Why Rupert Murdoch considers it worth his while to pay David Aaronovitch a large six figure sum for such puerile antics as tweeting that I am insane, is a conjecture I find difficult to resolve. Today this exchange occurred on twitter:
David Aaronovitch: This suggestion that if elected Corbyn could be quickly ousted is utter bollocks. Democracy allows Labour to commit Hara Kiri.
Mark Doran: @DAaronovitch I hope everyone is watching how these servants of the micro-elite try to paint “attracting popular support” as “committing suicide.”
Mark Doran: @DAaronovitch Craig finds the elite-serving contortions every bit as funny as I do
David Aaronovitch: @MarkJDoran I tend to find Craig Murray unpersuasive on the grounds of him being unhinged. I can see why you like him, though.
Mark Doran: Says the man who managed to find Bush and Blair credible. I can see why you liked them, though.
It is remarkably ironic that on being referred to an article which argues that views outside a very narrow neoliberal establishment narrative are marginalised and ridiculed by the media, the Murdoch hack’s response is that the author is unhinged. Aaronovitch could not have more neatly proved my point.
But something else struck me about the twitter record. Aaronovitch’ twitter account claims to have 78,000 followers. Yet of the 78,000 people who allegedly received his tweet about my insanity, only 1 retweeted and 2 favourited. That is an astonishingly low proportion – 1 in 26,000 reacted. To give context, Mark Doran has only 582 followers and yet had more retweets and favourites for his riposte. 1 in 146 to be precise, a 200 times greater response rate.
Please keep reading, I promise you this gets a great deal less boring.
Eighteen months ago I wrote an article about Aaronovitch’s confession that he solicits fake reviews of his books to boost their score on Amazon. In response a reader emailed me with an analysis of Aaronovitch’s twitter followers. He argued with the aid of graphs that the way they accrued indicated that they were not arising naturally, but being purchased in blocks. He claimed this was common practice in the Murdoch organisation to promote their hacks through false apparent popularity.
I studied his graphs at some length, and engaged in email correspondence on them. I concluded that the evidence was not absolutely conclusive, and in fairness to Aaronovitch I declined to publish, to the annoyance of my correspondent.
Naturally this came to mind again today when I noted that Aaronovitch’ tweets to his alleged legion of followers in fact tumble into a well of silence. I do not even tweet. The entire limit of my tweeting is that this blog automatically tweets the titles of articles I write. They are not aphorisms so not geared to retweet. Yet even the simple tweet “Going Mainstream” which marked the article Aaronovitch derided, obtained 20 times the reactions of Aaronovitch’s snappy denunciation of my mental health. This despite the fact he has apparently 10 times more followers than me. An initial survey seems to show this is not atypical.
In logic, I can only see two possible explanations. The first is that my correspondent was right and Aaronovitch fakes twitter followers like he does book reviews. The second is that he has a vast army of followers, nearly all of whom find him dull and uninspiring, and who heartily disapproved en masse of his slur on my sanity. I opt for the second explanation, that he is just extremely dull, on the grounds that Mr Aaronovitch’s honesty and probity were never questioned, m’Lud.
Habbabkuk @ 5:07 p.m.
No!
Here’s the link to the 38degree petition:
https://speakout.38degrees.org.uk/campaigns/protect-our-bbc?utm_medium=email&utm_source=38degrees&utm_campaign=murdoch_kick_31_july
I won’t be signing it. I probably should, but it won’t make any difference anyway so I’ll just turn my back on the dilemma.
Regarding Majid Ali
I have received some information about Majid Ali that I have been asked to treat with sensitivity.
My understanding is that he is okay, and not in harm’s way at present. As and when I am able to do so, I will let you know more.
Kind regards,
John
Why wonder what I think, Habby? what would you do? if you are surrounded by states that are equipped with nuclear weapons, or by states that harbor foreign nuclear weapons duly to the fact that they want your resources one day?
would you A) go belly up agreeing to everything B) join the non proliferation treaty C) let foreign powers implicate you by giving you shoddy clandestine nuclear bomb blueprints?
D) try and make peace with one or two of them?
Thanks for that excellent news John S. D., lets hope he is well and able to visit his friends here one day, my ‘to certain death’ might have been over egged a little.
He did protests against Pakistans policies and some of his family have been disappeared, it was a logical, but wrong assumption.
Mr Goss
“Habbabkuk @ 5:07 p.m.
No!”
_____________________
Not asking you to withdraw and apologise right now, only if it turns out that the theory of the hijacking to Diego Garcia (by the Americans) turns out to have been a load of nonsense.
You know, the (conspiracy) theory which you were espousing enthusiastically at the time.
If the facts were to contradict your statements that the airliner was hijacked to Diego Garcia by the Americans, would your answer still be “no”?
“If the facts were to contradict your statements that the airliner was hijacked to Diego Garcia by the Americans, would your answer still be “no”?”
Yes!
Nevermind
“Why wonder what I think, Habby? what would you do?”
_________________________
I’m not asking you to “do” anything, I am just asking you if you agree that the failure of current nuclear states to reduce significantly or eliminate totally their nuclear capacities does not justify current non-nuclear states acquiring nuclear capabilities.
And the only reason I wondered what you think is that you posted quite a few lines on nuclear states and disarmament at 17h05.
So how about another go? On the moral plane, at least, the answer could consist of a simple “yes” or “no”, surely?
Mr Goss
““If the facts were to contradict your statements that the airliner was hijacked to Diego Garcia by the Americans, would your answer still be “no”?”
Yes!”
__________________
Noted.
Are you a flat-earther by any chance? 🙂
Mary Thank you.
Nevermind The wee yin’s eyes in that foto are amazing, and great to gaze at last, after all these millennia, upon a fellow E.T. Lol.
I had a conversation with some friends recently, about Living Far away, Far Far Far away from Scotland, and I remember thinking of the Dread, of For whatever reason, Never being able to return Home to Scotland,
” The truth is that I just wanted to cry. A desperate simething from my gut. They give us so much to cry over. All the time. So I just screamed at them. Thieves, occupiers I called them. You wish you had the same roots as I do, I screamed. You should be the one to leave, not me. I’m a daughter of this land. Then they took me to my luggage and sent me in the bus. I regret walking and not making them carry me”
Susan Abulhawa
http://mondoweiss.net/2015/07/leading-american-palestine
A leading Yes campaigner has been fined £400 for threatening behaviour towards opponents during the independence referendum campaign.
http://www.motherwelltimes.co.uk/news/local-headlines/yes-man-fined-over-referendum-fracas-1-3846453
I don’t endorse the Richie Allen Show, yet amongst all the ‘lizards who rule the universe’ stuff he does have some interesting guests.
Field McConnell: “That Washed Up Part Isn’t from MH370. it Was Put There.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBXJt0TG-FA
Fred : “A leading Yes campaigner has been fined £400 for threatening behaviour towards opponents during the independence referendum campaign.”
A NO voter has been fined for shouting a tirade of abuse at an SNP campaigner just days before the independence referendum.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/no-voter-fined-after-aiming-abuse-at-yes-supporter-1-3680611
And Habbabkuk hereby fines (in a figurative sense) Fred, Node and sundry others for the extremely boring exchange of insults and navel-gazing which occurred earlier on on this thread.
So there!
Brian Susan Abulhawa runs a charity that provides playgrounds and play equipment for Palestinian children. All wrecked in Gaza now no doubt.
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jun/06/building-playgrounds-in-palestine-this-is-their-special-place-and-refuge
I have donated to it in the past and must do so again.
Habby, never in a million miles would I agree with your wording or answer it as you wish, such misfeasance would give me collywobbles.
non proliferation means no more nuclear weapons, it does not mean get rid of the existing stockpiles. If the Salt 2 agreement was not meant to destroy all nuclear weapons, then non proliferation states who sit on their nuclear piles are pulling our legs.
As for those dangerous rogues states who have acquired nuclear weapons by stealth, whether they have signed up to the NNPT or not, they should all be sanctioned hard, just as Iran has just felt the wrath of those who used nuclear weapons before, the aggressor states of past.
Sadly the use of nuclear power generators which produce plutonium has introduced an arms race which is unstoppable because the NNPT signatories have no aims to reducing their weapons down to nil, but it is not an impossible goal to fulfill.
You never know when your time is up as it was sadly for the four on board this private jet this afternoon.
http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20150731-0
Blackbushe has quite a history. I can remember, as a youngster, our family outings being held up by a plane being towed across the road. The A30 was the main road to London in those days.
Amazing how Wiki updates so quickly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbushe_Airport
Habbabkuk, I forgive the Americans nothing regarding Diego Garcia, what with the removal of native Chagossians and their pets to call the island uninhabited, then their torturing of rendered innocents there, and all kinds of other abominations we don’t know about. Yes, they would knock out an airliner’s computer system and bring it in on their own computers. Yes, they would lob a flapperon from the plane into the sea from height to make it look like it had crashed killing all passengers. Ukraine did it to MH17 with US approval. When the Yanks start apologising and making right all the wrongs they have done, I might consider their facts as possibly being facts. Until then I have no time for them. Read this.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-vine/the-truth-about-diego-gar_b_7585546.html
Beth at 11:09 am. Thanks. I’m glad somebody read it.
@Node
Does your newspaper boy have a very long round? That was published 5th February.
“That was published 5th February.”
Yes, but no Independence supporters were small-minded enough to post it at the time.
M Goss
“Habbabkuk, I forgive the Americans nothing regarding Diego Garcia, what with the removal of native Chagossians and their pets to call the island uninhabited”
_________________
I was not asking you to forgive the Americans for anything; I was asking you whether, if it turns out the the wreckage found on Reunion was from the missing Malaysian airliner – and if more wreckage is found showing that the airliner came down somewhere over the Indian Ocean – you would unreservedly withdraw your accusation, made on this blog at the time, that the airliner had been hijacked to Diego Garcia and that the passengers and crew were being held captive there by the Americans.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Yes, they (ie, the Americans)would knock out an airliner’s computer system and bring it in on their own computers. Yes, they would lob a flapperon from the plane into the sea from height to make it look like it had crashed killing all passengers.”
___________________
So you are saying that whatever the facts finally reveal, the Americans did it. In this case, you think that the airliner was hijacked to Diego Garcia by the Americans and after a year or so it was broken up and bits of the airliner were deposited in the ocean and on Reunion to make it look as it had crashed rather than having been hijacked.
Incidentally, I note an embarrassed silence from your usually vociferous supporters.
“Yes, but no Independence supporters were small-minded enough to post it at the time.”
I see what you mean, it does seem a bit insignificant compared to organised intimidation of canvassers by a leading Yes campaigner.
“Incidentally, I note an embarrassed silence from your usually vociferous supporters.”
Yes. They are wise. And I’ve humoured you all I’m going to tonight. 🙂
In the meantime, the Ukraps’ intelligence services’ report at the time of the downing of MH17 is so implausible western media and government outlets chose to stay silent. It seems to my analytical mind that what these spooks have done is reverse engineer what actually happened in order to blame Russia. Enjoy.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/desperate-mh-17-intelligence-spin-by-ukraine-secret-service-pro-russian-rebels-had-targeted-a-russian-passenger-plane/5395501
Lysias’s link:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/29/the-politics-of-betrayal-obama-backstabs-kurds-to-appease-turkey/
Thank you for providing this link. My response is late because not everything always works normally in Northern Iraq and I have been very busy as well. The article above syncs with Kurdish news here about Turkey starting to attack ISIS which is obvious tripe, and reports from the front line in Kerkuk that the US is re-organising its boundaries plans for Syria.
Nobody is suggesting that USUKIS will not continue to support Northern Iraqi Kurdistan, but the bullshit coming out of the US and Turkey about Turkish attacks on Turkish and Syrian Kurds means that Northern Iraqi Kurdistan will lose its staunchest allies against ISIS.
This article confirms other reports by voltairenet.com that USUKIS use of AlQaida and ISIS to defeat Assad have totally failed. If they have failed it is because Al Qaida and ISIS, USUKIS’ mercenaries have totally failed to win any Syrian hearts and minds.
This is very good news indeed for Islam, because it demonstrates that the entire wealth of USUKIS’ jaish ( small donkeys who prostitute themselves to large powers ) Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and Al Qaida and ISIS and Turkey ( possible the smallest and stupidest jaish of all ) have not been able to impose their will on the indigenous populations of Syria and Iraq in four years of exorbitant or profligate spending on arms and mercenaries.
They plan and Allah plans, and Allah is the best of planners. Qur’an
Please note that although
“Peter Beswick
28 Jul, 2015 – 10:34 am
For his history on voodoo Aaronovitch borrowed Occam’s Razor, well and truly blunted it then discarded or returned it as there … ”
has an avatar almost identical to mine, if not identical, there is absolutely no connection between myslf and him.
If the avatar is identical, he has stolen mine.
“Yes” John; The currents via the Indian Ocean seem the most likely point of origin, rather than the West Australian coast where time was treacherously or single-mindedly myopic in the waste of precious time. What ever became of real-time infrared sat data for the tragic flight-path? It’s hard to imagine the arrogance in this as an op. It sounds like some tragic-comedic debacle, wherein the actors on the stage played their part without conscious recognition. One thing is clear; someone didn’t want MH370 found.
George Galloway warns ‘blood is cheap in Palestine’ and claims media will cover Cecil the Lion more than Palestinian toddler burnt alive
Galloway accused media of ‘staying silent for Baby Ali yet howling at the moon for Cecil the lion’
31 July 2015
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/george-galloway-warns-blood-is-cheap-in-palestine-and-claims-media-will-cover-cecil-the-lion-more-than-palestinian-toddler-burnt-alive-10430701.html
‘The furore surrounding Cecil’s death was compared by some to the perceived lack of outrage at the death of a migrant who died in the Channel Tunnel, with many also questioning why Cecil’s death was seemingly prioritised by the media over a human’s. Some noted that while the world was directing its fury over Cecil, a number of other travesties were taking place, such as the slaughter of five endangered elephants in Kenya.
Galloway is running for London mayor and has vowed to draw more attention to the Palestinian cause if his campaign is successful, claiming Palestine had more supporters in the capital than in anywhere else in Britain.’
Giyane
The resemblance is coincidental. The avatar is called an identicon and it is a visual representation of a unique string of characters created from your IP address .
Enter random text here to get a better understanding how it works. Note that changing even one character makes a big difference in the appearance of the identicon, but that any particular string of characters ALWAYS generates the same identicon.