After such an extended break from blogging, you will be deeply disappointed that I restart with something as mundane and trivial as Jeremy Clarkson. I have defended the man in the past, because I much enjoy Top Gear and consider that much of what he has been criticised for in the past had been an amusing winding-up of the po-faced of the kind I employ myself. But nasty, indeed vicious bullying of a subordinate should always be a sacking offence.
That did not ought to be the question, though. He hit someone and they had to go to hospital. Where are the police? They are incredibly fond of sweeping up scores of teenagers for thought crime, but here we have an actual violent assault that spills blood, and it seems completely out of the question the perpetrator is brought to account. Why is that? I had a personal experience a couple of years ago when I was very mildly hurt – less than young Oisin – in an assault, and the police insisted on arresting the perpetrator despite my repeated requests to them not to do so. They told me rather firmly that the idea that it is the victim who has a say in pressing charges, is a myth. Why was Clarkson not arrested?
I cannot in my mind dissociate this from the non-arrest of Jimmy Savile for his crimes, despite their being well-known and reported at the time. That seems to link in to the wider paedophilia scandal, and the question of why no action was taken even in the most blatant of cases when there was compelling evidence, such as that of the extremely nasty Greville Janner MP.
But then I think still more widely as to why, for example, Jack Straw has not been charged with the crime of misfeasance in public office after boasting of using his position to obtain “under the radar” changes in regulations to benefit commercial clients, in exchange for cash. I wonder why a large number of people did not go to jail for the HSBC tax avoidance schemes or the LIBOR rigging scandal, which involved long term dishonest manipulation by hundreds of very highly paid bankers.
At the top of the tree is of course the question of why Blair has not been charged for the crime of waging illegal war. The Chilcot Inquiry heard evidence that every single one of the FCO’s elite team of Legal Advisers believed that the invasion of Iraq was an illegal war of aggression. Yet now the media disparage as nutters those who say Blair should be charged.
Then I think of all the poor and desperate people who get jailed for stealing comparatively miniscule amounts in benefit fraud, or the boy who was jailed for stealing a bottle of water in the London riots.
The conclusion is that we do not have a system of justice in this country at all. We have a system where the wealthy and governing classes and those associated with them enjoy almost absolute impunity, broken in only the rarest of cases. At the same time those at the bottom of the pile are kicked hard to keep them there. There is no more chance of justice against those in power in the UK than there is of the killers of Nemtsov being brought to book in Russia.
But what has really scared me is this thought. This situation has been like this my entire life: and I have reached the age of 56 before I realised it. A very great many people have still not realised it at all.
What does not scare me is this. I realise that if the system of justice is completely corrupted, then there is no obligation on me to follow the laws of the state. In fact it would be wrong of me to do so. I must seek my ethical compass elsewhere than in the corrupt power structure which weighs so hard upon the people.
“Mr Werners system of the State allocating money for investment has of course been tried rather more recently than Winchester in the Middle Ages – perhaps Herbie might wish to comment on the success or otherwise of Gosplan in the Soviet Union.”
Prof Werner wasn’t talking about that aspect in the earlier video.
He does that here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzNQlR5dtPo
“Richard Werner reveals what most of the general public are wholly ignorant of : that about 97% of the money supply is created and allocated by bank loan officers for the benefit of their bank. The banks do not consider the needs of the whole economy and are not instructed to do so by the government. This has led to the excesses of the last few years at a huge cost to the whole economy. He demonstrates that certain successful national economies in the recent past have sprung from their govenments’ incentivisation of banks to produce the type and amount of credit that is needed. Banks have been given a monopoly privilege to create the money supply and should be given guidelines to allocate credit and bring good outcomes for all. He says the successful East Asian examples of this, show that it does not involve soviet-style micromanagement.”
In the earlier video he was talking about interest and usury:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIkk7AfYymg
He seems to be a Professor of Banking Studies at Southampton, so he probably has a clue, and his background doesn’t seem exceptionally communist:
https://www.sbs.ac.uk/academic-profiles/richard-werner
Mary seems to be quite right about the media suspecting terrorism in the crash, but the investigators have found nothing on the CVR, only one of the pilots trying futilely to get back in, or the missing memory card of the FDR to help explain why and how it happened.
Now the hopeless FBI is now looking into the possibility of someone’s terrorism.
Good night.
“House of Commons Library: On Finance Bills between 2005 and 2010, the SNP voted with the Tories 88% of the time.”
http://www.number10downingtweet.co.uk/profile/Toby%20Perkins%20MP/
Good work Fred. That is absolutely stunning.
Funny how Habby, the Blog’s jester reappears shortly after Mary returns !
Courtenay Barnett; “I very much would like to see not only astute commentary from Craig but rational and logical consistency”
Wouldn’t we all ! Unfortunately rational and logical consistency are not Craig’s strong points, and when it comes to Russia, Craig simply turns into a troll; he should do more of what he does best, providing ex-insider insights regarding our Government, & our Government foreign affairs shenanigans.
Resident Dissident; ““For those who are genuinely interested in the nature of the Putin regime, blah, blah”
LOL ! It sometimes seems you provide links to atually discredit yourself ! This Piontkovsky loon is so far off the wall, that he’s comes across like a real life Dr Strangelove caricature !
Here’s a far more credible & well known Putin critic, but note what he says about the Crimea;
http://www.unz.com/akarlin/the-moor-has-done-his-duty/
On topic, a good read in relation to Clarkson;
https://sturdyblog.wordpress.com/2015/03/25/why-does-jeremy-clarkson-get-me-so-angry/
‘For those who are genuinely interested in the nature of the Putin regime and what it is playing at in the Ukraine – the following from Andrei Piontkovsky, a very brave and decent man, is well worth reading.’
RD- he may well be a brave and decent man, but his animus towards Putin, when combined with wishful thinking, warp his judgment of current events badly, as his prediction from 2012, that Putin would fall ‘within 2 years’, demonstrates.
I tried to be offensive to the US….but I only meant the neocon lunatics in control of them…not ordinary Americans too….oh dear…any how it came out like this…Sorry about this…
The US is not our equal. That is why they live in The USA, and why The Ashkenazis live in Palestine. That is why The Australians live in Australia…but they have turned out O.K…they were mainly the poor criminals we shipped off to Australia…and they have got a great sense of humour about it … and there are still a few Aboriginis still alive…
They were just poor criminals..You lot…were The Religious Lunatics…and you have got even worse…Can you Please Fck Off To Your Armageddon Now.
Jesus Christ has come back to Washington..and he is telling all you guys..The Quickest Way…no you don’t have to Nuke The Planet Earth…just come to heaven now..just kill yourselves..don’t kill the Planet Earth…
Jesus Christ gets bored with heaven..and he visits Earth every 2,000 years or so…(he will get annoyed if you Nuke The Earth (it’s his holiday home)..and he might even send you to hell…and you really wouldn’t like that)
So its time for you to go…
Bye,
Love & Peace & 144 Virgins in Heaven For You Neocons For Artistic Impression.
Tony
Right, the West hoped to overthrow Putin over the Assad regime, the Sochi games, and the Kiev coup, but he has outsmarted it for nearly 30 years, starting with the Olof Palme assassination which was intended to trigger a non-nuclear conclusion the the Cold War, and Russia’s very existence.
So, not going to address the points, Old Mark? I’d thought better of you than that.The West has nothing whatever to fear from Russia, and Russia’s escalating activities throughout the FSU are entirely altruistic.
Ba’al; Dr Hoare’s article was well constructed (I called it ‘slickly written’ in my initial reply) in that it mixed valid points with one sided analysis. An example of the latter (which I did address indirectly by referring to thorough fisking he received in the comments) was his whitewashing of Georgian culpability in the events which preceded the major Russian incursion into Georgian territory in August 2008. An example of the former was the perfectly valid point he made (by reference to the first Chechen war),namely, that there is a certain continuity in Russia’s relations to its ‘near abroad’ to be seen in the policies pursued successively by Yelstin and Putin, and indeed Gorbachev and Putin. And I for one would never describe these relations with the ‘near abroad’ as ‘entirely altruistic’.
This gives an exceedingly good answer to all the important questions…and this guy should know. I am not suggesting all his answers are correct…but he has had far longer than me to study it and has worked in the highest levels of the US Government before it became totally infiltrated by Neocons (whose origins are Leon Trotsky…its exceedingly well documented)
These people are the ones who are actually in control…
Tony
“Does Washington Intend War With Russia–PCR Interviewed by The Saker”
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2015/03/23/washington-intend-war-russia-pcr-interviewed-saker/
The Saker: It has become rather obvious to many, if not most, people that the USA is not a democracy or a republic, but rather a plutocracy run by a small elite which some call “the 1%”. Others speak of the “deep state”. So my first question to you is the following. Could you please take the time to assess the influence and power of each of the following entities one by one. In particular, can you specify for each of the following whether it has a decision-making “top” position, or a decision-implementing “middle” position in the real structure of power (listed in no specific order)
Federal Reserve
Big Banking
Bilderberg
Council on Foreign Relations
Skull & Bones
CIA
Goldman Sachs and top banks
“Top 100 families” (Rothschild, Rockefeller, Dutch Royal Family, British Royal Family, etc.)
Israel Lobby
Freemasons and their lodges
Big Business: Big Oil, Military Industrial Complex, etc.
Other people or organizations not listed above?
Who, which group, what entity would you consider is really at the apex of power in the current US polity?
Paul Craig Roberts: The US is ruled by private interest groups and by the neoconservative ideology that History has chosen the US as the “exceptional and indispensable” country with the right and responsibility to impose its will on the world.
In my opinion the most powerful of the private interest groups are:
The Military/security Complex
The 4 or 5 mega-sized “banks too big to fail” and Wall Street
The Israel Lobby
Agribusiness
The Extractive industries (oil, mining, timber).
The interests of these interest groups coincide with those of the neoconservatives. The neoconservative ideology supports American financial and military-political imperialism or hegemony.
There is no independent American print or TV media. In the last years of the Clinton regime, 90% of the print and TV media was concentrated in 6 mega-companies. During the Bush regime, National Public Radio lost its independence. So the media functions as a Ministry of Propaganda.
Both political parties, Republicans and Democrats, are dependent on the same private interest groups for campaign funds, so both parties dance to the same masters. Jobs offshoring destroyed the manufacturing and industrial unions and deprived the Democrats of Labor Union political contributions. In those days, Democrats represented the working people and Republicans represented business.
The Federal Reserve is there for the banks, mainly the large ones.The Federal Reserve was created as lender of last resort to prevent banks from failing because of runs on the bank or withdrawal of deposits. The New York Fed, which conducts the financial interventions, has a board that consists of the executives of the big banks. The last three Federal Reserve chairmen have been Jews, and the current vice chairman is the former head of the Israeli central bank. Some believe that this reveals a Rothschild plot, but the reality is that Jews are prominent in the financial sector, for example, Goldman Sachs. In recent years, the US Treasury Secretaries and heads of the financial regulatory agencies have mainly been the bank executives responsible for the fraud and excessive debt leverage that set off the last financial crisis.
In the 21st century, the Federal Reserve and Treasury have served only the interests of the large banks. This has been at the expense of the economy and the population. For example, retired people have had no interest income for eight years in order that the financial institutions can borrow at zero costs and make money.
No matter how rich some families are, they cannot compete with powerful interest groups such as the military/security complex or Wall Street and the banks. Long established wealth can look after its interests, and some, such as the Rockefellers, have activist foundations that most likely work hand in hand with the National Endowment for Democracy to fund and encourage various pro-American non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in countries that the US wants to influence or overthrow, such as occurred in Ukraine. The NGOs are essentially US Fifth Columns and operate under such names as “human rights,” “democracy,” etc. A Chinese professor told me that the Rockefeller Foundation had created an American University in China and is used to organize various anti-regime Chinese. At one time, and perhaps still, there were hundreds of US and German financed NGOs in Russia, possibly as many as 1,000.
I don’t know if the Bilderbergs do the same. Possibly they are just very rich people and have their proteges in governments who try to protect their interests. I have never seen any signs of Bilderbergs or Masons or Rothchilds affecting congressional or executive branch decisions.
On the other hand, the Council for Foreign Relations is influential. The council consists of former government policy officials and academics involved in foreign policy and international relations. The council’s publication, Foreign Affairs, is the premier foreign policy forum. Some journalists are also members. When I was proposed for membership in the 1980s, I was blackballed.
Skull & Bones is a Yale University secret fraternity. A number of universities have such secret fraternities. For example, the University of Virginia has one, and the University of Georgia. These fraternities do not have secret governmental plots or ruling powers. Their influence would be limited to the personal influence of the members, who tend to be sons of elite families. In my opinion, these fraternities exist to convey elite status to members. They have no operational functions.
The Saker: What about individuals? Who are, in your opinion, the most powerful people in the USA today? Who takes the final, top level, strategic decision?
Paul Craig Roberts: There really are no people powerful in themselves. Powerful people are ones that powerful interest groups are behind. Ever since Secretary of Defense William Perry privatized so much of the military in 1991, the military/security complex has been extremely powerful, and its power is further amplified by its ability to finance political campaigns and by the fact that it is a source of employment in many states. Essentially Pentagon expenditures are controlled by defense contractors.
Will the ‘Black Spider’ memos (Prince Charles’ letters to seven government ministries) see the light of day? The Supreme Court rule on their secrecy today.
The cancer rate in Serbia is on the increase due to bombing by NATO forces in 1999. Ascribed to depleted uranium weapons.
http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150325/1019984112.html
”If this trend is maintained, Serbia will have 5,500 registered cancer patients per million residents compared to just 2,000 per million elsewhere in the world,” Slobodan Cekaric said.
Of course there were some in the Ukraine Rada (parliament) who knew what the US Embassy was planning long before it took place. This is from 2013 in which parliamentarian Oleg Tsarev explains what is known about the “TechCamp” project to foment civil-war in Ukraine through the good offices of US ambassador, Geoffrey Pyatt. What is most impressive though is how quickly the speaker calls Resident Dissident’s fascists to order.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFpKwEm43n0
Thanks for the Piontkovsky link, RD. There is obviously no opposition to the great and good Putin in Russia itself, so the author is obviously a running dog of the capitalist imperialist warmongers. (I’m just saving the Kremlin Chorus the trouble of shooting the messenger as usual)
However, this would be a useful test of the hypothesis that Putin is, at the least, not a nice man.
A.P.: U.S. financial intelligence is aware of all accounts and assets of the highest Russian authorities, including Putin. They might be not marked “Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich” in their documents, but they know which assets he benefits from. David Cohen, who recently was a deputy of the U.S. Treasury Department and now is a deputy of the CIA’s [Central Intelligence Agency’s] director (how very telling), openly stated this during a CNN broadcast. He has gathered information and is already ready to act. After articles and books written by Belkovsky, Golyshev, Nemtsov, Milov, and your humble narrator, the scale of Putin’s wealth is more or less clear. Experts estimate it to be somewhere around $200 billion. Just a simple unveiling of the names of these account holders might be of great importance right now, especially if this information was carefully presented by the American financial intelligence establishment with all the details and data about the structure of those assets. After seeing this, any person who uses the Internet—and that is about half of Russia’s population already—would finally understand who is our leader.
It’s possible to disagree in detail with some of Piontkovsky’s assertions, but what Putin has been doing certainly supports the broad interpretation given. Good article.
Cancer: It’s 3960/million diagnosed in the UK, annually.
Interestingly, Serbia isn’t the worst in Europe; Hungary is. The last people to bomb or shell Hungary were, of course the good Russians. I don’t know if they used depleted uranium, but their tobacco probably proved deadlier….
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/26/world/europe/26iht-hungary.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
And let’s have a look at the messenger too…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_%28news_agency%29
Direct replacement for RIA Novosti, incorporated by presidential decree.
And “a pro-Putin version of the Daily Mail”,/i>
Ba’al my guess is that there is as much understanding of the personal wealth of Vladimir Putin as there is the personal wealth of Tony Blair. The difference is that Putin is a peacemaker whereas Blair is a warmonger.
The conflict is in my soul and in the wide world. There are no boundaries to it. I am terrified and without hope. The fascist ideology is to always defer to authority, which without law and truth becomes the same as “let the bully win”.
Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.
It is worrying that Obama has not met Stoltenberg, an indication on how much the ‘alliance partnership’ is being misled by the US. NATO has been turned into America’s attack dog and speaking to Stoltenberg about a possible war in the Middle east and Europe would only raise this issue, would it not?
Please let it be known to your friends and fellow ex pats that Europeans do not want to go to war nor do we want to be usurped by means of TTIP or bamboozled by more laxity towards TNC tax evasions.
Thanks for the link to Kamens piece Mark G. but were is the initiative by politicians who want a EU peace and defence force? Its long overdue, NATO needs dumping.
Netanyahu is carrying on where he left off, Mary, with harassing, jailing and shooting at children, what a despicable lot.
That he’s got re-elected somehow changes the narrative about Israel’s easily scared voters, they are acting like rabbits when threatened by him.
Shut up. Do as you’re told. Believe what you’re told. The enemy is elsewhere.
Anybody using Wikipedia as a source of objective criticism about anything other than western propaganda is lacking in taste. It has not even updated details about Moazzam Begg’s arrest and imprisonment under false charges to make him appear a criminal. So much for that reliability. I use Sputnik often and have found it a most reliable source, especially articles by US-educated Andrew Korybko. 500,000 Facebook readers would probably disagree with you Ba’al.
my guess
🙂
Complaining about Wikipedia without even attempting to update it demonstrates avoidance of responsibility. What is this “it” which has not updated Wikipedia when “it” should have done? There is only us.
The Fascists are turning on their own. Yesterday in Kiev 400 or so Svoboda members demonstrated against the weasel-faced Yatsenyuk, advising him to resign and reminding him of Maidan. Source is Ukrainian Ba’al so I guess there’s nothing wrong with it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4UJpufGOlQ
500,000 Facebook readers would probably disagree with you Ba’al.
500,000 Facebook readers would probably disagree with you Ba’al.
On any topic you care to name. Good. I would hate them to agree with me, except by accident. And the number who would ‘probably’ agree would be equally clueless and uninformed.
If you’d read Wikipedia on the Institute of Modern Russia, which published the interview with Piontkovsky, you’d have found out that it was closely connected with Khodorkovsky, an ex-oligarch who fell out with Putin, and spent some years in labour camps (being convicted twice of the same crime) Track back further, and you’ll even find Henry Kissinger supporting him. Woooo! You could have had a field day with him…instead you assert the impartiality of the Russian state broadcaster and appeal to Facebook* for support. What next? “Twitter* says you’re a c**t?” Try harder.
Source is Ukrainian Ba’al so I guess there’s nothing wrong with it.
There’s probably everything wrong with it, Goss. Just as there is with Sputnik. How many times? Neither side is telling the truth. Obviously.
“There is only us.”
I tried to update an article in Wikipedia once but somebody with more power than me dissed it. Although I am an authority on Robert Bage and can see that the article is in dire need of revision I would not go near it. I use Wikispooks myself which of course is low budget, but what it includes is well-sourced. There is also a matter of time and priorities.
Ba’al I couldn’t see anything wrong with the Ukrainian video, however I don’t speak Ukrainian. I do know some Russian and can confirm that the subtitles to the link I gave earlier of Ukraine parliamentarian Oleg Tsarev are accurate. So what do you think about his disclosure in 2013 about the US ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt “TechCamp” project to foment civil-war in Ukraine. Doesn’t it show that those of us who said the Yanks were behind the coup are right?
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/03/impunity/comment-page-7/#comment-515968
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_speech_of_Vladimir_Putin
Gwaaan. You know you want to. This is what happens when people who care (in this case Putin’s PR) decide to make a Wiki entry. Now tell me Wiki isn’t wonderful.
You won’t want to read the UK government’s point-by point response to that speech*, but here it is anyway. Lalalalala….
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/in-response-to-president-putins-address-to-the-russian-parliament
*Nor will probably 3000,000,000 Facebook readers.
John Goss, regarding your Wikipedia edit, link me your update in the page History, and if you can and if applicable your discussion on the Talk page. I am in quite a lot of pain right now from a bad tooth, but I will try to look at it when I can.
Sticking to the subject of this thread.
The latest from “IT” Hot off the press.
“The Pie`ing of Jeremy Clarkson”
http://internationaltimes.it/the-pieing-of-jeremy-clarkson/