The entire “liberal” media and political establishment of the Western world reveals its militarist, authoritarian soul today with the screaming and hysterical attacks on the very prospect of detente with Russia. Peace apparently is a terrible thing; a renewed arms race, with quite literally trillions of dollars pumped into the military industrial complex and hundreds of thousands dying in proxy wars, is apparently the “liberal” stance.
Political memories are short, but just 15 years after Iraq was destroyed and the chain reaction sent most of the Arab world back to the dark ages, it is now “treason” to question the word of the Western intelligence agencies, which deliberately and knowingly produced a fabric of lies on Iraqi WMD to justify that destruction.
It would be more rational for it to be treason for leaders to blindly accept the word of the intelligence services.
This is especially true on “Russia hacking the election” when, after three years of crazed accusations and millions of man hours by lawyers and CIA and FBI investigators, they are yet to produce any substantive evidence of accusations which are plainly nuts in the first place. This ridiculous circus has found a few facebook ads and indicted one Russian for every 100,000 man hours worked, for unspecified or minor actions which had no possible bearing on the election result.
There are in fact genuine acts of election rigging to investigate. In particular, the multiple actions of the DNC and Democratic Party establishment to rig the Primary against Bernie Sanders do have some very real documentary evidence to substantiate them, and that evidence is even public. Yet those real acts of election rigging are ignored and instead the huge investigation is focused on catching those who revealed Hillary’s election rigging. This gets even more absurd – the investigation then quite deliberately does not focus on catching whoever leaked Hillary’s election rigging, but instead seeks to prove that the Russians hacked Hillary’s election-rigging, which I can assure you they did not. Meanwhile, those of us who might help them with the truth if they were actually interested, are not questioned at all.
The Russophobic witch hunt has its first real life victim in 29 year old Maria Butina, whose life is to be destroyed for chatting up members of the NRA in order to increase Russian influence. With over 20 years of diplomatic experience, I can tell you that every country, including the UK and US, has bit part players of its own nationals who self-start in a country to make their way, and if they gain any traction are tapped by their national security service as potential “agents of influence”. I could name quite literally scores of such people, but have no desire to get anyone in trouble. The elevation of Butina into a huge threat and part of a gigantic plot, is to ignore the way the United States and the United Kingdom and indeed all major governments’ Embassies behave around the globe.
The war-hawks who were devastated by the loss of champion killer Hillary now see the prospect of their very worst fear coming true. Their very worst fear is the outbreak of peace and international treaties of arms control. Hence the media and political establishment today has reached peaks of hysteria never before seen. Pursuing peace is “treason” and the faux left now stand starkly exposed.
Here’s another poem by Kipling for the diverse students of Manchester University to ponder before they carry out another stunt like that.
It was not part of their blood,
It came to them very late
With long arrears to make good,
When the English began to hate.
They were not easily moved,
They were icy-willing to wait
Till every count should be proved,
Ere the English began to hate.
Their voices were even and low,
Their eyes were level and straight.
There was neither sign nor show,
When the English began to hate.
It was not preached to the crowd,
It was not taught by the State.
No man spoke it aloud,
When the English began to hate.
It was not suddenly bred,
It will not swiftly abate,
Through the chill years ahead,
When Time shall count from the date
That the English began to hate.
Always ready to change the subject, Anon!
Next time, could you find a better poem, certainly not this rubbish here which I could even have written.
Russophobia extends to the BBC regions.
Just now on BBC South Today in the first item on Saturday/Novichok etc, a Dr Paul Flenley was brought on into the studio for his opinion on the state of affairs.
He is from the Centre for Russian and Eastern European Studies at Portsmouth University.
http://www.port.ac.uk/centre-for-european-and-international-studies-research/members/dr-paul-flenley.html
In March he was quoted – 7 Mar 2018 · THE alleged poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal follows a ‘long tradition of Russia eliminating its enemies’, an expert on Russian politics has said. Dr Paul Flenley, a senior lecturer in politics … Etc. The usual in other words.
First item on link which usually appears in 30 mins or so. Link expires this time tomorrow. If you are on the iPlayer –
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bb2nw6
Other background info about Dawn Sturgess’s sister, the inquest and so on was given. A line of police on their knees was shown searching the bed of the stream that runs through Salisbury. Reason was not explained.
Just now on BBC South Today in the first item on Saturday/Novichok
s/be
Just now on BBC South Today in the first item on Salisbury/Novichok
So MP’s that have (allegedly) cheated on their Parliamentary expenses will now be given anonymity.
The Government has been accused of protecting “the sensitivities of politicians” after attempting to quietly push through a change which would hide the names of all MPs under investigation.
https://mobile.twitter.com/AVMikhailova?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Eembeddedtimeline%7Ctwterm%5E699320055859974149&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwingsoverscotland.com%2Fnews-of-a-world%2Fcomment-page-1%2F%23comments
Along with alledged expenses being kept hidden. Current corruption and sex harassment probes into MPs will be kept secret after a landmark vote by MPs today.
The list of MPs currently under investigation has already vanished from Parliament’s website just minutes after today’s decision in the House of Commons.
I keep saying it’s a fascist state.
Worse than ever under:
…
Thatcher
Major
Blair
Brown
Cameron/Clegg
Cameron
May
Have I missed any of them out?
You keeping saying it – and you certainly do – does not make it any truer. Frankly, such a statement displays ignorance, no awareness of history and massive hyperbole.
Sinister Burt
You saying it is not fascist doesn’t stop it from being fascist.
Why has this country waged war for the whole duration of my adult life, starting with Yugoslavia , which plunged me into a deep psychological crisis and culminating in eight years of deliberate, disgusting catastrophe wrought by the hand of this and other Western countries on the Muslim countries of Somalia, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan , Pakistan, Libya, Syria and Palestine , to name but a few.
This war-mongering , which we call neo-conservatism, was accompanied by excessive greed , which we call neo-liberalism. So you think you are not a fascist. Look at your 4 x4 ‘s tyres, each one costing 300 quid, these are your jack-boots. Look at your voting to leave the EU to stop the wrecked survivors of our wars, this is your Nazi concentration camps. Look at your POTUS or your prime minister who says one thing one day to one audience and the opposite the next day to a different audience. This is your Mein Kampf.
What they actually want and mean to get by one devious way or another is global hegemony. Which frankly is what Hitler tried to get less than a century ago.
There are other human beings, with other lives and other thoughts that share this planet, and it is their lives, your disgusting culture and country wishes to wreck.
Oh I forgot to mention torture -rendition-brain-washing. Fruit of Josef Mengele. By their fruit thou shalt know them – pure fascists.
Great rant, Giyane, but it still doesn’t make Britain a fascist country. But if you’re convinced it is, have you considered emigrating to somewhere more congenial?
Even the blind can see what you say is true – Only the totally ignorant and brainwashed would question it.
Did the BBC use a zoom lens on Cliff Richards’ private home in order to make a smoke-screen around their own dodgy dealings with Jimmy Savile? The BBC hides behind a mask of journalism which belies their position as the official state propaganda machine. Oh they protest we are going to appeal because the government is restricting investigative journalism.
The lunchtime BBC News was dominated by Zionist MPs rebuking Corbyn for allowing the Labour Party to take a stand against Israeli violence.
What happened to balance? These BBC wonks think Pritti Patel using overseas aid for Al Qaida is lifestyle choice for a Tory government! The Zionist lobby thinks it can out=shout all proper condemnation of Israel, through their privileged platform inside the state broadcaster.
The only sense of entitlement they have a right to is the entitlement to be roundly condemned by all honest human beings.
Savile was highly rewarded with honours and kid you not, born a catholic but considered himself a Who!
@ Dave July 19, 2018 at 20:00
‘It’ doen’t need to ‘condier’ what ‘it’is now: Old Nick will have told ‘it’.
@ Dave July 19, 2018 at 20:00
Not nit-picking, just a point of information – one isn’t ‘born a Catholic’, one is baptised a Catholic.
Other notables have been Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Salazar, Pavelic, Archbishop Marcinkus, President Diem, Marcos, General Benny Murdani, Pinochet, and that’s just off the top of my head (I’ve deliberately not included ‘Top Dogs’ to save ‘controversy’).
And how the Vatican just loves War Criminals (why do you think they welcomed Bliar with open arms?).
Yes I agree.
The Cliff Richard allegations first surfaced in the 1980s and were not initially aired by the BBC. His name was one of over a dozen prominent men it was claimed engaged in underage sex with children in a West London ‘hotel’. None were ever prosecuted. But the stories resurfaced several times over the next 30 years.
Possible reasons were:
1) The allegations had some basis of truth, but original police evidence was destroyed and further cover-ups occurred subsequently.
2) MI5/6 used paedophile accusations as a way to smear prominent figures to control significant decisions.
3) Newspapers would pay more for allegations of celebrity impropriety.
4) Abused children were manipulated to identify celebrities, for a variety of possible reasons.
The BBC certainly a culture of men expecting sex from underage girls from the 1970s to at least the 1990s. Certain BBC employees were also accused of criminal acts.
But the unproven accusations against Cliff Richard surfaced decades before Savile was outed.
@ Rhis Jaggar July 19, 2018 at 22:50
Bit onthat here: https://cigpapers.blog/2013/04/29/the-elm-guest-house-vip-paedophile-party-list/
But the big cover-up of anything of that sort involving ‘people of distinction’ swung into play, big time.
The IICSA keeps slipping back, like a chain hitting a broken cog.There have been videos and articles about police whistleblowers who have been threatened and their careers and lives ruined when they try to speak out.
Rhis, I find the whole situation regarding rock stars/celebrities indulging in underage sex very distasteful yet very hypocritical. The big cases, where the perps have been rightly named and shamed – Glitter and Saville are out there for everyone to see and rightly so.
However, there seem to be other cases, where the perps concerned are afforded “God like” status, rock stars, who for some reason are allowed to get away with it – Bill Wyman, David Bowie etc.
http://www.gossiprocks.com/forum/music-music-videos/168111-teen-angels-10-musicians-penchant-young-girls.html
@ Andyoldlabour July 20, 2018 at 09:10
Don’t forget politicians, Lords and Ladies, and ‘right on up’ to higher levels, who also get away with it.
Who was the grim looking woman at the side of Fran Unsworth outside the High Court? A minder? Unsworth looked hopelessly inadequate
for the job considering she has the Orwellian handle – Head of News and Current Affairs.
Her salary – one for the price of two!
A snip @ £340k pa if she is paid at the same level as her predecessor, James Harding, the supporter of Zionist Israel, and ex-editor of the Times.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran_Unsworth
You talk about money a lot, S.E. Who is getting it, how much, and how. And who isn’t. [I can’t help wondering if you’re envious.] You look it all up, some of it in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, is that right? You must spend quite some time there. Apart from the time you spend watching BBC and Sky.
But she’s remarkably reticent about her own comfortable existence
CAAT (Campaign Against the Arms Trade) are asking for support with signatures on petitions and the like.
https://crm.caat.org.uk/civicrm/mailing/view?
BTW Finmeccanica has been renamed as Leonardo. The Design Museum have given them house room whilst the Farnborough Airshow is taking place by hosting a reception for them.
Shame on them.
Subsidiaries: AgustaWestland, MBDA, Telespazio, ATR, Thales Alenia Space, BredaMenarinibus, Sistemi Dinamici S.p.A, SOGEPA s.p.a., more
The chair of Leonardo is the ex-head of the Italian police. He knows where all the bodies are buried.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_De_Gennaro_(police_officer)
They turnover €11.52billion.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_S.p.A.
The CAAT link seems to be wrong, the page appears to be:
https://www.caat.org.uk/get-involved/act-now/petition/shut-it-down
Thanks Pete.
Please stop your rabid pro-Putin nonsense, Craig, you are ridiculous.
Hmm, I just read it and it seems a pretty fair assessment of the media’s reaction to the Helsinki summit. Please specify what you interpreted as being “rabidly pro Putin” because I read nothing to suggest Craig has any liking for the man.
As expected, USA declined Putin’s proposal to mutually organise interrogations. They want Putin to send 12 suspects (elections interference) to USA, and, at the same time they don’t allow to ask Mr. Browder.
Maria Butina will now ge traded instea of Browder, I suppose.
Yeah,, that’s called exceptionalism.
Note how Schumer –that crawler is a hobbyist for some cause– was very busy to prevent Putin’s proposal.
I hope Putin gives the US in general and Schumer especially a resounding raspberry.
US senate produces a resolution today (without a dissentient voice) to prevent US ambassadors, ex- ambassadors and other officials from being interrogated by foreign citizens.
The arrogance is the same as displayed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Service-Members%27_Protection_Act
Tatyana, I think the word you want is “dissenting”, but “dissentient” is a better description of most politicians.
Most of them are foreign citizens, from their names /origin. The retro politics of McCarthyism and trade wars are so cute. And what pray do you mean by cute? I mean diversion tactics, diverting your attention from yesterday’s official creation of the Apartheid Israeli State. Oh apartheid, that is so in and retro. Cuter than cute!. Darling can we have a Bonny and Clyde retro shoot-out party with real old-fashioned bullets? Or a retro British Empire party where we’re all allowed to swear at socialists?
Please note that all the time the Tories are just rah-rah-ing about do they sound like Winston Churchill, or how do they compare with Thatcher, the pile of real work for prime Minister in waiting Jeremy Corbyn keeps building up.
Den of Thieves and Murderers is more like it.
It’s a good thing it has dropped its mask.
@ bj July 19, 2018 at 23:23
In my mini-cabbing days (retired 2012), when I had foreign passengers I used to point out the Houses of Parliament and told them ‘That’s the Den of Thieves’. Almost invariably I got a laugh out of them, or an acknowledgement they knew what I was getting at.
@ Tatyana July 19, 2018 at 20:55
Let’s hope May and Co. don’t follow suit – that would kibosh Craig!
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/397935-ex-ambassador-thanks-senate-for-resolution-against-trump-handing-over
Former Ambassador Michael McFaul, who represented the U.S. in Russia under the Obama administration, thanked the Senate on Thursday after its members passed a resolution warning President Trump against handing former U.S. officials over to foreign countries for questioning.
Imagine what this guy has to hide.
I though Putin’s proposal was to have own nationals interrogated on home soil by opposite nationals?
Even that is abhorrent to US deep state: being treated equally with other states? No, some animals are more equal than others.
The depravity of fixing up CIA spies the Manhattan 11 and now Maria Butina as Russian ones is a ‘false flag’ operation of monumental proportions.
Anyone who thinks of working for the Yanks in a secret capacity should have their heads examined.
Trump has been wearing that fake-senile expression to bluff his way through the last 2 weeks, something weird about his eyes, their ellipses are slanted upwards like an alien’s. Is that make-up?
Have you anything sensible to post ?
I like most of what you say giyane but I’d beware of drifting into David Icke territory. I think that DI (and here comes my conspiracy theory) is being used to detract from legitimate suspicions by linking them with aliens, shape-shifters, Matrix type illusions etc.
I think Icke uses the reptile thing as a precautionary euphemism considering the City of London coat of arms includes reptiles.
@ Dave July 20, 2018 at 09:21
Whether he believes it or not, he certainly bends over backwards to get his fans to believe it.
I’m not a D I fan.
@ Kempe July 20, 2018 at 08:17
I wouldn’t go so far as to say ‘everything’, but certainly almost everything, yes.
I agree with George.
At least Edward Snowden got the idea before it was too late.
Putin being the head of state for so long, and ex-KGB, he must know many dirty secrets, and a good understanding how it all works.
May be it is the real reason for the Russophobia.
Starting with the Anglo-American triggering a non=nuclear conclusion to the Cold War at Olof Palme’s expense in March 1986 from Putin’s desk in Dresden where he managed the Soviets response to this surprise with astute foresight.
Trowbridge
That bad Kipling poem has really upset you. Here’s something a little better to improve your mood:
Nothing I cared, in the lamb white days, that time would take me
Up to the swallow thronged loft by the shadow of my hand,
In the moon that is always rising,
Nor that riding to sleep
I should hear him fly with the high fields
And wake to the farm forever fled from the childless land.
Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.
Dylan Thomas
Thanks, glyane, it worked. i could never dream up something like that.
Obama was CIA.
Tsk, tsk. I was replying to Tatyana
July 19, 2018 at 21:01
@ Trowbridge H. Ford July 19, 2018 at 20:45
I always believed he made a bad choice with Ecuador, as I realised the political climate there could change (as it has done with that slimeball snake in the grass turncoat Moreno.
You are confusing Assange for Snowden who is safely in Russia.
All the politicians, media etc should have a mass party/orgy, cut loose. And don’t worry conservatives, god doesn’t exist in a personal manner, no”body” is watching.
It’s what any good shaman worth his salt would have recommended back in the day.
Were just human being ffs, it’s no biggie. We are all in this together. It’d be good for a more diverse gene pool also. All this isolated nationalist stuff is not healthy for the species.
Modern day shaman’s (the very rich who shape the future) aren’t planning on making it it a better or brighter one if this is anything to go buy.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/11/survival-of-the-richest-the-wealthy-are-plotting-to-leave-us-behind.html
No. i know. But they can’t really leave us. They are fantasists. Delusional. Harm themselves with this also.
And they a dying to be free really. Of their own prison that they judge us low with. Can’t even get a blowjob without getting fired.
sigh, most people mess around sometime in their life, so what’s the issue? They are so dam up tight, institutionalised. And jealous. They really envy us. And I’m not taking about the very few mega rich, but the whole institutionalised strata of society who live in the public eye. who serve this crazy inhuman system.
They need more than money, status etc. Desperately.
Its like getting rid of the american indians, or slavery in the states. it’s a scar on ones soul that sure, some pretend away, but you think a human is better off living with having done that?
No, leave me somewhere close to a nuke target. They will envy the dead.
And don’t think the collapse of society that we are seeing is not affecting them and their children also. As we go down we all go down. We all see and experience the effects in some way. At least most don’t have to live with being a prime cause of the breakdown.
Note the use of the word ‘interrogate’ in the state-broadcaster’s main headline.
VE HAF VAYS….
FYI. A Q&A with the author of ‘An Inconvenient Death’.
Fifteen years of doubts: Miles Goslett on the death of Dr David Kelly
July 18, 2018
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/fifteen-years-of-doubts-miles-goslett-on-the-death-of-dr-david-kelly/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inconvenient-Death-Establishment-Covered-Affair/dp/1788543092/ref=sr_1_1_twi_har_1?
Pres Trump has invited Pres Putin to visit the US in the Autumn.
Dan Coats who was being interviewed on TV at the time of the announcement looked shocked apparently as he did not know anything about it according to the Sky News correspondent.
http://news.sky.com/story/donald-trump-to-invite-vladimir-putin-to-white-house-in-autumn-11442704
Tom Lehrer – Poisoning Putin in The Park
All the world seems in tune
On a spring afternoon
When we’re poisoning Putin in the park
@ Sharp Ears July 19, 2018 at 22:39
President Putin should instead offer to meet Trump in Cuba – not too far to travel, and more conducive to Putin’s health.
After all, Trump didn’t go to Moscow, but to Helsinki. And Putin knows he can’t trust Trump, who goes back on all the main points he made in Helsinki.
The Russian Government, and Putin’s advisers, should try to deter Putin from going to Washington.
Too many ‘accidents’ happen there.
Porton Down did it.
No idea who was poisoned by whom, where or when.
But the poison, whatever it was, came from Porton Down
There’s too much conjecture in your statement.
Porton Down is a place on a map — that’s all I’m willing to stipulate.
@ Chemical Britain July 19, 2018 at 23:16
I’m convinced it was a ‘False Flag’ attack/hoax, and I suspect Porton Down was involved in some way.
The Skripal poisoning was certainly a false flag used to demonise Russia. It soon lost credibility after some serious questioning of the Official Govt story by the alternative media.
Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley became sacrificial offerings in an attempt to manufacture credibility for the Novichok nonsense, they are /were disposable low level people in Govt/Security service eyes.
Certainly someone at Porton Down is colluding in this fiasco. and supplying the chemical,which has yet to be verified as a nerve agent.
Yes but you’re convinced that everything that happens is a “False Flag”/hoax.
@ Kempe July 20, 2018 at 08:17
I wouldn’t go so far as to say ‘everything’, but certainly almost everything, yes.
(I answered this before, but somehow it ended up in the wrong place).
“All warfare is based on deception.” – Sun Tzu
“If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth. ” – Joseph Goebbels
“Those who are capable of tyranny are capable of perjury to sustain it.” – Lysander Spooner
http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?m=1101581137416&ca=5c4e2924-a346-4f3b-ad3f-ce4297fb9bcb
International Clearing House is a veritable gold mine of good articles, and has suffered multiple cyber attacks.
Tom Feeley needs financial support to keep the show on the road – I hope some of you will put your hands in your pockets.
We need his kind of site, just as we need others, such as Craig’s.
Here’s one of the articles he put in his newsletter:
‘The Russian US Election Meddling Big Lie Won’t Die’: The Russian US Election Meddling Big Lie Won’t Die’:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49883.htm
‘…Anything positive from summit talks appears abandoned by capitulating to deep state power controlling him and his agenda.
Normalized relations with Russia and world peace are anathema notions in Washington.
Bipartisan neocons infesting the US political establishment want none of it. America’s hegemonic aims matter most – wanting dominance over planet earth, its resources and populations.
Endless wars of aggression, color revolutions, and other unlawful practices harmful to human rights and welfare are its favored strategies.
Will Americans go along with sacrificing vital freedoms for greater security from invented enemies – losing both?
Will US belligerent confrontation with Russia inevitably follow? Will mushroom-shaped denouement eventually kill us all?’
We need ‘alternative’ news sites to get the truth out – which is why they often get cyber-screwed.
Don’t let ICH go down.
@Paul Barbara
I thoroughly concur with yourr endorsement of Tom Feeley and Information Glearing House; and add that, for those of us whose incomes and fortunes are highly erratic, he is happy to accept one-off or occasional contributions. As he now links to this site, funding in any form would help , as it has been doing since the Skirpal case erupted, a wider dissemination of Craig’s arguments.
Abandon all hope….
Incredibly, BLiar was on Newsnight last night – Labour, Europe and populism??? WTF.
He is pushing for a second referendum.
Looking at him and listening to him (only for a minute or two – couldn’t take any more) he is on the verge of becoming certifiable.
10 mins. https://youtu.be/63TBWCnlPO8
h/t TLN.
The woman culpable presumably. I hope BLiar did not receive a fee.
BBC appoints Esme Wren as editor of Newsnight
Head of politics and business at Sky News returns to programme where she started TV career
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/feb/12/bbc-appoints-esme-wren-as-editor-of-newsnight
It’s like the Magic Roundabout in that world.
One question I would like Blair(and Major for that matter,too) to be asked is why he now favours a referendum , having refused one on the greatly- revised Maastricht, Lisbon and Nice Treaties that changed the initially accepted common market into a fully supra-statial organization. The refusal meant that the British public did not even have the nodding acquaintance with the issues involved that you find in Ireland and elsewhere.British opposition combined with that of Ireland, France and the Netherlands might have altered the course of the EU’s morphing into a new Leviathan that left us only with an emergency -brake option.
Follow the money.
Some here think that doing exactly that, following the money, makes you suspicious, or envious, or at least a worthy target of whataboutery.
Of course they never realize said wataboutery may then be turned against themseves.
@ Sharp Ears July 20, 2018 at 05:53
Not as bad as this: ‘The Amazing Revolving Door – Monsanto, FDA & EPA’: https://rense.com//general33/fd.htm
And I read recently more and more military are standing for Congress and the Senate – doesn’t bode well.
There is apparently reliable data to confirm that more ex- military are running for political office. Why do you conclude that this is a bad thing? There was a substantial ex-military presence at the Standing Rock, anti-pipeline protest.
International Socialist Organisation are pushing the line that ex-military becoming increasingly engaged in politics is some fiendish, Deep state plot. Then again, Trots / Fourth International will shoehorn every issue to suit their agenda. What is utterly beyond their comprehension is that regular blue collar school leavers might join the military to get enough money to go to University and having experienced the mechanistic insanity of US foreign policy from the sharp end might want to change things for the better.
While I don’t give much credence to Pareto’s idea of Circulating Elites, see:
http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/sociology/paretos-circulation-of-elites-characteristics-and-criticisms/43779
I thing Magic Roundabout is a much better title for the notion.
Sorry, can’t go there.
Unbelievable people can still be around this guy and not throw up.
Dosn’t it just speak to the fact that the establishment are dehumanised? That they can entertain this mass murderer (and killer of British citizens and service men).
What is wrong with people? It’s like the moral centre has been sucked out of them. Fucking repugnant.
@ Ishmael July 20, 2018 at 08:11
In a nutshell, they have ‘sold their souls’.
What I’ve noticed about Blair as he ages is his features take on a demonic appearance, especially when he tries to look statesman-like and effect gravitas. Some say we get the face we deserve and he deserves an evil countenance. Having started his wars beside Clinton before many of us had even heard of Baby Bush he’s the world’s biggest killer still alive. And while his fortune will be his for this lifetime only his evil will be remembered for a score of lifetimes.
And yet the Blairites still in the PLP still worship at his feet.
Compare and contrast the two versions on the new racist law on Israel.
Sky News
Nation state bill moves Israel towards ‘apartheid state’
http://news.sky.com/story/nation-state-bill-moves-israel-towards-apartheid-state-11442281
BBC
J.wish nation state: Israel approves controversial bill – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-44881554
Which is the most Israel friendly?
The real question is : which is more accurate ?
@ Sinister Burt July 20, 2018 at 09:14
I would say the second, as Is. is already an apartheid regime.
But I get the point.
“The package has been delivered”, claimed the coded message to Moscow Central, after which the Russkies took a leisurely train ride from Salisbury to London before flying out from Heathrow, presumably.
How many Russkies does it take to deliver a bottle of parfum du toilette? Couldn’t they have used UPS?
Are they recycling that one again?
The original version was from early April when it was a message from a Syrian official to Moscow:
” According to the Sunday Express, one message had been sent from Syria to “an official” in Moscow. This one included the phrase “the package has been delivered” and added that two individuals had “made a successful egress.”
https://www.rt.com/uk/423578-package-anonymous-source-secret/
I wonder how many messages “the package has been delivered” buzz around the globe every day? Hundreds of thousands I assume
Well, it was in the Teletrash this morning so I thought it had become Official Narrative.
Let me get this straight.
Tony Blair is in large part responsible and complicit in the brutal murder of 100s of thousand of human beings. Far more harm than your average rapist, pedophile, or wife battering scumbag.
Those who entertain him, who give him a voice (looking at you guardian) are fucking disgusting cretins to find this man acceptable. He’s a monster, get it? Mass murdering monster.
Just think about what it puts families though who have lost sons, seeing him paraded by the media.
God I can’t believe some people, what has happened to moral sensibility? It makes me so angry.
^ This is what happens ROS, when you just let reason & rationality dominate human affairs. And have no compassion or feeling for human experience.
Killers shoved in the face of grieving mothers to debate the next hot topic.
Putin made a proposal to Trump to hold a referendum in Donbass, Ukraine
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-19/putin-said-to-have-made-trump-a-new-offer-on-ukraine-at-summit
David Miliband is President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee (IRC).
__________________________________________________________________
https://www.codepink.org/irc?utm_campaign=irc_b&utm_medium=email&utm_source=codepink
The International Rescue Committee (IRC), known for its ongoing work to support migrants and refugees in conflict regions across the globe, is honoring BlackRock CEO Larry Fink with the John C. Whitehead Humanitarian Award — even though Fink and his investors reap huge profits from war and weapons.
Sign the letter to the IRC: there is nothing humanitarian about profiting from weapons sales. We will personally deliver it!
Larry Fink stated that he would hold companies accountable for being responsible corporate citizens. However, under his watch, BlackRock maintains significant stakes in weapons companies such as General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon. The products made by these weapons manufacturers create refugees and internally displaced persons. Weapons manufacturer General Dynamics is currently making a big profit from incarcerated migrant children at U.S. detention camps. These companies do not promote a humane and compassionate world, which is why we have been calling on BlackRock to divest its assets from weapons and warfare.
The two leading contributors to the current global refugee crisis are climate change and war. It is through the work of the IRC that refugees are able to gain a foothold in their host countries. Honoring Mr. Fink with a humanitarian award directly contradicts the mission and vision of the International Rescue Committee. Fink’s BlackRock props up weapons manufacturers, undermining diplomacy between countries and preventing the proper compassionate care of refugees and internally displaced persons.
Let IRC know they shouldn’t honor anyone who is making a killing on killing.
For a better world for migrants and refugees,
Ann, Ariel, Brad, Brienne, Jodie, Katie, Kirsten, Mark, Medea, Nancy, Natasha, Paki, Rita, Sarah, and Tighe
BS, lies and anti-Assad and Russia propaganda this morning on Radio 4 Today from Dr David Nott on the Turkish border with Syria. He has Hamish de B-G with him too.
Nott is supposed to be training ‘surgeons’ in many skills and is claiming that Assad/Russia have deliberately targeted and destroyed hospitals in the Idlib area.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b9v73l
1hr 30mins in for +6 mins
He is glib and plausible. Probably trained by MI6.
If the people he is training are ‘surgeons’ already they will not need ‘training’ from him.
Wonder what skills Hamish is imparting to the assembled company?
On a brighter note.
Just wanted to shout out again to all the people who maintain this blog. Or contribute in some way. You don’t go unnoticed.
Hope you are all enjoying the sun & heat. …The Sun. ….It blows my mind, just the basic awareness of existence.
https://youtu.be/RtbBmIfLYbk?t=18m47s
The poshboy British regime is going to start issuing its favourite target, “the public”, weekly warnings about what it calls a “no deal Brexit”.
Older readers may recall a document (and collection of films) called “Protect and Survive”
Malthusianism is coming home!
PS It’s increasingly making me want to vomit when I hear some arrogant-voiced twit on the radio intone the letters “UK” about 5 times a minute. The United Kingdom is the monarchist regime. The country is called “Britain”.
Also I do believe I’m right in saying that most people in the country do not understand that “God save the queen” is a right-wing song. How fucking stupid is it possible to get?
Here’s a link to an article in the Time$:
Public to be warned every week over no-deal Brexit.
The country imports half its food, mostly from EU27. Having no trade agreement with the EU means starvation. Wise arses who say “no it doesn’t” because they haven’t yet been given the OK by a poshboy to believe it does can go and f*** themselves. Do you have to ask a poshboy when you add two plus two?
Do you have to wait until you read about it in the Financial Times to realise that the ratings agencies are about to drop Britgov’s credit rating through the floor?
Arguably those of us who are NOT among the idiotic majority who don’t understand that “God save the queen” is a right-wing song deserve to get food before they do.
“Having no trade agreement with the EU means starvation”
Spare a thought too for all those poor EU farmers who will have to chuck away the resultant surplusses, slash production and lay off lots of workers.
Well no.
The country’s name in full is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
“Britain” short for “Great Britain” omits NI.
And Great does not mean Superb. It means Great as in bigger. Bigger than Lesser Britain – Ireland.
Not a lot of people know that, it seems.
Great Britain is a geographical term meaning the largest of the British Isles.
@Walt King – You really ought to get a clue. Britain is not short for Great Britain. Britain is Great Britain + Northern Ireland. Ireland has never been called “Little Britain”.
@MJ – “GB” is sometimes used that way by geographers who either forget about e.g. Mull and Orkney and many other islands or who classify them as outside of GB. Politically, “GB” does not refer to an island: it means England + Scotland + Wales.
It’s really remarkable how people can’t get their brain cells moving and think about why the phrase “UK” is being forced into their minds every day by the media. I suppose people have never been given the OK to think about it.
Just look at it: “United” and “Kingdom”. Do you see a name of a country there? Or do you see a reference to a monarchist regime and its supposed state of unity? You might as well call France “the Fifth Republic”. The UK is the current political regime in a certain country. That country is rarely referred to by a name, because the fucking monarchy and the principle that you shouldn’t question what you’re told are so strong. Whether it has an “official” name is totally irrelevant. Empirically the most appropriate name for it is Britain. This is the name that actually does get used when it is given a name, rather than being denominated only with reference to the monarchist regime that currently prevails.
I’ll tell you what – the majority of people that supports the monarchy can call it the “UK”, and you can use “Britain”.
Walt, I’ve always understood that our island was called Great Britain (Grande Bretagne) to distinguish it from “little” Bretagne = Brittany. The Normans never conquered Ireland, did they?
We usually say Britain or UK without any additional meaning.
Meaning is about more than what’s in your conscious head. Those two terms are very different. “UK” is a term of a similar kind to “Fifth Republic”, “Imperial Russia”, or “Third Reich”.
“I’m German but I’m against the Third Reich” is a simple statement that everyone can understand.
“I’m British but I’m against the UK” is unfortunately a statement that leaves most hearers opening their mouths with incomprehension.
Yet even simpler, in our daily conversations we say “Англия” (England) or “Англичане” (Englishmen, Englanders). It means, roughly speaking, that far away country where they play football, drink tea, where English queen lives, Sherlock Holmes, Shakespear, the Beatles, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppeling….
@Juisito – Yes – that is correct. (But GB contains more than one island.)
N_, you have to distinguish between the geographical term (which came first) and the political term. Geographically, GB is the name of one island, apparently the ninth-biggest island in the world. Politically, it was requisitioned as the name of the state that was formed by the union of the two kingdoms that between them occupy GB (plus a lot of smaller islands), England (which incorporated Wales) and Scotland.
I’m interested by your observation. I’m 58 and my recollection is that when I was young no one talked about “the UK” and my country always appeared conveniently near the top of any list. I can remember feeling exasperated as “the UK” became preferred – I’m British, damn it, not a UK, er, citizen, and my country has a distinct name with ancient roots, not a pair of initials between UAE and USA. I’ve never understood why “the UK” became preferred, tho I assumed it was foisted on us for some political reason (like the way we are now called “customers” and not “passengers” on the railways!)
That said, other people of my age tell me, No, it has always been the UK, hasn’t it? So, maybe my personal impressions are wrong.
It is not correct. The “Great” simply means greater, as in greater British Isles.
(But what it really means is the greatest country to have ever existed, of course)
N_, you said further up the page, “Britain is Great Britain + Northern Ireland.” That is completely wrong. The name Britain (or Great Britain) incorporates Scotland, England and Wales. The only name that includes Northern Ireland is UK = United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
“The ‘United Kingdom of Great Britain’ was formed in 1707 by the Act of Union that created a single kingdom with a single Parliament. (Scotland has always retained its own legal system)
A hundred years later the Act of Union of 1801 joined Ireland to ‘Great Britain’ and the name “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland” was first used. (Since 1921 only Northern Ireland has been part of the United Kingdom and so the name changed).”
http://projectbritain.com/britain/names.html
No need to try and allow for the smaller islands, which are generally assumed to be part of the larger whole. I can never remember who owns Rockall, tho …
They did.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_invasion_of_Ireland
“Lesser Britain” is Brittany. In French, Brittany is Bretagne, GB is Grand Bretagne.
“Also I do believe I’m right in saying that most people in the country do not understand that “God save the queen” is a right-wing song. How fucking stupid is it possible to get?”
It is quite remarkable how many things you “understand” which most people do not. And how intelligent you are compared to the “fucking stupid” masses. Is it because you benefited from a public school and Obridge education?
There is no country called “Britain. A group of islands comprise the British Isles. The countries are – England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Irelans and Eire (Republic of Ireland).
Do you seriously think that all “British” people are monarchists who love singing the national anthem?
Malthus never left Britain, N…, though intellectuals were always going on about Marx at home and abroad.
And I agree about the stupidity of its national anthem. It’s almost as stupid as Americans singing, “The Star-Speckled Banana” or whatever while standing at attention.
We need a new and improved national anthem, one that actually mentions the name of the country at least once and a better tune to go with it.
Some guy from the oil company BP called John Manzoni, who is now the Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office (no. 2 position in the civil service) is quoted as follows (showing how much he’d loved to have worked in advertising):
“There needs to be a narrative to say, ‘Actually we don’t want this to happen but we have to prepare just in case it does and here are all the things that we have to do’.”
(That is the way you say the word “warning” if you can’t think straight and you also have complete contempt for the people you’re warning, whom all your life you’ve viewed as savages. Just admire that word “actually” too that he slips in. Goodness, @Craig, you’re lucky you’re out of state service!)
As if BP, other multinationals and the big financial interests haven’t been preparing for breakdown for a long time, under buzzwords such as “resilience”, “continuity”, etc.
Hillary Benn, chair of the Brexit select committee, has said that advice to British travellers to buy health insurance to replace reciprocal arrangements rendered invalid could be part of the campaign.
I think this is a very lucrative time to be an MP who chairs or belongs to a relevant select committee! “Buy health insurance” is going to be one of the messages. Right!
How the Times is putting it (presumably copypasting a Whitehall press release) is that “the advice will include warnings of huge disruption at ports and airports and advice on stockpiling food.”
Note how food is slipped in as if it were an afterthought. Never mind that you can live without flying in a aeroplane but you cannot live without food.
Huge profits will be made from this upheaval by a tiny few – from emergency medicines, insurance scams, and from the oh-so-concerned efforts that the poshboys will make to relieve the suffering of the general public. (Mustn’t be cynical about their love for us, right?). Doesn’t matter whether GDP drops by 40% or 70% – there will still be business opportunities as the country goes down the toilet. That is what corrupt politicians care about most.
Landlords aren’t going to say “don’t bother about paying the rent” when the cash machines stop.
Ecuador to hand over Assange to UK ‘in coming weeks or days,’ own sources tell RT’s editor-in chief
https://www.rt.com/news/433783-wikileaks-assange-ecuador-uk/
So Ecuardor fold to the witch hunt. Pathetic regime!
I wonder who has the power to tell the IMF not to lend the Ecuadorean government money unless it hands over Julian Assange to the British regime. If that happens, there should be an interesting argument in court about bail. Britgov want him only so they can hand him to the US. It’s not as if they want to discourage alleged shoplifters etc. from jumping bail to hole out in embassies. If it ever does happen that Assange ends up in a US prison, Trump will probably scream that he wants him executed.
It will not happen.
He’ll commit suicide first.
I found it very difficult to watch Blair’s interview, but he does say something very interesting after about 7mins 30, with regards to lies, and specifically what he knew about torture. Whilst at first he replied No, he didn’t know anything about it, he then said the only thing that has been uncovered with regards to him, was a handwritten note, where he stated his opposition to torture “and that we should tell The US Government that that is our position”
A good interviewer, would have asked him the next question. “So, whilst you claim to have known nothing about torture, your advice on this issue was to tell The US Government you were opposed to it ????” “Why would you tell the US Government you were opposed it, if you didn’t strongly suspect the US Government was doing it ???”
It’s a bit like accusing your next door neighbour of regularly beating up his wife. If your neighbour, or the US Government, are not actually doing it, they might feel somewhat offended. To his credit, the interviewer, did then go on to mention Blair’s Government’s lies, where Blair revealed himself quite interestingly.
I would have preferred the interview to have been held in Wormwood Scrubs.
Maybe one day.
“Tony Blair on Brexit, Labour, and populism – BBC Newsnight”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63TBWCnlPO8&feature=youtu.be
Tony
Thank you, sir, for your excellent review of the situation. I feel like I’m living in upside-down-world. At this point, I think our entire political structure — both parties, all agencies, and the corporations who control much of it — stand exposed as the real treasonous actors (and are crooks to boot). Our bad situation has nothing to do with Russia and everything to do with the rot within. God help us all.
“Juvenile, covert, human intelligence sources are used very rarely” says spokesperson for No 10.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jul/20/child-spies-used-only-when-very-necessary-says-downing-street
What’s with the ultra creepy, sinister, Orwellian language. Are they taking the piss? Do they think / talk like this in real life? Are they trying to convey some subliminal message?
Juvenile, covert, unintelligent sources are used quite often and mostly they cluster around Boris.
There’s something people tend to forget when they go on about Jerusalem. It’s the following:
From 1948 to 1967 Jerusalem was a divided city, with Israel occupying/exercising sovereignty over West Jerusalem and Jordan doing likewise over East Jerusalem. Jerusalem was effectively divided up between two different countries, a kind of early post-wall Berlin, with the effect that movement between the two halves – including to visit sites of religious significance to J..s and Muslims – was virtually impossible. With Israel and jordan still officially in a state of war, J..s could not visit their religious sites in East Jerusalem and Muslims could not visit their religious sites in West Jerusalem.
After the 1967 war, Jerusalem became one city again, over which Israel exercises juridisdiction and sovereignty. One happy result of this – and one which Israel-haters prefer never to mention – is that there is now free movement for both J..s and Muslim Palestinians throughout the entire city. That freedom of movement of course brings with it the possibility – which is greatly used – for J..s and Muslim Palestinians to visit without let or hindrance their religious sites wherever they might be in Jerusalem.
I should call that progress without any downside, wouldn’t you?
After the 1967 war, the entire city of Jerusalem
https://www.btselem.org/jerusalem
As you well know (but choose to let the reader of your link find out for himself – perhaps you hope he won’t read that far?), the separation wall that figures at the beginning of your link does not separate Jerusalem into two parts. It is a wall between the city limit of undivided Jerusalem and the Palestinian West Bank – similar to the other separation wall between Israel proper and parts of the West Bank and intended, as that wall, to prevent terrorist infiltration from the West Bank.
And, by the way, do not be over impressed with everything Beth Tselem puts out. That organisation consosts in the main of the same sort of people as inhabit this and other so-called “alternative” or “human rights” blogs, ie, people who spare no effort to talk down their country in every conceivable way and on every conceivable occasion (while of course continuing to live there).
“Israeli policy in East Jerusalem is geared toward pressuring Palestinians to leave, thereby shaping a geographical and demographic reality that would thwart any future attempt to challenge Israeli sovereignty there. Palestinians who do leave East Jerusalem, due to this policy or for other reasons, risk losing their permanent residency and the attendant social benefits. Since 1967, Israel has revoked the permanent residency of some 14,500 Palestinians from East Jerusalem under such circumstances.”
Losing your permanent resident status when you leave a country for a certain time is normal practice for many countries. Eg, the UK.
Actually, to be fair, Beth Tselen doesn’t claim in the article that the separation wall pictures separates one part of Jerusalem from another. I do however accuse you of attempting to give that impression, since you were replying to my comments about Jerusalem being an UNdivided city since 1967.
So to state again my point : since Israel took control of all of Jerusalem in 1967 the city is undivided and J..s, Muslim Palestinian Arabs and Christians are free to go where they wish in that undivided city, including to visit the religious sites dear to them wherever they might be situated.
Very different to when Jordan was the power in East Jerusalem and, in my opinion, progress.
http://www.moonofalabama.org
Just the usual Israel-hating propaganda put out by the same tired old hacks.
This map says it all
http://www.moonofalabama.org/images6/shrinkingpalestine.jpg
I wouldn’t dare to utter the words ‘Isr@el’ and ‘progress’ in one sentence.
I guess I’m picky — sorry.
As apartheid became a word associated with South Africa, hafrada (meaning separation) will become synonymous with Israel, as the Nation Staye bill kicks in.
Ireland has taken the lead by banning the importation of Israeli goods from occupied Palestinian territories. More EU nations need to follow Ireland’s bold example.
Will Scotland?