I have been in London all week and very busy, largely on the Julian Assange campaign/Wikileaks but also researching a couple of other things. Back to Edinburgh tonight I hope.
Against the background of the appalling behaviour revealed in the Wikileaks DNC leaks, I find it impossible to look at the Iowa caucus fiasco without entertaining the suspicion that the Democratic Party machine is trying to cheat Bernie out of the nomination yet again.
A similar straw in the wind on party “management”; I was told yesterday the SNP is cancelling its Spring Conference to avoid a membership revolt over the acceptance of the Westminster veto on Indyref2. Has anyone else picked this up?
Back home and hopefully posting something substantial tomorrow.
Thank you Craig Murray, for your stalwart support of Julian Assange. It’s important, Assange is real, his “crime” is truth.
It seems to me that abstract politics, representative democracy and anything to do with the established political discourse is a pantomime, a decoy, a risible substitute for reality.
When I was a child and still subject to the compulsory indoctrination into our civilisational orthodoxy that is called “School” I used to dream in the mornings that I was lost in an endless forest. Before I could wake I had to fell every tree. In my dream I would despair at this impossible task. When I woke it was a relief, because at least I knew the coming day’s misery was finite.
It’s time to wake from the collective dream that is “politics”. It is a lie we are told to keep us in a conceptual gualg. Democrat, republican, SNP and tory, they are just different trees in the sisyphean forest. The only way to escape the nightmare is to emerge into the harsh light of the real. A real thing is a thing that continues to exist even if nobody believes in it. No nation passes this test, no political party, no monetary system, no cultural fantasy.
“It seems to me that abstract politics, representative democracy and anything to do with the established political discourse is a pantomime, a decoy, a risible substitute for reality.”
Indeed, just so.
I listened to yesterday’s BBC’s (R4) World Tonight news programme which included a report on Syria which was essentially a complete inversion of reality and an argument for more bombing of Syria – the argument being that it is wrong for America to withdraw from Syria (which it isn’t – it still holds a number of Syrian oil fields and is unlikely to give them up) when Syrian forces are attacking Idlib (actually seeking to retake part of its own country) which is being, in part, held by Turkey (an invading power), which is a Nato ally and who should therefore be militarily supported, ie with more bombing.
How low can you go? Who ever thought that the BBC would sink this far to such rotten levels of ‘journalism’ to promote such a disgusting version of ‘reality’?
Listen from 23:42:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000dxvb
@Peter at 11:00 on 7/2/2020-I find it difficult to believe that this is the first time you’ve become aware of the awfulness of the BBC as a reporter of global events. In reality, it is merely an arm of the British government’s security services and its entire output is appallingly pro-British propaganda. From the news to its radio output such as ‘From our own correspondent’ and shit like ‘Hard Talk’.
I know that the Tories are hoping to nobble the BBC through attacking the licence funding scheme but I really don’t care if the BBC folds and I certainly no longer believe (as I did when I naïvely believed it was impartial) that it should be funded by direct taxation. The sooner it and its awful communiqué readers like Huw Edwards, Fiona Bruce, Justin Webb, Nick Robinson, et al, fold, the better.
@Ingwe
I’m glad you find it difficult to believe because it’s very far from the first time. The majority, though not all, of my comments on this site tend to be focussed on the BBC.
The “awfulness of the BBC”, though, can’t be commented upon enough because our world is sinking and the BBC is sinking with it and is on the side of those dragging us down – as we have just seen graphically demonstrated by its, I think unprecedented, potentially illegal, general election bias.
However, promoting war (and, of course, the above is not the first time) in Syria – a country in dust and on it’s knees, with around half a million dead and over half the population forced from their homes – has to be some kind of a new low and makes it for me and many others, yourself included obviously, Broadcasters Beneath Contempt.
@ Peter February 7, 2020 at 20:03
Nothing new, though it has got progressively worse.
George Orwell resigned from the BBC because of the propaganda.
I believe his ‘Ministry of Truth’ in 1984 was based upon the BBC.
I think it was the Ministry of Information. Here is a very brief but enlightening talk on Orwell and the BBC by Jean Seaton. https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/library/george-orwell-at-the-bbc-a-reflection
@ Iain Stewart February 8, 2020 at 06:02
Thanks for correction – my memory is a bit shoogly.
“a report on Syria which was essentially a complete inversion of reality”
Reality being in black and white? Craig has frequently expressed his irritation at naive visions of a world divided neatly into goodies and baddies.
@ Iain Stewart, 06:07.
Many people get irritated about many things all the time, such is life.
“Craig has frequently expressed his irritation at naive visions of a world divided neatly into goodies and baddies.”
I’m not sure if you’re referring to the BBC there, or to my comment.
Of course the Syrian situation is a (very) complex one.
That Assad is the ‘baddy’ and the West (US & UK) are the ‘goodies’ is just one part of the inverted reality that the BBC (and the Establishment) wish to impress upon you and have you believe.
Similarly, the idea that the Syrian was/is a civil war – Assad against the Syrian people – is risible, as it much more resembles WW3 in microcosm, with numerous outside powers seeking to destroy the Assad regime and several others joining to support Assad.
What is clearcut is that the war should end immediately and that it is utterly despicable that some, like the BBC, seek to see it continue, in the interest of removing Assad.
The world is divided into baddies and even worse baddies.
@ Iain Stewart February 8, 2020 at 06:07
The Western narrative on Syria is indeed ‘a complete inversion of reality.’
It is total War Criminal BS.
The US set up a secret base in Jordan in 2009 in order to train mercenaries and Syrian malcontents. Ex-French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas is on record (on a number of French TV channels) saying he was told in 2009 (two years before the armed insurrection kicked off) that Britain was planning to overthrow Assad with the use of mercenaries:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjqRBvT4CqQ
Assad was accused of firing on peaceful demonstrators. In reality, snipers fired on and killed both policemen and demonstrators (a typical Yank trick, used in Egypt, Ukraine, Venezuela and Iraq as well as Syria).
Then of course there were the CW allegations, obviously also BS (later shown up by the OPCW whistleblowers), yet taken as gospel by the MSM.
‘Complete inversion of reality’ fits the bill perfectly.
Maybe all that. The odd thing is I know three nice Syrians fairly well, (one an ex-colleague) who all support His Excellency Dr Bashar Al-Assad unconditionally and tell me he has no choice but to exercise extreme brutality without mercy, which they regret as an unfortunate necessity. They find the whitewashing efforts of well meaning Westerners baffling.
@ Iain Stewart, 21:32
Really Iain, what is your point?
It would appear that your unspoken purpose is to support Western wars of regime change, with such results as we see in Syria, Iraq and Libya.
I think I can honestly say that I haven’t seen one single comment on this website seeking to whitewash Assad.
“… well meaning Westerners …” – This is not a place for condescension.
@ Iain Stewart February 9, 2020 at 21:32
‘…They find the whitewashing efforts of well meaning Westerners baffling.’
It is not ‘whitewashing’ to expose the truth that the ‘firing on peaceful demonstrators’ narrative was lies, and mirrors the tactics the Yanks used in the ‘so-called’ ‘Arab Spring’ in a number of Muslim countries, as well as in Ukraine and Venezuela, nor to expose the lies (which were glaringly obvious to many of us from the outset) that Assad would have had to be a raving lunatic to use CW’s when it had been made a specific ‘Red Line’ by Washington, and that the West’s mercenary headchoppers were the obvious culprits of any CW attacks or hoaxes (Cui bono?). As it turned out, the Western ‘White Helmets’, the headchoppers’ PR outfit, did most of the fakery and filming of the CW ‘events’.
The OPCW whistleblowers have since shown that organisation’s complicity in blaming Assad after the event, which has been met by a deafening silence from the MSM (with the notable exception of Peter Hitchens in the Mail).
Flak Blag
February 7, 2020 at 03:27
“It’s time to wake from the collective dream that is “politics”. It is a lie we are told”
So true.
In the Victorian era, a career in ‘politics’ was for grubby opportunists and ignoramuses, and they got little respect from their peers, unlike the great artists, engineers and architects of the time; people who actually made stuff and did things.
Flak Blag writes: “It seems to me that abstract politics, representative democracy and anything to do with the established political discourse is a pantomime, a decoy, a risible substitute for reality.[…] It’s time to wake from the collective dream that is ‘politics’. It is a lie we are told to keep us in a conceptual gulag.”
———-
Understandable though such above sentiments may be these days, they are overstated. You rightfully laud Craig Murray’s brave human rights support for Julian Assange. The juridical and political powers which have incarcerated Assange are, in their own ways, no less “real” than any brick walls. Let’s be wary lest we demoralise the young by implying that political involvement cannot potentially ameliorate “reality” for individuals, or indeed for vast populaces — like the Berlin Wall coming down. There is a Zen aphorism that “words are the fog one has to see through”. Perhaps true of politics also.
Is the DNC deliberately throwing the presidential election.
You have two things:
1) The DNC trying to win elections. After all election campaigns bring in the money.
2) People at the DNC who have an interest in keeping everything in the Democratic Party just the same. Many (I admit, perhaps not all) are the awful kind of “social liberals” who live a very comfortable life, actually have great contempt for “ordinary people”, only have charitable pity for the poor and for whom social transformation is above all a magnificent and noble idea as long as it remains an “idea” and nothing changes too much
The 1st does not necessarily take precedence over the 2nd. Especially if the money often comes from “donors” who want to maintain the status quo but make the optics a little kinder so they can feel better about themselves.
The American two party system is intrinsically corrupt because the two parties have become two arms of the reigning oligarchy and are almost completely dependent on the oligarchy.
“The American two party system is intrinsically corrupt because the two parties have become two arms of the reigning oligarchy and are almost completely dependent on the oligarchy”.
Actually, a study of US history reveals that this has been the case since (at the latest) around 1850.
what brings in the money is what pleases big donors. that takes precedence over anything.
Johny Conspiranoid
Probably not deliberately, but they seem to be of the same mind and outlook as the UK Labour party. They totally lack the ability to self reflect. They ignore the huge numbers of US electorate who do not bother to vote (about 48%), although in the UK we have a far higher turnout for our elections. They are controlled by the MIC and the Israel lobby, so will never stray to far from the wishes of those two entities.
The Squad : Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley an Rashida Tlaib, different opinions are finally being aired. But my, they are taking a lot of flak, and no doubt big money will target them for removal.
A twitter post summed up Pelosi’s pathetic SOTU stunt as opposed to actions:
Pelosi: *passes Trump’s war budget & space force*
Liberals:
Pelosi: *passes Trump’s bad trade deal*
Liberals:
Pelosi: *tears up speech*
Liberals: Omg YASS Kweeen! We stan!! That’s MY speaker!
The SNP’s lawyers have probably advised that a wildcat referendum could bring a million-person class action for intended misuse of electoral roll data.
The self imposed exile timed out at eight minutes short of 48 hours. Welcome back.
N
Can’t even stick to your promise of going away can you.
Now it’s about time you apologised for your comments about me.
You go around flaming and trolling anyone that disagrees with you, often using infantile drivel, and then demand apologies from others, grow up.
Deb O’Nair
That is your opinion. Some people like you do not like the truth. Britnats heads explode when confronted with the truth and your head is all over the place.
You call it trolling. I call it standing up for justice, democracy and human rights for your country.
I suspect that it is an opinion widely shared. You talk too much.
Bevin
Is that it. You don’t talk enough. Try expressing yourself more fully. What is your point – do you have a point? Is there a point to Bevin and his post.
Sorry Bevin am I talking too much for your liking.
Deb O’Nair
Well said!
Andyoldlabour
How is your oldlabour head Andy. Put it back together yet.
You Britnats just can’t handle the truth.
0nly 39% of Scots believe the UK is a proper democracy. Guys like you should take ownership. You help support an England/Westminster dictatorship but you post on here about all sort of undemocratic injustices all over the world. I know what that makes you.
The very fact that Lisa Nandy is still a candidate for Labour Leader after everything she has said about Scotland is a disgrace. But of course if you have a colonial mindset you will never see it.
Well Craig your mole was spot on; the SNP are not holding a Spring conference, but instead moving it to the Summer.
Party activists, grassroots movements, and senior members are furious about this, they feel the Murrells are pushing a indyref into the long grass, and that they’re taking the heat out of a backlash that’s coming their way over the inept way they dealt with our great opportunity to hold one during the Brexit fiasco.
https://www.thenational.scot/news/18217487.snps-spring-conference-pushed-back-summer/
Credible accounts that Derek Mackay’s behaviour at social events was such a liability that Sturgeon banned him from drinking at SNP conferences.
Informed speculation that Mackay was on a (subconscious?) drive to self destruction (in political and personal terms). If the speculation is accurate, Mackay has my sympathy but what does this reveal about Sturgeon’s managerial ethos?
Loyalty to Sturgeon more important than competence? Then there is the painfully woke atmosphere that appears to prevail in head office these days.
Craig claims insight into such matters. I certainly don’t.
Vivian o’Blivion
It may well be the case that MacKays mental health was not good and as is the case with anyone he should seek professional help.
” Loyalty to Sturgeon more important than competence.” Now there may be truth in this but do you have any evidence/knowledge. For example, you imply MacKay was incompetent. Evidence for this?
Despite all the grooming, he was unable to get the child into his bed.
U Watt
I don’t expect you will make it to the Apollo.
Grooming is a serious matter.
Incompetence, Cubby. There was NO provision for a referendum in his budget.
Jake
Good point.
But not good in general.
“There’s an article just waiting to be written on Sturgeon. I wish you’d do it, Craig.”
Yes I agree there must be, however timing is everything. If Craig does have damning info then when’s the time to tell.
Sturgeon might still do something positive with this new national thingy, getting all our MP’s MEP’s and MSP’s together to agree on the way forward, which might, and I say might in a hopeful way, bring about a referendum, or at the very least disruptive action, as I say it’s all about the timing.
We have no vehicle other than the SNP yet, to bring about Scottish independence, and even though we’re all very disappointed in their action so far, we need for now to take a wait and see approach.
We shouldn’t be surprised, SNP consecutive governments have managed to run tight ships. However every political party has its skeletons in the cupboard to deal with, along with flaw personalities holding ministerial positions of power.
The perceived problem regarding the SNP faithful is that some refuse to believe it, well Mackay’s antics have shown that they’re only human, not that, that excuses Mackay disgraceful behaviour it doesn’t.
Basically my point is we shouldn’t be in any way surprised at meltdowns within the SNP governments ranks. Of course its the MI5 plants that I’m concerned about.
Yes, all more or less confirmed. The conferences were a charade anyway and Nicola has had no trouble smothering debate on Indy over the years, both within and out with conferences. Of course, Craig, you know that from first hand experience.
There’s an article just waiting to be written on Sturgeon. I wish you’d do it, Craig. Everybody who cares for Scottish independence has a duty to work towards bringing her down.
And let’s be very clear about something. An honest account of Sturgeon’s leadership would not give her the benefit of the doubt by suggesting she tried and sadly failed or any such nonsense. She not only did not try, she did everything she could to smother and undermine the independence movement.
The dishonesty of Sturgeon is breathtaking. I called her out on this website 3 years ago. When she goes, all the divisions can be healed and we can unite in a true fight for independence.
“There’s an article just waiting to be written on Sturgeon. I wish you’d do it, Craig.”
Yes I agree there must be, however timing is everything. If Craig does have damning info then when’s the time to tell.
Sturgeon might still do something positive with this new national thingy, getting all our MP’s MEP’s and MSP’s together to agree on the way forward, which might, and I say might in a hopeful way, bring about a referendum, or at the very least disruptive action, as I say it’s all about the timing.
We have no vehicle other than the SNP yet, to bring about Scottish independence, and even though we’re all very disappointed in their action so far, we need for now to take a wait and see approach.
article on sturgeon , try this for size
https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/15078/robin-mcalpine-independence-isnt-about-nicola-sturgeon-can-we-finally-move
Yeah I read that today, there’s a lot of truth in it.
Don’t be silly Hautey
I’ve been to the SNP conferences over the years , they are well attended well organised and fairly presented
What you say is nonsense
Terence, I’m not sure you’ve been paying attention. And you do not need to take my word for it; Craig Murray has an article on this very website about his experiences at conference and if you read it you will see that they were openly prohibiting discussions on indyref2 at fringe meetings.
It’s fascinating to me that I need to explain things like this. I guess people are so focused on the propaganda of their enemies that they overlook what their supposed friends are doing.
Republic, the SNP needs root and branch reform at the leadership level. It isn’t just a new leader that’s required, it’s a whole new strategy and agenda. People can agree and do what needs to be done now or they can watch the party (and probably the independence movement with it) slide into the quicksand.
History teaches us every day that loyalty to parties and people is extremely stupid and should never be confused with loyalty to ideas and causes; is it asking too much for seemingly intelligent people to distinguish between the means and the end?
Independence is the end; it’s time to think again about the means. Incidentally, what’s happening now isn’t a setback. If it gets fixed, it can be an entirely positive process. By the autumn we can have real unity in the independence movement and go toe-to-toe with the British state revitalised — a fight I’m confident we’d walk, with the right leadership.
New U.K. Ambassador to the United States of America
Dame Karen – who is currently the U.K.’s permanent representative to the United Nations – will become the first woman in the post.
She replaces Sir Kim Darroch, who resigned in 2019 after he called President Donald Trump’s administration “clumsy and inept” in leaked emails.
I wonder how long before this new one falls foul of
The Donald.
He gets through his own team a a rate of knots.
Well according to media reports a new era in US politics is happening as Trump becomes the first POTUS to be impeached, and still carry on seeking a second term in office.
Over to Trumps opponents the Democrats, whose fighting fund stands at $8 million dollars compared to Trumps $83 million dollars not to mention the (RNC’s) Republican National Committee’s $61 million dollars reserve in the bank.
The Democrats are now blaming the “App Glitch” that’s robbing Bernie Sanders of his chance to become the Democrats candidate, on Russian interference. It would appear that anything that goes wrong, or any skullduggery in US politics is all the fault of the Russians.
Of course the truth is the DNC doesn’t want Sanders to be their final candidate, and they certainly don’t want him becoming the next POTUS.
Trumps approval rating is said not have ever gone beyind 50% but with the economy doing not too bad (for the wealthy 10%) and unemployment at its lowest rate in recent years in America, and Trump’s acquittal in the news, he seems to be on a roll for now at least.
By the sounds if this an antidote for the Coronavirus is close, as US man is given an Ebola drug when he had the Coronavirus, he later left hospital.
By pharma will make a fortune from any antidote. The cynic in me tells me that this and similar outbreaks over the decades, had a little help in materialising.
https://www.livescience.com/possible-treatments-new-coronavirus.html
Assange is in jail for telling the truth,
Johnson and Trump are in the highest offices for lying.
And they said satire was dead when Kissinger got the Peace Prize – well, it is now.
The British government using dirty tricks to deport as many folk as possible. Welcome to Brexit Britain, now f*ck off. You’re not wanted.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/feb/05/home-office-told-to-act-as-detainees-unable-to-contact-lawyers
—
[ MOD NOTE: URL cleaned up ]
ROS
I wonder if they give them one of these 50p coins and say – now FCUK off that 50p will see you through the winter.
“The American two party system is intrinsically corrupt because the two parties have become two arms of the reigning oligarchy and are almost completely dependent on the oligarchy”.
Tom Welsh says:
“Actually, a study of US history reveals that this has been the case since (at the latest) around 1850.”
I think it was Gore Vidal who said that “the US is a one-party state – the Business Party – with two right wings, Democrat and Republican”
There is no functioning democracy in either the US or the UK.
Keep an eye on the Irish election results. If Sinn Féin does well it will bring about more pressure on liar and coward Johnson via a likely united Ireland referendum.
That’s very true Doug, however Johnson is not the only liar, Gerard Adams is also a known liar.
He is michael – I saw the recent excellent documentary on the Troubles. I believe nationalists in the north of Ireland couldn’t care less because the fight for Irish unification will always take precedence over any individual’s behaviour, and rightly so.
Speaking frankly as a nationalist in Scotland I also couldn’t care less about any individual’s behaviour in the SNP or elsewhere in Scotland because the cause is everything and always will be until independence is regained.
Sinn Féin aren’t standing in enough seats to form a govt, realistically ,not even as the largest party in a coalition. The Dáil has 158 seats (wiki) Sinn Féin are only standing 42 candidates across 39 constituencies and won’t return all those. And even if they return most of those, it’d by a close call with the other two Fine Gael(47) and Fianna Fáil (45) presently in a confidence and supply arrangement. Obviously they didn’t expect to be polling this strongly going in, they messed up.
Whilst Craig Murray can write what he likes, and I would defend him to do so, the origin of the term “Cesspool of London” comes from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was a massive influence in Edinburgh of my Great Uncle Professor Sir Sydney Smith.
His book “Mostly Murder” is nearly as good as Craig Murray’s “Murder in Samarkand.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Smith_(forensic_expert)
My Great Uncle, would be completely appalled at what some of Craig Murray’s former working colleagues in The Foreign Office and Government in London, are doing to Julian Assange, and so am I.
Tony
Everyone should read this interview:
“For the first time, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, speaks in detail about the explosive findings of his investigation into the case of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.”
https://www.republik.ch/2020/01/31/nils-melzer-about-wikileaks-founder-julian-assange
Great read, Melzer is dogged !
Thanks Carol for the link. Melzer better watch his back from now on, speaking fluent Swedish he knows exactly what went on.
A detailed and damning endictment of the UK State as well as those of US, Sweden and Ecuador.
Our elected representatives should be deluged with copies of this interview text and their responses sought to Melzer’s condemnations of the UK State.
As always, USUK, Sweden and Ecuador are mentioned but the country of which Julian is a citizen, Australia, skates by apparently un-noticed. IMHO Australian MPs should be first to be deluged with copies of the interview text.
thanks very much for this link.
Cancelling the Spring Conference might do little to quell any such membership revolt, especially after the resignation of the Finance Minister. By the way, the timing of that is highly suspicious. Has GCHQ been tapping into his phone texts? An additional worry is that Nicola Sturgeon delayed the announcement of this evenknowing that The Scottish Sun was about to pubish, prioritising a party investigation over what seems like overhwelming evidence. Since there was an immediate admission of guilt and an apology, why was there a need for internal party due process? Does that take precedence over public accountability?
While I can see that Scotland had strong reasons to leave the UK now in the light (or is shadow?) of a Trump trade deal, unless it is done quickly it will become a lot more difficult. So Craig Murray’s advice is invaluable on this crucial issue.
Gary Littlejohn
1. I would be surprised if the security services were not monitoring everything that any SNP MP/MSP says or does.
2. Why has none of the media asked the simple question of the Sun and the Daily Record – did you pay anything for this story and if yes how much and to whom and when.
3. If this happened to any of my children. I would have gone to the police. The last place I would have gone to is the scumbags at the Sun.
4. Lots of members of the public in Scotland hate the SNP eg the orange order. It has happened in the past when a member of the public has lied their face off to provide a Scotgov baad story for the media. There is no doubt that MacKay is guilty but other aspects of this case seem to have possibilly more behind them.
5. A final question I would ask is were any other parties than the mother involved in bringing this story to your attention.
6. The media may think it will make a dent in the polls for independence -it won’t. Neither will the forthcoming Salmond case.
Craig your support of Julian Assange as he languishes in Belmarsh prison is admirable as it is hard to remain positive about his chances if the US sucseed with their attempts to extradite him. With his Wikileaks project he offered a refuge for Whistleblowers who struggle to get the dire warnings they attempt to report taken seriously; as a former Whistleblower myself, I know just how lonely and torturous that journey can be.
I just replied to a comment on Skwawkbox posed by someone who believed that: “What all conspiracy theories fail to explain is how the conspirators guarantee none of them will ever blow the whistle, mention the crime in a drunken encounter, be caught in other crimes and name the conspirators for a reduced sentence, find god, make deathbed confessions etc etc. Only fools trust others with their freedom.”
Few people understand the daunting challenge that Whistleblowers face and how easily their attempts to expose the truth can be discredited by fabricated charges just as Julian’s integrity was questioned after the spurious Swedish rape allegations. Whistleblowing is a career terminating experience, but the dangers can extend far beyond losing professional credibility, losing friends, your home and being driven into bankruptcy.
On the new thread Elections Aftermath – Was our 2019 Vote & the EU Referendum Rigged? – My most recent comment (Reply #50128) elaborates on this subversive process. Few have questioned why Dominic Cummings’s aggressive call for armed police officers to escort the dubiously disgraced Special Advisor, Sonja Khan, out of Number 10 was allowed. What information did this SPAD possess that might have made her such a serious target that it was acceptable to seize her work phone, her personal phone and treat her as a criminal without any representation? This was not acceptable HR practice, but no one has really called it out and Cummings remains free to bully Government staff into silence.
This humiliating intimidation tactic could become a lot more commonplace here in the UK as scrutiny and accountability become a thing of the past. The Americans call their “At Will Firing” and forced removal just “Business Friendly” practice, in reality it represents subversion of the truth through threat of violence. It is extremely important that we continue to question why a person speaking truth to power is targeted and publically discredited as this mechanism endangers us all and undermines our democracy. People are falsely criminalized to coerce them into silence and isolate them from those able to defend them. Julian Assange is lucky to have a few outspoken advocates like Craig Murray on his side.
Today we visited Runnymead, National Trust based on the Magna Carta.
Saw for the first time a new installation
Writ in Water, a major architectural artwork by Mark Wallinger
“No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land.”
Yeah, well that says “No _FREE_ man…”, so they get around it by making good and sure he isn’t free.
The Magna Carta was and remains critical to the protection of fundamental liberties in the US and to their confirmation in the Declaration of Independence. In 1765 John Adams in a speech opposing the infamous Stamp Act referred to the Magna Carta including the provision that no man is to be denied justice nor have justice delayed. Benjamin Franklin had made the same point in the previous year, when he addressed the British House of Commons.
It has also been and remains fundamental in Australia since 1788 and in drafting the Australian Constitution
http://www.magnacarta.org.au/legacy-of-magna-carta-in-australia/
Michael Norton
The Magna Carta a great building block of the English unwritten constitution.
Pity that only applies to England and the English. Assange isnt English. Pity it didn’t apply to all the other citizens of the British Empire.
The outing of Mackay reeks of dirty tricks to help de-rail another independence vote. But what was the SNP thinking letting someone so probably morally corrupt be the Finance Minister in the first place?
SIS
Some political feminists prefer to surround themselves with the morally corrupt, using them to lever themselves forward to the front of the gravy queue. It’s always the egotistical nature of politics that drags it down into a gibbering wreck of total incompetence. Politics is about egos wallowing in shit.
It goes without saying that if you removed all the egotistical scum out of politics, or to use Craig’s metaphor of a cesspool, the crust of microbial shit at the top, it would take only a couple of weeks to grow back.
Whatever induced Craig to imagine that only london is a political cesspool ? Only those who are intellectually or manually incompetent end up in politics. They are unemployable. Hence they are given the highest and stinkyest jobs.
@ SIS February 7, 2020 at 20:28
‘…But what was the SNP thinking letting someone so probably morally corrupt be the Finance Minister in the first place?..’
One could paraphrase that to ‘…But what was the Conservative Party thinking letting someone so probably morally corrupt be the Home Minister in the first place?..’ re Leon Brittan. These pervs have a habit of ‘floating to the top’, and of protection once there.
Seems Mackay didn’t have such protection, so your ‘dirty tricks’ suspicions could well be correct.
Paul Barbara
I know you didn’t, but please don’t include me in your condemnation of Mackay. I’ve never understood why it’s perfectly PC to elect a person who regularly uses his pork sword without protection on any bit of zionist bimbo available, while de-selecting the second in command for browsing porn and keeping its underpants.
Sturgeon’s Calvinist prudery would have been better kept in its leather scabbard and drawn on the English arse whole in No 10. Mackay’s crime appears to be exercising too much restraint.. salt in the wound for him that the kids presenter from TV gets national sympathy for the deep awfulness of doing it while Mr Mackay didn’t.
My sense of hypocrisy takes offence.
Bimbo, not b.. a. Autocorrect wants to get me in trouble with prevent.
Iowa is not about denying Bernie the bump in the polls that would come from a clean win. Buttigieg as had a 10 point bump in support for NH. If Bernie had gotten that he might be 30 points ahead in NH now. Something had to be done.
I promise that over time, when the journalists are long gone, the correct count will have emerged, or at least one which cannot be directly falsified by the poll workers.
The Iowa Democratic Party has released “final” results yesterday, maybe to prevent people looking further into this issue.
Official Iowa Caucus results with 100% in:
Pete Buttigieg
Percent: 26.2%
SDE: 564
Votes: 43,195
Bernie Sanders
Percent: 26.1%
SDE: 562
Votes: 45,826
Etc.
Iowa Caucus 2020 Live Results And Updates — NPR
https://apps.npr.org/liveblogs/20200203-iowa/
That is, even if we believe these results, Bernie Sanders wins with 2,631 more votes. However, the official results give a percent based on State Delegate Equivalent — including coin tossing to break ties in precincts — so officially Pete Buttigieg wins by 0.1%.
Video: Coin Toss at Iowa Caucus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzSg_eY3GV0
If Julian Assange was English we would see the same sort of media outcry to Harry Dunn etc about his extradition and his treatment. Sadly most English do not care.
It is a disgrace what Assange has had to endure.
Cubby
A Disgrace…And Crime under international Law
Nils is !00% correct…As Real Murdering Genocidal War Criminals Stride the Globe..Raking in millions.., Laughing their evil heads off… Like Clinton’s Gadaffi Video.
Jeremy Corbyn is English. That didn’t stop the media joining in the disgraceful witch hunt against him. The Guardian was one of the worst and, not coincidentally, the Guardian led the witch hunt against Assange. Lies in the service of the Establishment is their game. The nationality of the victim is secondary to the threat they pose to the Establishment.
Bramble
I am not disputing what you say about Corbyns treatment but you are comparing apples and pears.
Yeap Cubby, fruits with fruits.
‘Nicola’ also piled in on the establishment’s “Corbyn is an anti Semite” psy op. As one would expect of a Hillary fangirl and Kissinger/McCain celebrator.
What is very clear to me is that the SNP hve been taken over by a “Ruling Clique”, from the Higher Bourgeois, who are now very comfortable. The ordinary working class Scts are notable by their mysterious absence from positions of significant power in the party. Its a class issue. The tell tale signs are the absolute fear that the Party cadre have of actually doing serious land reform, which is now utterly vital for climate change preparation, etc. Their excuses on this, as on other issues, are becoming ever more threadbare and tattered. The cost to the Scottish economy of the Lairds and their “Landbanking” is about 20 Billion a year. Yes, that is not a typo. Look at Finland, a comparable country. This is a very serious issue, swept under the carpet year after year. Vast amounts of incredible bullshit are being generated, every year, at conference, as the delegates there get more and more angry. There are other areas as well, such as the Police, who are in urgent need of reform,but are not getting it, and are allowed to happily carry on killing ethnic minorities and assaulting citizens. (Yes, they did, and do, do that). SNP has been neutered and de-radicalised, and the grass roots of the party are losing hope. I have posted a lot on facebook, about these issues, and the forthcoming cataclysm of Tory semi-fascist rule. which will inevitably lead to the closing of the regional Governments. I am mystified as to why all this is going on, except to note the careerists and others who are taking over sections of the party. The mass clear out and sharp move to the Left, that is now vital, will now never happen. The consequences of that will bre extra-parliamentary action, the use of violence by angry street level Nationalists, and much else that is bad. I am being very blunt here. Comments, anyone?
We’re doomed.
Woke
To b in allowed in politics they have to have something on you. You also have to be useful in some other special way.
Like being a pervert, cross-dresser, queer or too interested in donkeys.
Some habits they let you get away with, until you become awkward or a fall guy is needed, then, in flash, you are outed and out.
A good example would be Britains fattest ever M.P. Cyril Smith. A turncoat.
First a Labour M.P. next Liberal.
He set up homes for boys, so he could express himself.
But he was useful because he knew the dirty on the Labour and Liberal M.P.s
He brokered agreements between parties.
He gave the dirty on Harold Wilson to SIS
in return he lived it large, on getting arrested for perversions, he was always let off, because he had the inside track and did the work for SIS.
Your theory that THEY “like to have something on you” may have held true in the past. These days in the political arena (and particularly in the SNP) being other than heterosexual appears to imply some magical degree of accentuated virtue. The highest degree of magical virtue of course goes to individuals suffering from a mental disorder that tells them that their brain is a different gender from their body (accepting that this is possible for a vanishingly small fraction of the population). I wouldn’t like to return to the old ways, but neither am I sure a disproportionately high representation of LGBQ is a good thing and giving political power to the T lobby is almost certainly a bad idea given that so many are suffering from a mental disorder and so few from a physical imbalance of chromosomes.
Graham Ennis
“Regional Governments”. Offensive and inaccurate comment.
Graham Ennis
Irony of irony is that Derek Mackay was a working class Scot so not ‘bourgeios’ at all. He just forgot about boundaries.
It is depressing that more do not support Julian Assange.
His arrest, detention and persecution is straight out of the Nazi scrap book. And if they can come for Asante as they have done they can come for anyone. And let us not forget how ordinary Germans stood by as the Jewish neighbours were transported off to the extermination camps.
Slaughtered in their millions the holocaust is a lesson that may sadly only be learned after a parent sees the lifeless body of her child shovelled into a gas oven. We disregard what is happening to Assange at our peril Nazi Germany crept up very quickly.
Keep up the good work Craig,.
“What happened was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to be governed by surprise, to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believe that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security…
To live in the process is absolutely not to notice it – please try to believe me – unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us ever had occasion to develop.
Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, ‘regretted.’… Believe me this is true. Each act, each occasion is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join you in resisting somehow… Suddenly it all comes down, all at once… You remember everything now, and your heart breaks. Too late. You are compromised beyond repair.”
German professor describing the arrival of Nazism in Europe to American journalist Milton Mayer.
Why has nobody been outraged that Sturgeon accepted the Finance Ministers “resignation” This is nothing more than a firefighting exercise to spin a media presentation that downplays what he was up to.
Once she had his confession he should have been unceremoniously sacked on the spot…_
@ Craig
‘..Entertaining a suspicion?…’
You could indeed be forgiven for such a conspiracy theory:
‘DNC chair names John Podesta & other Clinton loyalists to Convention Committee, triggering revolt from voters fearing 2016 2.0’:
https://www.rt.com/usa/479406-dnc-podesta-clinton-convention-dejavu/
I’m afraid Trump didn’t do too good a job of ‘draining the swamp’.
First the cesspool and its rabid stirrers, from the outside it looks like life, the media and our economy are being slowly sucked and amalgamated into the american maelstrom were only rich pelople count, were lies and false news form the western views and narrative.
As for the spring conferene….why is everyone taking this from their party, are they running this show or stalling.?
Nothing to stop a person with dosh to organise an Independence supporting citixen assembly andd have talks about the next actions that need fermenting. You can run polls on all sorts of question and invite members of the EU parliament to give speeches on a possible futute for Scotland in Europe.
Invite all SNP members and see who really has the guts for Independence now,.
I feel that dithering and waitiing is Westminsters game and Nicola is playing their hand of cards.
DO IT NOW!
I would choose a large venue outside Glasgow or Edinburgh just to make sure the urban chatteraty really mean to attend.
Invite ARD and other Eu broadcasters, excludeMrs. Smith and the BBC, their agenda is obvious and not friendly to people.
Cory Morningstar & volunteers have launched the campaign to stop the monetizing of the remaining flaura and fauna of the planet for the benefits of the zillionaires over the rest of the century.
This is a challenge for everyone who have cared about such issues as the Environment and Indigenous peoples before the little white nordic elfin child goddess princess was made and sent amongst us to pave the way for the century of plunder of ‘what is left’.
Whether Morningstar is being set up as the controlled opposition is to be seen. But she has been exposing the mega corps and ngo’s and Al Gores of the great scam for a longtime now.
If Cory and the new organisation get the same treatment as Assange and Wikileaks – it will be a litmus test.
The empire is fucked and it’s lies are unravelling and it’s proxy battles are failing, truth is more powerful and by speaking it we can hope to not just survive but repair.
I don’t know whether CMS is controlled op. but at least one of the contributors to her website certainly is not.
http://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/2019/05/09/the-climate-movement-what-next/
Clive Spash has written extensively debunking the greenwashing – ecosystem services / natural capital movement. He is an environmental economist. I studied a masters in this field to discover the teaching of dogma with complete omission of discussion about the flaws in the underlying philosophy not to mention pricing mechanisms. All students studying ecology, conservation, SD etc these days all being brainwashed, as are listeners to BBC nature and farming programs.
@ Dungroanin February 8, 2020 at 10:51
‘..The empire is fucked and it’s lies are unravelling and it’s proxy battles are failing, truth is more powerful and by speaking it we can hope to not just survive but repair.’
Wishful thinking. I read it all the time; though ultimately it is true, they are nowhere near it yet – they are on a roll across the world. Rolling back Left-wing movements across South and Central America, maintaining their illegal positions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, fostering Neo-Nazi movements and governments across the world. Their lies are long apparent to a large minority, but the majority just slavishly believe what the MSM tells them to. The ‘False Flag’ attacks will intensify, to keep the masses terrified and in line.
Sure, they will come a cropper, and not too far off, but they will take the world down with them. The old ‘Samson Option’.
Obviously, I wish you were right, but I know better.
Unlucky guys. At one stage it was within your grasp, but never quite materialised. A bit like Scottish independence.
Looks like the labour islingtonians and the like are losing their perspective on the leadership choice and wish to have the usual allegation of being controlled by metropolitan elite champagne socialist men only!
Starmer! The head of the CPS at the time Assange was being stitched up? The CPS that told the Swedes to not dare to drop their non- case against JA?
Come on you london CLP’s, ‘DON’T YOU DARE!’
@ Dungroanin February 9, 2020 at 08:59
Momentum are backing Rebecca. Despite her unfortunate meeting with the Board of Deputies, she’s a Corbynite so I’ll plump for her.
Another good read about 3 of the most important journalists we’ve ever seen, all from Australia:
https://ahtribune.com/world/asia-pacific/australia/3869-pilger-burchett-assange.html
Also from my previous post if you haven’t seen it:
“For the first time, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, speaks in detail about the explosive findings of his investigation into the case of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.”
https://www.republik.ch/2020/01/31/nils-melzer-about-wikileaks-founder-julian-assange
The inertia under the guise of gradualism shown by the Scottish government when Holyrood, devolution, democracy and our independence are in imminent danger is a dereliction of duty. It makes no sense at this critical time unless there are cuckoos in the Scottish government nest. Many commentators, yourself included, highlighted the potential threat if Boris Johnson became Prime minister. That potential/prediction is now very much reality. The naivety and inertia shown by our government is of great concern. And as you rightfully pointed out the people (members) are being denied a chance to express themselves or influence policy/strategy.