This is my last comment for the year as we are off to spend Hogmanay as the guests of an Ambassador in Paris. Out of deference to my family, who have had the brunt of it these last few days, I am definitely not taking the laptop, so I will no longer be able to take part in the popular new bloodsport of proving your loyalty to the SNP by being nasty to Craig Murray.
My parting thought is that, as every year of my entire life, it has been a disastrous one for the Palestinians. Yet more land occupied, settlements built, homes destroyed, olive trees uprooted, shipping vessels sunk and yet another murderous onslaught on Gaza.
I warmly recommend this rare public appearance by Col. Larry Wilkerson, ex-Chief of Staff to Colin Powell and a fellow recipient of the Sam Adams Award for Integrity. His brief musings here on Israel and Syria come from a deep store of knowledge and a razor-sharp intellect.
Do have a wonderful celebration. The future will be good. We are closer to a transformational change in society than you may realise.
Re Katie Hopkins:
“Police Scotland will thoroughly investigate any reports of offensive or criminal behaviour online and anyone found to be responsible will be robustly dealt with.”
http://www.heraldscotland.com/…
Offensive behaviour, a police matter. Obviously what is and isn’t offensive pretty well depends on the person choosing to take offence. Offence can’t be given. Don’t give the fuckers an inch, they are mostly too thick to realise what they are enabling.
Res Diss
I’m sure Russia’s major concern is that Georgia and other neighbouring countries are not used as forward operating bases for US advancement in the region. That’s what Georgia was up to under Saakashvili and what is currently ongoing in Ukraine.
There’s independence and friendly relations and then there’s allowing yourself to be used for US aggression.
It’s not that complicated.
Peacewisher
“As Tony Benn more-or-less said, each generation has to fight the same battle all over again.”
And luckily for the next generation of Benns that battle will be a whole lot easier thanks to their father’s inheritance tax loophole.
I’m sure Russia’s major concern is that Georgia and other neighbouring countries are not used as forward operating bases for US advancement in the region.
OK so nothing to do with Russia’s forward operating bases within North Ossetia and Abhazia then – which are of course perfectly justified.
Herbie
And I wonder what is your view on Russia’s continuing meddling in the affairs of Moldova, including economic sanctions in defence of its forward operating base in Transdnistra?
And do you really think that Armenia joined the Putin’s Eurasian Union of its own free will?
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/11/world/europe/armenia-russia-eurasian-economic-union.html?_r=0
“And luckily for the next generation of Benns that battle will be a whole lot easier thanks to their father’s inheritance tax loophole.”
It isn’t really an inheritance tax loophole – the opportunity for inter vivos transfers is available and of benefit to all wealthy people with access to expensive tax advisers.
“Though some appear to be wishing Happy New Year to people in far away countries who do not, as far as I know, comment here I noticed”
My regards and best wishes for the New Year to all who are able to comment and for those who need others to comment on their behalf.
Looks like the trolls are in phase again…
Anon: Why is it that if someone with a bit of money (e.g. Benn, Brand) speaks out in favour of the poor, they get slagged off for… having a bit of money. But if someone with a bit of money talks up a politician or corporate, they are being, for want of something more erudite, “a good egg”?
You are stooping very low by adopting this approach. It may have worked at one time, but clearly it isn’t working in 2014.
For all those naïve enough to believe that Putin does not interfere in the affairs of a sovereign member of the EU
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/31/world/europe/how-putin-forged-a-pipeline-deal-that-derailed-.html?rref=world/europe&module=Ribbon&version=context®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Europe&pgtype=article
Res Diss
It’s quite clear that the US is threatening Russia with forward operating bases in neighbouring countries.
Unless you’re contesting this, I’d suggest that that very fact explains the defensive positions that Russia has subsequently adopted.
Again. It’s not that complicated.
NATO was never designed as an aggressive expansionary force, but a counterbalance in a cold war which ended in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin wall.
It should have been abandoned then and replaced with a European peace and defence force, to look after EU affairs, not as a pretence to being the worlds policeman,judge and executioner of those who do not want their hegemony in their backyard.
It has been used like a whore for all causes, a shop window for new weaponry and arms sales, showing new customers how these work in combat, In the Balkans, Iraq, Libya, Israel.
My wish for 2015 is the end of NATO.
@RD: You’re at it already… but I guess being a good troll is about spreading lies.
We all know that Russia had an agreement with Bulgaria to develop the pipeline, but it was the EU (probably under pressure from US) that interfered for several months, and delayed a proper start to the point where it was no longer viable.
It is quite a cheek for the NYT to then turn round and try to blame Russia, but they are assuming people have very short memories. You don’t suffer from short memory syndrome, and bringing this article to our attention shows that you are a propagandist of the “blame Russia for everything” variety.
Resident Dissident: your remarks would carry more weight if North Ossetia, Moldova etc were regions of Mexico or Canada. The USSR broke no law in sending nuclear missiles to Cuba but it still wasn’t a very good idea.
Herbie/Peacewisher/Nevermind
If you cannot see that interference is not confined to NATO and that Russia gives as least as good as it gets when it comes to military and economic infererence then you really are all blind in one eye. Of course you are free to take either side in such imperialist arguments – but please put away your entirely false leftist credentials. You care no more for independence and self determination than Ghengis Khan and his many sucessors.
@RD: Nothing to do with politics… you are redistributing what is, at best, misinformation about South Stream, and its demise.
Why do you do this? Is it a major goal for you to see Russia ruined and become the 53rd state of the US?
Why do you do this? Is it a major goal for you to see Russia ruined and become the 53rd state of the US?
I actually think that the best thing for Russia is to abandon its p
Why do you do this? Is it a major goal for you to see Russia ruined and become the 53rd state of the US?
I actually think that the best thing for Russia is to abandon its pretence of being an empire, get rid of the kleptocrats who are robbing the country blind and denying it the investment that it needs and to become an active part of the European community of sovereign nations to which it truly belongs.
The NYT article about South Stream provides a lot of information about what all sides of the argument have been up to – better such things are in the open.
Peacewisher
You are of course free to distribute your account of what has happened with South Stream.
Happy New Year pal…..have a wee whisky for me !
I actually think that the best thing for
RussiaBritain is to abandon its pretence of being an empire, get rid of the kleptocrats who are robbing the country blind and denying it the investment that it needs and to become an active part of the European community of sovereign nations to which it truly belongs.FIFY.
But I don’t think the rush to agree the competing TAP line, with the no doubt valuable – think ££££££’s – assistance of the Dear Leader, was entrirely coincidental with the collapse of the South Stream project. Do you? Russia’s aim was to sell energy to Southern Europe. We couldn’t have that, on geopolitical/imperialist grounds.
There’s a lot I don’t like about Russia and its leadership, but I don’t go as far as denying the bleeding obvious. It was shafted, before it shafted us.
A list of the corrupt Con Dems Ministers and MPs who pushed through the Health and Social Care Act, 2012 to the benefit of their donors.
‘Selling off NHS for profit’: Full list of MPs with links to private healthcare firms
Nov 17, 2014 22:52
By Jack Blanchard
PM David Cameron and Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Lib Dems Nick Clegg and Vince Cable are also on the list – here is the full rundown. Is your MP on there?http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/selling-nhs-profit-full-list-4646154
December 30, 2014
The Trade In Services Agreement
Goodbye Privacy, Hello Censorship
by PETE DOLACK
Internet privacy and net neutrality would become things of the past if the secret Trade In Services Agreement comes to fruition. And on this one, the secrecy exceeds even that shrouding the two better-known corporate giveaways, the Trans-Pacific and Transatlantic partnerships.
TISA:’The empty shell of formal democracy under capitalism gets ever emptier.’
A letter sent to TISA negotiators by 342 civil society groups based in Europe and elsewhere in 2013 asking that the negotiations be immediately halted, states:
The proposed TISA is an assault on the public interest as it fails to ensure that foreign investments in service sectors actually promote public goals and sustainable economies. We are particularly wary of further undermining of essential services such as health care and insurance, water and energy provision, postal distribution, education, public transportation, sanitation, and others if they are handed over to private and foreign corporations motivated only by profits and available only to those who can pay market rates.
Restrictions on the financial industry would be illegal
TISA, as revealed by WikiLeaks in June, also would require signatory governments to allow any corporation that offers a “financial service” — that includes insurance as well as all forms of trading and speculation — to expand operations at will and would prohibit new financial regulations.
Tightening secrecy of “free trade” agreements
The next round of TISA negotiations are scheduled for Geneva February 9 to 13, 2015. Fifty countries are negotiating TISA, including the 28 countries of the European Union, which are collectively represented by the unelected and unaccountable European Commission. Among other countries are Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Norway and Switzerland. The negotiating countries, with perhaps more transparency than intended, refer to themselves as the “Really Good Friends of Services.” Good friends of working people they are not.
Although any sections detailing enforcement have yet to be leaked, TISA would likely depend on the “investor-state dispute mechanism” generally mandated in “free trade” agreements. Deceptively bland sounding, the mechanism is a secret tribunal to which a “dispute” is sent when a corporation wants a safety or environmental regulation or law changed so as to increase its profits. One of the most frequently used of these tribunals is an arm of the World Bank.
Many of the judges who sit on these tribunals are corporate lawyers who otherwise represent corporations in similar disputes with governments, and there is no appeal to their decisions. These rulings become a benchmark for subsequent disputes, thereby pushing the interpretations further in favor of multi-national capital.
That the Trade In Services Agreement, or the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), have to be negotiated in total secrecy, with only corporate lobbyists having access to texts or meaningful input, speaks for itself. The empty shell of formal democracy under capitalism gets ever emptier.
/..
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/12/30/goodbye-privacy-hello-censorship/
Happy New Year Craig, and to one and all.
……………………………..
“All my games were, political games,I was like Joan of Arc, perpetually being burnt at the stake.
Indira Gandhi.
No doubt Craig at this present moment in time, you could relate to the above quote. Take a wee bit of time to reassess, your position and come back refreshed in the new year.
Meanwhile old Droopy Chops HRH, has been dishing out the gongs to anyone who wants one, of her worthless I’m obedient and loyal to the crown badges.
Gordon Matheson and Archie Graham both received gongs, Matheson the leader of Tammany Hall aka Glasgow City Council, landed a (CBE), whilst Graham, one of the highest paid councillors in the UK and wife of, (We’re no programmed in Scotland to make political decisions)Johann Lamont, received a (CBE).
Well, RD, regarding the NYT article, I don’t think this paragraph is very objective:
“The pipeline, known as South Stream, was Mr. Putin’s most important European project, a tool of economic and geopolitical power critical to twin goals: keeping Europe hooked on Russian gas, and further entrenching Russian influence in fragile former Soviet satellite states as part of a broader effort to undermine European unity.”
That is the NYT’s opinion (or shadow-written opinion) that tries to twist a commercial deal to sell a commodity from one country to several others and an agreement on creating the infrastructure to do so.
The EU intervened to derail the deal… saying it didn’t meet their regulations. However, the NYT article goes on:
“For years, Mr. Putin bullied and cajoled Bulgaria, one of the European Union’s weakest nations, into doing Russia’s bidding on South Stream. And he seemed poised to succeed, but for one fundamental miscalculation: He underestimated the West’s response to his aggression in Ukraine.”
Again, an opinion, and hardly objective language. Aggression is arguable, after the way the Ukraine’s own government had been brutally overthrown.
The EUs response certainly messed up the deal, and there was a long period of indecision and messing intermediaries about before Putin decided to count his losses, and accepted another offer.
—
I’ll give you an analogy. A friend’s daughter is getting married next year. They needed to find a band for the duration, and were quite impressed by a band at an event hey had attended, and more importantly so was their daughter. The band was approached, and a price agreed. The band subsequently raised their price by £150. My friend was miffed, but his daughter liked the music, eras covered, etc. So they continued. They were then informed that there had been a change to the band, but the lead singer would be the same. Again not happy, but just about OK. However, in the meantime another band that could do a similar repertoire became available for a lower price. Now, the daughter wasn’t sure. Finally, lead singer from the first band rang and apologised that he wouldn’t be attending, but there would be a replacement. This was the final straw. They negotiated a contract with the new band which turned out to be larger and have a more diverse range of instruments, and told the first band their services were no longer required.
And so it is with Bulgaria and Turkey. Putin (and Gazprom) were being messed about and led a merry dance for months by the EU, who ultimately lost Bulgaria the contract. Simple as that!
Resident Dissident, 2:00 pm:
Here we see the basis of RD’s irrationality. He’s simply stuck in a time warp.
“Anon: Why is it that if someone with a bit of money (e.g. Benn, Brand) speaks out in favour of the poor, they get slagged off for… having a bit of money. ”
They don’t get slagged off for having a bit of money. They get slagged off for spouting their socialism/anti-capitalism whilst remaining extremely rich themselves. When someone like Benn who was highly supportive of wealth redistribution exploits a tax loophole to avoid a large part of his fortune going to the welfare state he spent his life arguing for then he deserved nothing but derision. Same goes for Brand and his talk of profit being dirty. He’s worth £8 million.
^Above for Peacewisher.
Something else the NYT article tries to do is make out that Putin himself is fascist, aligning himself with all those right-wing parties. To someone who knows nothing about European history,
which is probably true of much of the NYT’s readership, they would be thinking that Putin was a fascist, like Hitler… and wasn’t that what that nice English Prince had called him…
And yet you seem to think that all this vilifying of Russia and presenting it as a fascist state using its muscle to bully Bulgaria… as OK. Or have I misunderstood, RD?