My body and mind are still in Ankara, fully engaged with the Syrian peace talks. But my heart is in Catalonia.
A great day. The achievement is colossal – a pro-independence majority achieved despite the leadership being in jail or in exile, and on an 84% turnout. The lies being spewed out day by day by the neo-liberal media about a “silent majority” are well and truly exposed, as is the EU’s contempt for democracy.
I guess now they have to charge over million people with sedition.
Meanwhile super rich donors paid almost £13 million quid in donations to gain access to Tory ministers at secret lavish banquets, where no minutes or details of the feasts conversations are kept.
Some have been knighted as a thank you, others are said to be Putin cronies.
https://archive.is/prNk8#selection-711.0-711.116
Well if Michael Wollf’s book is laced with veracity, it could also be said like Boris Johnson, Trump’s abrasive nature tends not to go down to well abroad.
The Turkish president Erdogan, is making noises that its bilateral agreement with the US is in danger of collapsing. Meanwhile US ambassador Nikki Haley is at it again, this time instead of taking names she claims the US will withhold $225 million dollars in aid to Pakistan.
Pakistan, has retaliated by claiming its central bank has announced that it will be officially replacing the US dollar with the Chinese yuan in trade with Beijing. It should be noted that China and Pakistan are already closely linked, China has built and funded Pakistani infrastructure in recent years.
Trump has already greatly offended the entire Muslim world by declaring that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, and that he intends to move the US embassy to Israel into Jerusalem.
RoS
It would be rash to base one’s assessment of the rights or wrongs of a country’s policies on what the Bully Boy of Ankara thinks of those policies (unless of course one is a fan of the Bully Boy).
As for Pakistan. it is good to hear that China is helping with the development of that often misunderstood country (it is of course already helping, in a non-colonial manner, to develop a number of African countries in the best interests of their citizens). It is greatly to be hoped that the govt of Pakistan will make better use of that development aid than it did of the aid from Western countries and the US.
RoS
What Wolffe’s book will not tell you is how completely fucked up the US is outside of the White House.
Meanwhile UNGA ambassador Nikki Haley attends a urgent UNSC meeting that the US has called for today, over the protests in Iran, I wonder if Haley will be taking names today. Also I wonder if the party (Haley is throwing) for the against /abstainers (Jerusalem vote) has been held yet?
Anyway it’s unlikely in my opinion, that anything will come from the meeting, as China and Russia, look set to veto any meaningful action in Iran. I say that, as someone who would like to see the theocratic leaders replaced by a more democratic governing body, but not by a US puppet government.
Here are the other ten non permanent members and their expiry dates as non permanent members.
Bolivia (2018)
Côte d’Ivoire (2019)
Equatorial Guinea (2019)
Ethiopia (2018)
Kazakhstan (2018)
Kuwait (2019)
Netherlands (2018)
Peru (2019)
Poland (2019)
Sweden (2018)
Four of those non-permanent members are distinctly dodgy : Ivory Coast (where a Bossman who lost an election clung on to power before finally being forced to step down after much violence and lengthy international pressure; Equatorial Guinea (currently run by the son of the previous homicidal dictator); Ethiopia (racked by civil war, oppression and violence including against Eritraia); and Kazakhstan (run by a post-Communist oriental potentate).
I don’t know about the excellent Nikki Haley but many have already taken their names.
… the excellent Nikki Haley …
Forget Iran … what’s she going to do about the Russian interference in the Binomo elections?!
https://forward.com/news/breaking-news/344483/benjamin-netanyahu-makes-groundbreaking-visit-to-ethiopia/
Two dodgy countries which get on very well together.
” only has to look at present day Sweden in order to understand that any society is capable of descending into mass insanity ”
Yes Loony insanity is always on the other side of the road, shuffling along inside a duvet in the middle of the day against the bitter cold wind.
Our insanity, here in the UK, is to reward the Tory banksters who removed all the real money from our banks over 20 years and replaced it with paper money, with the job of privatising everything else that’s left standing in the UK, like Colmans Mustard or the NHS.
I sometimes go to a property auction in Stoke-on-Trent to see if I can downsize and generate a bit of cash for my old age. Stoke houses are slapped straight on the road, with a small yard piled high with dog poo at the back. The floors slope down because some Duchy has undermined the towns. In the ’90s these properties sold at £ 3 – 4 K and now they are fetching £ 60 – 70 K, a 2000% increase. And yet I remember charging £ 10 an hour in the ’80s and this week I was offered £14.50.
Madness, , on our side of the street in our cities and towns.
Going to see my G.P tomorrow about a swelling in my thigh. He likes working Saturdays because his £150K p.a. as practise owner is not enough for him and he gets double-bubble doing hours at the weekend. He never does anything for me, just manages to spin me out without doing anything and saving the cost of referring me to the hospital for a scan.
My letter of complaint:
I am writing to complain about my GP.
1/ Since I had a heart attack in May 2015 I have told my GP that I had difficulty in walking and at work.
On 27/02/2016 I made an appointment to see him about this problem.
His reply was that “Everyone can manage to propel themselves about”
He took no action about my condition.
2/ In July 2016 I was working in contact with cables that were soiled by live rats.
On 28/07/2017 I requested an appointment to see my GP about a vaccine for Leptisprosis and after consulting with the GP the receptionist asked ” Are you still working for that Limited Company? We can’t treat you. It’s the responsibility for your company’s Occupational Health Department.
3/On 17/12/2017 I suffered a TIA which after a few hours corrected itself.
I was instructed to change my aspirin medication from 75 g daily to 300g.
After I got back to Birmingham I noticed a swelling in my right thigh.
On 22/12/2017 I took this problem to show my GP because I was worried it might be an embolism or blood clot. Again my GP took no action for me to further investigate this problem by making an ultrasound appointment.
Does the government pay them to kill us by any means at their disposal?
As regards your health your GP has a duty of care. If you are not happy you can ask for a second opinion. How many doctors are there at your practice? See another GP. Since you have had a heart attack your GP should be particularly concerned about you not having another. If you are really not satisfied you can change your practice.
I wish you well for the New Year.
https://www.haaretz.com/israelis-to-train-equatorial-guinea-presidential-guard-1.160375 http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/Kazakhstan-and-Israel-Good-friends-and-reliable-partners
Did somebody mention Equatorial Guinea and Kazakhstan being ‘ distinctly dodgy ‘? Looks like both have found a good friend.
@ Monteverdi January 5, 2018 at 23:14
Ariel Sharon was great pals with Uzbekistan’s Karimov.
Seen globally, Monteverdi, there are non-dodgy countries which are good friends with other non-dodgy countries, there are non-dodgy countries which are good friends with dodgy countries and there are dodgy countries which are good friends with other dodgy countries. Such are international relations. T be recalled, of course, that good friendships can change, as can non-friendships.
http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/164253-180103-us-to-hold-reception-for-countries-in-support-of-jerusalem-position
Niki Haley held her ‘ party ‘ on the 4th January 2018. If you link to above it contains pictures of the ‘ happy attendees ‘. It looks rather sparse and joyless.
That reminded me this 60’s pop song.
It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to…..
https://youtu.be/V6Uo1nNt6LU
Thank you for the link Monteverdi.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/variety/2017/12/29/Netanyahu-s-gift-behind-Micronesian-Island-s-UN-vote-in-favor-of-Israel-.html
Not a bad deal for the little State of Nauru. An Israeli funded sewerage plant…………..and a party hosted by ‘ the excellent ‘ Nikki Haley.
Didn’t they do well…….. as a recently departed TV presenter and comedian’s famous catchphrase once went !!
So around 38,000 African’s living in Israel, some for years have been told to leave Israel or face imprisonment. Many have fled their home nation’s due to persecution and violence, but Israeli authorities have deemed them infiltrators.
Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the idea that they are asylum seekers.
However the BBC World Service, in its OS programme, interviewed several refugees, who’ve lived in Israel, for years and are now threatened with expulsion or prison.
Those interviewed claimed they’d rather go to a Israeli prison, than be sent home to face persecution or in some case certain death.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-refugees-africa-order-leave-country-prison-threat-a8138961.html
“Those interviewed claimed they’d rather go to a Israeli prison, than be sent home to face persecution or in some case certain death.”
____________________________
That reluctance to leave sounds a little like the Arab citizens of israel, of whom it is often claimed that they live in a “vicious, racist, fascist apartheid” state.
The Arab citizens of Israel appear very reluctant to leave an Israel so described for the paradise of Israel’s neighbours.
The only difference is that it is their home.
Yes, of course it’s their home (if you’re talking about the Arab citizens of the State of Israel, that is).
History – let’s say in the last 150 years – has seen several examples of large-scale emigration. Greeks to Australia, Italians and Irish to the US, Jews from the Russian Empire to the US. The countries they left were also their home but they obviously found conditions in their homelands so unbearable that they chose to live for what they thought (and indeed turned out to be) a better life elsewhere.
Now, the current generations of Arab citizens of the State of Israel show, and have shown, no desire to leave the State of Israel, despite the fact that the State of Israel would be unlikely to put any obstacles in their way if they wanted to do so.
The conclusion might therefore be that the Arab citizens of the State of Israel find that living in what some Israel-haters (mistakenly) call “a fascist apartheid state” is infinitely preferable to going to live in neighbouring Arab countries.
Unlike the citizens of Greece, Italy and the Russian Empire instanced above who left their countries to go into the unknown.
Your history lesson is useful for answering some other question but is irrelevant here.
We are talking about a nation that has been colonised for the first time in 1948 and then by piecemeal stealth of land continuously ever since. We are also talking about those who remained lacking equal rights to the invaders who are exactly trying to facilitate their removal to steal more land.
SA
My previous post wasn’t actually meant to be a history lesson, but this one is. I hope you will find it relevant.
“We are talking about a nation that has been colonised for the first time in 1948”
You presumably refer to Palestine. Was Palestine a “nation” in 1948? I think not. It was a territory under British mandate, populated by Jews and Arabs. Before the mandate it was part of the Ottoman Empire.
“… then by piecemeal stealth of land continuously ever since.”
The borders of the State of Israel remained unchanged from 1948 to 1967. Since then, they have been expanded slightly by the annexations of Jerusalem East and a part of the Golan Hights. So no “continually ever since”.
“We are also talking about those who remained lacking equal rights to the invaders..”
You and others may well talk about that but a fact check reveals that the Arabs of the State of Israel enjoy equal the same political, social and economic legal rights as Jewish Israelis. And those rights are rather considearbly greater than those enjoyed by the citizens of the State of Israel’s neighbours.
Habbabkuk.
Although no country, Israel included can admit unchecked immigrants over its borders. The majority of those African immigrants that are residing in Israel, and and threatened with imprisonment or expulsion. Did infact arrive prior to 2013 when the Israel/Egypt border wall/fence, was finally completed.
RoS
Thank you for that observation, RoS. You are perfectly right but are perhaps unaware that in all countries an illegal immigrant or an immigrant without leave to remains just that, regardless of how long he has been in the country (absent possible amnesties – eg Spain a few years ago).
It is of course also true that in some countries it is – for various reasons – easy for an illegal immigrant or an immigrant without leave to remain to disappear off the radar screen. The UK is such a country. The State of Israel is apparently not.
[Mod: In fairness to Habbabkuk, he responded willingly to this post. His response was deleted. A response which: (i) presents his own opinions without asking questions of others; (ii) does not impute motivations to others; and (iii) does not denigrate others, and is substantive, may be published if it does not contravene general posting rules. Thank you.]
Your ‘factcheck’ about equality between Palestinian Arabs and other Israelis was sadly not referenced but stated as fact. But if you have time to read this then perhaps you can critique it or produce a credible refutation.
http://www.seamac.org/equalrights.htm
Habbabkuk.
Yes I take your point that illegal immigrants are, illegal no matter how long they’ve lived in a country.
However, what better way for Israel to begin to repair its somewhat tarnished image, than to show compassion to those less fortunate. By letting those illegal immigrants remain in Israel.
Not apartheid. Slavery.
– “But the military metaphor with which Israelis have made sense of their relationship to Palestinians hides a disturbing fact: what started as a national and military conflict has morphed into a form of domination of Palestinians that now increasingly borders on conditions of slavery. If we understand slavery as a condition of existence and not as ownership and trade of human bodies, the domination that Israel has exercised over Palestinians turns out to have created the matrix of domination that I call a “condition of slavery.””
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:AtqJ3nG9iucJ:https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.572880%2Bnot+apartheid,+slavery&dcr=0&gbv=1&hl=en&ct=clnk
Sharp ears
Paul wrote a hard hitting rejoinder which was deleted by the moderators.
Why should they leave to go anywhere? It’s their home. They are not the squatters, they are not stealing other peoples land. In fact, it is ‘they’ who are being restricted from bettering themselves by a brutal regime and being regarded as inferior beings. The last group of people who believed they were superior found out they weren’t.
DD
Note that Habbabkuk does not really deny they are badly treated which is very well documented and as Clark’s link above at 23:10 also shows, he is just saying that as they are so oppressed they just have a choice to leave, Just confirming that some rules apply to some countries but not others. Imagine if he would also suggest that the Rohynga should leave Myanmar or the Kurds leave Turkey?
Or the Highlanders Should Leave.
SA
Further to my reply to you of a couple of minutes ago: [Mod: Deleted.] thank you for supporting my point!
A great many of the Rohynga HAVE left Burma. A great many Kurds have left various ME countries(why are there so many Kurdish refugees in Europe?). But the Arab citizens of Israel have NOT left and continue NOT to leave the State of Israel.
SA (at 03h38)
FACT CHECK :
1/. I most certainly did deny that – in fact, I said exactly the opposite. Read my post again.
2/. I did not say that “as they are oppressed they have a choice to leave”. I said exactly the opposite, namely, the reason that they do not leave is that they are not oppressed.
Of course it is very simple logic isn’t it?
Of course what you say stems from the fact that you do not recognise that Palestinians have equal rights or even more rights to stay in the place they were born in and have continuously lived in for thousands of years in order to leave the place to others born in Europe and US and such other more privileged places. You do so by the spurious argument that they have not left because they would not have a better life elsewhere because they are so well treated in Israel. Of course, the cornerstone of your argument is to ignore all the well documented abuses against the Palestinians.
Your argument in another setting is:
If squatters come and invade your home and you try to stay in your home and evict them, then it is your choice that you may incur a lot of cost and trouble to do so rather than take the better option of just going to stay with your relatives. You obviously don’t recognise Palestinians rights to their own homes.
And moreover it is not just about the Palestinians in Israel but also the West Bank Angus Gaza. Let us not forget that these have been colonised and their lands taken by illegal settlers. Two acts against international law, colonisation without an appropriate development plans or recognitions of the tights of the colonised, and land expropriation. I hope at least we agree on that.
The occupation is by all standards acknowledged to be brutal and dehumanising. The settlements take Palestinian lands and convert them for settlers. All this while the world watched helplessly, because might makes right.
RoS
When this story first came up, I’m sure there was a Saudi connection. The Saudis also want to clear out some black Africans as well?
Last November:
https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/ethiopia-says-saudi-arabia-expels-more-than-1-300-citizens-20171130
Do Israel and Saudi Arabia belong to the same Hillary Demeter Earth Goddess and Obama pagan spring renewal partner cult? If Daesh was a death cult and a joint Saudi Israeli operation ( + Turkey and the EU ) where did Islam and Judaism go? Hiding underneath the goddess May’s black trouser suits or just taking a nap under Cameron’s writing wagon?
giyane
Daesh is often referred to as a death cult but it is just another form of the death squads that have been visited upon Central and South American countries courtesy of Unkle Sam.
OffGuardian to my surprise seem to now have their doubts about both Julian Assange, and Ed Snowden. I have never posted there, but I do read it. Sometime within the last year, I think, there was a new, unpredicted news event, which almost demanded an almost immediate response from Julian Assange. I don’t remember the details, but all the news crews and TV cameras were waiting outside the Ecuadarian Embassy, waiting for Julian to come outside to speak…
About 3-4 hours later, Julian appeared, still wearing his motor cycle jacket.
I thought that was pretty cool.
I did mention it on here. His friend Craig Murray did not disagree, nor even delete my comment, so far as I remember.
No heating in the Ecuadorian Embassy?
Or could there be another explanation?
Like he had just arrived there on a motor bike, and been sneaked in through the back door?
https://off-guardian.org/2018/01/04/how-to-identify-cia-limited-hangout/
I didn’t think anyone else noticed these things.
Tony
Or, you know, a KGB limited hangout.
Assange didn’t come to the window when that guy was reading the daily news to him either.
He probably doesn’t live there.
@ Bob Apposite January 5, 2018 at 19:48
Don’t forget, Craig Murray and John Pilger have met him there.
I think it would be untrue to say we have doubts about Assange or Snowden. We published Tarpley’s piece because it had some facts and observations worth consideration. We don’t necessarily 100% endorse everything we publish. Inviting discussion of differing points of view is part of our policy.
“Inviting discussion of differing points of view is part of our policy.”
Oh that mainstream media had such morals. Thank you for explaining your editorial policy.
Thank you also for your insightful and witty piece on MSM’s and I suspect our secret services’ man at The Guardian, someone always ready to push out columns of HMS pap, some of which he even wrote himself.
https://off-guardian.org/2015/09/09/luke-harding-enemy-of-the-state/
Harding has an equally ridiculous book out about how Russia helped Trump win the US election and it is so full of tripe and misinformation it has got him well and truly ridiculed! 😀
There appears to be something strange going on tonight, though it may just be local, and you may not be affected. Could be a massive cyber-attack. They have happened before. My son has just rushed into London. He didn’t have the time to say why. Hopefully everything will be back to normal soon, though it looks like we won’t make that gig tonight. There’s always another to walk to. If they are any good, they even work in a power cut, though that is not the problem tonight.
Maybe try Linux instead, but I think it maybe mass radio-interference, cos it was last time.
How’s The Sun?
It will probably be O.K. when we get back from the pub.
Tony
Well there’s massive system updates being done as rapidly as possible for the (mainly) Intel cpu flaw which allows ordinary user code to read protected parts of the system such as encryption keys and passwords etc that it should most certainly not be able to.
Microsoft has released an emergency massive update early and Linux kernels are also being updated. Reboots of most cloud infrastructure following patch installations are also taking place. Once the patch is installed systems run between 5% and 30% slower than they did before.
In some cases the patches conflict with installed software and the system doesn’t come back up at all. Legal action is also being taken against Intel for sitting on the bug by multiple parties.
It’s widely in the news.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/05/intel_meltdown_cpu_flaw_sued/
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/04/intel_amd_arm_cpu_vulnerability/
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/04/intel_meltdown_spectre_bugs_the_registers_annotations/
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/04/microsoft_windows_patch_meltdown/
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/03/major-security-flaw-found-intel-processors-computers-windows-mac-os-linux
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/04/amazon_ec2_intel_meltdown_performance_hit/
Even the ‘Banksters’ Buddy, Macron, calls US/Israel and Saudi Arabia out of order:
‘Hostile behavior of US, Saudi Arabia, Israel leading to war with Iran: Macron’:
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/hostile-behavior-us-saudi-arabia-israel-leading-war-iran-macron/
‘…The French president said that it is important to maintain “permanent dialog” with Tehran to keep the balance in relations with the Islamic Republic while seeking ways to “increase international pressure” on Iran. By refusing to speak to Tehran, the US and its allies risk engaging in a “conflict of extreme brutality,” he warned, adding, “otherwise, we end up surreptitiously rebuilding an ‘axis of evil’.”….’
Let’s hope he maintains the same stance in the Emergency UN Security Council meeting:
‘Breaking: UN Security Council to hold emergency meeting on Iran’:
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/breaking-un-security-council-hold-emergency-meeting-iran/
The bottom line calculation for Macron is fairly straight forward here.
Supporting a war with Iran = More votes for Melenchon = less money to be made from exploiting French workers for his paymasters.
So therefore war with Iran must be opposed. On the other hand French business greatly profits from it’s military interventions in Africa so that is all good.
I think the French have invested quite a bit in Iran, since the nuclear agreement.
The Eurodif agreement of 1974? The Iranians have invested quite a bit in France too, of course.
According to Wolff on Radio 4 interview this morning Trump, Blair went with Steve Bannon to visit Trump immediately afterwards Trump and Bannon went to Langley (CIA headquarters ). Wolff says that he saw this meeting take place though he does not say he heard Blair tell Trump that the British were spying on him on behalf of Obama. Wolff does not say how he knows Blair told Trump, but saw meeting and subsequent action.
Blair denies, is he lying again ?
In the same way that the USA outsources torture to countries like Thailand and Jordan they most likely outsource spying on American citizens to their Five Eyes partners.
The most entertaining story of the week was the one regarding Papadopolous telling an Australian diplomat about Russia having Clinton emails in May 2016 and the use of this encounter as a justification for surveillance on the Trump campaign. It is obviously a complete coincidence that this story has come out just as GOP Senators start looking into Christopher Steele and Fusion GPS…….
(If the founding principles of this institution mean anything, then we should answer and help the protestors in Iran), said Nikki Haley the UNGA ambassador for the US at the UNSC meeting yesterday.
Just think about that statement for a moment from Haley. Then recall the protests in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, that Haley and the US have ignored for decades.
We also heard no outcry from Haley and the US, over the large scale protests in the Catalan region of Spain, where protestors were beaten, teargassed and shot.
More far right allegations against Ruth Davidson’s Scottish Tories. Facebook pictures have emerged of Tory Councillor Bobby Good who represents Dunoon on Argyll & Bute Council. Mr. Good is seen showing off a large tattoo on his upper arm of a Nazi type eagle with the name Bobby under it.
Other parties are asking questions about the councillor’s politics. Scottish Tory HQ is trying to play it down and saying that the councillor doesn’t hold any extremist views. However it is worth noting that almost all eagle emblems show the eagle looking right (dexter), whereas the Nazi eagle looked left (sinister). Cllr Good’s tattoo eagle is clearly also looking towards the left.
Yes that does look somewhat sinister.
https://twitter.com/Gillian_Philip/status/949342100834996224
Just knew you’d reply with that Fred. The WoS symbol is not an eagle.
Ahed Tamimi’s cousin, Nour, has been released on bail by the Israelis. Ahed and her mother remain imprisoned.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/01/palestinian-nour-tamimi-released-bail-180105150206491.html
This is the prison where they are held. HaSharon (Telmond).
http://www.addameer.org/the_prisoners/children
Barbarity.
G4S are involved in its operation and this company boasts of its expertise in the setup.
http://www.gordonengineers.com/codeless_portfolio/hasharon-prison/
and elsewhere.
http://www.gordonengineers.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Gordon-Engineers-Company-Profile-1.pdf
No words.
Astroturf (or should it be aristoturf?) group Scotland in Union are reported by The National to be in some bother with the Electoral Commission over a £15 000 donation from a foreign billionaire.
Yes reel guid, they’ve received quite a few donations over the £7,500 limit, one eminated I believe from a foreign billionaire. Real grassroots stuff.
Meanwhile the branch manager of London Labour in Scotland, Richard Leonard, has been given airspace to rail at the 350 jobs to be lost by engineering firm Doosan Babcock, in Scotland, Leonard hinted it was the fault of the Scottish government (isn’t it always).
Anyway it turns out that the staff for the 350 jobs hasn’t even been recruited yet. A new pessimistic low for the Labour branch office I think, bemoaning jobs that aren’t even filled yet, and blaming the S&G.
The Trump administration has proposed to spend a whopping $18 billion dollars on constructing the wall between the US and Mexico.
Trump who tweeted recently that he is very intelligent, and smart, boasted that Mexico would pay for the barrier.
SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford has tweeted that Corbyn is refusing to meet with the other opposition parties next week on the subject of joint action to keep the UK in the single market. The self-designated PM-in-waiting doesn’t want to protect single market related jobs in case it might just stop him getting the job he so ambitiously covets.
That’s disappointing, we have a good idea that Corbyn is not a lover of the EU, however access to the Single Market is important for businesses on these islands.
Again in my opinion it shows how out of touch Corbyn ét al, are with the ordinary folk, whose jobs rely on firms selling their goods to the EU market.
It would appear that party interests come before public ones.
“The self-designated PM-in-waiting”
Not self-designated. It’s because he’s Leader of the Opposition.
Like England’s actorJohn Mills, and the Battle of Britain movies, or John Wayne, and the US battles with Japan, on thebbig screen of course.
It would appear that Israel is onto a winning tv series where IDF snatch squads pit their wits against the old enemy of Hamas.
The new drama series called Fauda, is supposedly a hit with both Arab and J** the programmes producers claim it also shows the moral and human sides of both Israeli and Palestinian.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-42566284
In light of Trump’s threat to cut UN funding off the back of the Jerusalem vote, at the UNGA recently.
It would appear that Trump is indeed thinking of cutting funding aimed at the Palestinian’s through the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
Disappointingly, Israel’s prime minister supports the cuts. The UNRWA supports much of the population in the Gaza Strip, and a cut to its budget could ramp up tensions with Israel, a main conduit for aid into the territory.
http://m.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israel-supports-gradual-funding-cut-to-UN-agency-for-Palestinians-532969
Fear of Brexit, is making many people feel unnecessarily paranoid. I heard it last night in great detail. The bloke was very distraught, and somehow he had heard that this girl was working for the home office – and he is softly interrogating her, whilst I am simply trying to have a quiet smoke.
So after 5 minutes of this, I empathised, and actually spoke. Where does she come from, how long as she been here – I know loads of people in a similar situation from the same country and, you should talk to them…
When he told me a bit more about the details, I looked at the Official (like). She said, she has obviously got permanent, residency because of this,this and that…
I said she will be O.K. mate. She will not be deported and if you are lucky you can maybe marry her….
The Home Office Official gave me a sweet glance and a twinkle in the eye.
Stop Worrying , Brexit won’t make any difference.
We will still be controlled by the same idiots.
Tony
You are absolutely right, Mr Tony Opmoc. No EU citizen (at least no EU citizen with a job) is going to get deported. Nor will Brexit mean that there will be no more immigration from EU countries. The only thing which will change is that there will no longer be an unconditional right to work and settle in the UK.
Anyone – and that includes the Remainers – who knows anything about these matters knows that this is and will be the case. To claim the contrary is just panic mongering or, worse, a deliberate lie with God knows what purpose.
Habbabkuk.
I find your observation regarding the rights of EU citizens, with Brexit in mind a tad premature. As you are fond of saying Habbabkuk, nothing’s agreed, till it’s all agreed.
Habbabkuk
Panic-mongering
No. The reason Mrs Thatcher was eventually kicked out of her own party was because of a disgusting Tory trait of holding a loaded pistol to the heads of the electorate, which is what Mrs May has done to the Poles for more than a year over Brexit. OK she has now engaged the safety lock, but this is a disgusting way to treat people who are vulnerable to the vicissitudes of power. The Tories have behaved disgracefully to the Eastern Europeans, although I’m sure it gives pleasure to the racist Tory shite to see them cowering with worry and fear.
Yes, panic-mongering. The sort of panic-mongering which, for example, attempts to give the impression that the NHS will be left high and dry because EU nationals currently working as nurses will all be kicked out and no more nurses from the rEU will be allowed in.
Such panic-mongering about OUR NHS is disgusting.
BTW – Mrs Thatcher’s eviction is entirely irrelevant to the matter under discussion.
Habbabkuk
It was Mrs Thatcher’s nauseating abuse of power that made her intolerable to her own party. May has learnt to be more slime-ball towards us from Cameron, but her government took part in the massacre of 11,500 civilians and militants in the wreckage of Mosul last year and she also threatened EU workers with expulsion. The fact that none of these people have no voice in the UK does not mean they are not people. So it does matter when they are bullied and threatened by Conservative politicians.
Talking of the NHS, I complained about my GP, so he replied by writing on my medical notes that I’m bonkers. Phew! It was getting hot in that old snake-skin.
None of which applies if you are a Conservative councillor though does it? If it’s on a Conservative councillor all pictures of eagles must be Nazi insignia. Even if it has the name of his son under it.
It’s his own name.
Getting your own name tattooed on your arm is puzzlingly popular in Scotland.
The article in the Record says it is his son’s name. First sons being named after their fathers is also very common in Scotland.
The chances of changing your own name are lower than changing your boy/girlfriend. I changed mine from Willie to Anas i.e. from front to back…
The annihilation of Palestinian children continues.
Israeli forces shoot and kill Palestinian teenager in Ramallah area
Jan. 3, 2018 3:26 P.M. (Updated: Jan. 5, 2018 9:38 P.M.)
https://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=779717
http://maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=779721
And as he was being laid to rest they decided to shoot a mourner in the head with a live bullet,who is now in a critical condition
http://maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=779720
Let’s also us not forget also the 10 Palestinians injured in Bethlehem on Thursday 4th January, seven shot with live fire, two in critical condition including a schoolboy shot in the spinal cord and now at risk of permanent paralysis.
I am awaiting Nikki Haley’s call for a special meeting of the UN to discuss the treatment of protesters in occupied Palestine.
This is the reason that whenever the cowardly IDF confront people that can fire back, they are soundly beaten. They stay a safe distance from stone throwers, so much so that it would take an Olympic thrower to get anywhere near them. It doesn’t stop the Israelis from using it as an excuse to use live fire. The danger of a stone actually hurting a soldier must be minimal or there would be a photographic campaign to display their injuries.
Despite supplying strategic assistance and weapons to the ISIS scum that are close to the Golan border, and despite countless IAF attacks on behalf of the terrorists, Syrian forces are slowly beating the Israeli proxies.
So, even by fighting without adhering to Geneva conceived rules of war, the Israelis cannot beat Syria. The IDF are in the same league as Saudi military. Incredibly expensive hardware (thanks America) but incompetent officers to use it. Every death of an unarmed Palestinian will bolster IDF confidence….. Then there will be real war.
“…whenever the cowardly IDF confront people that can fire back, they are soundly beaten.”
Inaccurate in 1948, 1967 and 1973.
The reason Tsahal does not do too well against rioting demonstrators is that it is a moral army which seeks to avoid mass casualties among civilians. Compare and contrast with recent events in Venezuela and Iran.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/08/04/gaza-israeli-soldiers-shoot-and-kill-fleeing-civilians
” that it is a moral army which seeks to avoid mass casualties among civilians ”. [ Habbabkuk Jan 7th. 18.26 ]
Not according to Human Rights Watch it seems.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2006/10/13/how-hezbollah-defeated-israel-2/
” Inaccurate in 1948, 1967 and 1973. ” [ Habbabkuk January 7th 18.26 ]
There seems to be a glaring omission of 2006.
Read and digest.
“The danger of a stone actually hurting a soldier must be minimal”
We Bible readers recall how David slew Goliath….
Habbabkuk
There is quite a lot that bible readers can quote, some of it allegorical and some of it actually not very pleasant. Should we be using the bible as a modern arbiter we may start finding ourselves very un-PC, where do we start and where do we stop?
SA
Did I say that we should be using the Old Testanent as an arbiter? If memory serves I was merely replying to someone’s comment that “the danger of a stone actually hurting a soldier must be minimal”. If you must misrepresent what I say, how about at least waiting until the next page of the thread?
I have nowhere said that you Habbabkuk have used the bible as an arbiter, I was just warning against the possibility of doing so, as you must be very much aware that others have.
SA
“I have nowhere said that you Habbabkuk have used the bible as an arbiter,…”
_______________________
When you reply to a comment of mine (me, Habbabkuk), which refers to a Biblical incident, by saying
“Should we be using the bible as a modern arbiter we may start…etc..”
it seems fairly clear that you are directing your comment, in the first place, at me.
The Bible has been cancelled and replaced by the Qur’an.
giyane
The bible has not been cancelled it was in part subsumed by the Koran . Islam still recognised the Ahl al kitab ‘people of the book’.
I suspect that the vast majority of Christians would be surprised to hear that and would, moreover, strongly disagree.
In the same way, for example, that Buddhists would be surprised if I said that the teachings of Buddha have been “replaced” by those of Christ.
” We Bible readers recall how David slew Goliath ”.[ Habbabkuk.Jan 7th 18.27.]
An acknowledgement at least in present day terms on who is represented by ‘ David ‘ and who by ‘ Goliath ‘.
Craig’s friend, Daniel Ellserg of the Pentagon Papers, on Channel 4 News last night, with a warning about nuclear war.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Channel4News/status/949672880773783552?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
Ellsberg even.
Ref. Julian Assange
Status unchanged according to the Ecuadorian Embassy.
https://www.rt.com/uk/414912-assange-wikileaks-ecuadorian-embassy/
Saw Ron Howard’s documentary Eight Days A Week about the Beatles. It turns out they had a democratic veto system for anything they did. If just one of the four of them didn’t like an idea they didn’t go with it.
No such fair system works in the UK. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have no veto over any major decisions. England wants to leave the EU so Scotland has to leave.
Ringo had far more clout in the Beatles than Scotland has in the UK.
It is interesting to note that the blog moderators are not favorably disposed to warnings as to the disaster that is Sweden.
Look at the latest news from Sweden.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/stockholm-metro-station-explosion-after-11811511
Perhaps if people were allowed to read the truth then they would be more cautious and less disposed to pick up hand grenades that have been left lying around in public places.
It is certain that the bourgeois clerks will bear no guilt, but whatcha gonna do when the darkness surrounds? cos fear is just another commodity here.
Loony
Sweden
After Brexit we will be like Sweden, culturally and geographically inside the catchment area of the EU, while being independently controlled by maverick politicians linked to the criminal enterprises of Tel Aviv and Washington. By controlling the MSM and blowback terrorism, USUKIS thinks it has almost succeeded in acquiring total control over the Middle East using proxy Islamism.
Yes, you are correct, when it slowly dawns on USUKIS that it has lost its grip both on power in the world and also power over the people’s understanding, they will get increasingly nasty. One can never exaggerate how bonkers USUKIS have become. But by looking at Sweden one can imagine.
So Donald Trump, is now taking the credit, for North Korea, getting around a table for discussions with South Korea, which could see tension’s ease on the Korean peninsula.
Trump’s sweet talking methods included threatening to nuke NK, by pushing his huge button, and demanding that strict sanctions be set in place, in a country where many are already starving.
Is it any wonder then that NK’s leader fell for Trump’s smooth alluring rhetoric. In fact Kim Jung-Un’s willingness to meet with the South has far more to do with the Olympics, than Trump’s intimidation.
It is exactly the right way to deal with North Korea. Pussy-footing around the situation has only emboldened them and left us where we are today.
The North Korean leadership is at least rational. They aren’t religious fundies with a belief in the afterlife. They don’t even believe in their own ideology. They know the US could turn them to glass before they’ve even got one of their rockets off the ground. The moment they start to realise Trump is serious is when they back down.
None of them wants to lose the nice little nest they have made for themselves, with all the imported luxuries one can dream of, while the people they have total control over starve.
“Trump made loud noise towards North Korea and even boosted that his dick is bigger than Kim Jong-un’s schlong. But when North Korea offered a quiet period for the Winter Olympics in South Korea and renewed talks, Trump agreed with the peace seeking South Korean president Moon and let him take up the offer.”
Perceptive article about the EU finally not following all the US diktats;
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/01/trump-offloads-foreign-policy-problems-lets-eu-grow-a-spine.html
Labour MSP Neil Findlay tweets that the SNP, Plaid, Lib Dem, Green campaign to keep us in the single market is a gimmick. Actually he calls it an SNP gimmick and doesn’t mention the other parties. Which rather gives his game away. Obsessively oppose anything the SNP does automatically.
Keeping British firms in the single market to safeguard jobs is not a gimmick. It’s grown up responsible politics that’s in the interests of ordinary people.
reel guid
There was never anything complicated about Brexit. Like Iceland, we stay in the single market and keep free movement but detach ourselves from the undemocratic Federal Government of the EU. Arch-wanker Boris Johnson decided he could have his cake and eat it, and after an annus hoorribilis of wasted negotiations the EU will prove him wrong. Like Cameron and the Bullingdon pig, he will then claim that the EU has disgraced its reputation by exposing him for lying. Pride/ Hubris => Retribution/ Nemesis => Madness/ Ate
What a f***ing waste of time.
More signs that the unionist Scottish media is losing the plot.
The Herald has posted the story that former SNP deputy leader Stewart Hosie is to marry his girlfriend. A non-story surely that only really merited a short paragraph.
But the way the paper reports it is hilarious. The opening line has the phrase “former SNP deputy leader is to wed his mistress…”
Wed his mistress? It’s 2018, not 1918. Is the Herald trying to escape to a time when it was a respected institution? They’ll be calling the FM Mrs. Murrell next.
Special offer for Herald readers. Free motoring goggles!
Well he was dating her whilst he was married to Shona Robison so the term is correct.
To refine that answer, Kempe, if I may : she was his mistress if he was fucking her.
To call her Mr Hosie’s “girlfriend” when she was his mistress to be deliciously coy – so 2018!
By all accounts, Habbabkuk, she was fucking Hosie.
That could be seen as an affirmation of gender equality, JOML. Seriously, though, did that have anything to do with Hosie’s recent resignation? If so, it would seem that the SNP is not very different from the Tories (Cecil Parkinson) or Labour (Robin Cook) when it comes to resigning over matters sexual.
In PC 2018 it is a sin to be coy. Coyness is proof of guilt by non-admission. Shameless guilt, like Boris Johnson impregnating his Tory fluffs, is perfectly decent and ordinary.
http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/newborn-found-dead-in-toilet-of-passenger-jet/ar-BBI0xhk?li=AAmiR2Z&ocid=ientp
Talking of which it is common practise in the Gulf States to impregnate your Indonesian house-maids and send them heavily-pregnant back home. Poor girl and what kind of life would this illegitimate bastard have had with no legal father or financial support from the father back home?
Well done to the Cuban delegate at the UN for standing up for the Palestinians.
https://youtu.be/VO1GqRLWv0Q
There is a transcript too.
Wow
Brilliant response from Cuba..Respect. Thanks Sharp Earars
¡Viva Cuba!
Is Craig O.K.?
I know he is a Good Man
But I would like his views on this….from Bonnie Scotland (almost 99% Scottish)
Come on lets have a discussion.
I live in London – and us indigenous people from Lancashire are growing in volume…
If London doesn’t like it – go suck it.
Our numbers are increasing
From The Torygrapgh – The Font of all Toryism
The Headlines
“We might as well try to get to Europe after all’Migrants sent home by EU find broken promises in ‘white elephant’ repatriation scheme”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/07/migrants-sent-home-eu-find-broken-promises-white-elephant-repatriation/
I would just like to say one thing to to our awful UK Govenerment – Blair – Cameron – May – They are all the same.
Can you please stop doing what the Americans tell you to do.
The reason for this massive wave of migration, is basically, because you idiots in control bombed their countries to hell.
Why did you do that?
Did it seem like a good idea?
You are a bunch of evil, stupid morons aren’t you?
What use have you served on this planet?
What exactly have you made better?
You are not very good.
Tony
Tony
You’ll never get a former Home Office minister to admit to blow-back from UK foreign policy, not in Ireland, not in Lancashire, not in Iraq, not in India, never going to happen.
That is why British government is compartmentalised into different ministries, and by different elected governments with different leaders, so that they can do contradictory things.
When enough light can be shone on the evil contradictions, it’s time to have a shuffle. May is going to have one tomorrow morning. You’ll wake up and all traces of guilt will be whitewashed clean.
Giyane
All governments of whatever country are divided into ministries. I imagine that’s for administrative ease and efficiency. Even the governments of theocratic states have ministries.
As for governments and leaders changing from time to time, I believe that’s one of the features of liberal representative democracies and no democrat could or should object.
Habbabkuk
I see no difference between the Conservative government and theocratic states. The clue is that they identify their philosophical aim and proceed to do the opposite. The Tories aim to increase prosperity and their policies caused the 2007 crash. Theocratic states aim to encourage adherence to religion but most human beings who are forced to do something will do the opposite.
Why don’t the Tories say it straight: Scum know your station in life. The hierarchies could just tell their followers: Switch off your brains. And the united spiritual and worldly abusive party could have just one slogan: Don’t think and do what you’re told.
Giyane
“I see no difference between the Conservative government and theocratic states.”
_____________________
One fairly obvious difference appears to be that theocratic states base themselves on the law of God (as they see it) whereas democratic states are based on man-made law.
More work for Nicky Haley to do in the morning.
Is that right?
There are estimated to be 300,000 Russians in the UK. You think the UK bombed Russia but somehow you did not notice.
There are estimated to be around 1 million Poles in the UK. I was always under the impression that, far from bombing Poland, the UK declared war on Germany in order to protect Poland.
There are upwards of 125,000 Spaniards in the UK – no actual bombing of Spain just a JV with Germany to destroy the Spanish economy and a few nutters doing their ineffectual best (at no risk to themselves) to provoke a 2nd Civil War in Spain.
There are half a million Bangladesh’s in the UK – I have no memory of the RAF firebombing Dhaka.
The ONS estimates that there are 65,000 Iraqi’s in the UK. Now I do recall the UK waging a war of aggression against Iraq.
Strange then is it not that there are far more immigrants from countries that the UK has not bombed than there are from countries that it has bombed.
The British want to get their heads out of their arses and wise up to what is going on here.
@ Loony January 7, 2018 at 21:59
So you might be suggesting we bomb more countries, in order to dissuade the their populations from getting sanctuary here?
Hmmmn, you don’t hold any weapons factory shares by any chance? Or mortuaries?
We may well not have ‘firebombed’ Dhaka, because we didn’t have an airforce at the time, but we did rape, pillage and destroy an age-old subcontinent, resulting in the nuclear stand-off between the two countries which we , in our ‘wisdom’, created out of one.
We were so worried about Poland, we took our time in responding (after all, Churchill wanted a war with Germany, for economic purposes, so like the Yanks with the marsh dwellers in Iraq, they gave the impression they would fly to the aid of Poland. Just like the American Ambassador to Iraq, giving Saddam a ‘nod and a wink’ pre Kuwait invasion (don’t hear much about her now, do we? She’s served her purpose, and makes the sleeping pill merchants a tidy profit).
Loony I think you underestimate the numbers of Iraqis in the UK, they are more like 250-300,000
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Iraqis
But you miss out the largest groups of ‘foreign’ born immigrants in UK as they are from former colonies, we may not have bombed them recently but we have colonised them.
I was planning on doing it last year. In fact I even bought a new hard drive, internal and its installed…but sometimes the time has come. I can’t put if off for much longer.
I am going to zap my SSD. I explained to my wife…I have to be completely sober over the next few days..and prepare for this…What do we really need to keep?
So what should it be?
Should we go back to Windows XP – or the latest version of Linux?
To be fair to Microsoft, I actually thought Windows 7, was a lot better than Windows ME – or even NT
But there is no way I am going to Windows 10 – even if it does look pretty.
My main computer operating system, has not been upgraded for over 4 years, and even Microsoft sent me a message…
Tony – your computer is a virus ridden piece of sh1t..Maybe you should change the colour…it is running really slowly.
Yeh, O.K., I can take a hint
Maybe MINT
I have downloaded it.
Tony
Eva Bartlett Responds to the Guardians Biased Propaganda piece –
” As the purported theme of The Guardian‘s story was the issue of rescuers in Syria, I’ll begin by talking about actual rescuers I know and worked with, in hellish circumstances in Gaza.
In 2008/9, I volunteered with Palestinian medics under 22 days of relentless, indiscriminate, Israeli war plane and Apache helicopter bombings, shelling from the sea and tanks, and drone strikes. The loss of life and casualties were immense, with over 1,400 Palestinians murdered, and thousands more maimed, the vast majority civilians. Using run-down, bare-bones equipment (as actual rescuers in Syria do), Palestinian medics worked tirelessly day and night to rescue civilians.
….. ” There was not a single occasion in which I ever heard the medics (in Sunni Gaza) shout takbeeror Allahu Akbar upon rescuing civilians, much less intentionally stood on dead bodies, posed in staged videos, or any of the other revolting acts that the White Helmets have been filmed doing in Syria. They were too damn busy rescuing or evacuating the areas before another Israeli strike, and usually maintained a focused silence as they worked, communicating only the necessities. The only occasion I recall of screaming while with the medics, were the screams of civilians we collected and in particular the anguished shrieks of a husband helping to put the body parts of his dismembered wife onto a stretcher to be taken to the morgue. The medics I knew in Gaza were true heroes. The White Helmets, not a chance. They are gross caricatures of rescuers….
Some Very detailed Infromation in there –
https://www.globalresearch.ca/how-the-mainstream-media-whitewashed-al-qaeda-and-the-white-helmets-in-syria/5624930