Tonight I am appearing at a panel discussion following the screening of the long-awaited film by George Galloway, The Killings of Tony Blair. I shall have the dubious pleasure of debating with John McTernan, who has never lacked brass neck but does deserve some credit for appearing to represent the forces of darkness before what I imagine will be a very hostile audience. The other panel members are Michael Mansfield and Lauren Booth.
The film has been predictably lambasted by the mainstream media. But it does include some very essential first hand evidence – myself apart, two other British Ambassadors tell what they themselves witnessed, as do Cabinet members. Noam Chomsky adds some important perceptions. This cannot just be dismissed by cries of “Oh look! George Galloway’s in a hat!! Remember when he was on Big Brother!!” The mainstream media’s response to this film has been unanimously puerile.
The Blair-loving Guardian gave the film two stars and called it “sanctimonious”. If one cannot express moral condemnation of a man who forced through an aggressive war, directly killing hundreds of thousands and destabilising both the Middle East and communities in Europe, and who then went on to make multiple millions of pounds promoting vicious dictatorships, then are we to suspend the very idea of ethics itself?
The Guardian subscribes to the world view propounded weekly by Nick Cohen, that to appear on an Iranian government TV channel is a far greater sin than to promote a war which killed and maimed countless thousands of small children. None of the many contributors appeared in the film under a mistaken belief that George Galloway is perfect. That George (whom I first met in Dundee in 1977) is not perfect in no way detracts from the evidence stated against Tony Blair. On Iraq, George was both right and brave. I would add that I did not for one moment consider refusing to take part on the grounds that George is a unionist.
Getting cinema screenings for an independent documentary film is extremely difficult. This is what is available so far.
I assume there are plans to make it available on wider platforms later.
The Killing$ Of Tony Blair – Official Trailer from The Killing of Tony Blair – Film on Vimeo.
Diane Abbott quotes, anyone?
If a hypocrite calls another person a hypocrite is that actually a compliment?
If only we had such decent, intelligent, straight-talking leaders as ‘Demon’ Putin:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45193.htm
Note to Ms. Nicola Sturgeon
The findings that some 53 per cent of SCOTTISH voters would rather stay with the UNITED KINGDOM
has seriously undermined the SNP and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
The humiliating stats came to light just hours after SNP’s Westminster leader Angus Robertson said Scotland was
“TRULY ON THE BRINK OF INDEPENDENCE”
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/694881/Nicola-Sturgeon-Brexit-Scottish-independence-referendum-EU-Scots-leave-UK
Independence campaigners gather for Glasgow march
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-36926292
ROYAL BANK of SCOTLAND performs poorly in stress tests
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36928888
RBS Group performed poorly in the latest European stress tests,
which assess how the banks might perform in adverse economic conditions. ( such as might be just around the corner)
The fools at the FCA still havent realised all the deposits of Santander in the UK are tied up in toxic Spanish real estate loans now. The UK tax payer stands to get hit with a huge bailout to pay for Real Madrids Gareth Bale 100m Euro purchase !!
I think you will find that it is the responsibility of the fools at the PRA.
As for RBS, it should’ve been allowed to go under, it may have its headquarters in Scotland, but most of its toxic transactions are done outside of Scotland.
Instead a Westminster government helped safe the bank at a terrible cost to the current and future taxpayers, in an old friends act to save the bankers bacon so to speak.
Watch as RBS, will be absorbed back into the private sector, at a fraction of the cost, that took to save it in the first place. Again another old friends act to the bankers.
Do you actually think for one second, that RBS or any other bank for that matter was rescued for the sake of its workers or a countries citizens?
Michael Norton
You do know, or do you, that RBS is 81% owned by the UK government?
I very much doubt Node that Michael cares about glaring details like that.
Reading through his “Notes to Nicola ” comments, it would appear he clearly buys into the “too wee too poor ” status of Scotland, to become independent, and of course that is an opinion he’s entitled to.
I’m sure like me Node you’ve seen it all before. ?
Michael a couple of points on your exuberant posting of “Notes to Nicola Sturgeon.
Firstly citing from a anti-independence news rag such as the Express, lends no gravitas to your comments.
Secondly the Express article doesn’t actually link to the YouGov poll, and the sentence to suggest more Scots are against independence isn’t worded in a convincing manner either ( The finding that some 53 %).
Thirdly and just as important is the reliability of the pollster and its methods, something which YouGov wasn’t known for during Indref one.
Brexit being a prime example.
“One of Britain’s most reputable pollsters admitted that the methodology it used for EU referendum surveys was flawed and resulted in public support for a Brexit being overstated.”
http://uk.businessinsider.com/yougovs-polling-methods-were-flawed-2016-5
Surprisingly and to his credit Tory Lord Ashcroft’s polls during Indyref one, were quite close to the mark.
Michael, we did have exchange of comments on a prior thread over the sheer bias of the Express newspaper, when you asked me how I knew, you had posted from its pages.
I did explain that after following the national press for three years prior in the run up to Indyref one, that I and many others now know what to expect from them.
Trump is what you get when you remove the hood from the KKK.
…and Clinton is what you get when you remove Trump.
Clinton Email: We Must Destroy Syria For Israel –
http://yournewswire.com/clinton-email-we-must-destroy-syria-for-israel/
Clinton Cash – Official Movie Premiere –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td2pyyCau30
Pretty words, Suhayl.
I think we are facing a choice between The Devil and The Deep Blue Sea.
With Trump, once you remove the hood as you say, what you see is what you get. I don’t believe the nonsense about building walls and about banning muslims from entering the country (which I think has been repeatedly reported out of all context and devoid of nuance).
With Hillary, I believe you have a rugged, ageing, cynical mask that you cannot remove. And behind that is a very ugly, hyper-ambitious, dangerous bitch.
Pay your money and take your choice.
Btw, do you recall Hillary, when she stepped down as Secretary of State, a key reason given was that she was ‘tired’. Now the bitch is nearly 70 and heavily botoxed and toxic. So you know what you’re going to get; is that what you want?
I’m a gambling man, as life itself, I’ll take Trump. See what happens and if it’s not going in the right direction, that’s an opportunity for more people power. Go with the flow.
Finally, aren’t you goddamned tired of the flowery cliches that is politician-speak?
Bill Gates will be vying as an Independent, an easily a winner.
It’s certainly not much a joyous choice. The imperial agenda will continue, regardless. I don’t think we ought ever to have any illusions about that. From the point of view of the UK specifically and Europe more generally, Clinton would be the continuity candidate. I suppose that’s about all one ca say for her. Much depends on the team Trump appoints and on the political complexion of Congress. Mind you, GW Bush and his neocon team did have an absolutely devastating impact on the world – in part, we now are reaping the consequences. So it would be untrue to say that ‘it makes no difference’ who is President of the USA. I also fear greatly the situation vis a vis Russia and NATO – it absolutely cannot be allowed to escalate.
“The imperial agenda will continue, regardless”
One of the substantive differences between Clinton and Trump is that Trump is much less likely to start a war with Russia.
War with Russia? You cannot be serious! Great testimony to Project Fear.
Hillary is continuing to call for a no-fly zone in Syria. That could easily result in hostilities between U.S. and Russian aircraft, and escalation could proceed from there.
Suhayl, that’s a particularly limp comment by your standards.
“From the point of view of the UK specifically and Europe more generally, Clinton would be the continuity candidate. I suppose that’s about all one ca say for her. ”
Are you implying that’s a good thing? More war? More interventions?
Why the fuck are we talking about a US Presidency anyway? Don’t you think they have enough internal domestic problems? Don’t you think they should turn inwards and spend the next several years getting their house in order? If that means them building a wall along their own borders, so be it.
I say fuck off the USofA, stay at home, sort yourselves out and when you travel out behave yourselves. You changed the direction of the 21st century, along with your poodle Tony Blair. You can have him. Now let’s retrieve the wrong path we took, you took after 9/11 and retrieve Global Peace and order as best as we can. There is a Big World outside the US and we global villagers are pining for peace not conflict, butter not guns, green energy not more rape of the Earth, more cooperation and less interference, more spirituality and less barbarism, more music and less gunshots, more medical/scientific research and less nuclear weapons, more direct democracy. On the latter, start by a global referendum on the riddance of every nuclear weapon on the Planet.
Two observations on the way forward:
1./ We can’t solve our problems through the same people that created them. Which is why I’m willing to take a chance with Jeremy Corbyn. Apart of course from my close observation of the man; his manner, style and content. He threatens the Labour Establishment which is so utterly mediocre. If its the establishment you want, stick with the Tories, they have more gumption.
I repeat, I’ll take a chance on the change in the status quo with Trump. If he can’t/doesn’t deliver, let him serve as a stepping stone out of the corruption of the American System.
2./ Given Brexit, the UK has a much greater role to play internationally. As we negotiate a whole new bunch of Trade Agreements, let’s also negotiate a whole new set of human rights and values, based on mutual respect and doing the right thing for the people of the Earth at large. It’s good we’re out of the club of Europe and the sinking ship it has become. Scrap that Trident now and hold another referendum to get the fuck out of NATO.
I don’t believe in little-delta change. Man is greater than that and we are being lead completely down the wrong path by our wonderful ‘leaders’.
__________________
“Because we play with causes and effects and never go beyond them, except verbally, our lives are empty, without much significance. It is for this reason that we have become slaves to political excitement and to religious sentimentalism. There is hope only in the integration of the several processes of which we are made up. This integration does not come into being through any ideology, or through following any particular authority, religious or political; it comes into being only through extensive and deep awareness. This awareness must go into the deeper layers of consciousness and not be content with surface responses.” –Krishnamurti, 1956
Groan!
Yes, go right back to sleep ‘Bright’ eyes. By the way, what is your IQ?
Great sentiments – I mean that in a good way.
But neither Trump nor Clinton are ever going to deliver these ends. We ought not to expect it, really. I agree, it’s the Devil and Deep Blue Sea. Trump won’t lead anyone out of corruption.
And one cannot really compare Trump with Corbyn.
But the walls would also serve the purpose of keeping Americans inside. What a wonderful world that would be. No more of them poking their noses into everybody else’s business.
Ah yes the vexed issue of a wall as between the US and Mexico.
Of much less interest is the Mexican proposal to build a wall on their southern border with Belize and Guatemala so as to keep central American immigrants out of Mexico.
Yes, I can agree with that!
Take Obama. As he prepares to leave office, the fawning has begun all over again. He is “cool”. One of the more violent presidents, Obama gave full reign to the Pentagon war-making apparatus of his discredited predecessor. He prosecuted more whistleblowers – truth-tellers – than any president. He pronounced Chelsea Manning guilty before she was tried. Today, Obama runs an unprecedented worldwide campaign of terrorism and murder by drone.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45196.htm
Jean-Bernard Lévy,
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/29/government-seeks-to-reassure-investors-as-hinkley-point-delayed
the chief executive of Électricité de France, said on Friday he had no doubt about the government of the United Kingdom
support for the £18bn project of Hinkley Point C, in Somerset.
EDF is currently owned 85% by the FRENCH STATE,
presumably after it injects a further three or four billion, FRANCE will own even more.
The French State is coercing EDF to take over AREVA the manufacturers of nuclear plants.
The French State (including the shares owned by the CEA) controls 87 percent of AREVA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Areva
“There is no comment to make. The statement made by Mr Clark is perfectly clear,” he said.
“I have no doubt about the support of the British government led by Mrs May.”
J.B.L. is incorrect, there are many statements to be made, however he does not want Europe to hear these statements because they are BAD TO VERY VERY BAD.
Essentially AREVA is broke, it and the E.P.R. are busted flushes.
J.B.L. probably does not want Europe to hear about Olkiluoto E.P.R. plant in Finland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olkiluoto_Nuclear_Power_Plant
According to Financial Times in December 2014 construction of unit 3 ( E.P.R.) has descended into farce as it is currently expected to open nine years late and several billions of euros over budget.
He may not want Europe to hear about Flamanville
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPR_(nuclear_reactor)#Flamanville_3_.28EDF.27s_first_plant.29
You see, there are a few problems with the new E.P.R. design and build.
The single unit E.P.R. at Flamanville has microscopic cracks at either end of the Reactor pressure vessel ( the device that retains most of the radiation / fuel)
these reactor pressure vessels have already been manufactured at one of AREVA’s plants in Eastern France.
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/rs-flamanville-epr-vessel-anomalies-under-scrutiny-0704154.html
There are problems but the eX- spouse of Francois Hollande Ms. Royal has said that the only problem is with the paper work, not with the actual vessels or the steel.
Now, should the Prime minister of the United Kingdom take the word of Segolene Royal, Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A9gol%C3%A8ne_Royal
it could just be that the paper work has been fiddled by employees of AREVA and that there is no problem with the structure of the R.P.V.s but should we take the chance, it is a bit of a gamble.
The future safety of Europe, do not delay, sign today you know it makes sense
or delay and find out why the AREVA paper work has been fiddled or find out that the structure of the metal of the R.P.V.s already made are fractured, before they are made radioactive.
If I were Mrs.May, I think I’d press pause.
Habbabkuk on July 29, 2016 at 22:49 stated:
“My Solomon-like judgement”
So now you are admitting to a penchant for cutting babies in half?
It looks like it’s Russia turn to step up the propaganda war on Turkey.
“Over five thousand joined anti-American demonstrations yelling “death to US” and demanding an immediate closure of the Incirlik Air Base for over five hours on Thursday before Turkish police came in and broke up the protesters before they could arrive at major NATO military facility, home to nearly 90 US tactical nuclear weapons.”
http://sputniknews.com/news/20160728/1043728040/turkey-incirlik-nato-riot-nuclear.html
It would also appear that the Japanese, aren’t too keen on the American’s and their base at Okinawa either.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/19/thousands-protest-at-us-bases-on-okinawa-after-japanese-womans
America appears to be upsetting some of its landlords, around the globe, however, little obedient and compliant Britain, wouldn’t dream of such behaviour.
Maybe because America is a death-driven state.
https://philosophersforchange.org/2016/06/16/taking-notes-62-america-is-a-death-driven-state/
Alan.
Consecutive warmongering governments have given America a bad name, I wouldn’t go as far as to say, the people of America agree with those foreign invasions or wars.
You just have to look back in history to see that American’s can motivate themselves to halt a war, namely the Vietnam war. Disinfranchised black American men, began to realise that they didn’t want to travel halfway around the world to kill Vietnamese people, for the benefit of the Military Industrial Complex.
Whilst back home their friends and families, suffered poverty and predijuce. However time has moved on and wars emerging mainly from America are met with less and less resistance, as the US governments tighten their grip over voters.
The U.S. government got rid of conscription as a result of the failure of the Vietnam War. Since then, it has been difficult for opposition to a war to become strong enough to compel a response by the government.
Lysias.
According to this, a significant portion of American society backed the war in Iraq, yet one year after the invasion, many thought it was a mistake, including some politicians and generals.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opposition_to_the_Iraq_War
Could it be that wars and possibly regime changes, are sold far more convincingly in the US, than in any other country around the world? Afterall a need to justify and claw back some of the huge military budget, must come from somewhere.
The link indicates, that, American’s can see through government propaganda, given enough time and information, and change there minds, as they did in the Iraq war, one year on from the invasion.
Whether or not they’ll be able to see through the propaganda, before future wars, are sold to them, is another matter.
On American Imperialism and “Manifest Destiny”:
http://www.curiehs.org/ourpages/Web_based_instruction/us_history/topicnotes/9-1.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfsfoFqsFk4
1) US General says- “It’s good fun to shoot people”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaQcVsq6akw
2) Official US policy: I don’t know who I kill, I don’t even know how many I kill.
I can kill anyone I want, anywhere on earth, at any time, for secret reasons, under
secret process, decided by people in secret.
at 6:00′ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4NRJoCNHIs
3) A US State Dept govenrment spokesperson, when asked about Snowden” *officially states* that a US Citizen may NOT speak to defend himself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDFIVVmXE-g
4) US Congressman Michael Grimm threats to kill a Reporter in front of the camera,
for daring to ask about his campaign fundraising.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeJhXaC5WPg
5) CIA News Network, in youtube video titled: @CNN cuts off soldier then Ron Paul brings him on stage to let him finish talking” does exactly what the title says.
6) Has produced a manual with torturing techniques which it distributed to “friendly” dictatorships (google “CIA Interrogation manual” and tell me what you find.)
7) http://www.nbcnews.com/id/10996623/ns/world_news-terrorism/t/us-outsourced-torture-investigator-says/#.VXLa8s9Viko
8) http://williamblum.org/aer/read/96 , “We came, we saw, we destroyed, we forgot”
An updated summary of the charming record of US foreign policy. Since the end of the Second World War, the United States of America has …
Attempted to overthrow more than 50 governments, most of which were democratically-elected.
Attempted to suppress a populist or nationalist movement in 20 countries.
Grossly interfered in democratic elections in at least 30 countries.
Dropped bombs on the people of more than 30 countries.
Attempted to assassinate more than 50 foreign leaders.
In total: Since 1945, the United States has carried out one or more of the above actions, on one or more occasions, in the following 69 countries (more than one-third of the countries of the world):
Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
Angola
Australia
Bolivia
Bosnia
Brazil
British Guiana (now Guyana)
Bulgaria
Cambodia
Chad
Chile
China
Colombia
Congo (also as Zaire)
Costa Rica
Cuba
Dominican Republic
East Timor
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Fiji
France
Germany (plus East Germany)
Ghana
Greece
Grenada
Guatemala
Honduras
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Kuwait
Laos
Lebanon
Libya
Mongolia
Morocco
Nepal
Nicaragua
North Korea
Pakistan
Palestine
Panama
Peru
Philippines
Portugal
Russia
Seychelles
Slovakia
Somalia
South Africa
Sudan
Suriname
Syria
Thailand
Uruguay
Venezuela
Vietnam (plus North Vietnam)
Yemen (plus South Yemen)
Yugoslavia
http://mattiasalmloef.com/?p=1416
http://friendlydictators.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/at-last-cuba-is-free-to-become-more-like-the-glorious-us-of-a-9934482.html
9) Ex CIA personnel themselves describe their involvement:
a) In the downing of PASSENGER jet, Korean Airlines Flight 007 over Siberia on August 30, 1983.
b) In the downing of PASSENGER jet, July 3, 1988, when the USS Vincennes shot down an Iranian civilian airliner over the Persian Gulf, killing 290 people, an act which President Ronald Reagan dismissively explained as an “understandable accident”
http://consortiumnews.com/2014/07/29/obama-should-release-ukraine-evidence/
American Imperialism: Crash Course US History
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfsfoFqsFk4
“Unions criticised the decision to hand the controversial firm the contract to run the service, which comes despite a House of Lords review calling for the service to be taken back in-house.”
“G4S, a controversial outsourcing firm heavily criticised for its running of youth jails, has been awarded the contract to take over a key government equality helpline for those who have faced discrimination on the grounds of their sex, race, or disability, BuzzFeed News has learned.”
“In a move that has already been criticised by a union leader, the government has decided to award the running of the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) to G4S in the face of a recommendation by a House of Lords committee to take helpline back in-house.”
https://www.buzzfeed.com/alanwhite/exclusive-g4s-to-take-over-vital-government-discrimination-s?utm_term=.tedmvwv3a#.axPj636QR
According to this, G4S has a terrible record on human rights abuse of Palestinian people, (allegedly ) in Israeli prisons, and detention centres. The articles claims umpteen violations of women and children, including torture, have taken place
In my opinion awarding this contract to G4S, is, the wrong thing to do, it may cause deeper divisions within society as a whole.
http://www.waronwant.org/media/g4s-slammed-human-rights-abuses-palestine
“…Bevin doesn’t like me reminding him of his ‘little lapse’ and outright denies having posted the link…”
Your shameless lies just keep on coming, ‘Jim’. Roberts’ article was recommended by me and I had no problem in suggesting that people read it. I recommend it yet. The more people who read it the fewer there will be who believe your ridiculous description of its content.
The real problem is that you have nothing to say which does not involve smearing those with whom you (your gut?) disagree. You misrepresent, lie, engage in personal attacks on persons that you cannot possibly know and, in the end, invariably emerge as an unrepentant Blairite excusing your old master and attacking his opponents. You apologise for the BBC, whose anti-socialist, imperialist biasses are undeniable, and here you are apologising for Eagle’s nonsense which is being used by her NEC friends to justify a ban on CLP meetings.
You are Polly Toynbee and I claim my Five Pounds!
No he’s Jihadi Jim, blood-thirsty supporter of Al-Nusra, alki-Ada and ISIS and I claim my five pounds.
MJ :
Moderators! Why tolerate this pathetic nonsense?
Are you in favour of Aleppo being cleared of these terrorists or not?
I’m in favour of the families like the Nassar’s I linked to who were demonstrating peacefully against the Assad autocracy, simple ordinary people wanting freedom from decades one-family political oppression. Their cause was usurped by the ***** you refer to, and the ‘great game’ proxy war sectarian hell continues. They’re stuck in the middle. Messy.
I reserve my respect for the likes of the Canadian surgeon I listened to the other day, making repeated return visits to Aleppo to work amongst the sectarian carnage. It was incredibly moving and impressive testimony to the strength of the human spirit. So no, I don’t ‘support’ the people you’re talking about, al nusra, ISIS and the rest of the jihadi nutters, I wish them nothing but oblivion.
You’ll be aware that the great majority of the Syrian people support Assad and the assistance he is receiving from Russia. They want their country cleared of these mercenary thugs so ordinary life can resume. They don’t want to be shelled by al-Nusra every day. Do you have no regard for their wishes?
I don’t for a second doubt that there are some Syrians who wish for a return to the relative pleasantness of life under a one family autocracy, in comparison to the sectarian proxy-war nightmare that has transpired. That doesn’t mean that the wishes of Syrian activists like Omar Nassar (still living there) who’s peaceful demonstrations with his friends in the early days of the Syrian uprising were usurped by Islamist ****s should be lumped in with those self-same ****s.
It’s messy! You seem obsessed, like lots of the posters here, with the ‘big picture’ geopolitical speculations. Which is all well and good, but tends to mean the ‘little people’ like Osama Nassar and his friend and family get dismissed or ignored.
You appear to be obsessed with disregarding the interests of the great majority of “little people” in Syria.
Great majority my arse. You seem remarkably keen on one family autocracy as a preferred political system. Telling.
MJ :
Tell me if you think Osama Nassar and his friends are big Assad fans.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2016/03/underground-and-under-fire-an-activists-life-in-syria-since-2011/
Seek out for yourself surveys and opinion polls from Syria. Oddly, you appear not to have done so already. For every Osama Nassar there are around three Syrians who take a different view. But you’re obvously not interested in them. Why not?
Russia preparing 4 new civilian corridors in Aleppo humanitarian op
The Russian military are preparing more safety corridors to help civilians and surrendering rebels during a massive humanitarian operation currently taking place in the city of Aleppo, Sergey Chvarkov, head of Russia’s reconciliation center in Syria told TASS on Saturday. “In addition to [existing] safe passage areas for the civilian population exiting the militant-held parts of Aleppo, four more humanitarian corridors are being set up,” he said. On Thursday, Russia and Syria established three corridors for civilians and militants ready to lay down their arms.
from RT
It would better serve the people of SYRIA if NATO would cease bombing
MJ :
You provide the credible polls, you’re the one making the assertions that Syrians all love the cuddly Assad family and their not at all worrying brutal autocracy.
Like I said, seek them out yourself. It’s astonishing that you are unaware of them and have not thought to acquaint yourself with them. It’s pretty basic information. How can you claim to speak for the interests of the Syrian people without knowing what they actually think?
The onus is on you matey, that’s how this works, get it yet? You make the assertion, you provide the evidence.
Even before the US and its hanger-on goons kicked off the crisis in Syria, the Syrian Government included the widest possible range of the Syrian people, from all sectors and sects of the country, with guaranteed senior ministerial positions, and it worked well. Your ‘one-family autocracy’ latest gimmick applies far more appositely to Lizzie Guelph, ‘Queen’ of Lizzieland, South Britain, and her sponger spawn.
Bevin :
*Sigh*. I’ll let people make their own mind up on what Roberts is saying here. No half baked lectures on the Monroe Doctrine please.
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2016/04/11/washington-continues-to-destroy-latin-american-reformers-paul-craig-roberts/
Bevin :
Don’t accuse me of smearing, I’ve provided ample evidence to show that Craig has been engaged in high profile examples of that for a long time. Not a peep from yourself or the other admirers. Just vague ad hominem slurs about ‘imperialisnm’. It’s very juvenile, God knows why I even bother engaging with you. But I do think it’s worth it, even if tedious.
Get a grip JJ, describing the BBC as having an imperialist bias is very definitely not an ad hominem. An ad hominem is where you attack the person rather than engage with the issues being dicussed. Ring any bells?
MJ :
No, it doesn’t ring any bells. The David Babbs/Joe Hayden 38 degrees subject is ‘engaging with the issue’. That is the issue. What on earth are you going on about?
I’m identifying egregious repeated slurs against people’s integrity.
Add in the Brendan Cox link posting and its timing. That is an ‘issue’, not an ad hominem attack. Get it straight before making silly statements.
Here’s the always excellent Thomas Clark on the effects of the coup: damage the Labour Party deliberately and then blame Jeremy Corbyn for it.
http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/labour-coup-plotters-are-blaming-corbyn.html
And here’s some interesting information regarding Owen Smith’s penchant for bullying, a subject he launched an extraordinary anti-Corbyn diatribe about the other day. Apparently he threatened a female activist and a journalist blogger with legal action if they didn’t stop publicising his views on the Work Capability Assessment. When the blogger (Mike Sivier) told him where to shove his threats, Smith said no more about it.
http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2016/07/22/heres-why-owen-smith-really-shouldnt-kick-up-a-fuss-about-bullying/
JSD :
Yes, two wrongs certainly don’t make right, it’s not throwing a very good light on the Labour Party in general is it, all this bullying? Same for the Tories with their notorious youth-wing shenanigans recently leading to suicide for a poor young activist.
Anything to say on the repeated slurs against the integrity of Joe Hayden and David Babbs though? Or the Brendan Cox link and its timing?
Confirmation of what most of us already knew.
“British news channels are blatantly biased against Jeremy Corbyn, giving far more airtime to commentators who openly criticize the Labour Party leader than those who support him, a second study of the phenomenon shows.”
“New research by the Media Reform Coalition and Birkbeck University of London shows there has been a “clear and consistent bias” both online and on television against Corbyn since the coup against his leadership was launched after the EU referendum.”
“Similar conclusions were drawn earlier in July by a similar London School of Economics (LSE) study.”
https://www.rt.com/uk/353891-bbc-media-bias-corbyn/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=aplication_chrome&utm_campaign=chrome
My mind drifts back to September 2014 and the Indyref, I recall the SNP and Alex Salmond, suffering media bias in a similar fashion.
Sorry RoS – think I may have cited the same study below but from a different source. J
No need to apologise John, information is information, whether it comes from my link or yours. ?
What a surprise – another academic study finds systemic bias against Corbyn and the left by the BBC and other media organizations.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/des-freedman-justin-schlosberg/jeremy-corbyn-impartiality-and-media-misrepresentation
The BBC didn’t seem to like that much and they are currently having a punch-up with the author.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/bbc-biased-jeremy-corbyn-coverage-sparks-rows-broadcaster-author-media-report_uk_579b52e7e4b0f42daa4a2678
JSD :
This has nothing to do with the vicious personal attacks on the integrity of LK though does it? Identifying systemic bias in an organisation is one thing, extrapolating from the general to the specific as Jonathan Cook did in his half baked analysis is pretty feeble don’t you think?
It’s the dishonesty, not to mention unpleasantness of these attacks I find disturbing.
Anything to say on Joe Hayden and David Babbs?
Kuennsberg was promoted precisely to be the face of the biased BBC. A trusted member of the establishment, she doesn’t even bother hiding her prejudices anymore.
The BBC response is priceless. Probably the exact same as when first advised of Sir Jimmy Savile’s crimes.
Theresa May had “objections” to a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point during the coalition, the then Business Secretary Sir Vince Cable has said.
Lib Dem Sir Vince said the prime minister had worried about a “gung-ho” approach to Chinese investment in it.
The government said nuclear energy was important but it would review plans and make a final decision in the autumn.
FRENCH STATE CONTROLLED conglomerate Électricité de France, which is financing two thirds of the £18bn project,
says it is “CONFIDENT”
the project would go ahead!!!!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36932027
Sir Vince the Cable, who was business secretary from 2010-15 and a supporter of Hinkley, said Islamaphobic Mrs May, who was
home secretary during that period, had been “unhappy” about the government’s approach to Chinese investment.
“Certainly when we were in government Theresa May was, I think, quite clear she was unhappy about the rather gung-ho approach to Chinese investment that we had – and that George Osborne in particular was promoting – and as I recall raised objections to Hinkley at that time,” he told BBC’s Today programme.
So according to Vince, Theresa was a little less than enthusiastic about Hinkley Point C,
certainly not gung-ho like Boy George ( now sacked)
FRANCE labelled “problem child” of Eurozone as struggling economy grinds to a halt due to floods, strikes and terrorism fears
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3715550/France-labelled-problem-child-eurozone-struggling-economy-grinds-halt-floods-strikes-terrorism-fears.html#ixzz4Fuca9G85
I remember the day when Britain was known as “The Sick Man of Europe”
now we are the fifth largest economy in the World, with an unemployment rate half that of FRANCE.
Much greater growth than FRANCE and less other “troubles”
FRANCE was labelled the “problem child” of the Eurozone yesterday after its struggling economy ground to a full stop.
Official figures showed the country managed no growth at all in the second quarter of the year as floods, strikes and worries about terrorism knocked confidence.
That compares with stronger-than-expected growth of 0.6 per cent in United Kingdom
between the start of April and end of June.
Britain looks set to have been one of the best performing major economies in the developed World in the build-up
to the EU referendum. The economies of the Eurozone and the United States grew by just 0.3 per cent in the second quarter – half the rate seen in the UK.
The figures make a mockery of the warnings made by pro-EU campaigners before the referendum that the threat of BREXIT was already taking its toll on the UK economy.
Instead, the UK economy accelerated while the FRENCH economy stagnated.
http://www.france24.com/en/20160727-air-france-strike-cabin-crew-travel-disruptions
Travellers face disruptions as Air France cabin crew launch yet another strike.
SFR Group, France’s second-biggest telecoms operator, plans to shed 5,000 staff – a third of its workforce – between 2017 and 2019, two union representatives told Reuters on Wednesday.
What a surprise! Now GlaxoSmithKline announces £275m investment and new jobs as it says Britain remains “attractive” despite BREXIT– just weeks after it warned against leaving the EU
The U.K. Was the world’s fifth largest economy until the pound tanked following Brexit
When will people realise the ‘value’ of the pound is of no significance whatsoever and is no more informative of an economy’s behaviour, performance or of a country’s ‘strength’ than a stuck weathervane is at indicating wind-direction. Let it float freely and find its own level than piss billions away propping it up by artificial means, merely to enrich speculators. Unless that IS their goal, to loot what they and their friends, can, while they can, acting on their calculatedly bad advice -bad for U-KOK’s suffering many, but for that insider few, a sterling opportunity to gorge on any remaining gristly bits the last passing neo-liberal onslaught somehow missed surveying the nation’s maggotty carcase.
“When will people realise the ‘value’ of the pound is of no significance whatsoever”
Unless of course you are on a fixed income and buy goods from abroad such as food. Were you the idiot who also thought that tax credits should be done away with. without a thought for the immediate consequences for the poor.
My guess is that you personally are well off and can survive such shocks – and are all too happy for them to occur as you feel the suffering will be the spark for your revolution.
NUCLEAR Finnish EPR: Areva and TVO halt negotiations
Negotiations between Areva and the operator of the Finnish EPR, TVO, which claim huge compensation payment for delays and additional costs of the Olkiluoto site, are now broken, said Thursday the head of TVO who blames the french nuclear group.
“We were negotiating positively for some time and our feeling was that we had found common ground on the key points that we were not far from agreement,” said Jarmo Tanhua in an interview in Helsinki. “That’s why we were a little surprised to learn that a settlement is not possible.”
EPR under construction since 2005
The OL3 EPR called designed and manufactured by Areva and German Siemens Industrial is under construction in Olkiluoto (Southwest Finland) since 2005.
The site has accumulated nine years behind the date of commissioning originally planned under the effect of defects in the structural work and technical and financial disputes with suppliers and customers reciprocally impute responsibility.
The International Chamber of Commerce entry
Already in January, the site had delays caused gray hair Areva, which was in the red for the fifth year of the group. Emmanuel Macron, Economy Minister, had asked both parties adjuster their dispute within a month …
Before their inability to resolve their disputes amicably, Areva and TVO applied to the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, where both parties are demanding billions of euros in compensation. Meanwhile, they continued to talk until the recent breakdown TVO says.
This divide between TVO and Areva could cost nearly 8 billion euros in the French nuclear group.
http://www.ledauphine.com/france-monde/2016/05/26/epr-finlandais-areva-et-tvo-stoppent-les-negociations
Post on this twice rejected, from me, and from my sockpuppet, on Apology. T*ny B*a*r’s drifting round the holiday resorts, currently in a tourist trap in Croatia.
http://www.slobodnadalmacija.hr/dalmacija/split-zupanija/clanak/id/321450/tony-blair-stigao-u-trogir-pojacane-mjere-sigurnosti
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daredevils_of_Sassoun
More people have been killed by shooting in Yerevan, Armenia.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36931851
It seems this is about the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh
Here’s one for Hillary’s admirers by Jeffrey St Clair, who is not one of you:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/07/29/she-stoops-to-conquer-notes-from-the-democratic-convention/
Is there anyone, besides Jim (a Liz Kendall enthusiast), who does not agree with Craig’s rather mild criticism of her crude attempts to discredit Jeremy Corbyn?
Another blatant lie, I have never made any such statement of support for Liz Kendall, what on earth are you drivelling about?
Meanwhile, here’s one for people like Osama Nassar :
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2016/03/underground-and-under-fire-an-activists-life-in-syria-since-2011/
She takes Diane Abbott apart, priceless.
Here’s the correct link, it’s a gem :
https://youtu.be/3_LKwMJnT1g
Here’s some news the BBC doesn’t want you to know:
Secret 1970 document shows first Israeli settlements in West Bank were built under false pretences
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/secret-1970-document-shows-first-israeli-settlements-in-west-bank-were-built-under-false-pretences-a7164111.html
The Independent story sources back to Ha’aretz. At least one country in the Middle East still has independent media.
Ha’aretz columnist Gideon Levy has had to hire bodyguards because he has been threatened so much by Israeli rightists.
How many Turkish journalists dream of being able to do this?
It would be helpful if the Insinuator told us if Mr Gideon Levy has had bodyguards for a long time (up to and inckuding the present) or whether he has had bodyguards on occasion in the past.
As usual, the Insinuator uses ambiguity:
“Gideon Levy has had to hire bodyguards because he has been threatened so much..”
If anyone is on holiday, perhaps passing a canoe shop or a kayak rental, could they bring a boat home for the dear Royal Navy . . . seemingly mildly embarrassed by all their warships coming home the same weekend to have their jeans washed, plutonium recycled etc
wot! No destroyers out ‘destroying’?
A photograph reveals all six £1billion Type 45 destroyers are docked in Portsmouth in “a coincidence”, according to the Ministry of Defence.
The MoD says the destroyers have either just returned from operations, about to be deployed, conducting training, carrying out maintenance or are home for crew to take summer leave.
The destroyers have experienced mechanical problems in the Persian Gulf in recent months with engines breaking down when the water becomes too warm. the wrong kind of snow!
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/695000/All-Britains-destroyers-docked-Portsmouth-MoD-says-ships-returned-from-operations
But don’t worry, there’s no endemic naval threat, from, for example , Dae’sh, Isis, ISIL, estado islamico etc
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/694880/isis-islamic-state-channel-ferry-warning-execute-britons
How about we get the SBS to man the ferries for a few weeks?, or is *everyone* on holiday?
A longer version of the taking apart of Diane Abbott by an actual Syrian, for those not interested in the nautical interests of the sudden flurry of new posters. Odd they’ve suddenly appeared, wonder why that is?
https://youtu.be/M3AY5TlXIMk
Asad abuKhalil wonders
“By the way, do you notice that neither the sudden Zionist lovers of the Syrian people and the Western correspondents in Beirut (who write on Syria) uttered a word about what even the pro-Syrian “revolution” Gulf media has admitted: that Syrian rebels in Aleppo have forcibly and violently prevented the civilians from leaving the city. None of those people, nor the Western human rights organization, dare talk about how rebels hold Syrian civilians hostages.”
Jim I made the assumption that you are Liz Kendall supporter, because you are obviously an idiot. I suspect that, like so many of these NATO imperialists, you were once a neo-Trotskyist who began to trim when socialism began to be fatal for the old career.
Now as a proud supporter of wahhabi militias in Syria, of Clinton in the US (and Libya), Blair’s, much misunderstood, war record and the only democracy in the Middle East, the Rhodesia of the Levant, you can prattle about who you want to lead your Labour Party just like the Lords Levy or Foster and whine about Diane Abbott’s private educational judgments.
Do you have kids? Did they go to private schools? And you?
If you really worry about the education that kids are getting you should check into what has happened to Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen and, of course, Afghanistan where it all began when your mob ordered the bombers and the assassins in. And offered bounties for the skins of ‘communist’ teachers.
Bevin :
Christ is that the best you can come up with after having seen her destroy that sanctimonious hypocritical cretin Abbott?
Beneath contempt. You people truly are dangerous.
Just note how Bevin never has a word of criticism for Saddam, Assad, Ghadaffi, Putin, Castro, the Soviet Union, The Chinese invaders of Tibet etc.etc. I’m afraid he cannot comprehend that their are people who can oppose both these regimes and the wahabi militias, the excesses of the IDF and other abuses of the western democracies. For Bevin it is just a simple binary choice and the idea of universal human rights is just a gross irrelevance.
Yep, it’s remarkable Res Dis. As was Abbotts cheerily blithe dismissal on the Daily Politics of the tens of millions of Chinese people murdered by Mao to ‘secure’ his revolution. Incredible.
I’m not sure that they’re dangerous because they are all mouth but no trousers.
Having said that, one could imagine circumstances in which they could pose a threat tleo the citizenry and state.
It is for that reason that those who need to be aware of the individuals harbouring such unhealthy and potentially subversive views are almost certainly aware of them.
What if some nut were to fly a plane into the nuclear reactors? I don’t understand the technology, but are they vulnerable?
No!
A plane flying into a reactor can not in itself cause a nuclear reaction, however, having said that, it could cause equipment to fail, which in turn could lead to severe consequences, but as a retired engineer, I can assure you that things are usually built to fail safe.
Alycone, engineers build things in such a way that they are designed to fail in a “safe” condition. Having said that, the unexpected can happen, and on occasion the peroxide plant can explode, lift off, and come down into the middle of the Golden Highway.
Like The Flixborough disaster was caused because…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flixborough_disaster
…of a plastic bag.
ROTFLMAO. Very re-assuring, but energetic disassembly and wide-range contamination in that not improbable event has a probability of 1.
It would be calamitous, outer containments the industry concedes have never been constructed for such impacts, they’re hermetic but have little or no strength, I think they were looking at retro-fitting very high walls or barriers some distance out along possible approach directions. Maybe barrage-balloons might make a comeback. Some sites sit under very busy air corridors, Pan-am 103 over-flew Sellafield, minutes before blowing apart over Lockerbie.
And it just missed Chapelcross, a sister-plant in Dumfries-shire to one of the older Windscale Sellafield onsite NPPs. Chapelcross is still MOD land and it’s probable parts of Pan-Am 103’s northern debris trail did come down uncomfortably close to Chapelcross. Early radio reports and interviews from motorists on the A74, all initially thought the fireball they seen was located over the Chapelcross NPP and the plant had gone up, big time and they were in fear of their safety and lives, on those grounds.
That should be southern debris trail, from the earlier part of the disintegration, including lighter material and that thought to result from the initially localised explosion, luggage, minor structural parts and so on. The big heavy fuel-laden blade-like wing-section and engines went on further north, the lighter material carried eastwards too some distance, the result of the fairly strong wind that night.
Built to fail safe…..like Fukoshima …..! Were you a genetic engineer by any chance?
Well it has been claimed, if the Hinkley Point C double barrelled plant ever does get constructed, in Somerset,
then comes on line, when running with both reactors at full blast it could produce 7% of all the electricity needed by
the United Kingdom, for sixty years.
However, we know from seventy years of history that nuclear power plants do not run seamlessly all the time.
So maybe 5% overall would be a better guestimate.
Hang on a moment, the Severn Barrage has been estimated to produce, should it ever be constructed, 5%
of all the electricity needed by the United Kingdom for the next two hundred years.
The Severn Barrage would not need hundreds of thousands of years storage for the monstrous pile of Nuclear filth,
as it will be nuclear shit free.
We just need to push ahead with LENR There are now 1 Mega Watt plants running.
http://lenrproof.com/
Thank you for that Dave. Now that prima facie sounds like a silver/magic bullet. Is it? If so, why isn’t it more out there? I shall research it further today, but meantime if you want to elucidate, I’m sure it would be welcome. I would put your reply at the bottom, as a new comment so that there is more elbow room to discuss.
Happy Sunday!
Here’s some info on one hydro scheme on one lock on one canal.
This isn’t of course recommended as a big corporate isn’t making lots of money out of it.
Biggest problem they had I think was when the river flooded. What’s needed for that is a flood alleviation project – but of course there’s no money for that. Shovel ready project anybody?
http://www.osneylockhydro.co.uk/
Here’s an article on arms shipments to the Middle East from the Balkans:-
https://off-guardian.org/2016/07/30/making-a-killing-the-1-2-billion-euros-arms-pipeline-to-middle-east/
FranzB :
Cheers for posting the Guardian link, I saw that the other day and thought how depressing it was.
As Paul Simon said. “there are 50 ways to leave your lover”. There are 50 ways, and more, to get screwed. Having nuts around should be a warning to us against ALL things nuclear. The fact that it doesn’t means we are all nuts, we are all truly idiots. We are even idiots to elect the ‘leaders’ we chose.
Stand back and look at the proof of this in the 21st century!
As long as we remain tied to fossil fuels and nuclear, we remain Type Zero Global Civilisation. Human Consciousness, it’s content is so murky, it’ll take a major nuclear event, or a visit by aliens, for us to STOP the path that humanity is travelling, move away from the WRONG TURN we took, and find a path to SANITY.
Now please carry on splitting hairs and losing yourselves in the details.
_____________
PS I wonder if Theresa May has thought through, as Home Secretary, the vulnerability of a nuclear power station to terrorist attack. If she has, she may just be smarter than the others. Secretly, she may be in agreement with Corbyn.
PPS Please don’t forget to carry on with the details will you? Your lives are Analysis-Paralysis! Joyous Sunday!
Meanwhile in Glasgow
Thousands marched in support of independence.
https://www.rt.com/uk/354019-scotland-independence-march-glasgow/
SNP’s Westminster leader Angus Robertson said Scotland was “truly on the brink of independence”.
The end of the “right to buy” scheme in Scotland after 30 years has been welcomed by housing bodies.
Nearly 500,000 council and housing association homes were sold under the policy, which was introduced by Margaret Thatcher’s government in 1980.
It allowed tenants in social housing to buy their homes at discounted rates.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-36923471
As i have not been to Scotland for many, many decades but am going for a family event in September, can some of you locals tell me is the SNP a socialist party?
That’s what they tell the sheep that flock through Glasgow on a weekend but when you examine their policies they seem to benefit the better off in society, like themselves.
Can you give a single example?
Free school meals in early primary years. Of course the rich benefit too, but the gains in child health for those children for whom it might be their main source of regular wholesome nourishment during a crucial developmental period, and the absence of stigmatisation of ‘free school dinners’ kids and paying ones, are more than worth the venom unleashed by right-wing gits.
Perhaps it’s the free bus-travel for the elderly you don’t like, they should be housebound trapped in decaying estates, why can’t they get taxis or have the chauffer bring the everyday Rolls round like Glenn does. Or free prescriptions, as when someone is ill, there is no better time to for them undergo a searching intrusive means-test assessment of their income or savings, and the cost of administering such a system far outweighs year on year, the simplicity and effectiveness of universality.
So the answer to the OP, is yes they are very much so, and at almost no cost, and the people are a mite happier as a result.
Landed Tory-boy Fred thinks its a rat race and the weak should perish, but not before grovelling before their masters for permission to expire, in case they want their boots licked clean one more time.
Free prescriptions for millionaires, university fees paid for the children of the rich while cash strapped councils cut services for the poor poor.
Tony M demonstrates just how out of touch with reality he really is by calling a crofter a “Landed Tory-boy” he demonstrates the pig ignorance of the of the Central Belt Nationalists who get rich from their buy to rent schemes while campaigning to stop the poor from ever getting onto the housing ladder.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3384774/Hypocrisy-SNP-MP-630-000-property-empire-Nationalist-snaps-former-council-homes-makes-fortune-rental-income-despite-opposing-sale-social-housing.html
They are a bunch of fat cat upper class wankers never did a propper day’s work in their lives while retards like Tony M . call the real working class “Landed Tory-boys”.
@RoS: ““Wife beating macho Scots”…huh!” ”
Hello RoS…. the only reason I used the plural was because I’d also used the plural form for all the other parties in that particular construct. “Scot” would have clanged somewhat, but this all was certainly not meant to imply that the good Scots are any more given to wife-beating, than anyone else in this fine country of ours.
Sorry if I “hit you up” the wrong way there! 🙂
Please let’s not forget the Killings of David Cameron. He bombed the richest country in Africa into the Middle Ages and personally commissioned Erdogan to destroy Syria.
Even £17 million worth of yellow London bricks precariously placed on top of eachother will not protect the spanked Eton arse erstwhile occupant of 10 Downing Street from having to take the rap for creating ISIS for Israel.
Amazing that vicar;s daughter May thinks that casting nasturtations on Chinese aggression in the playground will divert attention from her violent predecessor.
On a technical point. You have to use whitewash to cover whitewash. Ordinary paint will not stick to neo-con distemper. It peels off in an unsightly way.
When the occupants of the smallest democracy in the house have finished putting nivea on their routed backsides, routed by Russian jets on amphetamines, they will have to negotiate with the Syrian people, who like the Afghans, Iraqis, Somalis, Libyans, Yemenis, and Celts, prefer to order their own destinies rather than neo-con terror states like US and UK, flyng the fuck of convenience of Daesh/ Israel.
I wonder what Muzna Al-Naib would make of your little analysis, she merely being a Syrian who’s lived under Assad’s regime?
https://youtu.be/3_LKwMJnT1g
How does bombing infrastructure get rid of Assad? Did the Luftwaffe bombing London get rid of Churchill? No! Bombing is a stupid idea. It just means loadsamoney for the reconstruction companies afterwards.
You rather forget who is doing most of the bombing in Syria.
No matter who is doing the bombing, it’s a stupid idea. If somebody wants rid of a leader, and we all know who wants rid of Dr Assad, they should send in a special forces team to “extract” him.
Why don’t you have the decency to direct your question to somebody like Muzna Al-Naib, or Osama Nassar?
Sure! Send them round my house and I’ll tell them. I’ll also tell them exactly what I think of people who run away from conflict expecting others to go back and do their fighting for them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzh_Fe08oNI
Alan :
I’ve just noticed your reply has been edited to remove your odious reference to Syrian activists in exile here as benefit scrounges who haven’t ‘paid into the system’.
And my justifiably horrified retort and condemnation removed altogether. Interesting.
scroungers…typo.
Erratum, just noticed that your odious slur is in another of your charming posts. Like wishing to ‘nuke’ the whole Middle East.
*Jeremy stands left-stage, silent*
Some alternative analysis on Corbynites attitude towards listening to the voices of Syrian activists :
http://leftfootforward.org/2015/11/why-stop-the-war-dont-want-to-listen-to-syrians/
So Diane Abbott never said anything about private schools. Case closed.
She’s a lifelong high profile avowed socialist you tool. What do you think ‘socialist’ means? Not only a socialist, but one of the ‘far left’ variety, you know, the sort who ignore the opinions of Syrians like Muzna Al-Naib ‘cos they know best what’s for Syrians.
To quote the dude from the ‘Stop the War’ meeting..’You gonna call the cops? ..So radical!’
James, one of us smells like a French tart, and I think it’s you.
I can believe Diane about said that…?
Such an impressive rhetorical flourish! Wildean in its wit and style! The dictionary of quotations will be calling on you shortly!
Meanwhile what can you say to Muzna Al-Naib apart from ‘fuck off’?
Sounds like a fair thing to say to somebody who has run away expecting others to do their dirty work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzh_Fe08oNI
Alan :
You’ve got the gall to be saying something like that to people like Muzna Al-Naib and Osama Nassar and all the other Syrians who’ve suffered under the Assad’s for decades? That’s fucking contemptible.
Could these people you are championing explain this?
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/695066/Police-arrest-900-Syrians-in-England-and-Wales-for-rape-death-threats-and-child-abuse
All those fit young men who can’t manage to be “Freedom fighters” in their own country are sure enjoying their freedoms over here, eh?
Meanwhile what can you say to Muzna Al-Naib apart from ‘fuck off’?
Muzna Al-Naib, you are a traitor to your country. For your own selfish benefit you are a willing stooge of Western powers who seek to asset-strip Syria. The campaigns which you promote – The White Helmets, Free Syrian Voices, The Syria Campaign and March Campaign #withSyria – are created and funded by Purpose Inc, a New York Public relations firm.
With your help, your people are being slaughtered and your country deliberately turned into an ungovernable bloodbath. Meanwhile you swan around London spending your thirty pieces of silver, crying crocodile tears for the cameras. You do not speak for the majority of Syrians. Fuck off.
Node :
Such respect for the Syrian people from the kind and gentle Corbynista’s! An example to us all! Bravo! You’ve won me over!
Node :
And Osama Nassar is not ‘swanning around London’ you disingenuous halfwit, he’s profiled whilst living for years with his activist friends and family in the sectarian proxy war hell that you get your pathetic ideological identity from. It’s parasitic. Exploiting other people’s suffering to feel better in your ‘radical’ self-image.
Such respect for the Syrian people from the kind and gentle Corbynista’s!
Yes, I’m respecting the wishes of the majority of Syrians. Why do you think that’s a bad thing?
An American relation of mine described a badly designed Porta Potty as a “commie contraption”. For him, “communist” was an all-purpose insult. I thought it said a lot about his conditioning. And there’s no apostrophe in “Corbinistas.”
And Osama Nassar is not ‘swanning around London’ you disingenuous halfwit
I never mentioned Osama Nassar. I replied to your question about Muzna Al-Naib. Who is the halfwit : the person who answers the question he is asked, or the person who rants about an answer he didn’t get?
It’s parasitic. Exploiting other people’s suffering to feel better in your ‘radical’ self-image.
I would be delighted if you would explain why this is relevant to what I wrote. Please maintain the level of coherency you have set above.
Node :
Don’t play games with me, your disgraceful traducing of her speaks volumes.
And you are being 100% disingenuous, she is speaking in exile for her fellow brother and sister activists like Osama Nassar. Your pathetic ‘radical’ posing makes me want to puke.
Node :
MJ was also claiming there was credible polling evidence to show that the majority of Syrians are huge Assad supporters, but still hasn’t produced them, although they are apparently very easy to find.
Here’s support for my claim that the majority of Syrians want Assad to remain in power. Either provide counter evidence or justify your promotion of a minority view.
http://ahtribune.com/world/north-africa-south-west-asia/257-poll-assad-remains-in-favor.html
Node :
I said credible sources. The ‘American Herald Tribune’ has as much credibility and impartiality as ‘global research’ or ‘Moon of Alabama’, who do you think you’re kidding?
Just click on your link and see the tone of the other stories they’re reporting on. It’s complete propagandistic ‘anti-imperialist’ bullshit. That’s from a two minute search.
Now, give me a credible source.
The Guardian :
Most Syrians back President Assad, but you’d never know from western media
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jan/17/syrians-support-assad-western-propaganda
Russia Today:
Le Figaro poll: Over 70% want Syria’s Assad to remain in power
https://www.rt.com/politics/official-word/320261-assad-france-poll-figaro/
Wikipedia :
Syrian parliamentary election, 2016.
The Ba’ath Party-led National Progressive Front won 200 of the 250 seats
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_parliamentary_election,_2016
Node :
Only the Guardian of those sources could be described as credible, championing the idea of democracy as opposed to a brutal autocracy.
In the fearful atmosphere of impending civil war in 2012, the YouGov Siraj poll commissioned by the Doha Debates found :
‘The key finding was that while most Arabs outside Syria feel the president should resign, attitudes in the country are different. Some 55% of Syrians want Assad to stay, motivated by fear of civil war -a spectre that is not theoretical as it is for those who live outside Syria’s borders.
What is less good news for the Assad regime is that the poll also found that half the Syrians who accept him staying in power believe he must usher in free elections in the near future.
Assad claims he is about to do that, a point he has repeated in his latest speeches.
But it is vital that he publishes the election law as soon as possible, permits political parties and makes a commitment to allow independent monitors to watch the poll.’
So, on the verge of civil war in a country dominated by a one family autocracy, 55% of the terrified populace give the most lukewarm qualified acceptance of his continued prescence. A ringing endorsement of unqualified love for the great leader! Forget the leftist democrats like Osama Nassar and his friends…lets big up the tepid acceptance of the autocrat as an alternative to civil war. How radical of you.
Do that’s a snap poll of fearful Syrians in 2012.
Any movement from everyone’s favourite ophthalmologist on the fair and free elections the fearful Syrian population were demanding as a price of tepid acceptance? Any serious opposition political parties? Any independent monitors for these fair and free elections?
And just for the record once more, do you say to the people that Peter Tatchell was advocating for in that meeting, to Muzna Al-Naib, to Osama Nassar and his fellow leftist secular democrats, they should all fuck off? Just for the record once more.
OK, so you accept the Guardian report which you quote as saying “Some 55% of Syrians want Assad to stay …”
How do you, a non-Syrian, justify your support for a policy which is against the wishes of the majority of Syrians? Please answer this question.
I justify my support for the legitimate right of people like Muzna Al-Naib, her exiled leftist democrat colleagues, and their fellow activists still in Syria to have their voices heard. Unlike you, who tell them, with not a scintilla of shame, actually with vicious malevolent relish, to fuck off. Kindly and gently of course, don’t forget that.
And a tepid qualified agreement that he stays in place on the verge of civil war in 2012 is not a very relevant piece of data to bring to the debate in 2016.
Now you answer me as to wether you think telling exiled female Syrian leftist democrats to fuck off is acceptable behaviour?
Do YOU support the removal of Assad?
Now you answer me as to wether you think telling exiled female Syrian leftist democrats to fuck off is acceptable behaviour?
Having first explained and offered evidence that she is paid by foreign powers to betray her country and her compatriots, it’s not only acceptable to tell her to fuck off, it’s commendable.
Node, July 31, 11:53: you wrote:
– “The White Helmets, Free Syrian Voices, The Syria Campaign and March Campaign #withSyria – are created and funded by Purpose Inc, a New York Public relations firm”
Can you provide evidence for this please? It does seem likely to me that a public relations company is involved. We would also need to know which groups have paid the PR company to do this.
I do not agree that Muzna Al-Naib is necessarily a traitor. It may be that she and her group are just passionate, young and probably naive activists from one point in the Syrian political spectrum, selected and exploited by a PR company whose deeper motives and ultimate funding they know nothing about.
Hi Clark
Can you provide evidence for this please?
https://wallofcontroversy.wordpress.com/category/a-z/al-qaeda-daesh-isis-isil/
ctrl+F purpose inc
I do not agree that Muzna Al-Naib is necessarily a traitor. It may be that she and her group are just passionate, young and probably naive activists …
Check her TV interviews and tell me she is naive.
Node, thank you. That evidence seems convincing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k6hSS6xBTw
I’m so impressed that you so care about these people. Why is it that you don’t take up arms on their behalf while they live safely over here on state handouts that they never paid in for?
Christ is there no low you people won’t stoop to?
You don’t want to know how I’d fix the “problems” of the ME. I’d make the entire region glow in the dark.
No I don’t want to know, but you just told me anyway. Nice.
All the glass produced by the molten sand could then be turned into a massive solar plant providing electricity for the whole of Europe and Asia.
TOUSERED
Not only does the taxpayer fork out £67,000 a year to keep Ms. Diane Abbott in the style to which she has become accustomed, her salary is also subsidised by the licence fee payer to the tune of £110,000. As Guido revealed in yesterday’s Sun on Sunday, Diane has raked in a six figure sum from Auntie Beeb for her appearance fees since April 2007. Despite the BBC Trust admitting two years ago that Abbott was overpaid. You can see the full breakdown of her BBC cash via the BanTheBBC blog here. That means Diane has trousered nearly £600,000 from the British public in the last seven years…
Its no wonder Diane cam afford to have her son privately educated.
She is smarter than i had realized.
Only if you’re daft enough to pay COMbbc a voluntary tax. If you’ve got £145.50 for charity, give it to Mind. What little there is on COMbbc worth watching is better on a hired dvd so there isn’t as much phlegm to wade through.
Mind.
Beware.
Campbell is an ambassador.
http://www.mind.org.uk/about-us/celebrity-support/our-ambassadors/
http://pbs.twimg.com/media/CojVhx-WcAITCqf.png
Fcucking hell, satire is dead.
@Alcyone on Magic Bullets
Obviously there will be opposition to LENR from the major energy companies because
it would allow the consumer have there own independent energy source.Not to be left out Airbus
is heavily committed and taken out a patent.
Here are is another link.
http://coldfusionnow.org/blog/
The resignation of the director Gérard Magnin, 65, has not questioned the holding of the board which ruled Thursday on the proposed Hinkley Point nuclear strategy and public electrician. Nevertheless, it is the second after the departure of the CFO …
Gérard Magnin, director of EDF opposed Hinkley Point nuclear strategy of the French public electrician, resigned Thursday before a Board of Directors who voted in favor of this mega project controversial nuclear plant in England.
“As director proposed by the State shareholder, I do not wish to condone longer a strategy that I do not share,” he wrote in his letter.
Originally Doubs
Gérard Magnin, 65, spent his youth in the Montbéliard, Doubs, industry region. He made studies in electrical engineering in Belfort, then eco and political science at Besançon then in Lyon before becoming a teacher 1977 to 1985 in Pontarlier.
From 1985 to 1994 he was Regional Delegate of Environment Agency and the Energy Management for the Franche-Comté region. He founded in 1990 the European city network Energy Cities which he was the Executive Officer from 1994 to 2014. He was appointed director in November 2014 on a proposal from the state, which owns 84.9% of EDF.
second resignation
This is the second resignation by EDF linked to Hinkley Point, after that, in early March, CFO Thomas Thornton, who considered this project of 21.5 billion euros unfeasible in the short term. “Hopefully qu’Hinkley Point does not result in an EDF Areva kind of abyss, as some fear. EDF would have lost on all fronts, “writes the former administrator.
The Board of Directors of EDF said yes
Thursday night, a majority of EDF’s Board of Directors voted in favor of the Hinkley Point project, giving the effective start of this controversial project. On a board down to 17 members following the resignation of Gérard Mangin, ten directors voted for and seven against.
Published on 07/28/2016 at 18:59 Viewed 5464 times
http://www.ledauphine.com/france-monde/2016/07/28/strategie-d-edf-un-administrateur-claque-la-porte
What I can’t find in EURONEWS or FRANCE24 or Le Dauphine Libere is any mention of Islamaphobic Theresa slamming the door on Hinkley point C.
The Frenchies do not want to understand that their Nuclear scam is caput.
Islamaphobic Theresa May is an outstandingly good leader and politician and may well rival any British Prime Minister.
Her resolve in blocking the Hinkley Point C deal was reinforced when she found out that, fearing she might veto it, the bosses of Électricité de France, the 85% state-owned FRENCH company building the plant,
planned “TO BOUNCE HER INTO RUBBER-STAMPING THE DEAL”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3716355/She-s-snubbed-France-upset-China-trashed-Cameron-s-legacy-SIMON-WALTERS-Theresa-went-nuclear.html#ixzz4Fz9hXsgL
Suhayl, in case you are reading, interesting article here:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/07/29/could-trump-be-good-for-peace/
Do yo u really believe that KKK remark of yours summarises the man, or is even true?
Suhayl sees white supremacists in his breakfast cereal.
As long as he enjoys a good bacon-n-eggs to follow, that’s fine, unless of course he’s vegetarian. Which is the direction I’m headed in.
Special K.
Haha, nice one!
Well here’s a funny thing. I’ve been checking out this Diane Abbot confrontation thing and it seems that the organisation represented by her opponent on the Andrew Marr show, Muzna Al-Naib, is one that hijacked the name “Syrian Solidarity” from a previous organisation that had diametrically opposed views. From this link:
http://www.shoah.org.uk/2015/10/06/the-origins-of-the-syria-solidarity-movementand-the-false-use-of-its-name/
there is this:
“Sometime later, a group in the UK began using the same name as ours, and opened a Facebook page with that name, taking advantage of the fact that we had not done so. This group had exactly the opposite mission from ours, i.e. to distort the facts about Syria, to promote illegal outside military intervention in Syrian affairs, to cause the disintegration and destruction of the Syrian state, to expel half the Syrian population from their homes and to invite terrorists to take control of large tracts of Syrian territory.”
And on this posting https://wallofcontroversy.wordpress.com/tag/jonathan-steele/
(if you scroll down to “Syrian Solidarity UK: leading the pro-war advocates”):
“Earlier I outlined what you will find if you type “Syria Solidarity UK” into google. But what if instead you type “Syria Solidarity Movement” – that other name for the same organisation? The top link then turns out not to be the campaign group co-founded by Abdulaziz Almashi and Mark Boothroyd, but a totally different and unrelated “Syria Solidarity Movement”. An organisation that adopted the domain name syriasolidaritymovement.org long before Almashi and Boothroyd decided to create their alternative.
So the immediate and most obvious question is this: why adopt the name of a pre-existing campaign organisation?…. A new campaign group, with an outlook diametrically opposed to its rival, set up deliberately to overwrite it. Not conduct befitting a benign human rights organisation.
More surprising, maybe (please judge for yourself), is how factions of the erstwhile ‘radical left’ have fallen lockstep in line with establishment demands voiced by our corporate media who demand “intervention” in Syria.”
George :
Just to tear you away from Internet conspiraloon bullshit for a moment, I know damned well who I found most convincing and compelling their brief few minutes putting their cases forward. Not Abbott I can tell you.
“conspiraloon bullshit …. damned well …. most convincing and compelling”
I don’t doubt your passion for a minute Jim. It’s most invigorating. But in the end it’s just passion. We’ve all got it. We can all use it. So what?
The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity.
It’s not my passion, it’s hers. And her credibility in comparison to the odious Abbott. Transparent honesty and credibility. Squirm and twist as much as you like, it’s there to see for everyone to make their own judgement.
So we are to make our own judgement and yet no matter how much we squirm and twist it’s there to see? The honesty and credibility are after all “transparent”.
So much for our own judgement.
So you were impressed by Abbott? It seems you must have been.
And do you agree with George that Muzna al-Naib is a ‘whore’?
You don’t seem to have made any condemnation. Nobody does. How kind and gentle of them all.
Do you agree with Tony M?
I never called Muzna al-Naib a whore. And what I think of Abbot is irrelevant. I am commenting on the strange logic of your peculiar statement – that we are free to make up our own minds but apparently it seems that no matter what we think we cannot mistake the absolute truth granted to your own eyes alone.
This looks to be a set up by the producers to discredit both Diane Abbot and the Stop the War Coalition, and to encourage public support for airstrikes to devastate Syria so that US bases can be installed. Notice that Andrew Marr permitted Muzna Al-Naib to make all her points uninterrupted. Conversely, count Marr’s continual interruptions of Diane Abbot; I think Marr prevented Abbot from making every single one of her points.
Abbot tried to say why the meeting was very difficult to chair. Marr said he’d come back to that “in a minute” but he lied. Al-Naib plainly declared her group’s intention by saying “And we were obvious who we are. We were at the back, We were shouting, we were waving, we were doing whatever we can to get noticed“.
Note the interesting distinction between “the panel” and “from the floor”. It’s natural to assume that “Syrians from the floor” refers exclusively to the continually noisy group at the back, but the majority in attendance, sitting quietly on benches to either side, are also “from the floor” in such a meeting. If you look on the benches you’ll see quite a few people who may well have been Syrians. These didn’t get to speak either, because Al-Naib’s deliberately noisy group were making orderly discussion impossible.
Note Marr’s conflation of “the war”, with “Assad defeating ISIS”. I think most people want ISIS defeated, but this is NOT the same as “Assad winning the war”, which Marr falsely asserted to be Stop the War’s objective.
Although this didn’t involve false testimony, this incredibly biased interview strongly reminds me of the “babies taken from incubators” deception to promote the 1990-1991 Gulf war; a photogenic young woman given a platform and used to project a neoconservative objective:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayirah_%28testimony%29
We should remember that Syria is one of the neoconservative’s targets in their competition against Russia for control of Middle Eastern oil:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RC1Mepk_Sw
Clark :
Let’s start at the beginning shall we?
Firstly it’s not Marr, it’s Andrew Neil, whom Craig himself has praised highly on this very blog for his impressive scrupulousl impartiality.
So, with that endorsement of Neil’s obviously fair and impartial credentials sorted we can discount the rest of your wilfully skewed ‘analysis’ at the first stroke.
And in a reply to Node earlier you implied that Muzna Al-Naib may be some sort of naive ingenue, caught up innocently in the machinations of others politics. I’ve never heard such patronising sexist nonsense from an intelligent man. If you did the most basic research on her you’ll find she is the main spokesperson for the democratic left-leaning Syrian exile political diaspora in London. Just yesterday she was on channel 4 news tearing a strip off Crispin Blunt. I’ll did the clip out for you later, I’m on my lunch break gotta go!
Clark :
Here’s the clip, it’s of Muzna Al-Naib giving Crispin Blunt a dose of reality, on the Daily Politics (which as I say, Craig has praised for its impartiality), not channel 4, yesterday.
If she’s a naive ingenue being manipulated by shadowy forces, I’m Charlie Chaplin.
Go girl!
Clark :
More Muzna Al-Naib, this time speaking at the ‘Rise up for Europe’ rally, attended by activists from Left Unity amongst others.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/C-DWdO1Aqiw
Clark :
The Crispin Blunt grilling by Muzna Al-Naib…no ingenue she.
https://ssl.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03t4pjf/player?chromeless
Jim, why this ONE Syrian, over and over again? Do other Syrians not have anything to say? Or might their views be inconvenient to the neocon bombing agenda?
Your arguments all seem to centre around individuals; “watch so-and-so UTTERLY DESTROY such-and-such”. It seems of very limited relevance to the millions suffering in Syria. The conflict in Syria seems to be maintained by Western funds and proxies, so it was most likely initiated that way, too. It’s all very similar to US tactics seen over and over again.
It’s interesting to see that perpetual war, covert, overt and proxy, seems more important to those who would control us than inflicting poverty upon the masses; neoliberalism seems to be being sacrificed to preserve neoconservatism. So maybe human suffering IS worth more than money in some perverse, inverted way.
Please post a link to the BBC Programme page for the “grilling” of Crispin Blunt (so kind and gentle there, Jim; I can just smell that burning flesh. Welcome to the cuddly world of Corbyn’s opponents!). The link you gave is player-specific, and takes over the
worldwhole screen. I want the programme information page, please.Clark :
For Gods sake man, you’re not an unintelligent person, far from it. How can you be so taken in by the conspiratorial nonsense you’re spouting.
Can you not see from the Daily Politics clips, which I’ll point out to you once again is a show which Craig himself has commented on favourably for its hosts’ impartiality, that Muzna Al-Naib is staggeringly more credible an advocate for her cause than Diane Abbott is for hers?
This is a programme remember on which Diane Abbott has been a daily paid pundit (taxpayer funded) for years at a time. On the BBC, the very organisation which her own party are forever going on about being skewed against them? See the ‘contradictions’ here? Some may even venture, the hypocrisy?
If Abbott suspected a ‘setup’ if the type you are ludicrously claiming, then what in hells name would she be doing there?
You accuse me of relying on ‘single individuals’ when people are forever asking for evidence. These are massively credible people, Osama Nassar and his friends profiled by Amnesty International are Democratic leftists. Get it yet? Democrats! Longing for democratic freedoms you take for granted after decades of autocratic one family kleptocracy.
Muzna Al-Naibbis an advocate for Syrian democratic leftists. Didn’t you hear her explain that they want help in attaining their legitimate political aspirations? That they do not, as you absurdly claim, wish to see Imperialist foreigners take over her country. She couldn’t have been more credible or eloquent. Abbott was a bumbling arrogant disgrace man, the sheer effrontery of people like her is staggering, why can’t you see it? Stifling legitimate voices to satisfy their own pathetic ideological identities. You talk about ‘individuals’, well Abbott is a high profile ‘individual’ advocating in your side of this debate, and she is beyond pathetic. It’s truly contemptible. Why can’t you see the obvious?
Jim, I support both the democratic liberalisation and protection of civilians that Muzna Al-Naib calls for. But neither are achievable with Western governments and their Middle Eastern allies pouring arms and extremists into Syria to achieve their long-term objective of overthrowing the Syrian government. THAT needs to be stopped. It should never have been started. It is contrary to international law and it is evil.
Syria has no US military bases but it does have a Russian naval base. THAT shows why the West and its allies are supporting murderous proxies to overthrow the Syrian government.
Yes, some Syrians are fighting alongside some of the proxies. Nevertheless, UK airstrikes would only make matters far worse. We’ve seen the result of devastation by air forces over and over again, most recently in Iraq and then Libya.
The US knew they were creating this crisis; it appears to be deliberate:
https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/secret-pentagon-report-reveals-west-saw-isis-as-strategic-asset-b99ad7a29092
– “A declassified secret US government document obtained by the conservative public interest law firm, Judicial Watch, shows that Western governments deliberately allied with al-Qaeda and other Islamist extremist groups to topple Syrian dictator Bashir al-Assad.
The document reveals that in coordination with the Gulf states and Turkey, the West intentionally sponsored violent Islamist groups to destabilize Assad, and that these “supporting powers” desired the emergence of a “Salafist Principality” in Syria to “isolate the Syrian regime.”
According to the newly declassified US document, the Pentagon foresaw the likely rise of the ‘Islamic State’ as a direct consequence of this strategy, and warned that it could destabilize Iraq. Despite anticipating that Western, Gulf state and Turkish support for the “Syrian opposition” — which included al-Qaeda in Iraq — could lead to the emergence of an ‘Islamic State’ in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the document provides no indication of any decision to reverse the policy of support to the Syrian rebels. On the contrary, the emergence of an al-Qaeda affiliated “Salafist Principality” as a result is described as a strategic opportunity to isolate Assad.”
And here’s the document:
http://www.judicialwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Pg.-291-Pgs.-287-293-JW-v-DOD-and-State-14-812-DOD-Release-2015-04-10-final-version11.pdf
THIS is what you’re supporting, and it is EVIL.
A “SALAFIST Principality”, Jim, a projection of the SAUDI ethos. Head-choppers, hand choppers and religious police. THIS is what you’re supporting for the Syrian democrats you claim to support. THIS is what you’d have my country bomb for, in a war for oil:
http://www.killick1.plus.com/map.jpg
Clark :
So she’s a Salafist? Are you insane? Did you listen to a single word she said to Diane Abbott? You think even Abbott would accuse of her of such an absurd thing?
Beyond help.
Clark:
She’s a Syrian activist in exile from her own country. In exile, do you have any idea how painful that must be for herself and her fellow political refugees? You presume to lecture them on the best way to rid their own country of a family of despots they’ve suffered under for decades? Have you got any idea how arrogant that is? Any idea at all? Just take a minute to think about it. You talk about Imperial arrogance in one breath, and in the next come out with stuff like this? She was begging, begging for their voices to be allowed to be heard. Christ man, have you no humility at all?
No I don’t think Muzna al-Naib is a Salafist, and please stop putting words into my mouth. Heaven forbid that the US should get its way and her country be overrun by Salafist extremists, but that is what will happen if the neoconservatives achieve their objective and the US or the UK use air forces to overthrow the current Syrian power structure.
A “SALAFIST Principality”, Jim, a projection of the SAUDI ethos. Head-choppers, hand choppers and religious police. THIS is what you’re supporting for the Syrian democrats you claim to support. THIS is what you’d have my country bomb for, in a war for oil:
http://www.killick1.plus.com/map.jpg
“More surprising, maybe (please judge for yourself), is how factions of the erstwhile ‘radical left’ have fallen lockstep in line with establishment demands voiced by our corporate media who demand “intervention” in Syria.”
You are right. The basic reasoning is obvious enough. There is nothing very puzzling about people being anxious not to get out of line while seeking for employment. And, in a society in which privacy is evaporating quickly, it is no longer easy for individuals to separate their private and public lives. I don’t even blame people who feel that, for the sake of their dependents, perhaps, they must bite their tongues when the Boss makes jokes about Corbyn’s unelectability.
All of which is very uninteresting. What is more interesting is the intellectual agility with which whole bands of erstwhile Revolutionary Communists pick their way from positions of complete opposition to imperialism into the cheering section behind commandos and slights of bombers attacking cities ruled by governments, such as Libya’s, which have failed to genuflect often enough in the direction of the Pentagon or have offered TV time to Palestinians angry at the occupation of their homeland.
One hint we have to go on is ‘Jim’s’ constant invocation of his digestive system: if a thing doesn’t make him vomit or gag it is likely to churn his stomach or puke.
On the other hand it might be worth considering the ouevre of the International Socialism group from the time that Tony Cliff got off the Korean War hook by coining the slogan “Neither Washington nor Moscow but International Socialism” to recent days in which Louis Proyect, who evidently regards himself as a Marxist scholar, defended the beheading of a 10 year old Palestinian boy (by a group of ‘democratic revolutionaries’) on the grounds that, actually the child was 18 and suffered from a rare ailment which gave him the appearance of a ten year old and that he had been fighting for Assad and Hizbollah!
This is a project in which all ought to put aside their personal opinions and, in the interests of social science, assist in discovering the truth.
Perhaps Jim could tell us when he left the SWP or Habba could explain why he became a partisan of Israel’s fascist parties?
Well done George, intriguing findings re. yet another bogus ‘Syrian’ western-backed media darling whore.
So Jim is touting another bunch of war-monger phonies, beating the same tuneless racket on the old ‘human rights’ drum. Step by step Jim’s abhorrent and warped worldview has been conclusively undermined and is near collapsing, we should all stand back now as he contemplates his own woeful path into bestiality. Having done him this service, gratis, we should not indulge him any further, however offensive and bilious he gets. The golden rule – not even a stale bun – has been conspicuously ignored, I’ve transgressed myself, but have seen the folly of that, though it was obvious from the outset that he was brimming with bad faith, and I should have known better.
So she’s a whore? So very kind and gentle.
Abbott was so endearingly convincing on the sofa there putting her case, and she was…a whore.
Yes, the kinder gentler politics. Another reminder. Jeremy, your advocates and representatives are doing themselves proud here!
Let’s keep it honest, Jim – he said “media whore” which is something a little different from your regular variety.
Come on, have you lived such a sheltered life? I’ve heard colleagues and friends call one another a “fashion whore” to their faces, with no acrimony intended or perceived.
I wasn’t even aware ‘she’ Muzna Al-Naib, was female, there’s no reference in George’s comment above. Nor would I waste my time attempting to view videos of vacuous mainstream media froth random tubes ‘recommend’ then bang on about for days on end as the best thing since the last piece of dross they got disturbingly over-excited about. My TV long ago suffered union-jack burn-in, visible even when turned off, and got thrown in a skip at the dump with the most satisfying crunch, only keeping a b/w analogue portable, in-case I feel like firing up the zx81 for some goto larks.
I’m judging on the message being spread and the company travelled with (including you and probably Marr), and the consequences of heeding their shop-worn interventionist war-cries; ultimately Lab/Tory voters in England will be paying compensation and for reconstruction of Syria (Iraq, Libya …), till their great-grandchildren’s dying day, and I wouldn’t like to burden them further by letting the crazies make their pitch for wrecking the remainder of Syria and perhaps Lebanon too, or indeed kicking off yet another war to end all wars. . And we can’t even mention a key party in this middle-east mire, the neighbouring entity to Syria, nurturing and patching up the horror-show extremist serial killer ‘armies’, occupying part of Syria in force and stealing from the Syrian people its water, prime agricultural land and decades of the produce thereof, as well as the few oil/gas resources Syria posesses, in the same Golan region. Stolen-land.
So spare me the anti-misogynist faux-outrage. You’re a war-mongering thieving shill, dishonest to your spineless core. Out of respect for the faint-hearted gentle flowers who moderate here I would not go further and give full vent to my feelings of disgust for your sort.
Glen uk :
No he didn’t. He first impugned her integrity as some sort of phony, when even a blind man could see she was a passionate and wholly credible advocate for her cause ( which by the way is democratic and leftist in political persuasion).
Then if that wasn’t disrespectful enough called her a ‘bogus Western backed media darling whore’. In the atmosphere of vicious misogyny in the air these days, that in my book is a blatant and disgusting misogynistic slur.
And Clark remains ‘bestest fwends’ with Node, who yesterday made a vicious bike filled attack on her ending in telling her to ‘fuck off’. This is the same Clark who just now has been lecturing me on humanitarianism and telling me she’s an advocate for Salafism. If you can’t see that she was wholly credible and compellingly articulate advocate for her cause I don’t know what else to say.
Jim, sorry, I’m going to shout.
I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT MUZNA AL-NAIB IS AN ADVOCATE FOR SALAFISM
Did you hear that? Just in case you didn’t:
I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT MUZNA AL-NAIB IS AN ADVOCATE FOR SALAFISM
Now stop fucking LYING about what I write. I strongly suspect that she doesn’t understand how her probably very genuine message is being exploited. It’s a matter of context. She advocates against Assad, the context of which is Syria, but there is also a larger context which is the competition for Middle Eastern oil between the US/Western sphere, and the Russian etc. sphere. Her message happens to be useful to the US etc. side in that larger context.
You seem to be using this unfortunate person (I daren’t call her a woman or you might again falsely accuse me of sexism). I know you’ll never put an identity to your screen name, but you disgust me. If messages like Muzna al-Naib’s are successfully exploited and airstrikes are authorised, her country will be devastated into a lawless failed state overrun by murderous extremists We KNOW that to be the case because we have the clear examples of Iraq and Libya. Muzna al-Naib herself will have to live with unimaginable remorse for the rest of her life for something I very much doubt she presently understands.
Tell you what, why don’t you invite her here? Or are there arguments and FACTS you’d rather she wasn’t exposed to? I note that you don’t engage with facts, preferring to deal solely in identity politics.
And Jim, I do my best to be specific. I thanked Node for linking to evidence, and asked for more. I immediately disagreed with Node’s assessment of Muzna al-Naib, though I suspect that she has been coached in public speaking, and has someone who books her into events. I have various honest disagreements with Node, but that’s civil debate; we disagree, but we don’t twist each others words as is your speciality. Tony M’s comments I rarely bother reading along with other inflammatory waffling opinion pieces because there’s rarely a link or a fact in it.
Clark :
Any response yet from Craig regarding his claims about David Babbs and Joe Hayden over the 38 degrees affair? Any attempts to contact Joe to confirm or deny Craigs repeated claims against the two of them?
Any response on the Brendan Cox posted link 24 hours after his wife’s murder?
Anything to say about the repeated insinuations against the McCanns, masquerading as investigative journalism?
I thought that Craig had put his point here:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2016/05/38-degrees-refuse-release-evidence-sexist-abuse-laura-kuenssberg/
And who is Joe Hayden? There’s a seller representative called Joe Hayden in Louisville, Kentucky. I’m guessing that’s not him. So I googled him alongside David Babbs and got this:
Your search – “Joe Hayden” “david babbs” – did not match any documents.
So then I googled him alongside “38 degrees” and I’m now into a Chinese website!
Admit it Jim, you’re making all this up!
It’s Joe Haydon. I’m trying to get a response on Craig’s pathetic smear campaign, repeated now in spite of my pointing out the pathetic nature of his ‘evidence’. No response yet though.
His telephone conversation with an exasperated 38 degrees staffer is pitiful ‘evidence’. Joe and David Babbs did not collect screengrabs of the Twitter abuse they witnessed. Joe has absolutely no reason to lie on this point ( neither does David for that matter) as he is the very person who started the petition.
Craig needs to make contact with both of the relevant parties, particularly Joe, to confirm his absurd smears on their personal integrity.
And while he’s at it make a public apology about the despicable posting on Brendan Cox the day after his wife was murdered.
And judging by the quality of abuse I’ve seen here today, with Muzna Al-Naib called a whore and told to fuck off with the rest of her benefit scrounging fellow leftist secular democrats, there’s more than enough evidence to point precisely in the direction of Joe and David’s veracity.
Welcome to Jeremy’s kind and gentle politics! What a breath of fresh air!
“His telephone conversation with an exasperated 38 degrees staffer is pitiful ‘evidence’.”
But it’s precisely Craig’s point that he is looking for evidence in the opposite direction i.e. evidence of abuse directed against Laura Kuenssberg. What you are asking is that he provides evidence against a crime for which there is no evidence in the first place. Classic reversal of the burden of proof.
Jim, I also remind you that Tony M and others are merely unidentifiable Internet entities just like yourself; we have no idea who they are if if they are acting on behalf of some vested interest. I too find some of what they write objectionable but, unlike you, I do not amplify it by repeating it over and over.
George :
He’s looking for evidence of screengrabs they didn’t think to get. That’s Craig’s big ‘evidential smoking gun’ which seems to damn them in his eyes.
Noteithstanding that Joe Haydon started the petition himself, and in interviews sounds a lovely decent and rational man.
There is no good reason for Craig to be trying to impugn their personal integrity other than to try and make his ‘side’ of the political argument look virtuous and himself virtuous by default as the ‘heroic’ investigative champion. It’s feeble, unpleasant and dishonest.
As is the Brendan Cox posting. There is nothing virtuous in any of this stuff, it’s nasty, smeary uncalled for self-aggrandising bile.
So your evidence amounts to this:
“sounds a lovely decent and rational man.”?
Glen UK :
Look, if you can’t see that posting a link like that 24 hours after the mans wife was murdered is creepy and nasty, then you need to think again. I was not the only person that commented on the unpleasantness of it. You may think the sun shines out of Craig’s bottom because of his Usbekistan stance, but this does not give him carte blanche to repeatedly engage in high profile public character assassination attempts, such as the 38 degrees pathetically feeble insinuations. Or the repeated creepy insinuations against the McCanns. Why can’t you see this stuff is self-aggrandising unpleasant smearing, where he attempts to place himself on some kind of
moral high ground?
If you can’t see it then I can’t help really, you must be blinded by hero worship or something.
George :
Joe Haydon started a petition to get Laura Kuenssberg sacke, I thought you’d be in his side? What’s going on? He witnessed horrible musogynistic abuse in Twitter which made him decide to take the petition down, although all the 35,000 signatures already collected were forwarded.
Craig repeatedly insinuates in a high profile widely read political blog that Joe Haydon is a liar, because he failed to obtain screen grabs of the abuse.
His ‘evidence’ is a telephone call to..er.. neither Joe or David Babbs but an anonymous and plainly exasperated 38 degrees staffer.
If you think that’s a watertight enough case for someone to repeatedly be making the sort of insinuation he’s been making them you need your head examining. It’s laughably pathetic.
George :
Excuse typos, I’m tired.
Jim : Once again, and for the last time (giving you the benefit of the doubt a little too much) – posting a link does not automatically indicate an endorsement of the contents.
Jim, I’m not going to trouble Craig with the things you keep carping about, because I know where he is and what is troubling him. I advise you to lay off, or risk looking heartless and small minded.
Remember that Craig is not a member of the Labour Party or Momentum, and has made no commitment to this “kinder and gentler language” slogan you continually harp on about. This is Craig’s own blog, supported with his own funds, where he exercises his right of free speech, and you are a guest. If you object to Craig’s polemics you could just stop reading and commenting here.
Clark :
Sorry not good enough. Craig has made repeated unsubstantiated slurs against the people I mention, and has indeed used these as ‘evidence’ to support the view that his ‘side’ of these political debates are ‘virtuous’ and the other side are malign.
I’m simply pointing out the gross inconsistencies, not to mention dishonesty and unpleasantness of his assertions. The Brendan Cox thing was particularly egregious. It would be good if Craig himself apologised, but I don’t expect he will. However, you as a moderator may care to comment on these subjects. These are assertions made by Craig on a publicly accessible forum, there’s nothing ‘private’ about his views or his repeated assertions of them.
Jim – CM referred to a link, and stated that it was “interesting”.
Does this automatically signal full approval for whatever was behind the link? No.
But you want to pretend it does, and persistently imply that the reference was in fact CM’s own words! Why do you want to do this? It smacks of a cheap-shot smear attempt.
In the same line, you state that Clark is a mod here, despite being informed repeatedly that he is not. Why would you want to do this?
A bit of honesty from you would not go amiss.
Glen uk :
See reply above posted in wrong place by mistake.
And by the way I have not implied that the link is Craig’s own words at all. It’s the posting of the link at such a time that I’m pointing out, again and again, is an example of deeply unpleasant and uncalled for behaviour. Why can’t you acknowledge that fact? The mans wife was murdered 24 hours earlier, and he’s ferreting around for stuff like that to post on a widely read political blog? Come on, that’s low stuff mate.
Glen uk :
And I was certainly under the impression that Clark was or had been a moderator here. If not then that’s a genuine mistake. He’s certainly told me that he provides ‘tech’ advice to Craig.
Jim: Fair enough. Clark was a mod here, and the amount of abuse he got (along with the other mod, Jon, I think) was beyond belief. It has persisted long after they gave up the role, to the extent they get threats and denouncements way beyond anything that could be considered reasonable.
*
You will recall that CM’s post was very much concerned with expressing sympathy towards Jo Cox. Nothing in his post suggested anything else. I’ve suggested a few times that “This is interesting” does not imply endorsement – on the contrary, it might have been followed up with a comment on what a miserably BOC’s (bunch of cads, obviously) the people were who who promoting negative statements about her husband.