Yesterday the licensing man from Dundee Council went down the taxi ranks ordering saltires and yes stickers removed from the taxis. (would he have ordered No stickers removed as well? We can never be sure as there weren’t any.)
Having missed the train to my Cupar meeting last night, I got in a taxi (it’s not far) and the taxi driver was giving his side of the story. He said he told the council man that “There is an argument that he was within his rights to tell me to remove the sticker, but when he told me to take off my lapel badge, I told him that he was infringing my absolute right to freedom of speech under article ten of the European Convention.”
This campaign has been the most uplifting experience imaginable. It will not be possible to put the people back in the box of media-induced apathy after this.
One of the most unexpectedly invigorating aspects of the campaign is that in packed town hall meetings, I have been sharing the platform with people who are not good public speakers. If that sounds paradoxical, it is because often they have never done any public speaking before. Yesterday in Cupar there was an excellent lady who works in the NHS who had a deep knowledge of its workings and of the threats from privatization of its services, including the mechanisms by which these privatisations were being advanced. She believed that after a No vote it would not be possible for the Scottish NHS to continue to be insulated from some of these trends, and she explained why she felt that.
There was no polish to her quiet delivery, but her heartfelt sincerity and the depth of her knowledge held the audience in intent silence. She had never spoken in public before. It was truly inspiring.
The substance of the campaign is people in local communities actually talking to each other about what is important to their communities and they way their society is organized. I have never seen anything to compare this to. No wonder the politicians have no idea how to counter it. The happy lack of hierarchical power structures in the campaign on the ground seems to relate to the fact that so many women are coming forward as speakers – for the third time, I was the only male on the panel yesterday.
Better Together have women too of course. Just in case anyone has been living under a rock and hasn’t seen it, here is the Saatchi and Saatchi produced Better Together broadcast that set the campaign on fire. The many spoofs are great, but I think nothing quite equals the sheer comic genius of the original.
I have added this picture as pro-government commenters have started to come on the site with their ridiculous propaganda claims that NATO killed very few people in its 398 bombing raids on Sirte. What you see is just one street of scores in similar condition. You can believe your eyes or the propaganda.
OK, so my comment containing numerous questions that don’t seem to be discussed in any necessary depth that they should be, may be far from a nomination for the best comment ever, but it is irritating and unbecoming that in effect it’s being blocked when crass sexual jibes make it through.
That is the only sane conclusion anyone can reach.
Clearly the only way to soak up the excess dollars printed in the most sinister transference of wealth to the super class from the middle class and working class is to print dollars and push up the commodity prices.
The only way dollar could be sustained is through manipulation of the spigot by those who who the printing presses for dollars.
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You mean the UK gov?
Remember that Scottish are not ready yet to kick the pound to touch, what would happen if they did? (it is just a warm up act, at this moment of time)
I’m just observing from the sidelines, Passerby, with a certain amount of satisfaction. I’ve seen so many elections won and swung, based on convincing lies from one, or two of the major parties. Good to see this doesn’t seem to be one such occasion.
No grape vines in Scotland? I guess this is off-topic for Craig’s blog.
http://www.juancole.com/2014/09/israeli-settlers-destroy-palestinian-ummar.html
HEBRON (Ma’an) — A group of Israeli settlers chopped down grape vines on Palestinian agricultural property in northern Beit Ummar on Monday, a popular committee spokesman said Monday.
Muhammad Awwad said the settlers destroyed seven grape vines in the Wad Abu al-Rish area near the illegal settlement of Beit Ein.
The vines belong to Hammad Abd al-Hamid Jaber al-Sleibi, Awwad said.
In 2013, there were 399 incidents of settler violence against Palestinians and their property in the occupied West Bank, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Over 90 percent of investigations into settler violence by Israeli police fail to lead to an indictment.
Passerby: Indeed ! When Bush stood back on that Aircraft carrier after shock and awe and 1000 burning oil wells, he wasn’t kidding when he said “mission accomplished”.
That was their aim.Same in Libya,Syria. Getting access to the oil is secondary.Getting rid of the competition and non cartel members is the goal.Makes total sense from the Business side of things.
Just hard for me to fathom the lengths some people will go to for a few dollars more
Memo to Merkel;
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Memorandum-For-Angela-Mer-by-Coleen-Rowley-Angela-Merkel_Ukraine_Ukraine_Veteran-Intelligence-Professionals-For-Sanity-140831-791.html
SUBJECT: Ukraine and NATO
We the undersigned are long-time veterans of U.S. intelligence. We take the unusual step of writing this open letter to you to ensure that you have an opportunity to be briefed on our views prior to the NATO summit on September 4-5.
You need to know, for example, that accusations of a major Russian “invasion” of Ukraine appear not to be supported by reliable intelligence. Rather, the “intelligence” seems to be of the same dubious, politically “fixed” kind used 12 years ago to “justify” the U.S.-led attack on Iraq. We saw no credible evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq then; we see no credible evidence of a Russian invasion now. Twelve years ago, former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, mindful of the flimsiness of the evidence on Iraqi WMD, refused to join in the attack on Iraq. In our view, you should be appropriately suspicious of charges made by the U.S. State Department and NATO officials alleging a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
==========
Pics, spreadsheeets and graphs to follow….NATO must dominate.
Don’t count your chickens yet.
I remember, walking into the election count with a lone box carrier (no witnesses, and clearly a highly trusted source) who was carrying the ballots cast in the election that I had just contested, with three other candidates, one of whom was the incumbent and sitting MP, whom happened to be a cabinet secretary to boot.
Fact that the ballots had been stuffed or redacted was an open secret, the only fact remaining was for the chap to swing his genitals around knowing that the loaded system was so opaque and corrupt that no one could raise any objections as to the probity of the results.
The main concern of the minister was to keep his “majority” in tact and that meant stealing votes from and the rest to make us all look irrelevant due to the low turn out.
Scots need international observers to keep an eye on their elections or the boxes will be stuffed and or ballots stolen in the way of keeping the united rotten boroughs intact and afloat for a little while longer.
NATO, as it has historically, will be looking for strong U.S. leadership,” said Heather Conley, the director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “But we cannot do it alone, and we do now need the rest of the alliance to step forward.”
For European nations, the Russian incursion into Ukraine has made clear the scope of the potential threat at their doorstep.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-02/obama-to-deliver-warning-to-putin-on-nato-s-frontier.html
Compliant and complicit media full of hammers seeking a nail.
That is because you are a decent and honourable man, with compassion and human kindness alive in your heart. The hairless apes running the show have no such compunctions and qualms about blowing up the planet , all in the way of keeping their monopolies intact.
Putin becomes a Federalist to the Hessians in Kiev.
http://news.antiwar.com/2014/09/01/as-rebels-advance-ukraine-spurns-calls-for-peace-talks/
“The deputy premier of East Ukraine’s breakaway region headed to Belarus today, and rebel officials say they’re eager to negotiate a settlement of the ongoing war, with a goal of comparative autonomy instead of their previous pushes for secession.
But it takes two sides to make peace, and as usual, Ukraine’s pro-West government is spurning the calls for talks, insisting the war over the nation’s impoverished east is actually the start of a “great war” for all of Europe that must be won militarily.
Ukraine had rejected peace talks in the past on the notion that they were about to win the war, but now seem to be in retreat from the east, withdrawing from the Luhansk airport and falling back from the border areas in the face of a counter-offensive.
Russia has been calling for Ukraine to adopt a federalist system as a way of resolving the war. The Ukrainian government insists the whole war is Russia’s fault, and that they want Western support for their massive war against Russia.
Yes, it is, Ben, but as ever we discuss a range of topics.
I’ve obviously got too much time on my hands today because I’ve decided to apply the logic of partitioning Ukraine to what happened in Palestine after ww2, when the UN had formed.
I discovered, to my great shock, that a roughly 50:50 partition between an Arabic state and a Jewish state was proposed to the newly formed UN in 1948. This was accepted by the Jewish side, but not the Arabic side. War started after that (on and off for 66 years…) I’m still sympathetic to present day Palestinians, who have nothing to do with the decision-making of their forebears, and crept in to the UN as an observer state in 1988, but this changes my view of the history of the region quite a bit. It may also explain (but not justify…) why the US used its UNSC veto so frequently.
Good to see that Boris Johnson can’t always have it his own way re the £90 billion quid waste of cash, on his Thames estuary project. No doubt his financiers will be livid at not getting the get go, on the project, still there’s always HS2 thankfully Scotland will be well out of it in a couple of weeks.
“I’ve obviously got too much time on my hands today”
Research is never a waste of time Peacewisher. Be glad you have the time….many don’t and fall into traps set for those who will allow others to do their thinking for them.
I would like to quote from Efraim Halevi, a former head of Mossad in an article that was printed in the Jerusalem Post on the 7th July 2005. This article was headed, ‘Rules of conflict for a world war.
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“The multiple, simultaneous explosions that took place yesterday on the London transportation system were the work of perpetrators who had an operational capacity of considerable scope. They have come a long way since the two attacks of the year 1998 against the American embassies in Nairobi and Dar-Es-Salaam, and the aircraft actions of September 11, 2001.
—————-
Like the rabbit that hops out of the top hat before the magician is ready for his stunt, the truth has been exposed. This article was written prior to the actual bombing that took place in London, and thus, Efraim Halevi had to have been one of the planners for this ‘Terrorist’ event.
———————-
The Jerusalem Post describes Efraim Halevi as: “The writer, who heads the Center for Strategic and Policy Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, is a former head of the Mossad. (© 1995-2005, The Jerusalem Post 07/07/05)”
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In simple words, The London bombing was a ‘planned’ terrorist attack by a group of people including Efraim Halevi, of the ‘Centre for Strategic and Policy Studies’ at the ‘Hebrew University’ in Jerusalem.
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Interesting, but not at all surprising.
http://terroronthetube.co.uk/2014/08/24/77-made-in-israel/#more-4543
The eponymous Crawford is jeering at this excellent piece by David Swanson.
Retweeted by Charles Crawford
V H @virgehall · 19h
HAHA Stop the War Coalition says that to “solve” ISIS, we must “invest heavily in wind, solar and other green energy” http://www.stopwar.org.uk/news/bombing-iraq-and-syria-will-only-make-it-worse-so-what-should-be-done-about-isis#.VAS0ovldWSo …
He retweets a lot of links but doesn’t like the same sort of thing here.
~~~~
Bombing Iraq and Syria will only make it worse, so what should be done about ISIS?
David Swanson 30 August 2014.
Why is dropping 500lb bombs on Iraq the only method the US can think of for defeating ISIS, asks David Swanson, when there are plenty of other options?
http://www.stopwar.org.uk/news/bombing-iraq-and-syria-will-only-make-it-worse-so-what-should-be-done-about-isis#.VAXSS-F0zSd
David Swanson’s new book is War No More: The Case for Abolition. He blogs at http://davidswanson.org and http://warisacrime.org and works for http://rootsaction.org. Follow him on Twitter: @davidcnswanson
Ben: My last post was in response to your previous one.
Regarding your latest post, it seems that the Ukrainian regime chose war, but they’ve lost and are now changing tack. Plan B is to get the whole of a continent to defend them. Isn’t that what the Arabs expected when they lost a war against Israel that they also didn’t have to fight? Yes, I know I’m doing a bit of blue sky thinking…
So Jim Murphy struts out in Edinburgh today, surrounded by the press and no acolytes, cheering his every word, what a pathetic PR stunt,he was hit with an egg, not an RPG, for Christ Sake, and to show the contrast of the biased unionist media,very little coverage was given to the death threats Alex Salmond received.
Now lets see egged or death threat, what’s the more worthy reporter to think, Hmm!
” Yes, I know I’m doing a bit of blue sky thinking…”
You might go blind. Synchronicity is a general vision, or a theme that doesn’t have to match tit-for-tat.
Watch: US broadcaster Mike Malloy wipes the floor with Israel apologists
—————–
Reasoning with a Zionist is an oxymoron. It is as self-contradictory as saying something is falsely true.
If that is also your experience – or if you have never had the misfortune of debating with a Zionist – then you will want to listen to the two short clips below from Mike Malloy’s radio show.
—————
Definitely worth a listen.
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http://www.redressonline.com/2014/08/watch-us-broadcaster-mike-malloy-wipes-the-floor-with-israel-apologists/
Scottish Referendum: No Vote’s Lead Narrows
The Yes campaign gains momentum with just two-and-a-half weeks to go before Scotland votes on independence.
http://news.sky.com/story/1328534/scottish-referendum-no-votes-lead-narrows
RoS (3.26): I’m sorry, but on this occasion that’s a complete load of bollux. Halevi was quite obviously talking about Al Qu’ada. However, even he was shown to be wrong, because the bombs weren’t simultaneous.
P.S. I’m not undergoing a Damascus-like conversion in reverse, but whoever wrote that article could be categorised as being anti-Semitic.
Mary; The surprise could be in the ‘undecided’ on polling. Sixteen percent, I beleive.
Ex-NSA Director, US Intelligence Veterans Write Open Letter To Merkel To Avoid All-Out Ukraine War.
———————-
Alarmed at the anti-Russian hysteria sweeping Washington, and the specter of a new Cold War, U.S. intelligence veterans one of whom is none other than William Binney, the former senior NSA crypto-mathematician who back in March 2012 blew the whistle on the NSA’s spying programs more than a year before Edward Snowden, took the unusual step of sending the following memo dated August 30 to German Chancellor Merkel challenging the reliability of Ukrainian and U.S. media claims about a Russian “invasion.”
———————
We the undersigned are longtime veterans of U.S. intelligence. We take the unusual step of writing this open letter to you to ensure that you have an opportunity to be briefed on our views prior to the NATO summit on September 4-5.
—————————
You need to know, for example, that accusations of a major Russian “invasion” of Ukraine appear not to be supported by reliable intelligence. Rather, the “intelligence” seems to be of the same dubious, politically “fixed” kind used 12 years ago to “justify” the U.S.-led attack on Iraq. We saw no credible evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq then; we see no credible evidence of a Russian invasion now. Twelve years ago, former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, mindful of the flimsiness of the evidence on Iraqi WMD, refused to join in the attack on Iraq. In our view, you should be appropriately suspicions of charges made by the US State Department and NATO officials alleging a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
—————————–
William Binney, former Technical Director, World Geopolitical & Military Analysis, NSA; co-founder, SIGINT Automation Research Center (ret.)
David MacMichael, National Intelligence Council (ret.)
Ray McGovern, former US Army infantry/intelligence officer & CIA analyst (ret.)
Elizabeth Murray, Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Middle East (ret.)
Todd E. Pierce, MAJ, US Army Judge Advocate (Ret.)
Coleen Rowley, Division Counsel & Special Agent, FBI (ret.)
Ann Wright, Col., US Army (ret.); Foreign Service Officer (resigned).
————————–
Sorry folks about the long post, but if ex-CIA personnel are worried about WWIII so should we be.
Oh yes, buid a couple of wind farms in Iraq. That’ll stop IS in their tracks!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-29026491
lwtc247 try sticking it in a pastebin http://www.pastebin.com and the post the url here, then at least we can read it while it sits in moderation. It must be keywords, and for obvious reasons I cannot list them, one because I don’t know them, and two because I wouldn’t be able to post them for the same reasons you couldn’t.
Zionism/Nazism + DWP + BBC = James Purnell
I wonder if this Masterson bloke is our angry ‘friend’ Anon of this parish. With him out of circulation, the online Zio-nutter sock-puppet population must be greatly reduced.
Kiev oligarch nutter and chosenite Kolomoisky making nuclear threats, to blow Zaporozhya nuke plant dams?
David Cameron, how the hell did he get where is today? Which is nowhere.
Did anyone else hear that the Zionist entity had ‘lost’ two of their brand new submarines? How careless of them if true. Hilarious if so.
It may also explain (but not justify…) why the US used its UNSC veto so frequently.
If so, you have to ponder how far from a 50-50 split the fantasy two-state solution will get. On second thoughts, ponder ye not.
http://www.dannytimpona.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/palestinian_lossofland-1024×700.jpg
It’s a lot simpler than that, though. AIPAC + US pork barrel politics = legislature lying on back to be shafted..
Partisan Reporters Criticise Gaza Coverage
by Jonathan Cook / September 2nd, 2014
I have noted in several previous articles the unusual, possibly unique, problem relating to media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The reporting corps is awash with “partisan reporters” – that is, Jews who have an ideological, social or familial connection and sympathy with one side, the Israeli side.
I have no objection to reporters having views, even strong ones, about this conflict, or any other issue in the news. I do myself. In fact, I believe journalists cannot be “objective”, as I have explained at length elsewhere. But in the case of Israel-Palestine, many reporters are being chosen precisely for their partisanship – and these reporters are being selected because they are partisan in one direction only. Just check how many Palestinian reporters (I don’t mean glorified fixers or undervalued stringers) report for the US media on the conflict.
/..
http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/09/partisan-reporters-criticise-gaza-coverage/
Articles by Matti Friedman and Richard Miron (late of the BBC!) are discussed.
Current funding levels for the NHS cannot be guaranteed beyond the next UK general election, a Conservative minister has warned.
UK Home Secretary, Theresa May made the admission when being interviewed on ITV Borders TV.
Asked if public funding for the NHS would continue to increase if the Conservatives won the next UK general election, Ms May replied:
“The NHS in Scotland is a fully devolved matter and what happens in the United Kingdom is a sum of money is allocated nominally for Scotland to make decisions about its health service.”
The Conservative minister claimed funding for the NHS had been increasing. However pressed on whether the funding levels would continue after the 2015 general election, Ms May replied:
“Well, nobody can ever absolutely guarantee what happens after an election.”
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Yet Westminster demands 100% accurate answers as to what will happen in Scotland after independence, Pfftt smell the hypocrisy.
I discovered, to my great shock, that a roughly 50:50 partition between an Arabic state and a Jewish state was proposed to the newly formed UN in 1948. This was accepted by the Jewish side, but not the Arabic side.
You pure-minded innocent. If I offer you 100% of my savings, but can only afford to pay you half right now, you’ll take 50% and research a way of laying your hands on the rest, probably by way of making my life a misery until I pay up. If on the other hand, half of your own hard-earned pile is donated by a third party to a charity for the suppression of peacewishers, you might reasonably be expected, not to say ‘that’s ok, then,at least it isn’t 100%’, but strenuously to object. No?
Mary 3.57.
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Well done Mary good post, watch out for the flack though, from you know who and his proselytes.