What exactly has changed as a result of that election, other than a different team of snouts in the trough?
Starmer’s first act as Prime Minister of the UK was to attend a NATO warmonger fest and promise unlimited resources to keep the terrible and unwinnable war in the Ukraine going. In addition he is pledging to increase UK “Defence” spending to 2.5% of GDP, or over £18 billion a year extra – a massive bonanza for the arms industry.
Let us be absolutely plain that this is not “defence”. There is no country which has any plan or even vague intention to invade the UK. In modern history, only Germany, France and the Netherlands ever had such plans (the Netherlands actually succeeded but nobody noticed as the victors write the history).
Russia and China in particular have no intention whatsoever of attacking the UK. Let me write that again because, while it should be a basic fact of international relations, it is one that our entire geopolitical system depends upon denying. In fact I am not sure I have ever seen it stated plainly anywhere else.
Russia and China have no intention whatsoever of attacking the UK.
Our “defence” expenditure is not for defence. It is for power projection overseas. It is spent on aircraft carriers and worldwide nuclear submarines, not on anti-missile defences around British cities.
Our “defence” expenditure is geared to attacking other countries. And attack other countries we do. Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen to name but a few. We are currently attacking Russia by proxy.
That picture is not Gaza but Sirte in Libya, once Africa’s most prosperous country, after receiving the benefit of NATO “defence” expenditure.
Ask yourself this simple question – when did a Russian missile last land on British soil? The answer is never. Yet Starmer has just announced we are explicitly sending Ukraine missiles capable of striking inside Russia.
Aircraft carriers have no purpose whatsoever except power projection. There is no defensive use of an aircraft carrier. You don’t park them just off the UK to intercept incoming attacks. Aircraft carriers have the sole purpose of taking aircraft to attack countries far away from us. They are agents of imperial power projection.
Starmer’s second call after NATO was to meet Joe Biden to do homage. Which is fitting in this context as our aircraft carriers are incredibly expensive platforms for American aircraft. If Biden had any idea who Starmer was at the time, he will certainly have forgotten by now.
All of this money dedicated to destroying human beings is a firm pledge by Labour. There is however no firm pledge of anything for the NHS beyond further “reform”, which means piecemeal privatisation. There is no firm pledge for anything that does not kill people. It is of course a question of priorities.
For one quarter of the cost of the pledged increase in defence spending, Labour could both lift the two child benefit cap, thus taking over 300,000 children out of child poverty, plus give junior doctors the 30% pay increase they deserve.
Instead we have the unchanging priorities of the British Establishment, enforced by a Labour team who are more heartless and self-serving even than the Tories. Amazingly Labour are more in thrall to the private healthcare lobby, more in thrall to the armaments lobby and more in thrall to the Israel lobby.
Since the advent of universal suffrage, no government has ever been elected with the votes of a smaller percentage of eligible voters. 34% of those voting delivered a massive landslide under the ludicrous UK electoral system, and with a low turnout only 20% of eligible voters backed Starmer.
Picture 70 adults inside a big superstore. On average only 14 of them voted Labour. You can be walking down several aisles and to the checkout and never pass anyone who voted for this government. That is the foundation of popular “support” on which this Starmer regime rests. As the gap between rich and poor grows at unprecedented speed, it is not public support Starmer has to worry about, but something much more fundamental than that.
The Establishment is hacking away at the foundations of public consent to be governed.
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And.
In truth the only way the Zionist genocide against the oppressed Palestinians will be stopped is by force for they will not willingly stop their genocide.
“At least 90 Palestinians including women and children have been killed and more than 300 others wounded after Israel carried out air strikes on the al-Mawasi refugee camp near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.
The Gaza Ministry of Health said that 90 people were killed in the genocidal Israel offensive, half of whom were women and children.
The ministry added that the number of injuries that resulted from this attack rose to 300.
The area where the atrocity was committed had been designated by the Israeli regime as a so-called “safe” zone.
According to witnesses, a series of airstrikes were conducted by Israel’s F16 warplanes that targeted a camp for displaced Palestinians west of the city with more than nine consecutive missiles.”
Another 90 Palestinians murdered in one Weeping day…and Still all the West approves this Evil Genocide…makes me sick
I, for one, would prefer to see every country with Palestinian diaspora, offer to welcome a number of Palestinians. They have dispersed all over the world, and a coordinated offer to welcome women and children, as we did for Ukraine, would go a long way towards building a safer future for the world. The alternative is bleak. BS is playing for both sides. Iran is running out of patience. Our Arms Dealer Foreign Secretary, outgoing, pledged vast quantities of death dispensing hardware, which Starmer has said is a commitment. The foolish foolhardiness our WEF leadership is determined on shows no sign of abating, and we are naive if we think nothing has changed.
Defence spending is essential. We need a drone army, a flotilla of small boats and submersibles, mobile rocket launchers, and duck and cover education for our schools. Because our rulers have determined they will have control of Russia’s oil and gas, or decommission it entirely, and they will have control of Iran’s oil too, for MBS to benignly manage on our behalf. This is entirely nuts, but was planned decades ago by Bush, Cheney, et al.
The refugees fleeing conflict, mostly the soldiers of the losing side, are an inexhaustible supply. The burly Iranians being welcomed in their small boats, by Kent housewives bringing them hot cups of tea, appeared completely nonplussed. If they cannot name a relative already living in this country, or even a friend of a friend to vouch for their safety, then they need to be put on flights back home, to sort out the mess their own country is in. After seeing footage of the beautiful Libyan children, thrown overboard by the people smuggling gangs, then unless they still have their wives and children with them, send them back.
But we have a duty to the Palestinians to coordinate an international rescue, which David Miliband hypocritically claims to be raising funds for. Because they are former citizens of the British Protectorate of Palestine, and the Balfour Declaration promised that the European refugees would respect the property and land title deeds they had issued to the Palestinians. We welcomed the Jewish refugees. We can welcome Palestinian women and children too.
It might be better if we asked the Palestinians Alyson
From what I can tell, many wish to stay in their homeland
Being stateless and not having passports tends to limit choice. Choice indeed is completely limited in the face of annihilation. An internationally coordinated response ought to be able to offer choice, if humanitarianism dared to show its face
Another massacre carried out by Israel today, talk of up to 80-100 casualties, some 300 injured when Israel struck a SAFE SPACE / REFUGEE SITE!
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/07/13/729246/Palestinians-Khan-Younis-Health-Ministry
Lets see how the, alleged human rights lawyer, Starmer will react. This will be a litmus test for what’s to come during his term. Will he shut up/deny/defend it like the rotten right-wing Tories?
Why is is by the way that Israel have the right to strike civilian sites on the basis that there is an “enemy” on the site while if a palestinian would blow up lets say a mall because an IDF soldier was shopping there it would be terrorism?
We need to make the terrorism label stick onto Israel.
Back in 2013 the Swedish government wanted to drop their extradition claim against Assange. Emails from the UK Crown Prosecution Service, headed up by Keir Starmer, discouraged them from doing so. No doubt due to Starmer’s close links to MI5 and MI6. A CPS investigation into serial sex abuser Jimmy Savile was shut down in 2007. All CPS files on Savile were destroyed in October 2010. Again, under Starmer. Human rights lawyer my eye.
https://thegrayzone.com/2024/07/06/keir-starmer-scrutiny-protected-savile/
if russia does eventually target britian and not the little yapping puppies next door, folks will know why… all of the uk’s lies and warmongering have reached an end point…
CM – What exactly has changed as a result of that election, other than a different team of snouts in the trough?
It’s the same snouts in the trough. Scottish power is owned by the Qatari sovereign wealth fund and Blackrock, via Iberdrola. They send huge piles of dividends to Delaware, a tax haven. They also extract piles of interest payments from customers via their debt levels. Not forgetting that Sunak handed over billions recently in his bailout of the energy giants following the sanctions imposed on Russsia. All of that wealth come from ordinary working people and leaves the UK. Nothing will change.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/homenews/20774190.revealed-scottishpowers-obscene-7bn-dividends-spanish-owners/
Reports emerging are saying that Donald Trump had to be rushed off stage at a rally after gun shots.
We need to await detail but this could be scary stuff with a country ready to boil.
Entirely predictable. George Galloway was warning of this some months back when attempts to jail Trump were proving difficult.
Trump, Putin and Hamas are bogey men created by the imperial USA state, a state which has long been out of control. They cannot trust Trump to carry out their risible unipolar agenda in full, therefore he must be removed. Anything and anybody who resists this US imperialist state must be exterminated.
Trump is of course a fascist: his attempt to overthrow the last presidential election was his Munich beerhall putsch. His next will be more successful. But as far as the MIC murder machine is concerned he is the wrong kind of fascist. That is where we are.
Trump is no more fascist than his predecessors and Biden.
I don’t disagree. We’re arguing the difference between Himmler, Goebbels and Goering here. They are all part of the same lethal political/military regime.
‘Violence had no place in our politics’ is the platitude of the hour from the USA.
In fact violence is the very essence of US politics- at home and abroad.
Hopefully the reaction within America, including Biden’s words, will help to calm the situation.
btw, since Germany is in the headlines right now, with zero resistance to stationing Tomahawks (which are outdated but of course still with some strike capabilities) – the decision to carry this out was struck in 2021.
Which means that “US-Multi-Domain Task Force” was a unilateral decision forced upon Berlin however known well before Feb. 2022. And as such of course in the making well before 2021.
And thus had nothing to do with the “brutal full-scale invasion of Ukraine”.
A nice footnote:
German chancellor Helmut Schmidt when he found himself in the midst of the Pershing II/SS-20 crisis in the late 1970s/early 1980s complained privately to none other than Maggie Thatcher about how CIA was disinforming the German government keeping the true intelligence on the SS-20 to themselves and feeding Germans way exaggerated threat assessments.
It´s funny that all this must be surely known to Scholz – (SCH-midt/SCH-röder/SCH-olz – S-C-H???) – but the story repeats itself.
We know of this Thatcher episode via East German intelligence btw.
So things change in order to remain the same.
“If I was Biden I’d hurry up and have Trump murdered on the basis that he is a threat to America’s security #SCOTUS.”
And so declared senior BBC Correspondent David Aaronovich only a few says ago. And now, but for a hair breadth, it nearly came to pass. A half inch and the bullet would have been through Donald Trump’s brain.
But isn’t it uncanny. The Biden team have made every attempt to take Trump down. Law suit after law suit, prosecution after prosecution, but without any success. And now, as called for by Aaronovich, the attempted murder of Trump.
And oh so much the British way too. Look how the state pursued Alex Salmond, pursued Craig Murray, pursued Julian Assange. And what of Dr David Kelly, or lawyer Pat Finucane or lawyer Willie MacRae. Lawfare and state killing is a British tactic that the American state copies.
Starmer and Biden want war. Trump doesn’t want war. Looks like BBC man David Aaronovich was bang on the money.
Loads of random people saw and photographed the shooter crawling on the roof with a rifle, but the police and secret service didn’t ….. Never bet against the conspiracists in America. They are always always proven right.
‘“If I was Biden I’d hurry up and have Trump murdered on the basis that he is a threat to America’s security #SCOTUS.”’
If I were to make such a suggestion with reference to Mr Aaronovitch – which, I hasten to emphasise, I do not – would the UK (and possibly US) authorities take vigorous steps to punish me?
Is it slightly odd that he is able to say such things without fear of consequences?
When does legitimate political speculation become intent to provoke murder?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13592059/BBC-presenter-David-Aaronovitch-tweets-Biden-Id-hurry-Trump-murdered-Supreme-Court-ruling-deleting-satirical-post-amid-backlash.html
He was I think making the (satirical) political point that thanks to the recent US SC decision, presidents are immune from prosecution for “official actions” so having Trump shot would have no legal consequences.
But his timing was unfortunate.
There is nothing satirical about it. US presidents have always had the power of life and death.
I’d love to see him explaining that to a hopped up, powerfully built Trumpanzee who bursts into his bedroom in the dead of night.
“powerfully built Trumpanzee who bursts into his bedroom in the dead of night”
Apparently Aaronvitch doesn’t even know he is a part of a cluster of the Integrity Initiative lol – so he would be surprised by the appearance of a vengeful ape in his bedroom seeking redress for previous wrongs
If you remember Queen Liz had someone break into her bedroom at Buck Palace. The event was immortalised in the Smiths’ track “The Queen is Dead”
“So I broke into the Palace
With a sponge and a rusty spanner
She said, “Eh, I know you, and you cannot sing”
I said, “That’s nothing, you should hear me play piano”
I don’t think the dialogue between a clueless Aaronovitch and a berserk Trumpanzee or even one of his troop, would be so whimsical
By far the best way for Russia to damage Britain, is to do nothing and let it consume itself.
The sanctions boomerang being a prime example, they didn’t need to embargo vital goods to Britain and the EU. When their foes will inflict that on themselves.
As for Britain’s “mighty” imperial forces, they’re an expensive, ineffectual & shrinking pretention.
The extra spending will be pissed away, like all other such ventures recently. The British State now lacks the capacity to organise the building of rather small railways, never mind armies, fleets & airforces.
The whole 2.5% of our mythical GDP is a joke. It’s all just playing silly buggers, with inflation-stricken monopoly money.
“By far the best way for Russia to damage Britain, is to do nothing and let it consume itself”.
Very true. I believe that is in fact the strategy agreed between China, Russia, Iran, and other nations with regard to the whole Gold Billion – especially, of course, the USA.
I imagine they are quite encouraged that the collapse is coming about faster than they could have hoped.
Yes, Britain is going down the pan without Russia needing to do anything. Hinkley Point C is another project that looks like it’s going to just suck in billions and go nowhere (like HS2). Add to that ‘ending ICE vehicles by 2030’ – how’s that working out? And the nation-wide replacement of boilers with expensive heat pumps? It’s farcical.
Re Willie’s post about David Aaronovich calling for Trump’s assassination, I am not surpirsed. Decades ago, when I read the occasional (borrowed) copy of the Guardian, I remember thinking then that Aaronovich was a Nato cheerleader, warmongering twat (he supported the Iraq war). Whatever you thing about Trump, David Aaronovich is a disgrace. Anyone else would get done for ‘hate speech’.
If Britain is going down the pan then so certainly is Russia.
(I’m not British.)
Maybe, but it won’t be from lack of natural resources – oil, gas, minerals etc. Politics aside (I don’t know much about Russian politics), they can be self-sufficient. Britain can’t be.
I doubt if JK Redux lives in Russia, where I have lived on and off for about 20 years. When I have returned on visits to the UK the sense of disillusionment there is palpable, particularly post Brexit. The poor public amenities and poor public behaviour are quite striking.
Economic forecasts rarely fare better than football forecasts but Russia has spent a great deal of time trying to develop a trading system immune to the arbitrary rules of the dollar as reserved currency. Since sanctions were imposed on the rouble, particualrly after 2022, these defences have held up well. At present the BRICS organisation looks healthier long term than the EU. Blowing up your own pipe lines is not an indicator of economic optimism.
“If Britain is going down the pan then so certainly is Russia.”
If “going down the pan” means having economic growth like Russia’s, then I’m all for the UK “going down the pan”.
Sanctions policy is a good example where one suspects there will be no change only intensification. The last Tory government strategy document with foreword from Lord Cameron reported 36 sanctions regimes in operation with another 10 – 12 jointly with USA, EU etc and just the one or two sanctioned by the UN. The civil service has to manager the 20 or so thousand named on the various sanctions lists. From what I can see little or no evaluation on their effectiveness – let alone justification and legality – or on negative impact on business and the economy – pure ideological spite. Talk about cutting off nose to spite the face. No wonder we are in a mess.
To the man with only a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
I also want to drive your attention that Mr. Murray clearly expressed the idea of spending on supposed defense, which in reality is spending on offence.
My understanding of defense spending is to prevent civilian casualties. This should include the training of medical personnel, the purchase of ambulances, the construction of shelters and warning systems, the preparation of safe routes and backup roads, teaching the basics of first aid, the use of gas masks, the correct actions in case of fire, explosion, and the like.
Instead, as Mr. Murray points out, the money is being spent on aircraft carriers and missiles.
Let’s be logical and honest, it’s like an alcoholic parent doesn’t have money for ice cream or a bicycle, but magically they have it for whiskey.
Setting priorities, isn’t it?
I just find it strikingly absurd for the government to say, “Listen, we’ll protect you from war. No, we won’t build a bomb shelter and provide enough medical care. Instead, we’ll build lots of big shiny guns, and heavy bombs, and expensive planes, and we’re going to bring all this military splendor to the doorstep of Russia and we will declare it our main enemy.”
In my opinion, this is not called defence, but provoking war.
Because if you have a neighbour whom you consider dangerous, then you program the police number on speed dial and teach your household what to do in case of danger.
But you don’t train your wife and children to walk around the neighbour’s fence with guns, or arrange training targets at the neighbor’s windows, unless you’re a complete idiot, right?
Only Russia should spend billions on offensive weapons?
Just because….
OK….
What I’m saying is that there is no Russian NATO with hundreds of military bases around the world and warships and satellites on duty in every corner of the planet. Russian NATO does not roam the world looking for opponents and overthrowing governments, does not plunge countries into chaos and does not bring destruction to peaceful people. The non-existent Russian NATO did not declare your country its No. 1 military threat, did not organize PR campaigns in the form of mass murders under your flag, and did not agitate its allies to spend more money on your destruction.
So yes, you specifically should invest not in offensive weapons, but in good education for diplomats and government officials. The stupidity of many exceeds the threshold of tolerance. Here they even joke very rudely about some women in high positions in Western countries that having sex with such a fool can be equated to bestiality. Sorry.
Yes Tatyana, you are right about the comparison between Russia and the NATO block. There are many of us in these countries who are aware of this and who are ashamed of the behaviour of our governments. We are also aware of the huge price your people paid in the Second World War and we respect you for it and we are deeply grateful.
Please don’t think we are all as ignorant as our political leaders .
“Only Russia should spend billions on offensive weapons?”
“Cet animal est mechant, quand on attaque, il se defend”
‘Defence’, yeah, right… The UK, US and other governments are obssessed with missiles, submarines, helicopters – all death machines and power projection. It’s a miracle all that suicidal, macho dick waving hasn’t resulted in nuclear war yet.
The weapons makers – Boeing, Lockheed, Raytheon etc etc. are the main beneficiaries – and the politicians who receive the lobbying money from them.
One country using the latest in high-tech killing machinery is, of course, Israel.
While the mainstream media (barring Al Jazeera) is now wall-to-wall Trump assassination attempt, the latest Israeli massacre of ninety civilians goes completely unreported by the BBC and Sky. To these pious corporations, those Palestinian lives literally do not matter.
As is usual, now, the Israelis also targeted ambulances, in the aftermath of the initial strike… that regime is as sick as they come – and fully endorsed by Starmer, Sunak, Biden, Trump, the EU etc. etc. Just keep voting…
And the Biden comment- ” let’s make Trump a bullseye ” – certainly came to pass.
More and more Biden comes across as murderous old man. His administration through the corruption of the justice system have tried everything to jail, disbar and destroy Trump. This is how Biden whose team want war works.
Well Joe you certainly got your wish to make Donal Trump a bullseye. Maybe it’s time old Joe was like Mussolini strung up. A horrible statement you might say and of course it is. Not a way to run a country. But grimly that is how Biden’s administration works. But you know that Craig. You were a bullseye, Alex Salmond was a bullseye, Julian Assange was a bullseye.
And now we know why the USA put the right to bear arms into their constitution. To give citizens the right to weaponry should the British colonialists come back or to resist bad government that turns against the people. Sadly, in a jungle you get eaten by the big beasts if you don’t push back. Certainly not suggesting that citizens in the UK bear arms. Gun deaths in the US illustrate what damage guns can do. but how do you stop the big beasts
“Certainly not suggesting that citizens in the UK bear arms. ”
Why not? The last time the UK citizens “bore arms” we had the only properly socialist government in our history. The purpose of gun control is to prevent that sort of thing happening again.
In any case, there is just as high gun ownership in Canada and nothing like the number of people shot. The Americans are just a trigger-happy bunch as was amply proved in WWII, it’s not a universal human trait.
And the Biden comment- ” let’s make Trump a bullseye ” – certainly came to pass.
More and more Biden comes across as murderous old man. His administration through the corruption of the justice system have tried everything to jail, disbar and destroy Trump. This is how Biden whose team want war works.
Well Joe you certainly got your wish to make Donal Trump a bullseye. Maybe it’s time old Joe was like Mussolini strung up. A horrible statement you might say and of course it is. Not a way to run a country. But grimly that is how Biden’s administration works. But you know that Craig. You were a bullseye, Alex Salmond was a bullseye, Julian Assange was a bullseye.
And now we know why the USA put the right to bear arms into their constitution. To give citizens the right to weaponry should the British colonialists come back or to resist bad government that turns against the people. Sadly, in a jungle you get eaten by the big beasts if you don’t push back. Certainly not suggesting that citizens in the UK bear arms. Gun deaths in the US illustrate what damage guns can do. but how do you stop the big beasts
You’ve got some idiotic Biden supporters on social media, claiming the whole thing was staged to make Trump look good.
Two people died and two were critically injured. The idea that the ‘Deep State,’ which Trump often criticises, would cooperate in some bizarre plot to clip his ear with a bullet – a few centimetres from instant death – is utterly ridiculous.
And these are the self-proclaimed ‘sensible’ people who regularly accuse Trump supporters of conspiratorial BS.
Though the right are also at it : Republican Rep, Mike Collins posted this: “Joe Biden sent the orders.”
The rhetoric from senior Democrats implying Trump is a ” fascist” who will end US democracy and usher in an era of dictatorship, is totally irresponsible. Of course there’s a risk that some interpret that as a literal call to fight fascism by any means necessary.
None of them believe it for a second either; the US has constitutional protections to prevent such things, even if Trump and the GOP were so inclined : he isn’t, nor are those in his party.
Groups like ‘HOPE not hate’ and those online who label anyone who’s an inch to the right or left of their very narrow centrist political views, as ‘fascists,’ or Stalinists’, ‘Tankies.’ Those who like to classify anyone they disagree with as a dangerous extremist. The people who throw around ‘anti-Semite’ accusations like confetti. They need to take a long hard look at themselves too.
In recent years, here in the UK, we’ve seen Corbyn attacked and someone attempt to kill him by lethally driving a vehicle at him; we’ve seen Galloway brutally attacked; we’ve seen Farage have things thrown over him. Most of the violence is coming from ‘extreme centrists’ who believe they are fighting either communism or fascism, due to state-backed NGO campaigns, and other operatives pushing those warped claims.
It might be staged, not by the Dems, or the Republicans. Why, because the whole election and administration is theatre of the absurd. Allowing the doddering Biden to remain president is just plain taking the Mickey.
There’s hardly any blood dripping of his ear; as if the bullet clipped his ear. When he went down they just slapped on some moulage. And then he’s doing the heroic salutes,. give me break! And like Fico all his haters have to eat humble pie.
Hollywood comes to town!
There’s a picture of the bullet trail, in flight, caught by a camera using a very high shutter speed maybe 1/2000th of a second or faster. It was a real assassination attempt.
Questions are now focused on the shooter’s background: reportedly a Republican who became a Democrat .. it seems odd. Questions about why a drone didn’t survey of the area or if one did why it wasn’t conducted properly since the shooter was clearly visible, laying flat with his rifle. The fact the shooter was killed near instantaneously too, by security service snipers, after taking his shots: why didn’t they see him earlier through their high-powered scopes? Why didn’t they take Trump off stage? Weapon type, bullets used it’ll all emerge, no doubt.
Because it’s staged, they didn’t need to, no one was going to get hurt. Coincidentally Violet Gibson clipped Mussolini’s nose in an assassination attempt but he went on as normal, rather like Trump’s heroic poses when there was still a possibility of other shooters. Benito was a right-wing dictator and many say Trump will be too, if elected.
The crowd saw the shooter, apparently informed the police who did nothing – crap! The shooter was positioned where there police and security services should have taken guard as it was a perfect shot, obviously, to clip Trumpity-trumps ear. The police just say – close it down, don’t let Trump on the stage until we’ve checked. But then there would be no standing down of the police narrative. And the police snipers were suddenly aware of where he was and took him out straight away, but they weren’t aware of him, but some in the crowd were, because, uhh, they were better positioned than seasoned professionals.
There is or was a photo on the BBC where his midriff is covered in blood, implying that the blood from his ear declined his shoulder and jumped down to his liver area. Oddly the only Wiki page on the shooter is in German. There was an English language version with a picture of him at about age 14, but it has now disappeared. And like Fico’s shooter who was pro-Russian shooting a ‘pro–russian’ PM;Trump’s shooter was registered Republican but donated to the Democrats.
Add this to Trump’s court case with photos of him posing defiantly, in court, nice lighting, fighting the ‘deep state’, whatever that is.
Ronald Reagan survived an attempt on his life, like Trump he was an actor – what a coincidence.
Theatre, like a number of other ‘assassinations’.
You reckon Trump was in on it, Ewan2?
If he was, Trump showed remarkable composure and bravery.
Knowing he was about to be shot on the side of the ear from a few hundred yards, he still bobbed and weaved, turning around working the crowd, not staying still for a moment.
Jaja, that’s some remarkable marksmanship going on there, still able to just nick a ear despite all that movement. The gunman was just willing to take one for the team too, I suppose.
It’s called acting.
Trump is not a sitting president, Goose. His secret service security detail at any one time will only be 20-30 guys & girls. That’s not enough to fully check everything beyond the outer perimeter. They’ll have had help from local law enforcement, but they’re overstreched as it is (Americans don’t like paying taxes) – and many of them are just “at-the-end-of-day-all-that-matters-is-I-go-home” time-servers (see Ulvade).
It appears that the SS snipers on the roof did see the shooter beforehand, as both of them started looking through their scopes in that direction for about 40 seconds before the shooting started. It looks like there’s a slight dip in the factory building’s roof which might have partially concealed him – they may have thought he was just a guy with a camera lens or a stick at first. If they’d killed an innocent guy, they’d have been in trouble. The shooter’s gun looks like a common or garden AR-15 – the bullets will have been .223 Rem.
E: “It’s called acting.”
Uh huh. So you take one point, dismiss it with a ludicrous, unsubstantiated claim, and totally ignore everything else.
This is what gets me about conspiracy theorists – you’re all so boringly predictable in bog-standard denials (“crisis actors”, etc), and also chicken out of answering the blindingly obvious holes in your fantasies.
“There is or was a photo on the BBC where his midriff is covered in blood, implying that the blood from his ear declined his shoulder and jumped down to his liver area”
Not seen such a picture and all the others have his white shirt clean of blood.
“It’s called acting.”
How does “acting” help you hit a 10mm square moving target at several hundred yards range on a windy day?
If he wasn’t supposed to be actually hitting Trump, why was he aiming so close?
….Also just reading the shooter had no social media footprint either. Nothing. So he either scrubbed it, or someone else has. Either that or he’s been living off grid in a hut in the woods like Ted Kaczynski aka ‘the Unabomber’ did.
That’s the most weird piece of information so far, as usually those feeling strongly enough to carry through an act like this, post lots of angry tirades against the target of their hostility, beforehand.
Note to self. stop being conspiratorial.
G:“…the shooter had no social media footprint either. Nothing.”
Neither have I.
Yes glenn we know and we will be watching your next move closely lol
Frankly Goose I do not see the USA as much of a democracy.
The gulf between the rich and poor is absolutely huge. Something like 60 million Americans have no healthcare. Many more are under insured and of course when health disaster strikes many have to sell the house and go bankrupt to pay for the health bills. But its not just in heath that one see inequality. Travel America and you will see the poor in their swathes in cities, town and rural areas. It’s every where and folks know it.
And of their carefully crafted democratic system. It is utterly corrupted with big money. Indeed you only need to look at the money needed to try to become president and you get the idea that democracy the system is not. Maybe there was a day when America was ahead of the curve, when they had good employment, when they were world class producers – but is that now. Like Britain their economic prowess and living standards are dropping big time – whilst certain corporates clean up as they do.
Looking to the other side of the world China for all the evils that are cast at it seem to be doing things right. Maoism didn’t work but China now under a communist regime is making huge progress in every area by it seems through what appears to be state regulated capitalism. With out a shadow of a doubt the transformation of China from a paddy field to where it is today is astounding. They grow and excel whilst the USA and it’s junior lap dog the UK economies and living standards bomb.
So who is the democracy Goose. Its a good question asked honestly. Or is the UK a democracy and delivering for its people. That’s another good question honestly asked. Of course it largely depends on who you ask. King Charles, as one example, would no doubt tell you the answer to that.
But maybe one last question about democracy. The American, and indeed British military and industrial complex is making a fortune selling lethal weaponry to Israel to allow them to devastate Gaza. Is that another example of American democracy?
Seems that it is – just like we have the Mother of all Parliaments.
American citizens without healthcare will be the only survivors of the corrupt system.
Pattern emerging of Labour candidates who lost to pro-Palestine independents, contesting the result, with claims of foul play e.g. claims of anonymous leafleting and attempts to link those who won with extremism. They are calling for the police to investigate. Basically behaving like sore losers, trying to overturn the results.
The new #MeToo movement?
What about HOPE not hate’s extensive ground campaign activities and leafleting against Craig and George, among others. Do these ex-Labour MPs think that was fair?
The reason why ‘HOPE not hate’ are a menace to democracy is because it’s not openly affiliated to any party; it’s ostensibly a neutral organisation. Thus it presents itself as offering objective factual information to voters. In reality however, it’s deeply subjective; giving voters highly selective information that is clearly aimed at damaging certain candidates.
Plus, it’s easy for a voter to dismiss and bin Labour or Tory campaign literature, as they know it’ll be highly biased. But a leaflet from a supposedly neutral outfit like HNH has a good chance of being read. I don’t know what Craig thinks about this, but I know Galloway was v.angry about their activities in Rochdale.
Sorry for labouring this point (no pun int.)
But look at the ridiculous spending advantages to big two parties already have over independents and small parties like WPGB. The permitted spend has been set at £54,010 x the number of seats your party is contesting in each part of Great Britain. :
England £29,327,430 (543 x £54,010)
Scotland £3,078,570 (57 x £54,010)
Wales £1,728,320 (32 x £54,010)
That’s how much they can(and do) spend to get their lousy 52% turnout.
That’s not enough though, because you’ve also got these sketchy NGOs turning up to campaign too. Further cementing the crappy status quo in place. We need PR.
Nails it. The UK still has some tattered remnants of its imperial ambitions with none of the resources necessary to achieve them. It’s an embarrassment managing its own decline, and managing it poorly. That it continues to do so under a so-called “Labour” government with the narrowest of mandates is evidence of something sinister which merely cloaks itself with the stolen valour of “democracy.”
I look forward to watching them sink into the North Atlantic horizon from the other side …
“The Establishment is hacking away at the foundations of public consent to be governed.”
Meanwhile those of us who viewed neoliberal economics of wealth, neocon manifesto, “Total Global Military Domination” foreWARned 7 years prior, scapegoating of “populists”, new “Cold War”, new McCarthyism, provocations of Russia (see Taibbi, Hedges, “Russiagate” lies exposed, Twitter), followed by “Pivot to China.”
Today, parallel Independent Journalists, TRUTH is CENSORED by (see Tucker Carlson / Mike Benz, “Censorship Industrial Complex”) algorithm A.I, “Rumble”:
https://rumble.com/v4dxvjo-ep.75-tucker-carlson-interviews-mike-benz.html
Russia didn’t get us into this bloody mess, US/Nato did. The west has a bunch of very incompetent, warmongers in the EU/UK governing structures, The US is falling/has fallen apart politically which makes one ask who is creating the policies and running the country? Sickening the way the msm follow it all so closely just gobbling it up. A lot of what we hear from the EU countries/UK/US is bombast and not really a threat to anything – Russia pops a bomb onto a munition train entering Kharkov and blows it up, it seems to do this all the time – and nato/west can’t keep up – good thing. But we cannot go on like this. The president of a little country in Europe is trying his best to get a resolution but he has very little support in the west. Sadly, he seems to be a zionist – anyone have any other info on Orban. And the massacre in Palestine goes on. The west is completely responsible for this awful, horrible, cruel mess both in Palestine and Ukraine! What can we do???
Damn those Ukrainians for their brutal and unprovoked invasion of Russia.
FFS.
Russia’s defence of the Donbass certainly wasn’t unprovoked. Anyone who has been following the events over the last 10 plus years knows that!
What does FFS mean? [ Mod: Try a websearch ]
The Donbass is part of Ukraine.
Not Russia’s to defend.
“The Donbass is part of Ukraine.”
Its full of Russians.
Well it is now…
It had a large number of Russian speakers but that alone doesn’t make them Russians.
So they have to live in a failing, impoverished state whose official idealogy is predicted on hating them forever?
To maintain the sanctity of borders drawn by dead Bolsheviks, at Russia’s expense?
——————-
@ Pears Morgaine:
Turns for an ethnic “Ukrainian” to become an ethnic “Russian” takes little more than saying so.
Because it’s a regional difference much more than a national one. At least outside Galicia.
This is also why Ukrainian nationalism can’t be anything other than inherently hostile to Russia. Because without being an anti-Russia, Ukraine doesn’t have much of a basis to exist.
‘The Donbass is part of Ukraine.’
No longer. Check the last democratic vote.
‘Not Russia’s to defend.’
Ukraine is not a member of NATO so not NATO’s to defend either.
There’s little honesty on either side.
According to the UK, US; EU and NATO leaders, everyone in Kherson, Zaporizhia; Donetsk and Luhansk was perfectly happy with the Maidan revolution; happy that the president they overwhelmingly elected (near 90% support in some parts of the East) being removed in a coup. That is a lie, it’s demonstrably false.
Have Russia supported, armed and fanned the grievances in the East? Of course they have.
The only viable future Ukrainian state imho, is one with the rebellious East cut adrift. There is no viable unified, united Ukrainian state incorporating the rebellious East to be had. How could the East send representatives, or be trusted ever again in Kyiv? Western Ukraine is a perfectly viable unified state however.
Part of any future peace deal could guarantee Ukraine security via fast- tracked NATO membership, and EU membership. And that would be the hard concession Russia would have to make for the territory.
Pears Morgaine
No it is not only russiophone but the majority are ethnic russians.
According to the 2001 census, ethnic Ukrainians form 58% of the population of Luhansk Oblast and 56.9% of Donetsk Oblast. Ethnic Russians form the largest minority, accounting for 39% and 38.2% of the two oblasts respectively. In the present day, the Donbas is a predominately Russophone region.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donbas
And in Crimea these facts is even more evident.
Of course there is no way Ukraine could or even should rule this area ever considering their view of ethnic russians or should I say “traitors” as the ukrainian regime look upon ethnic russians. You could imagine the human rights violations, pogroms against ethnic russians would face if the ukrainian regime ever get any juridiction over this area again.
” Check the last democratic vote. ”
I’m not even sure when that happened. Certainly before 2014.
” No it is not only russiophone but the majority are ethnic russians. ”
” According to the 2001 census, ethnic Ukrainians form 58% of the population of Luhansk Oblast and 56.9% of Donetsk Oblast. ”
???????????????
Fnar! I notice that you omit their war on the Donbas loyalists….
Ukraine was planned in Congress in 2013. I watched the debate. Bernie shared it. The Ukrainians democratically elected a pro Russia president. A revolution on the streets of Kyiv sent him into exile. Kolnoyski, a Ukrainian Israeli dual national billionaire created a television series about a fictional president of Ukraine, played by a comedian called Zelensky. The state of emergency means there are no recent elections to keep him in the real job. The Azov Nazis were shelling the Russian speaking regions and cut off their infrastructure spending, for schools, hospitals, pensions etc. The debate included concerns voiced about provoking Putin to come to the defence of the Russian speaking regions. Concerns for the safety of Ukrainians: ‘We regret the sacrifice of the Ukrainian people’ and concerns that the intended conflict might spread beyond Ukraine into Europe: ‘Fuck Europe.’ Victoria Nuland made these declarations. She is now Biden’s arch warmonger. Putin held back until the Russian speaking regions voted to secede from Ukraine.
The direct delivery of gas to Europe via Nordstream was the reason the US needed to prevent Putin obtaining Euros, and avoiding paying in dollars to deliver gas to Europe via Ukraine. The gas under Gaza will be delivered to Europe, and Turkey, via Cyprus, Greece, and on, and Israel made it clear that it would never allow the Palestinian Authority to negotiate with Britain or Europe, to manage the extraction and supply.
It is all of a piece, and so stopping the evil seems impossible, but we are sitting ducks, having no experience of war in our lifetimes. It is something we export, or have done up until now.
Regrettably, Gaius Baltar’s assessment last year seems quite realistic.
https://gaiusbaltar.substack.com/p/why-is-the-west-so-weak-and-russia
I just want to point out that if the UK emulates the US Health system, the cost will increase from 10% of GDP to 18% of GDP.
In addition health insurance cost will increase the cost of labour to such an extent that all manufacturing will leave to UK.
The cost of state pensions will be much reduced though as fewer people will live long enough to claim it.
But the oligarchs will be happy, Pears
In the film “Bulworth”,, a comedy made in the 1990’s, we see an American Senator who goes off-message due to moral disgust with himself and the completely corrupt political system that he operates in. Without going through the whole plot, the lobby group who are in the vanguard of the attack against him after he rebels, are the medical insurance lobby. It’s a funny film with some very serious undertones
If these gangsters, ie the medical insurance lobby get their hooks into the British population the country will be a lot poorer and a lot sicker
Ben, it’s an economic axiom that one man’s cost is another man’s profit. Should what you predict come to pass, the outcome will be that the super-rich will gain another 8% of UK GDP. Although at this rate, it may not amount to very much.
How the (US) has been undermining Ukraine to get at Russia since at least 1948.
“The U.S. thus covertly kept Ukrainian fascist ideas alive inside Ukraine until at least Ukrainian independence was achieved.
Mykola Lebed, Bandera’s wartime chief in Ukraine, died in 1998.
He is buried in New Jersey, and his papers are located at the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University, the U.S. National Archives study says.
The successor organization to the OUN-B in the United States did not die with him, however. It had been renamed the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), according to IBT.
“By the mid-1980s, the Reagan administration was honeycombed with UCCA members. Reagan personally welcomed [Yaroslav] Stetsko, the Banderist leader who oversaw the massacre of 7,000 Jews in Lviv, in the White House in 1983,” IBT reported. “Following the demise of [Viktor] Yanukovich’s regime [in 2014], the UCCA helped organise rallies in cities across the US in support of the EuroMaidan protests,” it reported.
That is a direct link between the U.S.-backed 2014 Maidan coup against a democratically-elected Ukrainian government and WWII-era Ukrainian fascism. ”
https://consortiumnews.com/2024/06/10/using-ukraine-since-1948/
This is scarily true, as those of us who once dreamed of real change under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn know to their cost. I voted Labour in 2019 – but never will again while the present regime is in power. I celebrate those who, like you, Craig, stood for election on an honest platform for a fairer society and an end to the widening inequalities we experience every day.