I seldom post a reference to somebody else’s article, but I do strongly recommend John O’Dowd in Bella Caledonia on the “Scottish Democratic Intellect”. Long term readers will know that the changing of universities effectively into corporations, and the destruction of the democratic ethos in their governance, is one of my greatest sorrows. Several of O’Dowd’s themes are mirrored in my own Rectorial Address at the University of Dundee. Do read it. It starts with a good deal of knockabout comedy, but then gets serious, which is precisely how life at University should progress.
The University of Dundee refused to place my Installation Address in the University Library, thus ironically proving my entire point. It still is not there, and nor are Murder in Samarkand, The Catholic Orangemen of Togo, nor Sikunder Burnes – all of which proves precisely the point I was making. Long term readers will also be aware that the University Senate, at the urging of the Administration, refused after a debate to give me the honorary Degree routinely given to all Rectors, on the grounds I was “insufficiently distinguished”. They gave Honorary Degrees to Lorraine Kelly and Fred Macaulay, my immediate predecessors, so the yardstick for “distinguished” is somewhat woolly. I think it must mean “acceptable to the Establishment”. I do not crave honours, having turned down a LVO, OBE and CVO from the Queen. But the snub from the university hurt me deeply as I devoted much of my life to it, having been both Rector and President of the students union (twice). I think it is the only one of dozens of snubs from the Establishment to this whistleblower that actually succeeded in hurting.
Finally, I recommend as still very relevant the paper I helped write with Robin McAlpine, Allyson Pollock and Adam Ramsay for the Jimmy Reid Foundation on The Democratic University. I am in fact very hopeful that there is sufficient understanding among Scottish intellectuals of what needs to be done after Independence to root out the neo-liberal model from our universities. In this as in so much else, Independence will not be enough if we do not use it to institute radical government.
Odious French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, and her assistant are under investigation by the European Commissions fraud office, over irregularities in pay cheques.
http://www.thenational.scot/world/15101186.France__Marine_Le_Pen_s_National_Front_suffer_setback_in_probe/
Meanwhile another nasty piece of work, in the shape of Geert Wilders has launched his campaign, in the Dutch elections, saying he’ll crack down on “Moroccan scum.”
Wilders has also claimed that he’ll stop Muslims from entering the country and begin closing down mosques.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-netherlands-election-campaign-idUSKBN15W2GT
Wilders and Le Pen, sounds like a match made in hell.
Highly unpleasant characters both.
I wonder whether the Mr Donald Trump fans on here (both old and new, eg former Ms Jill Stein-ites 🙂 ) are also fans of Mme Le Pen and Mr Wilders?
The people to whom you refer-the commenting here- are ‘grown ups’, not children. And are unlikely to be fans of anyone, least of all politicians.
But being grown up they have a proper concern for the direction in which the world is being guided. They are therefore, pleased to see the oligarchs and the rule of an unelected, irresponsible Establishment, composed of self serving sycophants and cynical servants of power, being challenged.
If the EU falls apart that will be all to the good because it has become a crucial part of the architecture of imperialism, which is the greatest threat to mankind’s natural desire for freedom and the co-operative commonwealth.
It is curious to the gormless partisan of the inevitability of what is/what must be, that those who love liberty delight in seeing its enemies worsted. But it is perfect;y natural for those who realise that there can be no hope of a decent society, under total surveillance and a government enslaved by the Janissaries of the intelligence agency.
“If the EU falls apart that will be all to the good because it has become a crucial part of the architecture of imperialism”
________
Oh please give me a break, imperialism has been rife for centuries, long before the EU was a twinkle in eyes of its eleven founding fathers.
Don’t you mean “six”?
Habb.
No.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_fathers_of_the_European_Union
“Oh please give me a break, imperialism has been rife for centuries, long before the EU was a twinkle in eyes of its eleven founding fathers.”
Can you not see the illogicality of your remark? You are so obsessed by your Football Hooligan partisanship of the SNP that you are oblivious to the fact that Scotland will never be independent while it is a part of the EU, membership of which requires a surrender of much sovereignty.
It is hard to understand why you want Independence at all: it cannot be because you wish to advance the interests of the Scottish working class- the EU is neo-liberal to the bone. Are you also in favour of Scotland remaining in NATO?
Do you trivialise the importance of imperialism- ‘it has been rife for centuries’- because you miss the British Empire?
I suspect that your vision of an independent Scotland is very similar to that of the Irish politicians who turned their country over to the Gombeen men- the usurers, professionals and capitalists- a very different vision from that of Connolly and Maclean for whom getting rid of Westminster rule meant empowering the people, not a provincial caste of the same exploiting class.
I take those twelve lines to be a rather long-winded “yes, the fans of Mr Trump are also fans of Mme Le Pen and Mr Wilders”.
I have allowed myself to ignore the diversionary guff.
Anyway, good to know what you think about Mme Le Pen and Mr Wilders.
You really ought to consider taking a course in basic comprehension. Learning to read carefully would open up unimagined vistas, you know.
You could even consider thinking for yourself.
You would discover that you, Wilders and Le Pen have much in common and that Trump and you are agreed on just about everything, from Israel to Defence spending to Islamic terrorists to cutbacks on social expenditure, getting rid of the NHS and much much more.
Meanwhile as the NHS in England, teeters on the brink of collapse.
“Relentless cuts” to the health service could be behind 30,000 deaths in 2015, argued researchers in two articles published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.”
The researchers warned that without “urgent intervention” from the Government, mortality rates could continue to increase.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/nhs-cuts-excess-deaths-30000-study-research-royal-society-medicine-london-school-hygiene-martin-a7585001.html
Ah well, at least we have a shiny new National Cyber Security Centre, and it only cost £1.9 billion quid.
If all immigrants follow the actions of US immigrants yesterday downing tools and stopping work, here in the UK, the NHS would collapse within less than 24 hrs.,RoS, maybe precisely that is required to open eyes to the multiple services immigrants provide in this country.
This morning radio 4 had a half hour discussions how EU citizens will be used as pawns in Brexit negotiations, as they have nothing much else to use as levers. The case of Nina Hoffmann
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08f4rlh#play
some 49 minutes into the programme.
I did not have private health insurance when studying in 2000, nor was I required to get one, so what is going on here? is the reciprocate health provisions already falling to pieces?
Maybe the world is not as you think.
How’d it all go for the US immigrants who downed tools and stopped work? Did they prove their value to the US and did the US grind to a halt, or were non working immigrants sacked? This article explains
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-18/its-unfair-hispanic-workers-upset-after-being-fired-absence-day-without-immigrants
And as for the bourgeois clerks who advocated for such actions well it is a racing certainty that they feel no shame.
“Meanwhile as the NHS in England, teeters on the brink of collapse.”
But even more alarming for those in Scotland this report in yesterday’s John O’Groats Journal:
http://www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk/News/429-patients-taken-from-Caithness-to-Raigmore-in-a-year-17022017.htm
Four hundred and twenty nine people had to be taken over a hundred miles by ambulance to Inverness. We only have two full time ambulances and one part time to give emergency cover in the entire county, transporting someone to Inverness means an ambulance is tied up for best art of a shift and there are more than one patient a day being transported.
“I don’t have a vote because I don’t live in Scotland but I would love to have one. I know things have got worse in Scotland but come and live down here.”
“You’ve no idea how much the SNP have protected you from the complete annihilation of the sick and the poor. The NHS in England is run into the ground and private health care has no competition so it’s also shit. You can pay £700 or £800 just for a diagnosis. Rich or poor – people are scared.”
Says Al Kennedy, writer, academic and comedian, who lives in England.
http://www.thenational.scot/culture/15101252.Glasgow_Film_Festival_____Brexit_will_kill_what___s_left_of_the_British_film_industry_____says_AL_Kennedy/
Remind me: How much does Trident cost?
I wouldn’t know.
I could remind you what happens if someone is choking to death and it takes the ambulance over an hour to get to them. I know that.
If someone was actually choking to death, it is optimistic in the extreme to expect an ambulance to show up in time to save them. Even if a fleet of them were available and raring to go just a mile away.
The leader of the nasty party mark 2, just can’t stop, putting his foot in his mouth. I suppose it’s to be expected from UKIP.
“Ukip leader Paul Nuttall is facing fresh allegations about his honesty after he wrongly claimed he was a board member of a training charity.”
“However, the organisation’s chief executive, Paul Musa, said that, while Nuttall had visited the NWTC several years ago, he had never served on the board.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/ukip-paul-nuttall-claim-controversy-latest-by-election-stoke-hillsborough-charity-a7586966.html
Looking at the credibility of UKIP, in general, could one actually believe, anything they say period?
That’s Paul Nuttall for you. Or to put it in the man’s own style.
Fake,Fake,Fake,Fake,Fake,Fake,Fake.
I believe you are a Scot? If so, stop worrying about English politics and focus on Scottish politics. After all, you might be independent soon and will need to contribute – by thought and on the net – to important Scottish issues (currency, constitution, nationality law, level of taxation, general econop,ic policy, etc….) 🙂
Paen to Paul Nutter….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1q-Y20uExc&list=PLfdeq2w6qn8e229yrsWzgWXtMQ3OB29DP&index=2&t=4s
Louise Mensch this week tweeted that Alan Rusbrigder should have been arrested for publishing the Snowden leaks.
The Guardian bizarrely responded with an article that can only be described as a glowing tribute.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/17/louise-mensch-trump-russia-ties-media-scoop
The Guardian is in a bizarre position at the moment.
Louise Mensch is obviously no Mensch (except for the possibility that she qualifies under the definition of the neuter noun “das Mensch”).
sorry for being pedantic, Lysias, its ‘der Mensch’ und ‘die Menschen’ in the plural.
So much for Lysias’s German. Sounds as good as his Spanish.
Perhaps he got mixed up with “Menschentum”, which is a neuter noun.
Easy to get mixed up, I suppose, when you know as many languages as “Lysias”. Allegedly.
You need to look again. Besides the common “der Mensch,” German also has a less common “das Mensch,” with a different meaning. Look again, or in a bigger dictionary.
And the plural of “das Mensch” is “die Menscher”.
And, to judge by reports like former journalist Ulfkotte’s book, most journalists deserve to have the word “das Mensch” applied to them. Ulfkotte himself, before he died, would have agreed that he deserved to have the word applied to him.
Excellent, Lysias for putting Never-a-mind in his place in his native tongue. Have you noticed how hard he tries using flowery language to impress us, almost always falling flat on his face.
” most journalists deserve to have the word “das Mensch” applied to them.”
______________________
Why – are most journalists female?
Not all prostitutes are female. There is the term “pressstitute”.
In any case, I don’t think there’s much doubt that Louise Mensch is female. Or is there?
Nevermind just assumed there was only “der Mensch”. Understandable mistake. I must admit I was unaware of “das Mensch” until it occurred in a 19th century play I was assigned to read in college and the professor pointed it out.
It was the “person” who piled on and mocked me who made a fool of himself.
Rather pathetic to be hiding behind foreign language in order to insult someone.
http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit/
A glowing account indeed, this from your link Stu.
“Now 45, the woman born Louise Bagshawe in London who once dominated the chick-lit bestseller lists in the UK has reinvented herself once more: working as an executive for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp by day, and probing Donald Trump’s Moscow connections by night.”
So having kids as well as full time job, one wonders when Mensch found the time to reveal this so called scoop.
“Mensch, whose recent public profile consisted mainly of a string of angry Twitter spats.”
Ah, it looks like we’ve found Mensch’s true level of journalism.
“The full facts about the connections between the Trump camp and the Kremlin are not yet known”
If there are any that is, and if there are, I doubt Mensch, supposedly scurrying around like a gumshoe with her notepad in the dead of night, looking for clues, will be the one to reveal them.
“In her tweets Mensch is unsparing when it comes to making allegations, and she has repeatedly denounced some figures in the Trump circle as traitors. She insists she has no fear of being sued for libel. “I’ve never been sued because I’ve never been wrong,” she said.”
So Mensch claims she’s never been wrong, that in my opinion says it all.
For anyone interested, Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa is shortly going to step down from office. If the American empire installs a neo-con puppet in Ecuador to replace Correa it will have large ramifications. The following is probably one the last interviews that Correa will give while still president:
Empire Files: President Correa on His Legacy & Critics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwUwzv7cBbk
And at least two presidential hopefuls are campaigning on a manifesto of evicting squatters from their foreign embassies.
Why is Correa stepping down?
I wonder if he’ll be an example for President Assad (who I suppose has much more reason to step down)?
It’s the elections tomorrow and he isn’t standing.
Thanks Fred. Has he given any reason(s) why he is not standing? Sigh…..
Under the constitution which came into force in 2008 the president can only serve two four year terms, Correa has served three but has only been elected twice since the constitution came into force, 2009 and 2013.
All clear, thanks.
Meanwhile whilst those that are sick and disabled and poor, fear they may not get access to, proper medical treatment, in the near future.
The DWP, is charging those very people premium rates to telephone them. The average call price is £5 pounds, and a twelve minute call can cost over £9 pounds, and if you are inquiring through the Home Office (immigration ) expect to pay a minimum of £1.37 per-minute.
In contrast, there is a UK Government helpline for the High Net Worth Unit – which investigates the tax affairs of the UK’s wealthiest individuals – is a cheap-rate 03000 number. Why am I not surprised by that.
The SNP are trying to bring this, which can only be described as extortionate costs to call the DWP, to the chamber to try and make the cost of calls cheaper.
http://www.thenational.scot/politics/15101287.Mhairi_Black__Our_poorest_should_not_be_forced_to_pay_a_premium_rate_to_phone_the_Government/?ref=mrb&lp=4
I see the rateable value of the Yes Bar in Glasgow has increased from £30,000 to £42,500 expect to be paying a lot more for your pint.
There is some justice in the world after all.
“A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Rating valuation of business properties is undertaken by independent assessors, funded by local councils, not the Scottish Government.”
“Each council retains all the business rates revenue it collects, and it is for councils to apply rates reductions, on top of existing statutory reliefs, as they see fit. Individual business rate payers can appeal their valuation via independent processes if they feel it is incorrect.”
__________
Not to worry come May’s council elections Labour ran Tammney Hall, aka Glasgow City Council, will be liberated, shame the same cannot be said about, those poor folk who are being ripped off on DWP calls.
Appalling neoliberals. Create an underclass. Impoverish and demoralise them as much as you can. Then forget about them and don’t notice them as you are chauffeured between your plush office, favourite upmarket restaurant and your gated community home.
la mer.
Exactly another good reason, for Scotland to cut off the ball and chain (through independence ) that is Westminster.
Yes but don’t forget to dump the Snats straight afterwards or you’ll get the status quo run from Edinburgh, like the Irish got it run from Dublin.
Nicola and her hubby could afford a chauffeur on the £250.000 or so they bring in every month. Would create employment as well.
They bring in 250k a month? Don’t think so old chap.
What is your estimate of their combined earnings? Happy to be corrected.
Habbabkuk – I believe you are a Scot? If so, stop worrying about English politics and focus on Scottish politics. (from above).
And yet you can’t help yourself trolling others.
Sad and pathetic way to spend your time. Sad and pathetic.
You don’t do so badly yourself, do you.
And at least I don’t pose as a female commenter 🙂
….says the one-trick-pony, incessant copy-paster Bigot Master.
Absolutely, Alcyone – she posts a lot on The LifeBoat Boardhost as well.
And I’m a lot merrier than she is, bless ‘er! 🙂
(La vita e’ bella!)
Troughers
NICOLA Sturgeon’s mother has announced she is to quit politics to spend more time “crafting”.
Joan Sturgeon said she had always planned to stand down in May, having served two terms as a councillor for Irvine East in North Ayrshire and leaving after a decade in politics.
She had been Provost for over four years, resigning in August amid concerns rivals were threatening to oust her from the position and seize control of the council.
complete arses
http://wingsoverscotland.com/author/RevStu/
Try sucking out your brains
If that Sturgeon woman is so keen to leave the United Kingdom, why would they ask Westminster to keep wind turbine jobs in Scotland.
Surely, if she is so convinced Scotland is about to be an Independent country, she should learn to wipe her own arse?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-39015004
More than a third of the workforce at a wind energy firm in Argyll and Bute have been told their jobs are under threat.
CS Wind was not immediately available for comment.
Argyll and Bute MSP Michael Russell said he had spoken to both the company and the energy minister about the jobs threat.
See, the thing is, when you become Independent, you can keep your oil, you can keep your electricity, you can keep your kippers.
Keep it all behind the customs wall.
Bloody Hell, Tony Blair is more Scottish than this clown Argyll and Bute MSP Michael Russell
Russell was born in Bromley, Kent to an English mother
So? Have you got something against Kent? Or against England?
O.K. Argyll and Bute MSP Michael Russell is a senior person in the S. N. P.
he was born in the extreme South East of England to an English mother.
We must assume, he is in favor of leaving the United Kingdom.
So he is ditching his mother country.
Would that not make him a quisling, a turncoat.
I’m sure it saddens Michael to see his native England being steered by people with iconoclastically unpleasant views similar to your own.
While he is still drinking at the public purse, I doubt anything could make him sad
UK govt spending on the NHS, Social Security, pensions and education was just under £500 billion in 2016.
Around ten times as much as the govt spends on defence.
Of course, total spending (govt. and private) on health, Social Security, pensions and education is much higher than the £500 billion mentioned because many individuals make private provision either in whole or in part.
To spend 2% of GDP in defence seems eminently reasonable on what is, and will remain, a dangerous world.
“To spend 2% of GDP in defence seems eminently reasonable on what is, and will remain, a dangerous world.”
Defence? Against whom? Not against terrorist attacks, since the military are not used for that. In fact, they’re used for attacking others. So Offence is the word you’re looking for. And who wants to pay for that? You??
Well, offence might sometimes be the best form of defence. As even the UN Charter recognises (I think).
But seriously: most people who bitch on about the cost of the armed forces just…well, bitch.
They never give any idea of how much they think it would be reasonable to spend, and why.
So, let me give you the opportunity to do so in the form of the following three questions:
1/. Should the UK have any armed forces at all in 2017?
2/. If it should, what would be a reasonable %age of govt spending and/or GDP to spend on those armed forces?
3/. Attempt a little justification for whatever %age(s) you suggest.
How about justifying against who the defence is to be made? You avoid that, Hab. Slaughtering lightly armed Muslims in the ME is different from confronting nuclear-armed Russia in eastern Europe.
1/. “Should the UK have any armed forces at all in 2017?”
What would be their purpose/role?
I’m one hundred and two per cent with you on that Type Zero Global Civilisation euphemism.
Last line seems O.K. and a good idea. Unless one then begins to ponder the underlying reasons why it is such a dangerous world.
It appears that Ms Nicola Sturgeon’s salary is £144.687 p.a. (expenses not included) and her husband’s salary as the SNP Chief Executive is slightly over £100.000.
To be fair, Ms Sturgeon foregoes some pf her salary and only takes home £135.605.
Total earnings for the Sturgeon ménage are therefore around £235.000.
I shall leave it to the trougher “experts” on here to judge whether £235.000 from public service constitutes troughing.
NICOLA Sturgeon’s mother has announced she is to quit politics to spend more time “crafting”.
Joan Sturgeon said she had always planned to stand down in May, having served two terms as a councillor for Irvine East in North Ayrshire and leaving after a decade in politics.
She had been Provost for over four years, resigning in August amid concerns rivals were threatening to oust her from the position and seize control of the council.
I think their whole family have cashed in on the public purse, rather like the Family Kinnock
That’s rich, considering David Cameron and especially his wife, Samantha, are multi-millionaires, I wont even go into how much Samantha’s family’s worth.
Nor will I mention the multi-millionaires that inhabited his front bench, indeed some still inhabit Theresa May’s front bench.
Theresa May, still takes home a cool £150,000 pounds.
https://fullfact.org/law/how-much-does-prime-minister-get-paid/
Theresa May’s husband is a senior executive at a $1.4trillion investment fund that profits from tax avoiding companies. One can only imagine that as a investment bank Mr May will make considerably more than his wife.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-may-philip-may-amazon-starbucks-google-capital-group-philip-morris-a7133231.html
But only in Scotland does a family earning £235,000 a year get their prescriptions paid for them meaning others have to manage without a maternity unit.
Pfft.
Tell it to the House of Lords, only in Britain do we have almost 900 fat millionaire business men and women and ex-no use politicians, who receive £300 quid a day, and eat lavishly at a taxpayers expense subsidised canteen, then fall asleep on the red benches.
It makes your BS look trivial by comparison.
Humiliation for Sturgeon as her MOTHER quits council role amid growing fury at S. N. P.
NICOLA Sturgeon’s mother has stepped down as mayor following a massive backlash in the First Minister’s home town amid growing mistrust in the Scottish National Party.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/701073/Nicola-Sturgeon-mum-mayor-role-anger-Labour
The SNP leader’s family is embroiled in embarrassment following a stunning Labour by-election victory in North Ayrshire last week.
Labour sources were getting set to topple Nicola’s mum, Joan, from her “taxpayer funded role” as the face of the council.
Mrs Sturgeon said: “With the change in representation on the council it is clear to me that I should allow a complete reset of the council administration, including resigning my own position.
“While the post of Provost is non-political it is elected at the start of every council term and it seems clear to me that I should allow that election to take place in tandem with the democratic election of the new administration.
“It has been one of the greatest honours of my life to serve the people of North Ayrshire and I thank them for giving me the opportunity to do so.”
Mrs Sturgeon, who has a chauffeur driven car, has collected almost £300,000 in taxpayers’ cash from the part-time mostly ceremonial post.
She is said to be becoming isolated after the Labour party gained back their majority following the by-election, in which Ms Sturgeon’s dad Robin, an electrician, lost to a mum-of-four.
She was first elected to North Ayrshire Council nine years ago – the year the SNP won control over the Scottish Parliament.
According to published figures she charged the taxpayer £5,566.65 just for travel alone last year and is one of only six councillors to do so.
She also earned the highest salary possible at £24,842.04 in 2015.
S. N. P. snouts in the trough
Mayor? I doubt it. Provost possibly.
RoS
“That’s rich, considering David Cameron and especially his wife, Samantha, are multi-millionaires, I wont even go into how much Samantha’s family’s worth.”
_________________________
“Trougher” on here is used by some to describe those who make a rich living from the public purse (eg politicians, BBC execs and so on).
Hence Mr and Mrs Cameron’s private wealth, not derived from the public purse, is neither here nor there.
Ms Sturgeon’s salary, which is paid from the public purse, is higher than Mr Cameron’s and Mrs May’s.
If they are troughers, then so is Ms Sturgeon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Theresa May’s husband is a senior executive at a $1.4trillion investment fund that profits from tax avoiding companies”
__________________________
Again irrelevant to the issue under discusssion for the reasons given above.
BTW, tax avoidance is legal.
******************************************
You have again attempted to divert. Must try harder (or better still, stick to the point)
“Ms Sturgeon’s salary, which is paid from the public purse, is higher than Mr Cameron’s and Mrs May’s.”
_______
How so?
If Thersa May’s salary is £150,000 per annum, that is more than you quoted for Nicola Sturgeon is it not?
Also, the tax perk claimed by David Cameron, could put his salary in the same ball park as May or Sturgeon.
David Cameron benefited from a little-known perk when he took office in Number 10, claiming £20,000 of his £142,500 salary tax free. The “prime ministerial expenses deduction” began in 1947, when it was set at £4,000, to cover costs incurred by the occupant of No 10 in the course of official business.
Well, I’m glad you understood the difference between getting paid from the public purse (= potential trougher) and having your own money.
Let’s progress you a little further with the following:
1/. Even if the UK PM’s salary has been increased and is now a little higher than that of the Scottish First Minister, might that be justified by the fact that the UK is about 10 times more populous than Scotland alone (and perhaps a slightly bigger enterprise)?
2/. Where is your dividing line for a trougher: just above Ms Sturgeon’s £144.000-odd and just below Mrs May’s £150.000?
*********************************
Feel free to divert, but let’s have a bit of variety: how about something on the missing Malaysian airliner? 🙂
Habb.
Well it’s good to see that, at least you are able to correct your failing assumption that Nicola Sturgeon, receives a higher salary than Theresa May. Even if it took a second time around to see the error. ?
Habba
Name one political leader of a country in the developed world who doesn’t receive an official six figure salary for doing the job. Don’t single out Nicola Sturgeon when what she is paid is just the norm.
But I was not singling out Ms Sturgeon, dear boy.
There are some on here who often go on about troughers in political life.
But funnily enough they only ever talk about Westminster.
If measured in salary terms, If London PMs are troughers then so is the Scottish First Minister.
Ms Sturgeon and her husband pull in about £235.000 p.a. between them. That’s a rather good living.
Why should mentioning that cause such offence, I wonder?
The Lebanese president, warns Israel that any attempt to infringe on its sovereignty, will be met with force.
A Hezbollah source added that if attacked, it had the capability to destroy Israels nuclear facility at Dimona. The warning to Israel come after Trumps, statement with Netanyahu that, he will let Israel decide on which direction to go over the West Bank and Gaza Strip, rather than the US, pushing for a two-state settlement.
Throw in that Trump has intimated that the US, is thinking about moving its embassy to Israel to East Jerusalem (a move frowned upon by the international community) and one could easily see why Israels neighbours are getting a bit concerned.
Israeli soldiers shot and fatally wounded a young Palestinian man on his way to his last chemotherapy session, his crime? He ran across the road.
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.772183
If this is not one if the signs of a oppressive military state then I don’t know what is.
Swift change of theme from the SNP and Scotland? 🙂
Lets just say I’m adaptable, when required. ?
Israel suffers embarrassment as US NFL players pull out of a all -expenses paid trip. The players are livid that a Israeli embassador, had planned to use the players trip to promote Israeli goodwill around the globe, without actually telling the players.
Those sneaky Israeli’s you need to keep an eye on them at all times.
One of the players Michael Bennett said on social media.
“I was not aware that my itinerary was being constructed by the Israeli government for the purposes of making me, in the words of a government official, an ‘influencer and opinion-former’ who would then be ‘an ambassador of goodwill.”
“I will not be used in such a manner. When I do go to Israel – and I do plan to go – it will be to see not only Israel but also the West Bank and Gaza so I can see how the Palestinians, who have called this land home for thousands of years, live their lives.”
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/feb/15/nfl-players-israel-trip-michael-bennett
Good for Michael Bennett and the others. Mind you NFL games are used regularly to legitimise US militarism. Uniformed members of the US armed forces often take part in pre-match ceremonies. They are even used for the London NFL matches.
“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
The Lebanese Army is like all Arab armies – better at killing their own civilians than fighting the armies of others and especially that of the State of Israel.
Tsahal is both the most effective army in the Middle East and the most moral.
They have some great lookers too.
Hezbollah, on the other hand, has trounced the Israeli military more than once. Those guys are fighters.
“Tsahal is both the most effective army in the Middle East and the most moral.”
That’s funny. The Israeli army is only good for killing unarmed Palestinians these days. They lost against Hizbullah, and then against Gaza in 2014. They were brought to a halt by random Palestinian fighters, and were only rescued by the airforce, against which the Gazans have no defence, and which subsequently went on to blast civilian sites into non-existence, as punishment. They’re bitter, the Israelis, no sense of humanity.
It appears that I am not the only one to wonder whether President Trump might not get impeached – and that, sooner rather than later. One will have to await the outcome of the Congressional enquiry into various Trump-related curiosities, most of which seems to involve Russia in some way or another….
Anyway, if he does get impeached (and I am of course not saying he will; just “wondering”, like Lysias), Mr Trump fans can at least be reassured by the fact that the reins of the Presidency will be taken over by a Vice-President chosen by no other than The Donald himself.
There is no chance he will be impeached while the GOP control both houses.
Republican Senators and Congressmen are currently warming up to steal what little wealth the 0.1% don’t already have their hands on. Impeachment would interfere with their important work of cutting taxes for the rich, denying people health care, trashing workers rights and destroying the environment for profit. Every terrible right wing idea is about to be implemented simultaneously with President Trump signing it all off.
The stock market has risen over 14% in the not quite four months since Trump was elected.
Good news for pension funds.
That is good to know – especially for those who like their good news to be delivered free of evidence.
Those who see merit in numeracy are unlikely to share your sanguine views regarding the linkage between rising stock markets and the intrinsic value of pension funds.
Nobody has put me in my place, there is no such thing as ‘die Menscher’ and despite the fake teaching that is going on here via the Tory’s academies and the unfortunate habit of US protagonists to make up words such ‘while u wait’ and ‘xtra 4 you’, they should stick to mangling/evolving the English language, not try and score cheap points with utter rubbish.
As for the cheerleaders….. oh,I can’t be bothered.
Sorry, das Mensch, die Menscher is in both my copy of Sprach Brockhaus and in my copy of Cassell’s German Dictionary, and I have seen the word in a 19th century German play.
Modern Yiddish, conveniently for English speakers, has given up on grammatical gender , so simply’De Mensch’. Of course the meaning differs somewhat from the Gerrman of Goethe.
You may be right, Stu, but didn’t I read somewhere that there are quite a few Republicans who were not too happy about the Trump nomination? What if they are just as unhappy now he’s Prezzie?
Mr Pence might be seen as a safer pair of hands by some Republicans. And of course is someone from the political class.
By the way, have you come across Section 4 of the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution?
I don’t see his own people turning against him.
Everyone on the right is getting what they want and Trump will take all the heat for it. Paul Ryan will get to reform the tax system, Betsy Devos is going to trash public education, the Oil industry has been handed an entire department of government to be run by Tillerson, racist Sessions will reverse any justice reforms brought in by Holder and Lynch, Pence has got his man Gorsuch on the Supreme Court.
The traditional GOP were against Trump right up until he won the election. Now they love him.
I am not sure that any sane person would be reassured by an impeachment of Trump.
There is no public domain evidence to suggest that Trump has done anything, beyond being the “wrong winner” to justify impeachment. Similarly there is no evidence that the UK Brexit referendum was in any way flawed. Notwithstanding this complete lack of evidence there are moves afoot to remove Trump and to reverse or fail to implement Brexit.
Will these tactics be successful? I guess time will tell but new fronts are opening up – it is also necessary to fight of Le Pen in France and Wilders in the Netherlands.
A recent “non-fake” poll revealed that a majority of European citizens are in favor of banning all further Muslim immigration. Will the people now be happy to see their expressed views confined to the trash can – or will they resist.
These are both interesting and dangerous times. It is a pity that the ruling cliques are seemingly so advanced in their thinking that they consider there to be nothing to learn from the ancien regime.
Anybody who wants Trump removed by impeachment needs to research Mike Pence’s history. It ain’t good.
Not a question of what anyone on here wants, none of us has any say in the matter.
Why should a Jill Stein-ite (allegedly) be so fussed about the whole thing though?
That is an interesting take on the democracy. Some may think that central essence of democracy is that everyone has a say.
Nonetheless your view represents the dominant meme – albeit it is heavily conditioned by the cult of fake news. Here is someone who sets out how it all ends
“They discovered one black Saturday that mobs don’t march they run
so you can excuse the nervous triggerman just this once for jumping the gun
as they were picking up the dead out of the broken glass”
you are an apologist for Palestinian child torture in Israel’s prison system, habbakuk and trying to change the subject is not your best forte.
More late night music, for anyone interested:
Kevin Ayers was a little known rock star with an Anglo-French heritage. He spent most of the 1970s in the Rhone Valley making music like this, a track which seems very appropriate to our present times…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liJMGQRaLrw
On stage with Ayers is Lol Coxhill on tenor sax and a young guy playing a guitar. The young guy was just 17-years-old at the time and went by the name of Mike Oldfield. Shortly after the above clip was performed, with Ayers help Oldfield recorded an acoustic album called ‘Tubular Bells’. Oldfield had then just signed-up to a new record company called ‘Virgin Records’. The following mega success of the Tubular Bells album launched Virgin Records into the big time, and gave us the Richard Branson we know and love today. Amongst other things, parts of Tubular Bells were used for the famous ‘Exorcist’ movie.
There’s also a big back story here about what happened to Kevin Ayers and Mike Oldfield, but I’m too tired tonight.
Probably sounds good if you’ve taken loads of acid.
I think you have to drop acid
“Fake news” in Russian is “фейковости”. “Enemies of the American people” is “враги американского народа”.
Doesn’t Russia have a word for it? I heard the phrase ‘flushy-toilet’ used today by a Kurdish family member, but Kurdish toilets don’t flush like ours do.
The Sturgeon Family are grade one troughers, they have amassed a fortune from public finances
Don’t be so caviar.
FRENCH presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron attempted on Saturday to end the controversy triggered by his comments condemning France’s colonial past in Algeria.
Macron, a pro-European independent centrist who several recent polls have shown to be a frontrunner, was hit by a wave of criticism this week from his right-wing opponents after he said France’s history in Algeria was a “crime against humanity.”
Algerians lived under French rule for 132 years until it won a bloody war of independence in 1962. The conflict killed 1.5 million Algerians, the Algerian government says.
“I am sorry to have offended you, to have hurt you,” Macron said on Saturday in the southeastern city of Toulon, responding to criticism of his comments from French nationals who had to leave Algeria in 1962.
“But we must face this common, complex past if we want to move on and get along,” he said, alluding to historical links between Algeria and France, where many citizens hold both nationalities.
Macron also asked the audience to applaud the “harkis”, the Algerian soldiers who fought for the French during the war of independence and were given French nationality.
He accused the far-right National Front, led by Marine Le Pen, of preventing hundreds of people from attending the speech.
———
He is the creature of Hollande,
as Hollande is failing, so will Macron
They are all neo-con headcases, Michael, who the French will never vote for.
I will take a big risk by saying that the final round in early May will be between Jean Luc Mélenchon and Marine Le Penn.
Despite the usual mega interference from the ‘worlds’ policeman’, Jean Luc Mélenchon will win the presidency.
If he doesn’t win the presidency there will be revolution in France.
It makes you wonder how totally spineless the Brits are…
Have you seen this Rob?
‘http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/17/france-another-ghastly-presidential-election-campaign-the-deep-state-rises-to-the-surface/
I doubt it.
Fillon has effectively been removed from the running so the centre right can rally round Macron.
It’ll be Macron vs Le Pen in the run off.
I certainly hope you’re right Rob. Last week I decided to have a punt on Jean Luc, and had seen that Ladbrokes were offering 100/1. That was Monday, by Wednesday when I went to put the bet on, the price had come down to 66/1.
Don’t miss Fisk:
There has been nothing like this since Alice in Wonderland. Across the globe, they all shake hands and curtsy and grovel and fawn just as they did when Good King Obama ruled the world.
For none of these creatures must give the slightest clue that they know. That’s why the whole thing is so addictive. Everyone – Mad Dog Mattis, Rex Exxon Tillerson, Angela We-Can-Do-This Merkel, Theresa Goodbye May – all have to pretend that absolutely nothing unusual is taking place.
They must not for a moment even hint that they know what we all know: that back at the White House, the President of the United States of America has dressed up in a green smock, stood on his head, smoked a joint in front of CNN and proclaimed that his hutch of performing rabbits are capable of playing Beethoven on three pianos at the same time.
i was not familiar with the jimmy carter killer rabbit episode, here it is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter_rabbit_incident
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/donald-trump-media-press-addiction-a7587061.html
Mail on Sunday headline.
Sir Edward Heath WAS a paedophile, says police chief: Astonishing claim is made that the former PM is guilty of vile crimes ‘covered up by the Establishment’
More than 30 people have come forward with claims about the former PM
And they are said to have given ‘strikingly similar’ accounts to Wiltshire Police
The county’s chief constable has said that the allegations are ‘totally convincing’
Pictures have emerged of Heath driving – despite it being claimed he didn’t have a car
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4238188/Sir-Edward-Heath-paedophile-says-police-chief.html
Simon Walters Political Editor
19th February 2017
That nice man, Mr Desmond of the Express ‘newspaper’, is hoping that Julian Assange will have to leave the Ecuadorian embassy following the election of a new President.
We will see Mr Desmond if he is ‘kicked out’ to use your terminology.
Only four more nail chopping days to go till the double Labour by-election whammy.
Losing both by-elections is the best thing that could happen to Labour
Recent events make it likely that Labour will win both seats in the by-elections next week, meaning Jeremy Corbyn will remain leader – a disaster for the Labour Party
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/jeremy-corbyn-labour-by-elections-paul-nuttall-ukip-tony-blair-a7587371.html
I disagree with the Independent.
Labour have to win both to prove they are on the right track.
The Conservaties, do not have to win any, neither do the Lying Liberals.
UKIP ought to win one, otherwise, they are becoming pointless.
It looks likely they will win in Stoke and lose in Cumbria.
Given the local issues at play in Copeland that is to be expected.
Its been all over our newspapers here, hasn’t it? the debate is raging about the special relationship with Nissan, the sweetheart deals of Surrey council and the plans to force protectionism on to the world grown up under WTO rules and regs.
trump wants to slap import taxes on to imports but subsidise exports.
If the goal is a sustainable finance system, limited protectionism for certain sectors of the economy might be appropriate, but what is proposed by the hand holding duet, is to slash corporate taxes in London and new York, and hope that other financiers in Europe will want to come here and stash some more stale money in tax havens.
Its all geared towards the rich and powerful bankers carrying on as they always have, without any brakes.
But then the Brexiteers don’t worry about a little thing, cause everything’s gonna be alright…. for those who have, but not for the workers who create the wealth.
Such blatant moves is a declaration of war on the planet, forget about global climate change and our impact on it, forget about the top soils flowing down deforested Californian hillsides or Indonesian/Malaysian,Brazilian rainforests. Our leaders think that our children should have nothing but poverty on offer, a recipe for bringing up radical thinkers indeed, but that will not happen here in a sufficiently divided society who hasn’t got a clue about the game playing.
I urge you to read this article incl. the links, understand what’s being proposed by May and Trump.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/u-s-and-uk-trade-policy-proposals-have-germany-scrambling-a-1134668.html
“Either way, Berlin’s stint as president of the G-20 isn’t likely to deliver harmonious images of effortless international cooperation of the kind that might be useful in the coming German general election campaign. Indeed, the coming weeks and months of grappling with the neo-nationalists from London and Washington will be decisive in determining whether the G-20 format has a future at all. And currently, it’s chances for survival don’t look good. The plans of Trump and May are nothing less than an outright attempt to destroy it.
The British anticipate that slashing the country’s corporate tax rate to an extremely low level will attract foreign companies, especially from European Union member states, to relocate there. That, London hopes, will bring both jobs for the country’s workers and money for the state coffers — perhaps even enough to compensate for the harm caused by the UK’s departure from the EU.”
Well it looks like Julian Assange, may be in a bit of trouble, as the current Ecuadorian president comes near the end of his ten year tenure, as the country’s leader.
Conservative former banker Guillermo Lasso, is the opposition’s frontrunner, and he strongly opposes giving Mr Assange asylum.
Polls suggest ruling party candidate, paraplegic former vice-president Lenin Moreno, 63, will win but fall just short of enough votes to avoid an April run-off against Lasso, 61.
Mr Moreno, is a ally and supporter of the current Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa. He would continue to give Mr Assange asylum.
One wonders if the hand of the Great Satan will (if it hasn’t already done so) intervene on the elections, to sway the vote towards Mr Lasso. Or if indeed, Lasso may already be backed by those who desperately want to acquire Assange.
Assange has opened our eyes to many machinations of the West, it would be a damn shame if he were to fall into the clutches of those who want to shut him up, which in turn would deny us important information.
I have my doubts that the USA has any interest in putting Assange on trial.
Any case against him would be extremely complex and would involve renewed public scrutiny of the wikileaks documents relating to Afghanistan and Iraq which the media were happy to play down at the time. It would also involve Chelsea Manning appearing as a witness.
Extradition via Sweden also looks politically unlikely while Trump is in office.
Stu.
It’s a strange one last month Trump tweeted his support for Assange, over the allegations by his security services that Russia had interfered with the POTUS campaign.
Whether or not that support still remains now that Trump is POTUS, is another matter, one would say that Trump might not want to exacerbate his relationship with his security services, over Assange, nor turn anymore GOP Senators against him.
One thing is for certain though, Assange will be arrested if he steps foot, out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and held, whilst those who want to shut him up, decide his next destination.
Does Mr. Assange only have one suspicion, left, on him.
He has never been charged.
He should consider himself innocent.
Why would Theresa May want him locked up, what would she gain, our populace, would turn against Theresa, surely?
It’s interesting to see the Westminster’s propaganda machine the BBC, produce a film on Russian football hooliganism, aimed at the 2018 World Cup, which is to be hosted by Russia, one could easily claim that the BBC, and their Westminster masters by default are Russophobic, or at the very least allowing the promotion of Russophobia, to be aired by their state broadcaster.
Its as if no other nation apart from Russia has football hooligans, not, Italy the Ukraine or even England for that matter.
I think you will find that the BBC also said plenty about the Polish/Ukrainian football hooligans when the European Championships were held there
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01jk4vr
Yet another conspiracy theory squashed.
That may be, but the point was made, that Russia, already under attack from the Great Satan, and its minions in Europe over Crimea, Syria, and the false accusations of influencing the POTUS elections, is also a country of violent football hooligans.
Strangely I don’t recall the BBC, making a film in the run up to 2014, on Brazil and Brazilian football holliganism, during that World Cup. But then again, there was no agenda present, like the one that’s in full swing against Russia.
The hero of our alt Right Marxist Leninists appears to be losing it
http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/donald-trump-appears-to-invent-sweden-terror-attack-during-florida-rally-speech/ar-AAn5Vu7?li=AAmiR2Z&ocid=spartanntp
Is insanity one of the grounds for impeachment?
Sounds like he made a mistake. You wouldn’t have had that with Obama and his teleprompter, granted.
Still, you only have to look at Malmo to see where Trump is coming from.
This could’ve been what Trump was referring to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrSIKDpHmq4
” Horowitz lives in New York City. In December 2016, he said he was “punched, kicked and choked” by Arabic-speaking men while filming a documentary in Husby, Stockholm.[7]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ami_Horowitz
” American Jewish filmmaker says he was attacked by Arabic speakers in Stockholm”
http://www.jta.org/2016/12/16/news-opinion/world/american-jewish-filmmaker-says-he-was-attacked-by-arabic-speakers-in-stockholm?utm_content=buffere2077&utm_medium=social&utm_source=jtafacebook&utm_campaign=social
Unbelievable what a rich, peaceful, safe country like Sweden can do to itself under a red-green “progressive” alliance. So sad.
That kind of attitude wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with Sweden’s nonchalant approach to Israel’s, somewhat terse approach to Sweden over the Palestinians.
Sweden, for the moment that is, isn’t endeared to the hearts of the Israeli authorities, what a pity eh?
People need to wake up to Sweden. North Korea appears normal by comparison to Sweden.
All civilized people should shun Sweden and have nothing whatsoever to do with it, Sweden should be expelled from all international organizations of which it is a member. No one would trade with Sweden or engage with it in any way.
If Vladimir Putin is the mad dog aggressor that the media portrays him to be then all efforts should be devoted to encouraging Putin to invade Sweden. Luckily Sweden is not a member of NATO and so no systemic risk would be involved. My bet is that not matter how “mad” Putin might be he is sane enough to go nowhere near Sweden.
“People need to wake up to Sweden. North Korea appears normal by comparison to Sweden.”
Woof
Poor RD, I sympathise with you. Your world was turned upside down on June 23 and then another tumble on November 8. Too much, too fast.
After all, it is said ‘the only one that likes a change is a wet baby’ so you are not alone. Just one more crying baby being brought into the new world of the 21st century (16 years late to begin because of GWB and BHO). Unfortunately, babies do generally arrive into the world kicking and screaming, but then the Intelligence of life takes over.
The Reality: Brexit IS happening and Trump is staying in the White House. You’ll get over it, in time. Meantime, people who live in the past, live in the duality of could’ve been, should’ve been. In other word the duality of internal conflict. And then they externalise this mischief into Society. Go into it.
I sympathise with you – political argument did not stop with the Brexit referendum or Trump, and as a fully paid up member of the resistance my democratic right to argue and convince others that a change is needed have not gone away. AS always I am a strong believer that the change should come about from constitutional means when such means are available as they are in the UK and US.
All you demonstrate with your ad hominem arguments is you inability to engage in political debate and also a behaviour that appears to be quite at odds with the Krishnamutian philosophy that you espouse from time to time. I could respond in kind – but I shall resist the temptation. The last think I want or need is your sympathy.
You have still not answered the question as where is the mandate for leaving the Single Market from the referendum or from the election platforms of the majority of our political representatives. We joined the Single Market 13 years before the EU, other countries belong to the Single Market and not the EU – why take the dictatorial approach and assume that this is not possible for the UK??
The Krishnamurti bit is my litmus test when people are rankled to the point when they have lost their elemental ability to think clearly. 😉
You now are in the ranks of RoS and Mary our resident newsreel second-hand human beings.
I am also at the verge of now sympathising with John Goss and Macky in your years-long feud of ‘debates’, which I hasten to add I of course never read.
My problem is not with Krishnamurti but you. Calling anyone a “second-hand human being” is of course something that you will have to reconcile with what Krishnamurti actually says (please don’t bore us as I for one couldn’t care less).
The questions of course remain unanswered – just more ad hominem stuff.
“The last think I want or need is your sympathy.”
Better if you have the last thing you want–my sympathy, even if you can’t have the first–a second Brexit referendum.
If you don’t like it, you can move to Scotland, have a second referendum there and I’ll double my sympathy.
(Just kidding 😉 my Scottish friends. I am told that Edinburgh was recently voted as one of the best cities to live in in the world, based on quality of life and value for money.
My grandfather studied medicine there @Edinburgh, even if I am yet to visit.)
The world changed on November 8, and so began the Changing of The Guards, culminating on January 20 when the new Guards were installed.
Isn’t it ironic that Leaders win on banners of Change, intended to woo voters who are themselves clamouring for Change, so many people (and institutions) still resist change?
Therefore, change does not bring immediate rewards, as the false idols have to fall first. One of the major such false idols that is falling, surely but in slow-motion is The Establishment’s Press. The term fake news did not just happen to come about coincidentally; it was borne out of this phenomenon.
It is a joy to watch. Go for it Trump, go for their jugular.. The BBC another beauty, like CNN.
Another False Idol falling is the Deep State. It’s ties to Big Media and the ‘leaks’ are illustrated by this:
“In 2013, the Washington Post was purchased by Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon. That same year, Amazon also obtained a CIA contract worth $600 million. At the time, the Nation pointed out the conflict of interest that these dealings posed.
[Jeff Bezos] recently secured a $600 million contract from the CIA. That’s at least twice what Bezos paid for the Post this year. Bezos recently disclosed that the company’s Web-services business is building a ‘private cloud’ for the CIA to use for its data needs.”
When the main shareholder in one of the very largest corporations in the world benefits from a massive contract with the CIA on the one hand, and that same billionaire owns the Washington Post on the other hand, there are serious problems. The Post is unquestionably the political paper of record in the United States, and how it covers governance sets the agenda for the balance of the news media. Citizens need to know about this conflict of interest in the columns of the Post itself.”
https://medium.com/@SarahRRunge/amazon-the-washington-post-and-the-cia-d68a4ee802e#.1cvx7akfv
Julian Assange
@JulianAssange
The Washington Post is in a $600m bed with the CIA. Over twice the value of the post itself ($250m).
https://twitter.com/JulianAssange
Thank you Mary, I really had to ferret that one out. Consider it an example and inspiration for you to up your game. Credit goes to Assange actually who copied it before me.
I think the demise of your newsreel is part of the phenomenon of the false idols flailing and falling.
Btw what happened to Christiane Amanpour this morning? I thought the CNN and BBC were having a breakfast party?
Alcyone.
Thank you for that very interesting, and informative link. ?
Hey RoS you’re very welcome. Enjoy your Sunday!
What do you mean by going for the jugular – would you close down CNN and the BBC or just dictate what they can and cannot say. Doesn’t it worry you in the slightest that the Executive appears to locked in conflict with the Judiciary and the 4th Estate – do you see that one way of stopping dictatorships is that they should act as checks and balances on executive power?
You appear to be reducing politics to the level of opposing groups of football hooligans.
So full of fear!
Trump’s enemies were the first to use the phrase “fake news,” making false charges that dissident Websites were just vehicles of Russian propaganda. There was a notorious article to that effect in the Washington Post which they then had to correct.
Trump has just picked up on the phrase, and used it accurately.
Thank you Lysias, a measure of self-projection I guess. It happens. Psychology is everything. Different from psychologists. Psychologists unfortunately need psychologists, but that is digressing.
This from Alcyone’s excellent link.
“Bezos’ conflict of interest is again worth mentioning after the Washington Post used highly questionable sources to promote identifying and blacklisting “fake news” sites in late November.
” Using a sensationalized headline claiming Russian involvement, this story relied on unnamed analysts from an shadowy group known as PropOrNot to cast suspicion on Russia.”
Here is ProporNot’s site.
It attacks many of our favourite sites such as Corbett Report and GlobalResearch, PaulCraigRoberts etc.
However it also attacks Infowars, of which I’m sure none of us frequent.
http://www.propornot.com/p/home.html
Re my above comment PropOrNot, suggests you get your news from the following outlets with regards to those pesky Russians.
“Obtain news from actual reporters, who report to an editor and are professionally accountable for mistakes. We suggest NPR, the BBC, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Buzzfeed News, VICE.”
What does thst say about those sites?
Finally re my above comment on ProporNot, here is their updated list of sites they claim are pro-Russian.
At the bottom are sites that have been removed from the list. Possibly added so that we look upon them with suspicion now, or they could’ve become compliant, or they could still be covertly on the list.
http://www.propornot.com/p/the-list.html
I have no idea with regards to the allegations of whether or not Edward Heath did what he did…but an English Barrister – went on a Bristol Independent Radio show – and made these allegations – as if everyone already knew – and some of them were not nice at all.
I do not know if they were true.
David Icke included the allegations in a book he wrote many years ago. He was never sued.
The Barrister – got banged up – on an unrelated charge. I think he is out now.
So some of it is probably true.
“Michael Shrimpton Exposes Ted Heath (and others)”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNelt33QP_8
Its now all over the front page of the Mail on Sunday in The supermarket.
Bit late now.
Tony
Tony,
I do not think the charge against Michael Shrimpton was unrelated. He strongly believes in a German deep state/Burschenschaft organisation predating and postdating the Nat. Socs(‘for us the war never ends’),which was instrumental in 9/11 and for 7/7 in Britain and plotted to bring a mini nuclear sub/weapon to attack the London Olympics.(The charge was wastng police time by giving warning of this).
Similarly he claims that Heath was a known homosexual recruited on a pre-war trip to Germany and blackmailed by the Abwehr and its unofficial successors,inter alia, into getting the UK into the Common Market.
” Doesn’t it worry you in the slightest that the Executive appears to locked in conflict with the Judiciary and the 4th Estate – do you see that one way of stopping dictatorships is that they should act as checks and balances on executive power?..”
In order to act as checks on executive power they have to be independent of it-this is axiomatic. A newspaper owned by the Communist Party is not going to be a very efficient check on Executive power when it is held by the Communist Party. Nor would it be a reliable check if it were owned by the anti-communist party. In order to function it has to be independent.
What we are seeing in the US today is not an uprising of independent critics of the government but an attempt, by the opponents of Trump who recently lost, first the Republican Primaries and, second, the General Election to impose their policies on his government. In doing so they are using employees of the Intelligence Agencies for political purposes which are specifically barred by the CIA Charter, namely interference in domestic politics.
This is the stuff of which movies like Six Days in May were once made- now this rolling coup is not only welcomed by, for example, Senator Schumer but large sections of the rank and file ‘left’ including such clowns as the International Socialist Organisation.
It is not just that the coup is a shocking affront to constitutionality but that it brings together a political Chamber of Horrors : Paul Wolfowitz, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, the idiot from South Carolina (whose name no decent person can utter) and the media pundits.
“Nor would it be a reliable check if it were owned by the anti-communist party. In order to function it has to be independent.”
Granted, but it would be a darn sight better one than a press and judiciary owned by the allies of Trump/Putin/CPSU as would appear to be your favoured mode of operation. Do you know what proportion of court cases are acquitted in Russia under Putin?
It’s just like old times for the BBC. In the Iraq war it was Caroline Hawley. Now in the continuum it is Quentin Somerville.
War by Smartphone On Mosul’s Front Line
Quentin Somerville is embedded with Iraqi troops and tweeted from the heart of the offensive. https://twitter.com/i/moments/833275938917974016
It does make you wonder, just exactly “who” the Iraqi offensive is aimed at in Mosul. According to some reports (not the BBC) thousands of Western/Saudi/Israeli backed fighters slipped out of Mosul into Aleppo. Now however that Aleppo is mainly undr Assads control, where have those fighters now been deployed? Yemen for example.
http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/10/13/us-saudi-plan-let-9000-isis-fighters-walk-free-from-mosul-to-fight-in-syria/
I doubt that they were redeployed back into Mosul, so in my opinion, the Mosul offensive could be against Houthi fighters and other fighters who, want to overthrow Western backed Fuad Masum.
Masum’s appointment of Haider al-Abadi as new prime minister was considered illegal by Nouri al-Maliki, (Vice President of Iraq) and in violation of the constitution. Maliki said that in spite of his erosion of power, it was his duty to remain in power because the appointment was a conspiracy rooted from outside of Iraq.
“…the Mosul offensive could be against Houthi fighters.”
Not likely the ‘Houthis’ are Yemeni and come from a completely different Shi’ite tradition. I have seen no reports of Houthis in Iraq, and I wouldn’t believe any I did see.
France remains in a State of Emergency following a series of terrorist attacks carried out by Al-Qaeda and Islamic State cells.
Earlier this month an Egyptian national was gunned down in the Louvre in Paris after trying to attack soldiers with a knife.
France is the only country in the European Union to be in a State of Emergency.
France remains in a state of emergency because the populace are revolting against the neo-con agenda.
Thus far the state of emergency in France has been used to crack down on all dissent; nothing to do with so-called twerrorists.
Dodgy false flag attacks are used as the excuse for the state of emergency.
(there’ll be another one soon, by the way)
FRANCE condemns alleged cyber attacks targeting presidential candidate Macron
http://www.france24.com/en/20170219-france-condemns-cyberattacks-targeting-presidential-candidate-macron-points-russia
I bet one dollar that the French Socialist Regime would not be going on about it, if Russia had targeted Marine Le Pen.
more fake news
Russia has targetted Marine Le Pen https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-12-22/le-pen-struggling-to-fund-french-race-after-russian-backer-fails