My world view changed forever when, after 20 years in the Foreign Office, I saw colleagues I knew and liked go along with Britain’s complicity in the most terrible tortures, as detailed stunningly in the recent Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee Report. They also went along with keeping the policy secret, deliberately disregarding all normal record taking procedures, to the extent that the Committee noted:
131. We note that we have not seen the minutes of these meetings either: this causes us great concern. Policy discussions on such an important issue should have been minuted. We support Mr Murray’s own conclusion that were it not for his actions these matters may never have come to light.
The people doing these things were not ordinarily bad people; they were just trying to keep their jobs, comforting themselves with the thought that they were only civil servants obeying orders. Many were also actuated by the nasty “patriotism” that grips in time of war, as we invaded Iraq and Afghanistan. Almost nobody in the FCO stood up against the torture or against the illegal war – Elizabeth Wilmshurst, Carne Ross and I were the only ones to leave over it.
I then had the still more mortifying experience of the Foreign Office seeking to punish my dissent by bringing a series of accusations of gross misconduct – some of them criminal – against me. The people bringing the accusations knew full well they were false. The people investigating them knew they were false from about day 2. But I was put through a hellish six months of trial by media before being acquitted on all the original counts (found guilty of revealing the charges, whose existence was an official secret!). The people who did this to me were people I knew.
I had served as First Secretary in the British Embassy in Poland, and bumped up startlingly against the history of the Holocaust in that time, including through involvement with organising the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. What had struck me most forcibly was the sheer scale of the Holocaust operation, the tens of thousands of people who had been complicit in administering it. I could never understand how that could happen – until I saw ordinary, decent people in the FCO facilitate extraordinary rendition and torture. Then I understood, for the first time, the banality of evil or, perhaps more precisely, the ubiquity of evil. Of course, I am not comparing the scale of what happened to the Holocaust – but evil can operate on different scales.
I believe I see it again today. I do not believe that the majority of journalists in the BBC, who pump out a continual stream of “Corbyn is an anti-semite” propaganda, believe in their hearts that Corbyn is a racist at all. They are just doing their job, which is to help the BBC avert the prospect of a radical government in the UK threatening the massive wealth share of the global elite. They would argue that they are just reporting what others say; but it is of course the selection of what they report and how they report it which reflect their agenda.
The truth, of which I am certain, is this. If there genuinely was the claimed existential threat to Jews in Britain, of the type which engulfed Europe’s Jews in the 1930’s, Jeremy Corbyn, Billy Bragg, Roger Waters and I may humbly add myself would be among the few who would die alongside them on the barricades, resisting. Yet these are today loudly called “anti-semites” for supporting the right to oppose the oppression of the Palestinians. The journalists currently promoting those accusations, if it came to the crunch, would be polishing state propaganda and the civil servants writing railway dockets. That is how it works. I have seen it. Close up.
The silly season coming to an end so a bit of amusing nonsense to consider – or is it?
The media monsters are back from their holiday internment and re-education camps with the latest weapons of mass distraction.
The first exploded prematurely on contact with the target, no penetration, just a splash – there are no Munich attackers buried in that there Tunis and the photo looks odd – DayCares final fuckup?
The second, the westminster ‘terrorist’ crash and ‘arrest’ – going the same way – a failed dry run of a false flag op?
As the tories (blue and red) and their banker masters railroad us into their original destination, of hard brexit and WTO rules (we have never voted on it) , it seems the tried and trusted tactics of spreading fear and high profile murder and mayhem will be the order of the autumn.
Brexit not mentioned once in the last week.
Election on the way? Will May even make it to the conference? Which crazy is going to be blamed for an assasination attempt on JC? A ‘Palestinian’ Shiran Shiran type Israeli/CIA stooge? Or an EDL type Israeli/MI6 stooge? Or a Russian ‘novichok Israeli drone attack at the allotment stooge?
The White Helmets are coming home to roost and they are idle hands that have itchy trigger fingers and sharp head chopping knives.
Welcome back you holidayers! The great summer of change is not over.
These attacks have been taken good advantage of. They have overstretched & exposed themselves so much.
Here is where the left can really make ground. & without effort.
Facebook censorship: Bans news outlets critical of US
http://www.investmentwatchblog.com/new-terms-of-censorship-facebook-bans-news-outlets-critical-of-us-establishment/
No comment.
Imperialism.
They are going for broke with all the false flag and “anti-Semitism” nonsense, unless of course the saboteurs are being sabotaged, by counter-saboteurs to discredit the whole mountain of nonsense to everyone except the wilfully blind. I mean whilst the Daily Mail coverage has appeared excessive its identified the head of the serpent and the latest ‘terror attack’ involving a small car being driven from Birmingham into concrete pillars outside Parliament in early morning during recess has got them laughing in the aisles.
It’s all so depressing,
Once you have pounded the keyboard in anger and vented your frustration with a post. Go out, have a drink, relax and make some friends.
“Why drink is the secret to humanity’s success”
https://www.ft.com/content/c5ce0834-9a64-11e8-9702-5946bae86e6d
Soma, all round.
As Wreathgate gains momentum (no pun intended) victims of the Munich disaster, turn on Corbyn.
“The widow of one of the victims of the Munich Olympics terror attack has accused Jeremy Corbyn of hypocrisy and has demanded he apologise.”
https://news.sky.com/story/munich-attack-widow-jeremy-corbyn-must-apologise-for-laying-wreath-11472972
Meanwhile Corbyn hasn’t done himself any favours here either.
“Jeremy Corbyn is facing further criticism after a picture emerged of him apparently making a salute linked to an extremist Islamist organisation. The photograph shows the Labour leader making the four-fingered Rabbi’ah sign, which is used by the Muslim Brotherhood as a symbol of support for the overthrow of Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi in a military coup d’etat in 2013.”
https://metro.co.uk/2018/08/15/jeremy-corbyn-pictured-islamist-salute-finsbury-park-mosque-7840590/
?
I’d forgotten about it already. Why are you biting this nonsense ?
“No favours”? ……well if you say so.
Is he the one picking over & framing his history?
@ Republicofscotland August 15, 2018 at 12:11
You seem to have missed this from the article you linked to:
‘..A spokesman for Mr Corbyn told the paper: ‘The four fingered gesture is a well-known symbol of solidarity with the victims of the 2013 Rabaa massacre in Cairo.’….’
Kinda alters the significance, wouldn’t you agree?
Yes Paul I quite agree, however, the press can twist it too look another way. Corbyn must from now on in be careful of what he does, or who he associates with.
As mentioned above, initial reports said he was “known to police.” Later reports say “he was not known to MI5 or the security services.” So he could presumably be known to Birmingham police. There were bystander reports at the time about the van following him which sped away. What if it was his “support” team. Do we have an identity for him yet?
This page appears to have CCTV of the incident. Which van followed him and sped away?
https://metro.co.uk/2018/08/14/car-crashes-barriers-outside-houses-parliament-7835733/
@ Mary Paul August 15, 2018 at 12:16
All that’s known so far is that he was a bosom buddy of Jeremy Corbyn, who lent him the Fiesta (it’s all JC’s fault).
Sky’s version ie what they have been told by the plods.
https://news.sky.com/story/what-we-know-so-far-about-westminster-terror-suspect-salih-khater-11473215
From Darfur. In which case, he’s probably saw the horror of the genocide in which 300,000 were killed and 460,000 ‘displaced’.
US and S Sudan – https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-aid-southsudan/u-s-reviewing-policy-toward-south-sudan-usaid-chief-idUSKCN1BD0SZ
Yet another of the West’s ‘interventions’.
..he probably saw..
______
Guardian version.
Salih Khater: what we know about man suspected of Westminster attack
Khater was a ‘quiet guy always smoking shisha’ say regulars at internet cafe in Birmingham
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/aug/15/salih-khater-what-we-know-about-man-suspected-of-westminster-attack
Meanwhile the unmitigated disaster that is Brexit, keeps on giving. The EU Council has confirmed it’s moving its European Union Naval Force to Spain. While the Maritime Security Centre (Horn of Africa) will move to France.
Obviously the EU cannot keep its military forces (I didn’t know it had any) in a non-EU country. Why is that an “unmitigated disaster” and for whom?
If it’s military bases you now crave, just be grateful that Scots voted to remain in the UK and NATO has no plans to close Faslane any time soon.
I thought the EU didn’t have any armed forces? Wasn’t that supposed to be one of the lies pit about by the Leave campaign?
I guess this is on the ambiguity of evil.
I revised what I wrote too hastily this morning and included a great tweet from @New_Number_2
https://www.academia.edu/37238622/They_came_back
It’s about that wreath in Tunis.
Too much Facebook-style registering to do. Can’t you just paste key passages into a post here?
@ Chris Friel August 15, 2018 at 12:56
I wonder how many innocent people died in Israel’s airstrike in Libya? No one seems to be bothered about that aspect.
Or how many sheep in Australia became ‘radioactive’ after an Israeli nuclear test?
Researchers: Radioactive Australian sheep bolster nuclear weapon test claim against Israel
13 Aug, 2018 4:30pm
[..]
By 1979, it had long been established that thyroid glands of grazing animals, and especially sheep, efficiently concentrate radioactive iodine-131 from atmospheric nuclear weapon tests,” the researchers wrote.
Iodine-131 is an unstable, radioactive form of the element iodine.
Thyroid samples from sheep slaughtered in Melbourne were regularly sent to the US for testing – monthly in 1979 – from the 1950s to the 1980s.
The journal article said test results from different thyroid samples of sheep slaughtered on three different dates showed “two signature gamma-ray emission lines of iodine-131”. The sheep had been grazing in an area hit by rain four days after the optical flash was detected. They were in an area that a weather study showed was in the downwind path from the suspected explosion site. The plume would have passed south of New Zealand.
The quantity of radiation from the iodine-131 fallout was tiny, but the “signal-to-noise ratio” was high. The sheep data added a third pillar of evidence that the Vela incident was a nuclear explosion, the authors said. The other two pillars were the flash and detection of a “hydroacoustic signal” by underwater listening devices.
“… analysts have previously argued that the optical and hydroacoustic signals are definitive indicators for a nuclear test, while the iodine-131 detections provide robust and credible evidence for a nuclear fission event …”
Commenting on the findings, US nuclear weapons expert Leonard Weiss of Stanford University says on the online Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists that the “important” new evidence “removes virtually all doubt” that the flash was a small-yield nuclear explosion.
He added that there was “growing circumstantial evidence” that it was conducted by Israel.
“Israel was the only country that had the technical ability and policy motivation to carry out such a clandestine test …”
The official position of Israel is to neither confirm nor deny the existence of a nuclear programme, although the Guardian has described its existence as an open secret. The country’s former Knesset Speaker Avrum Burg told a conference in 2013 that “Israel has nuclear and chemical weapons” and called for public discussion.
Israel’s Ambassador to New Zealand, Itzhak Gerberg, told the Herald, when asked if Israel was responsible for the explosion: “Simply a ridiculous assumption that does not hold water.”
Peters said: “The issue raised in the correspondence is scientifically and technically complex, and examines something which may have taken place almost 40 years ago.
“I will be happy to respond once officials and technical experts have had an opportunity to fully assess the material and provide a briefing to me.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12106195
oh oh, maybe there really will be “sheeple” in the future. i’m trying to remember a sci fi movie in which mutated sheep were the threat, but failing.
Not quite. Oh, Lucky Man featured a pig-human chimera, I think.
The New Zealand film “Black Sheep” ? Very funny, but down to genetic engineering rather than nuclear testing I think.
Good read. It’s a very mirky area isn’t it. & easy for others to write a context over complex things.
I imagine those who know his actions over his whole career just don’t take this seriously.
2016.
Vote Leave. Take back control! Escape the foreign dictats of Brussels.
2018.
America to impose further economic sanctions against Turkey if it doesn’t release American Pastor from house arrest (guess it’s helpful when the Vice Prez is a fully payed up member of the Christian Taliban).
Iran under economic sanction until it does exactly what Washington says.
American Ambassador to the Court of St. James, Woody Johnson implies (all but explicitly) that any trade deal will be commensurate with strict adherence to American foreign policy.
This taking back control business is a piece of piss.
‘Christian Taliban’ – wow so you draw moral equivalence between some members of the Trump cabinet who happen to be Christian with people trying to bomb their country back to the dark ages while at the same time killing women and children seeking an education and personal betterment, stoning rape victims for being rape victims as at the same time as wholesale slaughtering the innocent all in their prophet’s name?
Lose perspective much?
” Turkey says U.S. sanctions imposed over the treatment of American pastor Andrew Brunson are “incompatible with the most simple diplomatic courtesy” ” nbc news.
A Christian evangelist hoping to find converts on the edge of Greece-Turkey is very unlikely to have any connection whatsoever with Erdogan’s phoney bete-noir Gul. Preaching the resurrection to Muslims on the edge of the Mediterranean has got to be the cushiest job on earth, no buyers, just sand sea and fun. Andrew Brunson obviously knew about Erdogan’s diplomatic etiquettes, getting a female journalist garrotted in Istanbul airport because she intended to expose the evils against women of the Erdogan’s Islamist State.in Iraq.
RIP Jacky Sutton. RIH Erdogan: ‘Abandon hope all ye who enter here.’
Ian
Last time I looked it was US bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone Age with daisy cutters and MOAB bombs amongst others. The Taliban never dropped two atom bombs on anybody let alone two cities with 100000 civilians in each.
re-read what you wrote…its you that has lost persepective
You pick up on a light hearted dig at a man whose religious beliefs are regarded as distinctly odd by the majority of Americans, (the requirement to avoid being alone in the same room as someone of the opposite sex that is not a relative) but avoid the obvious subject of the post. If your intention was distraction, congratulations, it worked.
Corbyn could never win over mainstream media
http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2018/876-israel-is-the-real-problem.html
Labour is suffering not an antisemitism crisis but an Israel crisis
http://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2018-08-08/labour-crisis-israel-anti-semitism/
Franky, this is not just the Labour party, the same friends of MP’s game has been going on in the Conservative and LibDem parties as well.
Wherever elected representatives are near power there are split loyalties at work trying to instill their agendas, frightening to realise one has elected lobby fodder.
@Frankywiggles,
Thank you, I appreciate you posting those links. They sum up how I view the current situation.
You bet Andy, it’s difficult to find truthful coverage. Although Chris Williamson MP did his best to cooly inject reality on last night’s Newsnight.
://mobile.twitter.com/Corbynator2/status/1029493258525843456
https://mobile.twitter.com/Corbynator2/status/1029493258525843456
Any decent politics is antizionist.
Best not to listen to any news broadcasts on the state broadcaster’s channels today.
Rail fares up 3.2% (Reading to London Season ticket now £4,606)
Inflation up to 2.5% in July. Take your pick from RPI CPI etc HMG uses the one most advantageous to them for pensions thus ripping off the pensioners.
CEO’s salaries are increased massively to an average of £4m pa. Paid @ 144 times average wage of employee. The CEO of Persimmon, housebuilders, is getting £47m.
Large number of arrests in Huddersfield for historic child sexual abuse, rape and trafficking.
Death toll in the Italian bridge collapse is now 39. Questions raised about its maintenance. There is grief and anger.
Pennsylvania – 300 RC priests committed sexual abuse of 1,000 of minors over 70 years. The abuse was covered up and some of the priests were promoted.
Just some of the headlines. I won’t continue. It’s too depressing.
@ Sharp Ears August 15, 2018 at 13:52
The Mafia control a lot, if not most, major building contracts in Italy, so Jerry-building is the likely cause.
I guy I worked with in Newham years ago told me that every tower block built in Newham had a massive kick-back cost – I don’t remeber if it was a 1/4 or a 1/2 million pounds (pretty sure it was £1/2 m).
just one more
Forexchange in Cardiff airport was 90c per £1 – £200 bought just €177.
Changing money in an airport – LOL
Post Office offering €220 for £200….
Airport Forex only for emergencies or fools.
Yes they really take the piss. Can’t understand how they stay in business with the rates they must pay the airport. But then someone like charming comes along…
@Anon1,
I agree, you can’t help some people. let’s burn some money.
Oh, how scary! Brexit is doomed because of Cardiff airport’s money exchange sharks. LOL. Btw, we got back from a short break in Spain last night. Just checked my online banking, and all my debit card transactions over there have converted at about 1.10 to the pound. Spin that, scaremonger.
fyi – i live in portugal so obviously don’t exchange currency at airports in the uk. just pointing out that the 140 euros to the pound of not long ago has dived.
@charming,
It has been between 1.10 and 1.15 for a couple of years now.
Tony what you didn’t tell us was that your credit card then charged you a commission making it look like 1.05 for £1
Tom Swarbrick, ex political advisor at No 10 which I assume means he was a SPAD, was at pains to correct a listener this morning. Theresa and Philip did not dine with the Chief Rabbi and Mrs Mirvis at their home on the day she became PM, but on the preceding evening. He would know of course.
Laughing in our faces, cont’d.
Anything suspicious about that? What is the meaning of your ‘laughing’, etc comment? You can’t conceal your hate can you? Can someone with hate in their heart also have love for somebody, for anybody, say for the Palestinians? I don’t know.
Is the fact that the Mays had dinner with the Chief Rabbi a problem for you?
Why assume hatred rather than anger, or grave concern?
There are multiple, strong indications that the apartheid state of Israel has undue influence upon UK politics. Are you, Observer, in a position to assure us that the Chief Rabbi is impartial about Israeli foreign policy? And do you support separation of church and state?
Chief zionist if you please.
‘First they came for Alex Jones….”:
‘Facebook’s anonymous censors take down Latin America’s Telesur, and nothing can stop them’:
https://www.rt.com/news/435942-facebook-telesur-censorship-venezuela/
‘…It’s also telling that when Facebook decided it did need to do something to deal with what is labelled ‘fake news’ it partnered up with the Digital Forensic Lab, an offshoot of the Atlantic Council, a neo-liberal think tank set up in 1961 to promote Western ideology around the world. In more simple terms, it is NATO’s lobbying organization and it goes about its work very aggressively.
So, what does that make Facebook? It is a social media platform that is global, it has billions of users in every country in the world, and it is starting to refine what people are allowed to be exposed to, to fit it into the same old mainstream narrative, and it is able to operate completely unchecked….’
How long before Craig’s Blog is in the crosshairs?
The facebook Telesur page is up again today, not that I use Facebook.
You mean, not that you permit Facebook to use you.
Pedantic of me, I know, but these little details matter.
I’ve never been on shitefest but I think i understand.
If you don’t pay for a ‘service’, you’re probably the product rather than the customer. For instance, commercial TV stations make money by selling viewers to advertisers.
Hmmmmn Perhaps I should clarify, I use a browser that has ‘add ons’ to prevent tracking, third party cookies, ad blocking as well as fingerprinting obfuscation software etc, I also use a VPN, but having said that certain features that Facebook uses, Java script for example, without which many sites will not work are intact, so the chances are that if I consult a Facebook page my operating system, amongst other things will make it possible to identify my particular device, it will have a unique fingerprint. So I avoid facebook pages, which is easy as I have no friends.
Hope I have made that clear.
Pete, I try to compose my comments to be informative to readers in general. Many people think that they ‘use Facebook’, which they do, but Facebook makes more use of them than they do of Facebook.
I see you’ve taken measures to redress that imbalance. Yes, doing so imparts a social disadvantage. But maybe that is changing; judging by the billboard advertising Facebook has been paying for recently, they’re having a public image problem 🙂
Re Clark at 10.13
Sorry, I did not quite grasp your point was general rather than particular, I just wanted to explain I was aware of the way Facebook’s business model works and have tried to minimise the data collection aspect, of course I have no idea as to how effective that is, but I do my best. My last sentence was whimsical in case you did not get that, I avoid emojis too, so clarification is never easy.
Pete, maybe take a look at UBlock Origin. It’s quite a new Firefox extension, but Trisquel added it in an update which is a pretty good recommendation. Described as a low-resource replacement for AdBlock, NoScript and RequestPolicy combined, it has various levels of protection, though the stronger ones don’t have particularly good user instructions as yet.
Facebook, Google etc. have immense web presence, ie. scripts and ‘Like’ and ‘Share’ buttons etc. on almost everyone else’s web pages. Privacy versus usability is clearly a compromise. Keep up the good work!
I don’t use actual emojs either. My smiley was just a colon and a bracket when I posted it; WordPress substitutes the image.
Maybe Craig will care to comment when he resurfaces? 2 weeks and counting…
Yes, this blog is basically dead. It’s unfortunate that Craig’s calls for paid subscribers came just at the time the output dried upThis is one of the few places certain types of stories get any coverage, but alas, the readership is much more committed to it than the owner; seems Craig has disappeared ‘doune the rabbit hole’.
Dead? Alive and kicking I’d say. The comments always were better than Craig’s original post.
MJ. That’s a pretty snide remark about Craig when he isn’t even here, or were you bring sardonic?
You are using the banwidth that Craig provides.
It’s a pity that there are not more men like Craig IMHO.
.
Craig’s been on holiday since the festival. I’m very glad of that because as usual, he worked himself to exhaustion. Just have a but of patience. While you’re waiting, you could review some old posts; how about this one? –
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/08/the-troodos-conundrum/
Or maybe this one:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/04/werrittys-chum-matthew-gould-takes-janner-to-kindergarten/
Or you could do some browsing and then post your own recommendation for other impatient types.
Or, if you’re one of the many ‘conspiracy theorists’ who visit this site (a particular bugbear of mine), you might prefer this one:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2011/11/gould-werritty-a-real-conspiracy-not-a-theory/
Clark, it would be good if this blog reinstated the section at the bottom detailing the last 6 or so posters, along with the article they are commenting on. This would avoid everyone just adding to the most recent article. For example, some have been posting to the previous article about the BBC but I suspect only a minority will have noticed.
Just a thought! ?
JOML, from time to time, please post a reminder of this:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/comments/feed/
It works in Firefox and its derivatives. There is also one for each page, in case you want to watch for replies. Open a Feed in a new tab for convenience. They also load very fast.
Clark,
I may well have been one of your “many ‘conspiracy theorists’ who visit this site (a particular bugbear of mine)”, but when you went AWOL a few years ago (and I remember the circumstances very well) I was extremely concerned about you. What happenned to you, can happen to anyone, and you were in a very stressful situation of being a moderator (which is like being piggy in the middle) of some extremely strong (and sometimes very nasty) differences of opinion.
I really felt for you. It was like you were trying to be the referee between more than two opposing sides, all of who’m hated each other’s point of view. It might have just been words on a computer screen – but you were in effect in the middle of a virtual war.
I specifically asked Craig about you, online here, and he said he had spoken to you, and you were O.K.
It’s good you two keep in contact, and are friends.
I do understand the levels of stress.
Over the last 10 years, I very nearly met you guys, on three different occasions.
I do not have a problem with political differences.
At the end of the day, we are all human beings, and over 95% of us experience human feelings such as empathy, and can and will support each other, regardless of our political, religious or tribal point of view. The colour of skin, simply doesn’t come in.
Tony
For instance, here’s the Comment Feed for this page:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/07/the-ubiquity-of-evil/feed/
The latest comments for this page chronologically, most recent at the top.
Tony, thank you very much for that. Yes, moderating was very stressful. If only commenters would observe the moderation rule:
– Engage with arguments, not commenters. Play the ball not the man
it would all be fine! But people post suspicions about each other’s motives, and that’s when it all starts going nasty. Ultimately there’s no way to tell if a commenter is a shill or a secret agent or something – that’s what’s secret about it! But as Craig so wisely points out, it doesn’t matter so long as everyone just keeps addressing the argument.
We must meet sometime so that I can draw you a big diagram with stresses and strains etc. marked on it. No way would I start believing official stories!
– If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t need to worry about your answers.
Thomas Pynchon.
Myself I really don’t view this blog like that. & The donation bit is something I myself seem to remember encouraging. Craig being perhaps a bit modest when it comes to money. But the idea that the work itself can or should be costed? His time & effort can’t be, it’s just a donation to help, not a transaction for sevices rendered. Even if he framed it as such it’s really not good for others to see it as such IMO. It sounds like he has literally worn himself out. & he presents the festival as a break, but I bet it wasn’t for him who I believed was very involved.
& He’s done this for years for absolutely nothing, off his own back. Personally I’v done nothing in comparison as a reader. & A few months off (or anything) wouldn’t bother me in the slightest. In fact I’m happy about it also.
Ishmael, for Craig the festivals (two this year) are an intellectual and political break, and the community spirit greatly boosts his optimism. However, he works very hard running the bars so it’s very physically demanding instead. He fell ill with a chest infection after this year’s DTRH, but I’m pretty sure he’s recovered now.
Thanks, I have bookmarked it, I am in the middle of reading Finkestein’s The Holocaust Industry, after seeing a longish documentary about him on You Tube. it will be interesting to read/find any counter arguments supported by evidence.
“So, what does that make Facebook?”
Facebook is the CIA. It’s as simple as that.
Facebook was set up by the CIA and has played a major role in achieving CIA goals in several countries. You probably know this already, but for the sake of anyone who doesn’t: search on the word “In-Q-Tel”.
You’d think it were more an extension of the NSA, but I’m inclined to think it’s more a privatisation of Intelligence gathering.
The NSA must be heavily privatised itself now.
Thing is, who are they working for.
It’s not the state, really, is it.
It’s private interests.
You’ve got to see the funny side. According to the Lebedev-Osborne rag, “Scotland Yard officers were labelled ‘jobsworth’, ‘Nazi scum’ and ‘fa[s]cist’, according to claims made by police working in the aftermath of the attack at Parliament“.
Don’t you just love the kid in the office who copypasted the press release, in pursuance of what is known as the noble profession of journalism. I refer to the use of square brackets for academic precision. The problem is that he is quoting SPEECH, not written text. If someone calls someone else a “facist”, they obviously don’t mean “fascist”. They mean the person doesn’t like their face. Even if office boy is quoting written text, then the copper who wrote the text is quoting speech. Perhaps the kid’s too busy playing at Instagram to bid for a Pulitzer by seeking to determine whether the word “facist” comes from the cop’s inability to spell or from the actual utterance of the word “facist”. So…wheel out the square brackets.
It’s very easy to imagine some of the cocky twats who work in the Palace of Westminster in one capacity or another being right annoyed with “pleb” coppers barring their way or telling them they’ve got to walk this way rather than that. Not “Londoners”, not “London workers”. Cocky posh twats and even middle class twats, who work in the future dunghouse because they’re too stupid to get jobs in the City or a hedge fund.
I’ve seen this when at a fire alarm drill in a hospital. The whole idea of a fire alarm is that everyone finds out fast that there’s an alarm and they’ve got to evacuate and go to an assembly point. If someone doesn’t realise what’s going on, you tell them. There can even be a bit of unusual solidarity on the way out. But I’ve seen cocky c***s of medics in the queue in a canteen who totally ignore those whom they consider lesser beings, whom they take to be individuals built of poop – incapable of uttering any words that are meaningful or chargeable – when the said dross, the said Morlocks, tell them “there’s a fire alarm”. The attitude is “yuck, a common person is talking to the great ME – I’ll ignore it”. So yes, I expect it’s true there’s been some argy bargy at the barriers around the Palace of Westminster.
So thanks Lebedev and Osborne for giving a window on what Britain is really like.
“The problem is that he is quoting SPEECH, not written text”
He may be quoting the written notes of a police officer whose spelling wasn’t too clever.
The non entity that is Gordon Brown, has come out to preach to Jeremy Corbyn, on what’s right and what’s wrong with the Labour party, with regards to anti-Semitism.
Brown a failed politicans (in many peoples eyes) and a less than average PM, is still wheeled out by the establishment on occasion and allowed airtime to waffle away to anyone inane enough to listen to him.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/gordon-brown-jeremy-corbyn-antisemitism-labour-ihra-edinburgh-a8493171.html
Now there’s a bag carrier and still with us, Golden Brown, the Dr Cameron of our time
Isn’t that mountebank on trial at Nuremberg?
Ewen Cameron should have been on trial at something like Nuremburg, but he became head of the American Psychiatric Association.
New Zealand government halts super rich from buying homes and land in the country. It’s said the survivalists are in readiness for the coming apocalypse.
The FT names quite a few, who are getting ready for the ultimate doomday scenario.
Has NASA spotted a planet killing asteroid heading for earth, and are they keeping its existence quiet?
https://amp.ft.com/content/ba4c14f0-a05f-11e8-85da-eeb7a9ce36e4
I’m not sure if it’s an asteroid, the taxman or imminent war but countries selling passports (I see it in Portugal where the socialists are trying to end the practice) do rather well out of it. It’s usually commitment to ‘invest’ in the country that buys the passport. Greece, Italy, Turkey…. UK next for a migration?
You’re probably right, its probably more financial that cataclysmic, I just added the asteroid for a bit of dramatic effect. ?
Most likely environmental eco-system failiure. NZ still habitable after global warming, stable government, lots of empty land.
The linkage between the latest NZ law and the fact that billionaires are buying boltholes there is interesting.
That said, the new law doesn’t stop foreigners from buying new housing.
Passports don’t matter so much if you’re a billionaire. Residence permission matters, and bosses of all countries hand out “investor visas” to those who can afford them. At least I don’t know of any country that’s an exception.
Michael “so clean that Boris Johnson could snort cocaine off of him, and he’d never want to be in the same room as Mike Harari” Ashcroft is involved in flogging Belizean passports.
The rush to NZ suggests “nuclear”. Or perhaps “biological”. But not just an economic depression anyway. Chile has also had some property purchasing of this kind.
@Kronstadt – Spy work suggests that in top Tory circles (where old families with members in the House of Lords and at hedge funds view cryptocurrencies the same way they viewed tulipmania – as a bubble you make a mint from before it bursts), the possibility of a British economic collapse is taken very seriously and is being hedged against. Usually Canada and the US are mentioned. A lot of these types are always flying across the Atlantic into and out of London City Airport and already own property in North America.
It is the main driver of the economy in Portugal(where I am now). Golden Passports and Non Habitual Residents have transformed the economy. Property prices in parts of Lisbon that the foreigners like have in some cases quadrupled since the depths of the crisis in 2011. I know I sold one then!
No, this Netanyahu row won’t destroy Corbyn – it will only make him stronger – https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/jeremy-corbyn-netanyahu-jewish-munich-wreath-palestine-plo-a8491391.html
I should hope so. Not that I think he’s some superman, but it’s great to have someone prominant speak out on this issue. & to push for change.
I don’t do the whole “my leader” thing. But I believe it’s a position many take that’s never articulated. I think a lot of people still think in terms of fair play, & don’t think it’s pro Israel not to criticise.
& I* don’t think it’s pro Israel not to criticise.
Ishmael, Blimey, How did Richard Seymour get that published in the Independent?
The Independent have been slagging off Corbyn as much as The Daily Mail, The Telegraph, The Times, The Express, all The MSM J_ish Newspapers, The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 and the likes of most of The “Left Wing” alternative media, fronted by the likes of JK Rowling etc etc etc etc.
Who is Richard Seymour?
Will he get published again or has he just Resigned – or Been Fired?
What he wrote, was very good,
I wish I could write like that.
Tony
“Who is Richard Seymour?”
Isn’t he the chap who had the Lenin blogpost..
Used to comment a lot on the Medialens boards back in the day.
Or, is that another one.
Bit like Bevin.
He’s on the web. Yes. Good writer, Seems like a writers writer, but it’s not my field. Very “deep” (for what of a better word) sometimes. It’s Interesting but often very esoteric.
Suprised you didn’t notice as he’s listed on this site under the “blogger heads” list. Leninology.
Just a reminder that Atef Bseiso whose grave is in Tunis was murdered by Israel in Paris. It would be good if murders by Israel abroad became an issue.
Ditto with Israel being a haven for Jewish criminals from anywhere in the world, whatever crimes they have committed. That idea would probably make many people’s jaws drop, but unfortunately it is the truth because in the case of those who have “exercised their right under the law of return” Israel never extradites them to be tried for crimes that they are alleged to have committed before they arrived. (The only case I know of when there was ever any trouble was Meyer Lansky.)
Put these two areas together and you get an attitude which says 1) Israel has universal jurisdiction over those who it considers to be its enemies, anywhere in the world, and 2) those who are considered to be its ethnic friends are welcome, whatever crimes they have committed, anywhere in the world.
And sometimes buries them in prime locations, such as arch fraudster Robert Maxwell.
Trump Temporary Boners on Approval of voters is a feature of Low Informational Voters. Reacting in an ignorant manner to the temporary insanity of the Dumpster tells me democratic republics are doomed.
Voters in UK also terminally incoherent and incurious?
Hiya Ben
I went to the Anti tump protest in Glasgow a few weeks ago.. with my Palestine flag. Must have been 18,000 there and about 30 Palstine flags.
It’s sickening to see the way Corbyn is being Carved up, by mostly his own MP’s.. Vile bunch of Back stabing Hatchet crowd.
Tump – that’s a good name for him. 🙂
A small rounded mound or hill. A tumulus.
@Sharp Ears,
Trump is English slang for a fart, so his name suits him. The word “trump” is also derived from French where it mean’t to trick or deceive – again a good name for the man.
There Apopears to be No Reply Button For Both –
Tony_0pmoc
August 15, 2018 at 17:58 –
Well said Tony Heartily Seconded.
And
Clark
August 15, 2018 at 17:58
Great to hear Craig is on the Mend, and taking it easy after all that Grind, I wonder though if the Two festivals are A wee bit too Close. a Mater of weeks. I can testify to how much work it is. And well done your Selfless, Tireless Time Too.
P.s The Blog looks in fine Health To Me, Lots of great posts, Info and Links.. A Priceless Place.
Speaking as a dyed-in-the-wool conspiracy theorist I must say I was most amused to come across this article in the Independent:
Why you shouldn’t read conspiracy theories about the novichok poisoning, even if you really want to.
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/novichock-poisoning-amesbury-wiltshire-conspiracy-theories-salisbury-truth-facts-russia-a8432541.html
The comments below the article are wonderful, almost everyone deriding the article and the intent behind it.
It looks like we are all conspiracy theorists now. Sorry Clark 🙂
Anyone who denies conspiracy theories when it comes to complicated matters is being naive, lazy or ignorant,
The longer I live I doubt what officialdom claims about important deaths, whether they be that of Dr. David Kelly, SNP politician Willie McRae, or Swedish Foreign Anna Lindh. They were apparently all murdered by various officialdoms, not suicides or done simply by crazies.
So many unexplained deaths could be solved by breaking out of the box.
The Anna Lindh murder has shades of Robert Kennedy and Sirhan Sirhan and even probably of John Lennon.
Have a look at the Lobster Journal review (winter 2018) on Disrupt and Deny- OUP. The reviewer, Robin Ramsay, is gob smacked that an author not of the left writes an in-depth well researched study, which supports the left wing voices hitherto crying in the wilderness. There is also another startling 2018 2 Vol publication by an American academic The Darkest Side of Politics (a collection of updated essays) – Routledge. You read them and you will see that some conspiracies sure ain’t imaginary or scarce, but as Clarke might agree, they can be very tough to figure out and unravel, and there are misleading counter and spoiler narratives. Interesting to consider why these books have been published, who comes out of them the worst and who not so badly and what they do not say, although I apologise if that discredits the authors who have clearly focussed on the particular and dug deep and one can’t dig deep into everything. Some surprises in Darkest Side.
Anyway interesting and worth reading. I have been thinking whether we might be moving into a new landscape in which the Overton window might no longer be as shocked by special ops etc and miscellaneous conspiracies. Maybe that which was previously taboo will become accepted, as that is how things and people in power or seeking power tend to be. In some countries without press, parliament, courts and education the population know or believe this anyway. Is that good or bad. Are we blind sheep, birds in a flock, or wolves in sheep’s clothing?
One hall mark of civilisation is hypocrisy i.e. people want to keep up appearances and that is perhaps partly a good thing. Once they drop the pretence that is dangerous – then we are in the jungle. Let’s accept that a degree of hypocritical veneer, of diplomatic eloquence, whilst in the jungle might be welcome….
Funny article! 🙂
“these contrary propositions are absurd – but they are dangerous because they gain ground in an online environment that is contemptuous of officialdom”
Or in short, “hang crimethinkers”.
Imagine being “contemptuous of officialdom”! What a terrible thing to be!
I am afraid I remain sceptical when it comes to the Metropolitan Police. I can recall several instances in recent years, starting with the lies spread about Jean-charles de Menezes, where as events unfolded after a major incident, it emerged that the Metropolitan Police had not merely concealed the facts, but actually lied to the public to cover their tracks. It is the Met who are investigating the poisoning of the Skripals events in Salisbury. I remain sceptical about what we are being told about this.
All the more worrying that Cressida ended up heading the Met, MaryPaul.
true
Hilarious article!
– especially in a nation such as Britain in which the rule of law is strong, corruption in official agencies is not endemic, and democracy functions effectively
With Blair and his war criminal accomplices not even charged, Leon Britain’s
cover-up“loss” of the high level paedophilia documents and Blair’s quashing of the Serious Fraud Squad’s Al Yamamah arms deal slush fund investigation, and governments chosen from near identical parties typically elected on 30% of the vote! 0 out of 3 there Mr Will Gore.They must be getting desperate if they’re trying to persuade us not to read anyone but them.
Look Mr Corporate Media, if you want us to read your rag, offer us something that looks remotely like evidence. Doorknobs and Dorkstick of Porton Down doesn’t wash.
Conspiracies by the corporate media. Arn’t they the worst.
They’re the worst because they reach the largest audiences. But they’re usually less implausible than the extreme stuff you get on-line, and that makes them more dangerous. The novichok rubbish is a bit of an exception; it’s unusually implausible for a corporate media narrative.
@KoWN,
Thanks for the article, the Indy is now telling us what to and what not to think. It is around six months since they stopped me commenting on articles. One of my favourite comments from that article is:
“Why you shouldn’t read conspiracy theories about the novichok poisoning, even if you really want to.. Yes Totally agree. This is why I gave up on the Brit version almost immediately. None of it has made any sense to intelligent people.”
I was slightly upset today, when I took our grandson to a typical kids place, and I saw this “Polite” warning about taking photographs. My wife didn’t see it, and was nagging me to take photographs – using her mobile phone of our grandson. I had a similar expereince, nearly 10 years ago, in my local park, when I was arrested by the police at a music festival, and accused of taking photographs of children. I responded, I have not taken any photographs of children, but I have taken several videos of children in bands on the mainstage, cos the children had asked me to, which I had also done the previous year, on request..They knew my kids too, and my daughter knew them, and also knew the Chief of Police in this area – and it was him, who actually posted the videos, I had taken, who coincidentally had the same surname as me.
I am not accusing anyone of anything, except mass brainwashing, over another unmentionable issue, against any man who looks over the age of 45, especially if he is momentarily seperated from his wife, children and grandchildren.
Meanwhile, yesterday, I came across this – and follwed it up, as best as I could via a search engine. It took me a couple of hours. I had alrwady read some of the Podesta stuff, but I am not going to mention Bill, because he has some very serious history, which goes way beyond what he is famous for. I do not know whether to believe this stuff or not, but still took a photo of my grandson and wife, and sent it to my son.
This American Girl, was seriously shaking, taking her videos outside the courtroom of a major topical US court case. that she posted last week. She had made it very clear to her internet friends that she felt in danger of her life. She was only slightly anonymous, and had asked the US Govt for the Witness Protection programme. It is possible, she received it, and is not dead, though al her friends think she is.
I first read it on SOTT, but then the details on many other US websites.
It seems now, they have nearly all been deleted and Bill & Hillary are now innocent, according to the records that still exist.
Tony
@ Tony_0pmoc August 15, 2018 at 20:20
I suggest you read ‘Access Denied: For Reasons of National Security’ by Cathy O’Brien and Mark Phillips (the latter now dead).
Bur here’s a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvEBmEo4IA0
And read Gary Webb: ‘Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion’ (he ‘committed suicide’ after it was published!).
And watch: ‘THE MENA CONNECTION An Insiders Documentary of the Real Mena’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-EqAy5vXso
Yep, deadly serious stuff….
This thread is about the ‘Ubiquity of Evil’ after all…
Paul Barbara,
Yeh, but I wrote
“but still took a photo of my grandson and wife, and sent it to my son.”
I had been warned I was not allowed to do this.
I have all the evidence, except I didn’t take a photo of the warning sign cos all these kids were in the way.
You might laugh – Have you tried being a Grandad yet?
They still haven’t got him out of his nappies yet.
He’s only two – but even so. Another job for Nana?
I’m talking to my shy neighbour now, we have been living next door to since 1999.
He’s just been fired too (well took early retirement cos he couldn’t stand working for them any more)
It’s doing his head in – not having lots of people to talk to and socialise with every day at the office…
I am going to again, try and make friends with him…
We share much the same record collection (they asked us to look after their cat, after they moved in)
I know who he used to work for, His wife told me, and was not that impressed.
He never caused me any problems.
In fact I think the Entire Family are very Tolerant
We were sometimes Rather Loud.
When the moment arrives, I will ask him to come down to the pub with us. Our friends are really nice, and he likes the same music.
“The Beatles Taxman”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAjO8ZsamvA
Tony
Tony
You maybe were lucky enough to avoid divorce. I have always detested adultery and I cracked up when I had small kids and my then wife started on that. In the local mental Health ward the psychiatrist asked me ” And what exactly do you do to your children ? ” in a tinny Scottish accent. Psychiatrists are supposed to go through a comprehensive training to eradicate any axes they might have to grind, but this one had got a highly sharpened one, ready to use without try out on my neck. Ref Syr Gawain and the Green Knight.
” Oh no, said my wife, I wasn’t suggesting anything of that sort, just he’s finding difficulty with family life.”
She got the usual, half the house blah blah, but the Scottish lady realised her mistake and after that she was very nice.
The antidote to all that divorce business, which ever British divorced male has, of finding a totally submissive Oriental wife keeps the economies of the Far East going, but in my case I realised that I had a spiritual problem with the Christian idea of God as a man, and I followed the path that led to Islam, and a Muslim wife.
Yes children are innocent and people seek innocence, but it is not to be found sexually in children or in Oriental wives. It is in fact precisely the innocence, combined with experience aka William Blake, that Muslim women retain, that arseholes like Hubris Johnson hate.
.
The phobia in Britain is insane. It is also hypocritical insofar as there is a huge level of real child abuse in private boarding schools that the elite send their offspring to, which school inspectors and the NSPCC etc. have always refused to notice, including partly because it’s more than their jobs are worth, but of course people rationalise.
How is the fence round the pond advancing Tony?
So much better than dumping tons of rubble and earth on the flora fauna and wildlife that has lived thete happily for god knows.how.long.
Good luck with it anyway.
Hey Craig’s mods Skwawkbox need some serious help agains denial of service attacks can you help, they busted the Labour right and LFI so many times that you know who is after them.
Can you help?
https://skwawkbox.org/2018/08/15/appeal-attacks-on-website-now-mass-hardware-failure/
For anyone who hasn’t yet seen it: Brexit means Titanic.
lol, excellent, hadn’t seen it.
@N_
thanks, hilarious!
The BBC have decided not to appeal against the Sir Cliff Richard judgement.
The press generally see this as a nail in the coffin for press freedom and that without exposure, crimes can be covered up and that victims will not come forward.
I found out who the grim looking woman was who was standing alongside Fran Unsworth outside the High Court.
She is Sarah Jones, the BBC General Counsel. She is paid £255k pa. She is also a deputy district judge so doing nicely from the licence fee payers and the Ministry of Justice.
A blog entry about her –
http://tradingaswdr.blogspot.com/2018/07/what-next.html?
Unsworth has carried the can on this debacle. In actual fact, James Harding was the Head of News at the time of the police raid on Cliff Richard’s flat to the accompaniment of the helicopter provided by the BBC.
Harding ‘I support Israel’ left Murdoch’s Times to join the BBC and its nest of Zionist Israel supporters. He left the BBC in January.
https://electronicintifada.net/content/apologists-israel-take-top-posts-bbc/12395
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Harding_(journalist). It’s all there!
” She is paid £255k pa ” by the BBC? Yes but maybe she also works for someone else.
The BBC has total control over their own reporting about their own mistakes.
Their argument that the judge has changed the law is complete hogwash. It is ancient history that after the original report, sir bugs bunny is being investigated by the police, the matter is sub-judice and let the police investigations take their course. Their argument that diving in and divulging all the details empowers other potential victims to come forward is utter tripe and is called interfering with legal process.
The BBC are trying to tell us that they can libel whom they like, whenever they like, without any supporting evidence. I am very glad to hear that they are shy about the cost. I can see that they do like to protect their own paedophiles while simultaneously trying to libel innocent parties who have not become embroegheled into their vipers nest.
I haven’t seen the picture of the grim lady in question, but the grimace you describe tells me she knew she’d given the wrong advice. Yesterday Radio 4’s Zionist stooge Justin Webb was shouting down a Jewish lady who was supporting Jeremy Corbyn. ” I didn’t come on today to be barracked by you Justin ”
The very thin veneer of ” balance ” covering the thick crocodile skin of bias is finding the failure to destroy honest Jeremy Corbyn deeply frustrating. That’s why the lady was wearing such a po face IMHO.
I heard that disgusting interview by bully boy Justin on Today.
Am going to complain to the BBC again and i think anyone else who was offended by his outrageous barracking of this lady, who was making perfectly valid and reasonable points should DO likewise.
Time to put the BBC back in its box.
.
“Unsworth has carried the can on this debacle. In actual fact, James Harding was the Head of News at the time of the police raid on Cliff Richard’s flat to the accompaniment of the helicopter provided by the BBC.”
If it’s true that Unsworth “carried the can” for what happened under a predecessor’s watch, then that is interesting.
There’s this idea that high flyers jump to other posts just before the fruits of their policy hit the fan. Well known in the big boards.
There was that BBC Director General who lasted only a few months and took the rap for the Savile thing, when it all happened on his predecessor’s watch.
You can see the same thing in politics too.
Kinda like the way they promote some dunderhead to manager, to oversee the redundancy process, because they can’t face the workers themselves.
Good tip: If you see a dunderhead getting promoted, all of a sudden, way beyond his ability.
Get out, and into another company before the crash and the rush.
Whilst your current company still has a good marketable name.
3 hrs ago
BBC bill in legal battle with Sir Cliff Richard nearly £2 million
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/16431266.bbc-bill-in-legal-battle-with-sir-cliff-richard-nearly-2-million/#
Also the Guardian’s headline today.
https://storify.com/services/proxy/2/nWcoDV0JI_ufwNaJjWFrJA/https/d2kmm3vx031a1h.cloudfront.net/CIlcVahQTHO2jqCyws9x_guard.JPG
Tony Hall, the wet current Director General took office in March 2013 (on £450kpa). The raid took place in August 2014.
Why hasn’t the luvvie supported his staff and shared the blame?
Tony Hall appointed new BBC director general
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20441887
He replaced Entwistle, who replaced Patten. What a bunch.
Patten is now at Oxford Univ. Chancellor. Previously on the European Board of Bridgepoint Capital, a US owned asset stripping private equity outfit, along with Alan Milburn ex NuLiebour and Lord Stuart Rose ex M&S. Some of their acquisitions are healthcare companies taking money out of OUR NHS.
Namely Care UK (acquired from Lord Nash, pal of Cameron’s and Tory donor) and Tunstall who supply most of the NHS’s beds.
http://www.bridgepoint.eu/en/investment-portfolio/?articles_divisions=&articles_sectors=1207&articles_locations=&articles_sort_results=asc#form_articlessearchfilter
eg
How we work with the NHS | Care UK Healthcare
http://www.careukhealthcare.com/about-us/how-we-work-with-the-nhs
Care UK currently delivers more than 70 dedicated NHS services throughout health care in the UK. We treat more than a million patients every year and we use …
NHS 111 | Care UK Healthcare
http://www.careukhealthcare.com/our-services/nhs-111
We hold the contracts for 12 NHS 111 services across a range of geographical areas in England, including the south west and south east of England, London, …
Care UK | Largest Independent Provider of NHS Services
http://www.careukhealthcare.com/
We work closely with the NHS to deliver more than 50 healthcare services throughout the UK; bound by the same standards and measures of success as the …
How we work with the NHS · Working at Care UK · Healthcare careers | Care UK …
Care UK | Healthcare, Social Care & Care Home Provider
http://www.careuk.com/
Care UK provide modern, comfortable care homes, homecare, GP services & treatment centres for the NHS, and mental health & learning disability services.
Yet they say there is no NHS privatisation.
I was surprised to read, in the comments following the link to the electronicintifada article about a documentary on the history of Jerusalem that the BBC pulled from being shown at the last minute. https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/amena-saleem/bbc-questioned-over-why-it-pulled-documentary-jerusalem.
I realise that history is always a contentious matter, but surely 2000 years is long enough ago for us to be able to consider the history of a city without getting upset.
Soros’s tentacles extend for yet more acquisitions.
From ‘menace’ to assets: Soros now buying social media shares
https://www.rt.com/usa/436059-soros-buying-social-media-shares/
What drives this horrid old man? Greed? Power? Rhetorical question there.
O, did you not see this (did post it earlier) . Very good take imo.
This week on @thedigradio: making sense of Soros. https://twitter.com/jacobinmag/status/1029463922657583104
Thanks.
I think a lots of his aims are basically good. But means are often (& at a basic core level) antithetical. .
Sharp Ears
Sorry OT on this, but I wanted to say.. The lady who gave us the Tip about the Lajee Centre Dancers, was telling us Her Grandfather was A priest in Bethlyhem in 1948, I was wondering if your relatives who visited Beethlyhen, and the centre, had heard of a Scottish Priest.. Unlikely I know..I wish I had got a Name In the Fleeting Encounter.. And the same with this Laday that we met at bbc Bias demo -..I think she Too, homed in on the Flag I think if you click on the Immage it should Magnify –
https://www.flickr.com/photos/132108640@N08/42228744650/in/dateposted-friend/
Even The Squrrels turned up at the Protest –
https://www.flickr.com/photos/132108640@N08/43989675392/in/dateposted-friend/
Cheers Brian. Bit of a long shot but I will inquire. ATB.
O Little Town of Bethlehem –
https://goo.gl/images/9ELXDW Banksy’s Christmas card
@ Sharp Ears August 16, 2018 at 07:57
Makes the choice of cards real simple next Christmas!!!
I’ve emailed them to see if they are available in the UK.
what he fears? like kissinger, the not so grim reaper awaits
“What’s at stake with the IHRA isn’t one’s *right* to criticise Israel, though that is necessary in a free society.
It’s about speaking truthfully of a people who have been decimated and invisibilised for a century.
That persists every day before us. We are obliged to name it.” –
https://twitter.com/AaronBastani/status/1029829286973194240
Reminded me of this I was watching earlier. https://youtu.be/QbLzVZysFyM?t=4m53s
Has some very useful stuff, Three Arrows, good channel. & btw I think toward the end especially, funny, it just shows how nutty some of these people are, I know they are not a joke but still, totally out there stuff.
@ Ishmael August 15, 2018 at 22:01
‘US State Passes Law Defining Any Criticism of I^rael as ‘Ant^-Se^itic’ Just As They Kill 60 Civilians’ (The Free Thought Project)
(just replace ^ with s and m respectively to search).
‘…South Carolina will become the first state to legally define criticism of I^rael as “anti-Se^itism” when a new measure goes into effect on July 1, targeting public schools and universities. While politicians have tried to pass the measure as a standalone law for two years, they finally succeeded temporarily by passing it as a “proviso” that was slipped into the 2018-2019 budget….’
That’s how those sneaky Yanks get controversial things voted through – they attach it to something that has to be passed – the budget.
“While you were it’s President, the Oxford Conservative Association held a dinner for Adolfo Calero – a leading member of the Contras who used rape as an instrument of war and who murdered doctors and nurses and destroyed hospitals.
Spare us your crap.” https://twitter.com/AaronBastani/status/1029826035209175040
Missed this one. On Hunt.
Jeremy Hunt has also made a lot of personal money (at least £14m) from doing business in China, where marital rape is lawful, and where the regime is responsible for about two-thirds of the world’s official civilian executions, including of prisoners who are executed on demand for their organs.
N_
Is it true that Chinese students are terrified of being tracked by their mobile phones and being penalised for misbehaviour in their future career prospects by the Chinese state?
That sounds like the state playing God, in the absence of religious belief as opposed to the British system which is the state playing God, in spite of that being forbidden by religious belief.
I really can see nothing to counter the logic of the Big Brother mentality except the categorical inadmissibility of spying by Islam and the tradition in Christianity that spying isn’t nice.
Allahumma, la manaita li ma atait, wa la mataita li ma manait, wa la yanfa’u jadda minkaljadd.
Oh my Lord God, none can withhold what You grant, and none can grant what You withhold, and no power can benefit except Your Power.
Spyers, bog off, in the inimitable words of the daughter of the head of the Anglican Church.
@ giyane August 15, 2018 at 22:58
Re ‘..Oh my Lord God, none can withhold what You grant, and none can grant what You withhold, and no power can benefit except Your Power…’, there is a very relevant chapter/verse in the New Testament:
”And the devil led him (Jesus) into a high mountain, and shewed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And he said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them. If thou therefore wilt adore before me, all shall be thine.’ Luke lV : 5-7.
Interestingly, that full text only occurs in one of the four accepted Gospels; I regard it as so important that I use it as my ‘signature’ on emails.
It gives a clear explanation of why evil, despicable scoundrels become our ‘leaders’, the heads of corporations and banks, of the churches, military, media, whatever.
There are exceptions, but they have a very rough ride, and only go to prove the rule.
@ N_ August 15, 2018 at 22:36
And the peaceful Falun Gong get the brunt of it. The Communist authorities became alarmed at the number of FG followers, so prescribed it and brutally repressed it. I don’t have evidence, but I was told by a Chinese man I brought the subject up with that the Yanks were using it as a Trojan Horse, which I believe is highly probable, but that wouldn’t excuse the brutality.
I don’t like attacking China, because China and Russia are the only two powers willing and capable of standing up to the US Hegemony, to the ‘Great Satan’.
@Paul Barbara
Chinese TV is currently making an issue out of the trial in NE China of members of the’Church of Almighty God’ on various charges not so very different from those we have become familiar with from our own churces and sects. The restrictions on Uighur Muslims who mix nationalism with religion( unlike the Sinicized Hui ), such as those concerning shape of beard, fasting during Ramadan,etc and the incidents where Bhuddist monks and nuns set themselves alight in protests, never get attention. The message seems to be that religions are basically fraudulent.
having acted out the biggest war in history the Chinese value peace
@ Ishmael August 15, 2018 at 22:27
Very good!
My two favourite recent links. Please repost widely.
If they censor this one, they’re anti-Semitic:
https://mobile.twitter.com/TheBirmingham6/status/1022617218041999363/video/1
And if they have to add the Independent to their ‘fake news’ filters, they may as well accept that they’ve lost:
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/jeremy-corbyn-netanyahu-jewish-munich-wreath-palestine-plo-a8491391.html
Good morning.
https://youtu.be/Pw2r0D3WPPU
Good morning Ishmael; I hope you’re feeling well.
And thank you for reminding me of Consequences, after about three decades.
My pleasure.
It has been suggested on here and elsewhere that the government account of the Skripal ‘poisoning’s’ is also a conspiracy theory because it is a theory about a conspiracy. This strikes me as wrong and misunderstands what a conspiracy theory is or how it is used. The official narrative can never be a ‘conspiracy theory’ even if it is technically a theory about a conspiracy.
It is true that once upon a time, before the the JFK assassination and the CIA weaponised the term, CT was a neutral phrase meaning simply a theory about a conspiracy.
But now it is only applied to theories that reject the official account and suggest it conceals a more sinister crime of elite malfeasance.
That is, only elite crime counts as a CT. If you suspect three of your local postman are planning to rob the Mail you are not called a conspiracy theorist.
Baked into the phrase is the notion that the person who promulgates the CT is unhinged, and also the fact that the theory, by virtue of being a ‘conspiracy theory’, is a priori false.
After all, you never hear anyone say, Oh yes, I believe that, it’s a conspiracy theory.’
Interestingly, although anything described as a CT cannot by definition by true, such theories always concern the sort of crime that has happened numerous times before.
Hear endeth the Sermon.
Sloppy language and sloppy thinking are mutually reinforcing.
Forever blaming an ‘enemy’, real or imagined, never wins.
– – – – – – – –
The layout here leads to comments on a subject becoming too diffuse. Someone should start a forum.
“But now it is only applied to theories that reject the official account and suggest it conceals a more sinister crime of elite malfeasance.”
hmmmm. I think it’s used in both contexts, by definition, if I & others use it as such.
I know what you mean obviously, & iv no doubt some think still it’s any possible alternatives to government narrative, or presented as such by the MSM.. But actually how many noways? Hard to say. Perhaps mainly only the few who continue to try & construct these piles of …Sand.
I could see this discussion getting complex & thought i’d stay out B4, as I knew what I meant. & actually think most here have a good enough grasp of the terrain & wouln’t end up in discord if we where to really pick it apart.
Seconded.
The idea that Nero ordered the burning of Rome so it could be blamed on Christians is a classic conspiracy theory. Now those who hold this view are more politely called historians.
It doesn’t mean that every crackpot ‘theory’ you see on the internet is true.
its a conspiracy theory until proven and then its a conspiracy.
Rather, it’s a so-called ‘conspiracy theory’ until it’s understood and explained, after which you can see which parts were conspiracy (if any) and who the conspirators are.
For instance, Chomsky and Herman’s Propaganda Model successfully explains the overall direction of distortion in ‘news’ media, and it only takes a small proportion of secret service ‘implants’ to account for certain remaining specifics. Likewise the distortion of pharmaceutical information documented in Goldacre’s Bad Pharma; most of it can be explained by avarice, but it’s pretty obvious that regulators must have been directly bribed or coerced.
You can’t parse the phrase, “conspiracy theory” or dissect its inner logical core, and expect to arrive at some deeper understanding of it.
That’s not what it’s about.
It’s simply a dismissive label to be thrown at competing narratives. Most political discourse is of that nature these days.
There is no logic to it.
You create a phrase. Popularise it.Then it becomes a thing. There’s no debate to be had about whether it is a thing or not. It’s just there, and that’s it. All with a few strokes of a pen and loads of publicity
Alchemy. Advertising. Bernays.
– “It’s simply a dismissive label to be thrown at competing narratives”
I disagree. It’s also used dismissively against sloppy thinking that deserves to be dismissed. The hallmark of such sloppy thinking is that proponents expand the reach of the ‘conspiracy’ at need. Such ‘conspiracies’ can hide or generate any evidence such that the theory remains intact. Such theories are not falsifiable. Frequently, their proponents will accuse any commenter who challenges them of being part of the proposed conspiracy.
The two uses lead to endless misunderstandings and pointless argument.
Herbie, if we use your definition, then a two person team can validate any nonsense. Team member A makes up a false story about an event, a distraction. Team member B, pretending to criticise, calls it a conspiracy theory. Under your definition, person B must have been trying to discredit A, who therefore had to be a truth-teller. And thus, the less intelligent in the audience are misled.
“It’s also used dismissively against sloppy thinking that deserves to be dismissed.”
We used to resolve differences of view in debate and argument.
That’s still the best way.
Labellism just shuts down debate. As it was designed to do.
The phrase has no meaning other than as a label. A rhetorical device. It was created to a political purpose, to attack anytone dissing the Warren commission, but you’re treating it as if it emerged naturally, reflecting a reality observed in the world.
It doesn’t matter who invented it or why. The meanings of words and phrases change over time; even the CIA can’t prevent that. Language is defined by common usage.
You seem to be pretending that the sort of sloppy thinking I described above doesn’t exist. Funnily enough, that would be very useful to the team act. Should I just assume that you’re entirely trustworthy? Should I assume that of anyone?
Of course, you’re free to make up and attempt to popularise a new phrase for that sort of sloppy thinking. But I guess you’d rather just try to police the use of language. And what sort of mindset is that, eh?
I don’t have a definition. There is no definition.
It’s simply a form of words, functioning as a dismissive label.
People make this mistake with all the dismissive labels.
Try to linguistically analyse them.
No. Don’t work that way.
They’re indefinable, you see.They’re signs, other than words.
You can only observe how they function. The effects.
Your rhetorical societies tend to great disparities of wealth. Your more realist societies tended to a levelling of wealth.
I didn’t ask you to define anything. I haven’t a clue what you’re on about but you seem to have strayed from our topic onto something to do with wealth distribution.
Do you deny that some people promote non-falsifiable theories where the abilities of the alleged guilty party increase as needed to overcome all challenge? If not, what shall we call such theories if the common term ‘conspiracy theory’ is outlawed as you suggest it should be?
The UK government’s novichok theory is of the form I describe. Novichok is an undefined something that has never been encountered before, so there is no prior experience of it, which permits its abilities to be infinitely elastic. It can kill in ten seconds. It can wait hours before doing anything. It can put people in comas. It can lurk on doorknobs. It can lurk in car ventilation systems. It can get onto two different people’s hands from one doorknob. It can survive rain. It can be washed away with water. But it can only come from the Russian government.
I suppose I’m saying that using msm labels is problematic.
To put it mildly.
They’re marketing creations.
Defending them, willfully, is, given all we know today, a bit sad.
Don’t label alternative views. Explain, and reason and so on.
Respect.
People of good conscience, no matter where on the “political spectrum” they lie, will eventually arrive at mutual agreement.
Through rational debate.
That’s the essence of the logic of discourse.
Throw labels in. You compartmentalise. You poison the well of human discourse.
And condemn humanity to the oligarchic lash. Forever.
I’m surprised at you, Clark.
I’m not sure what your both arguing about.
A conspiracy theory is a conspiracy theory, but the way it is generally used means, as Clarke says, a “so called conspiracy theory” and as Herbie says this is basically an easy way of dismissing the whole thing.
Its a label that says “look away, this is taboo and / or for oddballs.”
Herbie, I’ve been enduring the same problem for years. The term ‘hacking’ now means breaking computer security. But the original hacker community were a bunch of highly talented non-conformist programmers at MIT and elsewhere who insisted on access to source code so they could contribute to or modify each other’s projects. They referred to breaking computer security as ‘cracking’. One of them was Eric S Raymond, and here’s what he has to say on his website:
http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html#what_is
Can I convert the entire English-speaking world to use the word ‘hacker’ exclusively in its original sense? No. So what should I do? Should I insist that if the MSM call a security-breaker a ‘hacker’, then he didn’t break into a computer and really he was just trying to modify a colleague’s program?
There needs to be a term for security-breaking, and in current common language that term is ‘hacking’. Tough for me and all those who admire the original hackers. I can regard it as a propaganda coup by the copyright industry; I suppose to some extent it is, but it’s more important that I communicate effectively.
So what are we to call those whose hobby it is to spin yarns about secret conspiracies, repeatedly stretching convenient evidence, ignoring contrary evidence, and covering any other discrepancy by extending the power and reach of their alleged conspiracy? Or are you pretending that there are no such hobbyists? In current common language, they’re called ‘conspiracy theorists’.
(Oops, I originally posted this in the wrong place. That or ‘the conspiracy’ interfered with my computer!)
Fwl, it’s also a label that says “this theory is full of holes and was contrived by people who continually warp evidence to fit their theory”.
But certain people, on both sides, insist upon one or the other being the only meaning. Each side derives its false legitimacy from its opposite, and neither argument can be killed off:
– “Play dumb, play dead, play straight. Time to manipulate”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7QSkI6My1g
“Who’s got it figured out?
Left right, left right, left right,
Who’s got it figured out?
Play straight,
Time to manipulate”