One principle of this blog is that I give my views whether they will be welcome or not, either to the general public or to the portion of the public who regularly read this blog. Since we started accepting subscriptions to keep it going, almost every article causes somebody to write to me saying they are canceling their subscription because they did not agree with me. I would much prefer anybody who is kindly giving money in the expectation of agreeing with everything I write, to cancel now. The purpose of this blog is to be intellectually challenging and provide food for thought, with facts and viewpoints not readily available in the mainstream media. It is about intellectual inquiry, not followership.
This is one of those occasions when I know that a significant number of people here will not agree with me. I like George Soros and consider him to be a good man. I should declare an interest; he once bought me a pizza, over 20 years ago. But I considered then, and I consider now, that Soros is a man who has devoted huge amounts of his personal resources, in terms of time and in terms of money, to attempting to make the world a better place, from motives of altruism.
Furthermore I believe that a lot of the work of the Open Society Institute, which I witnessed first hand, in Poland and Uzbekistan and elsewhere, is good work, particularly in the field of human rights and media freedom.
I believe that Roger Scruton’s attack on Soros, particularly in a venue in Hungary where the far right Prime Minister has conducted a truly hateful, state orchestrated, anti-semitic and anti-immigrant campaign against Soros, puts Scruton totally beyond the pale.
Soros frequently is cited in comments below the line on this blog as the personification of evil capitalism. Let me address the obvious elephants in the room. The first is how he made his money. This I make no attempt to defend. He has simply managed assets and traded derivative products, particularly in foreign exchange markets, and either by brilliance or sustained good luck, become extremely wealthy from an activity that provides no societal good. Indeed derivatives trading is a cancerous growth on modern economies, where the financial flows vastly exceed the value of trade in actual goods or genuine first party services.
However, people live and work in the economic situation that exists; to condemn people for not dropping out and going off-grid is to adopt a purist and ineffective position. I do not know how Soros got into the business line he adopted, but I am not condemning every individual working in trading. It is also worth stating that Soros’ ethnicity is utterly irrelevant to his career, and those who hint otherwise are offensive.
The second elephant in the room is that Soros appears aligned to the global spread of neo-liberalism, and to the Clinton camp with its warmongering foreign policy. Leaving aside for two paragraphs the question of whether or not that is true, the most important answer to that is that the man is entitled to his beliefs. To condemn him because his beliefs are not all my beliefs would be wrong. That Soros uses so much of his personal wealth to try to make the world a better place, according to his view of how society might best be structured, makes him a good man and not a bad man. That I may have a different view of how society should be structured is not the test; it is whether somebody is genuinely trying to do good by others.
Soros’ view of how society might best be structured is coloured by his past experience of the Eastern bloc. It is natural that anybody from what was occupied Hungary looks at Russia with a wary and distrustful eye. It is natural that those who understand the real failings of Soviet style central planning are dubious of schemes of socialism. But Soros is in fact fairly mainstream European social democrat with very liberal societal views. I genuinely do not understand his demonisation by large sections of the left. Soros is anathema to the right wing nationalist parties of Eastern Europe.
It is also worth pointing out that Soros’ view of his own profession is by no means straightforward. He argued extremely strongly for greater financial regulation, publishing highly informative and reasoned books on the subject, at the height of the craze for deregulation. He was not a supporter of the Big Bang or of Gordon Brown’s market worship. His 1998 opus, The Crisis of Global Capitalism, argues that financial markets are inherently unstable and swing like a wrecking ball not like a pendulum, and that globalisation is in fact an extension of Imperialism. That someone made so much money, from rules he believed should have been altered to stop him doing it, is a conundrum; but he is altogether a complicated character.
Finally, that Soros is a warmonger and supporter of US military attacks on the Middle East is not true. He opposed the Iraq war, and is generally against military intervention. His funding reaches so many NGO’s, of diverse views, it is always possible to find a tweet by Avaaz, or a report on Syrian human rights violations by Amnesty International, and make the claim “that is Soros shilling for war”. But in fact his influence on the vast array of civil society institutions he funds is extremely light touch, and they encompass widely differing viewpoints. Soros’ strong support for the warmonger Clinton is something I do not attempt to justify, other than to note that many people of liberal views are taken in by the old “liberal” establishment. It is quite a psychological step to accept it has gone full neo-con.
I most certainly do not agree with all of Soros’ views, or actions. But I agree with more of them than you may suppose. That all of his actions are motivated by a desire to make more money for himself or to benefit the ruling class, I am quite sure is not true. That he is a hawk and a warmonger I do not believe. That his efforts do a lot of real good I have witnessed first hand. The demonisation of Soros is lazy, inaccurate and unfair.
“Since we started accepting subscriptions to keep it going, almost every article causes somebody to write to me saying they are canceling their subscription because they did not agree with me.”
Dear Craig, it occurs to me that you can put an end to this problem by allowing one-off donations. People will give when they agree and not give when they are upset.
Incidentally, it is not realistic to agree with somebody on everything, so people should keep calm and wait for the next article.
If he’s pro-Soros, does he really need to worry about we think?
“Soros is a man who has devoted huge amounts of his personal resources, in terms of time and in terms of money, to attempting to make the world a better place, from motives of altruism.”
Where did he get his huge amounts of personal resources?
By speculating on currencies.
Nothing great about using his immorally earned resources to spread his agenda.
Everyone knows you are a fake.
@Chemical Britain
I do not think you can really describe Soros’s profits from currency speculation as immoral earnings. For every trade there must be a counterparty, who also stands to gain if their own position is correct and well timed.
The UK’s participation in the ERM by tracking the Deutschmark at an unsustainable level was doomed to failure and, the country’s withdrawal from it ultimately helped fuel New Labour’s growth spurt. Basically, Germany and the Bundesbank were unwilling to provide the Bank of England with sufficient ammunition to defeat speculators such as Soros. In contrast they were prepared to pull the similarly-exposed French chestnuts out of the fire and impose losses on speculative positions against the French franc. Basically any fixed exchange rate is an opportunity for speculation and sterling was a sitting duck.
Bernard Connolly, who headed up the European Commission’s monetary policy unit at the time gives an excellent account in his book, “The Rotten Heart of Europe: The Dirty War for Europe’s Money’, for which he was dismissed.
What I am a little suspicious of is the source of the speculative funds that Soros was able to amass in his war chest, but it is perhaps best not to pry.
Not really – the only counter party that Soros had was the UK government. They had absolutely nothing to gain beyond massaging their own egos.
Not too many people seem to be speculating against HK$ or the Saudi Riyal. Ask why.
Although not formally part of the Euro the British have a lot to gain by leaving the EU. Now look what’s happening to that. Those that have a lot to lose (Germany) are mobilizing every lie and every piece of dis-information possible. Goebbels looks like a one legged cripple racing Usain Bolt by comparison to what is happening right now.
There is no mystery as to where Soros got his money from – anyone would have funded that because it was a cast iron winning move
He’d better not go shopping at Harrods:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45812210
“I do not think you can really describe Soros’s profits from currency speculation as immoral earnings. For every trade there must be a counterparty, who also stands to gain if their own position is correct and well timed”.
And yet we continue to describe the proceeds of prostitution as “immoral earnings”. Even though for every trade there must be a counterparty, who considers it a good investment.
Exactly. He cheats his way to an immense fortune, then supposedly gives back about one-thousandth of it – and even then his claimed “good works” are usually political conspiracies aimed at further increasing his wealth and power.
Erdogan has passed recordings relating to the death of Jamal Khashoggi to the UK, France and Germany. Erdogan is on his way to the WW1 Commemoration ceremonies.
‘CIA director Gina Haspel heard an audio recording of Mr Khashoggi’s death when she visited Istanbul, two sources told Reuters last month.
A senior Saudi envoy was also played a recording, a source said.
Mr Erdogan did not give details of the contents of the tapes but two sources with knowledge of the issue have told Reuters that Turkey has several audio recordings.
They include the killing itself and conversations pre-dating the operation which Turkey subsequently uncovered, the sources said.
These had led Ankara to conclude from an early stage that the killing was premeditated, despite Saudi Arabia’s initial denials of any knowledge or involvement.
Saudi Arabia’s prosecutor Saud al-Mojeb has since said Mr Khashoggi’s death was planned in advance, although another Saudi official said Prince Mohammed had no knowledge of the specific operation.
One source familiar with the recordings said that officials who heard them had been horrified by their contents.
One of Prince Mohammed’s top aides, Saud al-Qahtani, featured prominently in them throughout, sources said.
Last month two separate intelligence sources told Reuters Mr Qahtani gave orders over Skype to Mr Khashoggi’s killers at the consulate.’
https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2018/1110/1010022-turkey-khashoggi/
9 years ago Israel shelled the Commonwealth War Cemetery in Gaza. It must have been at the time of Cast Lead. They damaged 287
gravestones.
‘The Daily Telegraph found at least 287 headstones were damaged, some shattered beyond repair, as the cemetery was hit by at least five Israeli shells and its grass singed in places by white phosphorus.
It is believed at least one unexploded shell is still under the soil at the cemetery, meaning no visitors can be allowed until it has been dealt with.’
[..]
‘The staff who tend the cemetery, normally an oasis of calm and well-maintained order in the otherwise chaotic Gaza Strip, had to flee for their lives.
“I sent all the others away because the shelling got too heavy,” said Ibrahim Jerradeh, 71, who was made MBE after tending the grave since 1958.
“Only when it got really close and started to hit the cemetery did I leave.”
“There were no people here, just graves, so why does Israel fire on this place?” he said.
“It is just a graveyard for all people, why cannot Israel respect that?”
The war grave is the largest in the Gaza Strip, which was the theatre for several major battles during the first world war between British and Ottoman forces.
It is the last resting place for 3,502 soldiers. Most are British, although there are many Australians and at least 700 Turks.
Paul Price, the regional supervisor for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Israel, said repairs would be carried out as soon as possible.’
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/4299569/Israel-shelled-UK-war-graves-in-Gaza.html
No words.
The obsessive focus on individuals as the main sources and manipulators of power in the world is a side-effect of the left embracing capitalism and identity politics and abandoning class analysis. This kind of simplistic and lazy conspiratorial thinking used to be a right wing thing but it has now fully engulfed much of the left.
It is at it’s core an impotent and disempowering view of the world. After all, if ‘Soros’ or ‘Rothschild’, or whoever, is the evil overlord that controls governments and institutions there is no point taking any sort of political action because what can an ordinary person do against the power of such awesome supermen? That’s why you hear a lot “hang them all from lampposts!” which is pretty much all you can do if you’re stupid enough to buy into this dystopian fantasy. After that you had better hope the ‘good’ strongman Mr. Big overlord type you support will be a wise, benevolent and benign master. It’s ridiculous.
The fact remains that as isolated individuals we are powerless…it takes uniting as an organized group to affect, and shift, the status quo. Electoral politics is one way to do this. But when that game is rigged and the institution hollowed out, it requires more concerted action. Keyboard warrioring and griping about ‘Soros’ won’t cut it.
@Baalbek-Great post.
I myself am no fan of Soros. The man is a dyed in the wool capitalist. All these guys, Soros, Gates, Buffet, Branson, Silicon Valley tech monopolists…they all use their money “to help make the world a better a place.” Sure, a world structured to benefit themselves and their class cohorts at the expense of people like the one’s reading this blog.
Anyone who hoards the kind of money these people do suffers from pathological avarice and the paranoia that comes with it. They really are different from you and me.
Well said Baalbek. Organisation and solidarity are the only things that turn pre-WW2 starvation into the post WW2 that we’ve all lazily taken for granted, giving up our only source of power for supposed individuality which we exercise by all buying the same clothes phones and holidays.
But I must say, the left is in assendece again and I don’t hear any blaming of supposed super villains for all our miseries from these people. A lot of what I see I’d is probably boring to most people, meetings, deciding on terms, feeding those less fortunate planning negotiation. But you see real organisation sounds dull against “we’re going to smash the system. We’re going to string blah blah up with piano wire”
If only anti capitalists could take over entire countries, we would end up with glorious utopias for the masses.
Oh wait……
Delusion is of course when you fail to know when passion becomes phobia, fixation and mania; those that can judge that can discern; others can also discriminate.
My blow-up of Soros certainly was not based on his passion even obsession with the Bush regime and his war criminal nwo disciples; it was the result of a manifold of skepticism until the journey arrived at Syria where NGO corruption has encouraged hatred and a group think that supports military intervention as Susan Dirgham recognised. Yet I believe from small pieces of evidence the ‘white helmets’ moved NGO corruption and abused $financing.
Soros was never directly funding the ‘white helmets’ and was not involved in any regime change conspiracy in Syria, indeed Soros stated in an interview that the Assad government or similar is best left in place to repair the lives of the broken, the settlement of proxy war chaos and a return to community and peace.
Mark
I like your phrase “manifold of scepticism “. I really don’t mind changing myself or indeed others if I am intellectually convinced that such reform is good and from a source whose intention is human benefit not the expansion of their own pockets. Delusion is when we take people at their own description of themselves when all the evidence is pointing towards a different motivation.
” The purpose of this blog is to be intellectually challenging …with facts and viewpoints not readily available in the mainstream media. “. The 30 years of continuous war , created by democracy and targeted against the religion of Islam, is a fragile combination of total megalomania on the part of the neo-cons, one of whom is Mr Soros, and a genuine urgent need felt by intellectual Muslims to throw off the deviances in their religion that were inserted intentionally in it by the former colonial powers.
So it is a weird combination of motivations, both contradictory and opposite. What the colonists exploited and the Muslim reformists want to eradicate is that tendency in human beings not to want to be governed by what we most easily understand in the UK as the ten commandments of Moses pbuh. So we see an unholy alliance between those who want obedience to God and those capitalist me-first control freaks who hate obedience to God in all circumstances. Political Islam is the offspring of this strange union.
The easiest way to avoid obedience to rules is to say that there is another Supreme power over and above God, astaghfirullah / Allah forgive the idea. Sufis believe in a higher creator made from noor/light while God’s job was just to put together the nuts and bolts of the universe. They then make a hierarchy in which God and his pesky rules are bypassed and MR LIGHT is at the top, the prophet Muhammad is made from light and we scum at the bottom can connect with the Mr Big through contemplation and vicariously through the Mr Middle who is made from the same stuff, noor/light as the top supreme being.
I know that’s all tripe from the Christian understanding but even the most progressive and reformed mosques like the one behind my house in Birmingham still represent their adherence to this catastrophic and totally erroneous Sufi belief by having decorative wooden motifs of candle sticks as concealed icons of their worship of the prophet, their own souls and the alternative supreme being. They have to include this iconography in their building in order to block out the 10 commandment bit of Islam. How many beautiful surahs/chapters of the Holy Qur’an they recite instructing the Muslims, they cancel them all with this strange iconography showing their origins.
Believe me I am with the people who want to reform Islam from these false beliefs, and maybe I am with Soros on the benefit of democracy. But I am totally opposed to the daft idea that you can change human beings intellectual understanding by murdering them, creating civil war, shunting them into refugee camps, or alternatively proffering them sex slaves and machine guns. You can only touch the intellect of a human being through the subtleties of the intellect. You will never change anybody for the better down the route prescribed by the traitor to Islam, Osama Bin Laden . 99% of human beings will only rebel against Islam when they are forced against their will to do their religious duties either by spying, threats, brutality slander or force. this is not even remotely the way of Islam.
So what is political Islam? As I say it is the offspring of this marriage between Western mostly Zionist driven hatred of Islam on the one hand, and those who intensely wish to reform the old colonial perversions in Islam doctrine and teaching. As you say ” Delusion is of course when you fail to know when passion becomes phobia, fixation and mania “. Osama bin Laden articulated the deceit inserted into Islam in 1918 at the time of the removal by the British and its Muslim allies of the caliphate in Istanbul, that the only way to reform Islam is by conflict/fitna and sedition. In fact Islam teaches the opposite.
But once you have convinced a tiny minority of Muslims that fitna/ conflict is the only route to reform ( when it is in fact the biggest hindrance to reform owing to human nature ) hundreds of thousands of Muslims were subjected to chemical torture rendition psychological brain-washing to form gunfodder for Taliban, Daesh Qaida etc. The West having created this Frankenstein monster, seeded its falsehood, weaponised them with NAZI chemical technology and funded them with billions from the CIA and MI6, has started to see their investment in terror start to bring dividends.
All of that section of Islam which has come from the previously colonised nations, and that literally means all of them, all follow Sufism as described above and none of them follow the 10 commandments bits of Islam.
Christians who follow the doctored texts of the bible which describe Jesus pbuh as a part of or a son of God still try and stick to the 10. But Muslims have had their aqida/ fundamental doctrine skewed as completely as the Bible by Sufism. they also try to follow the Qur’anic version of the 10. But the reality is that the skewed Muslims have been led to believe by western propaganda that if they bolt jihad onto their dodgy Sufi ideas , they will have the original Islam in its original form.
If you bolted singing and clapping and crying Alleluia onto the doctrine of Trinity, you wouldn’t have the original Islam taught by Jesus pbuh. You might have a good joke, but it isn’t nice to mock the deluded.
Similarly with Islam, this religion of truth will definitely 100% find its way to rule the world and change it from the wonky ideas of Soros, Thatcher and the neo-cons or post neo-cons. Islamism is the exact equivalent in Islam to evangelical Christianity. If only it wasn’t so miserable for all those who are suffering at the hands of the unenlightened jihadists one could laugh at their folly. But who can laugh with monsters like Erdogan howling at the moon and publishing false videos against the keepers of Islam.
BTW spell checker gives a capital z to Zionism, but it refuses to automatically give a capital I to Islam.
Google is an anti-disestablishment anti-reform pro status quo pile of shit. no problem.
The Irascible Peter Hitchens has waded into the fray.
https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2018/11/soldiers-no-britain-lost-700000-poets-teachers-inventors-and-fathers.html
Thanks. Scruton, Trump and WW1. There’s a miscellany.
I like his anecdote – ‘Both the Blair creature and David Cameron treated me quite badly at press conferences, by refusing to take my questions. Blair once told me, unsuccessfully, to sit down and stop being bad.’
This truly excellent film is available on Vimeo until today.
War School – https://vimeo.com/295418689
1hr 22mins
War School, a provocative film launched this week, is set to challenge the British government’s attempt to entice children into support for war. Timed to coincide with the centenary of the end of World War I, War School tells the story of another battle. This one for the hearts and minds of Britain’s children in an increasingly militarised society.
https://vimeo.com/295418689
Thanks Sharp Ears,
That made me cry.
Many different ways to abuse children.
They mentioned “beastin” but did not mention, “rag dolling” a recruit. Think about a child dragging it’s doll behind it. Difference is, it is a person who is exhausted beyond their limit but not allowed to rest. Therefore, he/she is dragged along regardless.
What Monarch, Prime Minister, President, ever kept the 10 Commandments?
When will it ever end?
Yes Hagar, it is very moving. A shame that it is only available for today.
Ben Griffin and Joe Glenton are to be greatly admired for standing up to the war machine’s propaganda and speaking out.
https://www.veteransforpeace.org/who-we-are/member-highlights/2015/10/29/making-modern-british-soldier-ben-griffin
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/apr/25/why-i-refused-to-fight-afghanistan-occupation
Thanks a lot for this Sharp Ears – Sharp Eyes too.
It’s a disturbing film given the way the world, not to mention our government, is going.
Have a listen too, to BBC Radio 4’s PM last Friday where Professor William Philpott and Gill Bennett (FCO historian), uncriticised and unchallenged, rebrand the First World War a popular, patriotic and a “national” war, as if this was a good thing – disgusting:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0001291
Listen from 19m 20s.
Check out too The Men They Couldn’t Hang’s version of The Green Fields Of France:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr6OzLJrS2k
Though it does, however, sound better on Spotify or your streaming service of choice.
Regarding availability of the film, I believe that you can use online downloading services to download (and keep) the film and pass it on, for instance this one:
http://vimeoinmp4.com/
I should add that I’m not entirely sure about the legality of that.
Thanks once again, you do a fine job.
Have you read Joe’s book Sharp Ears? I just finished it. Very powerful. He’s a smart egg.
Amazing film. Thought-provoking, it should be on mainstream television.
I fear that Craig, while admirably well informed on international politics, knows ltlle about the City and the parasitical way financialmarkets work. For an insight into George Soros, and his methods, let us reach back beyond the sub prime and derivatives scandals of 2008, immoral as they were, to Black Wednesday 1992 and explore a major ( forgive the pun) source of his wealth. https://youtu.be/Gvw0Cj9wxXo
‘White’ Wednesday?
“As it happened, however, the economy found itself subjected to an independent demand-stimulus when sterling’s exchange rate fell after its abrupt departure from the Exchange Rate Mechanism in September 1992. There then followed a period of sustained recovery in output over the next five years, with growth exceeding the long-run average, while employment began rising again, and at the same time inflation remained low.”
Sargent, J.R. 2004. To Full Employment: The Keynesian Experience and After. The Power of Three Press: Hook Norton, Oxfordshire, UK.
This was not the intention of Soros: when he speculated against the pound sterling he was not interested in helping the UK. It was an unexpected side effect of being forced out of the ERM.
@Mary Paul
Obviously the improvement in the UK economy was not foremost in Soros’s mind in taking up large forward positions against sterling. This result, however was hardly unexpected as I noted in my previous comment. A number of other countries’ currencies were similarly under speculative pressure as a result of their misalignments within their the exchange rate mechanism (snakes in the tunnel etc.), but the French franc enjoyed substantial support from the Bundesbank, which was not extended to the be BoE. Soros was astute enough to realise the opportunity offered. Nowadays we see that sharks too, like tigers, play an important role in the ecological system,
In contrast the 1949 devaluation of sterling, pushed through while Stafford Cripps was recuperating in Switzerland, was probably too large a step and one which led to the overheating of the UK economy, which subsequently benefited the Tories so greatly ‘(you’ve never had it so good’ as Macmillan and Calvin Coolidge said), but ultimately assisted the erosion of the industrial base, not to mention the associated problem of inward migration to the UK.
With 3 million unemployed and a deficit equal to 5.5% GDP one might argue the Tories were up the creek without a paddle. The fact is that Helmut Schlesinger at BUBA wanted the UK to leave the ERM but Major and Lamont would not and BUBA was not prepared to revalue the D-Mark to pay for Re-Unification.
It was an act of stubborn gross stupidity which ranked alongside May’s current disaster because the UK Elites will not accept that they do not have an economy structure that is commensurate with their policy decisions. It is the triumph of political hubris over economic reality
Meanwhile, back in Remembrance Land:
‘Macron Congratulates French Nazi collaborator Philippe Petain on Centenary of WWI Armistice’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV89GYrNzTc&feature=youtu.be
Let’s hope the MSM hammer him, but it ain’t likely…
Actually Petain was the Hero of Verdun and did not want to repeat the experience. Once you have been in the ossuary at Verdun and seen the fact that there are not graves for dead soldiers because heavy artillery did not leave bodies. Verdun was an act of crass stupidity but Petain held the line. For that he is a French hero. Don’t forget Lloyd George was the prototype War Leader that Churchill tried to emulate but his horror at the thought of waging the war all over again is what made Lloyd George no longer respected in the Second War.
Europe – especially Western Europe – has no real notion of the incredible horror that 1914 unleashed. 744,000 dead is ten times the size of the current British Army, it is the population of Leeds. Germany lost 4% its population. Russia lost half its European territory at Brest-Litovsk and suffered at least 2 million dead with Bolshevism and Civil War.
How could any politician propose restarting that procedure ?
Paul Greenwood.
How could any politician propose restarting that procedure?
With ease.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYZmqXXxFjk
Armistice Day 1937
Paul.
As for the war itself, surprisingly Lord Kitchener, who in 1914, was Secretary of State for War, saw just prior to the war beginning a long protracted conflict that woulď cost millions of lives, it’s unclear whether the then PM Asquith agreed with his view point at the time.
Even though Kitchener was a cold emotionless soldier who felt very little for the men he commanded, sacrificing many at Paardeberg, until Lord Roberts intervened
Or his decisive victory at Omdurman, and the slaughter of the captured. Kitchener got it fairly spot on with regards to WWI.
It was the German General Staff that had studied the US Civil War – and with places like Andersonville as POW hellholes and the trench systems and the scorched earth rampage of Sherman in Georgia – they had a good idea of what might lie ahead but thought their enemy would accommodate their wishes ad play by their script.
Yes Paul very interesting, I’d like to add on the Andersonville prison, that we get the saying “Deadline” from a line in the prison, that if a Union prisoner crossed it they were shot dead.
I should add that, ot wasn’t uncommon for a foreign nation to study or send a representative to observe, the US sent observes to record the British in the Great Boer war.
@ Paul Greenwood November 11, 2018 at 09:50
Well, the French Government have rowed back on Micron:
‘France says it won’t honour Nazi collaborator Pétain for WWI role after Macron comes under fire’:
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/11/08/europe/france-macron-petain-intl/index.html
‘The French government has backed down over apparent plans to pay tribute to Marshal Philippe Pétain — who collaborated with the Nazis in the deportation of Jews from France during World War II — as part of commemorations to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.
French President Emmanuel Macron came under fire Wednesday after he said it was “legitimate” to honor Pétain’s role as a “great soldier” in World War I.
Hours later, French government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said in a Facebook post that no tribute would be paid to Pétain in Saturday’s ceremony.
“We had announced that we would honor the marshals of the Great War. Some have deduced that Pétain was one of them; this is not the case. If there was confusion, it was because we were not clear enough on that point,” Griveaux said…..’
‘…How could any politician propose restarting that procedure ?’
As Hagar says below, ‘With ease’.
‘The long game for Europe’: http://freecriticalthinking.org/daily-pickings/1708-the-long-game-for-europe
‘…”We will force this war upon Hitler, if he wants it or not.” – Winston Churchill (1936 broadcast)
“Germany becomes too powerful. We have to crush it.” – Winston Churchill (November 1936 speaking to US – General Robert E. Wood)
“This war is an English war and its goal is the destruction of Germany.” – Winston Churchill (- Autumn 1939 broadcast)
“The war wasn’t only about abolishing fascism, but to conquer sales markets. We could have, if we had intended so, prevented this war from breaking out without doing one shot, but we didn’t want to.” – Winston Churchill to Truman (Fultun, USA March 1946)
“Germany’s unforgivable crime before WW2 was its attempt to loosen its economy out of the world trade system and to build up an independent exchange system from which the world-finance couldn’t profit anymore. …We butchered the wrong pig.” – Winston Churchill (The Second World War – Bern, 1960)
Post-war Germany was effectively managed by foreign powers and with the creation of the European Union (formerly the European Economic Community), the people of Germany lost any chance to recover sovereignty. Daily Pickings has referred to the Bilderberg meetings’ objective to create a one world government with the EU as a stepping stone and has also alluded to symbiotic relationship between banking and the intelligence services. In the post war period, US intelligence services worked assiduously for European integration and the weakening of nation states….’
Then we have all the Western leaders gung-ho in provoking, and indeed in blaming Russia for MH17, Ukraine and, along with Assad, CW attacks and hoaxes that they were not responsible for, as well as evidence-free accusations re Skripals etc, and the apparent holding of both Skripals incommunicado against their will.
The ever-increasing encroachment of NATO towards Russia’s borders, evidence-free massive sanctions, and huge War Games in Europe, and pulling out of the missile treaty.
‘…How could any politician propose restarting that procedure ?’
How could you even ask that question, in today’s world?
Well said and documented Paul Barbara.
It is not well documented at all; the quotes did not originate with Churchill.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/soc.history.war.world-war-ii/0J83ef6ta4I
1) It is a favourite of the conspiracy crowd, the Illuminati appear to
he the preferred bad guys in this case.
2) All the users point back to the one source, the modern reprint
of the Sydney Rogerson book, and usually make it clear they are
referring to the foreword.
The quote is given there without any source. So it is not in the
original book, but a modern piece added to the front.
The writer is apparently David M Pidcock from The Institute For
Rational Economics, it endorses the conspiracy theories for
Pearl Harbor and appears to do the same for the 2001 attacks
on New York amongst other things.
Putting the author name and title into a search engine gives,
http://www.mustaqim.co.uk/ipb-archive/people/david.htm
Which is the British Islamic Party.
He has apparently translated a book into English that claims
Napoleon converted to Islam and therefore the code
Napoleon is based on Islamic law.
Pidcock is apparently a co-founder and director of the institute.
In fact, it is the usual irresponsible hash of fact and fiction typical of the anti-Semitic, anti-intellectual Paul Barbara, whose anti-Semitism I have witnessed in person.
@ Clark November 11, 2018 at 14:33
‘…Paul Barbara, whose anti-Semitism I have witnessed in person…’
That is a bald-faced lie.
We only met on one day, at the sorted-out ‘trial’ of Craig.
Later in the pub, we were discussing something, and I simply asked you if you were J*wish.
You immediately flew off the handle, and offered me outside, and got up and started walking to the door.
I said, ‘After I finish my drink’, and continued to sit in the pub.
You went outside, and after a short time, apparently cooled down, returned.
Asking someone if they are J*wish is not anti-Semitic, in case you are unaware.
And it was not said in a combative or hostile way – it was the first time we had met and I had thought it would mellow our apparent feud on the 9/11 thread.
Instead, after your accusation on the 9/11 thread, the thread was closed down, before I had a chance to set the matter right.
@ Clark November 11, 2018 at 14:33
I have replied to the blatant bald lie in the second part of your comment, but it is held ‘In Moderation’.
Just to let you and others know I can and have responded.
Clark.
One comment from Churchill that stick in my mind is of when he was captured during the Great Boer war. Churchill was sent a prison in Pretoria, prior to being caught Churchill said that there should be no prisoner exchange, yet two weeks of incarceration, saw him badger his captors to send home permission for a prisoner exchange.
However young Winston managed to engineer his own escape, and became one of the few heroes, (if you can call them that, after the concentration camps) of the Great Boer war.
@ Clark November 11, 2018 at 14:33
My original reply is held in ‘Moderation’, but your BS in calling well-researched and documented studies and books as ‘Conspiracy Theory’ show you lack discernment.
Robert B Stinnett spent 17 years researching his book on Pearl Harbour, ‘Day of Deceit’, but you dismiss it as ‘Conspiracy Theory’. Get a grip. Same with the 2**1 business. The right questions have been asked – they just haven’t been answered.
Anyhow, I think most folk can see through your John West responses. It appears you often rely on such dedicated ‘Debunkers’; whether you have an agenda I actually doubt, but they certainly do.
@ Clark November 11, 2018 at 14:21
‘..It is not well documented at all; the quotes did not originate with Churchill….’
Your proof for that statement? It may indeed be difficult to prove they were his quotes (just as his documented quote about using chemical weapons against the Kurds mysteriously disappeared from the official records, as it was not ‘politically correct’), but they sure as hell fit in with his known Weltanschauung, and, as I said, where is YOUR proof they did not originate with Churchill?
The original book was reprinted in 2001 with some quotes in the foreword, as your link states, but seems to have been ‘Privished’ (like Udo Ulfkotte’s book) as it doesn’t seem to be available.
That generally happens when a book has information which is deemed unhelpful to the PTB.
So true! Why do people forget that one reason for the WWII was the humiliation that Germany suffered. They now are trying to humiliate Russia. Every day, with different tactics.
@ George C November 11, 2018 at 14:00
And sanctions are often a prelude to war.
Indeed, Japan was deliberately lured into attacking the US at Pearl Harbour by an 8-point plan drawn up by FDR’s National Security Adviser with precisely that in mind.
FDR and the Military High Command, and the Corporations and Banksters, wanted the US to get directly involved in WWII via Japan; but FDR insisted Japan had to make the first move, so the crippling sanctions (see ‘Day of Deceit’ by highly decorated US Naval Officer, (Retd.) Robert B Stinnett, who worked on the book for 17 years getting the info together).
When I was in the States in 1959, many teens used to play ‘chicken’ (driving cars head-on towards each other at speed, to see who swerved off first). There were many casualties.
The US is now run by ‘things’ (how can we call them people?) who are playing the same game with Russia and China, only not in cars, one on one, but with multi-million lives at stake.
@ George C November 11, 2018 at 14:00
‘…Why do people forget that one reason for the WWII was the humiliation that Germany suffered….’
It isn’t that people have forgotten what horrors Germany was inflicted with after WWI, it is more that most were never taught it in school.
The victors write the history (or at least, the ‘Official Narrative’ history).
EEC was created to permit German Rearmament and give France control over heavy industry. Korean War meant UK and Us needed divisions in Korea and had to re-arm Germans – German police were disarmed after 1945 and there was no Bundeswehr but UK and US needed German soldiers and tried 1954 to get a European Defence Force which France vetoed in The Assembly after Dien Bien Phu.
Germany joined NATO after Turkey was squared by permitting their surplus male population to find work in West Germany
Some more Info on Soros:
https://www.corbettreport.com/episode-113-meet-george-soros/
Corbett is a long-term anti-semite. He baselessly blames Israel for 9/11, blames ‘international bankers such as the Rothschilds’ for all the wrongs in the world. He’s obsessed with blaming Jews for things and shouldn’t be taken seriously by anyone.
@ Tom November 11, 2018 at 13:04
We can expect to get our comments removed if we stray into that territory, but I’m afraid your ‘baseless’ shows you haven’t followed his arguments, and re Banksters, have you not heard the expression: ‘All Wars are Banksters’ Wars’?
Once again, the old ‘AS’ smear is used instead of proof.
‘IT’S A TRICK, WE ALWAYS USE IT says former ISRAELI MINISTER’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LZNXNVL1G8
I have followed Corbett’s ‘arguments’. They amount to ‘this person was called Rothschild, therefore they did WW1, the Bolshevik Revolution, the rise of Hitler, WW2, and they faked the Cold War’. It’s utter bollocks, and is blatantly anti-semitic.
Regarding 9/11 he has never touched Alec Station and how the CIA deliberately withheld information about the hijackers, but instead goes on about one Fox News special PURELY because it’s about Israel, while simultaneously saying we shouldn’t believe anything in the mainstream media. Again, total bollocks.
Just because the Israeli government accuses critics of being anti-semitic doesn’t mean they aren’t anti-semitic. Anti-semitism is pretty widespread in this world. Only a fool or an anti-semite would deny that.
@ Tom November 11, 2018 at 18:43
Just because the Is*aeli Regime sends the likes of Shai Masot to undermine UK members of Parliament doesn’t make it right (and he is just the tip of the iceberg).
I never said it was right. I said that just because the Israeli state calls critics anti-semites doesn’t mean it’s untrue. Quite a lot of ‘critics of Israel’ apply moral standards to the Jewish homeland that they don’t apply to anyone else. The difference? Israel is full of Jews.
who needs the smear media, FoI and or the complicit BBC when we got Tom to put us all right…..
Would a ‘long term anti-semite’ support a Jewish community radio programme?
In 2013 Jeremy Corbyn was one of just 25 MPs to sign an Early Day Motion calling on BBC Manchester to reverse its decision to cancel a Jewish community radio programme.
Corbett. Not Corbyn. I don’t believe Corbyn is an anti-semite, but quite a few of his supporters are.
As the tv and radio goes into meltdown in Britain with regards to the 11th of November commemorations. One radio commentor over the weekend reported that many ex-servicemen, have ended up in prison, or homeless or ill due to PTSD.
Not uncommomn you might say, Kissinger said of the fighting man, Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.”
Yet why would these ex-service men and women end up in such a predicament, after putting their lives at risk abroad at the behest of their government. Well the radio host speaking to a guest on his slot claimed that the British Legion is sitting on close to a half a billion pounds in donations given in poppy appeals etc over the years.
The question is why hasn’t the money been allocated to those who most need it?
What a sight on the Beeb as the dulcet tones of a Dimblebore pushes the war is good and worthy and look at survivors, the disabled, their grandkids! Marching, marching – as we are supposed to remember the Great War – the war to end all wars – for the survivors of which we invented the poppy donation.
There are no more survivors of that war.
The poppy appeal should be stopped.
The ridiculous march past of the geriatric, disabled and sundry who had nothing to do with the mass murder of the trenches as Harry called it as it was.
And they are giving the salute to the nitwit psychopath ‘shut up and go away’ Williamson.
Remember your dead, remember the suffering and horror, just don’t glorify the conscription and pointlessness of war made for profits of the bankers.
Stuff the media whore psychopaths and the Pathocracy they work for.
How dare Blair, Brown, Major, Cameron and May show their faces in Whitehall today.
http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/t7GYsPisFFC/Wreaths+Laid+Cenotaph+Remembrance+Sunday/TV4Y_sE4hg7
I have been out so missed it. Incredible that Dimblebore Major is still gassing away in a studio with the ‘guests’. Dan Snow, son-in-law of one of the richest aristos in the country, the Duke of Westminster, is outside doing vox pops with the marchers.
Brother in law.
Sharp Ears – Dan Snow introduces his History Hit podcast with the voice of Tony Blair (I feel the hand of history …). He interviews very interesting historians/authors, but his occasional comments on current politics leave no doubt where his loyalties lie. Nasty piece of work.
Re my above comment trying to avoid all the feining of sorrow and regret by the establishment and politicians, over the fallen in the Great War, no doubt someone will be singled out for not showing enough emotion or not wearing the proper attire.
I switched to RT, and learned of how Microsoft is so embedded in the EU’s computer systems, that it is breaking its own procurement laws with regards to tendering.
Any tender over €135,000 Euro’s has to be open, that’s EU law, however the EU is in negotiations with Microsoft right now to renew its contract next year, with no open tender put out there.
The EU shouldn’t be so locked into Microsoft, Facebook, PayPal and Amazon all use open sources, and not Microsoft. EU data, including civilian data as most EU cities administrations also use Microsoft could become compromised.
I understand House of Commons emails run on MS Servers in Ireland
http://www.parliament.uk/site-information/foi/foi-and-eir/commons-foi-disclosures/information-technology/it-infrastructure-2015/
http://www.computerweekly.com/news/450297574/MPs-private-emails-are-routinely-accessed-by-GCHQ
Yes Paul, Microsofts levels of integration in the UK is deepening. I’m pretty sure hospitals and educational facilities use Microsoft as well.
Dear Craig,
And what about the fact that Soros is unaccountable? Regardless of his political positions, nobody chose Soros to make changes in their society. Yet his wealth enables him to pursue his whims anywhere on Earth without having to worry of repercussions.
Hence the opposition and why I believe your line of reasoning falls short. Accountability mitigates excess, as perceived by stakeholders. Soros’ global interventions forego accountability forces those same stakeholders to mitigate those excesses after the fact.
At least Soros donations and lobbying is declared, transparent and from verifable legal monies.
Which is not true of most Tory donors, lobbyists and brexit campaigns, including the shadowy DUP.
“At least Soros donations and lobbying is declared, transparent and from verifable legal monies”
Soros operates out of the Cayman Islands.
@ Dungroanin November 11, 2018 at 12:17
‘…declared, transparent and from verifable legal monies….’ Questionable, given:
‘Billionaire Soros fined £1.4m for insider trading’:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/1416798/Billionaire-Soros-fined-1.4m-for-insider-trading.html
‘GEORGE SOROS’ BEST FOR BRITAIN FINED BY ELECTORAL COMMISSION OVER DONATION AND SPENDING ISSUES’:
https://mainstreamnetwork.co.uk/george-soros-best-britain-fined-electoral-commission-donation-spending-issues/
I’m sure there are many more illegalities in Soros’ money trails, but surely not the least is putting most of his money into his ‘Trust’, thus avoiding tax, and then using it as he wishes for whatever he wishes to attain, using ‘Front’ NGOs.
Your assurance on that matter lacks specifics
George Soros has nothing to contribute to this medieval society that looks after the establishment, always and regardless.
The new EU financial regulations coming in April 2019 have turned the City of London and their political pawns into gutless self servers who don’t give a hoot about the consequences to wider society, and I can’t see George Soros welcome this regulatory framework trying to oust/regulate offshoring.
His monetary support for Hillary Clintons failed election campaign, she is a war monger, imho, will make him a favourite backer, with her renewed noises towards another presidential campaign already swelling the columns of the usual ragtag MSM Gollums.
‘I genuinely do not understand his demonisation by large sections of the left.’
It’s because he is Jewish. The modern left is very tolerant of anti-semitism, frequently declaring that Israel is an ‘illegal state’ that ‘shouldn’t be allowed to exist’ while never applying the same moral/political standards to any other country on the planet. Ditto the BDS movement, which amounts to ‘I will happily buy Saudi oil, Chinese consumer electronics, clothes produced in Indian sweatshops but I refuse to buy anything from Jews’.
Corbyn isn’t an anti-semite, but a huge number of his supporters are, or at least tolerate the anti-Jewish prejudices of those around them. I expect this from ethnic-nationalist right wingers, at least it’s consistent with their worldview, but there is no hypocrisy on earth that compares to that of the anti-semitic Left. ‘You can’t criticise Israel without being called an anti-semite’ is the Left wing’s ‘I’m not a racist but…’
I have some sympathy with this comment, but it only tells half the story, and the half it does tell is incomplete.
But the chances of anything approaching rational debate in this comment section, dominated as ever by conspiracy theories with anti-Semitic strands, is close to zero.
To the conspiracy theorists here, I say this. It is you that have driven me to this position. It is you that has opened my eyes to the ongoing vicious prejudice against Jcws. There is a need for Israel, and a need for Israel to have nuclear weapons, to prevent anyone attempting the same as Nazi Germany did. The comments I see on this thread demonstrate that need.
You conspiracy theorists do not exist in isolation, and I’m fully aware that you’re reacting against neoconservatism. I oppose neoconservatism and Israeli expansionism, and its abuse of the Palestinians. But your overreaction is fuelling the flames and providing justification. You’re part of the problem, not the solution.
Clark
Conspiracy theories are not limited to one side. The fact that the conspiracy theory here that the left is anti semitic is what is under discussion. But also vastly superior to the conspiracy theories are the actual conspiracies that have taken place over more than 70 years to render the Palestinians a non-people. Then I am sorry and ashamed for you to say that you can see the need for anyone to have nuclear weapons. I thought you are against armaments but endorsing the right of one country to have nuclear weapons is also an endorsement for all countries to have the same as possessing nuclear weapons is a tool of blackmail. The only fair way to deal with this problem is to concede that somebody’s rights cannot used for annulling somebody else’s rights which is exactly how the west now views this conflict.
If there was an effective “international community”, maybe nuclear weapons could be done away with, and a balance of power could be maintained by international cooperation instead. But there isn’t, and given human nature, I’m not sure there ever could be. I can hope, of course, but the very conspiracy theorists under discussion are strongly opposed to anything they see as a “One World Government”, and they circulate many conspiracy theories to undermine the United Nations. Judging by discussions at this site, these conspiracy theorists’ ideas command more respect than does mainstream science!
Under the UN Charter, “All peoples have the right to self-determination”. Until the formation of Israel, the Jcws were a people without a nation; there was no power to protect them, and we saw the results of that in Nazi Germany.
Fascism is still strong; you only have to look at the comments and behaviours of multiple commenters at this site to see that there’s a large reservoir of proto-fascists to whom any lie is acceptable so long as it demonises Jcws, and that even more are prepared to permit this without speaking out.
The Palestinians also deserve a state, and the current situation of Israeli occupation and apartheid is utterly unacceptable. But you only need to look at this site to see the dishonesty and hatred (as much as can be got away with under the moderation rules) that drives Jcws’ fear, which in turn drives Israeli aggression.
I don’t accept your argument. For one thing you state that the Jews were a people without a nation, this does not make sense. I guess what you mean is that they were without a state. But the bone of contention here is that two wrongs do not make a right. You do not rob peter to pay Paul.
I am fully aware of the conspiracists on this website. Of course there is opposition to a one world government that means a hegemonic US dominance and the imposition of the current form of Globalsim. But you seem to ignore that the West is a guarantor of the existence of Israel and that these protectors are armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons so that more nuclear weapons in the ME only leads to more proliferation and the possibility of use. If you say that Israel, which has openly threatened Iran on several occasions with military action, is entitled to have nuclear weapons you must also admit that Iran should also be entitled to the same. And by the way, why do we still have to misspell Jcws are we not adult enough here to be able to use words the way they are meant to be used?
Tom Secker,
The vast majority of people, neither know or care, who the people they meet are from Jewish, German, English, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Australian, American, Irish, English, Arabic, Sikh or Buddhists. They also don’t care about their current belief systems, nor their political interests – that is if they have any – which is extremely rare.
So what point exactly are you trying to make?
Whatever it is will have no effect except to make you look silly.
No one cares if you are Jewish. I don’t have a problem with it.
Just stop all this defensive nonsense and paranoia.
No one is trying to attack you.
Many Jews think the leaders of the Israeli Government are mad psychopaths.
Well join the club. Most English and Americans think the same about our Governments.
There is nothing special about yours.
Tony
@ Tony_0pmoc November 11, 2018 at 13:31
I am not Jewish. But thanks for showing everyone that you’re an anti-semite.
– “It’s because he is Jcwish”
Exactly.
@ Tom Secker November 11, 2018 at 13:02
The Left lambastes Israel for their inhuman policies against the Palestinians, not because they are anti-Semitic (though there will always be some who are).
Most working class British Jews have always been left wing, and played a very big part in working-class movements, often leading them (that is my assessment, over a long life; I could be wrong re the ‘most’, but that has been my observation).
The mega-mouths who claim to represent the Jews in the UK certainly do not speak for many, as JVP have pointed out.
But of course, it is not surprising to find a commenter using that AS smear:
‘IT’S A TRICK, WE ALWAYS USE IT says former ISRAELI MINISTER’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LZNXNVL1G8
@Paul Barbara at 13:48. This. 100%. I am Jewish and the the BBD and other Jewish organisations (unelected) who purport to represent all Jews have no such right.
“the BBD and other Jewish organisations (unelected) who purport to represent all Jews have no such right.”
Aye. That’s it. There’s a long long history of this problematic during the Diaspora. I mean, how do you hold a diaspora together.
Even the creation of the state of Israel didn’t resolve this problem.
Who represents the Jews?
So, now we’ve got this fight between nationalist Jews and globalist Jews. Right and Left.
I’ve posted the discussion between nationalist Naftali Bennet and globalist Martin Indyk, a number of times before:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaThF8wXC_E
That’s the debate.
This Deputy Attorney General, Dina Zilber, in the Knesset is very critical of the proposals of the so called ‘Justice Minister’ aka ‘the loyalty in culture law’.
The gatekeeper of Israeli democracy and rule of law
Mazal Mualem
November 9, 2018
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/11/israel-miri-regev-ayelet-shaked-loyalty-in-culture-law.html
‘The debate in which Zilber participated took place one day after the Knesset approved the first reading of the so-called loyalty in culture law. This controversial legislation aims to allow the Culture Ministry to deny government support to cultural institutions for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to denying Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state, incitement to racism, support for terrorism, desecrating the flag, marking the anniversary of Israel’s independence as a day of mourning (i.e., the Palestinians’ Nakba Day), and so on.
The law lies on a continuum of right-wing, nationalist legislation characteristic of the current government. Other such legislation includes laws to weaken the legal system, in particular the Supreme Court. To the latter end, the Knesset is debating an override clause that targets the court, allowing the legislature to override its rulings declaring laws unconstitutional.’
The article also appears on the Jcws for Justice for Palestinians website.
http://jfjfp.com/the-gatekeeper-of-israeli-democracy-and-rule-of-law/
I’ve read a bit about Soros and have come to the same conclusion as Craig.
Whatever his faults, or damage he might have done in the past, Soros does appear to have done quite a lot of good with making donations to education etc.
The main problem I have with Soros is his funding of Hilary Clinton’s campaign, though I suppose it might have been even worse if he had funded Trump (a moot point?)
As Craig points out, Soros, to his credit, didn’t support the Iraq war and that seems to put some distance between him and the psychopathic neo-cons.
So, I’m a bit surprised by the number of strongly negative responses here to Craig’s blog.
I think Craig is trying to avoid the prejudices that make so many of us (including myself) become overly embittered in our justified hatred of big money having so much influence in the world.
In short, I’m on the fence over Soros. If he starts funding the Green Party, and genuine socialists, I’ll be convinced of his philanthropy…nudge, wink.
@ Garth Carthy November 11, 2018 at 13:34
‘..If he starts funding the Green Party, and genuine socialists, I’ll be convinced of his philanthropy…nudge, wink.’
Or if he buys you a pizza?
Don’t like pizzas.
The Green Party is problematic. Like the LibDems and antecedents.
I suppose, we in UK, US etc tend to think of it as Left, but it can be seen as quite Right if you look at it in broader terms.
It’s a curiosity.
I’m sure Soros would fund Leftist Greens.
And there’s a long history of Leftist funding from wealthy sources.
Anyway, Soros is just a poster-boy for Globalism. He’s put himself out there or has been assigned that role. He’s not alone. The whole anti-Trump movement is Globalist.
So, if you look around the world at these emergent Right govts, what you’re seeing is resistance to the plans of Soros-like Globalists.
And this resistance has very powerful funding as well.
I think the Globalist dream is dying, as the men who dreamed it are dying. Like all those old Communists. And they had it almost within their grasp.
We’re moving to the Right, all over the world.
But, it’s just social Rightism. It’ll be economic Leftism.
As opposed to our current, social Leftism, and economic Rightism.
Out with the old, in with the new.
At least the cycles are still working.
@ Garth Carthy November 11, 2018 at 18:44
They taste good, but are very unhealthy. You’re better off without them.
Instead of staring at a screen seeing Tony ‘solemn face today’ Blair in front of a cenotaph — everybody do yourselves a favour and listen to George Galloway.
It’s here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zlKhmb0LHs
It is O/T, but more relevant to this country than George SWoros, imho. Interview by der Spiegel with Jeremy Corbin. Cut and pasted so you don’t have to wrestle with proprietorial nonsense.
Interview with Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn ‘We Can’t Stop Brexit’
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn believes that politics have left young people behind. In an interview with DER SPIEGEL, he speaks about Brexit, the crisis of social democracy in Europe and the uphill battle to unite his party.
Interview Conducted by Jörg Schindler
The man upon whom the hopes of young men and women in Britain rest enjoys taking pictures of drain covers and making jam. He wears baggy blazers and, when necessary, smuggles English cheese into his Mexican vacation lodgings. In other words, he leads the averagely eccentric lifestyle of your standard British retiree.
Except that Jeremy Corbyn, 69, has his sights set on becoming the next prime minister of the United Kingdom. Ever since the man from the London borough of Islington became the surprise Labour leader in 2015, the party has been experiencing an unprecedented boom. Not unlike Bernie Sanders in the United States, Corbyn’s decidedly socialist and pacifist positions have been received enthusiastically by mostly young voters. With its 540,000 members, Labour is now the largest political party in the European Union. In the 2017 election, it received 40 percent of the vote, despite significant attacks on the party from the British media and a bitter internal battle. Since then, left-wing and social democratic parties from across Europe have been making pilgrimages to London to learn the secret to Corbyn’s unlikely success.
DER SPIEGEL: Mr. Corbyn, when you look across Europe at the moment, do you fear that social democracy is doomed?
Corbyn: Not at all. Look at Portugal where the Socialist Party has formed a successful left-wing government. Also the Swedish Social Democratic Party did comparatively well in the last election.
DER SPIEGEL: These are the last bastions. In Germany, France, the Netherlands and elsewhere, social democrats are on their way to becoming splinter parties. Why are they doing so poorly?
Corbyn: I think the main point is how you deal with the economic crisis of 2008. Do you continue to allow austerity to dominate and manage an economy which, in effect, is redistributing wealth in the wrong way or do you offer an alternative? I think left parties that are putting forward a coherent anti-austerity alternative will get huge support.
DER SPIEGEL: At the moment, though, it is right-wing populist parties across Europe that are getting significant support.
Corbyn: When communities become disillusioned with politicians and politics, it can be extremely dangerous. And hence, I find the rise of the far right in Austria and Germany very troubling and very concerning. At least the AfD (Germany’s right-wing populist Alternative for Germany party) didn’t hasn’t grown any further in the polls recently, but I do find the rise of this party quite frightening.
DER SPIEGEL: The decline of social democracy started after figures like Tony Blair and Gerhard Schröder were in government. Is that just coincidence?
Corbyn: What Tony Blair wanted to do was turn the traditional social democracy into what he called a third way.
DER SPIEGEL: Which led to him winning by a landslide in 1997.
Corbyn: Yes, but he moved the Labour Party to the right. I was never a supporter of this path. I supported the investment in health and education, which was very good. I disagreed on the Iraq War in particular, but also on the idea that you could run public services through private finance.
DER SPIEGEL: Your answer is a sharp turn to the left?
Corbyn: What we’re offering here are coherent policies. It’s the values behind it that are so important. The values that you work for the entirety of society and don’t blame minorities, that you invest in education, but above all, that you give people hope. I really think many people across Europe need the perspective that they will be able to achieve something in their lives because the levels of depression in post-industrial areas is huge. The levels of underemployment, short-term employment and insecure employment are huge. And I think that is very dangerous to society. What we’re saying is that there has to be a realignment of wealth within our society.
DER SPIEGEL: Yet the current level of unemployment in Britain is the lowest it has been since 1975. Despite Brexit, the economy is growing.
Corbyn: That masks the fact that there are 1 million people on zero-hour contracts (Eds. Note: contracts that do not guarantee a minimum amount of work) and that real wages have been frozen now for 10 years. Almost 4 million people accessed food banks last year in the sixth richest country in the world. The Conservatives tend to measure everything by the prosperous parts of London and the southeast. It’s simply not the case with the rest of the country. We have the lowest levels of wages paid in the East Midlands, which is less than two hours from London by train. The lowest levels of investment are in the northeast.
DER SPIEGEL: Is that why Labour received 40 percent of the vote in last year’s election?
Corbyn: We addressed the worries of the majority in our manifesto, yeah. And we’re campaigning in a different way. We’re doing community campaigning, we involve our members much more in policy making. Together, we’re developing ideas like an overarching national education service. It’s a completely novel idea in Britain, where education has traditionally been atomized between school, local authority, quasi-independent universities and so on. And we obviously work to get our message across in any way that we can.
DER SPIEGEL: By bypassing the mainstream media, as you refer to it.
Corbyn: The most hostile area for us is the mainstream print media, which has been unbelievably hostile. Since I became Labour leader three years ago, 86 percent of reporting about my leadership has been negative by the mainstream media. We challenge that in whatever way we can. We do much better on social media and on broadcast media.
DER SPIEGEL: To be fair to the print media, you don’t need journalists to badmouth you. Some of your fiercest adversaries can be found among Labour delegates to the House of Commons.
Corbyn: The party is more united than you think. Almost 14,000 people came to our last conference in Liverpool. That’s the biggest attendance ever to a political conference in Britain. And the party came to fairly agreed positions on most things. There isn’t a huge split.
DER SPIEGEL: Which is why I referred specifically to Labour MPs, a group collectively known as the Parliamentary Labour Party. A significant number of them would like to get rid of you sooner rather than later.
Corbyn: Some members of the Parliamentary Labour Party have been slower to come onboard than others, shall we say?
DER SPIEGEL: Why does the old guard despise your left-wing politics so passionately?
Corbyn: I am afraid you’ll have to ask them that question, really. I reach out to all — all the time.
DER SPIEGEL: Rumor has it that old Blairites and Labour centrists are in the process of forming a new party. Would it be easier for you if your adversaries within the party were to leave?
Corbyn: No, I don’t want the party to be split because any split would be dangerous for the future of all of us. I want them to stay together and recognize that, unless we offer an inclusive radical alternative to what this Tory government is doing, we’re not going to win the election. We’re offering that radical alternative.
DER SPIEGEL: It is one that includes the nationalization of the railways and the electrical grid, more workers’ rights and a massive redistribution of wealth from the top to the bottom.
Corbyn: Our policies are sensible, inclusive, and they are actually quite mainstream. A majority of Britons support bringing the railway back into public ownership.
DER SPIEGEL: In your 35 years as an MP, you have gained a reputation for being a party rebel. You have voted against your own party 400 times.
Corbyn: Oh, I think much more than that.
DER SPIEGEL: Yet under your leadership, Labour rebels have occasionally been sanctioned quite harshly. Is that not a paradox?
Corbyn: Nobody has been sanctioned for their votes. We are not into sanctioning people for their views. We sanction people for their behavior and for false allegations.
DER SPIEGEL: Members of your own party have also accused you of tolerating anti-Semitism. Do you?
Corbyn: No, absolutely not. Anti-Semitism is a disgusting form of racism. I am implacably opposed to it. There is no place for it in our party and it must be eradicated from society. We will take whatever measures necessary to tackle anti-Semitism head on and guarantee the security of Jewish life in the UK.
DER SPIEGEL: Not just Labour, but the whole country is extremely divided at the moment — not least because of Brexit. If you could stop Brexit, would you?
Corbyn: We can’t stop it. The referendum took place. Article 50 has been triggered. What we can do is recognize the reasons why people voted Leave.
DER SPIEGEL: And they are?
Corbyn: I think a lot of people have been totally angered by the way in which their communities have been left behind. We had high Leave votes in the most left-behind areas of the country. In a lot of deprived areas, working conditions have deteriorated over the decades, protected by European legislation. Indeed, we would enhance workers’ rights, where the Conservative Party wants to go in another direction of a largely deregulated economy.
DER SPIEGEL: Wouldn’t you face pretty much the same problems as Prime Minister Theresa May if you were in charge of the Brexit negotiations?
Corbyn: No, because we wouldn’t be trying to face towards the deregulated economy of the United States, which the one wing of the Tory Party is trying to do all the time. We would want to make a new and comprehensive customs union with the European Union, one that would obviously protect the Irish border — that’s crucial — but also ensure that our supply chains worked in both directions. People voted Leave, or they voted Remain, but nobody voted to lose their job. Nobody voted to reduce their living standards or working conditions.
DER SPIEGEL: Some people have argued that if Labour had had a pro-EU leader, the result of the Brexit referendum would have been different. What would the EU have to look like for you to support it?
Corbyn: I’ve been critical of the competitions policy in Europe and the move towards free market, and obviously critical in the past of their treatment of Greece, although that was mostly the eurozone that did that. My idea is of a social Europe with inclusive societies that work for everyone and not just for a few.
DER SPIEGEL: Less neo-liberal?
Corbyn: Well, as you probably gathered from following me, I’m not really in favor of neo-liberal economics.
DER SPIEGEL: Looking at the almost impossible task facing Theresa May, that of sealing a deal not only with Brussels but also with her own party, do you sometimes feel sorry for her?
Corbyn: I am a decent human being, I feel sorry for anyone in distress. But the best way for anyone to alleviate distress is to take yourself away from the source of it.
DER SPIEGEL: No offense intended, but both you and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders are older politicians …
Corbyn: I can’t believe you just said that! (laughs)
DER SPIEGEL: Why is it that so many young people flock to you?
Corbyn: It’s not a personal thing. It’s about us as parties and movements offering some hope. Young people never turned off politics. Politics turned off young people because it didn’t offer anything to them. I grew up in the 1950s and ’60s and I always believed that I would probably have a better life than my parents had. And my parents were not poor. The turning point was the politics endorsed by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Their message was that the young had to pay for education, pay for health, pay for pensions, that society doesn’t really care about them. And that it’s all a race.
DER SPIEGEL: And now you want to go back to the future?
Corbyn: What we’ve been saying on both sides of the Atlantic is about redistribution of wealth and power. Bernie Sanders has quite a good line. He says: “America can afford anything except the inequality it’s got.”
DER SPIEGEL: You will turn 70 next year. Are you planning to stand in the next general election?
Corbyn: I’m very young. I’m very healthy. I run. I’m a vegetarian. I eat porridge every morning. I don’t smoke. I don’t drink. I don’t do anything bad. I am sorry if that makes me sound boring.
DER SPIEGEL: Mr. Corbyn, thank you very much for this interview.
Good interview, thanks for that.
I have also linked to a Spiegel interview with George Soros, to at least appear balanced, it was pulled by the moderator or Craig.
make of it what you will
@Clark. Do you think it necessary for a nuclear weapons nation to be organised and regulated by the NNPT? If your answer is yes, than why do you think Israel should have special rights over and above all other nuclear armed states in the world. I am using the word state with provision, because in UN terms Israel has no declared borders and hence is not a state, but rogue.
Lastly, do you also think that the death penalty, introduced solely for Palestinians by the Zionist governing entity, is fair with regards to the Balfour declaration, accepted by Israel in its inception?
Yep, I also had a couple of fairly acceptable Soros related quotes pulled. On the whole I do prefer G.Soros to I.A.Karimov, as I’m sure does Craig – but my reasoning based on events in Uzbekistan in 2005 seemingly is beyond the pale* and below the salt.
*(I didn’t realise “beyond the pale” was so historic and so contentious!)
Lets remember the the dead, but lets also take care of the known soldiers.
https://mobile.twitter.com/TheProleStar/status/1061264300491325440
Get the money out British Legion we know you’ve got.
They spent half their annual income, c.£90 million, on welfare services and running their care homes last year; and they don’t have half a billion stashed away.
Anyway isn’t this something the Government should be doing?
Instead of staring at a screen seeing Tony ‘solemn face today’ Blair in front of a cenotaph — everybody do yourselves a favor and listen to George Galloway.
It’s here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zlKhmb0LHs and it’s highly relevant today.
Creeping fascism exists in the country, namely at Reading University. The war on terrrrrrr is not dead.
‘An essay by a prominent leftwing academic that examines the ethics of socialist revolution has been targeted by a leading university using the government’s counter-terrorism strategy.
Students at the University of Reading have been told to take care when reading an essay by the late Professor Norman Geras, in order to avoid falling foul of Prevent.
Third-year politics undergraduates have been warned not to access it on personal devices, to read it only in a secure setting, and not to leave it lying around where it might be spotted “inadvertently or otherwise, by those who are not prepared to view it”. The alert came after the text was flagged by the university as “sensitive” under the Prevent programme.
The essay, listed as “essential” reading for the university’s Justice and Injustice politics module last year, is titled Our Morals: The Ethics of Revolution. Geras was professor emeritus of government at the University of Manchester until his death in 2013. He rejected terrorism but argued that violence could be justified in the case of grave social injustices.
Waqas Tufail, a senior lecturer in criminology at Leeds Beckett University,, who wrote a report about Prevent last year,, described the case at Reading as “hugely concerning”. Another Prevent expert, Fahid Qurashi of Staffordshire University, said the move showed how anti-terrorism legislation is “being applied far beyond its purview”.
University alerts students to danger of leftwing essay
Prevent critics slam Reading for labelling ‘mainstream’ academic text as extremist
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/nov/11/reading-university-warns-danger-left-wing-essay?
The essay. Remember not to leave it lying around! https://socialistregister.com/index.php/srv/article/view/5565
On here – https://socialistregister.com/index.php/srv/article/view/5565/2463
Thanks SE, I found a direct link that probably doesn’t trigger a PRISM selector
https://web.archive.org/web/20101128021137/https://socialistregister.com/index.php/srv/article/download/5565/2463/
for those who prefer the way that society is currently heading, you are of course welcome to d/l the 300 kilobytes pdf, print-out all 27 pages of intellectual thought on a dead tree, then burn them!
Ta.
I did not know that Geras supported Bush’s (and Blair’s) war on Iraq.
‘Geras’s measured and tightly-reasoned critiques of fashionable Leftist nostrums were not universally popular, and he found himself denounced as an “imperialist skunk” and a “turncoat”. In one posting, following the Iraqi elections of 2005, he imagined awakening from a nightmare to see Ken Livingstone, Harold Pinter, George Galloway, John Pilger and other opponents of the war advancing upon him — only to raise a finger stained with the purple dye of an Iraqi voter. “Everybody and his brother has had a go at me,” he said. “But I started the blog because I was fed up with the prevailing left and liberal consensus that the war in Iraq was wrong.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/10495887/Norman-Geras-obituary.html
One thing that revolutionaries never seem to appreciate is that ultimately the revolution eats itself – always and everywhere mo exceptions.
And so we find a “learned tome” that discusses the ethics of murdering upwards of 100 million people now getting caught up in the snare that these “ethical” people laid for others. Oh how sweet the joy to see that a trap set for mostly working class people who fail to express themselves in a language approved of by their social betters being sprung on the trap setters.
lucky mo.
How many times has the US called on people in other countries to rise up against their governments?
By all means, ban all those notable Westerners who have called on Venezuelans, Cubans, Iraqis, Iranians etc to ‘rise up’ and confiscate all their assets.
Way to go!
Mueller Russiagate Report – “Prepare For Disappointment” says Politco news channel:
“As Mueller winds down his investigation, the media is warning that there won’t be any evidence of Russian Collusion, and worse, we’ll probably never even see the report. ”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_vpC9yFMVE
Now there’s a surprise! 😀
How will they keep such a report “secret” in Washington ? Trump could order it published
As we commemorate the centenary of the ending of WWI, and those who fell. I thought it would of interest to know, that the war might have continued, even though there was sporadic fighting into 1919, as some memorials show.
The German Spring Offensive of 1918 was beginning to falter, and the German high command wanted to implement Operation Plan 19, which entailed the Germany navy the Kaiserlich marine at Kiel and Wilhelmshaven breaking out and engaging with the British fleet that had fanned out to construct a blockade.
Both had met once before at the Battle of Jutland in 1916, and depending on whose opinion you listen to, I’d say that the honours were pretty even.
However the German sailors were sick of not being paid and most were underfed. A mutiny arose, and soon spread beyond Keil. The German high command sent 40,000 troops to quell the mutiny, but many defected to its banner of Bread and Peace. The mutiny gathered pace and the high command knew the game was up, they quickly sought peace talks with the allies, and the Kaiser abdicated on the 9th of November.
Of course the Kiel mutiny hastened the end of the war, but you won’t read much about it, because it doesn’t fit in with the narrative, that the British Tommies and American Doughboys, won the war all by themselves.
Neddless to say the harsh treatment of Germany (Versaillies treaty) by the allies post-WWI, probably led to the rise of Hitler
Every history of the Great War I’ve ever come across mentions the Kiel mutiny and the state of revolution into which Germany descended. The more common mistake is to think the country was never defeated militarily.
@RepublicofScotland
There is a good documentary/drama about the Kiel mutiny recently released.
htpps://www.arte.tv/de/060787-000-A/1918-aufstand-der–matrosen
It is in German but hopefully subtitles will be available soon
Royal Navy would have destroyed the German fleet instead of having it underwater in Scapa Flow. Germans still pay Sektsteuer to fund that Navy even though it I underwater. The mutinies started in 1917 with stokers and sailors allying themselves with USPD party and anatagonised by officer rations being luxurious while they starved. After all the British Blockade went long into 1919
http://www.deutsche-schutzgebiete.de/scapa_flow.htm
Actually Paul the Royal navy lost more vessels, and suffered higher casualties than the German fleet. However the British fleet under Jellicoe could still put more ships to sea, than the German fleet.
In my opinion Battle of the Skagerrak, as it was known to the Germans, was decisive in the fact that it negated the German fleet from any further action, in that sense it was a British victory.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/battle-of-jutland
Craig,
Soros may be well-intentioned, as you believe. But he’s funded some real jerks.
Including people who have favored sides in war (including in the fmr Yugoslavia) and people who are encouraging wars. Individuals funding war or war propaganda shouldn’t get a pass for being well-intentioned, nor for sometimes doing good. In fact, governments could make the same claims.
anti war is the only way.
I keep saying this but the DUP are right nutters to want Brexit at the same time as wanting what would then become Northern Ireland’s border with the EU to remain open for everything. Why on earth want Brexit? The answer is because they think the EU is a Catholic stronghold. If only they were more honest… Most of them probably agree with Michael Gove who called Theresa May a “continuity Catholic” by reason of the fact that her dad was an Anglican vicar.
Or to be more exact, Michael Gove called Theresa May Britain’s “first Catholic prime minister”. Never mind that she is not Catholic, unlike the raving Brexiters Jacob Rees-Mogg and former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith. Mustn’t let the facts get in the way of the story. For the exact details of Gove’s usage of the very “UVF” term “continuity Catholic”, refer to his article.
This is of more than museum of curiosities interest. The view of May as a Remainer snake in the grass will not find a mouthpiece in Jacob Rees-Mogg in its anti-Catholic version, but its core is believed across the far right, both inside and outside the Tory party.
In Westminster terms, the DUP are the only game in town. When they were a one man band the Free Presbyterian purity was maintained but must remember Snarlene Foster is Church of Ireland. Approximately one third of DUP elected office holders are Free Presbyterian. If it’s Presbyterian purity you’re after try Traditional Ulster Voice, their position on witch burning is interesting.
Gloria Neumeier thinks Soros is OK.
Thank You, George Soros
A reader who taught at the Central European University in Prague recalls the gratitude of her students as they emerged from the Soviet grip.
Nov. 10, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/10/opinion/letters/george-soros.html
It’s those nasty Russkies again. Actually Putin, Melania and Trump seemed to be getting on well today. Monsieur Micron did not look too happy.
https://www.theguardian.com/global/video/2018/nov/11/putin-gives-thumbs-up-to-trump-at-armistice-ceremony-in-paris-video
While Merkel seems to be expecting…
…a baby?
By the way Sharp Ears –
Thanks for all that info Re LBC..What a Woven Web it all is
P.s Listeningwater was asking after your health.. after your problems a couple of years ago..
Stay Sharp
Recovered thanks Brian. Hardly any voice and breathing problems but alive! Best wishes to you all up there.
I have found these WW1 commemorations very moving and sad too. I have found myself in tears at times at the pity of it all. Just think. It was only 21 years later when they were at it again.
Corbyn is getting a hard time from the likes of the Mail on Sunday for what he was wearing today. Shades of the way in which Michael Foot was rubbished. The war criminals were in morning dress so that’s OK. The difference is that Foot and Corbyn have never ordered men and women to kill other men, women and children.
Found this in my files.
Translations
For sacrifice read sacrificed,
For gave their lives translate as taken,
For duty – murder sanitised,
For Christ or god – the god-forsaken,
For king – high heid yin of all the high heid yins,
For country – brutal island fiefdom,
Pride – an infection to spread among children,
Crown – a hat for said high heid yin,
For volunteer – the poor or drunken,
Conscript – killer or killed by order,
Hero – whoever makes good headlines,
Enemy – bogeyman over the border,
For lessons learned – official excuses,
History – edited work of fiction,
Noble cause – no cause of ours,
Leader – head-case on a mission.
For national interest – profit-making,
For war crime – war, the crime is war,
For veteran – one who fluked survival,
Martyrdom – not worth dying for,
Freedom – whatever they want it to mean
Memorial – shrine to mass bloodletting,
Remembrance – a public relations prescription
For what’s for remembering, what forgetting.
I don’t know who wrote it.
I have found these WW1 commemorations more like a celebration of war and a preparation for the next one.
Yes, a lot of people got killed, but we gave them a good send-off so that’s all right then.
These pages are awash with thoughts and info..cheers all
I read that the Scots were sent into battle first.with their Atire and Pipes, for a scary sight n Sound .. and like many scacred things OUR BAGPIPES ARE.. now we have an establishment show of racism, by covering the pipes in a union jack..
On the grand scale of things, my outrage at this deliberate insult.. is nothing compared to my horror at what we are doing to Yemen.. I Struggle to witness our Privileged Christmas Excess’s and Indulgence.. and the pictures of perishing Yemeni child skeletons at the same time
Soros is a mega capitalist, he sets off project that will gain him more and more money and more and more power, he is a powerful person that is accountable to no one. World dont need that kind of people trying to influence nations. On top of that he is a globalist which is the same as anti-democratic.
How he works against Hungary is a modern example of how he cause divisions and how he wont even stop when warned by the same nation not to intefere.