I had excellent news from my cardiologist yesterday. Ready to think about other things now. I am horrified by the continuing stream of ” royal” baby hype on television. Truly pathetic – is this 1313 or 2013? Who buys into this nonsense?
I thought the Lib Dem take on Trident missiles was hilarious. This small group of islands does apparently need to retain the ability to wipe out one third of the urban population of humankind, as a defence against something undefined – possibly people we invade getting too annoyed about it – and in order to increase our “influence” in the World. As we plainly have less influence than the Germans, who don’t feel this need for the power of obliteration, I do not quite see how this works. Nor do I see Pakistan, which does have nuclear weapons, as very influential. Nor do I quite understand how our influence can be increased by possessing something under effective American control. But there you are.
Anyway, the Lib Dems have come to the intellectually scintillating conclusion that we do need this world shattering power, but we don’t need it on Wednesday or Thursday afternoons or on Saturday mornings, which will be cheaper. Brilliant, and plainly does not dodge any big ethical or practical questions at all.
The temperature’s rising for Cameron and Crosby. It seems it was not such a good move to get Crosby on board.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/after-cigarette-packs-and-alcohol-prices-david-cameron-now-faces-questions-about-lynton-crosby-and-fracking-8721050.html
What a clever ploy and what clever little boys –
‘Crosby is described as favouring what is called a wedge strategy, whereby the party he advises introduces a divisive or controversial social issue into a campaign, aligning its own stance with the dissenting faction of its opponent party, with the goal of causing vitriolic debate inside the opposing party, defection of its supporters, and the legitimising of sentiment which had previously been considered inappropriate.
This is also described as “below the radar” campaigning, with the targeting of marginal constituencies with highly localised campaigning, latching on to local issues and personalities.[1] To find such issues, Crosby’s business partner Mark Textor runs focus groups to find which groups to target with what questions.[14] Crosby is said to run a tight ship, focus on simple messages, target marginal constituencies and use lots of polls.’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynton_Crosby
Somewhat tainted now though with the ciggie connections and now the fracking stuff.
What an inspiration Frankie Boyle is.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/frankie-boyle-goes-on-hunger-strike-to-support-shaker-aamer–the-last-british-detainee-in-guantnamo-bay-8720221.html
They get Russell Brand on a programme such as Question Time but I bet they will never ask Frankie.
Kerry Vows to Put the Screws to Venezuela over Snowden – Report
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35589.htm
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/journalist-says-explosive-reports-coming-from-snowden-data-a-912034.html
You gotta hand to them Chicago AIPACS, they have managed to turn Uncle Tom Obomber into a peeping Tom !!?
Israel has declared borders. When Palestine was partitioned. They have never accepted them unfortunately. And as for a place on the security council. Thats ridiculous. They do not recognise UN resolutions ot International Law. They should lose their seat at the UN.
Sibel Edmonds [runs the National Security Whistleblowers Alliance] comparing RT footage of the protests against Navalny’s conviction with the lack of protest about Bradley Manning’s stitch-up at Fort Meade:
The Slow & Painful Death of Outrage in the USA:
http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2013/07/19/the-slow-painful-death-of-outrage-in-the-usa/#more-22682
Ben Franklin, 10.57pm
It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been described as like a dog with a bone… 😉 so Thanks!
I think with the info that’s coming out now about the Swedish investigation the whole thing is becoming more and more discredited. Collapse of case quite likely soon, I believe. (I just wish I could persuade people to click through and actually read the links I supply – the devil really is in the detail; so much has been obscured in the media.)
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2012/09/why-i-am-convinced-that-anna-ardin-is-a-liar/comment-page-8/#comment-419221
Who, what, why: Where are all the wasps?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23356578
Sign of an unstable mother earth? Yes – even the energy from pollinating plants has failed to achieve the tipping point exchange with bees.
The world is in the process of disconnecting. A collapse is but a stone’s throw away and we remain squat, impotent cretins waiting for our own demise!
CAIRO — Egypt’s new foreign minister said Saturday that Cairo is reevaluating its relationship with Syria following the military’s ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.
In his first public comments since becoming Egypt’s top diplomat, Nabil Fahmy said Cairo continues to support the Syrian uprising but that Egypt has no intention of supporting a jihad – or holy war – in Syria.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20130720/ml-egypt/?utm_hp_ref=arts&ir=arts
@All,
I should call this ‘the moderators’ dilemma’. If an individual is stopped from disturbing a left (or right) sacred cow, then it is “biased”, but where an individual is stopped from disturbing a right (or left) sacred cow, this is a “smokescreen”. One can never escape, on any board, from such an oppositional charge 🙂
Anyway, thanks for thoughts on that. Now, onwards to an outwards-looking discussion!
Resident Dissident, is there a reticence amongst the left to discuss Russia? I don’t personally sense it. I accept the narrow point that because Russia is shielding Snowden, and Snowden has raised the ire of the US, some leftists may regard Russia as a paragon of peace and democracy – but is that a widespread view? I think the case you raise is of great interest.
I might add that, where there is a suspicion that story X isn’t being discussed by people Y that normally hold set of opinions Z, there’s a danger that the attack is on the broad range of views they hold, rather than their not having been concerned about X. It can be a cover for broad left/right point-scoring, in my view, rather than an opportunity to expand upon knowledge of the case, or to persuade people of a particular perspective on it.
In any case, the implications of the trial are of great concern to both the left and the right, both in Russia and outside of it. I agree that anyone demonstrating in Russia against the process is very brave indeed. I think the case is being quite widely reported too, so I don’t think it is going ignored (in the UK at least).
For what it’s worth, I don’t know that Russia would have been Snowden’s first choice of extra-judicial escape either. Given that he was in Hong Kong, his options from there may have been limited, possibly by virtue of the airspaces he would have to fly through, or perhaps his contacts in HK/China pointed him in that direction. Perhaps he was advised by Wikileaks to go there; certainly given their knowledge of fighting US dirty tricks, their advice could well be helpful.
I suppose it depends on whether one regards Wikileaks as a force for good (that is broadly my view). I think that it has the potential to clean up governance and international espionage, but it depends on whether US hegemony is affected in the long term by the Manning and Snowden leaks – no sign of that yet.
Hasbarista, I don’t follow your point about “Chicago AIPACS” and “peeping Tom” – is it your contention that Jewish lobby groups in the USA are responsible for the NSA scandal? If so, why? Rather than just making drive-by points, it may be more fruitful to set out exactly what you believe and why, and be open to having your core tenets discussed and disagreed with.
I set out my thoughts on the PRISM story last week; I should be interested to hear what you think. Suhayl added some very good points about the relationship between the deep state and inequality, so do read the contributions following.
Perhaps those like RD who see Navalny as a selfless warrior against the dark side might have a look at
http://marknesop.wordpress.com/2012/08/25/the-kirovles-case-and-the-navalnyofitserov-email-trail/
Jon AIPAC isn’t a Jewish Lobby, it is a Zionist lobby.
If it were a Jewish lobby it would advocate for the rights of Jews in America.
Their rights to have Kosher food in prisons, be protected from anti-semitic attacks and discrimination.
they do nothing of the sort. They have no concerns about Jewish rights and they are not meant to.
AIPAC is a Zionist lobby group, that lobies for Israel.
They lobby to get Israel more money. They Lobby to for the extermination of Israels enemies. They lobby for the arrest of American citizens that critisize Israel. They lobby for drone strikes on Muslims in Muslim countries who might say bad things about Israel.
They are all about Israel. Because they are not a Jewish group, they are a Zionist group.
When Israel does something evil and indefencible, AIPAC kicks in to defend it.
When the American state does something evil, you can say AIPAC did it. They own most of the elected politicians there.
Both Republicans and Democrats go to AIPAC confrances to beg for support.
@Jon-Obama is a fraud, he has no “black american civil rights struggle” gravitas nor their 200 year history that would have given him independent backbone in his Presidency. He managed to garner the black vote without the 35m US Blacks realising he really aint one of them and would have no real power to improve their lot. That has come to pass. Interestingly gaddafy foresaw as much and had predicted this lack of “gravitas” would make him an easily influenced weak singular non white in the establishment and ending up with the usual “eager to please yes mentality” of a new outsider wanting to conform.
His acquiescence may be mitigated on the grounds of the supertanker momentum of the deep state generated in the Bush regime and even earlier,that you propound, but the purchase of 1.5b “dum dum” bullets by the DHS,Manning and Snowden sagas,etc,etc leaves him open to accusations of being the Uncle Tom peeping into inboxes around the world ! The real problem in the US is that the political discourse (a bit like this blog) has been hijacked and inordinately taken up in AIPAC interests and “narrative” leaving Obama and the political system unable to concentrate on American issues like NSA,etc. In effect an Obama who could have been a latter day Kennedy has ended up as an ignominious NSA peeping Tom, with an inordinate amount of his two-term presidency being spent in the interests of the Chicago cabal that underwrote his bid
Jon it is very dishonest of you to call AIPAC a Jewish group.
That would indicate that attacks on AIPAC are based on anti-semitism.
When you know he was attacking AIPAC’s control of America.
That statement is like an Israeli soldier who has just shoot a baby in the head saying, “do you hate me because I’m Jewish?”
Thanks both for the responses to my 3:18pm post. No time to discuss (just off out in 10 minutes) but perhaps will pick up late or tomorrow. Thanks for engaging Hasbarista, it is good to discuss a range of views.
Good point.
The years of propaganda, have resulted in the conflation of facts concerning ziofuckwits and poor Jews.
Fedup
It is a Zionist play on words. Because they know they can’t defeat the truth and defend the indefensible they try to hide the truth with lies.
They can’t defend what Israel does. They can’t even defend the creation of Israel.
So instead they twist the words of everyone that mentions the evil they do, to mean something that wasn’t meant.
Why can’t we use the word Jew to mean Zionist?
1: Most Zionists are not Jews. They are Amagedonite Christians. America is full of them. Satan has twisted their minds to think Amagedon is a good thing. They Believe the Anti-Christ will one day come to lead Israel. So they believe if they help Israel, they help the Anti-Christ. If they help the Anti-Christ, then Jesus will come sooner to defeat the anti-Christ. A battle will happen, almost everyone will die, and they as believers will be saved.
2: The most religious Jews are Anti Zionist. Neturei Karta believe all Zionists are disbelievers.
3: Zionism and Israel was founded by Atheists. And almost all so called Zionists Jews don’t even Believe in God. They might still call themselves Jews for some sort of racial reason. I don’t recognise their reason. Judaism is a religion and not a race. People can and do convert in to it and out of it. The word for a Jew that starts believing in Christ is Christian, not jew. The word for a Jew that starts believing in Jesus and Mohummed peace be upon them is a Muslim not a Jew. If this is the case, how can a Jew that loses his religion be called a Jew?
So Zionism isn’t judaism and judaism isn’t Zionism.
Zionist like to say they are, but that is because Zionists are racist lying Nazis.
The KGB (FSB+SVR) is a big player in the Snowden case.
So Russia has released Navalny. Will the US take some of the heat off Snowden?
The worse the US looks, the worse things look for Navalny. It’s an open secret that Putin wants him to run for mayor, and no more than about 20% of voters will back him. One has to be in awe of how the FSB have got it all stitched up. I really doubt that they will go for for a ‘Red Ken Against the Tories’ type of job.
Points:
1) as I said, the KGB is a big player – not just in the Snowden case, but in the Wikileaks business too;
2) heads out of the clouds, please, boys and girls: on some matters, CIA,DEA,NSA are at loggerheads with FSB,SVR,GRU; on other matters, they cooperate closely and in friendly fashion; ideology is just PR, a question of markets; anyone else watch Pussy Riot at the oil pumps? For all the quoting of Guy Debord, where’s the opposition to the, er, spectacle? For that matter, where’s the opposition to the US?
Welcome back Craig, happy you are fit and well.
I hardly comment here but I like you very much.
Mark Golding – Children of Conflict
20 Jul, 2013 – 2:17 pm
Yes, I also think that.
So do a few others.
http://www.pacificfreepress.com/news/1/1998-the-doomsday-vault-preparing-for-the-end-of-humanity.html
Barrett Brown and Michael Hastings connection; ENDGAME
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2013/07/murder-mystery-michael-hastings-and.html
“So what is Endgame? According to Darker Net:
Endgame [is] a company that specialises in hacking on behalf of NSA. Endgame also offers its intelligence clients — e.g. Cyber Command, NSA, CIA and MI6, etc — a unique map, called Bonesaw, showing exactly where targets are located. Both Bonesaw and Endgame were exposed in a recent article as part of the fallout from the Snowden revelations[…]“White hat” in this context means defensive Internet security – fighting the “black hat” attackers. We write this in part to show that Rouland and his company Endgame have in fact gone back to “black hat” with the approval of the Federal government, doing (and facilitating for others) the sorts of attacks that the Pentagon, the NSA and the like don’t want their fingers found in.[…]One key member of the board of directors at Endgame is retired Lt. General Kenneth A. Minihan (8) whose claim to fame is that he was the 14th director of the National Security Agency/Central Security Service. He is a former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and a founder of the National Information Assurance Program which is a United States government initiative to meet the security testing needs for information technology for both consumers and producers that is operated by the NSA and was originally a joint effort between the NSA and NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology). […]’
Booz Allen Hamilton’s going to be sweating the MIPRs and sole-source things they did with Endgame cutouts. Their swarms of risk-hire daredevils can get away with anything until they fail to meet objectives. Lots of people on the make, churning in and out, lots of shop talk. Remember how Snowden introduced himself to Greenwald? ‘I and a few others…’ Think he only got the orientation packet?
Corporate priorities are always bean-counter dreams of ultimate control. But the advantage to us is that they’re always bottom-liners, and worker productivity has to be ranked by these bureaucratic bumblers. Just like the gill-net covering all data, they don’t have the people or capacity to watch and catch everything. I keep these things on a need-to-know basis because there are so many facets to their incompetence, one is more likely to win Lotto than face their stupidity head-on.
“QE, The Velocity of Money And Dislocated Gold”
http://theautomaticearth.com/Finance/qe-the-velocity-of-money-and-dislocated-gold.html
Arsalan wrote:
Mostly agree, Arsalan – but may I please comment upon a few points.
America is infested with born-again evangelical Christianists, who welcome Zionist goals. They want to see an ultimate battle in the Middle East, in fact they get giddy every time an escalation of violence happens. “Dubbya” Bush was arguably among their number. They feel that when a sufficient body count has been produced, the Baby Jeesus will be satisfied, and come slithering down the pile of corpses thus bringing about the Second Coming. The anti-Christ could already be here, working to make it happen – that’s his job.
This is the point when Jews will be given the opportunity to convert, or die. Closely following this is The Rapture, alternatively The Rapture could happen at any given moment because Jeesus has already returned before we knew it. The precise order of events vary, depending on who you talk to.
Consider that Judas tried to tip Jesus’s hand, by dropping a dime on Him to the Romans. It didn’t work, Jesus didn’t become the superman who changed everything – he just got killed. But Christianists (and Zionists) are effectively doing the same thing – encouraging wars in order to hurry along the schedule.
*
If the above sounds all like total nonsense (because it is), it’s no less ridiculous than the idea that “Satan has twisted their minds”, or indeed the very notion of Satan at all.
If anyone wants to be grown-up in their thinking, they really have to abandon childhood fairy-stories about cloud-beings and dark fiery pits.
Trident referred to as a ‘nuclear shield’ in the weirdly neoliberal Observer. Nice phrase, conjures up images of weapons bouncing off our Sci-Fi protective shield, as though we were a Judge Dredd-esque Metropolis. Does not conjure up images of what Trident actually is, of course, which is clearly the point.
I suspected that our politico’s love of Trident was a curious mix of nationalism, pro-US leanings, and fear. Probably about right, though we must reasonably now assume NSA blackmail, at least for some of them. Which ones? Who knows? I’d bet very heavily on Blair though …
glenn_uk
The reason why you believe it is nonsense is because you are an atheist.
The reason why we believe it is nonsense is because we believe in the scripture.
Either way what they call for is nonsense.
The point of nonsense for you would be the whole belief in a creator?
For us, who believe in the creator and Saton, it is saton that has misguided them to do the opposite of what the scripture intends for them to do.
We can debate about whether or not their is a creator. But you probably already know my arguments, and I know probably already know yours. And everyone else here has probably heard that debate already a million times. So it is up to you whether or not you want to bore everyone.
Just as I make a clear distinction between Jews and Zionists(I agree with Natrikata, Zionist are not Jews, because it is impossible to believe in the Jewish scripture and Zionism at the same time).
I also make the distinction between Christians including some that might describe themselves as born again and that new religion Christian Zionism. I agree with mainstream churches that Christian Zionism is the church of the Antichrist. I do not consider Christian Zionist to be Christian.
There are some that might call themselves Muslim Zionists. These people are universally regarded as Non-Muslims. The Qadyani religion, are usually mentioned when by Zionists as the acceotable face of Islam. Or secular Islam. They are universally regarded as non-Muslim by all Muslims. For them to believe what they believe, they have had to contradict the basic creed of Islam such as finality of Prophethood. The Quran states Prophet mohummed pbh is the last and final Prophet pbh, while the Qadyanis claim their founder is.
Just as Qadyanis contradict universally accepted parts of Islam, to get at what they believe. Zionists who claim to be Jews do the same. It is Jewish belief that the temple will be rebuilt after the promised masiah arrives. Muslims and Christians believe, he did arrive. And he was Jesus. Muslims believe prophacy has been fulfilled with the building of Alaqsa Mosque. Jews, by denying Jesus, are still waiting for the arrival. By founding Israel Jews have contradicted the scripture. So Jews that believe in the scripture disbelieve in Zionism and Israel. I agree with them, Zionists are not Jews.
Zionism is not even a religion. It is just a form of nationalism, colonialism, and racism. It isn’t even real nationalism or racism. Because Jews are not a race. It is sort of a mix, of false racism, where a race is made up, secterianism. Well it is just a mess used as an excuse to do some really bad things.
To be honest with you. I think Zionism was founded by anti-semites to get rid of their Jewish populations.
Arsalan, it’s not an exact parallel, but one might argue that at some level, as Zionism is to Judaism, so Islamism is to Islam.