Hillary Clinton is American, owned by financial interests to whom she is completely in thrall, a rabid neo-conservative warmonger, completely uncritical of Israel and focused for any claim to be progressive entirely on identity politics. Which is also a precise description of today’s Guardian newspaper. The once august and intellectual title is now a shrill cheerleader for far right Blairites and wealthy American feminists.
The Guardian is as unabashed in its support for Clinton as in its support for the Blairites. The stream of “feminist” articles about why it would advance the cause of women to have a deeply corrupt right winger in the White House is steadily growing into a torrent. It is a perfect example of what I wrote of a month ago, the cause of feminism being hijacked to neo-conservative ends.
Bernie Sanders is not perfect – nobody is. But he understands that obscene and still burgeoning wealth inequality is the greatest problem of western society, and that the state framework supporting crazed banking structures is the root cause of this. The support for him is a sign of the inevitable popular reaction to the extreme inequality of society. Sanders is channelling that reaction effectively.
The establishment therefore circles its wagons around Hillary Clinton. The hope is that women can be persuaded it is an act of misogyny simply to stand in her way. The other great establishment hope is that the Democrat party machinery is so strong in black communities, that black Americans can be in effect ordered to vote for a woman who epitomises the system which disadvantages them, rather than an apostle of genuine change in the economic order. I retain hope the establishment may find that black Americans are cleverer than that.
The machinery used to manipulate identity politics – racial and gender – is all that Clinton has. If Clinton beats Sanders, it will be the perfect demonstration of the fact that identity politics has become the enemy of progress in society.
In the field of identity, Bernie Sanders would be the first non-Christian President of the United States. Would that not be wonderful in a country whose politicians feel the need to genuflect to swarms of religious evolution-denying nutters who believe foreign wars are good because they presage the Rapture?
And would it not be great if the first President since Carter not in thrall to Israel were Jewish?
“Resident Dissident’s “crime” (in your eyes only) is as nothing compared to your often-expressed belief that the State of Israel has no right to exist.”
___________________
Habb.
Well exist yes, but certainly not in its present condition.
I’ll be generous and propose the UN’s 1947 partition, but with Palestine retaining 55% of the land instead of the offered and rightly refused 45%, that would go to Israel.
Of course there would have to be conditions one would be to recompense the persecuted Palestinian people. In a similar fashion, to the Nazi’s persecution of the J@@s and the payments of vast sums to the survivors.
A repayment plan for persecution of the people’s of Palestine, would need to be implimented by the aggressor state of Israel.
Another vitally important condition that would need to be fulfilled by Israel, would be the rebuilding of dwellings and infrastructure on Palestinian lands, afterall it seem fair that Israel should rebuild what they originally destroyed.
Other useful acts could be widespread education of children on the Israeli persecution of Palestinians. Laws passed in countries around the world (imprisonment if need be) for anyone who agreed with Israel’s actions of usurping Palestine.
Films books and widely televised testaments from intensely persecuted Palestinians should be wide spread. It would also be useful to dissipate bad feeling if memorials to the murdered and oppressed Palestinian people were erected all over the world.
Finally a Palestinian emancipation day should be added to the calendar, so one could recall and lament the atrocities carried out against the Palestinian vicitms.
I’m sure you’ll agree.
Ba’al Zevul,
“I see, incidentally, that Albania’s putting up refugee MKO terrorists, with the democratic West’s blessing.”
On Friday night, or it may have been Sunday, I got talking to this bloke from Albania outside the pub whilst having a smoke. He was very fit – his son was there too. We kind of got talking about holidays over 20 years ago…when we took our kids to Greece – and Turkey…and very nearly went to Albania – beautiful beaches..I only mentioned war vaguely – cos one of our kids’ entertainers – and he would only be about 16 himself…was called up to go to war in Croatia – and we were all completely shocked…There had been no war in Europe since before I was born…What was going on?
Anyhow, he said he loved living in England….and had this enormous wad of notes in his hand – and insisted on buying me a drink…It would be rude to refuse…I then introduced him to my wife…and he insisted on buying my wife a drink too…
None of these wars have anything to do with us..
We don’t want wars…
We get on fine.
We are The Common People
“Pulp – Common People”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuTMWgOduFM
Tony
Resident Dissident.
Can you name me a country in eastern Europe that did not have a non-aggression pact with Germany by 1939?
Most of them were directed against the USSR, just as most of the governments in the region ended up allying themselves with the Nazis and joining in Operation Barbarossa.
The reality is that Poland had rejected Russian offers to guarantee its territory against Germany and prevented the USSR from assisting Czechoslovakia in 1938.
Which reminds us that Britain and France had both signed a pact with Hitler, in the hope that he would concentrate his efforts on opposing the USSR, in 1938. They dismembered Czechoslovakia to celebrate Peace in Our Time.
Stalin was being very realistic when he signed the non-aggression pact with Hitler. He was being equally realistic when he signed a similar pact with Japan. Had he not done so, allowing crucial Red Army elements to come west, the war might have been lost.
Remember that Britain had sided with Hitler over Spain as well as Czechoslovakia; had made no serious reply to the USSR’s desperate attempts-post Munich- to pledge the countries to resist Nazi aggression (they dispatched an elderly Admiral in a cruiser through the Baltic to meet with the Russians in Leningrad). While Poland’s fascist government which, like many of the Baltic regimes, was eager to assist Hitler against the USSR. It refused point blank any collaboration with the USSR.
Over 20% of the refugees heading for EU countries are from Afghanistan, it looks like the EU is mopping up all the refugees our wasteful 12 year campaigns have caused. I feel for all the families who have lost loved ones for nothing, wasted for some neocon dreams of a pipeline.
@Bevin, not to mention that Britain had already recently turned-down a proposed Russian mutual defense pact against Germany; but all this has already been pointed us to RD, who just like Kempe (who can’t answer why 10 million Syrians out of a total population of 17 million, should to defy the throat-cutters & other so called “moderates” who urged boycotting,upon the pain of death, the last Syrian Election, but instead actually voted for Assad), these people are impervious to information & facts that doesn’t fit in with their blinkered viewpoints.
Macky: “This will eventually get them exactly as far as King Canute got when he tried to command the sea waves to halt and not wet his feet and robes, but of course his deluded pompous royal self got very wet instead. ”
Actually, Canute was not deluded at all – he knew full well that his commands would not halt the sea. The exercise was to prove to his fawning courtiers that he _did not_ possess the power of the gods, and to show to mere mortals that surrounded him that was was, in fact, just one of them.
Bevin,
I also met – about 3 months ago these two Polish blokes down another local pub. I grew up with a couple of people who’s Parents came from Poland in Oldham…
But I did not know they were Polish till I asked them…
We got on very well, but I could tell they didn’t like My T-Shirt…
Well. I didn’t realise The Poles didn’t like Russians.
They probably found My T-Shirt Very Offensive (as was the intent).
I bought it from Germany last year. It is Red.
“Motorhead – live at Crocus City Hall, Moscow, 25.07.2014”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN6j-wrT9Iw
Tony
Bevin
“The reality is that Poland had rejected Russian offers to guarantee its territory against Germany and prevented the USSR from assisting Czechoslovakia in 1938.”
_____________________
Accepting that offer and “preventing the USSR from assisting CZ in 1938” would both have involved allowing Soviet troops into Polish soil.
Perhaps the Poles thought that once on Polish soil the Soviet troops would never leave.
Understandable given the recent experience of the Polish-Soviet war, when the Soviets invaded the newly-established Rzeczpospolita Polska in an attempt to sovietize Europe.
Happily the Soviets got their arse well and truly kicked.
Bevin
“Resident Dissident.
Can you name me a country in eastern Europe that did not have a non-aggression pact with Germany by 1939?”
_______________________
Yes. Czechoslovakia.
Which actually had a military treaty with the Soviet Union.
Republicofscotland
““Resident Dissident’s “crime” (in your eyes only) is as nothing compared to your often-expressed belief that the State of Israel has no right to exist.”
___________________
Habb.
Well exist yes, but certainly not in its present condition.”
_________________________
Now I’ve had exchanges on these lines with someone else – I think it was your fellow Israel-hater Mr Scorgie. I must admit you’ve gone one (or two, or even three) better than he has.
You see, all the “conditions” you list for being able to accept the existence of the State of Israel are simply not going to happen.
Things are as they are and the facts are there on the ground no matter how many wet dream fantasies you may indulge in of a night.
The conclusion must therefore be that – behind your weasel words, you do not accept the right of the State of Israel to exist.
And that makes you an Israel-hater.
Be careful.
Republicofscotland
Have you ever considered complementing your warlike activities behind your computer keyboard by let us say more – concrete – aid to the Palestinians.
There must be many forms such aid could take (no, I’m not suggesting you stand outside synagogues and hiss at those entering, as our friend Ba’al once suggested*)
You could go regularly to anti-Israel and pro-Palestinan demonstrations, for example, pester your MP and Ministers with frequent emails (giving your real name and address, of course, it’s known anyway), propagate loudly the BDS action, donate whatever you can spare to worthy Palestinian charities (careful not to donate to terrorist organisations, of course!) and so on. I suppose you could even go the the West Bank or Gaza as a volonteer (working in a hospital or a school, for example, as many non-Israeli Jews do in Israel)or join the next peace flotilla (ask Mary for details).
What say you, O doughty keyboard Warrior?
Glenn_UK,
I always thought you were posting from Israel …. but if so – that’s O.K.
You mentioned King Canute..I kind of skipped History at School…but have found it very interesting since I retired 11 years ago…
Can you tell me what the connection is between King Canute (cos you just indicated that you know about these things) and Æthelred the Unready?
Thanks,
Tony
“And that makes you an Israel-hater.
Be careful”
______________
********Mods****** I’d like to draw your attention to the veiled threat from Habb.
I find that type of reply to my comment menacing and insidious.
It’s one thing to remonstrate with a fellow commentor but to threaten them is quite another.
Isn’t that a banning offence?
I trust you’ll take the appropriate action required thank you.
@Glenn-uk, thanks for thar about King Canute, I didn’t know that aspect of the story, having just accepted the common misrepresention of a vain king trying to defy Nature, so you have educated me, which is what this Blog should be about, sharing knowledge.
It reminds me of other common misrepresntation, that of the Immaculate Conception, which most people thinks relates to Mary bearing Jesus, whereas it’s actually refers to the birth of Mary herself, as her mother Saint Anne, was free from original sin.
How’s technicolour..I kind of liked him..at least he was very intelligent..and he used to take the piss out of me when I was very drunk and sometimes made me laugh…I thought he probably at least went to Israel for his holidays….whilst I met The Israelis on holiday in Naxos…and I felt really sorry for how they felt so guilty and could barely communicate except by issuing orders(put that hand down the Greeks do not appreciate it).It was if they had been sent for a compulsory holiday…get your head back together kid…you will soon be back in Israel in the Tsahal with that gun pointing at Palestinian kids…again.
I mean…we were from all over Europe, Australia and The USA…We all felt so sorry for him. His wife was lovely and kept apologising for him…
Eventually he played ball on the beach.
Tony
8-year-old son: Daddy, what did you do to stop the final world war?
Father: I was a paid propagandist, paid to con the people into going to war.
8-year-old son: but, Daddy, I have two heads and my breathing is difficult?!
Father: we lied in order to protect you and make you safe.
8-year-old son: but, Daddy, I’m dying!
Father: you’ll be going to a better place, son, into the Kingdom of Heaven.
8-year-old son: but Daddy, I don’t believe in fairytales.
Father: shut the feck up you little commie runt. God knows best.
Next to nothing, absolutely nothing, in the western media today about what’s really going on in Syria, which should be front page news and discussion. We live in the Matrix, folks. Please note the time stamp of my post…
http://www.theguardian.com/uk
http://www.nytimes.com
https://www.washingtonpost.com/
Of course Russia Today are reporting it…
https://www.rt.com/
… as are some German media outlets…
http://www.dw.com/en/top-stories/s-9097
“these people are impervious to information & facts that doesn’t fit in with their blinkered viewpoints.”
Comedy Gold
“who can’t answer why 10 million Syrians out of a total population of 17 million should to defy the throat-cutters & other so called “moderates” who urged boycotting, upon the pain of death, the last Syrian Election, but instead actually voted for Assad”
You call that a mandate – funny how it disappeared when people had the chance to vote for someone else – but carry on this alternative reality is becoming quite comical.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union_legislative_election,_1984
Perhaps Bevin might wish to enlighten us as to the Soviet line on the Nazi Soviet pact post WW2?
Grown up thinking on Molotov Ribbentrop and its relevance today from a real historian
http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2014/11/10/putin-nostalgia-stalin-hitler/
Afghanistan was attacked in 2001 jsoon after the 9/11 as a precursor to the perpetual war that has been unleashed on the south Asia for the last sixteen years, don’t you go and take years off now.
The game was afoot with the assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud two days before the kick-start of the century of misery and mass murder. Evidently with the late Ahmad Shah alive the Unocal employee one Hamid Karzai could not have ascended to the throne and become the charge hand in charge of the Afghans.
“It is important to recall that the Syrian conflict began as a secular revolt against the Assad’s autocracy. The presence of Salafi terrorists was just one of the regime’s justifications for his harsh crackdowns against protesters and armed rebels who were depicted as Islamist terrorists manoeuvred by foreign powers. Only as the war protracted and frustration rose due to international inaction, divisiveness of the Syrian opposition and military stalemate, the Salafis emerged within the opposition. At the beginning of 2012 two prominent Salafi armed groups emerged: Jabhat al-Nusra (the Support Front) and Kata’ib Ahrar al-Sham (the Freemen of Syria Battalions) both of which embraced the language of jihad and called for an Islamic state based on Salafi principles (International Crisis Group, 2012). The presence of the Salafis among the opposition galvanises Assad’s support base and complicates western involvement in the conflict. ”
A rather more balanced account of the involvement of the “hand choppers” actual role in the Syrian conflict – rather than the conspiracy theories being peddled here and all the expected places.
It is worth remembering how the ersatz Left for many years pedalled another dishonest alternative reality that covered up the Gulag, the Holodomor, Katyn and dekulakization and similar atrocities in Maoist China – remember how they did their utmost to stop true socialists such as George Orwell exposing the truth. Well at least I did when I heard Bevin trotting out the old CP line at the time on Molotov Ribbentrop – about how it was the nasty Brits that made Stalin do it. Taking responsibility for ones own actions is not something that the ersatz left is too keen on.
Resident Dissident, why isn’t the Syrian crisis being properly discussed in the western media? Why isn’t it being properly discussed as the biggest crisis that’s faced the world in modern times?
RobG
There are lots of things that are not properly discussed in the Western media or in this blog for that matter – and you think Syria is getting a fair account in Russia and Iran as well. For proper discussion to happen there has to be a possibility of dialogue and engagement between alternative views so that a dialectic may occur.
“Next to nothing, absolutely nothing, in the western media today about what’s really going on in Syria, which should be front page news and discussion.”
And even less about what is going on in Ukraine. In a farce yet to hit the theatres Poroshenko has requested that Yatsenyuk resign, to join all the other ministers who have abandoned the sinking ship due to corruption. ‘Yats’ if you recall is the darling choice of Victoria Nuland. While the economy is on its knees and everyone is blaming one another in the Verkhovna Rada it is difficult to conceive a rift since both are thoroughly corrupt and fitting bedfellows, though who knows. They belong to different parties but follow the same god, Uncle Sam.
If Yatsenyuk does go the purpose is likely to be having another neocon puppet waiting in the wings. Because Poroshenko is going for a second run at killing off all the civilian population of Novorossiya in breach of Minsk 1 and 2. There is a Ukrainian military build-up where heavy equipment was supposed to have been withdrawn. There are already civilian deaths and a child reported wounded. But this is Ukraine and of no consequence to western (especially UK) media.
http://russia-insider.com/en/donetsk-blog-feb-15-9-year-old-wounded-mines-claim-more-lives-heavy-shellings-homes-and/ri12861?
@Fedup
“Afghanistan was attacked in 2001 jsoon after the 9/11 as a precursor to the perpetual war that has been unleashed on the south Asia for the last sixteen years, don’t you go and take years off now.”
Come on old chap get with the programme – you have to blame the western back “handchoppers” for starting it way before then – otherwise how can you justify the Soviet invasion (oops sorry “liberation”)
“And even less about what is going on in Ukraine.”
You clearly don’t read the Guardian (including today’s editorial) or Financial Times. You probably missed the bit about the fighting picking up or the Russians rearming the rebels according to the OSCE. I will also think you will find that it is YAts and the Govt that are seeking to take a stand against the oligarchs and it is Poroshenko that is not too keen on doing so. But hey none of this need bother you in your alternative reality.
“Boston, Woolwich, Paris – and at least One in Turkey….Were Faked…”
I have always considered Tony_Opmoc as something of an alcohol fuelled faked – lovable though he is at times
Tony, Jacques Brel was also a class act. Unfortunately, if you post Brel songs on the likes of YouTube they get almost instantly removed (I’ve tried many times). If interested here’s ‘Le bon dieu’ (the good God). Take no notice of the video, posted by a Russian guy, and listen to the song, which starts slowly and builds to a climax.
By way of background, Brel used to smoke four packs of Gauloises a day, and when he recorded this song he had been diagnosed with lung cancer…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgV8cJ-I6ss
Don’t talk to me about The Guardian and Financial Times which both ignored the genocide of Novorossiyans. I’m not surprised to see you back on your high horse pontificating in support of the glorious warmongers and in opposition to the freedom-fighters.