This was my speech to the World Beyond War conference at American University, Washington DC on 24 September.
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Something worth linking to in the Guardian ;
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/03/british-army-abuses-iraq-compensation
Without shame; the Tory Trolls plan to opt Britain out of international human rights law;
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/british-troops-exempted-from-human-rights-law-bzwj89cxn
It is you who is being shameless, Macks.
Firstly, you should refer to the Conservative govt as the “Conservative govt”, not “the Tory Trolls. You seem to throw the word “troll” at everyone and anythinb you dislike. Grow up!
Secondly, you strapline is typically misleading because it gives the impression the the UNITED Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is somehow going to turn its back on international human rights in general. This is of course not true, as anyone who bothers to dip into your link will find out. I note, en passant, that you were cunning enough to provide a link which is behind a paywall – thus ensuring that the majority of CM readers will not be able to peruse the whole piece and see for themselves how limited the UK govt’s action really is.
You are really pathetic.
LOL ! Still sore I see ! 😀
If you care to view May’s trolling during PMQ’s on the Grammar schools, you will have to concede that not only does she warrant being called Theresa the Turkey, but also Theresa the Troll; as to her joke of a Cabinet, with Johnson, Fox, Leadsom, Patel, Hammond, Hunt, etc, it must either be an attempt to surround herself with catastrophic clowns in the hope she stands out less among this showers of venal fools, or just a very bad joke at the country’s expense before she gets the boot that she knows is coming.
Since you are a troll & are therefore incapable of using a search engine to find a topical breaking news story, here a link to your favourite organ of State Propaganda ;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37544280
“The Tory Trolls” will no doubt do for many of us who have lived here since birth, and still have a useable brain, O great prophet.
Well Mystic Meg has nothing on you ! You can apparently perceive whetever I have or have not “live here from birth” !! 😀
That ‘missing-in-action’ Human Rights Watch report is now to be found in google-cache:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:_4PcMaV8M5gJ:https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/09/29/interview-new-cia-torture-claims&num=1&hl=en&gl=us&strip=1&vwrsc=0
it’s all about secret base Cobalt in the Afghanistan wars, many new torture techniques, compliant doctors, dead inmates following no-crime, no-arraignment, that sort of thing, excellent work by Stephanie Hancock of the U.K. & Laura Pitter of the U.S.A.
Oh, and secret base ‘Green’ is/was in Thailand. All open source stuff, now, tho’ apparently still classified – hence the No Access to the direct url
Now HRW released to Guradian & Intercept & a few other wacky outlets.
Just got the Assange releases on Wednesday to look forward to, before the contextual analysis of this no-doubt shocking material during Dessert Week on the Grate Britsh Bake Orf, 8pm beeb1. Can’t wait! More popcorn needed!
I think he has called it off.
Somebody is going to top him.
The report you mentioned is now available, filed under 3rd October. I suspect the report was still being finalised when you first found the link to it.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/12/01/us-cia-torture-unfinished-business
https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/10/03/us-ex-detainees-describe-unreported-cia-torture
https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/10/03/interview-new-cia-torture-claims
The first link is a summary which was linked from the google cache, and which links to the other two. The Interview is the full version of the google cache, but the report is the one with the details.
“Oh, and secret base ‘Green’ is/was in Thailand. All open source stuff, now, tho’ apparently still classified – hence the No Access to the direct url”
Don’t say that! Covering up evidence of torture is a criminal offense under the Geneva Convention. HRW is notr a government organisation. If they have information about torture they are obligated to make it public. Blocking access to it just because it was “classified” by the government would constitute complicity in the covering up of evidence of torture. Fortunutely that does not seem to be what they were doing though, on the assumption that the report was being prepared for release.
Shamefully HRW provides links mixed in with the above links to a highly biased and in many ways blatently false report claiming that the Russians should be forced to stop their fight against terrorists in East Aleppo. Unlike the reports linked above which were based on interviews with torture victims by HRW staff Laura Pitter, almost all of the material in the Aleppo “report” comes from other obviously unverified sources such as the terrorist-allied White Helmets. It is 100% political and 0% evidence based, unlike the above links. Much of what it claims has been proved to be false or implausible. It is an example of what I stated earlier about HRW being infiltrated by intelligence assets at senior levels, even while many genuine staff such as Laura Pitter are honestly trying to do a good job.
Yesterday, I mentioned to our resident blood and soil protagonist, that why would anyone, in a sane state of mind send nuclear materials, to the only nation on the planet, that has dropped the bomb on a civilian population, not once but twice.
It would appear that President Putin, was thinking along the same lines.
“Russia has suspended a post-Cold War deal with the US on disposal of plutonium from decommissioned nuclear warheads. The decision was explained by “the hostile actions of the US” against Russia and Washington’s failure to observe the terms of the deal.”
“A decree signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin cites “the radical change in the environment, a threat to strategic stability posed by the hostile actions of the US against Russia, and the inability of the US to deliver on the obligation to dispose of excessive weapons plutonium under international treaties, as well as the need to take swift action to defend Russian security” as justification for suspending the deal.”
The Great Satan, (consecutive US governments) in my opinion shouldn’t receive nuclear materials from any other nation, giving a confirmed warhawk the means to create devastating weapons, which it could then pass or sell on, to butcher states, such as Israel or the Ukraine, is madness.
https://www.rt.com/news/361411-russia-suspend-plutonium-deal/
One for Michael Norton
“Hackney rocked by series of pavement explosions”
http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/hackney-rocked-by-series-of-pavement-explosions/ar-BBwVD1x?ocid=spartandhp
Diane Abbott out for a walk?
Ask Habba…he’s the resident Diane Abbott expert :0)
Can’t be; no gas involved.
Dougie.
Oh I’m sure the Express, and Michael, will claim it’s Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP ‘s fault. ?
I’m surprised Anon1 hasn’t piped in, that it must be the fault of tiny immigrant terrorists.
So according to this report, US Secretary of State John Kerry knows fine well that the US, haas absolutely no right to be in Syria, Kerry is reported as saying.
“We don’t have a basis (to intervene), our lawyers tell us, unless we have a UN Security Council Resolution which the Russians can veto or unless we are under attack from folks or unless we are invited in. Russia is invited in by the legitimate regime,” said Kerry acknowledging the Assad government’s stature under the doctrines of international law.”
Now that’s a pretty damning admission, but Kerry is a master at hypocrisy if nothing else, as his next statement clearly shows.
“The problem is that the Russians don’t care about international law, and we do,” said Kerry attempting to claim the position of moral and legal superiority despite laying out evidence directly to the contrary.”
Kerry claims the moral high ground (stop laughing) under the doctrine “right to protect” which states intervention is allowed if a regime is killing its own people. But Syria is not, the Assad government along with Russia and Iran are defending Syrian’s against Western backed fighter groups such ISIS and Al Nusra.
“In fact, the Syrian government has repeatedly called on the United States to be evicted from the country’s airspace, most recently following the attacks in Deir Ez Zor against a Syrian Army base that led to the death of 62 soldiers, injured 100 others and “paved the way” for a major offensive by Daesh (ISIS) terrorists with the assault and subsequent offensive occurring almost in tandem.”
The war on Syrian’s is a lie, that has gone unchecked by the UN, in much the same way, as the war on Palestine went unchecked by the UN for decades.
Read more: https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20161001/1045911056/kerry-assad-syria-airstrikes-illegal.html
China has just taken a huge step, in terms of the global economy, on the 1st of October the Yuan was added to the IMF’s SDR basket.
The US Dollar is still up there, but prone to shock, which is constantly reinforced by countless wars, backed up by asset stealing coups, carried out by the Great Satan.
The Yuan now becomes a global currency, in the form, that it can now be traded more freely.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-27/why-china-s-yuan-is-set-to-join-imf-s-elite-club-quicktake-q-a
Well the IMF doesn’t seem to be too picky as long as its reserve coffers are full. China has an appalling record on human rights, and is notorious for executing prisoners covertly. HRW and Amnesty International have no solid figures, on the amount of Chinese nationals that have been executed, and for what reason.
Indeed the Chinese authorities, have just closed down a liberal website used by intellectuals, which saw discussions on history politics and economics take place.
http://m.asianews.it/index.php?art=38751&l=en
Ayelet Shaked, Israel’s justice minister (a nasty peace of work) was in Columbia recently talking at a university to around ten vetted people, whilst hundreds protested outside.
Shaked, spoke of the renewal of the idea to use the “Jordanian Option” first touted under Shimon Peres.
The idea is that a deal could be struck with Jordan, to push Palestinians under its jurisdiction, as Israel maintains effective control over the occupied West Bank.
Shaked refers to the occupied West Bank as “Judea and Samaria,” the name used by the Israeli government, and hardline Zionists to assert biblical legitimacy for Israel’s occupation.
Shaked denies Israel is an occupier, claiming that the West Bank is merely “territory under dispute.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/genocide-advocate-ayelet-shaked-revives-peres-plan-west-bank?utm_source=EI+readers&utm_campaign=d9265899b7-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e802a7602d-d9265899b7-299185473
Greek Pensioners gassed.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-37544416
Police in Greece have used tear gas on pensioners who were protesting against cuts to their income from the state.
Not good.
Greece is in the E.U.
but is falling through the floorboards
Due to austerity reforms, pensions in Greece have been cut repeatedly and they are now worth 25-55% less than they were before the economic crisis.
Pensions are a sticking point in Greek dealings with international creditors.
Of course, because they voted the wrong way, just like the left over here keeps voting the wrong way. That’s what RoS and CM just don’t get, hence their desire to remain in the EU.
Under the terms of the 2015 deal, creditors – including the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank, and the Eurozone – are to provide €86 billion in aid to Greece by 2018 in return for unpopular austerity measures. The reforms include tax hikes, pension cuts, as well as the privatization of public assets. Greece is also obliged to bring down a primary budget surplus to 3.5 percent of GDP by 2018.
Eurozone authorities have already approved a tranche of €10.3 billion from the overall package with an initial €7.5 billion transferred to Athens in June.
https://www.rt.com/news/361468-greece-protesters-tear-gas/
The E.U. must be teetering on the brink of collapse, good job we are leaving
BREXIT MEANS BREXIT
‘Merkel MUST GO’ GERMANY in FLAMES as furious locals torch cars and attack mosque
HUNDREDS of furious protesters heckled Angela Merkel in Dresden just days after police cars were set on fire in the city and bombs exploded outside a mosque.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/717146/Merkel-must-go-Germany-in-flames-Dresden-cars-torched-mosque-attack
Yes the E.U. is ticking along just nicely.
I can’t understand why the SNP is so keen on the E.U.
“Yes the E.U. is ticking along just nicely.
I can’t understand why the SNP is so keen on the E.U.”
__________
Michael, of course you can’t understand, the Express, has turned what little brains you had left, into mush. ?
Scotland has long been a committed and engaged part of the European Union. For more than 40 years individuals, businesses and communities across Scotland, have experienced the social, economic and cultural benefits of EU membership. They include the freedom to live, study, work, trade or travel across the 28 member states, soon to be 27.
The right to work and study across the continent, has created opportunities for an estimated two million UK citizens, who have chosen to live, work and study in other EU countries. Scotland in turn benefits from the 173,000 EU nationals living here, enriching our culture, strengthening our society and boosting our economy.
The EU supports the ambitions of people to improve their lives, of businesses to grow, and of governments to achieve economic prosperity. It gives us valuable and hard fought for social protections, like employment rights, maternity and paternity leave and the right not to be discriminated against on the grounds of age, gender or race.
It gives us the opportunity to work in solidarity with others across the continent to tackle pressing global challenges, such as the movement of refugees and migrants, energy security and climate change.
Freedom to live, study, work, trade or travel. Employment rights
The right not to be discriminated against. Work in solidarity with others.
Scotland and the UK as a whole also benefits from EU grants, grants that will stop after the conclusion of Brexit. Add in the never ending reduction of the Scottish block grant by Westminster, it then makes sense for Scotland to become independent.
Wales receives €1000 per person ftom the EU in grants, more than any other section of the UK, bar Cornwall, yet the Welsh people voted to leave the EU. I very much doubt Westminster will plug that gap after 2020, when the EU funding stops, I wish the Welsh people all the best in the future, I think they’re going to need it.
As for Cornwall, it wouldn’t surprise me if the Duchy, was hoovering up most of the EU funding, that is of course the nature of a parasite.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/01/mapped-where-in-the-uk-receives-most-eu-funding-and-how-does-thi/
Utter delusionist.
You cannot believe that crap
Michael.
What’s the matter, can’t you comprehend anything that isn’t in the Express?
Hang about for few minutes, I’m sure Habb, will pop up and give you some more (false) literal moral boosting pats on the back.
Should read “morale” and moral.
It’s OK RoS, we understand you and Craig only too well.
http://counsellingresource.com/therapy/self-help/stockholm/
Of course, Craig has already told us how his grammar school was one of those military ones; we just wait for you to come clean.
“Should read “morale” and moral.”
Observe the “nit-picky” nature revealed.
RoS
I can comprehend quite a lot.
I chose to read the Daily Express as it currently meshes with my views on some issues but not all, I understand it is aimed at persons of a lesser intelligence but I do not despise the readers of this rag because they may be stupid.
I thought that Eton educated Dave Cameron was stupid.
I think Edstone Miliband was stupid and I think Tiny Tim stupid.
But they should in a democracy be allowed to sout their views.
Perhaps the SNP should be placed on a pedestal,
not questioned,
thought to be a perfect reflexion of god.
I prefer to think that all political partys are impure.
Unfortunately he does.
The European corpse is a horrible post war construct, it has failed, cut it free and let the poor sod drown, let it find peace in the deep waters of the Med.
“Michael, of course you can’t understand, the Express, has turned what little brains you had left, into mush.”
Sorry to interrupt RoS but allow me to tell one of those Grammar School stories, like Craig did, only you appreciate I am no great word-smith like Craig.
So I think it was 1962 when HM decided to visit us to show her great bounty. We in the grammar school got dragged down to the main road to see HM come past, but not a single one of us gave her a single cheer, cos we knew our overlord was here. She went past the print works next and they all started cheering. She went past the railway works and the cheers got even louder, but loudest of all was the secondary modern school.
They gave this phenomenon a fancy name many years later. They called it “Stockholm Syndrome”. I do humbly suggest that you and Craig read up on it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome
Alan.
I know of Stockholm Syndrome, if I recall it was hostages held captive in a Swedish bank during a bank robbery, that began to empathise with their captures.
But Michael has taken empathy to a whole new level with the Express. ?
As for the adoration of the royals, the “third estate” that’s you and I, are force feed , in education and religion, to believe that the royals have a divine right, “Dieu et Mon Droit” if you like. They don’t.
RoS
The Daily Express was the most keen newspaper for the United Kingdom to leave the European union.
We have recently held a Referendum, getting popular, aren’t they?
The outcome of that Referendum was that most of those who voted voted for the United Kingdom
to leave the European Union.
nuff said
Republic – You seem to have missed a few features of the EU. Allow me to help.
The EU slavishly follows orders from the US and so consequently supports Nazis in the Ukraine and imposes sanctions on Russia – both policies are designed to advance the US policy of triggering a global (probably nuclear) war.
The EU manifestly despises the rule of law and so adopts a chaotic policy of allowing the immigration of unknown numbers of “refugees.” It does not want these “refugees” for any economic purpose and its motives are entirely unclear. The motives cannot be humanitarian otherwise the EU would not require the “refugees” to firstly sail across the Med in un-seaworthy vessels. Perhaps their main motivation is to kick start an EU wide civil war just in case their plans for a thermo-nuclear armageddon are thwarted.
The EU is also home to Deutsche Bank – one of the most corrupt and systemically dangerous enterprises on the planet. None of which apparently bothers the EU as they are busy seeking to destroy their currency through injections of funny money leaving no time to investigate or regulate the activities of Deutsche Bank.
The EU so loves humanity that it has adopted policies designed to crush the life out of Greece and Greek citizens. For once its policies appear to be working as intended. Citizens of countries like Spain are free to sit in the sun and slowly starve or move to places like the UK and wash the dishes of the local bourgeois clerks. Not that the EU would like you to feel any guilt over the economic crushing of Southern Europe – rather they want you to glory in your goodness for supporting the free movement of labor.
There is no doubt that the British state has committed many grave crimes – most of them without the knowledge or support of the British people. But the people have in part atoned for the sins of the state through delivering the decisive death blow to the corrupt and rotting edifice that is the EU.
For what reason would the average person in Scotland wish to stand apart from this great act? Surely it cannot be that Scottish people desire anarchy and chaos or that they wish to endlessly stamp their iron heel into the faces of the people of Southern Europe.
Looney.
I don’t profess the EU to be a perfect entity it most certainly is not…but
Your first chapter, is rather insignificant as most nations bow to the US. The EU to a certain degree is no exception, however the proposed EU army will weaken Nato’s overlord the US, as several prominent British politicians have openly stated. It may prevent Europe being dragged into US wars in the long run.
Your second chapter…erm Looney I don’t see any other continent offering to take refugees from war torn region that, have been devastated by Nato bombings, including British bombing, yet Theresa May want to slam the door shut. The EU is at least trying to help.
Your third chapter, Looney it may have escaped your notice, but just about all banks are corrupt, Deutsche bank is no different, it’s at best a mute point.
Your fourth chapter Greece, I’m sure most people, who know how Greece managed to gain acess to the EU, in the first place would quite happily inform you that Greece, was not financially viable at the time, and was quite happy to forge its GDP to gain access to the market. Paying tax in Greece, was for a long time a novelty, and widespread civic corruption was rife.
I’d say the mess Greece is in is down to poor governance.
Yes Greece’s creditors have been harsh, on that I agree, but I’m sure your own bank manager would have no hesitancy in evicting you if you failed to pay your mortgage.
Your fifth chapter, Looney the people are not the ones that have crushed Libya, and left it as a failed state, nor did the people, bomb Iraq and kill thousands, nor did the people aid the US, in the attempt to crush Assad. No it was and still is the British government, who blindly follow the USA’s warhawk foreign policy.
As I stated at the beginning of this comment, the EU is a flawed organistation, but the four freedoms of 500 million plus people are in my opinion worth saving it.
ELIE
Congratulations on some sense for a change.
Particularly glad to see you agree with me that ” the mess Greece is in is down to poor governance.” I trust you’ll allow me to quote you on that in the future?
“trust you’ll allow me to quote you on that in the future?”
__________
Good Evening Habb.
You most certainly can. ?
“You most certainly can.”
Even as he denies having “Stockholm Syndrome”.
LMAO
Notice how he responds to the abusive name “ELIE” while denying any hint of “Stockholm Syndrome” 🙂
Your answers are trite.
For what reason does the EU only bestow its munificence on “refugees” once they have been forced to run the gauntlet of people smugglers and dangerous sea crossings? How does the EU know that the people it is admitting are the victims of NATO bombing or any other kind of bombing? The only way I am aware of answering this question is to document and catalogue new arrivals – something that the EU steadfastly refuses to do.
Sure all banks are corrupt – but none to the scale of Deutsche Bank. As ultimately Deutsche Bank will, for \Germany, prove to be the economic equivalent of Stalingrad perhaps the EU would be best advised to pay some attention. That they refuse to do so is instructive.
With regard to Greece it is good to see that you adopt the tried and tested blame the victim card. I note that this card appears unplayable with regard to “refugees”
I have no idea what the “4 freedoms” of the EU means in either theory or practice. But I’ll take out my money and make a bet that whatever they are they will not survive the implosion (or possibly explosion) of Deutsche Bank.
ROS; “I’d say the mess Greece is in is down to poor governance.”
Then you would be spouting economically illiterate nonsense; try researching instead repeating self-serving MSM misrepresentations;
Perhaps start here;
https://verdict.justia.com/2015/07/28/who-is-to-blame-for-the-greek-crisis-the-greeks-or-europes-leaders
Remember, whenever you find yourself in agreement with the Habba-Clown, you are almost certainly making a complete fool of yourself.
Loony to RoS, in his usual polite way:
“Your answers are trite.”
And yours are substantive??
Excuse me while I laugh!
Habbabkuk – So “the mess in Greece is down to poor governance”
I notice you don’t say whose poor governance. If you did you may have to explain why 10 year Italian debt currently yields 1,26% whilst 10 year Greek debt yields 8.1%. Some may think this a slightly odd cost of funding differential especially given that the Italian economy is now smaller than in was in 2000.
On the off chance that you have any curiosity as to who might benefit from such an implausible cost of funding differential look no further than Deutsche Bank and a few other select players in the oh so munificent German economy.
Macky
I suspect you know very little about 20th century Greek history and politics.
But I admit you’re very good at seeking out websites and posts which support the views you have already adopted beforehand (in this case, Greece as the innocent victim of an international conspiracy).
Poor governance by none other than sovereign Greek governments, Loony.
In recent times,the rot really started with the first PASOK government under that crook and con man Andreas Papandreou.
Rather further back, you will recall that Greece went bankrupt at the end of the 19th Century under the inspired leadership of Harilao Trikoupis (no Euro, no evil Deutsche Bank, no EU, no CIA, no Israel, no Bilderbergers……).
Macky You must not upset the Resident Clown, as you call him, by speaking of the engineered collapse of the Greece economy.
Here is Part Two of that excellent essay by the renowned Professor of Law from George Washington University.
Blaming the Victims in Greece: Part Two of a Two-Part Series of Columns
http://verdict.justia.com/2015/07/30/blaming-the-victims-in-Greece
Bravo to those poor people whose country was bankrupted but whose hearts were large enough to accept that huge influx of refugees.
Habba-Clown; “you will recall that Greece went bankrupt at the end of the 19th Century ”
Since you want to go so far back;
“What is never reported is that Greece has essentially been a debt colony from the early days of its establishment as a modern nation-state. Debts from the Ottoman Empire continued to be repaid until 1965. For decades upon decades, Greece was obliged to turn over its tax receipts from goods ranging from salt to tobacco products to matches, to a consortium of “great powers” (Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, Austria, and Russia) to repay debts dating back to the 19th century”
https://off-guardian.org/2016/06/27/life-in-a-modern-day-debt-colony-the-truth-about-greece/
Read the whole thing, you might actually realise that you don’t know as much about Greece as you think you do.
@Sharp Ears, Nobody with any sense expects anything sensible or honest from the Habba-Clown, but ROS is also an annoying loose cannon at times, and probably the worst advocate for Scottish Independence that there could be, not helped by the mindless regurgitating of disingenuous MSM soundbtes on issues he/she clearly has very shallow knowledge on, like Muslims, Russia, Greece, etc, etc Always decries MSM propaganda/bias on Scottish affairs, but laps it up & splashes it all over this blog on most other subjects.
Macks
You must not believe everything you read on obscure, far left-wing websites, written by obscure, far-leftwingers pushing an anti-EU, anti-West viewpoint.
The fact is that the Trikoupis govt managed to bankrupt Greece by borrowing more than it was able to repay (combined with economic mismanagement more generally), Nothing at all to do with residual debt left over from the Ottoman Empire.
It is certainly true that Greek finances were under international control from that bankruptcy until before WW2. A damn good job too – the only pity is that the same control did not occur back in 1981 when the corrupt, thieving and incompetent govt of Andreas Papandreou gained power; had it been, Greece might not be in the economic mess it is in today.
Back to school for you, Macks, I’m afraid.
@Habba_Clown, You can try all you like to blag away your economic & historical illiteracy, but a clown you are & a clown you will always remain.
Too late for you to go back to school, so try to educate yourself by having a read of this, pertinent stuff starts at about page 97, (lots of big words so good luck ! 😀 )
http://www.aijcrnet.com/journals/Vol_3_No_12_December_2013/15.pdf
Macky comment @23.08pm.
Macky utters.
,” but ROS is also an annoying loose cannon at times, and probably the worst advocate for Scottish Independence that there could be”
But I don’t recall any indepth comments from Macky on Scottish independence, maybe in the future Macky will enlighten us all on the matter, I await with bated breath.
Macky the pipes up with.
“disingenuous MSM soundbtes on issues he/she clearly has very shallow knowledge on, like Muslims, Russia, Greece, etc, etc Always decries MSM propaganda/bias on Scottish affairs, but laps it up & splashes it all over this blog on most other subjects.”
Well of course I support Scottish independence I make no secret of it, why else would I defend it. On the other matters, I’ve stated countless times in here, (Scottish independence aside) Ive denounced on occasion all , sides, where I feel it’s appropriate, including Greece, Israel, Iran, Russia the UK the USA, infact any nation.
If that makes you feel uncomfortable Macky, then tough, don’t read my comments.
Macky comment @21.50pm
Macky says.
“Then you would be spouting economically illiterate nonsense; try researching instead repeating self-serving MSM misrepresentations;”
Macky then provides a link, we can all provide links to Greece’s predicament, claiming on thing or another such as this one, which opens with.
“Bankers loaned billions to the Greek government in the 2000s to gamble on rapid growth.”
“Greece was especially profitable, because the euro tied its relatively weak economy to countries such as Germany.”
“But the banks tried to call in their debts after the crisis hit in 2007-08. The Greek economy shrank during the recession and tax revenues fell. ”
“Fearing it wouldn’t pay back its loans, the bankers charged higher and higher interest rates. The bailout was really a bailout of these bankers. ”
“The institutions made sure they got paid—most of the loan money went straight to them without paying for anything in Greece.”
https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/40830/Why+is+Greece+in+so+much+debt%3F+A+brief+background+to+the+crisis
Of course to Macky and Looney, there must be some kind of conspiracy, over Greek debt, other than the banks calling in huge loans, on a country that saw civic corruption and mass tax avoidance as a way of life.
Only time for a short reply as on the move today;
@ROS, Take your “I’m sure your own bank manager would have no hesitancy in evicting you if you failed to pay your mortgage.”
Is this not a moronically false analogy which betrays no knowledge of the situation ?; Even on a simple level, it’s like you have never heard of financial mis-selling, and that you believe that in the U.S. subprime crisis, those really at fault were only the subprime borrowers who bought houses they couldn’t afford, rather than the predatory lenders who encouraged them to take them out !
Looney’s comment @21.39pm.
Re your first chapter, there has been such a influx of refugees from North Africa, and the Middle East, that it has overwhelmed EU countries. Europe’s infrastructure wasn’t designed to cater for such a swell in capacity, with some EU nations already struggling financially, such as Italy, Portugal and Greece.
Of course they can’t catalogue everyone, but Europe, reluctantly, I agree, in some case has taken them in, from countries we’ve destroyed mainly under Nato’s overlord the USA’s aggressive foreign policy decisions.
I suggest you rethink your point, for if the EU hadn’t taken those people in, then no doubt far more would’ve died on the streets of Libya, Iraq or Syria.
Looney on your second chapter, you seem to be blinkered to the machinations of other heavy weight banking institutions activities, over lets say the last decade, and you remain fixated on the Deutsche bank.
The crash of 2008, which eminated in the US in my opinion, saw huge banking institutions around the globe receive huge bailouts, from the US Federal Reserve, and also from governments around the world, do you perhaps believe those banks that needed bailing out, did so because they were innocent vicitims of the crash?
On your third chapter Looney, if you borrow heavily and don’t meet the payments, then your creditors, have the right to call the debt/s in. Do you find that concept difficult to comprehend?
Finally you admit that you don’t even know the four basic freedoms of the EU, yet you vehemently attack the EU as a whole, I rest my case.
Macy’s comment @13.44pm.
Macky I used the mortgage analogy just as a basic example, I’m pretty sure the Greek government when, applying for and receiving billons of Euro’s in loans, would’ve had plethora of well trained lawyers, scrutinising the deal.
No doubt the Greek government would’ve also known the consequences of not meeting their payments on the loans. The fact that the loans were called in, is a sign of poor governance, if Greece had kept to the terms, it wouldn’t be in the state it’s in, in my opinion.
Still in the defence of the Greeks, sanctions on exports to Russia, of which Greece, send vast amounts of fruit and vegetables, wouldn’t have helped. Though other nations who’ve lost business with Russia through sanctions, still manage to pay their debts.
No doubt you see it differently, with the hidden hand of Baphomet, or some other entity, trying to destroy Greece, in the name of some obscure ulterior motive.
@ROS, firstly I am not criticising your support for Scottish independence, which is something I actually support; rather I’m drawing attention to your behaviour of on the one hand of rightly treating MSM reports on Scottish issues with the utmost suspicion, yet on the other hand treating other MSM reports as gospel, especially on subjects that the TPTB have a vested interest in being reported in a certain slanted way.
As to proudly claiming that you criticised all sides as you see fit, all I see is you falling for & repeating discredited MSM memes over & over, until somebody actually bothers to take issue with you, like I have just done over the disgustingly disingenuous meme that the Greeks themselves are too blame for the situation that they find themselves in. I have already linked to several articles & reports that refutes this simplistic & lazy, and especially pernicious misrepresentation, and I link to yet another one below, but first some pertinent facts;
It was in many people interests, as well as many institutions interests (in both cases predominately non-Greek), that Greece joined the EU when it did; hence the cooking of the books by Goldman Sachs.
Greece was unlucky enough to host the first Olympic Games after 9/11 (2004), which meant that the original cost was dwarfed by the final cost because of the extra security expenses.
The 2008 Worldwide Financial Crash (when Capitalism went bust), badly affected most countries, but more so those with weak & fragile economies like Greece; this in turn attracted financial vultures, who are only interested in exploiting dire situations for their own gain, hence all the loaded “loans” with unendingly long strings.
One of these strings was that Greece subscribed to TINA, “Austerity” in other words; yet during many of these recent mandated years of austerity, where Greece was living on these loans, she just happened to embark on an unprecedented military spending spree, outspending many other EU countries, and it just happened that most of this money was going to German, French & UK weapons manufacturers; yes our very own European Military Industrial Complex, basically just plain corruption.
So a combination of extreme bad luck & very crooked financial shenanigans, have led to where the ordinary Greeks find themselves today, all events that they themselves had no active part in, so to try to lay the blame it all on them is as offensive as it is ridiculous.
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/world-affairs/2012/05/exploding-myth-feckless-lazy-greeks
Loony
Is there an unscheduled full moon tonight?
“Is there an unscheduled full moon tonight?”
No idiot! It is the “Black moon” which is a new moon and probably not visible until tomorrow night.
Just to help you out:
http://www.space.com/34162-black-moon-guide.html
H.T.H.
A little research may help you to understand that the phases of the moon are entirely predictable hence there is no possibility of there being an “unscheduled full moon” – either tonight or any other night.
Loony
Clunk! Clunk!
Loony
Feel like answering RoS’s points (on the EU)?
Engaging in a little discussion and debate?
I look forward to the two Titans engaging…..
I hear there is to be a retrospective wealth tax on the Coal Board aka British Government to pay for Welsh Coal.
“Liars and Justice in Afghanistan. Inquiries into British Army Conduct”
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/10/03/liars-and-justice-afghanistan-inquiries-into-british-army-conduct.html
“A book titled Brigade Commander describes in stirring fashion the experiences of a British Army senior officer when fighting a war in Afghanistan. It is a fascinating diary, which the publisher rightly states is «an essential book for anyone interested in warfare in Afghanistan».
Brigadier Henry Brooke recorded, amongst other perceptive observations, that «an Afghan is so natural a liar that no one thinks of believing them, and among themselves they are never weak enough to put any trust one in the other, and in this they are quite wise, as a more treacherous lying set of beings do not, I suppose, exist on the face of the world». He wrote this in April 1880, during Britain’s Second Afghan War, and was killed four months later, gallantly fighting for a lost cause.”
Sounds like another war I may have got involved in 🙂
I think it is probably true that most Afghans are consummate liars.
I wonder (copyright : Lysias) if it’s not a survival tactic akin to camouflage in the natural world.
Habba-Clown; “I think it is probably true that most Afghans are consummate liars.”
If anybody made such a racist comment about J@@s you would be demanding that the Mods remove such antisemitism.
Apart from being a disgusting racist, an appalling ignoramus & brazen hypocrite, you are also a shameless proven liar, so if you something is “true”, it has no meaning.
Macks
OK, I’ll amend that to read : “Most Afghans and Macky are consummate liars”.
Poltroon!
you don’t like the truth!
https://freeomar.ca/videos/you-dont-like-the-truth-4-days-inside-guantanamo/
It is true I’m afraid, Macky. They have many great qualities, but honesty isn’t one of them. Brigadeer Brooke had it just right and nothing much has changed.
@Anon1, I wouldn’t have expected a person of your known views to express anything different; mass stereotyping is racists, unless it’s done by racists !
Lying is a survival skill. It is the essential truth hidden behind the propaganda of Rousseau’s social contract.
“I think it is probably true that most Afghans are consummate liars.”
The “enemy”, whoever the current enemy is, is always “consummate liars.”
I learnt that well when I was only 24, but you appear to have not learnt much at all despite being old.
On those consummate liars in Afghanistan:
https://markcurtis.wordpress.com/2016/09/30/training-in-terrorism-britains-afghan-jihad/
Liars and Justice in Afghanistan. Inquiries into British Army Conduct
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/10/03/liars-and-justice-afghanistan-inquiries-into-british-army-conduct.html
“A book titled Brigade Commander describes in stirring fashion the experiences of a British Army senior officer when fighting a war in Afghanistan. It is a fascinating diary, which the publisher rightly states is «an essential book for anyone interested in warfare in Afghanistan».”
Irish Nazi Police Quiz innocent persons from Eastern Europe, shame on them
The workers, seven Romanians and one Lithuanian, had no identification documents.
They were driven to Dundalk Garda (Police) station where they were held for several hours before being waterboarded
by members of the SNP / IRA
Soon, in Scotland, the scales will fall from the eyes of the populace as they come to understand that the enriching ( for themsleves)
party SNP members are liars and thieves, charlatans peddling misstruths and false promisses.
Hysterical, MN. I turn off Habbabreak to see if you’ve recovered your sanity -assuming you ever had any – and I find an unattributed (Express?) outburst confusing the Gardai with the IRA, and, more bizarrely still, with the SNP (which long before your time, and ever since has agreed not to pursue violent routes to independence). If the Express was responsible for that smear, and you didn’t ejaculate it yourself, try reading the bits of the Express that deal with immigrants*, and discover some divergence, if not with your selfrighteous fury, then with with your own *intelligent* opinion.
Which interests me not at all, so it’s back on with Habbabreak.
*Teaser here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/daily-express/
Sweet dreams!
Look, in all this monkey-shine about the EU, how great it is, and why the UK (and an ‘Independent Scotland’ – ‘Independent’ but subserviant to the EU Bureauprats – should it come to pass), why does no one bring out that the EU is an unelected, unaccountable, selected (by Banksters and Corporations) ‘Government’?
WELL, come on, folks. ANSWER THE QUESTION.
Should have been ‘…should it come to pass) should remain in /join the EU….. but I suspect the intention and point got across, despite my slip.
“WELL, come on, folks. ANSWER THE QUESTION.”
Well thanks to the EU, like Priti Patel, when the interest rates went crazy, we lost two houses we had worked hard to buy.
Of course, now they have done the opposite. Work hard, save your money, and we’ll give you not enough interest to make it worth walking to the bank and paying money in.
I always get the distinct impression that even interest rates are total rort. So, you get some grey man, talking sonorously about AAA ratings, and economic conditions, and caution on house prices – but in fact it’s all bollocks. Low interest rates are excellent for the banks, who are happy to gamble with all our money, without so much as paying us a decent interest rate – and charging us heavily for the privilege. They keep interest rates low through all sorts of venal strategies, yet feign an economic rationale.
I have some small savings, and the interest rate is laughable. Compare that to what I’d expect to get reamed for a mortgage, and questions arise. At senior levels they are, almost to a man and woman, greedy, cynical, duplicitous crooks, as are their little satraps in parliament. In the US in particular, I remain a little surprised that they weren’t, as a class, lynched and chucked off a bridge. Still, maybe after the next massive fuck up, not long to go now …
Why should they pay you interest for keeping your deposit guaranteed, when the tax-payer is granting them as much money as they’d like to have, effectively interest free?
Blame the BoE for printing vast amounts, in “quantitative easing”, keeping interest rates at effectively zero, and making the taxpayer the guarantor for whatever gambling the banksters might like to do with their free money in the meantime.
Socialise the losses, privatise the gains – Anon1 and his mates just love to see it happen, while they pretend to be on the side of the common man. How they can still peddle that flat out lie over many generations is a marvel in itself.
PM opposes opt out from HR for soldiers on the battle field.
Presumably drone “pilots” will not benefit from this.
Oops ! Just posted about this under my comment that linked to this;
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/03/british-army-abuses-iraq-compensation
“Tuesday of conference, it’s always National Front day’”
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/10/06/theresa-may-mass-immigration-cohesive-society_n_8249048.html
UK just torpedoed a proposed DUTCH-led EU resolution at the united nations , a UN official said on condition of anonimity.
The Dutch were proposing to send a human rights relevant U.N. Fact finding mission to Yemen to report back on violations in March 2017.
Following the alleged UK pressure, a much weaker Arab-led resolution was adopted, with vague aims and no human rights investigatory visits. . .
Great to see the UK has already opted Yemen out of the international human rights legislation, prostrate on behalf of the King, gold rolexes all-round. . .
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-un-idUSKCN11Z276
Another good Medialens Alert, on how MSM lies lead to mass murder;
http://medialens.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=827:the-great-libya&catid=54:alerts-2016&Itemid=248
SNP plans will make SCOTLAND highest-taxed part of the United Kingdom.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/snp-plans-will-make-scotland-8974061
and there you have it.
I am sure the E.U. will give Scotland free money.
United Kingdom manufacturing output at highest since 2014
https://www.rt.com/business/361460-uk-manufacturing-activity-high/
Growth was led by the consumer goods sector, where output rose at the quickest pace in eighteen months, the report said.
“The rebound over the past two months has been encouragingly strong, and puts the sector on course to provide a further positive contribution to GDP in the third quarter,” said Rob Dobson, senior economist at IHS Markit.
The manufacturing sector growth encouraged companies to take on additional staff during September. Employment rose for the second straight month, after declining throughout the earlier part of the year.
Export orders jumped at their fastest rate since January 2014 as the weak pound was helping UK firms sell their goods overseas.
“The weak sterling exchange rate remained the prime growth engine, driving higher new orders from Asia, Europe, the USA and a number of emerging markets,” said Dobson.
David Noble of the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply said in addition to the weak British currency “it was largely domestic orders that fueled the rise in overall activity.”
BREXIT MEANS BREXIT
Yes, like they did Greece 🙂
They gas pensioners in Greece, if they complain that their pensions have been cut.
BREXIT MEANS BREXIT
I was just watching the Greek pensioners trying to roll the police coach over 🙂
SYRIZA govt raises taxes again: cigarettes (currently cheap at only 4 euros a pack, vehicle road tax (Greeks are in love with the car), comaony tax (just the right way to stimulate investment!), etc…..
The sins of sovereign Greek govts, past and present, are well and truly coming home to roost.
The Fascist Britain installed after WWII (turning their guns on the Anti-Fascist Greek Resistance – British officers told their troops that the Resistance were Fascists, ensured that the Fascists won, and immediately they set up concentration camps where the anti-Fascists were tortured and murdered), ensured that the country would be pillaged for the benefit of the Western corporations. When their power started to wane, the US organised the Gladio Colonel’s Coup in 1967.
That was supposed to read ‘The Fascists Britain installed…’.
If the British paid the war reparations Greece deserves from Britain for its incomprehensible treachery following the huge – and hugely effective to the war effort – sacrifices of the Greeks, the Greek debts would be wiped out at a stroke.
Greece was fighting on the winning side of the war, yet was punished far far worse than Germany who were nominally the losers (although, one wonders – key Nazis escaped to the US where they were treated like esteemed colleagues – including Bush’s uncle Bush later becoming president; war criminals were given new jobs by the CIA and in the CIA sponsored BND (German post-war intelligence agency which was run entirely by German war criminals); IG Farben companies were whitewashed under the US flag; and the old IG Farben agenda for the control and corporatisation of Europe was enshrined under a covert US (flase) flag in the covertly US-sponsored Common Market – European Economic Community – European Union project, which preserved IG Farben plans virtually to the letter – all under what could be decribed as a global political order governed substantially by the heirs of the Nazis).
Meanwhile Germany had contractual debts to Greece, part of which were written off by the British on Greek behalf, to the benefit of the WWII losers Germany and to the cost of the Greeks who fought on the winning side and were then betrayed by the British. The remainder of the debts is claimed by Greece but Germany refuses to pay even while criminally smashing the Greeks to the wall. [It may be that I have a few of the details wrong from memory, and stand to be corrected].
Morally speaking, for British treachery after WWII in stealing the political control from the Resistance and giving it to the Greak fascists – who should have been imprisoned and tried for war crimes – Greece should be entitled to financial compensation from Britain for all the losses sustained and suffered by the Greek people as a result of subjugation to the corrupt fascists who became rich through their corrupt subservience to Britain and the US entirely at the cost of the Greek people.
Barbara
Your understanding of modern Greek history appears to be as woeful as Macky’s.
Thank God the Allies didn’t make the same mistake in Greece as they made with Tito and Yugoslavia.
Yes, that was under the orders of that murderous two-faced “We will not say hereafter that the Greeks fight like heroes, but that heroes fight like Greeks ” Churchill.
Forgot the link;
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/30/athens-1944-britains-dirty-secret
Macky
Paul Barbara & your good self glide over the geopolitical context of these events in Greece at the close of WW11: the Graun journos whose article you link to, in an interlude where they drop that organ’s trademark moral indignation mode, do at least allude to the brutal facts-
Any British notion that the Communists were poised for revolution fell within the context of the so-called Percentages Agreement, forged between Churchill and Soviet Commissar Josef Stalin at the code-named “Tolstoy Conference” in Moscow on 9 October 1944. Under the terms agreed in what Churchill called “a naughty document”, southeast Europe was carved up into “spheres of influence”, whereby – broadly – Stalin took Romania and Bulgaria, while Britain, in order to keep Russia out of the Mediterranean, took Greece.
Churchill’s actions in Greece were thus congruent with the ‘dirty deal’ he’d arranged with Stalin, and in terms of bloody consequences the British actions against the KKE in Greece were not on the same scale as similar campaigns against non Communist partizans in Poland and Yugoslavia, which Stalin supported with his usual bloodthirsty gusto.
@Old Mark,
Context in this case provides no mitigation; back-stabbing a war ally, and directly causing a bitter civil war, whose consequences are still playing out today, because of a sordid back-room agreement with another “ally” is traitorously evil behaviour.
Ever since their Russian co-religionists turned godless, Greeks although mostly Left leaning, were under no illusions about the Soviet Union, as they well remember how Lenin armed Ataturk, which lead directly to their Asia Minor Catastrophe of 1922.
So Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary has said, allegedly, in throng of adulation, at the Tory conference in Birmingham. That once enough British doctors have been trained up to standard, then the foreign doctors, will be ejected, well according to Andrew Neil of the politics show, she did.
Where is our blood and soil protagonist Fred, I’m sure he’ll be the first to comment on this narrow minded nationalist attitude. I’m sure connotations of a nasty 20th century regime in Germany, will sprind to the mind of our Fred.
Deutsche Bank was fined $14 billion by the US for criminally fixing Libor, an amount about as much as their total net worth (i.e. paying it would be an impossibility), and Merkel refused to help them pay.
At a superficial level it is great that after the criminal banksters have broken the law by fixing the markets, they seem to be being held to account for it. A couple of problems though.
First, American banks who fixed Libor together with Deutsche Bank and in the same way were only fined one tenth as much, thereby suggesting that the primary motive for the massive fine may have been unrelated to the crime. The first possible motive that comes to mind is naturally as revenge to the EU for forcing Apple to repay $13 billion illegally evaded taxes. Secondly and more seriously, if the intention was to force Deutsche Bank to bankruptcy, it is suggested this could lead to another global financial collapse even worse than 2008. What reason might the US have for wanting to precipitate such a global financial collapse? One possibility might be to divert media attention from the potential of massively incriminating evidence of false flag terrorism that might come out when Russia completely conquers the US-sponsored terrorist redoubts in Aleppo. There could be some pretty terrifying political fireworks when that comes, hence the US’s recent massive panic at the UN. The terrorists are bound to leave lots of evidence behind in the rubble.
Bhante.
Very interesting post, it looks to me anyway, as if the US is waging a economic war on Germany.
The German parliament’s economics committee chairman Peter Ramsauer, in an interview with Welt am Sonntag, said the move against Deutsche has the characteristics of an economic war.
Even MEP Markus Ferber, suggested that the huge fine was a “tit-for-tat” action, regarding Apple’s fine. Germany’s Volkswagon, have already agreed to pay a $16.5 billion dollar US fine, over the emmissions debacle.
They only ever fine foreigners, who don’t have any influence. Not American corporations; they get off pretty much scot-free.
That is absolute rubbish, Laguerre. And I’m sure you know it. I really pity your students.
“Very interesting post, it looks to me anyway, as if the US is waging a economic war on Germany.”
Nevertheless Merkel is the US star poodle, so writing it off as the US fighting an economic war on Germany does not seem to fit. There is no question that revenge for Apple is a part of it, but I think the real issue must be much much larger.
The US elite are sociopaths who don’t care about anything in the world except themselves, and when they see some crooked way to try and save their hides they will take it mercilessly with no care in the world for damage to friend or foe.
Of course, as always there is another angle which is the subversive influence of Israel on US policies, which are often not in the interests of the US, PERHAPS (I don’t know) not even in the interests of the US elites. So maybe there could be a link there against Germany, even though on the face of it Germany seems to have excellent links with Israel.
Then again, if the US wants to wage economic war on Europe as a whole, what better target than the economic piggy-bank of Europe, i.e. Germany. It wouldn’t make much sense to make economic war on Greece or Spain if the objective is to get financial spoils.
Bhante.
Well weakening Deutsche bank, in turn weakens the Germany economy does it not? Which also has a knock on effect on the EU as a whole. I’d imagine that US business interests are eagerly eyeing the 500 million plus customer market, and although Deutsche have been found guilty of illegal activities, the fine does seem rather high.
Which brings me nicely onto the TTIP deal, Germany’s Vice-Chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, said in 14 rounds of talks neither side had agreed on a single common chapter out of the 27 being deliberated. Cause enough to damage the Germany economy don’t you think?
Also on one of the financial sites it said German MPs were asking the US to ease economic sanctions against Russia.
Interesting interview with eminent historian David Starkey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcngNMaPnD8
’eminent historian’ ???????????? LOL
Yes, eminent.
Don’t you know what eminent means or hadn’t you heard of him?
Yes I have heard of him. Heard him speak too, unfortunately.
For ’eminent historian’, substitute ‘hysterical racist’.
David Starkey: Students and staff demand Cambridge University drop historian from promo campaign due to ‘racist views’
Open letter calls on the university to drop Dr Starkey from its campaign and apologise for having used him
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/david-starkey-students-and-staff-demand-cambridge-university-drop-historian-from-promotional-a6739636.html
Witch hunts are terrible things aren’t they?
He certainly hit the nail right on the head when it comes to Nationalists didn’t he?
Starkey should remember what happened to Oxford’s Professor A, V, Dicey.
When he died, he was the cat’s meow when it came to scholarship and current events, especially in the States for his lectures at Harvard and articles in Godkin’s The Nation.
Thanks to my exposure of the rabid politician for his efforts first for the Liberals and then the Unionists, though. when The Nation celebrated its 150th anniversary of existence just last year, it didn’t even mention his or friend James Bryce’s name, though it was became of their efforts that it survived the 1880s and ’90s.
Gone to history’s scrap heap.
Oh, so now David Starkey, the guy who is a racist, is unconcerned about sexual transmitted diseases, and trashes anyone he cares to, especially the Queen, is now an eminent historian,
Gosh, I guess there hope for the rest of us.
Yes, there is hope for you. When you have as many qualifications, had as many books published, have appeared on TV as many times as David Starkey and got a CBE you could be called eminent as well.
But somehow I doubt that is how you will be remembered.
I would never accept a CBE from anyone, especially a defender of the ‘Iron Lady’ whose covert plotting would have gotten us all incinerated in a nuclear war if it had not been for the spies that the KGB developed, like Ames and Hanssen, to prevent it.
All Thatcher could do was cough up an assassin of Olof Palme to trigger it, and a SoD to do the dirty work of getting rid of the USSR and Russia..
Starkey will end up on history’s scrap heap like the rest of us.
We know you don’t like him but that isn’t the point. The discussion was about the definition of the word “eminent” and whether it would describe him.
I see nothing he has done which qualifies him to be called eminent.
“I see nothing he has done which qualifies him to be called eminent.”
No doubt you don’t but fortunately he doesn’t need your approval to receive the title.
If you were to google the phrase “eminent historian David Starkey” (with the quotation marks) you will see it gets more than 2,000 hits however and you will see he is described as “eminent” by those that matter.
What a dubious claim.
He is called “eminent historian” by those who call him that when choosing to review or publish his work.
I have never been called that as I am not an historian, and don’t like to be called one, as I am a student of politics who choses to set the record straight about past and present politics.
When you leave out the quotation marks, he gets out 6,000 hits, about half what I get.
Guess that makes me eminent too, though i couldn’t care less.
What you are is irrelevant, I have demonstrated that he is indeed regarded as an eminent historian, as I said.
What I have also demonstrated is that no one can argue with what he said otherwise they wouldn’t have to resort to attacking the person.
Just more rubbish from you.
I have seen no one of ant eminence who has called Starkey’s work eminent, only non entities like popcult, Mrs. Facility M. Stanton, Michael Munday, and Harold Wolf who supplied glowing reports for Monarchy & Music.
How about someone of eminence?
Fred- your defence of dr Starkey has really set the cat amongst the pigeons !
‘Eminent’ may be over egging it, but he probably shares with Simon Schama the role left vacant after the demise of AJP Taylor, namely, king (or perhaps in his case, queen) of the TV historians.
Each of these prominent (a better term than ’eminent’ I think!) historians achieved their niches by hard graft, solid research, but also, via a gift for the pithy insertion of their own observations when they could get away with it, avoiding the dry as dust ‘but on the other hand’ inhibitions of their more pedestrian coleagues.
In Starkey’s case, his capacity for trenchant, pithy observations seem to derive from his background as a poor club footed swot from Carlisle (hence his contempt for Scots nationalism) and his gayness (hence his waspish, queenly verbal assaults on the likes of Laurie Penny, which have bolstered his ‘racist’ reputation)-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj9dA6E3fJw
BTW I did joint honours in history at the LSE- but was never taught by Starkey!
If someone said Starkey or Schama were ’eminent in their field’ you’d need to ask (and I certainly can’t be bothered) what exactly their field was. An academic in any discipline is expert only in a pretty narrow corner of the subject, and eminence there would be meaningless to the general public. Neither presents his speciality to the public – that would be terrible television – or indeed displays his general historical skills, rather than his presentational ones, in public, so I suggest that popular use of ’eminent’ must apply to the latter. In which case it is probably the wrong word: ‘Prominent’ would be better. Or ‘famous for being famous’, indeed.
I was just reading about that sad death of Trịnh Thị Ngọ, otherwise known as “Hanoi Hannah”. What a brave woman for standing up to American oppression throughout the Vietnam War.
“How are you, GI Joe? It seems to me that most of you are poorly informed about the going of the war, to say nothing about a correct explanation of your presence over here. Nothing is more confused than to be ordered into a war to die or to be maimed for life without the faintest idea of what’s going on.”
That was a typical broadcast and reveals what an observant woman she was, knowing that Americans are poorly informed and never know what is going on at any time.
RIP Trịnh.
Don’t you love PM Theresa May stating that the UK will simply opt out of European Human Rights Legislation, claiming that it has become just a legal witch hunt against its armed forces which are the best in the world.
The UK only fights fairly in only good wars!
Incidently while perusing this site, over the predicament of Deutsche bank, I happen to come across a comment from Looney. I’m sure it must be our Looney, as surely they can’t be two Looney’s out there, can there ? I await the deluge of puns. ?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-03/german-politicians-accuse-us-economic-war-against-deutsche-bank
Anyway our Looney and I mean no slight on other Looney’s out there, managed to comment on not just Deutsche bank, but US banks as well. Which when taken in conjuction, with our EU discussion on banks, testifies that Looney knows fine well, that just about all banks are corrupt, which takes form in illegal transactions and deals, in one form or another.
That is interesting, RoS.
I have the impression that a few of the Loons active on here also patronise other websites. For example, our Transatlantic Friend was shown to have posted on Mondoweiss (using a different handle of course).
Here’s more loons – look what happens when you exercise client side privacy controls – all your Flickr images are toast!
http://news.softpedia.com/news/on-the-heels-of-the-yahoo-nsa-revelation-here-s-how-to-close-your-yahoo-account-508965.shtml
O/T
Craig, when is your book on Burnes going to be really published, as I want to get a copy of it, and read it?.
Would be welcomed relief from posting here.
Amazon.co.uk says 20th Oct.
What sort of dagger, the sort of short/Roman inspired cutting blade known as “a gladio”?
The MH17 shoot down is going the same false way as the Lockerbie disaster. Instead of blaming the culprits, it will pursue convenient fall guys.
In the Lockerbie,case, it should have blamed Syrian arms dealer Mansar al-Kassar who blew up the plane with a bomb because he feared that the official CIA was making him a scapegoat for all the Iran-Contra dirty work, especially Palme’s assassination.
Once it happened, the Iran-Contra plotters blamed it on Gaddafi.
In the MH17 case, the out-of-control Ukrainians shot it down, mistakenly thinking that it was Putin’s presidential plane, taking him back to Moscow from a summit in Brazil.
Having failed to kill him, the Anglo=Americans are fitting him up for the misdeed.
And both got round the UN for the fix-up.
Since well before Johann Hari won my “journalist of the year” I have been mentally compiling and posting my “journalist of the year”.
Of course journalist can mean lots of different things – maybe writers would now be a better term – but writers don’t normally publish their work for some considerable time since they wrote it – and whilst I read a lot of books – I am far more interested in what is going on NOW.
NOW is an interesting concept – and I’ve read most of “The Book”
Our News has now become so utterly and completely corrupt and before this year – he never got into My Top Five – but today John Ward is moving up the Table. Some of the stuff he writes is absolute shiite….but some of it is totally brilliant…like today..
“For nearly six years, I have been asking followers of geopolitics and global investment to be very careful when it comes to the provenance of what they see, hear and read in the mass media.
My advice from here on is far simpler: believe absolutely nothing. The PR and corporate/sovereign/fiscal spin dickheads have morphed into a secondary system bending reality as it happens…..which is why the Newscorps and Verizons of this world would so dearly love to have a two-tier internet news availability.
In the vast majority of circumstances, journalists have become either redundant, or Hard Left/corporate Right bumboys….look at the Independent for the clearest evidence of this. In fact better still, stop reading newspapers or watching television: there are better things to do than soak up braindead lies.”
Tony
What we can expect if Clinton become POTUS
http://www.torontosun.com/2016/10/03/hillary-clinton-suggested-taking-out-wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-with-drone-report
““Can’t we just drone this guy?” she pondered during one high-charged meeting”, meaning she was quite prepared to drone strike Assange while he is living in a foreign embassy in London.