Ray McGovern and the Sam Adams party have presented the Sam Adams award to Edward Snowden. I am delighted. This from Ray’s account of the event:
In brief remarks from his visitors, Snowden was reassured — first and foremost — that he need no longer be worried that nothing significant would happen as a result of his decision to risk his future by revealing documentary proof that the U.S. government was playing fast and loose with the Constitutional rights of Americans.
Even amid the government shutdown, Establishment Washington and the normally docile “mainstream media” have not been able to deflect attention from the intrusive eavesdropping that makes a mockery of the Fourth Amendment. Even Congress is showing signs of awaking from its torpor.
In the somnolent Senate, a few hardy souls have gone so far as to express displeasure at having been lied to by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and NSA Director Keith Alexander — Clapper having formally apologized for telling the Senate Intelligence Committee eavesdropping-related things that were, in his words, “clearly erroneous” and Alexander having told now-discredited whoppers about the effectiveness of NSA’s intrusive and unconstitutional methods in combating terrorism.
Coleen Rowley, the first winner of the Sam Adams Award (2002), cited some little-known history to remind Snowden that he is in good company as a whistleblower — and not only because of previous Sam Adams honorees. She noted that in 1773, Benjamin Franklin leaked confidential information by releasing letters written by then-Lt. Governor of Massachusetts Thomas Hutchinson to Thomas Whatley, an assistant to the British Prime Minister.
The letters suggested that it was impossible for the colonists to enjoy the same rights as subjects living in England and that “an abridgement of what are called English liberties” might be necessary. The content of the letters was so damaging to the British government that Benjamin Franklin was dismissed as colonial Postmaster General and had to endure an hour-long censure from British Solicitor General Alexander Wedderburn.
There has been a determined attempt by government to justify the need to intercept everybody’s communications, all the time. We have, yet again, had MI5 claim there are many thousand violent Islamic terrorists running around the UK, (yet somehow not managing to kill anybody). The cry of “paedophiles” is raised, as always. I can imagine them suggesting the entire population be shot dead, and justifying it as making sure they get the paedophiles. The tabloids would go with that.
There still had not been a single credible claim by the mainstream media that any named individual has died, despite that contingency being trotted out all the time as the reason Snowden and Manning should not have revealed state crimes and abuse of power. I am hopeful that, with the internet still largely free to the dissemination of information, out next massive whistleblower is only weeks away.
Anon, 12:21 pm: there were two links on the thread that Mary linked to. This is the one you didn’t read, or didn’t mention:
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/desperate-jobseeker-sets-himself-alight-187732
Yes, Clark, I hadn’t seen that. Aside from the fact that the story is over a year old (Mary wishes to create the impression that people are increasingly setting themselves on fire in response to government ‘austerity’), I can’t find any other cases of self-immolation other than the case in Manchester, which Mary erroneously categorised under “incidents of destitute people setting themselves alight”. As you are aware, but choose not to comment on, the man set fire to the telephones.
So we have one case from over a year ago in which there were obvious mental issues being used to create an impression of destitute people seeing no option but to set fire to themselves.
I should add that having used my local job centre at the age of 18 I can confirm that it was the experience of seeing drug and alcohol-addicted serial wasters with a sense of entitlement abusing staff that made me get out and find a job, for which I am ever thankful. I would estimate that fewer than 5% were actually looking for work.
Anon, my own experience is that finding work is easy, but finding income is far more difficult.
Anon 12 Oct, 2013 – 11:21 am
Ah, poisoning the well. The tried and trusted tactic of the disinfo agent – shame it never works. At least it was amusing – but I’m still not sure if it’s supposed to be satrirical knowing how crap the quality of their work is getting since they had to farm out their nonsense overseas for fear of being exposed – like they already have been numerous times when their amatuer dramatics go tits-up, e.g. crises actors appearing on multiple major ‘news’ stories being exposed, digital fingerprints showing pre-prepared web pages etc. Yes, the staged media-event seems to be falling apart; and who can forget the bizarre ‘police’ behaviour during the arrest of the Woolwich suspects? Especially considering the hundreds of millions spent on preparing our emergency services to counter the ‘terrorist threat’ and all they could manage was Laurel and Hardy, and they didn’t even give them the right costume.
Hi Clark, how is it going?
Still up in the lonely wilds of Scotland?
From the link:
It is a disgrace that a private company as in Jobcentre Plus is being inferred to as DWP, a governmental agency. Unaccountable profit motivated reverse Robin Hood operatives plying their trade in suppression, discounting and disenfranchisement of the jobless, without any hindrance. In fact these privateers are cheered on and encouraged to do so. Interesting that the said operatives will not give more than their first name, and or will not provide any references (number, etc) for any of the referral, or transactions. This is UK in the twenty first century.
Clark: “Anon, my own experience is that finding work is easy, but finding income is far more difficult.”
This is true. Touring the country, attending protests and carrying out weeks of plumbing work for no charge are not conducive to securing an income.
Too ridiculous for words – the World Bank FFS. Next she’ll be addressing the CIA and NSA before receiving her Purple Heart.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/pakistani-teen-still-brave-in-the-face-of-threats-by-the-taliban-speaks-at-world-bank-on-friday/2013/10/11/c1ccdbea-32a7-11e3-8627-c5d7de0a046b_story.html
Very puzzling, by now everyone is aware of the standard zio tactic of assigning paid shills to influential blogs, except our Jon/Mod. The standard hasbara handbook approach, no insights, just denigration and disruption applied to JG,Mary,etc. Ok we had habba once tell us of Michael Winners last dinner, but that was about all!
426 Alawite children were just gassed to start a war for Israel in Syria, and the monster satanyahu who gave false “intercept” testimony (and Hollande and Fabius and Hague and Rifkind) has gone scot free, and then we have his ilk here ……in full DIY hasbara mode.
Anon, I’m sure you’re right. What a worthless shit I must be. Oh how I wish I was as worthy as yourself.
Clark Said;
You have hit the nail on the head. In the current climate, no one has any money to pay, but plenty of work to be done. This is the Alan Bastard’s wet dream; “bringing back the slavery”.
It solves the problem of housing shortage, traffic congestion, and inflation, as well as helping to boost productivity, and profitability!
The current sick situation of blaming the jobless for not finding a job is the lowest trick that has been played so far, given the depression that is not a depression but an economic “downturn”!
Come on now, Clark. Nobody said you were a worthless shit. What you need is some positive thinking and a little more concentration on the task in hand. Self-pity will get you nowhere.
Oh no, 58,000 secret British and US intelligence files! There go Alexander’s blackmail tapes of phone sex, infidelity, criminal conspiracy, and corruption by Diane Feinstein, Barack Obama, Antonin Scalia, the judges of the FISA court, and anyone else with security-sector oversight responsibility. Disclosure will critically compromise NSA’s mission. Scalia’s O-face is classified for a reason.
Emppey
Ah the Hitler avatar , the tried and tested tactic of a d***head with nothing of any consequence to say…………..
The Bush tax cuts, continued under Obomba so far amount to $6 TRILLION (out of the 17 TRILLION current debt). The supply side theorists were wont to claim all that capital in the hands of the private sector would lead to greater wealth,job,gnp,etc creation. GHW Bush had referred to this “Reagan/Stockman” economics as “voodoo economics”, and so far we have seen only the 2008 crash and stagnant employment levels in the US economy. With a Republican controlled Congress, there will be no sunset on the Bush tax cuts and no reduction in $800 Billion US Defence Budget (greater than that of the ENTIRE rest of the world combined). That has left Obamacare and Food Stamps, among other items, as targets for reducing the US Budget deficit. On a positive note, with such heavy government indebtedness, we can expect the interest rate to stay at levels affordable by the US Government ie 1-2%, ie affordable long term mortgages then.
More info for Anon on the shooting party, which took place in Scotland, not England. As he can see they all do really useful jobs like nursing, social work and caring.
Revealed: The kick-boxer, popstar James Blunt’s ex and a Doctor Who girl… meet Pippa’s pheasant shooting posse
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2454951/Pippa-Middletons-pheasant-shooting-posse-includes-popstars-ex-Doctor-Who-girl.html
If he prefers this version, he can read about the cost of her trendy Dubarry boots. A snip @ £350. No cardboard to cover the holes in the soles for her.
Annie Brown: Pippa and her glory-hunting posh pals are bunch of twisted toffs
ANNIE says the picture of Pippa Middleton and her upper-crust killing crew in Scotland is a sickening scene.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifestyle/annie-brown-pippa-glory-hunting-posh-2351403
What wasters.
To give Malala her due she is reported to have said this about drone warfare to Obomber although it probably fell on deaf ears.
‘“I thanked president Obama for the United States’ work in supporting education in Pakistan and Afghanistan and for Syrian refugees.
“I also expressed my concerns that drone attacks are fuelling terrorism. Innocent victims are killed in these acts, and they lead to resentment among the Pakistani people. If we refocus efforts on education it will make a big impact.“
She called for greater co-operation between the governments of the United States and Pakistan.’
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/president-obama-welcomes-malala-at-the-white-house-8876068.html
Further – Self immolation. Distressing.
The men who set themselves on fire
Due to joblessness and a bleak economy, self-immolations in industrialised societies are rising rapidly.
07 Oct 2013
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/10/men-who-set-themselves-fire-20131075515834438.html
Daniel Rich
11 Oct, 2013 – 10:13 pm
I think Aaron Russo said pretty well everything about what’s going on and where it’s going. On-going wars, fear of terrorism, heightened security, and financial crises are the tools to bring it about.
911 is a verboten subject, but I see it as the key (though not the beginning) – all else has followed from that: the war on terror (and acceptance of torture), massive funding for arms, the ascendence of the security and intelligence services with their ramping up of fear as a tool of control and use of secrecy to hide the truth.
You ask about the situation in the UK. It’s about the same as most everywhere else: governments out of line soon fall into line if their members want to be in the game and share the spoils.
Bolivia’s first indigenous president Juan Evo Morales should be recognized for being humiliated at hands of US imperialism for supporting Snowden.
http://rehmat1.com/2013/07/05/bolivian-president-skyjacked/
Re Wikileaks & Snowden
From yesterday’s press release …
Tonight WikiLeaks and Sixteen Films release MEDIASTAN—a WikiLeaks road movie.
The release of MEDIASTAN is timed to challenge the UK opening today of THE FIFTH ESTATE – the multi-million dollar Hollywood anti-WikiLeaks movie produced by Dreamworks in collaboration with Disney. UK audiences will be able to watch MEDIASTAN online for free during The Fifth Estate’s opening weekend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gbenFTcisY&feature=youtu.be
or download from http://thepiratebay.sx/torrent/9039415/Mediastan
As most of us continue to suffer the cuts, we are promised yet more bread and circuses, this time next year from Glasgow. Do our rulers think that there will be a feel-good effect for the establishment line prior to the referendum? Or is the choice of location of the Games and the timing pure coincidence?
‘Relaying the Commonwealth baton – Queen and media on-message
Message in a baton: Commonwealth is royal wealth – photo
With much media fanfare, the Commonwealth Games baton has now been sent on its royal-approved way from Buckingham Palace to Glasgow and onwards around the globe. As the BBC dutifully reported:
“The baton contains the Queen’s hand-written message to the Commonwealth and will visit all 70 competing nations and territories over the next 288 days. It will travel to Scotland on Thursday before heading to India for its first international stopover on 11 October. The baton’s journey will end at the opening ceremony on 23 July 2014, when the Queen will read the message inside.”‘
/..
http://johnhilley.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/relaying-commonwealth-baton-queen-and.html
Commonwealth Games 23 July – 3rd August 2014
Referendum for Scottish Independence Thursday 18 September 2014
News from the counting house.
Hedge fund linked to George Osborne’s best man to make millions from privatisation of Royal Mail after ‘buying £50m stake’
Peter Davies met the Chancellor at Oxford University
Was Osborne’s best man when he married Frances Howell in 1998
Davies is a member of management committee for Lansdowne Partners
Hedge-fund firm has seen value of investment rise by £18million already
City fund made reported £100million from financial crash
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2455653/George-Osbornes-best-man-Peter-Davies-make-millions-Royal-Mail-shares.html
‘Peter joined Lansdowne in June 2001, is a member of the Management Committee and is jointly responsible for the Developed Markets Strategy, previously known as the UK Strategy. Prior to joining Lansdowne, Peter was a Director at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM, previously Mercury Asset Management). Peter joined MLIM in 1993.
Peter is a member of the investment committee of the Wellcome Trust, an investment committee member at Magdalen College Oxford and a member of the advisory committee of Manocap (a venture capital fund investing in some of the most distressed areas of the world, initially focused in Sierra Leone). Peter has a first class honours degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University.’
https://www.lansdownepartners.com/about-us/people
Paul Ruddock (ex Schroders and Goldman Sachs) who co founded Lansdowne has now retired. ‘According to reports, Sir Paul’s wealth is estimated to be about £270m, He is believed to have donated £570,000 to the Conservative Party between 2003 and 2011.’ He received a knighthood in 2012.
~~
As you can see they are ‘all in it together’.
“She called for greater co-operation between the governments of the United States and Pakistan.”
I call for greater cooperation between the people of Pakistan and the people of the failed-state of Pakistan.
I challenge Malala to return to Pakistan and make a difference there. I challenge Malala to make a difference within Pakistan from anywhere rather than standing on platforms going lalalala. Still, she is a child and i wonder what kind of adult she will grow up to be with all the attention. A different kind of human being with special awareness or just another puppet wanting to play with the super-structures.
Cable gets something right.
Clegg and Cable disagree on Guardian Snowden leaks
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg and his cabinet colleague Vince Cable appear at odds about the Guardian’s disclosure of secret surveillance.
Mr Cable said the newspaper performed a “very considerable public service” by publishing details of documents leaked by Edward Snowden.
But Mr Clegg reaffirmed his belief it was “not good at all” and said the information could “help terrorists”.
/..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24493062
Mary
Glasgow’s bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games was selected in 2007 – so much for that conspiracy theory. I look forward to the apology for the misinformation – I trust we won’t have to wait seven years.
@ Rouge,
It is so darn easy to speculate and even easier to guess one way or another, but it looks to me that what was once considered to be that ‘middle class’ chunk of society [in the past], has been slam-dunked into the financial blenders of $$-churning banksters and thus rendered obsolete, sidelined and completely obliterated. With no option but to hang on to the rafters of too big to jail fraudsters and one paycheck away from total poverty, how much do they care about NSA spying or Fukushima’s meltdown?.
To find solutions one has to try to understand [conceptualize if you will] the entire complexity of an ever evolving, societal disharmony that has its roots in something I, myself, find very difficult to dissect.
Let us have a look at this board for example and assume it is some sort of cross section of a ‘society’ as a whole.
Who are the ones that are reaching out across dividing lines [cultural, religion, wealth, education, etc.] in an attempt to bridge gaps? Who are out t/here to find common ground in an attempt to ensure that true equality for all [men, women and children] will fly its banner over the entirety of humanity?
‘We’ had an opportunity to become a great nation and we ff-ed it up big time, by guiding that herd of golden calves straight into the ff-ing Fed’s vaults and run around with plastic $$ instead. What true idiots ‘we’’ve become…
Free speech zones?
My ff-ing ass.
A great example in how to deal with ZioTrolls.
For once I do agree with Mary about the Roya Mail privatisation – if local councillors were to sell off assets at a discount of 25% to their value they be discharged and disqualified from office. The minister responsible in this case was Vince Cable. Given that the City usually sees anything above a 10% premium on issue to be seen as a sign of underpricing (some premium is necessary to avoid prohibitive underwriting costs – and that is understood) I really do think Mararet Hodge should be calling in Cable and the investment bank advising on the issue to understand why they got things so wrong. In the meantimne the poor old customer and taxpayer will be picking up the tap for the recently increased postage costs and the taking over of the pension liablity that made the Royal Mail such an attractive proposition. This is almost as much a scandal as the privatisation of the railway carriage leasing companies which were sold off to their managers and then sold onto the banks for a 100% return within months courtesy of the last Tory Government.
Daniel Rich
Given that I am probably classified as a Ziotroll in your eyes – perhaps you might wish to point out where I or any of the otehr Ziotrolls here have ever tried to defend the Israeli governments in Cast Lead – please come back when you have found something.
You are making the mistake in assuming that just because we object to many of your perverse views that we are unable to be critical and condemn the Israeli Govt when it commits attrocities and uses unreasonable force.
RD, i’m glad you commented on the royal heist. Can you save me the research and tell me if you are aware of the relative accessibility to those shares by the ‘average’ Joe Blog and minimum application/allotment thresholds, etc? Will research it tomorrow if you don’t have a broad answer handy. Thanks.