The news that Philip Green systematically asset stripped British Home Stores of hundreds of millions of pounds, and that these were paid to his wife in Monaco so there was no tax, is simply an everyday story of the society we live in. Not only will there probably be 10,000 redundancies, a much larger number will see their company pensions disappear due to the unexplained hollowing out of the company pension fund. Meantime Green is buying a new £100 million luxury yacht.
I am willing to predict that Cameron, Blair and Clinton all find their way on to Philip Green’s new yacht. I am willing to bet that no ex-employee of BHS ever does.
Green’s New Yacht Lionheart – He Already Has Two Others
Outrage is muted because we are just so used to it. Modern capitalism makes Gordon Gekko look like a philanthropist. The bankers’ bailout used the state to effect a mass transfer of wealth from us all to the super rich on an unprecedented scale. But the entire system is skewed to facilitate, every second, the sucking of wealth into the hands of the “elite”. The finance industry is deregulated and extraordinarily lightly taxed, when other areas of activity are heavily taxed. The large majority of transactions ordinary people undertake are subjected to major sales tax – VAT within the EU – while the financial juggling of Mr Green is not taxed at any stage. State activity which involves spending is now channelled through private providers, or involves totally unnecessary layers of financial intermediaries, in order to divert yet more money from the people to the rich. Concentration of capital and deregulation of labour markets have all tipped the balance of economic power decisively away from ordinary people.
The greatest growth in history of wealth inequality in has occurred these last three decades and it is not an accidental occurrence. It is a result of these policies designed to achieve that effect. When first initiated by Reagan and Thatcher, there was no attempt to deny these policies boosted the super-rich. It was rather claimed crumbs would accrue to everyone through trickledown. Nobody believes that any more.
President Obama held a meeting with young people in London last week and sold them his big lie, that change is possible within the present system. He told them not to be “pessimistic”.
The truth is that there is very little hope for young people in the UK. They are saddled with massive tuition fee debt as they leave a commoditised education system in which University Principals are paid £300,000 a year plus. They move in to a market which does not provide nearly enough graduate level jobs for the number of graduates produced. Work they do find leaves them at the mercy of their employers with very few rights or benefits. They will normally live most of their lives in private sector rental, where each will be a small part of the astonishing 9 billion pounds per year the taxpayer gives to private landlords in housing benefit – yet another direct transfer by the state from ordinary people to the rich. Indeed, for a great many tenants, every penny they pay in tax goes in effect to their landlord in housing benefit.
The value of derivatives bets in the City of London I have seen estimated at anything from 30 to 100 times the annual GDP of the United Kingdom. Real economic activity – buying and selling actual goods and visible services – has become almost irrelevant to money and its ownership.
Obama is wrong. There is no hope within the existing system. The extent of social and economic change which is needed is as revolutionary as that undertaken by the Russian and French revolutions. That does not mean to say it needs to be as bloody. The world has changed. When children were executed for stealing handkerchiefs, executing those who had battened off the poor did not seem such a big thing. We are more civilised now and I don’t advocate killing Philip Green.
But we do need a revolutionary mindset when it comes to certainty of the justice of the cause. I upset people by my urging us to disrespect Tories, including ordinary Tories, in my last article. But I fear this is necessary. Society is so obviously broken to the disadvantage of the many, that to indulge those who, from self-interest or media brainwashing or nostalgia, support the status quo is not helpful. People have to be shocked out of their complacency and made to see the ugly truth behind the mass propaganda. Unionists, Blairites, Tories, we should stop according them all respect. It is uncomfortable of course, but otherwise nothing will change.
Voltaire put it best when her wrote “it is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.” I would contend that the best way is to call out in public “Look at that f***ing fool! They’re wearing a chain!”.
Robert Maxwell stole millions from the Mirror pension fund, gave millions to Jewish charities, bought a big yacht, fell off it and drowned. Philip Green ( formerly Sir) stole millions from the BHS pension fund, gave millions to Jewish charities, bought a big yacht…..
The situation is completely different. Sir Philip Green has not stolen anything, and will agree or be forced to make a large contribution to the BHS pension fund.
Are you in the Mafia? If Green has not stolen anything on what basis (other than threats and intimidation) can he be forced to “make a large contribution to the BHS pension fund”
Please let me know how this works as I would like to be able to force people to make a large contribution to my pension fund.
Yup, you made sure you mentioned the charities were Jewish, didn’t you.
Relevance?
I had no idea he is Jewish, and I don’t care if he has given all his money to Jewish charities, but why the hell does he want 3 boats? They haven’t even got sails on have they?…so they must be even more boring driving ’em one at a time as it is flying a plane compared to gliding. Does he have boys onboard too?
I won’t of course mention, that the former BHS, Arcadia et al pensioners won’t be able to afford a little boat for a week’s holiday on the Norfolk Broads, now they ain’t got a job, and will probably receive as much pension as I am expecting to get from one of my former employers…
I keep getting these Dear John Letters from Nortel…”Oh about the pension you were expecting…someone has nicked most of it…but the government might give you something PPT was it??
I just bin em.
I never suggested that these small number of exceedingly rich people are just nasty thieves.
I just thought it.
I’m a thoughtcriminal.
I think its still legal, as long as you don’t say what you think.
Tony
I was going to mention Nortel- one of the most ‘gilt edged’ stocks in Canadian Pension plans- yesterday, Tony. I thought that nobody would understand. My condolences, there are tens of thousands-including some of the real pioneers of the current IT age- in your position.
Its a very expensive way of getting an education in capitalist economics and one that nobody should have to undergo.
It didn’t affect me. I took my pension with me. I transferred it to my new employer’s pension scheme…well I thought I did..but apparently they think they owe me some money. Its the people I worked with, who I feel sorry for, who didn’t transfer their pension out…some of who’m will not yet know..if they’ve change address a few times. They only traced me, because I have a most unusual surname.
I met someone in The Telegraph in the same position (two people actually) when I used to post there.
Small world.
Tony
They certainly weren’t Palestinian, eh Habbabkuk?
Is there any reason why they should have been?
Would you like someone telling you to whom to donate?
No?
Then shut up.
As relevant as if buddhist scammers (network?) had donated to buddhist charities. Or Russian scammers had donated to Russian charities ..etc. The world is tribal.
Do we see a pattern emerging here? I think we do. ?
She died – i couldn’t believe it. I was gutted. She wrote this in California in 2009, and she always replied to me. She was exceedingly talented.
“It’s Something Else Entirely. The Difference Between Leadership and Domination”
The main role of leadership is to help people get where they want to go. Leadership is specifically about individuals. It challenges individuals to think in new ways and to try to achieve things they don’t believe they can achieve. Leadership is coaching. It is guidance. It is experience and wisdom. Leadership is never about the leaders because the end goal of good leaders is to become useless; to no longer be needed by others in order to achieve their goals. Leaders empower others.
The main goal of dominators/controllers is to get people to go where they themselves want to go and do what they themselves want done. Nothing is done for the benefit of the individuals they control, in fact those being controlled give much more than they receive in return. Domination and control is all about the dominators and controllers. Individuals become irrelevant when they are controlled or dominated. Domination is undemocratic. There is rigidity in thought and action and a tendency to focus on the letter of the law as opposed to the spirit of the law. Domination and control is about hierarchy and illegitimate power over others. Dominators use others for their own ends. Dominators and controllers jobs are never done because people will always need to be controlled or they’ll be something other than what the dominators want them to be. Dominators disempower others.”
http://thinkorbeeaten.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/its-something-else-entirely.html
“We understand each other so well, Pip. Do they do same-sex weddings in Monaco?”
So David Cameron’s government voted to block Britain accepting 3000 lone children refugees. Children who have fled the wars in the Middle East, and have lost their parents, in the Western backed carnage.
Now I’m not advocating of the opening of the floodgates, and let every refugee into Britain. However it does strike me, that accepting 3000 parentless children, would’ve been seen as a act of kindness, amidst the Middle Eastern massacres that we hear and read about every day, sadly it’s not to be.
In my opinion, David Cameron’s wife Samantha Cameron, can no longer be an ambassador for Save the Children. Whilst her husband the PM, continues to to put parentless refugee childrens lives at risk. Samantha Cameron must stand down immediately and let someone else represent Save the Children.
http://www.thenational.scot/news/call-for-samantha-cameron-to-give-up-ambassadorial-role-with-save-the-children.16810
And not least because Cameron’s government is directly complicit in creating refugees in Syria, Libya and Yemen as well as sharing a general blame for Tony Blair’s Travel Agency of Terror.
Cue Anon1 to describe these kids as ‘economic refugees.’
Bevin.
Anon1 would probably describe the 3000 refugee children as sleeper agents, awaiting the the keywords from the Daesh caliphate, to activate them. ?
“An SNP MP has criticised the Government for producing a factsheet on Trident that she claims isn’t very factual, especially when it comes to the cost.
The two-page document of pithy sentences and colourful clipart was recently sent to every MP in the country by Defence Minister Philip Dunne, who was urging the politicians to back the replacement of the UK’s nuclear weapons.
Kirsten Oswald said the minister’s simple factsheet showed the government was struggling to “put together a coherent case” for Trident’s renewal.
The factsheet suggests that spend on the submarines would be spread over 35 years, which the SNP claims, “is clearly at odds with the need to find up to £41 billion of capital spend at the front-end of the programme”.
The leaflet also claims: “Our nuclear deterrent should influence the decision-making of any state that might consider transferring nuclear weapons or nuclear technology to terrorists.”
This, the SNP says, implies the Government could launch a Trident missile against states whose leaders aid terrorists, even if they offered no direct threat to the UK. Oswald said: “This material demonstrates that the UK Government is struggling to put together a coherent case for this scale of commitment to a single, unusable, weapons system.”
http://www.thenational.scot/politics/snp-mp-blasts-trident-factsheet-as-short-on-facts.16835
Add to that, the subs will be built at Barrow, serviced at Devenport, the warheads are made at Aldermaston, and serviced in the USA, so in reality the main reason to place dangerous and obsolete nuclear weapon, and subs in Scotland, is what exactly?
http://www.thenational.scot/politics/snp-mp-blasts-trident-factsheet-as-short-on-facts.16835
“This material demonstrates that the UK Government is struggling to put together a coherent case for this scale of commitment to a single, unusable, weapons system.”
I hate the way all politicians speak, and how most of them can’t utter a sentence without lying. I mean there’s obviously no fucking case for buying a tool that’s “unusable”, is there? What a silly cow. Does she practice in front of a mirror? Head of Human Resources at South Lanarkshire College for several years. Yeah, right. If the SNP leadership got the order to switch their line to support for Trident as the best thing since sliced bread, Kirsten would doubtless cheerily follow the new line. You can tell when people don’t believe a word they say and are just spewing. Turn off your tellies.
N.
Renewing the White Elephant, known as Trident, is all about, a British imperial existenial crisis. Westminster still haven’t or won’t accept that the days of the British empire projecting power are all but over. Maybe renewing Trident is a P5 thing, a kind of Bullingdon club, where you must have the same, gadgets as the next guy.
The old guard at Westminster somehow equate obsolete and almost unusable nuclear weapons as a sign of British imperial power. The trouble with that regressive thinking is that in the real world, wars are fought on a completely different platform.
So why renew a weapon that is unlikely to be used? Why not use the billions of pounds on practical military equipment, or education or the NHS or renewing infrastructures across Britain. Who gains from the renewal of Trident?
I’m against Trident whether it’s likely to be used or not. I’m probably even more against it the more likely it is to be used.
I should hope so: http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/index.php?sum=498&p1=3&p2=4&case=95&p3=5
N.
Yes indeed, but you know NK’s ballistic missiles, are a threat to the Western world, well according to some they are. As are those pesky Iranians that we never got to crush under foot, and are according to some, building nukes deep in mount Damavand.
Or Putin, when he’s finished murdering journalists or opponents who oppose his umpteenth time as president, or imprisoning Pussy Riot, again, for speaking out, might decide to fire a few dozen nukes at the West for fun, well according to some he will.
Or we could just sit back and watch, the next POTUS, Hilary (obedient) Clinton, and China’s president (we execute anyone who speaks out) Jinping Xi, start WWIII over who own the South Pacific.
Failing that we can all look on as Saudi Arabia, tries to convert or kill, everyone to Wahhabism, maybe it’s a good thing Israel doesn’t have nukes (says I tongue in cheek) the nukes they don’t posses may save us all from Wahhabism. Mind you, they’ll need a far bigger open air prison for us all, than the Gaza Strip, if they’re dastardly plans come to fruition.
Thankfully I’ve kept my Anderson shelter, just for such an occasion, now where’s, my bleeding flask gone too . ?
As there are some highly experienced financially experienced people posting here (probably very few who are economists – they actually seem to have some idea) Can someone find an accurate figure of The US Government’s true ownership of Equities (US & Worldwide)
Just Percentage figures. I am not interested in large numbers of zeros.
Cos I saw something yesterday, that I didn’t quite believe, but I am not convinced it’s not true.
I looked at the UK side how much the UK Government owns of UK equities – and it didn’t tell me the truth.
Co the ONS figures said nowt
..just that the rest of the World owns most of ours.
I am sure the UK Government owns some shares in Quoted Companies.
They can’t have sold everything?
Can They?
Tony
Tony – It is a complicated game.
The main western Central Banks are operating as a tag team.
The Fed has a “Plunge Protection Team” whose main job is to make sure stocks don’t go down. I am not sure as to the exact modus operandi, but they likely specialize in buying futures, ETF’s and various stock derivatives.
The SNB has over $100 billion directly invested in US stocks – and in line with their hedge fund brethern Apple is a big favorite.
The BoJ is a top ten holder in 90% of quoted Japanese stocks.
The ECB is buying anything that moves with a new fetish for corporate bonds. Their mandate is so loose they can, in theory buy US corporate bonds, just so long as the US entity has some kind of registered activity somewhere in Europe. Thanks to this policy Unilever was able to sell bonds with a yield of zero.
The rabbit warren is deep, we are yet to find out how deep.
Caption contest. Hasbarakook has set a high bar to beat, with his hilarious entry: “It’s a zip, you idiot!”
My entry:
“I don’t care if it’s been in a pig, David, my boy. When you need a helping hand, I’ll always be here.”
Re The Telegraph…and after 5 years…well to be honest, I was amazed, that in 5 years, I only got completely banned twice…the last time about 6 months ago…and I know when I’m not wanted…so I didn’t bother trying again..I wasn’t going to change my name and IP address…
Well, they’ve banned everyone now…but what I find really funny is that the management installed these sensors on all the journalist’s desks – to see whether they were at their desk or not – or having a pee…
And Dan Hodges hasn’t been seen since?
Jumped or Pushed?
Personally, I always did my most productive work at home via ISDN or at then end of my laptop connected mobile phone.
They still paid me, and they trusted me, because I always responded even when I was on holiday 24×7
Tony
A single-celled organism capable of learning.
Maybe there is still some hope or the Tories after all.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160427081533.htm
You’re not from York are you, Dave?
“A single-celled organism capable of learning.”
_________________
Dave.
Yes more commonly known as Henry Kissinger. ?
Kissinger is evil, but thick he ain’t.
For anyone interested in researching those who have actually done some very in depth research of the origins of what is going on now…well it is not really about money, and it is not really about religion…those are merely some slightly useful labels.
You see, I was really puzzled about this. Why would anyone want more money, than they could possibly spend in a lifetime, doing everything they wanted to do including having enough for all their friends and family.
How does even more money than you can possibly spend make you happier?
But its not about happiness either.
So its not money. its not religion, and its not about happiness.
So what is it about?
If you want to understand. You need to read the books of the people who have researched this
“The Sociopath Next Door: The Ruthless versus the Rest of Us” by Martha Stout (Brilliant Introduction)
“Political Ponerology: A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes” by Andrew M. Lobaczewski (to be honest I find this hard to read cos its like a journey through hell – but I downloaded it for free – and I normally only read books I have bought on paper)
But to me – this book I have just bought, and I am only into about 3 chapters is the most important one for me…cos its all true and I don’t want to die quite yet..and I don’t want my grandson to be injected with poisons that don’t work. I don’t mind the drugs that do work…but there is something very evil going on, and my wife, son and daughter might read this book cos I will leave it lying around, when I have finished it. They do actually pick up some of the books I buy.
“Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime: How Big Pharma Has Corrupted Healthcare” by Peter Gotzsche
Unless you Correctly Analyse the Problem, you don’t stand a hope in hell of fixing it.
The Psychopaths Don’t Care. The Just Like To Kill.
Tony
It’s all about money.
In 1624 the Dutch West India Company established the settlement of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island. They bought Manhattan from the Indians for $24 worth of beads and trinkets (the British kicked the Dutch out in 1664 and renamed the town in honor of the Duke of York, thereby giving the world a legend).
People who have lots of money can never have enough of it. It’s an obsession, a psychosis, and it’s what brings all the misery into this world.
So far as I recall The East India Company was based West of The Netherlands in The City of London at a Guess…and The Chinese were Not Impressed
“The East India Company (EIC), also known as the Honourable East India Company and informally as John Company,[1] was an English and later British joint-stock company,[2] which was formed to pursue trade with the East Indies but ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and Qing China.”
“In the 18th century, Britain had a huge trade deficit with Qing dynasty China and so in 1773, the Company created a British monopoly on opium buying in Bengal, India by prohibiting the licensing of opium farmers and private cultivation. The monopoly system established in 1799 continued with minimal changes until 1947.[33] As the opium trade was illegal in China, Company ships could not carry opium to China. So the opium produced in Bengal was sold in Calcutta on condition that it be sent to China….”
Do you want me to go on..I’m sure Craig Murray has already written it far better than I can….
but I suggest you also read another world class diplomat too..
Peter Dale Scott is a Canadian Diplomat…and he writes in great depth…and provides the dots between the ages of history. He is still alive, well, and very old (well he’s older than me)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Dale_Scott
Tony
Tony, Peter Dale Scott – great find. I learnt his name here and for that alone it’s been worth perusing these threads.
He’s a very nice man.
The British offered it back to the Dutch but they chose to keep Surinam-which then meant most of what is now British Guyana too- as well.
Shrewd chaps those Dutch merchants.
Bill Browder makes some interesting observations on Oligarch psychology. Its not about money. Its basic prison yard psychology Show weakness and you become someone’s bitch. Show strength and keep fighting for there is no other alternate. Think that you can get to £50M and retire to a Cotswold rectory or become a gentlemen farmer – forget it. Retire and your a target.
Probably possible to find some niche methodology such as run a footie club or become a monk etc.
I don’t know about prison psychology. It could just be a metaphor for basic brutal animal instincts.
Was being British the reason they put you in or let you out!.
Kilmainham Gaol, would that have been? That’s where the leaders of the Easter Rising in 1916 were kept.
Oh Dear, this will have the schmucks, you know who you are, in here choking on their Pelter Pinot Noir.
“The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has rejected a recent statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Tel Aviv will never relinquish the occupied Golan Heights.”
“Council members expressed their deep concern over recent Israeli statements about the Golan, and stressed that the status of the Golan remains unchanged,” said China’s UN Ambassador Liu Jieyi, this month’s president of the 15-nation Security Council, after a closed-door meeting in New York on Tuesday.”
Careful Mr Jieyi, they’ll have the US breathing down your neck, unless you comply.
“Council members expressed their deep concern over recent Israeli statements about the Golan, and stressed that the status of the Golan remains unchanged,”
So whupty do. The council also said Israel should stop building illegal settlements on Palestinian land and withdraw from the occupied West Bank territories, but Israel just says, “Fuck you” and goes about building more illegal settlements and stealing more Palestinian land.
Israel to confiscate 1,250 acres of Palestinian land for illegal outposts
NABLUS (Ma’an) — The Israeli authorities on Saturday delivered notices to the Palestinian village of Jalud in the northern occupied West Bank, alerting residents that 5,000 dunams (1,250 acres) of private land were slated for confiscation in what appeared to be the retroactive legalization of illegal outposts in the area.
Officials from Jalud’s local council told Ma’an that the military identified areas of the Palestinian village expected to lose land to the confiscation as Khallat al-Wusta, Shieb Khallat al-Wusta, and Abu al-Kasbar.
However, the illegal outposts of Adei Ad, Esh Kodesh, Ahiya, and Kidah have already been established in the areas, marking the confiscation as Israel’s most recent retroactive legalization of unauthorized settlement construction.
Israel’s High Court of Justice last year declared its intention to retroactively formalize the string of outposts, established in violation of both Israeli and international law, according to the UN.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771256
Silvio.
Yes indeed, but what can be done to force Israel’s hand? When the USA backs the status quo.
Here’s the link I forgot to post…duh!
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/04/26/462712/unsc-golan-israel-syria/
This has been top front page all day on the Guardian…
http://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2016/apr/27/6×9-a-virtual-experience-of-solitary-confinement
No doubt to scare-off all those pesky strikers and anyone else who disagrees with our now overtly fascist ‘government’, which has absolutely no real mandate to govern, and is, quite frankly, taking the piss.
Rob-G.
Sounds like scare tactics.
I much prefer Anders Breivik’s jail cell.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MsyKUeqmzTw/UhYlXb7uBrI/AAAAAAAAHKM/BseieOIqTEw/s1600/1.jpg
http://www.newsforage.com/2013/08/the-norwegian-prison-where-inmates-are.html
Amnesty International backs BDS, over threats from Israeli Minister of Intelligence.
“Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights defenders are unnerved, but certainly undeterred, by the thinly-veiled threat of physically harming leading BDS activists recently made by Israeli Minister of Intelligence Yisrael Katz.”
“Katz in his statements, made during an anti-BDS conference organized by a right-wing Israeli daily on 28 March 2016, plays on the official Israeli military term for assassination, “targeted thwarting,” and adds “civil” to it. But nothing “civil” can be expected given the prevalence in Israeli society of almost unprecedented racial and violent incitement against the indigenous Palestinians and the popular Israeli cheering of extrajudicial killings.”
Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs and anti-BDS czar, Gilad Erdan, also threatened that BDS activists “will start to pay a price,” without revealing any details. In the immediately following sentence, however, he explained that he did not mean any “physical harm” as these are “sensitive times.” Negating his intention to physically harm Palestinian human rights defenders in this particular context almost certainly normalizes the opposite, that it is conceivable, if not probable, in less sensitive times to physically target BDS activists.”
https://bdsmovement.net/2016/bnc-welcomes-amnesty-international-position-on-right-to-bds-13963?utm_content=bufferc72da&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Yet another strong indication that BDS is hurting, contrary to some commenters on these threads.
Paul.
Yes I have to agree, BDS, has in my opinio, been a real pain in the arse for Israeli exports around the world.
Maybe Green thinks three Ships will Grant him Three Chances when it comes to Ahhem..his turn to Fall overboard,
But it seems Obomber is the Biggest of the thieving B’s
Columnist and editor for the NY Post, Michael Gray has a phrase to describe the time period of 2008 through 2015—The Great Fleecing. It was the continuation of a great game that has played out since the rise of consumerism, a collusion of corporations and government that has squeezed the Middle Class for everything it was worth.
The vast majority toils through cycles of boom and bust, while the 1% steadily reaps the benefits of a shadow economy that siphons wealth upward. The Great Recession never hurt the elite, and the supposed recovery never helped the rest of us.
“During [The Great Fleecing], the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of the world occurred. Some $4.5 trillion was given to Wall Street banks through its Quantitative Easing program, with the American people picking up the IOU.”…
” As Gray points out,
“the Obama administration is the first two-term presidency that has not posted a 3% GDP growth on an annualized basis for 8 years. Even Franklin Delano Roosevelt posted 3% growth year during the Great Depression.”
Jobs, wages, and the GDP took a back seat to the “too big to fail” Wall St. banks, because they couldn’t trust the plebes with all that money for fear of inflation. As a result, the various schemes these banks engaged in with the free money—including mortgage-backed securities, company mergers, company debt offerings, stock buybacks—did nothing but secure that wealth for the 1%.
http://investmentwatchblog.com/obama-instituted-the-greatest-transfer-of-wealth-in-history-to-the-1-richest-62-billionaires-as-wealthy-as-half-of-the-worlds-population-this-is-getting-rediculous/
I might be able to verbally communicate, slightly better when I am slightly pissed (I’m a natural introvert – you know geeky with specs silly hair, and very badly dressed as if my mum dressed me)
but the only drugs that really work, when the job really needs to be done or it will be your balls against the wall…
Is Caffeine & Nicotine…A very strong cup of coffee with lots of sugar and milk…and a Cigarette…so I will not post a link to This for you people drinking Hardy’s Bankside Shiraz £4 a bottle (very nice)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaeLKhRnkhQ
(I apologise – I made a mistake in the post you deleted. I have seen one before – in the chemistry lab at school)
Tony
but the only drugs that really work, when the job really needs to be done or it will be your balls against the wall…
Is Caffeine & Nicotine…
Try Modafinil
Yeah. Coffee and cigarette. It seems uncivilized to begin the day without, and my cup hand is always asking why the smoking hand isn’t busy. Smoking really is more about the behavior than the nicotine, I say.
Really, try Modafinil. It’s so good you’ll use it sparingly to keep it special.
Interesting but I have my own pharmacology.
K. Crosby @ 08;35
Cheers for that one
RofScotland
Cheers too..Ever the Big Threatening Bully boys aint they… Some one, Fuck Knows who cos I aint going back to check, Said I indulged in a Hate fest..For stating FACTS…So Here They Are Again – By a Professor on the Subject –
” Here’s another telling detail. The magnitude of the devastation Israel wreaked in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge beggars the imagination. In Operation Cast Lead (2008-9), 6,300 homes were destroyed. But, do you know how many homes were destroyed in Protective Edge? 19,000. 350 kids were killed in Cast Lead, 550 in Protective Edge. But here’s the thing. As many as 300 human rights reports were issued after Cast Lead, documenting Israel’s carnage. But after Protective Edge, there was dead silence. The only major human rights organization that published reports on Protective Edge was Amnesty, and Amnesty’s reports were horrible. The silence was partly because nothing came of the human rights reports after Cast Lead. The US, acting in cahoots with the PA, impeded any action. The reports just collected dust, so the organizations ceased caring. It was also because the international community has grown inured to Israeli atrocities and Israel’s lunatic prime minister. But the biggest reason was the cowardice—or, if you prefer, prudence—of the human rights community after Richard Goldstone’s crucifixion. I can’t prove it, I want to emphasize that, but in my opinion, based on a lot of circumstantial evidence, Israel dug up dirt on Goldstone and forced him to capitulate. So, first it was Goldstone. The next victim was Christian Tomuschat, a German jurist. He got kicked off one of the Human Rights Council follow-up committees on Cast Lead by the Israel lobby. Then it was William Schabas, a prominent fixture in the human rights community. He got ousted from the UN Human Rights Council investigation into Protective Edge by the Israel lobby. It was obvious that you’d better not have any skeletons in your closet if you go after Israel. Human Rights Watch published five substantial reports after Cast Lead, some of them quite good—such as Rain of Fire, on the white phosphorus. But it said practically nothing on Protective Edge, even as that operation was by far the most destructive. The human rights organizations, they just sat it out or, in the case of Amnesty, regressed to churning out apologetics. The UN Human Rights Council was an even bigger disaster. Mary McGowan Davis, this New York state judge who replaced Schabas, was a veritable horror story.
The only chink in Israel’s armor after Protective Edge was Breaking the Silence. Otherwise, Israel had intimidated everyone into passivity. There was nothing you could quote against the official Israeli—I know it’s called narrative, I call it propaganda. I couldn’t cite anything. Human rights organizations are still scrupulously correct in the collection of facts. Where all the distortion sets in is the legal interpretation of the facts. That’s where you see the hand of people like HRW’s Ken Roth. He used to—I don’t know if it’s true anymore—personally edit the HRW reports on Israel/Palestine—they were the only ones he personally edited—because that’s when you get into the law. You are allowed to describe ghastly things, but then in the legal section, maybe you can say that it was indiscriminate, maybe you can say that it was disproportionate, but the one thing you stay away from, is saying that an attack was deliberate, as in the deliberate targeting of civilians. So, in the Human Rights Council report, they’re describing over and over and over again deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, but you’ll never see that in the legal conclusion. That’s where Mary McGowan Davis entered the picture. She shamelessly whitewashed Israeli atrocities, just as HRW’s legal expert did back in 2006, in its reports on Israel’s use of cluster submunitions in south Lebanon.
– See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2016/04/norman-finkelstein-on-sanders-the-first-intifada-bds-and-ten-years-of-unemployment/#sthash.sKqGhTG5.dpuf
“Voltaire put it best when her wrote ‘it is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.’ I would contend that the best way is to call out in public “Look at that f***ing fool! They’re wearing a chain!”
Marx:
“The pressure must be made more pressing by adding to it the consciousness of pressure. Shame must be made more shameful still, by being made public.“
“FOX
We are peaceable people.
When a man smote me I turned the other cheek;
He was abashed.
AIRMAN
Was he? it takes more than that
To abash some people.”
Dorothy L. Sayers, The Just Vengeance (1946)
Takes more than public jeering to abash some people. As a matter of fact, it’s more likely to have precisely the opposite effect, in my opinion. Public mocking and jeering will entrench people’s convictions the more firmly because they will refuse to be intimidated, and will also garner public sympathy, as British people, in my experience anyway, don’t like seeing others browbeaten in public. A disastrous idea, I think.
Are we talking about browbeating here? Or good-natured (ish) mockery? The Brits, in my experience, mostly like a good laugh, and if the target is as self-important as any CEO pulling down £mega for no tangible result, or worse, it’s a natural for Brit humour. It could even roll the general perception back to the days when spivs were vulgar and contemptible. We don’t even have to worry about the real aristocracy being the embodiment of good taste and breeding any more – all the toffs are trade now.
(Written in my crumbling castle by the light of a torch held by my last loyal retainer, who also holds an umbrella to keep bits of ceiling out of my soup)
I appreciate what you are saying. However, Craig talks about reviling and deriding ordinary Conservative voters in public, which does not sound much like good-natured mockery to me.
A couple of questions occur to me. (i) How are you going to know one voter from another in public? (ii) Will that be effective in encouraging people not to vote Conservative? My answer would be an immediate no. What would you do if someone jeered at you in public for voting for a particular party? I would say “F**k you. I’ll vote for who I want to, thanks.” (iii) If it is successful in turning people away from voting Conservative, will that be because their minds have been changed or because they have felt intimidated? I suspect the latter. In which case, people will not forget easily that they have been frightened into something.
Craig Is Asking About War Crrinals
Mockery is a tried and tested, probably for many tens of thousands of years, method of deterring anti social behavior. Indeed, it is fundamental to groups of women tempering male excess in successful egalitarian societies. Some anthropologists argue mockery was an essential component of the original revolution that made us human. What do you think carnival is?
I agree that some people dig their heels in at the moment of mocking. However, such is the power of our need to not be reviled that in my experience, given room, the mocked will seriously consider their behavior in the near future.
Maybe some are simply beyond caring but these are few and far between. Most people, if not all depending on the resources thrown at them, will curb their excesses once removed from an environment that accepts and encourages their anti social behavior.
Unfortunately it doesn’t work on Scots Nationalists. They’re usually too thick to realise you’re taking the piss out of them.
Well Fred perhaps the explanation is that nationalists, by very definition, do not remove themselves from the environment that encourages their excess. They are not being anti social, they are running with their gang.
The appreciation is mutual. I think Craig has a tendency to go a long way OTT on his victims, and this doesn’t read well, or achieve the desired result. It even causes some of his supporters to step back: his is not an old-style, small – l liberal * outlook. Someone voting for Party X is not inherently evil, merely supporting what he sees to be his interests. It’s the interests that require criticism, and often derision, not their beneficiary.
* a measure of the debasement of language by politics being that the word ‘liberal’, without qualification, no longer means anything at all.
Liberalism is respecting and accepting people’s opinions other than your own.
Attempting make others change their beliefs to yours by use of ridicule is authoritarianism, the opposite of liberalism.
It’s not authoritarianism if you’re not in authority, Fred. And I think even you will concede that attempting to change others’ views is a perfectly legitimate objective, if the means are legal..
No. I’ve posted to too many forums where facts and logic are countered with personal abuse and ridicule.
I see no difference between what Craig is advocating and branding critics of Israel anti-Semitic.
Sometimes we can agree, Fred, and sometimes we can’t. But if I find a position ridiculous, I reserve the right to say so. I freely concede the need to provide my reasons. As you may have missed in the first part of my reply to JS-D, I’m not too happy about Craig’s approach either.
Following your excellent blog today, I post three links from a discussion series with Chris Hedges, I have been following, that I think are relevant. Marx is mentioned in the second one so detractors need not watch.
Neoliberalism as Utopianism with John Ralston Saul. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgLyJp573Jo&list=PLc5LJ5vTzXNhJjBewULtHZzPvW9xGTyFd&index=12
How We Got to Junk Economics with Michael Hudson. 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4ylSG54i-A&index=30&list=PLc5LJ5vTzXNhJjBewULtHZzPvW9xGTyFd
Junk Economics and the Future with Michael Hudson. 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMuIoIidVWI
Tony
You might Best get Those Guys On Squonk. They are Good Techie’s
Well “Colorado Hula Hoops” has already got it going…on tents and tables…and with a name like that maybe he has done it on hula hoops too?? How weird is that? First time I’ve seen this..just now…and he uploaded it 2 years ago.
“LED Battery Powered Camping Strip Light Kit for Tents and Tables”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq19CC8NVzw
I’m looking at the water bottles under the chairs. It reminds one that even reptiles need water. Eggs. Why do reptiles lay eggs? Nature’s way of protecting them from sore teats.
Ba’al. No offence. I thought about you yesterday watching a muhajiba in a small, blue BM take the Ring Road at 50 mph. Never slowed for the speed cameras or newly tarmacked roundabouts , just hugged the inner kerb in lane.
Hmm. Not sure if I want to be associated in anyone’s mind with BMW. Saw one indicating the other day – life is full of surprises.
Paul Barbara
April 27, 2016 at 13:32
“giyane, you’ve just filled another part of the jigsaw. I know the NWO plan for a One World Religion.
Yes, it is a ‘Crusade’ against Islam, using the Godless Saudi and other Gulf ‘Leaders’, who in truth worship Lucifer (Satan, the Devil or whatever other moniker or ‘hat’ it adopts).”
followed by:
glenn_uk
April 27, 2016 at 14:13
“You do realise that you’re completely insane, I trust?”
Paul Barbara’s dry irony salty barbecue sauce should only be eaten once a week.
Yes, this week our oldest friend, CIA brain-fried Obama told us. I’ll put some of your salty sauce on that.
And John McCain of the Muslim Fratricide told us. http://www.voltairenet.org/article191143.html
And child refugee neglecter David Cameron told us. Nothing to be ashamed of allowing Muslim kids to be trafficked.
Yes Paul, Satan was rejected because he said he was better than humans, who were formed from an essence of clay. Saudi takfirism, the self-appointed right to kill even Muslims, is Satanic worship, because in both Gospel and Qur’anic teaching copying counts as worship.
In reality the flooding of Syria with weapons during the recent cease-fire is exactly the same as Phil Green’s third executive yacht. Muslims will never submit to Saudi brain-fracking, but because they are Saudis, and can do it and because with his connections he can do it, Green’s yacht has to be bought with the pension fund of BHS.
The Saudi regime will fall within a couple of years. ὕβρις => nemesis. pride comes before a fall.
Glenn’s comments provide inverse confirmation.
I’m afraid you lost me there. Can’t you just communicate in a simple, easily-understood fashion?
Your ‘witty’ flourishes are lost on me. I write what I believe to be true..
Barbara
“I write what I believe to be true..”
_________________
That’s the worrying thing…
Well I Know Nevernind had tech Crap…… But i fear for Fed Up… Peace
Unfortunately you can’t have real revolution without casualties. Alas, human nature being what it is, ultimately your revolution is doomed.
Doonesbury had this 15 years ago:
http://assets.amuniversal.com/e1d8d6c0015b01328e70005056a9545d
Disagree completely – you are right when you say revolution level change is required, but it will be very bloody. You cannot effect the sort of change required without an immense cost.
Todays edition of IT the counterculture paper of resistance. http://internationaltimes.it/phillip-green-joins-race-for-uks-most-hated-man/