A particularly mendacious lie by Danny Alexander puts the institutional start-up costs of Scottish Independence at £1.5 billion. That is a cool half billion pounds cheaper than Scotland’s share of the costs of the Iraq and Afghan wars, even on the Westminster government’s blatant under-estimate of the war costs.
So Scotland can afford criminal invasions killing hundreds of thousands to ‘bring freedom’, but cannot afford the smaller cost of its own freedom!!!
The £1.5 billion estimate is mendacious in two ways. Firstly, it is a simple recycling of a Canadian lie at the time of the Quebec independence referendum, apportioning with no argument 1% of GDP to startup costs.
Secondly, as nearly all the money will be spent in Scotland it is not a loss at all, but actually an increase to GDP, as any but the most nutty neo-con would be forced to acknowledge. And it would be the precursor of government money spent annually in Scotland rather than England for ever thereafter.
Thankfully Alexander won’t have a job much longer – and if he thinks a penny of Scottish public spending is going in future to support his huge arse and deceitful mouth, he is very wrong.
Now the British Ambassador to Sweden, of all people, is calling on his blog for Scotland to remain part of the UK.
Perhaps BLiar will meet a camel with MERS up close on one of his ME jaunts. The camel will spit at him and that’s the end of Anthony Charles Lynton BLiar.
So who’s in the grave where Pope Francis visited Doug?
http://www.timesofisrael.com/popes-rabbi-friend-hails-significance-of-wreath-laying-at-herzls-grave/
I see Obomber has been there too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs1L4nVRWXM&feature=youtu.be
Published on 1 Jun 2014
Jon Faine, of Radio 774 ABC Melbourne, interviews and insults former Australia Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser, in the process of attempting to defend the indefensible, Israel.
In his book, Dangerous Allies, Mr Fraser’s suggests that it is time for Australia to formulate its own foreign policy and not, in future — as Captain Kirk might have put it— To blindly go where its current allies seek to lead it (my phrase, not Mr Fraser’s).
Faine is almost as rude and overbearing to this guest as he was towards Kevin Bracken, who was (at the time I made a video about his encounter with Faine), Victorian Branch Secretary of the Maritime Union and the President of the Victorian Trades Hall Council and was attempting to point out some of the many anomalies in the official 9/11 report, but was prevented from doing so by Faine’s obnoxious monologues.
In this video, I show excerpts from the Kevin Bracken video, which was uploaded in October, 2010, as well as from Friends of Israel — Enemies Inside the Gates, from which Jon Faine appears to have learned nothing. He is a gatekeeper for Israel, and has no business being in front of a microphone in the studios of the publicly-funded Australian Broadcast Corporation.
NOTES & LINKS
A recoding of the radio broadcast of May 9th, 2014 featuring Jon Faine, Damien Kingsbury and Malcolm Fraser can be found here: http://tunein.com/topic/?TopicId=7312…
Aussie Trades Unionist Exposes 9/11 Cover up
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BziwlF…
Friends of Israel — Enemies Inside the Gates http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Untixe…
Jon Snow UK Television cuts the mike on an Israeli spokesman as they debate Gaza
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vdpcbg…
~~
Advance Australia Fair.
Regev is an Aussie too. He made aliyah to Israel and got the top job.
So much for respect for the life of a child by the Catholics.
Tuam children’s bodies: Catholic Church ‘has no records’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27710206
‘A Catholic archbishop in the Republic of Ireland has said the church has no records about the burial of nearly 800 children at a mother and baby home.
The remains were in a concrete septic tank at the County Galway home. The children, aged between two days and nine years, died between 1925 and 1961.’
For context see Tim Geithner’s new book explaining and justifying the grifter syndrome.
http://pando.com/2014/06/04/just-as-we-predicted-indias-new-leader-is-about-to-make-pierre-omidyar-a-lot-richer/
“Omidyar’s top India man also concurrently served as a director in a powerful BJP think tank, the India Foundation, chaired by Modi’s hardline National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval — “a giant among spies” according to the Hindustan Times. After stepping down from Omidyar Network in February of this year, Sinha worked full-time for Modi, the India Foundation, and for his own successful run as a BJP candidate for parliament.
Another NGO that Omidyar invested in, the Institute for Policy Research Studies (IPRS), was accused of illegally trying to lobby India’s parliamentarians to vote for opening up India’s e-commerce market in late 2012. The IPRS nonprofit ran a program in which their staffers provided India MP staffers with “nonpartisan” research. In 2012, India’s intelligence bureau accused the IPRS of “compromising national security” and described it as “shrouded in mystery.”
Omidyar Network had pledged $1 million to the IPRS, and the Ford Foundation pledged half a million more — but the Indian government rejected the IPRS’s application to register as a foreign-funded NGO, deeming it a threat to India’s parliamentary integrity, and its national security. Google’s corporate philanthropic arm, Google.org, had previously given $880,000 to the same NGO program, under Sheryl Sandberg’s watch.”
http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2014/06/03/us-marshals-seize-copies-of-local-cell-phone-tracking-records-requested-by-aclu/
“The organization has already faced law enforcement agencies which behave like the CIA and refuse to acknowledge whether or not they even have public records related to Stingray surveillance used to track cell phones. But this is a clear escalation and shows the extent to which the federal government is willing to go to protect this new form of dragnet warrantless surveillance from public scrutiny.
Nathan Freed Wessler, staff attorney for the ACLU, told Firedoglake the US Marshals Service sent someone to the Sarasota Police Department from an office in Tampa to seize physical copies of the records which had been requested. Marshals “spirited” them out “from under the noses of Florida residents who had a right to them under state public records law.”
In his history of doing “public records work” Wessler had never witnessed the federal government do anything like this.”
On April 5 Greenwald promised that in two months he would produce the files showing which private citizens the NSA spied on.
This is June 5th. Waiting…………………………
Rose’s recommendation (at 9.00am) of Roethke’s “In A Dark Time” has far more to commend it than Ba’al Zevul’s rapid (at 9.12 am) dismissal : “that absolutely sucks”. It’s not just Rose’s personal choice that – as Mary noted – deserves respect; but also her judgement. This poem has been widely admired for over 50 years by readers with the ability to suck the marrowfat of a poet grappling with the images and language to evoke and overcome depression and despair. Roethke was an important influence on both Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes: they met him at a party in London on 1 February 1961 –see
http://sylviaplathinfo.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/sylvia-plath-collections-theodore.html
The poem also provided the title for a notable anthology by two psychologists who wanted to select writings showing humans as “savage warriors, as helpless victims, and as individuals who have the courage to say `No` to war” – Nicholas Humphrey and Robert Jay Lifton’s “In A Dark Time” (Faber, 1984). Two extracts from it that bear directly on issues central to Craig’s blog:
“We are mad, not only individuals but nations also. We restrain manslaughter and individual murders; but what of war and the so-called glory of killing whole peoples? . . . Deeds of cruelty are done every day by command of the Senate and popular assembly, and servants of the state are ordered to do what is forbidden to the private citizen. The same deeds which would be punished by death if committed in secret are applauded when done openly by soldiers in uniform.” – Seneca, “Letters 95,” c. 63 AD.
“Yossarian was cold, too, and shivering uncontrollably. He felt goose pimples clacking all over him as he gazed down despondently at the grim secret Snowden had spilled all over the messy floor. It was easy to read the message in his entrails. Man was matter, that was Snowden’s secret. Drop him out a window and he’ll fall. Set fire to him and he’ll burn. Bury him and he’ll rot, like other kinds of garbage. The spirit gone, man is garbage. That was Snowden’s secret. Ripeness was all.
I’m cold,’ Snowden said. ‘I’m cold.” – Joseph Heller “Catch-22”, 1961
Those wanting a fuller appreciation of Roethke than Ba’al Zevul’s can listen to him in the first link below and read an assessment of his place in American literature in the second
http://bodyliterature.com/2013/10/04/friday-pick-theodore-roethkes-dark-time/
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/m_r/roethke/bio.htm
Blair International LP:-
G-CEYL has just flown from Baku to….er…somewhere 3/4 of an hour away. Well, that solves the problem of where it was a little while ago. It may have something to do with this:
http://en.apa.az/xeber_uk_pm_representative_to_visit_azerbaijan_212182.html
The UK Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy for Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, member of House of Commons at the parliament Charles Hendricks will visit Azerbaijan to attend the Caspian Oil and Gas Exhibition 2014.
Within the visit, C. Hendricks is expected to meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, as well as Minister of Youths and Sport Azad Rahimov, IT Minister Ali Abbasov, SOCAr President Rovnag Abdullayev and BP President Gordon Birrell.
Hendricks will read letter of the Uk Prime Minister David Cameroon* at the opening of ceremony tomorrow.
Hendricks also will also visit Gabala.
*lol.
Looks as if a Bombardier Global Express would manage Baku-Gabala in 3/4 hour to me.
Now, what’s Hendricks doing in Tony’s plane? The implication is that the taxpayer is now adding to Tony’s various subsidies, if it’s on a rehire agreement. It also begs the question of why Hendricks isn’t flying crap class on a pensionable Russian transport, as it’s on my money and yours…or is Tony there too?
“This poem has been widely admired for over 50 years by readers with the ability to suck the marrowfat of a poet grappling with the images and language to evoke and overcome depression and despair.”
Oh, that’s what you’re meant to do with it, is it? Sorry, but I’m with Paxman on this one.
Either cognitive therapy or lithium would perhaps enable him to write something to counter, rather than enhance, the horror of existence. This is the first and last time I read Roethke, now I know he was intentionally writing like a shut-in teenager. No apologies from me.
Muslim Mary, do you even check what you cut and paste? Three of those four links you posted are dead. You also have to learn how to quote your sources clearly instead of passing off other’s work as your own work – it’s very misleading, as I’m sure you already know.
And while Mark Regev might be an Australian in the most liberal interpretation, he is most definitely not an Aussie, thank-you-very-much.
Iain That reply was appreciated by me and I trust by Rose if she returns.
~~~~
Loving it.
David Cameron’s house ‘fracked’ by protesters
Greenpeace activists turn the Prime Minister’s country home in Oxfordshire into a ‘fracking site’ in protest at new pro-drilling laws
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/10874055/David-Camerons-house-fracked-by-protesters.html
and
http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/story/2014-06-04/greenpeace-stage-protest-at-david-camerons-home/
‘Not a Muslim Mary’ will have to tell her friend Anthony Lawson to fix his links. The links were printed under the You Tube, the content of which has not been commented by our correspondent from Down Under.
Incidentally he does not seem to be able to sleep much as it is now 2.30am there?? Or perhaps he pretends to be in Oz?
The links under Anthony Lawson’s video work perfectly fine if the correspondent in Australia had gone to the You Tube linked to and clicked on the links below. Here they are in full.
Faine sounds deeply unpleasant.
Israel’s Apologists: Jon Faine is at it Again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs1L4nVRWXM&feature=youtu.be
A recording of the radio broadcast of May 9th, 2014 featuring Jon Faine, Damien Kingsbury and Malcolm Fraser can be found here:
http://tunein.com/topic/?TopicId=73128645
Aussie Trades Unionist Exposes 9/11 Cover up
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BziwlFXPRPI
Friends of Israel — Enemies Inside the Gates
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UntixeRiEK8
Jon Snow UK Television cuts the mike on an Israeli spokesman as they debate Gaza
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdpcbgwjfEI
AIPAC: The Voice of America — Part 2 The Treasonous Dollar Drain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQE1Fe9nQeQ&feature=email
Iain and Mary – thanks.
Ba’al – no apology needed nor expected. I admit it was a bit early to be dishing that out – hope you didn’t choke on your cornflakes – I felt the splutter from here.
Mary
5 Jun, 2014 – 2:07 pm
“So who’s in the grave where Pope Francis visited Doug?”
In 1949, his remains were moved from Vienna to be reburied on the top of Mount Herzl in Jerusalem that carried his name.
@John Goss
“Look away Resident Dissident. Pretend it isn’t happening.”
You really are cretinous and proof of the adage that there is no fool like an old fool. When I have ever claimed that when there are violent conflicts that either side has a monopoly on bad behaviour – I’m afraid that is what happens in such situations. I could just as easily point to atrocities carried out the armed mercenaries and thugs of the puppet regime in Donetsk – but I’ll leave such one sided games to yourself and your other allies. The real issue is in understanding the forces behind the conflict – and the despite all your blaming everything on fascists perhaps we could have your analysis of what violence was occurring in eastern Ukraine before Putin allowed his little green men to move in.
Ba’al Zevul (In The Bleak Midsummer) 5 Jun, 2014 – 12:14 pm
ask and ye shall receive:
rd; I think the over-arching question is, do you see the flip-side of that same coin? I’m betting it’s willful ignorance.
Resident Dissident and John Goss, rather than perpetually arguing, it would be far more productive and informative to collaborate on a Wiki-style Ukraine war map and timeline, with annotations about which groups were responsible for what, and links to evidence and analysis.
What you’re both currently doing reads like some Monty Python sketch about two rival propagandists. it’s time for a big foot to come down out of the sky.
Ben & Clark
I clearly see the overall responsibility for the conflict in Eastern Ukraine as lying with Putin and his wish for Ukraine to be his client state – that doesn’t mean that I immediately leap to view that those opposing Putin and Russia’s interference in Ukraine are not capable of committing unjustified acts of violence or not demonstrating respect for the rights of ethnic Russians within the Ukraine. John Goss is incapable of seeing that any Ukrainian viewpoint opposing his own, or any Russian viewpoint opposing that of Putin may be of validity.
If you are interested in a balanced viewpoint as to what is going on in the Ukraine I would suggest the following:
http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/UA/HRMMUReport15May2014.pdf
Muslim Mary, the content of the video pointed to by your first link @June 5 2.24p is a criticism of Jon Faine, an ABC radio ‘journalist’ and overt supporter/apologist for Israel but then goes on to become a 9/11 conspiracy theory of the ‘Israel did it with US acquiescence or tacit approval’ variety. Altogether unconvincing as most of these theories are, and a distraction from genuine inquiries into actual US misfeasance, incompetence, corruption and coverups etc.
You didn’t elaborate on your support for your “friend’s” 9/11 conspiracy theory, Muslim Mary. Could you give us all some further insight into this clever version of events?
Incidentally, where I post from and at what time is not relevant to anyone but the most paranoid of troublemakers who wish to imply sinister connections but have no evidence of such. In fact, that’s probably the defining personality of your average conspiracy theory nutter.
Salam
I repeat to the cloth eared Aussie. I am not a Muslim.
…I felt the splutter from here.
Rose, that was probably the most graceful response (well, ok, not that bit) I have had on this blog. Thank you.
Further to 05/06, 3.58 pm
The report got the name wrong (of the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy for Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan ), and I unthinkingly reproduced it. He is Charles Hendry, not Hendricks, Tory MP for Wealden. After his spell as energy minister his fingers remain firmly jammed in the energy pie:
Charles Hendry, who worked in David Cameron’s administration until 2012, is being paid £60,000 a year as a “consultant” to Vitol, a massive oil trader which has a long-term supply contract with Rosneft, the Russian state-owned energy giant.
The job will earn the MP for Wealdon almost as much as his parliamentary salary despite taking him just one-and-a-half days a month.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/former-tory-minister-charles-hendry-to-be-consultant-to-russialinked-oil-firm-9187968.html
Slightly more acceptably, but probably mopping up government subsidies –
http://www.forewind.co.uk/news/64/34/Charles-Hendry-appointed-as-chairman.html
His views on fracking are equivocal – which is probably wise given that Wealden covers a potential shale gas field
Resident Dissident
5 Jun, 2014 – 9:45 pm
“I clearly see the overall responsibility for the conflict in Eastern Ukraine as lying with Putin and his wish for Ukraine to be his client state…”
What evidence do you have for that ResDis?
“…that doesn’t mean that I immediately leap to view that those opposing Putin and Russia’s interference in Ukraine are not capable of committing unjustified acts of violence…”
Russia’s interference in Ukraine ResDis?
So you didn’t see the EU and US interference in Ukraine before the crisis unfolded?
The Ukraine military have been bombing unarmed civilians, is that not a war crime?
You are wilfully blind ResDis.
President Putin plays a blinder. Agent Cameron and Obomber will not like it one bit.
Russia never annexed Crimea, no plans to intervene in Ukraine, it’s a Western delusion – Putin
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_06_05/Russia-never-annexed-Crimea-no-plans-to-intervene-Ukraine-its-Western-delusion-Putin-5970/
RD; The UN recommends an immediate and transparent investigation into the calamity in Odessa. (pg 4 item iv)
Can you think why Kyev has not already done so? Perhaps such findings would be untoward.
“What evidence do you have for that ResDis?”
The lack of evidence with regard to violence in Eastern Ukraine before the little green men started to arrive. I did ask if there was any – and none has been forthcoming and you employ your usual diversionary tactics.
“Russia’s interference in Ukraine ResDis?”
And I’m the one being accused of being wilfully blind!
Can you think why Kyev has not already done so? Perhaps such findings would be untoward.
wrong http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/05/08/ukraine-investigate-odessa-deaths
Remember Mr Goss going on about how the Ukrainian Govt wasn’t having an enquiry into the EuroMaidan shootings before the enquiry reported.
Of course in la-la land enquiries are only legitimate once they have reported and supported your prejudice.