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.
A Note From Professor Finkelstien –
I just published a new book, GAZA: An inquest into its martyrdom.
The concluding paragraph reads:
In A Century of Dishonor, written at the end of the 19th century, Helen Hunt Jackson chronicled the destruction of the Native American population by conscious, willful government policy. The book was largely ignored, then forgotten, and finally rediscovered by later generations ready to hear and bear the truth. Speaking to the fate of the Cherokee nation, which was expelled from one tribal homeland after another and finally stripped of its tribal holdings by the US government, Jackson wrote, “there is no record so black as the record of its perfidy to this nation.” The present volume was modeled after her searing requiem. The author holds out faint hope that it will find an audience among his contemporaries. Still, the truth should be preserved; it is the least that’s owed the victims. Perhaps one day in the remote future, when the tenor of the times is more receptive, someone will stumble across this book collecting dust on a library shelf, blow off the cobwebs, and be stung by outrage at the lot of a people, if not forsaken by God then betrayed by the cupidity and corruption, careerism and cynicism, cravenness and cowardice of mortal man. “There will come a time,” Jackson anticipated, “when, to the student of American history, it will seem well-nigh incredible” what was done to the Cherokee. Is it not certain that one day the black record of Gaza’s martyrdom will in retrospect also seem well-nigh incredible?
Strange, but in my mind’s eye the fates of the people of Gaza and Dr Baldeo intersect. An innocent people, an innocent person, crucified. A corrupt system drunk on power that wrecks and destroys lives with impunity. All that remains is a record, to be excavated long after the perpetrators, victims and bystanders are dead and gone.
My life has been a story of lost causes.
But I have no regrets.
None.
“There’s only one fate worse than being a Jew today,” Zionist leader David Ben-Gurion supposedly said during World War 2. “That’s being a Nazi.”
Even in the bleakness and despondency of defeat, I still prefer my fate to that of Michael Chetkof, Allyson Burger and Stacy D. Bennett.
***
Dr Baldeo emptied his bank account today as Chetkof and Burger stood by licking their hideous chops.
Just as Dr Baldeo stood up to leave, Chetkof demanded $7,500 more in attorneys fees, on top of the $100,000 he already collected.
May God watch over Dr Baldeo in his hour of trial.
May he find solace in the knowledge that his magical powers bless the children in his pediatric emergency ward each night with health, hope and happiness.
Norman Finkelstein is a brave and honourable man Brian. Thank you for that.
His book is due out in the New Year.
Gaza: An Inquest Into Its Martyrdom
Norman Finkelstein
Univ of California Press, 9 Jan 2018 – History – 440 pages
The Gaza Strip is among the most densely populated places in the world. More than two-thirds of its inhabitants are refugees, and more than half are under eighteen years of age. Since 2004, Israel has launched eight devastating “operations” against Gaza’s largely defenceless population. Thousands have perished, and tens of thousands have been left homeless. In the meantime, Israel has subjected Gaza to a merciless illegal blockade.
What has befallen Gaza is a man-made humanitarian disaster.
Based on scores of human rights reports, Norman G. Finkelstein’s new book presents a meticulously researched inquest into Gaza’s martyrdom. He shows that although Israel has justified its assaults in the name of self-defence, in fact these actions constituted flagrant violations of international law.
++++ But Finkelstein also documents that the guardians of international law—from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to the UN Human Rights Council—ultimately failed Gaza. One of his most disturbing conclusions is that, after Judge Richard Goldstone’s humiliating retraction of his UN report, human rights organizations succumbed to the Israeli juggernaut.++++
Finkelstein’s magnum opus is both a monument to Gaza’s martyrs and an act of resistance against the forgetfulness of history.’
I have met Lemmy, (Motorhead) In The Marquee, in Wardour Steet, Soho, London and I was not convinced it was such a good idea. They will stink won’t they??
He says’ yeh, but the Americans have paid me loads of money to do this film, and I am also going to be overloaded with Jack Daniels, Coke – & Rock Chicks
What would you do?
“Motörhead – Eat the Rich”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pMVfpKBuyI
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemmy
Tony
On topic; a good piece on how RussiaGate is endangering US national security;
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/48425.htm
No need for Yale’s Alexander Bickel these days. He was guy who wrote that the missing tapes about Nixon’s secrets could be mooted by just firing Special Counsel Archibald Cox.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller isn’t even looking for such incriminating evidence against Trump, as he didn’t as FBI Director in the wake of the government’s vasr screwup on 9/11.
Trowbridge,
Special Prosecutor Meuller is supposed to be investigating allegations that Russia interfered in the recent US general election. Right?
O.K. – from murder to rape and right down the line of serious criminal offences and many civil cases I have argued. In every criminal case, I have noted the following leading up to trial:-
1.There is an arrest of a suspect.
2.With or without an arrest, each suspect or potential source of relevant information is sought to give an interview – usually under caution – for reasons of potential subsequent admissibility of such interview or statement as being central to the prosecution case.
O.K. there is a lot more on the prosecution side – but – for my purposes here I need go no further than the basics of conducting a criminal investigation.
It is public and international knowledge that Wikileaks has in the US MSM been repeatedly been cited as being complicit with Russia in the allegations leveled, which Mueller is said to be “investigating”.
The DNC has been quite vocal, and in particular, Hillary Clinton, in her casting blame on the Russians for her defeat.
Well tell me this:-
A. Since Wilikleaks is claimed to be central to the misdeeds, then what, based on the foregoing do you think should happen? Well, simple – interview Julian Assange who is willing to be interviewed by Mr. Mueller or anyone else assigned to conduct the interview.
B. Since Hillary and the DNC are so vocal in their allegations about Russian hacking -then – since the technology exists to trace – what should Hillary and an honest DNC have done? Well, give the US investigating authorities access to the server, so that a trace can be done ( all the way back to Wikileaks and catch Assange as the culprit) – and link right back to the Russians which the DNC and Hillary so confidently have been affirming are the main culprits. Has that access been given as a simple starting point relative to criminal allegations adamantly made?
C. If, as is the case, the DNC has failed to do what B suggests is logic, then:-
i) Does due process not exist to get court ordered access in respect of an on-going investigation; and
ii) If anything has been destroyed in the face of the investigation – isn’t that a criminal offence re. destruction of relevant evidence in an on-going criminal investigation?
Does it add up; does the charade going on in the US make any sense whatsoever?
I have just noted this:-
The UK’s information tribunal, headed by judge Andrew Bartlett QC, in a summary and ruling published this Thursday on a freedom of information case, says explicitly: “WikiLeaks is a media organisation which publishes and comments upon censored or restricted official materials involving war, surveillance or corruption, which are leaked to it in a variety of different circumstances.”
So, Wikileaks does exist as being highly pertinent to the US investigation and no one ( so far as I am aware) is refusing on the Wilileaks side to be interviewed by Meuller. And further, since the US government itself, wants to seek extradition of Assange, then logically, would not a very detailed interview of Assange serve well to assist and not hamper the processes which the US government itself claims it has legitimate grounds to advance on for extradition? Always assumed that actual information is a draw-card in the prosecution’s hand. So, I advise my clients to remain silent and let the prosecution prove its case as the law requires, especially if I suspect that they may more likely than not incriminate themselves. Cf. this is quite the opposite with Wikileaks which is more that willing to speak with the US authorties on the accusations. In this case, the accused man is willing to speak and be investigated – but the investigation won’t even take the first step to approaching and gathering from the information source that would assist a prosecution. Am I looking at US bullshit or and I just smelling a stink to high heaven…phew! Trump keeps saying “fake news”; so am I here seeing “fake investigation” based on what I have said?
So – if Mueller did interview Assange, then the whole charade would be exposed all the more than what my little legal mind, from a distance, has already picked up on.
Oh – what a fucked up world we live in!
Have a nice day nevertheless.
“Russophobic ‘election-hacking’ conspiracy theory”? Those words do not support any argument.
This world has two leading forces in the fifth domain of warfare. It seems to me that they were both involved in winning the US election.
As for Julian Assange, he clearly fought for Trump.
“What has befallen Gaza is a man-made humanitarian disaster.”
No shit!
This is a very interesting read, Trump, Flynn, Russiagate, Kushner, the UN and Israel, and possibly how Russiagate, is a ruse to cover Trump’s son-in-laws activities in Israel, and the UN.
https://steemit.com/news/@corbettreport/russiagate-is-a-made-up-distraction-the-real-scandal-is-israelgate
Another evidence free trial run smear campaign.
I note that elsewhere you have pointed to Trump’s undermining of Obamacare – although you neglect to mention that this too was a campaign promise. Why would Trump seek to undermine Obamacare? Is it because he hates the idea of health care or could there be a more nuanced explanation?
Here is Donald Trump raging against the opioid epidemic.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2017/oct/30/opioid-epidemic-united-states-and-trump-administra/
Presumably liberals and humanitarians think that killing in excess of 60,000 people per year signifies moral purity.
But wait, there is more. Here is Reuters reporting on surging health care premiums.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-obamacare-premiums/obamacare-benchmark-premiums-up-37-percent-in-2018-after-subsidy-cut-off-idUKKBN1CZ2DG
So Trump is a bad man because he does not want people to effectively finance their own deaths. I have no doubt that there are a whole plethora of micro level errors that can be laid at Trump’s door – but he is looking at the big picture and is simply creating space for less nefarious actors to emerge.
Loony.
If you recall correctly and I’m sure you do your comment was regarding mental health. Which I replied to.
Trump’s budget proposal cuts funding for mental health services:
The 2018 budget proposes a 23% reduction (from $541.5m to $415.5m) in the mental health services block grant.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the National Institute of Mental Health would also see about $625 million in combined cuts under the new budget.
President Trump said that the shooting that left 26 people dead at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas was “a mental health problem,” not a gun problem.
So how does cutting the budget for mental health, whilst giving them access to firearms help them?
I’m just waiting for you supporters of Trump to applaud the day when we talk about a flat earth, OJ is guilty of nothing. and creatures at conception not being fetuses. George Orwell would not be pleased.
Ah Trowbridge, just the fellow, you’re partial to a good conspiracy as am I. What do you make of this.
Start reading from here:
“British billionaire Joe Lewis has acquired immense territories in the South of Argentina and even neighbouring Chile. ”
http://www.voltairenet.org/article198968.html
Sound like a good cheap training ground for the IDF in all environments, and oil and gas deposits for greater Israel.
What of the Argentine Sub, what do you make of its fate?
Why are Argentine politicians calling British subs “pirates” for trying to find the missing one?
Could they be trying to find out what is blacked out in its bow part? Could they be various lasers which were looking for the under-funded missing 1 billion barrels of oil which if found would ruin London hold on them once developed?
Was it another Belgrano job? Only 44 men this time.
Trowbridge.
I was thinking along the lines that the sub never sank in the first place, rather that it was sold or given away, in reference to that article.
If that is the case (and a good conspiracy theorist must keep all his/her options opened) then that would explain Argentine nervousness, surrounding the British search for the sub.
You sound like Jim Fetzer on 9/11, the planes only being holograms. Now it’s no sub .A good consiracy theorist throws away the bad theories.
Important piece that on topic, and then, even more so;
https://steemit.com/news/@corbettreport/russiagate-is-a-made-up-distraction-the-real-scandal-is-israelgate
Already up there Macky @11.39 am.
So it is ! Apologies for the eye-site failure !
No need to apologise Macky, it’s a good article.
This is a very interesting look at a partly funded EU body that collects physical data on the weapons used by ISIS/ISIL/IS.
It in most cases they determines the country of origin of the weapons. It also traces the weapons movements.
For instances how weapons produced in Bulgaria and Hungary, then went to the US (why?) Then onto Saudi Arabia, and then into the hands of IS.
https://www.rt.com/news/413448-isis-illicit-arms-us-iraq/
It was the policy of Obama to support ISIS, General Flynn confirmed this in a 2015 interview. All CAR has done is to provide corroborating evidence to support Flynn’s 2015 statements.
Donald Trump does not want to support ISIS – and has made numerous public statements to this effect. Trump intended using Flynn to bring an end to US support for ISIS. The anti Russian hysteria was the proximate cause for the removal of Flynn and his subsequent indictment. All of this can be seen as mere interference to frustrate the implementation of the Trump policy to cease US support for ISIS.
Here is more background information including part of Flynn’s 2015 interview
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-15/weapons-went-cia-isis-less-two-months-new-study-reveals
Much remains outside of the public domain, but it is known that since the commencement of the Trump Presidency the Russians have succeeded in totally destroying the ISIS presence in Syria.
…and so Donald Trump remains a very bad person indeed and the latest evidence is his unwillingness to support a barbaric, medieval, head chopping ideology. What an awful person.
Some may ask where the money came from to finance ISIS. The answer is likely connected to the $21 trillion stolen from Federal coffers. Trump is not in favor of such larceny and is seeking to defend the American citizenry from such epic theft. What a terrible man he is. All good liberals and humanitarians must surely be in favor of stealing the wealth of a nation in order to fund mass murder.
If only he was not dead then liberals could rally behind Jeffry Dahmer for President .
“Trump is not in favor of such larceny and is seeking to defend the American citizenry from such epic theft. ”
Loony, if you’re well to do yes, otherwise no.
http://fortune.com/2017/11/03/trump-gop-tax-plan-cuts-2017/
Assange told not to interfere in Catalonia: Ecuador president
[email protected]
@thelocalspain
17 December 2017
Ecuador has warned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange not to interfere in Catalonia’s separatist crisis, Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno said in an interview published on Sunday.
Assange, who has been holed up in Ecuador’s embassy in London for the past five years, has angered Madrid by using Twitter to pump out messages of support for Catalonia’s independence drive and accuse Spain’s central government of “repression”.
Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis has said there were signs that Assange was “trying to interfere and manipulate” amid the Catalan crisis after the outspoken Australian met last month with a prominent Catalan
pro-independence figure.
“We do not want to intervene under any circumstances with respect to Catalonia. We hope the problem is resolved as soon as possible for the benefit of all Spaniards,” Moreno told top-selling Spanish daily El Pais.’
The quote comes from a Swedish outfit who print this English version presumably for ex-pats in Spain.
https://www.thelocal.es/20171217/assange-told-not-to-interfere-in-catalonia-ecuador-president
London’s Millenium bridge decked out in yellow ribbons in solidarity with Catalonia. You probably won’t see that in the mainstream media news.
https://www.scoopnest.com/user/CatalansForYes/942360488381468672-london-s-millennium-bridge-full-of-yellow-ribbons-in-solidarity-with-catalonia-awesome
Nor these bridges around Europe decked out in support as well.
https://mobile.twitter.com/CataloniaHelp2?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwingsoverscotland.com%2Fplease-think-of-the-millionaires%2F
Sounds like Moreno is tipping his hat to the old country, Pizzaro and all that.
Hardy ex-pats in Spain. The Local is for English-speaking ex-pats everywhere. I posted thousands of times on the thread until I decided the other ones were hopeless like those here.
I assumed that the suffix ‘.es’ indicates Spain as in ‘the local.es’.
Think you will find the abbreviation Se, meaning Sweden.
.es ffs
https://www.thelocal.es/20171217/assange-told-not-to-interfere-in-catalonia-ecuador-president
Craig was briefly referenced to in George Webb’s episode 55.6 called “Where would you meet Christopher Steele in DC?” Referencing to the hand-over point at the parking-lot outside the British embassy. Wish you all peaceful holidays.
Interview by Sputnik of Cretico:
https://sputniknews.com/radio_loud_and_clear/201712161060047186-hauled-before-congress/
Sorry Credico
Craig gets is mentionioned around 21 minutes.
And at 44m minutes Sekunder Burns
Well, it looks as if all the fuss over Trump announcing the relocation of the US Embassy to Jerusalem (the capital of the State of Israel for many decades now) has died down and not before time too. As cooler heads predicted, the Middle East has not gone up in flames, there is no sign of a third intifada, there have been muted responses – pro forma responses – from Russia and China, and various other actors, Iran has not been attacked and World War 3 continues to shine by its absence (although probably still giving some people sweaty nights).
It can be predicted with some confidence that other countries will follow the US lead in the time to come. It is, after all, a mere recognition of the facts on the ground and merely a matter of practicality and common sense.
I think the writing is on the wall for the Apartheid State; it’s crackdown, especially on children, not to mention it’s murder of people in wheelchairs, following Trump’s announcement is making many of it’s one-time supporters in the West realise how such inhumanity reflects on them; for those others supporters of course, this best sums them up;
“Imagine how despicable you need to be, as an IDF sniper, to be far away and decide to snipe a wheelchair-bound double amputee carrying a flag, who clearly was posing no risk to them or anyone. Now imagine what kind of human waste you need to be to defend that.”
I did not say that the fuss made by a couple pf posters on here and elsewhere had died down. But fuss from from them is of no consequence whether moral or practical.
Resistance is futile.
Israel must be kicking itself for letting Abby Martin to visit; they quickly realised their mistake & banned her during her visit from going to Gaza, but the damage has be done, as millions of people have now seen her Empire Files shows about her Israeli visit, and she has spread what she saw far & wide;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6AeLr6eZy4
I think Apartheid Israel won’t even last until the inevitable demographic time-bomb hits it, as more & more people are asking how can the ‘civilized West’ watch this cowardly, wicked thuggery and do nothing?
This is a great and important link – thanks you
I think the “fuss” you refer to is rather more than that.
Private faith schools run by religious conservatives are “deliberately resisting” British values and equalities law, according to the chief inspector of schools in England, who appealed for school inspectors to be given new powers to seize evidence during visits.
Of the 140 small Muslim private schools inspected by Ofsted in the year, 28% were graded as inadequate, along with 38% of Jewish private schools and 18% of Christian schools.
Re-arranging the deck chairs might cause dyslocation of the neck.
That’s two books I have bought within a week. One is largely Russian sourced and written in almost perfect English (US) ( I will check for spelling mistakes later)
The other one, I bought today, was written by a friend of mine. He has worked in The British Civil Service in Westminster since a boy. He wanted £5 for it. I offerred him the change in my pocket – which came to £1.50 in the pub today. He not only accepted my offer of £1.50. but under my wife’s insistence – he signed it
He sold at least two more books today
The title of his book (and I suspect he still writes Theresa May’s speeches)
Is “Rotten To The Core”
Jesus – He’s got it out on Amazon.
I can’t recommend it, cos I have not read it yet..His previous book Kingdom Come, needs serious editing, so its one third the size
Some people I know, are trying to make a living out of writing books, and publishing them.
They have my utmost respect, even if I disagree with them.
https://www.amazon.com/Rotten-Core-Rob-Murphy/dp/1546283005
Tony
Is there some reason that you have omitted mention of demonstrations in Sweden?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7nP12-d9Nc
You can see people express an interest in “aiming and shooting” at certain other people – none of those people being Donald Trump, the proximate cause for current protests.
If memory serves correctly did not Trump warn the world of the dangers being inculcated in Sweden? Could it possibly be that Sweden is now so toxic that apart from Trump absolutely no-one else can even bear to mention the name Sweden?
Loony,
Yea, I accept that, but the author’s wannabe Girlfriend, is Our Spanish Ambassador, and she is in love with me and my wife
She invited us on holiday (my wife and I) to a week in Espana
He is like a little boy, and she is sweet and innocent too – and can dance the original Spanish dances -as if she is still a kid..
But we all came to the same conclusion after a week living with her..
Too hot too handle – but we all still love her to bits.
She’s a nice Girl, and Her Kids are Brilliant.
Totally Amazing Wedding in the most Beautiful Location in England
Our Spanish Ambassador invited My wife and I to her Daughter’s Wedding, and not the bloke who wrote the book. She just loves my wife, and I can understand that – they are like two little girls together – up to mischief.
We no understand your American lingo.
Tony
How awkward for the airhead ! On the day Angelina Jolie cries out for NATO to defend women’s rights (!), (yes I’m not making this up), a Saudi-led coalition air raids kill 10 women in Yemen.
As Assange sardonically tweets, “This might be even worse than Harvey Weinstein.”
Was she with Billy ‘Fourteen Pints’ Hague, as before? :))
Petition: Westminster must investigate evidence of MPs raping children
https://www.change.org/p/we-call-on-the-government-labour-and-lib-dems-to-launch-investigations-into-allegations-that-mps-and-peers-raped-and-assaulted-children-throughout-the-1980s-and-1990s
Theresa May could not have made it plainer that she does not want to see them brought to justice. In Britain, that’s not something that will ever be held against her.
The worldwide protests against Trump’s deliberately incendiary proposal continue.
‘80,000 protest Trump’s Jerusalem recognition in Indonesia (VIDEO)
18 Dec 2017
Around 80,000 people took to the streets in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, on Sunday to again decry US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.
The protest, which was organized by Indonesia’s senior Muslim clergy, began in front of Jakarta’s central mosque. The people, many of whom arrived from outside the capital, then marched towards the US embassy.
The event was peaceful as 20,000 police officers were deployed to provide security. The demonstrators carried Palestinian flags and banners condemning Trump for his move. Many in the crowd were wearing Muslim robes and jointly held prayers, Al Jazeera reported.’
RT
80,000 protest Trump’s Jerusalem recognition in Indonesia (VIDEO) https://www.rt.com/news/413480-indonesia-protest-trump-jerusalem/
Oh no 80,000 people in Indonesia protesting President Trump. Would this be the same Indonesia as the Indonesia that slaughtered at least 110,000 people in East Timor?
Why no mention of the protests in Sweden? Swedish protests are noteworthy in that they preempted by some time the announcement by President Trump. How else to explain the outpouring of dissent that resulted in 23 bomb attacks in a 2 month period.
Loony by name. Loony by nature.
Aint it funny how you forensically comb over every single injustice in Palestine that you can find, and yet are entirely contemptuous and dismissive of the horrors inflicted on East Timor.
Or of the horrors inflicted on the Rohingya in Burma.
Err, Palestine is current on-going; East Timor horrors occurred in the last century; I think that Sharp Ears is one of the very few posters that I remember who has actually posted about Rohingya.
From the ever helpful RT, as relayed above :
“Around 80,000 people took to the streets in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, on Sunday to again decry US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.”
The population of Jakarta is 9.6 million and the population of Java, the island on which Jakarta lies, is 141 million.
It looks as if “Indonesia’s senior Muslim clergy” didn’t do too well, doesn’t it.
‘The UN Security Council is expected to vote Monday on a resolution confirming the international status of Jerusalem and outlawing any changes to it – which implies the recent US move to recognize it as the capital of Israel.
The text of the document, drafted by Egypt, which was seen by Reuters, says that “any decisions and actions which purport to have altered the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded in compliance with relevant resolutions of the Security Council.”
It does not specifically mention the US or its recent decision to officially recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, but it implies a call on Washington to withdraw it. The text also mentions “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem.”’
UN Security Council to vote on outlawing Trump’s Jerusalem decision https://www.rt.com/news/413475-un-vote-us-jerusalem/
It’s the right thing to do, giving Jerusalem international city status, though it’s almost certain that the US will vote the resolution down.
You would have thought that the West would be grateful to the small country on the eastern border of Europe, that have given so much to the West, not just culturally, but also defended Europe militarily from all the way from the time of the Persians, to all the centuries when the Byzantines kept Europe safe from the many threats from the East, to its heroic & inspiring resistance in the WW2; but no, the payback from the two-faced West has always been treachery, bloodshed, sedition & extortion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG66UwQetz0
I did not view the full video but presume it referred to the letter bomb attack on former PM Papedemos and two Bank of Greece employees. Large amounts of money are sloshing around in Greece, but not among the people, in connection with pipeline building, but I also recall the murder of a Brtiish military charge d’affaires a few years ago.As in Italy ,the CIA and its factions would not think twice about such an action but I would keep an open mind.
No, you’re wrong – it appears to refer to an attempted assassination of Prime minister Costas Karamanlis.
I’m afraid you’ll have to pay to see the full “expose”……
My mistake but odd coincidence. but glad you at least support Sybil Edmund’s excellent work . Maybe you could put me on the chums’ list for a full Newsbud subscription
I’m afraid I don’t support Sibel Edmond’s “work” at all and certainly not to the extent of paying good money to subscribe to her propaganda outfit (cf my post at 19h45, below ); here’s enough fake news out there for free.
More details here;
http://russia-insider.com/en/cia-plan-assassinate-greek-pm-karamanlis-ties-russia-exclusive-report/ri21250
It occurs to me that a Russian propaganda outlet (“Russia Insider”) would have a certain interest in attempting to sow dissent among allies.
The reason none of this was reported at the time – or subsequently – was that it never happened. A good example of fake news.
You seriously think Sibel Edmonds would risk her credibility by referring to classified documents that don’t exist !
Certainly, Macky. The chutzpah of some people knows no limits and Mzzz Edmonds can be certain that some anti-US fanatics would believe her if she reported that there was a CIA plot to turn the moon into green cheese.
“and Mzzz Edmonds can be certain that some anti-US fanatics would believe her”
On the contrary, it’s exactly because her credibility is so good, that the US made her the “The most gagged woman in US history”;
http://www.newsbred.com/%E2%80%9C-most-gagged-woman-us-history%E2%80%9D
Given her secret service background, I’m sure that she’s 100% certain that the documents relating to the attempted assassination of Prime minister Costas Karamanlis are not fake.
Also as she’s charging for the full scoop, she would be opening herself up to being humiliatingly sued to return funds if indeed the story was fake.
There, put your money where your mouth is & pay for the scoop, then claim back your investment with interest when you’ve prove it’s fake ! 😀
I would share Kercee’s caution with regard to what’s on the link kindly provided by Macky..
All the more so because the link is really a kind of advert for a 50 minute long interview described as follows :
“Newsbud’s founder and editor Sibel Edmonds interviews independent investigative journalist Chris Melidis, based in Kavala, Greece. Sibel and Chris cover the assassination plot by the CIA to remove the former Greek Prime Minister. In this 50+ minute long, must see interview, Edmonds and Melidis also delve into the current geopolitical turmoil between the east and west, Operation Gladio B, the refugee crisis in Greece, and much more. Exclusively available for Newsbud Community Members.”
It seems from the last sentence that you have to pay good money to actually get to see the interview……
Operation Green Candles carried out by the IDF, saw over 400 Palestinian community leaders arrested, in an attempt to quell the protests over Trump’s inane declaration.
However the mass arrests, have not halted the outcry from the oppressed Palestinian people, as the disquiet enters its twelfth day.
Judicial and community leaders are illegally held under a Israeli term called administrative detention.
What you say is true.
Now consider this:
A suicide bomb and gun attack on a Methodist Church in Pakistan killed 9 people. This latest incident follows a clearly established pattern of attacks on Christians throughout the MENA region. In Iraq for example the Christian population has declined bu 80% in a decade – down from 1.4 million in 2003 to 275,000 today.
There has been no outcry from oppressed Christian people and there is no disquiet. Christian community leader are not held illegally under a term called administrative detention. They have been killed instead.
Aint moral relativism a joy to behold.
“Aint moral relativism a joy to behold.”
Best try again Loony; that there are sectarian attacks on Christian communities by Islamic terrorists, something we have no control over, and indeed suffer from ourselves, is in no meaningful way comparable to the Israeli State crimes, committed against Muslims & Christians, and indirectly encouraged, indeed only enabled by the support of our Western government, which is why we protest.
As to holding up Iraq as an example, you would do well to remember that before the attack on Iraq, there was no sectarian violence, and therefore best direct your criticism to those same Western governments responsible also for this running sectarian bloodbath legacy.
Oh please, do me a favor.
What do you think the slaughter in East Timor was all about? It was a massive attack on a Christian population and it was carried out by the most populous Muslim nation on earth. The efficiency of the slaughter was significantly aided by British military aircraft sales to Indonesia. You really think that the British were unable to do anything at all other than sell weapons to Indonesia?
If you are really saying that “we” (presumably meaning the UK) have no control over being attacked then “we” may as well embrace the end game and literally commit collective suicide right now.
There was plenty of violence in Iraq prior to your attack on it. It was state violence and it was designed to prevent more widespread and uncoordinated violence against the very same groups that are now being decimated.
If you are really interested in the plight of the Palestinians then those who protest it would do well to look in the mirror and recognize their own culpability. By and large the people so interested in Palestinians are the very same people who were so interested in opposing Apartheid. Eventually the South Africans saw things your way and you immediately abandoned them. As a consequence of this abandonment white South Africans are under constant attack. On an 8 point scale Genocide Watch estimates that South Africa is at stage 6. The fat lady has most certainly not yet begun to sing in Johannesburg.
The Israeli’s see all this and have no intention of suffering the same fate. In part their intransigence is rooted in the past behavior of people who wail so loudly against injustices. If the Israeli’s see things your way – then what exactly are you going to do next? If you are honest then your answer will be absolutely nothing beyond a celebration of schadenfreude,
“There was plenty of violence in Iraq prior to your attack on it. It was state violence and it was designed to prevent more widespread and uncoordinated violence against the very same groups that are now being decimated.”
Loony.
I’d say, tha Iraq, since the wests intervention under Bush senior, has been in a state of turmoil, with god knows how many deaths. Even Saddam didn’t kill that many of his country men, Iraq, is still a very unstable country.
Where to start on Libya, after the west razed it to the ground, again fatalities are in the high numbers, and the country be all means is now a failed state. Gaddafi was a tyrant, however it was the civilsed Christian’s that orchestrated the Libyan disaster.
I’ll address this as well Loony.
“Eventually the South Africans saw things your way and you immediately abandoned them. As a consequence of this abandonment white South Africans are under constant attack. On an 8 point scale Genocide Watch estimates that South Africa is at stage 6. The fat lady has most certainly not yet begun to sing in.”
Since the white man set foot in Africa, the indigenous natives have been oppressed, beginning with the Boers, (which means farmer) who were intent on keeping (black) as slaves.
Anyway, fast forward and black South Africans suffered under the likes of the white de Klerk’s administrations.
Then Mandel oversaw the first democratic elections in South Africa’s history. Now Mandela’s gone his corrupt ANC party has provided the lastest leaders, and the black man still isn’t any better-off for it.
I shudder to think how many native Africans from French North Africa, to the once occupied British South Africa, with the Belgian Congo, inbetween, the white man has exploited for his own gain. Christianity at work.
@Loony, You seems to be all over the place if you’re citing East Timor in support of your previous comments ! Yes, both the UK & US, even Australia could have prevented the Indonesian invasion of East Timor, with it’s associated genocidal bloodbath, just like if they cut-off all support for the Apartheid Israeli State, it would collapse within a week, if not overnight.
“If you are really saying that “we” (presumably meaning the UK) have no control over being attacked then “we” may as well embrace the end game and literally commit collective suicide right now.”
???!!! Is this supposed to be a response to pointing out that yes terrorists attacks occur in Muslim countries, just like they do in Western countries ?!!
“There was plenty of violence in Iraq prior to your attack on it. It was state violence and it was designed to prevent more widespread and uncoordinated violence against the very same groups that are now being decimated.”
Your comments were concerned with sectarian violence, yet now you’ve move onto State using violence to stop sectarian violence, something that every State does when facing internal strife !?
Regarding South Africa, yes the same sort of people for the same sort of reasons who opposed Apartheid then, also oppose it now in Israel, but surely you’re not arguing that they were wrong to be concerned with the inhumane oppression that millions of Black South Africans had to endure, any more than it was wrong for those that struggle for Black Civil Rights in the US ?! The picture you paint of the modern RSA, where a genocide is occurring, is not one that is reflected by the various organisation that monitor Human Rights; can they all be wrong, but you be right ?
As to using what or what did not happen in South Africa to argue against people being concerned with the suffering of the Palestinians, well, that’s just intellectual, as well as moral bankruptcy.
@Macky – If I make so bold, you do not appear particularly devoted to following an argument.
It was you that sought to posit a difference between atrocities committed as part of state policy (Israel) and atrocities committed by non state actors (Islamic terrorists). This was important to your argument as it allowed for an explanation as to the different responses to Israeli atrocities and the atrocities of terrorists.
My point had to do with moral relativism and the example of East Timor, where atrocities were committed by the Indonesian state directly abetted by the British state elicited a markedly different response to the atrocities committed by Israel. Hence moral relativism.
My point regarding the range of options available to Islamic terrorism was a direct response to your claim that we have no control over such events. It is manifestly obvious that such attacks could be eliminated – all that is lacking (and perhaps appropriately) is the will to initiate the necessary counter measures.
No-one is arguing that it was wrong to be concerned with the inhumane oppression of millions of black South Africans. The point is that the conditions of the majority of the population remain broadly unchanged (although I note that their current plight is no longer attributed to “inhumane oppression”) and the very survival of the minority is in credible doubt. This being the case then there would not appear to be very much by way of credible concern. Credible concern would have required maintaining involvement until such time as it was clear and obvious that improvement for the masses had been realized and that the minority ran no material risk of extermination.
@Loony,
Well if I be no less as bold as you, no, I pick-up on your comparison between State violence & non-State violence, as your immediate post in response to ROS Israel related post, was to comment about Islamic terrorism.
Iro of East Timor, you state that it “elicited markedly different response to the atrocities committed by Israel”; firstly the Indonesian invasion happened way back in the mid 1970’s, just after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, just after the Yom Kippur War, did any of these “elicit” a markedly different response to the modern response of “in-your-face” coverage that we get now, especially on Social Media ? Secondly, what was occurring during the very long occupation (1975-1999) was kept hidden, and it was actually, that well-known leading Palestinian Supporter, John Pilger who bravely filmed clandestinely in occupied East Timor in 1994, to produce the documentary “Death of a Nation”, that first revealed the horrors that were occurring; for both of these reasons, your charge of “moral relativism” I think is null & void.
I’m fascinated with your claim, as I’m sure all Government advisers & security experts will be, that Islamic terrorism can be “eliminated” with the “necessary counter measures” ! Pray do tell, but please don’t bother if it involves mushroom clouds !
I can’t see how you can possible say that for the majority of South Africans, their condition remain “broadly unchanged” ! Yes there is still lots of poverty, but they are no longer living with the humiliation, oppression & State violence of living under a dehumanising Apartheid Regime; would you yourself have no preference, poor under Aparthied, or poor as an equal free human being ?!
To which minority are you referring to,using words like “genocide”, claiming that their very survival is in doubt ? Do you mean the former white rulers, the land-owners ? Last time I check, whose who weren’t happen with the ending of Apartheid, left the country; if those that remain are being officially oppressed, why are the Human Rights Organisation not picking it up ? If they are falling victims to the serious problem of crime, they are far from the only ones, but if they are non-proportionally targeted more often, could it be simply be because they are perceived as being more affluent ?
Loony.
Yes, Christian’s are persecuted in region around the globe. Pakistan in my opinion is a quasi-lawless state, where even Muslim politicians and law makers are gunned down if they try to aid Christians.
I condemn those cowardly murderous attacks, and although the persecution has been going on for some time, I’m sure you’ll agree that it has intensified due to the wests interventions in Middle East and North Africa, and indeed indiscriminate drone bombing in Pakistan.
The Great Satan (consecutive US government administration) actions with regards to Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan, hasn’t exactly endeared Christians in the ME and NA, has it now.
In historical terms the west has on a regular basis, attacked, regime changed and blunderously, after the defeat and break-up of the Ottoman empire, redrew borders, in a rather casual fashion.
Republicofscotland, You wrote this “Pakistan in my opinion is a quasi-lawless state, where even Muslim politicians and law makers are gunned down if they try to aid Christians”
Are you an American? Maybe part of a CIA sleeper cell?
British people tend not to use the term “law makers”, That is American terminology. When exactly were you last in Pakistan? Have you ever been there or did you just read about it?
The last evidence I saw of a Pakistani town/city was of an extremely rich and refined shopping centre, that put Luton, Oldham, and Glasgow to shame (as well as any equivalent place in the USA). The people, are slim, well dressed and beautiful. Not fat blobs wobbling between KFC, Weatherspoons and McDonalds, with their arses hanging out of their knickers, and their guts spilling out of their jeans.
Tony
I have been to Pakistan. I am not part of the protected elite and so was required to fend for myself. Much of what you say is true, but you seem to have omitted the raw terror that any sane person would feel as they attempt to navigate their way around the place. Much of this terror is attributable to the fact that you can almost literally feel the hate directed your way.
I would not recommend it. It is second only to Algeria in my personal list of least favorite places in the world.
Here is an example of Pakistani culture.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-35341256
You tell me if you consider this to be sane, and how on earth you can relate to such a mindset.
http://biblehub.com/matthew/5-30.htm
Unfortunately this is what happens when people take scriptures too seriously.
RoS You write: “The Great Satan (consecutive US government administration) actions with regards to Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan, hasn’t exactly endeared Christians in the ME and NA, has it now.”
Maybe or maybe not. Allow me to recommend a book to you which may offer a slightly different perspective
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Neoconservative-Revolution-Jewish-Intellectuals-Shaping/dp/0521545013
“Much of this terror is attributable to the fact that you can almost literally feel the hate directed your way.”
You use the second person pronoun to describe an experience you yourself claim you had? You seem to be saying that you were terrified, that your hosts represented a threat, but that your own sanity was best represented by a reaction of terror.
You seem to confuse cause and effect but also reality and perception. As others of the sane on this board often seem to. You suggest isolated insanity on behalf of entire civilisations but refuse to to see their culture as anything other than an adjunct to your experience of the world, that of a sane and just, sage-like being, above the dirty business of his own culture and certainly opposed to any attempt to curtail that business, which you often claim would be futile. Better to blame ‘yourself’ if anyone. You seem to see ‘them’ less as the effect of continuous ideological, psychological and military attack for centuries and more as a mystifying and causeless decadence. Which presumably has a cultural and or genetic origin, manifesting itself quite spontaneously.
https://vimeo.com/17633599
I am not sure that your deconstruction of my syntax is accurate – but as English is not my first language I will accept the advice of my linguistic masters.
I would not regard Pakistani’s as my hosts – or do you claim to be hosting the full myriad range of immigrants to the UK. I am told that such a claim could easily be construed as racist.
I am most definitely not referring to my personal sanity. It is my contention that all sane people would experience a reaction of terror. Having reread my comment I remain content that my point was clear, and that you are doing no more than seeking to undermine my personal confidence in my grasp of your language.
It is almost certain that your culture is not my culture, and I wonder why you would be so keen to associate me with you. Assuming your culture to be British then it is the case that I see your culture as an adjunct to my experiences of it. Do you have any suggestions as how I could more accurately view British culture that would either not rely on. or discount my experiences of it. If this is an appropriate methodology for viewing British culture then why would it be an inappropriate methodology to view Pakistani or any other culture?
You are correct that I view British culture as a mystifying and causeless decadence. I would be more than happy to be assisted in the event I am in error. Pakistan is many things, but it is manifestly not decadent – you cannot persuade decadent people to sever their own hands as a form of religious observance.
Meanwhile as wages stagnate, and the cost of living rises sharply. The Queen will see a 6.5% rise.
The sovereign stands to receive £45.6m in 2017-18 – a 6.5% increase on this year’s £42.8m. The amount would represent a 57% increase for the monarch since 2012, when she received £29.1m.
A 57% increase, wow, I doubt the average worker today will see that sort of increase over the same period of time.
Lets not forget that we have a cosseted unemployed prince and his jobless foreign girlfriend, (whom the Home Office will surely deny residency) wedding coming up next year, excluding the fortune it costs the taxpayer for security of the royal spongers per se, the costs will shoot up with regards to the coming matrimonial debacle.
The Tory Government has quietly axed a mortgage protection scheme that’s been around since 1948.
Thousands of hard-up older people are being given a stark choice: sign up to a “second mortgage”
http://truepublica.org.uk/united-kingdom/tory-govt-quietly-axes-mortgage-protection-scheme-thats-around-since-1948/
Meanwhile Michael Gove, and several other eager Brexiteers are urging Theresa May, to axe the Work Time Directive. Which currently stands at 48 hours per-week.
At present you can opt out of the 48 hour limit, unless you are under 18 years of age.
One of the Scotland in Union idiots Merryn Somersett Webb has a new article in Money Week. She says that a couple in Scotland with a joint income of £150 000 a year are going to be paying about £1100 more in tax. So daft Merryn says their skiing holiday is going to be stolen by Nicola Sturgeon!
They might well be quite piste.
Ms Haley at work presumably.
US vetoes UN resolution on withdrawing Trump’s Jerusalem decision
Published: 18 Dec 2017 | 17:42 GMT
The US has vetoed the UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution on Jerusalem, which had demanded the American decision recognizing the city as the Israeli capital be withdrawn. All other UNSC members voted in favor of the document.
As the tentacles of the Chinese economic pot of gold, reach far and wide, with investments just about everywhere. One could be forgiven for thinking that China is a 21st century model of expansion.
However if I said that prisoners in the country were march out in front of crowds into a sports arena, and executed, Saudi Arabia or IS would pop into your mind and not China, you’d be correct of course, however China, is publicly executing prisoners, some without appeal in sports arena’s now.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-42403250
It is well known that China executes X amount of people every year, no public records are produced, in essence we don’t really know how many people innocent or not China is terminating, or for what reasons.
With the re election of Xi Jingping more restricted and incisive laws have been enacted. The crack down on human rights lawyers in China through violence and intimidation has seen a sharp rise, arrest and detention are not uncommon. Activists are detained ill treated and even killed without legal representation.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/asia-and-the-pacific/china/report-china/
Republicofscotland,
Amnesty International were infected by The CIA many years ago. Such organisations have such utter total creeps as David Miliband working for them and directing Propaganda and Lies. I accept that these organisations have many honourable people working for them, trying to do good work, which can’t be said for the utter UK Abortion in Syria – called White Helmets. I accept that in that respect – our British Government is The Pits – but that is only because they have been infected by you American arseholes too.
As regards to more recent genocides committed by The Chinese VS The Americans and us British – well just try and tot up the numbers. We are Far worse than The Chinese at least over the last 20 years or so.
The Muslims, The Russians and even the Is’rli’s and Chinese – hardly even figure, compared to The Millions we have slaughtered.
Tony
Sure the Americans commit a lot of crimes. The British just do what they are told to do, nothing more and nothing less. But are they “far worse than the Chinese”?
If you are to be killed does the proximate cause really matter all that much? The Chinese execute something over 1,500 people per year. Over 60,000 Chinese are killed each year in industrial accidents and over 250,000 Chinese are killed each year in road traffic accidents. These numbers are not exactly indicative of a country that places a high premium on human life. (NB: This sums to around 6.2 million deaths over your preferred 20 year time frame)
I imagine the British are far too lazy to kill that number of people on a regular basis. Although self loathing Brits can comfort themselves with the thought that as they demand ever more garbage trinkets at ever lower prices they are helping the Chinese to maintain their rates of industrial deaths.
“I imagine the British are far too lazy to kill that number of people on a regular basis.”
I disagree. The British have regulations in place to prevent it happening.
I take it you mean, regulations in place to prevent laziness as a hindrance to killing on a regular basis.
Chinese mortality? Pah! A bagatelle; the Raj managed to oversee an average of 1 million famine deaths a year 1876-1901.
@ K Crosby – Your self loathing appears to be so all consuming that it trumps all reason.
The original poster claimed to be only interested in comparative death tolls over the last 20 years, and so naturally you talk about deaths in the 19th century and seek to make a wholly inaccurate comparison. If you were interested in truth as opposed to self flagellation then you would acknowledge the estimated 45 million Chinese deaths that occurred in a 4 year period during the Great Leap Forward and the 15 to 20 million Chinese deaths that occurred in World War 2..
Possibly these deaths of no interest to you as there is no plausible way to blame the British. You also omit to mention that most of the carnage suffered during World War 2 was inflicted by the Japanese and that the British, along with others, fought to prevent the Japanese inflicting the same kind of carnage on India as it did on China.
It is an interesting philosophical question as to what happens when a masochist meets a sadist. I suspect that in the near future an answer will be provided to this question – I suspect you will not like the answer.
Correct. In 2012, Suzanne Nossel, ex US State Department, became the Executive Director of Amnesty USA.
What evil.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzanne_Nossel
My post on here about that appointment attracted a new and unwelcome contributor to this board.
1/. Having read the link provided by the above poster I find nothing “evil” about Ms Suzanne Nossel. Quite the contrary in fact – she seems to be an admirable person and well fitted to be the Executive Director of Amnesty International.
2/ .Under the new moderating regime introduced by Craig some time ago I do not believe it is the job of posters to pronounce on whether new posters are “unwelcome”. The way to engage with new posters is, surely, to engage with their ideas rather than making personal statements of dislike.
Must be a good friend of Ms Albright* and Mr Kissinger.
‘She has served as a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, the Center for American Progress and the Council on Foreign Relations.’
*NB The price was not worth it.
Say no more ,Sharp ears, she’s been thoroughly vetted and groomed to perform for the task in hand, but human rights are not her strong point.
As for our Greek philosopher here who seems to still have the task to sow confusion, we have to just keep throwing our stones into the left bucket.
The link kindly supplied by Sharp Ears says the following:
Previously, she served as Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, from January 2, 2012 to January 11, 2013.] Her work there led to the successful passage of the Afghan Women and Girls Security and Promotion Act of 2012, …..
Prior to her tenure at Amnesty International, she served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of International Organization Affairs in 2009, where she was responsible for multilateral human rights, humanitarian affairs, women’s issues, public diplomacy, press, and congressional relations. At the State Department, Nossel played a leading role in U.S. engagement at the U.N. Human Rights Council, including the initiation of groundbreaking human rights resolutions on Iran, Syria, Libya, Côte d’Ivoire, freedom of association, freedom of expression, and the first U.N. resolution on the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons…..
From 1999 to 2001 she served as Deputy to the Ambassador for U.N. Management and Reform at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations under Richard C. Holbrooke, where she was the lead U.S. representative to the U.N. General Assembly negotiating a deal to settle the U.S. arrears to the world body…….
She has served as a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, the Center for American Progress and the Council on Foreign Relations. She was also a law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, has worked to curb political violence in South Africa, and has monitored elections and documented human rights in Bosnia and Kosovo.”
So I would suggest that she has had quite a distinguished and successful career in the human rights field, which has served to “groom” (to use Nevermind’s word) her rather well for the “task in hand” (Nevermind’s words again).
Looks like the Trump administration putting the meat ax to heath and safety rules isn’t proving a good idea.
Anyone have a new super glue to keep high speed trains glued to the tracks?
I am surprised that a conspiracy theorist such as yourself would choose such a mundane explanation for the latest US rail crash.
Here are some much more interesting theories – together with background circumstantial evidence
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-19/anarchist-group-deletes-article-bragging-about-april-train-track-sabotage-near-monda
Banksy and Danny Boyle. ALTERNATIVITY.
Tomorrow Weds BBC 2
11 pm.
‘The story begins when Danny Boyle, the internationally acclaimed director who brought us “Trainspotting” and “Slumdog Millionaire”, arrives at Tel Aviv airport at the behest of Banksy. Greeted by Wisam Salsaa, the manager of Banksy’s The Walled Off Hotel, Boyle reflects that the closest he has been to Israel-Palestine, or indeed the Middle East, is probably Mallorca. Staring out of his hotel window (The Walled Off advertises itself as offering the worst view in the world) the starkness of the separation barrier is quickly driven home. Likening it to nails in the ground, crude and brutal, it is clear that Boyle is only just beginning to understand the scope of the challenge at hand.’
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20171218-banksy-and-boyles-bethlehem-alternativity/
iPlayer. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09kdtq6/alternativity-2017-2-performance
Something odd there. Clicking on the Play arrow brings up Attenborough on Jumbo the Elephant. You have to delete that and sign into the iPlayer. ???WTF. Deliberate or an error. You decide.
Queen Elizabeth is leaking.
That’s the aircraft carrier btw.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42406138
All those £billions. Tut. Tut!
Dismissed as trivial by retired admiral Parry on Sky News earlier. All boats and ships leak. That is why they have pumps.
‘Thank you for rectifying that story’ said the presenter merrily. She had been holding up the Sun whose front page bore the headline – Up Ship Creek.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5168494/hms-elizabeth-leak-navy-repairs-millions/
Its engine sounds like a box of spanners, apparently, according yo those who have been listening on sonar. She is no asset to us, but to the military industrial complex that eventually hire’s it for little wars, piled high with x or y jets/helicopters delivering the arms to those little children who really need food and medicine and their mums.
Leaks what leaks? some magic mastic will sort this out, the polish welders have gone home.
“Queen Elizabeth is leaking.
That’s the aircraft carrier btw.”
________________________
That reminds me if the many (and rather more serious) troubles experienced by the (civilian) transatlantic liner “Queen Elizabeth 2” during her sea trials.
It seems that many of them were due to the shoddy workmanship of the heavily-unionised British workmen charged with building her and her turbines.
No wonder that British manufacturing was in a downward slide.