Bloody hell. Read this. Brilliant.
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Bloody hell. Read this. Brilliant.
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.” My preference is for them to be vaporised in situ, to avoid the unpleasant task of disposing of the sweaty Lycra-clad bodies…”
Just as with some cars and motorcycles, ‘in situ’ is not always possible as motion is the norm.
For exactly that comment some regularly commuting cyclists would like to incorporate a M20B1 into their frame design.
Its too sunny out there to write, I’m off.c ya later
Doesn’t matter what governments do any more, Herbie, theb ones not under the control of Western financiers are under the control of Eastern ones. And they’re not fighting. Peace or war, the money just keeps being printed.
Bikers got there first, Nevermind. Many times.
I once had one of these, a Dnepr (the Putin fan club should applaud). The reason it’s in Afrika Korps livery is (a) it’s owned by an American – obviously – and (b) the Ural/Dnepr combination is a straight copy of the 1939 650 BMW used by the Wehrmacht.
http://i.imgur.com/qIf2JHl.jpg
Horrible bike, btw.
Goldwing? Better.
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c125/ispcapt/Motorcycle/GWwithminiguns.jpg
John Goss, good morning. I think Resident Dissident is not, as you put it, “supporting fascists”. He’s just a Guardian reader who’s opposing Putin, the oligarchs, and the broad Russian nationalism they exploit. He fails to notice the badness on “the opposite side”, just as you do. This is why I want the two of you to stop arguing and start cooperating. You each seem to be reacting against the other’s arguments – and when it descending to insults as it does; well, it just incites further and more extreme reaction.
Resident Dissident; ditto, but reverse the appropriate parties etc. I’m sure you can work it out, save me the typing and inverted duplication.
Both:
I wish you’d both have a look at the way things are done at Wikipedia. Here’s a relevant starting point:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view
Between you, you could sift information and bias from both sides, performing a service for the blog community here by helping to establish that which is reliable amid the shit-storm of propaganda, a “yes, and” approach in place of your “don’t look at that, look at this instead” obsessions.
You both owe each other a lot of apologies.
A rare spotlight on the Saudis;
http://www.unz.com/emargolis/were-the-saudis-behind-911/
Mary, thanks for linking George Galloway’s article; an interesting insider-view of his BBC Question Time appearance, also informative about Israeli military actions in Syria. I’ll link it again:
http://redmolucca.net/2015/02/09/reflections-on-question-time-of-5th-february-2015/
It reminds me of the article Craig wrote after his appearance on BBC News 24:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2007/04/video_killed_th/
Macky, thanks for linking an article about Saudi Arabia, which plays a central role in conflict but generally gets ignored or overlooked.
If the West doesn’t neuter Russia reasonably quickly then our system of banking will implode.
We’re now on extreme banking.
Producer countries and those with growth potential don’t need that form of banking, in fact it would be very bad for their growing economies.
New documentary on Snowden by director Laura Poitras looks to be very powerful juding by;
“Weinstein told the BBC that he found Snowden’s actions “despicable” but after seeing Citizenfour decided that he would help distribute it”
Notice that Laura Poitras has had to leave the “Land of the Free”, & relocate in Europe;
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150209-capturing-edward-snowden
@Mary, re Medialens, this is the screen I got;
“Our apologies for the interruption…
We are currently investigating a hardware malfunction.
We are working hard to bring this message board back online as soon as possible!
Updated Feb 9, 2015 09:37 AM (GMT) “
Care home auctions….that will be official government policy by 2020, and they’ll be outsourcing to Mumbai by 2025. Christ on a crutch, what have we come to?
Here’s an interesting discrepancy; the “The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz” documentary recently shown on the BBC shows a running time of 90 minutes on iplayer, yet the online YouTube version is 105 minutes, so what did the Beeb cut out ?
Producer countries and those with growth potential don’t need that form of banking, in fact it would be very bad for their growing economies.
They’ve got it though. And it’s just great for the rulers’ economies. Pity the proles have to owe money they never borrowed to make it work. See Kazakhstan, for instance.
http://thediplomat.com/2015/02/un-rapporteur-slams-kazakhstan-on-rights/
http://www.eib.org/projects/loans/regions/ala/kz.htm
And what do central bank loans against bad debt mean? Austerity, as sure as points mean prizes…
http://en.tengrinews.kz/politics_sub/President-Nazarbayev-on-austerity-measures-258440/
Obligatory mention of the hero of the hour here (look away)
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/69576
You’ll notice that they’re cutting back mildly on what is an extensive infrastructure program, and a number of other temporary measures, as a result of the decline in oil price.
That’s not quite the position the West is in.
Look at US infrastructure, or British for that matter.
The point is that these countries ultimately have to build these projects, grow their economies, domestic markets and middle class.
The West has peaked out on all of that and is now in reverse gear.
Our austerity is a manifestation of decline. Theirs is but a blip on an otherwise upward curve.
The main point in terms of banking is that they use banking to grow their economy. We’re now using banking to spite our economy.
The main point in terms of banking is that they use banking to grow their economy. We’re now using banking to spite our economy.
Try turning that around: the banking industry is using any leverage it can find or create, up or down, and it is immaterial whether a country -or any other unit – is in surplus or in debt. It can all be monetised, and the cash skimmed off. The ultimate objective favours debt, as this provides an assured income as long as the pips aren’t squeezed too hard. Look what happened to Japan.
“The choice is between oligarch-corrupted democracy or oligarch-backed autocracy. Spot the common factor.”
I agree there is a common factor. That is why the new movement pioneered by Syriza (whose sister party in the UK is Left Unity) is the way forward. But Left Unity is not likely to topple the oligarch led Neo-cons in this sountry for some years. Podemos next. Then Italy, Portugal, Ireland, France. Can’t wait for a better more equitable world. It probably comes from having been brought up straight after the war when there were still communities and spirit.
“Try turning that around: the banking industry is using any leverage it can find or create, up or down, and it is immaterial whether a country -or any other unit – is in surplus or in debt. It can all be monetised, and the cash skimmed off. The ultimate objective favours debt, as this provides an assured income as long as the pips aren’t squeezed too hard. Look what happened to Japan.”
The current situation is that all these countries are members of the Western banking system. I believe there are only three countries worldwide who aren’t members of BIS.
It’s true that all these countries could follow current Western banking practice, but that’s not what they want to do because it would be very foolish for their long term stability.
That’s largely what the standoff between Russia and the West is all about.
They want to grow their actual economies, using banking for investment. You know, like the way it’s supposed to be. The way we grew.
The West would certainly prefer that they remain feudal and sell off their resources cheaply, a dictator pocketing the payoff.
But it seems that’s not what they want to do.
You may find this interesting, John. Warning, technical and dense.
But while distortions in the savings rate are at the root of the European crisis, many if not most analysts have failed to understand why. Until now, an awful lot of Europeans have understood the crisis primarily in terms of differences in national character, economic virtue, and as a moral struggle between prudence and irresponsibility. This interpretation is intuitively appealing but it is almost wholly incorrect…
http://blog.mpettis.com/2015/02/syriza-and-the-french-indemnity-of-1871-73/
Ultimately..
It is no great secret that banking systems resolve losses with the cooperation of their governments by passing them on to middle class savers, either directly, in the form of failed deposits or higher taxes, or indirectly, in the form of financial repression. Both German and Spanish banks must be recapitalized in order that they can eventually recognize the inevitable losses, and this means either many years of artificially boosted profits on the back of middle class savers, or the direct transfer of losses onto the government balance sheets, with German and Spanish household taxpayers covering the debt repayments.
If the middle classes start noticing, then there may be some hope. However, if Syriza negotiates debt forgiveness this engine of revolution will be stalled, and the system will take a deep breath, at most, before rolling back into action.
They want to grow their actual economies, using banking for investment. You know, like the way it’s supposed to be. The way we grew.
Russia? That’s not the model I’m getting. It’s a kleptocracy, pure and simple.
Well, if it’s a “kleptocracy, pure and simple”, then they could have continued with Mr Sachs kleptocratic policies under Yeltsin.
And Putin would be a goodie.
“I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that you’re just a Putin shill.”
__________________
Just one of two occasions, that the establishment shill,on this thread, has had the audacity to call, another poster a shill.
The words teapot, and kettle spring to mind.
“You may find this interesting, John.” I read it through once but would need to read it again to be sure I understood it. The comparison between France’s indemnity to Germany (really war reparations) and the Greek debt (brought about by bankers and oligarchs) while Greece is still part of Europe seems to me incongruous but then he also says to expect Syriza to repay the whole debt would be a bit much. He asks a lot of questions. Economists do that. And admits that he does not have the answers. I am not sure he is asking the right questions either. But would need to read it again and don’t have time.
I think a way forward after the collapse, because banks have to encourage investment, would be to have a liquidity ratio of say 1 : 2 because this would make investment in new industry possible without all the small investors, me and you, suffering too much should there be difficulty balancing the books.
What’s been allowed to happen is for banks to lend out the same money mulitple times over, through a pyramid of lenders, so now the world is bankrupt and the only thing that can happen to straighten the economies out is to start again. But we need to get rid of these twats at the top of the pyramid. The most laughable quote of all is: “We need to pay bankers bonuses to keep them in this country.” Yes. Well even Noddy can probably work out what’s wrong with that statement.
Here’s Putin visiting Madge, when he was a goodie.
They’re encouraging him to continue Yeltsin’s kleptocratic policies:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTnlJz_jJYI
Here’s Putin, when they realised he thought better of his country:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/prince-charles/10845309/Prince-Charles-compares-Vladimir-Putin-to-Adolf-Hitler.html
http://www.forbes.com/sites/currentevents/2014/04/16/is-vladimir-putin-another-adolf-hitler/
You don’t need to pay too much attention to see this play, over and over again.
A dozen Tory donors are up to £15million better off thanks to George Osborne’s tax cuts for the wealthy.
A Mirror investigation uncovered 12 fatcat party funders who benefited from the top rate tax slash of 5%. Labour’s Steve Rotheram said: “It’s a kick in the teeth for hard-up families.”
Meanwhile, it was revealed that 160,000 care workers are underpaid by £130million a year.
Our investigation today uncovers the unseemly amounts pocketed by the men since the controversial decision to slash the top rate of tax by a whopping 5% in 2013.
One city boss, who gave the Tories £300,000 last year, may have saved nearly £5million in tax from the whopping £97million share of profits that were thought to be allocated to him.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/george-osbornes-15million-tax-cut-5129226#ICID=sharebar_facebook
………………………….
As George Carlin once said, “Its a big f*ckin club, and you and I ain’t in it.”
A lot of talk here about Putin, so I offer the following in a purely neutral manner. It’s from the ‘Way to Russia’ web site (link follows at the end of the quote) and was written by Dmitry Paranyushkin, who I have no affiliation with (although we do share an interest in matters of the mind). In fact, the last time I travelled across Russia was in early 1990, during the last days of the break-up of the Soviet Union. I’m very out of touch with modern-day Russia. The following article was written quite recently, and I think it gives a very good insight from someone who’s not a paid media pundit…
“Myth: Putin is the new Tsar, your country has a dictatorship and no democratic freedoms.
Truth: Only a few years ago we wrote that Putin was just a very popular politician and that he acts accordingly doing what the majority wants him to do. Nowadays things have changed. The recent events of 2011, the decision to run for the third extended presidential term, the rigged parliamentary election, the unwillingness of the current government to ease the political processes in the country have angered a lot of people, especially those who consider themselves to be middle class.
Lots of things have improved in Russia during his 8 (unofficially 12) year reign. Putin was good for the country in the beginning of 2000s when all people wanted was stability. Russia is a huge country, somewhat even uncontrollable, so many people were happy to see someone with a strong hand being able to manage this mess and regain respect internationally (at least comparing to Eltsin’s times). However, after a few years it also became clear (at least to the people who think beyond the official newsline) that Putin’s main power and talent is in usurpating and controlling the media. He is an amazing actor and in that he is also a talented politician. He managed to get the complete control over the major media outlets in the country therefore being able to shape public opinion in the way that corresponds to the ideology that he expresses. This is when the system he built started to short-circuit itself because it got into a feedback loop and stopped listening to what people wanted.
Many people realize that Putin is not the man you see on the picture above. There is a dynamic combination of various power interests and this man just happened to be a good negotiator that managed to keep a sort of balance between the different forces that want to control the Russian political life. Therefore, yes, in this sense Russia is a dictatorship but the dictators are the semi-government corporations that see Russia and Russian people as the resources they can use to increase their profits. Whatever is left from democratic freedoms is just something to make “corporation Russia” look good in the outside world. It’s a huge spectacle directed by the Kremlin’s spindoctors and it’s not a coincidence that film and theater directors are so popular among Russian politicians.
So to answer this myth, Russia is not a dictatorship, it’s one huge live performance produced by the oil and gas corporations, directed by a team of spindoctors such as Surkov and others, with Putin having the lead role. The monopolized information machine usurpated by this team of people is working to enslave the population with promises of the stable future. The best people get so far is the “euroremont” – a cheap cosmetic renovation of their surrounding. Russia is in the state of ideological dictatorship and as long as people continue buying the myth of stability versus development and personal growth it will stay the same. Hopefully people like Navalny will be able to change something but it will only happen if there are thousands of them.”
http://www.waytorussia.net/WhatIsRussia/MythsAndTruth.html
Mr Goss (re rasPutin)
“Russians love him”
________________
They have little choice. Anyway, so what? It’s a meaningless claim – most Germans loved Hitler at the beginning (and well past the beginning, come to think about it)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“He was bullied at school”
___________________
Could explain why he made his career in the KGB. I wonder if there has been any research (in Russia?)into the childhoods of KBG officers/big-wigs.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“In his early years as president he did intervene in Chechnya against the western-funded Muja Hadin.”
______________
I love the gentle “did intervene”. Such politeness! I suppose one could also say the US intervened in Afghanistan and Irak.
And – allegedly – he also “intervened” in the matter of the couple of false-flag bombings in Moscow….
http://www.icij.org/project/swiss-leaks/banking-giant-hsbc-sheltered-murky-cash-linked-dictators-and-arms-dealers
Team of journalists from 45 countries unearths secret bank accounts maintained for criminals, traffickers, tax dodgers, politicians and celebrities
Secret documents reveal that global banking giant HSBC profited from doing business with arms dealers who channeled mortar bombs to child soldiers in Africa, bag men for Third World dictators, traffickers in blood diamonds and other international outlaws.
The leaked files, based on the inner workings of HSBC’s Swiss private banking arm, relate to accounts holding more than $100 billion. They provide a rare glimpse inside the super-secret Swiss banking system — one the public has never seen before.
——————————-
It doesn’t matter how many times a global bank is caught and fined, for corruption or shady deals, as soon as the media storm blows over its business as usual.
The banksters, are powerful and well connected politically, it would take revolution on a truly huge scale to change, this defunct and corrupt system.
“I love the gentle “did intervene”. Such politeness! I suppose one could also say the US intervened in Afghanistan and Irak.”
No, a lot more than Aghanistan and Iraq.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcYyK6MhIfM
I’m laughing at the above video, but if David Cameron and GCHQ get their way, it may not seem so funny, after all.
From Tony M
“http://www.voltairenet.org/IMG/pdf/White_Book_Voltaire_Network_-2.pdf
“WHITE BOOK ON VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE RULE OF LAW IN UKRAINE (NOVEMBER 2013 — MARCH 2014)””
_______________
Habbabkuk recommends (again) : http://www.stopfake.org.
Just for a little balance from sources nearer the ground, so to speak. 🙂