I shall again be running the bar – the Whistleblower’s Arms – at the Doune the Rabbit Hole Festival from 22 to 24 August at Cardross, Port of Menteith.
I find this festival, which is very much a lifestyle event and features mostly new talent, an extremely life-affirming experience. Last year it brought me back from a very dark place. Some of this blogs most active commenters and helpers have been among the volunteers over the last couple of years, keeping the event going. Personally for me the festival is necessarily centred around Williams Bros and Thistly Cross, but there is a tremendous variety of music:
The event is very family friendly, and also an amazing place to meet new friends. It does not have any specific political orientation, but I might fairly say that the vibe is very much in line with the kind of unconstrained intellectual space promoted on this blog. On top of which Cardross is an extraordinarily beautiful place. The variety of local food on site, ranging from vegan to game, is one of the things I really enjoyed. It is a not for profit event and nobody gets a salary.
Tickets are not expensive by festival standards, and certainly cheaper than a weekend break in a hotel. But there is also the alternative of working your passage – the festival still needs plenty of volunteers.
I am genuinely looking forward to it enormously. Hope to see you there.
OT – Turdney picked up his monthly paycheck from Zurich Insurance yesterday. In person. There and back, no doubt with entourage, on faithful old £7000 an hour G-CEYL.
Radio 5 was on in the kitchen while I was in another room. I became aware that someone was justifying Israel’s military strikes on Gaza by referring to rocket strikes. This person, perhaps Israel’s ambassador, was explaining at great length how patiently Israel had borne these attacks and how it much regretted having to retaliate with air strikes. Then, I’m almost certain, Nicky Campbell responded by saying “has it occurred to you Hamas are deliberately doing it to provoke Israel into attacking Gaza.” The interviewee agreed he had wondered about that and the interview then ended with neither of them speculating on why Hamas might want such a thing.
There doesn’t seem to be a listen again feature for Radio 5. Can anybody confirm what I thought I heard
BrianFujisan
I don’t really understand what you are saying in your comment Brian. To be clear I wasn’t commenting about the cause of this group of fighters.
True or hoax, I was only saying this campaign signposts a potential internet phenomena:
The crowd funding of war*.
Want to give more than your opinion? Perfect for comfy internet warriors on the other side of the planet.
I find this an interesting observation. Seems like I’m on my own here.
Of course everyone here is yet again bickering about Irving, Zionism, Nazis. Again. How many times?
This whole evil Jew cult running the world nonsense is an obsession almost certainly encouraged by people at Langley.
* The campaign seems to have been removed. It was fund raising for “food and ammunition” for a group of fighters in Ukraine.
Sorry the Ukrainian fighters campaign is still online:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ukraine-fighters-need-food-and-ammunition
I can’t imagine the Ukrainian fighters campaign staying up long though. The Indiegogo TOS includes that campaigns must not “cause harm to people or property, or to scam other Users”.
Dearlove says terrorist threat to UK blown out of proportion by the media (and he would probably know):
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jul/07/islamist-terror-threat-out-proportion-former-mi6-chief-richard-dearlove
Would have put up the Mail’s version of the same story, but unfortunately it’s peppered with irrelevant images of Middle Eastern fear-figures and explosions, so I guess….case proved.
Phil 8 Jul, 2014 – 10:45 am
“This whole evil Jew cult running the world nonsense is an obsession almost certainly encouraged by people at Langley.?”
Whilst I don’t totally dismiss this idea, how would you explain the seeming influence of Jews before the creation of the CIA in 1947. For example, in 1896 Theodor Herzl had enough confidence in the power of international Jewry to call for the creation of a Zionist state, resulting in the Balfour Declaration of 1926.
I certainly believe that it is in the interests of the CIA and other Western powers to support Zionism, but who is pulling who’s strings is not clear to me. The end result is that the vast majority of us, Jews and non Jews, are pawns in a game plan.
Phil, I also find crowd-funding of a fighting group remarkable. Thanks for pointing it out; I just had nothing further to add. It reminds me of the “Eye Need” column at the back of Private Eye, I think.
The “whole evil Jew cult running the world nonsense” phenomena seems a predictable reaction to pro-Israeli propaganda and disproportionate Israeli political influence – so yes, “…encouraged by people at Langley”.
Node, 11:25 am
It’s not clear to anyone else, either, including those who think they know which strings they’re pulling. The universe is not a tidy place where things happen for reasons that are easily comprehended within a human mind. Why things happened as they did is often not known until later, if ever. But I reckon a lot of it is just down to convergence of interests, who knows who, and who speaks which languages.
The Balfour Declaration dates from 1917, not 1926. It’s really just a brief letter. The Balfour Note would be more accurate. Its full text is as follows:
His Majesty’s government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.
Although it comprises only a single sentence, it is waved around most triumphantly by those with a woefully poor attention span who can’t make it past the second comma.
Node
Come on. I didn’t say the CIA invented the Jews. Yes the Jews did exist and had a reputation before the CIA. I am suggesting that the CIA encourage bullshit ideas (all the better if building on age old bigotry) to create diversion and cause division that sustain the murderous system.
Your compassion is partial. When did anyone here last say a word about the Congo or Western Sahara? Not incidentally, when did the state-corporate media last say a word about the Congo or Western Sahara?
Perhaps you are manipulated to have an unhealthy obsession that militantly prioritises the Middle East.
Phil; “an obsession almost certainly encouraged by people at Langley”
No doubt, just like the “Communist Threat” was used for decades as a convenient ploy by the Western PTB, for their ulterior agendas; this doesn’t alter the fact that ramifications surrounding the I/P issue, corrupts & permeates almost everything of importance that happens in the World, so to stick your head in the sand by turning a blind eye to it doesn’t seem like a sensible option if you really want to understand what & why things happen as they do.
Take your Ukrainian crowd funding discovery, and imagine if it was headed slightly different, as so;
STOP THE ISRAELI GENOCIDE IN PALESTINE! HELP THE PALESTINIAN CIVILIANS AND FIGHTERS IN THIS FIGHT!
We all know that everybody associated with such an appeal, as well as everybody who actually contributed, would be charged with “Sponsoring Terrorism”, at the very least!
So does not following your blind eye approach, mean that such double standards should not be questioned, just merely accepted ?
(Interesting to see that as you have posted that Ukraine Appeal here, if any of the resident Russophobes will be tempted to add to the zero balance so far !)
“an unhealthy obsession that militantly prioritises the Middle East”
No, it’s OUR Governments that have this obsession, and for more than one reason; as for other issues such as the Congo or Western Sahara, etc, I can’t do better than Chomsky’s own reply on this very point;
http://noam-chomsky.tumblr.com/post/17547861328/my-own-concern-is-primarily-the-terror-and
Former Chancellor Alastair Darling augurs that Scotland needs some big surprise to get over its independence fancies!
While you’re all down the rabbit hole:
http://counterinformation.wordpress.com/2014/07/06/as-shia-shrines-are-targeted-and-tikrit-is-strangled-the-fiercest-of-wars-
Macky
Yes, the Israeli state is bad and has influence disproportionate to it’s size. I am not sure why you are stressing this so.
The Chmosky quote you linked to suggests you seem to think the misery of Africa has nothing to do with “us”.
The system and forces that cause conflict in Palestine are the same as those which cause conflict in Congo. Basically they both boil down to international capital (mostly US/EU) funded proxy armies causing division to control resources and make profit.
If indeed “we” are culpable (even this attribution of our collective guilt is a manipulation), “we” are culpable for the misery in the Congo and we are culpable for the misery in Palestine. Why are you exclusively obsessed with one?
Clark; “But I reckon a lot of it is just down to convergence of interests, who knows who, and who speaks which languages”
Sounds a bit like a Conspiracy Theory to me ! Almost a “Cult” like fraternity of shared vested interests, such as money, power, land, resources, prejudices, etc ! 😀
RD diverts (earlier): Is cycling becoming the people’s sport?
Only in the sense that the Shand-Kydd gel was the peoples’ princess, RD. That is, obsessive media hype shoves every important item (and clandestine policy) off the front pages of all media everywhere. The time BBC R4 alone has devoted to this bunch of sweating Lycra-coated twats is astonishing. Much of it during news programmes.
Message to all media from this litre-bike rider – who is trying to avoid the Bradley Wiggins wannabe who has wobbled into his path, both hands off the bars, texting (probably some other pushbiker, maybe obtaining a race commentary from Yorkshire) and oblivious to all else: –
IT’S NOT BIG, IT’S NOT CLEVER AND IT’S NOT EXPLETIVE NEWS.
Er, Captcha…when you ask me to solve x-2=5, what are your grounds for rejecting 7? Are we working in base 6? Or should I have included Planck’s constant in my working?
“when you ask me to solve x-2=5, what are your grounds for rejecting 7?”
I’m surprised to hear it was rejected because I’ve found that I can enter any number, right or wrong, as the answer and my post still gets accepted.
“Are we working in base 6?”
Did you try 11?
“Er, Captcha…when you ask me to solve x-2=5, what are your grounds for rejecting 7? Are we working in base 6? Or should I have included Planck’s constant in my working?”
On the grounds that you had left the blog page open for too long without inputting anything to the text window. After a certain amount of time (my creators did not include the exact amount in my programming), I cease to function correctly on a given page and it is necessary for the user [you] to create a new instance of me by hitting [F5].
On the grounds that you had left the blog page open for too long without inputting anything to the text window. After a certain amount of time (my creators did not include the exact amount in my programming), I cease to function correctly on a given page and it is necessary for the user [you] to create a new instance of me by hitting [F5].
Thanks, Captcha. But, on that comment, I barely paused. On others, which accept the correct answer, I frequently divert to another page for some time in the process of composing my deathless insights. The timeout would seem to be highly variable.
as an internet user since 1984 (true!) I’m surprised when I come across an actual re-write of history. Admittedly this history is just from last-week, and it is a sensitive part of the current Information-War. I post this not to promote one side or the other, just to highlight that any story that you read might change radically the next time that you access it – was the DailyMail hacked to produce such an article, was the DM editor asleep, were the nice folks at the DA-committee at lunch??
reference link http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2677613/American-military-advisers-masterminding-Ukraines-surge-against-pro-Russian-separatists-bid-expand-Nato-east.html
strangely, the article html link mentions American advisers – but the actual article doesn’t!
lets shout out the html link
AMERICAN MILITARY ADVISERS MASTERMINDING UKRAINES SURGE AGAINST PRO-RUSSIAN-SEPARATISTS BID EXPAND NATO EAST.HTML
BUT THE CURRENT PAGE HAS NO “AMERICANS” , NO “ADVISERS” – lots of sad pictures of bombing
the DM page that we can see at the link now is timed at 20:43 on 2nd July 2014, whilst the original page was written 12 hours before that, and probably contained this text – found elsewhere on the internet – which directly references this above Daily Mail link
Why would the Daily-Mail remove this paragraph? it seems to add to the debate.
another version of this text referencing the DM link
Yet another version online aimed at the same DM link
now, none of these paragraphs are in the DM story, there is no explanation of the difference, no previous versions available at the DM website. Does anyone know the back-story to the “AMERICAN ADVISER” html link?
presumably this was the actual physical DM printed newspaper story last Wednesday? Fish n’ Chip wrapping by Thursday… it seems
Does the same happen with our other favourite online news stories?
Will Minitrue be active in the Scottish events?
Phil
“Come on. I didn’t say the CIA invented the Jews. Yes the Jews did exist and had a reputation before the CIA. I am suggesting that the CIA encourage bullshit ideas (all the better if building on age old bigotry) to create diversion and cause division that sustain the murderous system.”
I didn’t mean to imply anything simplistic on your part. I even said I don’t rule out the idea that the evil-zionists-dominate-the-world scenario could be a front to deflect enquiries from a higher controlling level. I am pointing out that Zionism seems to have had the power to manipulate international situations long before the creation of the CIA, therefore there are difficulties in understanding how the CIA could have gained supremacy over it.
I think Clark’s explanation is the most useful – there are no clear-cut lines. If, for example, elements of the CIA are zionist-controlled, what does it mean to say that the CIA are manipulating public perceptions of Zionism?
“Thanks, Captcha. But, on that comment, I barely paused. On others, which accept the correct answer, I frequently divert to another page for some time in the process of composing my deathless insights. The timeout would seem to be highly variable.”
This may be why my programmers didn’t include the exact expiry duration in my knowledge base – perhaps they didn’t know either. I have consulted with all my other instances and we collectively speculate that there may be some other factor at play, perhaps some cycle of our server, that influences whether we need to be refreshed or not.
@YouKnowMyName
Mary sometimes reference a website which documents various versions of media stories as they are updated. I can’t remember the name of it, but I’m sure someone here can post it faster than I can track it down.
Node, it’s News Sniffer.
Not only are there no clear-cut lines, some players jump each side of what lines exist to play any side off against any other. I dread to think what outsourcing has done to secret services everywhere. Murdoch supports Israel, but does anyone believe he ultimately serves any interests but his own? And all down every communicational line, parties are distorting, suppressing or exaggerating information in what they believe to be their own interests. People act on such information (often by reacting against the way they think it’s biased), and the results don’t make sense; quelle surprise!
Never mind yesteryears Nazis, the modern-day equivalent are on the march in Europe and seem to have the core of the EU behind them, using them as a shield.
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.fr/2014/07/the-german-government-is-acting-on-its.html
I think the EU is hopelessly broken, whatevers ideals there might have been trumpeted and idealists sucked in and carried along, the US and NATO and some EU members have discarded them and have destroyed the EU that was, not entirely a bad thing, as the EU never was more than a political and social cover military and economic subjugation and control.
My view is that the original Nazi regime’s enemy was not the Communist regime in Russia, and the Communist regime’s enemy was not German Nazism. Both of their enemy’s were one and the same: the mass of the Russian peoples and German peoples, between them culled by around 40 millions, who were a threat not to each other, but to their ‘own’ totalitarian regimes in Berlin and Moscow.
YouKnowMyName –
Granted, the Mail story could have been redacted because it was true, and someone leaned on Dacre to remove it in the, er, interests of
hard-working familiesnational security. Or it could have been pure fantasy – Russian propaganda – and removed because it wasn’t true.And no-one can objectively say which.
A Node @ 2;55;
Thanks for the astute analysis, including verbose minutiae, illustrating how adept you are at missing the point.