One principle of this blog is that I give my views whether they will be welcome or not, either to the general public or to the portion of the public who regularly read this blog. Since we started accepting subscriptions to keep it going, almost every article causes somebody to write to me saying they are canceling their subscription because they did not agree with me. I would much prefer anybody who is kindly giving money in the expectation of agreeing with everything I write, to cancel now. The purpose of this blog is to be intellectually challenging and provide food for thought, with facts and viewpoints not readily available in the mainstream media. It is about intellectual inquiry, not followership.
This is one of those occasions when I know that a significant number of people here will not agree with me. I like George Soros and consider him to be a good man. I should declare an interest; he once bought me a pizza, over 20 years ago. But I considered then, and I consider now, that Soros is a man who has devoted huge amounts of his personal resources, in terms of time and in terms of money, to attempting to make the world a better place, from motives of altruism.
Furthermore I believe that a lot of the work of the Open Society Institute, which I witnessed first hand, in Poland and Uzbekistan and elsewhere, is good work, particularly in the field of human rights and media freedom.
I believe that Roger Scruton’s attack on Soros, particularly in a venue in Hungary where the far right Prime Minister has conducted a truly hateful, state orchestrated, anti-semitic and anti-immigrant campaign against Soros, puts Scruton totally beyond the pale.
Soros frequently is cited in comments below the line on this blog as the personification of evil capitalism. Let me address the obvious elephants in the room. The first is how he made his money. This I make no attempt to defend. He has simply managed assets and traded derivative products, particularly in foreign exchange markets, and either by brilliance or sustained good luck, become extremely wealthy from an activity that provides no societal good. Indeed derivatives trading is a cancerous growth on modern economies, where the financial flows vastly exceed the value of trade in actual goods or genuine first party services.
However, people live and work in the economic situation that exists; to condemn people for not dropping out and going off-grid is to adopt a purist and ineffective position. I do not know how Soros got into the business line he adopted, but I am not condemning every individual working in trading. It is also worth stating that Soros’ ethnicity is utterly irrelevant to his career, and those who hint otherwise are offensive.
The second elephant in the room is that Soros appears aligned to the global spread of neo-liberalism, and to the Clinton camp with its warmongering foreign policy. Leaving aside for two paragraphs the question of whether or not that is true, the most important answer to that is that the man is entitled to his beliefs. To condemn him because his beliefs are not all my beliefs would be wrong. That Soros uses so much of his personal wealth to try to make the world a better place, according to his view of how society might best be structured, makes him a good man and not a bad man. That I may have a different view of how society should be structured is not the test; it is whether somebody is genuinely trying to do good by others.
Soros’ view of how society might best be structured is coloured by his past experience of the Eastern bloc. It is natural that anybody from what was occupied Hungary looks at Russia with a wary and distrustful eye. It is natural that those who understand the real failings of Soviet style central planning are dubious of schemes of socialism. But Soros is in fact fairly mainstream European social democrat with very liberal societal views. I genuinely do not understand his demonisation by large sections of the left. Soros is anathema to the right wing nationalist parties of Eastern Europe.
It is also worth pointing out that Soros’ view of his own profession is by no means straightforward. He argued extremely strongly for greater financial regulation, publishing highly informative and reasoned books on the subject, at the height of the craze for deregulation. He was not a supporter of the Big Bang or of Gordon Brown’s market worship. His 1998 opus, The Crisis of Global Capitalism, argues that financial markets are inherently unstable and swing like a wrecking ball not like a pendulum, and that globalisation is in fact an extension of Imperialism. That someone made so much money, from rules he believed should have been altered to stop him doing it, is a conundrum; but he is altogether a complicated character.
Finally, that Soros is a warmonger and supporter of US military attacks on the Middle East is not true. He opposed the Iraq war, and is generally against military intervention. His funding reaches so many NGO’s, of diverse views, it is always possible to find a tweet by Avaaz, or a report on Syrian human rights violations by Amnesty International, and make the claim “that is Soros shilling for war”. But in fact his influence on the vast array of civil society institutions he funds is extremely light touch, and they encompass widely differing viewpoints. Soros’ strong support for the warmonger Clinton is something I do not attempt to justify, other than to note that many people of liberal views are taken in by the old “liberal” establishment. It is quite a psychological step to accept it has gone full neo-con.
I most certainly do not agree with all of Soros’ views, or actions. But I agree with more of them than you may suppose. That all of his actions are motivated by a desire to make more money for himself or to benefit the ruling class, I am quite sure is not true. That he is a hawk and a warmonger I do not believe. That his efforts do a lot of real good I have witnessed first hand. The demonisation of Soros is lazy, inaccurate and unfair.
Craig i find it very difficult to agree with your snopsis for one simple reason and that is that financial markets are rigged by the sheer financial muscle of very powerful interests to think otherwise is to believe in the tooth fairy.
Reading someone with personal knowledge of the man as a man speak up for George Soros in these days of serious multiplayer disinformation, is akin to reading Gerard Menuhin or David Irving reconfigure the Hitlerian synapses toward the greater truth,
after 70 years of psyops .
It will take a moment.
Thank you.
I always value your comments! The lines are quite blurred in this modern global neoliberal world which is under transition!
All I can say is it must have been a good pizza!
Quite a day 11/11.
Watching President Trump at the 1918 Memorial event in France was chilling.
The man masterminding bloodthirsty wars in Yemen, Syria, Iran, China, Russia and Lord knows where else, finally shows up.
Nauseating hypocrisy. The 1914-18 war was mostly about casualties among combatant soldiers, Today the US focuses on civilians. Softer, much easier targets.
TonyF12
The same could be said about France, Germany, well all the other now-nato members sitting there also.
Just prove how far out these people are talking peace, disgusting.
Trump masterminded bloodthirsty wars in Yemen, Syria, Iran, China, Russia and Lord knows where else?
Those poppies are artificial and for remembrance, not real opium ones for smoking: mixing Trump for Obama or Bush shows you were at the latter.
he’s pushing it in yemen, that’s no dope, and in syria. and neocons infest his administration.
How did Trump “mastermind” a war in Yemen that started before he came to office ? It was 2011 that riots broke out, 2012 the President of Yemen tried to abolish term limits. Trump inherited most of these issues from “Obama The Saintly” who destroyed Ukraine, Syria, and screwed up in Iraq and Afghanistan and Libya.
Trump has his faults but it is tiresome the way the Obamatrons keep blaming Trump for the crap Obama unleashed……
“America dropped 26,171 bombs in 2016. What a bloody end to Obama’s reign”
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/09/america-dropped-26171-bombs-2016-obama-legacy
While candidate Obama came to office pledging to end George W Bush’s wars, he leaves office having been at war longer than any president in US history. He is also the only president to serve two complete terms with the nation at war.
President Obama did reduce the number of US soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, but he dramatically expanded the air wars and the use of special operations forces around the globe. In 2016, US special operators could be found in 70% of the world’s nations, 138 countries – a staggering jump of 130% since the days of the Bush administration.
Obama personally signed off on who was to be assassinated each week . He also gloated over the entirely false details of the assassination of Osama Bin Laden for electoral purposes. He was killed in cold blood and shot into tiny pieces his body parts were then thrown from the helicopter over Pakistan according to Seymour Hersh.
Bush couldn’t have knocked off bin laden, even though he was the alleged mastermind rogue agent, because the bin laden family were near neighbours of his, and they used to attend each other’s garden parties. They were Texas oilmen with similar interests. There are too many loose ends to the whole launch of perpetual war across the ME but there are books, described as conspiracy theory, now meaning fantasy, which set the plans in place a long long time ago, before Bush, before Reagan, maybe even before Nixon, who was well managed by the powerful interests of the time
i didn’t say “mastermind” i said push, and he is, backing the saudi’s as they slaughter the yeminis, just as he is backing various isis groups in destablizing syria. he’s a warmonger just like obama, i’ll stipulate obama was worse so far but don’t forget trump’s pivot to push war with iran. why you people assume one must support obama if one criticises trump is beyond me. i don’t like warmongers, and trump, our current president, is warmongering. and no, that doesn’t mean clinton would have been any better; i still think she would have been worse.
and neocons do infest his administration, starting with bolton.
Well done Paul, your dishonesty trumps Tony’s. Refreshing…
A never ending supply of cannon fodder to play with for the 1%. Free pizza’s for all….
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That is spot on.
Of course Obama being serial War-Criminal like Bush II before him doesn’t mean Trump hasn’t adopted the same criminal traits without skipping a beat; but at least unlike Clinton had she won, he at least started with a “clean sheet”.
The main glass ceiling that Clinton would have broken had she won would not have been as the first woman (allegedly) President, but as the first person to enter the Oval Office who was already a Mass-Murdering serial War Criminal.
Damned pity that either Trump’s mainly peace overtures during the campaign (one of the VERY few things he was consistent on) were either subverted by the Deep State (CIA, Pentagon et alia), or he was just lying through his teeth once more – though I suspect the former.
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Go on YouTube and watch the Ceremony at the Cenotaph 1937 when Neville Chamberlain laid a wreath
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYZmqXXxFjk
and 1938
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiQxmqSwnMI
and 1946
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKl3B3lC2wc
Trump is now personally responsible for the foreign policy of imperialism the US has been pursuing for at least the past seventy years? More revisionist insanity
I doubt a US President has much control over Foreign Policy any more than Putin does. The Military-Industrial-Complex in the USA has factories in every State to keep Senators under control. Sheldon Adelson pulls the strings of Likud in Israel owning newspapers there and keeps Trump in line. After all Adelson knows how to run casinos unlike Trump. Netanyahu made a big mistake in downing the IL-20 over Syria because he has boxed Putin in. The Military have been very unhappy with Putin’s reluctance to bare teeth and that is why they dictate how many S-300 units are to be deployed in Syria. They are preparing for the Upcoming War. Putin thinks it can be averted. Trump has been neutered by the Mueller Probe to stop him from engaging with Russia. Europe is unbelievably stupid in letting itself be set up as a nuclear battlefield to fight Russia.
@ Paul Greenwood November 12, 2018 at 12:17
‘… Europe is unbelievably stupid in letting itself be set up as a nuclear battlefield to fight Russia.’
Absolutely. But with the MSM totally controlled, and large organisations like Stop the War thoroughly infiltrated, who is there to get that message out?
At least one would expect Eastern and Central European citizens to figure it out without it being explained, but oddly enough their governments seem the most ‘gung-ho’.
Sorry Paul, cannot agree. Trump is single handedly, without going to Congress, waging far more wars and war mongering together with his fellow warmongers, Pompeo and Bolton, than any other US President I believe. Not only military war, but the rampant imposition of trade sanctions, inciting trade wars, attempting to crush countries like Iran (which has a moderate President) by dragging their oil sales to zero on the international market and monumental other actions is war by any other name. I would like someone knowledgeable on this blog to let me know how it is that the USA can impose sanctions on countries such as Iran and then impose sanctions on countries who do not hold by them. How does the USA have the power to dictate which countries deal with other countries and do trade with them. Medvedev was right recently when he said Trump is using sanctions in place of trade tariffs because the latter can be challenged at the WTO but also, to try to get the USA to have the world economy at its feet. So its not all about a military war is it – it’s also his actions, unilaterally taken by him, that is causing serious damage to world trade.
Well it is simple. USA has a dictatorship embodied in an Imperial President not envisaged in the Constitution. Ever since Woodrow Wilson let Louis Brandeis his campaign adviser run loose and Brandeis had his protege Felix Frankfurter whose role at Harvard Law School had been funded by Jakob Schiff – acting as adviser to FDR and go-between……….the US has been highly susceptible to “Whispers in The Emperor’s Ear”.
The USA has ALWAYS used Tariffs this way. – McKinley Tariff 1890, Smoot-Hawley 1930 and the plethora of tariffs and protectionism in between. ONLY Americans are clueless about how their country operates overseas
Have you not noticed that Trump has been under constant attack as a “Putin puppet” and for “Russian collusion” I wonder what could possibly be motivating these ceaseless attacks.
Take a look at who Trump has got rid of – Comey, McCabe, Bnennan, Clapper et al – all paid up members of the deep state and committed to endless war.
There is much to suggest that Trump is anti endless war – but he has powerful enemies and they seem capable of getting people to believe the kind of things that you believe.
Just think about – maybe all of this is wrong and maybe Trump is a warmonger. Why not give him the benefit of the doubt? If Trump is removed from office then it is a cast iron certainty that whoever replaces him will be an overt warmonger. If you are against war then you have absolutely nothing to lose by supporting Trump.
Of course a lot of people who claim to be anti war are in fact extremely pro-war – like all of the people who apparently cannot see the mounds of corpses produced by Obama. In some cases the mass death of other people is a price worth paying to garland vacuous virtue signalling. So, if you are interested in vacuous virtue signalling then keep on attacking Donald Trump.
If Trump is removed, Pence becomes president. A much scarier guy.
Evangelical Christian Zionist, a form of zealous religious ideology on a par with the Taliban or ISIS.
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-more-zionist-than-the-zionists-1.5766981
@ Vanessa November 12, 2018 at 10:47
Talking about ‘revision’, here is a 6-part video, very long (10 1/2 hours) but very informative; well worth watching (but not all at once):
‘ Evidence of Revision (The assassination of America)’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHb5X3fFhPw
Bit harsh, flattering too that Trump could mastermind anything.
The assault on Syria was already underway, as was the conflict in Yemen, before Trump’s arrival as POTUS. Remember too that France is involved, along with the US and the UK, in assisting rebel groups associated with al Qaeda and ISIS to bring down Assad!
Also, I wasn’t surprised to see Trump being a grump after Macron’s “warning” about the danger the US posed to the world! (That said, it was hilarious watching Macron trying to crawl out of it!)
Jo1 – Macron was right though wasn’t he, Trump is a megalomaniac with two aides who are megalomaniacs and he does pose a seriously, and I mean very serious, threat to the world, more so than you realise.
@Jo Dominich
“….more than you realise”
Please don’t treat me like an idiot Jo or patronise me.
I’m not defending Trump, far from it. I’m simply pointing out that Macron is a hypocrite given France’s role in Syria currently. Those involved in that little foreign jaunt were, might still be, close to setting off WW3. Hell, Hillary announced her intention to impose a no-fly zone over Syria if she won, remember? She was all set to order her guys to start shooting Russian planes down! Megalomaniac you say? The world is full of them! They’re all as dangerous as each other.
As it is Poppy Day I thought I would share my latest blog-post, the first for some long time. It is the first day I have been able to photograph real poppies on Remembrance Day.
https://johnplatinumgoss.wordpress.com/2018/11/11/for-the-fallen/
Ah yes, war propaganda. And following that, ‘use God more than usual’ season.
Yes, and the BBC has been excelling itself. With Dimbleby almost drowning in his establishment deferential drool. Had to turn off the radio and to all day.
yes if only Tom Fleming were still alive……….Dimbleby had his Question Time intonation
@ John Goss November 11, 2018 at 20:50
Poppies as opium make a lovely smoke, but do screw one’s guts up.
I tried to smoke my poppy but the plastic didn’t do me any good.
“By getting rid of all the armed forces of the world social justice could be seen to be done.” Good luck persuading Putin or the Iranian regime to do that.
Alex, I don’t think it’s Putin you have to persuade is it? Russia is surrounded by NATO countries and a lawless, UA puppet of a regime in the Ukraine. Russia needs all the protection it can give itself. You need to persuade Trump really.
I think that Soros’ espousal of massive Islamic immigration into Europe may stem from his experience in 1944-5 as an adolescent in Hungary. After all, much of Hungary’s Jewish population was shipped off to the death camps. This might understandably result in Soros’ resentment of western and Hungarian culture and Hungary’s historical role at one point was as the front line of European culture against Islam. Leaving aside Soros’ father’s role in the 1944-5 crisis where he has been called a quisling, this may explain much of his ardour for alien immigration into Europe.
Actually Hungary was not so clear cut. Roosevelt bought a whole trainload of Jews through his agent Raoul Wallenberg and had them shipped to Switzerland. Hungarian Jews fared better than those in Poland or Ukraine relatively speaking
So you see Soros as nicht wholly Schwartz. if not quite Bella,Bella , Bela Kun.
Good grief, the SNP is so F**cked, and Craig Murray probably symptomatic of all that went wrong with it, despite his ‘outsider’ protestations. Now we have him boasting of hob-nobbing with billionaire crooks, election nobblers, and sundry such scum. One person wielding such power is an abomination and an obscenity, the very death of democracy. Bought and sold for some cheese on toast. You great name-dropping know-all.
I come today to bury the SNP and dance on its grave. The future is Right.
Craig Murray, Wings Over Scotland, Wee Ginger Dog, it was, they were, all about the EU, never for Scotand. BellaCaledonia still an enigma, probably latterly a BritNat/security services front, through kompromat. Carrying articles from the Coventry frock-shop/Syrian Observatory for Human Rights marked the turning point when the scales fell away.
The once maybe, but probably not really, certainly no-longer independence supporting Scottish National Party is a completely owned ZOG-branch in waiting. Their version of independence would be a greater horror than the dismal present is for all but the privileged few; it simply plans for a new elite fused with and incorporating much of the old; with a people, a country governed by a party, for and only for the party itself. A personality cult, Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin rolled into one: Sturgeon is Scotland, there is no Scotland but Sturgeon. The great leader Nicola Sturgeon has indefinitely parked, abandoned and then betrayed the Scottish Independence cause.
Like Blair with Labour she has seeded the party with others of her ilk who will betray the democratic will of the Scottish people for self-determination, restoration of their nationhood and independence. Like Blair she and her entryist clique instead serve other masters who seek the ruin of the Scots and their huge potential as a cohesive united people. Like Blair’s Labour too with their abandonment of the just cause of the rights and dignity of the native working-class, the SNP have dumped their ostensible goal – independence – and instead have substituted subservience to the diktats of the supra-national EU and to the evil aims of the internationalist financial elite; sold the people of Scotland and their future for her selfish boundless ambition of approval by and admittance to the inner-circles of absolute power. Like Labour too the SNP offers only superficiality over substance, slavery over a place amongst the few remaining free nations of the world, dependence and subservience over autarky, empty divisive political-correctness and identity-politics substituting for real principles and substance, the Trotskyist impossible for the tangible and realisable. Thought-police, marginalisation, stigmatisation, hunger, want and Gulags for the inconvenient, the free-thinking, the critical, the resisters, the blameless and innocent.
They’re yet another in a long series of parcels of the vilest rogues, bought and sold for a parcel of Anglo-Zionist fool’s gold.
The SNP need to be sent into oblivion, disgraced and forgotten, discarded for the traitorous trash they have become and probably always were. We’re back to scratch, like the indomitable spider in The Bruce’s cave –if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
This means starting all over again from next-to-nothing, however painful or painless as it must be, with lessons learned, to lay the foundations of a new Independence-first party, and pass on the torch to the coming generations.
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Yes. Institutional, the usual institutional corruption. Animal Farm? All frightened at the prospect of those under-privileged who are also denied resources being allowed a true and informed democratic voice.
Time for idiots, worthies and corporate grovellers to stop imagining they can fool everybody.
The irony. The nicer they are. The more pizzas they pay for. Hilarious.
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The bugger lost me my house when he shorted sterling.
Why are so many so surprised: Craig Murray supported the externally organised attempted overthrow of the Syrian government and the carnage, genocide in fact, that resulted mattered not -Assad must go! His role in the gruesome Iraq sanctions regime of the 1990’s remains ambiguous. He supported something similar in Ukraine (like Poland was born of WW1 out of the folk-loric ether, Ukraine after WW2, was created a quasi-autonomous SSR by Stalin in response to Churchill at Yalta claiming UN membership for every little speck of an island that comprised the much diminished English ‘Empire’), he never comments on that or on the terrible results for the people of Ukraine, a far greater shithole than it was, but that’s fine if it weakens Russia and NATO bombs rain down on the east such as in Donetsk, no doubt characterises it as a Russian ‘invasion’; reckons MH-17 was shot out of the sky by pro-Russian patriots -we must ignore strong evidence to the contrary and take his word for it; ditto for when Crimea voted overwhelmingly to unite with Russia (as it already did in 1991), democracy in operation (selectively) offends him when it doesn’t produce the right results, this was annexation; Putin = Stalin = Bad.
His views and those of Soros are hardly distinguishable. Open borders, nations and their historic communities mere malleable mass-delusions, multi-cultural fractious self-competing and self-defeating melting-pot mongrelised populations of dispensable underclass slaves, rootless, drunk doped dumbed-down and screwed, the ideal and practice of democracy a sham, subverted by rich, powerful and vested-interests, similar to those who defeated Scotland’s rightful inextinguishable independence aspirations and need. They are globalists, Trotskyite one-world government groupies, state-capitalist aka fascist global hegemony, with nations created, severed, erased on a whim and with the ‘right-sorts’ such as themselves at the helm or pulling the puppets’ strings. Glad he’s outed himself at last.
Ukraine started its current disintegration once Lithuania held the EU Presidency and had set up its Lithuanian “consulates” throughout Ukraine agitating for dissolution. Poland of course loved the idea of recovering Lwow and much of the Pilsudski empire created after 1919. The EU made a terrible mistake in incorporating pseudo-democracies with skin-deep credibility
There was no mistake made by the EU – it was all part of the plan, and the plan remains operational.
The only thing standing in the way of the EU and their plans are the vast mass of the British working class and former working class. Honored and lionized yesterday but today ready targets for abuse and invective because they do not wish to follow their masters latest set of orders.
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Is that your opinion?
Or, the obligatory opinion which forms part of your UKUS job spec?
Go well.
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Apologies. That is addressed to “ @Tony M “.
Good luck with that, Tony.
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Pathetic, revisionist, trolling. The shit must be all over your desks at narrative control centre.
You hate globalism so much?
Don’t eat bananas? Drink Tea? (No they don’t grow it in yorkshire). Only eat seasonal produce from your local farms?
Seven Palestinians in Gaza were killed by the IDF/Mossad/Shin Bet yesterday whilst the world looked back to 1918.
http://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/thread/1542002789.html
The actual Guardian piece. An Israeli was KILLED. Seven Palestinians DIED. The URL is more truthful.
Gaza
Israeli officer killed during Gaza raid in which seven Palestinians died
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/11/at-least-six-palestinians-killed-in-israeli-raid-in-gaza
Hamas denounces ‘cowardly’ attack in which one of its commanders died as Netanyahu cuts short Paris trip
Last week, Israel allowed Qatar to deliver $15 million in aid to Gaza’s cash-strapped Hamas rulers. Hamas responded by lowering the intensity of the border protest last Friday. ????
https://www.apnews.com/8122229370dc4d56a220165ce40b4ebd
So? Gaza is besieged. Good for Qatar.
Chapter and verse on Al Jazeera.
Israel kills seven Palestinians in covert Gaza raid
Senior Hamas commander killed by Israeli special forces in cross-border operation in which one Israeli soldier died.
26 minutes ago
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/11/gaza-officials-palestinians-killed-israeli-raid-181111211332303.html
Including
Sensitive timing
Al Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett, reporting from Jerusalem
The Israeli covert special forces team crossed three kilometers inside Gaza territory from the border fence, travelling in a civilian vehicle. There, they shot dead 37-year-old Nour Baraka, a senior commander of Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades, the group’s military wing.
Six other Palestinians were then killed in what became a chase in which the Israelis were withdrawing under the support of heavy air strikes. Israel’s military says it intercepted three out of 17 rockets fired from Gaza after the raid.
This escalation comes at a very sensitive time when there had been some progress in efforts to reach a long-term truce between Hamas and Israel, mediated by Egypt, the United Nations and involving Qatari funding.
It also came at a time when Netanyahu was in Paris talking about his self-proclaimed commitment to create a more stable situation in Gaza. In Israel itself, Netanyahu has been facing political backlash for appearing to be too soft on Hamas.
A return by Israel to a policy of targeting individual Hamas commanders – tactics largely abandoned in recent years – could significantly raise tensions along the border.
Israel and Palestinian fighters in Gaza have fought three wars since 2008, and recent months of unrest have raised fears of a fourth.
Crippling blockade…../
See how the Garudian changed the emphasis. Their article was amended 7 times in total.
https://www.newssniffer.co.uk/articles/1696578/diff/0/1
The first version said: At least six Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in Gaza
The third version had a headline – Israeli officer killed during Gaza raid in which seven Palestinians di
An Israeli was KILLED. Seven Palestinians DIED.
Ah, Guardian……..Voelkischer Beobachter 2018
Off-topic.
More Skripal coverage: https://off-guardian.org/2018/11/12/the-poison-paradox-who-knew/
It’s good isn’t it. David McIlwain contributes to the Lifeboat News.
http://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/thread/1542013022.html
Whilst his poodle, ACL Blair, stood at the Cenotaph in London and a Presidential successor, Trump, stomped around France, Bush Junior and his wife, received ‘Liberty Medals’ in Philadelphia.
George W Bush, Starter of Two Wars, Will Receive Liberty Medal on Armistice Day
09.11.2018
Former US President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, will receive the Liberty Medal on Sunday in Philadelphia. With the award typically going to leaders “who have strived to secure the blessings of liberty to people around the globe,” more than a few people are baffled at the National Constitution Center’s choice.
The Bushes will receive the award on November 11, Veterans Day, which in Europe is known as Armistice Day. This year’s Armistice Day is a very special anniversary, because it will have been exactly 100 years since the armistice that ended the First World War on the Western Front on November 11, 1918
https://sputniknews.com/amp/us/201811091069675576-George-Bush-Two-Wars-Liberty-Medal/
‘Starter’. That’s a strange word to use.
Biden, yet another warmonger, presented the medal. There were plenty of protests inside the hall and outside.
https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2018/11/11/george-w-bush-laura-bush-awarded-liberty-medal-amid-protests-from-veterans/
Yes but these awards are worthless – like an Order of Lenin or Hero of Soviet Union
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Brezhnev+awarind+in+medals&&view=detail&mid=8706D461C81A752B43648706D461C81A752B4364&&FORM=VRDGAR
What a great sunday that was, drowning out excessive gongs and church bells with big Bill Bronzy and some Sly and the family stone. The afternoon and evening with some reading, watching a fascinating snooker final going to bed relieved that 100 years of poppy propaganda and youth indoctrination had ended….
Only to start all over again next autumn.
Ps Norwich City’ canaries won against the most loved club of all, Millwall, 4-3 in the most thrilling game I have watched at Carrow Road for some time.
Not that any papers take notice, the Canaries are singing at the top of the league, 2 points ahead of the rest.
Well done Herr Farke.
The wall have got the lowest budget in the championship, Norwich the 3rd highest, yet they finished above Norwich last season through pure heart.
Pure heart? Im weeping. And a lot of pushing.
Wait for 2039. I won’t be around unless I ‘make old bones’. What a strange expression that it.
I’ll reckon that my slight self will have demised by then as well, you can only jump off the shovel a few times…:)
Here is a Hungarian’s take on György Soros. I have two issues with him, which have nothing to do with his ethnicity or religious background. First, the guy made his billions in ways that might be mostly legal but which are rather immoral according to my value system. For instance, didn’t he attack the pound and the Italian lira at one point? What was the cost of such exchange rate speculations for the average taxpayer and retiree? He is a textbook example of a financial speculator that does not create any value for society. And he keeps making money the same way til today. Praising him is like praising a brothel owner for donating some of his gains to an STD clinic. He is part of the problem and keeps regenerating what’s wrong with globalised finance.
Second, he is an American citizen, who should have no right to meddle in European politics. I can’t believe that when the European MSM is daily running scare stories about Russian meddling in European affairs, this guy is allowed to openly interfere with our politics. If he were simply funding hospitals, soup kitchens, and homeless shelters I might have sympathy for him. But he is funding political projects here. Didn’t he fund anti-Brexit groups? Whatever one might think of the wisdom of Brexit, it should be decided by you and your fellow UK citizens, not an American oligarch. In Hungary, he was openly funding the local neoliberal/neocon party, which was for economic shock therapy at home and American shock and awe abroad. Tellingly, this party received 1% of the vote two elections back and finally disappeared from the scene.
Of course, Soros is but one example of US meddling in our affairs. The way European ‘leaders’ cringe and genuflect before the yanks is stomach churning. In my experience, the post-WW2 Western European generation that was socialised during the Cold War accepts its subordination to the US without questions. I experience this every day with my older colleagues in Germany, where I currently live. The US, its nuclear bombs, its spying and meddling in local politics are just accepted as the price for the German economic ‘miracle’, which of course is largely a myth by now, what with millions on so-called minijobs paying EUR500 a month and no prospect ever to own property or have a secure job. I lived under both the Warsaw Pact and NATO. I can tell you from personal experience, the subordination of Western Europe to the US is deeper and more embedded in people’s minds than what we ever experienced vis-a-vis the USSR. Time to develop some self-respect and live an adult life independent of the US. But I think the Cold War generation is hopeless, they literally have to die out before Europe is ready to chart its own destiny. I would love to live in a continent where Total, Mercedes, Allianz, etc. took orders from elected French and German leaders, not from Trump and Bolton.
Hear, hear. Just a little supplementary detail:
https://blog.topsteptrader.com/story-of-george-soros-breaking-the-bank-of-england
As Paul Krugman remarked in 1999:
Nobody who has read a business magazine in the last few years can be unaware that these days there really are investors who not only move money in anticipation of a currency crisis, but actually do their best to trigger that crisis for fun and profit. These new actors on the scene do not yet have a standard name; my proposed term is ‘Soroi’.
As these people cannot possibly feel themselves short of money, the ‘fun’ element in the game of real-life Monopoly must be very significant. There’s your immorality, and it’s very definitely not restricted to Soros.
More on ‘fun’:
Having fun .. hoping the gold price will rise so its more fun ..?
https://twitter.com/NaguibSawiris/status/1061941826310037505/photo/1
Naguib Sawiris has his fingers in a lot of pies, the biggest being construction, telecoms and mining. He’s one of the richest men in Africa. He’s pro-Sisi, they’re both close to Tony Blair; Sawiris has flown with Blair on two of the latter’s African tours lately, and has often made his private jet available for other Blair excursions.
‘the post-WW2 Western European generation that was socialised during the Cold War accepts its subordination to the US without questions.’
We were socialised? by whom and how did this happen? the marshall plan?
You start of with claiming to have the a take from Hungary, when, in reality you have been living in Germany for some time.
Did you hear its opposition to the US Iran policy step backs and sanctions?
Did you notice its opposition to the military encounters in the Magreb countries?
The inception of the Marshall plan was self serving Russo phobia galore, the US needed a Germany to provide a strong buffer, a reluctantly willing stooges for its miliota5ry base expansion in the world vis a vie the Russian, by then wilting, USSR.
We can see what Hunbgary’s old hatreds are and who’s minds were swallowed up by the Arroiw Cross party then, but not much has changed, Hungary loves the territory it was given in the Vienna awards, but its hatred for the indigenous Roma and others has not changed whatsoever, no distinction is being made between Hungarian nationals and refugees when it comes to today’s right wing politicians.
Just as the UK, Hungary wants all the good its from the EU, bu8t it just can’t be humane enough to accept those behind the walls and fences it has built. To shut war refugees out and not accept your fare share of people in need is not European and/or British, these are right wing motives that are not supported by the populations at large.
I use the word ‘socialised’ as in ‘grown up’ or ‘came to age’. Although I am not a native-speaker of English, I think it has such a meaning, but I am ready to be corrected.
I said I give my take AS a Hungarian, which I am, not FROM Hungary. I fail to see how my current residence in Germany is relevant in this context. I also lived in the UK and the USA at some point of my life. So in your view, the more countries one experienced the fewer countries one can comment on. That’s just silly, especially coming from somebody who seems to praise the virtues of a united borderless Europe.
Maybe you are German, which would explain your sensitivity to criticising German politics. German opposition the US military adventurism is paper thin. They can talk the talk but are unwilling to walk the walk. Germany always allows the US to use its extensive military facilities located here, such as Rammstein AFB and Landstuhl, even when the government nominally opposes a particular US war. This happened during the 2003 invasion of Iraq too, when the US was bombing Iraq using Rammstein. The US global drone assassination program also critically depends on facilities located in Germany. Sorry, but these facts make Germany an automatic partner in every American war and, according to the UN charter, a legitimate target for retaliation. Germany cannot take the moral high ground here. Get back to me when a German chancellor refuses the US to use its facilities here in a bombing campaign. This country has only partial sovereignty and democracy with the US, and even the British, army still here. It’s similar to Japanese ‘democracy’, where no matter how many times Okinawans elect governors and mayors opposing US military bases there, the yanks just won’t leave and the central government covers for them.
Your knowledge of contemporary Hungary is very poor. Nobody wants any territories back, but most people want to maintain ties with those millions of Hungarians who, due to no fault of their own, found themselves outside our current borders. This is perfectly legitimate. Again, Germany is on extremely thin ice here to criticise anybody, given that under Helmut Kohl it literally paid Ceaucescu something like 500 DM for every Romanian of German ancestry who were allowed to emigrate. A large chunk of the Hungarian population have relatives in the neighbouring countries. For example, all four of my grandparents and one of my parents were born in outside Hungary proper. In addition, a significant portion of what is called Hungarian culture (e.g our national anthem) was produced by people, poets, writers, musicians, other artists and scientists, who were born in now foreign territories. This is not the 1990s naive Hungary now, so Westerns yelling and accusing everybody who disagrees with them of being Arrow Cross fans just won’t work any more. We have had 25 years of experience of what the EU means in actual practice. For us, it meant an almost complete deindustrialization of the country, market capture, and turning our economy into a collection of second-rate Western assembly lines. The current EU, meaning the Western multinationals for which it is a front, sucks more money out of Hungary than it gives back in so-called development aid. Try to educate yourself about the capitalist economic rational behind the EU’s Eastern expansion before you accuse me of Roma hatred and nationalism. BTW, it was France who put Hungarian Romas on the next plane and sent them back to Hungary after they had landed in Paris. And like it or not, a very significant part of the German population disagrees with Merkel’s refugee policy. You can yell but this won’t change reality, the brick wall of which you will eventually hit hard. So less self-righteous Western lecturing of uppity Easterners please.
Yes you did have 26 years, the Uk had 42 years of unadulterated trade within Europe and without questioning the undemocratic US infused EU commission.
And now that US has engaged Nato as its arms showcase/boat, I have always opposed US hegemony over EU defences btw., now that refugees flee wars? Those who enjoyed the fat times want to run away from commoitments and responsibilities. Nato is bad for Europe and we should show the anti immigrant immigrant nation the door, pack up your nukes and get the hell out of Europe, fight your wars from your own fraked territory!
Selfserving Cowards!
I agree, NATO is useless. I was always against Hungary’s NATO membership.
Germany is still listed as an Enemy State in the UN Charter. The British Military is around 400 strong in Germany nowadays. There are no US combat troops – mainly SIGINT in Wiesbaden. Germany is a very badly run country and frankly 13 years of a woman running the place and promoting incompetent women like Von der Leyen and Karrenbauer and pursuing Green policies has rendered the country stagnant like post-Brezhnev USSR an hugely indebted
I usually agree with your posts, but not this one. Rammstein AFB is regularly used to fly combat mission against the enemy du jour. Germany also hosts American nuclear bombs, which are even being upgraded. The US Africa Command is headquartered in Cologne, if I am not mistaken. The global drone war is prosecuted from Germany to a large degree. I don’t know what you mean by combat troops, but all the above, including nukes, are combat troops to me.
The fact that Germany, which has a larger population and superior economy compared to the UK, allows a country that soon will leave the EU to station troops on its territory is ridiculous. WW2 ended 70+ years ago and the UK is supposedly a NATO ally. The UK should withdraw its useless troops from here.
I am no fan of Merkel, but her likely successor is a hedge fund manager, rabidly pro-business and pro-US guy. People will soon have nostalgia for the Merkel era.
I lived in the UK twice in the past 25 years, last time between 2014-2016. Sorry, but the UK is on average nowhere near Germany in terms of infrastructure, social policies, and scientific research. I worked for one of the STFC’s research institutions. It was like working in a multinational corporation. Piss poor salaries for the foot soldiers, mindless meetings and deadlines, creating work plans every 3 months, having tasks and deliverables -corporate not academic lingo. No wonder that there was hardly any science done, as people were buried under bureaucratic paperwork. Now that I found stagnant as a scientist.
The inception of the Marshall plan was self serving Russo phobia galore,
DRIVEL. Marhall Plan was because there was a shortage of US dollars in Europe and no way to get them with European industry destroyed. It was Ford and GM that lobbied for Marshall Aid and Truman knew he could not get a Republic Congress to vote the money so asked Gen George Marshall to put his name on the plan to gain bi-partisan support. Stalin refused Marshall Aid for his satellites – it was offered.
Marshall Aid in Germany created the Kreditanstalt fuel Wiederaufbau which still funds businesses with long-term credits. There was a need for US machine-tools and equipment post-1945 with no US dollars to pay for them and no gold reserves left.
Why you write such counterfactual rubbish is unclear when the truth is easily found online
It’s clear to me, much as I agree with ‘Akos Horvath’ on Soros (specifically, should have made that clear). The clue is in the reference to Russophobia. I think we have someone from the ever-active Moscow choir here, whose objective is to spread distrust of the USA – not that Trump does a bad job in that regard already. Just sayin’.
Is this directed at me? Are you accusing me of being a member of the ever-active Moscow choir? Whatever that means.
.
Ha ha, yes. @AKOS.
Some Americans sing along to that. Lyrics and pizza by C£IA. Who knows?!
“
American Idiot
Green Day
Don’t wanna be an American idiot
Don’t want a nation under the new media
And can you hear the sound of hysteria?
The subliminal mind-fuck America
Welcome to a new kind of tension
All across the alien nation
Where everything isn’t meant to be okay
Television dreams of tomorrow
We’re not the ones who’re meant to follow
For that’s enough to argue
Well maybe I’m the faggot America
I’m not a part of a redneck agenda
Now everybody do the propaganda
And sing along to the age of paranoia
Welcome to a new kind of tension
All across the alien nation
Where everything isn’t meant to be okay
Television dreams of tomorrow
We’re not the ones who’re meant to follow
For that’s enough to argue
Don’t wanna be an American idiot
One nation controlled by the media
Information Age of hysteria
It’s calling out to idiot America
Welcome to a new kind of tension
All across the alien nation
Where everything isn’t meant to be okay
Television dreams of tomorrow
We’re not the ones who’re meant to follow
For that’s enough to argue
“
.
US bought the political elites in Europe via Atlantic Bridge, Chatham House, German Marshall Fund, NATO, Hudson Institute, Heritage Foundation, Council on Foreign Relations, Bilderberg, Trilateral Commission………….Friedrih Merz sidelined by Merkel is attempting to replace her – he is Trilateral Commission
A lot of that is described from personal experience in the late Udo Ulfkotte’s “Gekaufte Journalisten”.
Good stuff. I’ve made the argument in the past that nobody who has made billions (on the occasion of Buffet and Gates philanthropy) can be thought of as a philanthropist. The two facts are mutually exclusive. But to be fair to Craig, it should be possible to discuss an affection for someone despite their failings. If nothing else, I’ve learned more about Soros as a result of this thread than perhaps I needed to, and the clarifying effect of discovering the different shades of detestation for Soros has also been similarly useful.
Also prompted me to consider the changing notion of capital. Once the magnates would build open public spaces and Garden Cities (Port Sunlight is a notable example, Leverhulme built it for his workforce, have a look, it’s beautiful, if a little creepy) after plundering the world and its people, and though they exploited and imposed upon their workers, there was at least something to show for it. Today such things just don’t happen and philanthropy is the exception (although no less tied to the imposition of values.)
Yes, we all grew up saturated with American values (as much via television and Hollywood as through economic domination, education, art and literature) the foundations of which were built on the bones of entire civilisations, but lest we forget, those foundations were laid by our European ancestors, French, Portuguese, Spanish and English.
@ Akos Horvath November 12, 2018 at 09:53
Plenty of old ‘uns on here agree with you, despite growing up under the ‘Cold War’.
It’s very difficult to view Soros as a benign figure from either a socialist or anti-imperialist perspective. He shares with his role models Brzezinski and Kissinger a belief in a global anti-socialist empire with its nerve centre in Washington and Wall Street. A major priority is to silence forever the ideology that inspired the Russian, Chinese and Cuban revolution. In his worldview a minute clique of wise capitalists should have the planet as their oyster, with billions of working stiffs being at their mercy.
His funding of the green and orange fake revolutions in Iran and Ukraine were only preludes to his Messaianic objective of world domination via regime change in Russia, which he sees as a greater threat to the world than Isis.
His means to achieving that goal was through his protege Hillary Clinton, whose campaign he helped finance via his henchman John Podesta. That was thwarted, but back in 2011 he did succeed in stalling the momentum towards real change in the US itself by subverting the Occupy movement through fake left groups like MoveOn, Change.org and the Answer Coalition, all of which organized to re-elect the Wall Street friendly Obama in 2012. He continues to fund fake left media organisations in the US like Huff Post and he gave Russia-baiter in chief Rachel Maddow her break at the soros-funded Air America.
From a British perspective, he shorted the pound and crashed the BoE, showing everybody he was more powerful than a major economy’s central bank. He made £2bn on black wednesday and couldn’t care less that it ruined the lives of countless hardworking Brits. His contempt for ordinary British people persists in his efforts to overturn the Brexit vote and return the world to the rule of wise men status quo of 2015.
Unless that is the world you want to conttinue in perpetuity, there is not much about soros and his world view to cherish.
‘Armistice Day & the Resurrection of an Old Lie’
https://off-guardian.org/2018/11/11/armistice-day-the-resurrection-of-the-old-lie/
RE “Armistice Day & the Resurrection of an Old Lie”
And, no-doubt, the whole thing will be run again next year, Dory Previn has a song about that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrFE39tCx58&index=30&list=PLX0O4AJMzcxZcS-oG78QgUtp0hvRyThyX&t=0s
I do wish they would stop implying Soldiers were Kamikaze by saying “they gave their lives for…….”
No soldier “gives his life” it gets “taken”
“No dumb bastard ever won a war by going out and dying for his country. He won it by making some other dumb bastard die for his country.”
― George S. Patton Jr.
Yep telling everybody to forget what they once knew about WWI. Seems to have worked sadly.
How could this even be legal?This is pure terrorism against Iran.
SWIFT kick: Iranian banks about to be cut off from global financial network
https://www.rt.com/business/443719-swift-disconnect-iranian-banks/
It is provocation. SWIFT is not even US but European. The US simply blocks banks doing business with Iran for doing business in USA. that is why the EuroDollar Market is in London – because Moscow Narodny Bank never trusted the USA and so deposited its Dollars offshore
aint it hard when you discover that you’re really not where it’s at.
The US could not care less about Europe – why should it when Europe manifestly does not care about itself. A lot the technology behind SWIFT was developed by Logica – but hey who needs business? Not the UK obviously so Logica is no more.
Everyone has known for a long time that the NSA has fully infiltrated SWIFT – even reaching in to take money from Europeans dealing in Cuban cigars – because Cuban cigars are illegal in the US.
What did the EU do about this? Absolutely nothing because they seem to hate European people. Exactly why should they care about Iranians when they so manifestly despise their own populations.
So what you have is a European elite dripping in contempt for European people and then suddenly acting all outraged when the US shows the same contempt for European elites.
Loony
‘Everyone has known for a long time that the NSA has fully infiltrated SWIFT – even reaching in to take money from Europeans dealing in Cuban cigars…’
Everyone has known? Really? I didn’t know this. It’s quite a story, can you provide a source?
Sure.
Here is Reuters carrying a story about NSA penetration of the SWIFT system
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyber-swift-idUSKBN17G1HC
From memory I believe that Der Spiegel carried a lot of stories on this matter.
Here is a Danish report concerning the seizure of monies related to lawful European transactions concerning the buying and selling of Cuban cigars
http://cphpost.dk/news/international/us-snubs-out-legal-cigar-transaction.html
There are no sources available concerning the EU standing up to US actions in interfering with commerce outside the jurisdiction of the US.
Always remember that only calamity awaits without the protection of the munificent EU.
Amen to that.
One connection between George “open borders err society” Soros and Emmanuel “nationalism is the opposite of patriotism” Macron is
The Rothschilds. Spooky.
Rothschild is Yiddish for Red Coat. They have had British ‘royalty’ as their financial clients for centuries. Also spooky….
Rothschild is GERMAN for “Red Shield”. In Judengasse in Frankfurt was a house with a red shield where the Bauer family made loans – they took the name Red Shield.
http://www.judengasse.de/dhtml/H069.htm
There are lots of houses with red shields above the door – you can see them today in Erfurt
English Version
“How do I get to the “Haus zum Roten Schild” in Erfurt, Meienbergstraße 5?
The easiest method to reach Erfurt (www.erfurt.de) is the train http://www.bahn.de. The Meienbergstraße (formerly Eimergasse) in the “Kaufmannsviertel” (merchant’s quarter, Mercatorum), part of the Via Regia, connects the Anger near the Kaufmannskirche (merchant’s church) in the East with the Wenigemarkt and the Krämerbrücke in the West́.
From the station you can walk for about 1 km to the house, or take any northbound tram the the next staion “Anger”. When you see the Hugendubel bookshop turn right (eastwards) to the shopping mall “Anger 1” (Karstadt; this also has a multi storey car park; there are no parking spaces in Meienbergstraße, cf. http://www.erfurt.de/ef/de/leben/verkehr/mobil/auto/parken ). Go to the protestant Kaufmannskirche with the Luther monument (he preached a sermon in the church in 1522, where the parents of Johann Sebastian Bach got married in 1668).
Turn left after the church into the Meienbergstraße. Opposite the Mercure hotel “Erfurt Altstadt”., between a butcher’s shop and a travel agent, ist the “Haus zum Roten Schild”, built in the 16th century on top of a medieval cellar.
Address: Haus zum Roten Schild, Meienbergstraße 5, D-99084 Erfurt. Tel. 0361 6443424, e-mail [email protected] .
On the History of the “Haus zum Roten Schild”
The Meienbergstraße (formerly Meymer-, Meimer- or Eimergasse) connects the Anger near the Kaufmannskirche (merchant’s church) in the East with the Wenigemarkt and the Krämerbrücke in the West́.
Ever since the middle ages the road was an important route in the “Kaufmannsviertel” (merchant’s quarter, Mercatorum), but the houses repeatedly fell victim to fires until 1538, when the buildings on the “Meimergasse” burned down, including the one on Mercatorum 28 of which only the medieval cellar survived the blaze. Soon afterwards another house was built on Mercatorum 28 and was given the name “Haus zum Roten Schild”.
Paul – Lets learn together (although wikipedia…..);
————
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayer_Amschel_Rothschild
”The ancestry of the Rothschilds can be traced back to 1577 to Izaak Elchanan Rothschild (Isaac (Isaak) Elchanan Bacharach, zum Hahn), whose name is derived from the German zum rothen Schild (with the old spelling “th”), meaning “with the red shield”, in reference to the house where the family lived for many generations. (At the time, houses were designated by signs with different symbols or colors, not numbers.) The name Rothschild in Yiddish language means Red Coat as in heraldic coat of arms. His grandchildren and descendants took this name as the family name and kept it when they relocated in 1664 to another house in the Judengasse—Hinterpfann (“[house in] the back of the saucepan”)[5]—which became the family’s home and business location through to the early 19th century.”
————
As I said above – Yiddish for ”Red Coat”.
You also previously stated that the Jewish community dominated finance for many centuries across Europe because the Pope/ Christian faiths prohibited Christians to work in finance which I believe is wrong. Christians were prohibited from the practice of Usury (charging excessive interest – think wonga) not working in finance. But I’m sure you can understand the advantage one could gain over the competition by one institute being able to charge large amounts of interest against someone who does not?
————
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Court_Jew
In the early modern period, a court Jew, or court factor (German: Hofjude, Hoffaktor), was a Jewish banker who handled the finances of, or lent money to, European royalty and nobility. In return for their services, court Jews gained social privileges, including in some cases being granted noble status. Court Jews were needed because prohibitions against usury applied to Christians but did not apply to Jews
———–
And before someone claims anti Semite I am just pointing out European history according to wikipedia. Do not shoot the messenger. Like all walks of life, there are good and bad in all communities whether aligned by faith, nation, skin tone, willy or boob size etc etc. Maybe a Jewish poster could correct any translation errors above?
Anyway the last line should be explored. – ”were needed because prohibitions against usury applied to Christians” – needed by whom? The Christian hierarchy to exploit their followers? Or Royalty and nobility to do the same while remaining ‘pure’? Was it ever actually ”needed” and where would the world be today without the practice of usury?
A question, It was said that Blair’s cabinet meetings leading up to the Iraq War were not minuted. Anyone know for sure?
The late Jeremy Heywood was Blair’s PPS at the time succeeded by Ivan Rogers in 2003. The latter was created a Knight of the Realm by May for whom he was a flunkey. Turnbull was the Cabinet Secretary from 2002-5. He is now in the Lords.
Blair probably had them shredded. Eden had the Minutes of the Suez Matter shredded but the French copies surfaced
G Brown is on fire at the Institute for Government speaking against Brexit and virtually demanding a second vote. Whatever the case,
how does he have the nerve to stand up and lecture given his record as the cheque signer for Blair’s war and the overseer of the aftermath of the bank crash? He is barely drawing breath.
I think in a lot of people’s minds he’s still “prudent Gordon”. If Tories didn’t enjoy bloodfests so much, the thought that they haven’t been able to sell a “Granita” succession story (to put it mildly) might make them jealous.
Is the 1922 Committee meeting this Wednesday?
Gordy has been wheeled out on all channels to do a Brexit Vow. I heard him mention a Royal Commission. Looks like the PTB are on their feet.
Yes the Messiah has been wheeled out once more like a wound up toy soldier, prancing and prattling for however calls the shots, in his obligatory closed shops that he attends.
The media always obedient, gives the Brown wind up toy, all the airtime he requires to spout his masters tune. Thankfully people are realising that Brown has no credibility whatsoever.
Strange, isn’t it, that the Institute for Economic Affairs, a right-wing anti-NHS Tory propaganda cesspit with undeclared donors who enjoy funding lots of “access” to government ministers, is able to dodge paying tax because it’s a “charity” – and moreover, tax can be claimed back on the “donations” it receives – whereas any organisation that opposes vivisection, such as the National Anti-Vivisection Society, is banned from having charitable status?
I imagine the IEA sneaked under the law by claiming it was mostly involved in education. I imagine the NAVS failed because its name and agenda seemed too political. You have to remember that the legislation governing this stuff (the Charitable Uses Act, 1601) is one of the oldest still on the statute book and its lame attempt to define “charitable uses” has never been changed.
Their mouthpiece, Kate Andrews is all over the UK audio visual media. She is an American. On discussion panels too. I have seen Nerissa Chesterfield too.
The director is the ghastly Mark Littlewood who used to spin for the LDs. Director General (LOL) with a large bureaucracy behind him.
https://iea.org.uk/staff/#director-generals-office
Free marketeers. Sheep in wolves’ clothing.
Founded by Anthony Fisher in 1955. Note its contacts – David Davis and Steve Baker – and queries about its funding, from the tobacco industry for instance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_of_Economic_Affairs
Anthony Fisher’s granddaughter is married to Steve Hilton
This is interesting with regards to Brexit.
“The Government has just told us it is going to try and persuade the Supreme Court to give it permission to appeal against the decision of the Inner House referring to the European Court the question whether the UK can cancel Article 50.”
https://mobile.twitter.com/JolyonMaugham/status/1061920762435649536
Well Craig, you are right about this piece attracting comments. You seem to have drawn in a significant number of the lunatic fringe in recent times: everything is a conspiracy, and everyone is an enemy.
I don’t have time for that kind of thinking. I also realise that human nature needs to be accommodated in any workable and just system of governance, otherwise you are simply replacing one cruel elite with another.
At least Soros publishes his thoughts and is clear about the position he supports. Contrast with all the shady right wing thinktanks funded by dark money.
One question though: in the interests of transparency, will you disclose if you are in current receipt of funds from Soros, or have accepted them in the past?
So what if he has? Are you some kind of conspiracy lunatic?
@ Xavi,
Not I am not a conspiracy lunatic, and I expect the answer would be ‘no’. We should all be increasingly worried about the influence of dark money that is lobbying our governments, however, and I think full disclosure of all funding sources should be the default position.
I think that Craig’s site is part-funded by a number of small donations from unrelated individuals, but clarity is always welcome.
George just recently opened up a chain of pizza shops** in Ghana…………..dun dun dunnnnn(music)
**This may be something I have just made up.
” all the shady right wing thinktanks funded by dark money”. Sounds like a conspiracy theory.
@ Johny Conspiranoid,
Nope this is not a conspiracy: there are a number of think tanks and political lobbying organisations in the UK who do not declare where their money comes from. Here’s just two:
1. Aaron Banks claims he bankrolled Leave.EU personally, but the evidence is that he is director of a number of shell companies – these could well act as vehicles to disguise the exact identity of donors.
2. Institute of Economic Affairs – highly influential think tank, favoured by the BBC and given enormous opportunities to contribute to public debate, despite the fact that its sources of funding are unknown and its Director General has been recorded offering specific lobbying services for cash. Promotes a generally low tax, low regulation, pro-Brexit agenda.
It is really important that we all try and see the world as it is, not through our own bias.
There might not be much to admire about Hillary Clinton, however she’s definitely if nothing else tenacious, as she’ll probably run again for the 2020 US presidency.
You would think losing to first Obama, then Trump would see her call it a day, but no.
Will 2020 be a rerun, between Clinton and Trump? I certainly wouldn’t bet against it.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/hillary-will-run-again-1541963599
“losing to first Obama, then Trump”
Not to mention Bernie Sanders.
l expect the Dems will be over the moon at this news.
PS – new acting Attorney General Whitaker (currently being smeared) is no fan of hers – https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/07/05/reasonable-indict/86731608/
Would running from office perhaps provide some protection?
for office, sorry
Republic; its as if her financial backers continue to support her ‘ambitions’ in the full knowledge that she will lose again……….
Isn’t it fortunate for them that whether candidate a or candidate b or candidate z wins, loses or draws the Koch’s and Soros’s of this world can continue to buy pizza’s for the little guy. Fair play to the lot of them I say……..a credit to the capitalist system of equality m’lord.
Fun fact, both the Koch and Soros families made money working with the Nazi’s in 1930/40/50’s……still making money working with Nazis (Ukraine) some might say.
Trump would have lost to almost any Democratic candidate other than Hillary. Another Hillary nomination would more or less guarantee Trump’s re-election, unless there is severe economic trouble.
Hillary will run with Chelsea as Veep
Does Soros give financial support to any newspapers like the Gates pair?
…..This series, focusing on the surging youth population and what this means for the fight against world poverty, is funded, in part, by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The journalism is editorially independent, commissioned and produced by our Guardian journalists. …..
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/sep/17/about-now-generation-a-guardian-series
He for certain gives it to Media Matters.
https://www.politico.com/blogs/onmedia/1010/Soros_gives_1_million_to_Media_Matters.html
I’m sure he does a lot more.
Just to lift the spirits on here from the doom and gloom; try not to laugh (I couldn’t)
Angela Merkel forced to explain to 101-year-old French woman that she is not Macron’s wife
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/angela-merkel-macron-wife-germany-france-remembrance-day-ceremony-armistice-ww1-war-a8629416.html
The world needs more of this.
She still has her marbles. Who’s got Macron’s? 🙂
Does Jeremy Corbyn not have anyone around him who could have foreseen the Cenotaph attire story?
Clue: look prime ministerial FFS.
You want him to conform? You radical, you……..
An iconic moment in the Corbyn narrative. The scruffy nobody feeling uncomfortable among all the stuffed shirts, one of the many trapped momentarily by the few. A triumph.
The war criminals in attendance looked the part.
He did it deliberately. He wore a smart overcoat last year
I often wear rainwear when it seems cold and damp. Austrian changeable weather refers. So do many who have more than half a brain.
Recent escapees from the Fourth Estate to No 10.
James Slack from the Heil
Greg Smith from the Express
and probably others we are told about
https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/daily-mail-political-editor-james-slack-confirmed-as-pms-new-official-spokesperson/
Duh…we are not told about.
+++++
Separately, the $ is rising and interest rates in the US are likely to rise according to the BBC.
The £ partially recovers against the $. The FTSE 100 is down but Brent Crude is up. The City boys take their cuts either way.
The majority of FTSE companies sell stuff which is priced in USD. Consequently the FTSE rises when the Dollar rises and it falls when the Pound rises. I’m always astounded about the number of financial journalists who seem to fail to make this connection
Did you ever think Brent has a link to WTI ?