A chimp watching a magic trick

An awesome video.

Shocking news! Key expert against Iraq WMD lies may not have committed suicide!

Ok, so there was nothing particularly suspicious about a guy who provided key evidence that the Iraq WMDs that didn't exist didn't exist going into the woods and quietly killing himself and then the government commissioning a white wash that blamed the BBC for reporting what turned out to be accurate, saddled them with a new government friendly director general and cut the current affairs budget causing lots of staff to move on to Al Jazeera English or the fact his autopsy report is sealed for 75 years. But still these god damn journalists have to make up conspiracy theories about such an innocent event:

Don't provide evidence that contradicts warmongers or you'll get yours.

COINTELPRO alive and well.

Rumours of its' demise (spread solely by the government) decades seem to have been premature. Infiltration of Vegan groups and co-option of anti-police brutality groups among the many essential undercover activities carried out by US law enforcement agencies: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/06/aclu-surveillance/ But hey, as the right wingers scream, you guys haven't got CCTV so everything is fine.

I'll try and read the full 33 page report to see if anything else shows up. Don't hold your breath though.

UK Treasury believes its' budget will cost around 1.3m jobs.

Sadly for some reason Chancellor George Osbourne failed to mention this prediction when he announced the budget to Parliament last week. Another reason to suspect the recovery will likely be greatly hampered at the expense of enriching Tory backers by switch vital services over to the private sector. Who cares if the vulnerable are hurt, theres profit to be had!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/29/budget-job-losses-unemployment-austerity

Welcome to the club US citizens!

It has been announced that American citizens are now legitimate targets of the Presidentially controlled death squads if they cause the American regime "concern". I strongly recommend you realise what a great and wise leader Obama and all his successors are because otherwise they may become concerned about you, which would force them to have you killed.

Of course the CIA and similar organisations have merrily killed anyone they pleased in the past but for these actions to become open policy of the US Government is still a big cause for concern.

Virgin Mary gives Bobby Jindal divine plan to exploit Gulf Oil Catastrophe.

It is hard to find a more stinging criticism of someone than to say a person converted to conservative Catholicism as an adult but that is exactly what Bobby Jindal did. Is this relevant to his exploiting of the Gulf Spill? Possibly not but its worth highlighting how much of an idiot he is without excuse of his views being ingrained from his upbringing.

So anyway turns out Jindal's grandstanding and self aggrandisement is not only hollow posturing to gain national attention but also likely to make the impact of the oil on Louisiana worse than it otherwise could've been. But of all the mistakes hes made and misdirections hes using to heap more blame on Obama that is logical his greatest sin is probably:

He cut $750,000 from the budget of the oil spill research and development program and moved the Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator's office from the governor's direct oversight into "a basement in Facility Planning" at the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections.

In a country with a functioning media (that is to say a mythical one) hypocrisy like that might bite him in the ass.

Read about what an asshole he is here: http://www.alternet.org/story/147364/is_gov._bobby_jindal_sabotaging_gulf_efforts_for_political_gain?page=1

Tory Justice Minister says Tough on Crime doesn't work.

While its likely the UK will follow the US's path of a prison industrial complex the current Justice Minister, whose remit over prisons does not cover who actually gets charged or arrested, thats the Home Secretary's remit, Ken Clarke has suggested that prisons are expensive and pointless and reform should be more of a goal. Clarke is very much to the left of the Conservative party and during New Labour's height in the late 90s it was suggested he might defect so its not especially surprising hes saying this stuff (although of course New Labour was dead keen on building prisons and letting private companies run them) but it also makes it questionable how much support he'll get from the rest of the party which is generally more in favour of being tough on criminals, lock em up and so on.

Still its vaguely hopeful I suppose.

Satirists have it easy these days.

Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Heir to the throne of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has defended has claimed his intervention in a proposed building project of modernist flats (Charles has repeatedly in the past railed against modern architecture) and pushing for the design to be replaced by one produced by an architect he favours was actually an attempt to have the common people's views heard. I get the feeling the Guardian is as sceptical as I am: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/29/prince-charles-planning-property-developers The fact he cares so much about the views of random London residents but ignores the views of residents of his own vast estates is just coincidence I'm sure.

I mean its possible hes looking out for the common man, I mean sure he has a servant to squeeze his toothpaste for him and is so fussy about how he likes his eggs boiled he has seven boiled up at minor hardness level variations every time he comes back from hunting. Anything is possible.

A graph of female sexual attractiveness over time.

But yeah, feminism has won and those bulldykes should shut up or something.

Bystander effect may not exist.

The Bystander effect is believed to be something that causes humans to be less likely to intervene and help someone in distress the more people are witnesses an event. Its a generally accepted psychological phenomena but recently a scientist has cast doubt on the theory:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8761745.stm

So we might be almost as good as Orangutans!

Cameron sets terms of Whitewash.

Stealth PM David Cameron has set the terms for the process of absolving British Intelligence officers of complicity in the torture of "terror suspects". Given most of the rest of the world was aware of torture going on either MI5 and 6 were super incompetent or are lying. Intelligence services usally claim the former when they're caught out so lets just say its most likely the latter.

Still, the amount of hypocrisy, denial and attribution of a decency to Britain we don't possess is a funny read.

Oliver Stone calls Corporate Media on their hypocrisy, gets smeared.

It is depressing to me that the New York Times is held up as a den of liberaldom. I understand why an outlet exposed by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky in Manufacturing Consent (which you really should read) as a lickspittle sycophant of the elite and a ready publisher of propaganda is upheld as such a leftism rag. Firstly its not nearly as insanely right wing as other outlets so within its' context it is left wing, just not in real terms. Secondly it helps keep the overton window nicely to the right, casual observers who take a South Park-esque "truth in the middle" view of politics will think reality is a little further to the right than NYT paints, sympathisers of the left will think this is as left as political discourse gets in the US and rightists will be able to convince themselves their absurdly right wing views are a rational middle ground compared to the NYT's extremism.

But anyway, Oliver Stone's new documentary South of the Border looks at how the media, especially NYT, portray enemies of the US elite very negatively while happily overlooking crimes of US allies such as currently Colombia. As the title suggests this documentary focuses on America's former favoured colonial playground, South America and how its doing now the focus has currently shifted to the Middle East. So of course the NYT did its' "left wing" duty and attacked the film for attacking the "established view" or you know, pointing out how readily they spout propaganda. Stone and the documentary's writers offer a rebuttal in the second half of the article.

Supreme Court helps the elite again.

While everyone rages about how local government has no right to regulate how American peasants kill each other the Supreme court was busy helping their feudal overlords get that little bit richer. It is apparently unconstitutional for the government to police corporations' auditing of their accounts.

But hey let right wing scum crow about how American freedom is being protected because more power has been given back to the federal government. But hey these John Galts wont be told by the man's local branch what weapons they can or can't buy to fantasise about shooting Obama with.

Mexico's Civil War on Drugs continues

Three recent events worth mentioning:

El Shaka's estate likely to be sued for fraud after he was murdered mere hours after claiming he had not been. He sang narcocorridos "drug balads" and its not like pop music hasn't often had ties to organised crime but still famous crime singers generally don't get killed which shows just how bad things are.

Secondly, drug gangs seem to agree with Right wing politicians that jail is preferable to rehab for drug addicts. In all seriousness the three possible reasons for these attacks all stink of utter desperation on the drug gang's part. Attacks such as these will be deeply unpopular and will weaken the community's willingness to look the other way. Sure they're heavily armed drug gangs with ex-specops enforcers but in the middle of a war and with the state still existent to some degree making yourself literally the devil isn't wise.

Thirdly the ongoing war is harming the democratic process as a front running gubernatorial candidate was assassinated yesterday.

But hey, we gotta keep our kids from taking weed, the consequences for us are far worse than whats happening to those brown people in their country atm!

FBI bust deep cover spies, Republican plot?

Yes you see the GOP are in league with Russia and you must all wear tinfoil hats. Or such a major case breaking very shortly after Obama and Medvedev announced renewed ties is unquestionably embarrassing for Obama and one has to wonder if a lurking Bush appointee or simply someone who doesn't like Obama in the FBI decided to use this to show him up. That there are spies in the US is hardly a shock, everyone spies on everyone. So either Obama approved this and was happy to have himself shown to be contradicted or someone is trying to screw him over /maintain hostile relations with Russia. After all the GOP loves having everyone being hostile with the US, it justifies higher defence spending.

Just in case this news has passed you by here is the Guardian's summary

With this gem:

The indictment also relates how the FBI recovered a bag Chapman discarded after she bought a mobile phone. The customer agreement was in the name Irene Kutsov and the address was registered as 99 Fake Street. Chapman did not turn up for the meeting to hand over the fake passport.

This is a cool gif.

I mean sure, its not war crimes or massive fraud or whatever but I still think its worth posting.

Guinea has first free Election.

After the end of a brutal military dictatorship (tautology?) Guinea had its first ever free presidential election (probably, western media tends to ignore fraud if a pro-western person wins). But as the article points out Guinea has large Bauxite and Iron Ore reserves so lets hope like hell they voted in the right person or they'll likely be couped and taken back to square one.

Tories fuck over the disabled.

It is fair to say the elite generally have a fairly sound strategy in attacking those they think too weak to defend themselves. We bomb Afghan tribesmen and in the past 3rd world Asian countries, sure we didn't win but hey, didn't lose nearly as badly as if we'd fought someone who was of a similar military level to our own. Now one could tax the rich and cut spending to the military which would result in a large boost to the treasury but that would be difficult, its far easier to cut Corporation tax 4% and cut disability benefits. I mean how hard can cripples fight back? A sound plan.

"Anarchists" damage property at Toronto G20

Now its entirely possible this was an actual group of anarchists, the targets were almost exclusively the property of large corporations but on the other hand Stephen Harper is a cunt.
The most suspicious thing to me is that after a day of largely peaceful protests this "riot" occurred which was a handy justification for the huge security budget Harper's government had imposed:

Security was meant to be tight. Canada has estimated that the cost of security for the G20 and earlier G8 summit, in Huntsville, Ontario, would be a record C$1bn (£640m) for the two centres. Security costs for the 2008 G8 summit in Japan were US$381m (£211m), and $30m for the 2009 London G20 summit. The costs in Canada included 19,000 police officers and 1,100 private security guards, working behind a 3 metre (9ft) metal fence around the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

So the media gets to focus on how important that level of security was and safely ignore the legitimate protests, which to be honest they probably would've anyway.

And its not like Canadian Police haven't been known to use agent provocateurs in the recent past:


As with the G20 protests in London last year the police got to beat up unarmed protesters with impunity and abuse people's right to privacy but hey that only warrants a footnote compared to evil anarchists. And the people being protected at the G20 summits regularly do very evil things but again the media just can't find the space or time to cover that.

Canada has bigger problems that hugely expensive urban lockdowns can't really counter. Shitting on First Nations peoples in the past in addition to stealing their land and keeping them in poverty to this day is coming back to haunt Canada. It's economy relies on the export of large amounts of raw materials often in far flung parts of the country and it just so happens that the wilderness they dumped the First Nations in lies in between export hubs and the raw materials making blockade and insurgency a powerful tool to gain attention for the First Nation plight and strike back at those who would like to forget they exist.

Of course Canada's government is committed to addressing the root causes of this anger and improving the lives of the First Nations peoples so as to avert any need for an insurgency:

Speaking at a senate hearing in May, Canada's top general in Afghanistan suggested that the country's counterinsurgency war in Kandahar and its "whole of government" strategy has helped prepare Canadian forces and its civilian partners for such eventualities.

"If Canada were having an issue of insurgency," said Brigadier-General Jonathan Vance, "there would be a multi-discipline, multi-department operation with the government managing and directing carefully what its military and police forces would do".

Oh. The poor and dispossessed in Canada are an enemy to be destroyed just as Afghanis are. In addition to ominous suggestions of a brutal military response to the First Nations stopping a few white people getting rich it is likely the aftermath would resemble how the US dealt with Native Americans trying to get some justice themselves: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wounded_Knee_incident#Aftermath

And so one of recent history's more successful genocides keeps on going.

The Hypocrisy of Empire

A counterpoint to the prevailing theme about McChrystal, this editorial suggests that his openness and honesty in Rolling Stone was not really a problem compared to the double talk and hypocrisy which characterises modern global politics and foreign policy. Key to its' points is that winning "hearts and minds" as an occupying force is possible only once the natives have been pacified. Thus the former deathsquad commander was a wise choice to head Obama's "softer" approach to Afghanistan but one that made the rhetoric seem deeply hypocritical.

It is thus suggested that in that light Petraeus may be a better hypocrite but likely worse for Afghanistan.

Another financial reform reaction

This one is more downbeat but essentially tells the same tale, a lack of political will (through laziness or more likely collaboration) keeps any real reform being done and the rich getting richer. Still if bankers weren't quite so rich maybe they'd give smaller campaign donations!

The Previous reaction / Summary can be found here.

Palin to be Religious Right's cheerleader, not their quarterback

Apologies for making a sports analogy but it seems apt. The thrust of the article is that given the nature of evangelical and charismatic sects Palin as a woman can get up on a stage and "inspire" people but she is very unlikely to be allowed to lead because fundamentalist Christians are really sexist. It also looks at how her superficial prominence and success in the movement is being wrongly interpreted as feminism. Go read it here.

A note of warning though, don't take too much comfort from the fact she can't personally lead the religious right if they have anything to do with it. Personally I see Palin's rise as quite similar to Hitler's (yes yes Godwin) in that she may not be the ideal candidate for all of the base (Hitler was after all Austrian) but she is good at giving speeches and is generally popular with said base. On top of this with likely increasing social and economic problems on the way the elite will want someone, anyone at all, that can engage populism and win a crisis election who isn't left wing. Obama was not ideal but still has generally seen as a sop to the proles, if situations keep encouraging the masses to get uppity more drastic measures may have to be taken. Hitler largely succeeded because he was seen as an ideal not communist candidate by the rich and had massive funding from them and most notably Alfred Hugenberg's massive media empire started backing him. Murdoch seems rather fond of Palin.

Food for thought.

A Brief insight into the media's double standards about the I/P Conflict

While aid agency workers attacked on the high seas, a gross breach of international law and an act of war against Turkey, were potentially linked to Al Qaeda, lynchers lying in wait for the brave and pure IDF commandos and so on you'll be happy to know the actions of Zionist terrorist group IRGUN were romantic according to the NY Times.

Still as we already know, according to the US Media only Brown people can be terrorists.

Female Genital Mutilation occuring in America.

Surgical procedures to "correct" the shape of young girl's genitals are regularly carried out in the US¹, even by Ivy League Doctors. Oh and then later they test the young girl's responses to stimulation with vibrators.

Being aware of what's going on in the world certainly cures you of optimism.


¹Thats not to say it doesn't happen elsewhere but I have limited proof for that outside of the US, I do know some Muslims in the UK have their daughters mutilated but I have no idea if its a more widely practiced and mainstream "surgical" option.

More US States to discriminate against brown people.

Al Jazeera reports that six more states are to copy Arizona's racial profiling laws. The Republicans are using the time honoured tradition of right wingers everywhere of promoting xenophobia and racism and playing to the lowest common denominator. Still you can't really blame them when, the report claims, a slim majority of Americans support the Arizona law.

This is likely due to ignorance (deliberately created by the powers that be) rather than an innate evil but an ignorance of the real problems that face America and the real reasons why people enter America illegally is depressing nonetheless.

French Police also Racist and Abusive.

It seems everywhere you look the Police are violent and racist even as politicians and television lauds them as decent men and women performing every day heroics. It is a shame that a badges and uniforms inhibit so many people's critical thinking skills. In this case there also seems to be crony-ism and official indifference allowing the police to get away with abuses of their power.

First impression of the Dodd-Frank bill

Not my first impression obviously, I don't get finance at all (same with alchemy- "The art of turning Gold into less Gold" - Terry Pratchett) but someone at Salon's first impression. Found here.

While I can't comment on the specifics the overarching theme of this and other reform is terrifically depressing. Even in the face of dire circumstances brought on by the Reagan wrecking ball it is impossible to return regulation to the strength they were at back then. Hell its impossible to even bring back something as essential as Glass-Steagall that was only gotten rid of under Clinton. The Republicans had done a great job of crippling America and entrenching a deeply unfair system that has brought about, and will now maintain, a second gilded age.

George Monbiot owns.

George Monbiot is the very stereotype of the woolly upper class British do-gooder. He is also an intelligent and passionate man who I live in constant fear will kill himself because he seems so damn aware of the environmental mess we are in. He has a high public profile for taking on various climate deniers and other unpleasant people. He also attempted a citizen's arrest on Michael Bolton which alone should earn him the respect of decent people everywhere.

I'm working through a backlog of his articles, being mostly accurate they can be really depressing but still they're worth reading, here are a few highlights of recent times:

Universal Cure An examination of how much privilege contributes to success in life in the UK (a lot) and then he references a novel solution first suggested by Peter Wilby a decade ago. I don't know if it would work but its certainly interesting.


Its likely this idea is worth applying to America too, you're just a teasy bit more socially mobile than us

Carbon Graveyard In which he points out that the UK has outsourced rather than reduced its' greenhouse gas output and how much of a problem consumption and tying economic stability to consumption is for the environment.

Northern Rock the Planet A short description of just how hypocritical and deceitful bankers can be.

I'll try to keep more on top of Monbiot editorials in future thus link them in a more timely manner but even if I just keep linking blocs of articles from time to time they're well worth reading.

"Joke" party seems better than most mainstream ones.

Last month a party with comedic sounding policies won both the mayoral and city council elections for Reykjavik, Iceland's capital. This victory is credited mainly to a protest vote but their intentions at least far outshine those of most career politicians and are certainly better than the protest votes Britain (BNP racist scum) and the US (teabagger libertarian fake scum) get. A funny and vaguely optimistic article.

thanks jonny

Edit: The article links this video but just to be sure you don't miss it:

The glitzy image of Cocaine takes a "blow" (ha ha!)

Scotland world's biggest consumer of cocaine. The white powder has fallen a long way from the glitz and glamour of the 80s to the drizzly shithole that is the UK (England is the joint (ha ha!) second highest consumer). The UK is also the only growing Cocaine market in Europe so its a good job we recriminalised Marijuana. Scotland also consumes an awful lot of heroin, mainly because of the high levels of unemployment and hopelessness post thatcher, lets see what this Tory government can do eh?

So our consumption level is higher than Portugal where consumption is essentially legal. But don't worry, we fire anyone that suggests sensible drug policy: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/oct/30/drugs-adviser-david-nutt-sacked

Cross your fingers as hard as you can.

Dick Cheney admitted to hospital feeling ill. Let us all hope that this is his sixth and final heart attack.

Rich bastard dies a humiliating death in an S&M club

Theres always some good news out there, you just need to look for it. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/10417040.stm

US Govt joins US Military in asserting Peak Oil is here.

Back in April the Joint Chiefs issued a report stating that by 2015 there could be a shortfall of 10 million barrels of oil a day and stated its' intentions to deal with the issues facing their military needs for oil and also how it might affect global security. Back at the beginning of June (I just found out) the EIA, "the statistics arm of the US Department of Energy" put out a forecast for the next ten years which shows essentially no growth in global oil production.

This has two very scary implications: 1) If America thinks oil supply has peaked, it probably has (well technically it did in the 70s but w/e). 2) Back when America at least allegedly didn't think peak oil was likely to occur soon it invaded Iraq to secure oil there. To function the US Military needs a lot of oil so theres a strong risk / likelihood invading oil rich countries like Iran and Venezuela may shift from a rhetorically desirable position to an outright necessity to keep the Imperialism Machine going. Lamentably China also wants secure oil supplies.

Uh-oh.

Politico accidentally does some decent Journalism

...and quickly redacts it. Apparently pointing out journalists cosy up to their sources to keep getting information is... well not really worth pointing out at all.

The future of Protest?

Arguing that traditional means of non-violent protest have been largely neutralised by the mass media, something I'm not entirely sure is true, Global Guerillas suggest a modern and high tech means of targetted, non-violent protest.

Its interesting and I definitely like the concept of taking advantage of modern means of command and control, especially mobile communications networks, to undermine a system but I also think it would be fairly easy to roll this into existing war on terror stuff and neutralise it quickly. Still, no reward without risk.

The Free Market has decided you should die.

Death panels, those awful things that could only occur under government bureaucracy and which are completely different from Medical Insurances companies denying you treatment to make a greater profit, were successfully headed off when the Obamacare package was watered down and deprived of a public option so becoming little more than a massive donation from the state to Private Insurance companies. A great outcome for the astroturfed protestors and the ill informed old people who could actually find the time to protest and who're protected by medicaid/medicare (for now).

Lamentably the far fairer and more equitable system of private insurance has lamentably found that a lot of poor people need to die. The free medical market (that is more heavily subsidised by the US government in terms of proportions of GDP than any socialised healthcare system) is infalliable, now please lie down and die quietly. That is to say the US has once again placed dead last in the rankings of western healthcare systems while paying far more than anyone else: USA! USA!

this gives me an excuse to post my favourite thing the National Geographic has ever produced:


But wait, theres more! The cost of individual purchased health insurance premiums have gone up around 20% since Obamacare passed and given that by law everyone will be forced to have insurance its likely employers will start to phase out their health insurance plans on grounds of cost and because its not like employees can go without in the near future.

Obama bringing this issue into prominence and promising something that didn't come to pass with single payer healthcare reform may have repercussions in the future as people realise how much this fucks them over. Likely though they'll just vote republican as the full extent of their protest because everyone knows a third party can't win.

Judge completely in Big Oil's pocket

Yesterday I mentioned the pro-BP legal decision made by a New Orleans judge. I mentioned it as another example of corporations running the world and hey turns out that judge, Martin Feldmen, is heavily invested a variety of oil companies. Something of a mild conflict of interests.

fMRIs lead to more accurate brainwashing!

/http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2214937420100622

A cheery sounding article explains how corporate trickery will become much more efficient in the near future with a little "hey it could help education or something too" at the end. The abuse of neuroscience as a means of social control should be a massive issue but unsurprisingly hardly anyone hears about it.

Titanic still on course for Iceberg

So McChrystal got sacked and America came one step closer to a president with hands on deathsquad experience but worry not kids, the Afghanistan Surge strategy is still on course. Sure the Iraq surge didn't really work and the UN says the situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating fast but WE'RE STILL ON COURSE.

Thanks to bribes in the right places and daring and skilled investigation I am able to bring you a video of a high level tactical and strategic discussion regarding staying the course:

Enviromental Protestors are pretty cool.

For obvious reasons environmental campaigners don't get much publicity but the innovative methods of opposition to one of the key ways big companies make themselves out to be the good guys need to be acknowledged. The thrust of this article is opposition to funding of prestigious art galleries in the UK: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/24/galleries-museums-summer-protest-bp-arts-sponsorship

In a separate development, musicians including Lady Gaga, Korn, Disturbed, Godsmack, Creed, and the Backstreet Boys said they planned to boycott BP on their national tours this year.

Now I was going to mock the Backstreet boys et al boycotting BP and to be fair its probably just a stab at populism but still on a matter like this its all too easy to let snobbery and elitism cloud a good development. Artists should be encouraged if they're doing something good regardless of the reason or who they are. Save your disdain for artists that aren't doing anything at all, its what I'm trying to do.

Fucking kids and... uh.. oh yeah that Jesus fella.

Belgium has become the latest country to investigate a major child abuse scandal involving the Catholic Church. Its pretty mind blowing how nearly every western country at this point has investigated and convicted Paedo priests, this isn't a few bad apples or even one branch of the church being lead by someone who let paedos get away with abusing kids, it seems a root and branch problem. I'm sure at this point priests in the developing are also abusing kids but the power of the church and religion in general is precluding investigation.

I don't think the Catholic church is all bad, Liberation theology is an unquestionably good thing and I am certain there are many catholics who are truly decent people who want to help their fellow humans. It seems the clergy are letting them down and major independent investigations into all aspects of the church and especially how the vatican operates need to be carried out. As much as I like to rag on corporations and governments niether would have gotten away with such widespread abuse of western children (Child slavery in the 3rd world is a-ok of coursE) so the low key reaction to such widespread problems in the Catholic Church is disturbing to say the least.

Furthermore if they're allowing this in the rich nations lord knows what could be happening to children from poor countries.

The only thing to do is to sell your property to those that robbed you.

So Greece is selling off some of its' six thousand Islands, its railways and its utilities. That the only people who are able to afford these things at the minute at the thieving bastards who profited from the current global financial crisis is, I'm sure, a complete coincidence and not a pre-planned cycle of self enrichment.

Any assertion Greece needs to sell these islands is disingenuous at best. Other countries such as Russia have defaulted on their loans within the past couple of decades and been fine shortly afterwards. The only people who really benefit from the money being paid back are the French and German banks who loaned this money to the previous Greek government (and helped them hide the debt). As William K Black says though, the best return on investment for the oligarchs is a political donation.

Holmes faces his greatest nemesis, CREEPY WATSON!

Kevin Rudd, Dolchstoßlegende

(its pretty cool to be able to use a ß/Eszett in a title because since the 1996 reforms the Germans have been using it less and less, since all it means is double s you can kind of understand it though)

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd failed to deliver on most of his major campaign promises and with an election looming in October his party, the Australian Labour Party, (please note I omit the U only because it is a proper name and a few years ago the party officially removed the U from their name.) took note of his increasing unpopularity with the electorate and replaced him. This was a remarkably clean, rapid and well carried out transfer of power so there's very little meat to get into, he stood aside and seems thus far not to have reacted with much rancour to his ousting. Indeed the main focus of reports seems to be the fact that his replacement, his former deputy Julia Gillard, is Australia's first female PM. Still you've got to try and create some kind of drama and thus photo archives have been scoured to find evidence of past conflict:


from the guardian, an attempt to illustrate how Rudd and Gillard were pulling in different directions


Al Jazeera go for an attempt to show Gillard as an evil plotter lurking behind a forlorn Rudd


finally the NZHerald goes for the same picture as the guardian but cut up to emphasise how they're looking different ways...sorta

Labour responsible for budget measures that affect the Rich.

It would seem most of the alleged fairness the Lib Dems are claiming they imposed on this week's budget are actually Labour measures in place before the election: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/23/budget-welfare-poor-ifs-report

So I guess Britons need to be thankful the Lib-Cons didn't want to deviate more from Labour's policies. Bet you're glad we got a new government eh?

Still even with burdens on the rich inherited from Labour the IFS thinks that the cuts will hit the poor five times harder than the poor: http://www.ifs.org.uk/projects/330 (Taken from this editorial: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/23/george-osborne-fairness-claim-fraud)

I suppose for all Labour's fault they weren't the Conservatives or, it would seem, the Lib Dems.

The death knell of Net Neutrality

Among the many blatant falsehoods Obama stated in his bid to get elected was a pledge to support net neutrality. A series of backroom meetings between the FCC and big telecoms companies shows how much stock he placed in that promise. Of course the American people are being given no chance to have an input on this deal which will markedly affect their daily lives. So look forward to corporate friendly websites being given preferential bandwidth by your ISP.

Exceptionally good news!

You don't know jack is coming back!

If you don't know why this is good news then fie on you.

Manchester Police's ruthless efficiency

For over a year a mean nasty bad rapper has been phoning up the police and even though they've blocked his number he just keeps on ringing :qq:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/10386731.stm

Budget summaries.

My knowledge of finance and economics is pretty darn weak so with summaries of the UK budget its probably best I just link summaries and let you draw your own conclusions. A few key points of the budget are however:

* A 4% cut on corporation tax
* 25% budget cut for all government departments bar Health and International development (stealth imperialism) with hints that education and defence will be cushioned somewhat from the cuts.
* Regressive tax VAT to rise from 17.5% to 20%
* £11bn cut from the Welfare budget

So anyway I give you: The Guardian's summary and some additional commentary form Left foot forward: A list of reactions to the budget and A refutation of the assertion the budget does anything for the poor.

Its not really a huge shock Cameron didn't want his face associated with all of this.

Just in case you were wondering who runs America...

Oil companies have gotten the drilling ban overturned lord knows an ecological catastrophe isn't nearly enough to justify some old white guys making huge profits.

Gen McChrystal article angered Obama and was an 'enormous mistake' - White House

From the BBC News Ticker. lol

EDIT: Here is the article to go with it: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/us_and_canada/10384324.stm

Following Petraeus's fainting do it is certainly possible the GOP will switch to McChrystal if he is fired as their military strong man candidate. After all, given how many death squads the US has backed over the years isn't it time to have the country lead by one?

Regime change for Belarus?

Bit of a Tabloid headline there but interesting things are occuring between Russia and Belarus as of late. The eastern bloc is regarded by Russia as an essential buffer zone for their security and an area of influence they have no desire to share. After the fall of the wall the USSR agreed to a re-unified Germany (a country that invaded them with devastating results during its' short existence from 1871 till 1945) under the proviso that their sphere of influence in eastern Europe was to remain uncontested. After the USSR fell and the US treasury destroyed the Russian economy with Friedmanite ideas suddenly the US didn't feel the need to honour the previous agreement although it wasn't till Bush II's "colour revolutions" in various countries in within the sphere (Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia etc) that matters came to a head.

Putin, who blindsided pretty much everyone, made rebuilding that sphere of influence a key aim, although of course he didn't announce this. With tremendous economic problems and potential disintegration of the Russian Federation to an extent this took a back seat although the issues were closely linked, Washington would have loved to see a weak and cowed Russian Federation or Balkanised Russia that meekly allowed them to extract as much money and resources as possible. Through the period of Putin having to focus more on Chechnya and reclaiming the Russian economy for Russia (and away from multinationals the US treasury got Yeltsin to grant absurdly preferential contracts to) the US was able to build up "popular sentiment" against Russia and use their vastly greater resources to bribe people in the region. Through this period however Belarus stuck by Russia solidly.

Relations seem to be souring and almost entirely at Russia's end. Drastically increasing the price Belarus pays for Natural Gas is the latest in a series of unpleasant measures Russia has enforced upon its stalwart ally / buffer. Now it could be the price of natural gas was kept artificially low for a number of years and now is bringing it up to a more realistic price but even then it suggests one thing. Russia doesn't feel the need to be quite so kind to Belarus as it did. US interference beaten back in Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan and an embarrassing undermining of the US puppet in Georgia certainly seem like reasons for Russia to be more confident but feeling secure enough to undermine or even betray Belarus suggests Russia feels other things, things we're not privy to, are likely going well too. A foundering EU, an ally / tool of the US that was pushing consistently into the former Russian sphere of influence, even going so far as to suggest old all Serbia could join, is another reason for the Kremlin to feel more confident. This need not be sinister, a friendlier, less insane whitehouse may mean the Kremlin doesn't feel the need to retain a decrepit dictatorship as an ally. But Putin is a man who has consistently surprised the west and won a lot more for Russia than the cards he'd been dealt would've lead one to expect.

Interesting things are likely to be happening in eastern Europe over the next few years.

Stealth Prime Minister

I'll probably link a good overview of the UK Budget later on today but for now take a look at this picture:



Note that Cameron is sitting behind Osbourne, a place he would know was practically invisible to TV Cameras. Happily Cleggy boy and Danny Alexander (both Lib Dems) are front and centre to take the fall in the coming months for anything bad the budget causes.

UK police racist as all hell.

Just as scientists often test basic proofs and concepts so as to be sure more complex theories that rely on them have a solid foundation its worth checking basic social assumptions too. So are the British police racist? Hohohoho you bet kids! http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2010/jun/17/stop-and-search-police

Black people are seven times more likely to be stopped and searched and three times more likely to be arrested than whites but only make up 1.8% of the population! Never grant the police any more respect than their actions highlight they deserve.

US government cements right to criminalise any cause it dislikes

So basically if a group can in any way be connected to terror or the US govt say it is connected to terror then you can be prosecuted as a terrorist. Yeah, the ACLU is about to have its' members get first hand experience of how badly civil rights are abused in the Prison Industrial Complex. This is a tremendous boon for foreign policy because basically anyone who offers wholly peaceful advice to a foreign (or domestic) group for that matter who has been labelled an enemy can be silenced as a terrorist. http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2010/jun/21/nonviolent-aid-banned-groups-terrorism

And just in case y'all aren't depressed enough yet:


"The government's case was argued in February by Elena Kagan, who is now the Obama administration's nominee to the supreme court.

"Hezbollah builds bombs. Hezbollah also builds homes. What Congress decided was when you help Hezbollah build homes, you are also helping Hezbollah build bombs. That's the entire theory behind the statute," she told the court.""

In a 7-2 decision...

Health watchdog gets uppity, reccomends healthy things.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the UK, these deaths are preventable and predominantly affect poorer people and costs the British economy about £1bn a year that could easily be saved. So NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) recommended a range of easily achieved measures to reduce the negative health impact processed foods have. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/22/convenience-food-changes-saves-lives.

Of course our newly minted Conservative government believes that NICE has overstepped its' remit and that individuals needs to look out for their own health. So what if a whole bunch of poors die? Personal responsibility bitch. In happier news the current health minister will probably be able to retire onto the board of a snack food company when the time comes.

Death Squad Commander apologises...

...for getting caught displaying his lack of respect for his civilian superiors.

I mean, I don't know about you but when the guy formerly in charge of all US death squads is shown to openly disrespect democratically elected leaders one does begin to worry what has been done to so many foreign democratically elected leaders may be done to the US itself. Ok thats unlikely to be sure, but McChrystal is a doer of very unpleasant things and this kind of behaviour doesn't inspire confidence in his commitment to what the West at least pays lip service to.

Football causing racism (AGAIN??)

It seems that the multi-ethnic makeup of the French national side when they won in 98 and 2000 was seen as a culturally binding agent but now the team is losing politicians and commentators seem to be alluding to the fact there are Black people and Arabs in the team as a causal factor for these failings. Read about it here. Do listen the short audio clip near the bottom of the article, it makes things a lot clearer than the article does.

Please note a reference is made to some players being from the suburbs, in nearly all the western world outside of Britain and the US affluent urban dwellers live in the urban core and the counter urbs with the poor relegated to living on the outskirts of the city, often in large, easily bypassed housing projects. So essentially in France to be from the suburbs is to be from the ghetto.

War on drugs aids those who ignore human rights

It what might be an increasing set of coincidences or might just be the point of the war on drugs all along, it seems anti-drug measures allow western nations to back and give funding to dictatorships that ignore human rights. But really as long as this 50 year war which has seemingly no effective on drug availability or consumption continues to push on towards inevitable victory who cares if foreign people are executed? I mean really its all for a good cause right?

Time to convene another decade long report...

After last weeks shocking revelation by the British government that killing unarmed civilians is wrong it seems that thirty eight years just isn't long enough to bury past imperialist crimes. It seems due to an "informal understanding" the RUC (Northern Irish police) didn't investigate murders committed by British troops. The Bloody Sunday report thus suggests that around 150 murders were not properly investigated.

Sure this dirty war was small scale because it was close enough for British media to investigate anything big but it shows how Imperialist powers, even faded ones, will do all sorts of unpleasant things to maintain control of a colony.

Sweden rubs our faces in it.

Bastards, they had a national outcry because a royal wedding wasn't politically correct enough: http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/06/20106191366543896.html

Why must they flaunt how much better than us they are?

Strike first, strike fast, strike hard.

With transport already identified for big cuts by the Lib-Cons it seems public transport has gotten a pre-emtive strike in.

There isn't much justice in this world so enjoy the little bits of it you find.

Vicious imperialist react to percieved slight

It really does seem like the only people who ever actually play the race card are over privileged white people who can't handle the slightest amount of criticism or disagreement with them. Sure England has exploited and screwed over Scotland for centuries but not supporting England in the world cup? THATS RACIST!

The Tea Party caused the Gulf Spill

Yeah ok that sounds like a truther headline but it very much seems to be the case. The Koch brothers, owners of Koch Industries America's largest private (as in not publicly traded) oil company and dozens of think tanks and PR front companies created the Tea Party movement in 2008 to push for de-regulation of offshore drilling and then when that worked expanded the faked oligarch funded PR "movement" to push for more wide ranging deregulation and fucking over of the poor.

However with the BP oil spill the tea party movement will likely be shelved and replaced by another insidious action the media will wilfully misinterpret. Once again we see middle class libertarians are useful idiots who are working directly against their own interests they're so ignorant.

Ronald Reagan destroyed the American Empire.

I mean long term, during his reign he just fucked over lots of poor people both domestically and abroad. Hes not going to get any plaudits or anything from me.

Here is a series of fun graphs of just how much he fucked over the majority of Americans both then and even more so now!

http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010062415/reagan-revolution-home-roost-charts

Intellectual Property Laws are broken!

Basically a man has trademarked the word "Edge" and uses that trademark to earn a living suing and intimidating people who make games with the word Edge in them. He has gotten really quite wealth from doing so. However EA, a massive games development company, have gotten sick of his shit and are suing to have his trademark nullified. He has of course counter-sued with the intent of halting EA's suit until his is resolved. Details here: here.

Just FYI but IP laws are utterly utterly terrible in every way and in every aspect they're applied.

If its good enough to publicise attempts to destabilise Iran...

... its good enough to announce someone's forthcoming state sanctioned murder I would make a joke about middleschoolers being forced to read twitter logs for English class in 20 years but the way education cuts are going its probably optimistic to expect them to be able to read.

Revenge is swift

Those cuts I posted the other day well people have picked up on the fact they fall most heavily on the north of England You'll never guess which part of England voted most heavily for labour: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/ (click the proportional radio button to make it clearer). Of course the North of England is also the poorest part of the country so they are doubly deserving of being shat on in the eyes of the Tories.

Gore created the internet, Lieberman wants to destroy it.

It seems since America elected Gore in 2000 but did not have him rule Lieberman has decided the American people, so easily cowed by Bush Cheney do not deserve his running mates' creation. Thus he is pressing ahead with a killswitch for the internet.

I am informed by Jonny, non-resident tech expert, that this would cause untold economic damage for everyone, except probably North Korea. Thus it would seem to be another MAD system or perhaps more accurately a larger scale version of Israel's Samson Option or a tool to force the world to go along with America. The second option is that Lieberman is an out of touch asshole who just loves flaunting America's power.

Either way publically announcing that this could be an option for the president will no doubt spur developments of parallel internets or similar networks especially if it becomes law.

thanks jonny

Vindication sucks

thanks jonny

Manufacture several orders of magnitude less valueable than banks.

While banks got bailouts for billions of pounds £80 million for a steel foundry that would've allowed it be only 2nd in the world to forge parts for nuclear reactors is just too much.

This comes among £2 billion worth of cuts that the lib cons decided was best to announce during the world cup. Just the most sensible time to let it be known I'm sure.

Edit: See other cuts here

Come to the aid of a jaywalker? Get hit.

A heroic Seattle police officer saw a negro jaywalking and valiantly tried to restrain the vicious hooligan. Its' cries attracted a fellow and the officer was forced to discourage the creature with reasonable force sadly due to liberal lefty PC scum's ignorance of the reality of the modern urban crime environment and the dangers jaywalkers and their supporters pose to society, this brave and decent man has been temporarily forced into to the department's training unit as a sop to the bleeding hearts.

Happily he will soon be back on the streets doing his difficult but essential job at the same standard he always has.

Computerised profiling halted, for now.

I mentioned a while ago about this project to monitor two predominantly Muslim areas of the UK with CCTV that tracked people movements. Well it seems thanks to the Guardian investigation it has been halted while a "full and in-depth consultation" takes place but both the Police and local government seem determined to bring the scheme online so the consultation is likely a delaying tactic so as to wait for public anger to subside and then bring it in.

My lord though, imagine British governmental agencies delaying something so as to maintain their current course!

Ex-CIA man lies about regional strong man!

"Ex"-CIA man Robert Grenier uses his regular AJE editorial column to write about Ahmed Wali Karzai the younger half brother of the puppet that has fallen out of favour Hamed Karazi. In the piece he writes about the unfortunate emergence of Karzai the younger due to unforeseen consequences of US government action. Yet strangely US Government officials seem to think that Wali emerged quite deliberately as a result of CIA policy. Furthermore the US military seems to think this CIA asset is following in the agency's long tradition of also being heavily involved in the international drug trade.

It is thus troubling but also mildly funny that the "ex"-CIA man comes to the conclusion that we must "grudgingly" accept this CIA backed drug lord as a necessary evil in securing the support of Afghanistan's population now he has inadvertently risen to prominance. A wonderful post facto justification of an installed strongman. That supporting him is apparently necessary to combat the Taliban, another agency created group, just adds to the Irony.

If you ever want to know what the CIA's spin on a paticular issue is Grenier's editorials are well worth a read.

John Carpenter dismisses 3D

http://www.destructoid.com/e3-10-john-carpenter-thinks-3d-is-a-gimmick-176787.phtml

Broadly says what I think about 3D and since hes an awesome director that must make me an awesome director too!

If you haven't watched The Thing you are losing at life, FYI

Penny Arcade is a funny comic!

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/6/11/

Yorganism

Take note Barbarians

High levels of violence and rape against Kyrgyz Civilians

Barbarians the world over under the beneficent rule of the American Empire and its chosen vassals, if you show the arrogance and irresponsibility as to try and overthrow a government the US supports these will be the dire consequences. Take note of how pleasant and secure life under American rule is and how unpleasant life outside of it will be.

Obama says some words

Obama proves rhetorical skill once again

Lamentably, as usual, nothing concrete whatsoever was stated so he may as well have said nothing at all.

Chinese colonialisation of Europe begins

China buys into Greece

As we know from western investment in countries with financial problems and social unrest, the nice foreigners ever so kindly putting money into the country often have an agenda that doesn't benefit the investee at all! I sure hope this doesn't happen here, white people are involved.

Bang goes the presidential bid

General Petraeus faints

Ok, so I'm not actually sure Petraeus was going to attempt to run in 2012 but the vague rumours I'd heard were fairly convincing that it was possible and given Obama's liking for comparing himself to Lincoln I had hoped for an inverse 1864 election and Obama losing to the general his continued imperialism elevated to a position of national renown.

That likely wont happen now. I don't imagine the media will give him an especially hard time about it but in a world where hollywood blockbusters define people's perceptions of the military this is a serious blow to his military touch guy image. You see in blockbusters general can die but they die heroically, jaw clenched as the inhuman enemies of humanity America (tautology?) close in. Hell they can be wrong, they're just so tough and stubborn they can't see the truth the hero can but you bet your bottom dollar at just the right climactic moment they'll bring the cavalry and secure the heroes' victory. But the one thing a general never does in a blockbuster is faint. Only women and liberals faint.

In reality his excuses are fairly plausible and heck most people would've snapped completely under the amount of strain he is under long ago. But in terms of perception and the popular imagination this is pretty unforgiveable.

Nintendo 3DS

What the 3DS looks like

A DS that does 3D without needing glasses. I think the DS (with all its minor variations) is pretty much the best selling console of all time and I doubt this updated version is going to put people off.

Iraqis have something to look forward to in 30 years time!

Bloody Sunday Report Released

So 38 years later and 37 too late with tens of millions spent and several lawyers made multi-millionaires from the process the British Government has establish that elite soldiers firing into an unarmed crowd is ya know, kinda bad. This is a disgusting farce for a number of reasons. At the heart of it is same thing at the heart of the link Amber posted yesterday: Here the assertion from those in power, from those who benefited in some way from a past evil that it was wholly in the past and also, and most importantly, a mistake and not a commonly practiced act that they happened to get caught doing.

This decades late report allows David Cameron (just as it would've allowed Gordon Brown if Labour had won the last election) to assert he is giving closure to the families of the bereaved, to draw a line under it and move on. It also allows him not to push for any examination or reform of military practices or the nature of British military and political actions in Northern Ireland or elsewhere. 38 years is long enough ago to assert things have changed without having to change anything at all. One can pretend it was a mistake, just as various crimes Britain will be revealed to have committed in Afghanistan and Iraq will be labelled and keep on doing that evil that benefits you.

Another depressing occurrence is that already the right wing press is starting to spin the report as an evil thing. That it will inflame tensions between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. It may well do that but perhaps one should blame the actions of the Paratroopers 38 years ago for that? Or the inaction, lies and apathy on the part of Britain and its' colonial rump state of Northern Ireland. That the Catholics of NI might take some revenge on the protestant majority whose intolerance was the catalyst for the troubles all those years could almost be seen as justice but an eye for an eye sadly makes us all blind. Hopefully the signs of a growing popular resistance to a return to the bad old days will hold through this event but even if it doesn't one cannot buy the rightist's line. A report on a bad thing may upset people but that doesn't mean one should stop investigating and reporting, it means that we should stop doing bad things. The the right wing are trying to claim even this far too late report is too much is just sickening.

The murder of innocent civilians is the bread and butter of empire. This report is too late and being spun negatively but it is at least useful for showing the true nature of the west.

A Teacher speaks

I subscribed to this guy aaaaages ago when he did a series of videos considering how best to discuss global warming with sceptical people. I have watch the odd video of his since he stopped doing that but the title of this one made me look. He has consistently seemed to be a really decent guy and its interesting (and depressing) to hear him talk about how poorly the US education system is supported. I hope he doesn't lose his job in the end, for the kids sake as much as his own.

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