The entire “liberal” media and political establishment of the Western world reveals its militarist, authoritarian soul today with the screaming and hysterical attacks on the very prospect of detente with Russia. Peace apparently is a terrible thing; a renewed arms race, with quite literally trillions of dollars pumped into the military industrial complex and hundreds of thousands dying in proxy wars, is apparently the “liberal” stance.
Political memories are short, but just 15 years after Iraq was destroyed and the chain reaction sent most of the Arab world back to the dark ages, it is now “treason” to question the word of the Western intelligence agencies, which deliberately and knowingly produced a fabric of lies on Iraqi WMD to justify that destruction.
It would be more rational for it to be treason for leaders to blindly accept the word of the intelligence services.
This is especially true on “Russia hacking the election” when, after three years of crazed accusations and millions of man hours by lawyers and CIA and FBI investigators, they are yet to produce any substantive evidence of accusations which are plainly nuts in the first place. This ridiculous circus has found a few facebook ads and indicted one Russian for every 100,000 man hours worked, for unspecified or minor actions which had no possible bearing on the election result.
There are in fact genuine acts of election rigging to investigate. In particular, the multiple actions of the DNC and Democratic Party establishment to rig the Primary against Bernie Sanders do have some very real documentary evidence to substantiate them, and that evidence is even public. Yet those real acts of election rigging are ignored and instead the huge investigation is focused on catching those who revealed Hillary’s election rigging. This gets even more absurd – the investigation then quite deliberately does not focus on catching whoever leaked Hillary’s election rigging, but instead seeks to prove that the Russians hacked Hillary’s election-rigging, which I can assure you they did not. Meanwhile, those of us who might help them with the truth if they were actually interested, are not questioned at all.
The Russophobic witch hunt has its first real life victim in 29 year old Maria Butina, whose life is to be destroyed for chatting up members of the NRA in order to increase Russian influence. With over 20 years of diplomatic experience, I can tell you that every country, including the UK and US, has bit part players of its own nationals who self-start in a country to make their way, and if they gain any traction are tapped by their national security service as potential “agents of influence”. I could name quite literally scores of such people, but have no desire to get anyone in trouble. The elevation of Butina into a huge threat and part of a gigantic plot, is to ignore the way the United States and the United Kingdom and indeed all major governments’ Embassies behave around the globe.
The war-hawks who were devastated by the loss of champion killer Hillary now see the prospect of their very worst fear coming true. Their very worst fear is the outbreak of peace and international treaties of arms control. Hence the media and political establishment today has reached peaks of hysteria never before seen. Pursuing peace is “treason” and the faux left now stand starkly exposed.
Bernhard (b) in fine form. About 9 months ago, he posted here a couple of times. I do understand why, as did bevin. Currently he and Craig are pretty much on the same page. Send him a few Euros. I did. He has a lot of talent, and hardly ever asks.
Tony
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/07/helsinki-talks-how-trump-tries-to-rebalance-the-global-triangle.html
Extract
“Helsinki Talks – How Trump Tries To Rebalance The Global Triangle”
“The reactions of the U.S. polite to yesterday’s press conference of President Trump and President Putin are highly amusing. The media are losing their mind. Apparently it was Pearl Harbor, Gulf of Tonkin and *redacted* all in one day. War will commence tomorrow. But against whom?
Behind the panic lie competing views of Grand Strategy.
Rereading the transcript of the 45 minutes long press conference (vid) I find it rather boring. Trump did not say anything that he had not said before. There was little mention of what the two presidents had really talked about and what they agreed upon. Later on Putin said that the meeting was more substantive than he expected. As the two spoke alone there will be few if any leaks. To understand what happened we will have to wait and see how the situations in the various conflict areas, in Syria, Ukraine and elsewhere, will now develop.
The ‘liberal’ side of the U.S. did its best to prevent the summit. The recent Mueller indictment was timed to sabotage the talks. Before the meeting in Helsinki the New York Times retweeted its three weeks old homophobic comic flick that shows Trump and Putin as lovers. It is truly a disgrace for the Grey Lady to publish such trash, but it set the tone others would follow. After the press conference the usual anti-Trump operatives went ballistic:
John O. Brennan @JohnBrennan – 15:52 UTC – 16 Jul 2018
Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of “high crimes & misdemeanors.” It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump’s comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are you???
Senator John McCain released a scathing statement:
… “No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant. Not only did President Trump fail to speak the truth about an adversary; but speaking for America to the world, our president failed to defend all that makes us who we are—a republic of free people dedicated to the cause of liberty at home and abroad. …
These imbeciles do not understand the realism behind Trump’s grand policy. Trump knows the heartland theory of Halford John Mackinder. He understands that Russia is the core of the Eurasian landmass. That landmass, when politically united, can rule the world. A naval power, the U.S. now as the UK before it, can never defeat it. Trump’s opponents do not get what Zbigniew Brzezinski, the National Security Advisor of President Carter, said in his book The Grant Chessboard (pdf) about a Chinese-Russian alliance. They do not understand why Henry Kissinger advised Trump to let go of Crimea.”
…….
For a greater perspective on the challenge of Achieving Peace, I offer two paragraphs from a messenger few will have heard of, Marshal Vian Summers A link follows to get to the rest of the material for anyone so inclined.
“Do not think of achieving peace in political or economic terms in the world. That is the wrong appropriation at this point because you are working internally now. Peace in the world is difficult to achieve because the world is not a place of peace. It is a place of activity, growth, friction, competition, disappointment and accomplishment—not exactly a quiet and still place.
“If you do not have peace at the center of you guiding your actions, and very few people do, then you will become engaged in the world of movement, living at the surface of yourself. Asking the world to be at peace is asking for people to be in a different state of mind than they are currently in. This is not easy to achieve. All of the people in the world do not need to achieve this equanimity; only a very few do, but those very few must achieve it. For them it is vital, and their achievement will resonate with others and keep the potency of this alive.”
https://www.newmessage.org/the-message/volume-5/wisdom-greater-community-volume-1/achieving-peace
Tom Christoffel,
Your American religious guru, makes a few valid points with regards to his understanding of peace. The USA and most of Europe, have not had vast quantities of bombs dropping on them since WWII, so can in relative terms be described as being at peace, compared to the countries that The USA and most of Europe have been dropping vast quantities of bombs on for at least the last 20 years.
Has your religious guru, suggested that the USA and most of Europe should stop dropping vast quantities of bombs on these innocent people in foreign countries? If this happenned they too might experience a little peace instead of war promoted by religious and political psychopaths in the USA and Europe dropping bombs on them.
They only do it to make vast profits for the companies that manufacture war machines designed to kill vast numbers of people, and other vaguely related religious reasons, like wanting to bring on Armageddon, so that they can be raptured straight to heaven.
Have you or your guru protested about this?
I have, because I think it is not only immoral, but downright evil.
Tony
” only a very few do ”
funny that. Islam invites all to peace equally. All the Eastern sects have an inscrutable system in which only the few achieve success. Sing yong yong one million times doesn’t do it for me. I gave up following gurus who said that only shagging their followers was preventing them from leaving this earthly existence. Even the Islamists, who are opposed to Islam, have managed to make a hierarchy by which those in the know can freely engage with their equivalent rank in the Masonic world, while the hoi polloi have to put up with being spied on and battle against their fellow Muslims like zombies for no reason other than they have been bought and sold. The enemies of Islam can only cope with an Islam which gives them control. They cannot abide an Islam which makes you peaceful and free. Not just for military industrial purposes, just because they can never achieve their yearned-for feeling of superiority until they have subjugated everyone else to the taste of chaos.
The Islamists teach that Islam is too hard for the majority. Then, by the use of political connections with the enemies of Islam they sabotage those Muslims who refuse to submit to their authority. Dictator Erdogan has penalised millions who refuse to prostrate to the Muslim Brotherhood lies. I don’t know if it is because the Turks originate from the East that they lean to totalitarian forms of religion or whether their sense of entitlement is constantly disappointed by reality.
Please………
I think plenty of us have seen what your cultural enrichment has done to France, Germany and Sweden.
You’re nothing like a mustang, more like a sore ass.
Islam (in common with all religions) has one purpose – to control people, and in the case of Islam it uses fear, threats and violence. This does not mean that all Muslims are evil – far from it, half my family on my wife’s side are Muslims and they are mostly lovely people.
There are very few Islamic countries which have a democracy, where people have freedom to choose what they are, if they wish to worship or not, freedom to marry who you want, say what you want to say.
Islam originated in Saudi Arabia, and that country today is probably the worst example of a monarchy/theocracy in the World.
So, I’m not the only one who noticed all of this?
Odd though that so many Republicans are calling Trump on this. I get that it IS ‘hawkish’ to ALWAYS back your secret services BUT…as we know, not EVRYTHING that they put into the public eye, or indeed in front of their country’s leaders is even REMOTELY true..
I can’t STAND Trump, but on this one, it’s not so much that I agree with every word, but it scares me that they call him a “Traitor” for even daring to utter that there may be doubts on his own intel.
The tail is wagging the dog once more…
I literally get the impression some people are like Neanderthals, or how they perceive neanderthals to have been. That’s what they think is good. Big man with a club, good.
I’v no doubt that’s an insult to the primitive communistic (largely matriarchal) communities that used to exist through most of human history.
This is part why I can never get where conservatives are coming from, with their “family values” ? What the hell are they on about? e.g., “traditional values” the modern patriarchal family (created for property rights, capital, class devision etc) ? or the communal societies that is most of human history. ?
What conservatives aren’t snake oil salesmen nowadays? why are they looked at with such respect? Crazy utopian religious freaks. Modern families generally suck. IMO It’s all so they can seem like big strong men in one way or another. Dangerous ideological freaks. No wonder how they open the door for fascism.
I heard P Hitchens the other day, saying how islam is a possible savour of his stinking order. …God I can’t stand these idealogical fantasists.
Ps. It’s often what asian cab drivers say to me you know, “you find a good woman”
It drives me mad. You can’t distinguish them from your average a-hole “family man” bigging himself up as “his woman” does most work. Or is board out of her skull.
West vs islam & the culture that arises from such notions ? No, there is little between them.
Rant over.
“there is little between them.”
I think that’s a profound observation too few people make.
Much peace & quiet can potentially derive from it.
Ishmael
Good to see you back here..With your Wisdom
Cheerz
Hi Brian. thanks. Though I’m always working out myself.
But think iv changed a bit since last I was here. Few things happened. The above rant is likely to do with a tooth removal i just had, still bugging me. Think I’m more measured, and things fit better now. So hard to understand things without a semi decent historical understanding. Going over Friedrich Engels again did the trick. Though i think it has (in a superficial way) put me even further from locals.
Or is it that they have gone even more conservative? I think so. Im still rock and roll, still feel creative & enthusiastic, & curious.
Your argument would be stronger if you left the Neanderthals out of it 🙂
In the name of “research” I just looked through the comments section of one solitary article, among countless such articles, at the 24/7 U.S. Russiagate promoting site the “Daily Kos.” To say I was appalled would be putting it mildly. By the time I finished I was actually rather frightened by what I’d encountered. The level of sheer idiocy masquerading as some combination of enlightenment and patriotism is absolutely breathtaking! Between the Skripnal affair in the U.K., and Russiagate in the U.S., both nations seem to have morphed into Orwellian caricatures of some sort of futuristic post-rational societies inhabited by well indoctrinated morons – all collectively incapable of stringing two rational thoughts in sequence – yet absolutely foaming at the mouth sure of their own delusions. Wow, is all I can say! To any thoughtful student of human nature who would like to imagine a humane collective future the current state of affairs is bleak beyond words.
Gary Weglarz
I knew someone who used to lecture bankers on banking both here and by Concorde in the US.
One instinctively knew it was complete tripe at the time, but if one lives long enough one gets to witness the complete exposure of the pure tripe when it catches up with its exponents as in 2007.
They keep interviewing Tory politicians on the BBC who intone the sanctimonious and lugubrious dirge of this ridiculous administration, that the Delphic Oracle of democracy has spoken, nobody should defy the will of the people over Brexit. The vote was about equal, and we know now that the leavers broke the rules on money spent on advertising. At least the Delphic laurel berry chewers had some metaphorical caution. ” Don’t uncork the bottle before you get home.”
Craig pointed out recently that all NATO achieved by destroying Libya Iraq and Syria was to vastly increase the threat of immigration which is starting to dissolve European unity. Poor little NATO lost its radar in Syria or pretended to lose it. Hence the soap called novichok, to restore metaphorical poignancy to NATO’s reluctance to start WW3. Most professional presentation is dick/fanny-waving to distract from criminal purposes of corporate and governmental greed. Sorry if your job requires you to believe or buy into it. I have spent my day inserting copper wires into round terminals and tightening up the screws.
Giyane
You really do need to open yiursrkf up to Remain breaking the spirit of the rules.
1) Vast BBC output flagrantly promoting remain.
2) The EU promoting remain.
3) George Soros promoting remain.
4) Barack Obama interfering to promote remain.
You are clearly a Remainer looking through a distorted eyeglass.
It might help you to grow up and learn to be even handed.
“Vast BBC output flagrantly promoting remain”
Evidence for this? Which programmes in its “vast output”? Specific examples? Links?
I see the exact opposite – Brexiteers’ lies never challenged and Nick Robinson saying stuff like this: https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2017/04/brexit-bias-bbc-no-duty-balanced-says-nick-robinson/
It wasn’t just the BBC, it was Channel 4 as well. The entire content of the “last leg” seemed to be anti Brexit “comedy”. Channel 4 news anti Brexit. On the BBC, it was the Andrew Marr show, Newsnight, HIGNFY, Mock the Week.
Gary
I like many with you feel the same, I am scared what I see going on now, the aggressive patriotic comments, hatred against Russia and saying that Trump commited Treason. I have never seen anyhting like this hysteria.
Where will this lead? Have people lost all sense?
Gary, you are brave to read such websites. I get frightened by just listening to the BBC and CNN. Lucky that others are in control of the red buttons.
Unfortunately Trump’s policies concerning Saudi Arabia, Israel and Iran are not likely to bring peace to the Middle East. On the contrary.
That’s a truly massive litotes you’re offering there, Ruben! The “contrary” is to nuke the sand to glass.
Great post, which I agree with in the main. However, how do we know that Trump isn’t controlled opposition? I expect he will be carrying out military action soon.
What’s going on?
Israel’s neighbours have already been trashed. Iran is a covert agent of the US, an ally against the truth of Sunni Islam, not an enemy to the purposes of the great satan and his little family. The purpose of all this continuous war for 30 years was to grab a greater Israel from Jordan, Syria , Iraq and Egypt.
The fact that Trump is making détente is because USUKIS will send Israel into those regions in the guise of peacemakers. When you get planning permission for a house, you bulldoze the field and then you build your little bungalow with its leafy gardens.
Cameron changed the UK law to allow aid money to be used for peacemaking, solely for this purpose.
Brexit is a silly distraction from the ambitions of USUKIS, like the time when planning permission for your bungalow is passed on a cold winter night in the Parish Council. Then suddenly it’s a fait accompli.
USUKIS intend to colonise all of the Muslim territory from Jerusalem to Sulaymaniah in Kurdistan, and from Damascus to Cairo. Not that they will succeed without losing their global supremacy.
“Iran is a covert agent of the US, an ally against the truth of Sunni Islam, not an enemy to the purposes of the great satan and his little family.”
??????? Are you a sisi ? Iran has just, together with the SAA and putin, killed off a 200k US salafist proxy army of headchoppers from 86 countries in Syria, at great expense? It appears Islam is no different from other religions, it has also been infiltrated by giyanes,wellbys and hadgis !!
@Giyane.
You obviously have a penchant for extremist Wahhabism then? It is US sanctions which has all but ruined the economy of Iran. Iran has not started a war for hundreds of years, but has been constantly attacked by various countries.
The only time that Iran was a “covert agent of the US”, was between 1953 and 1979, when the US/UK overthrew their democratically elected prime minister, and installed their puppet the Shah.
Thank you Craig, sometimes I feel surrounded by brainwashed morons who interpret the world based on headlines, but then I come to your blog and realise I am not alone. Most people are buying this Neo-McCarthyism though, and I am not sure it is possible to overcome the propaganda. When did it become radical to ask for evidence for mere assertions? This is identity politics of a different type and on a different scale.
I used to subscribe to the Guardian, although not for a while now, and when I look at their reporting on Russia, I realise what a mess we are in.
In terms of printed press, there is essentially nobody questioning the Government whatsoever, you have the working classes reading the Sun and the Daily Mail, the wannabe middle classes reading the Times, the not-so-smart almost-rich bankers reading the FT as if it were a bible and the “liberals” reading the Guardian – all of which are stenographers to power or protectors of the status-quo.
When I typed “skwawkbox” into Google today, Google offered me “skwawkbox fake news” and now Facebook is tinkering with their site so that only trusted sources, voted for by the people, are put forward on your news feed, effectively ending the opportunities for independent media and YouTube has been hammering independent media for the last 2 years or so. How do you break through? I do not think it is possible.
There are other search engines. If you search “Skwawkbox” using the site duckduckgo.com it points to the main page with no problem.
Yes, I use duckduckgo and it brings Skwawkbox up top of the list.
Assange, yet again.
Because it’s a pressing mater.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-war-on-assange-is-a-war-on-press-freedom/
An excellent article by Chris Hedges, but even he makes the common mistake of saying Julian was facing ‘sexual offence charges’ when, in fact, Julian was wanted for questioning. There never were any charges.
Whatever was left of the republic is either gone or doomed.
If we have a mainstream media that isso nakedly attempting a coup d’état or calling for one with such
universal fury based on little evidence and just embroidering one myth over another then I will have to just focus my energy elsewhere.
My comrades on most of the left have, despite decades of proof that the media is deeply dishonest and constantly howling for one war after another the only hope is to batten down the hatches and just survive the next decade through local efforts and fighting the 2 party system……. The sad part is I oppose many of Trump’s policies but this isn’t about policies–this is about re-invigorating American militarism and imperialism and risking WW3 ……….
I’ve been around a lot of crises but have never witnessed anything like this suicidal madness.
Wow. Apparently you believe the “story” that Butina was concerned about gun rights in Russia… jeezus. Can’t believe you fell for that one. She’s been ARRESTED (WITHOUT BAIL) to try to present this clearly to you – that means there are some serious charges and issues and concerns here. Hardly a “victim”.
The problem here is you need to separate “detente” from meddling in American politics, Trump’s own betrayals (to the intelligence community and the American people), 161 charges (last time I got this figure – it keeps going up), and all the indictments being issued. NONE of all that has anything to do with “detente” or a desire for peace. Do not conflate the issue.
The issue is we have a President who was elected on the heels of Russian interference and who has refused to condemn Russia for their actions, and even went so far as to blame America. Along the way, he also turned against nearly all of America’s allies, and then when he got a chance to talk with Putin – he declared that his own intelligence agencies were totally wrong! What President in American history has ever done that? And now today – he’s already back pedaling, trying to mitigate the damage by claiming he meant “wouldn’t” in a double-negative convoluted speech that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. He screwed up, again and he keeps doing it.
NONE of this has anything to do with detente, but it has everything to do with coverup, collusion, incompetence and betrayal – to AMERICA.
Either Russia “did” or “did not” but it is beyond credulous to claim (by implication) that there is “nothing to these claims” about Russia. Oh yes there is – it’s now perfectly clear who Trump is beholden to. And as the indictments, charges, arrests and investigations are revealing – it’s not “nothing” nor is Butina a “victim” – she and the NRA are very much a part of what actually happened.
It was perfectly clear to whom Obama was beholden to: he kneeled for him even on camera. Even Trump was forced to shake hands with the king of Saudi Arabia. US deep state has a long reach: president Eisenhower warned for it in his 1961 farewell speech – too late. JFK tried detente with Khrushchev and Cuba and was “taken out” by US deep state. Next: Trump.
Should have followed the Bushes, Clintons & Obama: play along and make millions.
The truth about Skripalgate fitfully emerges: Yulia was the intended victim, Sergei the Shit was a well-trailed red herring and the entire Putin/Novichok kettle of fish was cooked up by the gimlet-eyed psychopath.
That at least is my interpretation of events. Cui bozo, as they say.
Could you expand on your ‘interpretation’ perhaps by providing information on why you think Yulia was the intended target and what the motive would be ?
“Detente bad…”
But this was never going to be detente because DT can never stick to his words. He has already said, obviously under duress, that he misspoke and of course Russia meddled with the election. I guess that means that he has to admit that he won unfairly.
US external policy is never dictated by the POTUS as we have already seen with Obama policy reversals after he took office. In the case of DT this forced U turn had to be so blatantly public because he is a loose cannon.
Putin as ever the master tactician’s answer to the US ‘indictment of the 12GRU agents meddling with US elections:
“Russia wants to question Christopher Steele, Michael McFaul, top politicians for aiding Bill Browder”.
https://www.rt.com/news/433524-browder-steele-mcfaul-investigation/
Brilliant!
Maintaining Our Constitutional Order Might Require Splitting Up the FBI : https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/fbi-constitutional-order/
Apologies if this has already been posted (I haven’t been able to find it) but confirmation of the Pat Lang/Sic Semper Tyrannis claim that it was China who hacked Clinton’s email:
“Former top FBI lawyer Lisa Page testified during two days of closed-door House hearings, revealing shocking new Intel against her old bosses at the Bureau, according the well-placed FBI sources.
Alarming new details on allegations of a bureau-wide cover up. Or should we say another bureau-wide cover up.
The embattled Page tossed James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok and Bill Priestap among others under the Congressional bus, alleging the upper echelon of the FBI concealed intelligence confirming Chinese state-backed ‘assets’ had illegally acquired former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 30,000+ “missing” emails, federal sources said.
The Russians didn’t do it. The Chinese did, according to well-placed FBI sources.
And while Democratic lawmakers and the mainstream media prop up Russia as America’s boogeyman, it was the ironically Chinese who acquired Hillary’s treasure trove of classified and top secret intelligence from her home-brewed private server.
And a public revelation of that magnitude — publicizing that a communist world power intercepted Hillary’s sensitive and top secret emails — would have derailed Hillary Clinton’s presidential hopes. Overnight. But it didn’t simply because it was concealed.”
https://truepundit.com/fbi-lisa-page-dimes-out-top-fbi-officials-during-classified-house-testimony-bureau-bosses-covered-up-evidence-china-hacked-hillarys-top-secret-emails/
Pat Lang comments:
“A woman scorned? Maybe, but Page has done a real job on these malefactors. And, who knows how many other penetrations of various kinds there were in Clinton’s reign as SecState?
“You mean like with a towel?” Clinton mocked a reporter with that question when asked if her servers had been wiped clean. It is difficult to believe that there won’t be prosecutions.”
http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2018/07/httpstruepunditcomfbi-lisa-page-dimes-out-top-fbi-officials-during-classified-house-testimony-bureau-bos.html#disqus_thread
“The Russians didn’t do it. The Chinese did, according to well-placed FBI sources.”
lol, FBI – F’in Bullshit Incorporated. Such a regressive modern institution.
Yet many americans (thinking of you joe rogan) are still kind of besotted by this modern lawless power. As they reference jim hendrix like it actually means something to them, & not just capitalising of a rebel image.
You can also find a fellow artist Moby (now a cia asset) on youtube repeating their crap. How the hell does one go from mixing black blues (connected with state oppression) to parroting the CIA taking points. what a total idiot.
I didn’t find the original vid, but this RE covers it..
https://youtu.be/9OjhV_-1W2Y
The informed comments on Sic Semper Tyrannis on this article are also worth reading.
And a good article on Moon of Alabama arguing that Trump is following the Kissinger and even Brzezinski doctrines of viewing the world into three power zones – The Anglo-American Atlanticists, The Chinese Asians, and the Russian Eurasian landmass. For the Atlanticists (sea-borne powers) to survive they need an alliance with one of the other two.
Nixon/Kissinger played the China card. But almost immediately Kissinger argued that there must be rapproachement with Russia as well so that the two other powers could be played off against each other to the Atlanticists advantage. Watergate intervened.
Ever since The West has heavily backed China – especially with finance and trade – and shunned Russia. With Obama turning the pivot on China and with no compensatory swing towards Russia, this has left the two other powers with no other course but alliance. The exact thing Kissinger warned against.
Trump, with his Russian detente, the article argues, is now attempting to right the balance.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/07/helsinki-talks-how-trump-tries-to-rebalance-the-global-triangle.html#more
Moon of Alabama and Sic semper tyrannis have been heavily infiltrated, everyone knows that. True, innit. Don’t waste your time with them.
JL, *everywhere* has been heavily infiltrated by anti-democratic paid liars. time spent nevertheless is not wasted, but wide reading is required.
You misunderstood me, Radar, I meant infiltrated by lefty-loonies and conspiracy-tinfoil hatters. Simple innit?
Yes, JF, I was talking to a Russian ambassador to an EU state – in the early 2000’s, it was in a relaxed environment after the opening of a school. He made it very plain to me that Russian worries at that point were focussed on their enormous neighbour and the porus borders.
Then came Great War [on/of] Terror – and Rus becoming the ‘external enemy’ for unifying failed politicos and failed military establishments/budgets, endless Color Rev’s.
But then again, I’ve only made a single day-trip to China, when Shenzen was still a village, so my global nouse is probably a bit limited.
Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia.
Obama, infamous for his programme of extrajudicial assassination by drone, sounds off against Trump. He is is South Africa for the Mandela centenary celebrations.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/07/obama-breaks-his-silence/565421/
He was literally shouting. There is an unwritten convention that former presidents do not comment on their successors.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/18/us-secret-service-agent-dies-after-stroke-during-trump-visit-to-scotland
This seems odd. US Secret Service man dies in Scotland.
I wonder if any toxicology will be done, autopsy, inquest etc.
Might be another assassination attempt.
I would imagine that the job is stressful.
Note that the US govt paid Turnberry $77,000 for accommodationfir Trump and the entourage.
Theresa’s stress levels must be high currently as the Brexit wrangling continues. Stress is very bad for a Type 1 diabetic like her.
Furthermore, Johnson is making what is being described as an ‘explosive’ resignation speech today. Resignation? I thought he had been sacked. Is he leaving the ‘partei’? 🙂
Perhaps Johnson’s speech is why the Commons didn’t shut early after all.
And was it written by Stephen Bannon? Where is Bannon at the moment, out of interest? Is he still in Britain?
If a Johnson speech happens (and what with him being a foreigh secretary who resigned, it seems quite likely) it will be a scream of “STAB IN THE BACK” and a big rallying cry to the far right. Those who think the only alternative to the current shambles is a government under Jeremy Corbyn are being unrealistically optimistic. They will soon learn otherwise.
The far right need a couple more archetypal events and they’ve got it made.
How is the Leeds trial going? I mean the trial that Tommy Robinson got jailed for his antics outside of.
A video showing a timeline of US arms exports to different countries 1975 – 2015
https://vimeo.com/279923192
Will Geary
s/be 1950 – 2017.
Countries:
Iran
Israel
Germany
Japan
Italy
Turkey
South Korea
Taiwan
S Vietnam
That list of countries referred to exports in the 1970s. Each decade has a separate list. It is interesting to see the level of exports to each country and the ebb and flow. Many of the countries are in each list needless to say.
The US arms exports video is both hypnotically watchable and genuinely frightening at the same time.
“Political memories are short“. They certainly are. The “cold war” between the US and USSR ended in the 1960s. It makes me spit when I read boneheads writing that for example the Fischer-Spassky chess match of 1972 took place “at the height of the Cold War”. People who write such crap don’t care about the relationship between their words and concepts and actual facts. It’s like they’re on drugs, and many of them are. That match took place in the middle of a period of détente.
Neither the journalists nor their readers have a care to think about what they’re saying and to use terms such as “cold war”, “détente”, etc., to mean something clear. They are like “creative” heroes who write toothpaste adverts. They couldn’t give a shit whether it whitens your teeth or it kills you.
They are right down there with the morons who voted for Trump because he says “you’re fired”, he looks impressive in the wrestling, and he struts like Mr Big even though he’s probably not even in the top 10 in the city that he comes from. So this is a note to anyone who uses the term “cold war” without knowing what I just said. Raise your game. If you think the cold war ended when the Berlin wall came down then you are very ignorant and you need to learn some more before you gain the intellectual respect of those of us who know something about the topic.
The same goes for those who want to follow “deal or no deal” in the Britain-EU27 negotiations as if it’s reality television. Here are the most important considerations for you: 1) the food supply, 2) the City of London. 1) is being sacrificed for 2).
There’s also Ireland, and the fact is that the absence of a customs union means customs posts at the border. Never mind what politicians say in their soporific tones. If there are import tariffs then there must be border checks. If you think lorry drivers can sort it out with “apps” on their mobile phones, with microwave tracking of goods, or with a 10-mile wide border, or perhaps with self-driving cars or whatever other crap is in the media, then your head’s up your bottom.
Nicholas Soames and Anna Soubry have called for a government of national unity.
Soames is well known to be intellectually challenged, but he is very close to Prince Charles and I imagine his minders don’t let him near microphones except when it’s thought necessary.
It wouldnt surprise me if the anti-Corbyn, pro-Znazi, pro-Trident backstabbers on the Labour benches are as ready to help Jacob Rees-Mogg and Donald Trump, when the time comes, as they are to assist Theresa May.
Well, Mr Jeremy Corbyn couldn’t be in a government of national unity because he stands for division and disunity. Simples!
The LFoI campaign against Jeremy Corbyn intensifies. John Woodcock has said he would be a risk to the national security interests if he became PM.
In other words, they fear that support for Israel would lessen.
Woodcock is quitting the party. Good riddance.
https://news.sky.com/story/john-woodcock-labels-jeremy-corbyn-a-national-security-risk-as-he-quits-labour-11440440
Margaret Hodge too behind the Speaker’s chair and audible to many on Tuesdsy night. What a charming woman. Not
Jeremy Corbyn called ‘f****** racist and antisemite’ by Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge
Labour grandee, who is J.wish, tells leader he does not want ‘people like me’ in the party amid fury at new code of conduct
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-corbyn-margaret-hodge-racist-labour-antisemite-antisemtisim-j.wish-john-woodcock-a8452351.html
Freebie after freebie and she’s as rich as the proverbial Croesus.
Going back to 2000.
Margaret Hodge, née Oppenheimer, MP Lab Barking
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=10281
She has been an MP since 1994! Well embedded.
Currently Chair – Public Accounts Committee.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Hodge
@Sharp Ears, she has previous against JC, when in 2016 she and Ann Coffey submitted a letter to the Labour Party chairman, requesting a vote on no confidence in Jermey Corbyn.
They should gety rid of the Blairite snakes.
It is just about possible for an extremely naive low ranking member of the Labour party to take at face value the accusations of antisemitism leveled at Corbyn. However a “Labour grandee” is privy to the back room machinations where this cynical fabrication designed to undermine Corbyn was concocted. Therefore Hodge’s “fury” was artificial and the entire episode, including calculated swearing, was staged in order to provide the headlines it provided.
Sharp Ears, Woodcock has been anti Corbyn since he was elected leader. Woodcock was forced to step down as chief whip and is actually suspended from the party (he is now an independent MP) following allegations of sexual harrassment in April this year. He is an ex chair of the Labour Frinds of Israel and is supportive of Saudi Arabia’s military action against the Houthis in Yemen.
What a piece of slime.
Nobody seems to have raised that there’s the other side to the coin of Russian interference, it’s the inferiority of the US systems. The more the Donald’s haters push the involvement of Russia the more it feels the Americans aren’t up to designing an internet coupled system that’s capable to withstand someone breaking into it. Instead of kicking the Russians they should ask the Russian hackers to help to improve them.
But, of course, it’s all red herring, there never has been any serious interference, certainly not over and above what the spook agencies do every hour of every day.
Btw, the ghastly Brennan was in charge of the CIA. Why didn’t he stop the meddling when his staff discovered it? Isn’t it he rather than the Donald who should be charged with treason for failing in his duty to protect the Republic? Madness.
Agree. But fact is America etc could have very secure systems, they make them unsafe on purpose for their own opaque nefarious activities.
It’s much like the Nuke issue, others want them to deter US actions. So America spreads the problem.
It’s like a central aim for them, see how much we can screw up the world. Then watch the funding roll in as we pretend we are making things better. …They are snake oil salesmen, now embedded in the state, spreading fear to sell their toxic stuff.
Did you hear about Brandon Lewis, Con MP and Partei chairman, breaking his word on a pairing with Jo Swinson in the Brexit voting ? No honour amongst thieves.
Jo Swinson, LD MP west Dumbartonshire, absent from the HoC after childbirth on 1st July, tweeted:
‘Just how low will your govt stoop @theresa_may? When @andrealeadsom delayed proxy voting motions, she *assured* those of us who were pregnant that we would be paired when necessary. Today your govt broke that agreement – @BrandonLewis paired with me but voted. Desperate stuff.
15 hours ago’
There is no defined maternity leave enshrined in the HoC’s terms of employment.
Brandon Lewis’s action was a disgrace, and it was almost certainly arranged with the Tory whips.
Why hasn’t the Liberal Democrat chief whip Alistair Carmichael said anything? Have the Tory whips got something on him? Or did they just bung him a credit note for a few evenings at a knocking shop?
Actually…yes, it seems I may be speculating along the right lines about Carmichael. Vince Cable and Tim Farron are blaming Carmichael for their being “authorised to be absent”. Of course, generally speaking the Liberal Democrats have usually helped the Tories to the max in times of trouble, so it may be that Cable and Farron are lying. One can imagine a “whoopsadaisy, we kept the Tory scum in power by accident” trick being pulled by the LibDems. But I think that’s unlikely.
One thing that has NOT happened so far today is a lot of knifing of Boris Johnson. Nothing about how
* he is well known in the Westminster bubble to have a massive cocaine addiction
* he has been sacked for telling lies
* there are several women who could make revelations about his behaviour which has included forcing victims to sign non-disclosure agreements
* he is on record as discussing having a man beaten up, etc.
The guy could be ruined in about 30 minutes, but so far this has not happened. The position seems to be that
* either he is going ahead with his speech and it has already been decided that Theresa May is out
That would probably be announced after the 1922 committee meeting this evening. More exactly, it could be that they announce a Tory no confidence vote but contrary to what all the commentators say, and what most senior politicians are saying too with their forked tongues, she would NOT win it – she would get soundly beaten.
* or he is completely on a government leash and he will either make a kind and gentle speech or no speech at all
The second option here is unlikely, and more probably the twitching cokehead of a former Foreign Secretary has been fired up even more by recent meetings with US figures and he is ready to sneer, accuse and fart his way into the history books from a government back bench this afternoon. Get ready for the STAB IN THE BACK SPEECH, and watch out for his cocaine-induced SNIFFING as he delivers it!
Malthusian-Spencerian exterminationism is coming home!
Corbyn going through a rough patch.
“Jeremy Corbyn called ‘f****** racist and antisemite’ by Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-corbyn-margaret-hodge-racist-labour-antisemite-antisemtisim-jewish-john-woodcock-a8452351.html
https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/labour-rejects-ihra-definition-antisemitism-nec-1.467291
Hey Craig, always good to read your thoughts. I’m surprised you didn’t mention the ‘interstate cross-check’ though. The biggest scandal of the us election by far… Greg Palast has been investigating this and us election fraud for many years..
Trump wont back down,
Trump on Twitter: ‘Putin and I Got Along Well Which Truly Bothered Many Haters’
https://sptnkne.ws/jcHb
There is a very unpleasant cartoon by Steve Bell in the Guardian ref Putin and Trump.