I had been spending the last few days living here in Avatime district while visiting Ghanaian friends nearby. Away from internet, TV and any other distraction, it has given me a chance to ponder what next to do with my life.
This has been a real problem. Have submitted Sikunder Burnes to the publishers, and while there is still editing and proofs, a huge amount of time is now free. My determination to dedicate myself to working for Scottish independence led to my comprehensive rejection by the SNP. This left me confused as to what I might usefully do with my life. I suppose the question I have been pondering is, what good am I?
I have come up with a potential answer, and will out it later this week.
Climate change deniers should come to Ghana. Not only have changing rainfall patterns devastated the hydro-electric system, life has become extremely hard for farmers. The last decade has seen the highly predictable wet and dry seasons become wildly unpredictable. It has been unseasonally raining heavily on me all over Ghana. The situation is extremely difficult for farmers. Mango farmers are now praying for relief from the rain for the next six weeks or the mangoes won’t flower. The continuing rains may already have adversely affected next year’s harvest. Meeting cocoa farmers today. Am now in Kumasi.
Fred; It’s good to know there is a racist-free island in the Atlantic. Now if you could make a metaphor by comparison as to renewables versus nukular we might converge our respective bias.
“Fred; It’s good to know there is a racist-free island in the Atlantic. Now if you could make a metaphor by comparison as to renewables versus nukular we might converge our respective bias.”
I didn’t say we were racist free, it’s just that the people who built our railways were Irish not Chinese.
“Irish not Chinese….”
I see. 🙂
The Empire Files – The Censored Reality Of The Refugee Crisis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xccLCZH0KVo
(sorry, but over the last few days I’ve been heavily censored on other sites, in what we laughingly call ‘democratic countries’, and I’m venting my spleen)
Rob i was Censored too..this very night.. after searching for, Trying to Embed a video of What Palestinian children go through whilst trying to get to skhool… Shocking footage… any page Censored.. the the shits at google pipe up wanting to know why i;m searching for the video..Cnuts…
Anyhoo
Tony O
liking this Christopher of the Wolves..Imagine he was an Octopus..all them limbs aflow on instruments.. But i have always been mesmerized by the Hang Drum
Some more Hang Drum – Reiki Healing Music –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdyyBImrDzQ
I must look again at Node’s Gift..the dude on Base So Familiar…
This was my Fave from that Hang drum set
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zhavs2wjKs
@RobG. You linked to :
John Mann on Wanless Review and Dickens File
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oqx4nE35Z0
Thanks, that was a powerful speech. A lot of it was spent refuting the claims of many recent commentators (including some on this blog) that historic child abuse has been overstated, that groundless accusations have been made, that there is a conspiracy to name innocent people.
However, I think it’s worth drawing highlighting a couple of other particular points.
He mentioned that as well as sexual abuse, children in some institutions were being sold to work in the fields and in industry. One child was rented out at age 8 to work on a farm, and at 11 in a foundry. Literally slave labour. In 20th century Britain.
More intriguingly, he revealed that a copy of the “second Dickens dossier” survived because it was being used as a weapon of blackmail between warring factions of the Conservative Monday Club. He claimed George Kennedy Young, a former director of MI6, orchestrated the manipulation of groups of people, amongst whom were paedophile rings, for political purposes. John Mann seemed keen that we know that Young was a central figure in the Dickens dossier:
Ha ha. Synchronicity, Brian. I know the video you mean but I can’t find it any more. I’ll look again tomorrow, off to bed now.
BTW,long overdue thanks for that video of the dude with the steel drum by a waterfall. Marvelous.
s staff dude :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo6qxye-Vbc
Alcyone,
Less quantity and more quality in yer posts please son.
At least we might then stand a chance of deciphering your gibberish.
Cheers.
Beat Me to it Node, Still Cheers… I got distracted –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrIUwo_GgmE
Leaked Emails From Pro-Clinton Group Reveal Censorship of Staff on Israel, AIPAC Pandering, Warped Militarism
By Glenn Greenwald
LEAKED INTERNAL EMAILS from the powerful Democratic think tank Center for American Progress (CAP) shed light on several public controversies involving the organization, particularly in regard to its positioning on Israel. They reveal the lengths to which the group has gone in order to placate AIPAC and long-time Clinton operative and Israel activist Ann Lewis — including censoring its own writers on the topic of Israel.
The emails also provide crucial context for understanding CAP’s controversial decision to host an event next week for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. That event, billed by CAP as “A Conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,” will feature CAP President Neera Tanden and Netanyahu together in a Q&A session as they explore “ways to strengthen the partnership between Israel and the United States.” That a group whose core mission is loyalty to the White House and the Democratic Party would roll out the red carpet for a hostile Obama nemesis is bizarre, for reasons the Huffington Post laid out when it reported on the controversy provoked by CAP’s invitation.
The emails, provided to The Intercept by a source authorized to receive them, are particularly illuminating about the actions of Tanden (right), a stalwart Clinton loyalist as well as a former Obama White House official. They show Tanden and key aides engaging in extensive efforts of accommodation in response to AIPAC’s and Lewis’ vehement complaints that CAP is allowing its writers to be “anti-Israel.” Other emails show Tanden arguing that Libyans should be forced to turn over large portions of their oil revenues to repay the U.S. for the costs incurred in bombing Libya, on the grounds that Americans will support future wars only if they see that the countries attacked by the U.S. pay for the invasions.
https://theintercept.com/2015/11/05/leaked-emails-from-pro-clinton-group-reveal-censorship-of-staff-on-israel-aipac-pandering-warped-militarism/
Silvio
Are you Also in the U.S
This is Hours ago News…. Still Respect
Silvio
its worse Than You think
Cameron seems to have aged overnight, has he suddenly been drawn deeper into the innards of the devil, with a knowledge of something very evil about to happen? Their window of opportunity is within the next 12 months before Obama closes shop, Trump is too much of a businessman to spend US trillions on any zio ventures when his domestic “hotel” infrastructure and plumbing is crumbling. In the meantime we all have to stand behind Putin as he single-handedly takes on the devils, for CM and such waverers, it must be remembered he was the only man who defied the great satan and gave Snowden refuge. Even Xi Dada recently feted in London of the mighty PRC was unable to shelter Snowden in Hong Kong.
The current mass cacophony orchestrated by the devils against him in the MSM is another pointer, its almost as if they are haranguing the latter day Herod (US/EU) to string him up too, like they did with the Son of Man. We are at a crossroads and AoC Wellby refuses to lead the flock and enter the fray for fear of betraying his litho ass.
Heresies time, but the tax-credit cuts – if as is reported they are weighted to cut more heavily at the top end of the income scale for which they’re paid, and the top end of that scale is around £50k annually – are the shouty cuts! necessarily a bad thing, they, tax-credits, are something in any case that should never have been introduced and have metamorphosed into a far better deal for scrooge employers bottom lines and for shareholders than for tax-credit benefit recipients? Is it not probable too that the greatest number of those affected will be in the tumescent SE of England? The only way of mitigating the cuts appropriately must be take far more from them yet, so the tax-credit cut will seem trivial in comparision.
The transfer of many from IB to ESA was a real savage cut unchallenged as it was a joint endeavour of the interchangeable pair, Labour and Tories, the proud dirty work of the double-act of Labour’s James Purnell and the Tory Ian Duncan-Smith, this also seen the end of the grudging £10.00 Christmas bonus as an extra slapdown and festive kicking.
From a new book on the war mongering Hillary Clinton.
‘“Eight digit donors [10 million or more] include: Saudi Arabia, the pro-Israel Ukrainian oligarch Victor Pinchuk, and the Saban family.”…Seven digit sponsors include: Kuwait, Exxon Mobil, ‘Friends of Saudi Arabia,’ James Murdoch, Qatar, Boeing, Dow, Goldman Sachs, Walmart, and the United Arab Emirates,” Earlier in her book Johnstone notes that billionaire Haim Saban was especially taken with Mrs. Clinton, declaring in a Bloomsberg interview in July 2014 that he would contribute “as much as needed” to elect her to the presidency; also mentioning that “I’m a one-issue guy, and my issue is Israel.”
Johnstone asks “What is it about the Clintons that makes them so popular, particularly with Saudi Arabia?” She answers: “With friends like that, you need enemies. And Hillary knows where to find them – in countries these friendly donors don’t like.’
Hillary Clinton’s Strong Proclivity Toward the Use of Force
by Edward S. Herman / November 5th, 2015
http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/11/hillary-clintons-strong-proclivity-toward-the-use-of-force/
‘Queen of Chaos: The Misadventures of Hillary Clinton Paperback – November 2, 2015
http://www.amazon.com/Queen-Chaos-Misadventures-Hillary-Clinton/dp/0989763765
United States wars are getting repetitive. Always the same old scenario. The mainstream media alert public opinion to the latest villain supposedly threatening to slaughter his own people. The U.S. does the job instead with its drones and missiles. The new villain is soon forgotten, but his country is left in a shambles, with competing fanatics vying to dominate the chaos. Something new is needed. How about a Woman War President? Hillary Rodham Clinton has painstakingly groomed herself for the role.’
Only 157,000 people affected so absolutely no worries.
TalkTalk hack ‘affected 157,000 customers’
TalkTalk has given more details of the cyber attack on its website, saying nearly 157,000 of its customers’ personal details were accessed.
More than 15,600 bank account numbers and sort codes were stolen, the company said.
Customers should continue to protect themselves from scam phone calls and emails, TalkTalk added.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34743185
Note the silence from Mr Dunstone and Dido apart from the latter’s rejection of claims that she is being forced to resign. Dunstone was supporting her last week in spite of the fall in the share price from 314.7p a month ago to 220.9p yesterday.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/telecoms/11965903/TalkTalk-cyber-attack-chief-Dido-Harding-rejects-presure-to-resign.html
Some info and examples.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-one-chart-that-shows-how-tax-credit-cuts-will-actually-affect-you-a6710176.html
or
http://news.sky.com/story/1564694/tax-credits-explained-all-you-need-to-know
Spooky activity.
Further to the outing of Lord Carlile’s association with Sir John Scarlett (see p 1 of these comments) here is the FCO permit for Iain Lobban to join in the same sort of extra mural activity but unpaid. Shame that.
Chairman of the advisory board of Cyber London (CyLon) Accelerator
Advisory Board member of CSI Cambridge Security Initiatives. Dearlove is Chairman
Senior Advisory Fellow RUSI
Wonder what was redacted on this letter from Simon Fraser?
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/443025/FCO_to_IL_-_three_appointments_and_consultancy.pdf
Lobban was director of GCHQ 2008-14
D E E P S T A T E
more Spooks! –
at least NZ is investigating them, publicly, and the media is discussing their tweeny problems,
NZ has done a big overhaul, putting very clever lawyers in charge, not the old BAD rigid military structure, will UK do the same?
Obviously GCHQ is wonderful, and doesn’t need any reform, at all, whatsoever, dead-parrot sketch, nope, nada!
but if there was a UK secret and internal spook reform, they would surely find all the following NZ microcosm problems, guaranteed?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11541220&ref=GCHQNSA
by David Fisher, Senior reporter
David Fisher started as a journalist in 1989 and has worked in community, provincial and national newspapers in New Zealand and abroad. He has won a number of journalism awards, twice been named New Zealand’s Reporter of the Year and been made a Press Fellow to Wolfson College at Cambridge University.
some shortened flavour fragments summarising the article . . .
staff at important and powerful agencies had good intent, but they were operating in frameworks flat out wrong.
It is tragic the intelligence services sought out such eager and patriotic staff only to subject them to a bureaucratic acid trip.
Kitteridge’s report was incredible for the simple fact the bureau was so adrift of the law.
She found signals intelligence staff following an internal “bible” , their “bible” was wrong and instead of telling them how to follow the law, it misled them and saw them breaking it.
legal and operational problems were symptoms of an organisation with a dysfunctional structure, bunkered and crippled by near-pointless internal secrecy
Trying to be the approximately 40,000-strong NSA with just 300 people [in NZ] is ridiculous.
[spooks] worked for the bureau and New Zealand in a structure that meant their capability and competence was compromised.
Kitteridge found the bureau to be a place where poorly performing staff wouldn’t be moved on partly because of misplaced loyalty, party for fear of leaks and also because it just took so long for the SIS to get a security clearance for the replacement. What a mess.
Finding a problem doesn’t fix it [mentions a possible illegal WTO trade manipulation after the first report]
SIS own compliance regime was exposed as poor
concerns expressed publicly over the intrusive nature of the new [CCTV] powers [first two cases abused the agreements]
GCSB fared well. Is it fixed? Possibly, at a basic level. There’s much more to having a functioning intelligence community than simply having one part which doesn’t break the law any more
[took] a massive mistake to reveal a deeply hidden problem
a community which cultured problems and surprised him [NZ PM] with embarrassment
[NZ spooks are] horrified at their new reality, which includes the need to “inform the public of what we do and why it is so important”, as one recently disclosed report stated.
it doesn’t solve the problems which still exist – and there’s no surety about where it’s heading. There are well-founded concerns over the intelligence community’s strategic direction (whether it has one) and the blurring of its capabilities into law enforcement.
Will Cheryl Gwyn find the agencies helped the CIA’s rendition and torture programme
[a retrospective] inquiry is never going to happen. Not unless a bombshell emerges
as GCSB & NZ SIS are basically trained, modelled, on the UK’s hard-working staff, I’m cynically sure we’d find the same tweeny illegalities, underperformance, isolation & loss of contact with their customer {the UK taxpayer}, in the bigger brothers of government communications headquarters and the secret intelligence service and the many other murky sister agencies in Blake’s Jerusalem
@Mary, was possibly one of the Sir Iain redacted item/s “Holdingham Group”
Holdingham Group Limited was incorporated on 15 Dec 1997. The company’s status is listed as “Active” and it currently has 4 directors. The company’s first directors were Mr Jeremy Charles William Connell, Mr Peter Grenville Cazalet, Mr Michael William Maclay, Mr Michael John Reynolds, Mr David Anthony Baker, Mr Christopher Noel Mackworth James. Holdingham Group Limited employed 50-99 people. Holdingham Group Limited has 3 subsidiaries.
http://www.holdingham.com/directors
Sir John Rose
Chairman
Former CEO, Rolls-Royce
Keith Craig
Managing Director
Robert Webb QC
Non-executive Director
Director, London Stock Exchange
Holdingham is a management company for the famous Hakluyt
Hakluyt & Company is a British strategic intelligence and advisory firm, and since 2011 has been a trading name of the renamed company Holdingham Group Limited. Pelorus Research is another trading activity of Holdingham Group, started in 2011, providing research to investment managers
The company was founded in 1995 by Christopher James and Mike Reynolds. James retired in mid-2006, and was replaced as managing director by Keith Craig. Hakluyt is headquartered in London and has subsidiary offices in Singapore and New York.
Hakluyt avoids publicity, but is regarded as having a reputation for discretion and effectiveness among its client base. Hakluyt was founded by former officials of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) It attracted controversy in 2001 when Hakluyt was alleged in the Sunday Times to have employed staff to infiltrate environmental groups when working for BP and Royal Dutch Shell. (from Wikipedia)
all OSINT
Mary
TalkTalk hack ‘affected 157,000 customers’
You know it really beggars belief that Theresa May and the Ministry of Love are pressing ahead with this crazy scheme to get the internet providers to store our web browsing history. Even if you set aside the violation of our liberties, this is a non-starter on purely practical grounds. Two 15 year old boys are said to have hacked Talk Talk. it’s obviously not hard if you have the knowledge, intent and are reasonably bright. This data will get hacked. It’s not a question of if, but how often. Theresa May’s assertion that our browsing details is no different to an itemised phone bill is an obvious lie and shows the contempt these people hold us in. Our browsing history is the roadmap to our souls these days. People smirked when the so-called adulterer’s dating site got hacked, but I didn’t. Because the net effect would be broken marriages and damage to the emotional lives of innocent children. To what end? But this will be repeated on a grand scale. If you visit a gay, depression, divorce, STD or similar website it could be very damaging to have that publicised. What will the government do when that happens? I find it deeply disturbing.
@KingOfWelshNoir
6 Nov, 2015 – 11:29 am
Amen to all that.
It’s astonishing the Brits haven’t risen up in arms yet.
there are different versions of the 10th August Sir Iain ‘Holdingham’ letter around
this one mentions SHELL & HOLDINGHAM
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/464566/Letter_to_IL_-_commissions_with_Holdingham_and_Shell.pdf
however this one mentions just mentions HOLDINGHAM GROUP = Hakylut in its metadata
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2753913/tgs/attachments/135/1351133-5-Letter_to_IL_-_commissions_-_Holdingham_Group.pdf
(stored there apparently by http://www.thegovernmentsays.com, who have a copyright click-license for the files)
they both have identical Encoding Software “Adobe PSL 1.2e for Canon” and claim the same scanning hardware “Canon iR-ADV C250 PDF” (Canon imageRUNNER ADVANCE C250i) so seems plausible that it’s the same docu, just de-censored slightly, rather than a kgb faked effort.
Alcyone…
“Murray is Executive Chairman of Atholl Energy Ltd[21] and Chairman of Westminster Development Ltd, a gold mining company, both operating in Accra, Ghana.[22]”
From wikipendia.
Do you have information to make you know this is wrong?
I bet this one is wishing Agent Cameron had not selected him for the job. Currently he is surrounded by irate Britons at Sharm el-Sheikh airport. He seems to be acting more in tour rep role rather than ambassadorial. Felt rather sorry for him.
https://www.gov.uk/government/people/john-casson
Sharm el-Sheikh airport flights: UK Ambassador say priority ‘is to get people home’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34746184
He made an Arabic version of his YT on arrival in Egypt last year…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmJAzlYDqoM&feature=youtu.be
The English version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWKOegjeVio
KOWN at 11.29
A good point well put. I’ve been thinking about the surveillance legislation in terms of yet another inroad into my civil liberties, but the concern you raise is actually more tangible and virtually inevitable.
Why aren’t journalists/opposition politicians/shami chakrabarti raising this point? (rhetorical question)
Yes, KOWN,
Theresa May’s assertion that our browsing details is no different to an itemised phone bill is an obvious lie and shows the contempt these people hold us in. Our browsing history is the roadmap to our souls these days.
the fact that we know that they will capture all this data, even tho the ECJ ruled such retained data (following the Directive 2006/24/EC) as non-proportional “infringement of the right to private life, and the right to the protection of personal data of individuals, as guaranteed in articles 7 and 8, respectively, of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union” hence illegal
The ECJ did find some valid (anti-terror, anti-crime) national security exclusions, however, and just formally required that “access” to teh vast hauls of data to be sufficiently protected to guarantee compliance with articles 7 and 8.
reminder:
Article 7
Respect for private and family life
Everyone has the right to respect for his or her private and family life, home and communications.
Article 8
Protection of personal data
1. Everyone has the right to the protection of personal data concerning him or her.
2. Such data must be processed fairly for specified purposes and on the basis of the consent of the person concerned or some other legitimate basis laid down by law. Everyone has the right of access to data which has been collected concerning him or her, and the right to have it rectified.
3. Compliance with these rules shall be subject to control by an independent authority.
I didn’t see Theresa mentioning anything to do with Article 8, ‘right of access’ – in her ‘snoopers charter’?
Without fully complying with the European Court of Justice’s requirements, it’s possible that an activist like Max Schrems might overturn the UK Parliamentary legislation, which would be not helpful, as there are some crimes and security needs for proportionate targeted surveillance.
I’m sure the hard working, efficient, independently minded HoC will process the law with due diligence and ensure that it complies with the post -war fruit of Sir WInston Churchill.
Without ECHR compliance, we will all be affected, will certainly be self-censoring our (mild) activities, be stressed/worried/tormented, make wrong decisions, suffer *more cyber-crime*, there will be deaths – this contravenes also the right-to-life.
imagine the youthful John Winston Ono Lennon’s confused web-browsing history hitting the darker depths of the Home Office (who do dream of full citizen control), or the the massive interception and surveillance tools ubiquitously deployed against an ethnic young activist Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, he could easily be suppressed after a few blogs or a Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela searching Google for concepts of “long walks” and “freedom” may be identified, profiled and neutralised. As I said, they might even self-censor & just go on benefits, instead of trying to change what they saw was ‘wrong’ about society.
This planned interception, storing, searching – even by machine will lead to the freezing of the evolution of society, fixed forever at 1989 wage levels with secret policemen joining all subversive groups.
We need some input from sociologists and/or psychologists to see if this is what we;ll get?
/rant
back briefly to jobs-for-the boys
post GCHQ he seems to be mostly working with Ms. Nazo Moosa, (ex-Carlyle) at http://www.c5capital.com & perhaps http://www.OMADA.dk
Holdingham,
Haklyut, (reported in Guardian yesterday http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/nov/05/former-head-gchq-sir-iain-lobban-adviser-shell-hakluyt)
Good Governance Group, g3.eu
Palo Alto Networks, Inc http://www.paloaltonetworks.com
bwww.alabit.com, (partners with Microsoft, mySQL, redhat, citrix, novell, oracle etc)
http://www.metrasens.com, (fake GSM BTS etc)
maybe even Standard Chartered . . .