I am in Tbilisi at the moment, where I spent this early morning drinking tea with some of the 2,000 strong Yazidi community. They see their religion as much more closely descended from Zoroastrianism than appears in most accounts I have read.
I very much enjoyed a visit to Tsinandali which was most useful for gaining a Russian perspective of the Great Game. I don’t have my books with me and am suffering a mental block as to whether it was Connoly, Abbott or Malcolm who visited Tsinandali. I had not realised that Griboyedov was married to a daughter of the house, Nina Chavchavadze. The murder of Griboyedov, Russian Ambassador in Tehran, by a mob rates little more than a footnote in British accounts of the Great Game, even though the British had bribed the religious authority to stir up the riots. What revisionist history there has been, has come from the Iranian side and falsely tried to obscure the fact that the refugees Griboyedov was sheltering were runaway slaves from harems.
This is a neglected recurring theme. When Shuja agreed the treaty already negotiated between Macnaghten and Ranjit Singh, the main stipulation he sought to add was that the British would return to him any runaway slave girls. The immediate motive for the ringleader of the attack on Alexander Burnes was that Burnes had refused to intervene to return a runaway slave girl who had sought the protection of another British officer. My fellow anti-imperialist historians have in general been guilty of emphasising rapaciousness by the British in these incidents and overlooking or excusing the slave status of the girls. Both aspects need to be faced squarely to write honestly the full facts of history. Tellingly, it is generally impossible to recover names of the girls involved.
Griboyedov deserves to be remembered for much more than his murder. An accomplished playwright and poet, he was a friend of Pushkin and had links to the dissident groups who attempted revolution in 1825. His murder left Nina a widow at either 17 or 19 by different accounts, and pregnant. She lost the child on hearing of her husband’s death, and never remarried. It is a tragic story which came alive to me in visiting the family home.
Griboyedov had fought Napoleon in the 1812 campaign, but had helped those Napoleonic adventurers Allard and Ventura evade a British blockade and go into service with Ranjit Singh. Griboyedov’s successor as Russian Ambassador to Tehran, Simonicz, had actually fought on the Napoleonic side against Russia, presumably in the Polish Legion. Nina’s sister was to marry a Murad nephew of Napoleon. The political elites of Europe melded quickly after the convulsion.
With which clumsy segue I shall note that the battle against the entrenched political elites of the UK appears to be going extremely well without me. I cannot express without a welling up of real emotion how happy I am that all I have been saying about the stultifying neo-liberal consensus and exclusion of dissent, and appalling burgeoning wealth gap between rich and poor, has found such massive traction between Jeremy Corbyn in England and the SNP in Scotland. I may have gone AWOL for a few days, but the cause of social justice appears in extremely safe hands.
Lambkin
“Habbabkuk is on the night shift again as he was last night.”
_______________
I’m puzzled by that – could you possibly spell out what you mean?
Speaking of nights, by the way, would it not be better for you to have early nights, given your general physical condition as reported? You should know that sitting up late over a computer screen does no one any favours!
“I just hope they don’t do a Paul Wellstone on him first”
Yes. He uses public transport and those open meetings do seem a bit on the open side. But it might be too late now. They just didn’t seem him coming.
Lysias
12 Aug, 2015 – 5:39 pm
“It’s not just Corbyn who is capitalizing on people being fed up with establishment politicians. That’s the source of Trump’s surge here in the U.S.”
…………………………………………………………
I hear that Trump is nicknamed Palm-turd Don.
It is worth recalling from time to time that Counterpunch, together with other sites such as the grandiosely-named “globalresearch”, Chris Spivey, mondoweiss and so on are to be ingested with a very large pinch of salt.
The people writing for them are, on the whole, a bunch of nonentities and charlatans with a strongly obsessive streak in them.
Those are doubtlessly the dubious qualities which seem to make them required reading for the Excellences on here.
Master Scorgie
“I hear that Trump is nicknamed Palm-turd Don.”
_______________
Wow, that is hilarious! Hats off to the guy who first thought it up! Did you hear it behind the school bicycle shed?
Lambkin (in case you’re still up\)
Yes, that’s 9 in the last hour and a bit.
Habbabkuk:
It wasn’t just that he might have been stupid or craven enough to support our invasion and occupation of Iraq, he championed the effort. He put his personal resources and the apparatus he commanded of the media behind it.
You or I might have an opinion, and it doesn’t count for much. Well, me, anyway. But when you are in a position to influence opinion, well respected in a rather important political device such as The Observer/ Guardian and sundry outlets, that counts a great deal more.
America’s Iraq war of adventure depended in large part on the UK’s support (backed by traitors like Blair and his lickspittle cabinet and spineless MPs). That in turn depended on how much resistance was summoned from the UK anti-war movement. And if that gets blunted by people who should be natural champions for justice and peace, who undermine it from within, then those people are forever damned IMHO.
The likes of Cohen, Hitchens and other Establishment cowards have oceans of blood on their hands, and nothing can redeem them.
How dare he and how dare they for publishing the garbage.
Even if you hate me, please don’t take Labour over the cliff edge
Tony Blair
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/12/even-if-hate-me-dont-take-labour-over-cliff-edge-tony-blair
At least the psychopath has acknowledged that he is loathed.
Glenn
12 Aug, 2015 – 6:14 pm
“With the Independent having gone all “Vote Tory!” too, it’s rather tough to find any newspaper worth reading any more.”
………………………………………………….
The only newspaper I buy these days Glen is the Daily Telegraph but I only get it for the cryptic crossword.
I do read it occasionally but only to keep an eye on the enemy.
If Jeremy Corbyn wins the Labour leadership and is not allowed into the Privy Council, will he ever be allowed into the Cabinet?
Before answering this question, be aware that the Cabinet is the executive committee of the Privy Council.
I think this question should be spread about far and wide, because it begins to lay bare how parliamentary democracy is a fig-leaf.
Mary, the Guardian piece giving Blair’s opinion on Corbyn has only been up for a matter of hours but already has more than 2,500 comments, 99% of which are derogatory. I think we might be in for a Guardian record here, with regard to reader’s comments.
It’s all so surreal, and guarantees that Jeremy Corbyn will be the next leader of the Labour Party.
The sanity of Blair and his ‘ites’ is seriously called into question.
It certainly is not too late to Wellstone Sanders. They successfully disposed of Robert Kennedy after he had won major primaries and was well on the way to winning the nomination.
MJ; “Excellent idea. He could throw in a free one-way rail ticket to London as well!”
Or at least give that the option of London or Paris, especially if they are Libyans.
@Glenn, I find it disconcerting that your reply to John at 4.50 conflates the issue of refugees with migrants; there ia a world of difference between the two, and I believe that the refugees fleeing genocidal mayhem caused by Western actions, deserved refuge & protection, especially by those Countries directly responsible.
BTW it was my link to the Medialens commentary on evil Nick Cohen, who as I stated shares remarkable similar attributes to Resident Dissident, and it’s no surprise that the Habby Troll thnks he’s such a swell chap ! 😀
Bloody hell, Blair’s piece on the Guardian is now hitting 3000 comments, up from 2500 comments when I made my last post here 15 minutes ago.
Extraordinary stuff, just like the Labour Party getting 400,000 new members/supporters since Corbyn came into the frame.
The only ones going over a cliff are lemmings like Blair.
I haven’t read Blair’s piece against Corbyn, maybe because I’ve already had a shit today.
Will Corbyn be replying? I hope he does, and I hope he uses the phrase “war criminal” in his reply.
“Members of the Lords are not MPs Fred.”
tell Baal he’s the one said they had entered Parliament.
Of course members of the House of Lords are members of parliament.
“There you go again Fred; making statements without any back-up or evidence.”
The Nazis had gangs of thugs who would harass and intimidate anyone who criticised their party as well didn’t they?
A comment is free that is actually worth reading, because Seamus Milne is spot-on on the refugee crisis;
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/12/seumas
Meanwhile noticed this, which no doubt the usual suspects will claim is another anti-Semitic CT;
http://www.lobelog.com/aipacs-2002-briefing-book-made-case-for-regime-change-in-iraq/
Craig has made three of those comments on the BLiar cliff edge piece.
https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/10766579
N_
12/08/2015 8:38pm
It’s curious, but I have been poking around and it looks as if the designation “MP” applies only to elected members of the House of Commons. Lords are called “Members of the House of Lords”.
http://www.parliament.uk/about/mps-and-lords/
Kind regards,
John
The U.S. Navy isn’t admitting it, but the nuclear contamination off Fukushima of the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan is the real reason why the disposition of U.S. Navy ships has had to be drastically revamped: Navy shuffles up aircraft carrier fleet.
A phalus is sometimes called a member, plural phali.
Semantics allow different uses of “member”, that is to say that a Member of the House of Lords can also be a Member of Parliament but Members of Parliament are not Members of the House of Lords.
The place is stuffed with phalli.
I’m not anti-semantic but in my view there are a number of phali on this site including the lesser spotted female variety who have no interest in debating sensibly but debase the blog with their nobism for their own amusement and possibly to deliberately spoil the blog.
Macky, Seumas Milne is usually spot on, that’s why he is loathed by the Blairites at the Guardian.
Without belittling mental illness, I wonder if Blair should be sectioned for his own good. I mean, that level of cognitive dissonance has to take its toll.
Out with the warmongering psychos. And can we have our railways back please? While we’re at it, get your thieving hands off of our Welfare State.
JC – our saviour. TB – a dangerous infectious disease.
Peter Beswick
12/08/2015 9:17pm
“a Member of the House of Lords can also be a Member of Parliament but Members of Parliament are not Members of the House of Lords.”
Reminds me of Sir Humphrey Appleby:
“This would make the breach unofficially official but officially unofficial.”
Kind regards,
John
Herbie
12/08/2015 7:09pm
Quite right, my apologies. I should have said “allegations”, not “charges”.
The Claimed Offence number 4 in the European Arrest Warrant is Rape.
https://justice4assange.com/Allegations.html
Kind regards,
John
Saint Fred: “The Nazis had gangs of thugs who would harass and intimidate anyone who criticised their party as well didn’t they?”
You mean like Unionist thugs? But perhaps analogies only work one way in St. Fred’s world.
For instance, Nazis put their trousers on one leg at a time. And so do Scottish nationalists! Holy Smoke, what more proof do you want??
*
Turn to the latest Private Eye, which Saint Fred read, of course, but which his special Nazi-spotting filter prevented him from absorbing, let alone acknowledging:
—–start quote
Fascistic Fallacy
Sir,
To fantasists like Alexander McKay (Letters, Eye 1397) who suffer from the tendency to fantasise about the evil fascism that they equate with the SNP, I offer some facts.
Every ACTUAL fascist organisation active in Scotland (albeit in their tiny numbers) is Unionist. That includes the BNP, NF and Britain First. Xenophobes and sectarians in UKIP and the Orange Order are also Unionists.
The movement for Scotland’s self-determination is the antithesis of this poison and is gaining strength. It critics have nothing to offer but unfounded smears. It’s as if the Unionists’ Project Fear never ended.
-David Stevenson, Cambuslang.
—–end quote
Very bad news. Jimmy Carter has cancer. The cancer is apparently metastatic and has spread to his liver. Jimmy Carter says he has cancer, revealed by recent surgery:
Jimmy Carter has not be known to drink excessively or to have any of the other indicators that could cause primary liver cancer. This is undoubtedly metastatic.
“Saint Fred:”
If you want me to respond then just use my name.
I don’t answer to that.
Needless to say, the BBC 10 pm News via Ms Raworth and Ms Walker, reported on the BLiar piece. They sounded really shaken at the huge number of Labour party memberships taken out for the purpose of voting for Jeremy. Who’d have thunk it!