One can tell just how compromised Hollywood now is by its output, for the entertainment machine prefers to explore its market-driven predilections than deal seriously with real issues (hence there has never been a, "Nigel the Puritan" flick -taking on the powers of darkness with a mangle and a bar of carbolic-, vampiric producers would rather indulge the Papacy, after all there's no money in Puritanism), one may gasp at the schlock-horror of all embracing technocracy but one must never examine the realpolitik of the alternative. Recent events, however, do perhaps indicate that it is time that the entertainment industry contemplated its own demise (at least in terms of the pleasure-button pushing ephemera which have become ubiquitous to the milieu), quote;
"A third of traffic collisions involving autonomous vehicles in 2018
so far featured humans physically confronting the cars, according to
data released by California.
In one case, a taxi driver exited his cab and slapped the front
passenger window of a General Motors Cruise parked behind him. No one
was hurt, though the car sustained a scratch.
In another case, a pedestrian hurtled across an intersection despite a
“do not walk” sign, shouting as he went, and rammed his body into a
different Cruise’s rear bumper.
If they were hoping to register their disapproval of autonomous
cars, they were working against both the burgeoning autonomous car
industry and the state of California, which last week said it would
allow driverless cars to operate without onboard backup drivers." Go to: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/san-francisco-driverless-cars-autonomous-vehicles-attacks-a8243081.html
for full article.
Such reactions may just be the thin-end-of-the-wedge for there is a now a growing and vocal movement opposing the imposition of 5G Wi-Fi technology...
How far one wonders will people be prepared to go? An unexamined response might be both disastrously polarising and catastrophic, reliance on mobile-phones and Wi-Fi technology has meant that attacks against infrastructure would (undoubtedly), eventually result in unnecessary deaths. Could it be considered by protestors that any fatalities were causalities of war and that none are hors-de-combat? Schisms in the ranks of any "Anti-Wi-Fi-Brigade" may be caused should some believe that those who use Wi-Fi tech are lying in the bed they have made for themselves. Is it not therefore prudent to examine these issues seriously before things come to such a head?
Given that it is the purpose of the dramatic medium to highlight social problems and the possible consequences of certain courses of action I would say that it is irresponsible for the media to ignore this growing division, especially given our current global economic situation where many who profit most from the wirelessly connected world are those far more privileged than the mass of the population. The civil-strife that was common to both the developed and "developing" nations during the twentieth century may well rear its head again but this time with an agenda that targets the tools of oppression rather than (at least not directly), the perpetrators .
A production which dealt with such eventualities would undoubtedly be controversial (the "timely" usually is), and might not attract much sponsorship from the status quo or the vested-interests of the world's "Silicon Valleys" but surely it might be possible to find some amongst the well-healed glitterati whose consciences one could prick (and souls stir), sufficiently for them to back such a project?
A "war" of the kind I describe could be fought without the need for conventional weaponry; the catapult, cross-bow, D-lock and the bull-dozer (or any vehicle heavy enough to take-down a Wi-Fi mast), might be all protestors would be armed with forcing the authorities to make difficult choices in terms of proportionality of response. Might the Powers-that-Be be tempted to go over-the-top in order to put down such rebellious behaviour and if so would this not inflame an already volatile situation? If a "storm" is on the horizon defusing any possible conflict must be a priority.
The Luddites were not attacking automated looms and knitting-frames because the technology itself was inimical to social progress they were doing so because they were skilled artisans and because, in the hands of a few exploitative magnates, such new inventions threatened not only to rob the Luddites of their jobs but to enslave the working class as-well, a reaction against Wi-Fi tech would be different for the technology is dangerous in and of itself, therefore, many may be prepared to go further in their attacks, against what they see as both embodying and exemplifying the social-divisions and inequalities growing all around them, than the Luddites did.
It's not just the physical dangers of the technology which could spark such a conflagration of-course, there is also the way it's being used, quote;
"The Dangerous Technology of Surveillance. How much longer will it take I
wonder for people to realise just how "unprofitable" it is to collude in
their own oppression? An increasing number allow access to all sorts of
important data about themselves by utilising wireless-free technologies(and
this is before one takes into consideration the ubiquitous security
flaws in "closed software" and the ease of hacking such connections).
The fondness for the-sound-of-our-own-voices has allowed obsession to
consume us and it has created a false-economy for the continued expansion of the debt-bubble has been aided and abetted by the addiction to these gewgaws and "ghafla"*".. "Users dumbed-down to accept ephemera as true experience are encouraged
in their posturing and cupidity whilst being discouraged from engaging
in reasoned discourse (and if they do such is labelled "Fake News"
-using capitals advisedly-). I only use "hardline" Ethernet connections
when I go online and have had the wireless signal to my domestic router
turned off at source (Nb. there is no "wireless-off" button on any of
the major service providers' home routers as far as I am aware)."..
"*Quote; "Ghafla is a Chakobsa
term meaning "distraction"- in the Dune books by Frank Herbert, Ed.-,
Herbert took this term directly from the Arabic where "Ghafla" means
anything that distracts one from God. The term is especially important
in Sufic Islam" Go to: http://dune.wikia.com/wiki/Ghafla
"Every year in the U.S., almost a half million people are injured or
killed in traffic accidents attributed to the combination of texting and
driving. The statistics are shocking, especially in view of the fact
that this danger could be completely avoided. With the latest
statistics available as of 2018, in 2015, according to statistics
compiled by the Department of Transportation, 3,477 people died and
another 391,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes caused by drivers
who were distracted because they were texting or using cell phones." Go to: https://www.personalinjurysandiego.org/topics/facts-about-texting-driving/ for full article.
Quote; "According to the National Highway and Transportation Safety
Administration (NHTSA), 80% of accidents and 16% of highway fatalities
are caused by distracted drivers. The National Safety Council (NSC)
estimates that crashes from cell phone use account for 27% of all auto
accidents. In Ohio in 2015, 41% of distracted drivers in fatal crashes
were texting or talking on a phone. Texting while driving increases your chances of being in an accident
by 23 times. When you are driving 55 mph, diverting your attention for
five seconds (the average time it takes to read a text message) means
you are driving the length of a football field without looking at the
road. A crash typically occurs within three seconds after a driver is
distracted. Even with the staggering statistics, the National Safety Council
found that evidence indicates that under-reporting of driver cell phone
use in accidents is causing a substantial under-estimation of the extent
of the public safety threat." Go to: https://www.lawyersthatfightforyou.com/auto-and-truck-accidents/2016/12/06/distracted-driving-from-cell-phone-use/ for full article." Go to: http://www.arafel.co.uk/2018/03/the-whole-story-epidemiology.html
Any of the above are sufficient to provoke one to righteous indignation or even anger. What if your; spouse, child (or any family member), close friend or beloved pet were to be killed by a distracted driver? It is therefore far from beyond possible that a "pro-active" movement against the imposition of yet more etheric snooping be formed to address the removal of the parasitic technology of neoliberalism (incl. in China)! Also see; "The Dangers of #Wifi to our Whole System" go to: https://twitter.com/i/moments/930097464530690052
Exposure to
microwave radiation from cellphones, routers, cordless phones, smart
meters, baby monitors and other wireless devices causes massive
mitochondrial dysfunction due to free radical damage
Quote; "It took me awhile to figure this out. I
got rid of all the wireless devices and Wi-Fi in my house, yet the EMFs
were still high. Then I finally realized that it was my phone (while
on) that caused it. My levels dropped below 0.01 volts/meter once I put
it in airplane mode. This is a key point. For nearly everyone reading
this, the majority of the radiation you're exposed to is not coming
from the outside into your home; it's coming from the items in your
home."..
"Most of the radiation we're exposed to
today is microwave radiation, which does include radiation from your
microwave oven. If you still have one, I recommend replacing it with a
steam convection oven, which will heat your food just as quickly but
far more safely. When you turn that microwave oven on, it will expose
you to very dangerous microwave radiation at levels that are far in
excess of your cellphone. We're not talking about thermal (heat) damage
here. We're talking about nonthermal damage.
I recently interviewed Martin Pall, Ph.D., who has identified and
published several papers describing the molecular mechanisms of how EMFs from cellphones and wireless technologies damage plants, animals and humans.2,3,4,5
Many studies have shown that when you're exposed to EMFs, intracellular
calcium increases. Pall also discovered a number of studies showing
that you can block or greatly reduce the effects of EMFs using calcium
channel blockers — medication commonly prescribed to patients with
heart disease.
This turns out to be a crucial point, because it's the excess
calcium in the cell and the increased calcium signaling that are
responsible for a vast majority of the biological effects of EMFs."..
"Importantly, the cellular membrane is 7
million times more sensitive to EMFs than the charged particles inside
and outside of the cells, which are what safety standards are based on.
In other words, the safety standards are off by a factor of 7 million!*".. "So, EMFs are not "cooking" your cells.
It's not a thermal influence. Rather, the radiation activates the VGCCs
in the outer cell membrane, which triggers a chain reaction of
devastating events that, ultimately, decimates your mitochondrial
function and causes severe cellular damage and DNA breaks. It also
decimates your cell membranes and cellular proteins. In a nutshell, it
dramatically accelerates the aging process.".. "The first step to lower your exposure
would be to identify the most significant sources. Your cellphone is a
major source of exposure, as are cordless phones,
Wi-Fi routers, Bluetooth headsets and other Bluetooth-equipped items,
wireless mice, keyboards, smart thermostats, baby monitors, smart meters
and the microwave in your kitchen. Ideally, address each source and
determine how you can best limit their use. For example, remedial
interventions could include:" Go to: https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2017/09/24/electronic-devices-emf-dangers.aspx?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=twittermercola_ranart&utm_campaign=20181023_electronic-devices-emf-dangers for preventative measures and full article. *Italics mine.
Dr.Mercola also recommends switching to "Ethernet only" and identifies many different negative health impacts in his excellent article (highly recommended).
Having examined the "either/or" nature of so-called democracy now-a-days, the parlous state of the European Union and the dangerous anachronism that is the British State in previous posts we should properly consider an alternative approach to our current "constitutional" difficulties. One that logically presents itself is to re-examine the nature of what it means to be "British". The academic and institutional powers-that-be in these islands oft present the Cromwellian Revolution as the final word (a-last-hurrah), on significant reform, this has allowed our state to descend the slippery slope to the sewerage of a truly rotten-borough, clearly too many have a vested interest in allowing this situation to continue (not least of which being the Labour Party with its reliance on the Balmoralisation of the British people). Many who support left-wing politics and the so-called "people's party" scream; "fascists", continually voicing the notion that secessionists are always driven by a xenophobic agenda, whenever nationalists in these islands raise their heads, but surely none would accuse Gandhi of being a NAZI! Our islands were colonised by a Roman state the legacy of whose empire building is still with us today, our hallowed academic institutions continually turn out graduates who loudly proclaim the greatness of the classical world (especially and unfortunately Rome), and deride the former culture of our islands even to the extent of describing our magnificent forebears as living in, quote; "wooden-huts" (whilst this may be partially true such is a deliberate attempt to denigrate Brythonic culture and to represent our ancestors as "square-wheel-making" imbeciles for there are many achievements of the ancient Britons which mark them out as remarkable innovators who left us with a legacy that the technocratic culture of today still has little appreciation for nor any grasp of its true global significance -and let us not forget that we had forests the like of which the classical world did not-), whilst the Mediterranean civilisations were at their zenith. There are several reasons for this but perhaps the most important is that it is considered that "civilisation" is synonymous with "democracy" (a miss reading of classical culture and language also exemplified by the use of the term "sophisticated" to describe people one is expected to respect as being well-versed scientifically, socially and/or academically), those that proselytise for such a notion but still call themselves "British" are practising the kind of double-think that indicates just how far we have degenerated as a people. A recent ITV documentary proclaimed Elizabeth the Second as; "Queen of the World" and in many ways they were not wrong for our continued adherence to the hereditary principle in this globally "facilitating" state underpins the social-Darwinist notion that some are born "more-equal" than others and that this status accords them wealth, power and privilege far beyond even the aspirations of the vast majority of the world's inhabitants. That we in these islands provide a lynch-pin for such conceptions should be clear to all but the most blinkered and naval-gazing and it has meant that the removal of our monarchy has become a key-log in the process of the progress of the mighty river of democratisation. Many either brow-beaten by or perpetuating this situation claim that we willloose our cultural identity should we attempt to remove this "beam in our eyes" but such could not be further from the truth, in order to explain why not let us look at the problems our cousins across the channel are currently having with achieving emancipation.
Quote; "On 25 November, a new law on
the territorial organization of the French regions was passed by the National
Assembly, by a very small majority. Of the 530 expressed votes, 277 were for
and 253 were against.
Two main regions are
“victims” of the new organization, Alsace and Brittany.
Alsace, because it simply
disappears into a huge, new region regrouping Champagne-Ardenne, Lorraine and
Alsace, in effect meaning that Alsace itself won't exist anymore as a political
or administrative entity.
Meanwhile for Brittany, the
law confirms the amputation of its territory, rebuffing the return of the fifth
historical department of Loire-Atlantique and the historical Breton capital of
Nantes to the region of Brittany.
For Brittany, which began
life as kingdom in the ninth century, evolved into a duchy, and since the French Revolution has been a
region, this was chance to regain its historical integrity. During the Second
World War, the fascist Vichy government took the richest of Brittany’s five
departments, Loire-Atlantique, and used it to create a new, artificial region
called Pays de la Loire, which still exists today.
After several demonstrations
and public debates, 85% of the Bretons in the administrative region of Brittany
and 70% of the Bretons in the Loire-Atlantique department claimed to be clearly
in favor of the reunification. Still the government and the National Assembly
said no.
The official reason given by
the government is that it wants to optimize the existing regions, making them
more powerful and able to compete at a “European level”. But a reunified
Brittany would have respected all the objectives wanted by the government, as
Breton MPs have argued.
The “No” to a Breton
reunification, and the choice to dilute Alsace, are explainable by a
non-official reason. After having watched with fear and apprehension what
happened in Scotland and Catalonia, the French centralized state used every
legal trick to prevent any risk of such situations in France in the future. The
aim was, is, and will be, to weaken any regional or cultural identities that
are not explicitly “French”.
With such lofty goals in mind,
it is not surprising that regardless of the legitimate justifications for reunifying
Brittany, the government would never allow it. It is not surprising either that
Alsace was condemned to be consigned to the dustbins of history.
It is important to understand
that in France - by law – there can be no other people than the “French”
people. Bretons, Alsatians, Corsicans…they may exist as administrative
curiosities for local populations, but legally – they do not exist. Since the
Revolution, France is “One and Indivisible”, and the different identities and
territories can only be considered as folkloric particularities, certainly not
specific political entities of any sort. It is the reason that France is the
only country in the Council of Europe - apart from Turkey - to have not signed
the European Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.
Many Bretons would like to be reunified and have more autonomy but still remain part of the larger French state, however, the fact that they have never been presented with the option of becoming part of a "Wider British Republic" with the powers of a fully devolved and independent parliament of their own (or even thought that such a thing would ever be possible), may well be one reason for this. As an indicator of the strength of feeling check-out the number of "Breton Independence" accounts on Twitter (#Breizhistance).
Quote; "Fighting for the Independence of Brittany is not only about politics, it is also and above all a clash of morals and values.
The essence of our action comes from this situation. By realizing it,
you can understand us. A rejection. France would like to represent the
Republic, and some sort of morals. But France is symbols, values, and
above all, a reality.
The reality of France. France is Paris, exile of the
youth-from-across-the-beltway, Parisians who visit every year their Hick
reservation between June and September, fifty trains a day to Paris
from Rennes, and two trains per month to Pontivy. France is “Get a job
in Paris, it’s easier”, the word “province”, the harmless and
simple-minded TV weatherman with a country accent and a poppy on his
garment, and Paris region license plates in commercials. France is also
the hangover from 1981, the Mitterrand years, champagne socialists, the
baton right wing, the doobie left wing, corruption, their money years,
our jail years, some “Frankiz evit Kabon” on the walls when we were
kids, some “Freedom for Breton political prisoners” that we tag
ourselves every fifteen years when shindigs resume. Hey, well, so a
“44=BZH” graffiti meets a cop car, and it’s a night waiting outside the
police station for those who are lucky, and inside for those who are
not. But France is also our cousins who are small farmers eaten away by
alcohol, the Agricultural Bank, and quotas convicted for “maladjustment”
who will have never watched the Millennium fireworks. France is
tractors in always bigger fields and always larger overdrafts at the
bank. France is the reparcelling and neighbors who spit in each other’s
face for a piece of land. France is also the word “dialect”, the word
“prefect”, the word “petroleum”".."and tollgates with
72 cameras.
Hey! France is also the “Amoco cormorant”, this famous bird trying to
fly and eventually sinking into its sea of fuel oil. France is also
hypermarkets and their huge parking lots, ugly housing estates and the
ultimate joy of building the exact same house than your neighbor in the
Ker Stuff subdivision. And then the shady Youth Clubs, the suburbs like
in the “New Year’s Eve at Bob’s” 1984 movie. And then France is the
upstart or the resident Parisian who owns a filthy “Costa Bella
Residence” vacation condo in Port-Navalo that you hear about at every
family reunion. France is the “Pays-de-la-Loire”, the same old “But what
would you do without France? Huh, huh”; the same old “Now, I’m moving
to Paris, it’s so lame here”; the same old “Breton? Gallo? It’s useless,
learn English”. France is the abduction of the word “Republic”, the
made-up history of Jules Michelet, the lies of the wars in Algeria,
Indochina, Madagascar, and Chad, the spookeries, the weapons sold to one
half of Africa to exterminate the other half, Charles Pasqua,
Bettencourt, Franck Ribéry, Sarkozy, Tapie, Ayrault, but also Alain
Minc, Sollers, Giesbert, BHL, Glucksmann, Alexandre Jardin, the old lady
Françoise Morvan, Le Bris, Télérama, the old lady Le Pen, and the
snobbish accent of Jack Lang and Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet. Moreover,
France is like Paris, it’s somewhat of a mix between NTM and NKM. Scum
on one side, upper class on the other. France is Jean-Pierre Gaillard,
Hubert Coudurier, François Régis Hutin and his editorials about boy
scouts. France? Well, well, well…" Go to: http://7seizh.info/2013/10/17/independence-of-brittany-and-why-bretons-will-never-be-french-their-values-and-ours/
for full article.
Caveat Emptor.
These people share the same language group as that of our forebears (before we were Romanised and Anglicised), and let us not forget that our monarchy is German not British for as is (or should be), well-known the Saxe Coburgs changed their name to "Windsor" in order to avoid embarrassment, censure and/or even dethronement during the appalling incestuous internecine slaughter that was the First World War.
These two dvds are highly recommended.
There is another issue closely related to this with regard to the emancipation of the "Brythonic" peoples and that of course is the creation of a Unified Ireland (something which deeply concerns the current -so-called-, "British" establishment). Some have suggested that the Brexit conundrum might well be the impetus that the creation of a single Irish state requires but I believe that this will prove impossible without the removal of the Crown from the equation. Democracy requires a "dynamic equilibrium" and whilst mainland Britain remains under the control of the Westminster parliament none of the otherwise secessionist states will be independent (obviously), and this situation is underpinned by both the first-past-the-post electoral system and the monarchy (another incestuous relationship if ever there was one). Without secession for Wales, Scotland, Cornwall and Brittany all Irish Protestants (on both sides of the border), will feel (probably rightly), both slighted and threatened but let's not forget the lesson of history for it was Puritanism not Catholicism that first actually removed the head from our state, a rediscovery of their reformist roots might be precisely what Irish Protestantism needs to feel validated within a free Britannia! The hope must be that such would truly be a "Peace Process" for all and that it might extinguish the fires of sectarianism that still burn on both sides of the Irish Sea.
"Where
there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law,
happy is he." Proverbs 29:18 King James Version (KJV)
Ballymurphy
Quote; "Forensic exposé of one of the most shocking events of The Troubles in
Northern Ireland: a series of killings the British Army stand accused of
which took place over three days" (recommended)
"So what then?" You may ask. "What will keep this disparate group of rebels together and what of our relationship with the rest of Europe?" The answer seems obvious a, "Council of Britons" will be required both to mediate in disputes between the member states and to represent their interests in Europe. The Wider European adventurers may well quail when such proposals are aired (and so they should), for as we have examined elsewhere on this blog the formation of an Eastern European Union would break the back of the Now Actively Treacherous Oligarchy ("NATO"), that has come to ascendancy and dominates the body politic and help establish the principles of independence and emancipation benefiting all the significantly (currently marginalised and ignored), ethnically and culturally divergent regions in the union.
Re: Scotland
Quote; "The Tories are plotting to undermine Scotland’s interests during negotiations with the EU, in what Brexit secretary Michael Russell described last night as a “massive insult”.
The SNP
minister hit out after leaked papers from negotiators in Brussels,
obtained by The Times, revealed that the EU is “secretly preparing” to
accept a frictionless Irish border after Brexit, with “technological
solutions” minimising customs checks between Northern Ireland and the
Irish Republic.
Under the EU plan, goods will be tracked using barcodes on shipping
containers under “trusted-trader” schemes administered by registered
companies.
In what the Scottish Government
described as a “deceit”, the EU is reportedly, at the behest of the UK
Government, carefully writing its proposal to prevent the SNP from
demanding a similar deal for Scotland.
“The solution is specifically phrased for Northern Ireland so that it
is not applicable for Scotland. A UK concern,” the note reportedly says.
Nicola Sturgeon has said any deal which allows Northern Ireland to, effectively, remain in the single market must be offered to Scotland.
“If one part of UK can retain regulatory alignment with EU and
effectively stay in the single market, which is the right solution for
Northern Ireland, there is surely no good practical reason why others
can’t.” the SNP leader tweeted last December" Go to: http://www.thenational.scot/news/16884761.appalling-secret-tory-plot-to-shut-out-scotland-in-brexit-deal-exposed-by-leak/
for full article.
#LIBOR
Recent stories in the financial press are promoting the notion that it is separatism in Europe that posses the biggest threat to the European economy but also that the E.U's single-market and currency are in such a poor state that it is best to allow the City of London to exercise complete independence from the single-market, quote;
"“April is the cruellest month,” wrote TS Eliot in the opening line of The Waste Land – possibly his greatest poem.
“August is a wicked month,” quipped the Irish writer Edna O’Brien in the title of her fifth novel.
“October will be a s---storm” is a less aesthetic phrase, but one
I’ve heard a lot from market analysts lately. It may not be poetry – but
the message may be worth taking to heart. Last week saw yet more populist
flare-ups across the European Union. In Germany, thousands joined
rallies in the eastern city of Chemnitz after an arrest warrant for an
Iraqi suspect was leaked following a fatal stabbing.
Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, meanwhile, met with
Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán to discuss a common anti-migration
strategy. “We’re walking the same path,” they said in a joint statement,
posing for the cameras in Milan. The two nations have been on “the
front line” as millions of refugees have entered the EU from Syria, Iraq
and North Africa. “We want to change Europe’s rules,” they declared,
“to protect our borders.”
Elections in Sweden this week will likely mark another populist
uprising. The centre-left Social Democrats are heading for well below
30pc of the vote, this ruling party’s worst result in over a century –
in an election once again dominated by anti-immigration, anti-EU
sentiment. Jimmie Åkesson, leader of the upstart Sweden Democrats, could
become the post-election coalition kingmaker – and he, like Salvini, is
threatening a referendum on EU membership.
As traders
return to their desks this week in London, New York and other financial
capitals, they face concerns aplenty. Yes, the US is showing 4.1pc
growth and financial markets are soaring. But stock valuations, pumped
by years of central-bank quantitative easing (QE), look precarious
compared to earnings. And the Federal Reserve is consistently raising
interest rates – signalling a broader policy tightening."...
"For my money, though, the biggest danger facing global markets is Europe
– and that relates to this upsurge in nasty politics. And while street
protests and election shocks catch the headlines, the really telling
impact of growing EU disunity, and the rising outrage among millions of
ordinary voters at Brussels-imposed diktats, on borders and more
besides, is revealed by looking at the market for bonds"..
"Since a populist Five Star/Italian League government took office in
June, Italian bond yields have doubled to a four-year high. Market
unease reflects the fact that Italy’s finances are even worse than the
headline numbers suggest. Local banks themselves hold more than €400bn
euros of local sovereign debt – so government and the financial sector
are locked in a ruinous doom-loop, ending all hope of a domestic bank
bailout."..
"There is
righteous populist anger in Germany, not just about immigration, but
also the extent to which Berlin has been bankrolling the likes of Italy.
And now the Italian government, when it presents its budget for
European Commission approval in October, looks set to ask for much more."..
Contrast this with
the following article from, "Capital X" that maintains that Britain's separation could be its saving grace, quote;
"If we rewind to the cusp of the millennium, the EU had a sorry apology
for a market structure. Stock markets were mostly national behemoths.
Trading across borders was cumbersome and expensive. Step forward the
original Markets In Financial Instruments Directive (MIFID), which has
proven a great success. With one legislative sweep, the EU managed to
open up a decent amount of competition across borders for the trading of
stocks delivering, if not a seamless open market, at least a richly
competitive environment enhancing choice for investors and issuers
alike. Moreover MIFID enabled a generation of entrepreneurial activity
in the market infrastructure field, delivering a raft of new competitor
platforms to the existing monopoly stock exchanges. That was also hugely
beneficial to the City as the majority of successful non-legacy
exchange ventures clustered in London, further enhancing the UK’s
significant leadership in financial services across the region. True,
cynics may suggest much of MIFID’s benefit was already likely to occur
thanks to technology but that misses the point of it crucially opening
up closed silos across the continent to better integrate the competitive
dynamic of free markets."..
Then the 2007 financial crisis intervened. The G20 produced a series of
pragmatic and broadly sensible G20 commitments at the Pittsburgh summit
(2009) to make the interbank marketplace safer and more transparent,
reducing the risk of bank collapses. The EU, seized by its usual sense
of urgent “something must be dunnery”, allied with its general suspicion
of free markets and a desire to trim capitalism at all costs, turned
inwards, preferring to indulge in a very expansive hyper-regulated
environment. A core concept of transitioning MIFID principles to other
markets (bonds, derivatives, commodities etc) turned into a staggering
hotchpotch of dreams, delusions and generally intrusive impositions on
the functioning of markets."..
"Perhaps the greatest flaw to implementing MIFID II now is the Brexit
process. The UK remains (as the ironic Twitter hashtag puts it,
#DespiteBrexit), the world’s leading international financial centre,
dwarfing the rest of the EU 27 put together. Stubbornly applying a vast
raft of highly prescriptive restrictions on markets and their operation
at this juncture appears the height of folly. However once the EU has
plotted a legislative course, supertankers look as nimble as Mini
Coopers when it comes to changing direction. Thus the EU plods on into a
gaping own goal of its own making."..
"Britain needs a coherent and comprehensive way out of the MIFID II
muddle. The City of London must achieve a pragmatic regulatory freedom
before this initial exodus of commodity derivatives business turns into a
rout, and leads to rival financial centres in the US and likely Hong
Kong and Singapore being seen as havens from the EU’s overreach."..
"For London the path is now clear – remaining constrained inside the EU’s
protectionist single market is bad for Britain and already pushing
business out of the City. There is no coherent evidence London as a
global financial centre will be adversely affected by being empowered
once again freely to choose pragmatic regulations which are equivalent
with the rest of the world, the EU included." Go to: https://capx.co/the-city-cannot-afford-to-be-constrained-by-disastrous-eu-rules/
for full article.
Not a sniff in either article that it was the Wider Europe and itsNATO-isation
that has both overstretched EU finances and put so much pressure on
Western European societies that additional immigration from the Middle
East has become unacceptable to much of the populace.
This kind of economic double-think has its genesisin denial of the exposure of our financial institutions to the global credit crisis. For many years the British have been attempting to ameliorate historical problems (which date back to our near bankruptcy following the two world wars), of under-resourcing and in recent decades the lack of a truly British owned manufacturing base (sure we manufacture a-lot, much of which to a very high standard, but we don't own the majority of these companies either privately or publicly which allows most of the actual profits to be salted-away offshore and in other countries where the owners are free from the burden of U.K taxation), by providing financial services (and this to the very people vampirising on our economy), to the world. The degree to which Britain was over-exposed was surely intimated by the Queen herself when she quizzed the then chancellor concerning the state of our nation's gold reserves (but let's not forget it was the previous Labourincumbent that actually flogged-them-off), quote;
"It was meant to be a visit
without any high politics but the Queen still managed to quiz the
Chancellor about British gold as she visited Downing Street.
Walking along the line of ministers in the Terracotta Room inside Number 10 before sitting in on part of a Cabinet meeting, the monarch came to George Osborne.
Until
that point, every minister had been introduced by Prime Minister David
Cameron but he failed to announce his friend Mr Osborne.
The Queen queried "someone?", to gales of laughter from the assembled politicians, before going on to ask about "gold bars".
Some
of her words are indistinct on video footage of the exchange but she
can be heard saying "regrettably" in a reference to their sale.
Mr Osborne told the Queen: "Some of them were sold but we still have some left."
What she actually said was (paraphr); "..and how much of the nations gold have we left?" To which Osborne responded; "17% Maam" prompting Elizabeth the Second to damn with faint praise by saying; "17%? Well done!"
Quote; "In 2010, Osborne declared: "Gordon Brown's decision to sell off our gold
reserves at the bottom of the market cost the British taxpayer billions
of pounds*. It was one of the worst economic judgements ever made by a
chancellor." At a time when his own strategy has failed dramatically,
Osborne will no doubt be pleased to discover that the Queen appears to
agree" Go to: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2012/12/queen-takes-swipe-gordon-brown-over-gold-sale
for full article.
*Italics mine.
This is why it was done, quote;
"Libor, the London interbank offered rate, is a global benchmark for
interest rates on everything from credit cards to trillions of dollars
in financial derivatives and is at the heart of a scandal over rate
rigging.
Libor rates are based on daily estimates from a group of
banks as to how much they would expect to pay to borrow funds from each
other for a range of currencies and periods. The British Bankers’
Association (BBA) published the first official Libor rates in dollars,
sterling and yen, meeting demand for global benchmarks from financial
markets in 1986." Go to: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-libor-rbs-scandal/timeline-how-the-libor-scandal-unfolded-idUSBRE9150TB20130206
for full article.
Britain was forced to buy its way out of the financial hole it was in but the gold sales could only gild the LIBOR lilly*, our politicians were also forced to collude in the manipulation of the LIBOR rate in order to hide our degree of over-exposure but because both parties were involved (an indication of just how serious the situation was -and still is-), mouths have been kept firmly shut on both sides of the house with regard to the true size of our international debt. The undead corpses of both the British and European economies now stagger on propped up by only the geo-political interests of the dollar and the machinations of the State Dept.
So does separatism within the European Union represent the biggest threat to the markets? Only if you're a zombie desperately trying to find fresh living flesh to feed on! Should Britain (for instance), achieve the kind of devolution for (what should be), its independent member states and then reorganise itself on a more egalitarian basis both a United Ireland and the mighty economy that is Brittany would be able to contribute to our common-wealth (having never actually joined the poor-old Euro perhaps even a "United Brit-Pound" could be something "we" could sensibly contemplate), and form a counterweight to a more democratic Western European Union (containing a number of then devolved member states and regions), and newly formed Eastern Union of a similar hue itself.
*It is claimed that Gordon Brown sold of much of Britain's gold reserves whilst gold prices were at their lowest for twenty years because; "Central banks thought they could manage the world by tweaking interest
rates, switching a few dials. Gold's role as a financial backstop had
diminished." However it was not the Bank of England but the treasury which was responsible for selling our gold and Brown had already freed-up the BoE to set its own interests rates so why the sale? As Rhona O'Connell, head of market analysis for Europe and Asia at global financial services firm Intl FCStone, said; "Regardless of its price on any date, gold is negatively correlated with
virtually all other asset classes and from a central banker's point of
view it is important in terms of adding international credibility within
the financial sector." (quotes from; "Gold: Gordon Brown's sale remains controversial 20 years on" go to: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48177767 ). Given the (apparent), degree of collusion between Britain's Govt. and the financial markets concerning the LIBOR rate is it not more likely that Brown was trying to ameliorate what was already becoming an untenable position for Britain on the international financial markets? Brown's sale of gold assets concluded in 2002 only six years before the Credit Crunch (go to: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/oct/08/creditcrunch.marketturmoil)
, however, Britain remained over-exposed and was therefore obliged to attempt to obfuscate her indebtedness as she could no longer support her currency.
What other explanation could their be for Britain's chancellor selling off the majority of the country's gold reserves at the arse end of a bear-market other than that the sales were a desperate dyke building exercise prior to a coming flood of debt that the chancellor hoped would not rise any higher although the deluge was threatening to completely inundate The City of London (as it did), and wash away the hubris of the Labour administration's neo-liberal belief in the so-called, "free-market"?
That our Chancellor was attempting to bribe a smoother path for the country on the international financial (upwardly-mobile) free-way seems clear the question is how aware was he that Britain's position was to rapidly become untenable? Whatever the answer the loss of our gold assets was clearly a contributory factor in the LIBOR scandal.
Tax Avoidance
"In recent years, the likes of Google, Amazon, Apple and Starbucks have
come under the spotlight for large-scale tax avoidance. This means
they’ve arranged their finances rather cleverly – albeit within the law –
to dodge tax obligations they would otherwise have to fulfil. Less tax
paid by these huge companies means less money to invest in our public
services – we all lose out!"..
"As
from the start of 2019, yes coincidentally just as the Brexit deadline
looms, all EU member states will have to apply the Anti Tax Avoidance
Directive (ATAD). It’s an EU law designed to tackle businesses shirking
their tax-paying responsibilities. The likes of Nigel Farage,
Jacob Rees-Mogg and a host of wealthy Brexit donors are unlikely to warm
to ATAD. It fact, it might be one of reasons why some Brexiteers are
hell-bent on pushing for the hardest Brexit possible*.
How will ATAD work?
The
directive seeks to tackle the thriving culture of corporate tax
avoidance. For example, consider the scenario in which an EU company
shifts profits to a related company in a low-tax country reducing the
tax paid on these profits: under ATAD, a company could still do this,
but the profits will be taxable at EU rates.
Another situation is
where EU businesses developing a new product move it to a low tax
country to avoid paying larger taxes on the profits once it is
developed. Thanks to ATAD this tactic won’t work as member states can
levy tax on the product before it is moved.
Even with ATAD, you
might argue companies – through their nifty lawyers – will find new
loopholes to avoid tax, right? The EU thought of that: ATAD provides a
general anti-abuse rule to counteract these regimes where national laws
have failed to address them."..
"As from the start of 2019, yes coincidentally just as the Brexit
deadline looms, all EU member states will have to apply the Anti Tax
Avoidance Directive (ATAD). It’s an EU law designed to tackle businesses
shirking their tax-paying responsibilities.
The likes of Nigel
Farage, Jacob Rees-Mogg and a host of wealthy Brexit donors are unlikely
to warm to ATAD. It fact, it might be one of reasons why some
Brexiteers are hell-bent on pushing for the hardest Brexit possible."..
Quote; "Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis explains how the debt crisis was a Greek tragedy
"He spoke with Marketplace Morning Report host David Brancaccio about how the story it tells is like a Greek or Shakespearean tragedy, and how Europe lacks a "moral union." Below is an edited transcript of their conversation.
David Brancaccio: What
do you think of what I would say is the conventional wisdom right now
regarding the eurozone? Things are generally going quite well over
there. We don't have to worry about those guys much anymore.
Yanis Varoufakis: A
regime's incapacity to reproduce itself is evidenced at moments when
the reality and the narrative about the reality becomes so huge. It's
very much like the early 1980s in the Soviet Union. The official version
of the actual truth was so desperate, you knew the system could not
reproduce itself. Europe now is in a situation where the numbers are
prospering and people are suffering, with more than three and a half
trillion of non-performing loans private and public. We've got a banking
system that needs about one and a half trillion dollars to be properly
capitalized and you have a political system which is absolutely buckled
under its own hubris.
Brancaccio: Now
the villains in your story are the forces that prioritized bondholders
and big banks over the Greek population. But you also blame Greeks for
getting into the mess in the first place. Are you seeing finally — it
doesn't sound like you are — structural changes in Greece that are
possibly going to strengthen the country for the future?
Varoufakis: Well,
we're responsible for the fact that we were the first domino to fall.
We were not responsible for the domino dynamic, which began in Greece
and then ended up rendering, for instance, in Italy. Insolvent, in a
sense. Structural reforms. What is a structural reform? Do you think
that taking a pensioner who is living on $300 a month to $200 counts as a
reform? This is confusing butchery with surgery." Go to: https://www.marketplace.org/2017/11/03/economy/greek-finance-minister-yanis-varoufakis for full article.
Deutsche Bank Suicides
Quote; "Calogero Gambino, 41, was found hanging by the neck from a stairway banister, reports the Wall Street Journal.
He was found by his wife, and pronounced dead at the scene, New York City officials told the paper.
Gambino, an associate general counsel and managing director, had worked for Deutsche Bank for 11 years.
He had worked closely for the bank on legal issues relating to the Libor scandal, after regulators started investigating the company in 2012.
He was also an associate at a private law firm and a regulatory enforcement lawyer between 1997 and 1999, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing Gambino's LinkedIn profile and conference biographies.
"Charlie
was a beloved and respected colleague who we will miss. Our thoughts
and sympathy are with his friends and family," Deutsche Bank said in a
statement.
The bank has been battling allegations that employees manipulated the
Libor benchmark interest rate as well as currency markets."Go to: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/second-deutsche-bank-executive-found-dead-suspected-suicide-1471744 For full article.
The Old Divides?
Quote; "The imbalances in the economic strength of euro area countries
make the continued function of the single currency area a primary
concern, said former US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan in an
interview with the World Gold Council.
He suggests the inequality is largely down to a
north/south geographical divide which means the division between the
northern and southern EU countries is too big. The bloc's more
prosperous nations such as Germany consistently fund the deficits of
those in the south, and that simply can't go on, said Greenspan. "The
European Central Bank (ECB) has greater problems than the Federal
Reserve. The asset side of the ECB’s balance sheet is larger than ever
before, having grown steadily since Mario Draghi said he would do
whatever it took to preserve the euro,” he said. “And I have grave concerns about the future of the euro itself… The eurozone is not working", added Greenspan." Go to: https://www.rt.com/business/377677-greenspan-eurozone-not-working/ For full article. Arafel comment: North and South? You might just as well say,;"beat the w*ps!" Surely returning the Grecians their marbles would be
an anti-imperialist act (for it is the imperialists who have championed
"The Greater Europe's" unconsidered eastern expansion -is it any wonder that; "The centre cannot hold"?-)? Please see; "Sophie's Choice (again)", go to: https://gkhales.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/sophies-choice-again-brexit.html
and the archive on; "A Place to Talk" especially all titles concerning "TheOmerta", go to: https://gkhales.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/a-place-to-talk.html
Quote; "The
Italian government decided to take on Bruxelles deciding for a budget
act that enlarges consistently the deficit/gdp ratio (2,4%). What is
your opinion about it? Could it be enough to revitalize the Italian
economy?
It
won’t be enough to revitalize the Italian economy. For that to happen
there has to be a major change at the level of the Eurozone, including a
large scale investment program and a complete revision of the Fiscal
Compact. What the government’s fiscal policy will do, besides igniting a
confrontation with Brussels, is slightly to boost aggregate demand and
(depending on how much of that deficit spending will be directed to poor
families) arrest the decline in real average incomes.
The
government is going to approve a budget act in which some of the
previous austerity measures are going to be deleted (e.g. the pension
reform), while a peculiar form of ‘basic income’ and a sort of flat-tax
will be introduced. Some weeks ago you said the Italian economy isn’t
supportable anymore. Are these the reforms the Italian economy needs in
order to change the situation?
The
Italian economy is sophisticated, export-oriented and potentially
strong. What I did say, and I am repeating here, is that the Italian
economy is not sustainable within the existing Eurozone architecture and
economic policies (i.e. the fiscal compact, the policy on bank
resolution and reductions in non-performing loans etc.). Turning now to
the policies of the government, let us first be frank about the facts:
There is no proposal for either a universal basic income or a flat tax.
These terms are used for propaganda purposes and have no basis in the
reality of what is being proposed. 5S is proposing a minimum guaranteed
income (that already exists in most northern European countries) while
the Lega is proposing not a flat tax but a major tax rate reduction for
those paying the higher rate and the abolition of a medium rate. Are
these ‘reforms’ what the Italian economy needs? While the minimum
guaranteed income is necessary for many poor families, and will help to
some extent boost the economy, the tax cuts for the rich will enhance
inequality without doing much to boost spending significantly. In short,
the new government’s policies will do some good, a little harm but not
have a substantial impact on Italy’s problems within a Eurozone whose
rules and policies are not allowing your country to breathe.
Among
Italian ministers many say their goal isn’t to undo the EU but to
change it from the inside: from Euro to bureaucracy, but also migrants
and sovereignty. Does your idea of change for the EU match with that of
our government?
No,
it does not. If the government wanted to help the EU change in a manner
that is beneficial to Italians as well as to other Europeans, it would
not be repeating Renzi’s ridiculous mistake. You will recall that Renzi
too demanded that Italy be allowed to bend the rules of the Fiscal
Compact without having the courage to call upon the EU Council, as the
Italian Prime Minister had a right and an obligation, to convene in
order to discuss a radical change of the Compact. This government is
adopting Renzi’s spoilt-child strategy: Without proposing different
rules, a new Compact, it is demanding that Italy is allowed to break the
current rules.
As
for migration and sovereignty, I am very much afraid that what Mr
Salvini is doing – by treating flesh and blood fellow humans floating on
the Mediterranean as bargaining chips against Brussels – is to promote
strategic misanthropy as a legitimate negotiating tactic within Europe.
This Italian government is, to put it bluntly, a clear and present
danger for European civilisation.
In
your latest book you write about what happened in Greece during the
debt crisis describing Greece as an ‘evil experiment’ set up by
Bruxelles. Do you see the same risk for Italy in the next years?
No,
thankfully. While there are similarities, the differences are larger.
Italy is too large to put into a troika-like program or to threaten with
expulsion from the eurozone (since such a threat would end the eurozone
itself).
Do you think that the Greek debt crisis is ended? Which lesson can we learn from it?
Quote; "Almost one third of the respondents in Bavaria say they want
independence from Germany, according to a new poll, which also showed
that the southern region has the strongest secessionist sentiment among
all German states.
Thirty-two percent of Bavarians agreed with the statement that their “state should be independent from Germany,” a Bild commissioned survey conducted by the YouGov market research company revealed.
According to Bavarian Radio, 18 percent of respondents strongly agreed with the statement while 14 percent “would rather agree” with it."..
"However, any German state’s desire for independence is likely futile
as the German constitution does not make provision for the right to
secession.
In December 2016, the German Constitutional Court said in its clarification concerning an issue of holding an independence referendum in any German state: “There is no place for the secessionist aspirations of certain states under the constitution.”
Any such move would “violate the constitutional order,” the court added." Go to: https://www.rt.com/news/396600-bavaria-independence-germany-poll/ for full article.
Euromerta?Victoria Marinova RIP
Quote; "A TV reporter who covered EU funds fraud cases was brutally
murdered and allegedly raped in northern Bulgaria. The horrific indent
is the third murder of a journalist in the EU amid concerns over press
freedom.
The body of Victoria
Marinova, 30, who hosted a show on local TVN, was found dead on a
popular jogging route near the Danube River in the city of Ruse on
Saturday. The city has never seen such a brutal crime, according to
experienced criminologists cited by local media.
The woman was raped and beaten,
and succumbed to head injuries and suffocation, according to local
media citing investigators. The victim’s cell phone, car keys, and some
clothes were not found with her, but the car reportedly was not stolen."..
"Some already speculate that the woman might have been the victim of her latest report. She hosted the recently-launched ‘Detector’ program, and its last episode covered the investigation by Bivol website, claiming to expose a corruption scheme inside EU-funded projects. Marinova earlier was an anchor of another program called ‘Podium’, which aired reports on various topics." Go to: https://www.rt.com/news/440683-investigative-journalist-murder-bulgaria/ for full article.
Update
Reports from Germany concerning the apprehending of a suspect state (paraphr); "there was no connection with her work" with regard to the crime, I doubt they have enough information to be certain about that as yet, quote:
"A Romanian man arrested over Ms Marinova’s murder on Tuesday has been released without charge, police said.
Mr Krasimirov was later detained in Germany at the request of Bulgarian authorities.
DNA evidence found on her body implicated him in her killing, said Bulgaria’s interior minister, Mladen Marinov.
He said the suspect, a 21-year-old resident of Ruse, had a previous criminal conviction for scrap metal theft.
Gaytandzhieva on Bio-Weapons Development in Recently Assimilated NATO-ised States
US diplomats involved in trafficking of human blood and pathogens for secret military program
Quote; "The US Embassy to Tbilisi transports
frozen human blood and pathogens as diplomatic cargo for a secret US
military program. Internal documents, implicating US diplomats in the
transportation of and experimenting on pathogens under diplomatic cover
were leaked to me by Georgian insiders. According to these documents,
Pentagon scientists have been deployed to the Republic of Georgia and
have been given diplomatic immunity to research deadly diseases and
biting insects at the Lugar Center – the Pentagon biolaboratory in
Georgia’s capital Tbilisi.
Nb. The BBC today (12/11/2018), attacked this story under their so-called #BeyondFakeNews investigation, the source they cited was a Russian administrator (clearly not impartial), I have tweeted them Dilyana's material (which shows leaked documentation from other sources), which cites the facts concerning the policy of the U.S State Dept. that by siting research centres outside of the areas currently covered by international legislation is avoiding having to comply with its strictures . I stick by my sources and will not pull my stories until I am convinced that they are factually incorrect, I doubt however that the BBC will be able to prove this (esp. given their continued use of sources like #Bellingcat and their adherence to the; "The White Helmets are an Impartial Humanitarian Aid Agency" narrative, quote; "James Le Mesurier, a British ex-mercenary, founded the White Helmets in 2013" go to: https://www.mintpressnews.com/james-le-mesurier-british-ex-military-mercenary-founded-white-helmets/230320/ ) Ed.
US Military Bio-labs in Ukraine, Production of Bio-weapons and “Disease Causing Agents”
Quote; "In 2015, American
alternative media outlet InfoWars accused the Pentagon of developing new
types of biological weapons in secret military laboratories in Ukraine.
The facilities were constructed under the terms of the bilateral
agreement signed between the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and the
Department of Defense in 2012.
Today thirteen American military bio-labs operate in Ukraine, The
International Mass Media Agency reports. They employ only American
specialists being entirely funded from the budget of the Department of
Defense. Local authorities have pledged not to interfere in their work.
These military labs are reported to be mainly involved in the study and
production of disease-causing agents of smallpox, anthrax and botulism.
The facilities are located in the following Ukrainian cities: Odessa,
Vinnytsia, Uzhgorod, Lviv (three), Kharkiv, Kyiv (four), Kherson,
Ternopil.
The network of military
bio-labs in Eastern Europe gives the hawks the opportunity to avoid the
Geneva Convention of 1972 on the prohibition of development, production
and stockpiling of biological and chemical weapons the US Senate
ratified in 1973. So we witness the blatant violation of international
laws" Go to: https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-military-bio-labs-in-ukraine-production-of-bio-weapons-and-disease-causing-agents/5605307 for full article.
Quote;"Napoleonic style imperialist republican
zeal is not the only reason why the E.U has become an untenable
structure, however, for it is still partially made up of a number of monarchies and princely states, first and foremost amongst these is of-course the U.K. Elizabeth
the Second might well express her lack of amusement with the outcome of
the Brexit referendum for she wishes to prevent the United Kingdom from
disbanding. It is in the monarchy's interest to maintain (at least the
illusion of -although even in the 21c the U.K monarchy's power is
certainly not all "smoke-and-mirrors"-), power and independence for
Scotland would be the beginning of a very slippery and steep slope for
the House of "Windsor" (it matters not that the SNP are in favour of
Scotland remaining in Europe as the Scots will -effectively-, be a
republic if they leave the union despite what the SNP leadership may
posture for the cameras), leading to many
voices in Wales, Northern Ireland (and even places like Cornwall),
being raised in favour of greater and greater devolution and
("eventual"), independence from the English Crown. In this sense the
European Union is an anachronism for it (still), represents an
attempt to resolve the internecine strife that sparked the great
European conflagration of wars one and two, as such the E.U is a
compromise between both families and political philosophies and now the compromise is "past-its-sell-by-date"! Perhaps we will
discover that E.F. Schumacher was absolutely right when he outlined the
principles by which he saw international consensus (and international
institutions), developing, that such must come from; individual
consciousness, supported by communities, expressed through societies and
"enshrined" in republics, for if humanity is to to come together successfully, despite its ethnic and cultural differences, each individual must be sovereign unto themselves and not enslaved to any other." Go to: https://www.arafel.co.uk/2020/11/yugoslavia-nato-brexit-europeanunion.html
I suppose that it should come as no surprise that in our increasingly polarised world where, "divide and rule" has come to such an ascendancy that the process has spread into the heart of the body politic of the "Old" (via our market-driven concerns), from the bi-polar dictatorship of the "New", we should find that neither the left or right-wings in this country are able to offer any real solutions to the Brexit conundrum. We may observe the true nature of the affliction in most (if not all), of our major institutions, the antagonisms are apparent everywhere; the Democratic Unionist Party vs Sinn Fein, the Brexiteers vs the Remainers, the Labour Party vs the Conservatives and the "Alternative Vote" vs First Past the Post being fine examples. Are we so blinkered and subservient as a people now that we cannot voice our desire for more choice? Orwell's "double-think" (Orwell defined double-think as; "To know and to not know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness
while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two
opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and
believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate
morality while laying claim to it," go to: https://study.com/academy/lesson/doublethink-in-1984-definition-examples.html) , requires that the populace are presented with simple either/or options, any "third way" (with apologies to the rest of the populace for Mr.Blair who has never either presented the populace with or personally represented anything of the sort, instead -arguably having learned the lesson of history-, he masquerades as the liberal option whilst filling his pockets from the wallets of the vested interests of the status quo), would be too disruptive and might (God-forbid), encourage the electorate to think for themselves, certainly such polarisation presents organisations such as Cambridge Analytica with the kind of low-hanging-fruit the harvesting of which in no wise justifies their personal wealth, status or reputations. The media organisations too have been at-each-others-throats with Russia Today and the West's mainstream hurling abuse back and forth like teenagers in a refectory to the terrible detriment of both the truth and decent journalism. It seems that one either believes that Putin and Trump are the pilloried innocents of a Nazified media or that they are the arch manipulators of an equally fascist agenda, the truth of-course exists somewhere inbetween. It should come as no surprise then that neither of the leaders of the two major political parties in Britain can themselves offer any sensible solutions which might help prevent the rapidly approaching catastrophe. The situation we now find ourselves in has been developing over many decades and has it roots in an equally polarised conception of what the E.U itself should represent, there has always been conflict between those (in the ascendancy at the moment), who want the E.U to be purely and simply a "businessman's club" and those who see the union primarily as a way to repair past hurts and ensure that war never again breaks out between the member states. Much of this apparent dichotomy has been determined, exploited and manipulated by the outside-force of a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation that is indeed fully conversant with the principle of divide and rule, for surely the notion of the creation of a solely European military force has never previously been accepted (NATO having now extended its influence to the very borders of Mother Russia may indeed consider that its military objectives have been achieved and is therefore now prepared to accept even Britain's possible membership -post Brexit-, of a joint European defense force -go to: https://www.politico.eu/article/emmanuel-macron-angela-merkel-endorses-eu-military-plan/-, if such does not necessitate NATO's own demobilization and disbandment*), by the transatlantic military/industrial elite since they discovered what a useful tool the E.U could become in the post Cold War world, quote; "the
"omerta" concerning discussion of the true nature of The Yugoslavian
conflict and the economic, social and political consequences of "The
Wider European Union" that is so rigidly adhered to and enforced by The
European Media applies to R.T and Al Jazeera as-well (whose collusion
indicates both the true extent of the omerta's influence and it's
source). Russia's behaviour
(and that of the westernised arab states), which is similar to that of
America with regard to foreign and domestic policy dictates that such
should be the case, for just as it is not in N.A.T.O's interest to
encourage stability in the middle east it is not in Putin's to
encourage the formation of an Eastern European economic and political
community (whatever did happen to ours?), Russia's embrace of monetarist
values and "laissez-faire" ensures that her foreign policy decisions
are taken solely in order to maximise short term profits for a small
group of people in just the same way as are those of the member states
of N.A.T.O.
The
degree of influence our de-sublimated politicians now have on The Market
deconstructs laissez-faire but adds both energy and mass to the fiscal
momentum generated by the acceptance of capitalism's "Manifest Destiny"
(which process can of-course only take place following embrace of the concept).".. .."In
our current economic and political climate the market has almost
generated sufficient power to silence dissent completely, untrammelled
capitalism ("monetarism"), has facilitated the penetration of Social-Darwinist surveillance into every aspect of our individual existences.
What are "they" looking for? Do you keep it under your bed with your
socialist sympathies or in the freezer with your liberal values?
Silence
of this kind is bred by egocentrism, guilt and denial, plenty of which
are on display when it comes to the constitutional issues which concern
(and boy don't they!), the "Now Actively Treacherous Oligarchy" ("The
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation" -clues in the title-). Talk about "above the titles" though!
For both in the microcosm of this argument and the macrocosm of
geo-politics The United Nations (supposedly the most powerful of all
international institutions), plays understudy to N.A.T.O's fading
matinee idol. The old studios and their retinue of ageing film stars,
directors and producers clearly feel that their audience will now
swallow more-or-less anything".."Hitler described "the masses" as "sheep-like" and it seems that the
Machiavellian "global" financial hegemony that manipulates institutions
such as N.A.T.O believe this to be true of the electorates which provide
the mandates for their facilitators. The lack of community
values that infests The Darwinist Society (an oxymoron that indicates
the degree of thanotic inactivity occurring within the body
politic), is endemic to cultures which have accepted that Capitalism's
destiny is indeed "manifest". It is this contagion to which America's
Aunt Sally has been over exposed, for not only does the U.K display the
symptoms of acute monetarism but these are aggravated by her underlying
chronic condition (something that even the most cursory examination of
the content of our mainstream political, economic and social media
confirms immediately). Take for instance a recent Daily Politics hosted
by Andrew Neil, when affairs of the realm regarding the succession or
similar issues were being discussed no mention was made what-so-ever of
the arbitrary exclusion of all but the most mild (and secretive), of
religious dissenters from the highest office in the land. This process
is duplicated by the refusal of The British Labour Party to address the
need for significant electoral reform andthe failure of the other major political parties to properly consider the consequences of Scottish independence.
For those of us who were
conscious during the process of the "Sophie's Choice" of a referendum
on electoral reform that the post Yugoslavian Conflict British
electorate were encouraged to accept as a true expression of their
democratic freedoms the notion that a transcendent N.A.T.O does notcontrol
the economic, political and social direction of our country is
ludicrous (is it not Mr.Ashdown?).".."whilst the anti-European
lobby postures pro-Europeans (and this is true throughout Europe and
beyond), simply refuse to accept the idea that "The European
Adventure" has been hijacked by imperialist brigands whose ridiculous
notion of a Wider Europe is as".."disturbing as was
Hitler's of Germania"..
.."Silence (quite apart from being "golden" -"Maam"-),
speaks volumes, in this case about the Mafiosi who are attempting to
achieve dominance over the global market place. The poisonous hypocrisy
of journalists, politicians, commentators and institutions with regard
to these "constitutional difficulties" is somehow however a worse betrayal
than is that of those who instigated or perpetuate them, those
neo-conservatives and free-market liberals who have always worn their
hearts on their sleeves seeming far less dangerous than those who claim
impartiality or to have "no interests" whilst colluding in these
conspiracies (or "conspiracy" the appearance of separateness being
purely illusory).
It has become far tooeasy in Britain
to simply enage in crass sectarianism whenever one wishes to demonise
dissent. The entropic slough that is the B.B.C has been indulging it's
thanotic predilections with regard to these "constitutional issues" for
years"..
""The Wider European
Implosion" is now inevitable, it is however (as our transatlantic
friends would have it), "time to wake up and smell the coffee" (before
there ain't no croissants left)!" From; ""The European "Omerta.""" Arafel, 5 February 2013 go to: http://www.arafel.co.uk/2013/02/the-european-ometa.html Post subject to edit. *Nb. Loose Cannon? Donald Trump has waded in to this debate recently by voicing his support for NATO and coming out against the formation of a, "European Army" Tweeting; "Emmanuel
Macron suggests building its own army to protect Europe against the
U.S., China and Russia. But it was Germany in World Wars One & Two -
How did that work out for France? They were starting to learn German in
Paris before the U.S. came along. Pay for NATO or not!" Unfortunately for both Macron and Merkel; "a house divided against itself cannot stand" and both will have problems forming a European force whilst the Wider Europe dominates the agenda. The Wider Europe is NATO's Europe, Trump is simply reasserting the U.S State Dept.'s interests in the region and demonstrating the true nature of the NATO-ised agenda. I am forced to admit to a certain amount of wishful thinking on my part concerning the withdrawal of NATO from the European Theatre (and "drama" it certainly is now-a-days if not actual soap-opera), but as I am not (and never have been), in favour of the expansion of the European Union I see no interest in continued adherence to the NATO-ised narrative, Macron and Merkel are, however, hoisted by their own petard with regard to this issue as both will find that if they don't embrace the notion of the formation of an Eastern European Union ("EEU"), the removal of the parasite that is NATO will prove very difficult indeed. Putin's involvement in the funding and promotion of separatist and nationalist groups is designed to weaken NATO's power-base but an EEU would undermine this strategy and lend credence to more moderate patriots (whose voices should be heard), within the Eastern European states who do not feel that it is necessary to resort to fascism in order to protect either their cultures or ethnic identities.
Quote; "The biting words represent an escalation of the attack Trump made on
Friday in which he said Macron had been “very insulting” by suggesting
Europe needed its own army to protect itself against the US, China and
Russia. Trump appeared to be conflating,
however, Macron’s desire to strengthen Europe’s military forces – an
ambition Trump himself has demanded as he seeks to reduce US
contributions to Nato – and comments made by the French president in a
radio interview about the threat of cyber-hacking from other countries
including the US. Guy Verhofstadt, the chief representative for the European parliament on Brexit, shot back at Trump.
“What Trump doesn’t seem to realize is that without French money, the
USA would not even exist as France financed the American revolution.
They even gave you the Statue of Liberty to celebrate this!” Verhofstadt
tweeted.
Trump has also been riled by Macron’s warning on Sunday, at a ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary
of the end of the first world war, about the thrust of global politics.
Macron, clearly with Trump partly in mind, denounced those who embrace
nationalism and put “our interests first”, adding that “our demons are
resurfacing”.
In a rally in Houston, Texas in the final days of this month’s US
midterm elections, Trump called himself a “nationalist”. One of his
mantras throughout his political rise has been “America first”.
On Tuesday morning, the president’s tweetstorm continued. He said
Macron was suffering low approval ratings while France suffers from
high unemployment, then added: “By the way, there is no country more
Nationalist than France…”
He finished the sequence by taunting, in capitals: "MAKE FRANCE GREAT AGAIN!" Go to: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/13/trump-macron-eu-army-german-second-world-war for full article.
“MAKE FRANCE GREAT AGAIN!” is a taunt Trump can make precisely because France is such a vacillating economic and political vassal state. Germany too is caught between the devil and the deep blue sea but it is a situation of her own making, when one dances with that devil one must wait for the piper to stop before doing so one's self and until Germany admits (esp. to herself), her deep involvement with both the U.S State Dept. and NATO (and esp. concerning the ignition of the Yugoslavian conflagration), she will always be caught in a Janusian position unable to act because the contradictions of her fostering of the Wider European Adventure and her wish that the E.U be independent militarily cancel each other out.
Quote; "The picture of the German Chancellor and her French counterpart in
Compiègne, jointly
marking the centennial of the Armistice that ended
World War One, has made headlines – and must have left a mark on Merkel.
Recalling the lessons of the First World War and the divisions that
led to the conflict, Merkel in Strasbourg endorsed the idea of a common
European defence concept, clearer than she has done ever before.
“We should work on a vision of one day establishing a real, true
European army,” Merkel told MEPs during her speech, drawing applause –
and booing – in the chamber.
Although Merkel left open how such a step could materialise in
practice, she backed the forming of a European rapid reaction force and a
common arms acquisition policy. According to a previous French
proposal, a small group of states could go forward and build up a
powerful intervention force for crisis operations, for example in
Africa.
Echoing Macron’s catch-phrase of a “European army”, she also made a
huge step towards Paris. Only last week, the French president argued for
more European strategic autonomy when urging that the EU should be able
“to protect itself with respect to China, Russia and even the United
States.”"..
"Although her position represents a trend of Europeans answering calls by
US and NATO to enhance their capabilities, Merkel clarified: “This is not an army against NATO, it can be a good complement to NATO.”* Go to: https://www.euractiv.com/section/future-eu/news/in-strasbourg-merkel-brings-european-army-one-step-further/
for full article. *Italics mine. This exemplifies the double-think Merkel has always indulged when it comes to Germany's position in Europe; "Ah chancellor it was ever thus but surely if one learns from history one does not repeat the mistakes of the past!"
"The IRA may turn away and mumble into their hands whenever the subject
of the deaths at The Mull of Kintyre are mentioned but that merely
exemplifies the maxim that "all terrorism is treason" ("yesterday's
terrorist" may indeed be "tomorrow's freedom fighter" but not without an
evolution in the consciousness of both State and Self). Is it
such a strange irony that the republican movement in Ireland should be
supported by U.S Democrats and the Loyalists by the Republican Party?
What this also means is that the Labour Party perforce must perpetuate
(and even proselytise for -quietly but whilst never doing "the other"-),
the First Past the Post electoral system (so one can't blame it all on Mr.Patrick Ashdown). Clearly they do this because they feel that they must enforce the Balmoralisation of the British public in order to maintain (even the possibility now of), power, whythey
think this is the case is interesting for they obviously have no faith
in the British public to come to similar conclusions concerning their
own welfare on a significant enough basis to enable the Labour Party to
come to power in England under a proportionately representative
electoral system. "One" could perhaps ignore this (not "correctly" but at least such an oversight might at least be possible), if such a posture did not also have rather more obvious deleterious consequences. David Cameron perpetrated on the British people one of the nastiest and
cheapest bits of political slight-of-hand we've seen in these fair
Islands for a while, something he could not have attempted without the
support of? The Liberals, who (conveniently stuffing 200 years of
"Liberalism" down the plug-hole), abandoned their principles to shake
the hand of every neo-con nonentity in the Tory Party, their
"respect" for our electoral and political system even extending to The
House of Lords ("I had no idea so many Liberals were Papists
Maam!"), where they are being encouraged and enabled (and funded too?
Not officially of-course), to remove any lingering vestiges of
democratic process from the patient."..
""Maam with these European turds you are spoiling us!" Undoubtedly cher cousin...and she's been doing it for a while now..but do you know the real reason both "we" and her majesty have been clinging on so long? We don't want to end up like you....! It's true for the British people are well aware that if we are to salvage anything from the wreck of the anachronism("whose?"),
it will be 60 years of work trying to maintain the welfare of her
people, for if ;"by their works shall ye know them" the great experiment
that is American Independence has resulted only in social
unrest, inequality and death. "Phishing" in the European pond by the U.S State Dept. does highlight
the problem though for it has thrown into sharp relief the 21st
century's antagonisms between the Wider Europe and the
self-determination of its peoples and it is these obvious contradictions
which identify the effects of the British Labour Party's reliance on
the creaking constitution of the realm. The fact is that the British
Labour Movement does not now (neither ever has been able to), properly
represent the electorate's interest's in Europe, the truth is that they
fear European democracy for her eyes are led straight to the
dichotomy between Labourite power and self-governance. Unfortunately
Mr.Corbyn (who I otherwise support wholeheartedly in much of his
campaigning), suffers from a touch of the Jehovah Complex to
which Tony Blair succumbed so successfully (and many such well-intended
social reformers do), that engenders in the sufferer a penchant for
self-martyrdom far more painful to the witness than the patient, as Yoda
might say; "realise that they are not the ones that suffer they must!"" From; "A Place to Talk" Arafel, 25 December 2016, go to: http://www.arafel.co.uk/2016/12/a-place-to-talk.html
(subject to edit)
It is difficult to see-the-wood-for-the-trees especially through the tangled web of U.S and European politics (both foreign and domestic), now-a-days which is why I must amend my comments concerning David Cameron's own particular contribution to the debacle from the same post (quote;"Cameron's terrible blunder over Europe exemplifies same. It seems clear
that the vested interests in Britain and America thought it was worth
gambling on the predilections of the European electorate but as with
America's interventions elsewhere our global-flatfoot made a rookie's
mistake, "never bet on money over land" or "the dollar over blood"!"), for it seems that the balance might have been TTIP-ed by the increasing intransigence (at least as far as the U.S is concerned), shown by most of (esp. mainland), Europe by its policy of the non-acceptance of less regulated produce such as genetically modified foods and chemically and/or pharmaceutically "enhanced" produce from America finding their way on to the shelves, such opposition to the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership may well have been the issue that weighted the scales in favour of electoral intervention by the Trump/Farage/Mercer/Johnson/Putin alliance and the machinations of the "home-grown" talents of Cambridge Analytica.
These people simply exploited an already unstable Europe though as the Wider European Adventure had already stretched the tolerance of both the former E.U's member states' domestic populations and economies further than either was comfortably able to tolerate" (also see; ""Sophie's Choice" -again-. #Brexit #EUReferendum #VoteYes #VoteNo Montage" go to: http://www.arafel.co.uk/2016/06/sophies-choice-again-brexit.html Quote; "....
Why should not the Poles (who "don't
like" the Germans and consistently produce the lowest turn out of any E.U
nation in European elections), the Western Ukrainians (bye bye Crimea!), and
the other recently assimilated Eastern European States attend to their own affairs? Such would surely be both socially and financially better for all of
us.
Take the debacle over the Shengen agreement. Really Mr.Major? Your country's
citizens got nothing out of that, is Europe only for the businessmen then? It
seems so (quote; "The free movement of persons was a core part of the
original Treaty of Rome" go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Agreement
). One would think that it would be the job of our country's
"liberal-left" to point out the "diminishment of persons"
that not becoming signatories to the Shengen Agreement represented but noooo as
so often where European politics is concerned there was a terrible silence in
the "oppositional barn"").
So how to resolve the impasse? The simply expedient of a third choice (as should also have been presented to the British people with regard to our recent referendum on electoral reform by including the option of proportional representation on the ballot papers), whereby Britain would choose not to rejoin unless a process that would reform the current structure by fostering the creation of an Eastern European Union (consequently addressing the issues of the wider union and the influence of NATO), was entered into by all member states, might well give a truer representation of the electorate's wishes and concerns and encourage real debate on the nature of the union that people wish to see, such would surely better serve the interests of democracy.
Quote; "Brexit bankroller Arron Banks’s close relationship with the
controversial data firm Cambridge Analytica – and the key role played by
former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon in the early days of Banks’s
Brexit campaign – have been laid bare in explosive new emails obtained
by openDemocracy.
Banks, who is currently under investigation by the National Crime Agency over the sources of his £8.4m Brexit donation, told parliament in June that he had “initial discussions” with the controversial data firm Cambridge Analytica but “did not take up their services”.
Commenting
on openDemocracy's revelations, Damian Collins, chair of the UK
parliament's inquiry into fake news, said: "This is more evidence that
Arron Banks misled the select committee when he gave evidence to
parliament.
"Here we can glimpse how these secret connections
were being planned and discussed; the incubation of a political virus
involving key people, data, money and consultancies like Cambridge
Analytica," Collins added.
Emails and documents obtained by openDemocracy show that:
-
Far-right guru Steve Bannon, Trump’s former campaign chief, personally
introduced Cambridge Analytica to Banks’s Brexit campaign, which is now
under criminal investigation.
-
Banks asked Cambridge Analytica “to come up with a strategy” for his
Leave.EU campaign to raise funds in the United States months before the
Brexit vote. Donations from overseas are not permitted under British
law.
-
Cambridge Analytica was given access to personal information about
British voters from Banks’s Leave.EU campaign, including access to
social media accounts and call centre data. Banks has previously claimed
to parliament that "the only data that was ever sent to Cambridge
Analytica was from UKIP”.
- Cambridge
Analytica discussed working with Bank’s Eldon Insurance company.
Leave.EU had previously said “we never involved the insurance company
and Cambridge Analytica ever.”
The revelations
come as Banks is poised to play a key role in pushing for a hard
Brexit. On Twitter, Banks’s Leave.EU campaign has declared “May must go!” and has encouraged supporters to join the Conservatives to force the prime minister out of office.
A
number of the emails obtained by openDemocracy are expected to be
published as evidence by parliament's inquiry into fake news this coming
week. Damian Collins added:
"Why was (Banks) seeking support
from Cambridge Analytica with fundraising in America if all the money
for Leave.EU came from his own resources? These emails should form part
of the NCA investigation into Arron Banks’s finances.
"The emails
also show that contact between key Trump aides like Steve Bannon, and
men like Arron Banks, was not just passing, but that they were working
together through and involving common businesses, like Cambridge
Analytica."
Dr Emma L Briant, who has submitted similar evidence
to the parliamentary committee, said: "Leave.EU funder Arron Banks
denies claims that he may have received Russian money for Brexit. This
new evidence shows that Banks was seeking foreign funding for Brexit
from the very beginning."
"The emails also reveal new
evidence of what constituted Banks’s ‘two stage’ plans for LeaveEU
involving Cambridge Analytica. If he did not need their services, why
did he go to them? The Electoral Commission must re-open their
investigation into Leave.EU, as this evidence reignites questions of
whether undeclared services were part of the campaign."
Cambridge Analytica, which initially came to prominence for its role in the 2016 Trump campaign, was wound up after the Observer newspaper revealed that it had harvested data on tens of millions of Facebook users and engaged in ‘black ops’ political campaigns around the world.
The
National Crime Agency announced that it was investigating Banks earlier
this month after the UK elections watchdog reported concerns that the
£8.4m Banks spent on the Brexit campaign – the biggest single donation
in British political history – came from impermissible sources outside
the UK. Banks has denied this.
