Existential Angst

RBS

2010-02-27T11:25:00.002Z

I found it difficult to believe, that one year on, they've done it again!!

£3.6 Bn loss... £1.8 bn bonus... erm, that's 1.8 bn of ***our**** money!

Ours, yours and mine!!

Long time no see

2010-02-24T21:00:00.002Z

Very pleased to be back and.. well, laughing a bit more at the absurdity of this world.

15 billion - what happened to the 150 billion?

2009-04-20T16:48:00.001+01:00

Well, the public sector has to tighten it's belt eh?

It's just rubbish this way of being treated. Just rubbish.

Malnutrition and Manna

2009-04-04T09:49:00.000+01:00

The banking sector, thanks to this govenment has been showered with Manna from the heavenly bank of England. The scale, breathtaking, must be something in the region of about one quarter of the UK's GDP.

At the same time, here in this, one of the richest nations on this earth, we look on as people sleep in the streets and our children face a future of stunted growth and attendant health problems...

All because the money was spent at the bank, not at the shops to feed them.

It's that simple.

A brave new Order

2009-04-03T08:59:00.001+01:00

Ha! As if!

What a load of old tosh they are talking about the summit in London yesterday.

Just business as usual.

Idiots

Egg on Mandleson's face

2009-03-06T19:15:00.002Z

leila, from the Plane Stupid campaign threw green custard into the Industry secretary's face - democracy in action.

Follow this link to the protestors comments:

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7927971.stm>

Hurrah!

The "special" one

2009-03-03T09:45:00.000Z

So Gordon Brown is being touted as the "special one" now, is he? Oh, but what's this? Obama has returned the bust of Churchill... oh, someone else was invited to the Whitehouse first?

Not so special now eh?

Oh well, never mind Gordon, just you wait until they need someone to go into some other poor country and shoot and kill people, I'm sure they'll remember you... or perhaps by then Mr Cameron will be 'Dear David' as opposed to Gorgeous Gordon.

Don't make me laugh.

How we should run the (world) economy

2009-02-03T13:29:00.002Z

Might be heavy going, but I think this is very interesting stuff indeed - especially since this latest post is saying that China is the one to watch, and to compare and contrst with!

the end is night . . . Again

2009-01-17T10:23:00.000Z

Except of course that it isn't.

See here <http://www.ablog.typepad.com> for a commentry on economic trends, and more importantly, in my view, the politics that arises from and is driven by those trends.

crime in gaza

2009-01-12T18:03:00.000Z

The state of Israel must stop this crime.

who leads? Who is the boss? These are the questions

2008-12-23T22:55:00.000Z

It's one thing to be on the sidelines and complain about the powersa that be, but it's quite another to stand up and take power - especially if that means someone like you... Like in your life, your partner, or parwnt or supervisor?

democracy is alright....

2008-12-12T16:46:00.000Z

....so long as they keep making us vote until we give the right answer.

I'm furious, and I'm not even from Ireland!

The cheek of it, making up some bull shit about 'legal guarantees'.... ha ha ha, sounds like the kiind of thing said by a 14 year old to a 13 year - soooo patronising!

Really!

begging for it

2008-11-29T09:43:00.000Z

Only just heard this part of the story. When the CEO's of Chrysler, Ford and General Motors went to washington, to beg for money, how did they get there?

In their own private jets of course...

oh the bourgeosie

2008-10-23T22:59:00.000+01:00

Poor old Osbourne. . . sort of. Serves him right? Only those who know him could say, but even so, two wrongs don't make a right.

Anyhow, the picture is my traffic jam from today.

basck to Osbourne - he broke the rules' it seems to me, in that he spoke about stuff (mandelsons vitriol about brown) that hew shouldn't, so he's being punished.

in other words, he's betrayd his bourgeoise - and now he'll be sorry . . . And presumably pay with the career he might have had, as a warning or teaching mechanism to those of his ilk that follow?

long time no see. . . Or the money

2008-10-04T09:45:00.000+01:00

Breathtaking is all one can say, about the rip-off proceeding apace. At first glance the US taxpayer, but really that's all of us. . . the most badly affected, of course, will be the poorest on the planet, who will pay with their lives.

At the moment I can speak of it here, and mine is one of the multitude of voices denied a broader platform, and yet change is blowing in the wind.

China grows by the day, Chavez leads with Morales, Lula and others from the south; Africa rejects the US AfriCom plan, Russia sends gunboats to America's back yard.

Change is coming. i hope it's not war and destruction though.

flashpoint: world war III

2008-08-28T08:01:00.000+01:00

The spooky thing is that that title is from a book by Andrew Murray, written in 1996.

And in the end, I suppose this fantastic voyage may all turn to dust.

Tree of Life, as seen from the wrong angle

2008-07-20T21:02:00.000+01:00

Yes of course, they will say, times are hard and you have to adjust to the new reality.

Naturally, that only applies to you. Not to them (them being the small elite who not only own most of it, but won't rest until they've got your share too).

So we're having to pay for expensive foreign wars we didn't want in the first place; be bullied by anti-terror laws that our government helped create the reasons why we're told we need them; be bullied at work because as jobs get more scarce our employers can more easily treat us like shite.

All a bit rubbish really.

Well, maybe not in that case...

2008-07-11T13:56:00.001+01:00

Reading that post (see link above) I guess he's right about it, it's just that it's rather difficult to come to terms with a nutcase administration, that's all.

Ho hum.

Won't stop worrying about it though... for a while.

So, where's all the money going?

2008-07-06T20:52:00.000+01:00

Firstly, this question is probably several centuries, if not more, too late. Never the less, oil has increased in price - dramatically, say some.

So, huge increases being the case, to whom does the money go? A puzzling thing - something I'd like to educate my self about.

Norway, for instance, puts the money it gets into a fund for it's citizens. What does the UK do? I don't know - shameful, really, but it was just handed over to the oil companies, so far as I can tell.

Venezuela, now there they too put the money into society - well, at least while they keep the big bully's military out,

oh no...

2008-07-05T17:31:00.001+01:00

You-know-who's middle eastern gendarme/attack dog has been practicing an air strike on Iran's nuclear facility - this was over Greek air space.

Why there?

I understand it's because they (Greece) bought the same surface to air missiles as Iran.

That's lucky for you-know-who.

But the question is "why did Greece agree" to help prepare for this monstrous planned attack? What inducements were offered, and to whom?

topsy turvey, the hall of mirrors that is the ideological/propagan da world in which I live

2008-06-23T22:34:00.001+01:00

Zimbabwe, the voice of the people must be heard, so we are told...

that is until it comes to Ireland and the upside down hall of mirrors of propaganda, where the real image moves constantly, means that the will of the people must (it seems in this case) be ignored.

So it's awful what's happening in 'Zim', but the UK government' and still less the BBC, have no right to criticise others fore what they do.

Hypocracy.

Vote 'till you get it right

2008-06-20T13:05:00.001+01:00

Whichever way you look at it, Ireland has to keep voting until they get it right...

The treaty is over, that's all there is to it.

Only a dummy (see picture) would carry on, overlooking this process as if all was ok.

there's a storm out there, somewhere

2008-06-04T22:13:00.001+01:00

It's a weird thing, but it seems like somewhere, there's this awful situation that's going to develop, like a return to the cold war, whewrew death was always four minutes away,

In the meantime, I continue my life as if nothing extraordinary is happening,

As if all that I do, all that I see is completely sane, and it's me that's mad because the feelings I have are tantamouint to the world as represented in 'The Matrix'.

stage version of Lord of the Rings

2008-05-24T20:33:00.000+01:00

I saw this musical at the week-end. jaw dropping. If you can get to see this, do, in my humble opinion, it's one of the best stage event I've seen in the last twenty five years.

Fab.

Booooooom!

2008-05-21T20:11:00.001+01:00

So we've seen the results of the boom tha was the result of sub-prime speculation - well actually, you have if you're an American... it's only just started here in the UK.

What's next?

Commodities. That's what.

When that bubble ends, as it surely will, I assume more government money (that is, yours and mine) will be used to bail out the speculators.

It's not right, is it?

on and ever on...

2008-05-10T09:56:00.001+01:00

I'm really into existentialism - that is, there's no meaning to anything, only the meaning I give to it (even when I think I have 'uncovered' somethiongs meaning).

But sometimes, I could really do wirh a break from it (yes, I know, I am "condemned" to my freedom), I wish it were possible for me to simply give over my will to a god- any god would do, - guess, because then the burden of choice would not be mine, meaning and morality would be laid out for me

Just seems a lot more simple.

am i just mad?

2008-05-07T22:42:00.001+01:00

Sometimes i'm just thinking it must be and i can't stand it anymore. I just feelso low sometimes (but I don't want to rescued), about what a load of shkite the politics is.....!

US presidents and the war

2008-04-23T20:04:00.000+01:00

I prefer Obama, only because I think what a marvelous change that would be, to have a black man in charge of the most powerful nation in the history of the planet. Change seems unlikely, in any deeper sense, in that all of the candidates are the product of a system that weeds out those with anything other than a narrow range of views.

Sounds a bit like a church really.

Lack of Food - more 'disaster' capitalism (as in Naomi Klein)

2008-04-19T11:45:00.001+01:00

The BBC has begun reporting riots associated with the lack of food, eg Haiti and others.

The way the BBC reported it, though, was to tag it as 'the new Food Wars'.

Is this the new hegemony? is this the new 'disaster' (Klein) ?

What matters (in addition to actually feeding people) is to understand that it's not a crisis of production, but of distribution.

Unity is strength

2008-04-12T11:25:00.000+01:00

.... And China is rightly, imho, asserting that as the issue. Oh the awful guff I hear on the news- worse, though was yesterday when I ventured into reactionary blog territory.

Must be just as awful for the reactionary's to read stuff like this, I guess.

Ho hum, the key thing is to find as much common ground as possible, where possible.

And another thing,,,,

2008-04-09T10:00:00.001+01:00

It seems clear to me that the internet is changing everything- until 'they' re-assert control over the means of communication, that is.

Take the hypocritical nonsense being pedalled about Tibet and China - the comparison with Iraq and the US and the UK is obvious, but most importantly, because of the net I am no longer believing that I am alone in my thoughts.

On the contrary, I am certaim that I am with the vast bulk of humanity.

It's time...

2008-04-09T08:39:00.001+01:00

It’s awful for some people, truly awful, but at least they have houses – I’m talking about the forthcoming decline in house prices. Hopefully it might mean that our children will have somewhere to live.

Meanwhile… what’s all this about food riots? In my comfortable western existence, the BBC have declined to tell me anything about this, yet over this planet people are now short of food.

That’ll be partly because this morning I need to fill up my car with fuel – and that’s bio fuel… or food to a lot of people.

Outrageous.

A tale of occupation

2008-04-05T09:55:00.000+01:00

Since you can see previous posts here, it's clear that the occupier is my country and the US - yet if this was the BBC, then the occupier would be the People's Republic of China, and the land of occupation Tibet, not Iraq.

So can someone just say what is so marvelous about a feudal theocracy?

Obama

2008-03-15T09:53:00.000Z

My brother said this morning that if it looks like Obama will win, he'll probably get shot.

Blimey, I hope not.

My goodness, he'd be better than Clinton though . . . I'd vote for him.

nationality

2008-03-12T19:11:00.000Z

We've just heard from our leaders about how important loyalty and nationality are-what abouit all those people who are so worried about the extra £30,000 tax that many commentators said they ,ight move abroad?

the future

2008-03-07T19:57:00.000Z

I'm reading a book, set some 30 years in the future. The main protagonist is a soldier, fighting a war he doesn't understand, against a defenceless enemy, that seem to have done him and his people no wrong.

Sounds familiar-yet it was written thirty years ago.

irony, obviously lost on the Israli state

2008-03-07T11:08:00.000Z

I thought i was beyond shocking, re palestine-the bomber killings are awful, condemned without question . . . But to smite the children, to punish the innocent, to enclose them within walls and then kill in what amounts to a systematic method?

If only it were funny.

EU Treaty

2008-03-05T22:33:00.001Z

So on this day our politicians sold us down the river again. They have signed me up to this new treaty without asking me. . . or anyone else for that matter

things are not always what they seem

2008-03-01T17:32:00.001Z

As we hurtle towards our common fate, those purveyors of their truth tell us that the worlds largest religion threaten our enlightenment.

it seems to me the threat (to me and mine) comes from those seeking to end independent thinking, those who seek to restrict our liberty.

Hurrah for Fidel!

2008-02-23T09:58:00.000Z

Hurrah for fifty years from Fidel-and of course the people of Cuba.

thank you for your efforts

thank you for giving me a point of light in the darkness of a capitalistic night

thank you for the hope that fills my heart for the future of my child- because of Cuba I know that somewhere in the world people live in a way where care is socialised, that dog-eat-dog does not rule.

Thank you

Darfur, China and that director

2008-02-16T09:33:00.001Z

I live in the uk (sometimes I just shorten it to 'yuk', for reasons that I hope are clear), so it seems right and proper that I engage in criticism of me and my country, and the policy decisions of that other english speaking country that yuk slavishly follows.

Having said that, it'd be a lot easier to take a high and mighty stance with other countries, whilst ignoring my own.

On the other hand, why China's relationship with Darfur? Isn't yuk's with Iraq/Afghanistan just as worthy? What about the EU/Germany's attempt to split Kosovo from Serbia?

Lehni Reifensthal (don't know the spelling) he isn't, though I've enjoyed his films' especially Schindlers List.

the end is nigh?

2008-02-09T14:17:00.000Z

i guess it must be, if we're already at peak oil, then the changes are already taking place around us.

oh dear.

socialised health care

2008-02-09T10:28:00.001Z

I watched the Michael Moore (http://michaelmoore.com) film Sicko last night.

It was such a laugh, mostly. It the segment in Cuba, where the person who'd had to sell everything to pay to stay alive, realised that the $120 dollar medicine she was having to buy in the US, was 5 cents in Cuba.

I was feeling rather smug about living in the UK - untill I saw how well people are cared for in France. . . I think the french system is better

This is what life is about

2008-01-14T13:33:00.000Z

I read Minerva's blog with some humiltiy - in that it takes someone struggling for life to teach me what the meaning of life can be.

Thank you Minerva.

The world of dreams

2008-01-10T13:19:00.000Z

You, I, inhabit a world of dreams, in this western industrialised country, where most ot the things we do, is in our heads.

Take t.v. for example.

We sit and watch and it's all about stuff going on inside our heads (ok we are in the act of watching), to watch is not the same as 'to do'.

I'm not arguing for some nirvana where everything is some utopia, just that a lot of life, in the UK, and looks like similar in other western industrialised coutnries, is about what goes on in the head.

Take money for example.

I have a back account, but I never actually see the stuff - it's transferred between here and there, and I use a debit card a lot otherwise, cash only sometimes... so it seems like it's all in the head this stuff.

Like you, now reading this, where ever you are, this is another abstraction.

How would you explain what you are doing to someone from before the second world war?

What could you say?

New! Nuclear power, not!

2008-01-08T15:58:00.001Z

I'm somewhat unclear
About uncle nuclear
He, I am told,
Is as good as gold
About carbon and fear

By that I mean
The silvery gleam
Of carbon... .

This labour government is finished

2007-11-30T10:47:00.000Z

The misfortunes besetting Gordon Browns government, though seemingly 'acts of god', aren't.

What's happened, in my view, is that they were foolish enough to make enemies of the UK media... and to my mind that seemed to happen when they wrong footed the media. This was done following the Labour Party conference this year, when Gordon Brown was thought to be considering holding a snap election. As we know, that didn't happen, but it was the media's collective view that it *was* going to happen, and when it didn't, they looked foolish, as if they'd been had.

A kind of collective shame.

And now Gordon is paying the price, along with his cabinet.

I wonder how he could make amends?

The only way for him would be to get his head around the sham part of it, I think.

What do you say?

Taboo

2007-11-21T19:22:00.001Z

How is it that when you've 'seen' something, afterwards it appears obvious -even though getting to that point of undertanding can be a monumental struggle - for example one of those riddles like the one in a group where someone starts off by saying "my train stops at cardiff, but not at coventry" a
nd then asks the person next to them: "where does your train stop?" and so it goes on until everyone has 'seen'.

I feel a little like that now, in that I've seen something about a (only the one) taboo.

So what's a taboo? How do I identify one? In this caseI think I mean those times when I've wanted contact with someone, but felt as though there was no reason or pretext I could think of that would allow it.

The weird thing is that -'ve watched those Bronte' dramas and laughed up my sleeve about how strange and antiquated their formal systems for regulating contact between the sexes seemed -all the while oblivious to the iron bound taboos that hold me in my place.

Rather pathetic.

Last days of the empire of the eagle

2007-11-20T18:23:00.001Z

The dollar is the currency that for half a century underpionned the world economy.

It's not looking so good now, as it falls in value, as OPEC maybe comes to the conclusion that they'd be better off trading in Euros?

This seems very serious to me. So serious that the leaders of that country might get desperate enough to try their luck in... Yes Iran.

I hope not.

I don't want an attack on Iran

2007-11-18T09:00:00.000Z

Diego Garcia, an Indian ocean island from where the uk government has unlawfully evicted people like you and me, is being upgraded to handle stealth bombers eqipped with bunker busting bombs.

So that the US can kill more people, like you and me, in Iran.

No. Not again.

Time for change?

2007-11-16T10:26:00.000Z

The election of Gordon Brown, or rather, his coronation, plus what looks like the total prevention of democratically elected candidates for labour MP's, looks like the end of the Labour Party as an expression of anything other than the intrests of money.

It seems like it's time for change.

It's time to recognise that the old ways no longer take us forwards.

The problems of our planet cannot be solved by the market.

The sooner, the better

Where will it end?

2007-10-30T15:55:00.001Z

I saw a program last night - the start of it - about
addictions. I was shocked to see that the poor sods
on the screen were to be filmed as they went through
the awful process of withdrawal.

Clearly, I thought, everything is to be a spectacle
now.

How crass.

Brown is finished

2007-10-21T08:55:00.000+01:00

Gordon Brown is finished as a leader of this country.

How do I know?

It seems clear that his crucial mistake was not that he dithers over an election, or that he does not do well in Prime Ministers Questions, or even that he is simply lying about the new European constitution, none of these. His mistake is that he's upset the people he needed most - the media.

Clearly even that wouldn't matter if growth and expansion were increasing their living standards... I don't know the answer to that, but attacks on the BBC won't help the journalists.

So either the Labour Party ditches Brown, or the next government will be Conservative/right wing (and a hung parliament means the same thing).

genuineness

2007-10-17T19:08:00.000+01:00

One of the most difficult things to come to terms with about my self, has been that at times I have been, and still can be, utterly insincere.

This is not something I like about myself, and yet I find it very difficult sometimes to be as real and as straight as I would like.

And I would like to be straight/real.

It's something I am working at, and I know I have to keep working at it.

when?

2007-10-14T09:13:00.000+01:00

When? When will it become obvious? That's what I keep wondering...
After all, I keep thinking to myself, we can't carry on like this, the climate is changing, and capitalism clearly doesn't have the answer, questions like that really, questions that only humans can answer.

The right to protest... Tony Benn

2007-10-05T08:38:00.000+01:00

TONY BENN'S LETTER TO THE HOME SECRETARY

To: The Right Hon Jacqui Smith MP
Home Secretary
House of Commons
London
SW1A OAA
Monday October 1st 2007

Dear Home Secretary,

I am writing to you as President of the STOP THE WAR COALITION,to give you advance notice that there will be a demonstration inTrafalgar Square the day Parliament meets calling for theimmediate withdrawal of all British troops from Iraq andAfghanistan at which I shall be speaking along with others.

Afterwards many of those present - including myself - will bemarching along Whitehall to the House of Commons to meet MPs andurge them to support this call for a withdrawal, as I shall bedoing in approaching Malcolm Rifkind my own local MP. We shall bedoing this in an orderly manner and I am making available tothose who wish to have one, a postcard over my printed signatureas a Privy Councillor, asking the police, and others to assistthem. I enclose a copy of this postcard.

The authority for this march derives from our ancient right tofree speech and assembly enshrined in our history, of which weoften boast and which we vigorously defended in two world wars.

I am copying this letter, and its enclosure, to Jack Straw, theCommissioner of the Metropolis, and as a courtesy, to the PrimeMinister'soffice.

I hope that you will be able to re-assure me that those whodemonstrate and march down Whitehall will enjoy your full supportand the support of the police. But it is only fair to tell youthat the march will go ahead, in any case, and I will be amongthose marching.

Yours in peace

TONY BENN

Crisis? What crisis - Boris Kagarlitsky

2007-10-02T17:32:00.000+01:00

Is Another Depression Looming?
By Boris Kagarlitsky
Western leftist economists are known for having predicted eight crises out of five that erupted. Well, critically thinking people like to predict different crashes, collapses and depressions. The existing system turns out to be irrational so often and in such a large measure, it has so many discrepancies and conflicts, that it is hard to resist the temptation: it seems natural to suspect that something will certainly collapse or break down.
If a building is constructed poorly, it can be maintained through constant repairing and being propped up for a long time. The older generation still remembers how it was done in the Soviet Union. The way it happens in the time of capitalism we can observe now.
The question is how efficient the props are. Sooner or later, somebody makes a mistake, something goes out of control, and the uncontrolled process of destruction (in other words, economic crisis) is triggered off.

The Analysts have long ago raised concern about the real estate prices becoming all-time high in the majority of countries. However, the chattel mortgage system postponed a crash. While the banks loaned money to the people who needed dwelling, the apartments and houses continued to be sold. And as a result the housing crisis turned out to be the debt crisis.
This summer happened something that had to happen sooner or later. On a mass scale the Americans ceased to pay off the housing debts. Unlike Russia where the market was in 1998 wrecked by the officials, in the USA the citizens themselves did so. The outcome was the same ? the baking crisis burst out. Shares have fallen and the exchanges began to fluctuate feverishly.
The American crisis spread over to Europe and Asia.

Against this background, Russia?s situation is a little better. There are two reasons for that. Firstly, in spite of extremely high prices, Russia?s population has not taken out enough loans yet to wreck the market as it was in the USA (the Russians has been rather afraid of taking out the bank loans for a long time). Secondly, the economic growth is kept up due to very high oil prices. Even if the exchange crisis is followed by the decline in global production output, it will not occur immediately.

In principle, the Russian people should be happy: if the global trends tell on the housing markets in Moscow and St. Petersburg, local citizens will have a better chance of buying apartments.
But, unfortunately, their cheerful mood may be darkened before long.
Today the West Europeans are busy discussing whether the exchange crisis will lead to the same decline in output and slump in demand. For Russia the question can be formulated differently: whether and when the oil prices will drop as a result of the present world economic instability. And the bottom line is if the Kremlin has time to hold the presidential election before the economic recession.

When the economy is on the rise, the increase in the raw materials and oil prices outstrips the general growth. However, when a recession starts, the raw materials go down in prices quicker than the manufactured goods. In other words, Russia like many other countries that are the raw materials periphery of the world capitalism, can suffer from the crisis to a more considerable degree than the West. The world economy growth in 2000-2007 led to the redistribution of the global cash flows in favor of Russia and gave rise to the new imperial ambitions and the ?sovereign democracy? system. The opposite tendency may wreck the domestic economy as well as make the politicians believing in recovery of the state grandeur give up their dreams. It is obvious that the ?sovereign democracy? will not survive the economic situation that created it. If this forecast is right, Vladimir Putin?s resignation in 2008 will be a most wise move.
On the other hand, the situation is far from being that simple. The interconnection between the political and financial crises is evident, but complicated. In 1929 the exchange crash triggered the Great Depression. The results were fascism in Germany, collectivization in the Soviet Union and the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the USA. The 1997-1998 financial crisis resulted in serious political changes in many countries ? from Brazil to Russia. The 2001 exchange crisis did not affect the economy, but strangely enough, shortly after shares had fallen the terrorist acts occurred in New York and another war started in Afghanistan followed by the invasion of Iraq.
Now it is impossible to predict how the current crisis will end, but it is clear that there will be fallout.

Russia?s top officials will do their utmost to hold the presidential election smoothly, without political complications and unwelcome surprises. And the name of the next president seems already to be known: deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov is most likely to carry the election. The powers that be will try to remain united, to avoid conflicts while redistributing the key state positions. I believe they will manage to do that. After all, given the ?managed democracy? environment, it will be easy enough to hold properly orchestrated elections. But intelligent implementation of political schemes is not the same thing as settlement of the crisis, especially if the crisis is global rather than local.

It is after the elections when the most interesting events will start happening.

name change

2007-09-27T11:29:00.000+01:00

Since when did
Myanmar change back to Burmah? Since the BBC decided, clearly - and as we know, the Beeb, marvelous as it is in many ways, is such a slave to the policy of hte bourgeoisie.

Bless em

That share of your mind

2007-07-31T09:12:00.001+01:00

Brown has spoken with Bush - and so our English
propagandists are touting him as the 'friend' who
won't shy away from telling Bush what he needs to
hear.

Oh really?

What would that be, I wonder?

What would you want to say to the leader of the most
powerful military state that has ever existed?

Would it be 'Well done Georgie boy'?

Would it be 'You did the right thing'?

I'd be saying something else, for sure -like
'George, I think you got it wrong a few times'.

And isn't it about time you used your fabulously
rich and successful country's resources to make
the world a better safer place for everyone? Think
of the joy and happiness that would be brought
into the world if you one day stood up there with
our Gordon, turned to the camera's and just said
"Ok, look I got it wrong a few times. Sure, I feel
some shame - but that's right and proper for a
leader. I gotta show people that it's alright
to make mistakes... and when I do, I gotta
admit to them, y'know, like the AA's 12 step
program.."

If only.

Something stinks

2007-06-29T17:31:00.001+01:00

The guy who heads that private equity group, Permira,
was invited by the newly unelected head of the UK
government (Gordon Brown) to help him... erm, well
advise on.... erm how the UK government should, erm
well, deal with big money...

Meanwhile, according to the BBC the Parliamentary
Standards Commissioner Sir Phillip Mawer, has, erm
well resigned.

It wasn't clear why from the letter.

I know of no connection... but I like a good
rumour as much as the next person, and I guess my
cynicism feeds into my view of that bunch of
I-don't-know-whats who run the various economies
of this world.

I just hope Chavez keeps his hands as clean as Castro.

Disgraceful

2007-06-13T16:56:00.001+01:00

A new generation of drugs, I read today, will assist
those who suffer from arthritis - that painful
swelling of the joints that afflicts many as
they get older, and some while they are younger.

The shocking thing is the cost of these things.

Why?

Productions is not for need, but for money.

Obvious I guess.

But then this is already known, as we have seen from
countries like South Africa where the use of drugs
to stop the development of aids, was outrageously
expensive - thankfully a little cheaper now, but
again, why?

Ahhhrrghh Again

2007-06-07T13:37:00.001+01:00

At least Castro seemd to have something sensible to say about the world (like it's better to train doctors and nurses) rather than spending what you've got on blowing stuff up.

Who needs a nuclear wasteland.

Anyhow, that brings me to housing.

Homeowners (I'm one... oh, let me put that a little better, I have a debt for a home) have seen prices increase over the last few years.... so much so that the average price is now about, what, say 250k GBP (half a million USD I guess). Now, that's about about 20k GBP (USD 40k) I think (if you have a good manual job/lower paid clerical) . So what chance do people who earn those figures have?

So well done all of those celebrating their 'gains' - but what it means is that the next generation have simply been impoverished before they even start - and don't forget they now have to pay for that university education that everyone else before them got for free during the sixties and seventies.

Ha. They must be laughing their heads off.

Hm, This person has something to say

2007-05-30T15:58:00.000+01:00

Begins:

A few days ago, while analyzing the expenses involved in the construction of three submarines of the Astute series, I said that with this money "75,000 doctors could be trained to look after 150 million people, assuming that the cost of training a doctor would be one-third of what it costs in the United States.” Now, along the lines of the same calculations, I wonder: how many doctors could be graduated with the one hundred billion dollars that Bush gets his hands on in just one year to keep on sowing grief in Iraqi and American homes. Answer: 999,990 doctors who could look after 2 billion people that today do not receive any medical care.
More than 600,000 people have lost their lives in Iraq and more than 2 million have been forced to emigrate since the American invasion began.

In the United States, around 50 million people do not have medical insurance. The blind market laws govern how this vital service is provided, and prices make it inaccessible for many, even in the developed countries. Medical services feed into the Gross Domestic Product of the United States, but they do not generate conscience for those providing them nor peace of mind for those who receive it.

The countries with less development and more diseases have the least number of medical doctors: one for every 5,000, 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 or more people. When new sexually transmitted diseases appear such as AIDS, which in merely 20 years has killed millions of persons, -- while tens of millions are afflicted, among them many mothers and children, although palliative measures now exist-- the price of medications per patient could add up to 5,000, 10,000 or up to 15,000 dollars each year. These are fantasy figures for the great majority of Third World countries where the few public hospitals are overflowing with the ill who die piled up like animals under the scourge of a sudden epidemic.

To reflect on these realities could help us to better understand the tragedy. It is not a matter of commercial advertising that costs so much money and technology. Add up the starvation afflicting hundreds of millions of human beings; add to that the idea of transforming food into fuels; look for a symbol and the answer will be George W. Bush.

When he was recently asked by an important personality about his Cuba policy, his answer was this: “I am a hard-line President and I am just waiting for Castro’s demise.” The wishes of such a powerful gentleman are no privilege. I am not the first nor will I be the last that Bush has ordered to be killed; nor one of those people who he intends to go on killing individually or en masse.

“Ideas cannot be killed”, Sarría emphatically said. Sarría was the black lieutenant, a patrol leader in Batista’s army who arrested us, after the attempt to seize the Moncada Garrison, while three of us slept in a small mountain hut, exhausted by the effort of breaking through the siege. The soldiers, fuelled by hatred and adrenalin, were aiming their weapons at me even before they had identified who I was. “Ideas cannot be killed”, the black lieutenant kept on repeating, practically automatically and in a hushed voice.

I dedicate those excellent words to you, Mr. W. Bush.

Ends

Fab, wish I'd said that.

Five Go Missing in Iraq - not Madeleine's story, and not Enid Blyton

2007-05-30T13:13:00.001+01:00

Goodness me, it moist be awful for the five kidnapped
in Iraq, though, I suspect they have, at least, the
combined powers of several governments looking for them,
unlike the residents of another country in that
part of the world - Palestine.

Those kidnapped in Palestine - and they are kidnapped most
frequently by the Israeli Defence Forces - on the other hand
appear to have no such luck. They don't appear, just
disappear.

Not that I "know", because I don't. What I do know is that
Palestinians do not have anything like as much fuss made
of them when they disappear.

What brought this home to me was, what I assume to be,
the awful loss being experienced by Madeleine McCann's
parents. Of course that's how I would feel, of course!

So what would it be like for me if I lived in that land
neighboured by persecutees become persecutors. What would
it be like for me to try to deal with horrors known and
unknown?

I do not know what I would do. I know, though, that as I see
people, daily, facing the death and disappearance of those
they love, that I too would want to do something.

I'd want to make it stop.

Looks like they do anything to bomb Iran

2007-05-25T13:19:00.001+01:00

Goodness me, 'Red in Tooth and Claw' hardly does justice t
o the evil empire, of which the UK is but one small lap-dog
part. It's such a shame, so many deaths, and now they want
to go and create yet more death and destruction.

yuk.

Blair to Brown

2007-05-22T13:05:00.001+01:00

Foolishly, I thought that John McDonnel was in with a chance
for leadership of the British Labour party, and that by
re-joining, I would be able to vote in the election for
leader.

Foolish.

Not many. It's been decided now, and it's fast forwards to a
known future of further military adventures in countries that
are too poor or weak to defend them selves. And this means
more of the same kind of glory that was achieved in Iraq and
Afghanistan.

The shame of it.

How can this be?

2007-05-04T17:32:00.001+01:00

How can this be? What is it like for all of us on this
planet, that we care here, wondering what might happen
next in terms of climate change, and more pointedly for
me I guess, what might happen next in terms of the
political climate in the UK?

It's as though every day, the situation worsens. It's as
though every day I hear another awful story about people
coming off worse against the state.

IRAQ - They (US UK) obviously haven't a clue, all they
can think about is the controlling the oil... and even
in the 'Green Zone' they are not safe.

Afghanistan - No chance, since the US naffed it up good
and proper for the Soviet Union in the 80's, it's turned
round and bit them back, now the UK too. Serves us right
though for tagging along with the US.

Venezuela - Success! For the time being. And good luck
to them too. At least they're using what they've got for
the good of as many as possible.

China - It's hard to make sense, since they use their money
for what seems like positive purposes, yet they must also,
it seems, repress their own population. Mind you, encircled
by predators, it kind of makes some sense. Doesn't make it
right though. I mean, all those US bases round them?

Cuba - what a fab place it is too! Like Venezuela, but
without the oil. Must be a bit shit having the US site
a concentration camp and torture chamber in your back
yard though?

Russia - Well, looks like they're getting the message,
that they're next, as Putin has pulled out of the
Conventional Forces in Europe treaty.

Sorry it's been so long.

How I'm coming to understand the world in which I live

2007-03-27T13:18:00.000+01:00

I was listening to the radio this morning, during my
daily commute to work, and I it struck me that it was
like listening to reports from the clergy. It was as
though the current affairs program was being reported
from the world as described by Phillip Pullman in his
novel 'His Dark Materials'.

The item this morning was about 'Law and Order', and
how it appeared that the Labour Government simply did
not know what to do next, since it's last policy
initiative had gone pear shaped. The interviewer, John
Humphries, just asked the interviewee, Lord Falconer,
a few simple questions, pointing out that some of the
figures -violent crime- had risen. Falconer was unable
to refute these.

The point about all this is that it wasn't about the
things I'd call facts, for Lord Falconer, it was about
something else. Take for example the Brits recently
captured in Ethiopia - clearly not tourists, most
obviously special agents of one kind or another.

What on earth were they doing there? Any fool could
see that they had no business being there - of course
people can go where they want, but it so looked like
it some sort of 'special operation' run by our own
government.

Like the poor 15 Royal Navy Personnel nabbed by the
Iranians. Poor sods, I hope they're released soon.

Anyhow, the point about all this rant is that I am
coming to feel I live in a world ruled by our own high
priests of knowledge, the 'truth' being something that
'they' define.... and dissent, though not yet rewarded
by torture and abduction, seems ever more likely as
the days go by.

Which of course, if you live in a place like
Afghanistan, seems extremely likely to happen to you

Sadly.

Oh no... not again, not Iran this time

2007-02-13T12:55:00.000Z

So we... oops I mean, the Yanks and the Brits, are going to war again. And this time the target is Iran.

For fucks sake, how many people must die?

Bunch of tossey shit faved basteards, our leaders.

Christ, can you imagine what it's going to be like in the middle east - radiation sickness and poisoning is already inIraq - now we''l do the same for Iran.

Sicko's

Global warming - be guilty, we're told

2007-02-06T15:41:00.000Z

Intergovernmental Panel on climate change is so convincing
because there are 2000 of them coming together to tell us that it's
our fault. that we shouldn't be burning carbon by driving around
leaving lights on and so on, thus naffing up the planet.

Cars etc are a waste

But, whilst I am clear that cars and so on are an utter waste of a
limited resource, what I'm not so clear about is just who is responsible
for doing something about it. For example, in Venezuela, they have a
program to change all light bulbs to low energy types. This is funded
by central Government. now that sounds like someone taking global
warming seriously.

So for example in the uk, if climate change were taken seriously
then public transport would made into the best way for everyone to
get around, so that it would be ludicrous to use a car (as it in fact is),

And the best way to do that is to make sure that everyone uses it.

That's how we would know that it was taken seriously.

The state of things......

2007-01-25T11:02:00.000Z

Begins
International
The international situation remains dominated by theimperialist offensive, against which a minority isengaged in active resistance, most significantly inthe Middle East and in the unfolding revolution inVenezuela.

George Bush’s statement that a further 21,500 UStroops are to be sent to Iraq has signalled that theUS is going to intensify its military offensiveagainst those resisting the occupation. The US hasrejected the proposals to involve Iran and Syria inquelling the resistance and has in fact intensifiedits rhetorical and diplomatic offensive against Iran.

Mindful of the public unpopularity of the Iraq war,the Bush administration is facing increased oppositionfrom within the US Congress, even from some in theRepublican Party (5 senators so far opposing a troopincrease). The US public is up to 70 per cent opposed.
The US wants to crush the Shia, as well as Sunniresistance, so is stepping up its direct attacks onthe al-Sadr movement. The unfolding UScounterinsurgency strategy is to relocate troops fromtheir bases into the population centres of Baghdadfrom which the resistance is emanating, which willmost likely lead to an increase in both the Iraqi andthe US death rate.

A military strike on Iran is being increasingly talkedup, by Israel and some in the US such as RichardPerle, as sections of US, Israeli and Britishimperialism wishes to extend the Middle Eastoffensive. The US is increasing its capacity for airstrikes on Iran - a second aircraft carrier group isto be dispatched to the Gulf.

The US is preparing to install ‘patriot’anti-missile systems in the area. US imperialismcontinues to be focussed on Iran’s giant oil reservesand is hostile to Iran’s decision to defend itseconomic position by transferring from trading its oilin dollars to euros.

Rice’s visit to Israel also highlighted the possibleuse of Israel in a potential attack on Iran. Israel’sfailure to achieve a victory in Lebanon last summerhas created problems for the Israeli military - chiefof staff Dan Halutz being the latest victim of this,resigning last week.

The pro-US Lebanese government is currently facing serious challenge from the oppositionled by Hezbollah.

The US backed Ethiopian attack in Somalia has openedup another front (albeit limited) for the US in theregion. Somalia occupies a strategic geographicalposition on the Horn of Africa, and its resourcesinclude uranium and oil. Four US oil companies haveconcessions in Somalia.

During Condoleezza Rice’s tour, she also presented thepossibility of another ‘peace process’ betweenPalestine and Israel. The US is trying to give asweetener to the pro-US Arab regimes in return fortheir support for the occupation of Iraq and theincreased offensive against Iran. This process wouldnot require any serious concessions by Israel butdemand impossible concessions by the Palestinians,derail Palestinian resistance, and refer to onlytransitional stages rather than permanent solutions,as the Oslo Accords did previously.

Rice is attemptingto involve the EU and Russia , (represented in the‘Quartet’) into the negotiations.

The Fatah leadershipare taking an even more overt pro-US stance –witnessed by Abbas’ call for elections rather than anational unity government with Hamas (which he wasforced to backtrack on when he found seriousopposition to this strategy inside Fatah ranks). TheUS is using Fatah to try and remove Hamas’ authorityamongst the Palestinians and prevent seriousopposition to occupation, including by strengtheningFatah militarily (including by giving Abbas $86million for his presidential guard) and attacking thePalestinian Authority. Part of the PalestinianAuthority’s tax revenues which have been withheld byIsrael , is being transferred to Abbas. Israel has said this money is for humanitarian purposes and tostrengthen Abbas’ security forces.

The US is using the recent shooting down of a satellite to whip up a campaign to say that China is becoming a growing threat that has to be responded toby the US’s allies.

In the absence of the US beingwilling to agree a treaty that stops themilitarisation of space China has been taking smallsteps to develop some defences against the US weaponry that it faces.

Blair continues to affirm his backing for US strategy such as in his ‘keynote’ speech on 12 January where he said that the war on terror would be waged primarilyby a vigorous ‘hard power’ of military force, with the‘soft power’ of diplomacy and sanctions a minor andsecondary tool. He argued that one of thecrisis-points for western nations was the reluctance to exercise this ‘hard power’, and prepared hisaudience for further interventions, saying:

‘the battlewill be long. It will, in all probability take ageneration to defeat. The frontiers of our security nolonger stop at the Channel. What happens in the MiddleEast affects us. What happens in Pakistan; orIndonesia; or in the attenuated struggles forterritory and supremacy in Africa for example, inSudan or Somalia. The new frontiers for our securityare global’. He put in this context the replacement of Trident and the building of two new aircraft carriers,the largest ships ever deployed by Britain, to beequipped with US F-35 strike fighters.'

Venezuela

Following Chavez’ election win in December (see CSpaper for details), he announced plans to ‘deepen’ therevolution during his inauguration speech. The main telecommunications, and electricity companies,alongside major oil and gas fields, will be taken intomajority control by the government. In the case of theformer two, this reverses the IMF-demandedprivatisations of the mid 1990s.

Chavez is also taking measures to strengthen the revolution politically.

He is seeking to build asingle united socialist party capable of leading therevolution, and has called on all other supportiveparties to disband and to join this. Chavez hasalready closed down the MVR, his party.
In addition, to deal with the hostility to hisgovernment from sections of the state linked to the previous regimes, Chavez is dismantling the structures of local government replacing them with new locals‘councils.

Britain
Overall the reactionary offensive continues, in particular the whipping up of racism, Islamophobia in particular. There is limited but significant opposition to this. An element of the current conjecture is Blair’s forthcoming departure and likely succession of Brown. Brown appears set to follow the same regressive path - around ‘security’,the Middle East and public sector ‘reforms’ – whichwill continue to damage Labour electorally, byfragmenting its electoral alliance. The illiberal, pro-war agenda clashes with the views of significantsections of the middle income earning part of theworking class plus the Muslim community – amongstthose that had previously supported Labour. As aresult it continues to be behind the Tories in mostpolls, which suggest there is a strong possibility itmay lose its majority at the next general election andis anticipating large set backs in the forthcoming elections.

The bourgeoisie is increasing its attacks against the administration in London seeking to get a different outcome at next year’s Mayoral election. Sectarianleft forces are playing into this, with their ownattacks, seeking to justify standing their owncandidate. The alliance with the section of the Muslimcommunity, who understand what is at stake, isimportant in opposing this.
Anti Racism
The international offensive in the Middle East by imperialism continues to be accompanied by an ongoing racist offensive. It remains important to challenge this, and initiatives have been taken to pose thedefence of the Muslim community against the racistoffensive in the most broad way by allying with allthose who want to defend ‘universal rights of freedom of choice, religion and thought’ and multi-culturalism more widely.

An important initiative to challenge this attempt at ideological justification – exemplified by the Clash of Civilisations theory – was held in London, attendedby over 2,000 people, debating key proponents of thetheory. The first debate was between Ken Livingstoneand Daniel Pipes (who described his position as not believing there was a clash of civilisations, but a clash of civilisation with barbarism – the ideological barbarisms of fascism and Marxist/Leninism had now been joined by a third movement, radical Islam).
World Civilisation - An alternative framework– that of ‘a world civilisation’ - encompassing the need for allianceswith China and India (a near majority of humanity),breaking with the current imperialist polices in theMiddle East, and defending multiculturalism and the liberal value of living one’s life however wishes aslong as no harm is caused to others was put forward.
Anti-BNP campaign. The campaign has stepped up a gearover the recent period, with a protest against the BNPin Barking, and against a prominent BNP member in theEnglish National Ballet, who were exposed by theGuardian just prior to Christmas. Much media response to the latter protest was to defend BNP membership onthe basis of freedom of speech, from media that simultaneously mounts campaigns against freedom ofreligious dress/expression in calls to ban the veil and so on.

This offensive continues to help buildsupport for the BNP in the run up to May’s elections.

Ireland
The developments in the peace process have intensified in recent weeks, culminating in the Sinn Feinleadership’s decision to call a special Ard Fheis on policing, with a motion from the leadership to acceptand participate in policing, on 28 January.
This follows detailed negotiations with the government atthe end of December, which resulted in a number of key changes being agreed – including the timetable for therestoration of the Assembly, elections prior to that,and the devolution of powers of justice and policingto the Assembly in 2008. Full text of the SF statementand motion can be found on the Sinn Fein websitewww.sinnfein.ie

This now puts the focus on the DUP who have used this issue to continue to refuse to restore power sharing, which would give Sinn Fein 3 ministers, including the Deputy First Minister, to the DUP’s First Minister. The DUP failed to respond positively to Sinn Fein’sstatement about the move on policing, and the settingof the date for the Ard Fheis increases the pressureon the DUP.

Ends

Sick of the news? Read on....

2007-01-18T14:21:00.000Z

Quote begins
In his book Necessary Illusions, Noam Chomsky summarised
the stark divide separating media treatment of state crimes:

"In the case of enemy crimes, we find outrage; allegations
based on the flimsiest evidence, often simply invented, and
uncorrectible, even when conceded to be fabrication;
careful filtering of testimony to exclude contrary evidence
while allowing what may be useful; reliance on official U.S.
sources, unless they provide the wrong picture, in which case
they are avoided... vivid detail; insistence that the crimes
originate at the highest level of planning, even in the
absence of evidence or credible argument; and so on.

"Where the locus of responsibility is at home, we find
precisely the opposite: silence or apologetics; avoidance
of personal testimony and specific detail; world-weary
wisdom about the complexities of history and foreign
cultures that we do not understand; narrowing of focus
to the lowest level of planning or understandable error
in confusing circumstances; and other forms of evasion."
(Chomsky, Pluto Press, 1991, Necessary Illusions, p.137)

It is astonishing how the truth of these words, originally
published in 1989, is exactly borne out time after time,
case after case, two decades later. The trend is so
consistent and undeniable - and so taboo - that raising
it with journalists invariably generates interesting results.
Ends

I watched some of the Big Brother reality TV program last
Night, and then swapped back to the BBC news showing an
Item about yet-more-deaths-in-Baghdad... And though Big
Brother was fucked up entertainment, unreal and so on,
I much Preferred it to the solemn tones of some
reporter talking over yet another avoidable tragedy...
If only because it raised the issue of racism in this
Country. And on that note let me tell you how my heart
Was gladdened by the fact that over twenty thousand people
Have complained about this program to the regulatory
Authorities.

Hoorrah! Or is that best pronounced 'horror'?

Someone from the other side of the planet from me

2006-12-22T13:25:00.000Z

I was moved to read one of Lee's posts.

I felt moved to feelings of regret and 'what might have been' - tricky and difficult feelings to work through, I believe.

I once loved a woman, who lives in Brighton, far from where I do. And oh so very very foolish of me, I gave up the chance of being with her... my heart aches now to think of her... but ho hum, who knows how that might have turned out.

But the point is that I do miss her, miss her company, miss her smile...

And, the point about *this* is that is my fantasy, or prjection of what she might be like now, or might have been like, after all these years.

But there's something slightly delicious in allowing myself, every now and again, to think of her, to think of the time that we had together, because for one of the first times in my life I felt loved by someone.

Ho hum.

Bless her.

The picture?

It was taken yesterday, on the way home from work, in the fog that's grounded so many people trying to get out of the UK for the christian consumer fest.

Oh, last post until 2007 - have a happier new year than this one, all of you.

Ha! Time of goodwill to all humankind

2006-12-19T10:00:00.000Z

As if it is that time of year.

Really.

Mass consumerism.

Junky plastic toys for those who have far too much
anyway.

What a joke.

I really don't like my own hypocrisy at this time of the
Christian year - yet I go to church to sing carols, unbeliever
that I am, I still buy expensive crap that people I do not like,
do not want, I cannot afford anyway.

And the planet is starving, dying of thirst, and the legacy
is that the climate is changing.

For what?

A few plastic baubles.

Ahh, that's better, got it off my chest.

Still, will be hard to explain all this to my daughter when the UK is
either a dessert, or a frozen waste, or a nuclear dust ball.

Have a good break, all those of you who do have such things.

It is your duty to consume, we are told

2006-12-11T11:20:00.000Z

It's that time of the christian year again, the message is to consume.

I really do not like Christmas - the tide of junky plastic things, the things that will take centuries to decay, will wash up on our beaches long before that. And they'll be found in the foood chain all the way up to us, from the smallest to the largest.

Time to become a vegetarian.

Oh, yes, of course, because of climate change, we probably won't be able to grow food soon.

Ho hum.

Seasons greeting everyone.

Personal Crisis

2006-11-30T13:58:00.000Z

Am in the middle of a terrible (for me)(and for partner) crisis in my relationship with partner.

She wants more children and I don't.

Goodness me this is awful.

Blood pours from the hands of the great leaders

2006-11-23T14:13:00.000Z

I'm nearing fifty - it's something of a shock to me that I am this age, since I never thought, when I was in my teens that I'd make it to thirty...

I also never realised just how revolted I wouild feel at this time in my life, when I hear Blair and Bush speak.

Pah.

Rotten to the core.....

This was Birming, last week - pretty city now.

Shame about the political leadership though.

A letter from Michael Moore

2006-11-14T14:18:00.000Z

Begins
A Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives

November 14th, 2006

To My Conservative Brothers and Sisters,
I know you are dismayed and disheartened at the results of last week's election. You're worried that the country is heading toward a very bad place you don't want it to go. Your 12-year Republican Revolution has ended with so much yet to do, so many promises left unfulfilled. You are in a funk, and I understand.
Well, cheer up, my friends! Do not despair. I have good news for you. I, and the millions of others who are now in charge with our Democratic Congress, have a pledge we would like to make to you, a list of promises that we offer you because we value you as our fellow Americans. You deserve to know what we plan to do with our newfound power -- and, to be specific, what we will do to you and for you.
Thus, here is our Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives:
Dear Conservatives and Republicans,
I, and my fellow signatories, hereby make these promises to you:

1. We will always respect you for your conservative beliefs. We will never, ever, call you "unpatriotic" simply because you disagree with us. In fact, we encourage you to dissent and disagree with us.

2. We will let you marry whomever you want, even when some of us consider your behavior to be "different" or "immoral." Who you marry is none of our business. Love and be in love -- it's a wonderful gift.

3. We will not spend your grandchildren's money on our personal whims or to enrich our friends. It's your checkbook, too, and we will balance it for you.

4. When we soon bring our sons and daughters home from Iraq, we will bring your sons and daughters home, too. They deserve to live. We promise never to send your kids off to war based on either a mistake or a lie.

5. When we make America the last Western democracy to have universal health coverage, and all Americans are able to get help when they fall ill, we promise that you, too, will be able to see a doctor, regardless of your ability to pay. And when stem cell research delivers treatments and cures for diseases that affect you and your loved ones, we'll make sure those advances are available to you and your family, too.

6. Even though you have opposed environmental regulation, when we clean up our air and water, we, the Democratic majority, will let you, too, breathe the cleaner air and drink the purer water.

7. Should a mass murderer ever kill 3,000 people on our soil, we will devote every single resource to tracking him down and bringing him to justice. Immediately. We will protect you.

8. We will never stick our nose in your bedroom or your womb. What you do there as consenting adults is your business. We will continue to count your age from the moment you were born, not the moment you were conceived.

9. We will not take away your hunting guns. If you need an automatic weapon or a handgun to kill a bird or a deer, then you really aren't much of a hunter and you should, perhaps, pick up another sport. We will make our streets and schools as free as we can from these weapons and we will protect your children just as we would protect ours.

10. When we raise the minimum wage, we will pay you -- and your employees -- that new wage, too. When women are finally paid what men make, we will pay conservative women that wage, too.

11. We will respect your religious beliefs, even when you don't put those beliefs into practice. In fact, we will actively seek to promote your most radical religious beliefs ("Blessed are the poor," "Blessed are the peacemakers," "Love your enemies," "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God," and "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."). We will let people in other countries know that God doesn't just bless America, he blesses everyone. We will discourage religious intolerance and fanaticism -- starting with the fanaticism here at home, thus setting a good example for the rest of the world.

12. We will not tolerate politicians who are corrupt and who are bought and paid for by the rich. We will go after any elected leader who puts him or herself ahead of the people. And we promise you we will go after the corrupt politicians on our side FIRST. If we fail to do this, we need you to call us on it. Simply because we are in power does not give us the right to turn our heads the other way when our party goes astray. Please perform this important duty as the loyal opposition.

I promise all of the above to you because this is your country, too. You are every bit as American as we are. We are all in this together. We sink or swim as one. Thank you for your years of service to this country and for giving us the opportunity to see if we can make things a bit better for our 300 million fellow Americans -- and for the rest of the world.
Signed,
Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
Ends

It's that simple.

Racsim on the rise

2006-11-13T13:40:00.000Z

Fuelled by our own leaders, who clearly think they are so great.

How so very small they are - how so very mean to pick on those with less power.

Bullies.

A climate of fear and terror created by those whose job it is to protect us.

NO fish!

2006-11-03T12:40:00.000Z

No fish by 2048 - hardly surprising when the developed
world sucks everything out ot the planet - just so they can
rear chickens and Pigs and cattle on fish meal.....

Waht a waster!

Hurrah for China

2006-11-02T13:34:00.000Z

.. though as is known, they're not too hot on the question
of execution for some crimes (like tax evasion).

The reason I say "hurrah" is because it seems that China
provides loans to countries so that they can just get on
with building their economies - no strings, no consultants
with huge wage bills for the consultants either.

Not only that, they're doing it all over the globe too,
and when you take into account their desire to build
relations with countries like Venezuela, can't be all bad
I say.

And, it's not like they've been sending their troops in
to restore democracy anywhere.

This is not lost on the one-global-superpower.

Or the rest of the either.

Sales Techniques

2006-10-19T12:31:00.000+01:00

Someone sent me this as an email.... (The pic is just to make this a bit nicer on your eye - no other reason)

Tips for Handling Telemarketers

(1)Three little words: "Hold On please..." Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt. Then when you eventually hear the phone company's "beep-beep-beep" tone, you know it's time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficie ntl y completed its task. These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting.

(2) Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end? This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone. This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a "real" sales person to call back and get someone at home. What you can do after answering, if
you notice there is no one there, is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times, as quickly as possible. This confuses the machine that dialed the call and it
kicks your number out of their system. Gosh, what a shame not to have your name in their system any longer ! !!

(3) Junk Mail Help:
When you get "ads" enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these "ads" with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away. When you get those "pre-approved" letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope. Most of these come with postage-paid
return envelopes, right? It costs them more than the regular 24p postage "IF" and when they receive them back. It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around 29p before the last increase and it is according to the weight. In that case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in their postage-paid return envelopes. For example;
send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express. Send a pizza coupon to Citibank. If you didn't get anything else that day, then just send them their blank application back! If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on anything you send them. You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep them guessing! It still costs them 24p.

The banks and credit card companies are curre ntl y getting a lot of their own junk back in the mail, but folks, we need to OVERWHELM them. Let's let them know what it's like to get lots of junk mail, and best of all they're paying for it...Twice!

Another thing the Royal Mail are doing now, is to stuff local adverts through your letterbox. I collect them and put them in their own Post Boxes. Good fun!

Let's help keep our postal service busy since they are saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, and that's why they need to increase postage costs again. You get the idea?

If enough people follow these tips, it will work!

THIS JUST MIGHT BE ONE E-MAIL THAT YOU WILL WANT TO FORWARD TO
YOUR FRIENDS

All that rubbish from our "leaders" about veils

2006-10-18T11:01:00.000+01:00

Take a look at this if you're worried about communicating with someone who's face you can't see.....

Death, double dealing and hypocracy

2006-10-11T16:34:00.000+01:00

On a personal level, Jack Straw of course has a right to ask someone to remove an item of clothing, just as much as they have the right to refuse.

But why at this time? Why now?

I guess I should only expect the same amount of denial when it comes to the niqab, as it does when it comes to moaning about another state, Korea, that has (or is trying to get) nuclear weapons.

Just like we have.

At least they *actually* have them.

Unlike Iraq.

Or Iran.

And talking about Iran, let us just bear in mind the country's that sold the chemicals to Iraq under SH, so that Iranians could be killed by WMD.

And let us remember that hundreds of thousands have been killed by our sanctions.

Yuk

They already made their plans to attack Iran....

2006-09-29T13:22:00.000+01:00

According to this article: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061009/lindorff
plans have already been made, and put into operation, to move battle fleet
into the area of Iran, by the 21st of October.

Oh dearie me.

Not again.

A new Era? about time....

2006-09-22T12:53:00.000+01:00

A speach by Hugo Chavez to the United Nations - in his speach to the assembled heads ofthe planet, he's recommending a book by Chomsky ("Arguably the most important intellectual alive") .

Blimey.

I've read the book - it's a good read, if you're into that sort of thing - and I really like it.

Back to what Chavez was saying: Yes. it's time, it's a new century now, and now it's time to do something so that there is a planet left for the children, and the children to come.

Bastards

2006-09-14T15:33:00.000+01:00

though I think I ought at least have some compassion for
those that have despoiled the middle east - no least the UK,
my own country - I find it hard because of the enormity of
what has been done.

If my daughter had to play amongst the rubble of buildings
in the Lebanon, perhaps to pickup some piece of unexploded
bomb (bearing in mind that these things are deliberate - brightly
coloured so that they attract children to them) and then was
killed, or lost an arm or leg - or part of her face or body...
what then?

Depeleted Uranium

and what of that poison... leaking through intothe food
chains and systems? What is this world bequeathed
to our children?

Apocalypse.... please, not yet.... we're all too young

2006-08-14T14:04:00.000+01:00

The link (above) to Robert Fisk's article in the UK Independent warns of the war to come.

Is this how it all started? Is this how it all came to an end? Is this all there was?

Shit.

I hope not.

I haven't had my holiday in Spain yet... though like Pocket Punk, I expect I'll fall foul of the restrictions on travel.

Epic Injustice

2006-07-28T17:08:00.000+01:00

How can this be?

All my life I have heard about the evil suffered by Jewish people.

When I was a child I was watching a National Front (uk fascists) election broadcast on British tv with my father - I think I was eleven. I asked him what they were saying. He said they were saying that Jewish people were bad, black people were bad and so on.... the usual lies and
nonsense. I asked my father about Jewish people, what they believed and so on, andhe said, "well for one thing they don't eat pork.." I was rather stunned by this and said I thought it rather stupid not to eat pork.

My father, without batting an eyelid, simply told me to get out of the house if I was goingto hold an attitude so unforgiving. I carried on living at home, and began to learn something about acceptance and understanding for people different from me - though I wish my father had been more understanding of my youthful ignorance, I don't want to stray far from saying that I
really find it hard to understand the slaughter of so many Palestinians and Lebannese
- it can not be the Israeli people, they are like you and me... it can only be that
they are acting as the hand of the Imperial powers in this epic butchery of the innocent.

War crimes, by the looks of it.

I do hope there is a day of reckoning - though not nuclear in nature. I usually like to wish a good week-end, or Happy Friday. How very crass that now seems, I am sorry to say..... never the less, I do hope you find some respite from what ever troubles you, where ever you are.

Crimes - but history is written by the victors

2006-07-25T12:14:00.000+01:00

Stop the killing - how so very right.

Begins
"Message from Ken Livingstone to the demonstration
`End Israel's attacks on Lebanon and Palestine' in London
on Saturday 22 July.

'Israel is engaged in collective punishment of the
civilian populations of Lebanon and Gaza. This is
illegal under the Geneva conventions. The entire
international community should demand an immediate
ceasefire.

'All prisoners illegally held by all sides, the
Israeli soldiers held by the Palestinians and
Hizbollah and all of the Palestian and Lebanese
prisoners held by Israel, should be release
immediately.

'The lesson of recent events is very clear. There is
no unilateral path to peace in the Middle East. The
strategy of the present government of Israel, of
building a wall, refusing to talk to the Palestinian
Authority and instead imposing unilateral positions
on the Palestians will not work, as current events
show.

'All sides in this conflict can strike deep into one
another's territory. None of the combatants is
capable of eliminating the other by brute force.

'The only way forward is a negotiated settlement
between the government of Israel and the Palestinian
Authority.

'No more innocent lives should to sacrificed to
misconceived attempts to avoid this basic reality.'"

Ends

The freedoms we thought were ours, all that is left is the Brand

2006-07-19T11:28:00.000+01:00

This's not mine, it's Boris Kagerlitsky's, and he's got a point. What's happening now is that the freedoms we won, especially after the 2nd European (WWII) war, were on the basis of the Commie threat.

Well that's gone now, so the freedoms are no longer needed. That includes 'social democracy' e.g. The Labour Party in the UK.

The powers that be can revert to what they've always done - and if you want some idea of what that is, look no further than Palestine, or Iraq, or any of the countries of the 'third world', as it used to be called in less enlightened times.

As Kagerlitsky says:

"The compromise, which brought success to Western democracy, has been maintained for most of the 20th century. After the Russian revolution and especially after the WWII the ruling classes of Europe have earned another stimulus to cooperate on the class level with ordinary
people:

"the Soviet menace".

We had to be consolidated under the slogan "defending the democratic freedoms of the West". To make this work, these freedoms needed to be made real, accessible for the majority, and enjoying support of the social benefits, which could be presented as an antidote to the "red propaganda" from the East.

Social democracy is a political party of class cooperation, but this cooperation may be possible only with both parties in agreement. Paradoxically, the collapse of Communism turned out to be the end of the social democracy as well. The ruling classes have lost their interest in compromising. And politicians, who acted as professional compromise managers, are in the wilderness. There was nothing left out of social democracy, but the name. The brand.

Brand as it is, has value both in politics and in commerce. That's why it became so frequently used by politicians occupying various positions, starting from the moderate conservatives and going as far as the liberal right. There are even a number of social democratic traditionalists, who honestly try to pretend, that nothing in the world has changed in the last
25 years.

Boris Kagarlitsky is a Director of The Institute for Globalization Studies.
June 26, 2006"

How very true.

As I've written here before, so many of the things we take in the UK to be our are either going or gone.

How many final pensions schemes have gone?

How long the NHS?

How long before these barbaric butchers burn up the planet and bomb the rest of us to death.

Double Plus Hypocracy

2006-07-17T12:52:00.000+01:00

How can they?

What does it take?

How can so many be slaughtered, and yet such filth
emanate from the mouths of the powers that be?

Shame on them.

There is no hell - but if there was Blair and Bush and the rest
would surely end up there. No?

What's the cost...?

2006-07-06T13:05:00.000+01:00

... of the whole of the NHS defecit?

516 million GBP

What's the cost of keeping the UK's existing (Non-proliferation Treaty
breaking) nuclear deterrent?

1 Billion GBP

Says a lot.

Or what about trying to spend 25 billion on a replacement - that would pay
for oh so very much.

Anyhow, I love the summer - it's here at last, summer thunderstorms really thrill me... I love the sound of the thunder, I love to see the lightniing strike - feel a bit scared it might hit me... but love it too much to want to move on.

Ah, to be alive, to live.

Joy

An Eye for an eye... but in your case, a nation

2006-06-27T10:56:00.000+01:00

Palestine - first there is no justification for killing that I can think of.
But then, I'm not living in one of the hell-on-this-earth places in
this world like Palestine. I think if someone in some big tank or
battleship blew my partner or daughter to smithereens, then I
wouldn't have much left to lose in my life, and in fact, I guess I
would be thinking about how I might best use what remained of
my own life in the best way to prevent loss of those closest to me.

And of course, Israeli and US planners must know this.

So what does that mean then?

Twenty Five Billion

2006-06-23T17:20:00.000+01:00

Blimey, what a lot of things you could do with twnety five billion UK pounds.

That's an awful lot fo hospitals and schools, not to mention productive facilities - think how many wind farsm you could set up with that kind of dosh...

Where would it come from?

Same plae as the 25 billion the UK is about to *waste* - I kid you not - on the replcement to Trident, the UK's nuclear deterrent.... ha ha ha! Laugh? I nearly bought a round.

Honestly.

We buy the damn things from the US, they tell us when and if we can use them, and the whole point of them is to *not* use them. What a waste.

What hypocracy.

...and I'm just thinking of the what the good things are that you could do with that money.

tossers.

The sheer montonous awfulness of it all

2006-06-22T11:53:00.000+01:00

Teh surprsing thing for me sometimes, is that each day, day after day, all
of us get up, do our thing,and basically, just carry on whether you're in
the comfortable leafy suburbs (like me), or, may your god protect you,
living in some war torn country, invaded by a country like mine.

That's all

Zarqawi

2006-06-14T16:22:00.000+01:00

So this latest of a list of 'Emmanuel Goldstein' figures has been killed.

The reports I read suggested that he was alive for an hour afterwards, and had been killed by the bombs.

What bombs?

Fuel Air explosions I wonder? (This page has an animation which shows you what happens)

It wouldn't surprise, since this (UK and US) bunch of bastards has already used white phosphorous.

They sound evil, and indescriminate.

My word, how long must this show go on, I wonder?

World Cup

2006-06-13T13:15:00.000+01:00

I watched England play on Saturday, against Paraguay.

It looked to me, for all the world, as though the England team were not that - a team that is.

I know sweet FA about football, so forgive me for talking out of my bum, but it really does look like a bit of a fix so that the European teams knock out everyone else and get to play together at the end...

Mind you, the England team, as remarked by my partner, seem to be a team that every now and again try to score a goal by kicking the ball right the way down the pitch - chancers looking to get lucky.

But then, I don't know what I'm talking about.Ought to be a 'patriot' I guess... but I think I'd rather have a riot, Pat

And then, there's the racists making monkey noises, throwing banana skins onto the pitch, when black players touch the ball.

Bunch of shit heads.

.. though not the time of our choosing

2006-06-09T17:06:00.000+01:00

From yesterday (gloomy) post, it's now Friday. So do have a smashing week-end, those of you who can.

This link is to a short article about elections in Peru and Columbia. Made a lot of sense to me.

The photo is from a camera phone at a coastal port in the UK, long time since allowed to silt up. Many of the warehouses are flats now (better than allowing them to fall into disuse).

Unlucky to live in this time...

2006-06-08T12:05:00.000+01:00

.. ok well maybe it's a bit strong to say that - but I do think we seem, in the UK to be rolling forwards into fascim (and by that I mean Classical fascism as defined by the Seventh Congress of the Communist International - not in terms of the persecution of the Jews and the concentration camps, all of which of course were the horrendous symptoms of it, but as "the open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary sections of finance capital".)

As I go around, I see cars and stuff, with these flags flapping in the wind, and it's St Georges cross - something that should be reclaimed from the right, for sure - it's just that it looks so much like loads of people driving around displaying swastikas.

I suppose that maybe I can get used to it. I suppose, again, that Americans look at flag all the time, and that maybe such things become part of the wood-work.

I wonder?