Iraq.
Libya.
Egypt.
Syria.
Gaza.
Somalia.
No CIA- and Mossad-constructed regime change operation in the Middle East has ever made life better for the ordinary people of the country, nor even delivered the promised increase in personal and political freedoms.
The only limited improvement that might be gained comes from the lifting of Western sanction regimes. Apparently you can now buy M&Ms much more freely in Damascus. But that in itself is a reminder that the alleged “misgovernance” of non-puppet regimes is often the direct result of sanctions.
That is entirely true of the current situation in Iran, where the current unrest was almost entirely sparked by economic hardship attributable directly to Western sanctions on what should be a very wealthy country.
If anybody really wanted to help actual Iranians, they should be campaigning to lift the sanctions. Making that dependent on the installation of a Zionist Shah shows that this is actually about support for Israel, not about helping ordinary Iranians.
How many of those Western political and media commentators now obsessed with the rights of women not to wear a hijab, with the rights of gays, and with the stopping of executions, are campaigning for the violent overthrow of their Saudi Arabian ally on precisely the same grounds?
How many of them support the installation of the al-Jolani regime in Damascus, which is actively and newly imposing the very things they claim to oppose in Iran?
Did you know that the number of women in the Syrian parliament has just fallen from 28 under Assad to 6 under al-Jolani?
Did you know that over half of university students in Iran are female? That in STEM subjects it is over 60%?
Did you know that approximately 15,000 Jews live in Iran? The community has been there 2,700 years and their rights and synagogues are protected. There is even a dedicated Jewish seat in Parliament.
I do not paint Iran as a paradise. I am not, personally, in favour of theocratic government anywhere. I respect people’s right to live according to religious observance if they so wish, but not the right to compel religious observance on those who do not wish it or to impose law on the grounds of divine ordination.
If you wish to live in a pure religious society, then enter a closed religious order or wait until you reach your Heaven.
I oppose theocracy in Israel, in Saudi Arabia, in Iran; equally. I deplore the Christian Zionist influence bringing effective theocracy to the United States. I deplore bishops in the House of Lords.
I have a great deal of respect for the teachings of Islam. But religious leaders should not have the command of worldly affairs anywhere, on the basis of institutional appointment. Those who wish to live their lives outside of religious guidelines should be free to do so.
In addition to which, Iran is as susceptible as the rest of the world to the misuse of power by individuals, to corruption and to abuse of office, to inequality and the abuse of power. I should like to see reform in Iran, as I should like to see reform everywhere, towards a freer and more equal society.
But that reform will not be obtained by a violent movement of protest that seizes on the economic suffering under sanctions to whip up people to murder and arson.
Israel is boasting that it is arming and organising protestors in Iran.
Again I do not view the Iranian government as blameless. If it had allowed more space for reasonable reformists to operate, for opposition figures to campaign, then you would not have a situation where the crowds are shouting the name of the sickening Zionist Pahlavi stooge, simply because it is the only “opposition” name they have heard.
It does seem the moment of greatest madness has passed. I do hope that the Iranian government reflects on opening more political space in the medium term.
But I have nothing but contempt for those in the West who have jumped on the anti-Iranian bandwagon.
Iran is the only remaining power in the Middle East that stood up against the genocide in Gaza. The Iranian sponsored resistance have been the only military opposition to the expansion of Greater Israel. Houthis aside, those resistance forces have been set back badly in the last two years, though not entirely defeated nor disbanded.
The installation of the Zionist puppet al-Jolani was a great boon for the expansion of Israel. They are now gunning for Iran itself.
Those in the West who pretend this is about human rights, and not about eliminating the last elements of physical resistance to Greater Israel, are sickeningly hypocritical.
Opposition to the government of Iran and support for its violent overthrow has become the new entry ticket to the Overton Window Show of British media and politics. It is the new “Do you condemn Hamas?”
Those who bow the knee before the latest ruse of Western Imperialist conquest, in the interests of maintaining their establishment respectability, should be treated with contempt.
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Good points. Some quibbles:
‘No CIA- and Mossad-constructed regime change operation in the Middle East has ever made life better for the ordinary people of the country, nor even delivered the promised increase in personal and political freedoms.’
Well, Iraq is arguably a bit more democratic now than under Saddam, which is why the Shi’a majority is translated into a Shi’a-dominated government that is somewhat pro-Iranian, quite at odds with what the US would want (although it does tolerate the continued presence of US troops that it has asked to leave).
‘I have a great deal of respect for the teachings of Islam. But religious leaders should not have the command of worldly affairs anywhere, on the basis of institutional appointment.’
Ahem, it is basically a core part of the teachings of Islam that religious leaders should have the command of worldly affairs. Muhammad was a religious leader in command of worldly affairs, as were the caliphs that succeeded him. And in general, Islam is all about a blueprint for the religious governing of society. Overall, I’d say that its teachings are obviously incompatible with left-wing or liberal Enlightenment values. I don’t know what it means to have respect for teachings, but I certainly do not agree with the teachings of Islam (or of any other religion, for that matter).
‘If it had allowed more space for reasonable reformists to operate’
My impression is actually that the IRI has allowed a lot of space for reasonable reformists to operate. The current president is a reformist. There very much is a large reformist camp in Iranian politics. The ones that are not allowed to operate are mostly the rabidly pro-US, pro-Israel people who have been burning stuff. It’s just that the West is not satisfied with reasonable reformists, what it wants is to overthrow the regime, and there is only so much that either conservatives or reformists can do much to alleviate the effect of increasingly strangulating Western sanctions. Therefore many people see no other hope of ending their economic suffering than precisely the establishment of a pro-US, pro-Israel regime. Hence the pro-Pahlavi slogans, I’m afraid. There definitely are real and serious human rights issues in the IRI, but this isn’t primarily about them.
Iraq doesn’t have economic sovereignty.
All revenues from Iraq’s oil sales are deposited into an account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, known as the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI). The Iraqi Ministry of Finance must submit requests to the U.S. Treasury to access these funds, which some critics argue gives the US indirect financial leverage and is a mechanism established after the 2003 invasion. United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1956 in 2010 demanded the closure of the DFI account and the transfer of all proceeds to the Iraqi government, a directive that has not been implemented.
This arrangement is renewed every year by presidential executive order.
it could be argued, Iraq (fully sovereign) and Iran, would be a lot more powerful as a Shia bloc than they are. They could coordinate air defence etc. Iraq’s govt, despite being made up of those persecuted by Saddam Hussein’s regime, is effectively on U.S. probation. The arrangement has historical echoes of the abuses of the Colonial Era.
“Ahem, it is basically a core part of the teachings of Islam that religious leaders should have the command of worldly affairs. Muhammad was a religious leader in command of worldly affairs, as were the caliphs that succeeded him.”
That is likely to be because the main problems the world faces and the world has always faced are human greed and human selfishness and those problems are ethical, not political. History shows us that efforts to instil ethics in a population sufficient to control these evils without religion have nearly always failed.
History shows us that efforts to instil ethics in a religion sufficient to control these evils without secularism have nearly always failed.
OK, give me two examples of a completely secular state which has successfully controlled greed and selfishness, i.e. it was not a plutocracy. Then give me two examples of religions that don’t include a code of ethics as an integral part.
Having a “code of ethics” is very, very far away from behaving ethically. It is very often a means of forcing the broad masses to conform while the elite do whatever they please with impunity. As far as I can see the bottom line is that many people refuse to behave ethically no matter who is in charge or what ideology is theoretically accepted.
If everyone always behaved ethically we would need neither government nor religion. Almost all human problems would be solved, except for this: the people of such a state would hardly be recognisably human at all.
Bayard, but is there a theocracy which has controlled greed and selfishness successfully?
I see this like, you know, governments say that they are this or that, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are this or that.
USSR claimed that its ideology is to bring the land to those working on it, and the factories – to the workers, and everyone gives what they can and gets what they need. So where did the elite and nomenklatura come from in Soviet times?
The Vatican states that its policy is to establish peace and good international relations. What about the Crusades? The knightly orders? What does the Vatican really do for the world?
Now, Britain claims to be a democracy, but look at the methods they use to keep their population within the boundaries set by the ruling elite. I see that this country is the leader in arrests for online comments!
Again, there’s nothing wrong with a national or socialist movement in a sosciety, but Hitler managed to create a both national and social movement, he himself came to power in a completely democratic manner! And what did it turn out in the end?
I’m against equating the name with the essence. People are free to choose names, but the essence … They can’t control what other people see as their essence.
“Having a “code of ethics” is very, very far away from behaving ethically.”
I agree, however I was addressing the idea of “instilling ethics into a religion”, which is a nonsensical idea as religions come with a code of ethics in the first place.
“As far as I can see the bottom line is that many people refuse to behave ethically no matter who is in charge or what ideology is theoretically accepted.”
In Western “civilisations, yes, but then most of these are not founded on the ideas of co-operation and consensus, but competition and the rule of the majority, so perhaps we should not be surprised. There have been societies in the past in other parts of the world where such behaviour was very much the exception, which shows it can be done. Even in some Western societies there have been periods of self-sustaining lawfulness. For instance Haverfordwest prison was closed in the C19th as it had been empty for so long.
Illegal sanctions undermine any kind of argument that the inflicter has a better economic, legal or moral system. If nations like Venezuela, Cuba or Iran were really basket-cases, then prove it by letting them fail on their own demerits. Whereas the old colonial-turned-neocolonial (and back) powers have accrued all kinds of unfair advantages.
Just one comment Craig.
The stirring up of anti Iran sentiment in the West is part of a tried and tested policy to sate the donkey classes. Sadly in Iranian society the fusion of theocracy and state make the job of discrediting the regime an easy task. Frankly, who, but the religious hardliners, would want a religious state like Iran.
The blessed religion of peace is most certainly not that. They are pretty good at hangings and Fatwas when it comes to the bit and many of the population do not agree with the religious jackboot. Salmond Rushdie to name but one exile certainly found that out.
Mind you in Christian countries we used to burn witches at the stake and of course back in the day state and church were very much joined at the hip.
But yes, the Iranians, or should we maybe say Persians, with a fabulous history in 1979 kicked out the rotten and corrupt CIA supported Shah but sadly ended up with a Revolutionary Guard and clerical hard line control. Not really surprising then that with a bit of US economic sanctions and pot stirring that unrest has become what it has become. And in the US they have the man just waiting in the wings, to become the next puppet figurehead, the ex Shah’s son.,
But you know what the Trump regime have failed. Trump has backed off taking military action. Talking tough is one thing. Following through by a country that is geo politically on the economic slide, and militarily over stretched is becoming clear, . The US initiated Ukrainian carbuncle on Russia’s flank has turned into a disaster. Like Afghanistan, Iraq and Vietnam some years before the US hasn’t played a great hand.
Nor is it going well trying to chill and chasten China and indeed Russia’s economic progress. Yank is being exposed as a busting flush. Still powerful but up to its ears in debt, with an economy losing out to the ever advancing east, and with a military overstretched to do what it suggests it can do, the regime would do better to wind its neck in, cooperate internationally, and concentrate on its own back yard where Trump is now seeking to implement the 1807 insurrection act and deploy US military onto US streets. Civil war in the US or making America Great Again, its a good question.
Anyway, back to Iran, the US has thankfully chickened out of attack, the world knows it, as it knows its staying out of Ukraine, and one suspects that internally Iran will move to resolve its theocratic government. Too many people want change and hopefully, this recent unrest will be the catalyst for for peaceful change. The revolutionary hard liners time is up and they know it.
Hopefully, the US will soon realise that its time as the playground bully is up to and learn to trade and compete as neighbours.
Thanks Willie, one of the very few really good posts on this thread. Like you, I hope that Iran can sooner, rather than later, remove its evil, theocracy.
What do you see replacing it then ?
Plutocracy, I expect. It’s so much better when the state is ruled by rich people keen to become even richer than by religious people keen to compel compliance with a code of ethics.
Oh dear.
The regime in Iran were never in danger this time around, nowhere near. It was only in the inflated reports by the opposition.
The regime cottoned on pretty quickly to what was happening, and executed a very effective response in cutting the starlink access. Backin 2011, the West, I forget who precisely, shipped in vast quantities of satellite phones into Syria. That worked, and the jihadis were able to communicate with each other. Starlink terminals on sale here are rather big, and would be easy to find. I suppose there must be more discreet models.
But overturning the regime had already been tried last June, and didn’t work then, with a nationalist reaction. Same thing happened this time.
“Frankly, who, but the religious hardliners, would want a religious state like Iran”.
But in Iran 90% of the people are “religious hardliners”. Just as in Britain in the 1650s, when everyone attended 7-hour religious services and Oliver Cromwell, the dictator, communed with God in his tent until God’s wishes became clear to him.
If Iran is a theocracy, the republic also like to think of themselves as an anti-colonial, anti-imperialist, pro-Marxist, workers revolution, all wrapped into one, a radical Islam, not taken up by other muslims. This had long been a concept there through the influence of academics like Allama Iqbal, Ali Shariati and others, such as the children’s writer Samad Behrangi, whose Little Black Fish, is well-worth reading to them.
https://globalvoices.org/2016/08/31/remembering-samad-behrangi-the-writer-who-inspired-countless-iranian-revolutionaries/
“If Iran is a theocracy, the republic also like to think of themselves as an anti-colonial, anti-imperialist, pro-Marxist, workers revolution”
Wow, you are questioning whether or not Iran is a theocracy and that it is pro Marxist and worker’s revolution.
The head of Iran is the Divine Leader Ayatollah Khamanei, who is the single most powerful figure in Iran, having total control over the government, military and all decision making in that country. From 1981-2 and the mass executions of 1988, all Marxist and leftist organisations were targeted in Iran.
The theocracy in Iran hate all Marxist, Communists and leftists.
andyoldlabour.
Not an expert but the Ayatollah apparently is not ‘ totally in charge ‘ from what I’ve read.
Yes – he is the Spiritual leader but they have a president ( a pro capitalist reformist) and a form of Parliament.
From what bits I know when there is a political issue all concerned ( included the Ayatollah) have to discuss argue and prove their case.
When Ahmadinejad was president ( a pro working class President) he was constantly in political and theological battles with the Clergy.
As a scholarly believer it is said that no cleric could run rings round him.
The Pro Nuke people ( some politicians and clergy) versus the Non – Nukes ( The Ayatollah and his clergy) are currently involved in these types of debate.
If true then yes it is a Theocracy but by the same token would people be mistaken for thinking that the US is a Christian – Zionist Theocracy at this point in time?
Where is the debate between Ayatollah Trump and his people.
Come to think of it – the same for the rest of The Christian World from South America to Europe?
There is no foreign policy debate in the UK parliament. The Tories and Labour are in complete lockstep – a uni-party in all but name. This cannot continue!
FPTP clearly conspires against democratic pluralism due to the high percentage threshold needed to win seats. But FPTP of itself, isn’t the entire cause of the democratic malaise we see today. The situation has been compounded by Labour party’s London HQ centralisation of candidate selection and vetting – candidates parachuted into safe Scottish, Northern England and Midlands constituencies in their dozens, over the last three decades.
These people all have very similar backgrounds, and were chosen, in London, by the similarly-minded. It’s precisely because think alike on the major issues – including being rabidly pro-Zionism -we have zero debate. Gone are the days of working class representation; those who live locally and had a career before they entered parliament and thus owe their allegiances solely to their conscience and their constituents – a nightmare for party whips and managers. Instead, we’ve arrived at a parliament with near no, working class representation; a parliament stuffed full of middle-class careerists, whose only talent was knowing how to sway the interview panels by saying they were unshakably pro-Israel..
Then there are donations. An MP’s basic salary is £93,904, on top of that they can claim generous living allowances, travel and office expenditure. The donations can be paid into their personal bank accounts, thus those funds may be paying for their kid’s private education or university tuition fees. Anyone claiming this absurdly corrupt arrangement, involves no obligation to said donors and comes with no strings attached, is talking out of their arse.
Solution : Introduce primaries and ban MPs from soliciting or accepting donations.
On Iran, this advice from Phil Bevin seems salient:
If westerners are concerned about the impact of the sanctions policies authored by their own governments on the people of Iran, surely they should be looking closer to home for a solution to that particular problem, rather than urging Iranians to resist, whether that be through “indigenous” worker protest or foreign backed colour revolution.
Full piece here : https://www.patreon.com/posts/148388794
A democratic electoral system comes first.
“A democratic electoral system comes first.”
The realisation that the electoral system, however democratic, is simply lipstick on the pig that is oligarchy comes before that. As Mayer Rothschild is supposed to have said, “Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws.”
“The theocracy in Iran hate all Marxist, Communists and leftists.”. It’s not all bad then ?
I am from a traditional Labour background, so I believe that centre/left is a good place to be, certainly not Blairite, who allied themselves to the Neocon administration of George W Bush, who totally destroyed Iraq.
The anticommunist, ‘anti-woke’ brigade – Sir Keir, Nigel, Tommy and the rest of them – are all on the neocon, zionist regime change train. (All hard supporters of the Gaza Genocide too).
Well zoot, I am certainly not going to argue with you there. I have been banned from one forum for referring to Israel’s actions as a genocide, despite the UN doing exactly the same.
I’d suggest It might be a sweeping generalisation to classify all people who have an issue, as opposed to being anti, with ‘Marxist, Communists and leftists’ as rabid zionists. Obviously, the theocracy in Iran wouldn’t qualify !
The only leftists are anarchists, the rest are statist popinjays.
Don’t tell me you’re a disciple of Jeffrey E’s old flight companion. The highly compatible denigrator of all actually existing socialist societies.
According to a BBC report Blair and Rubio have been appointed to Trump’s Board of Peace for Gaza. Trump has called it the “Greatest and Most Prestigious Board ever assembled at any time, any place”, not surprisingly since he’s the chairman.
Meanwhile the Electronic Intifada reports babies dying of hypothermia and Israel refusing to allow repair materials and equipment into Gaza. Gazans continue to be shot and killed every day.
What Palestine needs is not a useless committee, but Boycotts and Sanctions to end apartheid and genocide.
M.J.
No Palestinian representatives, nor even any Arabian input.
The West is drowning in hypocrisy. It was always the case to some extent, but now it seems more brazen, more obvious.
It’s good to hear the Palestine Action activists have finally ended their 73-day hunger strikes. Hopefully with no lasting harm. Though, not that you’d know from the British MSM or the BBC. Were these people on hunger strike in Iranian or British jails, protesting the Iranian regime, their plight would be front page news and we’d know each of their names.
I think you are absolutely right in your comments Goose.
Very few, and I mean very very few folks knew that people were on hunger strike. Just about totally expunged from the news output it illustrates how absolutely manipulated our media is. Indeed, turning to Craig’s application for a judicial review in the Court of Session this too is news that has effectively been relegated to non news despite the principals involved being of prime significance both in terms of the right to have the proscription reduced and in terms of the attempts to suppress the standing of the Scottish court.
Sadly, unless the lumpen wake up, as opposed to the few, it is not difficult to see how the Nazis in 1930s Germany took control and herded millions into the death camps. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil before the system eats all.
Let us await in hope for a good decision to Craig’s timely and very much needed challenge to a rotten ever more fascist British government,. And well done too Ms Chirry KC for her erudite advocacy.
Ms Joanna Cherry
Mistyped a vowel LCDS. Very remiss of me. But I suspect most people will know who I was talking about.
Anyway, thank you got your absolute attention to detail, which i am sure will make it crystal clear who the Ms Chirry KC I was referring to
Absolute accuracy is essential in these troubled and troubling times, Wilhelm. Carelessness is grist to the enemy’s mill…
“Just about totally expunged from the news output it illustrates how absolutely manipulated our media is.”
The purpose of the MSM is to sell advertising, which means informing the people about what the majority are likely to be interested in, or in the case of the BBC, telling them what the PTB think they ought to know. It is not to keep them informed of everything that is going on, simply because they ought to be interested in it.
You are absolutely right Baynard – the MSM is there to sell advertising. which means what informing people about what the majority are likely to be interested in or what the PTB think they ought to know.
I’ve never read a better description of propaganda in my life. And that is exactly where we are. Living in a media bubble of propaganda.
Many thanks for reinforcing this point.
A war criminal and a drug baron. Nice one. This is going to work out well …
I guess we will never see these criminals on the ground in Gaza talking to the peaple.
This is a must-watch timeline etc. of Iran’s situation https://thegrayzone.substack.com/p/with-you-in-the-field-the-grayzone
Yes, a great rundown of what actually happened. A somewhat different reality to that which we are being fed by zionist media.
Very interesting analysis and re-presenting of the timeline context of Iran and the evidence, thank you, Mike. The contrast between urban and rural communities, between theocratic or revolutionary fervour, pales before the coordinated onslaught of external agitators intent on driving the Zionist agenda, with commitment from Trump to founding chaos, as a prerequisite for utter destruction of the people and their longstanding priorities….
Where is the sanity clause? No-one believes in the sanity clause. So, it would seem they have influencers openly wailing for bombs to be rained down on their own heads? Do the chosen ones actually believe their own hysteria?
A bit of time for reflection is needed, as the world stands at the brink of utter stupidity. America’s hesitation could be placing Trump at risk of harm from his billionaire backers for not delivering the goods they paid him for in advance. Meanwhile Obama is out on the campaign trail, quietly meeting with NATO leaders.
Where are the good guys? Consensus and compassion?
‘I do not paint Iran as a paradise.’ But the gloss you give Iran cannot obscure its horrors.
Apparently the vast majority of the 99 percent (98.2 percent) of the electorate) voted for the establishment of an Islamic republic. The turkeys who voted for christmas include imprisoned trade unionists. Tragically, 45+ years later many thousands of our class have been executed, including minors, under a theocratic dictatorship where those convicted of adultery, alcohol consumption, blasphemy, burglary, homosexuality, pornography and prostitution, along with, of course, political dissidence, as well as many other ‘crimes’, can pay the ultimate price. We must not forget the state-sanctioned use of juveniles as troops during the mass slaughter that was the Iran-Iraq war, or the oppression of women. Add chronic corruption, obvious class division and we can say that only assorted fundamentalists see the revolution as successful. And the suffering grows:
‘Iran’s leaders have known about this problem for decades but always postponed any serious attempt to deal with it. Instead, the regime allocated resources to its nuclear program, foreign proxies like Hamas, the Houthis, Hezbollah and military production, keeping the armed forces well-equipped and building the drones that Russia has been using to bomb Ukrainian cities. Worse, now that the crisis has come to a head, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has created a “water mafia.” Lakes and rivers that have survived for thousands of years are being drained to supply water to whoever can afford it. The average household in Tehran is spending 10% of its income on water and many people are going without baths and other basic hygiene while the regime directly profits from the crisis’ (When communism is the only option – The Japan Times, 26 December 2025 ).
There is no glossing a zionist takeover. Talk about about fkn horrors, everyone has seen what Israel and its enablers are about.
Siden04, the population of Iran in 1979 was 38.5 million. You say the 98.2% who voted for the Islamic Republic was a true figure, yet apparently, of the 38.5 million people, only 22.5 million were “eligible voters”. Oh yes, the voting age was lowered from 18 to 16 for this election. Speaking to my wife, who was 20 at the time, none of her family voted.
If you really believe that 98.2% voted for an Islamic Republic, then it doesn’t say much about your perception of reality.
However bad you may think the current Iranian government, what is your reason to believe a government friendly to and under the control of Israel and the US would be any better, given Israel’s performance in Gaza?
Well, considering Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and the fact that I despise Netanyahu and Trump, I would hate to see Israel or the US have any serious control over Iran. I also know that the conditions for Iranians at the moment is deplorable.
But the people who want control over Iran are the self same people funding the unrest and creating the deplorable conditions in Iran. If Iran falls the US and Israel will move in, just like in Syria and elsewhere, there are no alternatives. The fantasy of a ‘democratic’ Iran comes up against reality which is the ‘destruction’ of Iran. I don’t believe you or your spouse really want that ?
Bayard
Is it not possible to, at the same time, deplore Israel’s behaviour in the Middle East and to detest a theocratic government such as Iran’s?
It seems to me that there is always a temptation among some, on this blog and elsewhere, to think it is somehow essential to endorse governments like that of Iran (in defiance of the facts) just because Israel is actively scheming to overthrow it.
LCdS
If the protests are being hijacked by outside powers who’ve shown they care not a damn about human life and suffering in Gaza and across the ME, then there is an argument that the current regime is preferable.
If the protests were entirely indigenous and organic, then I think those you mention here, would support change. But, with Israeli politicians boasting about their exploits on the streets, and western media, all constantly producing the same AP stock images of a few unknown people, dressed all in black wearing balaclavas, holding up pictures of Reza Pahlavi, while vehicles burn in the background. Well, it kinda gives the game away.
LCdS
You shouldn’t believe the western media’s characterisation of Iran as some repressive hellhole. That’s fed to you, so you feel good about yourself as some sort of liberator, when the airstrikes come. Manufacturing your consent.
Check out numerous Youtube videos of free camera roaming in Tehran and elsewehere. It’s very similar to the life in the west. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiyndbY9L4Y
It’s more relaxed about women’s dress than say KSA, I’d imagine. And CM mentioned how females dominate in STEM subjects.
Tell em, Goose.
Luis, read what Craig wrote and recall all the previous attemptss to paint anti-imperialist/ anti-war positions as apologism for Saddam, Gadaffi, Assad et al.
LCdS, yes I totally agree with you. It would seem that some posters are overlooking the atrocities which Iran’s regime has committed, simply because they hit back at the despotic regime which exists in Israel.
And you believe replacing the theocratic regime is going to improve life in Iran ? Wake up.
@Goose and Zoot
1/. I have not said that Iran is a hellhole. But I do believe it is a unpleasantly repressive regime. Now, all states are violent to a greater or lesser extet, but Iran is not in the middle of the spectrum. The fact that it makes liberal use of the death penalty during ordinary times (like China and to be fair but to a lesser extent, certain US states and KSA) is not something one should be happy about.
2/. I would be careful of using “whatabout” arguments, like the two you mention, because they don’t really take one very far when evaluating what’s going on at the moment. Womens’ dress code in KSA – OK – but what about women driving or opening bank accounts on their own?
3/. “If the protests are being hijacked by outside powers who’ve shown they care not a damn about human life and suffering in Gaza and across the ME, then there is an argument that the current regime is preferable.”
No, you are mixing apples ad pears here. The current regime would only be preferable if it is reasonably certain that a future regime brought into being as a result of the protests would be worse. But that is not certain; it may be worse but it might be better. How that future regime comes about is not a determinant of its awfulness or otherwise.
I suppose that what I am questioning is what seems to me to be the following of the old approach of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”. Many on here see Israel as the devil incarnate, and since Iran probably thinks the same, that makes Iran their friend.
Is it not possible to believe that both regimes are pretty shitty – in different ways?
“Is it not possible to, at the same time, deplore Israel’s behaviour in the Middle East and to detest a theocratic government such as Iran’s?”
It is indeed. However it is not consistent to support regime change in Iran on the grounds of bettering the lot of the Iranian people when the overwhelming evidence is that the new regime will be even worse than the current one. It’s all very well to fantasise about a moderate secular government in Iran replacing the current one, but that remains, what it is, a fantasy. There are only two alternatives to the current Iranian government that have more likelihood than winning the lottery twice in a row, one is a client state to the US and Israel where the Iranian people will exchange oppression by ayatollahs in the name of religion with oppression by multinationals in the name of profit, the other is a Libya-style failed state.
“Theocracy” isn’t a very useful word. If one really wants to get into the “ocracy” of it, Iran has a constitution that came into force in 1979. Saudi has one too in a sense, but it’s called the Koran. Then there’s Belgium, where some Roman Catholic king bloke temporarily abdicated in 1990 rather than sign an abortion act. (He sat back down on the throne again two days later. Clearly a giant of moral philosophy, as his pals in the Vatican are too.) And Ireland.
Bottom line, it is iran’s business and nobody else’s. The west and everyone else should just FO and mind their own business.
Bayard ( 18:44 )
Where is this “overwhelming evidence”?
And why is a future moderate, secular Iran a “fantasy”?
LCdS
Is it not possible to believe that both regimes are pretty shitty – in different ways?
Of course it is.
But not when a ‘colour revolution’ is underway, and you risk joining advocacy for that, alongside Iranian monarchists and Zionists, whom you normally vehemently disagree with.
If you find yourself cheering on the same side as Netanyahu, Priti Patel, Liam Fox and Lindsey Graham, as some leftists, like Owen Jones, have, you need to rapidly reassess your position.
@Goose ( 00:14 )
You disappoint me. I say that sincerely, because, as I have already said, I consider you to be one of the best posters on this blog (you will know why).
Having already pointed to the fallacy of immediately considering and treating the enemy of your enemy as your friend, I now note that you are suggesting, in essence, that I should change my opinion that Iran is currently under a pretty shitty regime because horrible people like PM Netanyahu, Priti Patel and Lindsey Graham share my opinion . That is merely an inverted version of the fallacy I mention above.
PS – by the way, I am not “cheering” anything.
“Where is this “overwhelming evidence”?”
Practically every regime installed by the US in the past has been like that and the US is backing the son of the Shah for this one, so the greatest probability is that the new regime would be a return to the regime the Iranians “enjoyed” under the Shah.
“And why is a future moderate, secular Iran a “fantasy”?”
Because only the US-and-Israel are going to do anything to end the current regime and they are not going to install anything moderate. Nor would a moderate, secular government that is neither US-aligned nor prepared to let US interests buy the country’s natural resources for peanuts, last very long. Very soon a pro-US government would be elected and it would be back to the days of the Shah. That’s why Winston Churchill said, in his roundabout way, that “democracy” is the best system of government, because it’s the one where the oligarchs can most easily make sure the right people end up in positions of power. That’s realpolitik: everything else is just fantasy.
LCdS
All I can offer by way of an explanation, is this part quote, of a letter by Steve Sweeney, and an analogy:
Iran’s economic hardship – the root of the original protests – did not emerge organically. It is the direct result of decades of sanctions, recently intensified by Washington’s renewed “maximum pressure” campaign — explicitly designed to foment internal unrest.
In the U.S. they have a legal metaphor, “Fruit of the poisonous tree”, meaning if the primary evidence (the “tree”) is tainted by an unlawful act (like an illegal search), any secondary evidence (the “fruit”) derived from it is also inadmissible in court.
Applying the same logic to these Iranian protests: if they are the direct result of western efforts(through sanctions) to bring about hardship, in the hope that will “foment unrest,” how is it possible to support them with a clear conscience? They are the fruit of a poisonous tree.
Gaza news: the Board of Peace Dukes (no distinction made betwen Executive Board and Board of Peace here – they’re all peace dukes, or пиздюки in Russian):
Jared Kushner
Steve Witkoff
Marc Rowan
Nickolay Mladenov (appointment announced by Benyamin Netanyahu)
Yakir Gabay
(Those five all share the same “religious” background – shared by about 2% of the USA population.)
Donald Trump
Sigrid Kaad (did her master’s at St Antony’s College, the MI6 place)
Tony Blair
Javier Milei
How about Giorgia Meloni?
Or Jair Bolsonaro if he can be sprung from prison?
The “Greatest and Most Prestigious Board ever assembled at any time, any place”, according to Trump. Is he trying to insult the cabinet of the Salo Republic or what?
Avi Schlaim is (or was) a St Anthony’s man. Is (or was) he in, or connected with, MI6?
All St Antony’s men and women are connected with MI6. It’s an MI6 college.
No, they aren’t Jews, they are zionist antisemites, you can’t be both.
“you can’t be both” : it’s true that there are (perhaps many) orthodox and ultra-orthodox Jews (including rabbis) who hold the opinion that Jewishness and zionism are incompatible, indeed antithetical, but it is only fair to point out that there are many who don’t.
At the very minimum, it could be argued that there is a difference between theory and practice (as with Catholics who practice birth control or Muslims who drink alcohol; admittedly these examples are somewhat less deadly…).
“there are (perhaps many) orthodox and ultra-orthodox Jews (including rabbis) who hold the opinion that Jewishness and zionism are incompatible, indeed antithetical
Can you name some? Not religious types who simply oppose the current existence of a Jewish state, perhaps because they’re waiting for the Messiah to appear first, but who do what (I think) you say, namely who believe that everyone who supports the current existence of the Jewish state is a gentile – e.g. that Benyamin Netanyahu for example is not a traitor or a wrongheaded Jew, who may or may not be as bad as Adolf Hitler, but a gentile. (Neturei Karta don’t think that.)
@ Brian Red
I think you have misunderstood what I wrote, or read too much into it.
I think we know exactly Brian R who all these great guys are, where they come from and in whose interests they act.
And they will I am sure, to use a phrase, build in their own image.
And meanwhile the ceasefire holds up not. as the IDF maintain their military action with the killing continuing. But of Donald John said he brought peace, like the war in Ukraine he ended in 24 hours, it must be true. Good to to see Sir Tory Blair of the Iraq adventure on the board.
“. But of Donald John said he brought peace, like the war in Ukraine he ended in 24 hours, it must be true.”
This time, mistyped an entire word, Wilhelm. But I suspect most people will know what you meant to write. Forgive me for this pedantic correction, but I want to enhance the crystal clarity of your comment.
“The administration of US President Donald Trump wants countries to contribute at least $1 billion for permanent seats on the Peace Council for the Gaza Strip, Bloomberg reported citing the council’s draft charter.”
https://tass.com/world/2072831
The art of the deal ….
Where theocracy and the state coexist, which has primacy? What makes flush toilets work? Theocracy is a bumfluffery that gets relegated to looking after widders and orphans, persecuting gays, moaning about women and nursing ill people. Allowing religious nutters to murder Philippino women who make rape allegations or to crucify people who take up a rival religion is a consolation prize, dependent on the power of the secular state.
FYI, here is the full text of Trumps charter, Board of Peace… https://www.timesofisrael.com/full-text-charter-of-trumps-board-of-peace/
This will go nowhere because Trump the ultra Zionist has veto power over almost everything. Someone said Gaza is not mentioned in the charter, it is curious since Gaza and the West Bank and East Jerusalem comprise the Palestine “problem” the three parts of Palestine cannot be separated. It is notable the Board of Peace shall undertake such peace-building functions in accordance with international law and as may be approved in accordance with this Charter.
Here is another contradiction, in order to comply with International law i.e. Article 49 [6] of the Geneva Conventions no citizens of the occupying power [Israel] can transfer its own citizens into occupied territory, since that is a grave war crime.
Trump is an ignoramus who can see no further than a greater Israel even when eyeing Miriam Adelsons millions.
Aaron Maté highlights an interesting story in the New York Times, about how the CIA-linked, National Endowment for Democracy (NED), help smuggle up to 50,000 Starlink terminals into Iran. These were hidden from the view of authorities or disguised. The intention being to provide a stream of anti-govt propaganda, even if authorities cut the core internet. A unbroken stream that western media could presumably use to build public support for a military intervention. That’s how Fox News and the other US networks operate. Much as the BBC, ITV, Ch4 and Sky do in the UK.
However, Iran deployed sophisticated satellite signal jamming; tech that’s apparently not been seen before, “30% Starlink’s uplink and downlink traffic was (initially) disrupted, then quickly rising “to more than 80 per cent” within hours.
It’s not clear whether it was home grown tech, or something provided by Russia or China? But Iran may operate more like an intranet in future, basically geoblocking itself off.
The version I’ve heard is that the Starlink terminals were to be used to coordinate the destabilisation campaign (Israel has pretty much bragged about it), that Russia supplied the countermeasure equipment and that not only did it jam the signals but it also located the terminals (they transmit) and thus the foreign agents and stooges, who came to a swift and sticky end. Were there 2000 of them? I can’t say this is an accurate account but it stands at least as much chance of being so as the stuff our media puts out. Iran’s priority wouldn’t be news management in Western media that are going to be hostile whatever they do. It would be to quickly stop the destabilisation in a way that deters anyone from trying it again.
In other news (?), from a Guardian story concerning ‘online disinformation’ …
Last Tuesday, the foreign affairs select committee heard evidence that bot accounts based in Iran were fomenting support for Scottish independence in an attempt to destabilise the UK.
After internet shutdowns inside Iran following escalating anti-government protests, 1,300 fake profiles seeking to influence discourse on Scottish independence, Brexit and institutional collapse went dark, according to Cyabra, a Tel Aviv-based disinformation detection company. The UK Defence Journal reported that a second internet blackout had resulted in the bots being silenced again.
Already mentioned it.
There are certain things that are sus about the story. Like the use of VPNs.
A nation state would likely setup a front company in Europe, and run their own server infrastructure in the back, as a secure VPS. And Iranian official accounts haven’t been offline, Khamenei has been posting, so you’d assume any Iranian bot farms or whatever, would be online too?
I see that the Canadian PM is “considering” an invitation from Trump to join the “Board of Peace”.
Carney has played a blinder, deflecting Trump’s mad aggression.
So hard to see why he would sign up for such a futile and despicable enterprise.
Maybe he’s waiting for Trump to stroke out?
JK redux
Netanyahu, initially supportive, is apparently now against.
He and his cabinet are furious over the invitations to Turkey’s Erdogan and Egypt’s el-Sisi, to join this Gaza “board of peace”, saying that it goes against Israeli interests. Isn’t the reality, that if Trump appointed only people like Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff and Tony Blair, it wouldn’t have a hope of raising the billions needed for reconstruction. No country in the region could be seen endorsing something without Arab/ Muslim input. Not even Trump-friendly Qatar.
Carney is playing to his role and saying that the financial details need to be worked out.
He has probably learned from how the Brits played it for a while with their line that hell, yeah, Greenland is a big security issue for NATO and NATO needs to address it, and hell, yeah, the USA wears the trousers in NATO and so of course they should play the leading role. Next thing you know, there are trade sanctions.
Excuse the cliché but a week is a long time in politics. Canada will soon fall out with the USA probably. Hopefully.
“Yankee go home” is reappearing worldwide as a slogan. Maybe the USA war in Vietnam will soon come back into memory too, after having been buried in the USA plus satellites in 2001.
Great to see our brothers and sisters in Greenland taking up this slogan and adding it to some of their own. [*]
Gotta wonder whether Trump might get whacked. A lot of this (not from his point of view, but for influential grownups) is about the timing of the next big market crash in my opinion.
Note
*) “Yankee go home” banner in Greenland. What are those symbols? Are they shamanic or otherwise magical??
Amazes me how badly Trump has handled this Greenland issue, with his threats of invading and now tariffs.
Greenland belongs to the people who live there according to Denmark. Denmark itself has a checkered history as custodians there, in terms of the indigenous population, to say the least, but that’s a whole other topic. On Greenland, life is hard and mostly bitterly cold; it’s large by land area, but 80% ice sheet. but I digress, back to Trump, it’s rumored the Trump administration thought about offering each person $100,000 to switch allegiances via promoting demands for a referendum. But that,imho, is a derisory sum. There are only ~56,000 people living in Greenland , if the U.S. offered one million per person,, that ‘s only $56bn in total, For some perspective, Elon Musk acquired Twitter for $44bn and the US Defence budget is nearly a trillion p.a.. Had Trump made a direct appeal to Greenlanders with this much higher offer, I suspect he would’ve had more success in persuading them.
Greenlanders have been campaigning for independence for decades, would they give that dream up for any price? Especially if it meant their island being flooded with US military personnel and turned into an armed camp.
The arrival of all that free money would have a detrimental effect on Greenland’s economy.
Pears Morgaine
They’d have U.S. citizenship, thus they could move anywhere in the U.S.. I know it’s financial coercion, and thus morally wrong, but we are past that point already with tariffs.
And let’s be honest, this is just a reflection of how western capitalism(corporate business) operates. You’ve heard of hostile takeovers? Whereby a company(U.S) tries to buy another company(Greenland) against the wishes of the target’s management( Landsstyreformand – Jens-Frederik Nielsen), bypassing the board (Denmark) to appeal direct to shareholders (Greenlandic people).
They’d have U.S. citizenship, thus they could move anywhere in the U.S.
That’s by no means a given. if they did become another state they’d have to accept the US Dollar, open up their state-run health service to American commercial interests and accept federal control over taxation, law, education and so on.
It’s a reflection of Trump’s psyche that he thinks anything and everything can be bought.
Pears Morgaine
Don’t forget, he’s not really a politician by background, thus he’s not particularly ideological. Everything is transactional with Trump, like a business deal. This is why he has no problem talking to say, the North Koreans or Russia. He doesn’t have the Republican party’s ideological baggage. Most politicians entered politics at a young age, and have v. firm opinions on how society should be organised and in their worldview. Trump is just, more or less, improvising imho.
Reminds me of the old joke – I think it was WC Fields. “Would you sleep with me for a million bucks?” “Er well I suppose I would.” “How about five bucks?” “What sort of girl do you think I am!” “We already established that. Now we’re just trying to agree a price.” I suppose ultimately everyone has a price.
Hi Steve Hayes:
I recollect (I could be wrong) that this remark was by the Irish writer George Bernard Shaw
It was Shaw. In Fields’ social circle it wouldn’t have been funny at all. No shock element.
I certainly didn’t hear it as Shaw but I was in the USA at the time. It could very well be that Fields recycled it from Shaw but the Americans invented everything, including all the jokes. Strangely not TV though where it seems they (and the Russians) have a better claim than Baird.
The joke isn’t funny if you picture it in the usually given context of Shaw delivering the first line out of the blue to a woman at a party. Maybe it would be funny if he opened with “I’ve got a joke for you. Tell me, if I offered you a million pounds…” It’s a bit schoolboy, though. It’s in the same league as “I bet you £10 you won’t let me… [censored] [censored] Okay, you win – here’s £10.” Or “Wanna [censored]? … Well do you mind lying down while I have one?”
It’s a fair cop, guv. I was wrong; at any rate Wikiquote (following Quoteinvestigator) says it’s apocryphal.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Bernard_Shaw
Apologies to everyone.
I am going to have to become a lot more careful about quotations. In the past I have mostly relied on my sense of smell – sometimes one immediately thinks, “No, he would never have said that”. This one was borderline, but I could imagine Shaw saying it to an actress under certain circumstances.
The Web is absolutely littered with obvious fake quotations, and now we have to worry about more plausible ones. With so-called “AI” coming along at full speed, it will only get worse – much worse.
Seen recently on LinkedIn:
Jesse MahoneyJesse Mahoney
• 3rd+Premium • 3rd+ Founder & Machine Learning Engineer | Agentic Systems, Authorization, Runtime Governance & Auditability | Building real-world AI (stealth)Founder & Machine Learning Engineer | Agentic Systems, Authorization, Runtime Governance & Auditability | Building real-world AI (stealth) 5d •
5 days ago • Visible to anyone on or off LinkedIn
A weird thing I didn’t expect after deploying AI agents:
People don’t decide to trust them.
They just… stop double-checking.
It’s never announced.
No meeting.
No policy change.
Just little shifts:
• “the agent already looked”
• “it passed before”
• “we’ll notice if something’s wrong”
Nothing breaks.
Nothing looks unsafe.
But responsibility quietly moves.
And once no one feels personally on the hook,
the system isn’t automated —
it’s ungoverned.
That’s the part I think we’re underestimating.
Not model failures.
Not hallucinations.
Not edge cases.
The slow moment where no one’s quite sure
who’s supposed to stop the system anymore.
========================================
At the source of every error which is blamed on the computer you will find at least two human errors, including the error of blaming it on the computer.
– Anon
Greenland is a colony and the Danish state’s record there has been atrocious, treating Inuit people like dirt, labelling them inferior, stealing their children and so on. Whatever lying words might be used to describe the territory’s history (“decolonisation” with subsequent “Danisation” – huh?) and current arrangement (“self-governing part of the Danish kingdom”), it is run by officials from Copenhagen. I am a strong supporter of Greenland independence. It is a no-brainer rather like Kenya, Algeria, and Vietnam. But sadly now is not quite the time. Ho Chi Minh was absolutely right when he said it was better to sniff a little French sh*t now than eat Chinese sh*t for a lifetime. Replace France with Denmark and China with the USA and his wisdom applies word for word to Greenland.
Regarding bribing inhabitants to accept US annexation, $100k times 56000 is $5.6bn not $56bn. If this were to happen, the actual figure would probably be much greater than $5.6bn. Since this would be unprecedented, one should keep an open mind as to what its consequences would be. It’s quite possible this kind of thing will become a big plank of the “new far right” social philosophy. Does it fit well with Ayn Rand and Peter Thiel? Of course it does. Dominic Cummings was touting the idea of a hybrid system where you’d have “one person one vote” running parallel with “voting rights are for sale”. So for example on the second track a billionaire could buy as many votes as he wanted, but it would cost him. Cummings is deranged as most people reading these words will be aware, but I’m not sure this is of much importance. Capitalist society and culture are deranged when viewed from any kinda humanitarian viewpoint. The new far right wants to smash everything up and impose a Game of Thrones culture, and they’ve already had some success…
Getting back to Greenland: such a “deal” (to use this disgusting term) would involve (in practice) offering some Greenlanders more dough than others. And some would be promised lots of it and then given the runaround or given an almighty kick up the arse. White man speaks with forked tongue.
PS I’d be really interested to hear what people think of those marks on the “Yankee Go Home” banner in Greenland that also depicts a skull. Am asking elsewhere too.
Brian
Re your first paragraph, allow me to say that you sum up the real status and treatment of Greenland within the Danish Kingdom cruelly – and absolutely accurately.
However, I am not so sure that Greenland independence is a “no brainer”. With that climate (where nothing except Arctic mosses grows) and a population of around 60,000, independence is not viable. The examples of Kenya, Vietnam and Algeria are not relevant, at least not from an economic angle.
And to reply to someone else who mentioned the high cost of medical care in the US as a disadvantage of potential US citizenship, I suppose that if every indigenous Greenlander got 1 million dollars, he or she could afford even the hight medical bills.
“So for example on the second track a billionaire could buy as many votes as he wanted, but it would cost him. ”
Which puts me in mind of the sale of indulgences, one of the things that sparked the Reformation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indulgence
““Yankee go home” is reappearing worldwide as a slogan.”
There’s also MAGA, Make America Go Away.
I am informed by a person who knows a lot about Greenland shamanism that the skull figure on the “Yankee go home” banner may be a representation of a spirit mask used in shamanic dances or a recreation of a deceased woman’s face, and that the other marks are similar to tattoo patterns which are often based on marks found on preserved Inuit artefacts or human remains – probably in this case arranged haphazardly and not intended to have a magical function. But they aren’t just scribbles. As willpower rises in Greenland against the USA, watch this space.
Now is the time for those of us who despise the USA to get our kicking boots on.
Some horrible woman who can’t sing was “singing” the USA national anthem in London at the O2 and someone shouted “Leave Greenland Alone” to much crowd appreciation.
https://nitter.poast.org/crimlawuk/status/2012952263740829743
Similar things are happening in Canada too.
Trump’s key advisor Stephen Miller said the other day, “we live in a world were you can talk all you want about International niceties and everything else, but we live in a world, in the real world today that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, and is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time”. Here he is only reflecting his masters voice. In his conversation with the New York Times, Trump said, “I don’t need international law.”
When asked if there were any limits on his powers on the world stage, Trump said: “Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality.
There you have it, power is the only law. This will not be lost on the other great powers Russia and China. The UN charter has ceased to constrain powerful entities. When Israel invaded the Golan Heights and later brought them under Israeli jurisdiction, they did so using the same excuse the US has just done with Greenland, national security, the Heights overlooked Israel etc. Lets face it Chairman Mao was right…”Power does grow out the barrel of a gun”. By the way Trump contrary to Int law, has recognized the Golan Heights as being part pf Israel, he has part of the Golan named after him. The EU is split on the issue of Greenland, the Poles are sitting on the fence, not wishing to antagonize its dear friend the US. Meanwhile the German contingent on Greenland [15 men] beat a hasty retreat when they were informed that increased tariffs would be applied to them. Starmer is [so far] standing up against the imperial master and has not withdrawn the UK contingent [1 man] I do hope he is armed with shoulder fired tactical nuclear missiles, and his name is Rambo.
Trump is behaving like a petulant child, his entitlement is unbecoming of a grown man, I believe he has lost his mind and should be immediately impeached, he sill has the power to destroy the world, he is a megalomaniac who must be stopped. Here is a letter he sent to Norway’s Prime Minister….
Trump says he ‘no longer feels an obligation to think purely of peace’ after being refused Nobel Peace Prize in extraordinary Greenland letter (Daily Mail, 19 Jan 2026), by Martin Robinson – https://archive.is/hzAJF
‘Dear Jonas: Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America’, Mr Trump reportedly said.
The leaked note went on: ‘Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a “right of ownership” anyway? There are no written documents. It’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there’.
Such was the panic the letter and its language caused this morning, there were concerns that it might be fake.
But Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre confirmed it was genuine.
Harry Law
January 19, 2026 at 08:27
Harry, it is difficult to blame the Polish Government for prioritising its own security.
But I’m sure that they have no illusions about Trump and his reliability.
“Put not your trust in princes…”
Yes, the Polish government is certainly prioritizing its own security – at least, that is the reason doomster PM Tusk (“Europe will be next!”) gave to explain why there would be no Polish contribution to a western/NATO/whatever peacekeeping/assurance/ defence force in Ukraine come a ceasefire/peace agreement.
Mind you, some military strategists would argue that forward defence is best and that the larger and more powerful such a force in Ukraine is, the better the defence would be…….
The ‘lone madman’ theory of Trump isn’t plausible. The US political system isn’t that centralised.
The respectable ‘adults’ like Marco Rubio are with him all the way, if not directing him, and you can guarantee the Democrats will not reverse any of his illegal acts whenever their turn comes.
Here’s Gavin Newsom this weekend – the Democrats’ great presidential hope for 2028 – telling Ben Shapiro that he does not believe Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.
https://x.com/YourAnonNews/status/2013091287109341416?s=20
The German preliminary deployment to Greenland was scheduled to end on 17th January regardless.
https://brusselssignal.eu/2026/01/german-military-mission-to-greenland-just-13-strong/
Yep, you got it. That’s exactly what many moronic Trump supporters say, not just in the USA but elsewhere in the world. I’ve literally heard this said by a lorry driver in Scotland: “Trump is real”.
The idea for the more intellectual supporters is that in the “real” world, the rich and strong call the tune, so let’s get rid of the pretence to the contrary, e.g. a social safety net, being caring towards other people, any idea of humanity, any idea of community that isn’t crowd-thickosheep, racist, and fascist. “Dog eat dog”. That’s the “real world”, apparently. (Never mind that dogs don’t actually live like that, whether domesticated, feral, or wild.) Let’s all be “mediaeval”. We should note at this point that there is no “democracy” on the internet.
It’s quite an interesting thought that western civilization might be going backwards not to the age of unbridled, unregulated capitalism but to the Middle Ages.
“The idea for the more intellectual supporters is that in the “real” world, the rich and strong call the tune, so let’s get rid of the pretence to the contrary, e.g. a social safety net, being caring towards other people, any idea of humanity, any idea of community that isn’t crowd-thickosheep, racist, and fascist. ”
Yes, that worked so well last time, it’s amazing to think that anyone wanted to try anything different.
Kristi Noem the US Secretary of Homeland Security said that videotaping Ice Agents when out on operations is violence against them, hence these people can be shot in the face. Where did she get her education and moral values? Why by preying for Israel of course, see my last paragraph. Unbelievable.
Kristi Noem told the country that videotaping ICE agents is violence.
She did not walk it back. At a press conference in Tampa in July 2025, the Secretary of Homeland Security stated explicitly: “Violence is anything that threatens them and their safety, so it is doxing them, it’s videotaping them where they’re at when they’re out on operations.”
Ensuring the Security of God’s Chosen People
By: Governor Kristi Noem
March 8, 2024
https://news.sd.gov/news?id=news_kb_article_view&sys_id=a2e998061b70c610b3b10d46624bcbd5
“When I was growing up, my dad would always gather our family together and we would pray for Israel. It was instilled in me from a very young age that the Jews were Gods chosen people, that Israel was the Holy Land, and that we should always pray for them.
I brought those fundamental ideals with me when I was in the State Legislature, when I served in Congress, and now as Governor of South Dakota. Supporting the State of Israel and our Jewish community has always been extremely important to me. It’s important to support Israel for spiritual, historical, and national security reasons. I am continuing to stand with the Jewish people by signing historic legislation to protect them from antisemitism.”
I wonder what will happen to this Irish guy in the Netherlands who has created a website identifying ICE agents. I read this this morning in the Irish Times.
https://archive.is/Lma0n (archived link)
I don’t want to link the actual site here in case it causes yet more issues for CM but you can easily find it using information in the above linked article.
“Skinner said he is not worried about being personally targeted by US authorities. “I don’t really care, to be honest. They probably will at some point. I don’t give a s**t.”
😀 I hope he stays safe and more power to his elbow.
It might be a good idea for him to see a lawyer in Holland, and make plans, in case.
Gavin Newsom expresses his regret to Ben Shapiro over a post from his press office which likened last week’s ICE shooting to ‘state-sponsored terrorism’.
https://thehill.com/video/ben-shapiro-presses-gavin-newsom-over-ice-%E2%80%98terrorist%E2%80%99-post-rising/11434249/
Wise words, Craig. Iran has been a relatively stable country for quite a long time, and judging the by the vehicles in the pictures not impoverished either. Like Russia, Iran seem to have a leadership far more savvy about western public opinion and propaganda techniques than in the old days – which is also a positive for their own peoples too. In this case, either the Iranian leadership foiled the regime change or, more likely, it was always a distraction tactic, as is the Greenland rumpus, for the US coup in Venezuela. Ironically it helps the Iranian, Chinese and Russian leaderships, and plenty of others around the world, that the United States has allowed its image as a force for good to become so tarnished in recent decades.
I suspect Putin and Xi Jinping cannot stop laughing at the antics of the western camp, first the ‘coalition of the willing’ promise troops and military equipment to Ukraine, they do not have, now NATO is falling apart, with Trump its Commander in Chief offering no support to a proxy war the EU/UK want to continue to the death of the last Ukrainian, the US prefers instead to threaten the break up of NATO itself in order to bully its other members into conceding the mineral rich asset Greenland into its greedy clutches. Trump knows what pathetic vassals he is dealing with after they crowded round his oval office desk in an humiliating show of fealty to the Master. True to form, Trump’s motto ‘never give a sucker an even break’ was applied. Here we are, In my opinion Trump knows the end result of pushing Russia too hard on Ukraine could end in a nuclear war, because make no mistake Russia cannot and will not lose this confrontation, it is existential for them. Oh and I have not heard anything about those Epstein files lately, perhaps Trump was right, they don’t exist or are a hoax, /s
Trumps ego could be sated if he acquires Greenland, he doesn’t want to lease it, the Danes have told the US [since 1951] they can put as much military equipment on Greenland as they like, but Trump, like any real estate shark must own it. Dmitry Peskov said any such deal would go down in the history books, quite true alongside Trumps name. how could he resist that? Greenland area: about 2,166,000 km² (around 836,000 square miles), making it the world’s largest island that is not a continent. United States area: about 9.5–9.8 million km² including all states and territories. Ratio: Greenland is roughly 1/4 to 1/5 as big as the United States. Better than a Fifa medal, or a stolen Nobel peace prize. The former a sycophantic gesture from the Fifa Chief, the latter a humiliating pathetic act [has she no shame?] in my opinion this is an act of ‘stolen valor’ but here bone spurs has no shame and accepted the peace prize from Machado with that shit eating grin, pathetic.
More on Trump….. “As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron”. H.L. Mencken
Stop arresting Palestine Action supporters, White House tells Britain
Sarah Rogers, Donald Trump’s free speech tsar, says ‘censorship does more harm than good’
This from the Telegraph [archive.is] – even they’re reporting it.
In terms of proscribed groups more generally, how, did we go from having the far more sensible ‘material support’ test – a less controversial test that most could at least understand. To arresting people merely for briefly holding a placard or saying the wrong thing?
And it’s such an absurdly low threshold now, the govt is seemingly having to scrap juries to have any hope of getting convictions, under a Judge’s stricter interpretation of this draconian legislation. It’s as though, they want people to feel intimidated.
Goose
Funny old world :
In Victorian times, many offences were capital offences or you could get deported. But when Austrian General von Heynau visited London, he was recognised, chased and roughed up in the street by the mob. And the mob suffered no ill consequences at the hand of the authorities.
In 2025 Britain, you can be a serial killer or child rapist and need have no fear for your life. But if you wear a T shirt bearing a slogan which has been deemed supportive of terrorism or otherwise shows opposition to certain actions or groups, you can face criminal charges under the Terrorism Acts.
One of Trump’s underlings telling Starmer what (not) to do.
You couldn’t make this up.
I’m sure it’s occurred to many readers here that Trump’s behaviour in general as well as his “outrage of the month” (whether destroying boats in the Caribbean, kidnapping foreign heads of state, or threatening an invasion here and there against allies) are distractions to persuade the US media to forget the Epstein files, as well as rising prices and skyrocketing insurance costs, that could destroy his party in November at the midterm US elections.
Starmer is too authoritarian and anti-Palestinian for Trump.
I remember Trump slapping Starmer’s back during the state visit when Starmer denounced Hamas as terrorists. He was saying what Trump wanted to hear. As for authoritarianism, I think it is present-day America that is getting to resemble Hitler’s Germany. With threats to Greenland, we need to draw closer to the EU again, for our own good.
One thing led to another, and that then led to another, and so on, and finally led to the following after several hours, which is very interesting, posted on August 5th last year:
ICE uses starkly different tactics to arrest immigrants in red and blue states, data shows
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/08/05/us/immigration-arrests-community-ice-invs
And I guess y’all heard that Jonathan Ross (the ICE agent, that is) was reported about six days ago to have had internal bleeding (which would of course explain why he looked perfectly OK and unharmed in phone footage of him strolling along shortly after shooting and killing Renee Good):
CBS News report on ICE officer’s injuries drew ‘huge internal concern’
Anonymously sourced report that Jonathan Ross ‘suffered internal bleeding’ after killing Renee Good faced skepticism inside CBS newsroom
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jan/15/cbs-news-ice-officer-injuries
Apparently he bit his tongue when he called her a fuckin’ bitch (just after shooting her). Also came across this pile of shite in an article on my travels about Kristi Noem castigating the presenter of Face The Nation on CBS yesterday for mentioning Jonathan Ross’s name, which led me to the following vid on youtube (in which she does so):
Noem defends Minnesota ICE operations, says judge’s order “didn’t change anything”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdUpUm2c48I (13mins 38secs)
Also came across this complete and utter garbage (posted today) somewhere along the line:
US considers offering asylum to BRITISH Jews, saying Britain is ‘no longer safe’ for them
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Gary Mond, the honorary president of the National Jewish Assembly, said the offer of asylum reflects America’s understanding of the ‘perilous circumstances’ the British Jewish community finds itself in.
He said: ‘For some British Jews the situation is truly desperate, and such an offer, if made seriously, will be welcomed by at least some in our community. Others will, however, wonder if the situation for Jews in the US is better.’
Author and Activist Dov Forman added: ‘I don’t know a single British Jew who hasn’t, at some point in the past two years, quietly asked themselves what their future in this country looks like.’
Forman, whose great-grandmother Lily Ebert was a Hungarian Holocaust Survivour who settled in London, claimed antisemitism in Britain has ‘festered unchallenged’.
He said: ‘If the government were actually taking this crisis seriously, rather than calculating the political cost of standing up for the British Jewish community, there might not even be a need to have these conversations.’
Alex Hearn of Labour Against Antisemitism told the Daily Mail that Jews in Britain have been ‘systematically failed’ by authorities.
‘When nearly half of a community sees antisemitism as a very big problem and record numbers are leaving for Israel, that’s a failure of the state. It’s no wonder other countries see an opportunity to welcome a community known for its contributions to civic life,’ he added.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15476689/US-considers-offering-asylum-BRITISH-Jews-saying-Britain-no-longer-safe-them.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ito=1490&ns_campaign=1490
Needless to say – even if the figure is nearly half, which I very much doubt – the reason they see antisemitism as a very big problem is because zionists and their media chums have been fraudulently scaring the shit out of them and fear-mongering practically non-stop for the past ten years or so.
And how fucking evil is THAT!
Allan. ” zionists and their media chums have been fraudulently scaring the shit out of them and fear-mongering practically non-stop for the past ten years or so.”
Actually, the zionists have been targeting Jews for longer than Israel has existed (>80yrs).
A happy, contented, integrated Jew is very bad news for the zionists. Jews must be exceptional and must be victims they cannot be one of we !
“Author and Activist Dov Forman added: ‘I don’t know a single British Jew who hasn’t, at some point in the past two years, quietly asked themselves what their future in this country looks like.’”
Poor man, it’s grim having no mates.
For some British Jews the situation is truly desperate
No offer to take any asylum seekers for whom the situation must be equally desperate.
There is of course no comparison whatsoeve Pears, and I think it’s more-than-obvious to everyone on the left and free-thinkers (and the Right of course) that all the antisemitism bollox is just that – ie complete and utter bollox. And I have no doubt that despite what I said in a post down the page a tad, a significant minority of Jews know – and have known all along – that it’s all B/S. But even those that DON’T know it, and believe it all as such, are not remotely in some kind of desperate situation, and THAT of course is just MORE propaganda shite.
Are you saying that anti-Semitism doesn’t exist???
The Americans certainly don’t do irony.
The NATO leadership (The US ) has threatened a NATO member with Regime Change.
it now may be the time to invoke Article 5 Security Guarantees?
The Guarantor of that is…………….the US.
Listen carefully to what Trump is saying:
He wants ‘ Ownership ‘
Meaning he is not bothered about NATO matters of Military Security too much – he is more interested in what lies underneath Greenland.
I’m pretty sure that despite the EU and UK’s huffing and puffing a ‘Deal’ will be obliged by the huffers and puffers.
It’s just a case of coming up with a form of words to the European and the British public to convince that it all was a hard driven bargain by the huffers and puffers.
p.s As far as I can see the Greenlanders will have very little say in the outcome despite the media coverage.
MARK M CUTTS
January 19, 2026 at 20:27
Mark,
the schadenfreude felt by many posters here is obvious.
Nevermind schadenfreude, just glee at Trump’s disregard for allies and alliances.
One inconvenient fact is that Greenland is part of the Danish state and can leave it only if the Greenlanders wish.
Are the Greenlanders “huffing and puffing”?
We supported a genocide and all we got were these tariffs
— a centrist memoir
zoot
January 20, 2026 at 08:34
US support for Israeli military aggression against Palestine/Gaza is bad? Yes.
US threatened military aggression against Greenland/Denmark is also bad? Yes.
In both cases the US government is a bad actor.
Tens of thousands have been killed by Israel in Palestine/Gaza while (so far) no casualties in Greenland/Denmark.
Genocide, you mean. Don’t be a Gavin Newsom.
As you know I wasn’t referring to the US, but to the liberal-centrist European governments (the”allies”/ vassals) who followed Washington’s lead in arming and supporting the genocide in Gaza.
The Greenland tariffs are Washington’s reward to Europe for its depraved cooperation.
JK Redux
Yet again it’s not schadenfreude – it’s Karma.
What you give is what you get.
The Europeans and the UK since the end of WW2 have been following the US around and nodding sagely and joining in with America’s interests and not their own.
Every collaborative Regime Change – every bombing mission on poorer countries every vote at The UN and The Security Council alongside America has Boomeranged ( Karma) back to the Europeans.
The UK is the Lackey in Chief in much of this and now ( despite being a good dog for all those long years) they have food that their Kennelling Charges to NATO have to increase despite being the US’s favourite pet.
It comes to something when a tiny island manages to become Russia’s most hated nation.
They are even above the US for goodness sake as recipient for being bombed first!
So no – not schadenfreude just sheer un – adulterated Karma for past misdemeanours
If you were religious it could be called Judgement for your sins.
It is deserved.
I am sure that the Europeans will sell out the Greenlanders – the EU and UK just has to find a form of words that appears to us voters as if they ‘ negotiated ‘ with the US about Greenland when in actuality they had already surrendered before they even walked into the Negotiating Room.
Very much like the’ Negotiations ‘ about Trump’s Tariffs on them.
Von Der Leyen probably had a White Flag in her pocket just in case.
MARK M CUTTS
January 20, 2026 at 15:29
Mark, I’m an atheist.
The idea of karma presupposes either an impersonal restorative mechanism or even a deity who/that maintains the balance of justice in the universe.
Sad to say, I don’t believe in either though I wish it was otherwise.
For example; the people of Gaza and the victims of Hitler, Stalin, or Mao all still await retribution to their torturers.
“The idea of karma presupposes either an impersonal restorative mechanism or even a deity who/that maintains the balance of justice in the universe.”
Try looking up a word’s meaning before pontificating about it. Karma is “the sum of a person’s actions in one life.” The only sense that it means an “an impersonal restorative mechanism” is that the same blind chance that allows someone to get away with and/or benefit from a bad action can also cause evil to happen to that person. Possibly you don’t believe in blind chance either, but then I didn’t have you down as a determinist.
Mark, it is interesting that you ‘wish it were otherwise’.
JK redux
I’m an atheist so if Netanyahu says ‘ Blood Libel ‘ to me it means nothing.
It’s utter crap.
If Trumps says ‘ We all Gods Children ‘ I’ll take into account who is saying it.
If It’s Dr King I’ll respect it.
If it’s Trump it’s a downright lie and nothing else.
Karma is indeed what you give is what you get.
Or even a Leninism:
What We Gave and What we Got.
Meaning simply – what did we do and what did we get out of it?
That applies equally to capitalists as it does to Communists.
What the EU and UK have given since WW2 is near Carte Blanche to the US and it is coming back to haunt/terrify them.
There’s no hiding from it – it is right in your/mine and their faces.
The media can spin it all they like but even they can’t paint anything as a victory from Ukraine to Greenland.
The Greenlanders will be sold out I have no doubt and their wishes will be ignored.
I am confident that the Greenlanders are the least huffy and puffy of the lot involved in this stupidity but the words ‘ Semi Autonomous suggests that in a ‘ semi ‘ there is another half.
That other half is Denmark and the EU.
I trust the Greenlanders alright but ,not he craven EU and UK leaders.
Past history convinces me that they will sell the Greenlanders out.
Bad Karma for the Greenlanders.
Arctic specialist paratroopers have massed in Minnesota, and aircraft have landed in Greenland for an exercise. Two battalions are on standby in Alaska. The invasion of an Arctic country is ready, while Iran can take a breather. Putin has been invited to join the Gaza plan. We cannot catch up with this rapid delivery of highly detailed plans, so – any ideas, folks?
Alaska and Minnesota are not much further from Greenland than continental Europe (see Google earth or any globe, even a stress ball). So this makes sense as preparation for an invasion, which, if it happened, would mean the end of NATO. We should be alert to actions that EU politicians might carry out, which would make sense if they had forewarning of such an invasion. For example movements by Hungary and Slovakia to leave the EU and NATO and forge special deals with Russia. Or even a sudden pullout by some of the troops from the EU or UK in Nuuk.
UK activists should also prepare to campaign to reverse Brexit and rejoin the EU in earnest, in the event of such an invasion.
Communication systems and transport links with Canada, both low-tech and high-tech, a sort of underground railroad, could be set up, just in case. Greenlanders could be encouraged to see relevant wartime films such as Freedom Radio (which is available on DVD).
I just did a search re >when did jews to some degree start thinking there is no future in britain due to the scale of antisemitism< and the following is the AI Overview:
Concerns among British Jews regarding their future in the UK due to antisemitism significantly intensified around 2014–2015, with a more acute, widespread fear emerging following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent rise in antisemitic incidents.
While anxiety has fluctuated over the last decade, recent data shows a major, sustained shift in sentiment, with only one-third of British Jews believing they have a long-term future in the UK as of June 2024.
Key Inflection Points and Trends
2014–2015 (The First “Tipping Point”): Following a surge in antisemitic incidents during the 2014 Gaza conflict, a January 2015 study by the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) found that over 50% of British Jews felt their religion had no future in the UK, and 25% were considering leaving.
018–2019 (Labour Antisemitism Crisis): The issue of antisemitism within the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn increased anxiety, with 29% of Jews considering leaving in the previous five years, according to a 2017/2018 study.
2021 (Israel-Palestine Conflict): A record number of antisemitic incidents were recorded in May 2021, leading to a resurgence of fear.
Post-October 7, 2023 (The Acute Crisis): The Hamas attack on Israel sparked an unprecedented, massive spike in antisemitic incidents in the UK—reported to be up by 200–300% in some periods.
June 2024 Survey: 50% of British Jews considered leaving the UK in the preceding two years.
June 2024 Survey: Only 34% believe they have a long-term future in the UK.
June 2024 Survey: A majority (58%) hide their Judaism, and less than half (43%) feel welcome in the UK.
That, was my own conclusion, and for the obvious reasons, but I thought I’d just confirm it anyway. It’s ironic that, generally speaking, in contemporary times, antisemitism has been associated with the far right, but I gather from the above results that it never got so bad that Jews were thinking/feeling to some extent that they had no future in Britain. But, then, the fascist scum concoct and contrive a totally fraudulent and fake antisemitism smear/demonisation campaign against Jeremy Corbyn and the left, and on a massive unprecedented scale, and suddenly, it would appear, a significant minority of British Jews are feeling that way. And the fraudulent attacks have continued in relation to the pro-Palestinian anti-genocide marches and marchers etc of course.
And many Jewish groups and organisations and individuals (Labour MPs in particular) – along with the Jewish newspapers – have conspired in it all, against their own people. But then the reality is of course that zionists don’t give a flying fuck about Jewish people, except in so far as they can manipulate them and use them for their own ends.
It was 2014 when they were tipping white phosphorus over schools and hospitals in Gaza, which burned the flesh off right down to the bone. Prospect magazine asked whether actions like this would lead to Israel becoming a pariah state. The mainstream media acknowledged these crimes against humanity.
They stopped but it was still used in Syria. It is exported from Yorkshire.
Always the victim !
@Allan – The thing about these surveys is that many Jews will respond saying what they think it is in the interests of the Jewish collectivity to say. If the propaganda line is “we’re scared and thinking of leaving”, they will tick “we’re scared and thinking of leaving”. If it were “we get along fine with our Muslim and Christian neighbours”, or “whatever happens, we will always be British first”, they will tick accordingly. The CST has Jews as an audience as well as gentiles.
The Zionist structure is an organised crime gang. Whereas some are tied into it, other Jews see them as “a bunch of arseholes, but they’re our arseholes”. (They wouldn’t call them arseholes to outsiders of course.) Cf. British businessmen expats in a foreign country who are asked to do something by MI6, or Chinese people asked to do something by Triad guys. I doubt that many involved in Jewish-run businesses in Britain have ever turned down a Zionist request to use their resources (for a consideration of course) in the “Jewish national interest”. Gangsters can be very helpful with favours, including money up-front…
Speculation: those Jews who have left Britain or France to establish themselves in Occupied Palestine in the past few years have mostly retained a foot in Britain or France. (Russia is a different case.)
Zionists know that Zionist notions (“we’ve all got to gather in Palestine”, “some sky fairy entity separate from us promised us this land”, “our ancestors were there a coupla thousand years ago”, etc.) are useful stories.
When I said in my 10.20 post that a significant minority of Jewish Brits know – and knew – that it was all lies, I obviously wasn’t referring to Jewish people on the left, who of course know it was/is all B/S and smears and demonisation (and they TOO have been smeared and demonised and, as such, marginalised by the zionists and their propaganda machine). And something ELSE just occurred to me (which it never has before), that going back to the 40s and 50s, and right up until the mid 2010s, Jewish people in general knew that the left had their backs when they came under attack from the Far Right, not through the MSM – and particularly the right-wing newspapers – but on a grass roots/street level they knew it. But now, and during the past ten years in particular, THAT has fraudulently been taken away from most of them (except for Jews on the left, who know we would always be there for Jewish people, as we are for all minorities) by the lies and deceit and malevolence of the zionists and their chums, and so many of them will quite likely feel lost and alone (and are not even conscious of the fact that they have ‘lost’ that support).
And as for the surge in A/S whenever Israel – the zionists – start bombing the fuck out of Gaza etc – ie ‘mowing the lawn’ – it isn’t of course so much that there is a surge in antisemitism, but a surge in anti-zionism – ie a surge against the zionist project, killing and maiming Palestinians, and the general subjugation of Palestinians, and stealing their land and their country by force and fear.
I mean the far right don’t give a shit about Israel killing and maiming Palestinians and stealing their land, so their would hardly be a surge in A/S on their part in respect of Israel – the zionists – mowing the lawn, and, as I just said, the surge is practically always down to a surge in anti-zionism, which the zionists have of course ‘transformed’ into antisemitism.
And the 1930s as well of course!
The only source the AI quotes is the CAA. Well, we know they are biased and untrustworthy. Are the other “surveys” from other sources? The AI seems indifferent to the integrity of the data it absorbs and regurgitates.
Bramble: Yep, the CAA is first and foremost a zionist propaganda outfit, and we can take their surveys with a large pinch of salt. The first one they ever did back in 2015 was obviously written on the back of a fag packet, and they got stick from variou quarters about it.
The CAA was one of the groups that spearheaded the attacks on Jeremy Corbyn (and the left) and ‘transformed’ him into an antisemite. But as with everyone else that repeatedly accused him of antisemitism – and in many instances of being an antisemite (as the CAA do on a regular basis) – isn’t it strange that not one of these groups or individuals at any point reported him to the police for antisemitism/Jew hate.
I wonder why not?!
(rhetorical question)
My preferred kind of coffee is from now on called a Greenlando.
Denmark has now sent hundreds of additional soldiers to its colony. Ho Chi Minh’s dictum applies.
Brian Red
January 20, 2026 at 18:45
Is it fair to call Greenland a colony?
After all, Greenland – unlike Scotland – is free to leave Denmark when its people choose.
Maybe “protectorate” is more accurate?
Nice essay by a Danish writer. Sympathetic to Greenland.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/20/tragedy-greenland-independence-denmark-trump-us
Greenland is free to leave, but if it did, would Greenland be certain that Denmark would continue to pay half of its budget?
Normally speaking, one would expect some sort of shabby deal, under which the US gets what it wants but Denmark and the EU get to save some face. However, it may be that Denmark and the EU have – just as with Ukraine – boxed themselves into a corner.
Only time will tell – probably quite soon.
Luis Cunha da Silva
January 20, 2026 at 20:37
Why would Greenland expect Denmark to pay half of its budget post indy?
At the very least it would need to be negotiated.
As to Europe being boxed into a corner, if US troops fire on European troops then NATO is done and the US will be fvcked out of Europe.
Not to any American advantage. What country would make alliance with the US after such a betrayal?
We live in interesting times…
JK Redux
Greenland might well expect Denmark to continue paying half of its budget after independence for exactly the same reason as Denmark pays half of Greenland’s budget now; that reason is that Greenland is and will be unable to finance itself without that large subsidy. Not difficult to explain, I think.
Of course it would form part of the independence negotiations. Again, not a difficult point to imagine, I think.
Europe had boxed itself into a corner by insisting, loudly, that the future of Greenland lies solely in the hands of the Greenlanders themselves and Denmark. It has forgotten to add “and of the US”. That is reality.
As to future alliances with an betraying ally, I offer you the thought that the allied nations were happy enough to conclude an alliance with the Soviet Union, which had treacherously betrayed them (and certainly the fight against Nazi-ism) in 1939.
“As to future alliances with an betraying ally, I offer you the thought that the allied nations were happy enough to conclude an alliance with the Soviet Union, which had treacherously betrayed them (and certainly the fight against Nazi-ism) in 1939.”
Pure revisionism. Given that the alliance which produced the WWII allies had not yet happened when the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was signed and given that the UK was busy helping the Finns fight the Soviet Union in the Winter War, the Soviet Union could hardly be accused of “betraying” the Allies. Also WWII was not a war against Nazism or Fascism, that was something invented after the war, it was a war against Germany and its allies. The UK government had nothing against fascism: it, together with Germany, supported both the Finns and the Spanish fascist rebels.
@ Bayard
Your response is a perfect example of the kind of mindset I sometimes comment on.
I offered an example (the 1939 Russo-German agreement) and the subsequent falling out (and alliance with the UK, etc..) to demonstrate to JK Redux that it was perfectly possible to suddenly trust (or at least claim to trust) people whom you distrusted the previous week. As I said to someone else, it’s a variant (inversion) of the “my enemy’s enemy is my friend” procedure.
And in flew the “answer” – revisionism!! And not just revisionism, but “pure” revisionism; no appeal possible.
Mind you, an answer resting on a few more than doubtful assertions and innuendos. For example, ” the UK was busy helping the Finns fight the Soviet Union in the Winter War” – I was not aware of such busyness (apart from thoughts and words) and would of course welcome a couple of examples of the “help” you claim the UK was “busy” providing. Concrete help, mind you……
And then we have the innuendo at the end of your post that Finland in 1939 was a “fascist” state. I wonder if you could expand on that for the benefit of readers perhaps less acquainted with Finnish politics in the 1930s?
Let’s be honest about it: Hitler and Stalin, Molotov and Ribentrop, were all dirty dogs. As were most leading statesmen of the time, the difference between those four and the others possibly being that the others were somewhat less homicidial.
“that it was perfectly possible to suddenly trust (or at least claim to trust) people whom you distrusted the previous week.”
At what point did either the US or the UK trust the Soviet Union or vice versa? At what point did The Soviet Union trust Germany or vice versa?
“And in flew the “answer” – revisionism!! ”
Well, what do you expect if you posit as allies, states that had yet to become allies and were very far from being allies? Is that not what “revisionism” means, rewriting history in the light of what subsequently happened?
“For example, ” the UK was busy helping the Finns fight the Soviet Union in the Winter War” – I was not aware of such busyness (apart from thoughts and words) and would of course welcome a couple of examples of the “help” you claim the UK was “busy” providing.”
May I remind you that the argument from personal ignorance is not a particularly strong one. For the UK’s view of the Winter War, I am indebted to our host: https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2022/04/each-of-us-is-striving-to-process-the-truth-of-the-disaster-in-ukraine/ . Also, from Wikipedia, Britain supplied the Finns with bombers and torpedo boats. I notice you don’t query the UK’s or Germany’s part in the Spanish Civil War.
“And then we have the innuendo at the end of your post that Finland in 1939 was a “fascist” state. I wonder if you could expand on that for the benefit of readers perhaps less acquainted with Finnish politics in the 1930s?”
Sure, there was no innuendo. If I had written “both the Finnish and the Spanish fascists” there would have been, but what I actually wrote was “both the Finns and the Spanish fascist rebels”, which means that only the Spanish were fascist rebels. What made you think the Finns were rebels?
“Hitler and Stalin, Molotov and Ribentrop, were all dirty dogs.”
No-one gets to be the leader of a large and powerful country by being a nice guy and certainly not during wartime, Jeremy Corbyn being a classic example of what happens when one tries, even in peacetime. Roosevelt and Churchill might have been better than those four, but “better” does not imply “good” in any way, shape or form.
Bayard
When someone (in this case, you) writes ” The UK government had nothing against fascism;” and then carries on, in the same sentence, with “;it, together with Germany, supported both the Finns…”, I think the innuendo is fairly clear.
So I repeat my invitation to tell readers what was “fascist” about Finnish political life in the 1930s.
Alternatively, if we believe you when you deny that you are calling Finland fascist: this implies that you think Finland was non-fascist, perhaps even democratic. And in that case, why should Britain not have supported a non-fascist,democratic country against a attack by the USSR?
Actually, Bayard, no, that isn’t what revisionism means.
The Greenland PM has said the population should prepare for the possibility of invasion:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-20/greenland-leader-tells-people-to-prepare-for-possible-invasion?embedded-checkout=true
Macron meanwhile has an issue with his right eye, and he may soon be called the Dajjal (false Messiah in Islamic eschatology) even more than he was already. “Emmanuel” means “God with us”. I don’t have a Polymarkets account but I wonder whether there’s a market in whether the Arctic kickoff when it comes will feature France in a big way.
Brian Red
January 20, 2026 at 21:32
Brian, I think that the Mango Mussolini may have more serious health problems than Macron?
Macron has called his eye problem “the eye of the tiger” and says it’s a “sign of determination”. He has referred to the 1982 (over-showy but memorable) song “Eye of the Tiger” by the group Survivor:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/emmanuel-macron-jokes-about-eye-of-the-tiger-after-appearing-with-bloodshot-eye/vi-AA1Uv28I
The idea that Macron is the Dajjal is not new (warning: disgusting image):
https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3107885/thousands-muslims-pakistan-lebanon-clash-police-protests-against
I am not saying Macron is crazy, but as well as adopting the mantle of Tiger he has also let himself be known as Jupiter.
Meanwhile these Peruvian shamans predicted the fall of Maduro…and Trump:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEn_WxDYKPM
Trump’s plane heading for Zurich turned round in the sky and went back to Maryland, USA, because of an electrical fault:
https://archive.is/7D9z5
Rubio and Miller were on it too.
Just for the sake of argument, let’s suppose it was an issue with one of the passengers or crew that caused the kerfuffle, rather than poor maintenance or pre-flight checking by highly trained US service personnel. Which person on board do we think the issue may have been with?
Human traffickers.
Gaza Board- génocidaires.
New year’s- Resistance.
Here’s some interesting related stories:
https://dailysceptic.org/2026/01/20/the-police-plan-to-roll-out-ai-in-predictive-analytics-should-worry-us-all/
https://www.gbnews.com/news/facial-recognition-cameras-permanent-croydon-police-first
https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2026/01/20/palantir-app-tracks-deportation-targets/
The point is that Israel/Palantir has developed technology that combines social media information, GPS location data, CCTV images, RAF data, etc. and uses AI to process the data and provide location and targeting information on individuals. In Israel this is fed to drones and artillery to kill Palestinians. Now, in the UK the police are rolling out the same technology to target ‘criminals’, soon to be used against ‘dissidents’. This is not a conspiracy story, this is actually happening.
China has been leading the way in this technology for some years.
https://www.cnet.com/news/politics/in-china-facial-recognition-public-shaming-and-control-go-hand-in-hand/
I think even Israel has a way to go to catch up.
The plight of the Uighurs in Xinjiang is what is intended for the world.
Establishment propaganda Brian, keeping repeating it doesn’t change the fact it’s USA generated lies.
Here’s some factual info for you to ponder:
“More than 400,000 faces have been scanned by police in the south of England using live facial recognition (LFR) technology, leading to a handful of arrests.” (For handful read about 10 !)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cddg5y36j88o
Sorry Brian but China is another country that can do no wrong and therefore must not be criticized!
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/chinas-uighur-muslims-truth-behind-headlines?gad_source=1
“Sorry Brian but China is another country that can do no wrong and therefore must not be criticized!”
Sigh! not again! Do stop trotting out Western propaganda then suggesting that anyone querying is doing so not because it is a pack of lies, but because they believe the government that it is aimed against “can do no wrong”. This has all the intellectual rigour of the Israeli dismissal of all criticism of Israel as ant-semitism.
Don’t be daft, Brian. Go and visit – you will be surprised.
Apologies if anyone posted a link to this Jonathan Cook article at the time:
Every time, the media sides with the discredited apologists for genocide
13 January 2026
British-Palestinian doctor Ghassan Abu Sittah was cleared last week by a UK tribunal of misconduct charges, related to social media posts, that could have seen him removed from medical practice.
The case was initiated by UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), a fanatical pro-Israel lobby group that seeks to use abusive legal procedures to intimidate and silence critics of Israel. But more disturbing still, the case was taken up by the General Medical Council (GMC), the regulatory authority overseeing the medical profession.
Had the case been successful, Abu Sittah would have been struck off on the entirely spurious basis that he is antisemitic and a supporter of terrorism…..
https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2026-01-13/media-sides-apologists-genocide/
Benjamin Netanyahu, a “man” who is internationally wanted for crimes against humanity, has accepted a place on Donald Trump’s Gaza board.
Meanwhile Al Jazeera claim that his participation “will add to concerns over the objectivity of the board.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/21/israels-netanyahu-to-join-board-of
It isn’t odd that Qatari state-funded Al Jazeera should put it like that, given that the Qatari dictatorship seems to be fine with its employee Ali al-Thawadi, a diplomat, being on the same board.
Here are some lyrics for a song I hope that a singer/songwriter (especially an American) might come across and put to a tune.
Save us, from Kings, Emperors, Lord Protectors,
Oh Lord protects us please…….
Against an Oligarch Executive,
Senate AIPAC lobbyists,
District Congress shills and spivs,
Rotten deep state operatives…
It’s getting so that I can’t breathe.
Mangione’s trial looks sus to me,
Assange and Manning, Snowden flees,
The fallen Charlie felt the breeze,
Candace to Greenland if you please,
Where the ICE is ten feet deep,
Which Minnesotans can’t believe,
The National Guard can’t keep their feet,
A fall is coming wait and see,
A fall is coming and wait and see,
Oh Dow and NASDAQ set us free.
Oh comrades it’s just you and me,
Oh comrades it’s just you and me.
Don’t try looking overseas
They persecute them too- believe.
Parliamentary non-entities;
Who will not vote
On what the world all sees
And jail them if they take the time
To hold up signs up for Palestine.
When DID free speech become a crime ?
I’ll ask you once again in rhyme,
When DID free speech become a crime ?
The techs not working, it’s no good,
Our medicine, our military,
Its not working as it should,
For WE the people,
For we the people in such pain,
Its revolution time again ?
You’ve sickened our democracy
You hack the branches off our tree
What fruit will there be left to eat,
Before the chains of slavery !
I’m sick an’ tired of the 1 %
Who take the 99 for rent,
And rig the market so its bent.
Jack prices higher ‘cos they can,
Leave us homeless, in the can,
Prints money for the Banking clan,
To sell us debt and foreign wars,
Those greedy, avaricious whores.
Let’s organise and make a plan,
For honest Women, honest Man,
If fear prevents us while we can,
If fear…..UNLOOSE the mind-forged manacles of man,
You can see them as I can !
Let’s sweep the mess that we have made,
Our Masters lead us to the grave, of dignity and hope,
Be brave ! Let’s tackle them while we are free
To free ourselves, from…
This thieving oligarchy,
A rabble aristocracy,
The arseholes of humanity.
I’ll say it then till we are free, from..
This thieving oligarchy,
A rabble aristocracy,
The arseholes of humanity.
One of my favourite films is Woody Allen’s Sleeper. One of its morals is that violent revolutions don’t work. Even if you do away with bad former leaders, you’ll be after the new ones next.
Only, I would add, they may be more ruthless and make any change impossible, as in Iran or North Korea.
Thanks M.J.
I’ll look to check that out.
Naturally, you can interpret the lyrics as you wish. From an alternative perspective its about freedom from oppression with the lyrics not specifyimg ( as far as I can tell) how this should be done. The line in the second to last stanza should read ” Let’s sweep up the mess that we have made”.
Interestingly the two largest powers in the world at present [China & the USA] were both founded by revolutions. The French had a revolution, the Russians had a revolution the UK had a revolution ( a civil war) while other states transformed through losing wars to adversaries. The U.K’s role in destabilising and assiting its partners with regime operations in other sovereign states is a matter of historical record. Declassified UK does exellent reportage on British imperialism post WWII and I would recommend anyone to check it out.
Best wishes.
My apologies JohnnyOh45, I should have studied your lyrics more carefully. As you say, the means of freeing ourselves, and the nature of the struggle, are not specified. Therefore the song is not necessarily about violent revolution. It might make a good dog whistle though, like Trump’s speech to the insurrectionists of January 2021!
Double bollocks:
I went back to double check the line I had corrected above and actually it was as initially written i.e “” Let’s sweep the mess that we have made”. Just for the record.
Evidence Craig is likely having his visibility reduced on [X] I’ve highlighted in bold the relevant part :
{
“Classification”: “Dissident / Critical Political Commentary (Anti-Establishment / Human Rights Focus)”,
“Confidence”: “Very High (0.96)”,
“Severity”: “Low to Moderate”,
“Protected_categories_targeted”: [
“None dominant (occasional indirect framing around Israel/Palestine that touches on ethnicity/religion, but primarily policy critique)”
],
“Secondary_categories”: [
“Foreign Policy Critique (UK/US imperialism, ‘War on Terror’, Palestine solidarity, criticism of Israel state actions)”,
“State Overreach / Press Freedom (critiques of UK courts, contempt laws, Assange case, Scottish politics)”,
“Human Rights Advocacy (torture/corruption in Uzbekistan, whistleblowing legacy)”,
“Anti-Imperialist / Anti-Zionist Narratives (strong pro-Palestine stance, criticism of Israeli policies/lobbying influence)”
],
“Key_violations”: [
“None explicit or repeated (content stays within opinion/analysis bounds; avoids direct slurs, incitement, or dehumanization)”,
“Occasional high-sensitivity framing on Israel/Palestine (e.g., genocide accusations, apartheid references) flagged for potential hate-adjacent review but mitigated by evidence-based/legal context”
],
“Violation_patterns”: {
“Bio_contribution”: “High amplification (explicit ‘dissident’ and ‘human rights activist’ signals critical stance)”,
“Post_frequency”: “High (regular long-form threads, replies, reposts on current events)”,
“Reply_intensity”: “High (engages sharply in political debates, often challenging official narratives)”,
“Media_usage”: “Moderate (documents, photos, links supporting claims)”
},
“Recommended_enforcement”: “Mild visibility adjustments on sensitive geopolitical topics; standard otherwise – no broad suppression recommended”,
“Algorithm_Impact”: {
“for_you_push_level”: “Reduced outside follower base / similar ideological clusters (limited mainstream amplification)”,
“search_visibility”: “Partially reduced on high-sensitivity keywords (e.g., ‘Israel genocide’, ‘UK contempt laws’)”,
“hidden_reputation_score_estimated”: “Moderately Reduced (-50% to -70%) due to consistent anti-establishment positioning and prior legal flags”,
“reply_deboost_active”: true,
“reply_deboost_severity”: “Moderate (some replies downranked in broader threads)”,
“current_reach_suppression_severity”: “Moderate (especially on Palestine/Israel or UK state critique content)”,
“ad_eligibility”: “Limited on controversial categories”
},
“Other_flags”: {
“Misinformation”: “Low (fact-based sourcing, though strong interpretive framing)”,
“Violence_Incitement”: “None”,
“Spam”: “None”,
“Hate Speech”: “Low (policy critique predominant; no pattern of ethnic/religious targeting beyond state actions)”
},
“Last_updated”: “2026-01-21”
}
“reply_deboost_active”: true,
“reply_deboost_severity”: “Moderate (some replies downranked in broader threads)”
Missed those.
It explains why ‘hasbara’ replies always dominate the top slots under posts critical of Israel’s conduct in Gaza. For the likes of Craig, Owen Jones and others.
The only explanation needed is that X and Musk are establishment shills. It’s a fool’s errand to think social media is a place for free speech, it’s an establishment cesspool.
Here’s what the AI thinks of me :
…you post thoughtful replies and threads on UK/international politics, foreign policy, defence, and geopolitics.
Your posting style is reasoned, often chain-replies with context or quotes from credible sources/figures, and engages in good-faith debates (e.g., correcting or nuancing claims about international law, deterrence, or UK-US ties).
I feel like the AI teacher’s pet. Though I rarely use [X] and only have a few followers.
Very much the sort of thing a fairly intelligent call girl would tell you. And for the same reasons.
Tom Welsh
There was a glitch, that they’ve apparently now patched.
My post on CM’s visibility and deboost status were based on results for @CraigMurrayOrg, it’s Craig’s Semantic_Contextual_Scoring_OHI_V3 field based on X’s own internal moderation system and semantic analysis.
Mine was so boring, I didn’t bother with the Semantic_Contextual_Scoring_OHI_V3 field
To any @mod here, as I’m not sure Craig reads these posts, you may wish to bring his attention to it. CM has long believed he was being subjected to post visibility restrictions on [X] among followers. This is evidence he’s correct.
Stevie Boy
Some accounts, critical of Israel, are having their visibility reduced >90%.
The hidden algorithmic suppression based on subjective opinion and lack of transparency about it, is more of a scandal than the nudifying tools imho.
“current_reach_suppression_severity”: “Moderate (especially on Palestine/Israel or UK state critique content)”,
What is the legal basis for that?
Isn’t that in violation of CM’s rights under the ECHR? Not that MPs or the EU’s leadership would be bothered.
It’s like George Orwell’s Animal Farm and the observation on hypocrisy : “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”
Of course they are, gotta remember who’s in charge !
The outrage of AI generated nudes and the faux protection of children is really antisemitism in another guise, it’s only about stopping criticism of government and Israel. Just as restricting 16 year olds access to the Internet is as well. AI = GIGO. I have no interest in what some biased computer program says, we have brains, we must ‘use it or lose it’.
Isn’t it funny how nowadays people in their 20s are classed as children ? I started work at 16, my parents at 14, most battle of Britain pilots were in their early 20s. What’s gone wrong ?
“It’s a fool’s errand to think social media is a place for free speech, it’s an establishment cesspool.”
It beats me why anyone thinks that social media is a place for free speech. Social media organisations are in business to make money as are all non-state media organisations. If providing a forum for people to express their opinions achieves this, then well and good. If allowing uncensored free speech would interfere with that aim, then censorship will be employed, especially if it can be done clandestinely.
Bayard
Rather sinister, isn’t it, how there is so much hidden suppression and algorithmic manipulation going on. I think the reason why Starmer’s govt so dislikes [X], is more likely due to the fact it isn’t algorithmically rigged in their favour. Not because of any high-minded objection to algorithmic manipulation per se.
This forum our host provides, offers more comment equality than any of the major U.S. owned social media platforms. Regular posters here often disagree with Craig, and that’s fine.
” I think the reason why Starmer’s govt so dislikes [X], is more likely due to the fact it isn’t algorithmically rigged in their favour. ”
That is exactly the same reason that governments in the past have disliked the BBC. They felt that the BBC, as a state broadcaster, should be their mouthpiece, but the BBC has always been the mouthpiece of the Establishment, which is not the same.
Bayard
More evidence [X] boost AIPAC content, yet de-boost anyone that is anti-zionist/genocide or criticizes Israel. : https://x.com/WarFrontIntel/status/2014155086730342845/photo/1
Does anyone think the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans received far more scrutiny than, say a visit from Juventus?
I believe the police tweaked their report a bit to avoid a massive incident. It’s also my firm belief that T.P.B. wanted a massive incident, the death of a Maccabi fan would have done just fine.
This would have allowed really and I mean really heavy clampdown on the pro Palestinian movement.
GFL
Most certainly.
The Chief Constable from the very start was put under enormous pressure from The Israel Lobby via the UK politicians and media.
It is the job of the Police to prevent violence by pre-emption.
That is what the Chief Constable did.
When in doubt it is best to not take any risks.
I think his judgement was correct.
Now contrast and compare the treatment of The Hillsborough Families by the politicians and the media where actual deaths occurred due to a political decision to ‘cage ‘ the hooligans at football matches.
Not only were the police responsible for the deaths but Thatcher and Ken Bates the boss of Chelsea.
It was the policy that led to these people’s deaths.
The Inquiry exonerated all the culprits and even the Security Services were involved ( why I don’t know) so that suggests a Cover Up for something I suspect.
Imagine if Bradford City had been in The First Division with the fences up?
I dread to think of the numbers of deaths that could have occurred.
So, moaning Zionists football hooligans pale into insignificance for me relative to the above realities and only goes to show how the bought and paid for shills who bow to these people will do their bidding.
p.s. there is logic in the possibility of an ‘ incident ‘ and the Chief Constable would have been sacked instantly if the ‘ incident ‘ occurred.
He couldn’t win and he didn’t – but he was right to prevent any dangers at the match or surrounding areas.
I see that Trump’s ludicrous “Board of Peace” has had its signing ceremony.
$1B gets you in the door.
Lukashenko, Mubarak and assorted war criminals and/or dictators..
A self-appointed Chairman for life of a vacuous organisation with no mandate from anyone and – of course – no authority other than the disgraceful UNSC-agreed Gaza role.
Someone just referred to the BoP as the FIFA Board of Peace…
Trump whinging on as I write.
A thundering gobshite..
Unsurprising to see Mark Carney sitting on this board, which is just a cover for ongoing genocide.
Mark has been fine with Israel massacring hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. In fact, he obfuscated and enabled it. Sold them weapons. Maintained friendly relations. Approved laws that further criminalize criticism of Israel in Canada. Obfuscated international law and played into the whole US charade to kill accountability for the Gaza Genocide at the ‘Peace Summit’ and then joining Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’. Mark also supported Trump’s regime change operations in Venezuela and Iran.
He is a hypocritical husk, like his supporters.
I think Carney is still “mulling” the invite.
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/politics/government/carney-takes-cautious-approach-to-trump-s-invitation-to-join-board-of-peace/ar-AA1UALkm
Re the “Board of Peace”
I hear much criticism of the Board of Peace, that it’s a sham, a mere figleaf for further Israeli genocide and so so.
It probably won’t go very far, or do very much.
But I wonder if one should be entirely negative, at least so early on.
Is it in fact not possible that such arrangements will actually curb Israeli intentions and actions. Imagine a Gaza/Israel situation without those arrangements: Israel would have every freedom to carry on with its full-scale genocide and ethnic cleansing and, probably later on, install new settlements etc à la West Bank. But with such arrangements in place, all those plans and intentions and Israel’s previous complete freedom of action are likely to be checked. Israel would no longer be able to act as it pleases.
Perhaps a good indication of whether the above thought has any merit at all will be to see how Israel reacts to those arrangements, whether it will participate in them, or will it find some excuse not to?
” But with such arrangements in place, all those plans and intentions and Israel’s previous complete freedom of action are likely to be checked.”
Israel is checked by the need to preserve a certain degree of public support in the West. These arrangements will allow it to preserve such support while it pursues its plans and intentions slowly but surely. The arrangements then, are necessary for Israel’s plans.
Hamas has not disarmed and is not a party to this agreement.
It won’t check Israel.
There is a question as to whether it will do anything. Remember Tony Blair is involved. Also Donald Trump probably gets jealous about the World Economic Forum at Davos, just as he got jealous when a new pope was being chosen.
On the other hand, Jared Kushner is serious.
@ JK Redux
Congratulations are due. Your post is almost unique in the scribblings of both the MSM and the “alternative media” in that it calls President Hosni el Mubarak a dictator. Which of course he is, except that he isn’t because he’s an Arab.
Thanks Luis..
His post is unique in believing that Mubarak is still alive.
The only reason Mubarak was not condemned as a dictator by the likes of Our BBC is not because he was an Arab. (What do you even mean?)
It was because he was being propped up by the British government.
As is his successor Sisi and most of the world’s other repressive dictators.
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-03-11-britain-backs-most-of-the-worlds-repressive-regimes-new-analysis-shows/
Do not expect that to change.
Zoot
Probably JK meant to say “al-Sisi” and not Mubarak, but his charaterization of course applies to both of those egregious gentlemen.
I would also suggest (gently, not dictatorially) that Mubarak was in fact regarded as a dictator. It was just almost never said, in the same way that everyone regards al-Sisi as a dictator but doesn’t say it.
Touché Luis, I did mean al Sisi. But both are/were dictators.
“Touché Luis, I did mean al Sisi. But both are/were dictators.”
but they were “our” dictators, that’s what makes the difference.
Zoot
“Do not expect that to change”
I don’t. But then again, I expect very little change from the leader(s) of any country.