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March 28, 2019
Open Thread 2019-17
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Interesting overview of US/UK media landscape, measuring “closeness to power” on the main axis:
https://swprs.org/media-navigator/
MoA very distant from power and with minimal political bias (I agree). Interesting to see sites such as Democracy Now and The Intercept being closer to “power”, according to the chart. Frankly, I still don’t know what to think of the Intercept.
Posted by: Tom | Mar 28 2019 18:42 utc | 2
MY posted comment to the NY Times —
“Kudos to those who stood by their skepticism of ‘collusion’ and the campaign of anti-Russian hysteria, enduring savage attacks for expressing their views — ‘traitor!’, ‘useful idiot!’ among the mildest.
My personal hero through these shameful-for-the-MSM 22 months is Prof. Stephen Cohen who carefully, with academic rigor, dealt with the Big Picture of the hoax and weekly on the John Batchelor Show examined the misleading and sometimes untruthful statements pushed by the media.
Until the Spring of 2016, Rachel Maddow was also a heroine to me — always fearlessly questioning the powers-that -be and pressing the liberal and progressive viewpoint. Then came the Hilary defeat that stunned and dislocated her. Instead of examining as to how it was possible that a con man and clown like Trump could be elected, she led the band at MSNBC with the unshakeable conviction that ‘Hilary didn’t lose it, the Russians stole it’. And persisted daily until this weekend. And on Monday, not a hint of contrition about her shameful and distorted campaign. Unfortunately, with her total loss of credibility, we have lost the old Rachel Maddow — she has become today’s era’s version of Judith Miller.”
Posted by: chet380 | Mar 28 2019 18:54 utc | 3
@ Tom with the link to the media navigator…….interesting, thanks
As I read that data presentation, MoA is shown as the most balanced and furthest from power of any reviewed.
Congratulations b, A designation well deserved.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 28 2019 18:54 utc | 4
Tom@2
This is the third in a three part series about the owner of the Intercept, with links to the first 2 parts. It’s quite illuminating.
https://www.mintpressnews.com/pierre-omidyar-a-billionaire-prone-to-reclusiveness-and-his-trove-of-state-surveillance-secrets/255439/
Posted by: mourning dove | Mar 28 2019 19:04 utc | 6
Investigative journalist Ben Norton’s been busy and tweets a graphic chart that’s tangentially linked to the pics I provided on the previous thread. Here’s his into to the graphic:
“Wow look at this dystopian authoritarian police state in Venezuela, wait I mean Syria, I mean China, I mean North Korea…
“Wait never mind, this is the Almighty US of A.
“You know, that supremely ‘free’ country that has 5% of the world’s population but 25% of its prisoners.”
Header on graphic declares:
“76% of people held in jails are not convicted of any crime.”
And from the first comment in the thread:
“‘We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities’. -John Ehrlichman”
What most people worldwide see is the Outlaw US Empire’s external behavior, but not so many are exposed to its internal nature, which clearly is every bit as brutal.
Another gem Ben retweeted:
“Every article about Cold War liberal international order written by an American should lead w/ two facts:
“-1) US engaged in 81 “partisan electoral interventions” between 1946 and 2000 (Dov Levin).
“-2) US attempted 72 regime changes between 1947 and 1989 (Lindsey A. O’Rourke).”
And Rachel Maddow is called “Far Left” when Liberal Reactionary would be more exact. Those self-described as the “Young Turks” just promoted the Venezuelan Coup. Lots going on at Ben Norton’s Twitter page. Interesting bit about Venezuela’s “diaspora.”
And he too retweeted the Gulag photo just as I was finishing this comment.
Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 28 2019 19:04 utc | 7
Well the table is literally groaning under the weight of options. One option for Donald might be to get rid of a few advisers. They are obviously outclassed.
I can’t help wondering what happened to the Much Needed Aid. Surely somebody can use a few tons of toothpaste and toilet paper? I’m guessing it gets repackaged by supermarkets in Bogota.
Posted by: dh | Mar 28 2019 19:11 utc | 8
I also want to add that the praise of our very fine host is greatly deserved. Thank you b.
Posted by: mourning dove | Mar 28 2019 19:19 utc | 9
Article about El Paso Concentration Camp. By comparison, Australia’s Concentration Camps look a lot like the “internment camps”–which were called Concentration Camps at the time–that housed Japanese-Americans and others during WW2, which is to say they look a tad more civilized, but then so did the Soviet Gulags and the Nazi Camps.
Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 28 2019 19:27 utc | 10
Karlof1
Ben Norton is awesome. I read some of the comments on that AOC retweet, these are the Americans who made me shiver at your statement about the morality of our neighbors. It’s fair to say that their attitudes are influenced in no small part by Trump’s ridiculous notion of a wall at the southern border of the US. It’s not only a terrible idea, it’s completely impractical. You couldn’t even drive the length of the southern border of Texas without using a Mexican highway for most of it. And since that border is a river, how would that even work anyway? But selling it to his supporters was never based on need or feasibility, but rather to feed an already preexisting racial prejudice and xenophobia that now has some veneer of legitimacy. It’s disgusting.
Posted by: mourning dove | Mar 28 2019 19:37 utc | 11
b thank you so much for this site. your ‘wrong conclusion’ comment is interesting, the first thing my mind jumps to is ‘conclusion based thinking’. friendly and sincerely, sometimes your inner optimist reads as a slight bias, you don’t need a conclusion to provide us with insightful analysis.
Posted by: ross82 | Mar 28 2019 19:46 utc | 12
I have to vent a little more about the situation in El Paso. This isn’t a migrant crisis, it’s a refugee crisis. One that the US directly created, NAFTA is only the tip of the iceberg.
Posted by: mourning dove | Mar 28 2019 19:50 utc | 13
The New York Times just keeps on piling in with the Russophobia. It quotes a Russian author, Turgenev, who died in 1883 as a source for understanding modern Russia:
His writings contain sometimes withering comments about his homeland, which he sorely missed when he was absent but also often deplored.
“Russian people are lazy and slow, and not accustomed to thinking independently, nor acting consistently,” Turgenev wrote in an 1857 letter to a conservative Russian countess. “But necessity — that great word! — will stir even this bear up out of its den.”
He didn’t mellow much with time, writing two decades later to a friend: “We are so disgustingly poor in Russia — this is the problem and why we are so prone to steal.”
From France, he delivered this judgment on his homeland: “In Russia, clever, talented and honest people are very rare.”
In the great debate between so-called westernizers and Slavophiles that dominated intellectual and political discussion in 19th-century Russia and that still rumbles on today, Turgenev stood firmly with those who thought Russia belonged in Europe and must shun what he considered foolish fantasies of a separate Russian path.
But those fantasies have again taken flight in recent years, promoted by Russia-first nationalists, the Russian Orthodox Church and also the Ministry of Culture, headed by a deeply conservative historian, Vladimir Medinsky, who fumes against Western culture and despises modern-day versions of westernizers like Turgenev.
Yet at the same time, Mr. Medinsky has plowed money into celebrating Turgenev and his place in the pantheon of Russian literature.
Where to begin?
A lot of Russians believe that Russia is part of Europe. Even I as a European believe that. But there are many in the United States, the staff of the New York Times included, who believe it doesn’t. Well fuck them.
But the hostility towards Russia by the Hitler-loving hordes in the United States and Europe has persuaded the Russians that they must look elsewhere.
Actually, I have the suspicion that many Americans false view of Russia is strongly conditioned by the likes of Turgenev.
Then we get the shock that someone, Medinsky or Putin for example, who might disagree with Turgenev’s views, will still honour him. When will Americans understand that Russia is not a dictatorship but probably at least as democratic as the United States.
Further down there is an image of “Mtsensk, a bleak provincial town”. Of course, it’s bleak the picture was taken in winter. It looks more pleasant in summer.
Finally, “for all its poverty and backwardness, however, the region around Mtsensk”. Looking on Google Street View the region around Mtsensk might not appear wealthy but it doesn’t look poor or backward to me. It looks like many parts of Europe.
Posted by: Ghost Ship | Mar 28 2019 19:51 utc | 14
I pondered a few days ago what happened to Viking seamanship, aren’t they supposed to be good at it? On a very new giant passenger ship all four engines stop working — how could that happened?
Actually, Norwegians are still good at maritime matters, so we already have some answers. The unlucky trip of Viking Sky, operated by Viking Ocean Cruises started with barely adequate amount of lubricating oil for its engines, but on the rough seas that was not enough to assure oil trickling down, and lacking lubricating oil the engines shut off automatically. That points to some maladies of technologies and corporate management.
Management of Viking Ocean Cruises was moved to Basel in Switzerland. Basel is actually a port of note with big barge traffic on the Rhine river, but definitely closer to big finance than to big oceans.
Somehow the phenomenon of oil in a reservoir becoming inadequate in stormy weather was obvious to actual mariners. Thinking about it, if you shake a vessel with a viscous liquid than the liquid will be taking long time to trickle back to the bottom where the intake was presumably located. Did Viking Sky fall victim to extreme bean counting? Suppose that oil levels are found to be a bit low in remote Tromsø, wouldn’t it be better to buy oil on the next stop, in a large port?
Then we have automation. Perhaps nobody checked the oil in Tromsø because automatic sensor were reporting “adequate”, and the same sensor later switched the engines off. “Artificial intelligence” can reproduce all aspects of human decision making that the designers remember to consider, so we may end up with some faults. Programming “common sense” is hard, why, humans may also have difficulties exhibiting common sense, overlooking this or that aspects, but automation sets those difficulties in stone.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Mar 28 2019 20:01 utc | 15
Correction to my comment @11
I don’t think it’s even possible to drive the length of the Texas border, I had to look, and there don’t seem to be any highways, or even smaller roads around the Big Bend. Plus, Texas is really big. The length of the southern border of the US is 1933 miles. Of that, 1254 miles are the Texas border.
Posted by: mourning dove | Mar 28 2019 20:15 utc | 17
A bit of levity for these very strange times we live in from US Senator Mike Lee.
Now the serious stuff.
Article 11 and 13 have passed in the EU Parliament, depending on national government implementations, it may well be the end of the free and open internet in the EU, i.e. buy VPN stocks.
In the UK people are going to need a licence to watch porn on the internet, i.e. buy VPN stocks hand over fist.
No collusion on Trumps side, looks like there is lots and lots of collusion in FBI/CIA/DNC/(other alphabet soup names).
Israel continues to bomb Syria, no MSM coverage, MSM covers Jussie Smolett MAGA attack and when revealed to be staged by him gets him into trouble with the law until the case is dropped because the USA is so incredibly corrupt, it reminds me of that line from The Matrix “And I want to be rich. You know, someone important…like an actor.”.
People are still getting banned from social media sites for not agreeing with said sites politics, people are still getting arrested in the UK for disagreeing with other people over political points of view on the internet.
Brexit is not happening tomorrow, because Mrs “Divine Right of Prime Ministers” May made a Treaty with the EU for an extension of the process without the approval of Parliament, and Parliament had to vote to make UK law conform to the Treaty she had unilaterally agreed otherwise UK law would not be “in conformity”. Of course she might do the same thing with her/Merkels Treaty that is not Brexit, and 10,000 foreign troops arrive shortly on British soil for Exercise Joint Warrior, so anyone who might object can be dealt with like those that escaped Stalag Luft III 75 years ago this week and were immortalized in film “The Great Escape”. Oh and no one has yet remade that other WWII classic war film The Dam Busters because Wing Commander Guy Gibsons dog was named Nigger, and as RAF Scampton is going to be closed Niggers remains are to to be dug up and reinterred elsewhere, no one on in the media will use his name though, he’s just “the dog”.
Posted by: TJ | Mar 28 2019 20:45 utc | 18
Finland’s leading attention magnet, Jessikka Aro is in the news again. For the last five years she has been leading a witch-hunt on dissent in Finland, labeling everyone who disagrees with NATO’s encroachment of Finland as a Russian Troll. In reality she sits in the Advisory Board of what can only be describes as NATO’s Troll Factory.
Form the latest leaks on the British Integrity Initiative we can read this perfect definition of a “troll factory”: (See page 5 of the PDF)
CASE STUDY: Safeguarding policies established for YouTuber network in Russia The Consortium established a robust safeguarding policy whilst establishing a network of YouTubers in Russia and Central Asia, who were creating content promoting media integrity and democratic values. This policy took measures to safeguard against Kremlin attack through actions including: supporting participants make and receive international payments without being registered as external sources of funding; managing their online profiles to reduce their exposure to cyber-attacks, trolling and abuse; connecting Youtubers with local pro-bono legal support; supporting them to develop editorial strategies to deliver key messages, whilst minimising risk of prosecution under ill-defined censorship laws, and carefully managing project communications to keep their involvement confidential.
Meanwhile CNN writes:
New documents raise questions over State Dept. move to rescind honor for Trump critic
Washington (CNN) – Jessikka Aro, a Finnish investigative journalist with a history of breaking stories on Russian propaganda efforts, had been slated to receive a prestigious award in Washington along with several other women selected by the State Department for their courage in the face of great risks overseas.
Suddenly and without warning, the honor to appear at the International Women of Courage awards with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and first lady Melania Trump was rescinded — with no explanation from the department.
But internal communications reviewed by CNN show that the State Department and US embassy officials in Finland had been in talks with Aro for several months, extensively communicating with her about the award, her travel documents, her itinerary in Washington and her bio, which had been approved by eight State Department officials.
Then, two weeks after an official asked her to provide a list of her social media accounts, the honor was abruptly rescinded and the invite to attend the event was canceled.
Posted by: Petri Krohn | Mar 28 2019 20:49 utc | 19
Ghost Ship @15–
The American appraisal of Russia and Russians is conditioned to be negative during a process that began in the early 1800s and accelerated after 1880. Slavs from many nations were lumped together along with Italians and other “swarthy” appearing peoples as depicted in this political cartoon. Each new wave of immigrants have been “greeted” in the manner this cartoon suggests. Political ferment’s been traditionally blamed on immigrants having brought their “alien ideas”–anarchism, socialism, democracy, trade unions–with them and as the previous cartoon suggests are always unwilling to assimilate. Racism as a tool wasn’t reserved for blacks, browns, or yellows; the darker shades of white–swarthy–were also attacked. The film Gangs of New York centers on the Irish, but any other ethnic group could be substituted. Animus toward Russia was also promoted due to competition in the fur trade which encouraged Russian settlement in support of that trade to reach into what’s now Northern California at Fort Ross. And numerous slurs directed at the Tsar and Russia appeared in the press during the debate over Seward’s proposal to purchase Alaska. With Germans being the single largest ethnic group of immigrants to the USA prior to WW1, they naturally brought their anti-Slav sentiments with them. Many don’t know that German was the second major language within the USA prior to WW1 with many large cities having entire public schools taught in German and a very active German language press. Then came the contrived Red Scare well after the Russian Revolution had begun which saw the USA meddling on the sides of the Whites, which of course produced even more negative propaganda about Russia and Russians. Suddenly, all was forgiven as Uncle Joe Stalin was promoted to Ally against Hitler’s Nazis, but even during WW2 anti-USSR sentiment raged in the press. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention The House Un-American Activities Committee that lasted from 1938-1975, which was a played a prominent role during the Anti-Communist Crusade. And most know of McCarthy. The tactic of Red Baiting arose in 1927, but really took off as a vital method used during the Cold War.
So, there’s a rambling overview regarding Russophobia’s roots, although it can’t compete with Wikipedia’s “Anti-Russian Sentiment” page where we learn that it’s France’s fault and that the term Russophobia was coined in 1867 by Fyodor Tyutchev, a Russian poet and statesman.
Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 28 2019 21:18 utc | 20
@ Posted by: Ghost Ship | Mar 28, 2019 3:51:25 PM | 15
There are three ideologies that dominate the Russian national identity landscape: 1) Ocidentalists 2) Eurasianists and 3) Slavophiles.
1) The Ocidentalists believe Russia is a normal European country. Most of them are Peter the Great fanboys and think St. Petersburg is the best thing Russia has ever built. They also adore the Orthodox Church. Putin himself is an Ocidentalist (no wonder, since he’s from St. Petersburg).
2) The Eurasianists believe Russia is an Eurasian country. They are the most cosmopolitan of the three ideologies and, not surprisingly, the newest. Bar a new Russian total collapse, they are the ideology which is most likely to emerge victorious, since the reality is kinda confirming their worldview. The Eurasianists are correct that many think Putin himself is an Eurasianist (his pragmatism leaving him to in practice behave like one, even though he’s an Ocidentalist by heart).
3) The Slavophiles believe Russia is a unique kind of State, born from a syncretic fusion between the European State and the Mongol State. This “fusion” is what they call the Slavic State. They are the oldest of the three ideologies, and, nowadays, are basically reduced to far-right groups. During their apex (during a good part of the 19th Century), though, they could or could not be reactionaries. However, as a faint image of what Russia apparently is, the Slavophiles still make a good chunk of the Russian population.
Those three ideologies basically make up the entire adult Russian population, in mostly equal parts (1/3 – 1/3 – 1/3). It’s up to the forces of History to determine which will prevail. For now, the Eurasianists are winning by a comfortable margin.
“Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. The Trump Administration opposes it unequivocally and we will fight it relentlessly.” — @SecPompeo #AIPAC2019…
Pelosi on Dual Loyalty Accusations: ‘To Be Anti-Semitic is to Be Anti-American’:
“This month, the full House came together to condemn the anti-Semitic myth of dual loyalty and all forms of bigotry with a resolution that ‘rejects the perpetuation of anti-Semitic stereotypes in the United States and around the world including the pernicious myth of dual loyalty and foreign allegiance especially in the context of support for the United States-Israel alliance.’”
“I simply declare to be anti-Semitic is to be anti-American. It has no place in our country,” Pelosi continued.
Pelosi is not the first Democratic leader to address the dual loyalty stereotype at AIPAC. On Sunday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D., Md.) slammed the suggestion that supporters of Israel have dual loyalty.
“When someone accuses American supporters of Israel of dual loyalty, I say: Accuse me,” Hoyer said.
“I am part of a large, bipartisan coalition in Congress supporting Israel, an overwhelming majority in the Congress of the United States,” Hoyer added.
The annual AIPAC summit. There is nothing comparable when it comes to US politicians abjectly voicing their worship of and subservience to Israel
After three years of hyperbolic hyperventilating about “Russian influence” and “white supremacism”, figureheads of both major political parties provide the explanation why – by announcing, for their true masters and the whole world to hear, that their first and foremost concern is for the well-being of Israel and American/Israeli dual citizens.
Posted by: Alia Farid | Mar 28 2019 21:27 utc | 22
Is the US relocating “defeated” ISIS members to Al Tanf to cause further trouble for Syria?
https://ahtribune.com/world/north-africa-south-west-asia/syria-crisis/2990-us-plan.html
Posted by: farm ecologist | Mar 28 2019 21:37 utc | 23
Hello everyone,
This is my first post here, but have been a long-time reader. Many thanks to b and to everyone on this site.
The following link is, unfortunately, not a farce. The “outrage” described therein is equivalent to branding as “anti-american” someone who has criticised the CIA.
Imam suggests mossad involved; branded as anti-semite
It should be noted that the NZ authorities concluded within a couple of hours of the event that the CCh shooter was a “lone wolf gunman”. Now that a Muslim imam (no less) voices a dissenting opinion, he is branded by the seemingly-inexhaustible canard of “anti-semitism.” I leave it to you to imagine the response if a non-Muslim caucasian were to say that; the pillory suggests itself.
Furthermore, sites such as zerohedge have been banned in NZ, any dissent from the official story is increasingly marginalised, and no acoustic analysis of the shooter’s video is forthcoming.
It should be noted that the Las Vegas shooting was subjected to this kind of analysis and it has been shown that there was more than one gunman present there, because the time delay between the bullets hitting the pavement, followed by the sound of the muzzle blast (which arrives later, since the round is supersonic) is not the same for all the rounds fired: some rounds, that is, were shot from much further away, and hence could not have been fired by one shooter.
Also, and quite tellingly, at exactly the same time as the CCh shooting, a police drill was being performed on an abandoned floor of the nearby Princess Margaret Hospital, and the scenario was exactly that of an active shooter.
There are numerous other “coincidences” that would merit some enquiry methinks, yet dissent is being stalinised.
Posted by: Theophrastus | Mar 28 2019 21:39 utc | 24
Found this @ entry 12 –
“There are actually now out and out fascists who are organizing actively. They call for a defense of democracy. They call for a rejection of politicians and politics in the sense that these politicians and official politics, democratic politics, are maneuvers used by the rich, and they’ve got nothing to do with the poor, and so on – the usual fascist stuff. And they’re finding an audience.”
Well, I suppose it’s better than the usual claim that Putin made us vote for Brexit. Not by much.
You see many claims like this made on the English websites too. We voted Brexit because we’re fascists, xenophobes, neo-Nazis or dumb. Only rarely does one see the obvious explanation: for our various reasons we do not wish to belong to the EU any more.
I don’t know how many Fascists there are in the States. Few, is my impression but I don’t live there so I won’t generalise. Whatever your generalisations about the States are, however, it might be useful to understand one or two things about Europe.
There are places in Europe where there is still a tradition of cradle Nazism. Croatia, Western Ukraine to mention two. This is not because they are fervent ideologues there, though many are. It is because Nazism is associated in their minds with national liberation. Many of the Eastern European countries, with their strong vein of Russophobia arising from their history, are in similar case.
In the rest of Europe the position is more complicated. Let’s just say that Nazism or anti-Nazism is a very strong theme in continental politics, both for the right and left and also for the new populist parties. Such politicians as Frans Timmermans appeal to the fear of a recurrence of Nazism as one reason for advancing the EU “project”. Some parties, like the AfD, spend quite a lot of their time fending off the reproach that they are Nazi inclined. All have the subject in the forefront of their thinking. It is my belief that this continual referring back to the tragedies of seventy or eighty years ago is a debilitating strand in European political thought and holds all sides of the political debate back.
But please do not project all that onto the Brexit debate. That is an error the European politicians make and it distorts their thinking. Fascism, even Nazism, did I think establish an institutional hold in England in the 30’s, as it did to an even lesser extent in Ireland with the Blueshirts, but whatever hold it had was burnt out in six years of total war. Fringe groups there are but English history is so very different from the continental that you’d be hard put to find any movement that had genuine roots in what is still so strong a concern across the Channel.
Just fact. So when finding reasons to attack Brexit do try to keep to ones that have at least some shadow of credibility. The spectre of Brownshirts marching through Berlin or Paris may still serve to raise a shudder among the continentals. The vision you conjure up of Brownshirts marching through Tunbridge Wells is more likely to provoke laughter here in England.
Not our thing. You’d do better to stick to Putin. Or, as some do here, claim we were drunk when we voted for Brexit. Still untrue, but perhaps not quite so ludicrous.
Posted by: English Outsider | Mar 28 2019 21:41 utc | 25
CIA-Linked Nellie Ohr Gave Extensive Anti-Trump Research To High-Ranking DOJ Husband: Transcripts
Posted by: TJ | Mar 28 2019 21:41 utc | 26
Affects of Climate Change has defeated the Outlaw US Empire’s Strategic Air Command’s #1 Base forcing the US Air Force to beg Congress for $5 Billion to rehabilitate it and another base heavily damaged last year. Sure, just as soon as you find where the missing $Trillions went. Weather Underground published this article announcing the attack’s far from over:
“‘The stage is set for record flooding now through May,’ said Mary Erickson, deputy director of the National Weather Service, at a news conference. The disastrous floods that hammered Nebraska and Iowa this month—inflicting what may be billions in damage and taking three lives—may only be a ‘preview’ of what’s to come, said Erickson: ‘In fact, we expect the flooding will become worse and more widespread.'”
So, while Trump actively tries to destroy Venezuela, Mother Nature’s busy destroying the USA. So far, Trump’s performance in response is worse than W’s to Katrina.
Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 28 2019 21:49 utc | 27
Isn’t it ironic that many important people feel that criticism of Israel is anti-semitic when twenty percent of Israel’s population was born in Russia, with a large number of Russian Jews occuping official positions in the Israeli Government, and yet these same critics are totally anti-Russia, which means they are anti-Russian, correct? It’s so confusing.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Mar 28 2019 22:11 utc | 28
English Outsider @27–
Sounds like something the propagandists at the Integrity Initiative would come up with. Of English fascists, the Tories have always seemed to provide the closest match. It’s always seemed odd to me that there’s nothing similar to Russophobia directed at what was once the Hapsburg Empire by the people’s subjugated by it. Same for anti-Angloism coming from South Asia. Given the ongoing efforts, I expect to see a distinct rise in Anti-Americanism, not just anti-Trumpism.
Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 28 2019 22:21 utc | 29
Don Bacon @30–
The even greater irony is the majority of Semites within Zionistan are the Palestinians who are actively persecuted and subjected to constant virulent Anti-Semitism. Somehow the narrative must be changed to anti-Semitism=Anti-Palestinian.
Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 28 2019 22:27 utc | 30
16 Thanks, Piotr, for the info on the Viking Sky.
Posted by: Bart Hansen | Mar 28 2019 22:35 utc | 31
@16 piotr – ditto.. thanks… and to the many other posts too – thanks..
in the comedy dept – good for a real laugh – hitler finds out the mueller investigation is over…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cVsmuxOj28
Posted by: james | Mar 28 2019 22:38 utc | 32
Theophrastus@26
The Christchurch massacre is eerily similar to other terrorist attacks as well in the “coincidence” of a training drill at the same time and in the same area. You might appreciate these links. I’m not familiar with the site for the second link but I included it because it includes the Christchurch and San Bernardino shootings, but you might want to slip on a tinfoil hat for that one.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/training-exercises-dovetail-with-mass-shootings-what-are-the-odds/5493110
https://www.wanttoknow.info/g/impossible-odds-mass-murders-terrorism
Posted by: mourning dove | Mar 29 2019 0:28 utc | 33
@26 Theophrastus
Welcome! Jim Stone has done some excellent reporting re NZ incident… hopefully you can reach his site… spoiler alert: he calls it a hoax, based on video analysis, etc
Posted by: xLemming | Mar 29 2019 0:43 utc | 34
Russia tells Il Douche to pound sand re troop presence in Venezuela
https://news.yahoo.com/russian-says-troops-venezuela-long-needed-004046648.html
Posted by: ran | Mar 29 2019 1:07 utc | 35
LONDON (Reuters) – The United States has instructed oil trading houses and refiners around the world to further cut dealings with Venezuela or face sanctions themselves, even if the trades are not prohibited by published U.S. sanctions, three sources familiar with the matter said.
The U.S. imposed fresh sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry earlier this year but some companies have continued to supply the country with fuel from India, Russia and Europe.
======
How much more piratical can US get? When other countries, especially in Europe, will undertake countermeasures? So far, Europeans joined recognition of Guaido lemming style, even though such an authority like Elliott Abrams explains that Guaido is not functioning as a president (he has only 30 days for that) but… frankly I do not understand. But Spain, Germany, UK etc. etc. do not have to understand to follow, isn’t it?
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Mar 29 2019 1:11 utc | 36
@15
there must be some astute readers of turgenev in America, as surely it’s not his fault the American propaganda rag cherrypicked a few passages from his personal letters: don’t most thinking people sometimes criticise their home countries, especially in private correspondence with a confidante?
turgenev’s work is diverse and robust, and he has his rightful place in the Russian literary canon. I have zero doubt he would strenuously object to being used in such a shameless, shallow manner.
And yes, many Russians reflexively identify themselves as an essential part of European civilization. Christianity, aesthetic approach and development in the fine arts, etc.
Posted by: dilijan | Mar 29 2019 1:16 utc | 37
@ karlof1 who wrote
”
So, while Trump actively tries to destroy Venezuela, Mother Nature’s busy destroying the USA. So far, Trump’s performance in response is worse than W’s to Katrina.
”
I agree and posit that he is tied to his handlers agenda and Mother Nature be dammed.
The Western elite are trying madly to start a war to take everyones focus off the literal and figurative bankruptcy of the Western way…..and thankfully, it is not working.
This is the demise of the West that needs to happen. The only way to effectively neuter the social contract of the West is for it to fail on its own…..which it is doing, albeit slower than many would like….but hey, it has been in control for centuries.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 29 2019 1:19 utc | 38
This is the full posting on Raw Story
”
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido is to be barred from holding public office for 15 years, the maximum punishment allowable by law, state comptroller Elvis Amoroso said on Thursday.
Amoroso said Guaido, the head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly who invoked the constitution to assume an interim presidency in January, had inconsistencies in his personal financial disclosures and a spending record that did not match his level of income.
Reporting by Caracas newsroom; Writing by Luc Cohen, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien
”
Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 29 2019 1:28 utc | 39
ran@37
I made the mistake of taking a look at some of the comments on that article. Such ignorance and hubris. It’s sickening.
Posted by: mourning dove | Mar 29 2019 1:39 utc | 40
To understand the relationship between Russia and the US-which has never been more than marginally connected to ideology, whether Tsarist, `Communist`or whatever you want to call the current government`s- you have to bear in mind that both empires began to expand, rapidly, one westward the other eastward, in the C18th. It was obvious to clear minded observers early in this process that by the C20th these two European empires, one Anglo-Creole the other Slavic, were going to be dominant and rival forces.
Incidentally it is unfair to talk of Russophobia without recognising the foundational work of David Urquhart who was recruiting jihadist militias to attack Russia 200 years ago.
Turgenev was, as has been pointed out, a westerniser. He was also a patriot, quite unlike the current Fifth Columnist `westernisers`in Russia. He was also one of the great novelists. The article in the NY Times is garbage, a complete misrepresentation of Turgenev and of Russia. So nothing new there.
Interesting to be brought up to date on the suddenly ubiquitous Jessika Aro a latecomer to the siege of Leningrad. I ran into a band of Clintonites singing her praises only last week at Common Dreams.
https://www.commondreams.org/further/2019/03/07/freedom-speech-and-revenge-individual-1
The Russiagate madness has not ended. It has just moved to the north. This is from the Toronto Star today:
“Canadian intelligence agencies have identified persistent foreign state-backed cyber campaigns against government and civilian targets that have some officials worried efforts to interfere with this year’s federal election have already begun.
“Two intelligence sources with direct knowledge of efforts to safeguard Canada’s 2019 election say the rate of cyber attacks against federal institutions, political parties and private companies has been steadily increasing.
Commissioner of Canada Elections Yves Côté describes foreign interference in a Canadian election as “a ‘when’ and not an ‘if.’”
“Between 2013 and 2015, an average of 2,500 state-sponsored “cyber activities” against government networks were detected each year. The rate of success of those activities declined over that period, from six per cent in 2013 to two per cent in 2015 — but that still works out to one successful attack per week.
“The government officials, who requested anonymity to speak about ongoing national security matters, said just because a hostile state have political and government systems targets does not necessarily mean they intend to disrupt the election.
“But others are treating it as a foregone conclusion.`
It`s all there, like a family of zombie ideas down on its luck: `government officials requesting anonymity“
“two intelligence sources…“
“Some of Canada’s closest international allies have been the targets of what were believed to be state-sponsored hacking campaigns for years.“
In the meantime Canada`s support for the Azov Battalion continues despite the Christchurch killer`s connection with it.
Posted by: bevin | Mar 29 2019 1:46 utc | 41
Another US controlled concentration camp-
https://www.mintpressnews.com/syrias-rukban-little-more-than-a-u-s-controlled-concentration-camp-and-the-pentagon-wont-let-refugees-leave/256689/
Posted by: mourning dove | Mar 29 2019 2:02 utc | 42
@32 karlof1 – “Somehow the narrative must be changed to anti-Semitism = Anti-Palestinian.”
Agree totally, and I do what I can when conversations arise around this point. So far I’ve not found anyone who can refute it, and somehow I don’t get accused of anti-semitism either.
Meanwhile, the crime continues: Israel has so far occupied over 85% of Palestinian land: Report
Posted by: Grieved | Mar 29 2019 2:03 utc | 43
karlof1, vk, dilijan – thanks for taking the time to reply
Piotr Berman – thanks for the update on Viking Sky.
Posted by: Ghost Ship | Mar 29 2019 2:10 utc | 44
RT has just fired the first shot in its influence operation for the 2020 presidential election. It’s used that most un-American of literal skills, sarcasm, to suggest the former US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul is an idiot. Just to remind people of what Trump saved them from there is a very scary picture at the top of the web page.
Posted by: Ghost Ship | Mar 29 2019 2:11 utc | 45
>>>>> psychohistorian | Mar 28, 2019 9:28:02 PM | 41
Someone in Venezuela has a very wicked sense of humour – banning him from public office for failing to disclose his income making him a common fraudster. I bet neither John Bolton nor Elliott Abrams didn’t see that coming
Posted by: Ghost Ship | Mar 29 2019 2:19 utc | 46
Karlof1 and Grieved
I agree that anti-semitism is anti-Palestinial, more broadly it should rightfully include all anti-Arab sentiment.
Posted by: mourning dove | Mar 29 2019 2:19 utc | 47
ghost ship # 15
Thank you for that post. I could take a thousand bleak images of the USA and call that typical. I would be very wrong too. I have a magnificent book on the heritage architecture of northern Russia both winter and summer images. Some are magificent in their winter environment and drab in summer, others vice versa. The hatred of Russia is gross ignorance and deplorable chauvinism and I reject it and all its forms as should any rational being.
Long live tolerance and diversity for us all.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 29 2019 2:20 utc | 48
*anti-Palestenian* I don’t know how that ended up being Palestenial.
Posted by: mourning dove | Mar 29 2019 2:21 utc | 49
>>>>> mourning dove | Mar 28, 2019 9:39:56 PM | 42
I made the mistake of taking a look at some of the comments on that article. Such ignorance and hubris. It’s sickening.
Most comments seem to be from American Exceptionalists but from the comments excoriating Trump or Obama, I’m assessing there are similar numbers of Democrats and Republicans.
Posted by: Ghost Ship | Mar 29 2019 2:42 utc | 50
Correction – it’s after midnight for me.
>>>>> psychohistorian | Mar 28, 2019 9:28:02 PM | 41
Someone in Venezuela has a very wicked sense of humour – banning him from public office for failing to disclose his income making him a common fraudster. I bet neither John Bolton nor Elliott Abrams saw that coming
Posted by: Ghost Ship | Mar 29 2019 2:44 utc | 51
To my mind, one of the very best shows on finance currently is Renegade Inc. on RT. The latest show is uniquely interesting:
The Great British mortgage swindle
Two British filmmakers are interviewed by host Ross Ashcroft for their documentary detailing the legal fraud underlying the British mortgage system. They cite the work of economist Richard Werner, who produced the first studies proving that money was created by banks simply by being loaned into existence.
At the root of this is the legal nature of property encumbered by a loan – in other words, collateral for a debt. How can a house to which you have no title be pledged as the capital asset that supposedly creates the new money described to you as a loan, but in fact deriving solely from your promissory note, which is your mortgage?
The twisted rationales and sheer frauds under which fiat money is brought into existence are coming to light through the work of people like Werner and these very brave documentarists. And why not? We live in an age that reveals not just the emperor’s lack of clothes but practically the total nakedness of the whole of modern society.
A couple of years ago, Renegade Inc. had Professor Werner himself on the show. His clear descriptions of the creation of money are eye-opening, and what he reveals about the City of London are tantalizing: The Finance Curse – this may be my favorite discussion on money ever.
Renegade Inc. talks about the UK, but alludes to the US as well. I sense that the US money system is the same as that devised by the City of London centuries beforehand. The unraveling of the mystery is welcome indeed. I find it actually kind of thrilling that RT has a show that tries to lay bare the great deception of money – surely one of the greatest deceptions of all time.
Posted by: Grieved | Mar 29 2019 2:56 utc | 52
@46 I think Americans are getting better at sarcasm. The Onion has helped a lot in that regard. But they still need to be nudged along. Telling them that it’s sarcasm or putting things in inverted commas helps them make the necessary mental adjustment.
Posted by: dh | Mar 29 2019 3:08 utc | 53
You might want to know that NZ but more particularly ChCH is a very tight knit community, after the earthquakes(damage went on for years after , with further shakes, liquefaction and flooding)people are connected with each other.
It would be one of the most difficult places to “stage ” an atrocity.
We had until recently , very lax gun laws(the shooter bought his in NZ legally) Despite Aromoana when 14 people were shot by a recluse, the powerful gun lobby prevented the laws from being changed.
Cross party consensus, and the bulk of NZ population want these laws tightened.And they have been.
We have quite a few armed offender callouts. Its no surprise that the rural cops come in for drills, and it was incredibly brave rural cops who rammed the offender’s car on Brougham street less than half an hour after the shooting started I can give links for the time line on this
Some people are saying the livestreamed video is a fake .I’ll go so far as saying this is true for the bulk of viewers
While Facebook was trying to take the video down , “sharers” were manipulating, altering and otherwise trying to disguise the video to get it past Facebook filters and censors
For what its worth, only those parts of websites that offered the video were blocked to NZers.
I have just logged on to zero hedge no problem
Here in NZ we don’t view guns and the means for killing other people as a human right . Civilians shouldn’t have military style weapons, hell, I don’t think anyone should. I’d rather not even have a military.
Please get over it, The CHCH mosque massacre was for real, and its going to take a long time to heal from it.
It might interest you to know that when the second and lethal earthquake struck there was a conference of orthopaedic surgeons in town, and they used their skills, crawling amidst the rubble amputating limbs and thus allowing trapped people to escape collapsed buildings. Spooky eh! Just couldn’t be a coincidence.
Posted by: francesca | Mar 29 2019 3:12 utc | 54
And whats more, the guy was arrested rather than shot dead in a storm of bullets which is what would have happened anywhere else.
Heads will roll in our spying departments. Our GCSB and SIS were spying on Maori activists, environmentalists, Greenpeace, animal rights activists, earthquake victims wanting their payout, and peaceful Muslims, but not white supremacists, despite repeated warnings.
Posted by: francesca | Mar 29 2019 3:20 utc | 55
“Countries across the world should intensify their work to achieve denuclearization and maintain sustainable peace on the Korean Peninsula. I thank China, Russia and Japan for their support and I also count on their more constructive role,” [South Korean Prime Minister] Lee Nak-yeon told an opening ceremony of the key part of the Boao Forum for Asia in south China’s Hainan Province. “In our turn, we will constantly make efforts in this direction.”
From a TASS news report (which in turn was reported on by RT).
And not the US in case anyone missed that, the South Koreans better be careful or they’ll get tweeted 🙂
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Mar 29 2019 3:23 utc | 56
LOL they’re spying on everyone all of the time, no one should kid themselves about that, and when they need one they magic up a terrorist be it an islamic jihadist, a white supremacist, a teddy bear fetishist, or anything they like. There has already been a case of a semittic or turkic “white nationalist sympathizer” shooting at people in Germany and he did not have white skin although everybody fades towards white in northern Europe for the most obvious reason possible.
Personally I’m satisfied they label me as an extremist in their automatic tagging system and for all I know maybe they waste some time on me in the form of even more intrusive surveillance (my commiserations to them). It would be fun to know for sure how many other tags I’ve got and how many of them are contradictory.
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Mar 29 2019 3:45 utc | 57
Francesca @55
I take your point, and I don’t buy that it was a hoax. However, there is a pattern of some very unlikely and statistically improbable coincidences in relation to many terror attacks. To use your example of a conference of orthopedic surgeons being in town during an earthquake and able to render assistance, if that same scenario had happened repeatedly in previous earthquakes, there would be a pattern. Given all that we know about what Western governments are up to, I think it’s reasonable to question that pattern.
Posted by: mourning dove | Mar 29 2019 3:46 utc | 58
The definition of “anti-semitism” keeps changing.
What is wrong with saying “anti-Zionist” or “anti-Jewish”?
Many Zionists are Christians some of whom dislike Jews.
Is there something wrong with being Jewish? There would seem to be if it is forbidden to say “anti-Jewish”.
When I hear “anti-semitism” it confuses me. I thought the majority – by far – of Semites speak Arabic.
Posted by: inohuri | Mar 29 2019 3:56 utc | 59
“This isn’t a migrant crisis, it’s a refugee crisis. One that the US directly created, NAFTA is only the tip of the iceberg.”
Posted by: mourning dove | Mar 28, 2019 3:50:16 PM | 14
True that md, trouble is, haven’t heard a peep from MSM corporate TV.
In the U$A, if it isn’t on TV, most American don’t hear it. It’s a continuing problem.
Posted by: ben | Mar 29 2019 4:03 utc | 60
@49
Indeed! Perhaps we should select a few choice passages from Henry Miller’s “The Air-Conditioned Nightmare”, attach a few photos of impoverished American rural areas and ghettos, assemble a little article and ship it off to Sputnik!
Posted by: dilijan | Mar 29 2019 4:11 utc | 61
Inohuri @60
Hebrew and Aramaic are both Semitic languages, so you are right that the majority of Semitic people are Arab. There’s a really big difference between anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish. The former is political opposition to Zionism, the latter is prejudice against a people.
Ben @61
Sad but true. It’s tragic.
Posted by: mourning dove | Mar 29 2019 4:37 utc | 62
Ghost Ship @51
I’m not sure I understand the difference between American Exceptionals and Democrats/Republicans. Those terms don’t seem mutually exclusive to me. How do you define the difference? I’m curious.
Posted by: mourning dove | Mar 29 2019 4:50 utc | 63
Turkey in total meltdown:
Turkey risk explodes
Posted by: vk | Mar 28, 2019 2:56:58 PM | 5
An online Russian newspaper (nationalist, reflecting Donbas sentiments) had a commentary titled: “Анкара формирует гибридный режим: слабая демократия и слабый авторитаризм” ( https://rusnext.ru/recent_opinions/1553787787 ), “Ankara forms a hybrid regime: weak democracy and weak authoritarianism”. Only few years ago Turks had jolly good time observing the Greek collapse, so the goddesses of justice and poetry seem to be alive and well in their ancestral region.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Mar 29 2019 5:21 utc | 64
Ghost Ship 52
Very much like Putin taking down the UK US backed oligarchs in Russia.
Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Mar 29 2019 5:28 utc | 65
@27 I believe fascism is alive and well in the UK. I’d go as far as
to say that the UK is the global capital of fascism.
Why?
Starting with our monarch saluting with her parents in her back
garden, moving on with us being a major financier of Nazi Germany.
The biggest clue however, is Mussolini, and his definition of
fascism.
Fascism is the marriage of corporation and the state.
Tell me if that’s not Britain today…
Posted by: Some Random Passer-by | Mar 29 2019 6:20 utc | 66
Posted by: ross82 | Mar 28, 2019 3:46:58 PM | 13
(b’s ‘wrong conclusion’)
It’s probably much simpler than that.
All Investigative Journalism begins with a presumption that there could be a juicy story behind a ‘News’ item. Rather than relying on instinct and rushing into print as soon as the idea pops into one’s head, the Investigative Journalist goes hunting for evidence which supports the presumption. But before publishing it’s essential to look at the evidence which does NOT support the presumption.
b likes to make evidence-based cases which present a strong and hard to refute point of view. He’s decided that a current line of inquiry hasn’t yielded a bullet-proof case. Yet.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Mar 29 2019 6:32 utc | 67
Correction to my comment @63
I said Aramaic when I meant Arabic. Aramaic is the root language of Hebrew and Arabic.
Posted by: mourning dove | Mar 29 2019 6:45 utc | 68
KSA are essential to the security and stability of the region and the safety of the American people – really… is that true americans here on the board?? how did it work out with kashoggi?? thank allah you are not in yemen..
“QUESTION: On Yemen, when you mention you call on all sides for transparent investigation, if the Saudis cannot be reliable for transparency on something like the Khashoggi murder, why would you have any expectation at all that they would be transparent and fair in an investigation like this?
MR PALLADINO: They are our partner in the Middle East and they are essential to the security and stability of the region and the safety of the American people. We are – we have frank discussions with them. We’ll continue to work with them, and – look at the neighborhood. We are dealing with an Iran on the move that is threatening neighbors and sponsoring via proxies destabilization throughout the region. This is something that the United States is – will continue to push back against. Please.”
https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2019/03/290748.htm
Posted by: james | Mar 29 2019 7:20 utc | 69
@ English Outsider 27
MOA Found this @ entry 12 – “There are actually now out and out fascists who are organizing actively. They call for a defense of democracy. They call for a rejection of politicians and politics in the sense that these politicians and official politics, democratic politics, are maneuvers used by the rich, and they’ve got nothing to do with the poor, and so on – the usual fascist stuff. And they’re finding an audience.” by: English Outsider | 27
Humm? Seems to me those called or labeled fascists are not per se’ seeking democracy, though democracy may be necessary to achieve their end goal. Instead I think those people labeled fascists, are seeking nothing more than the protection and benefit of human rights as the basis for the organization of their civil government? In other words, the so called fascists want ARMS (armed rule-making structures=nation states) to be designed and structured to support, to defend, to act and to allocate resources in accord to the principles of human rights; such governance, is bottom up in form. Traditionally ARMS are designed and organized as a result of wars by warriors. The morality war winning warriors support fits planning, designing, structuring and organizing government to defend and act on and to allocate resources in accord to the principles of economic gain, such is governance, in top down form.
Posted by: snake | Mar 29 2019 8:09 utc | 70
@55 Francesca
I agree with you completely about the coincidence of the training exercise with the Christchurch murders. I still have faith in the NZ police. I also find your explanation for the many reports of the video appearing false plausible.
What I think is extremely suspicious is the international movements of the suspect particularly him being in Turkey at the same time as two different terrorist attacks and also his supposed source of money, trading bitconnect. Another strange coincidence is Podesta’s visit to NZ and the attempts to link Trump to “White supremacists” now that Russiagate is looking jaded.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBmW8GP4SOU
Posted by: Ike | Mar 29 2019 8:14 utc | 71
White supremacists? That ought to be even less convincing than Russians. I’m glad I already ignore these media idiots who only offer things of negative value.
By the way this “white supremacy” is about Trump who loves Jews “so so much” his family is full of them and spray-tans into orange as if he was a UK “reality TV” bimbo instead of a geriatric (either that or he’s bathing in Iron Brew imported from Scotland).
Ignore them, they’re human spam.
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Mar 29 2019 9:37 utc | 72
I was on youtube tonight checking out some music, and went to select my location as US instead of Mexico, and then happened to think, let’s check and see if Venezuela is listed…..Well, bolivia, peru, Chile, argentina, colombia, el salvador, costa rica, Nicaragua, brazil, ecuador, etc etc all seem to be listed there as options but not Venezuela
anybody know why or got any ideas?
Posted by: michaelj72 | Mar 29 2019 10:25 utc | 73
I love reading MoA, thanks b for providing it.
I enjoy reading comments too, so man fine contributions. Alas, my fingers do not do what I want them to do, my contributions will be ever more scarce. I did not write this myself, but I made the words.
Posted by: Den Lille Abe | Mar 29 2019 10:41 utc | 74
>>>> Grieved | Mar 28, 2019 10:56:28 PM | 53
that money was created by banks simply by being loaned into existence.
There was probably no need to discover this, central bankers have supported this approach for a few decades now and have been very proud of it. Central banks such as the Bank of England privatized the business of creating money so that it wouldn’t appear as government debt, although QE is still a socialist activity because no private bank is large enough to handle it.
How can a house to which you have no title be pledged as the capital asset that supposedly creates the new money described to you as a loan, but in fact deriving solely from your promissory note, which is your mortgage?
Actually the mortgagor does have title to the property in the sense that it’s his/her name on the deeds and his/her name on the record at HM Land Registry. However, that entry on the Land Registry will record all the charges or encumbrances against the property so the mortgagor can’t dispose of his/her property without discharging them. As for the deeds, they’re held by the mortgagee or it’s agent.
For the last few years, the British property market has been based on a giant property bubble that’s kept from bursting by low interest rates and was paid for by private banks “printing” money. If interests go up, then the bubble will burst and the British economy will be in worse shit than it is now, and it’s in quite a lot of shit already.
As of Q1 (the first quarter of) 2018, UK debt amounted to £1.78 trillion, or 86.58% of total GDP, at which time the annual cost of servicing (paying the interest) the public debt amounted to around £48 billion (which is roughly 4% of GDP or 8% of UK government tax income). Approximately a third of this debt is owned by the British government due to the Bank of England’s quantitative easing programme, so approximately 1/3 of the cost of servicing the debt is paid by the government to itself, reducing the annual servicing cost to approximately £30 billion (approx 2% of GDP, approx 5% of UK government tax income).
Due to the Government’s current budget deficit (PSNCR), the national debt is increasing (by £46 billion in 2017). The Coalition Government in 2010 planned that they would eliminate the deficit by the 2015/16 financial year. However, by 2014 they admitted that the structural deficit would not be eliminated until the financial year 2017/18. This forecast was pushed back to 2018/19 in March 2015, and to 2019/20 in July 2015, before the target of a return to surplus at any particular time was finally abandoned by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne in July 2016.
So, the Conservative government introduced their austerity programme to reduce the current account deficit and thus the national debt but instead the current account deficit grew as did the national debt. What a bunch of intellectual minnows. It’s more likely the Conservative government introduced the austerity programme to roll back government. What a bunch of lying intellectual minnows or pondlife.
BTW, the first thing I expect to see in certain newspapers, well actually all of them, when Jeremy Corbyn is elected Prime Minister is editorials criticizing him for the size of the national debt, and claiming it’s his responsibility.
Posted by: Ghost Ship | Mar 29 2019 11:17 utc | 75
On March 21, Ayatollah Khamenei delivered a speech at a shrine in Mashhad (h/t The Saker). I partucularly like the following quote:
Now that we have spoken about the west, I would like to add that there are two opposing orientations about the west, both of which are wrong: one orientation is based on unreasonable bias and prejudice and reluctance to see western positives. Westerners launched a good movement in the area of science. They endeavored hard and they made progress with persistence. The same is true of technology and some behavioral traits. I have spoken about them at length in different speeches. These things should not be denied. We should learn every good thing wherever it is in the world.
I have mentioned frequently that we have no objections to being pupils. We will learn from anyone who knows more than us and this is alright with us. However, we should not be pupils forever. Therefore, having a reactionary attitude towards the west and having an unreasonable bias against the west which makes us reject whatever comes from that region – no matter what it is – is renounced by us.
The opposite point to this is “westoxication”. Westoxication is a grave danger. In the heart of the westoxicated Pahlavi regime, an intellectual who was deep-rooted in religious matters – the late Jalal Al-e Ahmad who was the son of a clergy and who had deep religious connections: he used to be in contact with us and he would express his respect and love for Imam [Khomeini] during his exile – brought up the issue of westoxication. Today, the issue of westoxication is an important issue. We should not forget it. Therefore, both prejudice and bias on the one hand and westoxication on the other hand are wrong. As I said, the west cannot be trusted. We should keep in contact, but we should not rely on them. We should benefit from their science and their positive aspects, but we should not trust them in any way. This is what I wanted to say in this regard. This was the second matter.
In other words, the Grand Ayatollah preaches respect for and learning from the West’s achievements, but also self-respect and awareness of the West’s insidiousness. A wise stand. Of course, the Western indoctrination apparatus would never print this and prefers to portray him as a hate-filled retrograde religious fanatic.
Posted by: S | Mar 29 2019 11:24 utc | 76
@ Den Lille Abe 74
Sorry about your fingers. But, it is good to hear from you. (I’m a lurker, mostly.). Any luck with speech to text software? (I have no experience with it.)
Posted by: oo goo gachoo | Mar 29 2019 11:26 utc | 77
Something that deserved exposure but never received any was a tape recording of Hillary Clinton being interviewed in the office of an Israeli newspaper. With respect to the Palestinian elections, she said, “..we should have made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win.” The recording of this remarkable statement is available online to anyone who wants to hear it. Clinton has no problem with a foreign power interfering with an election as long as that foreign power is the US.
Posted by: David | Mar 29 2019 12:17 utc | 78
Good to see that Assange is still feisty–
attempted Assange interview
Posted by: arby | Mar 29 2019 12:48 utc | 79
Listen to the short audio recording of Hillary’s comments on Palestinian elections here: Clinton bemoans US not rigging 2006 Palestinian election in newly-released tape (scroll down, click “Listen in browser”). Does anybody know if the full audio recording has been published?
Posted by: S | Mar 29 2019 12:56 utc | 80
69 James, I have “fixed” part of Palladino’s statement –
“We are dealing with an Iran on the move that is threatening neighbors and sponsoring via proxies destabilization throughout the region. This is something that the United States is doing as well and we will continue.”
(Since they don’t do irony)
Posted by: Bart Hansen | Mar 29 2019 13:02 utc | 81
re: 83 by Bart Hansen
My thoughts exactly, thanks also to James for original statement
Posted by: terrorist lieberal | Mar 29 2019 14:00 utc | 82
So, the Conservative government introduced their austerity programme to reduce the current account deficit and thus the national debt but instead the current account deficit grew as did the national debt. […] What a bunch of lying intellectual minnows or pondlife.
Ghost Ship | Mar 29, 2019 7:17:09 AM
It deserves some analysis to what extend the policies and their architects are stupid versus well planned policy to keep up those who should be up, and to keep down those who should be down. Lying part is rather obvious. There was a fascinating data point concerning putative stupidity. Osborne, then Chancellor of Exchequer (a pompous title of Finance Minister), against better judgement, took part in a TV program in which various figures meet pupils from English elementary schools. At some point Lord Chancellor smiled nicely and asked “do you have any questions”. A small boy smiled snidely and asked “how much is seven times eight?” Osborne answered that as a matter of principle he does not answer math questions. That already points to limited intellect: how one can naively trust the cute looks of adorable little tikes! A truly innocent boy would ask something like four times five and not the most confusing question in the entire multiplication table — both 54 and 56 are in the table so it is damn easy to confuse two answers. In a pinch, one could check the sum of digits — if 9 then one of the terms is 9, so for 7 x 8 it has to be 56. Secondly, why Osborne did not become Minister of Sports or some such that would be closer to his talents?
Some time later Exchequer had to increase the estimate of budget deficit by 4 billion quids because they botched the formula for some payments to EU budget. Those things are so maddening! Not only you have to be very careful how you punch numbers in a calculator, but you have to follow the formula properly! Are those guys in Brussels even human!?
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Mar 29 2019 14:12 utc | 83
Never mind 5G, what about 4G?
Cancer Cluster at California Elementary School Results in Removal of Sprint Cell Phone Tower
By Zero Hedge
Weston Elementary School in Ripon, CA went on high alert after the controversy erupted two years ago – with some parents even pulling their children from school over the tower which Sprint has been paying the school $2,000 per month to place on its property. Read more…
BTW, links on George Osborne interacting with children
first video, 2014
second video, 2016, he should not be Minister of Sports either
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Mar 29 2019 14:24 utc | 85
@81 Assange’s treatment is a disgrace. Not that you will hear anything in the corporate press about it beyond sneers at their better.
http://www.medialens.org/index.php/component/acymailing/archive/view/listid-3-alerts-precis/mailid-155-incinerating-assange-the-liberal-media-go-to-work.html
Posted by: Daniel | Mar 29 2019 15:02 utc | 86
Israel bombed Aleppo’s northern suburbs 2 days ago and it was almost unreported.
Posted by: Mina | Mar 29 2019 15:50 utc | 87
WRT NZ incident… francesa, ike, mourning dove
With all due respect, each of you have not posted anything factual per se, just opinion. And in this day & age, and surely among the healthy skeptics here on MoA, since when is the MSM take on things EVER not without ulterior motives? Especially among the “5-eyes”
For those familiar with the Hegelian dialetic (problem/reaction/solution) at play in most, if not all, of recent false flag events & hoaxes, the NZ incident has some striking similarities, as well as its own nuances…
This list is by no means exhaustive:
– fictitious “bogeyman”
– immediate identification of perp, organization & motives
– immediate tabling of new law(s) – as if it was already waiting in the wings
– vilification/censoring of those questioning official narrative
– suppression/death of witnesses whose accounts differ from official narrative
What NZ added, which should be of concern:
– aggressive eradication of “evidence”, i.e. video/audio of event
– legal penalties for possessing & disseminating said evidence
The above is unprecedented – I don’t recall it being done, to this scale before
Jim Stone (link above) exposes the anomalies rather well, as does blogger Kurt Haskell:
Why I Now Believe The New Zealand Event Was a Complete Hoax With Zero Dead
Posted by: xLemming | Mar 29 2019 16:08 utc | 88
@83 bart and @84 terrorist lieberal .
thanks.. it is very plain reading the words of the usa spokespeople, just how out of touch with reality the usa is and how they justify it 24/7 with heaps and heaps of ongoing bullshit.. that was from yesterdays transcript.. reading it, one quickly sees the nature of propaganda clearly and constantly… it is relentless..
iran is the least of the usa’s problems… ksa and israel on the other hand are front and center…they will never say this though, as they are using these 2 countries as an ongoing batting ram in the middle east..
Posted by: james | Mar 29 2019 16:30 utc | 89
@63 Dilijan
Indeed, Uncle Henry never got around to writing ‘The Pacific Palisades Nightmare’, where he settled.. Should be sent to hypocrites everywhere, in between sets of nude ping-pong with nubile Asian vixens..
Posted by: eddie | Mar 29 2019 16:43 utc | 90
They said Reagan was a teflon prez….nuthin sticks.
YOu can say the same about all 45 potus, nuthin sticks.
You can say the same about the gawd damned USA,
nuthin sticks.
How did they get away with it not once, not twice, but hundreds of times ???
Having the criminals themselves double up as investigators surely helps !
So you see the debris on 911 ground zero shipped out to China, Korea pronto.
Ditto the debris on the Bali bombing, which was dumped far out on sea. , before anybody except the
Aussies, FBI , CIA, had a chance to sniff at it.
What happens to the mh370 ?
The CIA, FBI have been on the case since 2014,
Im not holding my breath for it !
Tip of an iceberg.
Criminals investigating its own crimes,
It can only happen in the rule based 5liars domain,
hehehhehe
Posted by: denk | Mar 29 2019 17:43 utc | 91
The New York Times finally capitulated from the Russiagate fiasco:
Russians Always Knew There Was No Collusion
Article 61 protection for mass non-payment of tax from 12th April https://twitter.com/adeolindaclara/status/1111285914964246534
Posted by: kula | Mar 29 2019 18:00 utc | 93
@94 And as we see from the comments to that article a lot of Americans continue to think Russia/Putin are guilty as charged. Fake social media accounts, Trump dealings with Russian oligarchs, tanks ‘rolling into Crimea’……on and on it goes. They will never let Russia off the hook.
Posted by: dh | Mar 29 2019 18:08 utc | 94
Karlof 7
YOu’d be surprised,,,,
There’s an army of ‘progressives’ here, led by
that genius pft, who’d tell you,
China is just a bad as US,
In fact its far worse !
Im still scratching my head how those genius
figure out this part ?
hehehhehe
Posted by: denk | Mar 29 2019 18:09 utc | 95
@93 denk… good parallel… i really agree with you..whether it is boeing or kashoggi, it is the same shit from the usa.. thanks..
Posted by: james | Mar 29 2019 18:30 utc | 96
James 98
‘ it is the same shit from the usa..’
hey James, ever wonder why Canada’s forests
are disappearing like hell …?
http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_83451.shtml
hehehhe
Posted by: denk | Mar 29 2019 18:41 utc | 97
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/03/29/trump-must-fire-bolton-save-peace-world.html
Bolton. A pimple on the face of US foreign policy that needs to popped already. By any means.
Posted by: Alpi57 | Mar 29 2019 19:08 utc | 98
Dugway Villages
It was late 1943 and Churchill was pissed off. The Yanks had nixed his pet project Operation Thunderclap, the one that aimed to kill 275,000 Berliners in one single 2,000-plane raid. As a consolation he asked Roosevelt for a supply of anthrax bombs that would be used to wipe out the population of Germany’s six biggest cities. Again Roosevelt demurred. But he offered a glittering alternative: The Dugway villages.
Excerpt:
“Dugway was a high-security testing facility for chemical and biological weapons. The purpose of the replicas of German homes, which were repeatedly rebuilt after being intentionally burned down, was to perfect tactics in the fire bombing of German residential areas. In order to build a facility that was an authentic reproduction, studies were conducted to determine which materials and furnishings available in the U.S would closely match those in use in Germany. A group of German-American architects including prominent Jewish architects Eric Mendelsohn and Konrad Wachsmann, were employed to design the facility. To ensure that the fires spread as realistically as possible, typical German home-interiors were included, and the wood was periodically doused to simulate conditions in the more humid German climate.”
Churchill was delighted as was his Chief Scientific Adviser Frederick Lindemann. A German Jew described by Anthony Eden as “bad, and quite possibly mad” his main purpose in life according to a colleague was ‘to destroy every building in Germany, ideally burying his erstwhile fellow citizens under the rubble’.
Lindeman insisted that “the bombing must be directed essentially against working-class houses. Middle-class houses have too much space around them, and so are bound to waste bombs.” Nice chap.
According to the official document no effort was spared. The “German” architects used their knowledge of their former country to design the buildings and contents in such detail that even children’s toys were included. The houses had to be built, burnt, built and burnt, again and again.
But it was vital that kids not escape lest they grow up to be Nazis. At last the happy day arrived and the go-ahead was given to drop the bombs on the by now virtually undefended cities. The net result was that within a year more than 40% of German housing stock had been destroyed and up to half a million defenceless men, women and children slaughtered.
Can you just imagine going to work in that facility? You asked yourself practical questions like “how do we get the fire to spread spread quickly enough so that a mother doesn’t have time to reach her baby in the cot?”
Can such people be truly human? Either way they all went on to enjoy fame and fortune. And why not, were they not the Good Guys
Meanwhile the Bad Guys were all hanged after the war.
Source:
https://memory.loc.gov/master/pnp/habshaer/ut/ut0500/ut0568/data/ut0568data.pdf
Posted by: anon | Mar 29 2019 20:47 utc | 99
EU plan to fit cars with speed limiters could be UNSAFE: AA issues warning over plan to fit all new cars with technology that will force you to stick to EVERY speed limit from 2022
If this had been in place 5 years ago I would have been killed in a head on collision with a Police car that was overtaking and so on my side of the road, luckily I hit the accelerator and managed to get passed the trees lining my side of the road and onto a grass verge with a few seconds to spare.
Posted by: TJ | Mar 29 2019 21:33 utc | 100