I am feeling particularly hostile to Donald Trump after his incendiary move on Jerusalem. But it remains the case that I have enough direct knowledge of events to be aware that the entire premise of the Russophobic “election-hacking” conspiracy theory is simple nonsense. I am therefore most amused that my friend Randy Credico, who stayed with Nadira and I in Edinburgh a few months ago, has now been subpoenaed by the Senate Inquiry on Russian meddling as the alleged go-between for Roger Stone and Julian Assange, on the brilliant grounds that he knows both of them.
I can tell you from certain knowledge this is absolute nonsense. While Randy is a delightful person who hides a shrewd political mind behind a deliberate crackpot façade, he is the most indiscreet person in the world. He is not anybody’s conveyor of secrets, he would tell it all impulsively on his next radio show! Where Russia fits into this mad conspiracy theory I have no idea. If I had any belief that it was the genuine intention of Senate or Special Counsel inquiries to discover the actual truth, I would be surprised they have never made any contact with me, as opposed to my fleeting houseguests. But as I am well aware the last thing they want to know is the truth, I am not surprised in the least.
On a personal note I have just emerged from a really harrowing period. I had to leave the High Court a month ago straight to Heathrow and fly out to Ghana. Here I have been battling for the last year to save Atholl Energy, a company I chair which had some US $50 million worth of debts. The reason for this was that it had built an extension to the power station it originally constructed for the Ghanaian government, and the Ghanaian government had failed to pay for the extension after Atholl pre-financed it. In line with company philosophy, Atholl had both completed and handed over the extension, despite the non-payment, as the aim is to supply power to the people of Ghana.
The massive debt of course threatened Atholl with going bust. That would mean redundancy for our staff, and potentially many scores of redundancies at local sub-contractors we had been unable to pay in full. The thought of inflicting that mass misery on families, many of whom I know, has stopped me sleeping for months.
The current government of Ghana took over in January and inherited a huge fiscal deficit due to – and there is no other way of saying it – wholesale looting by the last government on a scale which Ghana had never witnessed before. To give an example from our own sector, we install power plant using Siemens equipment at about 1.2 million dollars per MW for a turnkey plant including fuel supply and power evacuation infrastructure. The last government of Ghana were contracting large projects at three times the unit cost or more, using inferior equipment. For $150 million per project to be added corruptly was not unusual.
On top of this, despite having imposed some of the world’s highest electricity tariffs – higher than British tariffs, for example – the revenue collected was mysteriously vanishing. As a result, our $52 million owed was part of a US$2.5 billion energy sector debt the current government inherited.
In effect this has been rescheduled, by the launch of bonds to raise the money to pay off the debts. The bonds are serviced by a levy on petrol and diesel. As usual in Africa, the IMF and World Bank were extremely unhelpful, refusing to sanction a government guarantee on the bonds, which means the energy levy is now to be collected by a new corporate structure and the bond is a corporate one. This structure necessitated an increase in the bond interest rate to 19.5%, which will benefit the financial institutions who have bought them, to the detriment of the Ghanaian public. In my experience every IMF and World Bank policy intervention in Africa always, on analysis, benefits corporations to the disbenefit of the African public.
It is also a gross double standard – if the energy debt had been treated as government debt, Ghana’s “unacceptable” debt to GDP ratio would still have been substantially less that that of many developed countries, including the UK.
The government of Ghana is to be congratulated on its persistence and the brilliance of its financial engineering that enabled it to tackle a huge problem despite obstruction rather than help from the international agencies – the energy sector debt had been threatening to crash the Ghanaian Banking sector, to the benefit of the large international banks.
For our company, we had to take a haircut because the payment was made not in the cash dollars which were owed, but in a mixture of bonds and local currency. We owed banks and suppliers in dollars, so we have been structuring sales and taken the odd hit on discounting. But we have got through it, and as of yesterday have paid off all our creditors in full. There is not a single job loss caused by us, either in our company or at our suppliers and sub-contractors, and that has removed a fear which has been haunting me. I cannot express how tough this period has been – I did not receive a single penny from my major source of income for nearly four years, and as of this morning still haven’t. I am not going to be a millionaire, but I am now going to be OK.
2017 has personally been really difficult. But I can now look forward to the New Year with lightened shoulders, and pick up the rest of my life again.
I am truly sorry that for the last few months speaking invitations and book orders have gone by the wall. I have 21,253 unopened emails!! Not to mention over 5,000 donors to my legal defence fund I have not thanked yet. I promise I shall be less elusive in future.
The latest opinion poll for the Catalan election in El Periodico newspaper has the independence parties combined vote at 45.8% and the unionists combined vote at 43.8%. The efforts at intimidation and discouragement by the fascists don’t seem to have worked any.
That’s promising reel guid, here’s hoping, although I doubt the fascists will want to play fair if the independence movement wins.
On another matter, I can’t see how Prince Harry’s beau Megan Markle can gain access permanently to the UK, she’s a unemployed foreigner, the Home Office must surely decline her attempt at citizenship, as they’ve done with countless others, some living and working here for decades.
reel guid.
This:
https://mobile.twitter.com/AbbsWinston/status/939520362441789441/photo/1
Reminds me of this.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/spat-on-assaulted–arrested-5048284
Possibly fake news, given the fact – not mentioned by reel guid – that “El Periódico de Catalunya” is a morning daily newspaper based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The paper publishes separate daily editions in Spanish and in Catalan.
This is an excellent analysis from a Northern Island journalist I have a lot of respect for, about the complete load of absolute bollocks and bullshit produced by The Tory Government and the EU.
Our British Government is supposed to do what we told them to do, through a Democratic Vote which was their idea. We voted to get out of the EU. We did not vote to be drowned in meaningless agreements to agree at some point in the future. It’s nonsense, but Joe Quinn does his best to try and make some sense of this nonsense from a Northern Irish point of view, and does very well considering the circumstances.
“Ireland, UK and Brussels reach Brexit agreement: No hard border for Northern Ireland, which effectively remains in EU”
https://www.sott.net/article/370693-Ireland-UK-and-Brussels-reach-Brexit-agreement-No-hard-border-for-Northern-Ireland-which-effectively-remains-in-EU
Extract
“If the whole of the United Kingdom “maintains full alignment with EU internal market and customs union rules” on the basis of not messing with North/South trade in Ireland AND to keep the Unionists in the North close to her Majesty’s bosom (so that they don’t start a civil war in Northern Ireland or withdraw their support for Theresa May’s Conservative government, forcing its collapse and allowing Jeremy Corbyn to occupy 10 Downing Street) that means that the whole of the UK is still in the EU “now or in the future”.
So I’m really wondering if Theresa May and her cronies actually want the UK to leave the EU. I’m not sure any of them know exactly what they’re doing. But if today’s agreement is an indication of how phase 2 will proceed, it looks like Brexit has already been cancelled”
I’m sorry, but that is NOT ACCEPTABLE. That is not what we voted for. if The Politicians do not accept our Democratic Decision, then there is no point in voting, which means there is no point in politicians. How do we get rid of them? We obviously can’t vote them out, cos they don’t take any bloody notice and are all basically different brands of the same bunch of useless people. They have done absolutely nothing useful for over 20 years. They just suck up to Americans and anyone else who will bribe them / blackmail them.
This is not good.
Tony
Hi Craig,
Very sad to hear the troubles that Atholl have been going through. You have a good team in Ghana with good strong morals. I’m 100% sure that VRA would not have such a good power station without Atholl taking all the risks for them.
Good Luck and I still miss you, your team and Ghana very much
To answer my own question a few days ago, this seems entirely sensible. I hope Craig eventually gets paid. He is quoted in this article from 2013.
“Gas turbines for Ghana power station”
http://www.engineerlive.com/content/20114
This story reminds me of something that happenned when my son, went off to South East Asia for 3 months or so, a few years ago, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam etc, to meet a girl from school, he hardly knew, before she started university after her two weeks freedom in Thailand…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/12/06/undercover-police-smash-grab-squads-dragging-suspected-moped/
They were both cycling on push bikes around The Temples in Cambodia – they go on for many miles. His girl friend was completely trusting, thought no one would ever steal all her money, bag, passport that she had in the basket on the front of her bike. Fortunately my son was well in front of his girlfriend on his push bike…He heard her scream…and saw the moped coming along..dropped his bike and launched a full bodily frontal attack on the guys on the moped – and sent them flying. They must have thought he was Superman – but he got all his girlfriend’s stuff back and told them to fck off..Do you really want to argue?
Tony
I can’t come to terms with this word “incendiary”. It is racist against Muslims in that it implies they are like little apes with no control over their own violent reactions and behaviour. It is racist to assume Muslims will react this way to the mere movement of a building.
I very much agree with Mr McDonald – it is racist.
It is also racist (against Arabs) to assume that a country like Syria can only be held together if it is ruled by a vicious dictatorship (the Assad clan); it is racist because it implies that Arabs are incapable of the political maturity that underpins the peaceful coexistence of different ethnic groups and religious persuasions within one country.
i don’t know if that is racist, Habbabkuk. Isn’t it a bit racist to assume our noble ideals – that some Smithsonian democracy might be imposed on ancient cultures – are just a little bit racist, not to say unbelievably arrogant, too?
glenn_nl, I think perhaps, yes.
glenn
you are making the mistake of thinking that Arabs are incapable of democracy (and that, therefore, authoritarian regimes and vicious dictatorships which are unacceptable for us in the West are perfectly alright for Arab countries). That, I and many other true democrats, believe is racist. It is on a par with those racists who say that black people are less intelligent than whites.
You may find this interesting but then you may not.
http://www.jonathan-cook.net/2017-12-04/jerusalem-american-jews/
” can only be held together …”
Syrians and Syria’s neighbours were united against cruel dictator Assad until vicious Islamist mercenaries started to ravage the population, take over their cities and villages by force and abuse them. Now the Syrian population, because of Western diplomatic cover and proxy support for terror as a tool for colonial intervention, and Syria’s neighbours, want anyone with the will and determination to undo USUKIS war crimes to do it.
I know you like things spelt out clearly. If the United Staes of America, the United Kingdom and Israel were to stop interfering in Syria’s sovereign land the very next issue to deal with is the removal of Assad. USUKIS have delayed progress for seven years and united the Syrians against themselves and their Islamist terrorists. Self -determination does not mean USUKIS + proxy terrorist -determination.
Do you want me to say it again?
Thanks for that, Giyane, and no need to say it again.
I think we agree that had the democratic, popular opposition to the Butcher of Damascus was – very unfortunately – hijacked by the crazies, ie those whom I believe you would call the political Islamists. The mistake of our liberal democracies was not to intervene earlier before that hijacking.
I also agree with you that once – or now – the crazies have been dealt with, the next issue to deal with is the removal of the Butcher. As I’ve said to Glenn, to believe that Arabs are incapable of achieving democracy is to show racism.
As you well there never was a non-crazy opposition, owing to the fact that for many years, as Robin Cook explained to his cost, USUKIS has a list , Al Qaida, of them to set on any civilians that happen to occupy the land they want to colonise.
‘Intervention’ in the Middle East is a popular with orientalist who are so benevolent that they can think they can intervene to help those poor orientals against the local ‘butchers’ by butchering more people. And those orientalist ignore the fact that previous interventions like Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya have resulted and more butchery. It was the very fact that ‘we’ so benignly intervened by arming so called ‘moderate ipposition’ With the help of Sunni nations such as Turkey and KSA to foster sectarianism that we have this massacre. And this is not racism?
Sunni nations don’t necessarily follow the Sunnah if they are led by megalomaniac dictators with one foot in NATO, one in Europe, one in Israel, one in Russia, one in Qatar, one in Libya, one in China and one in America. This is not a hub, this is a tarantula.
“I know you like things spelt out clearly. If the United Staes of America, the United Kingdom and Israel were to stop interfering in Syria’s sovereign land the very next issue to deal with is the removal of Assad.”
Says who? I thought it is up to the Syrian people to decide. Also giyane you seem to ignore the contribution of the Sunni nations in supporting the terror in Syria and Iraq.
SA
Proxies.
For example I met a very friendly man recently who kept a very unfriendly dog in his garden, No-one who touched his garden wall would come out alive. You seem to have forgotten those USUKIS nukes.
The puppet masters of the ‘proxies’ are KSA and Turkey both have serious and varying problems with democracy.
We need to get rid of the Tories fast. That bastion of shopping bag democracy the DUP should by rights throw a wobbly this week when they read the small print of last week’s brexit deal. Then May will be compost.
Muslims are a race?
If Jews are,yes. Nye Bevin and others thought of them as a religious fringe group like the Mormons or the Plymouth Brethren .After a few hundred years’ interbreeding, any group will acquire distinct characteristics that , as Ibn Khaldun pointed out, will lead them to think of themselves as a nation.
I think it was Walter Bagehot who suggested the option of religious-denominational rather than territorial Parliamentary constituencies which would have been a step in that direction.
So is there a racial distinction between muslims and arabs? Plenty of muslims throughout the world and they aren’t all arabs, so how can muslim be a race?
Certainly in Egypt, members of the Coptic church have very different traditions and practices to the majority of the population. If we look at the detailed DNA maps of Britain and Ireland,we find , as pointed out in today’s Irish Times report, substantial differences among local populations that may be associated with regional differences in physique and attitudes.The French certainly exploited to the full the Berber /Arab cleavages within Algeria /the Maghreb where, pace Ibn Khaldoon again, tribal groupings espoused differing versions of Islam that gave expression to ethnic variations quite apart from the residual Christian/Kafir communities.
Within the Z. entity, those from Yemen, and later from Ethiopia are seen as being of a different or lesser race than the Ashkenazim and assigned areas close to the exiled Palestinians. What all this means is that religious adherence,ethnicity and language are very fluid concepts that are gelled into nationhood..Within the Dahr al Islam,as in an idealized EU or the USSR, all men were seen as brothers with Ibn Khaldoon from Morocco easily taking a position as judge in the Maldives
@ Lucius
The theme is too serious for indulging in sophistry and hair-splitting. For the purposes of this discussion (and in particular whether they are capable of achieving liberal democracy) the Arabs (please note that my first post referred to Arabs and not to Muslims…) can certainly be considered to be a race.
Your Arab definition seems based on language rather than race. It also has a nineteenth century ring to it in posing an evolutionary hierarchy of statehood. Would Augustine from the Maghreb have believed those fair Anglo slaves capable of becoming not just angles but full Roman citizens? Well perhaps , given a few hundred years of benign rule,
As it goes, a language-based definition would also include the J**s. Hebrew and Aramaic have the same roots as Arabic. Not that the preferred language of the European and US Ashkenazi communities, outside of ritual, has ever been Hebrew.
Great to have you back Mr Murray.
Welcome back to the blog, Craig. We missed you.
Node – insightful as Ever –
” Marks, please, on a scale of 1 to 10 for tinfoilhattedness ”
TEN and TEN Again….
Philip M. Giraldi, a former CIA Operations officer, writes the following about Flynn’s situation (source): ‘Flynn’s guilty plea is laconic, merely admitting that he had lied to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) about what was said during two telephone conversations with then Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak, but there is considerable back story that emerged after the plea became public… The first phone call to Kislyak, on December 22nd, was made by Flynn at the direction of Jared Kushner, who in turn had been approached by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu…’
He continues, ‘Netanyahu had learned that the Obama Administration was going to abstain on a United Nations vote condemning the Israeli settlements policy, meaning that for the first time in years a U.N. resolution critical of Israel would pass without drawing a U.S. veto. Kushner, acting for Netanyahu, asked Flynn to contact each delegate from the various countries on the Security Council to delay or kill the resolution. Flynn agreed to do so, which included a call to the Russians.’
He continues, ‘Son-in-law Jared Kushner is Trump’s point man on the Middle East. He and his family have extensive ties both to Israel and to Netanyahu personally, to include Netanyahu’s staying at the Kushner family home in New York. The Kushner Family Foundation has funded some of Israel’s illegal settlements and also a number of conservative political groups in that country.’
‘Kushner, however, goes far beyond merely disagreeing over an aspect of foreign policy as he was trying to clandestinely reverse a decision made by his own legally constituted government. His closeness to Netanyahu makes him, in intelligence terms, a quite likely Israeli government agent of influence…’
Well Brian, as mixed up as an Orcadian Strip the Willow! Very straightforward when you know what’s going on…. the Flynn saga may run on and around for some time.
Hope you enjoyed the Vatersay Boys last night.
I can’t tell you what they are like because I have never been there, but my son has, and he told me…
On the internal flight he was passed 3 National Newspapera in a language he didn’t know – except he recognised he was hosting 2 of Them Online from London….
So after many hours on flights across the world….he turns up – all expenses paid for the prospect of a new contract…He has no idea of what to expect but has a few jet lagged hours to take a look at what they have got…mainly American kit discarded 30 years ago(sold as new)…and so he gets a few hours kip in the hotel…and then gets taken to a lecturn – almost completely unprepared to flog his company’s project to all these people dressed in robes…His company consists of himself. He bought out his schoolmate. He went alone.
I mean what would you do..My kid was only 25 – but they had microphones and live language interpreters…and he is a bit shy…
I have no idea what happenned. I wasn’t there….but I think he may have eventually got a large extension to the contract, providing, they pay all their debts first, and provide the capital up front for the cost of the new hardware.
How the hell else do you run an expanding business today. If you are any good, you get invited back, and the customer pays.
He still lives at home with his Mum and Dad and Family.
Tony
Glad it worked out.
You’ve certainly kept quiet about your business interests Craig; I’ll bear that in mind next time you come cap in hand.
He’s mentioned his interests on numerous occasions – it wasn’t accidentally blurted out here.
That is also my recollection – although it is true that little detail was given. However, I doubt that his emoluments are breath-taking.
I think he should have been clear about his business / financial interests, the picture Craig painted was very bleak engendering concern and generosity from people potentially far worse off than him.
https://companycheck.co.uk/
Reveals (dissolved) interests in Ghana Premium Gold Ltd, Anglo African Oil Ltd and
DRUMOSSIE MOOR SERVICES LIMITED with a resignation from his wife’s production company (Sylph).
No mention of Atholl or Westminster Development Ltd (gold mining company) – presumably registered offshore / Ghana
Then there’s his civil service pension and book receipts.
Maybe he’s not going to be a millionaire (maybe he is) but he should have been straight
DRUMOSSIE MOOR SERVICES LIMITED was formed Jan 2014 and dissolved in 2015 when Craig lived in Ramsgate.
I believe that his civil service pension was withheld. If it wasn’t, so what? He had worked for this country in the FCO since he was in his mid twenties. Going to the High Court and employing lawyers is very expensive. Suggest going to the roots of that case instead of this ad hominem.
You are being opaque, suggesting that there is something crooked about him. Why is that? Have you ever sat in front of a Joint Committee on Human Rights revealing details of the CIA engineered torture that happened in Uzbekistan and the complicity of this country in that, et alia.
Not suggesting he’s crooked you did that.
And you think that someone who spent many years in politics and gave evidence to important committees is beyond question? Perhaps you think Blair could have done no wrong.
Craig has been involved in business in Ghana; Oil, Gold and Energy those are industries riddled with corruption, to avoid the slight that you have put on him (that he may be crooked) is best deflected by being open and transparent.
Come off it PB. You wrote it.
btw Yes. Nadira has her own company. She is a performer, actress and documentary film maker ffs. Not in the Hollywood league. Try Mr Weinstein.
The position is, I believe, that Craig’s pension was not “withheld” (in the sense that he would not get a pension at all) but merely deferred, as is normal with occupational pensions, until the normal retirement age for the occupation in question. The the case of the Diplomatic Service this is 60.
It is also not the case that Peter Beswick was suggesting that anything crooked was going on. To claim otherwise is to to set up a straw man.
But Peter Beswick didn’t write it, actually. You did.
There is no such secrecy at all, Peter and you are merely showing us what your day to day occupation involves, raking the proverbial for all its worth.
There is nothing secret in Craigs business history, indeed he even publicised it on his election address in 2009, to all and sundry. Your opaque smears are not appreciated here, go back to your day job at the DM.
“There is nothing secret in Craigs business history, indeed he even publicised it on his election address in 2009, to all and sundry.”
Its now nearly 2018.
Hands up who read Craig’s 2009 election address? Keep your hands up if you still have a copy.
PB: The interests were there publicly available for anyone interested, and with your dubious motives only laziness is an excuse for your surprise. What are your interests here, Peter? Besides self-aggrandisement and insulting others, of course.
If the Simons action had succeeded, Craig would have been as financially strapped as you would wish, Peter. I was happy to contribute an affordable donation to prevent that, but not simply to keep the bailiffs away (from what is probably better accommodation than mine – do I care?). It was to help contest the suppression of free speech through the misuse of the law.
“It was to help contest the suppression of free speech through the misuse of the law.”
Nothing on the Priti Patel affair, just a passing comments on Trump’s Jerusalem move ?
Simon’s action very much succeeded in its real aim.
“Correct me if I am mistaken, but the whole point of Craig’s appeal for money was to challenge a false accusation of Anti-Semitism.”
I thought it was because he called someone a liar.
Craig and Daniel Ellsberg are friends if I remember correctly.
Video & transcript:
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/12/6/doomsday_machine_daniel_ellsberg_reveals_he
Daniel Ellsberg Reveals He was a Nuclear War Planner, Warns of Nuclear Winter & Global Starvation
December 06, 2017
Could tension between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un bring us to the brink of nuclear war? As tensions ramp up, we discuss what nuclear war would look like with a former nuclear war planner and one of the world’s most famous whistleblowers—Daniel Ellsberg. In 1971, Ellsberg was a high-level defense analyst when he leaked a top-secret report on U.S. involvement in Vietnam to The New York Times and other publications, which came to be known as the Pentagon Papers. He played a key role in ending the Vietnam War. Few know Ellsberg was also a Pentagon and White House consultant who drafted plans for nuclear war. His new book, published Tuesday, is titled “The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner.” We speak with Ellsberg about his top-secret nuclear studies, his front row seat to the Cuban missile crisis, whether Trump could start a nuclear war and how contemporary whistleblowers Chelsea Manning and Ed Snowden are his heroes.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
“Craig and Daniel Ellsberg are friends if I remember correctly.”
____________________
I think that the word “acquaintances” would be nearer the mark.
Friends. I repeat ‘friends’.
There are many references to Daniel Ellsberg by Craig n his blog, including:
‘Talking of eightieth birthdays, it is also this week the eightieth birthday of Dan Ellsberg, who was last week arrested while protesting about the detention conditions of Bradley Manning. The Sam Adams Associates decided to each send Dan, one of our members, a personal congratulatory message. This was mine:
I was sitting in a bar in Kumasi, Ghana, a couple of weeks ago. The bar TV was on Sky News, and a photo flashed up of a distinguished looking gentleman being forcibly led away by an over-armoured policeman.
“Good Lord, that’s Dan!” I said.
“Do you know him?” asked the barman.
“Yes, he’s a friend of mine” I replied. And I felt enormously proud.
I still do.
Your one lifetime has been worth many thousands. Here’s to the next twenty years of telling the truth.’
It is quite astonishing that, while we are at war ostensibly to stop abuses of human rights in Libya, the government is pushing legislation to protect the Pinochets of this world – and the Emir of Bahrain, Karimov and all our other allies – from prosecution here for their tortures, rapes, maimings and killings. That this was done by a government including Liberal Democrats beggars belief.’
ex https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2011/04/but-is-everywhere-in-chains/
So Daniel Ellsberg is now 86. Amazing and still going strong.
Just acquaintances, I’m afraid.The fact that there are “many references” to Mr Ellsberg in Craig’s blog does not mean that they are “friends”. After all, there are many references to Mr Netanyahu in Craig’s blog but that does not indicate friendship, surely.
So you weren’t feeling particularly hostile when Trump was attacking Mexican and Muslim immigrants? Or talking about the good folk on the neo-Nazi site of the Charlottesville clashes? Or basically ignoring and closing down the science on global warming to push more polluting industries? You have some inkling presumably of the global humanitarian and environmental disaster that is set to unleash?
I’ve more or less given up on this site for any real contribution to progressive causes after the effective endorsement of Trump’s election through the celebration of WikiLeaks’ role, the failure to ever hold Putin and his regime to account in Russia, or even remotely ‘consider the possibility’ (admit the likelihood) of Russian covert manipulation of elections in the west. Including the UK’s Brexit vote. Just curious to see whether some excuse is going to be forthcoming for the attempted WikiLeaks collusion with the Trump team.
AS: People around here seem to be highly indulgent of Trump for some reason. I had put it down to Clinton Derangement Syndrome, but it goes further than that. This ignorant savage gets a pass on just about everything on the grounds that “Hillary would have been worse!” and false equivalence, a tactic best left to the real professionals in the MSM.
As long as Trump hasn’t actually started a war (yet), he’s OK with most people here, oddly enough. Even if he did start one, you’d soon hear “Hillary would have done the same!”
Still – they have their precious purity.
Glenn_nl: I agree except for the purity bit. There’s an apparent convergence between alt-right Trump supporters and others who are hostile to the neoliberal project maintained by transnational institutions like the EU, IMF etc. but who are also distant from any grassroots progressive democratic movement. Without the latter, the project of opposing transnational capital can quickly morph into a demagogic populist nationalism like Trump’s (entirely fake insofar as the concern remains purely capitalist, only a maximally unregulated kind) or attempts at a kind of elitist techno-manipulation of the masses, as evinced by Assange and WikilLeaks through its secret and not so secret collusion with the Trump election campaign. By acting in a partisan manner during the US election, WikiLeaks has opened itself up to justifiable criticism and lost a huge amount of its credibility, which is appalling given its undoubtedly hugely valuable work in exposing government malpractice previously. It seems to have compromised itself entirely. We’ll just have to see where it goes from here and just how independent of Putin and Trump influence WikiLeaks really is.
AS: By “purity” I’m talking about those who could never support Hillary, not even if she was running against the devil himself. They console themselves with a purity vote (Stein, or a write-in for Sanders), and are happy to see Trump in office as a told-you-so because they couldn’t have their favoured candidate running on the Dem ticket.
I used my vote for the first time ever to vote for Labour in the last election. Holding my nose at the Blairite creep. People are treated worse than pigeons by the Tory government. It all started with a group of odious creeps like I D-F, William Hague and John Redwood. Creeping round Blair’s popularity and plotting like Gollum to get their evil power back.
They saw their chance in 2007 when the seams of Thatcherism burst open and they blamed its failure on Gordon Brown. Then they stitched it up again with the bonds of public school loyalty , shoe-horning themselves into power with the Liberal vote.
Just because Cameron , Boris and May talk posh, doesn’t mean they aren’t bent.
Don’t worry, there are still some fringe sites out there who have been battling to get heard above Craig’s unrelenting pro-Trump, pro-Putin din
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news
https://www.theguardian.com/uk
So basically you live in monoworld. Either/or. Must be a very limiting experience for you.
I note you neglect to provide details as to exactly how Trump “was attacking Mexican and Muslim immigrants” Surely your case cannot be that Trumps exercise of his lawful powers as POTUS constitutes an attack. If it is your case then you are basically attacking the rule of law. If you want to live in a lawless society then surely you should have the intellectual honesty to unequivocally state that.
It is flat out false to imply that Trump described neo-Nazis as “good folk.” He merely stated that there was fault on both sides. Ample evidence exists to support this contention – evidence ranging from police actions on the day through to ongoing trials around the US of Antifa members.
Trump has not “closed down the science on global warming” – he has merely withdrawn the US from the Paris Climate Accord – an accord that has precisely nothing to do with reducing emissions and everything to do with the redistribution of economic wealth. Is Trump pushing for more polluting industries? I must have missed that. It is true that he is committed to burning ever more fossil fuels – but that merely aligns him with substantially every person living in the west.
There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that the Russians manipulated any votes anywhere outside of Russia. This is more fake news. There are numerous stories concerning the eavesdropping capabilities of the NSA – ranging from the bugging of Petrobras through to eavesdropping on Angela Merkel’s private mobile phone. If Russia has been acting in the way you claim then how come the NSA has been unable to provide even a scintilla of evidence.
Who has failed to hold Putin and his regime to account? How would you intend holding them to account? If you get away from fake news then you would understand that the US empire has pushed Russia as far as it is willing to be pushed. The Russians are locked and loaded and ready, willing and able to push the button and pull the plug.
How come you are so exercised by climate change and yet so willing to push for a species ending confrontation with Russia? Does this position contain any logical coherence or moral purity?
Thanks Loony for making my point about the alt-right convergence here. Assange would be proud.
“How come you are so exercised by climate change and yet so willing to push for a species ending confrontation with Russia?”
? I think you’re confusing stopping Russia from manipulating western elections – and maybe holding new elections if, say, the UK”s EU vote was found to have been sufficiently manipulated by *any* covert agents, assisted or not by Russia – with all out nuclear warfare. Spot the difference?
I really can’t be bothered responding to the rest of your post justifying Trump’s repeated and relentless attacks on non-white minority groups in the US. As for environmental politics, the first thing Trump did was impose a ban on scientists from state agencies reporting on climate change or even using the term. That’s burning the books level denial of reality. Or 1984 doublespeak. Take your pick.
https://www.ecowatch.com/usda-bans-climate-change-2470565728.html
A Survation poll for Westminster voting intentions in Scotland shows the Tories trailing the SNP now by 14% compared to the 8% in the GE. That would mean quite a few Tory seats returning to the SNP.
Hopefully those Tories that managed to convince Theresa that Scotland’s emergency services shouldn’t pay VAT, are among the casualties.
(Kirstene) Hair Removal.
Ah, nice one. ?
La belle Stella Creasy, MP Lab Walthamstow, was given the Backbencher of the Year award by the Political Studies Association. Mr Bercow presented it.
https://www.psa.ac.uk/psa/news/meet-winners-psa-awards-2017
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127597833@N04/sets/72157661387920827
Search for Craig’s views on her.
Politica; Studies published my first article on A, V, Dicey, beginning my exposure of what a political manipulator he was. especially of Irish politics in London.,
Now it is just a cheering chorus in favor of the leading ones.
Trowbridge,
Have you read Professor J.A.G. Griffiths ” The politics of the Judiciary” – a best seller eye opener and may give you food for thought along the lines that you are writing.
RT now reporting that ISIS, is virtually wiped out in Syria, though the Great Satan, having failed miserably to remove Assad is attempting to take the credit, laughable springs to mind.
https://www.rt.com/usa/412618-pentagon-meaningful-isis-progress/
The Great Satan backed by its obedient minions tried for more than five years, to remove Assad and install their own puppet ran regime, thousands of civilians died and huge swathrs of Syria were razed to the ground, however the Great Satan failed in its illegitimate quest.
Next up for Assad, must surely be the taking back of the Golan, held illegally under international law by Israel. But that is some time away for now.
And as important Assad should be given the oil fields back with all stolen oil receipts
Indeed Peter not forgeting it was a US senator that sponsored the US Israel energy bill, therefore allowing the start of the complete Annexation of the Golan Heights.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_Energy
Yes and it was a UK prime minister who jointly destroyed Iraq and created the safe havens for extremist Islamist terrorism. His receipts should also be made open.
And interestingly he did it with the help of our friends in the Arab world, KSA and the Gulf monarchies where huge US bases are located and where now U.K. has a base in Bahrain.
Trump at a rally in the US claimed the USA won both world wars.
https://www.rt.com/usa/412570-trump-us-won-world-wars/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=aplication_chrome&utm_campaign=chrome
Won in the football sense of the word maybe, but Americans like to think or dream the whole world belongs to them. If so let’s see Trump take a stroll down the café boulevards of Raqqa and Fallujia instead of Trump Hotel..
You should be living here to see just how Trump is miliarizing everything, worse then Hitler’s Germany..
And if it had not been for Moscow’sspies like Rick Ames, Robert Hanssen er al.. The communists would have won the Cold War in the wake of setting up a non-nuclea conclusion to it at Olof Palme/s expense.
The country is just hopeless in letting such scum run it.
Even more that than that bloody bastard Obama and that bloody bastard bUShA? Trump is the continuity candidate and that bloody bastard Hillary is the more and more candidate.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/12/special-counsel-examines-trump-israel-relations-171209121235884.html
How Russiagate became Israelgate.
I’m sure that those alienated liberal Jews in America will not want to carry on paying vast sums into Mr. Netanyahu’s offshore bank accounts or leave money for his destructive nature.
This bill was sent to him by 56MEP’s in the EU, including Green MEP Molly Scott Cato.
http://en.calameo.com/read/005413880fc8585990283
I hope a verbal battery by MEP’s will get out of control and he’s evicted by force coming Monday. The man is far worse than his Trump puppet, despite having alienated liberal Jews who now have to answer to their political allegiances when coming into Israel, as well as sign a memorandum of political inaction whilst visiting their grannies.
As I have said before, the American electorate had no choice once Sanders and Jill Stein had been written out of it.
There was no difference between the very criminal H R ‘We came, we saw, he died’ Ha Ha!’ Clinton and the war criminal in waiting Donald John Trump.
There is a gender difference for starters.
Highly significant policy differences for another.
Indeed, and presidents have had variously sized body parts, too.
We’ve got very little energy capacity in reserve, and yet it is still quite mild. If it gets exceedingly cold for 3 months, with an anti-cyclone over the whole of the UK and much of Europe, or if The Russians, say sorry, but you have really been annoying us, and insulting us, that unless you behave, and are respectful and polite to us – we are going to switch off our gas to you – or they just do it….
We are going to be in big trouble. Its not just the lights and the computers that are going to go out if it gets very cold. Next to nothing will work. Has the UK Government planned any contingency? Don’t make me laugh. They couldn’t organise a divorce in a whorehouse.
http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/
Tony
Which is why we need fracking
Aye, and we could rip up our floorboards and chuck them on the fire too.
We could indeed but I suspect the energy yield would be but a fraction of that available through fracking.
Security of energy supply is a serious concern and although both the USSR and Putin’s Russia have a history of honouring their commercial contracts it’s better to be sage than sorry.
Fracking in the UK is only opposed, in the whole, by those who do not wish well for their country.
“safe than sorry” but “sage” does the trick as well.
“Fracking in the UK is only opposed, in the whole, by those who do not wish well for their country.”
Or those who value their environment, and water supply.
I don’t know many people who are enthusiastic for fracking in their own locality. There must be an awful lot of people who do not wish well for the country, if that’s the criteria for it these days.
Also by those, of course, RoS.
But how many of the “those” care enough about the environment to forego various conveniences, I wonder? For example, not owning a car, saving energy by using the internet less, etc……
True Habbabkuk, you do have a point, however, how do you reverse the effects of a contaminated water table.
Such is the toxicity of the chemicals used in the fracking process, that some are trade secrets, others such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene – all pose significant dangers to human health and welfare.
@Habbabkuk
I thought ‘better to be sage than sorry’ was rather good. If the auto-correct had made me sound that wise I would have accepted the gift and kept schtumm..
Fracking is patriotic! Heh hey!
Calm down Habbakuk, fracking is a dirty business and your mind might have mislaid a few gacts.
the EU polluter pays principle stands, for at leasy eight more years, unless you have not been listening.
Further Barclays, the bank that likes to service us, likes offshore registered fracking companies such as INEOS and Third energy even more than your business, despite their emergency loans and ridiculous debts. I salute the protectors of |KM8 and all those prof. of Geology who are realising that our old shale strata is not holding much gas, and I’m celebrating Michael Gove’s conversion to the polluter pays principle which will definitely be put into UK law, trust him…..
“Fracking in the UK is only opposed, in the whole, by those who do not wish well for their country”
Rather, by those who don’t want to spontaneously combust after drinking from their taps;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LBjSXWQRV8
That is a great response…that is such a good analogy…I’ll remember to use it myself .
Well done to you and all the others involved in recovering from a horrendous situation.
Having had almost a couple of years in up-country Ghana and in Accra, I can understand, to an extent, your situation and, especially, how it is always the people, in whatever Country, who suffer.
“btw Yes. Nadira has her own company. She is a performer, actress and documentary film maker ffs.”
____________________
So both Mr and Mrs Murray have a company.
Personally, I welcome that. It shows entrepreneurship and, just as importantly, in this specific case it shows that people in our Western liberal democracies can bounce back from personal and/or financial adversity.
I hope that this story will serve to put an end to all the sneers about other public figures where both spouses run companies.
The awkward thing about companies for the government is that they sometimes make a loss. If a company was subject to universal credit and couldn’t get to work because of the snow, the benefit would be withdrawn. How come people and companies are treated different?
Dec 10th 10.48pm
Interesting is it not that here in the UK, any councillor on a parish, borough or county council, has to submit a declaration of interests for himself or herself and also for a spouse or partner.
correction s/be @ 19.48pm
Parish Councillors after declaring their interests often use their position in the parish council to get planning permission for land they own.
Nick Cohen really outdid himself today. Possibly a few too many celebratory drinks after Trump’s midweek announcement. You don’t often see a mental breakdown in print in a national paper.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/09/what-would-it-take-for-labour-moderates-to-revolt
He’s so utterly repellent these days that he reminds me of the Vichy collaborationist newspaper hacks at the end of La Dernier Metro, beginning to get a bit jumpy that their back catalogue will bite them in the arse.
I thought this rather apt considering, the bungled job Davis has done so far with regards to Brexit.
https://mobile.twitter.com/thoughtland/status/939785902536216576/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwingsoverscotland.com%2Freheats-and-revisions%2Fcomment-page-1%2F%23comments
Meanwhile Bob Kerslake stands down as the chair of Kings College hospital. Kerslake said the NHS in London is in a poor state financially.
Just as well then thst NHS bosses south of the border, have decided to hide figures for those turned away at A&E’s in England this winter.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/10/quit-hospital-boss-nhs-chair-kings-college-hospital-london?CMP=share_btn_tw
Suggest taking any concerns you have about OUR NHS to Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt, the slippery millionaire put in charge by the paleoconservatives in the Tory party to speed up its privatisation.
Meanwhile, some good humans are banding together to thwart their plans.
‘Stephen Hawking joins lawsuit against Tories to defend NHS from ‘privatization’
10 Dec, 2017 19:35
World-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has reignited his war of words with the Conservative Party, joining a lawsuit to prevent sweeping reforms of the British healthcare system which he believes would lead to widespread privatization.
The lawsuit seeks to prevent a major NHS shake-up which would include the introduction of the first Accountable Care Organization (ACO) in the NHS in England. It is scheduled to to take effect in April 2018. Hawking is now a proposed claimant along with four academics and NHS campaigners, known as the judicial review group. A judicial review, granted by the High Court, could prevent the introduction of ACOs into the British healthcare system without public consultation or parliamentary review and approval.
/..
https://www.rt.com/uk/412659-stephen-hawking-fights-tories-nhs/
I’m curious that you make a distinction between different types of Tories. A Tory is a person whose belief is that it’s wrong to help anyone else. Hell was made for them with many levels to suit.
I believe virtually nothing, that The BBC broadcasts, not even their weather forecast, but my wife just said to me – watch TV with me – Countryfile. Now the Global Warmers of The BBC are forecasting -12 Degrees Centigrade – This week – throughout much of the UK.
What if they have got it wrong and it’s going to be Minus 20?
How are The Energy Companies going to supply That amount of Energy?
Lots of people could freeze to death.
If you have a nice warm home, and you see someone literally shivering – cos it is so cold…invite them in – give her a nice cup of tea with milk and lots of sugar – but don’t let her get too close too soon to the roaring coal fire. When you are really really cold, warming up can be extremely painful, unless done gradually. Three hours later after eating, you may be ready for a nice warm bath, then a bed and a sleep.
Being Very Cold is not nice, but it does dull your senses such that you think – am I going to survive if I fall asleep?
And all we hear on The Telly is all this nonsense from rich comfortable people educated at Oxford and Cambridge – about Global Warming.
What a bunch of useless cnts. Try your theories out on the streets of England – homeless with no money – you arseholes.
Tony
£If you have a nice warm home, and you see someone literally shivering – cos it is so cold…invite them in – give her a nice cup of tea with milk and lots of sugar – but don’t let her get too close too soon to the roaring coal fire. When you are really really cold, warming up can be extremely painful, unless done gradually.”
Tony this is hilarious, how about giving ‘him’ a cup of tea as well?…. and a bed to stay.
I have invited a very close friend to stay, should he want to, because I know he has only got one open fireplace in the house,but he declined. I can’t lecture him, his knowledge is far greater than mine, he’s a bio chemist.
What’s next?
nevermind, you are trying to make something out of my post which isn’t there with regards to the sexuality of the people we have invited back to our home – and who have come and sometimes stayed a few hours, a few days or a few months. Instead of being combative and smart – do what I just did, and buy loads of flour and yeast, rice,beans, potatoes, meat and fish and make sure your camping gear is still working so you can cook it when we all get cut off.
Tony
“Now the Global Warmers of The BBC”
Supported by the 97%.
“97% of climate experts agree humans are causing global warming.”
https://www.skepticalscience.com/global-warming-scientific-consensus.htm
No words for this barbarity from a Western supported State that tries to claim the high moral ground; only when we face our own hypocrisy, will there ever be a chance for peace;
https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/939916989526659072
No is the answer, as long as the Zionist Occupiers (many from Russia it should be said) are in Palestine.
Interesting that as soon as a post like that goes up on the so called social media, the usual suspects are there instantly to leave their vitriol.
One should not toss about the word “barbarity” too casually – to do so is to devalue it and make it meaningless
For some real barbarity, check out this link (and then compare with the claimed “barbarity” linked to above) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCR2zS4XUe8
“One should not toss about the word “barbarity” too casually”
I would never use the term “casually; obviously you have a different measure to most people for judging inhumane barbarity, and obviously you cannot understand that the term is actually devalued by those who try to compare one case of barbarity with another; needless to state, the barbarity I highlighted is an ongoing present barbarity that West is actively currently supporting.
The eco-warriers with their flashy new mobile phones, should walk down any canal in England in the morning, and see what the people who live on canal boats, have got stacked up on the roof of their canal boats. You will probably see a lot of wood and maybe some bags of coal. Inside the boat in the tanks – there maybe some diesel – and outside the boat in the compartments for it – there maybe some compressed gas. They know that covering their boat with solar panels and windmills – really ain’t going to help to keep them warm in the sometimes exceedingly cold depths of an English winter. What else can they do? They have no other place to go to, to keep warm
So don’t preach to me about my stack of smokeless coal.
I know what its like to be “That” cold such that you can’t pee – it just comes out in dribbles before it freezes.
https://dncache-mauganscorp.netdna-ssl.com/cropped-wallpapers/1566/1566841-1536×864-%5BDesktopNexus.com%5D.jpg?st=j2GdTQ0RtZ7miz4_o4jCbw&e=1512968739
Recorded with a paint brush.
Tony