditional role of the intellectual is in supporting elites. Certainly there seemed to be a few going rogue in the 60s/70s, but just an illusion I’m afraid.
The real Left was built of ordinary working men and women, reading, writing, communicating and networking in fully understanding their day and daily plight.
Peacewisher
It’s a worldwide thing. Global. Elites are every color, creed and gender.
They’re ambitious types.
Should you be very successful, you may join them.
Yes, I am grasping at straws, whilst there are still straws to grab, but you seem to have given up altogether. This country will soon be raising interest rates which will squeeze young families who can just about afford a mortgage even more. The figures show that wages aren’t rising when the economy is growing strongly (now), so what will happen if the economy slows again?
And we’ve got an election coming up with all major parties offering more of the same… the only “straw” that we have is to influence labour to represent the interests of the people, and for them to realise that this will bring them many votes…. but only if the media report slightly truthfully.
Tony M
“I claim no allegiance to any political party”
I am with you there Tony. I have long given up on any big organisations. They all seem co-opted by the establishment. Organise locally is the only thing to do.
I didn’t plan to go today. In my defence I only live a few minutes away and popped down because the mps helicopter was disturbing my beach time.
The March in London That Never Was June 21st 2014.
Harold Pinter. Oh would that he was alive today.
‘It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn’t happening. It didn’t matter. It was of no interest.’
His Nobel Prize Speech given in 2005 which I just re-read. Everything he says is still true.
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2005/pinter-lecture-e.html