The Labour Party is being remarkably coy about releasing the actual result of its Scottish accounting unit leadership election, giving only a percentage. The entirely complacent unionist media is complicit in what amounts to a deception. The stunning truth is that in a one person, one vote election among the entire membership of the Labour Party in Scotland plus trades union supporters, Dugdale won with 5,217 votes (out of a claimed electorate of 21,000, many of whom do not exist or could not be arsed to choose between two right wing numpties).
UPDATE: A second Labour figure just rang me to assure me my information – which was from a good source – is wrong. She would not give the actual figure and only said it was “higher”. I offered to take down the post and publish an accurate figure if she would give it, but this was declined.
Worth posting the Medialens discussion on Google’s ability to sway opinion, and the problems that raises for elections:
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/thread/1440485664.html
Complementary articles from Julian Assange and Nafeez Ahmed:
https://wikileaks.org/google-is-not-what-it-seems/
https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/how-the-cia-made-google-e83645
https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/why-google-made-the-nsa-2a8058
@RD Thanks kindly for clearing the air, from habba’s disruptive farting. We can now respect your opinions,coming or going, unlike the resident West Ham supporter ! BTW – Volodya encourages the return of patriotic citizens, even if they will be voting for kasparov,welcome the Arctic will soon be open for business.
Come on Herbie. Don’t give us all those CIA links with 404 “nothing to read here” messages. 🙂
Munged urls. This should work:
Worth posting the Medialens discussion on Google’s ability to sway opinion, and the problems that raises for elections:
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/thread/1440485664.html
Complementary articles from Julian Assange and Nafeez Ahmed:
https://wikileaks.org/google-is-not-what-it-seems/
https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/how-the-cia-made-google-e836451a959e
https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/why-google-made-the-nsa-2a80584c9c1
Good to see that Mr Goss’s keyboard is now stuck on something other than “fascist”.
Greetings from the Doune the Rabbit Hole site. It’s been a brilliant festival and we’ve been extremely lucky with the weather. I drove Craig back to Edinburgh last night and then returned to the site myself; Craig runs a fine bar and has worked himself to exhaustion.
It was very wet this morning and the site is waterlogged, but the Sun is out again now and there are still plenty of volunteers clearing stuff back to storage. It was easily the best one yet; every band I heard played well and it was an excellent atmosphere.
I suppose if I’m going to criticise one side I must in all parity do the same to the other.
Oleg Sentsov a Ukranian filmaker,and Crimean native has been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment by Russia.
Mr Sentsov criticised Russia for annexing Crimea, was packed off to Moscow, and charged with terror attacks, and given in all likely, a biased and unfair trial.
No doubt Mr Sentsov will comit suicide you know the type I speak of, hands tied behind back whilst two guards hang you from the cell roof, then swing on your legs.
The Russian offical line will be, Mr Sentsov was so ashamed of his actions that he topped himself, and if you believe that you’ll also believe a balalaika is a head covering similar to a balaclava.
Macky, Fedup and Passerby (the three corporals)
Do not go a-whorin’ after false gods (whether Putin or others).
I would believe this is a tease, and an attempt in raising false hopes.
Lookie here laddie is back with its one liners engaged in snipe and run.
Although it is OK for laddie to go a-whorin’; buy shek….. and go to hollidays in ……
Of course anyone who wants to preserve our current political system of plutocracy disguised as democracy will oppose any suggestion of return to the classic Athenian system of democracy, where most decisions are made either by all citizens or by groups of citizens chosen by lot. The Athenians adopted this system and gradually made it more and more radical precisely for the purpose of giving genuine power to average citizens, and avoiding the abuses of tyranny and of rule by the rich.
Anyone who has served on a jury knows that, if you give average citizens responsibility, they will rise to the occasion. At the same time, they are much less likely than professional politicians to be guided by selfish considerations. And, even where they do decide out of self-interest, in a body chosen randomly, all interests in the society will be proportionally represented.
Anna Missiou argues persuasively in her book Literacy and Democracy in Fifth-Century Athens that it was precisely by holding randomly selected office, in particular in the upper legislative house, the Council or Boule, that most Athenians achieved functional literacy. Athens lacked government-supported schools. Serving in government was their school.
An individual average citizen may make foolish decisions, but, as one knows if one has served on a jury, a group of people can achieve wisdom simply by virtue of numbers.
As Aristotle (Politics Book 3, 1281a40-b10) says: “The many, of whom none is individually an excellent man, nevertheless can, when joined together, be better than those [the excellent few], not as individuals but all together, just as potluck dinners can be better than those provided at one man’s expense. For, there being many, each person possesses a constituent part of virtue and practical reason, and when they have come together, the multitude is like a single person, yet many-footed and many-handed and possessing many sense-capacities, so it is likewise as regards to its multiplicity of character and its mind. This is why the many judge better in regard to musical works and those of the poets, for some judge a particular aspect, while all of them judge the whole.”
Meltdown, John?
you guys seem to read more about Putin than I do.
Well, yes. And it shows, doesn’t it? Hint: Information on Putin isn’t restricted to Putin’s media. Often, it’s restricted in Putin’s media.
Though gleams of light sometimes shine through….
Оказывается, понимают. И это самое поразительное! Берг так и пишет: “Cколько бы ни погибло на этой войне моих еврейских родственников (а погибло их немало); сколь бы ни радовались мои близкие Дню победы как концу мучительной войны (а они искренно радовались), не могу не сказать… Евреям и так было хуже некуда, ну, было бы еще хуже…Одного жаль: жаль, что таких нельзя положить на брусчатку Красной площади во время прохождения парадной колонны танков Т-90. Почему-то уверен, что к этому моему пожеланию присоединились бы миллионы соплеменников Берга. Пепел из печей Майданека и Треблинки в его поганое сердце явно не стучит…
http://www.kp.ru/daily/26073/2979971/
Komsomolskaya Pravda, owned by Grigory Berezkin. No. 69 here (didn’t he do well?):
http://stormetq.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/100-richest-people-in-russia.html
In clear, referring to this (Berg is Jewish):
Berg and wrote: “How many Whatever killed in the war of my Jewish relatives (and killed a lot of them), no matter how happy my family Victory Day as the end of an agonizing war (and they were sincerely happy), I can not say … Hebrews and it was worse than ever, well, it would be even worse …
That:
One pity: pity that such can not be put on the cobblestones of Red Square during the passage of the front of the column of tanks T-90. For some reason, I believe that this wish of mine would be joined by millions of fellow Berg. The ashes from the ovens of Treblinka and Majdanek in his rotten heart is clearly not knocking … (Google Translate)
I imagine you can tidy up the grammar a bit. Please feel free.
The real false god in our society is Mammon, against whom Jesus warned us.
Germany is to follow the lead of Scotland and ban the growing of genetically modified crops (GM).
It’s good to see that Scotland can still lead the way when it comes to common sense.
I see Monsanto are growing GM crops in the third world, I’m sure children with eight fingers and three ears will come into fashion.
‘There’s an expression here, “I wouldn’t give you the steam off my p*ss” ‘
Dreolin, the Irish may claim the expression as their own, but it was most famously used by an Australian politician about someone who at the time was a fellow Australian-
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/oct/12/michael-white-rupert-murdoch-bskyb
This article covers what has truly happened in the oligarch-funded coup regime of Kiev. All the main players are there: Nuland, Pyatt, Poroshenko, Yatsenyuk, Klitschko, Saakashvilli, and other criminals like Igor Kolomoisky. So where did the $1.8 billion in IMF aid to Ukraine go? Wait a minute.
“In this case however, thanks to investigative work by the Ukrainian anticorruption watchdog group Nashi Groshi (“Our Money”), we can actually watch the process by which the gigantic sum of $1.8 billion was smoothly maneuvered offshore, in the first instance to PrivatBank accounts in Cyprus, and thence into accounts in Belize, the British Virgin Islands, and other outposts of the international financial galaxy.”
http://harpers.org/blog/2015/08/undelivered-goods/
If you guys supporting the fascists could provide believable western sources like this Harpers Magazine article, we, who are aware or highly suspicious of what is actually going on, might give you, and the west, more credibility.
There’s an expression here, “I wouldn’t give you the steam off my p*ss” ‘
_____________
The Urban dictionary, far more renowned than, Collins or any of the other pretenders, say I tongue in cheek, has right next the above saying.
“I wouldn’t give you the steam of my sh*t.”
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=YcWHAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA226&lpg=PA226&dq=I+wouldnt+give+you+the+steam+off+my&source=bl&ots=btX6SBV4fK&sig=8yM4LW-J6w7jY0CphTir68XkuBM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCUQ6AEwBGoVChMI1uHv4v3GxwIVxlUaCh2PKwlF#v=onepage&q=I%20wouldnt%20give%20you%20the%20steam%20off%20my&f=false
Ah the level of comments has reached rock bottom now, arrrh! Toilet talk reach for the Harpic, or if you have Sky tv…its Cillit Bang.
“The conclusion emerging from its recent sniggers is that patriotism is a fine and noble thing when Putin does it on an industrial scale, at the expense of his neighbours, with a subservient judiciary and 95% coverage of the State media, but not for anyone else. Is that right, Macky?”
___________________
Answers please, Macky.
Has the global economic system imploded while we’ve been having a festival?
“Harper’s Magazine” before Noddy wakes up.
“Germany is to follow the lead of Scotland and ban the growing of genetically modified crops”
Scotland has not banned GMOs. The Scottish government has merely announced that it would “shortly submit a request that Scotland is excluded from any European consents for the cultivation of GM crops, including the variety of genetically modified maize already approved and six other GM crops that are awaiting authorisation”. We must await the EU’s response to this request.
If anything Germany is following the lead of Bulgaria, which banned the cultivation of GMOs in March 2010.
A brief history of EU member states, the EU and GMOs is here (not many references to Scotland to be honest):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_of_genetically_modified_organisms_in_the_European_Union
“Has the global economic system imploded while we’ve been having a festival?”
Not yet. It was a false alarm. Next week perhaps. Hope you and the others had a good time Doune the Rabbit Hole.
Nothing changed here Clark. Me and Macky providing the truth about Ukraine and a couple of others dissenting.
Look you russo-disputants (Ba’al and possibly RD excepted), if your conversation is to prove in any way enlightening you’d best deliberately search out and declare those points about which you agree, and then argue over differences from there in an incremental manner. Propaganda-tennis gets pretty boring.
…oh what do I care? I’ve a perfectly good festival site to tend to… Just keep slagging each other off, That’s the way to do it Mr Punch!
“Germany is to follow the lead of Scotland and ban the growing of genetically modified crops (GM).”
And here’s me thinking that Russia had taken the lead in this respect.
http://humansarefree.com/2015/01/putin-medvedev-signed-gmo-labeling-law.html
The company behind (UCG) Underground Coal Gasification has put the plan on hold indefinitely due to the political climate in Scotland not being to their liking.
Aw..what a shame, now we won’t have huge burning coal fields under the sea floor off Scotland, nor will we have the possibility of a sea floor collapse which could lead to a ecological disaster.
A dreadful litany of the present condition by Petras. Grim reading.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-age-of-imperial-wars/547095
He concludes –
War is everywhere and expanding: No continent or region, big or small, is free from the contagion of war.
Imperial wars have spawn local wars . . . igniting mass flights in a never-ending cycle. There are no real diplomatic success stories! There are no enduring, viable peace accords!
Some pundits may protest this analysis: They point to the recent US – Cuba rapprochement as a ‘success’. They conveniently forget that the US is still subverting Cuba’s biggest trading partner, Venezuela; that Washington’s major regional proxies are demanding regime change among Cuba’s allies in Ecuador, Brazil and Bolivia and that Washington is increasingly threatening Cuba’s alternative markets in Russia and China. The vision of the US flag flapping in the breeze outside its embassy in Havana does little to cover Washington’s iron fist threatening Cuba’s allies.
Others cite the US – Iran peace accord as a major ‘success’. They ignore that the US is backing the bloody Saudi invasion of neighboring Yemen and the massacre of Shiite communities; that the US has provided Israel with a road map detailing Iran’s entire defense system and that the US and EU are bombing Iran’s Syrian ally without mercy.
As for the US – Cuba and Iranian agreements– are they enduring and strategic or just tactical imperial moves preparing for even greater assaults?
The war epidemic is not receding.
War refugees are still fleeing; they have no homes or communities left.
Disorder and destruction are increasing, not decreasing; there is no rebuilding the shattered societies, not in Gaza, not in Fallujah, not in the Donbas, not in Guerrero, not in Aleppo.
Europe feels the tremors of a major conflagration.
Americans still believe that the two oceans will protect them. They are told that placing NATO missiles on Russia’s borders and stationing warships off China’s shores and building electrified walls and laying barbed wire along the Rio Grande will protect them. Such is their faith in their political leaders and propagandists.
What a packet of lies! Inter-continental missiles can ‘rain down’ on New York, Washington and Los Angeles.
It is time to wake up!
It is time to stop the US – EU headlong race to World War III!
Where to start? Libya has been irrevocably destroyed; it is too late there! Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan are aflame. We are being plunged deeper into war while being told we are withdrawing! Ukraine sucks in more guns and more troops!
Can we really have peace with Iran if we cannot control our own government as it dances to the Israelis tune? And Israel insists on war – our waging war for them! As the Israeli war criminal General and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon once told some worried American Zionists: “Trouble with the US? We lead them by the nose…!”
Just look at the terrified families fleeing carnage in the Middle East or Mexico.
What is to be done?
When will we cut our losses and shake off the bonds of these war makers – foreign and domestic?
~~
No answers sadly.
As stated by President Putin in 2014, Russia must protect its citizens from over consumption of products containing genetically modified organisms.
The Prime Minister of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, followed this statement with a declaration of his own, proclaiming that Russia has no intention to import GMOs, however there are still large quantities of GMO foods being imported into Russia.
____________________
You may well be right Mr Goss, though the last sentence of your link makes me wonder….hmmm.
New Yorker economics columnist James Surowiecki has written a book The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations, in which he argues that large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliant–better at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future.
Well I agree with that bit.
Right, I’m off to do something more productive…
TTFN