Friday 28 June 2024
Welcome Home!
The late return of Julian Assange, to his Australian home, was fourteen long years overdue!
It comes as no surprise that the US featured shamefully throughout that time. Down the pecking order, it reflects woefully, upon any pretence at democratic autonomy, also, that the UK did not fare better. That other Western nations defaulted, too readily, to a position of (US) subservience should long since have been raising concerns amongst wider swathes of, especially, the EU than has been, and continues to be, the case.
Breaking down the issue, picking over the finer details, there are organisations who should truly hang their heads in shame! Chief amongst these would be that self-declared bastion of 'free speech,' the Guardian, who were formerly delighted to be able to work in collaboration with Assange and Wikileaks, before spinning about to thoroughly betray the man. During much of Assange's 'illegal' incarceration, having fully relinquished any moral stance, the Guardian often appeared to be bumbling about, uncertain whether the paper should be openly hostile, self-satisfactorily superior, or else to most often pretend that Assange's case was not worthy of its pages. Now that Assange is free maybe the paper will again be looking to realign? The BBC, with diligent and selective use of its new 'fact check' baby- and its regular pool of on-hand 'experts' and spokespeople- has too often chosen to fall neatly into compliance. In the Land of the Editor the investigative journalist becomes effectively defunct.
Alan Rusbridger becomes Katharine Viner and the deck is quietly (and thoroughly) shuffled!
We should expect no MSM 'observations' into how perfectly Julian's long-overdue release ties in with Israel's ongoing Genocide. For anyone who has viewed the infamous helicopter footage parallels with Israel's slaughter of the innocent must be plain to see. But bewilderingly very seldom, these days, do the client journalists seem 'able,' or prepared, to connect the dots!
In 2010, shocking- although not as surprising as portrayed- images of civilians, including two Reuters journalists, being routinely assassinated by a US Military helicopter was made available to the general public. Further and repeated details, within the thousands of documents leaked, strongly contests that such US slaughter, although not its reportage, has become widespread. The assassins' language seemed to imply that the whole cycle was not much more than some sort of sick game to the killers.
"Light 'em up!"
"Keep shoot'n', keep shoot'n'!"
"All right, hahaha, I hit 'em!"
"Oh yeah, look at those dead bastards!"
"Nice."
"Oh yeah, look at that! Right through the windshield! Haha!"
Ripe from the mouths of its troops, I give you the values of the Leaders of the Free World.'
Why is it, do we suppose, that some nations and their citizens are to be adjudged so 'inferior' to others? With so much news and so very many news images so freely available to so many, via so many outlets, for how much longer will it still be possible for MSM to continue to present the world we inhabit so very differently to its reality?
Whilst Assange is being illegally incarcerated, psychologically deprived and tortured, who gets to determine which is the true crime and who the criminal? What constitutes torture and who gets to deploy its use and to which ends? Who decides what is to be regarded as wholly repugnant and who is guarding whom against its wider enactment?
Again!
Why are some citizens and some nations to be regarded as 'inferior' to others? Expendable?
We should, instead, turn it about to sample the globe through the other end of that adjudicating telescope. MSM have repeatedly demonstrated that the task is neither within their remit, nor their current capabilities.
As did many others, my family tracked Julian Assange's progress- from Belmarsh, via Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, onward and onto Canberra's runway (0737 local time, 27th June 2024). The plea bargain had been struck yet one of the sides has long since depleted any semblance of honour that may once, many years past, have existed. Hence, the thousands who waited with bated breaths.
The cost to Julian Assange's family is US$520,000. Fortunately, those who argued Assange's innocence, demonstrated against his extradition and closely followed his captivity and psychological torture, raised the sum within hours.
The tiny island of Saipan is but one of over 800 US overseas military bases, many situated in countries that do not wish to host them, placs such as Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Over 80 other countries have thus been subjugated to the construct of a hidden US Empire. 'How to Hide an Empire,' by Daniel Immerwahr makes quite the read! Leader of the 'Free World,' America would have us believe that China (once again) is the rising threat to global peace and yet- sites may vary- its overseas bases barely number into single figures- Djibouti? Very much the focus of Western MSM, Putin's Russia, with clear and undoubted ambitions for, at the least, major regions of Ukraine, fares little better than does China. 'Overseas airbase' invariably implies 'overseas military airbase.' Further, 'overseas military airbases' are often, necessarily by nature and at least in part, covert, that is to say, they are not widely advertised as such.
There are several nations who have not, in their dealings with the Middle East, covered themselves in glory. But, whether we judge the USA via its Middle Eastern manipulation, its Central American aggression or even its hawkish dealings with its Western, so termed, 'allies,' it is one nation that stands head and shoulders above all others when it comes to invoking global instability!
So, the question: Why is it that some nations have been adjudged less worthy than others? And, a highly credible answer: Because they have, and continue to, show themselves to be so! They have shown themselves to be, in their international exploits, thoroughly repugnant!
Welcome home Julian Assange! It's wonderful to see a bit of positive global news, even if many of those client journalists have tried to pretend the headline is a very different one.
Tuesday 11 June 2024
Theatre of Death
In a precision military operation four Palestinian child-hostages have been liberated from IDF cells, in the process of which two-hundred and seventy-four Israelis were killed. Multiple IDF terrorists were eliminated during the exercise. How would the UK's editorial gatekeepers have this hypothetical information relayed to a wider public?
What might be the 'message'- which with absolute certainty would be broadcast via the BBC- delivered by IDF Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari?
The instance never happened. Terrorised Palestinians never possessed the US weaponry with which to undertake such an operation, nor the military might, nor adequate US or UK drone footage, nor military supremacy over Israeli territory. Quite the reverse.
But, if such an incident had transpired, what would the wider population learn of the 'event' via its news media? What would the day's headlines be? US President Joe Biden would be dusted down and wheeled to the podium. What would be his message for Western ears?
Safe to assume, the evening news's imagery would not revolve around the smiling faces of the rescued children, in the grateful arms of their loving families. Reasonable to expect references to the likely unnamed 'four children' to frequently be prefixed by, 'merely,' 'just,' 'as few as,' 'only' or similarly diminutive adverbs or adverbial phrases. Little doubt that the imagery would be about as graphic as deemed editorially 'acceptable.' Each headlining repeat might well be preceded by a warning about the exceptionally graphic nature of the story. The imagery would be pushing at the boundaries of what currently passes for respectability. Licence to once again spread the disproven myth of beheaded babies would reignite.
The headline figure would far more likely be that of '274 Israeli victims.' Perhaps, the majority of news updates might not get so far as to even mention 'rescued children,' electing instead to concentrate upon the death toll and the unduly graphic imagery. Should 'rescued child-hostages' ever be permitted to squeak in the term 'hostages' will have been gleaned, the subject of their 'torture' would not be broached.
Britain's, and the US's ties with the State of Israel would benefit considerably! In a manner out of all proportion to the preceding eight month's Genocidal onslaught. Disproportionate segments of the day's news would be given over to the spokespeople of Israeli Government and the IDF. Daniel Hagari, or another such militia-man, would be afforded significant spotlight, under which to peddle the Israeli myth of, 'the most moral military on the planet.' The term 'Anti-semitism' would once again find itself widely sprayed upon the doubters, the non-lobby journalists, the marchers. Ministerial visits and photo-opportunities would ensue. Flights back and forth from the UK Cypriot base of Akrotiri would multiply. The desire to keep Akrotiri out of MSM headlines would be relaxed, maybe celebrated.
Parliamentary calls to ban Pro-Palestinian and Anti-Genocide marches would intensify! Demands that the language and certain phrases deployed amongst the marchers be legislated against would multiply. British Police Forces would be strongly urged to clamp down upon and further restrict events. Lord Walney, Lord Mann and Margaret Hodge would be booked to appear on TV and radio with increased frequency. Sir Keir Rodney Starmer- who's father was a tool-maker- might, once again, get away with stating that 'cutting off food, water, electricity was acceptable. ** Front bench droids would once again have their bigotry highlighted, unleashed!
Israel 'defending itself' would again be given the green light. Western arms would again flow with open endorsement. The death-toll would again accelerate, be more openly egged (cheered) on in both Houses, the Commons and the Lords.
* But, this did not happen! Instead two-hundred and seventy-four slaughtered Palestinians were routinely displaced by the four rescued Israeli hostages. Viewers were not shown footage of some of the in excess of 700 Israeli casualties being rushed into well-appointed Israeli hospitals, into the care of fully staffed and spotlessly clean wards and theatres, which did not anyway happen. Instead, in the absence of news camera-team footage- denied access by the IDF- imagery was substituted by phone images of sagging ceilings, shattered walls, smashed and trampled equipment, exhausted surgical teams operating upon the victims, ever wary of the next Israeli missile strike, bloodied child victims spread across the floors! David Lammy dons blinkers, once again unrestained!
News of two-hundred and seventy-four, and counting, Palestinian murders will swiftly be usurped with news of the General Election. Your chance to participate in the country's democracy. Which of two captured parties will prove victorious?
The 'game' of Israeli Genocide continues unchecked.
* The Guardian's Kenneth Roth questions the means by which the latest bout of Israeli slaughter was brought about.
** Novara's Polly Smythe has done some digging with regards to Labour's values under Sir Keir Starmer's new look party.
Monday 3 June 2024
Biden dips a toe into Apartheid.
It has been said that the ICC was created 'to deal with African tin-pot dictators and those like Putin, never to bite the hand that created it.' I paraphrase. So, when the Courts finally ruled that arrest warrants are being sought for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant the rest-of-the-world, behind time, sat up and rubbed at its rheumy eyes. Why, the ICC cannot be there to judge also the Exceptionalist West! The UK Commons was soon blown full of indignation; characters, parodies, who would sit better with Trump's Republicans... or too many of Biden's Democrats. How very dare they!
While deaths pile high!
Hope as it might the US Nation is scarce able to disguise that 'dipped toe.' So instead, its dusty old figurehead defaults to gaslighting, full-blown apartheid... elsewhere, which sort of makes the nation also culpable. Has the ol' dodder missed his footing upon the bank and fully immersed himself? Colonialists, by nature, are best practised at exploiting international borders; so the US has form.
And deaths pile ever higher!
Apartheid was and is dependant upon the premise of racial 'superiority' and segregation. The former nation of South Africa honed and embedded an openly extreme model, reliant, then, upon Western allies in order to operate and to survive. Boldest amongst apartheid's friends was the nation of Israel. When international pressure prevailed and 'friends' fell away, emboldening the country's repressed majority, South African Apartheid's days became numbered. The globe witnessed its eventual demise in the early 1990s. Apartheid's former allies set about realignment and the pretence that they'd never actually endorsed and befriended the racism in the first place, flags were duly waved! Still the system left a stain upon the surface of the planet, or rather the stain, which had always been there, 'for a while' hardened about the African nation. Today the stain has wandered further afield- much like damage from a long-neglected leak, its more widespread contouring tidal marks may not always be immediately evident. But there are also sites of sustained damage, darkening borders, perhaps rust and other decay, perhaps jagged breaks, perhaps festering holes where societal structure has begun to fracture!
Nowhere is that societal fracture more evident than within the rogue state of Israel and being imposed upon the Palestinian Occupied Nation. Much as with former Apartheid South Africa, Israel is heavily dependent upon Western 'allies,' chief amongst these being the good ol' US of A. Yet, the globe is no longer that of the 1990s, it has become far more international; far more reliant upon sales pitch.
And deaths pile ever higher!
The US 'functions' hierarchically, even more so than does the UK: education, health, housing meted out accordingly; whether it be via 'ethnicity,' gender, 'school,' employment, wealth or that curiously amorphous creature, status. Yet Apartheid wields a particularly high (or low) bar! So instead, there substitutes an unspoken premium, a power premium!
Still the deaths pile ever higher!
When the momentous ICC announcement was delivered those lining up to rebuff and to pedal the Apartheid State's lie showed discouragingly bountiful! Yet, internationally respected giants such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B'Tselem, United Nations, African National Congress, Yesh Din, and International Federation for Human Rights, had long since investigated and adjudged Israel to have crossed the Apartheid threshold. Two of those listed operate as Israeli Human Rights organisations, based within Israel's current borders. Two opposing narratives battle for supremacy, one true, one false and enabling Genocide!
Individuals endowed with a power premium slip freely through society, relatively unhindered, whilst the majority citizenship must observe from afar, oft not even be permitted to peek behind the screens, likely blissfully unaware of the widening inequality. When Sunak's time is up he will likely demonstrate his true allegiance to nation, deploying his wealth premium in order to swiftly morph from UK resident to that of US. Much as the more extreme politics of Natalie Cecelia Elphic (OBE) are no barrier to her seamless 'transition' and assimilation within Sir Keir Rodney Starmer's (KCB KC) 'Labour Party.' Much as Luke Akehurst of Labour's NEC may decide to parachute himself into the safe seat of North Durham, where he is currently unknown. Not so much serving democracy as trampling all over and discarding it! Much as David Mencer's transition to Israeli spokesperson sees him so easily jettisoning that same Labour Party. Such individuals pseudo represent us, they pseudo speak upon our behalf, flirting as democrats as and when opportunity best self-serves. Lest we should doubt their integrity the likes of John Zak Woodcock, Baron Walney, crossbench peer and Government’s Independent Adviser on Political Violence and Disruption, is appointed to ensure that only the 'correct' slant of political discourse prevails. Alongside Labour's Margaret Hodge, the former Chair of Labour Friends of Israel, funded by that same nation, last managed to squeak a visit there in January 2024. The lobby group has deeply infiltrated the 'democratic' British Labour Party yet remains most cagey about from whence the funding comes.
Whilst the deaths continued to pile ever higher!
They may not always present well- honesty catches and burns in their throats- yet their premium sees them slip from role to role. Formerly 'committed' Labour man and Head of Labour friends of Israel, glides across continents, a new platform awaits. A parody of even himself, Mencer presents to the globe as the worst kind of apologist. One moment the man 'embraces' British Labour the next it is full-blown Israeli Apartheid. He makes entirely the same noises as he always has.
Whilst Palestinian deaths pile ever higher!
Mencer has adopted the role of useful idiot across continents. His petulant narration runs counter purpose. Even so he has played but a tiny part in the West's gradual conversion. So when University Campuses burst forth with peace encampments, much like spring flowers- Camps for Palestine blossoming across the West.- those who steer the West's MSM are not best pleased. Israeli, British and US bombs must continue to boost the infant death-tolls, the Zionists froth.
When masked mobs attacked the UCLA Peace Camp US Police stepped back and left the Zionists and other thugs to it for two hours before belatedly intervening. The attack, far in excess of any non-violent student actions, featured sticks and bats, and fireworks deployed as small munitions. Why, it was almost as if orders had been received prior to the first blow. US Police, notoriously hands on, simply stood back to observe, not quite yet reflecting the far more extreme IDF, standing back and permitting Israeli Colonists to attack and destroy long overdue supplies entering Gaza. Weaponising and enabling famine and disease!
Behind the curve, the link is to the BBC site. It has inexplicably taken months and tens of thousands of innocent deaths for the Corporation to finally start to dig into the live-streamed Genocide! This is the same BBC that so swiftly and obediently fell into line with '40 beheaded babies,' then, opted for silence over any form of retraction and correction, when it transpired, once and once again, that the IDF were lying.
Whilst Infant deaths pile ever higher!
When the ICC and ICJ were founded the UK assisted in laying the first stones, and yet... and yet... and yet... It seems evident that, at their infancy, the nation could not have anticipated that the Courts should ever be turned against one of the founding fathers. As colonialists, fast coming to recognise the global worth of legacy, both the ICJ and ICC were initially laid as means to not only order the globe but also, more covertly, as a means to organise and to discipline those other nations.
It had mattered not that Balfour's gift of a homeland had been fully occupied for centuries. The colonial nation's role was surely to order and to organise the lesser nations. Read my rules and know that the world is now better by my decree! But, for heaven's sake, do not think to interpret and deploy those same rules in any wider context! Do not compel the globe's great bully recourse to the humiliation of a full-blown hissy fit!
"Were there not an Israel, the US would have to invent an Israel to protect our interests in the region," a younger Biden once boasted! He might well have added, 'and continue to arm it to the teeth!' And, 'to seek to always draw a veil over the worst of its transgressions!' Then, 'to establish a hierarchy of racism!' Then, 'to establish a hierarchy of life-worthiness!' 'To the tune of countless thousands of innocents, children, infants!' 'Them and us!' Wrong-footed, eye off the ball, Biden thought to dip a toe, stumbled and grabbed at the nearest idiot. A NATO chain reaction ensued!
Whilst Infant deaths continue to pile!
It transpires that Israel has been hacking and threatening the ICC, ICJ and its members for nearly a decade. Little surprise that Israel is no friend to the ICC and ICJ. Thus far the US and UK have increasingly shown themselves stanchly unprepared to seek the moral higher ground, where toes are more easily kept dry.
If rulings from the International Courts are not respected and safeguarded at this juncture how will their authority serve when the welly is on the other foot?
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