After six solid months of co-ordinated allegation from the mainstream media allied to the leadership of state security institutions, not one single scrap of solid evidence for Trump/Russia election hacking has emerged.
I do not support Donald Trump. I do support truth. There is much about Trump that I dislike intensely. Neither do I support the neo-liberal political establishment in the USA. The latter’s control of the mainstream media, and cunning manipulation of identity politics, seeks to portray the neo-liberal establishment as the heroes of decent values against Trump. Sadly, the idea that the neo-liberal establishment embodies decent values is completely untrue.
Truth disappeared so long ago in this witch-hunt that it is no longer even possible to define what the accusation is. Belief in “Russian hacking” of the US election has been elevated to a generic accusation of undefined wrongdoing, a vague malaise we are told is floating poisonously in the ether, but we are not allowed to analyse. What did the Russians actually do?
The original, base accusation is that it was the Russians who hacked the DNC and Podesta emails and passed them to Wikileaks. (I can assure you that is untrue).
The authenticity of those emails is not in question. What they revealed of cheating by the Democratic establishment in biasing the primaries against Bernie Sanders, led to the forced resignation of Debbie Wasserman Shultz as chair of the Democratic National Committee. They also led to the resignation from CNN of Donna Brazile, who had passed debate questions in advance to Clinton. Those are facts. They actually happened. Let us hold on to those facts, as we surf through lies. There was other nasty Clinton Foundation and cash for access stuff in the emails, but we do not even need to go there for the purpose of this argument.
The original “Russian hacking” allegation was that it was the Russians who nefariously obtained these damning emails and passed them to Wikileaks. The “evidence” for this was twofold. A report from private cyber security firm Crowdstrike claimed that metadata showed that the hackers had left behind clues, including the name of the founder of the Soviet security services. The second piece of evidence was that a blogger named Guccifer2 and a websitecalled DNC Leaks appeared to have access to some of the material around the same time that Wikileaks did, and that Guccifer2 could be Russian.
That is it. To this day, that is the sum total of actual “evidence” of Russian hacking. I won’t say hang on to it as a fact, because it contains no relevant fact. But at least it is some form of definable allegation of something happening, rather than “Russian hacking” being a simple article of faith like the Holy Trinity.
But there are a number of problems that prevent this being fact at all. Nobody has ever been able to refute the evidence of Bill Binney, former Technical Director of the NSA who designed its current surveillance systems. Bill has stated that the capability of the NSA is such, that if the DNC computers had been hacked, the NSA would be able to trace the actual packets of that information as those emails travelled over the internet, and give a precise time, to the second, for the hack. The NSA simply do not have the event – because there wasn’t one. I know Bill personally and am quite certain of his integrity.
As we have been repeatedly told, “17 intelligence agencies” sign up to the “Russian hacking”, yet all these king’s horses and all these king’s men have been unable to produce any evidence whatsoever of the purported “hack”. Largely because they are not in fact trying. Here is another actual fact I wish you to hang on to: The Democrats have refused the intelligence agencies access to their servers to discover what actually happened. I am going to say that again.
The Democrats have refused the intelligence agencies access to their servers to discover what actually happened.
The heads of the intelligence community have said that they regard the report from Crowdstrike – the Clinton aligned private cyber security firm – as adequate. Despite the fact that the Crowdstrike report plainly proves nothing whatsoever and is based entirely on an initial presumption there must have been a hack, as opposed to an internal download.
Not actually examining the obvious evidence has been a key tool in keeping the “Russian hacking” meme going. On 24 May the Guardian reported triumphantly, following the Washington Post, that
“Fox News falsely alleged federal authorities had found thousands of emails between Rich and Wikileaks, when in fact law enforcement officials disputed that Rich’s laptop had even been in possession of, or examined by, the FBI.”
It evidently did not occur to the Guardian as troubling, that those pretending to be investigating the murder of Seth Rich have not looked at his laptop.
There is a very plain pattern here of agencies promoting the notion of a fake “Russian crime”, while failing to take the most basic and obvious initial steps if they were really investigating its existence. I might add to that, there has been no contact with me at all by those supposedly investigating. I could tell them these were leaks not hacks. Wikileaks. The clue is in the name.
So those “17 agencies” are not really investigating but are prepared to endorse weird Crowdstrike claims, like the idea that Russia’s security services are so amateur as to leave fingerprints with the name of their founder. If the Russians fed the material to Wikileaks, why would they also set up a vainglorious persona like Guccifer2 who leaves obvious Russia pointing clues all over the place?
Of course we need to add from the Wikileaks “Vault 7” leak release, information that the CIA specifically deploys technology that leaves behind fake fingerprints of a Russian computer hacking operation.
Crowdstrike have a general anti-Russian attitude. They published a report seeking to allege that the same Russian entities which “had hacked” the DNC were involved in targeting for Russian artillery in the Ukraine. This has been utterly discredited.
Some of the more crazed “Russiagate” allegations have been quietly dropped. The mainstream media are hoping we will all forget their breathless endorsement of the reports of the charlatan Christopher Steele, a former middle ranking MI6 man with very limited contacts that he milked to sell lurid gossip to wealthy and gullible corporations. I confess I rather admire his chutzpah.
Given there is no hacking in the Russian hacking story, the charges have moved wider into a vague miasma of McCarthyite anti-Russian hysteria. Does anyone connected to Trump know any Russians? Do they have business links with Russian finance?
Of course they do. Trump is part of the worldwide oligarch class whose financial interests are woven into a vast worldwide network that enslaves pretty well the rest of us. As are the Clintons and the owners of the mainstream media who are stoking up the anti-Russian hysteria. It is all good for their armaments industry interests, in both Washington and Moscow.
Trump’s judgement is appalling. His sackings or inappropriate directions to people over this subject may damage him.
The old Watergate related wisdom is that it is not the crime that gets you, it is the cover-up. But there is a fundamental difference here. At the centre of Watergate there was an actual burglary. At the centre of Russian hacking there is a void, a hollow, and emptiness, an abyss, a yawning chasm. There is nothing there.
Those who believe that opposition to Trump justifies whipping up anti-Russian hysteria on a massive scale, on the basis of lies, are wrong. I remain positive that the movement Bernie Sanders started will bring a new dawn to America in the next few years. That depends on political campaigning by people on the ground and on social media. Leveraging falsehoods and cold war hysteria through mainstream media in an effort to somehow get Clinton back to power is not a viable alternative. It is a fantasy and even were it practical, I would not want it to succeed.
No doubt others will have pointed out that “Stinks” plural would have improved the pun for those catch the reference. But nobody says it better. Carly Simon should have warbled those words about CM. I wonder if any Guardian or NS writer has taken this line. The implied assumption of BBC reporters is that the burden is on Trump to prove that there is no fire underneath all this smoke.
I don’t suppose you’ve got the photograph?
Sanders isn’t Corbyn, he’s Bliar.
lol.
A war criminal?
I don’t know about Blair – but he certainly is no Corbyn, for a start he accepts American foreign policy without question, his policies really don’t go beyond domestic policy, he refuses to condem nuclear weapons and he capitulated to Clinton and then rather than stand as an independant – where he could have possibly won, he chose to back Clinton.
Certainly not a centrist like Blair, but an old fashioned left liberal for sure. Jeremy Corbyn is the real deal.
His principals will not change, he may well have to do things he doesn’t agree with because of his commitment to democracy which is his fundamental political belief, but he will do his level best to convince opponents to change their minds
I’m afraid Bernie is is a bit of a Vince Cable – all noble words but when push comes to shove he’s with the establishment.
I agree. I find the comparisons between Sanders and Corbyn, erm, interesting. Foreign policy is integral to domestic policy in my view, both must be addressed simultaneously and not compartmentalised. Having said that I certainly don’t think Sanders can be likened to Blair.
Can i just put out a quick appeal for sane(ish) Americans or those forwarding a massage from America to visit the blog occasionally and say something. Anything, doesn’t really matter what it is.
Were all rooting for America really. Hang in there.
‘Saudi Arabia and its allies are demanding that Al Jazeera, including AJ+, is shut down. Al Jazeera has its own demands’. https://twitter.com/ajplus/status/882182975621709824
Just to say there were never 17 intelligence agencies claiming there was evidence of Russian hacks, without producing any evidence to back up the claim, just three. That’s according to the Former Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper. Those agencies were the FBI, the CIA and the NSA. Just because the corporate media keeps pushing the same line, there’s no need to do it here, even in inverted commas.
Reminds of that guy who said julian Assange “broke EVERY law in the US”, or something to that effect.
While they can’t seem to actually illustrate one law he broke, same as Russian evidence. ..Scare mongering, Or phycological terrorism, same difference.
“Dominic Cummings, the brains behind the infamous pledge of £350million a week for the NHS.”
Now says Brexit could be a huge mistake.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/man-who-ran-vote-leave-10736075
One idiot on the verge of realising that HMS Brexitania, is sinking at an alarming rate, due to Brexit.
Actually the issue is markets.
Brexit was a symptom.
You try it. Go “independent”, see what happens to your currency. Announce your advanced devaluation. But don’t tell voters, they may not like the idea. Though who cares about effects on ordinary people.
“free trade”
Did we not just discuss this yesterday, while I was referencing ideas from the communist canon. Did you forget already or just not get it?
Your making it up as you go along, aren’t you? You obviously have no idea about my ideas.
No ROS Your wilfully blind. CLEARLY.
Care to address the point on your currency devaluation? That is inevitable if you get your own, given the reality we live in with “free markets” and all? Just one, Just address one point i made.
You won’t because you can’t. And will simply move on to “semi-rants and disgruntled rambles” then repeat independence independence like a mantra as solution. When you clearly have no clue.
I’m far more serious than you. You treat it like a game. As I said before, dangerous.
I’ll say this Ishmael, two days ago you didn’t even know what the “Single Market” was, I had to tell you.
48 hours later you’ve solved the financial crisis surrounding Brexit and currency, with your “ideas” whatever they may be.
You’re a serious person alright seriously ill-informed. In hindsight you probably hadn’t even heard of the Single Market at all.
ROS,
Nah I’m still convince they never intended Brexit, I think the plan was to have an election, increase the majority, and then start to spin that Brexit is dead. I’m absolutely convinced of that.
Brexit won’t happen – watch how the media will change narrative. Farage has been beaten Tories have their base back. It’s all been an illusion. But the good thing is either I’m right or I’m wrong but we’ll know pretty damned soon.
Happy to say, this was my prediction long before the vote took place. On the whole, I hope so because reform (too often a badly misused word) seems to be in the air. It would be nice to also have a government which isn’t pushing the EU toward ever more rabid financialisation, ‘free trade’ (oxy-moron) and complaining about human rights, to be precise, anyone having them.
Shatnersrug.
I disagree in my opinion, Brexit is a right wing Tory/Ukip, strategy to remove the EU from the equation and drag Britain back decades.
Even if Theresa May and her bungling Brexiteers, threw themselves at the mercy of the EU and begged to remain in the union, we’ve already lost important institutions and clout, that we cannot get back.
The old isolationist empire has raised its ugly head, and is dragging the rest of us out of Europe, and back in time.
Yet the Home nations aren’t allowed to cut their own deals with the EU, yet Japanese car manufacturers can get cast iron guarantees, and London Square Mile reps can fly out to Brussels and make their deals as well.
Brexit stinks to high heaven.
As I say, the good thing is I’ll be proved wrong or right pretty quick and I’ll buy you a beer or two if I’m wrong next time I’m up your way 🙂
So Glasgow city council are looking into banning the Orange Order from marching in the city, after band members were caught red handed singing sectarian songs.
It’s about time these bigoted neanderthals were shut down once and for all, they’re a blight on Scottish society.
One just has to look towards NI, to see what mayhem they cause in society. The O/O, asked the DUP to be allowed to march past Drumcree church.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/12/orange-order-asks-dup-to-put-drumcree-march-on-wishlist-in-may-talks
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-40498758
What’s the difference between an apple and an orange?
I’ve never seen an apple walk…. (sorry!)
Ha nice one. ?
I’ve never seen an apple walk…. (sorry!)
I’ve seen a fruit fly (sorry!)
“red-handed”
Did you intend that pun? Lol
Jo.
No I didn’t, but thanks for pointing that out. ?
I fair chuckled here!
Whether or not Putin aims to physically invade these EU countries is anyone’s guess, but history is not on the EU’s side. Before he decided to invade Ukraine and Georgia, former Soviet satellites, Putin launched a full scale cyber war on them.
On July 20, 2008, just a few weeks before Russian troops attacked, Georgian government websites were shut down by Russian hackers. The goal was to limit the ability of Georgians to defend themselves, to cause mass confusion. Communications, media, transportation and banking systems were shut down by Russian hackers. Georgia was crippled without a single bomb dropped or gun fired. Russia further shut down neighboring countries’ news agencies in an attempt to keep the reports of their war crimes a secret.
Ukraine is the canary in the coal mine in this new war. Putin’s hackers have been consistently striking Ukraine’s government agencies since 2010. From 2014 to 2016, they were able to destroy 80% of Ukraine’s D-30 Howitzers and 50% of other artillery by using malware to infect and transmit their locations to Russian troops. Additionally, Ukrainian citizens have seen their power systems attacked and shut down continuously for years.
Putin has committed war crimes in the Crimea killing over 10,090 people since April of 2014. As of June 2017, over 2,777 civilians have died and an estimated 23,966 have been injured. Additionally, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are trapped in the war zones without food, water or medical supplies.
As if any of this weren’t enough, Putin also used right wing media outlets in the Crimea to spread his propaganda and turn many Ukrainians into rebels for his cause. So, not only are Ukraine’s citizens dealing with transportation, banking and power shut downs, but Russian troops have invaded and there is a percentage of the population engaging in civil war. Should Putin win, he will control the vast oil and gas resources of the Crimea and have access to the Black Sea, a strategic necessity to overthrow the EU.
We Must Recognize Russia has Declared War
To date, the EU has done little to stop or punish Russia for its crimes. Just like the U.S., they appear reluctant to declare Putin’s actions to be acts of war. But Russia is not merely stealing data or trying to influence leaders to join their agenda. When they use cyber warfare to shut down transportation, banking, power, food and water resources, that is the equivalent to bombing those systems and institutions. When Putin affects the outcome of elections and has his troops hack election systems, that is an act of war.
It is past time for America, the EU and NATO to declare this a war. Something more than sanctions and finger waving must be done. Seeing as how Trump is too busy benefiting from Putin’s war crimes and fighting with CNN, the U.S. Congress must take the lead to protect our democracy.
You sound insane.
Russia isn’t perfect at all. But your ridiculous narrative is far more dangerous.
America needs to get lost. Nato shouldn’t exist. Russia is under threat not the other way around. And that’s dangerous like most everything the insane admin in america does.
That’s all a bit one sided. Are you confusing the Crimea with Ukraine? (crimea voted to join russia). Is the support we’ll assume russia is giving to the donetsk inherently different to the support that the current ukrainian government gets from ‘us’ in return for their eu-friendly/russia-hostile position? Is the cyber attack you say russia used against georgia different to stuxnet? And the georgia story is a similar story of obvious nato provocation imv – what would america do if russia tried to get mexico to join the warsaw pact?
Perhaps there’s issues already unstoppable that makes aggression irrelevant. Here’s a link to our old friend RobG’s recent article.
http://www.spiderbomb.com/blog/?p=4126
Hey Benny – You are so behind the times it hurts.
Dontha know the new news is all about Austrian troops and Austrian armor being deployed to the Italian border. Check out some (in)famous Austrian and ask yourself whether Russians are likely to suffer from the same degree of amnesia as people in the west.
If a couple of million Asian and African migrants can be welcomed to the EU then why not a couple of million Russians? Surely you are not pursuing a racist anti Slav narrative?
How appropriate. The pro-Clinton website which you copied your entire ‘comment’ from is called “Crooks & Liars”
http://crooksandliars.com/2017/07/eu-us-must-declare-russias-cyber-attacks
Didn’t bother to read past the first paragraph which definitely contains at least two factual errors and possibly a couple more.
@ Be obliged if you would discontinue the Russophobic nonsense. Why would Russia invade the Baltic States.The Soviet Union broke up and these States went their own way.
Russia did not invade the Ukraine. There was a coup, promoted by the US and its NATO Allies.The US spent $5 billion, funding NGO’s as the foot-soldiers in the coup.They also trained NeoNazi Banderistas squads in areas of Poland.They were the shock troops of the coup and used snipers to shoot both police and demonstrators to implicate the Govt in a manufactured atrocity. A Color Revolution tactic.
The ethnic Russian peoples of Donetsk and Luhansk did not wish to become part of this illegal and Russophobic entity and declared UDI. The war is ongoing there since with over 10k civilian casualties , possibly 50k military dead and a refugee flow of over 1 milllion into Russia.
Crimea was not invaded. Russia has a Naval base at Sevastopol and under a lease agrement was allowed 20 k troop stationed there. THere was a referendum,Internationally supervised and 96% voted to return to Russia ,of which it was a part since Catherine the Great.
The Crimea had been signed over by Kruschev in 1954 to Ukraine as an administration convenience during the Soviet Union period.
“We’re pushing the Russian bear over a cliff
Russia last week shot down a Turkish jet which was threatening to attack Moscow’s allies in Syria.
Russia recently sent heavy nuclear bombers to the Caribbean as a show of force.
Russian artillery recently conducted a huge live-firing exercise close to its border with Nato member Lithuania.
A Russian jet buzzed the personal aircraft of the US Defence Secretary over international waters.
Disgraceful and dangerous behaviour, you say. And so it would be, if true.
But in fact the opposite happened.
A US Navy jet shot down a Syrian warplane.
American nuclear bombers flew to the Baltic,
Nato heavy artillery let rip close to the Russian city of Kaliningrad.
A Nato jet buzzed the Russian Defence Minister’s plane.
Who is actually turning up the heat here?”
http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2017/06/plenty-of-people-hate-me-for-daring-to-point-it-out-tough-ill-say-it-once-again-most-of-this-dreadfu.html#comments
“Whether or not Putin aims to physically invade these EU countries is anyone’s guess, but history is not on the EU’s side. Before he decided to invade Ukraine and Georgia, former Soviet satellites, Putin launched a full scale cyber war on them.”
Ben I cannot be bothered to refute your BS Anyway for starters try this.
“EU blames Georgia for starting war with Russia
Georgia “illegally” started last year’s war with Russia but Moscow then “violated” international law by invading its neighbour in response to the attack, a European Union report has found.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/georgia/6247620/EU-blames-Georgia-for-starting-war-with-Russia.html
Seems clear to me the capitalists who control many instruments of death are insane. I agree, they don’t care how many they kill simply to maintain the privilege of exploited wealth. Or the “free market” (as they call it) that enables it.
“Free market” fundamentalist religious extremists that IS government remains the shadow cast over society by corporations. Endangering everyone because “there is no alliterative”, And living in consent fear you can’t even think to imagine the vast array of alternative possibilities.
We are all being terrorised, daily, all our lives. And some even help them while claiming to be helping the people, the people injured or made destitute or worse by it. As they reproduce the exact same system. The ruling classes are moslty scum, or brainwashed. When your job depends on not understanding it’s not so hard I guess.
Scum is a bad word to describe really. They are killers. Corporate/government mercenaries.
I suggest we need a program not dissimilar to Denazification. That should include some kind therapy for those who can still be helped, and certainly forms of accountability.
Ishmael, “The ruling classes are moslty scum, or brainwashed.” – Simplistic but I cannot find anything there to argue against.
… Actually after posting it i did think brainwasing maybe a bad description for those who are selected for obedient charictaristics after a (normally) very,… particular education. Socially engineered?
I think the ruling class are petrified.
Of a modicum come of truth getting out, certainly.
Can you imagine if most people were exposed to this set of ideas? It’s certainly why they have been fighting against them for generations. To own the public mind. Our own history, our rightful inheritance.
I think so too. They know their rigged neo-liberal economic system may be replaced by a social-economic model that works for all, and of even more concern for them is they may have to answer for some of their many crimes.
One for ROS, and Craig. Nether of whom seem to understand much relevant history.
Origins of the Family, Private Property, and the State – https://youtu.be/N-d3JSIaKg8
No need for thanks.
I believe that the ’17 agencies’ stuff came from Hilary. A woman so bad, she doesn’t even need a surname. Prior to the election, I became quite astonished at the lengths the corporate media would go to support, back, and defend Hilary, who is, it is fair to say, not often confused with Mother Theresa. They appear to have lost their collective mind, and are still butt-hurt (to use an alt-rightism) about her amusing defeat. At the time, they amplified her delusional 17 agencies claim without demur, and indeed still give her air time. Hilary 2020? Wouldn’t rule it out. Our corporate media appears to be owned lock stock and barrel by globalist weirdos.
And the right argue that the CIA used Watergate to set up Nixon – because Nixon threatened to blow the whistle on the JFK murder. I love that stuff. Could be baloney for all I know, but so is almost everything I read in the MSM these days.
Craig has been supportive of Qatar albeit in a qualified and measured way. Others here have called for publication of UK report into T funding and / or denounce Saudi funding & involvement. Many here regularly denounce Henry Jackson Society. What do readers make of Henry Jackson’s Report into Saudi and Terrorism? Thankful or curious as to whether it’s anti trump. I recollect a leader (or possibly editorial) in WSJ after 9/11 suggesting US should just go in take the oil fields (not off Iraq but Saudi) old style colonialism. Something tempered that view. Now Trump is best buddies others may be revaluating?
Off topic but majestic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGSK4NCwwVU
Also off topic but possessed of a kind of raw majesty:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3AMfbjvaZI
The Nuclear weapons that have already been used changed the climate. There is a very good chance, after the certain chaos, that human kind will be permanently extinguished if they where used again.
They are aimed at us, ordinary people, by the riling elite. They are hoping they are used again, pushing for it. It doesn’t matter to them.
Just think about that.
One must be ready, you see, ready and willing to follow this insanity …..Get this……to SERVE THE PEOPLE in government in the UK.
They only allow that, minimum requirement. You will push the button on command.
Quite serious about this.
I think this is a sound argument for abolition of specialist education institutions that supply the ruling classes. Because this insane immoral cult obviously isn’t creating a healthy situation for us (or them) to live in, on so many levels.
indoctrination must end.
Indeed. I look at David Cameron, and scarcely recognize him as a thinking, functioning human being. Assuming he did his own work at Oxbridge, his 1st would mark him out as an intelligent person. However, he’s so heavily indoctrinated, so ridiculously out of touch, he appears vaguely absurd, a character out of history suddenly transported to our era. I’m not sure his schooling has really done much for him, to be blunt.
Over the pond, Macron is talking about being a ‘Jupitarian’ President. I Wiki’d his schooling: elite Jesuit school, final year Lycée Henri-IV, elite University – etc. And at the end of this schooling – he becomes a fucking banker. And finally a globalist insider President who wants to be ‘Jupiterian’. I’m sure he’s clever, but he’s not Einstein is he? Or anyone else who can truly be considered a genius. And yet he see’s himself as, what, some sort of God?
I swear their indoctrination is a kind of abuse. People should not be groomed for leadership at an early age; that’s just weird.
According to the sketch you’ve presented, let us then look at it from his point of view. Everything he ever wanted according to his indoctrination has fallen straight out of the tree and into his lap. Anyone who can impinge on his sense of ‘godhead’ enough to impart an idea can count on macron coming to view it as his own through his cultivated narcissism. They can count on him to ‘own’ their doctrine for them.
There is no “hard left” in my reading. We are all sensitive, vulnerable creatures. What we see in those brutalised and brutalising are the victims. So bent and contorted has human nature been.
Bernie Sanders started a political campaign, not a coherent movement and furthermore he has gone all-in on the Russia conspiracy including support for stationing NATO forces in Eastern Europe. He supports social imperialism, just like most of the so-called left in the US, as indicated by a recent DSA poll (the most left organization of sufficient scale to warrant that designation) which found that imperialism is among the least important issues to DSA members.
Don’t get your hopes up for nothing, America’s founding spirit of conquest is alive and well in the so-called left.
Yes, a good deal better than anyone else in modern times on domestic US affairs. But on foreign policy he’s on completely on board with the myth that America has been a great force for good in the world since ww2. Despite all of the evidence to the contrary.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-has-killed-more-than-20-million-people-in-37-victim-nations-since-world-war-ii/5492051
“…I remain positive that the movement Bernie Sanders started…”
It couldn’t be clearer that Craig isn’t talking about Bernie Sanders in this passage.
Well it didn’t take long for the Tory 13 sent down to Westminster from Scotland, to attack the Scottish government.
Instead of standing up for Scotland Andrew Bowie MP, took great delight in attacking the Scottish government over late CAP payments, even though England and Wales are behind in dishing out the payments as well.
The 13 treacherous b#stards stayed silent on public sector pay caps. Not a peep out them when it was revealed that 6 million people are paid below the minimum wage. Nor did they speak out over stories told of teachers at breaking point.
Ros
Starting as they mean to go on.
A Tory government promised 13 frigates to be built in Scotland if we voted No. After a reduction to 8 it’s now been reduced to 3.
If there is to be another Westminster general election soon then a corresponding reduction in the number Scottish Tory MPs from 13 to 3 would be appropriate.
reel guid.
Ah but there’s method in their madness, I’ve read a few articles claiming that if another indyref looks likely, one or two more frigates will be rolled out during the campaign.
Very sneaky indeed.
More planned referendum rigging.
Frigating in the Rigging, to paraphrase Johnny Rotten.
The government has ordered 8 type 26 frigates, 5 type 31 frigates and 5 offshore patrol vessels.
They will be built in batches, the first batch is a batch of three, the ship yards can’t build 18 ships at the same time.
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/no-type-26-frigate-not-cut-three-ships/
If the Nationalists had got their way there would be no ships being built at all.
There was a guaranteed promise by Better Together of 13 frigates. 3 have been given. That is the material point. As with Gordon Brown’s ‘Vow’, people were encouraged to vote a certain way by a false promise.
The talk of more orders of frigates to be negotiated in the 2020s is just a vague promise. As Ros says, no doubt they will become guaranteed promises once again in indyref2. And padding out numbers by counting patrol boats is just creative accounting.
But the other 10 are still on order, no order has been cancelled, 5 orders were changed from type 26 to type 31 but there are still 13 frigates on order. The ship yards will complete the first batch of 3 then start on the next batch.
The camouflage on the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier was very effective, it sailed down the Forth and nobody in the Scottish government noticed it.
13 Type 26 frigates were promised. 3 are being built. The other 10 haven’t been cancelled because they haven’t been ordered.
The aircraft carrier already has the cunning disguise that it doesn’t have any aircraft.
In 2014 the British government said they would build 13 ships on the Clyde, now they are going to build 18 ships on the Clyde, work is starting on the first three this week.
Only a Nationalist could claim increasing their commitment to build 13 ships to 18 was reducing it to 3.
Dave.
Thanks for that interesting observation, I’ll look out for that type of bulk comment format.
And concern trolls lead us neatly back towards the original topic. Eerie, no?
http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-tsar-of-all-the-concern-trolls
Not that many here will agree.
Baal – Putin is quite clever with the concern trolling but he isn’t the at the top. Establishment Liberalism is the ultimate concern troll, you know they want to help those poor rich gay folk who just want to get married, but they don’t want to help those poor folk stay in their social housing, oh no. They care about racism so much that they give Israel 34 billion dollars a year to spend on weapons to clobber those poor Palestinians.
Thanks Statnersurg. Though this “disorder” seems a simplistic labelling in a society that rejects it own existence as influence on people.
And without issues the’d be no creativity, so I’m quite protective about imperfection.
Seems a relevant podcast for this post.
http://nuarchive.wbai.org/mp3/wbai_170704_170002randyCrelof.mp3
“It’s really about population control”
Bill Binney
The sole purpose of the Muslim Brotherhood sect created by the British in 1918 in Egypt is to create conflict. The Saudis of all people should know the machinations of USUKIS against Islam and resist the provocations of the MB sect allying themselves with Iran. An annoying pimple of Western-manufactured lies to the Saudis. A mild annoyance which they surely ought to be able to take in their stride.
In my street, in Birmingham, the spying activities by Muslim MI5 agents which were suspended in Ramadhan have quickly and noticeably resumed. Which is excellent because it means that the Muslims who earn a good living as agents of MI5 are aware of how sinful their lucrative activities are and how disrespectful to the Qur’an.
An excellent blog post–well stated and concise in all details. As a life-time U.S. Democrat I can attest to the transformation that Senator Sanders made in my own political awakening during the interminable 2015-16 presidential election cycle. I had bought into the us vs. them that the two party system in the U.S. fosters and believed that there were such vast differences between the two sides that it was imperative that the Republicans not win. By election night on November 8, 2016–it was clear to anyone who had kept their eyes, ears, and minds open during the whole traumatic slog and watched as the corporate main stream media had facilitated the rigging of the election to be between the two corporate approved and completely unwanted candidates by the majority of the public: Trump and Hillary. It was clear by all the free coverage they had given Trump throughout (but esp. during Republican primary) that they had decided it should be Trump because they were sure he was the one candidate she could beat. him.
It was also clear on the Democratic side that it was Bernie who the real base of the Democratic voters wanted. He got the huge crowds while Hillary couldn’t fill a high school gym. Since they couldn’t win it with voters–the DNC with the Clintons and their willing believers and the complicit press formed the prefect criminal heist of the primary vote from sea to shinning see. With no real press to report more than a passing mention of the irregularities and since the DNC was running the game–Hillary “won”. There is plenty of proof of this but so far no one seems to have the moral fortitude to expose it–let alone get justice. There is a lawsuit in court to address the voting fraud but it seems the judicial branch is also atrophied into only bothering with the little fish criminality. With no real journalism (except randomly on the internet) the crimes proceed in plain sight safe in the knowledge that the bought and paid for main stream press won’t report what they are not supposed to.
People forget that Bernie didn’t want to run but he finally decided to because he said someone had to–he knows that the money has corrupted the system–all the political systems absolutely. He had the courage to take them on and for that I will be forever grateful. It’s a hard thing to see reality for what it is rather than what I’d always believed. The blindfold fell from my eyes and I am no longer a member of the Democratic Party. I am now aware of so many others who are still listening to our corporate owned media (owned by only six billionaires–a veritable echo chamber) TV, newspapers and radio. Their blindfolds still firmly in place. God knows I’ve tried to get through to many of them–but some don’t really want to know the truth.
I don’t know how we find our way back from where we are right now but somehow we have to. The Democratic Party cannot be saved. Bernie doesn’t know that. A new party has to take its place and I’m not sure who will help lead us out of the impasse to get on the right path again but at least Bernie has shown us how to do it once we do. Even if he was caught in the end believing he had to honor a promise to a woman who has no honor. A woman who was the other half of Bill Clinton’s presidency and who together they are responsible for instituted so many of the policies that lead to the downfall of the US middle class and, even now are facilitating the end of the Democratic Party. A new party can’t come soon enough. The one really bright spot is that there are now more of US (independents) than THEM (registered Democrats and Republicans)–and they’ll be more when the rest of the blindfolds fall off.
A heartfelt post. I sympathise.
You are placing faith in a new ‘party’. My observation is that democracy and party politics are a convenience. Parties simplify the process of representation, by providing hierarchies, but parties also have the disadvantage of being susceptible to manipulation by individuals who reach positions of influence.
I don’t have an ‘answer’ but i think that democracy will need to be re-invented in some way where active participation by the great majority of functioning citizens is encouraged or indeed obligatory.
I also think that our politics are a function of our times. The essential factors of the ‘times’ are the explosion of technical capacity, which are in the control of a relatively small number of corporate entities offering key services or products, the environmental problems due to the widespread use of fossil material as fuel and chemical feedstocks, and the tensions created both domestic (i.e.national ) and international inequality.
It is very clear to anyone that cares to contemplate the position, that the high population (near 8 billion) (and on an historically exponential phase) is almost certainly not sustainable. One of the more interesting aspects of migration and and the issues it raises are revealed by looking at demographics. It is clear that the currently and historically recently, empowered groups, which have traditionally held sway/power over most of the world (i.e white western European or colonial variants of white European) are actually declining. It is also interesting to look at the effects on population of a period reduced ‘fertility'(i.e.in he broad sense of baby production per head of population) . The effect on population is relatively slow at first but accelerates as there are repeated generations of failure to replace( i.e below a birth rate of about 2.4. This is associated with technical improvements to health and the in crease of longevity- but that in itself is another real problem as it creates a leisured and largely unproductive, high maintenance cohort of affluent populations.
I don’t actually think there is a calm resolution of these intrinsic tensions .
There is possibly ‘a way’ but it involves degrees of forbearance and tolerance and understanding that I doubt exist within the current human consciousness . I don’t place faith in new ‘parties’. Political movements are millenarian in character. At the moment we are just emerging from the experiment with that millenarian cult which is conveniently labelled ‘neoliberalism’ (or Thatcherism if you are in the UK) and was very broadly, the theory that everyone would be made happy by the creation of ever more, ever more pointless, electrically operated geegaws and personal self- indulgences.It is falling apart as we speak.
The conversation has moved on and there are a few very tentative signs within the UK of a realisation of the predicament. Unfortunately the lump of turd that leads the US is simply a sign of the inability to even contemplate the problem. Essentially Sanders, despite his brave efforts, was engulfed by a Tsunami of denialism, and some of his own internal contradictions.
If I’m horribly patronising, (i am) forgive me, it’s because I’m trying to help.
Looking for leadership is often merely looking for a new master in the end. What else has worked, both in the states and elsewhere? A part of the answer might be in reaching out to other people who already get it, not just through social media but more importantly through local communities, how would you go about finding each other and talking about these things in ways which include those others who are still swept up in it, while designed to reach them without proselytising.
How do you identify and address the parts of your culture which are compromised by big money and the current ideologies. Hollywood and sport spring to mind, both of which support tribal allegiance and the current identity politics, both neither rooted in your communities nor concerned with the realities most people have to deal with, although a growing number of individual sportsmen (and film makers/writers/actors) seem to get it. Maybe setting up independent sporting tournaments wherever possible which view team sports not as a adjunct to military and political domination but as a bond between community and communities. Maybe as a community, support local independent film makers, artists, writers, theatre and alternative news, alternative cultural outgrowths. Crowd sourced funding with a local focus. Events and concerts with the view of setting up and funding of alternative and lasting infrastructure, community based renewable energy projects and infrastructure, local and community agriculture, environmental best practice. Support groups for people who are in the process of getting off the drug, literal and metaphorical which focus on understanding the real reasons for their predicament.
Chances are many of the people at the bottom made their way down there because they knew early on what they didn’t want to be a part of. They probably know more than most about how the various systems work against people and community but they’re also likely to be very bitter toward and opposed to political solutions, and who could blame them.
Key to all of this is remembering across generations, that’s why real historians particularly local historians, writers and artists are so important, to preserve what you’ve learned. All the state approved cultural activities for remembering are probably dismantled, in a sorry state or fully compromised. The good news is that all of those things are enjoyable to build and engage in. How did previous generations do it? How much of all of this already exists. Where is it working well and how.
And most important of all, listen to the natives while encouraging others to do so. They know more about surviving under a dominating and colonising culture than anyone else in your country, those left have been doing it for four hundred years. While their cultures have been ravaged or destroyed, they are rediscovering themselves and their world view is certainly more valuable than ever, certainly in terms of knowing how to live with the land and not simply upon it despite the corporate revisionist histories currently fashionable.
All of this and more is happening and it will eventually change everything because your survival as a nation depends upon re-learning that community is everything, locally, nationally and internationally. All of which have been deliberately atomised along every fault line from economics to race and will remain so in the absence of your efforts to change that.
Look to yourselves in ways your ancestors did, learn from their successes and their mistakes. And remember you will meet resistance and incomprehension every single step of the way.
@ Craig
‘…As we have been repeatedly told, “17 intelligence agencies” sign up to the “Russian hacking”, yet all these king’s horses and all these king’s men have been unable to produce any evidence whatsoever of the purported “hack”. …’
‘As we have been repeatedly told, “17 intelligence agencies” sign up to the “Russian hacking”, yet all these king’s horses and all these king’s men have been unable to produce any evidence whatsoever of the purported “hack”
:http://freebeacon.com/national-security/new-york-times-associated-press-correct-claims-that-all-17-intelligence-agencies-agreed-on-russian-interference/
‘….Later in the same hearing, Clapper pushed back against Sen. Al Franken (D., Minn.) when the latter stated that “all 17” intelligence community members concluded Russia interfered in the election:
FRANKEN: The intelligence communities have concluded, all 17 of them, that Russia interfered with this election. And we all know how that’s right.
CLAPPER: Senator, as I pointed out in my statement, Senator Franken, it was—there were only three agencies that [were] directly involved in this assessment, plus my office.
FRANKEN: But all 17 signed onto that?
CLAPPER: Well, we didn’t go through that process. This was a special situation because of the time limits and my—what I knew to be who could really contribute to this and the sensitivity of the information, we decided—it was a conscious judgment—to restrict it to those three. I’m not aware of anyone who dissented, or disagreed when it came out.
Hillary Clinton stated at the Oct. 19 debate that 17 intelligence agencies had concluded the espionage and cyberattacks originated from the Kremlin and were designed to influence the election, although she did not say it was to help Trump win necessarily. PolitiFact rated her remark “True.”…’
They are a bunch of children, …..Children.
…”well my dads got 50 x 50 of those”
Joke of a country if they wren’t so murderous. The root of modern terrorism and torture. “improving the climate of business operations” “Free market” …. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If6ESVBtwDY
You still in favour of the market basis for society Craig? Because that’s just what they believe in. It has kept the 3rd world in place.
The repetition of a bare faced lie requires a certain audacity. The Israeli PM does it regarding Iran and that gets the same extensive coverage in MSM. Is there a connection?
The lies about Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and now the continuing glaringly obvious lies about Syria using CW’s is pure, utter evil, and shows the Luciferian depravity of our ‘leaders’ and MSM.
I see the guardian is patting war crimials again today.
I don’t know what I come on this Thatcherite blog.
Stop being a hypocrite and charge admission. Or change your ideology to fit what you actually do.
why* I
The EU covering itself in glory again; like the refugee deal/bribe with Turkey, the one with Libya makes one even more ashamed of this immoral & sordid organisation.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40515054
I mean they can’t even spell English correct, if they can speak it. They can’t fill out forms..*sigh*..Such a burden on market principles.
Life must be earned, And if you can’t do that then one doesn’t deserve to live. If you don’t sell yourself to “useful” industry (screwing up the planet). Well your just better of dead.
@ Ishmael July 6, 2017 at 10:43
That is what the NWO/’One World Gulag’ is all about – they want African (and the world’s) resources, but they don’t wan’t Africans, North, South, East or Western Africans – they plan massive Human Culling of the world’s population by 85-95% through wars, famine and artificially generated pandemics.
” It’s the poor nations and communities the bear the burden.”
None more so than Greece, even after being all that has be done to it by the EU.
Very convenient policy that the EU has, that refugees have to claim asylum in the first EU country they enter; obviously just a coincidence that all the poorer Southern European countries form the EU’s border to those fleeing EU supported wars & conflict in the ME & North Africa,
Agree, I recall a study illustrating this correlation.
But…Are we allowed to critique the EU (real situations) on here Macky? Think your treading on sacred ground. It’s custom to say “EU has it’s issues” & leave it at that.
I guess I’m a hypocrite, ignoring Russia. That were all so obsessed about being part of.
Actually I do think we should maintain being part of Europe, But not like this.
@ Macky July 6, 2017 at 10:44
‘…None more so than Greece, even after being all that has be done to it by the EU….’
Yes, and immediately the Nazis were defeated in Greece, even before the end of the war, the British troops and RAF turned their guns and bombs on the Greek Partisans, and armed the Greeks who had collaborated with the Nazis, leading to a brutal Nationalist Regime made up of pro-Nazis and Royalists, who set up horrendous concentration torture camps.
The British troops were lied to, and toldthe Partisans were the Nazis!
‘Athens 1944: Britain’s dirty secret’: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/30/athens-1944-britains-dirty-secret
@ Macky July 6, 2017 at 09:36
The deal with Libya is even more of an abomination when you consider it was Britain, France and the US that plotted and ‘accomplished’ the overthrow of Qaddafi, with the nightmare loss of life, destruction of a highly functioning country with the highest standard of living in Africa (newlyweds GIVEN money for a flat; free high-quality healthcare and schooling, with a cost of just $50 for higher education), and massive destruction of infrastructure, including the huge underground river water projects. Plus theft of the resources – where are Libya’s tons of gold and silver? ‘Hillary Emails Reveal True Motive for Libya Intervention’:
https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2016/01/06/new-hillary-emails-reveal-true-motive-for-libya-intervention/
Just as they did in Iraq, and as they have tried to do in Syria – the massive loss of life, infrastructure, wealth and refugee creation.
And ‘our’ corrupt, fiendish Tory government say they will back Trump if he (totally illegally) attacks Syria again on the pretext of a CW attack, which they plan to arrange via a ‘head-chopper’ ‘False Flag’.
Though not a religious fellow I would borrow a word from the bible to describe the atrocities committed by western political leaders. They are an abomination. Never mind The Hague, we should reconvene Nuremburg for what they’ve done. Then hang them.
I agree they are. But there was even debate back then about hanging. There is simply no need to get them out of harms way, and it’s the root that needs pulling.
It’s really not about individuals, its about what’s been prominent since “biblical times”. The same religious ideology that Blake described enslaving the vulgar has simply transposed itself to the economic sphere. We have just as religious ideology now. Exempt money and markets are god.
@Paul Barbara, all this is, and was obvious even before it happened, to anybody even half-heartily paying attention; the problem is that there are vested interests literally paying manna to obscure the obvious, add in the useful idiots who repeat what they are told to believe, and to coin a phrase, those who believe in absurdities, commit/enable atrocities.
I see that my previous comment has been removed, too critical of the EU for this “Free Speech Forum” ?
“Very convenient policy that the EU has, that refugees have to claim asylum in the first EU country they enter; obviously just a coincidence that all the poorer Southern European countries form the EU’s border to those fleeing EU supported wars & conflict in the ME & North Africa.”