Honoured to give the keynote speech at Amnesty’s conference on torture in London yesterday. Then dashed back to Edinburgh for a very romantic evening with Nadira – and Cameron!
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Did you work for ICL, Tony? Whatever happened to that once illustrious company?
I seem to remember that Thatcher happened to ICL.
George Harrison’s last interview… 20 minutes in, and starting to get interesting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxmG0R9S2Qg
Sorry to repeat the point, but Nuland’s “midwife” comment about Ukraine indicates to me that the US was assisting Russia to annex the Crimea, presumably in exchange for another political token, such as pretending to support Assad against the jihadists in Syria.
The nuclear button pushers are fantasy gaming the world. We are the fantasy zombies ( who occupy reality ) and whom they want to eliminate with their bombs.
Politicians = nutjobs. Especially around the UK nutfest in May or other fantasy gatherings of democratic software. Outside the software is the real world.
I repeat my charge that all those that are chosing NOW to criticise Russia, &/or engage in demonising Putin, a country that is in the IMMEDIATE cross-hairs of the Neo-Cons, are not only foolish in the useful idiot sense, but are actually being complicit in the war-mongering propaganda, as well as being morally reprehensible, for they really appear not to have learnt anything from Iraq, Libya or Syria !
Even disregarding the real possibility for nuclear war, and even disregarding the inevitable immense human & environmental catastrophes, do they think that if Russia is reduced to a fail state, or a Saudi Arabia like vassal status, the world will be better off, more stable & safe ?
Why would she run a successful British company in an exciting new industry down? Was she working for America?
Hammond said we are bad cop to Russia. What a twerp. How can you bad cop a bad cop? Does the script always kill off the temporary actors and leave the soap stars for next episode?
or vice versa, does our hospitality to Russian oligarchs ensure that the soap will run forever?
Hammond, like Cameron, are fantasy actors in a UK triassic park film. There is no attempt by politicians to get to grips with the reality of anything. We create the illusion of our country being important by destroying other counties. Again I ask, is the script set in stone that the soap UK team always wins?
Macky, I think you’re overestimating the NeoCons. They attack poor, weak countries; they are bullies and cowards. As George Galloway said in answer to a listener’s question, something like:
They crippled Iraq with sanctions for years before it was weak enough to safely attack. No amount of sanctions would sufficiently weaken Russia which already has a serious nuclear arsenal.
Jurassic. Who cares so long as the bonkers nutjobs politicians get their fingers on the sticky levers of power. We survive in spite of them.
Yeh, Clark..They Filmed Shameless The First Series From Across The Road From West Gorton’s Working Men’s Club…but that was sometime later..but I still recognised it..but by then I was working in Ashton-Under-Lyne..and Still Flying..I earned so much money when I was a kid..it was silly..I regularly Trebled my Basic Salary..but I had No Social Life…So I Took Up Gliding In The Hot Summer or 1976..and met lots of Girls..I changed my image..lsot the geeky specs and became a Solo Glider Pilot…
I just had to do it..I saw The State of The Art..The Really Brilliant Engineer Flying Their Model Gliders in Derbyshire at Great Hucklow…
So I went there on my motorcycle(I was about 23)..and I saw this kid flying this Glider (he was is in it) along the ridge at about 100mph..and then he just flew up and then did it again..all under the power of..well mainly the wind actually..and I thought..well ffs..
I want to do that..so I talked to him..when he landed..and booked a Week’s Gliding Course at Derby & Lancs Gliding Club..I stayed on for a night after the course had finished..but I was just a shy kid..and they didn’t really take me on..cos it was now the weekend thing. So I went home to my Mum on The Sunday Morning and Phoned Up Lasham Gliding Club..have you got a place left on this week’s course…They said..Yes..So I rode down on My GS750 motorcycle which did 0-60 in 3 seconds..and met Derek Piggot..and this other guy..And They Taught Me to Fly…
What Else Can a Poor Boy From Oldham Do..except learn to Fly In The Summer of 1976…when it was so hot..and I really wanted a decent bit of class.
Tony
Clark : “Macky, I think you’re overestimating the NeoCons. They attack poor, weak countries; they are bullies and cowards. ”
Indeed, traditionally they do. But you’re not reckoning with the complete, traitorous insanity of the teabagger version of neo-republicans. They (Senators, Congressmen) wrote to Iran trying to undermine their own US President, saying don’t listen to the POTUS, listen to us instead. They invited Bee-Bee, so he could tell them what to do (and Bee-Bee was saying in effect, “I’m here to tell you how to conduct foreign policy, don’t listen to your elected president”).
John “Insane” McCain was ginning up a war with Georgia, in the run-up to his defeat against Obama back in 2008. When the Russian army rolled in (as it inevitably would) for an obvious victory, the Georgian PM was appealing to McCain to rescue them – as he assumed he would.
The insane Neo-cons (and their even more insane teabagger base) likes to think things “big” these days. Particularly the religiously insane among them, who actually believe that a huge war – preferably nuclear – would bring about the end times and thus the Second Coming of Christ.
This is not a mocked-up, satirical site. They take their brand of insanity very seriously:
http://raptureready.com/
You might think it amusingly idiotic, but a serious contingent in America actually believe and live their lives through this stuff. Once the pile of corpses is sufficiently high, the Baby Jesus will be happy, come slithering down on that pile of corpses, and rapture the faithful to Heaven. Jews the get the chance of converting or being slaughtered, the rest of us go to hell right away.
*
Religion is such a wondrous aspect of humanity. Got to be off now – my prayer mat needs straightening, and I think God is telling me about some infidels that need putting to death. Or is that apostates that need burning at the stake? Or women who appear insufficiently modest? Or those who indulge in sexual practices I’d rather not admit to appreciating? Or…. [continues until we’re all back in the C13th]
One of the best days in my life. It was in 1979. I was completely in love with My Girlfriend..and All her Family. They had all accepted me..I was already a part of their Family…
In The Morning I Flew The Glider From The Airfield in Dunstable..with a Co_Pilot..I had never been there Before..so they didn’t know if I could fly..
In The Afternoon I Went To See Led Zeppelin at Knebworth With The Love of My Life and Her Sister and Brother…
Neither of us..can even now work out why we didn’t get married and have Children Together….But After All These Years..After No Contact in 35 Years..We Did Meet Again..at Cambridge Rock Festival..last August..Neither of us had done anything wrong..we just parted for silly reasons and went our own ways..but we are still in love..how could we not be.
We met each other in Facebook..there is no escape from your history..
She was just so nice, and so was my wife..they both made friends straight away..what else could they do..it was a torrential thunderstorm when we met again at 11:00 am on time…She never let me down.
Oh we both led very similar lives..We both have talented Kids..Both Got a Boy and Girl Each.
Life’s Like That..Don’t Knock it..and Don’t Hate Your Ex. I Love All Mine.
Tony
Reality is that Merkel is more worried about the US/UK trashing the ceasefire;
Yes lets just ignore the facts about who is attacking Ukrainian positions after the ceasefire.
“I repeat my charge that all those that are chosing NOW to criticise Russia,”
My criticism of Putin is by no means a recent thing – you forget he has been in power since 31 December 1999.
I suspect all this talk from the Putinistas here re not wanting to start another Cold War, neocon designs on Russia is really just part of the smokescreen they wish to put up to divert everyone from their desire to control their near neighbours and their own population, often for their continuing financial benefit. Similarly their ridiculous assertion that everyone who seeks to resist their interference is a fascist – well worth reading Evgueni link from yesterday about the Putinista’s trolling strategy.
[cm-org.uk – personal non-political content removed. Resident Dissident is on pre-mod]
@ Glenuk
God- We seek him here. We seek him there. A dedicated follower of fascism.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2y6A3MaoaIs
[cm-org.uk – personal barely-political content removed]
We know Washington does not like Vladimir Putin and wants to create a political environment in Europe where we all cough up our 2pc membership fee for the M.A.D. Club.
Kudos for the link Peacewisher – “No matter who you vote for the ‘government’ always gets in.
The moral here must seemly be a vote for ‘none of the above’ actually everything possible to evolve out of chaos and hinder the ‘wimps’ from destroying intentional forces. The struggle to roadblock a US attack on Syria has been problematic and I certainly implicate a impassive Mr Hammond in that course of action.
Here the BBC in my field of vision renders a window from space where ‘wimps’ have annihilated lights in Syria and the light in Syrian ‘hearts’ and minds.
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-31839947
“Did you work for ICL, Tony? Whatever happened to that once illustrious company?”
Same thing happened to the dinosaurs, the environment changed fast and they adapted slow.
Businesses wanted disk based databases with remote terminals and realtime system and all ICL could offer was magnetic tape and punch cards. They spent a fortune on the DVLC computer at Swansea which was obsolete before they even started on it, a museum piece before they completed it.
Resdiss – ‘A forest is only green if every tree is green.’
The diminutive Friend of Israel Hazel Blears make light of the SIS aberrations. She defends them by saying similar breaches in the law occurs in the police forces. Lovely.
Mass Surveillance: Intelligence Staff Sacked
The revelation is disclosed in a report by MPs on the mass surveillance techniques exposed by Edward Snowden.
http://news.sky.com/story/1443550/mass-surveillance-intelligence-staff-sacked
‘A number of British intelligence staff have been sacked for inappropriately accessing personal information, it has emerged.
The revelation came in a long-awaited parliamentary report which was announced after whistle-blower Edward Snowden exposed mass surveillance techniques used by GCHQ and its US counterpart.
The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) inquiry recommended a single law be introduced to regulate the UK’s intelligence agencies and their powers to snoop on private communications.’
Her allegiance to a foreign power do not enter into it.
http://www.lfi.org.uk/lfi-supporters-in-parliament/
A good exposé of Rona Fairhead’s contacts and connections including Sir David Bell/Common Purpose etc etc. Sir Anthony Salz gets a mention too. He is a director of the Guardian’s Scott Trust. (His other directorships inc Rothschild’s below.)
As a leading MP tells Rona Fairhead she should resign or be sacked…
The BBC boss up to her neck in the HSBC scandal and her worrying links to the zealot behind Hacked Off
Richard Pendlebury
12 March 2015
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2990852/As-leading-MP-tells-Rona-Fairhaed-resign-sacked-BBC-boss-neck-HSBC-scandal-worrying-links-zealot-Hacked-Off.html
http://companycheck.co.uk/director/914857061/SIR-ANTHONY-MICHAEL-VAUGHAN-SALZ
I’ve just seen Jumpin’ Jack at 11.05 pm on 11 March; and various comments by others on MAD. I see the logic of “Mutually assured destruction kept the peace in Europe for over 50 years” as being close to that of the Norfolk farmer who tore up a piece of paper every day in order to stop the elephants from destroying his crops. Cause and effect? Of course MAD has been a peacemaker …… as long as you make an exception for some local disturbances in the Balkans.
Globally, the possession by both China and the USA of nuclear weapons was a major factor in preventing too much loss of life and destruction in Vietnam and Cambodia, though Agent Orange had its own contribution towards peacemaking (or at least the distribution of Nobel Peace Prizes).
Sorry dear GCHQ, when I naïvely thought that your blanket secret storage of my “Bulk Personal Data Set” was non-proportional full-take, based on previously thought private communication elements from my 4 or 5 online devices, I failed to realise how legal your actions have been all along! (citing, obviously, reasons *, *, * and *) [some elements are sensitive hence redacted to a *]
Did you catch the news that the number of online-personal devices is expected to massively increase in the next five years from the European average of three devices today (‘phone, iPad, PC) to around seventy online devices, per person (really!)
I suggest you immediately build another twenty donuts and annexe Rutland as a data-centre for your continued legal hunt for witches, {sorry, whenever I type witches my spellchecker automatically substitutes witches, islamic witches, right-wing witches, gladio witches, Guy Fawkes was a witch… Doku Umarov is obviously a Specially Designated Global Witch…}
..?
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Toxic Tony’s Tasteless Travelz continue more or less daily on the Apology thread.
In which Toxic Tony discovers that dictatorships are actually the most fertile ground for the Gospel of Globalisation.
We return you to the studio…
March 12, 2015
Bringing Hope Amidst Radioactive Ruins
Fukushima’s 4th Anniversary
by HARVEY WASSERMAN
‘The catastrophe that began at Fukushima four years ago today is worse than ever.
But the good news can ultimately transcend the bad—if we make it so.
[..]The State Secrets Act of Japan’s authoritarian Abe regime renders unreliable all “official” information from Fukushima. Grassroots nuclear campaigners are under serious attack.
At least 300 tons of radioactive water still pour daily into the Pacific Ocean. The utility wants to dump even more untreated outflow into currents that are already testing radioactive along the California coast. Details of fuel rod bring-downs and site clean-ups remain unknown.
Thyroid damage rates are soaring among downwind children. Abe is forcing evacuees back into areas that are seriously contaminated. Fukushima’s owner (Tepco) is the #1 money funnel to his Liberal Democratic Party, which flips untold billions back to the utility.
More than 128,000 petitioners asking that the world community take charge at Fukushima have been ignored by the United Nations since November, 2013.[..]’
/..
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/03/12/fukushimas-4th-anniversary/
RobG
“Jumpin’ Jack Flash, He’s a Gas
11 Mar, 2015 – 11:05 pm:
“Not really, RobG.
Mutual assured destruction kept the peace in Europe for over 50 years.”
____________________
Incorrect. What has kept the peace in Europe is what’s now known as the European Union (EU).”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~==
I’m afraid you are wrong, RobG.
Whereas the EU may well have helped to keep the peace the peace between the countries of Western Europe, it was MAD which kept the peace between Western Europe/USA and an expansionist, totalitarian Soviet Union.
RobG
“Roughly speaking, the USA and Russia each have about 7000 nuclear warheads that are ready to launch (on hair trigger alert). These missiles contain enough megatons to wipe out all life on Earth at least ten times over.
So I suppose that leaves us with just two questions:
1) Do you honestly think that the people who control these weapons are even remotely sane?”
__________________
Well, Rob, the answer to your excellent and thoughtful question must surely be YES.
They are in fact VERY SANE because if they were not, those weapons would have already been used long ago. Eg, at the height of the Cold War.
I think you can agree with that, can’t you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Moe generally, you’ve been posting a lot about people’s sanity of lack of it. It would be better if you spent more time on bringing facts to our attention and less on speculating about the unknowable.
I think you can agree with that, can’t you?
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/12/us-russia-crisis-putin-health-idUSKBN0M816620150312?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter
MAD was an OK doctrine provided that no entity believed they could win first-strike…
With the externally funded coup that was pushed into European Ukraine, without much care or pretence, by the USA or Russia (take your pick) are we on the threshold of some nation believing they are actually pre-emptive first-strike counterforce capable?
Did anyone notice that either Russia or USA finally left the CFE/JCG this week (take your pick) [Nixon/Брежнєв era: Conventional Forces in EU, Joint Contact Group]
and does anyone care?
at least the rabid re-militarisation will be good for employment, in the short term