I am proud of the company I was in of fellow Sam Adams winners; but also because in the circumstances I think this was the best speech I have ever made. If you listen from 15 minutes, the enthusiastic and sustained interruption of applause I received from the Oxford Union for my attack on those demonstrating against Julian Assange is remarkable.
It particularly explodes the appalling lies of the Guardian’s shrill hate campaign against Julian Assange, which you will recall covered this event under the headline Julian Assange finds no allies and tough queries in Oxford University talk . It has taken the Oxford Union two months to post this video, and then unlike other newly posted videos it does not appear on the front page of their youtube site.
The students no longer have any autonomy in the the Oxford Union where speakers and videos have to be approved in advance by a solidly and uniformly right wing board of trustees which includes William Hague and Louise Mensch.
It is, however, even at this belated time, a great pleasure to be able again to state and to demonstrate what a vicious little liar Amelia Hill is.
After my point on the Assange demonstration, you could have heard a pin drop for the rest of my talk and I was unsure how the audience were reacting. Unfortunately the video cuts off the peroration, so you will have to take my word for it that the applause was very big and after resuming my seat I had to half stand and acknowledge again. But I had concluded by introducing Julian Assange, so that may have been for him not me – I would be just as pleased.
Let me post this one again so you have the pair of me on consecutive nights in very different moods.
“Make it a personal policy to not sit longer in front of a screen than two hours, and that your next steps have to involve the fresh air outside. If it rains, no worries, we’re not made of sugar. Indeed lets adopt this for the blog. Gangam/Harlem shake style.”
A wise practice, Nevermind. The cobwebs are quick to overtake, both body and mind.
” At my last job as a security analyst, my mission changed from guarding the network to monitoring the corporate network for misuse of IT assets by employees and employee compliance with HR policies and guidelines.”
Employees spend between one and three hours a day surfing the Web on personal business at work, on average according to studies. There is always the privileged class (mgmt), and it is a serious problem for productivity when so many hours are involved. I think the masses recognize they are being worked harder with less effective pay.
I believe they see it as Quid Pro Quo. They don’t get the consideration for their work hours, so they compensate with stolen personal hours during the workday. The problem is, that’s a pyrrhic victory because they lose those personal hours at home with loved ones who are the ones who are cheated, in the end.
Mark Golding C.o.I Further to you’re post on15th Mar @ 2 : 56 pm, heres some more on all that, as exepected – it just gets worse.
On the Payroll
In other words, yes, the U.S. government was covertly organizing and funding the activities of the supposedly “independent” internal opposition in Nicaragua. And, according to more than a dozen sources that I interviewed inside the Contra movement or close to U.S. intelligence, the Reagan administration had funneled CIA money to virtually every segment of the internal opposition, from the Catholic Church to La Prensa to business and labor groups to political parties.
“We’ve always had the internal opposition on the CIA payroll,” one U.S. government official said. The CIA’s budget line for Nicaraguan political action – separate from Contra military operations – was about $10 million a year, my sources said. I learned that the CIA had been using the Church and Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo to funnel money into Nicaragua.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/pope-francis-cia-and-death-squads/5327274
Mary. Thanks for them Media Lens Links @ : 13 Am, and 2 :39 pm, kinda scary in a way, all that high leval rotten deception, That they Get away with it, and laughing into our faces.
The BBC Radio 4 Today webpage now has a link to the trailer for tonight’s Panorama on Iraq WMD.
0645
A Panorama investigation is to reveal key aspects of the secret intelligence used by Downing Street and the White House to justify the invasion of Iraq.
LISTEN to the report:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21829148
Iraq intelligence ‘was fabricated’
Peter Taylor outlines the findings of a Panorama investigation into the secret intelligence used by Downing Street to justify the invasio…
Weird that the link is on the Business page!
~~~
I began to think I had imagined the appalling Kevin Connolly puff piece for Israel including the power of AIPAC, reference the forthcoming visit to Israel by Obama so I listened to the replay.
Here it is complete with Mr Biden’s words and some vox pop opinions.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01r9904 45 mins in.
That was NOT linked on the webpage. Wonder why not.
Since I have already been asked to justify whether what I wrote was in good faith, I acknowledge that I am probably wasting my breath on much of the audience here. But anyway in attempt to state my case more clearly let’s look at some of the arguments being advanced by the do nothing school with regard to Syria.
Firstly, I don’t think either CE or myself attempted to say that the Ed Vulliamy article was anything other than a statement of his opinion – just like what I wrote was my own truly held views. Sometimes emotions and opinions have a role in shaping this world and in making us do the right thing (just as they can do the opposite) and this is especially the case where there are arguments on both sides (as there nearly always is) and an appeal has to be made to underlying values. Ed Vulliamy has a very well earned reputation as an honest and brave journalist and given his experience in Bosnia he has a pretty good record in working out who the bad guys are. ( though I daresay the still vocal Slobo/Radovan/Ratko/other war criminals club will have a different view).
Secondly, like it or not we already have a war in Syria – and it is Assad and his regime that have most of the big (Russian) weapons and are using them and the disgusting Shabiha militia to attack the ordinary population and are creating hundred of thousands of refugees. I could insult people’s intelligence by giving links to the many many sites describing the horrors of what is going on (you could even look at when Galloway condemned the Syrian regime’s shelling of a Palestininian refugee camp – providing that he hasn’t removed it to please his current paymasters) – but those who want to find out can find out, while those who don’t will just play their silly games of rubbishing the messenger and ignoring the message with which we are all too familiar. This regime and the disgusting al Assad royal family (funny how the hereditary principle is only attacked here in the UK) which came to power following a coup by the fascist Ba’ath party (don’t believe me just search for how the founders of the movement tried to ingratiate themselves with Hitler) are I am afraid not going to go easily. I’m afraid that sitting back and doing nothing will only extend Assad’s bloody regime – and were they to be successful might I suggest that given the Assad’s past form when they win battles (just look at the Hama massacre) then the present carnage would be nothing at all.
Thirdly, there are some pretty nasty people involved in the fight against Assad – well I’m afraid that this is more than true. It is a fact of life that sometimes the wrong people do the right things (and even vice versa) – but sometimes a judgement has to be made as to where the greater good/evil lies. I’m afraid there were atrocities committed by the allies during the Second World War, by the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War, by the Mujaheddin in Afghanistan against the Russian occupiers – but I’m afraid I just don’t find that a convincing argument for doing nothing against what I see as a substantially greater evil. The other thing of which I am absolutely convinced by history is that in the main the more time it is taken to deal with dictators, then the worse the atrocities they will commit, the more bloody will be the struggle to remove them and the nastier will be retribution sought by those doing the removing.
Fourthly, there is a more respectable argument that we in the West should not hijack the struggles of those opposing the dictators but rather be supportive and listen to what they want and require. This didn’t happen when the Marsh Arabs and the Kurds rose up against Saddam or when brave Iraqi Trade unionists were calling for help. Perhaps if we had listened and acted earlier, rather than saluting Saddam’s indefatigability, much of the bloodshed in Iraq would have been avoided. The democratic and decent opposition in Syria is now asking for similar help – and the predominant view here is that it should be ignored – pretty much like many in the West felt that similar cries for assistance from the Spanish republicans (just Google the Spanish Civil War Non Intervention Committee).
As for the challenge to me as to what should be done to reform international institutions – there are plenty of things that could be done to give more power to the UN to enforce the Declaration of Human Rights and International Law, including the introduction of a proper International Police Force and replacing the current voting system on the security council – but all that will come to nought unless there is a will to deal with the likes of Assad. Perhaps those in favour of the do nothing school could enlighten us as to how such an approach will actually improve anything.
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!)
17 Mar, 2013 – 11:18 pm
To me:
“You could start by reading the 1903 and 1934 Treaties. They can be found online [where?], together with the two supplementary protocols to the 1903 Treaty [where?]…”
“The amount and the modalities of the annual US payment (and nothing else) are set out in one of the protocols to the 1903 Treaty. The important point is that the payments have to be MADE (which has always been the case). If they are, then there is no breach of the Treaty for that reason; if not, then there is.”
Why do you never provide links so that other posters can read the same documents that you refer to?
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!)
17 Mar, 2013 – 11:28 pm
To me:
“Sorry, but on re-reading the Wiki squib you quote…”
Habbabkuk,
I did not quote a “Wiki squib” as you call it but from the link below. The same link I provided in my original post.
http://www.army.mil/article/70561/Contracting_office_provides_capitalist_support_in_Cuba/
Czesc, CE! – fraternal greetings from the Goldstein of this blog.
“and the disgusting al Assad royal family (funny how the hereditary principle is only attacked here in the UK)”
You have not forgotten, I trust, North Korea with its royal family? And Cuba, where the royal family seems to go laterally?
Just wanted to recall that there will be some excellent things in Wednesday’s Budget and some less excellent things.
I very much hope that the Eminences will salute the former with the same vigour as they will surely deplore the latter.
I shall be watching.
*********
La vita è bella, life is good!
@ Scourge :
For heaven’s sake, Douglas, are you really that feeble? Just google around !
Anyway, why are you sticking your snarling dog snout into this exchange of info and views between myself and John Goss? If you have nothing to contribute just stay silent and stop behaving like a troll.
**********
La vita è bella, life is good! (woof! woof!)
Habba
I’m not CE despite what some here might say – that said I can get the gist of your Polish given its similarity to other Slavonic languages. BTW I’m told that most Slavs can get functional fluency in each others language after about a month – an awful lot of economic potential if they could get over their default mode of suspicion of each other.
Clark – – – Thanks for your 11:45 reply to my post.
“The personal is political” was a useful first approximation, I think, in the days when these areas were conventionally thought of as separate; but today it’s apparent that it’s misleadingly simplistic when applied too literally. Given the rotten state of the political sphere, a degree of separation is essential for our sanity and health, for a start. And clearly, our personal lives involve more than just the political. I’m sure that Craig, for example, draws much strength and comfort from his family life . . .
While our views of the political may be an important part of our lives, we also transcend the political through critiquing it and arguing for a better world, implying a degree of separation and distance. What we identify with, it seems to me, are not the grubby goings-on around us, but the vision of a better world we work towards. That’s something that isn’t changed by existing corruption and ineptitude. So I think it’s important to sup with a long spoon when dealing with current political devils . . .
Secondly, I think we all need oases of detachment from the battles we fight, whether these oases be family, friends, wild places, music, or whatever. If we’re completely sucked into the maestrom, we won’t be able to save ourselves or anyone else! Rather, we need a rock to stand on that can be a basis for our actions . . .
Similarly, I think your view that “‘mental illness’ consists of closed compartments in our minds” is a bit misleading, if you’ll excuse my saying so. Boundaries and areas of non-communication are there for a purpose, at least some of the time! A few decades ago, when I was youthful and (even more) stupid, I tried an experiment in self-hypnosis, giving myself repeated suggestions while in trance to become familar with the contents of my unconscious mind . . . Well, to cut a long story short, within a couple of weeks I was waking up in the night sweating, feeling pretty shaky during the day, and was generally shocked and overwhelmed by the pain and raw experience that assaulted me. So I learned that boundaries and defences are necessary . . . After all, nature has plenty of boundaries (chemical, geographical, interspecies, etc); and ecosystems function in sophisticated ways because of these boundaries. Too much communication/relation (as well as too little, of course) is a problem for any system, including a person . . .
And yes – seeing through political facades puts one in a lonely place. But there are fellow travellers, some of whom post on this blog; and personally I get a lot more satisfaction through digging deeply than I would trying to conform to convention . . .
@ Resident Dissident :
No, no, I wasn’t going along with some of the crazier crazies who claim(ed) that you and CE (and perhaps even me!) are one and the same. I just f***ed up, that’s all 🙂
Apologies!
**********
Iraq War Among World’s Worst Events
At 10 years since the launch of Operation Iraqi Liberation (to use the original name with the appropriate acronym, OIL) and over 22 years since Operation Desert Storm, there is little evidence that any significant number of people in the United States have a realistic idea of what our government has done to the people of Iraq, or of how these actions compare to other horrors of world history. A majority of Americans believe the war since 2003 has hurt the United States but benefitted Iraq. A plurality of Americans believe, not only that Iraqis should be grateful, but that Iraqis are in fact grateful.
A number of U.S. academics have advanced the dubious claim that war making is declining around the world. Misinterpreting what has happened in Iraq is central to their argument. As documented in the full report , by the most scientifically respected measures available, Iraq lost 1.4 million lives as a result of OIL, saw 4.2 million additional people injured, and 4.5 million people become refugees. The 1.4 million dead was 5% of the population. That compares to 2.5% lost in the U.S. Civil War, or 3 to 4% in Japan in World War II, 1% in France and Italy in World War II, less than 1% in the U.K. and 0.3% in the United States in World War II. The 1.4 million dead is higher as an absolute number as well as a percentage of population than these other horrific losses. U.S. deaths in Iraq since 2003 have been 0.3% of the dead, even if they’ve taken up the vast majority of the news coverage, preventing U.S. news consumers from understanding the extent of Iraqi suffering.
In a very American parallel, the U.S. government has only been willing to value the life of an Iraqi at that same 0.3% of the financial value it assigns to the life of a U.S. citizen.
The 2003 invasion included 29,200 air strikes, followed by another 3,900 over the next eight years. The U.S. military targeted civilians, journalists, hospitals, and ambulances It also made use of what some might call “weapons of mass destruction,” using cluster bombs, white phosphorous, depleted uranium, and a new kind of napalm in densely settled urban areas.
Birth defects, cancer rates, and infant mortality are through the roof. Water supplies, sewage treatment plants, hospitals, bridges, and electricity supplies have been devastated, and not repaired. Healthcare and nutrition and education are nothing like they were before the war. And we should remember that healthcare and nutrition had already deteriorated during years of economic warfare waged through the most comprehensive economic sanctions ever imposed in modern history.
http://www.countercurrents.org/swanson180313.htm
Resident Dissident:
You list four “arguments being advanced by the do nothing school with regard to Syria.” I suggested a fifth to ‘The CE’. He hasn’t responded so I’ll put it to you.
My question is, “What’s it got to do with us? By what right are we interfering? Who has appointed us world policemen?”
If Iran judged that the UK was guilty of persecuting British Muslims, would you defend Iran’s right to support an armed uprising in the UK?
Fined and convicted for holding up a placard and saying that Cameron has blood on his hands.
http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2013/03/18/anti-atos-activist-beth-tichbourne-outraged-at-criminal-conviction-for-yelling-at-david-cameron-cameron-has-blood-on-his-hands/
How Miliband is colluding with the ConDems who are bringing in emergency legislation under cover of the Budget to rectify faults in Duncan Smith’s cruel legislation.
http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/labour-to-rally-round-to-save-iain-duncan-smiths-blushes/
Resident dissident
However distasteful Assad and his regime are you have to acknowledge that the “west” has supported him and his henchmen for years, just as the west supported Saddam Husain; supported Gadhafi; the Shah of Iran; Pinochet et al.
The west supports dictators when it suits the west’s interests. The people in these countries (or any other for that matter) are not important to our governments.
The suffering of the people of a country is only highlighted by the west to garner support for “humanitarian intervention” or “regime change” when the previously supported dictator has passed his use-by-date.
What you seem to be saying is that diplomacy is akin to appeasement and anti-war protesters are appeasers of dictators, when in reality, it is right wing western governments that appease dictators – until they fall out of favour – then they are toppled; without regard to any civilian suffering that goes with it.
President Bashar Assad was the first Syrian leader to meet the Queen at Buckingham Palace; he was feted by Tony Blair; he was welcomed by the Prince of Wales. He wasn’t being called a brutal dictator then.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1416391/Syrian-president-meets-the-Queen.html
The Prince of Wales is now in Saudi Arabia paying homage to arguably the worst dictatorship in the world.
I think Resident dissident that you hold a typical far-right reactionary world view which relies on hypocrisy and has distaste for inconvenient truths.
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!)
18 Mar, 2013 – 6:22 pm
To me:
“ For heaven’s sake, Douglas, are you really that feeble? Just google around !”
“Anyway, why are you sticking your snarling dog snout into this exchange of info and views between myself and John Goss? If you have nothing to contribute just stay silent and stop behaving like a troll.”
Actually Habbabkuk I was interested in what you had to say about the legal aspects on Guantanamo Bay but as ever you failed to elaborate or provide links that could back up what you say.
You are, as I said before, an intellectual poodle (or maybe Chihuahua).
A Node
You argument is just a variant of the fourth argument and is largley addressed there – most Syrians are looking for help and assistance.
Doug Scorgie
“However distasteful Assad and his regime are you have to acknowledge that the “west” has supported him and his henchmen for years, just as the west supported Saddam Husain; supported Gadhafi; the Shah of Iran; Pinochet et al.”
Yes – lets encourage them to get it right more often and quicker. As for being a far right reactionary – well at least the insult is fairly novel. Perhaps you should realise that the anti-totalitarian left has a long and proud history in this country – and certainly a prouder one that the knee jerk fellow traveller the US is the source of all evil one that you so proudly and misguidely represent.
“The logical question comes next: why is there a massive bulldozer parked outside a (just “bailed out”) Cypriot bank? Well, if up to 9.9% of your money was suddenly and without warning stolen by your bank (pardon, forcefully “reinvested” in the equity of the same bank) and the rest was completely inaccessible, you too would probably park your bulldozer in front of said bank”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-16/excavator-parks-outside-cyprus-bank-full-video
The shell game must be near meltdown, or have reached their max utility. They seem to want the bank runs.
Guantanamo – this is where you’ll find the Treaties (can’t find the 1903 agreement and supplemenatry agreement for the moment and have to go out to the Duchesse for dinner) :
avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/dip_cuba003.asp (for the 1934 Treaty).
For the 1903 Treaty, same as above, except it’s 001.asp at the end.
Then there is the substance of Holder’s claim: that the specter of fewer law-enforcement personnel on the job is self-evidently a reason to fret. For the sake of argument, let’s grant that federal prosecutors will indeed handle 2,600 fewer cases in the fiscal year 2013, as one government projection maintains. Far from being endangered, Americans may well find their safety enhanced as a result of this particular cut, as prosecutors must be more selective in whom they target. Maybe in this brave new sequestered world, Justice Department resources will be expended on fewer costly, dangerous follies like the hypervindictive campaign against internet pioneer/genius Aaron Swartz, who committed suicide in January facing 35 years in prison for the crime of downloading a lot of documents from JSTOR. (Holder has since defended the Swartz crusade as “a good use of prosecutorial discretion.”) Imposing some frugality on prosecutors could be a blessing in disguise.
In an editorial published just before the sequester went into effect, the New York Times identified the Coast Guard’s diminished capacity to carry out drug-interdiction missions as one of the budget cuts’ many supposedly grim consequences. But again, this seems an outcome that’s worth cheering: federal drug prohibition is an obvious, unmitigated disaster, a fact which many national politicians must fully recognize by now but are unwilling to do anything about. So if it takes some unprecedented Washington gridlock and confusion to make a dent in curtailing the massive prohibitionist regime—eh, we should take what we can get. The same logic applies to the cuts affecting the DEA, which will lose $166 million under sequestration. That’s $166 million less with which to raid medical-marijuana dispensaries, spread propaganda, and otherwise enforce drug prohibition. Baby steps.
http://www.vice.com/read/reaso…..udget-cuts
There’s always the flip-side. Sequestration has it’s bennies.
bad link fixed here…http://www.vice.com/read/reasons-to-love-the-sequesters-massive-budget-cuts
Hyperbolic alarmism? What say you?
“Please note that until yesterday all depositors in Cypriot banks were insured up to the value of €100,000 with any one bank. Today that solemn governmental promise has been shown for what it is; a lie. Worse and actually far worse and quite scary in fact is that the European Union and the European Central Bank and the IMF has not just allowed violation of the deposit insurance but demanded it. One thing is certain here; if they can void deposit insurance in Cyprus then they can void it in any country in Europe. Further; if they can void deposit insurance then they can void bond covenants with the scratch of a pen on paper. Nothing now; Nothing is safe!
Pay attention please. The European Union and the European Central Bank and the IMF have just advocated the confiscation of private property for their own indulgence. Bank accounts are not bonds or stocks or some other form of investments. It is private property like your house or your car. Germany, France et al came in and said, “We want it and we are taking it and it is necessary for our government.” These countries did not demand it, yet, from their own citizens though they might soon but they demanded it from the citizens of Cyprus in exchange for funds. This is not a European Union this is a European Fourth Reich!”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-17/rape-cyprus-european-union-imf
Hello All,
I know good news does not travel too well on here, but I’m still absolutely bouncing from a fantastic weekend in Glasgow watching football and partying with friend and family. Apologies if I haven’t replied to some posts, but this blog has not been in my thoughts for a few days!
@ Resident Dissident
Fantastic balanced post on the Syrian situation.
I fail to see how we are ‘banging the drum for war’, when we are now into the third year of a bloody civil war. Syria is not a peaceful utopia, it’s people are suffering in terrible in conditions and are asking for help. Whether it is wise to help that, and what form that help should take, is another question entirely.
It seems to be this ‘my enemies enemy is my friend’ shtick, has distorted the hard left so much there is no one they shall fail to defend as long as they pay some lip service to the anti-american cause.
I strongly doubt an adult debate is possible here if the slightest criticism of the Assad Regime leaves you labelled as form of ‘blood thirtsy neo-con'(TM)
@clark.
Hello. Hope you are well. I read all your links and said so in my post. Not exactly sure what has irked you so much about my disgust for the Assad regime and its backers? The piece I linked to that also seemed to anger you was, as far as I was aware, only highlighting the fact that not only action can have terrible consequences, but also inaction too.
As for figures showing a high percentage of young males in the casualties, I feel this has to be expected if a local population rise up against a violent regime. Sad as it is, the burden of taking up arms and protecting families will undoubtedly fall on young men.
I do not dispute for a second that foreign fighters have now become involved with the rebels, but please, do not forget how this conflict became violent, with the Assad regime opening fire on peaceful protesters.
@Clark
My deep sympaty in your anguish.
I just thought that I should pass on an article that has lingered in my own mind for the last couple of weeks,
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/01/theres-more-to-life-than-being-happy/266805/
I can hardly say that I know you to any significant degree, and I only pass by here once in a while, but, from what I have seen, I think you give much of yourself to thoose around you, and that you are very important to this blog.
Resident dissident
18 Mar, 2013 – 8:59 pm
You say:
“Yes – lets encourage them to get it right more often and quicker.
As for being a far right reactionary – well at least the insult is fairly novel. Perhaps you should realise that the anti-totalitarian left has a long and proud history in this country – and certainly a prouder one that the knee jerk fellow traveller the US is the source of all evil one that you so proudly and misguidely represent.”
“…lets encourage them to get it right more often and quicker.”
Who do you mean by “them”?
“As for being a far right reactionary – well at least the insult is fairly novel.”
Why?
“Perhaps you should realise that the anti-totalitarian left has a long and proud history in this country…”
Who they?
“…and certainly a prouder one that the knee jerk fellow traveller the US is the source of all evil one that you so proudly and misguidely represent.”
This sentence doesn’t make sense please sober up and re-post.
No one on this blog, as far as I know, considers the US as the source of ALL evil.
“…that you so proudly and misguidely represent.”
Please explain what you mean.
@ scourge :
The answers to all of your questions are obvious from Resident Dissident’s original post.
Are you stupid or merely idle (like with looking up the Treaties)?
**********
La vita è bella, life is good!
David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband all claim victory in Leveson deal
A deal has been struck between the three main political parties on a new press regulation regime in the wake of the phone-hacking
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21825823
Murdoch takes another dump in the drinking water, almost as though he intended this result. Control the thinking of the population. That’s the prime directive. This is as good an excuse as any to reign in any watchdogs that might be remaining.
Resident dissident said to me:
No. Your fourth argument says that because we didn’t intervene in the past, and bloodshed occurred, we should intervene now. My argument is that we, the West, do not have the legal (or moral) right to interfere in the internal affairs of another country without a United Nations resolution. I have illustrated my point by asking you if you would support the right of another country to arm a dissident group in our country.
So, would you?