I cannot think of a period in my lifetime when so much was happening in the world so quickly with which it feels that, as a reluctant UK citizen, I have a direct connection and indeed responsibility.
Race riots in the UK, the genocide in Gaza, the attacks on civil liberty and decline in effective democracy across the western world, the ever darkening reach of mass surveillance, including of the individual’s use of currency; those are just a few of the issues in play and the links between all of them are intimate and inextricable.
I do not believe that the race riots have been fomented in order to provide an excuse to crack down further on civil liberties. But that Starmer – whom I suspect will prove to be the most authoritarian Prime Minister in British history – is seizing on them for that prupose is undeniable.
In particular the announcement that the already deeply worrying Online Safety Act will be amended, to give the state still greater power over information sources like the one which you are currently reading, could signal a massive blow to internet freedom.
Publication of “misinformation” is to be criminalised – which means the official narrative will be enforced on social media.
Given that, for example, the government has relentlessly promoted the demonstrably false stories of mass rape by Palestinians on October 7, while studiously failing to notice the vast amount of unquestionable evidence in the last fortnight of systematic rape of Palestinian prisoners on a vast scale by the Israeli Defence Force, no reasonable person can fail to understand the danger of the enforcement of state-approved “truth”.
Articles like my dissection of the state narrative on the Skripals look set to be deemed a threat to the “online safety” of the nation. Alternative narratives over Covid, over 9/11, over the death of David Kelly – any deviation from the official line is liable to be deemed criminal.
Meanwhile, with “two-tier justice” being the latest right wing mantra, we find that race rioters who set fires in inhabited buildings and threw rocks at policemen, in fact get lighter sentences than environmentalists involved in planning non-violent actions.
Predictably, we are already seeing the unrest used as a justification for increased usage of facial recognition technology. 24/7 state surveillance of the individual is no longer a wild dystopian fear.
Looking further afield, the narrative is moved on by the claims that an ISIS-linked terrorist in Austria planned to attack a Taylor Swift concert. This plays nicely into the Taylor Swift theme of the dance class where the girls were horribly murdered in Southport, and reinvigorates the flagging wave of Islamophobia.
Given that ISIS cooperates closely with both Israel and the CIA and has avoided attacking Israel or western targets, while I still can without being locked up may I express my scepticism at this item of news management.
Islamophobia is of course an important link between events here and in the Middle East. While there is of course a small Palestinian Christian minority, there is no doubt that hatred of Muslims is a large driver in the Israeli dehumanisation of Palestinians that paves the psychological grounds for genocide, mass rape and torture.
Here Israel is just acting as the Western colonial enterprise that it is. As the West has sought to seize the physical resources of the Middle East – the hydrocarbons of Iraq, Syria and Libya and the lands of the Palestinians – the deliberate promulgation of Islamophobia at home has driven public support for these ventures, though that public support is thankfully a dwindling commodity.
After decades of being fed nonsense about a war of civilisations and the dangers of Islamic terrorism, whipping up anti-immigrant mobs has not been difficult. It does not require too deep an analysis of the nexus of Islamophobia and wider racism to understand that.
But it is also true that Zionist interests have been extremely keen to stoke this unrest, as a counter-narrative to the mass popular support for Palestine which the genocide has engendered among western populations.
What’s causing the Islamophobic riots across the UK, and why now?
1. The riots have been instigated by the Zionist asset Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (‘Tommy Robinson’), who has been working for the State of Israel since 2009 as part of the so-called ‘counterjihad’ Islamophobia…
— David Miller (@Tracking_Power) August 3, 2024
It is also well worth reading this thread from Lowkey
Tommy Robinson has previously stated he would “fight for Israel in a war.”
This thread examines Robinson and EDL’s very clear material relationship with the Zionist Movement and considers the possibility that the racist attacks and pogroms in Britain are part of that fight.
— Lowkey (@Lowkey0nline) August 4, 2024
It is also of course impossible to ignore the role of born-again Zionist Elon Musk and his cohort in whipping up the Islamophobic and racist narrative.
These people, of course, always support free movement for themselves. Elon Musk is in fact an immigrant from Africa, whereas “Tommy Robinson” is an immigrant in Spain.
Predictably the state has countered with the anti-semitism narrative, and rather hilariously they have yet again brought out the utterly ludicrous claims of the “Community Security Trust” of an increase in “anti-semitic incidents”.
This time the Trust are claiming a 210% increase in anti-semitic incidents, which is quite modest by their standards. I have pointed out again and again that any journalist with a Maths O-level would have been able to work out that their claims of increases in attacks between 45% and 300% every year for twenty years simply cannot be true or there would now be many hundreds of thousands of attacks on Jewish people per year and thankfully that is plainly untrue.
Every single year since 2005 the Community Security Trust has claimed an increase in anti-semitic incidents of between 42% and 300%. “Journalists” like Peston always retail this.
If true there would now be at least 36,000 violent anti-semitic attacks a year.
Average number of… https://t.co/Tf3Mx7mBj0 pic.twitter.com/bQbjITXgOg— Craig Murray (@CraigMurrayOrg) October 10, 2023
I suppose if the lie works as propaganda, they simply stick with it. But there could hardly be a starker illustration of the pathetic enslavement of mainstream media journalists that nobody ever queries these plainly impossible claims.
It is also worth noting that as the CST – which gets £12 million a year from the Home Office – construes references to “apartheid Israel” as anti-semitic incidents, then the ICJ Opinion on the Occupied Territories would count as an anti-semitic incident by these Home Office sponsored standards!
Finally, while the racist tide appears to be receding, I commend everybody who got out there to counter-protest. It is extremely dangerous to allow fascists the run of the streets and we must remain both nimble and active.
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Has anyone watched the 8-hour documentary series Corridors of Power: Should America Police the World? on BBC iPlayer? On the face of it, and after a few minutes viewing, it seems like a collection of the world’s worst war criminals boasting about their crimes.
Saw it listed, took a moment to process the question, answered “No” and wondered why anyone would take eight hours of detailing the USA’s appalling behaviour with (dis)respect to other countries and unending parade of war crimes to come up with “Yes” at the end of it (surely the not-so-hidden agenda here). At least it is an admission that the USA has indeed usurped this role, with absolutely no justification at all other than its obvious belief that “might is right”. Which is probably okay with most so-called “democrats”, “Christians” etc, since kowtowing to the alpha male is apparently the basic human position.
America should stop going round the world murdering people and stealling their resources.
The only Rule in the Rules Based Order is: America can do as it likes. Everyone else must do as America says. M.K. Bhadrakumar has an excellent blog post today about US meddling in Bangladesh and neighbouring countries. All in the name of “democracy” of course.
I gritted my teeth and watched the first episode, For Every Insect there is an Insecticide, although the title should perhaps have more aptly been James Baker’s phrase, around 41′ in: “Money’s Worth Fighting Over”. Well, the Cold War bankrupted the USA as well as the USSR, but zombie capitalism keeps on rolling, eating people’s brains until the end. If it continues like this, with only USAmerican voices, it surely violates BBC ‘principles’ of impartiality (unless there’s a 24-part epic on Communism: The Good Bits in the works).
Time for a cricket joke.
Regarding Donald Trump’s misrecollection of a helicopter ride, the truth has now come out:
the passenger was Holden, the non-passenger’s Willie! [*]
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/10/trump-helicopter-ride-nate-holden-willie-brown
*The passenger was Nate Holden, the non-passenger was Willie Brown.
Footnote
Donald Trump will do himself an injury one of these days, “doubling down” on obvious provable falsehoods.
Robinson admits he’s a Zionist.
“Yet, indications that the EDL’s activities served quite another nation’s interests were always unambiguously hidden in plain sight. The League never operated as a charity or political party in Britain, but two separate commercial entities were registered under its name. In June 2011, Robinson’s compatriots launched a company, the English Defence League. A month later, this was updated to the English and Jewish Defence League. Meanwhile, a firm known as EDL English Defence League LTD was registered in December 2010.
Two years later, the company’s name became the Jewish Defence League and one of its directors, Roberta Moore, a belligerent Zionist, established links with Jewish Task Force, a far-right U.S. organization. Founded by Victor Vancier, it espouses a hardcore, fundamentalist Zionism. Despite raising money for illegal settlements in the West Bank and avowedly seeking to “save” Israel, Vancier was banned from entering Tel Aviv for his involvement in 18 bombings in New York and Washington, protesting Soviet treatment of Jews during the 1980s.
This connection was reportedly too “extreme” for EDL higherups, who subsequently distanced themselves from Moore and their “Jewish” wing. However, this is difficult to rationalize with Robinson’s own views. In February 2019, a leaked video depicted the former League chief declaring his love for Israel and discussing how, on some occasions, he is forced to “get [his] Zionist card out, which says that [he is] a Zionist.” The clip ended with him proudly declaring:
Palestine?! F*** Palestine. Why would you support Palestine? If there was a war tomorrow, which probably there would be, I would be there on the front line fighting for Israel”.”
https://www.mintpressnews.com/tommy-robinson-zionist-agenda-hidden-forces-behind-uk-race-riots/288108/
Another “beautiful” story on Nagasaki memorial:
“Western ambassadors to Japan announced that they would not attend an upcoming ceremony commemorating the victims of the US 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki because the city’s mayor did not invite the Israeli ambassador.”
Patrick Lawrence on Scheerpost confirms what I stated earlier the year, when I said that the “Israeli lobby” reaches only as far as this relationship benefits the US ruling class. Israel is eventually still nothing more than a client state:
“(…)The United States’ power (…) rests at bottom on material advantage, as Western hegemony has done for the past 500 years. It coerces, bribes, and threatens, of course, but it can also invade and destroy—all this to state the very obvious. Reducing this to the simplest terms, while the Pentagon could invade Israel were it ordered to do so, the Israel Defense Forces could not invade the U.S. The latter, indeed, is incapable of invading even Lebanon or Iran without the assurance of American backing.(…)
The United States is still the imperium of our time, and Israel is still among its clients, albeit one complicated by various factors (…) Do you think the Pentagon just sent immense flotillas into the eastern Mediterranean because it is worried about the Jews of Israel? It is about power, and this the U.S. has not sold. Implicit in all the demonstrations we have seen this year, indeed, is the correct assumption that America could sink Netanyahu’s boat any time it chooses to do so. Don’t let the moment fool you: Bibi, as history will show, is at bottom merely a passing punk.(…)”
It is important to never forget this since somehow the criticism as correct and important as it is tends to overlook the hierarchies and the source of the true power and those who are genuinely responsible. Washington could shut down this massacre with a single phone call. And there is nothing Israel could – and would – do about it.
AG.
‘the “Israeli lobby” reaches only as far as this relationship benefits the US ruling class’.
The Israel lobby is a large part of the US ruling class and in matters pertaining to Israel its influence dominates even if the effects thereof are against the perceived self interests of the rest of the US ruling class. This is a result of the ruling class letting Zionist propaganda run too strong for too long.
@ Carlyle Moulton
It isn’t a lobby, it’s a proxy. The domination of the US legislature by Zionists is at the pleasure of American Caesar who is free to do as he pleases without serious challenge by Congress. It is the Zionists rendering unto Caesar. The British state has been using them for a couple of decades too.
“of American Caesar”
Ok then so who or what is “American Caesar”?
As to whether it is a proxy or a lobby, I’m not sure it really matters
Finnish political scientist Tuomas Malinen found an interesting quote from Woodrow Wilson to support his recent essay which attempts to describe the forces pushing for Armageddon at this present time which he has put up on his sub stack
“Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.”
― Woodrow Wilson The New Freedom(1913)
Malinen says he has spent the last six months doing analysis on global capital flows and governance and has been trying to identify whether there is layer of political control above the level of the currently described power structures (ep nation state, UN, EU etc ) using the tools statistical analysis
The impetus for this work Malinen explains in this vid talking to K Almassian, is his personal realisation that Sanna Marin, the Finnish PM, might be talking orders from outside the country concerning the public health response to Covid. Malinen proclaims he is “an empiricist” regarding all forms of conspiratorial thinking then suggests that his research so far has described an “anomaly” in global systems that there is indeed some supranational force pushing for conflict and indeed for large scale destruction, even global war. I will follow his progress with interest.
https://rumble.com/v5aad17–the-apocalypse-scenario-part-iii-syriana-analysis-w-tuomas-malinen.html
In 1919 former President Woodrow Wilson had this to say about his tenure at the White House
“I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. ”
Woodrow Wilson, speaking to American Mercury magazine
It might fit your Malinen.
“Economic Overlords Are Destroying Democracy — and Our Lives
An interview with Peter Phillips”
“Economic power is political power. We spoke with Peter Phillips, author of Titans of Capital, about how the capitalist class is subverting democracy and controlling the lives of billions through massive investments in everything from food to war.”
https://jacobin.com/2024/08/finance-titans-democracy-climate-davos
https://archive.is/vZ4qp
The book in question will come out Sept.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/760690/titans-of-capital-by-peter-phillips/
p.s. Admittedly I am not a friend of over-simplifying. Which is why I keep some distance to Davos explanation patterns focussing too much on that one thing. But Phillips being a sociologist I have faith that he is broader than that. The interview itself is not long and limited to the CEOs and Davos.
There appears to be a chapter on RU and CHINA too there which caught my interest. Since they do it differently. Especially in the case of RU that is important info since many progressives who reject NATO reject the RUs too with the argument that they are capitalists of the same breed. I haven´t been to Russia in 20 years. And back then I shared that view. But things have changed it seems.
Malinen makes the joke at the start of the interview – a conspiratorial friend asks if SPECTRE (as written by Ian Fleming lol) is running the world because of all the crazy events going on. He was about to dismiss such rantings but then realised by the use of statistical analysis he might be able to come to some sort of approximatation because there is a lot of hard data about that is directly relatable to such an project
Speaking in 1913 Wilson sounds, in todays censorious lexicon a complete whack job. He is talking about a concentration of power that the “biggest men” in America fear – SPECTRE lol
An opaque, apparently insubstantial structure that can become actualised when the need arises. It employs certain “gifted” individuals as well as co-opting various existing governmental, economic and military structures and intelligence structures. These individuals might be men Parvus or Trebitsch-Lincoln or even the legendary “Maxim Lazovsky” mentioned in “Blowing Up Russia”. The entity is on no organisational chart, Malinen suggests some sort of interaction between nation state leaders and those above and at this moment this interaction might be less than smooth
The book you mention describes the front end of this structure, the concentration of investments into a few hands, a hundred and seventeen people controlling fifty trillion dollars the author says! Yet behind this this public facade Malinen suggests there is something else, something unseen, a force that fits Wilson’s description from 1913. He was unable to model it until he introduced a certain type of variable which copes with unknowns at the expense of accuracy, of allowing the process, which he calls “instrumental estimation” to come up with models suggestive of supranational control
There was a court case in the 80’s when a lawyer, Daniel Sheehan, working for the Christic Insitute sued 28 CIA officers in connection with a bombing in Central America. Following Fletcher Prouty, he attempted to portray them as “the Secret Team”, working for unknown forces who attempted to control outcomes, military, political etc across the globe. Unlike Prouty, Sheehan saw this somewhat simplistically, with a brain at the CIA controlling all of these global activities. Sheehan lost the case and the Christic Institute had to pay considerable damages for wasting court time etc. Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, and several other well known performers played a free concert which raised enough cash to pay the damages that the Christic Institute were liable for
In the early 1980’s, the Christic Institute had sued on behalf of Karen Silkwood’s family – Silkwood was a union rep at a plutonium processing plant in Oklahoma who had died from plutonium poisoning. The film “Silkwood”(1983) is based on this story. You might find this story interesting AG, there is a lot in it that is potentially related to current events.
Errata
Karen Silkwood died in a car crash. She had been contaminated by plutonium and this was the basis of legal action which went to court in 1979 The payout was $15 million, then changed to $5000, finally settling at 1 million dollars whilst suggesting no liability for the plutonium processing company
The car crash came as she was going to meet a journalist and a union official, to discuss information she had acquired regarding the plant’s operation amongst other matters
thx for the info.
I already had started to look into Malinen´s blog but have not come that far yet. His WWIII analysis was so-so. But I didn´t want to misjudge his work based on one item only which even was not his expertise. I liked his appearance with the Swiss guy…
Silkwood I still have to finish. Evil Amazon Prime had offered me a new free trial which I was corrupt enough to accept and which interrupted my watching it after I went back to some whistleblower stories.
It reminds me a bit of the Boeing whistleblower who “committed suicide”.
The CIA story I did not know about. Will look that up, indeed.
“Evil Amazon Prime had offered me a new free trial which I was corrupt enough to accept”
“One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all….” lol.
The Christic Institute were promoting “Liberation Theology” in Central and South America in the 70’s and 80’s but seemed to fade from the scene by Clinton’s second term in the 90’s. The murder of Archbishop Romero, in 1980 by Aubiusson’s assassins were a key episode both in El Salvador’s civil war and in the wider struggle across Central and South America. The image of a right wing death squad killing Romero whilst he celebrated mass, resonated across the region and is to be weighed against the liberation theologists and their history. Hugo Chavez was born in 1954 so would have been well aware of this bloody suppression of civil society that the rise of Liberation Theology provoked
This is an interview conducted with Doug Valentine, author of “The Phoenix Program”, recently. In the first forty minutes or so he discusses the Christic Institute, Silkwood and the personalities and events surrounding Sheehan’s failed legal action. The last portion begins a discussion of Valentine’s investigative work for the Christic Institute in attempting to find new evidence regarding Charlie Harrelson and his conviction for murdering a federal judge Woody Harrelson was paying big bucks, believing his father innocent and Valentine tells an interesting story which finishes in the following episode. Harrelson was shooting “Natural Born Killers” at the time. CharIie Harrelson claimed he was working for the CIA and claimed he knew about drugs and other stuff. Valentine had several brushes with the “Dixie Mafia” whilst conducting the investigation
https://www.podbean.com/site/EpisodeDownload/DIR1DF78EDDBBAMH
ps what Swiss guy? – give us a link!
Carlyle Moulton
“dominates even if the effects thereof are against the perceived self interests of the rest of the US ruling class.”
How do we know this?
Asking seriously as I am not an expert on this. To research the inner working of this elite world and of what is going on there is a job in itself.
Was it not for this blog here and a few others I wouldn´t know about the Clintons. And that is just the most obvious of cases.
e.g.: Just to understand the minutes of the oil industry and what companies (“The Seven Sisters”-conundrum) are dealing is a very well kept secret to this very day.
The Israel lobby has been influencing US culture through film for a long time, as the late American scholar Jack Shaheen shows in his book and documentary “Reel Bad Arabs”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-xj7FKoKFQ
He looks at films I enjoyed decades ago like Cast a Giant Shadow (made in 1966) starring Kirk Douglas, Yul Brynner and John Wayne (and Chaim Topol playing an Arab, caricaturing a sheik as a buffoon). The film does not mention that, while the Jewish heroes were building a road to Jerusalem, the wholesale ethnic cleansing of Palestinians was going on North, South and West of the place, implementing “Plan D” of David Ben Gurion, as explained in Ilan Pappé’s book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.
The Israel lobby also influenced the American culture of previous generations through the novels of Leon Uris like Exodus (made into the famous 1960 film starring Paul Newman), and The Haj (1984), a novel that seemed to me to be so filled with hate towards all things Arab, that I wonder whether it was intended as a preparation for a Final Solution, by destroying or undermining Western public sympathy for Arabs. Israel started developing atomic weapons in the Negev at the time, which Mordechai Vanunu (there’s a good wiki article on him) blew the whistle on. He was lured from the UK to Italy by a woman Mossad agent, kidnapped to Israel, jailed for 18 years, and has had a restricted life there ever since, not allowed to communicate with foreigners or go within 500m of the border.
yes, the entertainment industry in this matter is a dark beast with its own set of rules, however, reaching beyond the limits of Israel. Almost the entirety of fictional produce when telling stories about geopolitics is of the most primitive kind. Arabs and Russians are regarded as the last just objects of our hatred and prejuidice. They are everything we are not and wish not to be. The result is a mass culture of crypto-racism. Culture unsurprisingly has always been at the fault line of empires. This was true for Ancient Greek theatre and it is for today´s shows concerned with foreign policy. And as much Preminger´s “Exodus” e.g. judged by its craftsmanship is a good movie, it was a piece of propaganda and laid the groundwork for what we experience today. It was of course necessary because the hatred had to be instilled in the audience at first. Nothing better for that than the movies.
AG.
I started reading newspapers in 1975. Then there were plenty of articles in those that I read sympathetic to the Palestinians. That is not the case today. Since then there has been a comprehensive campaign of defamation carried out against the Palestinians in all MSM and by all western governments specially that of the USA.
Now to find accurate/Palestine_Sympathetic articles one has to go to blogs or alternative media.
“I started reading newspapers in 1975. Then there were plenty of articles in those that I read sympathetic to the Palestinians. That is not the case today.”
Exactly. And that´s tragic, wisdom acquired by society now lost.
The Pentagon has a huge influence on screen fiction:
– My reticence to review the film has lifted after reading the latest investigations of Tom Secker and Matthew Alford into the manifold ways the U.S. military and security services interfere in Hollywood, based on a release of 4,000 pages of documents under Freedom of Information requests.
– In their new book “National Security Cinema,” the pair argue that the Pentagon, CIA and National Security Agency have meddled in the production of at least 800 major Hollywood movies and 1,000 TV titles. That is likely to be only the tip of the iceberg, as they concede:
– “It is impossible to know exactly how widespread this military censorship of entertainment is because many files are still being withheld.”
– They write that their book “details how U.S. government involvement also includes script rewrites on some of the biggest and most popular films, including James Bond, the Transformers franchise, and movies from the Marvel and DC cinematic universes.”
Jonathan Cook:
https://mondoweiss.net/2017/07/military-industrial-complex/
LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS has a comment on the riots by a Daniel Trilling with the title “This time it’s worse”.
https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2024/august/this-time-it-s-worse
If someone like me doesn´t know the players in this game of British press elites it need passages like this to unfortunately doubt every word Mr. Trilling says:
“(…) This was neither an entirely grassroots phenomenon nor a campaign orchestrated by foreign powers (though it wouldn’t be surprising if Russian propagandists were trying to make hay with the disorder). Rather, it is an integral part of the way far-right activists now operate.(…)”
How can an educated person involve the Russians? I know it´s a British game. But it´s painful to read such nonsense.
(After all there is at least one more person at LRB that agrees I assume when copy-reading.)
Or try to make sense of this:
“(…)It’s also important to resist the temptation to believe that the violence has a simple economic explanation. It’s no accident that much of the rioting is taking place in parts of the country from which political power and wealth have drained away as Britain has become a more unequal place – and where, as in many other places, vital social institutions that keep communities happy and healthy have been gutted by fourteen years of austerity economics. But these riots are not a cry of pain from the most deprived. They are perpetrated by people who can only find a sense of belonging by singling out and attacking others on the basis of their ethnicity, and who indulge in the destructive fantasy that their own frustrations will diminish so long as other people are having it worse.(…)”
He simply changes the line of argument: He starts with economy to then suddenly switch to psychology. A clumsy PR trick “elite” media are using all.the.time. It´s tiring to see this over and over again. Especially because it´s very deficient reasoning. It´s simply faulty.
So at some point I ask myself what is truly happening here. I don´t call Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn experts on British domestic politics but I posted earlier their comments with Kirn argueing very much along the old labour line (which Trilling in above quote decidedly contradicts).
I remember that in the 1980s much of British indie filmmaking was occupied with anti-immigration riots. And trying to explain matters Stephen Frears even turned to a novel adaptation of a gay relationship between someone we would call Neo-Nazi today (Punks of that sort don´t exist any more) and a gentleman from Pakistan. Followed by an even superior “Sami and Rosie Get Laid” (1987) where the best thing is not the attacks on Thatcher because that´s too simple and obvious for Frears but the constant sex in the midst of it all, not for spectacle but the wit behind the concept – and eventually for projecting empire onto the crimes of Pakistani elites.
That´s reality. Not this monolithic complaint by a Trilling. For certain his ways do not offer solutions.
However always rather enertaining are the readers´ comments on LRB when in fact made available.
One claims to be from Germany, I do not know if there is some hidden irony in it or if it´s as plain as it reads:
“(…)Watching from Germany, I have been surprised by the apparent inability of the police to round up the hooligans and restore control in so many cities. Haven’t they been trained to deal with large crowds?
The German police have had a lot of experience in dealing with large groups of demonstrators and have some effective methods for minimizing the damage on such occasions.
The marches of the Pegida supporters were kept far away from town centres and opposition groups. They adopt the “herding” method to make sure there is control over the various groups – the system is known as “Einkesseln” – to round up a large group of beings to stop them causing chaos of the sort we have seen over the past few days. In the days when we demonstrated against the construction of ” Startbahn West ” at Frankfurt the police would keep us captive in one place until the demonstration was over, which was also very effective when it came to getting names and addresses or confiscating fireworks and Mollies.
There would be some who protest but ensuring the safety of the targeted groups and minimizing the damage would soon silence the moaning Minnie’s. A few clicks on YouTube and you will soon find examples of these methods of crowd control. (…)”.
EDIT: May be this last post is better suited in the Forum under “England’s Summer of Discontent”.
Are you sure this cardboard pap in the LRB is worth so much attention? Use of concepts such as “sense of belonging” and “large crowds” seems completely superficial.
Interesting that few are talking about the disturbance in Leeds, where there was a multiethnic street response to the state capture of Roma children involving both police and social services. And there’s now been sime good news: the children have been returned to their families. The state backed down.
“Are you sure this cardboard pap in the LRB is worth so much attention?”
Yes, you are probably right. But in Germany 99% of media in fact repeat what you correctly call cardboard pap. So I wonder if established British media, the source the Germans use, is indeed that flat and useless. I have my doubts about LRB and Co. but responses like yours are helpful.
Yes, Leeds has been overlooked so far, judging from across the Channel.
Good morning everyone. So, not much build-up in the MSM today about tomorrow’s huger than huge interview between “civil war is inevitable” Musk and the last hope for preventing WW3, Trump. And you would have thought ad-space prices would have shot through the roof!
Perhaps it will be like the famous 2020 Rudy Giuliani post-election press conference outside the Four Seasons landscaping store in Philadelphia? More likely, it won’t happen. An especially interesting aspect is why no-one in the MSM is saying this.
they’re too consumed with gaslighting people about the goodness of Holocaust Harris. it’s now all hands to the pump in places like Guardian Towers and Portland Place.
‘Publication of “misinformation” is to be criminalised – which means the official narrative will be enforced on social media.’
No, it does not.
What is the official definition of misinformation?
Answer:- Any statement that if accepted as true would impede the interests of the ruling class as that class perceives things.
It’s actually quite easy to avoid falling foul of any such law if you apply a little thought. The MSM (mainly tabloids) avoid legal trouble; by using phrases like ‘sources told us’ and ‘according to rumours’. Ian Hislop, of BBC’s HIGNFY and editor of satirical magazine Private Eye, once commented, that liberal use of ‘allegedly’ steered his publication clear of many a legal issue.
I’ve absolutely no sympathy whatsoever though for those that incite violence; it’s perfectly possible to oppose what is essentially ‘economic’ migration – mainly by young men understandably seeking a better life – without resorting to racist and/or violent language. I even think there is a fair argument too, that if someone has passed through multiple ‘safe’ countries to finally reach our shores, they can no longer be considered a genuine refugee escaping unspecified persecution.
There is a very real ‘two-tier’ problem though; namely, the way the MSM can mislead without consequence and seemingly never have to correct, or face fines. The security services (who are deeply embedded in the BBC news department, and esp. world service) and increasingly sadly, the M.o.D, use the BBC to push disinformation and propaganda. Be it falsely attributed attacks in Syria, and more recently highly partisan pro-Ukrainian stuff … This is brazen, deliberate lying – far more serious and consequential than someone posting some amateur sleuth conjecture on social media, with fragments of a bigger puzzle. The sanctimonious BBC like to pose as the ‘keepers of truth’ too, with the ‘Verified’ flag often on display.
Cont.
Funny thing is, I don’t think the BBC was always a conduit for state propaganda, as it is now. In living memory the reporters were fiercely independent; respected people, who often attracted govt ire for their honest reporting.
The fault lies in the BBC’s highly politicised governance imho; the Director General is appointed by the BBC Board – but that board itself is tainted. Because: who appoints the Board? The Chairman and the non-executive members for the nations are appointed by HM The King on the recommendation of… Ministers.
BBC board chairman, Richard Sharp, had to resign, remember, after breaking rules over dealings with Boris Johnson ahead of his appointment. The analogy with the Fruit of the poisonous tree applies here (everything is tainted); the Director General appoints politically aligned news editors … and lower promotions go to those who aligned with their superiors.
The BBC’s highly politicised governance structure needs root and branch reform if we are stuck with it.
A colour TV Licence costs £169.50 per year. And looks set to be allowed to increase as Starmer and Reeves say they are committed to its continuation and will allow it to increase.
A not insignificant amount considering the UK’s ridiculous extortionate ISP broadband bills, and the increasing costs for streaming services.
A few years ago, in Sweden, a friend told me his (FTH) fiber to the home, 1Gbps up/down with 1ms latency, was costing the equivalent of £30 per month. An equivalent service in the UK is nearly three times that? And what’s with the UK’s ultra low upload speeds? Wonder if it has anything to do with not wanting to overwhelm the obnoxious, citizens rights infringing’ abomination that is bulk collection? Another thing that urgently needs disbanding, as the Lib Dem manifesto promised.
Labour MPs mocked Corbyn’s free broadband 2019 manifesto plans, but we need something done about these extortionate prices. If you are out of contract i.e. haven’t renewed after 12-18 months, ISPs can raise your bill by up to 40%, how can that be justified for the same service albeit sans a new contract?
The TV licence is regressive, as it impacts the poorest most. And to add insult to injury we have to pay for Tory propaganda due to Tory stooges at all levels in the BBC.
Stuff I honestly hate about the UK.
Correction: Seems what stated about UK broadband is out of date. UK ISP are now offering full fibre packages in the £30-£40 per month price range, giving that theoretical 1Gbps up/down.
Fibre to the premise(FTTP) at that price is quite a recent development though. Seems it pays to shop around if you’re a long time out of your initial broadband contract, as technology moves on.
– “Funny thing is, I don’t think the BBC was always a conduit for state propaganda, as it is now.”
Remember what happened with Dr David Kelly. The BBC reported truthfully, and so were forced to reveal their source, who promptly turned up dead. The BBC was blamed for this and its entire upper management was trashed by the government.
– “And what’s with the UK’s ultra low upload speeds?”
If you mean broadband over telephone lines, it’s a technical limitation. That system is known as ADSL – the ‘A’ stands for asymmetric. A powerful piece of kit (called a DSLAM if I remember rightly) is needed to push high bandwidth from exchange to subscriber; it uses considerable electrical power and thus needs good cooling, and screening to stop radio frequencies escaping and causing interference. The upstream signal is produced by a puny domestic router.
@Tatyana. I hope you are not anywhere near the invaded area of Kursk. Look after yourself and keep all vital paperwork in a travel bag ready to move. Thinking of you….
…I believe she is more like Krasnodar (?)
I think so!
Still close enough to Belgorod.
I’d be highly surprised if the Ukies go much further, and if people were in danger. Ukraine has always benefitted from the extreme length of the front, and with US satellite reconnaissance, they can easily find gaps, but the Russians only have to round up some troops to put a stop to it. This is a Battle of the Bulge.
Laguerre
Surely this is a Special Military Operation?
So what? Your comment puzzles me. Nobody’s surprised if the Ukies launch an offensive with American direct assistance and control.
Sorry Laguerre, that was sarcasm aimed at Putin, not you.
I do doubt if the UA are foolish enough to mimic Hitler’s attempt to reach (?) Antwerp.
There are plenty of interesting targets near Kursk.
Laguerre
How many Russian lives have been taken by HIMARS and other European systems like the Storm Shadow/SCALP-EG? Systems that Ukraine wouldn’t have a hope in hell of developing via its own defence industry. Some of these sophisticated systems are effectively US guided and controlled.
Russia must be furious, and will surely seek revenge? The recent slaughter of Russian Wagner forces in Mali looked a little too clean and clinical for ragtag tribal ‘rebels’ too. It’s the kind of operation UK special forces would carry out without having to inform parliament or the UK public. Ukraine have claimed responsibility, but that could be to provide cover for the US or UK. The US and UK have declared war on Russian interests globally.
Russians tend to hold grudges. It seems inevitable that the US is going to face a bloody reckoning somewhere down the line. The Russians could provide the capability to any of numerous hostile groups. Dangerous times.
Looks like Zelensky has been swotting up on the Art of War by Sun Tzu pre this incursion. Particularly these observations:
• “According as circumstances are favorable, one should modify one’s plans.”
• “All warfare is based on deception. Hence when able to attack we must seem unable. When using our forces we must seem inactive. When we are near we make the enemy believe we are far away. When far away we must make the enemy believe we are near.”
This next one especially :
• “Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.”
• “If he is superior in strength, evade him.”
• “Attack him where he is unprepared. Appear where you are not expected.”
Particularly apt to Ukraine and this conflict:
• “There is no instance of a country having benefitted from prolonged warfare.”
• “A wise general makes a point of foraging on the enemy. One cartload of the enemy’s provisions is equivalent to twenty of one’s own.”
• “Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.”
Apt to Russia:
• “The worst strategy of all is to besiege walled cities.”
• “There are five essentials for victory: He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight. He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces. He will win who’s army is animated by the same spirit throughout all it’s ranks. He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared. He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.”
• “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself, but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
• “One may know how to conquer without being able to do it.”
• “In war, the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won.”
• “In battle, there are not more than two methods of attack: the direct and indirect.”
• “An army may march great distances without distress if it marches through country where the enemy is not.”
• “You can be sure in succeeding in your attacks if you only attack places which are undefended.”
• “Military tactics are like water. For water, in its natural course, runs away from high places and hastens downwards. So, in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and strike at what is weak.”
• “Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move fall like a thunderbolt.”
• “Ponder and deliberate before you make a move.”
• “A clever general, therefore, avoids an army when its spirit is keen, but attacks it when it is sluggish and inclined to return.”
• “It is a military axiom not to advance uphill against the enemy nor to oppose him when he comes downhill.”
• “The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy not coming, but on our readiness to receive him.”
• “Make your way by unexpected routes and attack unguarded spots.”
Apt to this mission:
• “If they will face death, there is nothing they will not achieve.”
This Inglourious basterds-esque suicide mission was apparently aided by Western planners, many of whom have fetishised Tzu’s observations. As for whether it hurts or aids Putin, who knows? Taking the war to Russian soil may rally the Russian people behind the idea victory against NATO backed Ukraine is now essential.
The scary thing, is how Russia could feel free to use WMD in its own territory to clear them out, and without consequence.
Goose.
Why on Earth would Putin use WMDs on Russian soil?
WMD doesn’t necessarily mean nuclear.
We don’t know what asphyxiating, poisonous substances they may have stockpiled for use in the event of territorial invasion.
Jk redux
In all likelihood it fizzles out with Russian forces trying to encircle them in order to force a surrender.
I really don’t see the point of this incursion by Ukraine’s forces. If it’s an attempt to make Putin look weak to his own people, it could just as easily increase hostility for Ukraine among ordinary Russians. Among those who were skeptical of the Kremlin’s claims that Ukraine in NATO posed any sort of threat to Russia, thus, it seems a bit self-defeating.
It also spoils the mantra-like repeated narrative from the UK MoD, UK ministers et al, of an “illegal unprovoked invasion,” when Ukraine itself chooses to invade and attempts to capture Russian territory.
Kursk just provides the Kremlin with a new defence for their invasion : “They’re trying to steal our land by force too” I don’t see how giving Russia that equal footing – by invading – can possibly be in Ukraine’s interests?
Goose
I agree that the UA attack is risky but then of course so was the Russian attack on Kyiv.
The difference being that Putin thought that the latter would be a walkover.
I expect that the quality of the UA general staff is rather better than their Russian equivalent.
And that therefore the Ukrainian strategy is less influenced by the whims of one leader.
But vee shall see.
JK redux
Much of the initial global sympathy for Ukraine c. 24 February 2022 – onwards, was largely driven by the fact they were perceived as a weak country defending themselves after being invaded by a much more powerful neighbour. They had the status of being the victim of an expansionist aggressor (Russia).
Fast forward to today, and by going on the offensive, into Russia, capturing/holding territory, for however long, it kinda undermines that ‘plucky’ little Ukraine image, and casts them as an expansionist aggressor. In other words; there’s a risk they lose the moral case for their own territorial integrity, by attempting to capture parts of Russia. There is the danger of Ukraine being seen as morally equivalent, and the war being seen as a fair fight for territorial gain. It’s hard to explain how dangerous that would be for Ukraine.
Goose
Again you make good points.
I suppose my response is that being a plucky little victim didn’t do Poland much good in 1940.
On the other hand being a tough as nails fighter did save Finland despite having minimal support from the democratic West and some support from Nazi Germany.
Ireland was a plucky little victim for many centuries but armed force applied at the right time achieved (partial) independence.
Why not, he is evacuating some 70.000 people. There is no treaty that regulates tactical nuclear weapons/test explosions in ones own country, see Nevada and Alamogordo new Mexico.
If they want to march on Moscow, they could expect the claws of a bear.
I note BBC news “in depth” which is recorded as one of the top ten stories on the BBC is headlined
“Starmer will be judged on how he tackles root cause of riots”.
Er, let me guess?
Tackle disinformation, oppose the genocide in Gaza or blame Russia/Iran or China? You decide.
The fact that disinformation will be blamed and further draconian measures will be sought to curtail freedom of expression will demonstrate a further layer of unconscious bias. Even we if hypothesed that young person who carried out the Southport attacks was indeed an asylum seeker whose religious faith was Islam this would not justify the mob behaviour so luridly reported in the press. The current legislation is more than adequate to deal with this behaviour. I remember the 2011 riots, which as I recollect were on a far larger scale. My concern, as previously expressed, is that this event is being used as a Trojan horse to further stifle and restrict free speech and communication.
When a member of species homo sapiens judges behavior of a member of a group he/she considers OTHER, he applies collective responsibility; when he judges the same behavior in a member of a group with whom he/she feels affinity he/she restricts attribution of responsibility to the perpetrator alone.
Unfortunately this is NORMAL HOMO SAPIENS behavior and the majority of homo sapiens individuals are unconscious of both facts!!!
In the late 70s something happened and I asked if the state was going to pass it off as ‘crowds whipped up by outside agitators’ or ‘overzealous junior officers’. Not long after, the overzealous excuse fell out of sue as Thatchler used the police as her boot boys but it might be making a return. We shall see.
“After decades of being fed nonsense about a war of civilisations and the dangers of Islamic terrorism, whipping up anti-immigrant mobs has not been difficult”.
I regret that I must express a different opinion. Both Judaism and Islam include, among their most sacred writings and dogmas, authoritative statements about the exceptional and indispensable nature of their “in-groups”, together with crystal-clear directions for the conquest, conversion or killing of “out-groups”. They are fundamentally exclusive and intolerant.
In comparison Christianity – apart from its Old Testament dimension, which is Judaic rather than Christian – is fairly positive and humanist. Apart from the apparently impossible idealism of Jesus’ teachings, it is quite compatible with modern liberal beliefs.
As for Judaism (some of whose most extreme and revolting views seem to be shared even by so-called “secular” Jews), the following quotation from Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994; born in Nikolaev, Ukraine, died in New York; “considered one of the most influential Jewish leaders of the 20th century” according to Wikipedia) goes to the heart of things.
‘We do not have a case of profound change in which a person is merely on a superior level. Rather we have a case of…a totally different species…. The body of a Jewish person is of a totally different quality from the body of [members] of all nations of the world…. The difference of the inner quality [of the body]…is so great that the bodies would be considered as completely different species. This is the reason why the Talmud states that there is an halachic difference in attitude about the bodies of non-Jews [as opposed to the bodies of Jews]: “their bodies are in vain”…. An even greater difference exists in regard to the soul. Two contrary types of soul exist, a non-Jewish soul comes from three satanic spheres, while the Jewish soul stems from holiness’.
Note that Schneerson’s claim about the difference between Jewish and Gentile bodies is factually and scientifically untrue, whereas his claim about “souls” is of course intrinsically unfalsifiable.
Further background can easily be found, for instance in Professor Israel Shahak’s book “Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years” https://ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/shahak.html and on Ron Unz’s site, more or less passim. (Mr Unz himself, of course, is Jewish). Ironically, the Jewish attitude to Gentiles is almost identical to the Nazi attitude to non-Aryans – including Jews – although it goes back thousands of years earlier.
‘In Islam, [n]onbelievers – atheists (surely the most neglected minority in history) – do not have “the right to life” in Muslim countries. They are to be killed. Muslim doctors of law generally divide sins into great sins and little sins. Of the seventeen great sins, unbelief is the greatest, more heinous than murder, theft, adultery, etc… Blasphemy towards God and the Prophet is punishable by death under Islamic law. In modern times, blasphemy has simply become a tool for Muslim governments to silence opposition, or for individuals to settle personal scores, or… to seek out and punish “heresy”’. – ibn Warraq, “Why I Am Not A Muslim”, pp 173-6.
As ibn Warraq goes on to emphasise, “Democracy depends on freedom of thought and free discussion, whereas Islamic law explicitly forbids the discussion of decisions arrived at by the infallible consensus of the ulama. The whole notion of infallibility, whether of a “book” or a group of people, is profoundly undemocratic and unscientific”.
In Saudi Arabia, the establishment or practice of any religion other than Islam is illegal and subject to the most severe punishment. Presumably the same will be true of any country in which Islam comes to predominate.
So in fact we are living through a “war of religions” and hence of civilisations – as each religion implies a vastly different civilisation. Britain and (originally) the USA are, or were until recently, secular post-Christian societies in which many of the older citizens and politicians had been raised in Christian beliefs, even if they disavowed them later. Christian, post-Christian, liberal, and democratic values are utterly incompatible with the beliefs and values of both Judaism and Islam – which are in fact very similar indeed, except that each defines a sharply different “in-group”, everyone outside which is damned in this life and the hereafter.
It is no exaggeration to say that any Jew or Muslim who accepts British liberal democratic values is by definition a heretic and an apostate – according to the Koran, crimes punishable by death. So one may be a good Jew or a good Muslim, OR a good British liberal. Not both.
“Good British liberal” is an oxymoron. You know quite well that they pushed an unscrupulous fake anti-Semitism scam specifically intended to destroy democratic choice in Britain. Now they feel secure enough to openly and actively support a racist genocide, vowing even closer ties with the fascist apartheid regime they are helping perpetrate it. The whole world can see quite clearly what British liberal values are in practice and that they cleave much closer to barbarism than civilisation.
“In comparison Christianity – apart from its Old Testament dimension, which is Judaic rather than Christian – is fairly positive and humanist.”
That’s never stopped Christians killing non-Christians in the past, simply because they were non-Christians. Indeed, all in all, Christians have been much better at slaughtering the heathen for being heathen than Muslims.
This is bigoted ignorance on Steroids.
Firstly, Islamic Law doesn’t exist. Like all legal systems, various opinions on what various people interpret legal writings to exist within the Jurisprudence of various Muslim Majority countries, and also within the Islamic theological jurisprudence. The Idea that “Islamic law explicitly forbids the discussion of decisions arrived at by the infallible consensus of the ulama” is Utter bollocks, plain racist rubbish unsupported and unsupportable by contact with actual humans.
Secondly, Saudi Arabia is under occupation by the fascists which were imposed on them by racist Churchill, and is no more a Muslim Country than Zionist State is a Jewish one. –
See https://orinocotribune.com/the-house-of-saud-and-the-origins-of-arab-zionism/
‘…increase in “anti-semitic incidents”.’
It goes back further, I read this every couple of years from the early 70s until I stopped reading the corp-0-rat media in 2004. If it was true, there wouldn’t be any Jews in England; as it is Zionists promiscuously defame Jews as they surf on the corpses of the dead of the Second World War.
Squeeth.
Speaking of WWII.
“Ambassadors from the US, UK, Canada, Germany, France & Italy refused to attend the Japanese ceremony in remembrance of the atomic bombs being dropped because the Israeli ambassador wasn’t invited.”
https://x.com/ecomarxi/status/1822327817255747991
Yes, the participants were well rid of them.
This is what the poor Palestinians are up against.
” Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich after he suggested this week that it might be “justified and moral” to cause 2 million Palestinian civilians to starve to death until Hamas returns Israeli hostages. ”
https://consortiumnews.com/2024/08/09/palestinians-demand-icc-arrest-warrant-for-smotrich/
The supposed argy-bargy between Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir on one side and Benyamin Netanyahu on the other probably doesn’t exist. They are all guilty of crimes against humanity.
Hasn’t he and his crazy mates got a Blazing Chariot to catch? Armageddon outta here!
Be interesting to know where The Believers’ bank accounts are held and in which country.
There is talk and then there is action.
Same applies to Zelensky et al.
Smotrich is the genocidal driver of all that is happening. His views and deliberate intentions, and follow up actions, are so utterly evil that Netanyahu is forced to be the acceptable face presented to the world. It is Smotrich who intends to kill every single Palestinian. He has changed laws to make it happen in the West Bank as well, and stopped property sales between Jews and non Jews. He has declared Jews already own everything and can take what they want to use. His extremism is worse than unpalatable, and many Israelis would like a general election to vote him and the other extremists out of government. He will not stop. Not for anything. If he were to engage directly and in public with Western leaders the shock of knowing what is totally intended would wake all of us from this somnambulist stupor.
It’s so instructive that while journalists think they’re ever so cynical – the Orange Narcissist this, Musk’s X-crement that – not a single one of the lazy craven buffoons has dared to observe that Trump’s announcement that he’ll do an interview with Musk tomorrow is almost certainly a heap of poop. None of them have even said we contacted Musk’s office for confirmation but they haven’t got back to us. None of them have said shee-yit.
Seriously, who would invite a journalist into their house? What a bunch of shitclowns.
“The people” are aware of distractions, misdirections, even of genocidal and existential “order”, defined as home planet goes ignored:
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2024/08/paris-agreement-thresholds-crossed.html
IPCC keeps downplaying the danger
“Note that neither the 1903-1924 base (image top) nor the 1991-2020 base (above image) are pre-industrial. When using a genuinely pre-industrial base, the temperature anomaly has over the past thirteen months also been above the 2°C threshold that politicians at the 2015 Paris Agreement pledged wouldn’t be crossed.
Feedbacks could cause a transition to a new El Niño while temperatures remain high and while sunspots will be reaching the peak of this cycle, which – in combination with further events and variables – could constitute a cataclysmic alignment that could result in runaway temperature rise by 2026, as an earlier post concluded.”
If PayPal is sus, can a different vehicle be set up? I have been reading your postings for years now, you are a mainstay. This latest is very concerning news and I hope you are able to take steps to protect yourself.
My Subscription seems sound as A Bank Standing order…
If I Listen To George Galloway…as I do – Wednesday’s and Sunday nights – Then I’m Dead Shortly..
But when I listen to Scott Ritter… I get Hope – WWIII can be avoided – I’ve Never Seen Scott So Angry .. His recent FBI Experience Mmmn ?
Scott Ritter
EXPOSES: CHAOS In Israel! Iran & Hezbollah’s Big Plan To SMASH The IDF Has Begun
https://youtu.be/9Th3jxUMleo?t=200
Ritter’s best skill is his ability to talk with apparent confidence on subjects he clearly knows nothing about. In 2003 he confidently predicted that US forces would fail to take Baghdad, as late as February 2022 he assured us that Russia was not going to invade Ukraine then when they did he claimed that it would all be over in a week.
Since both their respective wars began he’s been saying that Ukraine and Israel are tottering on the brink of total collapse but somehow they keep fighting. Whatever Scott Ritter predicts, expect the opposite.
That’s rather a strange comment, when Ritter was a weapons inspector in Iraq. But still according to you, he knows nothing about the subject. Still, the Americans did lose in Iraq; the only issue is precisely how.
The US/Coalition won the war in Iraq but failed to make a go of the peace. It was pretty obvious that would be the more difficult bit.
I don’t see how Ritter being a weapons inspector qualifies him to be a geo-political/military analyst. Anyway his record speaks for itself.
https://www.news24.com/news24/us-defeat-in-iraq-inevitable-20030326
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GkmdCaBECs
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240511/scott-ritter-predicts-how-ukraine-will-end-1118382169.html
That link is a re-edit by a Thai of the original interview by Dialogue Works (Nima alkhorshidi).
Guardian headlines with Russiagate hoaxer Christopher Steele saying there was clear Russian involvement in the Islamophobic riots in Britain.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/aug/11/far-right-disorder-had-clear-russian-involvement-says-ex-mi6-spy
There is no mention in the article of any Zionist involvement and it concludes with Steele condemning online misinformation and disinformation.
The US it was then! They always blame failed operations on Russia or other countries.
Have a look at the two tweets Craig has posted above by Professor David Miller and Lowkey.
Further to the kind of information being peddled by those who rail against “misinformation” and “disinformation” — this morning Sir Keir Starmer, Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron issued a joint statement accusing Iran of jeopardising ceasefire negotiations. Their statement includes no mention at all of Israel murdering Hamas’ chief negotiator in Tehran.
https://x.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1822895754140078268
Hopefully we will soon be back to a trustworthy, safe media environment where sources like the Guardian and Sir Keir Starmer can never be challenged.
I can’t believe you are giving lip service or even supporting the term “Islamophobia”. Clearly the consequences of allowing an ideology, a religion even, to have such a “phobia” suffix is allowing the reintroduction of blasphemy laws. Because anything that is considered blasphemous to Islam is surely open to being called Islamophobic. I thought we had done away with such utter and dangerous nonsense long ago.