No major western leader is ever again going to be able to speak about human rights or ethical values, without attracting howls of derision. They are turning on their own people in order to prevent protest at a genocide they actively support.
Keir Starmer stepped up the pressure on opponents of Zionist genocide on Thursday with the arrest of journalist Sarah Wilkinson and the charging of activist Richard Barnard, both under the draconian Section 12 of the Terrorism Act which carries a sentence of up to 14 years in prison.
The UK MSM has of course ignored these, but is universally carrying outrage at the conviction of two Hong Kong activists for sedition, which carries a maximum sentence of … 2 years.
But they tell us it is China and not the UK which is the authoritarian dictatorship.
(To be plain, I do view the Hong Kong convictions as also an unwarranted interference with free speech. I merely point out the incredible hypocrisy of the British Establishment and far worse laws here).
Richard Barnard has been charged and will face trial, apparently related to public speeches supporting the Palestinian right to armed resistance.
Sarah Wilkinson was released on bail after about 14 hours. Like the recent arrest and bailing of Richard Medhurst, the arrest and bailing is a device to chill her reporting and activism.
The harassment of dissident journalists at ports, using the extensive powers of the Terrorism Act for questioning and confiscation of communications equipment, has become routine. I myself suffered detention, interrogation and confiscation of equipment for “terrorism” last October.
But the Sarah Wilkinson case is an escalation, in that this is a raid on a journalist whose home was invaded by 16 policemen at 7.30am, while she was arrested and taken to the police station as her home was comprehensively turned over, presumably looking for gunmen under the bed.
More details of the raid have come out which are scarcely believable. Armed counter-terrorism police wearing balaclavas were used against a peaceful, female journalist. She was manhandled and physically hurt. The ashes in her mother’s funerary urn were desecrated in a “search”. And Sarah’s bail conditions include that she may not use a computer or mobile telephone.
It is a fascist government that sends 16 police to bust a peaceful journalist at home at 7.30am.
Like the stopping of Richard Medhurst’s plane on the tarmac by police vehicles and his being dragged from the plane (which had just landed and was en route to the gate anyway) this is an authoritarian theatre of intimidation, a Nazi stamping of the violence of the state.
Richard Barnard is a co-founder of the brilliant Palestine Action, which has done so much to disrupt the Israeli arms industry in the UK as it continues to send vital equipment to carry out the mass destruction of civilians in Gaza.
BREAKING: After a targeted campaign by the zionist lobby, Palestine Action's co-founder Richard Barnard is facing three charges for two speeches.
He is accused of supporting a proscribed organisation under the Terrorism Act and encouraging 'criminal activity'. pic.twitter.com/cWq0qwk15v
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) August 29, 2024
Richard has been charged under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act over two speeches he made supporting the Palestinian resistance.
I have of course said this before, but it bears repeating:
Palestine has the legitimate right of self-defence against the illegal occupation.
The occupying power Israel has no right of self-defence. That is the plain position in international law.
Yet in the UK, it is legal to offer full-throated support to Israel’s genocide and to wish that all Palestinians are exterminated.
IDF participants in genocide happily move between Israel and the UK with no legal consequences.
Yet it is illegal to support certain Palestinian organisations when engaged in legal acts of armed resistance.
The state’s actions against activists have been ramped up – as I predicted – since Starmer came to power.
Five young activists in Glasgow were ten days ago given sentences ranging from 12 months to 24 months in prison for direct action against Thales weapons plant in Govan, which makes parts for Israel’s Watchkeeper drones, widely used against civilians in Gaza.
The sentences from Sheriff Judge McCormick were savage – far higher than would normally be given on the specified charges, which were of breach of the peace, vandalism, disorderly conduct and acting in an abusive manner.
These normally would attract at most a suspended sentence on a first offence. McCormick also ignored the Scottish government guidelines not to give custodial sentences of 24 months or less but to seek alternatives.
More tellingly, McCormick completely ignored the elephant in the room: the genocide in Gaza, which Thales are supplying.
(The fact the action occurred before the genocide should be properly viewed as a commendable act of prescience.)
The Zionist Starmerite Establishment were quick to crow over the jailing – notably Luke Akehurst and John Woodcock (who is laughably called Lord Walney nowadays and is the Government Adviser on political violence) who said “Activists considering breaking the law to get their way need to see there will be consequences”.
This follows similarly harsh sentencing of climate change activists, including those who merely took part in Zoom calls discussing direct action.
The authoritarian reaction of the threatened Zionist ruling class is a worldwide phenomenon. Redoubtable Australian journalist Mary Kostakidis has been ludicrously charged under hate speech laws for retweeting mainstream pro-Palestinian tweets.
American activist Professor Danny Shaw was turned over by the FBI on return to the USA following a trip which included speaking on a panel alongside me at the Palestine International Film Festival.
Also in the United States my friend Scott Ritter has been raided by the FBI and all his electronics and other materials confiscated.
I have spoken to Danny Shaw and to Richard Medhurst. In all of these arrests and detentions, including my own, the emphasis has been on confiscating electronics and on questioning focusing very strongly on contacts, meetings and sources of finance.
The Five Eyes intelligence services are plainly building up Venn diagrams of the democratic opposition to Zionism and the neoliberal project. It is notable that many of those recently arrested over Palestine – including Mary Kostakidis, Richard Medhurst, Scott Ritter and myself – were active in the campaign to free Julian Assange.
I have always maintained that Keir Starmer’s record shows that he will be an even bigger danger to civil liberties than the Tories. It is worth noting that all of the Tory recent draconian legislation – The Public Order Act, The National Security Act and even the Rwanda Act – was not opposed or was supported by Starmer as the pretend “Leader of the Opposition”.
Starmer and Cooper are continuing the Tory policy of challenging a High Court ruling won by Liberty, that Suella Braverman acted illegally in tabling secondary legislation lowering the threshold to ban a demonstration on grounds of inconvenience to the public.
The forthcoming Online Safety Act will be truly chilling, including making it illegal to publish what the government deems misinformation.
Starmer has always been MI5-controlled. The fact that, while a Tory government was in power, the Crown Prosecution Service destroyed all the key documentation revealing Starmer’s involvement in the Assange, Savile and Janner cases (the last being far more important than generally appreciated), shows the extent to which Starmer is a protected Deep State asset.
If we are to survive this descent onto fascism as a society, we need to be prepared to dissent now, and each of us needs to be prepared to go to jail if necessary.
A last word to Craig Mokhiber, the senior UN international lawyer who resigned in protest at UN pusillanimity in face of genocide:
A dark evil has descended over the West. As the genocide in Palestine continues, the US, UK, Germany & other Western governments, instead of cracking down on those committing, aiding and inciting the genocide, are cracking down on those opposing the genocide. Human rights…
— Craig Mokhiber (@CraigMokhiber) August 31, 2024
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It’s interesting that you mention the Assange connection, Craig.
He still hasn’t been seen or spoken in public since his return to Australia on 26th June – over two months ago. Stella has been in Europe for the last few weeks – so he’s obviously not spending “quality time” with her.
It is entirely plausible to wonder if perhaps Julian might be being gagged (for example under the provisions of the ASIO Act).
You haven’t spoken to him. I can’t find anyone anywhere who has actually spoken to him since his return. Maybe his ordeal isn’t over after all, and just maybe all these serious concerns you raise in this article still apply to Julian. I think we owe it to him to find out if he is actually free to speak, but just doesn’t feel like it, or if he is being silenced still.
Craig, your help with this would be valuable since you have the connections.
I think we can assume safely that the US/UK/European Western Empire deep state has made some threats outside of the signed legal agreement to whack him or more likely his family if in future he doesn’t zip his lips shut and that they will judge whether anything he says transgresses his tacit agreement to zip his said lips.
The deep state has many secret ways of killing and I will not be surprised if Julian Assange’s life in freedom is short.
Thank you for bringing up Julian Assange. I have been wondering the same thing. Where is Julian Assange? What is the condition of his health? Why have we not heard from him?
I’m very curious of this, too. I understand what Assange has been through must be traumatic, and I’m not surprised if he would want to take his time for all the obvious and less obvious reasons, or if he’d want to err on the side of caution before speaking (especially considering the present political climate he’s come out to); but it doesn’t seem like what I remember of him not to say anything at all to the public for so long.
Did not Craig Murray and some others close to Assange (apologies if I am mixing up the attribution) say that once free, he is likely to go back to doing exactly what he’s best at? I do remember when he was free something about how the US government trying to mandate he would ‘destroy’ anything unpublished he possesses (or something along those lines), and it sounding like they intended to try to gag him in some way. So maybe there are legal reasons he is being quiet at the moment.
Regardless, I just hope he is doing well; it’d be nice to at least know that. I’ve waited over a decade for my favourite journalist, software developer, etc. to be free, and years to hear him speak freely again ever since he got banned from Twitter and unplugged from the Ecuadorian Embassy’s wifi. I can certainly wait a bit longer!
We were warned his health wasn’t good in prison, I mean seriously not good. That could be the explanation of why we haven’t heard from Assange.
I really hope that he [Assange] is just catching up with emails and the current state of technology (given the massive recent increase in computing power to support AI, how many cryptographic methods are still actually secure?)
If he has the energy, there must be so much to do in the background, no matter how welcome his public voice would be!
“I have always maintained that Keir Starmer’s record shows that he will be an even bigger danger to civil liberties than the Tories”.
I quite agree. The “Conservatives” (quotes because they are anything but) may be corrupt, venal, cynical, and incompetent. But “Labour” (quotes because they couldn’t care less about working people) are far worse.
Assuming (very improbably) that they are telling the truth at least some of the time, their rule precisely fits C. S. Lewis’s famous warning.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences”.
The right-wing press will likely go after Starmer, as they did Corbyn – albeit for different reasons – if he becomes too oppressive and overbearing. It’s terrible politics too, as Labour voters aren’t instinctively authoritarian.
In opposition, prior to the 2010 election, the then Tory leader David Cameron presented himself as a civil liberties champion. The Tories always do in opposition. I’d expect a massive, hypocritical backlash against Starmer’s authoritarianism from the Tory press at some point. A press that said nothing when the Tories were pushing through attacks on civil liberties via their draconian legislation. It’s already starting; in the Telegraph, columnists are decrying the possible changes to the Online Safety Act, : now likely to be amended to include the opaque ‘Legal-but-harmful’ speech. They belatedly realise, that many of them may fall foul of such laws open to arbitrary subjective interpretation, in terms of that which is ‘harmful’ speech. Regular columnist,Tim Stanley, thinks the Tories were complete fools for passing a nanny-state ‘Online Safety Act’.
I’d say, like Musk, I’m leaning towards being a free speech absolutist. I think censorship on the whole; creating rules about what can be said or viewed, does too much harm to liberty and results in too many injustices. The emphasis, over the last thirty years, seems to have switched from catching those doing illegal acts, to prosecuting those commenting on, or viewing said acts. It looks like that change has been driven by vindictiveness. For if viewing criminal conduct makes someone a criminal, does that mean viewing JFK’s assassination makes people potential assassins?? It’s absurd, isn’t it? And look at the glaring inconsistencies in how censorship rules are being applied over the conflict in Gaza. As Craig says, you can literally openly support the IDF’s brutal tactics without falling foul of any law.
Musk saying such things typically immediately draws the ‘straw man’ retort – from the likes of pro-censorship figures like Carole Cadwalladr et al. – that that means he must be okay with the proliferation of harmful content then; harmful to whom, she doesn’t explain. I know this a controversial take, but it’s worth remembering the internet and its many chat forums were unregulated for well over a decade and the world didn’t fall apart. All inconsistently applied highly politicised restrictions are doing, is making society angrier at the perceived inability to speak freely. While others have no such restrictions.
The UK desperately needs its own First Amendment and a Digital Bill of Rights.
This morning I read a few speeches about internet use from a Parliamentary debate held sometime in 2010, which were generally praising the internet for its important contribution to extending freedom of expression and democratic rights.
The debate took place just before that first major Wikileaks drop to which reactions in Parliament were mixed along expected lines, for and against.
Then came the sexual allegations against Assange, the Swedish extradition issue, the Ecuador Embassy episode, the roles of Hague, Alan Duncan, Javid etc, and USA extradition.
During this period, the cause of internet freedom and freedom of speech and expression seemed to do a complete u turn. I wonder who might have been behind this?
Crispa
Though leaning towards free speech absolutism, I’d maintain the laws on incitement, for obvious reasons – as seen on the TV news tonight.
As for your point, yeah, I’d imagine security services are terrified that officers could do a David Shayler and Annie Machon, by going rogue, and use social media or some blog to (conscientiously) spill the beans. That could quickly leave a govt in crisis. It may even cause a war. That’s the power of the internet, and it scares them.
It’s reported Snowden’s revelations created panic in London and Washington. These people – normally masters of all they survey – were put on the defensive, not knowing what story would drop next. As a result, the Guardian has been pretty much emasculated since deciding to join – or, more likely being forced to join – the DSMA-notice system. And now, all the security folks have to worry about is social media – so that’s getting demands for moderation that allows real-time pre-vetting, increasingly using AI.
“ I’d say, like Musk, I’m leaning towards being a free speech absolutist. I think censorship on the whole; creating rules about what can be said or viewed, does too much harm to liberty and results in too many injustices.”
To-
“ Though leaning towards free speech absolutism, I’d maintain the laws on incitement, …use social media or some blog to (conscientiously) spill the beans. That could quickly leave a govt in crisis. It may even cause a war.”
It seems ‘Absolute’ is a moveable feast for some. Even in a blink of a eye.
Maybe it means something different to fantasists, who believe they could be in charge of everything or even anything!
There is no Right Wing/ Left Wing they are just the creations of the Top to keep the Below fighting each other. To keep reinforcing that Narrative is clearly state/corporatist/ Fascist Propaganda for the Masters at the Top.
Why do you still persist?
“I have always maintained that Keir Starmer’s record shows that he will be an even bigger danger to civil liberties than the Tories”.
Indeed, Labour should be the “sane” ones but if Labour goes crazy who is going to get the nation back on track, who is going to speak up for the people of the bottom of our society? No one. Same in the US and elsewhere in the west, the “sane” ones have become the self-rightous-authortarian ones.
Jaw dropping events at Sarah Wilkinson’s arrest:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjwycG_9Ujo
I’m not a lawyer, but she may able to make a malicious prosecution claim.
that is so sickening. freaking fascist thugs.
I came here to put this Video up..Thank you for already doing so…And OH MY GOD… And to Think SNP want to Cosy up to Evil Israel
Interesting, Jeremy Corbyn has formed a pro-Gaza Alliance in parliament with four other pro-Gaza independent MPs, and one of them is Adnan Hussain. The BBC says that they will campaign against arms sales to Israel. (They will also campaign to scrap the two-child benefit limit).
Mr James O’Brien said on LBC last week that if you don’t like Sir Jimmy Starmer then you hate Britain.
Britain Hater !!!
ronan1882.
Yes, O’Brien really was bigging up Starmer prior to the GE. I find it difficult to believe that he had no idea of what Starmer is actually like. His comment of ‘Israel is perfectly justified to cut-off the power and water in Gaza’ is well known, especially online; of course the slug that Starmer is, he later done a three-sixty on the comment when the heat (public opinion) got too much for him.
An excellent article from Jonathon Cook.
“The British prime minister is determined to terrorise into silence critics highlighting his, and now his government’s, complicity with Israel and its genocide in Gaza.”
https://consortiumnews.com/2024/08/30/uk-prime-minister-terrorizing-palestine-supporters/
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[ Mod: See Goose, 30/08/2024 @ 9:25pm. ]
Let us compare the arrest of Sarah Wilkinson with that of Anthony Grey during the cultural revolution in China (recounted in the book Hostage in Peking, also condensed in Reader’s Digest in the 1970s). His house was ransacked, his pet dog hanged and he was put in a painful stress position. Here are his three crimes that were read out, with the reaction that followed:
“You have been drinking alcohol on your house!” Pandemonium.
“You have despised the paper tiger hung on your house by the revolutionary masses!” Frenzied shouting.
“You have been sneaking around in your house!” Even greater uproar.
He finally settled into house arrest with restricted diet, few books (though he managed to smuggle his own copy of Dr Zhivago into his room) and was eventually released.
What are the parallels with Wilkinson’s treatment? She was physically roughed up and deprived of her medication, her house was ransacked, her mother’s ashes desecrated and her access to communication technology has been restricted. She has despised what Miko Peled describes as a paper tiger – the IDF, so perhaps some Israeli personnel were allowed to join in the raid as part of their revenge, and they damaged some christian artefacts to punish the goyim for the past 2000 years, and desecrated the ashes of a deceased person (being godless secular Zionists like David Ben Gurion or Golda Meir, not god-fearing Jews like Yeshayahu Leibowitz or Martin Buber). So that’s the parallel with the second charge. What are the parallels between admiring October 7 on the part of Hamas as a miitary operation and attributing heroism to Ismail Haniyeh on the one hand, and the first and third of the charges on the other? Perhaps the admiring is something commonly done (like alcohol), so like the first charge, and the attribution of heroism is a bit more subversive, so like the third.
Plenty of parallels between the behaviour of Starmer’s secret police, and the Red Guards during China’s cultural revolution!
Doesn’t do much for the notion of white or Western cultural superiority, though. Too bad, for those to whom such colonial ideas appeal.
M.J.
China, doesn’t profess to be a liberal democracy – the UK does – and that’s why its so shocking.
MJ, the serialisation of a book in Readers Digest is to be considered a way-point along the pathway of the distribution of CIA propaganda, and has been now for some number of years
Sometime after WW2 the lamentations emanating from Washington concerning the “loss of China” echoed around the globe. To take a book that was “condensed” for Readers Digest seriously is to place one’s credibility in the bloody hands of the CIA. If you can explain why this author was not parroting CIA talking points, your source would be more credible
Anthony Grey OBE was British, not American and worked for Reuters. His original book can be read here:
https://archive.org/details/hostageinpeking0000unse
Gong or no gong, the author in later years became a believers in UFOs and joined the Raelian movement, which would seem to undermine his usefulness as a poster-boy for the inteliigence services.
You make it sound like he was just parroting CIA talking points or in Reuters case MI whatever
I was kind of meaning whether his work is widely considered to be relevant by other specialists in the field. Getting info concerning China without some sort CIA/MI imprimatur is not that easy.
Grey’s book is valuable as a first-hand account of the cultural revolution, by someone who was actually there. That is better than an Imprimatur by the CIA.
Just because someone is “there”, doesn’t mean they are not an “inteligence” shill MJ
In the case of NATO’s Cold War opponents, very few documents generated in those day came without CIA/MI imprimatur
correction: “cat”, not “dog”.
Wannabe lions led by practising donkeys appears to be UKGBNI fans fate ……… although there are some asses not just as easily cowed into foreign direction and abject surrender as others, although they do appear to be exceedingly slow learners understanding that they might have a mind of their own to exercise and make right minded decisions with ……..
UK to suspend around 30 export licences to Israel, says David Lammy
I suppose now we can expect howls of rage from all of the usual media darling suspects proclaiming David Lammy antisemitic.
Since Lammy has been funded by the Israelis and is a fully paid up ‘Friend of Israel ‘ we can safely assume things are not as they may appear. He has suspended 30 licences to kill out of around 350. So, Israel still has plenty of licence to kill from the UK government. No change, business as usual, all PR.
amanfromMars.
Labour are deepening ties with Israel – Lammy is Washington’s man in the UK government.
“Jonathan Reynolds has announced the Labour government seeks to deepen commerce with Israel, continuing the policy of his Conservative predecessor, Kemi Badenoch.
Trade negotiations between the UK and Israel seek to establish a new bilateral agreement and have been ongoing since 2022. In the talks Reynolds is dealing with a minister in Tel Aviv, Nir Barkat, who is one of the more extreme proponents of Israel’s brutal war in Gaza.
The government’s announcement was made two days after Israel killed over 30 Palestinians in an airstrike on a school housing displaced people in central Gaza. ”
https://www.declassifieduk.org/labour-laser-focused-on-israel-trade-deal-amid-ongoing-genocide/
And.
https://www.declassifieduk.org/david-lammys-big-idea-nothing-will-change-under-labour/
Along with.
https://www.declassifieduk.org/david-lammy-friend-of-israel/
Quite so, Stevie Boy and Republicofscotland, and the deathly hush and zero rush of howls of rage from all of the usual media darling suspects proclaiming David Lammy antisemitic proves your points beyond any shadow of doubt …… David Lammy, a foreign agent and outed mole/a trojan frenemy within, burrowing deep into Cabinet government tricks right in the heart of the Westminster Parliament ‽ .
And whenever not alone, does the Commons harbour and fund a nest of vipers !
The US now reserves the right to kidnap anyone, anywhere in the world, and for any reason or no reason – and, in American Law, there’s no recourse for the abductee to pursue for justice.
“This will open the floodgates to more U.S. government kidnappings and expand radically the power of American presidents to seize political or journalist adversaries abroad just to silence them. It also gives American presidents another tool for war below the radar as they can now legally — but not constitutionally — send small armies of federal agents dressed in military garb and possessing military gear into any countries the president chooses in order to extract someone the president hates or fears.”
“This is not the rule of law. This is the rule of brute force. And because no American need be harmed and no American law need be broken, the president can target literally any foreigner he chooses.”
A good point.
“If it is lawful for the U.S. government to enter Mexico and kidnap a Mexican physician for prescribing drugs, is it lawful for the Chinese government to enter Hawaii and kidnap an American tech executive for bribing Chinese officials? ”
https://consortiumnews.com/2024/08/29/searching-for-monsters/
Personally, I believe the UK and the west has always been fascistic.
What difference the US empire or the British bloody empire to the bloody fascist Roman empire? That’s why we support fascist Ukraine and fascist Israel. And fascist Saudi Arabia etc. The only reason Britain fought fascists in Europe (Germany empires 2 and 3) was because they were threatening to depose Britain from their world empire and hegemony. Then they took those German fascists in and worked with them (Operation Paperclip).
This was bound to happen. Orwell said it in his introduction to Animal Farm, which wasn’t printed.
As soon as the state loses its monopoly on control then it turns to fascism, violence and intimidation. That’s why they have the monopoly on violence, just in case they need it – as they feel that they do right now. I’m even in part agreement with the odious “historian” David Starkey, when he says that Starmer is a policeman of a police state, regarding this threat to what the elites jokingly call our “Democracy”.
We’ve NEVER had democracy and never will. But we can fight for it.
As Chris Hedges says: you should fight fascists, because they are fascists.
It was obvious that Starmer was a bad’un from the get go. He’s from the Trilateral Commission and MI6 for pity’s sake. He was given credence by the media (what more proof do you want that he’s a bad ‘un) after trouncing a true human democrat, Jeremy Corbyn.
But the media’s propaganda is so deep that the average Joe knows nothing and is completely duped.
It’s a tall order overturning the media’s lies.
Ade Cheale
Israel is well on the way to becoming a fascist authoritarian state. But still has the forms of democracy despite its vicious repression of its Palestinian subjects. Not for much longer.
Ukraine is the product of its history. To call it fascist as its young men and women resist the barbarous assault of the Russkiy military is ridiculous. As many have noted, the press in Britain was carefully controlled during ww2 and of course no elections were held till victory.
Ironically, the Russian state is far far closer to fascism than you acknowledge. This bloated empire that acknowledges no borders but the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Ruled by a narcissist autocrat despite (like Israel) maintaining the forms of democracy. Rivals to the khuylo (хуйло) are either disqualified from standing for election or arrested/murdered. The mass media are carefully controlled but allowed some laxity which gives the illusion of freedom. Not fascist yet but a shambolic combination of plutocracy and autocracy.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putin_khuylo
“ that acknowledges no borders but the Atlantic and Pacific oceans”
Is this a serious statement? If so, providing a source would be apposite.
I was unaware that the state known as “Russia” has any connection, geographically speaking, with the Atlantic
Amongst his many areas of expertise, geography is not one of Kinsella’s strong points.
Stevie Smith.
Have we met?
Your remark is untrue – and not based on any familiarity with me I think.
notice how triggered Kinsella was by a comment criticisng the British empire, Keir Starmer and Israel.
Will Moon
The comment about “no borders” was made on Russkiy TV by the commentariat who spout off there.
I recall one sage suggesting that Lisbon might be a suitable Western terminus.
The substantive point is that the said commentariat don’t acknowledge any “natural” Western border to Russia.
Poland, the Balkans etc are all in the “near abroad”…
You’re talking about that General aren’t you, the one who appears on Solovyev?
I don’t think he is representative of the opinions of Moscow or the many “fighters in business” that populate the government or the elected chambers of Russia. These shows are like watching “hogs” popping off on Tick Tock – much heat, little light.
To be fair to the General, if it was fifty years ago, I would place more weight on his words. He has actual command combat experience and since acquiring this has made considerable efforts to improve his grasp of “the Operational Art”, which for any prospective higher commander is laudable – but it isn’t fifty years ago
And so what, more than a few Armed Forces bigwigs here in Britain go on the telly and say vicious, moronic things, eg like Jeremy Corbyn will never be PM, even if he is elected
Thinking about it, our mad Generals, are much more representative of ruling class opinions in Britain than any defrosted Cold warrior is in Russia
The Baltic & Black Seas are part of the Atlantic Ocean, Will.
Says who?
The Black Sea is part of the Atlantic? Only in the geopolitical fantasies of McKinder’s runts
The leg bone is connected to the knee bone
Go and read something on categories,their use and misuse – even your fave Wikedped will probably get this one right
The point being marine terminology was in use as a delimiter of categories concerning LAND acquisition – sheesh!
I asked ChatGPT:
Are the Black Sea and Baltic Sea part of the Atlantic Ocean?
Replied the chatbot:
Yes, both the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea are generally considered to be part of the Atlantic Ocean system, although they are not directly connected to the open Atlantic.
Of course, ChatGPT is not infallible. 🙂
Thanks for your reply Will. Says my fave Wikipedia, plus plenty of other sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Ocean#/media/File:Atlantic_Ocean_-_en.png
– and if the Baltic & Black Sea don’t count as part of the Atlantic in Moon-universe, Murmansk and Russia’s Northern Fleet are only about 200 nautical miles away from it.
P.S. It’s Mackinder.
You ain’t got it yet have you?
Misspelling shit is a revolutionary act at the moment
Back in Chile under the mass murderer Augustus (lol) Pinochette (lol), one could be arrested, tortured to death and one’s mutilated body disposed for such transgressions (lol)
It won’t be long before deliberate misspelling or a pattern of behaviour which suggests such a thing will be taken as a “lack of respect”
The conversation was about some geezer making mad statements. Marine considerations were a tertiary concern – your speciality lol
MJ you are aware the last public audit of AI revealed a deeply racist construct, chock full of the prejudices of the coders. Things like targeting blacks because they were black!
I
will: Thanks for the reminder about the prone-ess of AI to racism through its algorithms. I’m not sure it applies to Geographical questions like whether the Baltic Sea is part of the Atlantic ocean, though.
Two points MJ you said you generated a statement which said
“Yes, both the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea are generally considered to be part of the Atlantic Ocean system, although they are not directly connected to the open Atlantic.”
But we were not talking about the “Atlantic Ocean system” but “the Atlantic Ocean” a rather different animal
The point about AI and racism is surely enough to question whether geopolitics is a suitable subject with which to generate sentences using such technology, don’t you think? Geography would be a different matter to some degree I think
The “Atlantic Ocean” includes both the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea, quite definitively. The word “system” is not required.
On the Wikipedia page “Atlantic Ocean”, there is a section marked Biggest Seas of the Atlantic Ocean, which lists the Black Sea at number 13 and the Baltic Sea at 14.
The strict “category” argument is a futile deflection. Check the page for Category:Seas of the Atlantic Ocean, which lists both the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea under “B”. They are integral to the Atlantic Ocean; not adjacent or even marginal to it. (Fwiw, there’s a related page for Marginal seas of the Atlantic Ocean, which lists the English Channel and the Irish Sea – but not the Baltic or Black seas.)
Similar info can be gleaned from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Are there any authoritative sources that say different?
Justin , I tend to go for common usage rather than more theoretical considerations. Your asperity does you credit but on this occasion I feel because we are talking about the words of a fighting soldier and then a virtual entity of unknown origins which possesses unknown properties, somewhat over-powered – the proverbial hammer to crack the proverbial nut
If when alive, Robert Maxwell, that celebrated mugger of pensioners had announced in the Daily Mirror, he was going for a cruise in the Atlantic on his vessel the Lady Ghislaine, (somewhat interestingly named after his favourite daughter, but that’s another story – and what a story!), to raise funds for a popular charity, and exhorted readers to make a modest contribution to this much-loved British children’s charity, most readers would not think he meant the Black Sea or the Baltic Sea but the Atlantic. This Justin is called “common usage”
So let us apply your wisdom, issued to you by the relevant authorities
Some loon on Solovyev mentions “Lisbon” Some other loon turns that into the “Atlantic”then another loon turns that into the Atlantic Ocean system. You can see where I’m going with this can’t you?. The construction of Babel is explained by such chains Justin and thus emerged the notion of “context”
As for categories, I’m not sure I should enlighten you on this, your grasp of this issue is radically different to mine and from where I stand, somewhat tenuous. Suffice to say, I wasn’t talking about categories concerning such trivia as the definitions of “things” but those of “experiences” – you do have them don’t you?
You’re trying to skirt around the simple fact that Lapsed Agnostic was right, to wit: “The Baltic & Black Seas are part of the Atlantic Ocean, Will.” Indeed they are, as any authoritative reference will tell you. Be open to education, Will. Consulting your own misguided preconceptions and assuming they must be right is not the path to enlightenment.
By the way, I must raise an objection to your patronising guff about categorisation. You seem oblivious to the essential difference between classical categories (as per set theory, first-order logic, scientific definition, and analytical philosophy) and everyday common-sense interpretation of vernacular terminology (which is ineradicably vague, not to mention variant between sociolects). So which should take priority in political debate? Well, I invite you to expound your peculiar wisdom in this blog’s discussion forum, as this conversation has veered so far off base that it’s no longer directly relevant to the topic of western pluralistic democracy.
To sum up, Will – as the Scots might tell you – you’re full of shite. Unfortunately you’re spreading far too much of it around this otherwise valuable blog.
In a new stage of the war , Ukraine announced attacks would take place acrossthe Atlantic in order to reach targets in Crimea. The MOD and the DOD issued a joint communique calling this strategy “inspired”
In further news the German gov announced a new investigation into the destruction of Nord stream 2, which lies off the coast of Germany in the Atlantic
Young men and women in Ukraine also resisted what they described as an assault by Russian barbarians in the 1940s. They were proud young fascists who either perished, were confined to a gulag or escaped to places like the UK, Canada and the USA. The same fate awaits them today.
There are two glaring holes in the ‘fascist Russia’ argument. First of all, the main opposition party in the RF is the Communist Party, a state of affairs no fascist regime ever has or ever will tolerate for obvious reasons. Secondly, Russian bellicose statements regarding the conflict in Ukraine are devoid of racist content. This is not always the case when Ukrainian spokespersons refer to Russian citizens, whether these Russians be in Ukraine or the RF.
The racist language used by Israeli military and political figures is on a stratospheric level beyond even that, and speaks shamelessly for itself
David W
You must be joking.
Ukrainians are frequently referred to as Khokhol [хохол; xoxol] on Russian State TV.
And of course the German Fascists/Nazis were quite content to trade & enter into military alliance with the USSR in the early 1940’s. And vice versa.
Isn’t there a comment somewhere about the far left and far right having a lot in common (viz the AfD and the Sahra Wagenknecht outfit)?
Of course I agree about Israeli politicians – the “Overton window” there is rushing to the far right.
The attempt to yoke together the AfD and the Sahra Wagenknecht Party was dealt with quite summarily by Alexander Mercouris this evening. The centre of German politics is disintegrating as it did in 1931 and seeking salvation in a reborn militarism.
I can recall when Michael Foot and Enoch Powell were strongly opposed to joining the EU in the 1970s but in these days no one was crass enough to suggest they shared the same reasons for doing so. Foot was a socialist and Powell was an imperialist.
I’ll get back on the Russian TV language issue since I need a fuller context and translation. Before that though, it’s worth pointing out that TV studio ranters do not speak for the government of any country any more than GB News does for the UK.
In the upper house of the Russian Parliament, the Federal Council, the Communists hold just 4 seats out of 178. In the lower house, the Duma, they have 57 out of 450 – in neither case enough to represent a threat or any serious opposition, so they can be tolerated to at least give an impression of democracy.
Interestingly, the far-right LDPR hold 23 seats and sit on the Government side with the ruling United Russia Party. The far right hold 5% of the seats in the Duma. In Ukraine the far right hold one seat in the unicameral 450-seat parliament on 2.15% of the vote.
Fascists don’t tolerate Communist parties full stop. They ban them (as Zelensky has done in Ukraine) and jail the leaders and influential supporters (as Zelensky has also done.)
Absorbing right wing votes into the mainstream is a well known way of pruning fascist support. Thatcher did it in respect of the NF back in the late 1970s and recent Tory bigwigs such as Patel and Badenoch are attempting the same in respect of Farage’s private club.
You could argue that Putin has done much the same with the Communist vote in Russia by harassing oligarchs, nationalising foreign companies and telling NATO to get out of his backyard.
Poroshenko banned the communist parties in Ukraine back in 2015 as part of the ‘de-communising’ of the country. The parties were found to be assisting pro-Russian separatists and proxy forces in the country.
The NF never had any MPs in the late 70s or at any other time.
“ The parties were found to be assisting pro-Russian separatists and proxy forces in the country.”
Any sources for this Pears?
As far as I am aware communist support in elections in Russia comes mainly from the poorest sections of the electorate
Russia is a “managed democracy” as is America (Electoral College), Britain (35% of the vote for maybe 66% of the seats), France (Macron now) etc.
Interestingly, the Communist Party of Britain was built up as a fearsome receptacle of revolution amongst a certain class of grifters and paranoiacs close to, or intersecting with the British Establishment. There is an interesting history in Lobster magazine regarding how this nonsense was packaged for maximum political advantage, revealing the squalor and intellectual impoverishment of the British ruling class and their friends in the “intelligence” community
“Remember this is 1978. Sections of the British secret state, the British military and the CIA believed that the recently resigned Prime Minister Harold Wilson was a KGB asset, if not an agent; and that the KGB influenced – even ran – the Labour Party through the role of the Communist Party of Great Britain in several of Britain’s biggest trade unions. In the mid-1970s a section of the Conservative Party and its allies within the state believed – or pretended to, it’s difficult to be sure which – that Britain was in danger of becoming a Soviet satellite.”
“The British Gladio and the Murder of Sergeant Speed”
Robin Ramsay, issue 81 Lobster
Lobster is free and the data is of high quality, as is the writing. Colin Wallace – an MoD whistleblower – features heavily in their coverage of Britain and a perusal through their back issues shows many items concerning the “uses” the Communist Party In Britain was put to
David Warriston @21.27pm.
Interesting comment David – the US has been meddling in Ukrainian affairs for decades now – and exploiting the fascist element that seems to run through the nation – like red stripes through a stalk of rock.
“The U.S. relationship with Ukraine, and its extremists, to undermine Russia began after the Second World War. During the war, units of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B) took part in the Holocaust, killing at least 100,000 Jews and Poles. ”
“Mykola Lebed, a top aide to Stepan Bandera, the leader of the fascist OUN-B, was recruited by the C.I.A. after the war, according to a 2010 study by the U.S. National Archives. ”
“Lebed was the “foreign minister” of a Banderite government in exile, but he later broke with Bandera for acting as a dictator. The U.S. Army Counterintelligence Corps termed Bandera “extremely dangerous” yet said he was “looked upon as the spiritual and national hero of all Ukrainians….”
“Instead of Bandera, the C.I.A. was interested in Lebed, despite his fascist background. They set him up in an office in New York City from which he directed sabotage and propaganda operations on the agency’s behalf inside Ukraine against the Soviet Union. ”
“The U.S. government study says:
“CIA operations with these Ukrainians began in 1948 under the cryptonym CARTEL, soon changed to AERODYNAMIC. …”
“Lebed relocated to New York and acquired permanent resident status, then U.S. citizenship. It kept him safe from assassination, allowed him to speak to Ukrainian émigré groups, and permitted him to return to the United States after operational trips to Europe.”
“Once in the United States, Lebed was the CIA’s chief contact for AERODYNAMIC. CIA handlers pointed to his ‘cunning character,’ his ‘relations with the Gestapo and … Gestapo training,’ [and] the fact that he was ‘a very ruthless operator.’”
“The C.I.A. worked with Lebed on sabotage and pro-Ukrainian nationalist propaganda operations inside Ukraine until Ukraine’s independence in 1991.”
https://consortiumnews.com/2024/06/10/using-ukraine-since-1948/
This is the case when I regret that the Earth rotates!
Such an interesting discussion took place while I was sleeping 🙂
But never mind, now I’ll pour myself a cup of coffee (a nice Armenian woman selling at the local market advised me to try her dried persimmon to complement this), so I’ll give you a little linguistic and cultural background to the comment while I try this new unusual combination. I hope you don’t mind learning something new either.
So, the Russian word ‘khuylo’ belongs to the obscene vocabulary. It consists of two morphemes – parts that have meaning and grammatical significance.
The first part is ‘khuy’, It is pronounced like /hui/. You can see an example of the correct Russian pronunciation of this lexical unit on the Ukrainian TV channel Rada (If you can find it, I’m sure YouTube is deleting this video. I offer one on Yaplakal) https://www.yaplakal.com/forum3/topic2755086.html
The story was: China has a representative for Eurasia, Mr. Li Guey (no idea what it sounds in Chinese, the Russian tradition of transliterating foreign names is precisely to avoid unpleasant coincidences). In March 2023, he said that China would not support negotiations without Russia’s participation. Commenting on this, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Aleksey Danilov insulted him, pretending to have forgotten his name and deliberately mangling it in an obscene manner.
Well, back to liguistics. The meaning of Russian word ‘khuy’ is ‘a penis’. This is a root of many obscene words, because normally human genitalia are not discussed outside of educational and medical settings, and are not displayed in public places.
Although, Ukrainian President Zelensky, when he was a comedian, wittily played up the public display of his penis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovg7LVtxoNU
Oh, sorry, I seem to have strayed from linguistics 😉
The second part of the word ‘khuylo’ is ‘-lo’, pronounced like /low/. It has the grammatical meaning of ‘something’, and you can see this particle for example in another obscene word ‘ebalo’ (formed from the root ‘eb’ (to fuck) with the particle ‘lo’ and means ‘something for fucking’).
This is the word Melania Podolyak used when she told Elon Musk that his job is to provide Starlink and shut his ebalo up
https://twitter.com/MelaniePodolyak/status/1576980215058006017
As for the cultural aspect, this layer of vocabulary is emotionally charged, and people usually have no problem using derivatives in relation to objects or situations, but it is considered an insult if addressed to a person. (I once illustrated this with a story about a rude cashier and traces of dirty shoes on a washed floor, but unfortunately I did not bookmark it and cannot find that comment now)
[ Mod: I think you mean this one – 25 March 2024 @ 1:58pm ]
In my country, shouting out obscene language in public is considered inappropriate behavior, inherent to uneducated people, or people from uncivilized regions.
Normally, people in society use euphemisms.
Educated people are also capable of commenting ironically. For example, alluding to the comedy of Zelensky playing the piano, Lavrov said smiling “he is not only the President, but also a pianist” – a great way to convey information without dirtying your own mouth or losing your dignity, Imo.
—
I hope you found it interesting, stay tuned and I wish a good, cheerful morning to the entire planet!
Oh, and the communists – they’re not very popular here for all the right reasons.
Like, they had 70 years of rule, quite a lot of time to implement all the ideas. We certainly look with envy at China, where the communist party rules, they seem to be successful where we’ve failed. However, the standard of living here in Russia is now incomparably higher than it was then, under communism, so people just don’t want to vote for them.
Could Tatyana honestly tell us what percentage of the votes the communists really get, as opposed to the number Putin and his oligarchic cronies attribute to them? As Aristotle pointed out a long time ago the mark of an oligarchy is election by ballot, which the rich will normally win thanks to their superior wealth.
Surely she will not affirm that Putin and co do not rig their elections, and bribery and intimidation are not the norm in Russian elections? At least in Ukraine they have stopped pretending. I recall back in 1996 when the Russians were dying off in their millions under Putin’s padrone Yeltsin, and it looked like the ‘reds’ would win the election, Putin made a speech on the need for Pinochet measures in Russia. Tell me I am wrong? If Starmer is a fascist, so is Putin. Look into his past. Moreover, many Russians are no less racist than many Britons, and hate Asians. I only hope the Chinese have not forgotten the particularly virulent Yellow Peril propaganda that the Russians spouted not so long ago, and which still simmers beneath the surface among Russian nationalists.
Oh, thank you! I found that it was in my bookmarks after all, saved with the title “Hatred and Prejudice in Krasnodar”, which is why I simply didn’t recognize it.
I think I overdid it with creativity, I should have just labeled it as “Dirty Story” or, “Mad Cashier: Fury Road” 🙂
For Putin’s lauding of Pinochet measures to German business people as necessary to ensure the protection of private capital cf WDR in the T V feature “” Drive to the East””( Monday 3rd January 1994 West 3 from 21.15 to 21.45).
I should be appreciated your comments.
Thanks Tatanya.
I was aware that the the term that I used for Putin was offensive. Well deserved imo.
What about my other comment; “Ukrainians are frequently referred to as Khokhol [хохол; xoxol] on Russian State TV.”
Do you agree that this is true? And wrong?
(Putin is after all a murderous shit while Ukrainians are a nation.)
I don’t watch TV.
I can only comment that the word Khokhol is legal in Russian as the name of a protruding part of the hair. It describes the distinctive feature of the Ukrainian Cossacks – a forelock, a national hairstyle of a long tuft of hair on a bald head (my grandfather called it Oseledets). This is not something offensive, but a descriptive name for a clearly noticeable feature in appearance.
In turn, the Ukrainians have many words with a negative connotation to designate Russians, and those words denominate a group of people by territorial and national characteristics, for example, Moskal or Rusnya, easily recognizable to speakers of any language who know the words Moscow or Russia.
Well, for a good mood for the rest of the audience, I will share a linguistic professional joke:
A businessman meets a delegation of three foreign guests and welcomes them to his office. He orders the assistant:
– Please be so kind as to bring some coffee for me, and tea for these 3 faggots.
A voice from the foreign group:
– Excuse me, tea for 2 faggots. I am the translator.
—
Learn languages, ladies and gentlemen 🙂
JK Redux
Do you support Ukraine using slurs against russians?
” Kiev backtracks on Russian ‘orcs’ smear ban
The Ukrainian media regulator had urged journalists not to use dehumanizing language, but later withdrew the instruction “
https://swentr.site/russia/598088-ukrainian-media-dehumanizing-language/
Tatyana – faggots in British English are a type of meatball while fags is slang for cigarettes. ‘ Do you smoke fags !, though, is not something that would be asked in the USA.
Ewan are you old to remember “Brains’ Frozen Faggots”?
This product which was quite popular with “our friends in the North” not so long ago was manufactured by Brains, a family concern with a tradition of being active in national offal markets
Like with many things globalisation has brought a decline in the consumption of faggots and also offal in general – as offal. The production of ready meals has mainly captured the offal market now, with the demands of outsourced NHS catering mopping up the rest
I once washed dishes in a gaff that served calf or cow brain, I can’t remember which. The plate would leave the kitchen dressed with so much chopped parsley, you couldn’t see the brain underneath.
Yes Will, I remember, I’m sure we had them once or twice. I live in The Czech Republic so there’s still a demand for offal products, as well as game. Blood soup, or fart soup, with pearl barley and herbs is very tasty. Soups are also popular here.
You will be pleased to know Ewan that there is an illegal, clandestine offal distribution network here in Britain – black pudding (blood sausage) is at the heart of this operation.
It’s all very hush-hush, on a need to know basis only but if you do find yourself in Britain without access to offal, I can probably hook you up. I know several of the local butchers ”quite well” and could probably get you a good price
Oooh! I could do with a good butcher’s!
You can hear this word хохол on Ukrainian TV too: https://youtu.be/KQoz5tdolck?si=YnBe5_edGnXUU_9k
All goods delightfully showcased in a suitcase at the local motorway service station – just next to the dogging roundabout – another well known meat distribution point
Round here meat packers stand together
Ewan2
The Czech Republic? Wow! I fell in love with one recipe from your country ‘s cuisine, it’s bramboracka.
As to the faggots, listen guys, my English course at the university didn’t include obscene words, so I simply used Google Translate. It suggested ‘faggots’, I thought it must be the right word.
Btw, why do I feel like your conversation with Will Moon is not simply about food?
David W
“JK’s description of Putin as a ‘murderous shit’ is a common feature of those who are governed by emotion rather than reason.”
Nope, the description is accurate.
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians have died because of his murderous actions.
To append the term “shit” is just to summarise his moral qualities.
Jack
You ask “Do you support Ukraine using slurs against Russians?”.
Not against Russians no.
But using the term “orc” for the conscripted/mobilised untrained men forced into “meat attacks” against Ukraine does capture the moral vacuum behind the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
JK Redux
But using the term “orc” for the conscripted/mobilised untrained men forced into “meat attacks” against Ukraine does capture the moral vacuum behind the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
So equally you are ok if russians use the term khokol against the ukrainian Kursk invaders.
JK Redux
“JK’s description of Putin as a ‘murderous shit’ is a common feature of those who are governed by emotion rather than reason.”
Nope, reason why there is a war is the extreme nationalism that culiminated in the western back Maidan in 2013. Remember how western reps. where in very the crowd at Maidan standing side by side with fascist, neo-nazi thugs calling for the ukrainian government to step down or face violence.
Remember also that is is western arms, your leaders, that you support is what uphold this war by the constant flow of arms, weapons and that use ukrainian lives as cannon fodder. If your leaders in the west, that you support, did not do this, the war would be over within months and thousands of lives would be saved since Ukraine was about to agree to a peaceful deal but your idol to a leader, Boris Johnson, wrecked it just like that.
Official: Johnson Forced Kyiv To Refuse Russian Peace Deal
Russia was ready to end the war and withdraw its troops in exchange for Ukrainian neutrality just a few months after the invasion began and was refused partly because of ex-British PM Boris Johnson, who pressured Kyiv into continuing the fight, David Arahamiya, the leader of Ukraine’s ruling party confirmed in a recent interview, published on Friday, November 24th.
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/official-johnson-forced-kyiv-to-refuse-russian-peace-deal/
HI Tatyana,
it’s a kind of innuendo found in Northern English humour – try Les Dawson and the butcher from comedy series League of Gentlemen, Hilary Briss.
“Nope, the description is accurate.”
Well, you would say that, wouldn’t you, reason not playing a large part in your discourse.
Reason would lead one to believe, via the well known argument that the person responsible for something is the last person who made it happen or didn’t prevent it, that the deaths in Ukraine were the responsibility of our own Boris Johnson, he who scuppered the peace talks in March 2022. Any attempt to pin the blame on prior actions leads inevitably back to the Big Bang as every action has causes that wold be negated if previous actions did not occur.
However emotion seeks out the actor in the chain of causality that the thinker wants to hold responsible and pins the blame on them.
“It consists of two morphemes – parts that have meaning and grammatical significance.
Three morphemes, with respect, Tatyana: The second part of the word “‘khuylo’” is -l- (suffix), the third part is -o (ending).
You are good, very good!
I have already started my comments with ‘oh’ twice today, but I guess I’ll have to use it a third time 🙂
Why not. After all, as the Russian proverb says, God loves the trinity.
Oh, you’re probably right, Pooh.
I had another word in mind – ‘stoylo’. In the old days, when our language was one for all Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Polish and other Slavic peoples, the word ‘stoylo’ had the form ‘stoyadlo’ with the root ‘stoy’ (to stand) and the particle ‘dlo’, the meaning is ‘the place where livestock stands, cattle shed’. The word ‘bydlo’ (cattle) is formed by the same principle.
I’m not sure that this type of word formation also applies to the obscene vocabulary from the comments above, however, words are declined by case, and therefore ‘o’ is an ending.
Well, Pooh, we may enjoy some great post-irony 🙂
– Excuse me, three morphemes. I’m a translator.
I really like it! 😀
Tatyana has covered the linguistic elements, but after asking around here in Moscow today I have not found anyone who has heard the insulting term (translation in English: ‘prick’) used by an official spokesperson on Russian TV. So to say it is a feature of Russian state TV lacks evidence.
They all agreed such language may have been used by ultra loudmouths in TV ‘discussions’ by elements who denounce Putin for not acting more decisively in Ukraine. Such intemperate language (like JK’s description of Putin as a ‘murderous shit’) is a common feature of those who are governed by emotion rather than reason.
Tatyana.
Your above comment touches on something OT but which seriously disturbs and puzzles me. Why does species homo sapiens have such confused thoughts about reproduction and why do ALL religions do what they can to foster and extend such confusion.
Most or all members of the species have a dangerous ambivalence about the mammalian internal fertilization act when performed by humans. I consider that the related thought processes don’t just ensure that most of our swear words used to express extreme anger are related to it but it also causes misogyny that in turn leads to homo sapiens males thinking they are entitled to own and control women and kill them if they get uppity. It leads to rape and serial killing and to Israelis thinking that propagating untrue stories of October 7 sex crimes by Hamas will further their interests.
This is a serious defect in human thinking and is responsible for a large number of social problems.
Thank you for an interesting topic for discussion, Carlyle.
I don’t want to pretend to be an expert in this field, I’ll only mention that my opinion is based on my education, which included psychology, linguistics, history and cultural studies. Well, and basically I’ve been working with people all my life.
The tradition of using words related to the reproduction of human beings has ancient roots. The experience of breeding livestock and the experience of breeding plant would inevitably tell a human being that there are “successful” and “unfavorable” combinations of genetic material in crossed samples.
Without going into details, just a couple of examples: dog or cat breeders know about the fixation of hereditary traits in inbreeding. (In the human population, the most famous example would be the Habsburgs with their protruding lower lip).
It’s also known about the manifestation of recessive genes, leading to inferiority or non-viability of offspring, which, I’m sure, has many examples in human history, but they should not be cited for ethical reasons.
Before the transition of humanity to the industrial order, which happened quite recently by the standards of history, we must have lived a completely natural life, in which reproduction was not something tabooed. Thus, obscene vocabulary quite naturally targeted the products of mixing those genes that could lead to unviable offspring.
And conversely, in the layer of vocabulary that praised and encouraged a human being, you can easily see that his “worthy ancestors” or “innate high qualities” are praised.
We tend to express laws of nature at the linguistic level, which is quite understandable. (here I must make a reservation because I really do not want to offend anybody)
Speaking even more frankly, many obscene words almost directly call the addresser a victim or a perpetrator of the wrong reproductive choice.
From the point of view of blind multi-million-year evolution and natural selection, this linguistic phenomenon makes sense.
Since all members contribute to the survival and reproduction of the whole society in future generations. This is embedded in our basic instincts, Imo. A negative attitude towards those who undermine this process is something, let’s say, natural. Biology.
Unless this is considered too offensive (in which case moderators please feel free to remove it) I’ll give examples to illustrate what I mean.
Many languages have swear words that refer to women as having promiscuous relationships. The obvious reason is that in the absence of contraception and genetic testing, only a woman’s virginity would guarantee that she would only have offspring from a certain male (husband. and legal marriages were mostly made by parents and other elders in the tribe).
In support of this assertion, I’ll say that few languages have a similarly intense description of a male who has multiple relationships. Since the female body is capable of rejecting a non-viable fetus, the “responsibility for potentially non-viable offspring” is transferred to the woman’s body. And so a word expressing the “amorousness” of a male would likely have connotations of admiration for his reproductive efforts, perhaps with a hint of discontent for his lack of effort in raising children (not a big deal, really, in normal tribal ebvironment).
Another way to describe it would be in these simplified description below:
Every breath you take costs calories. You get calories from your habitat. Your habitat is provided to you by your tribe. So your tribe can either approve or disapprove of what you spend your calories on – the result of the combined efforts of the entire human community.
And if you intend to waste those calories, then please rest assured that society will let you know about its discontent in no uncertain terms.
In modern realities, this would be roughly analogous to the polite form “I’m a taxpayer and I do’t agree to have my taxes spent on this.”
Looks like ЦИПСО is here with all their talking points?
That would be too predictable, and therefore boring, Yuri.
Look, here I clearly observe an obsession, since almost any topic inevitably comes down to Putin.
With my vivid fantasy, I imagine an anonymous fellowship of people with addictions who get together, sit in a circle and one of them would say:
– Hi, my name is John and I
am an alcoholichate Putin…Tatyana, I talked to many Ukrainians, and they live in their dream world. I do not need to go too far, my brother-in-law’s wife is like that. They believe that the moment Ukraine joins EU the Miracle of the Manna will happen. EU will start paying Ukrainians pensions, build them infrastructure, defeat the famous Ukrainian corruption, and so on. The idea that in our world nobody pays anyone for nothing is beyond their understanding. EU will pay them just for being Ukrainians!
But then Putin happened. He’s the evil guy who blocks their collective dream from coming true. It’s because of Putin that Ukrainians can’t get rich doing nothing. Naturally, they are obsessed with him. And who wouldn’t be?
Tatyana
What is there to like about your President?
Are you addicted to him?
Hundreds of thousands of your countrymen have died or been crippled because of his orders.
For what?
(Please use my forum name as I use yours.)
“What is there to like about your President?”
The Nineties – life expectancy went from 67 to 54 in a few years – one of the biggest peacetime drops in the history of the industrially developed nations (stats from memory) males particularly hard hit
Tatyana.
Putin may be a psychopath or he may be acting like a psychopath because that is the only way he can maintain control of a nation like the Russian Federation.
On the other hand I think Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and SIR Keir Starmer are acting like psychopaths. Nations are psychopaths because the interests that those who rule them are serving are so weighty that only criminal acts are allowed in governance.
Ukraine is a Neo Nazi regime. it is currently sending its men and women to their death for no reason at all.
Russia has all the land and resources it needs, which is why western states wish to break it up.
Russia fought Nazis in 1940s and is doing so again. Unfortunately for the Nazis, the USA/UK will not be able to save them this time
We have the Magna Carta which enshrines the rights of the aristocracy to oppress the people. That’s our democracy and gift to the world.
” The only reason Britain fought fascists in Europe (Germany empires 2 and 3) was because they were threatening to depose Britain from their world empire and hegemony.”
Nah, Britain fought Germany because they struck a deal with Russia. So long as Hitler bade fair to attack the Soviet Union, we were on his side. He could invade countries like Czechoslovakia and we did nothing. As soon as he signed a non-aggression pact with Stalin, he became the enemy. Britain has never had a problem with fascism, after all the British government supported Franco is his successful attempt to depose a democratically elected government in the Spanish Civil War, it’s socialism that Britain has a problem with.
Why then did Chamberlain give his guarantees to Poland and Romania against Germany long before the Soviet-German non-aggression pact was signed? There was no way for Hitler to attack USSR around Poland and/or Romania (in theory, there was also Hungary; however, advancing on a narrow front through Carpathian Mountains would be a bad idea).
But it was a phoney guarantee, a brilliant gambit by Chamberlain that the dumb Poles fell for. Chamberlain did zero to help the Poles, unlike Finland .In any case Stalin checkmated Chamberlain by the Molotov – Ribbentrop Pact, which effectively guaranteed Germany’s defeat, the Blitzkrieg getting quickly bogged down and the war as already seen as lost by November 1941!
To the contrary, the guarantees were a dumb move by Chamberlain because they took away any leverage he could possibly have to put pressure on Poland. For Chamberlain, just like for Hitler, the ideal outcome was that Poland yields to Hitler’s demands. But once the Poles had British guarantees, why would they?
Unbelievable, but unfortunately it is. I need a little time to take it in.
Sarah Wilkinson has given a very chilling account of her encounter with the “counter terrorism thugs”
https://youtube.com/watch?v=WjwycG
[ Mod (@1:31am): YouTube seems to have removed the linked video. An alternative is available on X (Twitter). ]
She equated their behaviour with Mossad. Her hands were handcuffed in very tight manacles which destroyed the circulation to her hands. This is a very nasty type of behaviour which the Israelis practice on Palestinian detainees.
Sarah’s experience occurred in the UK in Shropshire, and it’s quite horrifying that such behaviour is allowed. I hope she can take legal action against the perpetrators – get her freedom, electronics, and money back, and ensure it doesn’t happen again.
If this is truly legal – which I doubt – the UK has slipped so far down the slope towards fascism that neither I nor my parents who experienced WW2 and Hitler’s Nazis would recognize it. Sarah is a journalist doing what a journalist does: reporting the truth. Because she doesn’t write for the MSM, the security horrors can’t hang D-notices on her work, so they resort to this!?!?
What is going on in Gaza is being relayed around the world by many people, including Sarah. We all just have to keep on speaking out and opposing the genocide in Palestine. The fascist states can’t imprison us all. The problem with the UK is that it doesn’t have a constitution other than a pack of laws which are regarded as precedents. There can be no precedent for this terrorism law being applied to ordinary British journalists doing their job.
Think someone else posted the link but this one is working https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjwycG_9Ujo
I think it;s still on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjwycG_9Ujo&t=1600s
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[ Mod: Yes, if you compare the URLs you can see that the one posted in the original comment was incomplete (omitting “_9Ujo”) – that’s why it linked to a page saying “This video isn’t available anymore”. ]
Interesting. The latest British Social Attitudes Survey finds a striking 22-point fall in the proportion of people saying they are proud of Britain’s history, and a 13-point drop in those who said they would rather be a citizen of Britain than any other country.
“There were also marked declines in the proportion of people expressing pride in Britain’s democracy, its economic achievements and its political influence in the world. People were less likely to agree that Britain was better than most other countries or that people should support their country even if it was in the wrong.”
https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/sep/03/pride-britain-history-falls-sharply-social-attitudes-survey
The Guardian’s report on the findings does not mention that these attitudes have developed even in the face of increasingly intense “wonderfulness of us” propaganda from UK politicians and media, not least from the Guardian itself in the past decade.
Younger generations it seems are rather less impressed by political class and MSM state propaganda.
It’s all very discouraging for remaining British establishment right or wrong types. Do they have the stamina to work even harder to turn this trend around?
Of course some media is implying that a drop from the 80 odd % of previous surveys to 64% now means that people are becoming “less proud” of being British, which is just coded racism and anti-immigration mindset. Asking people if they are “proud of British history” is really asking them if they are proud of the history that they they have been taught ie the history of the kings and queens, the British Empire and how wonderful we were in the two World Wars. If people are less proud of that side of British history, which is far from the whole, it can only be a good thing.
It looks like Israeli cyclists – are competing in the Tour of Britain cycle race – which kicks-off on Tuesday, with protestors not happy, that the country is allowed to take part whilst committing genocide.
“Campaigners have claimed that millions of pounds has been invested in sports to help enhance Israel’s standing – known as “sportswashing” – amid its trial at the International Court of Justice amid allegations of genocide.”
“Gerry Coutts, from Scottish Friends of Palestine, said that just as Russia has been banned from sporting events for its invasion of Ukraine, the same pressure should be applied to Israel.
He said: “The IPT is co-owned by billionaire Zionist Sylvan Adams. He has ploughed millions into sports and other ventures to help sanitise the reputation of Israel across the world. He is also a key investor in the IDF, Israel’s occupation force.”
“In a recent interview with i24News, in reference to Gaza, Sylvan Adams said ‘the IDF needs to finish the job’ and that it needs to ‘mop up in Gaza’ showing a complete disregard for Israel’s war crimes and the unimaginable suffering and loss of life inflicted on occupied Palestinians.”
“In January, Froome appeared in a video posted on social media by Israel’s Foreign Ministry and the official state of Israel to promote a cycling event to support Gaza hostages. His involvement drew criticism, with some accusing him of sportswashing.”
British Cycling has been approached for comment.”
https://archive.is/CaJ4k#selection-1887.3-1891.51
People could do worse than spend two hours watching Tucker Carlson’s interview of Putin. We all know the joke about a politician’s lips moving but we can weigh up whether what Putin says makes sense and fits with achievable aims. Russia is in position to become the biggest ally of what looks set to become the preeminent world power. That gets dressed up as a multipolar world with dedollarisation etc. But nowhere in there is there any sign of a desire to expand westward. Neither does the situation on the ground in Ukraine fit with such an aim. Maybe Russia doesn’t want to roll its forces over the whole country. Maybe it can’t. Take your pick but neither suggests snow covered boots marching on Lisbon and it’s only the prospect of juicy arms contracts that leads to such claims.
The very interesting part to this was Tucker Carlson’s reaction to Russia itself. He was just blown away by it. I thought the interview with President Putin was hilarious, Putin would have been a good history teacher. He also managed the China question magnificently. I don’t understand what the west is terrified about, not ordinary people anyway maybe the big greedies and politicians.
“If we are to survive this descent onto fascism as a society, we need to be prepared to dissent now, and each of us needs to be prepared to go to jail if necessary.”
Craig, I have to ask you to consider, is it worth it?
The UK is in its twilight years, things are just going to get worse and worse. As I said to you when you came out of jail. Get out. Get out now, and enjoy the rest of your life in a civilised country which respects its inhabitants. There still are a few remaining. And, for what it’s worth I would say the same to your readership. I did so four years ago, my only regret now is that I left it so long.
Democracy in the UK ! I think not.
“In one of its first, but little-noticed foreign policy moves, Labour has amended the Eisenhower-era 1958 Mutual Defence Agreement (MDA) … Officials deleted a long-standing sunset clause that required it be renewed every ten years.”
https://www.declassifieduk.org/starmer-permanently-ties-uk-nuclear-arsenal-to-washington/
And, one for Clark.
“PSC and its coalition partners have expressed their serious concern that the Met Police are threatening to place severe restriction orders on this Saturday’s Palestine protest, without explanation or rationale.”
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/news/2024/09/02/pro-palestine-march-7-september-met-police/
Thanks Stevie Boy. I’ll still be going if I can.
It occurred to me to check what media coverage there has been of the arrest of Sarah Wilkinson as distinct from her treatment as arrests under the Terrorist Act on suspicions of terrorism at least are usually sensationally reported.
As far as I could see, mothing from BBC / ITV national or local (Shropshire – West Midlands channels) channels or local media websites.
Google, and only two media sites come up – Morning Star which has an article today on her shocking treatment and believe it or not the Jewish News (Lee Halpin writes for this.) Extracts.
“Wilkinson had previously praised the 7 October Hamas attacks in Israel as an “incredible infiltration”, and had attempted to claim a series of posts casting doubts over the extent of Nazi Holocaust in her name were not written by her. —(account of the arrest)
Her arrest and action against other pro-Palestine activists had led to claims that under Keir Starmer counter-terrorism police are taking tougher action against alleged breaches of terror laws.
Home secretary Yvette Cooper is also planning to strengthen existing terror laws to ensure better monitoring of extremism”.
https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/pro-palestine-activist-who-had-praised-incredible-oct-7-infiltration-arrested-by-terror-cops.
Since few would read the Jewish News outside the Jewish community, were it not for social media we great unwashed British public might never have known of the arrest, let alone the manner in which it was conducted. She could have been simply “disappeared”.
The millionaire knight of the realm – Sir Keir Starmer – chains the UK, to USA’s nuclear apron, permanently.
Birds of a feather – as the saying goes.
“Labour has reinforced the “special relationship” with Washington by agreeing to make Britain’s nuclear arsenal permanently dependent on the US.
In one of its first, but little-noticed foreign policy moves, Labour has amended the Eisenhower-era 1958 Mutual Defence Agreement (MDA) that is crucial to Britain’s Trident nuclear missile system.
Officials deleted a long-standing sunset clause that required it be renewed every ten years.
All references to an “expiry date” have been removed “to make the entirety of the MDA enduring, securing continuing cooperation with the US”, according to a memorandum signed by defence secretary John Healey.”
https://www.declassifieduk.org/starmer-permanently-ties-uk-nuclear-arsenal-to-washington/
The UK’s independent nuclear deterrent has never been independent of the yanks. From the missiles to the firing codes the UK needs the technology and the permission of uncle Sam. The targeting will be coordinated’ with the USA as will when and where to use it. We are spending billions on enabling American posturing with absolutely no benefit to us or to world peace. And, if there is a war the UK is expendable and would be sacrificed without batting an eye.
[ Mod: As previously advised, the name ‘James’ is already in use by a regular commenter (actually, more than one – but the original was banished). Kindly use a unique name. ]
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And Scotland doesn’t want them but housing them in Scotland comes out of Scotland’s budget.
What mugs we are!
And just like in the case of Assange, nobody cares.
I mean, obviously, you do care and a couple of other outliers but to make any changes you need millions and millions.
Unfortunately, there is only one thing that can wake up Western democracies to this effect: tens of thousands of coffins, packed not with Arabs or Russians or Persians or Ukrainians but with your own people, the English, the French, the Germans, and the Scandinavians, of course.
Sounds horrible, I know. Sorry. But until then their primary concern will be Arsenal vs Chelsea, Pornhub and their daily bread.
Yuri the point being that all the main protagonists either have nuclear or hypersonic weapons. The casualties are likely to be in their millions. In my opinion the consensus developing outside of the mainstream media bubble is that the three big powers opposed to NATO all have far more productive manufacturing sectors and therefore the capacity to out-produce their opposition. Therefore so long as no nation pulls the big trigger a war of attrition on several or at least expanding fronts will naturally favour NATO’s opponents. The negotiating gambit by the main NATO power(s) is that they are so ideologically driven and “irrational” that they may use or allow one of their proxies to use a nuclear weapon. This maybe why a main NATO opponent makes clear their country could also respond in kind if they regard themselves as being under existential threat ? It seems our fate may be in the hands of Game theorists ?
My great fear that is the Palestinian people, especially those in Gaza will no longer be present should a negotiated settlement between NATO and its opponents come to pass.
Perhaps there may be more significant economic warfare on the near horizon that will influence the NATO powers to revise their current approach ? I do wonder if the opponents of NATO attribute any credibility to Donald Trump as a negotiating partner or view him as Agreement capable ?
There are other ways of bleeding, like civil wars, for example. And who will use nukes in their own territory?
The war in Ukraine is such an ideal war for the West because Ukrainians are killed by the thousands, not the Westerners*, so Russia is bled at the expense of an external country; old weapons are dumped into Ukraine and this gives an excuse for rearmament, so LMT, RTX and the rest of them get huge profits; and so on. So the benefits of this war for the West are countless. But there is a catch: eventually, Ukraine will lose. And then what?!
Once the West (meaning, the American deep state and the UK, who acts quasi-independently, the rest are not independent players) comes to realization that they can’t defeat Russia in this proxy war, that they can’t starve Russia by sanctions, and that they can’t get rid of Putin by staging a coup, they will have 2 options.
Option 1 is to admit their defeat and start negotiating a new Yalta. If they were smart, they’d already done this back in 2021. But because they are dumb, they did not. So, being dumb, they are likely to choose Option 2, that is, to escalate the conflict further by involving NATO directly, And in this case, God help us all.
As for your Trump question, Putin had stated earlier that he’d prefer Biden because Biden is more predictable. However, this was before Biden was disposed of, so I do not know what’s his idea now. My interpretation of Putin’s words is that though Biden is bad for Russia, Biden’s politics united Russia and China, and Trump will likely try to play Russia against China. Trump will be far more dangerous for the Middle East, of course.
____________________________
*) Ironically, there was a report of Swedish instructors killed in a recent Russian missile strike against the training center at Poltava. There are jokes going around already on how bad Poltava is for the Swedes.
There are a number of obstacles to full and direct NATO involvement in Ukraine. The military problems of fighting on Russia’s doorstep will be well understood by the military if not the politicians, although I concede this was also the case with Nazi Germany in 1941. However Hitler could point to a streak of impressive victories across Europe prior to his invasion whilst NATO has crept away from a series of failed missions which will inspire little public confidence.
This public confidence is required in order to launch a full scale conflict. Nothing that has happened in Ukraine, even as reported by NATO media, is likely to have encouraged the populace of Europe to see anything remotely like victory in the offing. Polish politicians were very bellicose back in 2022 but have since cooled on any commitment to the ‘coalition of the willing.’
This in turn influences the public mood you referred to in a previous post, highlighting political ignorance and apathy. That apathy would not long survive artillery strikes on domestic targets, which would flag up the issue of what is exactly at stake and being fought for. Since Ukraine has no strong historical resonance (unlike, say Poland due to the events leading up to WW2) and has never been a member of NATO, the question of what was being fought and died for would at the very least open a great many people’s eyes.
The financial black hole that Ukraine has become for western money must also have concentrated a few bankers’ minds. Western investment in Ukraine was expected to produce some sort of profit over and above the short term boost to the armament industry. Without that return on investment the NATO countries will struggle to sell their political brands to the public as living standards continue to decline. The political elite may be quite happy to sacrifice human life for the claimed ‘sovereignty ‘of Ukraine; but they will not sacrifice their political power for any cause, real or imagined.
Option 3, is that the West just abandons Ukraine and opens another front on Russia’s border. And here we go again, the plan is to drag Russia down and force it to use precious resources in an endless war.
The only solution is the destruction of the West, and BRICS may achieve that.
This – has probably passed under the MSM radar in the UK, deliberately.
“Canada’s National Post is refusing to comment after one of its columnists revealed himself to be a collaborator with Western-aligned intelligence agencies. A Canadian activist is now threatening to sue the paper after the confessed spy smeared him in a front page article.
Adam Zivo, a columnist who covered the war in Ukraine for Canada’s National Post newspaper, has outed himself as an operative of Canadian and Ukrainian intelligence. ”
https://thegrayzone.com/2024/09/03/canadian-journalist-canadian-ukrainian-intelligence-collaborator/
As Meta – permanently banned The Cradle from Facebook, and Instagram – The Cradle has discovered an Israeli connection to the ban. The Cradle was banned on the 16th of August this year.
“On the first day of the Democratic National Convention, indeed — Meta permanently banned The Cradle from Facebook and Instagram, the holding company’s most trafficked social media properties. Narwani now stands accused of “praising terrorist organizations” and engaging in “incitement to violence.” This ruling came without warning.”
https://consortiumnews.com/2024/09/03/patrick-lawrence-the-sound-of-enforced-silence/
“Meta banning a news source such as The Cradle that is critical of Israel is less surprising when you consider their history. Beyond Meta’s head of Israel policy, Jordana Cutler, being a former chief of staff of Israel’s Minister of Strategic Affairs, and nearly his director general. Israeli government propaganda offshoot CyberWell is also a ‘trusted partner’ to Meta. In July, the organization helped influence Meta’s policy on criticism of Zionism.”
https://thecradle.co/articles-id/26703#:~:text=Evidence%20suggests%20that%20Israeli
SInce you distinguish between journalists and activists, it’s worth pointing out that the two people convicted in Hong Kong are journalists, convicted for their journalism, not simple activists.
Would they work for Apple Daily Ronny? – also worth pointing out if they did
I find that publication to be somewhat problematic. Maybe more of an actor than an observer? If you wish to add some context, it may help me understand the distinction you are making
The color revolutions involve many actors, some are dupes some are not.
For context, here is what an ‘honest’ western MSM journalist looks like:
https://thegrayzone.com/2024/09/03/canadian-journalist-canadian-ukrainian-intelligence-collaborator/
The Grayzone would have a field day unearthing similar characters in UK media. In fact I believe it was them who did shine a spotlight on the security state links of both Luke Harding and Paul Mason. It must have been Grayzone because who in British media would dare to such a thing?
I just want to say, resolutely guarding free speech and civil liberties is the only way to make sure governments cannot introduce fascism. And it is the governments to be scared of, not the people. Any government wishing to introduce totalitarianism must seek destroy to opposition to its narrative by destroying civil liberties. Such governments will always use fear as their reasoning. And look what the UK government is doing now.
I have just posted an article on Substack, I feel it is not irrelevant to this thread.
Its title is In the Twilight of Great Britain.
Here are the opening lines:
The saddest sight I see in China is an MG car.
The last three cars I owned were all MGs. The first two were built in Longbridge, Birmingham. The third was built in Nanjing, China, and Longbridge is now a housing estate. Delve into the long sad story that led to that result and you will be part way to understanding how the United Kingdom arrived at the sorry state it is in today. What we have seen in Britain over the past 70 years, slowly at first but now accelerating, is its transformation from a country, with all its faults, that one could be proud of, one which essentially served the people, one which was good to to live in: to being a shadow of its former self in which the economy is collapsing, poverty increasing as the standard of living is declining, one in which the priorities of its government are serving its American master, getting involved on the wrong side of conflicts around the world rather than serving the needs of its people, and arresting citizens who do no more than disagree with the policies it pursues.
https://open.substack.com/pub/waltking/p/in-the-twilight-of-great-britain
My first Substack effort, was Four Chinese Women.
If you missed it, it is here.
https://open.substack.com/pub/waltking/p/four-chinese-women
It has racked up 427 views since last Thursday. I am simply amazed and extremely grateful to everyone who read it and who made comments.
Wow! Thanks for writing that article, Walt. A brilliant short analysis of Britain’s economic and political decline, from the perspective of an Englishman in China. A mine of telling information.
A Welshman!
But thanks!
Apologies, sire.
😳
Interesting in the arrest of Sarah Wilkinson, they asked for the geolocation of the fresh water drinking wells her NGO had put in Gaza. The bombing of wells has been an obvious indicator of genocide. Presumably these arrests are requested by Israel.
On the plus side, MI5 are showing us how afraid they are, and who the most effective journalists are.
That wily old fox – President Erdoğan of Turkey – is making loud noises on Turkey joining BRICS, to the dismay of Nato members and the EU. Of course Erdoğan has been seeking EU membership for his country for years now, but Turkey has always been blocked by one or two EU nations – or specific EU rules, that first have to be met in order for Turkey to join the bloc. Erdoğan knows these rules change like the winds and tides, when Turkey gets close to fulfilling them.
This time around though, Erdoğan has the EU backed into a corner with its threat to join BRICS. Who knows, the EU bigwigs might just now fast-track Turkey into the EU to stop it joining BRICS. However, if Turkey does join BRICS, it will become the first country to be both a BRICS and a Nato member. It may well end up becoming a BRICS, Nato and EU member – another first.
” Turkey has always been blocked by one or two EU nations – or specific EU rules, that first have to be met in order for Turkey to join the bloc. ”
Yeah trivial stuff like human rights and the rule of law; neither of which seems to bother other BRICS members so maybe Turkey will be in good company.
“No major western leader is ever again going to be able to speak about human rights or ethical values, without attracting howls of derision”
very first sentence of the article you’re posting under.
you clearly don’t believe the West’s genocide in Gaza matters. not even in the slightest.
a proudly superior and shameless racist.
They don’t bother the EU/NATO either, when it’s targeted against the right ethnic groups.
The Baltic States, amongst others prove that. Then of course there’s the state sanctioned abominations going on in Ukraine, since 2014.
Urban Fox
What are the Baltics doing that you disapprove of?
Presumably when you say “state sanctioned abominations going on in Ukraine, since 2014.” you mean Russia’s seizure of Crimea and the full scale invasion in 2022?
I’m not that keen on the erection of memorials to Latvians who fought with Hitler.
I can understand a new broom getting rid of the old memorials dedicated to celebrating the Soviet victory
To then replace these with memorials to the Latvian SS and the assorted Latvian Police Battalions is something I can only understand in certain contexts, none of these inspire confidence or hope and suggest something very dark
JK Redux
As for someone that just some comments above here was worried about slurs, well here you have one of the baltic leaders spewing slurs against russians:
EU state’s leader spouts ethnic slur at Russians
Lithuania’s prime minister publicly wished for a future “without Rusnya” while flanked by Zelensky
https://swentr.site/news/603059-lithuanian-leader-slur-russians/
That is like the PM of the UK using slurs against muslims or arabs. You support that too?
Jack
From RT:
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman issued a one-word response on Sunday, calling Simonyte and Zelensky “Nazis.”
So referring to Russky nationalists in Lithuania as Rusnya is bad, while referring to Lithuania’s elected leaders as Nazis is ok?
Noted…
Jack, have you ever heard of tutorials for beginner influencers?
They advise to always end a posting with some question, as in their opinion it provokes a discussion.
The number of answers to the question directly affects the payment for the work. Roughly speaking, there is a rate: the number of answers from 1 to 10 = 0.1 dollars per answer from other users. But if you were successful and were able to provoke a chain of 30 answers, then your payment rating increases. I saw them calling it a “Elf factory”, because earlier they convinced their western curators that there exists some evil Russian Troll factory, so a nice sum of money should be spent on countering it.
A person who always has a question, sometimes 2 or 3 in one comment. If you ask them a question, they don’t answer unless they put new questions to you.
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Now watch them asking question to me and mods 🙂 Like ‘was it directed to me?” Question and answers, new brave world’s currency 🙂
that’s why sometimes, in order to correctly calculate the amount of payment due, they may ask not to omit their forum name in the answer 🙂
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2024/09/the-end-of-western-pluralist-democracy/comment-page-2/#comment-1067395
JK Redux
Again, you are against russians using slurs but are not against when slurs are being used against russians (and muslims, arabs obviously).
Tatyana
Jack, have you ever heard of tutorials for beginner influencers?
They advise to always end a posting with some question, as in their opinion it provokes a discussion.
Yeah that is exactly what is going, so one should not pay too much attention to people like that. Especially those that have no idea what they are talking about, they heard some talking points and try to use it without any understanding, preparation. Like, “Like look russins use slurs against ukrainians, bad russians!!!” Then, when one show that ukrainians, baltics use slurs against russians, the questioneer back off since he did not know this and try to come up with some far fetched justification that slurs against Russians is ok.
Whataboutery…
denouncing BRICS countries on human rights abuses and rule of law while maintaining a year-long silence about the West’s genocide in Gaza (other than to perpetuate lies about Hamas rape on Oct 7).
you’re not just ridiculous you’re more that, as I pointed out above.
Urban Fox, do you think these unspecified goings-on in the Baltic states outweigh what the West is doing in Gaza?
LOL the US and the UK don’t gaf about human rights and the rule of law.
Pears Morgaine.
Tell me – how many vile dictatorships the UK and the US are propping up? vile dictatorships, that have very little, if any, human rights for their citizens; the West can never again be taken serious on human rights, especially the US, UK and Germany – with their aiding and abetting a Zionist occupying force, in Palestine, that’s committing genocide.
That trivial stuff doesn’t seem to bother NATO either – of which Turkey is of course a member.
Dunno why people go on about Turkey and the EU. Turkey suspended (in deep, deep freeze) its application to join the EU years and years ago, not long after Erdoğan came to power. But people are still ignorant of well-known facts, and keep going on about Turkey begging to join the EU. It isn’t.
And by the way the EU’s discontent was nothing to do with human rights, rather because of “Islam”. They weren’t happy about a major Muslim nation in the EU. Christian powers although they don’t correspond to EU criteria, like Greece, are just fine, but Muslims are not.
One wonders how this will pan out – with several UN Resolutions stating that Palestinians have the right to take up arms to push out occupying forces from their lands. Then again, the self-appointed world police force, the USA, makes up its own rules as it goes along.
“The US Justice Department has unsealed terrorism charges against the leaders of Hamas. The case stems from the Palestinian militant group’s surprise attack on Israel on October 7, in which around 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 kidnapped.
The FBI brought charges in February, but the complaint was kept under seal until Tuesday.”
https://www.rt.com/news/603475-us-charges-hamas-leaders/
Wonder when they are going to unseal terrorism charges against the leaders of the West for aiding and abetting the genocide of more than 50,000 Palestinians since October 7th 2024 ?
Stevie Boy.
I think we both know the answer to that question, which is never. The war criminals Blair and Bush never saw the inside of a jail cell, and neither will Biden, Johnson, Sunak, or Starmer – or a plethora of other European leaders such as Scholz, who aided and abetted in the genocide in Gaza, mainly by sending weapons – and other assets such as fuel – to the Zionist occupying force in Palestine that’s committing genocide.
Climate Activist – Greta Thunberg, was arrested earlier on today at a pro-Palestinian demo in Copenhagen Denmark.
It is interesting, when Greta protested for the environment, for years, she got support by the media. As soon as she began taking a stance against israeli massacre, the media made a 180 on her and now smear her as a radical, an antisemite! If Greta would protest against Russia oh she would still be the star at the mainstream-media editorials.
A remarkable young lady. The Guardian reported on her, and there was no suggestion of antisemitism on her part:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/sep/04/greta-thunberg-arrested-at-gaza-war-protest-in-copenhagen
Possibly she’s too well known for such smear tactics to work, unless perhaps right-wing tabloids have written nonsense about her that I’ve missed (just as well I don’t usually read tabloids).
the Guardian clealy does not regard Greta to be a threat to everything it values as it did Jeremy Corbyn. it was the first newspaper to mention Corbyn in relation to antisemitism and led the field thereafter in pushing the fake antisemitism “crisis” scam. the Guardian published far more unevidenced stories about leftwing “antisemitism” than the Mail, Sun, Telegraph or any other rightwing paper.
The Guardian was mentioned by a video blogger yesterday. He was talking about a Russian missile strike on a military school in Ukraine that trains communications and air defense officers.
He said that the Ukrainian authorities fed the Western media this news in the format of “a blow to an educational institution”. Like it was a school or a kindergarten,
The Guardian even illustrated the news with the photo of Zelensky surrounded by children.
Here at 2:15 is the screenshot
https://youtu.be/BmLtXSBOjSg?t=133
Makes The Guardian pretty much a lying leaflet
The BBC are far more pernicious, because its six O’Clock news and ten 0’Clock News are like national institutions.
The previous govt wanted to scrap the BBC licence fee in favour of a subscription model. The licence fee is this weird, anachronistic annual compulsory ‘tv tax’ we have here, that dates all the way back to 1946, when the BBC was the sole broadcaster. The previous govt accepted the fact that it makes little sense to retain it, in an age of subscription-based streaming services and, youtube, TikTok etc. and on account of the BBC’s declining audience share. Some weren’t happy, because they see the BBC, and especially its World service, as playing a crucial role as a govt propaganda vehicle. And sure enough, the current govt has said the licence fee is now safe, and controversially, set to rise from its current £169.50 per year. We have to pay to be propagandized.
The BBC news department try to present themselves as an independent, impartial news organisation, and they make a big play about verifying information. They even have a full time misinformation and disinformation reporter. In reality, they are highly partisan and never admit to making errors. Their reporting on Gaza and Ukraine is a mixture of lies, propaganda and deliberate omissions,
Some are saying that Greta is getting fat and losing her attractiveness and that is why so many have turned against her. 🙁
Sexism, ageism and fattism are permissions to abuse people you are allowed to abuse. Objectifying silences the message, the messenger, and distracts from respectful dialogue. Once you see it you can’t unsee it. Anon was A. Woman. (referring to newspaper headlines which start with A. Woman, or Two. Black. Women. Name, achievement, context, please. Gender and race, no, they just objectify and anonymise achievements)
She was invited and attended Davos where her knowledge was assimilated by those who would find it useful
RoS and others, regarding the latest photo-op arrest of the elfin green princess who is destined be the Gammon Queen ‘Good’ Witch of the Waste Garden one day; with her err… totalitarian , woke, trans, faerie benevolent rule over us men, women, hobbits and even bearded fearsum dwarfs!
Her previous arrests have all been staged. With footage almost immediately after leaking of the various ‘takes’. Her gurrning a scowl. Her crew and minders. I don’t know if they are actors, the police, obliging the creation of the Legend – for the media to publish. (Kane like)
I dare say it is to keep her cult alive among the young and students who have not been able to ignore the deliberate injustice and mass murder of babies, children and man and women Gazans.
She needs to remain a ‘leaderine’ for the kids and the dumb grownup dystopian liberal cope fodder – climate /gnd/XR/stop oil fake protest movements.
How else is the Golden Billion Garden going to be kept in purdah from the majority , multipolar Jungle?
Further to the condition of Western plural democracy… MPs from both parties flock out of the Commons before the PM’s statement on the Grenfell inquiry findings.
https://x.com/BeckettUnite/status/1831399911616868463
Watching this and thinking that for all their talk about how ‘scary’ they find life as an MP these days, they obviously aren’t scared enough.
Trying to blame Theresa May, when Boris was mayor at the time, when all the dangerous decisions were being contested at the time – long before the fire actually happened – caused by defective white goods bursting into flames – a refrigerator, I recall. Boris was responsible for making unsafe decisions intended to prettify the exterior of these mixed social housing and privately owned flats, where lower paid workers, like teachers, and the famous Venice Biennale artist lived and died. [I forget her name. She was A Black Woman]
Excellent article by Jonathan Cook posted in/on Middle East Eye yesterday:
«But the truth is that western politics is now entirely unresponsive to popular demand. The last vestiges of democratic accountability were gutted many years ago as the West’s political systems were completely captured by powerful globe-spanning corporations.
Tens of millions of people turned out on the streets of Europe to try to halt the US and Britain’s illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003, and it made not a jot of difference.
The situation with Gaza is even worse. It is not just that, as before, no one in power is listening. Those opposing Israel’s genocide, and western complicity in it, are being utterly maligned. The millions marching against the slaughter are reported as “tens of thousands”, while being actively smeared as “antisemites”.
Western states – and their self-professed “defensive alliance”, Nato – are not there to represent the public interest. They have become chiefly vehicles for the promotion of the narrow interests of a corporate elite….»
https://www.jonathan-cook.net/2024-09-04/arm-genocidal-state-moderation/
Just shows how desperate Israel is getting. All the stops are being pulled out.