Allowed HTML - you can use: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

394 thoughts on “Beirut Problems

1 2 3
  • Republicofscotland

    Some BBC staff see the BBC for what it really is.

    “Dozens of BBC employees have accused the British state broadcaster of exhibiting pro-Israel bias in its coverage of the Gaza conflict, The Independent reported on Saturday. The newspaper, citing a letter allegedly sent to BBC Director-General Tim Davie, said the appeal was also publicly signed by other media representatives, including broadcaster Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, who previously served as senior minister of state for foreign and commonwealth affairs.

    The Independent claimed that accusations of partiality were leveled at the BBC by 101 staff members, who chose not to reveal their identities. The letter allegedly highlights a lack of “fair and accurate evidence-based journalism in coverage of Gaza.” BBC employees urged the organization to report “without fear or favour” and to “recommit to the highest editorial standards – with emphasis on fairness, accuracy, and due impartiality.”

    The letter allegedly stressed the need to make it clearer in BBC reporting that Israel is preventing foreign journalists from accessing Gaza, and to provide more historical context behind the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

    https://www.rt.com/news/606939-independent-bbc-staff-letter-israel-bias/

    • Goose

      RoS

      Al Jazeera gone too,…well, at least off terrestrial (OTA) Freeview TV, now it’s available as an internet connection required, data-linked only service for me.

      Can you resolve RT.com? Most UK ISPs own DNS servers seem to fail to do so. Cloudflare’s UK based 1.1.1.1 DNS servers fail to, as reprtedly do (tho not tested) Googles’ 8.8.8.8. But you can resolve it using other DNS providers, or by using a VPN.

      • K

        NextDNS resolves it without an issue.

        It appears that all major servers resolve it, too: https://dnschecker.org/#SOA/rt.com

        The issue might be with blocked connectivity to their servers. I encounter this with a number of Russian websites, and blocks seem to come variably from either end. For instance, aeroflot.ru bans users with British IPs from logging in to their accounts.

        • Goose

          K

          I rarely visit RT, so with RoS linking to a story, I just thought I’d check tonight by chance,.. and it was available.

          I remember at one point, lots of people saying they’d see no results returned. So maybe it’s something going on at their end like a temporary measure, as you say.

      • Steve Hayes

        A while back, my ISP’s DNS was resolving rt.com to 0.0.0.0 which ain’t gonna work. At that time I found that Google DNS (8.8.8.8) resolved it correctly to 91.215.41.4. I’m finding that the ISP DNS is now correct too and I can access the site on my computer and Android phone but, for some reason, not my Android tablet. Hmm. The live TV programme is available at https://rt-glb.rttv.com/dvr/rtnews/playlist.m3u8 and that has always worked in the UK but I recently tried it in France and got 404 – forbidden. A bit of port forwarding got round that and we saw the BRICS summit coverage which was eye-opening. 500 years of Western domination looks to be ending. Needless to say, there was scarcely any coverage in our media and what there was was sneering.

      • Brian Red

        @Goose et al – Do you know whether there’s a way to write a .bat file to prevent all calls to Google servers from my box?
        If that’s only a few lines of code, it would be worth spreading about.

        I use “ipconfig /flushdns”, but that’s closing the stable door.

        • Goose

          Brian Red

          As with all things networking, there are multiple ways of setting things up.

          If not using a VPN, your best bet may be Stubby for Windows : https://dnsprivacy.org/dns_privacy_daemon_-_stubby/installation/windows_installer_for_stubby/

          There are a range of DNS servers to choose from in the config file including standard Cloudflare and Google , both of which also support DoT (DNS over TLS) besides their standard DoH (DNS over https) plus some completely uncensored DNS – you can configure it how you want. By default it uses DoT port 853, it listens on the localhost(your device) 127.0.0.1 for port 53(DNS) queries.
          You may have to change the DNS setting in your browser menu too, but there are multiple DNS leak test sites and IPleak to check if you’ve got it functioning correctly. Google ‘IPleak’ and it’ll show your current DNS provider(s).

          • Goose

            Brian Red

            Perhaps more concerning for privacy, is the widespread use of carrier-grade network address translation (CGNAT) by UK ISPs.

            CGNAT means the end home user cannot connect anonymously to any network because the final interface identifier is that of the ISP i.e., the home user loses the ability to use a randomly generated interface address. And your WAN address is the address of the ISP’s middlebox network address translator device in the network operator’s network. This may allow them to redirect, or even to MiTM VPNs, or flag traffic.

          • Brian Red

            Hi @Goose – That’s interesting, and one should presume the ISP is informing on everything to both the state and Google, which would reinforce the view that there’s good sense in updating the concept of “state” to include Google.

            There has to be a shift to offline.

            I’ve never been too credulous of those who say such-and-such method of digital communication is really safe, whether it’s running an OS on a flash drive, or swapping phone SIMs on demos as some in the Black Bloc used to do. (What kind of idiot takes a microwave tracker on a demo anyway?)

            Maybe one could use online for very short burst-type transmissions, using “stone age” versions of PGP with very long keys (at least 4096B). By “stone age” I mean with generation not called from any other program, and with the encrypted message cut and pasted to wherever it’s gotta go.

            You know how all web browsers grass their users’ every move up to Google nowadays, with Edge and Opera being little more than front ends for Google malware, BUT with the supposedly honourable exception of Firefox? Weeelllll I am not so sure about Mozilla’s Firefox. As my email client I use Mozilla’s Thunderbird, and interestingly it insists on calling Edge when you click on a weblink in an email. It’s complicated to prevent it from doing this, but possible. BUT if you manage to prevent it, there doesn’t seem any way of nominating an alternative browser. I.e. Mozilla is saying use Edge (i.e. Chrome in all but name) or f*ck off. Which should be borne in mind when assessing the idea that they’re Mr Clean where their own browser is concerned. They don’t even let you use their web browser to open links with from their own mail client! (I have to copy the link from the email client and paste it into the browser, even though both programs are put out by Mozilla. Use Edge though and oh, how easy they make it.)

            Seriously what explanation could there be other than Mozilla are helping their masters at Google? That’s even if they may not be QUITE so “owned” as Microsoft, but then there may be a game with regulators too.

            I’m no techie, but when I hear what you say about CGNAT, I don’t think “Oh dear, the state is tightening its security”. What I think is “The state is ADMITTING some of what it’s doing, in order to demoralise what remains of the opposition”.

            As part of the same movement, there’s been a big media campaign in Britain for weeks and months with lots of stories about guys and gals getting in the sh*t with the state because of what they’ve posted online, sometimes even single-line messages – and of course mostly wrapped in Neo-Nazi and Sex Abuser sauce. In one case in the Heil, a report was dragged up from several years ago. An even clearer case of following orders.

            If I’m right, next in line could be allowing the knowledge to become part of the “new normal” that “phones” are tracked and used as bugs even when they’re switched off, and also that people are spied on through mains electricity.

            Anyone who wants to say I’m engaging in a flight of fancy should take a quick a look at reports that the new British government will oversee the massification of wrist-worn physiological trackers (“smartwatches”) under the branding of the Holy NHS before they respond.

            To repeat: there has to be a shift to offline. Offline or die.

          • Goose

            Brian Red

            Most ISPs will provide you with a static wan IP – usually at a small extra cost per month. Even small office/home office (SOHO) businesses typically prefer static IPs over dynamic for multiple reasons to do with reliability, troubleshooting and VPN, email server setups.
            Functionally, for most home users ,CGNAT makes little difference, maybe it’ll add a bit more latency around 5-10ms. I only discovered CGNAT, because I was interested in setting up a home DNS server and that’s impossible behind CGNAT because the WAN interface is controlled by the ISP.
            With CGNAT, the only way a home DNS server would work, is if they forwarded their (random) port 1024 – 49,151 (0-1023 are reserved for well-known port numbers) to a customer’s private IP.

            With IPv6, NAT isn’t even needed, but many ISPs don’t provide IPv6 DNS servers, only IP.

    • Goose

      RoS

      This impartiality failure/crisis is affecting all western media, right across the EU, the US, even Australia and New Zealand aren’t immune. And the political class, far from being concerned about it, are, in fact, encouraging and sometimes demanding it! If the west ever truly had any values, this political generation have thrown in the towel on defending them.

      Tonight, in an election I’d forgotten was taking place today, Ursula von der Leyen has heralded the narrow victory in the second round of voting in the Moldovan presidential election for pro-EU president, Maia Sandu. Many think the way the EU referendum vote there scraped through, and the way votes from abroad tipped the result in its favour, is highly questionable. Craig highlighted the fact Moldovans living in Russia didn’t receive ballots, whereas those living in the EU did, tipping the result.

      Ursula von der Leyen has no such integrity concerns however, immediately congratulating Sandu tonight without a moment’s hesitation. Quite the contrast to how she and the Commission received the result in Georgia. Pushing EU membership on a population clearly split 50/50, as Moldova is, isn’t sensible for Moldova nor for the stability of the EU. But that’s the type of media and politicians we’ve got – they believe they are in some proxy war with Russia, where anything goes; including vote rigging, That’s how they justify their own crappy, unprincipled behaviour to each other.

      • Brian Red

        Early reports from Moldova said the opponents of EU membership were clearly ahead, and then it was oh look at this, the projected figures show that the pro-membership side are clearly in the lead – and the previous reports got memory-holed. Pretty obvious cheating.

        No doubt it can be expert anal-analysed with respect to a ballot box in Northampton or people from the 32-45 year-old female one-armed expatriate trapeze artist demographic.

        Most in Moldova are doubtless aware that all politicians are lying thieving scum, whether they’re pro-Moscow, pro-Berlin, or pro-Wall Street, but it makes sense to stay out of the EU if in the medium term one wishes to stay out of the war.

        • Tatyana

          Russian media reported that Ursula congratulated Sandu even before the vote count was over, and Sandu was not the leader at that time. Among those voting within the country, Alexander Stoiaglo was leading with 52% “for”, with a voter turnout of 54%.

          At night, the votes of the Moldovan diaspora abroad were counted. In an hour, Sandu gained the lead with a margin of 10%.
          But these votes were given by Moldovans in Europe, because for Moldovans living in Russia (and there are about 400 thousand of them), Sandu’s government opened only 2 polling stations and issued only 10,000 ballots.

          I don’t know how the results of this will be assessed. Although, you can make a sure bet that Europe and the USA will certainly recognize this as legitimate. Sandu is a NATO creature.

          • JK redux

            Tatyana

            Didn’t Orban similarly congratulate the Georgian Dream on their contested victory?

          • Tatyana

            It’s very cruel of you to ask me this question. Don’t you know that Russian agents are very busy on the eve of the US elections?
            Besides, there are still some ex-spies who haven’t been poisoned yet; and, still so much in European democracy to undermine! And I have to craft in my breaks and post kitchen recipes to maintain my legend of an ordinary housewife!

            It would be very generous if you yourself posted the proof of your assertion, that Orbán congratulates the non-leading Georgian party when only 3/4 of the votes have been cast. Similarly, as Ursula did to Sandu.

          • JK redux

            Tatyana

            I said what I said, not what you claim that I said.

            Of course Orbán was so pleased at Georgian Dream’s performance that he flew to Georgia to congratulate them.

        • JK redux

          Brian Red

          The overseas vote is later than the local and unsurprisingly is overwhelmingly pro EU.

          Why on Earth should Moldova eventually joining the EU lead to war?

          With what State?

      • JK redux

        Goose

        Do you have any concerns about the validity of the recent Georgian election?

        (Another “near abroad” country that is subject to heavy Russian influence.)

        • Republicofscotland

          JK redux.

          Yes the validity, of the West’s interference in the elections – but not the result. Fico the President of Slovakia has spoken out about the West’s interference in sovereign nations’ elections – no doubt they’ll try to assassinate the guy, having failed the first time around. You just have to look at the state of Ukraine to see that Western interference leads to disaster. Libya, Syria, Iraq etc., and many South American countries – wherever the West’s shadow falls upon, especially with elections in mind – interference will occur.

          • JK redux

            RoS
            The “East” in the case of Russia is quite keen to interfere in sovereign state elections.

            Happily they have far fewer resources.

            (Btw why is Russia so far behind the horrid West economically?)

          • Republicofscotland

            “(Btw why is Russia so far behind the horrid West economically?)”

            JK redux.

            Oh dear, not really a clever remark to make – especially since the EU has shot itself in the foot in an economic sense, at the behest of the USA – and with the EU about to open an economy war with China over EV’s – the EU’s precarious economic position looks likely to get worse.

            Sometimes having the biggest gang, doesn’t yield results – as in say Niger where the US and France are on the way out – as trust has been lost completely – so much so that all types of satellites are to be purchased from the country, that has been welcomed into Niger.

          • JK redux

            RoS

            You don’t agree that Russia, a country of (?) 120 million, is economically far behind the West?

          • Cynicus

            “ Denying hundreds of thousands of Moldovans living in Russiia…,”
            =====
            Do those Moldovans identify as Moldovans – or as Russians?

        • Goose

          JK redux

          There’s a risk we fall into the trap of thinking that whatever it is the West is doing to manipulate electoral results in the east, it is somehow justified, because, hey, those Russians must, be doing something worse, right?

          The point Craig and Tatyana made about insufficient ballots being made available for Moldovans living in Russia (est. 300,000–400,000); whilst ballots were in plentiful supply for those living in the EU, is a very specific allegation. And it’s one that needs properly investigating and answering, not bluster about what Russia may or may not be doing, sans any actual proof.

          The West and EU can’t claim they support free and fair elections while turning a blind eye to blatant gerrymandering and vote manipulation.

          And by all measures, Moldova is divided on these issues. The idea they enter the EU with ~50% in favour and ~50% against, is a recipe for instability and internal chaos, and a future Moldovan EU exit.

        • Goose

          JK redux

          I believe electoral integrity is crucial to trust. If there are any specific allegations in Georgia from opposition parties, then of course they should be investigated.

          Although, I do think the US needs to put its own house in order before calling out other countries in this regard. All the different systems used in the US; lack of ID requirements, mail-in votes and proxy votes, make it wide-open to claim and counterclaims about fraud.

          In the US, neither side seem ready to accept the result tomorrow.

      • M.J.

        According to the BBC the Pro-EU leader won the Moldova election despite alleged Russian meddling. I am pleased to see Moldova choose democracy over dictatorship, notwithstanding its own problem of Russian separatists in Transnistria.

        • Goose

          Shades of, accuse the other side of doing that which you yourself are guilty, about the coverage of the Moldovan votes in western media coverage, methinks.

          Denying hundreds of thousands of Moldovans living in Russia their right to vote, when those living in the EU had no such problems, is a form of meddling or fixing, is it not?

          • M.J.

            If you’re referring to people living in Transnistria, they’re separatist rebels not accepting the authority of the Moldovan government – so how can they enjoy all the benefits of its democracy? In the foreseeable future, in my view they will continue to occupy a position similar to Northern Cyprus, having the patronage of a larger external state, accessible to visitors (and hence featuring in Youtube videos) but not recognised internationally.

          • Tatyana

            Goose, this commentator probably didn’t attend school geography lessons, otherwise I can’t explain why you used ‘Moldovans living in Russia‘, and he in his answer assumes that you might have meant ‘people living in Transnistria‘.
            It’s also possible that this commentator is insufficiently informed about the course of these elections. E.g, about the fact that the Moldovan authorities blocked the bridge connecting the Transnistrian city of Rybnitsa and the Moldovan city of Rezino, so people could not reach the polling stations. Such insignificant facts are probably not covered in the media from where this commentator gets his news.

            In general, I have a great suggestion:
            – Stojanoglo was clearly supported by the majority of people living in that country, he should be made President of Moldova.
            – Sandu was supported by the extraterritorial diaspora, so it is logical to send Sandu to them and let them make her their President of Moldovan Migrants.
            That would be logical, wouldn’t it? In my opinion, an excellent solution 🙂

          • M.J.

            I’m glad to stand corrected, that Transnistria is not part of Russia, and that to think otherwise is an error of elementary geography. Please, do say to the government of Transnistria. ‘Hey, regarding Irina Kubanskikh’s request of 2012, stop thinking you’re Russians. Otherwise go back to school and learn geography properly!’ I’m sure that Moldova will congratulate you.
            If Moldova won’t let Moldovans living in Russia vote in Moldovan elections, whom am I to object. I’m sure they have excellent reasons.

          • Tatyana

            In your awkward attempt at sarcasm you almost said that an ethnic group living in any land can declare that land to be a part of their historical homeland.
            Say hello to the Russian diaspora in your country, M.J. 🙂

            Ah! And feel free to develop your idea about allowing one part of the diaspora living in the “right place” to vote, while prohibiting “people living in the wrong place” from doing so. I would be extremely curious to know how you will untie this from dictatorship and fascism, and tie it to true democracy 🙂

      • Republicofscotland

        Goose.

        The opposition Socialist Party that backed Stoianoglo has refused to recognize Sandu’s victory. In a statement, the party branded her an “illegitimate” president who was only “recognized by her sponsors and supporters abroad.”

        With nigh on 20,000 foreign NGO’s involved in Moldova – they are a known tactic used by the West, in the likes of Georgia and Venezuela – one must suspect foul play at work.

    • Johnny Conspiranoid

      Republic of Scotland,
      The BBC seems to be having some staff turnover problems judging from all the new faces on the ‘news’.

      • Republicofscotland

        Johnny Conspiranoid.

        Yes, but no doubt they’ll still be vetted – I wonder if Mi5 is still doing the vetting. After all, as Chomsky once said to Andrew Marr: “You wouldn’t be sitting there if you thought something else” (meaning the official narrative).

        I don’t know what folk in England think of the BBC, but in Scotland the BBC is seen by many as an enemy – an outrageous propaganda machine that’s utterly biased.

    • Laura Norda

      Absurd posturing by a bunch of establishment stomach churners. Typical British behavior which is supposed to suggest some sort of humanity exists within the state propaganda machine.

  • Allan Howard

    I did a search earlier in relation to the (alleged) Salisbury poisonings (I can’t remember now what it was specifically), and I saved a number of articles to new tabs to check out at some point, and I just got round to opening one of them – ie a CPS Statement re Salisbury (saying that “Prosecutors from CPS Counter Terrorism Division have considered the evidence and have concluded there is sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction and it is clearly in the public interest to charge Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov…)”

    Anyway, that is all beside the point, and the thing is that there were some other statements/cases listed at the bottom of the page (one about Yaxley Lennon) and also this one from October 23rd:

    ‘Uncle sentenced for sending money to Islamist fighter nephew’

    A man has been sentenced for sending money to his nephew who was fighting for a proscribed terrorist organisation in Syria.

    Farhad Mohammad, 46, made payments through a middleman intended for his nephew, who at the time in 2017 was an Islamist fighter actively involved in terrorism….

    The messages from the nephew explained that he was fighting and included requests for money from Mohammad for various purposes, such as a car, a weapon, rent, hospital treatment, and a mobile phone, over a period of months.

    Examination of Western Union transactions by Mohammad revealed a payment of 200 US Dollars was made to a middleman in January 2018….

    And, further on:

    At the Central Criminal Court on 26 April, Mohammad was found guilty of two counts of entering into or becoming concerned in an arrangement as a result of which money or other property is made available or is to be made available to another.

    He was sentenced today at the same court to a three-year community order, with 250 hours of unpaid work, an electronically monitored curfew for three months and 30 days of rehabilitation activity.

    And my point in mentioning it of course is that if that’s all he got, then surely even if they DID charge Craig with whatever, the penalty couldn’t/wouldn’t amount to any more than what this guy got.

    Or could it??!

    https://www.cps.gov.uk/cps/news/uncle-sentenced-sending-money-islamist-fighter-nephew

    • Stevie Boy

      Stating the bloody obvious, the clue is in the name. If Craig did a ‘Cat Stevens’ then he would be free to spout whatever bile he wanted, and probably with a nice little backhander from MI6.

    • Allan Howard

      Just came across this, which is light years away from anything Craig said or did:

      ‘Dangerous extreme right-wing terrorist jailed’

      A man who encouraged terrorism and espoused extreme right-wing views has been sentenced for terrorism offences, following an investigation by Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE).

      An investigation led by CTPSE, supported by officers from Counter Terrorism Policing South West, found that Gabriel Budasz, of Drove Road, Weston-Super-Mare, was sentenced yesterday (24 October) at Winchester Crown Court to an extended sentence comprising of 12 years’ imprisonment and three years on licence. Budasz will also be subject to a Part 4 Terrorism Notification Order following his release from prison….

      Head of CTPSE, Detective Chief Superintendent Olly Wright, said: “Budasz spread hateful content online including racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic statements. He would have known how harmful spreading his extreme right-wing views would be.

      “A video he sent online contained step-by-step instructions on how to make a viable bomb with readily available household items and had been extracted by Budasz from a longer video found online showing the mutilation and torture of a person.

      “He had also used a 3D printer to print parts of a 3D gun and had been having conversations about how a viable gun could be manufactured.

      https://www.counterterrorism.police.uk/dangerous-extreme-right-wing-terrorist-jailed/

      NB I am of course well aware that they stitched up Craig re his reporting of the Alex Salmond court case, and that they could obviously stitch him up again.

      • Brian Red

        There are a helluva lot of articles in the British regime’s media at the moment saying someone has been jailed for posting stuff on the internet, in some cases a single post of a few lines.

        The message “Look what happens” is getting rammed hard into millions of heads.

        They don’t all have surnames that are non-British in origin. (At this point I have to observe that sharing a first name with a 6th century prophetic slaveowning merchant who said he’d flown up to heaven and back doesn’t exclude a person from being an SIS or other British regime asset.)

        Most seem to be pleading guilty, although I doubt “How did they plead?” is a question that even enters the minds of many readers.

        Nor are the cases reported in Britain all actually in Britain. See for example this story that was bigged up in the Daily Heil:

        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14019131/police-house-google-four-words.html

        ^ That story is being recirculated NOW, but it comes from 2013. It’s from the state of New York in the USA, illustrated with a picture of a London police vehicle.

        Weird, huh? Almost as if the journo-scum have a quota.

        • Allan Howard

          ‘There are a helluva lot of articles in the British regime’s media at the moment saying someone has been jailed for posting stuff on the internet, in some cases a single post of a few lines.’

          Could you post a few links to some of these articles Brian, as I couldn’t find any when I did a search. That’s how I happened to come across the Gabriel Budasz story/case, which does appear to be quite extreme, but then again, it’s not actually about someone supporting a (proscribed) terrorist organisation, which is what I assume you’re referring to.

          Cheers (sorry to be a pain!)

      • Stevie Boy

        “How did they plead?”
        I remember somewhere (Manchester Bombing ?), it was reported that when pulled in by the SS, the prisoner is/was given the option to make ‘all the charges disappear’ just by agreeing to work for the SS. Once you fall for this they own you. I can also imagine a few poor souls facing imprisonment and financial ruin just for a tweet or some other insignificant protest pleading guilty to ‘get out of jail’. Blackmail by any other name.
        Many people have been destroyed by exercising their right to free speech and refusing to bow down to the state.

  • Harry Law

    Professor Norman Finkelstein in this video calls the Israeli army a ‘Deaths head’ army, and because everyone is required to serve in that army it reflects the society as a whole, he then says Israeli society with few exceptions is a society of war criminals. He goes on to claim [rightly in my opinion] that Israel has the backing of the western elites in everything that it does. As an example he said imagine a football stadium with 15,000 children in it. Harris and Biden are responsible for the murder of everyone of those children. I would add Starmer and Lammy a pair of true psychopaths to that list.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk22FFGmBVc

    • U Watt

      It seems Lammy was groomed and bought-and-paid-for decades ago.

      In an interview he gave to the Jewish Chronicle in 2015 he recalled that a group of Jewish lawyers had funded his £26,000 entry into Harvard Law School (1990s). He also spoke of his long-time association with Lord Sugar (who bailed out his dad’s business in the 1970s).

      https://www.thejc.com/news/community/lammy-tells-langdon-of-his-debt-to-jewish-backers-vsmq0b3u

      I suspect this was very widely known in establishment circles, which is why there were no objections whatsoever to him being appointed Foreign Secretary, despite his claims that Palestinians had raped babies and that it’s legal to bomb refugee camps.

  • Harry Law

    In my opinion the Israeli/US assault on the Arab world has been brought about as a sort of Hail Mary pass a last resort as it were, because they can both see the writing on the wall, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iran have now Joined BRICS with Turkish participation a possibility. Also the rapproachement between Iran and the Saudis portends a grave future for the racist, apartheid and genocidal entity, with just 7 million Israeli Zionists with no strategic depth and very vulnerable targets like ports, gas rigs, desalination plants and power stations.
    Iran has the capability to erase Israel with many hundreds of thousands of very accurate ballistic and unstoppable hyper-sonic missiles stored away in underground city’s all over the Iranian deserts.
    Israel is on the way out, it is only kept in being due to US largess which will fade away when the Chinese and Russians team up with the massive oil producing Saudis and Iranians, they will have no choice.

  • Harry Law

    Max Blumenthal from the Grayzone in this documentary shows how top US/Israeli leaders including Biden and Netanyahu spread atrocity propaganda of 40 beheaded babies and babies roasted in ovens etc and easily rebutted rape and murder stories put out by the New York Times and most MSM organizations. All in order to justify the genocide now taking place in Gaza. He ends with an accusation against the MSM to the effect that in the Rwanda genocide the words they used had just as much effect as the guns and machetes used by the killers.
    This is a must see video and proof positive of the power of propaganda. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFEurGy05ps&rco=1

    • Allan Howard

      Yes, Max posted it on October 7th, but what I couldn’t understand is that in his tweet on X notifying people that he’ll be posting this documentary on October 7th, the short vid he did had half-a-million or so views, but several days after he posted the documentary on their youtube channel, it only had some 70k views, and has only had 87k views as of now, four weeks later. Doesn’t make sense.

    • U Watt

      Kamala Harris continues to repeat the mass rape hoax at every opportunity, especially in her highest profile speeches and interviews. She has never been called out for it by any mass media journalist, ‘fact checker’ or disinformation/ fake news expert. Not once.

  • Republicofscotland

    The ship in question – is carrying hundreds of tons of explosives destined for the Zionists to use in their evil genocide of the Palestinian people. Of course, Egypt is too busy giving Zionists warships a personal escort through the Suez Canal – to worry about blocking explosives earmarked, to murder women and children.

    “United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has urged the Cairo government to stop an arms ship from heading to the Israeli occupied Palestinian lands.

    In an X posting on Monday, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories called on the officials in Egypt to seize the MV Kathrin, a German ship carrying arms and presently docked in Alexandria port.

    “At a time when Israel is committing acts of genocide against the Palestinians,” it is upon the Cairo government to stop the weaponry from reaching the zionist killing machine, Albanese said.”

    https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/11/04/736618/UN-official-Albanese-urges-Egypt-to-seize-israel-bound-arms-ship-MV-Kathrin

    • Jack

      About time these absolute rotten arab leaders are being called out. The arab leaders in my view holding way more clout than the pro-israel western leaders. The western world support for Israel is wholly dependent on the inaction, passivity, enabling attitude of the arab leaders/world.

      Strange also that no arab resistance group manage to blow up these ships.
      Something is terrible wrong with the arab population. That is why Israel is able to keep playing with them like pawns – year in, year out.

      Just look at the palestinian minority inside of Israel, now felling closer to Israel, but perhaps one could understand their attitude, if the powerful, collective arab states do not lift a finger, they feel like they have no power to do anything themselves:
      Israel’s Arab minority feels closer to country in war, poll finds
      https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israels-arab-minority-feels-closer-country-war-poll-finds-2023-11-10/

  • Republicofscotland

    Again Craig – safety first, as the IOF are targeting journalist in Lebanon.

    “The targeted killing of three media workers following a recent Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon has renewed calls for ending impunity for Israel’s abuses, with advocates stating that the regime is practicing such behavior to obscure the truth about its atrocities and war crimes.

    An Israeli attack on October 25 on a compound housing media workers in southern Lebanon killed at least three journalists and wounded several others as they slept in guesthouses in Hasbaya town.

    At the time, local media aired footage from the scene, showing collapsed buildings and cars marked “press” covered in dust and rubble.

    The victims were identified as cameraman Ghassan Najjar and engineer Mohamed Reda, who worked for the Lebanese television news channel al-Mayadeen. The Hezbollah-linked al-Manar television network said its camera operator Wissam Qassim was also killed.”

    https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/11/04/736623/Israel-continues-to-target-journalists-in-southern-Lebanon-to-obscure-war-crimes

  • Alyson

    At the risk of sounding anti semitic I must be clear that I am anti genocide and anti war crimes, not anti Jew, and I support rule of law and international justice, so just to be clear, the infiltration of the decision making elite by uncompromising Zionists, who lack all conscience and humanity, is an internal problem in the UK and the US. AIPAC and Friends of Israel have purchased the key individuals and usurped our democratic processes, through bribery, and funding profitable arms production. The risk from the BRICS Alliance is not yet fully evaluated but it would be good if we could proscribe all our influential individuals and groups that support or collude in these unforgivable war crimes. Israel has been a criminal, terrorist, organisation since its inception, and those responsible for the crimes need to be arrested, and stopped. An international agreement will be necessary to prioritise enabling the Palestinians and Lebanese to find safe sanctuary, and halt this terrible catastrophe which shows no sign of slowing down.

  • Cavery

    Lots of pieces coming out of Lebanon and still nothing from CM even as sub editor for an accredited local hack. Is he actually in Lebanon? I thought when he was on Judge Napolitano he was in hiding in Greece or somewhere from British authorities. Presumably you don’t need accreditation to post on a social media site with photos? I would like to see photos of Tyre for eg. Its only 60 minutes from Beirut.

    • zoot

      you’re singling out Craig Murray among western journalists as an untrustworthy, contemptible figure. A liar, a coward and a fraud?

    • Wilshire

      Which part of “problems” don’t you understand?
      Craig Murray is obviously very busy solving them. He will therefore only resume posting thereafter. He’s in Beirut, therefore in Lebanon, just watch his recent clips if you need evidence. And the British authorities always keep an eye on him, but he’s not playing hide and seek. He goes wherever reporting duty calls him. Yesterday The Hague, and Geneva, tomorrow Washington D.C. if required. He would even go to Gaza if that was within the realm of possibility.
      Just wait for another few days, hours perhaps, and our host will be back, much to the delight of his readers.

  • Allan Howard

    Just checked out skwawkbox and came across THIS from a few days ago:

    Breaking: Jewish Israeli historian Bresheeth arrested during demo outside Israeli ambassador residence

    Jewish Israeli historian Prof Haim Bresheeth has been arrested tonight during the weekly anti-genocide protest outside the Camden residence of far-right Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely.

    Prof Bresheeth, a well-known academic and left-wing activist, was taken into custody in Charing Cross police station. Friends and comrades, who believe police used anti-terror legislation as their pretext for the arrest, say they have been unable to contact him or check on his welfare.

    https://skwawkbox.org/2024/11/01/jewish-israeli-historian-bresheeth-arrested-during-demo-outside-israeli-ambassador-residence/

    Then this a couple of days ago:

    https://skwawkbox.org/2024/11/03/exclusive-prof-haim-bresheeths-anti-genocide-speech-before-he-was-arrested-for-terrorism/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

    I seem to recall that it was at a demo outside the residence of Israel’s fascist ambassador that Tony Greenstein was arrested….. Right, just found this:

    Pro-Palestine campaigner arrested over anti-Israel rally

    Tony Greenstein has blogged about his arrest last Friday at the demo outside the home of the Israeli ambassador in Swiss Cottage.

    He says the comments he was arrested for involved a comparison of Israel with Nazi Germany.

    He has now launched a crowdfunder which has already raised more than £6,000 to “stop the police persecuting Palestinian Solidarity Activists”.

    https://www.brightonandhovenews.org/2024/10/11/pro-palestine-campaigner-arrested-over-anti-israel-rally/

    • Allan Howard

      I was checking out an article that Craig posted in April 2019 about the Salisbury poisonings affair (which a poster in the forum said was the source for something I’d asked them about; turns out it wasn’t), and after reading it I zoomed through the comments just to see if I had posted any comments in that thread (The Official Skripal Story is a Dead Duck), and it turned out I hadn’t. But a short post by Tom Welsh just happened to catch my eye, so I stopped for a moment to read it, and he’d posted a link to a Caitlin Johnstone article which is really brilliant (and one that I don’t recall reading before):

      Dissidents Must Be Clear On The Difference Between Fact And Narrative (Feb 4th, 2019)

      https://caityjohnstone.medium.com/dissidents-must-be-clear-on-the-difference-between-fact-and-narrative-e32c9dfd080d

    • Allan Howard

      Here’s more about Haim Bresheeth on JVL, posted yesterday. The following is JVLs introduction (posted by Leah Levane):

      Son of Jewish Holocaust survivors arrested for supporting Palestine

      On Friday, November 1st, Professor Haim Bresheeth was arrested, ostensibly for supporting proscribed terrorist organisations. However, he did no such thing as is clear from listening to his speech embedded within this article from Skwawkbox.

      This is yet another attempt to clamp down on free speech when it comes to support for Palestinians, or perhaps even more to the point, heavy criticism of Israel. This time of an Israeli Jewish man who was born in a displaced person’s camp one year after his parents were liberated from the death camps. Below this summary from this blogger, we also publish a statement by Haim’s partner Yosefa Loshitzsky with links she has asked to be shared. “It is precisely because his family history and the intimate knowledge from his parents that he is compelled…to oppose this ongoing genocide. Our history, …is at the heart of our beliefs, and in the case of Haim and myself, our scholarly publications and political activity. ”

      Our solidarity with Haim and our solidarity with people who have been arrested and others, who may well be concerned at their own possible arrest. But none of them – or us – will stop until the genocide, occupation and siege is over.

      https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/son-of-jewish-holocaust-survivors-arrested-for-supporting-palestine/

    • M.J.

      I hope that people who come on the receiving end of wrongful arrest or malicious prosecution seek and get legal redress, and that any politicians or lobbyists responsible are exposed.

  • Goose

    Given it’s US election day, worth highlighting a letter on Ukraine that’s circulating. It’s signed by a who’s who of spookery. Of possible interest to our host, Stewart McDonald, former MP for Glasgow South former SNP spokesperson for defence, has added his name.

    It bashes both the Trump/Vance plan : involving a negotiated solution, lazily equating that with the 1938 Munich Agreement…and, interestingly, any continuation of the current war of attrition, under a Harris administration. It calls for Ukraine to be given ‘precise strike capability’ and be allowed to target all of Russia.

    With itchy nuclear trigger fingers in the Kremlin already urging Putin to take the gloves off, i.e., Medvedev, this seems like insane posturing. It’s as though these people actually want a nuclear war/nuclear winter? The fact many of the signatories are German – a country that knows all about the horrors of a catastrophic war, makes it even more bizarre. The idea, after all this blood and treasure they’ve invested, Russia takes the ‘L’ and walks away is pure fantasy and these 100+ ‘experts’ surely know it.

    https://www.democratic-strategy.net/_files/ugd/dcfff6_17f621993d194aeda9bb6c7cf7352dd6.pdf

    • Jack

      It is so absurd. It is like people do not fear war anymore. Not to mention, people do not even fear nuclear war!?
      In the late Cold war, people protested against risk of nuclear war. Today, people protest against risk of peace. And they claim that, we, that want cessation of hostilities, ceasefire, peaceful solution etc in Ukraine are the extremists!?
      It makes me sick how media in the west uncritically glorify Kamala Harris, being the neocon-supported warmonger that she is, whether it is in Ukraine or in Gaza/Lebanon/Iran. If she win, which I believe, she will have free hands to do whatever she want, the most dangerous of individual, because she and the media/western elites that back her, believe they are the “good” ones.

      • Wilshire

        I vaguely think it’s a bit too late to glorify (or criticize) Ko-mala Harris. Your fears are probably ill-advised.
        Now please open your choir book at page 47: “Lord, do bless Trump and his followers”.
        But then, his first call to Bibi will be to tell him to ‘finish the job’. Does this sound better??

        • Goose

          Wilshire

          Trump’s promising to bring peace to the ME, and his campaign seems to have pivoted to winning over the anti-war Republican voters.

          Interestingly, he’s won the support of Ron Paul, a fierce critic of US military interventions, and its self-appointed world police role – less of a hawk in the Republican party would be hard to find. Trump has also slated John Bolton, calling him a war-obsessed maniac, clips of this were shown to him last night on Newsnight, Bolton sat there looking nonplussed. JD Vance has also been saying dovish things too about how, ‘too many Muslim lives have been lost’ in pointless wars. Whether they mean it, who knows?

      • Courtenay Francis Raymond Barnett

        Jack,

        Trump surely is not a ‘good one’.

        Why?

        When Trump tells Bibi to ‘finish the job’ and moves the US Embassy to East Jerusalem – isn’t he in effect saying that Palestinians are worthy of extermination and via East Jerusalem, it is not their land as designated under the UN system? He has in effect erased Palestinian existence via such words and policy – hasn’t he?

        Lesser of two evils is the order of the day – ain’t it so?

        • Goose

          CFRB

          If Trump were to say that, and Netanyahu were to try to implement that – by annexing everything – Israel would lose its EU support. So, in many ways the continuation of the present situation; with the US and EU supporting the steady erosion of Palestinian lands, is probably the worst outcome for the Palestinians.

        • Jack

          Yes I believe Trump would be better – way better I must add – we are the on the brink of full war between Russia/West, something that will most likely become a reality if Kamala is elected. As I said, if Kamala win she will have free hands to do whatever she want in the MIddle East and Ukraine. She will have the backing of media/establishment/military/intelligence etc. So yes Trump sounds better because all will go against him.

          You believe that if Trump would win and keep supporting Israel and escalating the genocide in Gaza that the democrats will keep silent? But if Kamala is elected, who will protest? GOP? Media? Yeah right. No one will protest that is why Harris is way more dangerous than Trump on foreign policy.
          Speaking on Jerusalem embassy move, just look how much rejection, criticism he got, or when he recognized Golan as israeli territory. No one supported these idiotic moves by Trump.

          Having said all that if I could vote I would vote Jill Stein.

          • Goose

            I don’t think a newly elected President Harris would relish the prospect of trying to squeeze a Republican Congress for hundreds of billions more for Ukraine.

            The US are apparently running into supply issues themselves too. Trying to supply and defend Israel’s military adventurism, while supplying Ukraine…and still keeping enough in reserve to defend Taiwan, is putting their own stockpiles under manufacturing strain. There’s a worldwide shortage of gunpowder and TNT, stymieing ‘large-scale production’ and adding to the delays.

    • David Warriston

      To be fair, I think many Germans have inherited a distaste for armed conflict that is born from the events of WW2. In fact the Green Party in its earlier manifestation was a natural home for such views. ‘Never again war with Russia’ was part of that creed.

      However there has always been a warmongering element within Germany which regretted neither Nazism nor European war but rather the failure to execute it effectively. Even after Germany’s surrender in May 1945 Himmler was confident that he would soon be back in power, this time in alliance with western powers, to complete operation Barbarosa. It has taken around 80 years for these ideas to surface into MSM although post war in the UK Oswald Moseley was occasionally given air time to say the same.

      • Brian Red

        @David – I hadn’t heard that about Himmler before. Who in which western powers gave him that idea? I’d be interested to know.

        Mosley from the late 1940s onwards advocated a united Europe, although he excluded Russia and wanted “Europe” as a third power alongside the USA and the USSR. The only airtime I’m aware of him being given was in 1967 on the David Frost show, and in 1975 on Thames TV in relation to one of the periods of “crisis” in Britain. (Both are online.) Sure he didn’t repent for 1930s fascist thuggery but his emphasis was on a corporate state in the future, not particularly backward-looking. He didn’t say it was a shame Germany didn’t win the war, they only lost it because they weren’t as skilled at planning and execution as he would have been, and hey, let’s bomb Russia. Mosley was a vile individual, a fascist through and through, and a classic example of a posh boy suffering from Dunning-Kruger syndrome, but he wasn’t really a let’s refight the war and get a different result kind of guy. He said he wished Britain had stayed out of the war.

        Mosley and Frost probably had social connections, even possibly family connections, given how many children nobs tend to have. Or maybe through gangland. Frost was a parvenu but he married the Duke of Norfolk’s daughter – quite an amazing bit of social climbing. Though in Frost’s defence, I think his support for Nick Leeson, a working class guy who was absolutely thrown in the sh*t, was honourable.

        • Brian Red

          The Mosley appearance on Frost in 1967 makes for great watching, because Mosley gets absolutely crushed by a heckler, a guy with a lower-class accent who in my imagination is probably an East End Communist Party Jew. He destroys Mosley: “We stopped you at Cable Street, Mosley, and we’ll stop you again. Just as we stopped your friend, Adolf Hitler.” Fantastic piece of heckling.

  • Jack

    Perhaps Kamala will win and win regardless of the missed votes from the pro-palestinian protest movements but she missed the opportunity to really secure her a clear win by taking a stance against Israel, she would win so many americans by getting their votes, especially the youth but of course also the arab/muslim voter base:

    The Harris Campaign’s Missed Opportunity on Palestine Voters
    In no place has this dynamic been more likely to play out than in Michigan. Michigan is a key swing state, central to the election of a Democrat, and will be decided by a slim margin. It is also home to the largest concentration, perhaps half a million, of Arab Americans. Should that vote go largely in one direction, it could have an outsize impact on whether the state, and consequently the presidency, is awarded to a Democrat or a Republican.

    Then there is the argument that the election always comes down to choosing the “lesser evil.” But for Palestine voters, the vast majority of whom followed that rationale and cast their ballots for Biden in 2020 to defeat Donald Trump, the past year of Biden-Harris policy has been the worst evil they have ever witnessed in their lifetime

    For the Palestine voter, voting for Harris despite the Biden-Harris administration’s genocide policy is a vote to legitimize genocide.
    https://newrepublic.com/article/187764/harris-campaign-palestine-voters-missed-opportunity

    The fact that a considerable part of muslims, arabs, a voter group often voting with the Democrats would vote GOP and Trump prove how extreme the Democrats have become.
    It would be easy for Kamala Harris to make some promise prior election that she will get tougher with Israel if she win, but not even that she felt the need to say. That also proves how extreme Harris Israel-policy will be.

      • Brian Red

        Musk and Farage are at Mar-a-Lago tonight. Dunno who else is there.
        Maybe Musk will slip something in his host’s drink?
        Vance was backed by the filthy trio of Paypal billionaires: Musk, Sacks, and Thiel.
        I’d watch that Vance guy. He knows how to flip when he’s told.
        It could easily be President Vance in January.

        @Wilshire – Dunno how closely you are watching Musk. I get a kinda Chinese (Pony Ma) “superapp” vibe from him. Do you get it too? He’s a key player, regardless of the on-stage dickheadery. Not just AI but Neuralink – chip implantation.

        • Wilshire

          Farage is just a leech, but Musk is frightening. His public histrionic routines are nothing but a facade.
          I’m sure they’re having a good time with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Birds of a feather…

    • AG

      There is the “Abandon Harris” campaign by pro-Palestine organizers.
      Interview with one organizer from Nov. 4th:

      “Abandon Harris campaign is seeking “the defeat of a genocidaire”
      Peoples Dispatch spoke to Dr. Hassan Abdel Salam, director of the Abandon Harris Campaign, which seeks to draw votes away from Harris in key swing states”

      November 04, 2024 by Natalia Marques
      https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/11/04/abandon-harris-campaign-is-seeking-the-defeat-of-a-genocidaire/

      “Q: Is there anything that Harris could do at this point that would, in fact, win your vote?
      A: There is absolutely nothing that she can do at this point. ”

      This was conducted around Nov. 1st.

      On a related note this piece today on Epstein:

      “Israel, Blackmail & the Presidents”
      https://consortiumnews.com/2024/11/05/israel-blackmail-the-presidents/

      I first wanted to post it in the forum. But the second half also covers Israel´s influence via Mossad-Epstein-Maxwell-Blinken-Biden offering a framework from which to operate things like this genocide.

      “(…)
      Antony Blinken’s grandfather was Maurice Blinken, who founded the American Palestine Institute after World War II. In his New York Times obituary in 1986 the paper reported:
      “In 1946, under Mr. Blinken’s direction, the institute initiated and financed a report by several economists, ‘Palestine: Problem and Promise,’ which argued that an independent Jewish state was economically viable.
      This rebutted a British white paper that contended Palestine could not economically support a large immigrant population.
      The institute’s report is said to have helped persuade the United States Government to support the establishment of the State of Israel.
      As Biden and Blinken took office in 2021, Israel had gotten just under $300 billion from the U.S. taxpayer since its founding just in overt economic and military aid. Biden has accelerated that dramatically. The Costs of War Project at Brown University recently estimated the “cost of war in Gaza and beyond to U.S. taxpayers is conservatively estimated to be $22.76 billion.”
      (…)”

      I wonder if Finkelstein would have any knowledge on Epstein blackmail against groups critical of Israel in the UN, ICJ judges etc. (We did speculate here on such possibilities past winter.) Or may be Richard Falk for that matter. Whom the Israel lobby really hated.

    • Brian Red

      @Jack – “Then there is the argument that the election always comes down to choosing the ‘lesser evil.’ But for Palestine voters, the vast majority of whom followed that rationale and cast their ballots for Biden in 2020 to defeat Donald Trump, the past year of Biden-Harris policy has been the worst evil they have ever witnessed in their lifetime

      It’s easy to respond to this by saying that this means either voting for Trump or giving him half a vote by abstaining. It’s easy to refer in “what about” fashion to Cambodia or Rwanda too. But none of that would be fair. Of course you can’t expect people to vote for those who support genocide against them, or who want to crush them in some other way.

      I will never vote Labour while Starmer is the leader, because of Gaza. I would not vote Labour even if a single extra vote for them would keep Reform or Tommy Robinson out of office.

      I would never vote for Emmanuel Macron, even to keep the National Rally or Eric Zemmour out of office, after Macron called for dragging vaccination refusers “in the sh*t” (“emmerder”).

      So I respect the view referenced here, even though personally I would vote for Harris.

    • Lysias

      By opposing Israel, Harris would poison her relations with Congress, and, without Congress, she would be a powerless president. And Harris is not the sort of person who would oppose the powerful.

      I take no joy in saying this. I just voted earlier today for Jill Stein, precisely over the Gaza issue. But I’m afraid these are the facts.

  • mark cutts

    I think what we and the BBC are going to witness in the next few days will be pure theatre and very little of politics or economics.

    Keep an eye out for Shy trump Voters (a bit like the Shy Tories of a few election in the UK).

    The visceral fear of a Trump win is interesting amongst what we call Liberals these days (the political gauges have moved enormously to the right in recent years – hence the invented word ‘Centrist’) as they have ben willingly captured for a salary and a stipend by the ‘THEY’ and ‘The Man’ that Bob Dylan and his peers used to sing about in the 60s.

    So the stakes are high – but for whom?

    Which ‘They?’

    The Warmongering Military Industrial Complex?
    Big Pharma?
    Big Finance?

    Just who are the ‘They’ whom no matter who wins – always win?

    There are capitalists who have enormous investments in China – the EU and many other areas where the BRICS are expanding so it’s not as simple as them and Us in capitalist terms.

    Trump will raise tariffs – so will Harris and Protectionism can work for a slight bit longer in a richer country but not in The Dis-United States of Europe which will need to get the US’s backside off its face in order to have a future.

    Ironically it is the Right who have a more pragmatic approach to who runs Europe and as a lefty we find a similar cause for different outcomes.

    The ending of the War in Ukraine would be good in my opinion but the ‘They’ who want to get their hands on the riches of The Donbass are not willing to let the potential wealth go.

    Of course the Ukrainian people will derive beggar all from the US ‘Theys’ – in fact whomever is left (win or lose) will be ultra exploited to pay back the US and European Loans to Ukraine and that is the tragedy of this proxy war.

    In World politics and fights amongst Great powers by proxy there is no such thing as ‘Aid’ there are only Loans and paybacks in full.

    If the Israelis lose they will encounter the same conditional support? (win or lose).

    • Goose

      That’s the real travesty of Harris being anointed rather than beating out other rival candidates, as is the expected democratic norm in the US.

      You could be forgiven for thinking the Democrats arranged it this way on purpose; so that Harris didn’t have to debate other contenders who may take a different view on Israel, the Ukraine war etc. A contest meant primaries; primaries meant debate, and her unintelligible TV interview guff with friendly network hosts, wouldn’t have sufficed – not when debating other candidates before real voters.

      If Harris wins, US citizens have voted for a mystery box. Nobody knows what she believes in or where she stands.

      • Brian Red

        Is there reason to think Democrats voting in the primaries, if they’d had a chance to, would have backed a leftwing candidate such as AOC, or Sanders if he was up to it, against Harris and against the movers and shakers in the party machine, pulling all the levers they knew how to pull? I’d be all for it – a kinda Corbyn success in the USA. But it hasn’t happened before in the history of the Democratic party.

        Critical antennae need to be attuned to the idea that the biggest problem at any given time is the main candidate standing in an election against the fascist loony Donald Trump, who is supposedly aiming to re-enter the presidential palace on behalf of the little man, as some kind of archetypal messiah and reliever of ills (“Trump’ll Fix It”), putting “America first” against immigrants, “garbage”, and “the elite”. It seems someone that always has to play the role of Vince McMahon in this guy’s story.

        Part of the moral has gotta be that no-one ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the USA public.

  • Mike T

    A Trump presidency? More of the same I suspect.

    In his previous incumbency he spent most of his time secluded in his palatial apartments watching FOX news (with pleasure) and CNN (with fury). There was a reason for this, and I think it the same reason he avoided another imperial war. He actually has a good instinct and knowledge of the US media press cycle, its appetites – notably ‘frenzy’ and novelty; and its dislikes – notably reflection and intellectualism.

    War starts well, but almost always outlives the news cycle, trapping the President in the ‘bad news’ terrain.

    So, what seems likely (should he win) is some heavy tax breaks for the super-rich up front, followed by years of short term headline seeking whilst negotiating nothing more complex than a golf course. He seems to understand that, like monarchy and the CofE in the UK, the power in the USA has moved irrevocably away from constitutional government into the hands of the super billionaire class.

    • AG

      Agree. But how would you place “super billionaire class” in relation to the national security state / deep state with its hundreds of thousands of employees? Are they possibly the new Houses of Lancaster v. York?

      • Mike T

        New York and Lancaster? You’re asking a medievalist, so be ready for 20,000 words! Non-historians stop reading now.

        The foreign backed insurgency that was led by international mercenary Bolingbroke/Lancaster brought England firmly into play, for about a century. The Realm of England had become unstable and weak, and a torture to all its neighbours. The instability was reflected in gross military adventurism, which helped ward off the problem until the collapse of the Angevin Empire. Successive military coup d’états followed, culminating in a two civil wars (Towton/Bosworth) and multiple foreign incursions/insurrections.

        Parallel? A bit. The ennobled class by the 1450’s enumerated literally only 50 families, including eight of the top rank. The extent of elitism is parallel. Cultural stability derived from the Roman church (Bishops in part, Abbeys in main) That role is now in the hands of the mainline media, and then as now the penetration of economic power into the cultural institution was profound but not absolute, at least not until the Henrican absolutist reforms (and even then…).

        The q-chan deep state concept appears to me to refer to state officials emotionally and politically loyal to the ‘old order’, that is nationalism, state imperialism, deference. The billionaires are visibly divided here between the old order adherents and those who aspire to a new Whiggism (misleadingly, often called neoliberalism, though there seems very little that is liberal about it, new or old).

        This new, insurgent, billionaire aristocracy encounters implacable barriers to its influence in these adherents to the ‘old order’; rather like the church in the C15th they expect total neutrality but experience dissent. Yet control of that dissent is beyond their legitimate grasp.

        Historically, the solution eventually arrived at was the Henrican purge, cloaked in Protestant ideology, which utterly changed the English socio-economy and triggered internal conflicts unresolved until 1822. I personally think the new billionaires are likely to make the same/similar error, because they achieve their influence on the basis of cunning wheezes and short term survivalist thinking. If they didn’t, then they wouldn’t be new billionaires.

        I hope that answers you question, albeit rather more fully than you might have desired. Thanks for reading.

        P.S. Is Craig alright? I check here daily for news. Like poets, dissident journalists must be protected, that tyranny not prevail over truth.

    • Brian Red

      Well it looks as though Trump will win the election now, with Harris conceding either tonight or within a few days, and without the result being determined by litigation.

      Facts that might be factored into a consideration of what might happen once “the Don” is back in the slave-built palace in the federal capital:

      1. A very famous super-billionaire who has funded the Trump campaign and openly worked for it, is on record as intervening at a time when there was real fighting on the streets in Britain – small scale but real – telling his many millions of moronic “followers” that civil war was inevitable.

      2. Retired US General Mark Milley, whom Trump has said should have been executed, has said that he fears being recalled to duty by Trump if the man becomes commander-in-chief again, so that he can be court-martialed – and presumably found guilty and shot. There would be parallels with other dictators who’ve purged the officer corps.

      Interesting times indeed.

      Media cycles? A tool only. Those who rule, control the media. A trite observation but accurate.

      • Wilshire

        Yes indeed. And Trump is on the way to win more than the WH. He will likely control both the House and the Senate, and also widen in due time his support in the SC.
        A perfect recipe for dictatorship. We can only wonder whether his policy is less favorable to the genocide in Gaza than that of Biden. I’m rather pessimistic about this.

        • Anthony

          Ah, what might’ve been…… 4 more years of Kamala I’m-speaking-now over grieving Palestinians while sending more bombs to annihilate their remaining family tree.

      • Mike T

        Brian: “civil war was inevitable”

        Absolutely despicable comment from a utterly despicable human being. If it meant anything at all (a bit like ‘death is inevitable’ ) it was a fascist call to arms.

        Eco wrote of Ur Fascism “Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation.”

        Which rather nails him I think.

        I disagree (by the way) that all states have absolute control of the media (or did I misunderstand your comment). Whilst it is certainly possible (e.g. the Ushtase controlled every newspaper in NDH/Croatia) the existence of the ‘D-notice’ system – or whatever its called these days – suggests that control is imperfect. If you wished to suggest ‘within limits’ that control is absolute I would agree. The narrative on Palestine demonstrates that every day.

    • Jack

      Today I am glad not so much that Trump won but that the heinous Kamala Harris that did not have the understanding in her to take a stance against Israel and win over the youth, lost. Genocidal enabling and hysterical cackle will take you nowhere.

      Stats show that the Harris lost the a considerable amount of the young voters. She also lost a whole lot of muslim/arab voters.

      Also, Is not Trump’s speech aired right now very low-energy? Sure everyone is tired but still?

  • M.J.

    Trump has almost certainly won. G_d help the world. That includes especially Palestinians and Ukraine.
    Q for post-mortem: to what extent was Harris’ defeat attributable to not allowing Palestinians and Arab-Americans a voice at the DNC, resulting in many Americans from those communities (or Muslim Americans generally) deciding to punish her by voting for a third candidate or even Trump?

    • JK redux

      M.J.
      If, as we expect, Trump abandons Ukraine to Putin’s tender mercies then Xi will not be slow to conclude that Taiwan is his for the taking.

      Europe will have to, with great reluctance, support Ukraine with troops on the ground in Ukraine.

      After all, if the DPRK may send troops to Ukraine without the permission of its Government why should France, Poland and Finland not send troops there on the invitation of the Ukrainian Government?

      • Urban Fox

        Europe won’t do shit, NATO is the US military, with everyone else auxiliaries. From whom ad-hoc “coalitions of the willing” get assembled.

        Hell even with the US the military means don’t exist, or they would have done it.

        The window to intervene was 2022, when Ukraine was as strong as it was ever going to get, and the Russians were using a peacetime military.

        Now Ukraine is bled out and the Russian military is if anything stronger & more experienced.

  • Johnny Conspiranoid

    One good thing about a Trump victory, from a Democrat/Deep State point of view is that he can be blamed for Russia’s victory.

    • Squeeth

      The only good thing that could have come from this undemocratic ‘election’ is that Harris lost, the rest is imperial tyranny as usual. It’s going to be mildly interesting to see what will happen to the legal warfare against Trump now that he controls the trough.

    • Tatyana

      🙂
      Today, November 6, 2024, the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, approved the appointment of Donald Trump as the new Governor of the American District.
      Thank you all for voting.
      🙂

      • Wilshire

        You’re more than welcomed. You certainly did your best with this in view…
        And don’t forget that, in 47’s own words, “a star is born, Elon”. How clever of him to emphasize that Star-link will in the near future be the referee for the SMO. So everything is for the best in the best of all possible worlds ! If Vlad plans to celebrate with a glass of champagne, he should remember it will soon be subject to extra tariffs…
        But please just think of the distress in Kyiv. The American district is about to abandon them to a pitiful fate…

        • Tatyana

          I don’t think Trump will abandon the Ukrainians, or be friends with Putin. It was under his rule that most sanctions were imposed and his administration supplied weapons to Ukraine before the war even started.
          I was just trying to make fun of the conspiracy theorists who see “the powerful invisible hand of the Kremlin” behind everything.

          As for Kiev, I have little sympathy for those who discriminate against their own citizens based on ethnicity. Even the most stubborn chief propagandist of Ukraine, Arestovich, has changed his shoes and openly writes on Twitter (I’ll translate for you):

          – I honestly don’t really understand what the Russian-speaking fathers and mothers of Ukraine are fighting for?..
          For the apartheid system, in which their children are forbidden to speak their native language during school breaks?
          For fines for using their native language?
          For mockery of the history of their native city, like in Odessa?..
          For the system that reinforces their second-rate status with every new decision?
          Are you masochists?
          Do you like to suffer and sacrifice yourself so that you can be further humiliated?..
          Do you really want to sacrifice yourself for those who will mutter through their lower lip to your mourning relatives:
          – You’re not welcome here, Moscow-mouthed…
          For new Ukrainian speaking Aryans who will sit on the neck of you, your children and grandchildren?..
          I admit the answer “The System is the System, and the Motherland is the Motherland.”
          I have a solution for this case:
          – Russian speakers – to the rear positions.
          And to the front line – exclusively supporters of language laws, lovers of wiping their asses with the Constitution.
          They fought for the birthright so much that their place is right on the front line.
          Right in the Dnepropetrovsk region, where fortifications were never built; but settlements, including Pokrovsk, they hurry to rename.
          https://x.com/arestovych/status/1852878127149506962

          For better understanding of the context:
          Odessa was founded in the 18th century by the Russian Empress Catherine II. She commissioned the construction of a military harbor and merchant pier to a Spanish nobleman and a Russian vice-admiral José de Ribas y Boyons, whose name was Russified to Joseph Mikhailovich Deribas (there’s a monument and the main street in Odessa is named in his honour).
          And the word ‘Ukraine’ then meant nothing more than ‘near the edge’ in Russian language. So I don’t understand why Odessa should suddenly stop being a Russian city, and how it turns out that supporters of the pro-Western regime burn pro-Russian people alive there, and no one has been punished yet.

          • Wilshire

            Actions speak louder than words
            Thanks for being the trustworthy translator on this blog. Much appreciated.
            Your agenda permitting, would you consider joining CM in Beirut to help him with his ‘permits’ issue?

          • Tatyana

            Wilshire, with respect
            I am an adult, healthy and free person and don’t need patronage. At 46, I have long lost the childish ability to take advice from strangers seriously. Rather, I tend to consider it unacceptable, as a manifestation of aggression.

            Also, when communicating with people, I give them a credit of goodwill for a while. But I reserve the right to revoke this unilaterally without explanation.

            Thank you for appreciating my translation efforts. I try to keep you informed. Stay tuned 🙂

    • Urban Fox

      Meh, they’re *all* to blame, for helping Ukraine to commit national suicide. Then helping Israel to commit genocide.

      However neither they nor their proxies can win the wars they started.

      So who cares what they think or what their lying propaganda says?

      No-one in the Kremlin or increasingly outside NATOland for sure.

  • Jack

    Voters in Michigan’s Dearborn, the largest majority Arab-American city in the United States, appear to have overwhelmingly supported Donald Trump in a clear protest against the Biden administration’s handling of Israel’s war on Gaza.

    …early reports show 47 percent of Dearborn voters backing Trump, with 27 percent of votes going to Harris and 21 percent to Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
    https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-dearborn-trump-gaza-war-elections

    Who will the Dems blame this time for losing the election? Muslim/arab voters? Youth? Jill Stein? Russia again? Iran?

      • Jack

        Exactly or blame Kamala herself, she was part of the same administration that signed off on the genocide, some weeks back she indeed claimed that she could not come up with any act made under Biden that she was not supportive of:
        Harris said last week in an interview on ABC’s “The View” that she couldn’t think of a move made by Biden that she would have decided differently — a line that was featured prominently by Trump at rallies and online. She later offered that she would, unlike Biden, select a Republican for her Cabinet if elected.
        https://apnews.com/article/biden-kamala-legacy-difference-election-policy-313e8dd2eb1108f1ea2611f02504d5bf
        She could not even pretend she was against the genocide. That speaks volumes.

    • Wilshire

      What a difference a day makes!
      Only yesterday, most commentators on this thread were expressing deep concern about what Ka-mala could do in her coming presidential term. Today, people rejoice in her ‘punishment’.
      Tomorrow, the target will probably be different. Takes all kinds !

    • fonso

      If 2016 is any indicator, they will learn nothing. Nobody in the party establishment will be blamed or made to pay.

      As when they lost to Trump before, they’ll unleash vengeance to blot out the shame.

      Expect the usual crap about foreign interference (not Israeli), populism, the ‘red-Brown’ Trumpian left, ungrateful muslims etc — combined with endless efforts to delegitimise Trump.

      The Democrats are as vengeful as they are corrupt and genocidal.

    • M.J.

      Muslim/arab voters yes, but also millions of young right-wing followers of Joe Rogan, who was converted by the world’s richest man into supporting Trump (go figure) and whom Kamala did not make time to talk to. That’s two mistakes that proved fatal.
      In 2016 Hillary had failed to give Wisconsin and Michigan sufficient attention. History repeating itself.

      • Terence Callachan

        Russia was threatened with NATO missiles on its border – yes, its border: you know, the one with Ukraine just 400 miles from Moscow, 400 miles? That gives Russia minutes to intercept any missiles fired on Moscow. We all know the missiles would be USA missiles because its the USA that commands NATO, all NATO.

        Imagine if Russia sited missiles on Cuba facing the big cities of USA, or China sited missiles in Canada on the border of USA facing New York or Washington, or if China sited missiles on the coast of Normandy or on the coast of south Holland or Flanders facing London – what would the UK; do what would USA do? Do you think they would move into those places before Russia and China could place their missiles in those places?

        Ahh yes, I thought so.

  • Stevie Boy

    The two major zionists lined up to be the first to congratulate Trump: Starmer and Bibi. Another fine mess …
    We’ll now find out if there are any consequences to Starmer’s meddling.

    • Jack

      Trump re-iterated in his speech earlier today that he was against starting wars, but, will he be able to stand against Netanyahus manipulations and schemes?
      Allgedly Trump do not want anything to with Gaza:
      The former US president reportedly wants Israel’s war with Hamas over by inauguration day
      https://swentr.site/news/606760-trump-israel-end-war

      The same position he seems to take on Ukraine.
      Trump to make Ukraine the EU’s problem – FT
      The former president wants the US to play no role in guaranteeing peace between Moscow and Kiev, according to one of his advisers
      https://swentr.site/news/606626-trump-ukraine-peace-eu/

    • Republicofscotland

      Stevie Boy.

      And there it is – in reality it wouldn’t have mattered who won the the election – behind the scenes, especially on foreign policy doesn’t really change.

      “Despite both parties preferring to deemphasize foreign policy in their campaigns, US foreign policy is the engine driving domestic policy. This is because modern US domestic politics is fundamentally a game of dividing up the plunder that foreign policy secures.”

      “Since WW2, this unilateral global arrangement has been maintained through a mixture of brute force, monopoly control of global institutions, and a healthy dose of quid pro quo with its junior partners that comprise the western world”

      https://nitter.poast.org/bidetmarxman/status/1854124650072297739#m

  • Brian Red

    I hope Harris has the guts in her concession speech to call Trump what he really is: an insane fascist. I’d even settle for her only calling him a fascist. Attagirl, Kamala. This is the end of your political career. Repeat the truth that eventually you voiced in the later stage of your campaign. Double down on it. It’s one word: fascist.

    • Republicofscotland

      Brian Red.

      Brian – there’s no real difference between Trump and Harris – with the Palestinians in mind – both back the Zionists, and in doing so endorse their genocide.

      Incidentally the US military launched a nuclear ballistic missile (minus the warhead), the American military fired an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile, (ICBM) from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base – after Trump won the election – though it wasn’t because he won the election, it was supposedly a routine operation.

    • M.J.

      Insulting Trump would be infra dig and make her look like a bad loser. She’s still the Vice-President of the United States, capable in theory of standing in for Joe Biden. Maybe it would be a good idea for Biden to retire and make her President for the transition period. She could then temporarily “retire” in January 2025 and start planning a counter-comeback in 2028!

  • Jack

    Quite ridiculous for Harris not to step up and congratulate Trump and admit defeat, considering Trump’s childishness after 2020 election, claiming fraud, just like Hillary also did in 2016:

    Hillary Clinton urged to call for election vote recount in battleground states
    Alleged irregularities in key states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin prompt demands for audit amid concerns over ‘foreign hackers’

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/23/hillary-clinton-election-vote-recount-michigan-pennsylvania-wisconsin
    Perhaps DNC try to come up with a foreign scapegoat this time too?

  • Republicofscotland

    The Millionaire Knight of the Realm – and leader of the Labour party Sir Keir Starmer – keeps the party close to the Zionists who are committing genocide.

    “LABOUR have been accused of a “complete lack of judgement” after two senior figures met with Israeli politician Merav Michaeli, who once warned Israel was losing its “essence” by “mixing with” Palestinians.
    The Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) lobbying group shared photos of Michaeli meeting with Middle East minister Hamish Falconer while she was in London.
    The group also reported she met with Emily Thornberry, chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. ”

    https://archive.is/L0rCA#selection-1761.3-1783.105

  • Harry Law

    The ‘General’s plan’ for Gaza seems to be being implemented at this moment, possibly because all eyes are on the US election..
    Israel has announced the complete partition of northern Gaza – and has designated the hundreds of thousands of civilians still living there as combatants and therefore targets.
    The KAN channel, Israel’s equivalent to the BBC, has covered the IDF’s partition announcement, with a correspondent reporting that the military considers the forced removal of civilians complete – nobody who has left will ever be allowed to return, according to Israel’s plan, no aid will be allowed to enter the north, and all who remain are considered “terrorists”.
    https://skwawkbox.org/2024/11/06/breaking-israel-announces-complete-partition-of-north-gaza-and-designates-400000-people-as-combatants/
    If the Psychopathic duo Starmer and Lammy do no act on this there should be no place safe on this planet for them, they have lost all morality.

    • Wilshire

      Only 2 days ago, the self-declared wise thinkers were arguing that looking at the US election as a search for the lesser evil was just a fantasy.
      But today, we can already see that the worse is yet to come. Even the Wall Street Journal tells it bluntly:
      https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/in-one-day-two-of-the-biggest-brakes-on-israels-netanyahu-disappeared-82bc798a
      Better buckle up. It’s going be a bumpy ride. The next article here should be titled “Middle East Problems”.

    • Harry Law

      This is the ‘General’s plan’ ..
      Many in the Israeli military and elsewhere are now looking to the “Generals’ Plan”, also known as the Eiland Plan, to secure the defeat of Hamas. At its simplest, this suggestion by a group of senior reservists, involves ethnically cleansing the northern Gaza Strip of people; and then besieging the region, including stopping the entry of humanitarian supplies, to starve out anyone left, including Palestinian fighters.
      Who wrote the Generals’ Plan?
      The plan was published in late September 2024 by the Forum of Commanders and Soldiers in the Reserves, an Israeli NGO which defines itself as a professional body with more than 1,500 army officers.
      Those quasi-human serial killers Starmer and Lammy are well aware of this plan, failure to act to stop it makes them complicit in it.
      https://www.middleeasteye.net/explainers/israel-gaza-palestine-what-generals-plan

  • Harry Law

    Now that Trump is President elect we can look forward to him winding down the Ukraine debacle on Putin’s terms. On the other hand his biggliest problem is his Israeli problem, which the Zionists want to get involved in war with Iran, a foolish notion since not only can it not be won but would entail the destruction of the western economic system through the complete stoppage of oil from the middle east, but also bring Russia and China into the equation. Some Neocons would welcome this since the oil stoppage would seriously hamper Chinese growth due to its reliance on oil from Saudi and Iranian sources. We live in interesting times.

  • Harry Law

    US politics is rotten to the core, Zionist money is so influential it is hard to conclude that the US will not be involved in major wars backing Israel. The money will not save the Zionist project, it will however get millions of people killed.
    Miriam Adelson and her husband were influential in Trump’s monumental direction to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the country’s capital city of Jerusalem in 2017.
    Miriam Adelson has delivered on a pledge she reportedly made at the start of the general election season, donating $100 million to a campaign committee supporting the candidacy of Donald Trump, according to disclosures filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission.
    https://www.timesofisrael.com/miriam-adelson-gives-100-million-to-trump-campaign-making-good-on-reported-pledge/

  • Republicofscotland

    “Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian territories will be visiting several Canadian cities this week. The Israel lobby is trying to stop Canadians from hearing what she has to say. Why?”

    Read on to find out why.

    https://canadatalksisraelpalestine.ca/2024/11/02/why-is-the-israel-lobby-so-determined-to-prevent-canadians-and-especially-canadian-politicians-from-meeting-francesca-albanese/

    Also this quote sums up Biden and Trump.

    “Gone is a genocidal president too hypocritical to admit it. And in comes a genocidal president who wears it as a badge of honor.”
    — Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta, on X (Nov 6, 2024 · 6:44 AM UTC)

  • Tatyana

    Just dropped in to say goodnight to all visitors of this site 🙂
    Beware of Putin!
    Please close the doors and windows of your house tightly tonight, otherwise Putin might fly in (laughing evilly) and kidnap your pet to suck its blood out (along with your democracy!).

1 2 3