tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15973487527998058362024-03-05T18:56:04.742-08:00The Lot SporadicallyConstant as I believe it isLot Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01618200650162112678noreply@blogger.comBlogger65125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1597348752799805836.post-83166997928189546872019-05-22T06:29:00.000-07:002019-05-22T06:41:49.943-07:00How to Survive a Civil War, the Rise of the Zombies and a Nuclear Bomb - A Tory GuideIt is now inarguable that the Conservatives have failed in their handling of Brexit. Floundering and fracturing, they have spawned a horrid hate-baby with Nigel Farage in the shape of the Brexit Party, that has torn the hearts of back-benchers, party loyalists and their 'average' (i.e. misinformed and paranoid) voter. The very existence of the Tory party is now in doubt.<br />
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Today's desperation vote on a withdrawal deal - substantially the same deal already rejected three or four times by Parliament - is sure to fail. It is a zombie bill, killed repeatedly only to rise again. However, as a political move I understand the thinking: the vote will crystalise the stance of the parties regarding Brexit. If nothing else, it should show voters that the Tories support Brexit and Labour oppose it - broadly speaking.<br />
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The theory being, if I have read this right, that they might persuade their base to stick with them by showing they are fighting to enact Brexit - broadly speaking.<br />
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'Broadly speaking' because there are Tories who will vote against it because it is 'BrINO' (Brexit In Name Only - yes, it is clumsy and not really an acronym) and others who will vote against it because it goes too far in severing our ties with the continent and hobbling our economy for decades.<br />
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Simply put, not enough of Parliament can, in good conscience, support it.<br />
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The majority of Members of Parliament are, regardless of political persuasion, patriotic. They will not vote for a policy they know will damage the country irrevocably.<br />
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When Nigel Farage gets on his hind legs and talks about how everybody in power - Parliament, the Electoral Commission, the Civil Service, the News Media, 'Metropolitan Elites' - are ALL Remainers, what he wants you to hear is that there is a ruling class that will simply ignore the wishes of the people for their own interests. I think there is a kernel of truth to that - but only inasmuch as the majority of people with any knowledge of the matter know that Brexit will damage the country in a way that we will not recover from for decades.<br />
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The Farage image mirage is of victimhood. It gives rise to resentment against 'elites' among his supporters, along with anger at 'being ignored'.<br />
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It is the self-same anger of a five-year-old who no-one listens to - because the five-year-old is totally ignorant of the subject that the adults are talking about, and totally ignorant of where the discussion amongst the adults has got to. The five-year-old just wants to yell their ignorant opinion and for it to be treated as if it has as much value as an expert's, the same value as someone with an intricate understanding earned through years of study and work.<br />
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Hearing Farage speak about the EU is like going to a seminar on how the microchip was used in the Apollo missions to the moon, but finding that the speaker is a conspiracy theorist who denies that there were any Moon Landings. The complexity of the subject - the microchip! - is beyond him, so he denies the very facts surrounding the subject.<br />
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He denies the democracy within the EU that is proven by the elections we are having tomorrow. He denies the opinions of economists who, in their droves, have warned of the catastrophe that Brexit threatens; he denies that his own words from the 2016 campaign should be taken literally - his own words about how easy the negotiations will be, about how the EU would beg for a deal from us, about the £350 Million a week we would suddenly be able to spend on the NHS because of Brexit, and on and on and on. He simply denies and deflects at every level.<br />
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The Vote Leave campaign is being investigated for election fraud currently and Nigel Farage is squealing like a stuck pig at the prospect that his lies, his criminal frauds, will come back to bite him and even put him in jail.<br />
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The way that the Tory Party dies is if they decide to learn nothing from the Republicans in the USA, who have latched their wagon to the Trump train that is in the middle of a campaign of blatant obstruction of justice that is sure to end in impeachment and infamy. The Conservative Party will die if they hold Nigel Farage, and his grip over their core supporters, closer.<br />
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In the end, the Tory Party has to stand for the best interests of the country and, whether they see that as inside or outside of the EU, makes no difference - they cannot embrace a Know-Nothing Conspiracy theorist who is only master of paranoia, resentment and victimhood. That would be like putting the guy who says the moon landings were faked in charge of NASA.<br />
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Brexit, the No Deal kind wished for by Nigel Farage, where we as a country hold hands and jump out of the EU with no clue as to where we might land, will be like a nuclear bomb hitting our economy. Everyone not already safely ensconced in a job will become utterly desperate as no businesses will be hiring. Many businesses that will survive will do so by massive lay-offs. The government will be called on to save steel, save manufacturing, save farming, save aviation and onward, in a sequence of fire-fighting corporate welfare that will make 2008 look like the Gilded Age.<br />
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If it is the Conservative Party that brings this about, they will never be forgiven. That is what will happen if they dump Theresa May, elect Boris Johnson and push through a catastrophic No Deal withdrawal, hand-in-hand with Nigel Farage.<br />
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They must stand firm by what they know to be true against what they think might win votes at the next election.Lot Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01618200650162112678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1597348752799805836.post-10667547290693489882019-04-11T12:44:00.000-07:002019-04-11T16:22:22.247-07:00Julian Assange is Free At LastThe man who was Julian Assange was dragged from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London today by some plain-clothes police officers from the Met. He looked nothing like his picture.<br />
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Edward Snowden claimed they were "secret police" and declared it a "a dark moment for press freedom" from his perch under the asylum granted by ex-secret policeman, Vladimir Putin, who actually kills journalists who displease him. The tumbling whirl of irony swallows all laughter.<br />
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He was taken to Court to appear, charged with the crime of failing to surrender to the court, dating from 2012. He somehow pleaded 'not guilty', despite having just spent almost seven years hidden in an embassy to avoid justice, while waving and giving thumbs-up to the gallery. The judge called this "the behaviour of a narcissist" and it is difficult to argue with that. It is also difficult to argue with his being found 'Guilty', as he soon was.<br />
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Wikileaks has accused Ecuador of "betraying" Assange, which is rich, as Wikileaks had recently produced leaked documents damaging to Ecuador's government. The truth is, he has been goading them for years, and finally they have had enough and sent him packing.<br />
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I wonder if he was acting out of a sub-conscious desire to be thrown-out? Or perhaps a conscious desire, so he would be able to claim it was somehow illegal or unjust for his asylum to be rescinded. Playing the victim has long been his modus operandi, and he would not be able to if he had simply walked out into the London air.<br />
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He is either too much of a deluded narcissist, or too little of a man, to leave the embassy on his own accord to face justice. However, I am sure that today, in the long-run, will count as a great day for Julian Assange, because today he is out of purgatory.<br />
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His long confinement is over. Julian Assange is finally free from the Embassy - and the Ecuadorian Embassy is free of him. He is now in the hands of the criminal justice system of the United Kingdom, which has a decent reputation for protecting free speech.<br />
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But the case of Julian Assange is not about free speech - it could have been, had he surrendered to the courts in 2012, but that time has long-since passed.<br />
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There has been an extradition request from the US, relating to 'helping' Chelsea Manning break password protection to access classified files. If that request is accepted, if he is then tried and convicted, if he has no successful appeal, if he is given and serves the full sentence of 5 years, and if that is on top of the 12 months given by the UK for absconding, then he will still spend less time in jail than he spent in the embassy.<br />
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As I have always said: he would have been better off leaving the embassy years ago, ending his own confinement, and submitting himself to the justice system, rather than behaving as if he were above the law.<br />
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The investigation of rape accusations in Sweden have never fully gone away, either - though they were reported to be 'dropped', they were really put on hold. <i>“If he, at a later date, makes himself available, I will be able to decide to resume the investigation immediately.”</i> Said the Swedish prosecutor.<br />
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Assange is now available, so the case can be resumed. It is down to the Swedes what happens next in that case. I would not like to guess what will happen, but they might be granted extradition, so that he can finally face his accusers - one of whom is today pushing for exactly that.<br />
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In my mind, that has always been the crux of this story - an accused rapist, using the privilege of being a celebrity white westerner, has been hiding under asylum laws from two women. These women accuse him of raping them - one saying he lied about using a condom, the other saying he started having sex with her while she was asleep, and ignored her when she said "No."<br />
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The behaviour of Wikileaks towards certain public figures - of taking their personal correspondence and exposing them without their consent - is too reminiscent of rape to ignore. He may have embarrassed people like Hillary Clinton, but he never revealed her as a criminal, despite using the most invasive tools. He did it to exercise power over her, and that is the act of a rapist.<br />
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The charges in the US are, in contrast, far more noble crimes. The US under George W. Bush went down a road of torture and war, and there are many people walking the earth today who are guilty of crimes that Assange exposed. Manning is a hero in my eyes for having been a whistle-blower. Assange could have been, too. But helping Chelsea Manning to break password protection is yet another betrayal of trust - if proven true, he did not look after his source, instead he used her to advance his own agenda, in the process helping to condemn them both.<br />
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After this, his career veered towards corruption, towards greedily and unquestioningly publishing stuff that was more and more being dictated from the Kremlin - I don't know if he was unwittingly helping them, or if it was his intention, but he did turn down the chance to expose Russian corruption, he did redact information that exposed Russian corruption, and eventually he committed the worst crime imaginable by assisting the election of Donald Trump, and condemning the world with a hateful madman in the White House.<br />
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I see nothing in any of the charges against him that have anything at all to do with free speech.<br />
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All I see are the actions of a narcissist, who never thought he would be judged like everyone else, who never thought that the law applied to him, who never thought he would be exposed to his own crimes.<br />
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Like Dorian Gray, now the painting is out of the attic. Now we get to see who he really is.<br />
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Now we see him crying 'betrayal!' at the people who took him in, who he repaid with threats and with leaks; now we see him being called to Sweden to face the women who say he betrayed them; now we see him being called to America to face justice with the soldier he betrayed - because he betrayed her, too; now we see him in the sunlight and he seems small, and quite see-through.<br />
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Now we see him and now he sees him, too. That is why today is a great day for Julian Assange - today is the day he starts to become who he is; to reconcile everything he has done with what it means to have done it; today he is no longer hidden in the shadows, he is being thrust out into the light.<br />
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My hope is that justice is done in the open, so all those dark mutterings about corruption, by all those Wikileaks followers and conspiracy drones, can also be exposed to the power of the truth, to the brilliance of justice and to the foolishness of hiding from either.Lot Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01618200650162112678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1597348752799805836.post-44824672742221670282018-12-08T02:27:00.001-08:002018-12-08T02:27:56.401-08:00BBC on RT, or How the Shepherd loses the FlockThe success of the propaganda campaign against the BBC is a lesson in how wolves teach sheep to fear the shepherd. <br />
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It's an amazing trick: on the left, the BBC is "Tory propaganda". On the right, it's "Lefty mush," Yet, somehow, both say "I prefer RT"!!!!!<br />
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That is how a dictator gains power - to capture all points of the spectrum, not through policy, not through convincing arguments, not through simply being good, but by presenting a clear, uncomplicated vision of the world that absolves the target of any responsibility. A demagogue tells the people: "Everything that can change your mind is a plot to deceive you, everything you disagree with is a conspiracy against you, and all your leaders are corrupt".<br />
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Once one believes that, the game is on - RT is not run by those corrupt leaders, and shows you an alternative vision of the world, where Putin manfully struggles against Western Imperialism, but is attacked out of 'russophobia' (not a real thing) and because he is all that's stopping a global Western takeover, where everyone would be under the yoke of shady actors conspiring to own everything (who are mostly Jewish).<br />
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It is a similar dynamic on PressTV - that our leaders are corrupt is an all-pervading assumption - of course we are being lied to at every level. The global conspiracy of mostly Jewish people is ever present, corrupting everything.<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Anti-Semitism doesn't die - it just gets repackaged and re-sold. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As distasteful as I find it to call people "sheep", it is a metaphor that works all too well: yes, the shepherd sometimes leads the sheep astray, yes the shepherd does have power over them, and sometimes the shepherd is unfair, lazy, stupid, paranoid and wrong. But the shepherd only wants their wool, and the shepherd's dog obeys the rules; the wolf wants them for dinner and has no rules.</span>Lot Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01618200650162112678noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1597348752799805836.post-65619283989432712312018-08-21T10:09:00.000-07:002018-08-21T10:09:03.975-07:00<div aria-label="Comment" class="UFIRow _48pi _4204 UFIComment _4oep" data-ft="{"tn":"R2"}" id="comment_js_sq" role="article" style="background-color: white; border-top: 1px solid rgb(225, 226, 227); margin: 0px; padding: 8px 12px 4px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">REDACTED 1 Please tell me this is a satire site!</span></div>
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<span class="_36rj" style="color: #1d2129; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px;"><br /><a href="https://skwawkbox.org/2018/08/19/desperate-woman-sets-fire-to-herself-in-tory-run-barnet-council-office-msm-ignore/">https://skwawkbox.org/2018/08/19/desperate-woman-sets-fire-to-herself-in-tory-run-barnet-council-office-msm-ignore/</a><a aria-label="Hide this" class="UFICommentCloseButton _1-be _xw0 _xw9 _5upp _42ft" commentid="10217520531945411" data-hover="tooltip" data-testid="ufi_comment_close_button" data-tooltip-alignh="center" data-tooltip-content="Hide this" href="https://www.facebook.com/aron.ward.1/posts/10217520512744931?comment_id=10217523480419121&reply_comment_id=10217524059793605&notif_id=1534853038499621&notif_t=feed_comment_reply#" menudata="[object Object]" menutype="DOTS" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url("/rsrc.php/v3/yU/r/NmQL1Qrfg4i.png"); background-position: -13px -987px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: auto; border: 0px none; color: #365899; cursor: pointer; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0px !important; height: 12px; margin-left: 12px; opacity: 1; outline: none; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: static; right: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; top: 0px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: nowrap; width: 12px; z-index: 1;" tooltip="Hide this">Manage</a></span></div>
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</span><span aria-hidden="true" role="presentation" style="font-family: inherit;"> · </span><a class="UFIReplyLink _460i" href="https://www.facebook.com/aron.ward.1/posts/10217520512744931?comment_id=10217523480419121&reply_comment_id=10217524059793605&notif_id=1534853038499621&notif_t=feed_comment_reply#" role="button" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">Reply</a><span aria-hidden="true" role="presentation" style="font-family: inherit;"> · </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a class="uiLinkSubtle" data-ft="{"tn":"N"}" data-testid="ufi_comment_timestamp" href="https://www.facebook.com/aron.ward.1/posts/10217520512744931?comment_id=10217520531945411&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R2%22%7D" style="color: #90949c; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><abbr class="UFISutroCommentTimestamp livetimestamp" data-minimize="true" data-shorten="true" data-utime="1534804227" style="border-bottom: none; color: #616770; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial;" title="Monday, 20 August 2018 at 23:30">18h</abbr></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">REDACTED We’re living in a totalitarian state</span></div>
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</span><span aria-hidden="true" role="presentation" style="font-family: inherit;"> · </span><a class="UFIReplyLink _460i" href="https://www.facebook.com/aron.ward.1/posts/10217520512744931?comment_id=10217523480419121&reply_comment_id=10217524059793605&notif_id=1534853038499621&notif_t=feed_comment_reply#" role="button" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">Reply</a><span aria-hidden="true" role="presentation" style="font-family: inherit;"> · </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a class="uiLinkSubtle" data-ft="{"tn":"N"}" data-testid="ufi_comment_timestamp" href="https://www.facebook.com/aron.ward.1/posts/10217520512744931?comment_id=10217520573226443&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R1%22%7D" style="color: #90949c; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><abbr class="UFISutroCommentTimestamp livetimestamp" data-minimize="true" data-shorten="true" data-utime="1534804741" style="border-bottom: none; color: #616770; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial;" title="Monday, 20 August 2018 at 23:39">18h</abbr></a></span></div>
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REDACTED 2 <span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s fucking insane.</span></div>
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</span><span aria-hidden="true" role="presentation" style="font-family: inherit;"> · </span><a class="UFIReplyLink _460i" href="https://www.facebook.com/aron.ward.1/posts/10217520512744931?comment_id=10217523480419121&reply_comment_id=10217524059793605&notif_id=1534853038499621&notif_t=feed_comment_reply#" role="button" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">Reply</a><span aria-hidden="true" role="presentation" style="font-family: inherit;"> · </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a class="uiLinkSubtle" data-ft="{"tn":"N"}" data-testid="ufi_comment_timestamp" href="https://www.facebook.com/aron.ward.1/posts/10217520512744931?comment_id=10217520573226443&reply_comment_id=10217520578106565&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R2%22%7D" style="color: #90949c; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><abbr class="UFISutroCommentTimestamp livetimestamp" data-minimize="true" data-shorten="true" data-utime="1534804848" style="border-bottom: none; color: #616770; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial;" title="Monday, 20 August 2018 at 23:40">18h</abbr></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a class=" UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=537082914&extragetparams=%7B%22is_public%22%3Afalse%2C%22hc_location%22%3A%22ufi%22%7D" dir="ltr" href="https://www.facebook.com/lotgrundy?fref=ufi" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-weight: 600; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_self">Lot Grundy</a></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="UFICommentBody _1n4g" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Well, either that or she has a serious mental condition, or was a spurned lover, or both, or other reasons. There's no pictures, no video running, and no clear reason why she did it - no note, no online post, no clear declaration to onlookers. So the s</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">tory is "A woman set herself on fire in a council office - investigation ongoing". It might have been to protest austerity; she might have been protesting the immigrants still living next door, even after we voted for Brexit; she might have been told to do it by the watermelon aliens that live in her bathtub; she might have been idly playing with matches or a magnifying glass - jumping to the conclusion that it was a protest for a particular worldview isn't justified by the facts. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">I wouldn't want to be a news editor, either - every other twitter commentator seems to think they can do the job better. A news editor saying "oh, well, we don't know why she's done this, so we should wait until we have some facts" translates into "TORY BBC BIAS!!!" - it's insane.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">If we were living in a totalitarian state, you totally wouldn't be able to state we were living in a totalitarian state, in a totally totalitarian state stating you live in a totally totalitarian state would land you in a state where the state would state you totally can't state the state is totally totalitarian, and that's a state I wouldn't want to be in.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Like in North Korea, where such a statement might prove deadly. Not as deadly as my wordplay, amiright??</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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</span><span aria-hidden="true" role="presentation" style="font-family: inherit;"> · </span><a class="UFIReplyLink _460i" href="https://www.facebook.com/aron.ward.1/posts/10217520512744931?comment_id=10217523480419121&reply_comment_id=10217524059793605&notif_id=1534853038499621&notif_t=feed_comment_reply#" role="button" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">Reply</a><span aria-hidden="true" role="presentation" style="font-family: inherit;"> · </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a class="uiLinkSubtle" data-ft="{"tn":"N"}" data-testid="ufi_comment_timestamp" href="https://www.facebook.com/aron.ward.1/posts/10217520512744931?comment_id=10217523400577125&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R0%22%7D" style="color: #90949c; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><abbr class="UFISutroCommentTimestamp livetimestamp" data-minimize="true" data-shorten="true" data-utime="1534842488" style="border-bottom: none; color: #616770; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial;" title="Tuesday, 21 August 2018 at 10:08">7h</abbr></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a class=" UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=537082914&extragetparams=%7B%22is_public%22%3Afalse%2C%22hc_location%22%3A%22ufi%22%7D" dir="ltr" href="https://www.facebook.com/lotgrundy?fref=ufi" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-weight: 600; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_self">Lot Grundy</a></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="UFICommentBody _1n4g" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Also, the suggestion that this country pays any attention to anyone setting themselves on fire in other countries is laughable. Vatan Karabash set himself on fire in protest against the Russian annexation of Crimea two weeks ago. Oh, you didn't know? N</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">either did I, until I looked it up. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">"Karabash set himself on fire in public, declaring Russia policies to be lawless; he had previously expressed anger at plans for demolition of Crimean Tatar houses in Russian-occupied Crimea, which had been deemed "illegal" since they were built before Crimean Tatars had been given the right of return. Bystanders put out the flames and the injuries were reported to be non-fatal."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">An self-immolation with a clear public declaration in support of the (supposedly) Tory BBC's (purported) campaign to (haha) start a war with Russia? You'd think that the state-Israeli-corporate-lizard run BBC would jump all over this!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">(Excuse my facetiousness, I'm having fun)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yeah: No. Because the news is what people will read, not necessarily what is important.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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</span><span aria-hidden="true" role="presentation" style="font-family: inherit;"> · </span><a class="UFIReplyLink _460i" href="https://www.facebook.com/aron.ward.1/posts/10217520512744931?comment_id=10217523480419121&reply_comment_id=10217524059793605&notif_id=1534853038499621&notif_t=feed_comment_reply#" role="button" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">Reply</a><span aria-hidden="true" role="presentation" style="font-family: inherit;"> · </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a class="uiLinkSubtle" data-ft="{"tn":"N"}" data-testid="ufi_comment_timestamp" href="https://www.facebook.com/aron.ward.1/posts/10217520512744931?comment_id=10217523480419121&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R%22%7D" style="color: #90949c; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><abbr class="UFISutroCommentTimestamp livetimestamp" data-minimize="true" data-shorten="true" data-utime="1534844392" style="border-bottom: none; color: #616770; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial;" title="Tuesday, 21 August 2018 at 10:39">7h</abbr></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a class=" UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=589780910&extragetparams=%7B%22is_public%22%3Afalse%2C%22hc_location%22%3A%22ufi%22%7D" dir="ltr" href="https://www.facebook.com/ol.liver.7146?fref=ufi" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-weight: 600; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_self">R</a>EDACTED</span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="UFICommentBody _1n4g" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">How is it though that every main newspaper has chosen to ignore that a woman has set fire to herself. I think this is media control. I agree about not making connections immediately, but it’s a bit difficult to ascertain the truth, when the media are g</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">uarddogs to the Tories. I was probably overboard saying Totalitarian state I admit. I’m sure Karabash got the media attention, I just don’t understand why this is different. I do actually, it’s all about pushing the bad shit under the carpet, like the way charities are not allowed to criticise the Tory agenda.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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</span><span aria-hidden="true" role="presentation" style="font-family: inherit;"> · </span><a class="UFIReplyLink _460i" href="https://www.facebook.com/aron.ward.1/posts/10217520512744931?comment_id=10217523480419121&reply_comment_id=10217524059793605&notif_id=1534853038499621&notif_t=feed_comment_reply#" role="button" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">Reply</a><span aria-hidden="true" role="presentation" style="font-family: inherit;"> · </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a class="uiLinkSubtle" data-ft="{"tn":"N"}" data-testid="ufi_comment_timestamp" href="https://www.facebook.com/aron.ward.1/posts/10217520512744931?comment_id=10217523480419121&reply_comment_id=10217523930510373&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R2%22%7D" style="color: #90949c; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><abbr class="UFISutroCommentTimestamp livetimestamp" data-minimize="true" data-shorten="true" data-utime="1534851529" style="border-bottom: none; color: #616770; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial;" title="Tuesday, 21 August 2018 at 12:38"><span class="timestampContent" style="font-family: inherit;">5h</span></abbr></a><span aria-hidden="true" role="presentation" style="font-family: inherit;"> · </span><a ajaxify="/ajax/edits/browser/comment?comment_token=10217520512744931_10217523930510373" class="uiLinkSubtle" data-hover="tooltip" data-tooltip-content="Show edit history" href="https://www.facebook.com/aron.ward.1/posts/10217520512744931?comment_id=10217523480419121&reply_comment_id=10217524059793605&notif_id=1534853038499621&notif_t=feed_comment_reply#" rel="dialog" role="button" style="color: #90949c; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Show edit history">Edited</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a class=" UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=589780910&extragetparams=%7B%22is_public%22%3Afalse%2C%22hc_location%22%3A%22ufi%22%7D" dir="ltr" href="https://www.facebook.com/ol.liver.7146?fref=ufi" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-weight: 600; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_self">R</a>EDACTED</span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">Sorry missed your last point. It’s true that the media is designed to grab attention and it’s usually not the important stuff.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a class=" UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=537082914&extragetparams=%7B%22is_public%22%3Afalse%2C%22hc_location%22%3A%22ufi%22%7D" dir="ltr" href="https://www.facebook.com/lotgrundy?fref=ufi" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-weight: 600; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_self">Lot Grundy</a></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="UFICommentBody _1n4g" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Karabash got no media attention. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">There is no confirmation from anyone that this lady said anything about why she set herself on fire - all that we know is that she did. And she might easily have done it for a plethora of reasons. The only person sayi</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">ng it was because of Tory policies is the father of an eyewitness who only saw the aftermath - and that is what gets reported at Vox and Skwawkbox and Nyebeven and all the rest of these screamingly biased outlets - as if it were a fact that her motivation was known. It's not. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">The only mainstream media control in evidence is the media controlling itself by not reporting the-opinion-of-a-relative-of-someone-who-was-in-the-next-room as fact. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">If my friend's dad said that I was only writing this because I'm being paid by the government, that would hold exactly the same weight as this report. Of course, my motivation for writing this is that I'm sick and don't want to stand up right now because the room goes alittle swimmy. that and the Test Match is going badly so I've stopped listening to it and maybe I should continue to binge Archer on Netflix???</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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</span><span aria-hidden="true" role="presentation" style="font-family: inherit;"> · </span><a class="UFIReplyLink _460i" href="https://www.facebook.com/aron.ward.1/posts/10217520512744931?comment_id=10217523480419121&reply_comment_id=10217524059793605&notif_id=1534853038499621&notif_t=feed_comment_reply#" role="button" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">Reply</a><span aria-hidden="true" role="presentation" style="font-family: inherit;"> · </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a class="uiLinkSubtle" data-ft="{"tn":"N"}" data-testid="ufi_comment_timestamp" href="https://www.facebook.com/aron.ward.1/posts/10217520512744931?comment_id=10217523480419121&reply_comment_id=10217524046033261&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R0%22%7D" style="color: #90949c; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><abbr class="UFISutroCommentTimestamp livetimestamp" data-minimize="true" data-shorten="true" data-utime="1534852805" style="border-bottom: none; color: #616770; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial;" title="Tuesday, 21 August 2018 at 13:00">5h</abbr></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a class=" UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=589780910&extragetparams=%7B%22is_public%22%3Afalse%2C%22hc_location%22%3A%22ufi%22%7D" dir="ltr" href="https://www.facebook.com/ol.liver.7146?fref=ufi" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-weight: 600; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_self">R</a>EDACTED</span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">Haha fair play. Hope more information comes to light. Still tragic whatever it was that spurned someone to do this. I’ll go with that that there is not enoUgh (factless) information to work on.</span></div>
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</span><span aria-hidden="true" role="presentation" style="font-family: inherit;"> · </span><a class="UFIReplyLink _460i" href="https://www.facebook.com/aron.ward.1/posts/10217520512744931?comment_id=10217523480419121&reply_comment_id=10217524059793605&notif_id=1534853038499621&notif_t=feed_comment_reply#" role="button" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">Reply</a><span aria-hidden="true" role="presentation" style="font-family: inherit;"> · </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a class="uiLinkSubtle" data-ft="{"tn":"N"}" data-testid="ufi_comment_timestamp" href="https://www.facebook.com/aron.ward.1/posts/10217520512744931?comment_id=10217523480419121&reply_comment_id=10217524059793605&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R%22%7D" style="color: #90949c; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><abbr class="UFISutroCommentTimestamp livetimestamp" data-minimize="true" data-shorten="true" data-utime="1534853098" style="border-bottom: none; color: #616770; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial;" title="Tuesday, 21 August 2018 at 13:04"><span class="timestampContent" style="font-family: inherit;">4h</span></abbr></a><span aria-hidden="true" role="presentation" style="font-family: inherit;"> · </span><a ajaxify="/ajax/edits/browser/comment?comment_token=10217520512744931_10217524059793605" class="uiLinkSubtle" data-hover="tooltip" data-tooltip-content="Show edit history" href="https://www.facebook.com/aron.ward.1/posts/10217520512744931?comment_id=10217523480419121&reply_comment_id=10217524059793605&notif_id=1534853038499621&notif_t=feed_comment_reply#" rel="dialog" role="button" style="color: #90949c; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Show edit history">Edited</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a class=" UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=537082914&extragetparams=%7B%22is_public%22%3Afalse%2C%22hc_location%22%3A%22ufi%22%7D" dir="ltr" href="https://www.facebook.com/lotgrundy?fref=ufi" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-weight: 600; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_self">Lot Grundy</a></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="UFICommentBody _1n4g" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Or not. The Tory policies are crushing the working class and further enriching the rich; the husband of the PM has a controlling stake in G4S that is embroiled in yet another scandal - it's a company that should have been savaged years ago by crowds wi</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">th pitchforks and torches; Brexit is generally acknowledged to be a complete disaster and we are going to suffer for it, not the rich, and there is no party to vote for who will give us a people's vote because T.May is strapped in to that particular rocket by Bojo and Gove, and JC has always been a brexiteer, and this morning his shadow cabinet lady for the brexit ruled out a people's vote because, get this newspeak, it would be 'undemocratic' and would 'embolden the far right'.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, yes: Democracy is, of course, bad for democracy, and we should definitely base our actions on what a bunch of skinheads might do as a result. So drop trow, bend over, and think of 2008 all over again, yeah? Good stuff.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sorry, I'm clearly a little not ok.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="_36rj" style="font-family: inherit;"><a aria-label="Edit or delete this" class="UFICommentCloseButton _1-be _xw0 _xw9 _5upp _42ft" commentid="10217524121875157" data-hover="tooltip" data-testid="ufi_comment_close_button" data-tooltip-alignh="center" data-tooltip-content="Edit or delete this" href="https://www.facebook.com/aron.ward.1/posts/10217520512744931?comment_id=10217523480419121&reply_comment_id=10217524059793605&notif_id=1534853038499621&notif_t=feed_comment_reply#" menudata="[object Object],[object Object]" menutype="DOTS" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url("/rsrc.php/v3/yU/r/NmQL1Qrfg4i.png"); background-position: -13px -987px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: auto; border: 0px none; color: #365899; cursor: pointer; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0px !important; height: 12px; margin-left: 12px; opacity: 0; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: static; right: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; top: 0px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: nowrap; width: 12px; z-index: 1;" tooltip="Edit or delete this">Manage</a></span></div>
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</span><span aria-hidden="true" role="presentation" style="font-family: inherit;"> · </span><a class="UFIReplyLink _460i" href="https://www.facebook.com/aron.ward.1/posts/10217520512744931?comment_id=10217523480419121&reply_comment_id=10217524059793605&notif_id=1534853038499621&notif_t=feed_comment_reply#" role="button" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">Reply</a><span aria-hidden="true" role="presentation" style="font-family: inherit;"> · </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a class="uiLinkSubtle" data-ft="{"tn":"N"}" data-testid="ufi_comment_timestamp" href="https://www.facebook.com/aron.ward.1/posts/10217520512744931?comment_id=10217523480419121&reply_comment_id=10217524121875157&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R%22%7D" style="color: #90949c; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><abbr class="UFISutroCommentTimestamp livetimestamp" data-minimize="true" data-shorten="true" data-utime="1534853893" style="border-bottom: none; color: #616770; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial;" title="Tuesday, 21 August 2018 at 13:18">4h</abbr></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a class=" UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=537082914&extragetparams=%7B%22is_public%22%3Afalse%2C%22hc_location%22%3A%22ufi%22%7D" dir="ltr" href="https://www.facebook.com/lotgrundy?fref=ufi" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-weight: 600; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_self">Lot Grundy</a></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="UFICommentBody _1n4g" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And of course the lefty rags are up in arms about a thing that has absolutely no proof, no reporting, no sense - and not angry at what the actual Tories are actually doing! MADNESS! Oh, they're not reporting on the blithering nonsense that Corbyn's Bre</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">xit minister was blathering this morning, they're not questioning why one of JC's best mates, MP Chris Williamson, endorses a pro-Assad conspiracy theorist Vanessa Beeley, who called the late Jo Cox a "Warmongering Blairite" and al-Queda advocate - after she was murdered! - who claims the Charlie Hebdo killings were 'staged' in a France that is 'Run by Zionists' and is a 9/11 truther (which seems somehow quaint, doesn't it?). </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Of course, Chris Williamson himself has previously compared the Lib Dems to the Nazis and said Labour MPs who supported Theresa May’s position blaming the Salisbury poisoning on Russia were as much “political enemies” as the Tories.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Of course, you won't find any of that on the BBC. You actually won't. Because they don't necessarily reflect every interest and opinion I have (my opinion being that such a person has no place in Parliament).</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="_36rj" style="font-family: inherit;"><a aria-label="Edit or delete this" class="UFICommentCloseButton _1-be _xw0 _xw9 _5upp _42ft" commentid="10217524508484822" data-hover="tooltip" data-testid="ufi_comment_close_button" data-tooltip-alignh="center" data-tooltip-content="Edit or delete this" href="https://www.facebook.com/aron.ward.1/posts/10217520512744931?comment_id=10217523480419121&reply_comment_id=10217524059793605&notif_id=1534853038499621&notif_t=feed_comment_reply#" menudata="[object Object],[object Object]" menutype="DOTS" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url("/rsrc.php/v3/yU/r/NmQL1Qrfg4i.png"); background-position: -13px -987px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: auto; border: 0px none; color: #365899; cursor: pointer; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0px !important; height: 12px; margin-left: 12px; opacity: 0; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: static; right: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; top: 0px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: nowrap; width: 12px; z-index: 1;" tooltip="Edit or delete this">Manage</a></span></div>
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</span><span aria-hidden="true" role="presentation" style="font-family: inherit;"> · </span><a class="UFIReplyLink _460i" href="https://www.facebook.com/aron.ward.1/posts/10217520512744931?comment_id=10217523480419121&reply_comment_id=10217524059793605&notif_id=1534853038499621&notif_t=feed_comment_reply#" role="button" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">Reply</a><span aria-hidden="true" role="presentation" style="font-family: inherit;"> · </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a class="uiLinkSubtle" data-ft="{"tn":"N"}" data-testid="ufi_comment_timestamp" href="https://www.facebook.com/aron.ward.1/posts/10217520512744931?comment_id=10217523480419121&reply_comment_id=10217524508484822&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R%22%7D" style="color: #90949c; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><abbr class="UFISutroCommentTimestamp livetimestamp" data-minimize="true" data-shorten="true" data-utime="1534858578" style="border-bottom: none; color: #616770; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial;" title="Tuesday, 21 August 2018 at 14:36">3h</abbr></a></span></div>
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Lot Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01618200650162112678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1597348752799805836.post-20395082823724544262018-06-04T05:39:00.000-07:002018-06-05T02:41:32.378-07:00Predicting the Presidential DivorceA lot is made of the simpering acquiescence to Trumpism of the religious right-wing of the Republican Party in America. Commentators wonder at their ability to compartmentalise President Donald Trump's incredibly poor character and undisputed record of lies and promiscuity, away from their purported faith.<br />
<br />
"He's not President Perfect", they say, before dismissing the question of his moral character as irrelevant, because "Voters knew this before the election."<br />
<br />
With the fading, and since May 10th the outright disappearence, of Melania Trump from public view, coinciding with developments in court cases revolving around President Trump's promiscuity,<br />
with the announcement that she has decided not to join him for his trip to Singapore, or at the upcoming G7 summit, people have been given to wonder if the former model has finally had enough of her husband's lies and promiscuity?<br />
<br />
Lies and promiscuity are, afterall, his two main moves in a relationship, as has been shown in his two previous marriages. But if FLOTUS decides to remain a ghost for the rest of his term, or even if she outright leaves him, does anyone really think the so-called "religious right" would take her side?<br />
<br />
Take the side of a woman against her husband?! Are you kidding me?! "The faithless harlot should stand by her man!", they'd say, "She's one of them immigrants! Really, if she can't satisfy her husband it's no wonder he has to go running to all-American gals like Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, or that he's led astray by a temptress like Summer Zveros: he's only human, after all!"<br />
<div>
<br />
They would find a way to justify it to themselves, and maintain their veneer of religious pomposity, while utterly abrogating any core value they might purport to hold. I'd be surprised if these same arguments hadn't been muttered quietly in oh-so-publicly pious households in the Bible belt.<br />
<br />
I can't say that Melania Trump is going to leave her husband, or simply refuse to appear with him in public (which some would say amounts to the same thing). I can't say if she's silently protesting that, on the very same day she released her 'Be Best' anti-bullying campaign, the Trump policy for seperating immigrant mothers from their children was announced, or if she just couldn't take being called 'Melanie' by her husband on Twitter.<br />
<br />
Only a fool looks for reason in the human heart and, though I can see a good few reasons for her to take umbrage at his behaviour, her reaction is hers alone.<br />
<br />
My interest is in saying, ahead of time, by way of prediction and perhaps innoculation, that this is the way things will go if she really has had enough:<br />
<br />
The faithless, cynical cabal that is the religious right will attack her as above: for being an immigrant, for not standing with her man, for not satisfying him, for betraying him to the MSM deep state gay Jewish Hispanic liberal activist judges and the Muslim Brotherhood.<br />
<br />
They will do this because they do not believe in God; they are radicals, who each believe they are Christ, or are Christ's chosen, and thus they are above the law of man and of God. </div>
Lot Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01618200650162112678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1597348752799805836.post-4506004838426224772018-05-05T10:57:00.000-07:002018-05-05T10:57:10.596-07:00Why the Media are Saying the Local Election Results are a Stalemate<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I keep on seeing posts about the Local Council Elections, attacking the media for reporting that the results have been disappointing for Labour. They say "Labour won 1,000 more seats than the Conservatives" so therefore "The BBC is BIASED!!!!!" for calling the election a stalemate.<br />
<br />
So, let me sort this out - because the media, particularly the BBC, are not biased - at least, they are not as biased as the people who tell you that the media are biased.<br />
<br />
Let's look at the figures for the Local Election in England, 2018:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
Overall Difference (+/-)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
Labour 2,350 +77</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
Conservative 1,332 -33</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
Lib Dem 536 +75</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
UKIP 3 -123</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
Green 39 +8</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
So, that is pretty good, right? Labour got over a thousand more councillors than the Conservatives! OOOO Jer-e-my Cooooor-byn!</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
Well - sort of. They mostly held what they had and made some modest gains. Labour won Tower Hamlets and Plymouth, but lost Redditch to the Conservatives, and a couple of other councils to No Overall Control.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
They gained about the same number of councillors as the Lib Dems, who are slowly rebuilding after getting torn apart for going into coalition. You do not hear anyone saying that the Lib Dems had a brilliant election.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
But, still, these figures look good. They are by far the largest party - THE TORY BBC ARE LYING ABOUT JEZZA!!! - but wait... wait...: this is not a nationwide election: in this election, Labour were defending their Metropolitain strongholds of Newcastle, Sunderland, Gateshead, Liverpool, Manchester and inner-city London. If the Labour party is anything, it is the traditional party of the people in these areas. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
These are Labour seats, they have always been and they do not seem to want to change. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Conversely, you could argue that Labour did not have much space to grow.</span></span><br />
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Looked at in isolation, the results of 2018 look good for Labour. Looked at by someone who has never looked at any other local election results, they might look phenomenal. But let's look at the results from May 5th 2017, just to place these numbers in some sort of context:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
UK Local Elections 2017</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
Overall Difference (+/-)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
Labour 1,152 -382</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
Conservative 1,899 +563</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
Lib Dem 441 -42</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
UKIP 1 -145</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
Green 40 +6</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
As you can see, the +/- column has a lot more movement. These numbers were very promising for the Tories going into the General Election a month later, as a dysfunctional Labour Party seemed to be bleeding-out. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is what a convincing win in the local elections looks like - not double-digit gains, but gains in the hundreds; not consolidation of power and marginal gains, but taking hundreds of seats from the opposition. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
It is clear from these numbers that the re-absorbing of the directionless husk of UKIP benefitted the Tories massively in 2017. To be fair, that was the spin from Labour at the time and they were probably right. In 2018, with Labour's more pronounced pro-Brexit stance, this effect has been nullified.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
This is why the BBC is not calling the 2018 elections a massive success for the Labour party - because, in the context of local elections in general, and this one in particular, 2018 was a stalemate. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
The argument from my Corbynista friends is that he is on the cusp of riding a wave of popularity into Downing Street, and the BBC are deliberately misreporting his incredible successes. </span><br />
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This is not true. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
We know what it looks like when a politician is about to ride a tidal-wave of popular feeling into power, and it does not look like the Local Elections of 2018, or 2017. It looks like 1996:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
UK Local Elections 1996</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
Overall Difference (+/-)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
Labour 1,744 +466</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
Conservative 518 -577</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
Lib Dem 641 +150</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
An absolute shellacking, a confident staging post on Tony Blair's rise to power. This is what it looks like to be on your way to Downing Street.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
The BBC are not lying to you. The 2018 Local Elections were a stalemate, as you can see when you place the numbers in context. The BBC are doing you the service of telling you the truth. In general, journalists want to be right more than they want any party to win or lose. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
The Deep Left are lying to you. Jeremy Corbyn for PM are lying to you. Peter Stefanovic is lying to you. The Canary are lying to you. We Demand UK are lying to you. They are partisan groups and people who want their guy to win - which is all fine and dandy, until they start presenting you with Alternative Facts, and trying to convince you that honest journalists and analysts are conniving and conspiring to trick us, the public, with their phony 'expertise'. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
Their Alternative World made of Alternative Facts is a paranoid place, where every paid reporter is a faceless agent of a malevolent power. It is good news indeed that The Deep Left's shrill Facebook posts are baseless; it is wonderful that The Canary is simply mistaken in its view of the BBC as a Tory-run propaganda machine. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
There is no 'They' controlling 'The MSM'. Peter Sissons isn't a giant lizard. Moira Stewart's honeyed tones are not full of deceit. The Jews aren't conspiring to steal the world away. GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF THE OVEN! IT'S OK! IT'S OK.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
With notable exceptions (e.g. The Daily Mail), journalists just go to work and do their jobs and get published and airtime through their predictions and the quality of their commentary. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
And, of course, who their fathers are. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
Afterall, if "<i>Daddy knows the Queen!"</i> isn't a good reason to give a chap a job, I don't know what is.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />So it is that the BBC does have its problems. They do show bias. But these biases are implicit, unthought and only partially blinding to them. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">To quote W.B. Yeats:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"The best lack all conviction, while the worst</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Are full of passionate intensity"<br /><br />So it is for news sources. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is best to avoid the ranting preachers of paranoid fantasies, the delusional visionaries whose view <b style="font-style: italic;">MUST BE THE TRUTH!!! </b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I trust the bloodless analyst who has been around the block, the jaded journo who has been hurt before and the geeks with their spreadsheets.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;">I just hang-out with the revolutionary zealots because they're more fun.</span></span>Lot Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01618200650162112678noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1597348752799805836.post-71203510243202942182017-06-29T12:22:00.002-07:002017-06-29T12:23:08.709-07:00The Nexus of Wikileaks, Breitbart, Trump and Russia<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="1khm4" data-offset-key="apo33-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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<span data-offset-key="apo33-0-0"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is a story of two men, both of whom have been acclaimed as heroes, both of whom have fallen from once lofty perches. It is also a story about journalism and why it matters.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="cnj2e-0-0"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Back in the days of George W. Bush, the lies about WMD, the doublespeak of neo-conservatism and the tragedy of the Iraq War, the world looked for heroic whistle-blowers to step forward and lay bare the hypocrisy and criminality of the United States' government. The media seemed unable to provide this: in the UK, they were gun-shy after the <a href="https://news.vice.com/article/the-uks-iraq-war-inquiry-vindicates-david-kelly-a-whistleblower-who-took-his-own-life">David Kelly</a> affair, elsewhere they were reduced to feeding us reassuring briefings, seemingly incapable of speaking truth to power (with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vazP15Bimro">some exceptions</a>). We, the many, the awake, could see we were being lied to. We just needed someone to give us the proof.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="3tmr2-0-0"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">That hero stepped forward, in the shape of Julian Assange, whose Wikileaks website released a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0">video</a> of a US Airforce helicopter over Baghdad, killing unarmed civilians and journalists on the ground. The whole incident was profoundly distressing, as we could hear the group-think developing between pilots and crew, that cameras were guns and journalists were enemies. Their malpractice led to the deaths of innocent people.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="dduar-0-0"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I and many others saw this video as proof of the sick mindset of the US forces occupying Iraq; a mindset shared and encouraged by their commanders and, ultimately, their president. Julian Assange had provided the platform for us to view this attrocity, and his citizen journalism seemed a beacon to all of us who were disturbed by the US's turn to the dark side; invading and occupying a sovereign country, raping its resources and killing its people, all with impunity, with no justice for the weak.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9ugt8-0-0"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Julian Assange's name appeared at the top of the credits of this video - a video showing the murder of innocents - as "Producer, Creative Director"... in retrospect, perhaps this should have served as some kind of a warning.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="1rhs0-0-0"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But it came as no surprise to us that soon charges were levelled, not at the pilots or the soldiers who carried out this war crime, but at Julian Assange. These <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/dec/17/julian-assange-sweden">charges</a> were of rape, but not as we knew it. Just understanding these charges required understanding new terms for many: I and others learned to say "withdrawn consent" and "explicit consent" because of these accusations. The charges seemed overly convenient for those in power: it was easy to believe they were trumped-up charges to try to silence the truth teller.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="bvi9i-0-0"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">While Assange went into hiding at the Ecuadorian Embassy and his Wikileaks project entered a long period of virtual hibernation, broken only by sporadic activity, the political winds changed. Barack Obama had become President of the United States, the Iraq War ended, the Afghanistan War ended, the US Government finally had a face that could be trusted by the world, the project of neo-conservatism was dead.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="emue3-0-0"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Which was good news for everybody... except American conservatives, who bayed for proof that this Obama was corrupt, that his election was a fraud, that he was a Muslim, a Kenyan, that he was a terrorist, or at least a terrorist sympathiser. The American Right picked up the mantle of grievance the world had held against them when they were in power. Now powerless, they aped their critics, and hurled those accusations of criminality and brutality at the new administration.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="8cqhv-0-0"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">They were acting out of profound resentment.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="bfhnf-0-0"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But one hero stood up for them - a young, brash citizen reporter called James O'Keefe, who targeted an organisation called ACORN, which served as an advice centre and community hub across the United States, offering support services to disadvantaged people, registering voters and advocating for the poor. ACORN was everything that Barack Obama stood for: community organisation, egalitarianism, a hand-up for the lowly, a voice for the voiceless. The Right hated it and saw it as a corrupt organisation that had stolen the election for Obama.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="538aq-0-0"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">James O'Keefe made a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UOL9Jh61S8">video</a> confirming the right-wing's view that ACORN was a morally bankrupt vessel built to corrupt the whole United States with its socialist cancer. The video showed an ACORN employee seemingly giving advice on how to traffic underaged sex workers into the country, and how to hide the income their prostitution ring would generate.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="42va7-0-0"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">ACORN perished in the light of this video, it's funding was immediately cut by the new administration, who were eager to be seen as whiter than white. It was later proven that the video was misleading and the ACORN operatives in it had acted properly - what was actually happening in the video was the employee was getting as much information from these criminals as she could, so the police could arrest them.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="b1r7e-0-0"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">O'Keefe was eventually ordered to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2013/03/08/james-okeefe-pays-100000-to-acorn-employee-he-smeared-conservative-media-yawns/#4ba2ebd214bd">pay $100,000</a> to the employee he had smeared through his reporting. He had, however, become a hero of the right and they loved him. His original, misleading video ranked high on the Fox News rundown; its debunking was barely mentioned.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="egfnf-0-0"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">O'Keefe had a sponsor in Andrew Breitbart, who founded Breitbart dot com, and launched it's rebirth off the back of this seemingly damning video, with millions and millions of views from the American right-wing, who were ravenously hungry for stories that proved Obama was in league with Satan. Incidentally, Steve Bannon, Donald Trump's Cheif Strategist, now runs Breitbart.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="7srti-0-0"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">James O'Keefe has since repeated his trick at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWQuZMvcFA8">Planned Parenthood</a> and at <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/news/2011/03/10/does-raw-video-of-npr-expose-reveal-questionable-editing-tactics/">National Public Radio</a>, among others, editing videos to incriminate innocent people and smear those organisations. His version of events never lasts beyond the publication of the unedited footage. It is no exageration to say that he is a known con-artist, whose every publication should be treated, not just with caution, but with utter contempt.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="eu5ls-0-0"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">O'Keefe and Assange seemed to exist in different worlds, except that they both have tried their hand at guerrilla journalism and neither have regard for traditional journalism. For example, Assange has published reams of e-mails and diplomatic cables that he has not even read, simply to 'expose' the powerful. However, when it comes to suspect information pertaining to payments made through a Russian bank, Wikileaks have chosen <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/wikileaks-syria-russia-bank-email-missing">not to</a> 'leak' it.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="6l21-0-0"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">As noted, Julian Assange once claimed credit as the 'Creative Director' of a real life tragedy. What those who still believe in Wikileaks say is that it provides us with the raw intelligence of journalism, without bias. But that simply isn't the case any more, if it ever was.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="7g688-0-0"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">James O'Keefe and Julian Assange both selectively release information to paint a version of events that suits their ends. Now, for the first time, we can see that O'Keefe and Assange are on the same side.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="d24qh-0-0"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Yesterday, (28/06/17), Wikileaks - which eight years ago brought us the real story and video of the deaths of journalists - published one of James O'Keefe's blatant smear-job <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdP8TiKY8dE">videos</a>, this time targeting news organistion and Trump administration bogeyman, CNN. In it, you can see the hack editing of a secret recording of CNN host Van Jones, seemingly calling the Russia collusion investigation "a nothingburger", before quickly cutting away. It is obvious that the unedited version of this video will tell a different story. It is obvious that it has been selectively edited to smear the people who appear in it.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="77noi-0-0"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">That is plain for anyone to see.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="82ki4-0-0"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But what is interesting is that Wikileaks would, without pause, present this report - from such a dubious source as James O' Keefe! - as fact. Perhaps Julian Assange is so twisted by his years of confinement that he does not care, or he is so in the thrawl of Trump or Putin that he simply augments every argument thrown against the rising tide of suspicion of collusion between Trump (& asoc.) and Russia. Wikileaks, afterall, is one obvious conduit through which such collusion would have been conducted. Remember Trump saying "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUtT0b0EnSw">I love Wikileaks!</a>"? There is evidence that there was <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/10/politics/roger-stone-wikileaks-russia/index.html">much more</a> to this relationship.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="5mbsl-0-0"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is significant, not to mention ironic, that the O'Keefe/Assange axis has formed targeting the real journalists of CNN. People who are accountable for their work, who have to answer to demanding editors, who have to stick to certain practices, who cannot simply shock their way to success, or destroy reputations with falsehoods.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="esghr-0-0"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The free press itself is one true bulwark against a tyrant. In the light of real investigative journalism, corruption is exposed, lies are laid bare, actions are put in context and the powerful are challenged with the facts. </span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="esghr-0-0"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The free press is the first casualty of tyranny, and it has been under sustained assault from the Trump administration at every turn.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="3locf-0-0"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">If there were an effort by a foreign power to co-opt the government of the United States, they would need, as an insurance policy, to undermine public trust in the journalists whose job it is to root out the truth. At the point when or if a news agency pulls on the golden thread between Trump's collar and Putin's hand, the only question left for the American people will be: who do you believe? </span></span></div>
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Lot Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01618200650162112678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1597348752799805836.post-47353419923224865092016-08-24T03:59:00.002-07:002018-05-05T13:01:03.479-07:00Video Fallacy and Soapbox Toss<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-abpv9tPca4" width="480"></iframe><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I find this video problematic on a number of levels. The
first is the rather selfish discomfort that, by commenting on it, I'm
commenting on comments on media that is itself comment. Once one gets
three-times removed from any actual *thing* or *content* or *fact*, one really
is blowing hot air. So I'm painfully aware of what insubstantial effluvia this
is.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">That said, LET'S DO IT TO IT!!!!</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">1) The guests are introduced by their stances in relation to the Labour party
leadership election, which is what the segment is about. They are given their
credentials in on-screen pop-ups.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">If the first guy is introduced only as the leader of the Socialist Party that
would not tell you that he wants to join the Labour Party, or that he was in
the Labour Party in the 1980s when the Militant thing happened. The same goes
for the lady: if she's introduced as only "a new member of Labour's
NEC" that does not tell you she supports JC.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Essentially, it would be confusing to the viewer to introduce them in any other
way.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">2) (1.00) i) the 'broken' graphic is fair enough, seeing as the party is
certainly not unified currently. It's a completely fair summation of the
situation where differing factions are competing to run the party. And,
besides, it's a bloody graphic. ii) "JC's Labour" Well, this chap
didn't want to join when it was Tony Blair's Labour, or Gordon Brown's, or Ed
MIliband's. Maybe there's something about JC that he likes. Maybe JC likes
things he likes. It is completely fair.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">3) (1.20) "Violent revolution": this is the presenter interpreting
what is meant by "revolution" - revolutions are real things, usually
violent, the interpretation is shrill, but still what many might read in the
word "revolution", especially coming from the leader of the Socialist
Party. He is given the chance to rebuff it. He rebuffs it. All fair.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">4) (1.55) "Trot". It's a tough word, designed to challenge the guest.
He seems to deal with it well. Being challenged is not unfair treatment. (I
could just reduce this entire thing to that statement: "Being challenged
is not unfair treatment"). Equating "Trot" with "Paki"
is offensive and absurd. The guy who made this video has clearly never been
subject to racial abuse. There is a vast difference between a disparaging term
for an ideology and racist language.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">5) (3.00) Webbe requested not to be involved in the preceding discussion or any
back-and-forth with the other two guests. I don't know why that is: no-one
does. It is perfectly fair of C4 to be upfront about that, even if it does
reinforce the point that the Labour party is in trouble. Because: the Labour
Party IS engaged in a bitter argument with itself: it is fair to say so.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">6) (3.15) "The Soapbox Shot". Said no-one. Ever. It's not a term in
use in television production. The author of the video has just pulled that one
out of his arse. I have it from someone who worked on live TV for 15 years who
has never heard of "the Soapbox Shot". I've googled it: no results.
It's just bollocks.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">7) (3.45) Phrasing a question as a statement is common both in television
interviews and in the course of my job, collecting statistics for the ONS.
Webbe has the point that she is there to rebut put to her in the strongest
possible terms. That is, again, completely fair. If you forget the fiction
about the 'soapbox shot', it is altogether less sinister.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">8) (4.20) Webbe was not called a trot - that is an outright lie. Webbe herself
did not want to take part in the earlier part of the discussion, so C4 are
certainly not to blame for her only being brought in at this point. And, yes,
she had to listen to someone she disagrees with: that's called
"politics". She did seem nervous. "Politics", as they say,
"ain't beanbag".</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">9) (5.30) I don't know which polls the author was looking at, but I didn't see
any with Labour ahead. They have been consistently lagging behind the Tories in
most polls since the GE. And saying "well, it might all change after the
leadership election" is not a point the presenter needs to make. It's the
point that Webbe needs to make. Again: Being challenged is not unfair
treatment.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">10) (6.10) The point being made by the Owen Smith campaign and by others within
the Labour Party is that JC is too far left. The presenter is trying to get
Webbe to address this criticism in relation to pandering to the far left. Being
challenged is not unfair treatment. Saying "Trotskyist" is not
insulting or off topic: the guy across from Webbe is a self-confessed
Trotskyist and Jeremy Corbyn introduced an early day motion recently to
"Rehabilitate Leon Trotsky". I'm not saying that's wrong - I think he
probably should be officially rehabilitated, as all thought on how the world
could be made a fairer place should be encouraged. But, in doing this, he's
clearly showing some ankle, as it were, to TUSC and Socialist Worker, etc.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">11) (6.25) Webbe, as the presenter points out, is not answering the question.
To be fair to Webbe, she's not a TV regular and is clearly struggling, so to
call her evasive or anything like that would be unfair. She eventually
addresses it by saying that there is a small proportion of far left people who
have re-joined the Labour Party under JC. Now: what's so wrong about that? I
happen to think that's a good thing - for the Labour Party, at least.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In conclusion: I need a shower.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This shrill nonsense dressed up as media analysis is exactly the sort of
partisan twock that convinces people to switch off from politics and the real
world altogether. The underlying idea is that C4, along with the BBC, Sky, ITN
and every other news outlet, is purposefully targeting JC in a massive
conspiracy to deny the country his policies. It uses fake terminology
("The soapbox shot") and sciency-sounding terms ("neuro-linguistic")
to convince you of a concerted effort over the course of an interview to attack
and belittle Jeremy Corbyn supporters.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This ignores the treatment EVERY OTHER POLITICIAN GETS ON TV.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Do you remember when Jon Snow served Tony Blair delicious crumpets on the 6
o'clock news after the invasion of Iraq? No? What about when Jim Naughtie tossed
gentle soft balls at Ed Miliband before the 2015 GE? Nope: didn't happen. Do
you remember the time Jeremy Paxman lay down and let David Cameron pee in his
mouth? No: nor do I.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Jeremy Corbyn is inspiring many people to join the Labour Party and take notice
of politics for the first time. He is an inspirational figure for many and
someone who widens the appeal of politics to the young and to the disaffected
within society. Thus these people are experiencing political dialogue, either
for the first time, or from a new perspective: instead of rooting for the
interviewer to tear the evil politician to pieces, they want the politician to
shine their light of truth on national TV. Well that's not how it works around
here: here the media challenges politicians in the strongest possible terms,
which is fun when it's not someone you like or believe in, but hard to watch
when it is.</span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
Lot Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01618200650162112678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1597348752799805836.post-79446470647164126182015-08-08T12:39:00.003-07:002018-05-05T13:13:22.174-07:00False Dichotomy of Socialism and Capitalism<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The emergence of Jeremy Corbyn as a (the?) leading contender to become chief lunatic of the Labour party has sparked much hoo-ha from all sides. Last night I listened as an ultra-Tory (probably called "Tristram" or maybe "Hugo"? I neither know nor care) on Radio 4's Any Questions? tried to say that Corbyn represented the ideology that LOST the cold war and was exclusively responsible for all the privations, corruption and slaughters of the 20th century.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Of course, he was wrong. But that's not why I'm writing.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I'm writing because of the apparent misunderstanding; this country is held together by socialist institutions like free education, free roads, free healthcare, free police, free fire brigades, free army and free political representation. People can live in this country without ever having to trouble themselves with working within free-market capitalism. This is not a 'pure' free-market economy by any stretch.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Socialism did not "Lose": it was inbibed by the many-headed beast of common sense, who built monuments in honour of its folly. Free-market capitalism has no place in the process of politics or policing (this is known as "corruption"), nor in what concerns public safety, e.g. fire and healthcare (this would be known as "inhumanity") nor in the keeping of a standing army (this is known as "stupidity") nor in the realm of public education (this is "corrupt, inhuman, stupidity").</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Where socislism falls down is in the regulation and mainenence of goods, i.e. the market place. The free market should have well regulated rein in the sphere of markets, but not be unleashed on social goods as if, say, 70 years of the NHS hasn't been a vast improvement on what came before, when healthcare was for those that could afford it.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Free-markets are fine concerning goods, and are arguably better at amenities and aspects of transport, but a decent, humane, intelligent society must let social goods be taken care of through socialist methodologies, where the many help the one to the detriment of none.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The debate is not "Socialism against capitalism" but rather; what is a social good and what is a market good? Where does one end and the other begin? Should amenities like broadband and gas be seen as social goods and therefore provided by the state to all for free? Or should they be left to the market to provide, and therefore people's access survive, fold or thrive due to market realities?</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Both capitalism and socialism are proven governing philosophies in their own spheres, all there is to argue about is what exactly those spheres are?</span></span>Lot Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01618200650162112678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1597348752799805836.post-80061743006552798092015-05-11T13:39:00.001-07:002018-05-05T13:14:02.886-07:00In Defence of Our Undemocratic System<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The First Past the Post electoral system in the UK has been under renewed scrutiny since an election where the party with the third largest number of votes got all of one seat in Parliament. This is 55 fewer than a party that got about a third of its votes. The bare numbers (thanks, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2015/results">BBC</a>) look like this:</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Conservative: Votes: 11,334,520 Seats: 331</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Labour: 9,347,326 232</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">UKIP: 3,881,129 1</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Lib Dem: 2,415,888 8</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">SNP: 1,454,436 56</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Green: 1,157,613 1</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">On the face of it, these figures speak of a system that fails to reflect the will of the electorate in the division of Parliamentary power. Discounting the two largest parties, there is no sense in these figures.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But I'm here to tell you that this election is the perfect example of the beauty of the first past the post system. The sense it has made of the will of the British people is sublime; the product of a genius beyond the imaginings of mortal man.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">What it has so successfully reflected is not the capricious whims of a significant percentage of eligible voters, but rather the will of those with actual, real-world concerns, actually affecting life in this country.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Liberal Democrats have one and a half million less voters and eight times the seats of UKIP, not because the system is in any way unfair, but because the Lib Dems have assisted real people with their local concerns and addressed actual issues within communities to the satisfaction of enough voters in those constituencies to return those 8 MPs. UKIP have not.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The SNP have successfully transferred the support they have garnered for their stewardship in Scotland, and for their pro-independence platform, to a significant share on the national stage. Communities feel they have benefited and can benefit from the SNP having more power. UKIP have done nothing for any community.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">UKIP's support is dispersed across the country, with no one place actually feeling that UKIP's policies would benefit the community significantly. Almost 4 million individual voters, and no one place where community-wide concern was addressed or harnessed into a UKIP victory, aside from Clacton, where Douglas Carswell, a popular MP when he was a Tory, had his majority slashed.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Their issues (by which I mean "immigration") are not a dominant, community-wide issue in any one place. They are a party that has done nothing for any part of the country. They have no specific constituency. They speak for no particular community.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Labour purport to speak for the working classes; the map of their constituencies reflects that. Tories speak for men called "Tristram"; their domination of rich, rural areas near, but not actually in, Slough reflects that. The SNP speaks for Scottish people who like the idea, if not the actual option, of independence, so they swept the board in a Scotland that's still happily within the Union.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">UKIP speak for a minority of people who are generally concerned when they see someone with a different skin colour. They have no particular reason for this, apart from their underlying fear of difference and insecurity when faced with colours other than beige.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">These people may not actually be racist, they are just so isolated from their communities, and insulated by wealth or by ignorance, that they have lost sight of the actual concerns that actually fester in their communities. Their share of the vote reflects this fearfulness within the country; their share of parliamentary seats reflects the lack of any specific, real-world justification for their fears within any specific community.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So it is that our much derided, undemocratic electoral system of First Past the Post reflects the reality that racial animus and ignorant xenophobia are not, in fact, justified; that those who cower in fear against the possibility of change do so for reasons not reflected in the world around them but for reasons residing primarily in their own heads.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I hope that we do not bow to the instinct to simplify our electoral system and that trite rationality shall never replace the beauteous teacher of this elegant lesson.</span></span><br />
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<i style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">P.S. Perhaps everyone would have voted Green if they understood what ecological disaster would mean for their children and grandchildren; not all issues that matter are issues that are obvious to any one community. </span></i>Lot Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01618200650162112678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1597348752799805836.post-48143547877961170722015-05-09T04:18:00.002-07:002018-05-05T13:10:46.439-07:00Election 2015: Post-Mortem and Prepartum <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">With the election results yesterday a media narrative of a crushing victory for the Tories and the SNP, with Labour and the Lib Dems bereft of hope and leadership, with the first past the post system likely to be reformed any day now. I think things are a little more complicated than that. For every party there are challenges both immediate and long term which I'd like to name and propose solutions to.</span></span><br />
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<u><b style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">The Conservatives</span></b></u><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">Yes, they have a majority, but just barely. The last time the Tories held the majority after a General Election was 1992, and the Major government was the weakest government of my lifetime, with division over Europe hobbling much of their term. David Cameron's majority is even smaller. His challenge is to keep the back-benches in line - a challenge I, unfortunately, do not see him as succeeding with. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">My prediction is that, with increased popularity of some figure of the left, the Tories will become as hated as they were in '97. However, with leadership of the party changing before 2020, they still might avoid total electoral disaster.</span></span><br />
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<b><u style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">Labour</span></u></b><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">Oh, dear. Their plan must be to find a unifying voice that is authentic, probably coming from someone who has never served as a special advisor or policy wonk. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">Dan Jarvis would be my pick: as a former Major in the Parachute Regiment, he will be immune from criticism of being naive or out of touch, and will certainly not be accused of being a "north London geek." Whether the union bosses would allow him in is another matter; having coronated Ed "The Wrong" Milliband, will they once again stand in the way of the broad opinion of party members, should Dan Jarvis, or another candidate, garner a groundswell of popular support? The answer is "Yes". Why? Same reason as last time: nannying know-betterism.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">I can see Chuka Umunna getting very enthusiastic backing, and I think he would make an excellent candidate. The obvious problem with both my picks is that they are both just coming through their second election and may not have the political chops to navigate a leadership election, or have the alliances necessary to corral enough MPs to endorse them. And if they do, will they fall flat on their faces at the dispatch box?</span></span><br />
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<b><u style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">The Liberal Democrat Party</span></u></b><br />
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Eight MPs? Should they even be on this list? This is for main parties.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">I really feel bad for Nick Clegg, who took his party into coalition five years ago in order to avoid constitutional chaos. He forsook hasty campaign promises to bring political stability to a country riven by economic crisis.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">The Lib Dem support disappeared into the aether after contact with power, as if it were steam evaporating from a hot hob. In my view, the voters who deserted the Lib Dems for, primarily, UKIP, are a bunch of vapid buffoons with no conception of what it is to wield real power - as they were seemingly affronted to see their party making decisions that didn't represent their purest ideology, but rather reflected political, social and economic reality.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">I applaud them for compromising like adults.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">I see no way back for them soon.</span></span><br />
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<b><u style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">SNP</span></u></b><br />
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Mission accomplished. Brilliant. Question: Once you've won 95% of the seats you are running for, what are you running for next time? Only to maintain your gains. They can only fight a defence from here on in. In Scotland, they are now the establishment.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">Ask Nick Clegg what that's like.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">My suggestion is for them to seize the opportunity they now have to become a national force by becoming a national party. Of course, they will need to change the name, but not the pro-independence-referendum policy.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">As Bob Dylan said "He not busy being born is busy dying". They even have a ready-made, social media-friendly name already associated with their policies and faces and close to the hearts of their core supporters.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">Ladies and Gentlemen, go with me on this, I give you "YES!". What more positive, inspiring message could be conveyed in a party name than that? They are the political mavericks, the party everyone sees as the upstarts, the underdogs, the ideological, starry-eyed dreamers - but they are also a party with real power in Scotland through the Scottish Parliament, where they can display assured maturity and intelligent stewardship (with the safety net of not quite having enough power to completely destroy their country with naivety and recklessness).</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">"YES!" conveys their socialist zeal to spend every last pound China has on double the number of nurses in your new local hospital where you can go for a fully funded seven year degree course in panda wrangling... OK, OK, I'm being slightly facetious. But I want you to think of this completely seriously.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">They can either stand still, having maxed-out their potential, and wait to fall apart, or they can grow. If they grow, they need to change their name. "YES!" is such a positive message, which conveys their optimistic view of the potential of the electorate. They will invest in the electorate though social policies like increased funding for the NHS and free university tuition, paid for through canning Trident, drawing down military spending overseas, and real financial reform. "YES!" can co-opt and sweep away the Labour strong-holds of Liverpool and Sunderland by offering those supporters what they really want, which is a full on, peaceful, left-wing revolution.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">Labour are there for the taking; a tired, jaded, sad party who don't have a clue what they stand for any more, who will barely defend themselves when challenged. How can they? The Blair and Brown governments betrayed and disappointed the Labour base by invading Iraq and leading the country to a financial collapse that hit everyone except the well-off. Labour supporters, faced with a YES! candidate preaching social egalitarianism at home and peaceful coexistence overseas, will have no convincing argument - their words would turn into ashes in their mouths.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">YES! would sweep away Labour and have a huge swell of optimistic youth support. If played right, YES! could form the next government. I'm not joking. If the SNP strike now, before Labour regroups, and announce that they are going to go national, they would take a massive slice of the Labour vote, they will hoover up the outsider vote of UKIP, Lib Dem and Green, as they do not represent an establishment party, but a beautiful idea: YES!</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">Set against a government that will doubtless be at war with itself, arguing about Europe and the severity of austerity, YES! would become a beacon of hope, a party for the people, for the little guy, not stained with establishment or power, just representative of the blue skies of tomorrow growing ever brighter: YES! YES! YES!</span></span>Lot Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01618200650162112678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1597348752799805836.post-56932743866626991672015-01-09T04:45:00.001-08:002018-05-05T13:15:35.930-07:00Saw This Post on Facebook; It Made Me ANGRY<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">No. Critical thinkers know better than to use the same "False Flag" explanation for every evil perpetrated in their compass. Boston Bombing? False Flag. Oklahoma City Bombing? False Flag. Sandy Hook? False Flag. 9/11? 7/7? False Flags. Drummer Lee Rigby? False Flag. Now... </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Charlie Hebdo?... Errr... let me see... well, it could be the act of a small number of individuals acting out of their frustration with the ghettoisation of the Muslim community in France, enthusiastically taken in by a message purporting to be Islam, that rather better reflects the violent, puritanical, misogynistic, honour-esque ethics of the nasty young man who thinks he is the shit, rather than any particular religious doctrine. That would explain the character of the killings being very much like Charlie Hebdo said something about their mum and they went to sort him out. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The motivations of the killers are clear: they are frustrated with being marginalised and are liable to act out. They have been given, "Indoctrinated in to" if you will, a fantasy system of punishments and rewards that cast them as vessels of divine vengeance who will gain only rewards for carrying out punishment. This ethic uses their anger and the fact they are young men liable to act violently if given an excuse - the more 'honourable' or 'holy' the better.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But all this is quite complicated, isn't it? It requires a scant knowledge of race relations in France (not good), a quick pop-psych of the perps, and... no, wait, I feel my 'critical thinking' coming on... FALSE FLAG. It's obviously a false flag! These attacks were PERFECTLY TIMED with MILITARY PRECISION and the MEDIA reports have CHANGED. Obviously, it's AN INSIDE JOB. The FEDS are SENDING A MESSAGE to the MEDIA, they're trying to TERRORIZE THE PEOPLE into TOWING THE LINE. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Critical thinking is EASY. ALL it requires is PARANOIA and a CAPS LOCK key. Granted, you never get to understand the motivations of the perps themselves, or an adequate explanation as to what the false flag gets the feds that they couldn't have got the usual way (assuming that false flags aren't the usual way). Sure, the murderers are reduced to automatons acting at the behest of unseen actors, but the world makes a lot of sense.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is split into three camps: THEY are the first. THEY try to dominate, manipulate, depress, divide and conquer the rest of the world. The next is WE, meaning us, the people who can see what's going on; the critical thinkers. Then there are the SHEEPLE who aren't THEY but aren't WE either. SHEEPLE don't agree with WE because they're blind and asleep. They're not necessarily stupid, they just won't see what's obvious to WE. SHEEPLE are why THEY are still in power. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The self-satisfied implication of all of this is that the conspiracy theorist is capable of a level of critical thinking that the sheeple are not, meaning that the more conspiracy theories they can concoct or become aware of, the smarter they are in their own eyes and those of their fellows. Aside from being infuriating, this is a self-sustaining vortex of paranoid delusion leading to self-affirmation leading to paranoid delusion leading to self-affirmation leading to paranoid delusion leading to self-affirmation... </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In a way, conspiracy theorists are critical thinkers - in fact they are pure critical thinkers, in that they are presented with a news event like Sandy Hook, like 7/7, like Charlie Hebdo, and without reference to any pertinent facts outside of the news reports, critically think about how the tragedy fits into their worldview - they reorder the news to be commensurate with how the omnipotent THEY are trying to get SHEEPLE to react. Their paranoid delusion leads to self-affirmation as the epiphany strikes that it's all planned.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Of course, the world isn't planned: it's just a chaotic mess. That isn't very satisfying and it's not self-affirming, but whoever said it was going to be? </span></div>
Lot Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01618200650162112678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1597348752799805836.post-3670449395184374192014-10-28T15:22:00.000-07:002018-05-05T13:16:59.765-07:00UKIP, Morons and Shipwrecks<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This news about the down-sizing of search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean is the latest edition of the long running series "When Politics Trumps Humanity".</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The news in brief is this: the search and rescue operation in the Mediterranean is being cut by two thirds. For the last year, the Italian Navy has been running an operation called Mare Nostrum, which was started in reaction to hundreds of people drowning off Lampedusa. Mare Nostrum was always going to be a short-term fix, and was never going to be adequate. 3,000 people are reckoned to have drowned trying to cross the Med over the last year with it in place.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now the EU has proposed a long-term operation called 'Triton', which is roughly a third of the size of Mare Nostrum. Mare Nostrum will continue for a time, but the Italian government is going to cut it fairly soon.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Triton has one helicopter, six ships and two planes. For the entire fucking Mediterranean. This rank inadequacy is entirely on purpose.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Policy makers have decreed that a search and rescue operation is a feature attracting migrants to attempt the crossing. Never mind that they were doing it before Mare Nostrum. Never mind that so many still die making this journey. Never mind that they are people fleeing war-torn countries that are war-torn largely because of European interventions, past and present. The purported logic is literally: "Not saving people's lives will save people's lives."</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There is a long tradition among mariners that those in the water should be saved from drowning, whomever they are. Enemy sailors shipwrecked by your torpedoes? Pick 'em up and take 'em to port. People trying to sail the Med in a rusted tin can that disintegrates beneath them? Save them, the fools. Drowning is a lonely, terrifying way to die; no mariner would ever be knowingly left by another.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Admiral Foffi, in charge of Mare Nostrum, is obviously appalled by the shrinking of his resources and is clear that cutting the search and rescue operation will mean more lives lost at sea. Many, many more lives. He is also adamant that it will not discourage people from trying to make the journey.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But they're immigrants, you see: asylum seekers. Those faces slipping beneath the waves are the bogey men of European politics. Do you think our UKIP representatives in the EU parliament would vote for a new initiative to save these people?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Honestly, why would they? They were voted in by the people of this country to shrink the EU budget until they could drown it in the bath. What better representation of this philosophy than allowing thousands upon thousands of desperate people to drown?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">UKIP are not alone: the EU parliament has more than its fair share of isolationist bigots. They are, somewhat ironically, a unified block within the parliament (though that unification has recently, rather unsurprisingly, collapsed).</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Immigration has been used across Europe as a right-wing bludgeon of fear, hate and ignorance. It is the cover-all, cure-all, international political panacea to every question of budget or policy; it is the rallying cry for the ignorant aggrieved, the working miserable, the hopeless, the joyless; the people who are angry that the sun rose and are furious it had the temerity to set. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You know: Morons.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But: morons who tend to vote. Thus the main parties, like our own Conservatives and Labour, are the dogs being wagged by the tail of UKIP and it's message of banal evil. They are competing to see who can accrue the most morons by election day; not competing, dear reader, for YOUR vote.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">If you ever struggle to put your finger on exactly what it is that troubles you about their message and their manner, know this: The direct result of UKIP's tactics, rhetoric and success will be the deaths of thousands of poor, desperate, disenfranchised, hounded men, women and children on the open sea. They will die alone, cold, unable to cry out, being tossed around in the waves, possibly for hours without hope of rescue. They will die because their country has been torn to shreds by decisions made in Westminster, Washington, Berlin and Paris; decisions that never took them into account. They will die trying to bring the receipt for those decisions back across the sea, not even for it to be paid for, but to pay for it themselves. They will die finally because Brussels refuses to rescue them; because Nigel Farage refuses to rescue them; because morons have been told and do believe that rescuing them is a waste of their money and that they are not people; they are immigrants.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">UPDATE: Britain has withdrawn funding for rescue ops in the Med: "<span style="line-height: 18.9871px;">Britain will not support any future search and rescue operations to prevent migrants and refugees drowning in the Mediterranean, claiming they simply encourage more people to attempt the dangerous sea crossing," read more: </span><span style="line-height: 18.9871px;">http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/27/uk-mediterranean-migrant-rescue-plan</span></span>Lot Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01618200650162112678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1597348752799805836.post-22541474516617670432013-10-08T18:37:00.002-07:002018-07-22T12:59:06.541-07:00The Art of the Audience<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">One of the problems with the USA's rhetoric about free speech is that it is the speech that is glorified, not the hearing of it. The speaker is the star; no one wants to be the ones sitting quietly and listening. A consequence of this is that, when people get an idea about a subject they bleat it out, loud and proud, deafening themselves to what anybody else has to say.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">To be a good audience is an art all by itself; just as musicians are judged by their music and directors by their films, connoisseurs are judged by their taste. The difference being that we are all amateur connoisseurs, whether we want to be or not, and there is value in being a good one. I find this troubling, given that I must not be very high-brow, judging by my love of Star Trek, 90's pro wrestling and The Moody Blues.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But being an audience is about more than having taste; it is about fulfilling your part in the performance by witnessing it and that requires only that you watch, listen and try to take it in. If you do this, you are a good audience. If you talk all the way through it, snore loudly, beat an African drum out of time or just don't bother engaging with it, then you are a bad audience.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Political discussions and debates should be where both parties play both performer and audience, but they're not. Almost all debate is adversarial, between parties standing at their pulpits and never sitting down. Sometimes that can work in a debaters favour, as they are forced to keep coming up with holes in the opponents position and to keep finding more strengths in their own. Mostly, it teaches you finesse, so you never have to admit that you're wrong. However, everyone is wrong sometimes. I know: I have been wrong sometimes, too. In that way, I'm like everyone.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have not only been wrong, but I've been loud and insulting at the same time. What can I tell you? I am drawn to the fruits of my own mind like a wasp to sugar, and once I have supped its intoxicating nectar, like the wasp I stumble around stinging people at random and frightening the faint of heart. I'm trying to get better. I've been trying for years. I think I'm getting somewhere.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">When I first heard the term 'Rape Culture' I thought "That's a dumb term to use - so divisive, empty of meaning, insulting to everyone - it's sure to kill any chance of reasoned debate between feminists and potential allies. Besides, it's probably reactionary claptrap."</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But instead of yelling that repeatedly every time it's come up, I've been speaking to a friend I respect about it, in a round about sort of way (i.e. I haven't just said "So; 'Rape culture.' What's that mean?"). She's a woman I've known for years, whose currently studying for a Phd. in the US, and who has been patient enough to put up with my adversarial style of debate (and friendship) for long enough to actually teach me something.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have come to the conclusion that there is some content in there worth taking seriously. So when a feminist goes on Newsnight and says "Men are raised to hate women" I don't immediately greet it with derision; when I see feminists holding signs saying "Don't teach girls to not get raped: teach your sons not to rape!" I understand that there is a whole background of thought to that statement, and it's not just reactionary, pie-in-the-sky nonsense. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Of course, there is understandable resistance to accepting that there is even such a thing as 'Rape Culture', never mind that it refers to some insidious element woven into the fabric of our society in the ways women are depicted, treated, taught to act, what is expected of them and how they are judged; not only that, but how sex is thought of, how boys are taught to think of sex and girls, and, well, etc.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I like to criticise: it's easier. But proclaiming a belief in something that is so challenging to not just society but my own attitudes seems pretty unwise and sure to backfire. Especially when I'm aligning myself with the more extreme proclamations of a group as bitterly reviled as feminists. But upon hearing the arguments against them, filled with unexamined misogyny, categorically proving their point that there is unexamined misogyny that attacks woman trying to make a point, I can't help but feel people need to listen to them better.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: helvetica neue, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;">The art of the audience is to listen, the skill of listening is to understand, and to understand something new is to be challenged.</span></span>Lot Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01618200650162112678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1597348752799805836.post-13787489334932595182013-10-07T07:30:00.001-07:002018-05-05T13:19:01.045-07:00Thunderf00t In Mouth<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There has, of late, been a disturbance in the atheist community; a schism has opened between feminists and atheists who think feminists are a bunch of man-hating crackpot dykes in plimsolls. I have noticed on my Facebook wall that my atheist weather-vane friend has posted several anti-feminist memes which have been appropriately welcomed by his atheist friends. Here's an example:</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img alt="Photo: - P0J0" src="https://scontent-b-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/p480x480/1239614_402818533179011_35023829_n.jpg" /></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You could argue that this is pro-women's rights, but I think that defining 'Feminists' as overly-sensitive people who make spurious claims that ruin the lives of innocent men is anti-feminist. It's a logical fallacy: just because a = b, does not mean b = a; Andria Richards may be a feminist but feminists aren't Andria Richards (whether or not Mz. Richards was actually in the wrong).</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This attitude is reflected by recent posts from vlogging narcissist, and nascent lion-tamer, Thunderf00t. He complains that using his real name is somehow cheap points scoring - his real name is Phil Mason - I don't see how I've scored cheap points here - maybe the game we're playing is "names that sound like words" and I got 'film ace n' for two and a half.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Many people prefer to refer to someone with a real name, one that is neutral and not a self-aggrandising title making you sound like some giant god. But: whatever.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Thunderf00t generally posts videos attacking creationism and religion; he has built a loyal following on youtube advocating Dawkins-style, in your face, out-and-proud atheism. His videos are useful if you don't really know what 'superciliousness' is, and want to experience it in it's purest form.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">His attacks on religion have, at their heart, the certainty that simply being an atheist makes one rational; that rationality is not something one does but is something one embodies as an atheist. He condescends to opponents, whether they are deserving or not, and presents their arguments in their flimsiest state, before affirming his own rightness with unearned certitude. He takes rationality as fundamental to his being; reality as his sole province. I hold him up as the ugly atheist for this reason - that and his face.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Thunderf00t has, of late, been posting videos attacking feminism, and he has now moved on to dispensing his perfect wisdom on the subject of rape. Note to all men: do not presume to lecture women on rape. You end up looking like a fool. This is because you are a fool. So: shut up. This advice comes too late to save Thunderf00t from himself. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T0GcHM0s4o&feature=share&list=UUmb8hO2ilV9vRa8cilis88A">Here is his 18 minute long journey into the land of the rape apologist</a>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Rebecca Watson, writer for Skepchick, <a href="http://youtu.be/S8TBz5OCxYI">posted a response</a>, pointing out that Thunderf00t seems to think women a: need to be told to worry about rape, and b: should take responsibility if they have not done everything reasonable to avoid being raped (i.e. worn modest cloths; been unfriendly to potential attackers [e.g. all men]; not drunk alcohol; worn plimsolls; smothered themselves in bird lime, etc.) (one of the things about the concept "everything reasonable" is it is open to a vast array of interpretations - it might be considered rational to bathe in a sewer if it means you avoid getting raped).</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">One thing she missed was that Thunderf00t equates the action of rape with sexuality: he says we can as much teach children to not rape as we can teach them to not be homosexual. He ignores that rape is a specific activity, not a state of being. I am heterosexual; that is a state of being. I am not a rapist; that is a report of my activities to date. Unless he believes that sexuality is an activity and not a predisposition, in which case his argument falls apart anyway. Does he think that all rapists are compelled to rape by genetic predisposition? It is unclear.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">One more video and we're up to date: Thunderf00t has responded with <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACGV-fhZ-xs&feature=share&list=UUmb8hO2ilV9vRa8cilis88A">this condescending, self-aggrandising bollocks</a> in which he resorts to the 'women are too emotional to be rational' trope, which is startling. He also continually insults Rebecca Watson and anyone who disagrees with him, with terms like "idiot", "batshit crazy" and "incapable of understanding." I lost count of the amount of times he said "emotional", so it's worth repeating here - "emotional" is man-code for "women can't be rational" - it's the oldest, most insidious way of undermining a female interlocutor. It's definitively misogynist. He may as well suggest she go upstairs with the other wives and let the menfolk talk over brandy, maybe adding, "You'll get confused otherwise, there's a good little woman."</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As for the substance of what he says, he makes a grand total of one intelligible point: that he is advising a reduction in risk and is being unfairly pilloried for it. All he meant to say was that taking reasonable precautions to avoid rape can reduce the likelihood of rape. Unfortunately, he would have done well to remind himself of Socrates' wisdom: "All I know," said the wisest man, "is that I know nothing."</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">His analogies treat rape the same as getting pick-pocketed, burgled or run over, ignoring that rape is not an accident and not property crime; that rape is a personal, social risk to women, not because they wear certain cloths or get drunk, or don't smear birdlime over their hair and faces, but because they exist next to men (n/b men get raped, too, but that deserves it's own treatment elsewhere). He ignores the place rape occupies in human society and in the lives of every woman and every girl.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">He ignores that rape is a choice that the rapist, and only the rapist, makes.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is not a subject to be judged from one's ivory tower, but one to engage with openly, from the fully self-aware ground of one whose life has never been directly affected by rape and who, thus, doesn't have the first clue about it. Ignorance is understandable and forgivable. What is not forgivable is to not recognise the ignorance inherent in one's own perspective, and yet claim to be an agent of reason.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">To be ignorant of your own ignorance while professing your wisdom is unwise. To not know when you know nothing is to know nothing at all.</span></span>Lot Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01618200650162112678noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1597348752799805836.post-25246831405412599962013-10-04T08:58:00.000-07:002018-05-05T13:22:20.875-07:00Cognitive Dissonance: The Madness of Cut Kings<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The great big, fat lie that is most often repeated about the government shutdown in the US is that it is a fault of 'government'; it is the system that is broken; it is the partizan culture that is to blame; both parties have failed America.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Poppycock. Horse hockey. Fliberty flobbing of the highest order. Indeed, I say: pish-posh and tish to that rotgut.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is a video from a Tea Party rally in March 2011, at about 2:50 the chant of "Cut it or shut it" can be heard, along with "Shut it down" references in the speeches throughout:</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is the right wing of the Republican party demanding a government shutdown if their cuts are not accepted. There are many other examples, both before and since, where Republican members of congress promised to shutdown the government to get their way. Do note the total lack of substance in everything everybody says in this video. Note also that there appear to be more speakers than attendees at this Washington gathering.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">For clarity, the budget they were talking about cutting was cut. They got what they wanted in terms of spending levels. Here's a chart demonstrating that:</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The continuing resolution (CR) the Senate has approved, is set to fund the government at $986 billion, which is over $200 billion less than President Obama's budget and over $100 billion less than Paul Ryan's original austere budget and only $19 billion more than the 2014 Ryan budget, otherwise known as "Ayn Rand's lovechild with Ebeneezer Scrooge."</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">What I'm saying is: The Republicans got what they wanted. They "Cut it". I'm here to tell you they "Shut it" anyway. "Why?" you ask, doubtlessly praying I don't give you another flood of figures to skate over.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">There seems to be some confusion over that. Leading up to and on day one and two of the shutdown, Republicans did what they could to blame President Obama and Senate Democrats, organising a photo opportunity with themselves (eight white guys) sitting at a table across from nobody:</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img src="https://images.rcp.realclearpolitics.com/209514_5_.jpg" />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">They also circulated the talking-point that President Obama would negotiate with extremist mullahs in Iran but not with House Republicans. As has been pointed out many times, that really says more about how they're acting than about the President.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">They seem to have switched tactics, recognising that they weren't moving the public perception needle with "Blame Obama", and have decided to be seen proclaiming how happy they are to have shut the government, while decrying the fact that the government is shut.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is as if some strategist has sat them down and said: "You see, the effects of a government shutdown are only going to be bad, so it is best to distance yourself from them, but the government itself is unpopular, especially with the right-wing base, so associating yourself with shutting it down is a win." This is how you get a Tea Party congressman who voted for the government shutdown <a href="http://voices.suntimes.com/early-and-often/tea-party-congressman-berate-park-ranger-at-wwii-memorial/">berating a park ranger</a> for not allowing entrance to a monument which is closed because of the government shutdown.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Time will tell if this mind-warping sleight of hand works. I can't tell if it's as dumb as it sounds, or the work of some unheralded strategic genius with access to studies suggesting American voters cannot link cause and effect. The presence of a number of other Republican members of Congress at that event confirms, in my eyes, that this represents a strategy rather than an accident.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">With the cuts they demanded being offered to them after they threatened to shut the government down, House Republicans demanded that Obamacare be delayed by a year, again threatening that they'll shut the government down. This threat didn't work twice, so they shut down the government, hoping that Obama would cave. It's not going to work and they know that it's not going to work, so they've basically given up on this line of attack.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Which leaves us with a problem: there is no specific demand that the Republicans are making that will be addressed by the Senate or the President. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is settled law and is going ahead on schedule, having been the subject of two presidential elections and a case at the Supreme Court. Obama has no need to negotiate on that. Everyone now realises this. But the government is still shut. Hundreds of thousands of workers are furloughed. Millions will start to feel the pain shortly.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Republican Congressman Marlin Stutzman really summed things up when he said: "We don't want to be disrespected. And so that's where we're at today, where we have to get something out of this and I don't know what that even is."</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">To sum-up: "Cut it or Shut it? Hell, why choose? Let's have it all! We closed the government, conservative America: rejoice! In unrelated news: The government is closed, conservative America: Outrage! Down with Obamacare! We can't get rid of it? Don't disrespect me! I want something! I need something! SOMETHING!"</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The problem, as I see it, is this: Tea Party members define themselves as not for anything, but as being against President Obama. Look at how they started: They were given the biggest tax cut ever by Obama early in his first term and then they complained about a hike in taxes. They are thus definitely not an issue group.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">They are an anti-Obama group.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">President Obama, being a Democrat and therefore at least part pussy, caved to their demands for cuts. They did not compromise. They voted for the sequester, cutting funding haphazardly, and they were outraged at "Obama's Sequester." The opportunity to shut the government came at the same time as The ACA's Health Exchanges went online: they tied the two together and tried to make it seem as if Obamacare was the reason the government shut down. That failed.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Because they define themselves as anti-Obama alone, they cannot be negotiated with, something that Obama has learned. Whatever he gives them, they will want more. Give them what they want and they never wanted it. Cut their taxes and they complain about a tax hike.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">They are a mad group. There is no power of reason that can understand their workings. They take as fact what we laugh at as morbid fantasy. They laugh at settled science as lies.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">What will happen? Long term: they will fall apart, probably in some sort of intra-mural purity squabble. Short term: they have already won, now they will proclaim defeat.</span></span>Lot Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01618200650162112678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1597348752799805836.post-37552369504418166352013-10-02T08:18:00.000-07:002018-05-05T13:25:47.532-07:00The Paper That Hates Britain<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Readers of the Daily Mail will, naturally, not be reading my blog as they will be too busy losing their livelihoods to immigrants, contracting swine flu and curing/getting cancer because of something something Diana. They will, however, be aware that Ralph Miliband existed. And <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2435751/Red-Eds-pledge-bring-socialism-homage-Marxist-father-Ralph-Miliband-says-GEOFFREY-LEVY.html">he hated Britain</a>. And then he had kids and the weird looking one wants to take us back to the 1970s, because something something Karl Marx, and The Daily Mail stands by every word in that article until they issue a retraction.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have no interest in trying to argue about whether or not The Mail should or should not have commissioned that particular article or gone with that particular headline "The Man Who Hated Britain." Doubtless, it is a venal piece of politics to attack one party's leader by dragging his dead father through the mud; and it is unquestionably vulgar, when that man served in the Royal Navy in WWII, to accuse him of hating Britain. This editorial decision becomes transparently moronic when you consider that before WWII the owner of The Daily Mail, Lord Rothermere (great-grandfather of the current owner), advocated appeasement, wrote to Hitler to support his invasion of the Sudatenland and stood up for Mosely's Blackshirts.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">All this is the kind of information that should accompany any reading of the Mail's writing on historical matters, given that successive editors have failed to put sufficient distance between their past and current output in terms of the degree of almost fascistic right-wing-nuttery to be found in their pages. However, I want to present the case that, apart from their hypocrisy, tastelessness and anything else, it is The Daily Mail that hates Britain.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Every week there are stories in its pages that denigrate the traditions that have defined the finer aspects of British culture over the last half-century. Great Britain's history of Empire has made it a country at the forefront of multi-ethnic, multi-culturalism, the reality of which is now at the very heart of British life. It is a proud fact that black and Asian Britains are seen on TV, in every town, in almost every village, in every school at almost every workplace, in every high street and at every level of British life - but not just seen, nor merely accepted, but without the need for explanation, without questioning. British people are all colours.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is something that The Daily Mail exists apart from - their target market is overwhelmingly, disproportionately white, so they attack immigrants at every opportunity without the risk of losing existing readers. But it is the UK's proud history of welcoming immigrants and adjusting to them that The Daily Mail attacks with each of these headlines.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Mail hates multi-cultural Britain and proudly attempts to sabotage the general bonhomie between cultures you will find throughout the vast majority of this country. Why else would they have splashed the headline "You Must Take Off Your Veil" in a story that was, after all, confined to the time one defendant in an unimportant case would be giving evidence in a courtroom? I could call this headline many things, but at base I think it is a battle-cry to its more small-minded readers, that they will repeat in their minds every time they see a veiled Muslim in the street. It is a silent curse of the most unedifying type; a voice of resentment of others for simply being 'other'.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Mail's readership is generally older than the average, making youth-bashing a unit-shifter. The regularity with which these articles appear in the pages of The Daily Mail, attacking young people for being feckless layabouts who don't know how good they've got it, makes me think that the Mail despairs of all Britains under the age of 25. The Mail would rather accuse a whole socio-economic group of 'lacking grit' than consider that the economy is in the worst state it has been in 70 years (thanks to the sort of laissez-faire capitalism The Mail advocates), and perhaps that is why young people struggle to get work. The Mail hates Britain's future and attack it's inhabitants with abandon.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The divisive nature of the Mail's editorial bent can be seen in it's reporting of protests. They are usually identified as mobs or riots or some other threatening group. Of course, anyone who has been to a protest knows they are generally peaceful gatherings where people and police mingle fairly amiably in ordered disapprobation of whatever it is they are there to protest. Protests are almost always the preserve of the lefty pacifist, who are about as threatening as a strawberry. Though there are of course exceptions, this is generally the way of things.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The protests at Balcombe against fracking were generally orderly, peaceful and amiable. Police and protester existed side by side and both did what they were there to do. Whilst there were incidents where protesters were arrested (including Green MP Caroline Lucas), the protests were peaceful and no-one was hurt. The Mail, however, characterised the protest as a "battle" and went so far as to accuse the police of "cav[ing] in" when they failed to use sufficiently deadly force to enforce the law.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But Daily Mail readers don't go to protests, so the characterisation goes unchallenged by their own experiences. The Daily Mail would presumably prefer that protests were cleared with bullets and truncheons, and are so against the <a href="http://www.yourrights.org.uk/yourrights/the-human-rights-act/the-convention-rights/article-11-freedom-of-assembly-and-association.html">right of peaceful assembly</a> in this country that it lies about the nature of protests. There is something very British about the orderly manner in which people will march to make their point, but share some tea with the nice police officer whose job it is to control their activity. It is an essential, defining aspect of British culture that <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/may/27/york-mosque-protest-tea-biscuits">tea</a> supercedes all imperatives and motivations. It is a truth that the outrage and division characterising every headline in the Daily Mail cannot abide - the Mail would rather lie about it, deny it or ignore it than celebrate it.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Daily Mail hates Britain for its multi-culturalism, hates Britain's future and hates Britain's gentility. It is a paper that hates Britain.</span></span>Lot Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01618200650162112678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1597348752799805836.post-46133492417284180742013-09-04T08:05:00.001-07:002018-05-05T12:58:49.610-07:00Slavoj Žižek is a Drone<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">Slavoj Žižek</span> </span>has decided to weigh in on the recent cases of national security leaks and their leading protagonists in an article for the Guardian, entitled <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/03/snowden-manning-assange-new-heroes">Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange: Our New Heroes.</a> It is linked here so you can read it, but for a couple of reasons, I wouldn't recommend it. Firstly,<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 16px;"> Žižek</span> </span>is absolutely rubbish at explaining himself; he takes four paragraphs to say what could be said in a sentence. I did a philosophy degree, I'm conversant in public and private reason and some Kantian philosophy, and he totally lost me in the middle of his 'explanation.' </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Secondly, the basis of the article itself is obviously flawed. Conflating Snowden, Manning and Assange is highly questionable. These are three different people, doing three different things, for different reasons.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Manning, it seems clear, is the only one among those who you could not accuse of being self-serving. She, at least, brought to light a specific tragic event, that horrified viewers with the 21st Century cowboys culture of the US armed forces. I was horrified by the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0I6S8mva-s">video</a> of innocent civilians being slaughtered so casually, so gleefully and without any censure. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Manning decided to make this video public along with a tranche of other documents, most of which she did not read. Given the political climate of the time, the lies that resulted in the Iraq war, the horrifying attitude of both the airmen in the video and their leaders in Washington, her decision was quite honourable - not legal, not heroic, not very well thought out, but one I can understand and sympathise with - it was a decision made with honourable intent.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Assange provided the forum for this through wikileaks, which just yesterday released a whole slew of private e-mails that I wouldn't read on principle (i.e. they're private). If wikileaks contained themselves to being a forum that releases information or recordings of actual specific events or tragedies, or specific instances where the public had been lied to, I wouldn't dismiss them so easily. They'd be a forum for good people to correct obscenities and cast light on injustice - in short, they would be who they say they are - not a place designed to embarrass mid-ranking diplomatic service employees. Assange seems determined to constantly affirm his own relevance with unfocused, vanity releases - and thus ends up looking like an ego-maniac. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">When<span style="background-color: white;"> <span style="line-height: 16px;">Žižek</span></span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span>opines: "We need Mannings and Snowdens in China, in Russia, Everywhere." One comment helpfully points out:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Well, Snowden is in Russia. But somehow he stays silent. I wonder why that might be...</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"A Manning in Russia would be a bad idea, since he would very soon become a victim of neo-Nazis, encouraged by Putin's anti-LGTB laws.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"You are a smart person, Mr<span style="background-color: white;"> <span style="line-height: 16px;">Žižek</span>,</span> for not mentioning that we also needed Assange in Russia. He was in Russia some time ago. They immediately gave him a talk show on Kremlin's propaganda Channel, Russia Today."</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This fact rather completes my vision of Assange: Under the bleached hair, behind the neediness and the attention seeking, lurks the soul of Richard Madeley. It was this that made it possible for him, rather than to selectively release video and information of real consequence and remain out of the spotlight, to turn it all out into the public domain in a move guaranteed to generate personal publicity for himself, and see Private Manning in jail for all the years left to her.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Snowden, despite being pretty good with computers, and knowing that he was among tens of thousands of people with access to the information he divulged, was terribly unsuccessful in remaining anonymous too, while telling us what we already knew from <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120511973377523845.html">reports in 2008</a> and before about the extent of online surveillance. Maybe I am harsh, but this guy comes across as an air-headed libertarian whose individualism is an excuse for narcissism.<br /><br />His libertarianism is a peculiar American form of hatred for governments and desire for laissez-faire capitalism where any regulation is an affront to freedom, any governance is tyranny. It is an idealistic individualism devoid of ideas of common sacrifice, welfare for all and empathy in general. In short, it's the sort of thing only a healthy guy in his twenties can really convince himself of. It is a philosophy that says "I've got everything going for me, so don't restrict my blossoming with your rules." Narcissism and this kind of libertarianism go hand-in-hand, but when he talks about "the architecture of oppression" one must take into account that he might think the clean water act is oppressive, or public service broadcasting is oppressive, or simply having a police force is oppressive. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The information he leaked was no surprise to anybody who has been paying attention to this stuff for a while, merely fleshing out reports from the last decade. Yes, guess what, if I write "Al-Queda allahu akbar airport bomb" I might get an extra reader for my blog, and while I'm grateful to the sorting computer for putting me through to you, my dear foot soldier of Babylon, I fear your time has been wasted. I may also go on a database, which is troubling of course, but I knew this before Snowden - so did everybody. He put a face on it which we recognise and connect with the story. He then took that face to Hong Kong and then to Russia, where it can, presumably, be 'free'. Maybe they'll give it its own show on Russia Today. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It is a shame that we are not having proper debates about the monitoring of all public information and the need for a new set of laws governing both the access to and use of information dredged up in this way. No, instead we've got this pair of blue-eyed boys playing Don Quixote as retold by Paul Greengrass, with<span style="background-color: white;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">Slavoj Žižek</span> </span>as the carnival barker.</span>Lot Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01618200650162112678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1597348752799805836.post-81201523805828131352013-08-15T11:51:00.001-07:002018-05-05T13:33:08.729-07:00Fascist Atheism<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Brendon O'Neill's article in the Telegraph </span><a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/brendanoneill2/100230985/how-atheists-became-the-most-colossally-smug-and-annoying-people-on-the-planet/">"<span style="line-height: 1.16em;">How atheists became the most colossally smug and annoying people on the planet"</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18.546875px;"><span style="color: #1e1e1e;"> </span>complains that to be described as an atheist has become synonymous with anti-theism, and that neo-atheists are a bunch of smug bastards.<span style="color: #1e1e1e;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Whilst I generally agree with its sentiment, this is a futile article insofar as it doesn't present positive feedback, whilst complaining about those who base their world view on a negative. Essentially, he is complaining about the complainers who call themselves the same as he (O'Neill is an atheist). </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">However, it is the smugness of neo-atheists that I find most troubling about them. I have started to just assume that people who describe themselves as "atheists" are unaware members of a cult not unlike Scientology in tone, without the orthodoxy and the structure of a religion (the gated communities, membership fees, Tom Cruise, scary buildings, etc.). </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Some guy writes books and people buy them to receive further wisdom, which they then present, unexamined and unblinking, as if it were "The Truth!" and only fools and the mentally unwell would argue with it. They present data to back these claims - showing without question that their belief system is not only superior in its interpretation of the world, but it is <i>for superior people</i> - happier people, smarter people, more successful people. Competing world views have adherents doomed to misery and stupidity - they will never reach their potential. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Who was that last paragraph about again?</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">There is something unpleasantly fascist (question: what is "pleasantly fascist"?) about the notion that your mental abilities determine your beliefs and vice versa. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">More on that later.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">O'Neill</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> also seems to suggest, in the course of critiquing the neo-atheist for basing their worldview on a negative, that nihilism is, in itself, undesirable: </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">"</span><span style="line-height: 20.7188px;">There is a very thin line between being a None and a nihilist;"</span><span style="line-height: 20.7188px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 20.7188px;">he says, </span><span style="line-height: 20.7188px;">"after all, if your whole identity is based on not believing in something, then why give a damn about anything?"</span><span style="line-height: 20.7188px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 20.7188px;">Nihilism may be awful</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">,</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">but this is not something I would assume everyone should agree with so casually.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Personally, I found nihilism to be an interesting worldview to take on, as by attempting to hack off all moral and spiritual notions from my worldview, I ended up finding certain parts I could not get rid of. Things I wasn't even aware of revealed themselves to be integral to who I am. It was through nihilism I found a basis for morality - a basis far stronger to me than one offered by some posited faith, or received wisdom.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I would recommend nihilism - not as a dogma, but as a tool. Faiths and beliefs and spurious studies proving one system's superiority; revelations and ecstatic experiences may have power for you, but the attempt to deny everything - faith, morality, social norms - can reveal more specifically about yourself and the world than any text, or momentary feeling. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Of course, humans are different from one another, and there are some people who are better off not trying nihilism out, as they will find that they have no connection to other humans beyond the superficial. These people could be sociopaths, or psychopaths, who are well trained to follow a routine of harmless lies informed by revelatory text, be it Christian, L. Ron Hubbard, Dawkins or Zizek. I may firmly believe that a diet of nihilism brings with it the ground work for a healthy, clear, even moral world view, but because you and I are not the same, following my preaching may do untold damage to you and the people around you. I don't know: I'm neither a god nor a prophet nor a soothsayer; I cannot know what is best for you. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Nor am I a fascist atheist, who presumes himself better because of his self-identification. A Christian may be a Christian because they have always been a Christian. They may also be a Christian because otherwise they would be lost. They may be a Christian because it provides them with a spiritual centre to their lives that helps them survive from one day to the next as the person they would want to be. These Christians, were they not Christians, might be dreadfully selfish, murderers, rapists or depressives. These Christians, were they atheists, might find they are suddenly more moral and more generous and courageous than ever. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The character of an individual determines his or her actions; the beliefs of an individual determine the story they tell afterwards. </span></span></span>Lot Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01618200650162112678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1597348752799805836.post-44411473874594191452012-10-30T11:38:00.001-07:002018-05-05T15:21:25.432-07:00Romney will Attack over Sandy<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">With the devastation whipping through the Eastern seaboard of the US, commentators have been waxing on how neither party is looking to politicise the response. However, this is simply not the case. Watching Romney speak at an Ohio relief rally, you could hear him spinning his own narrative into the effort to give help to people.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In a rambling analogy in a rambling speech, he said "If we all clear our own aisles" then the relief effort will be successful, bringing a message of self-sufficiency into a disaster-aid context. Whether tomorrow he will try to use a similar message, that everyone should clear their own drive ways, put out their own fires, save their own families and not concern themselves with their neighbours, I cannot possibly say. Mitt Romney has proved one thing during the course of this campaign; what he says one moment has absolutely no baring on what he says the next.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Another thing that form does show is that he will not shy from attempting to score the cheapest political points with the flimsiest of justifications, and has absolutely no sensitivity towards taste or moment. Look at his attack on the Cairo embassy for a press release: Romney called a press conference, the day after three embassy staff were killed, to criticise other embassy staff, while their embassy was being mobbed by riots. All as a cheap way of attempting to call Obama an appeaser.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It was possibly the most craven act of politicising I have ever witnessed. It is certainly among the most tasteless examples of campaign rhetoric there have ever been.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Those commentators who are saying that Sandy is not being politicised are wishing their own reality. The truth is, Mitt Romney will find a way of using this to his advantage, will attack the President's response whether that response is the height of competence or not. Romney only sees the end and does not care about the means.</span></span>Lot Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01618200650162112678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1597348752799805836.post-10919035036113973912012-10-23T08:03:00.001-07:002018-05-05T15:47:32.646-07:00After The Debates, Wither Thou Goest, Empty Headed Undecided?<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Forgive my fury, but the dumb eyes of undecided American voters who think themselves fair-minded contain an infuriating, vacuous arrogance.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">No, lady, you're not fair-minded; if you can't separate these two candidates in your mind, you have precisely zero capacity for analysis. No, Sir, you're not weighing each argument equally, the truth is you have but two ideas about how politics affects you personally: Jack and Shit (oh, that reminds me: Jack left town).</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The good news is: you're probably not a virulent racist.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The bad news is: fuck you.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Sweet Jesus! After an economic collapse caused by stock jockeys gone goofy and super rich arseholes who all got out ahead, you could vote for the goofy stock jockey super rich arsehole who specialised in getting out ahead, or you could vote for the other guy, who's been trying (and partly succeeding) to regulate that shit, whilst cleaning up the mess left by the last goofy super rich arsehole you voted for to be president.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Still undecided? How about the fact that one of them says that the best way to quell gun violence in America is by maintaining two parent, one home families - because, statistically, all children with single parents grow up to be 50 Cent. The other guy was raised by a single parent and became the President (presumably, he's secretly President Fiddy, and it says so on his gay Kenyan birth certificate that Acorn gave to drug dealing Mexicans to apologize for America). He thinks banning assault weapons would be a good idea - you know, to stop people carrying out mass killings with assault weapons, of which there have been several in recent years (FYI: mass killings carried out by people with assault weapons are more difficult without assault weapons).</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Seriously, undecided voters in this election either have genuine problems understanding abstract concepts or are hopelessly nihilistic. In fact "Nothing has meaning, meaning is nothing" could be the internal slogan of the Romney campaign.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Yeah, I've got my horse in this race, but if you're not a hard-boiled conservative who genuinely wants a government with massive military spending and drastically cut welfare and regulations and a total ban on all abortions, and you see yourself as 'undecided' in this race, you don't know what you're talking about.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Or you're not going to vote and you're just lying to pollsters about being a 'likely voter'. That's probably it, you sly sons of bitches. You're just afraid of looking like indolent, disinterested, un-civic minded yokels who wouldn't know Republican from reptilian.</span>Lot Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01618200650162112678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1597348752799805836.post-41848514867737282732012-07-31T04:08:00.001-07:002018-05-05T15:48:13.505-07:00G4S: The Almighty **** Up<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Talking to a few soldiers last night was an interesting experience. They were stood on guard in Greenwich at midnight and wanted to hear a song (I had my guitar with me). I wanted to play them something, but wanted to talk to them more. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have heard a lot about the army being called in to deal with the security shortfall at the Olympics, and how G4S underestimated the personnel they would need to staff all the venues and secure the Games. I wanted to hear the details of this experience from the squadie perspective. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The government called the army in to cover G4S, as British forces have been providing security for cities in Afghanistan and Iraq for ten years, so are experts at the task at hand. On a level, you can understand the decision to draft them in. But how has this been done?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Royal Fusileers have just come back from a tour of Afghanistan. The story goes, they were on the plane back, and got told they were on duty in London and had two days to turn around, see their families, then go and fill-in for the dishonest, useless G4S. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Six months in Afghanistan and its horrors, its torments, its discomfort, then one night with the wife and kids, then to London to stand around on twelve hour shifts (with the other twelve hours on stand-by). </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Our soldiers are damn tough. And damn good. The guys I spoke to last night were also damn nice. But asking them to do this seems almost sadistic. "I hope you're getting paid well" I said, assuming there was some serious bonus for those on Olympic duty.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">No. No there isn't. They get a £6 bonus, Lance Corporal *** said - "Oh, hourly?" I asked. "Daily" he replied. That's on top of a £3 hourly salary for Lance Corporal ***, which beats the hell out of Corporal *****'s £1.85 p/h. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">If this isn't a bloody scandal, what the hell is? A private security firm fail to live up to their commitments, leaving our best and brightest and stretched to pick up the pieces on a pathetic wage. They are doing the jobs of G4S, for less than a quarter of the wage of even it's temporary employees. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This ain't right. G4S are getting fined huge volumes, but the process of selecting them and any future contracts with them should be reviewed and then torn up. The ministers responsible should be called to account for this almighty injustice.</span>Lot Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01618200650162112678noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1597348752799805836.post-56573194201224534012012-06-09T07:26:00.002-07:002018-05-05T15:51:35.859-07:00The Occupy Movement: Best Buddy of Bastard Bankers<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Occupy movement is seeing something of a resurgence in pockets across the globe. I feel this can only be a good thing for bankers who want to maintain a 'laissez-faire' regulatory environment.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is a matter of personal conviction that my generation have been totally ignored and pilloried when it comes to the most contentious issues of our time. The protests against the Iraq war were vast, passionate and, perhaps most importantly, right. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Britain had no reason to invade another country, in the process causing the deaths of over 100,000 people. The reasons we were given for this invasion have been proven to be lies and/or distortions of the truth. It is generally felt these lies were deliberately fed to parliament and to the populace in order to justify what would otherwise be unjustifiable. All the talk of WMD and the 40 minute warning took the centre of debate away from the central issue: that this invasion was an illegal act based on a colonial morality (nb: nothing 'neo'-colonial about it).</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We were out on the streets before it happened, saying "don't invade Iraq" and "you're lying to us". We were told to pipe down, that we were naive and didn't understand what was at stake. Turned out: we were right and they were lying to us.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The other great injustice of our time has been the banking collapse. Through deregulation and worship of the financial sector by chancellor Gordon Brown, Bush and Clinton, the conditions were set where some areas of trading became one great big game of bluff. It got so bad that the traders themselves had no idea if the assets they were buying and selling were toxic or not. It was like they were playing poker without being able to see their own hands.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Occupy started, in essence, as a reaction to this catastrophe. The time at which the Occupy movement was at its most popular was when the message was simple: "regulate the financial system so this stuff can't happen." </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It was at this time I was seriously considering taking my tent to LSX and joining the movement. This now seems a very long time ago.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As happened at the Iraq war demonstrations, the left-wing crazies came out and took ownership of the entire movement. I remember those pathetic creatures trying to push me to buy 'Socialist Worker' and join their sordid little group. "But I'm here to protest the Iraq war," I said, "not to commit intellectual suicide." </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The anarchists and the Marxists had the loud-hailers and the big banners and they freely claimed to speak for everyone there.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">No-one told me that you had to become an avowed anarchist to attend the demonstration. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Last year, when a vast body of people came to the conclusion that the financial sector shouldn't be run like the worst </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">casino in the world, the little Lenins got all excited again and started to bleat their claptrap with visions of armed revolution and storming Parliament and an end to capitalism. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The movement's message became diluted, going far beyond 'regulate the financial system' to the outer reaches of Slavoj Zizek's non-reality-based imagination. All sorts of rubbish was thrown around about remaking the world and abolishing countries and re-writing property law. Some of it was sensible, some of it was quixotic, some of it was deeply divisive. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Ultimately, the little Lenins still had the loud-hailers and the big signs. It is they who drowned the Occupy movement in a sea of anachronistic utopian hot air and self-importance.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But that was December, when Occupy also died of natural causes: winter. No serious revolution has ever succeeded in cold weather with the exception of Russia (which I think actually proves my point, for reasons too long to go into here): July 4th is American Independence Day; July 14th is Bastille Day; the English Civil War started on 22nd of August and effectively took the winters off; the Arab Spring is called the 'Arab Spring' because it happened in the spring.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I think if OWS had got traction in May of last year instead of October, it would have been a more effective movement. Unfortunately, this year's resurrection is a confused mess of lefty anarchists, demanding an end to capitalism (no-one in their right mind actually wants an end to capitalism). </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I still want financial regulations, but I don't want to stand next to signs condemning Barrack Obama for being 'a fucking traitor' written by some middle-class child called "Magpie" (real name 'Michael') or "Hunter" (Henry) or "Raven" (Lizbeth to her parents) whose morality is as transitory as it is purist.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So that's how these imbeciles are helping the financial sector to maintain their death-grip on our economy - by driving intelligent people off from what was the movement to regulate it.</span>Lot Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01618200650162112678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1597348752799805836.post-75987234737065638002012-06-06T05:36:00.000-07:002018-05-05T15:52:13.997-07:00The Queen, 9/11 and Guys Called "John"<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This weekend's Jubilee celebrations brought into sharp relief the strange, perhaps anachronistic, constitution under which we live in the United Kingdom.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There is no doubt that the monarchy has its detractors - a glance at my Facebook feed shows posts of strident support for a Republic to be instituted in the UK, among the affirmations of Royalist sentiment.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">However, as the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/may/24/queen-diamond-jubilee-record-support">Guardian/ICM poll</a> suggests, there is no serious possibility of the monarchy being decommissioned any time soon. 69% of all respondents felt the country would be worse-off without the royal family. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">These sort of numbers are unimaginable for any President (except Putin, of course, who has the universal support of Russians, no matter how they vote). In 2012, the Jubilee and its flag-waving crowds of all political and social persuasions, stand in stark contrast with the bitter divisions of the election happening in America.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I want to lay out how this all happened; how one Head of State unifies a country while the other divides it. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As so often is the case, we go back to 11/9/2001 to find our starting point. After the twin towers were demolished and thousands slaughtered in the terrorist attack, the American media focussed on George W. Bush, and looked to him to provide some sort of unifying message about the assault and where the country would go from there.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Bush responded willingly, standing atop the rubble promising that the "evil doers" would pay for their deeds. It created a media storyline straight out of an action flick, with GWB cast as the John McLane, the John Wayne, the John Conner, the John Rambo, the John Matrix, the John Cutter (Passenger 57? Anyone?); he was the every man hero, fighting against the terrorist mastermind.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">GWB rode a tidal wave of goodwill, achieving an approval rating of somewhere between an ice-cream and a blow-job for about a week after the attacks he failed to prevent. He was the focus of patriotic feelings; he was the voice of the nation's anger; he was the embodiment of America.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">That is part of the job for any Head of State.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Unlike in the cinema, however, this storyline had to stretch for more than an hour and a half, and much of the audience became dissatisfied with the supposed hero. The bodies that he left behind weren't simply thrown to the ground and forgotten; they lay there and festered. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The country became divided as the Bush administration suspended Habeas Corpus, demonstrated unsophisticated morality and invaded Afghanistan and Iraq.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In 2004, the election went his way thanks, mostly, to an uninspiring candidate on the Democratic side and a populous still petrified by the thought of another terrorist attack. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Thereafter, the rhetoric of the liberal media and some very few Democratic politicians was ratcheted up to present GWB and his brain's trust as war criminals (nb: as point of fact, they are war criminals). </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Republicans had to convince their support that water-boarding was not torture, that permanent imprisonment with no trial was justice and that the administration who failed to protect them on 11/9/2001 were the only one's qualified to protect them in the future.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Initiatives to redefine black as white, up as down and the world as flat stalled in committee because they lacked for ambition.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So the Republican politicians and support base had to either accept these policy positions and tactics, or tolerate them for what they saw as the greater good. Or they had to stop being Republicans. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Democrats could not support such an agenda, either because of their shared moral commitment to peace and civil rights, or because they didn't like their intelligence being insulted. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">To support George W. Bush through this period necessitated that one bought in to his philosophy, his rhetoric and his policies. The Head of State, who's job it is to provide a focus for national unity, became not just 'The Decider', but the divider. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">His attitude, and the attitude of Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, was <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sfNROmn7bc">"either you are with us or you are with the terrorists"</a>. GWB himself said this to the international community, but this sentiment was repeated throughout his homeland.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Thus it was that Barrack Obama inherited a divided nation. Despite his principled and intelligent attempts to be the President for all Americans and the killing of Osama Bin Laden, the nation remains sullenly divided. Republicans cannot admit the horrendous and illegal nature of Bush's policies because if they did they would lose all legitimacy.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This means that 45% of the American populous is in denial over the Bush years, and that delusion feeds in to their nomination of Mitt Romney, whose <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeJm6my2NWs">lies on the campaign trail</a> are bewildering. It is as if he lives in a different universe. He states things that are factually wrong as if they were true and the audience accepts it, because they have already accepted far bigger lies.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">If they didn't they would be left with the awful reality outside of the planet <a href="http://www.conservapedia.com/Main_Page">Conserveranus</a>. Obama cannot reach these people, cannot be their president, because the fissure torn through the country is between fact-based reality and bizarro world.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"What the hell", I hear you ask, "has this to do with monarchy and the Jubilee?"</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is what: I don't believe that GWB could ever have hoped to maintain the unity of the nation. I'm not giving the guy a pass on the catastrophic series of decisions he made, but the office of the presidency is one of policy and decision making. If Obama had been president then, the result would have been similar. Making decisions and pursuing agenda items is inherently divisive.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">His role as Head of State is compromised by his role as leader of a political party and ratifier of policy. Bush could have done a better job; he could have kept the pursuit of Bin Laden and the destruction of al-Queda out of the political arena - but the President himself still could not have continued as the unifying face of America. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Queen is burdened by no such responsibilities. Her position as Head of State demands only that she fulfil functions such as welcoming other Heads of State, making a speech at the opening of Parliament, and again to the cameras at Christmas and living a dignified example of a life between times.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">She fulfils her role in ceremonies, dines with presidents and kings and gives private counsel to her own Prime Minister. She does not have to push a plan to sort out the budget. She does not send our troops overseas. She does not have to defend ministers who are caught with their fingers in the till, or with their trousers around their ankles. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">She represents Britain and the Commonwealth without making any decision on any matter anywhere but in her own household. Thus her role is not an inherently divisive one. Whether there should be a monarchy or not may present a divergence of opinion, but not many things that the Queen actually does can be a matter for debate beyond "should the tax-payer pay for it?"</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">She presents a focus for feelings of national pride and unity without having to make divisive decisions. That is how the monarchy works in the modern age. That is the benefit of separating the role of Head of State from the democratic process. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The price? To be represented by someone appointed, supposedly, by God, and not by the people.</span>Lot Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01618200650162112678noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1597348752799805836.post-12062834531517037792012-02-22T12:41:00.002-08:002018-05-05T15:52:54.140-07:00Christian Vandals<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Stephen Tompkins' article "How much Christianity is hidden in British society?" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17112688) for the BBC website's 'News Magazine' section, was written as a reaction to the recent appearance of Richard Dawkins on the today programme.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is a classic example of BBC conservatism that they publish an article affirming the state doctrine, at a time when it is challenged by Dawkins and his secularists. I don't see an article in their 'Magazine' section, or any other section, making an even vaguely secularist point. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is not a case of equal time for both views, as the Rev. Giles Fraser gave as good as he got on the Today Programme. This is a case of over-correction.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The problem I have with this article (which is featured prominently in the 'News' section of the website at this hour) is that it confuses Christianity for religion as a whole. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It assumes, for instance, that if a festival has a Christian name, it has a Christian origin. The article explains the British calender of seasons and holidays almost as if there were no time prior to Christianity being forced, by the sword, on the local pagans. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Tomkins writes "Trying to take all the <span style="font-style: italic;">religion</span> out of it (British Culture) would be not so much like taking the raisins out of a fruitcake as like taking the chocolate out of a chocolate cake.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So here are some of the places in British society where <span style="font-style: italic;">Christian</span> heritage can easily be uncovered." (italics added)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The word "religion" does not mean "Christianity" - a distinction he fails to make throughout the article. Taking Christianity out of our culture would be more like stripping the paint off a wall - everything would be exactly the same, but we'd call certain things by different names. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For instance, we'd admit that it's damn stupid to think Caesar would have ordered a census in December, so we'd stop pretending Jesus was born then. Henceforth, we'd call Christmas "The Winter Solstice", a festival that celebrates the birth of hope on the shortest day - hence why it was re-branded "Jesus' birthday" - and hold it four days earlier. Nothing else about it need change.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Instead of the annual confusion as to when exactly Easter is, we'd celebrate the regenerative powers of the Green Man, or John Barleycorn, on May 1st. We could take our pick from a range of different pagan folklore that has a lot more to do with eggs and rabbits than the limp 'stone' excuse Christians try to sell.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Basically, we'd stop pretending that Christianity has anything to do with the formation of our calender.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Christianity is like graffiti over the pagan painting of British culture. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Tomkins doesn't seem to understand this, or else he wouldn't have gaffed so hard with clangers like "Fear of the number 13 may have stemmed from Judas being the 13th member of the Last Supper." </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Numerology is not a strong point of mine, but 13 has long been held by many different cultures as being magic in one way or another. That there are 13 cycles of the moon every 3 years or so, and therefore 13 menstrual cycles for the women folk probably has more to do with it than arbitrarily deciding Judas was number 13 at a table one time.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This explanation, from the author of "A Short History of Christianity", cannot be dismissed as merely lazy or uneducated. He must realise he is equivocating with his use of the terms 'religious' and 'Christian', that he is affirming a Christian interpretation of British history and culture; a history and culture that is deeply pagan.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This interpretation feeds from the Christian imperialism of the Middle ages and the renaissance, which sought to co-opt pagan tradition and re-brand it in order to tame and Christianise this country. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Back then, they didn't just burn the witches (doctors), they re-told the story of the year as a Christian fable and gave songs words about Jesus in place of the May Queen. They gave spurious and unbelievable explanations for why black cats and 13 are unlucky. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">That the BBC is still paying people to carry out this work makes me sad. That Tomkins' article is so paper-thin in its deception offers scant consolation.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For future reference, please note: the word "Religion" does not refer only to "Christianity". </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But you knew that, didn't you?</span>Lot Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01618200650162112678noreply@blogger.com2