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Another look at “that” Guardian article

Our occasional contributor VT responds to the already infamous Guardian article Russia spread fake news via Twitter bots after Salisbury poisoning – analysis After 37 hours this article remains uncorrected, despite numerous notifications of its libellous misrepresentation. If anyone would like to contact the Guardian and ask for a correction you can email Paul Chadwick, Guardian Readers’ Editor at [email protected]

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Guardian political editor Heather Stewart has outdone herself with this real little masterpiece of fake news, thereby destroying any pretension she might have had to be a reputable journalist.
In short, in this crudely faked anti-Russian disinformation piece, the Guardian has published as pseudo-fact, without any doubt or criticism, a UK regime propaganda handout alleging that Russian bots are “unleashing disinformation” in the wake of the Salisbury poisoning. Most of the article just regurgitates the blather of freshly-minted war criminal Theresa May and anonymous UK regime officials; the evidential basis of the article, such as it is, is simply this:

One bot, @Ian56789, was sending 100 posts a day during a 12-day period from 7 April, and reached 23 million users, before the account was suspended. It focused on claims that the chemical weapons attack on Douma had been falsified, using the hashtag #falseflag. Another, @Partisangirl, reached 61 million users with 2,300 posts over the same 12-day period.

Obviously, the implicit characterisation of any doubt about the supposed Douma chemical attack as “disinformation” is, to say the least, unproven. But the bigger problem is that the supposed Russian bots … aren’t.
One supposed bot – @ian56789 – did indeed have his Twitter account suspended based on this slander and he is pretty upset about it, although he has now had it reinstated.
The other one, @partisangirl, is actually the very well known Syrian blogger, commentator and analyst Maram Susli. She’s not really a bot either, of course.
Nor is either of these supposed bots based in Russia.
It’s ironic that an article purporting to denounce Russian “fake news” and “disinformation” is itself blatantly faked disinformation on behalf of the perfidious UK regime, but such are the times we live in. There is nothing surprising here: this is just what we should expect to find in the main stream of the media sewer nowadays.
But let’s take a closer look at this particular fake news item to see what it can tell us about the quality of the falsehood on sale at the Guardian propaganda outlet and to gaze for a moment, with pity as well as contempt, on the pathetic hacks slaving away there, day after well-paid day, to supply the ideological pabulum needed to disinform and prejudice the public.
The first point to note is the grotesque obsequiousness and imbecilic credulity of the article. It simply repeats everything the UK regime says uncritically, as if UK official mouthpieces are never, ever, mistaken or mendacious. So-called journalism like this is justly referred to as stenography for the regime. “The need for independent journalism has never been greater,” says the Guardian. Well, yes… but that’s not the Guardian itself at all.
Verdict: infantile naïveté, chauvinism and gross servility.
Secondly, note the crassly Russo-phobic tone of the piece. A clear intent to arouse dislike and fear against Russia unmistakeably underlies the bot-panic fakery. That vicious animus is not at all innocent, especially since mass hatred against another nation, when successfully whipped up, always promotes war, death and destruction.
Verdict: bigoted, immoral hatemongering.
Thirdly, note that the supposed “Russian-based bots” are actually real – and non-Russian – human beings. Ms Susli, in particular, is famous and should be familiar to anyone who has followed the Syria crisis. But Heather Stewart’s evident ignorance provides her no excuse in any case, because even basic fact checking, if she had bothered to do any, would have disclosed that these individuals were neither robots nor based in Russia.
Verdict: utter journalistic incompetence.
Fourthly, consider what it means when dissenting voices are slandered, misrepresented and delegitimised, as this horrible piece of work does. During times of official war hysteria, dissent is at its most precious and should be promoted by all genuinely critical, independent media. Instead the Guardian has willingly become part of the regime’s repressive apparatus.
Verdict: creepy neo-McCarthyism.
Finally, once the article fell apart and was exposed as fakery, the Guardian did nothing about it. It’s sill there on the site, still misleading readers, without any correction (at the time of writing). Heather Stewart herself made the risible excuseit’s not my analysis – as the piece makes clear – it’s the government’s”.
So, even when caught out promoting a lie, the Guardian has persisted with it instead of retracting it.
Verdict: shameless dishonesty.
Is it false memory that prompts me to hanker for the good old days at the Guardian – when the warmongering lies were competently manufactured, slickly packaged and often appeared deceitfully credible?
Surely we can expect a better standard of disinformative propaganda from the flagship organ of British imperialist liberalism? Because otherwise even the imperial regimes and their individual oligarchs will be disinclined to shake their money trees to cover the bloated deficit of an organ whose journalistic bankruptcy is approaching even faster than its financial one.

If anyone would like to contact the Guardian and ask for a correction you can email Paul Chadwick, Guardian Readers’ Editor at [email protected]. Alternatively you can contact Heather Stewart at @guardianheather. Please be polite and constructive

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Filed under: latest, On Guardian, Skripal case
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John Marks
John Marks
Apr 29, 2018 12:24 PM

Katharine Viner is the new Josef Goebbels.
She also seems proud of her “achievement” to have utterly destroyed the Guardian.

Captain Kemlo
Captain Kemlo
May 3, 2018 5:42 PM
Reply to  John Marks

You have to remember that one her previous ‘journalistic’ highs was as features editor at Cosmopolitan. As long as she can ‘swish her arse’ around women’s issues, her job is done.
And a damn poor job she makes of it all.

Joginder Singh Foley (@JSinghF)
Joginder Singh Foley (@JSinghF)
Jul 24, 2018 11:16 PM
Reply to  John Marks

Al-Guardian stated to die years ago for me and died when Al-guardian’s censorbots put my twitter login on pre-mod and banned me completely from my “Komment Macht Frei” account neither times did i swear or was abusive, At Al-Guardian on komment macht frei just having a different opinion or saying there is two sides to an argument and pointing out to Al-Guardian that Al-Guardian’s point of view may not always be the correct one.

Yr Hen Gof
Yr Hen Gof
Apr 25, 2018 6:36 PM

On the few Guardian threads open for comment, any criticism of Freeman or Freedland, most particularly if that reproval refers to their attacks on Labour or Jeremy Corbyn will get your post removed by the moderators.
The Guardian is fully on message and will truck no one interfering in that.
Frankly, their demise can’t come soon enough, they won’t be missed.

Google Talpiot Program
Google Talpiot Program
Apr 25, 2018 7:20 PM
Reply to  Yr Hen Gof

Their demise won’t be soon sadly. They’ve run at a loss extensively and will continued to be propped up.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Apr 26, 2018 11:58 AM
Reply to  Yr Hen Gof

The Zionist attacks on Labour and Corbyn using utterly fraudulent accusations of ‘antisemitism’, with treacherous Blairite Sabbat Goy stooges to the fore, is plainly central to the Zionist drive to outlaw and criminalise ALL criticism of Israel, or support for the Palestinians, and to wreak destruction on Syria, Lebanon and Iran as per the Oded Yinon Plan. In this villainous. fascist, campaign, all sewers lead to Tel Aviv, and the one that empties out through the execrable hate-mongering, lying, cess-pool of the ‘Fraudian’ is particularly stinking.

P R Films (@PRFilms1)
P R Films (@PRFilms1)
Jul 1, 2018 6:19 AM
Reply to  Yr Hen Gof

At one point comments were available on most Guardian articles. These began disappearing about the time that the Guardian started asking people to subscribe. The Guardian’s excuse being that there were too many anonymous trolls posting. I contacted the Guardian twice suggesting that they make comments available on all articles provided that these were from subscribers (which would have resolved that problem). If they had done so I would have subscribed at that point. However the Guardian ignored both my emails. It has now turned into a fully fledged government mouthpiece and I won’t even read it. Like most I think its disappearance would be no loss it occupies the same ‘socialist’ niche previously made infamous by Blair’s government and we will be better off without it.

Joginder Singh Foley (@JSinghF)
Joginder Singh Foley (@JSinghF)
Jul 24, 2018 11:23 PM

The evil twins of government propaganda, Al-Guardian and the Ministry Of Truth formerly known as the BBC, Who’s viewing tax I stopped paying eight years ago about the same time I stopped buying Al-Guardian. I used to buy Al-Guardian and the Times to try and get both sides of the argument but Al-Guardian deteriated so bad that even under Murdoch ownership The Times produced better journalism than Al-Guardian.

King Kong
King Kong
Apr 23, 2018 8:39 PM

the article is complete rubbish. Even to less knowledgeable people, the discrepancies can hardly go unnoticed. I am actually amazed at the Guardians low level of capability in fabricating some decent propaganda or smear. They cant even do that. Tsk-Tsk
Third rate intern job.

tomiejones
tomiejones
Apr 23, 2018 3:19 PM

Reblogged this on circusbuoy.

stevehayes13
stevehayes13
Apr 23, 2018 2:12 PM

I would advise Heather Stewart to review the Nuremberg Tribunal trial of Julius Streicher, who was convicted of crimes against humanity and executed for pushing propaganda.

The Cad
The Cad
Apr 22, 2018 7:53 AM

Please stop using modish American illiterate-isms like “disinform”, it hurts my eyes; write “deceive” instead.

Google Talpiot Program
Google Talpiot Program
Apr 25, 2018 7:22 PM
Reply to  The Cad

Disinform is not the same thing as deception but a sub category thereof and has specific meaning when we are talking about the modern use of propaganda.

Thomas Peterson
Thomas Peterson
Apr 22, 2018 7:02 AM

The Guardian reprints literal fake news received from the government probably originating in the Atlantic Council’s ‘DFR Lab’.
The Guardian defends doing this on the basis that they didn’t write the fake news themselves, and refuses to correct or remove the article.
At the bottom of the page the Guardian asks me for £5 to support its fearless journalism.

Google Talpiot Program
Google Talpiot Program
Apr 25, 2018 7:23 PM

They did write the fake news themselves as DFR lab never said that the twitter users Ian56789 and Partisangirl were bots but explicitly said they were human operated accounts.
The bot confusion was just lazy journalism.

James Scott
James Scott
Jun 3, 2018 7:17 PM

Lazy? I think lying is a more apt word.

flamingo
flamingo
Apr 22, 2018 1:26 AM

Speaking of obstinate stupidity and faux journalism. Have the British Bobbies got their criminal perpetrator of the Skripal poisoner yet. Do we even have a wanted poster with an image that represents a person of interest? Has there been an appeal from whichever police district or tier is investigating with an image of a wanted person on the side?????
Looking for a wooden spoon award for biggest botched arrest/assassination in UK history. Has Sergei or Yulia Skripal been able to speak for himself/herself yet and describe how they feel about being integral to bringing our planet to the eve of a destructive war? Do they even care as they pick up their paycheck? and smell the f##king roses every morning while the Syrians and Palestinians are slaughtered?

milosevic
milosevic
Apr 22, 2018 2:25 AM
Reply to  flamingo

Do they even care as they pick up their paycheck?
That’s certainly one possibility, but surely not the only one. It might be better to reserve judgement on that issue, at least as far as Yulia Skripal is concerned. It’s not news that her father is a British government agent.

flaxgirl
flaxgirl
Apr 22, 2018 8:38 AM
Reply to  flamingo

I cannot believe that this botching was not intentional. It’s simply too obvious. Staged event analyst, Ole Dammegard, said he was informed by an insider that the power elite justify their hoaxing of us through ridiculousness, things that don’t add up, contradictions, changes in story, smiling grievers, clues, the actual truth, “leaked” footage, and so on. It’s also known as “revelation of the method.” This is way too over the top for it to be a genuine botching – and come on, the cat and the two guinea pigs story? And then there’s the clear Masonic symbology https://steemit.com/conspiracy/@lavater/sergei-skripal-poisoned-russian-spy-masonic-hoax-33-and-777-coded

flaxgirl
flaxgirl
Apr 22, 2018 8:57 AM
Reply to  flaxgirl

Forgot to complete: “The power elite justify their hoaxing of us by [list of things mentioned above] and if we don’t pick it up, the fault’s on us, not them.”
This is why I get so frustrated when people respond with ambivalence to or outright rejection of claims of false flags / FF hoaxes. The power elite are TELLING us what they’re up to in no uncertain terms. There is simply no way that you can argue that an event is real because they make little attempt to make their events look real and even deliberately undermine any seeming genuineness and yet people still won’t accept it. It’s as if they’re wilfully being dupes. There is no genuine grieving parent at Sandy Hook that someone who supports “real shooting” can hold on to to say, “Look, this was a real massacre.” Likewise for the Manchester bombing and so many other events. There is nothing that anyone who supports the official story of any of these events can brandish to say, “Hey, this piece of evidence supports real over staged,” and yet people still insist on believing it or they’re simply ambivalent, as if there isn’t sufficient evidence to know whether the event is real or not. If a massacre of 26 people, including 20 very young children, occurs such as at Sandy Hook and you cannot find anyone who looks as if they’re genuinely grieving – in fact, so many parents have big smiles on their faces – why on earth would you believe it was real? How is that scenario possible?
My policy is: if what is presented does not reflect what is told and there is no good reason for such a discrepancy, I do not believe it.

Ivan
Ivan
Apr 22, 2018 10:33 AM
Reply to  flaxgirl

As soon as you start to refer to links such as the one in the bottom, you discredit your argument, sorry. I suggest you to read the criticism of the famous “Bible code” e.g. on
http://users.cecs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/codes/torah.html
to see how easy it is to find patterns which are not there..
And think by yourself whether the current system of lies and propaganda can be reduced to a free mason plot or whatever similar. It is just too complex. There may have been some free masons trying to do something around, but do you think such a small group of people would be able to control the outcome of what they do? There are many interests around of which the “free media” in the west keep silent, having nothing to do with free masons.
All this while I agree with most of your post (I am not a free mason myself).

flaxgirl
flaxgirl
Apr 22, 2018 1:59 PM
Reply to  Ivan

Masonic analysis is done on many events, not just this one, and what appear to be patterns are much too patternlike to be coincidental. Do you believe in secret societies or do you think they’re a myth? Do you not think that it would be perfectly predictable for secret societies to have their codes – they have to make sense of their nonsense somehow.
As it says in the post:
“If you don’t understand the importance of numbers and symbols for the Freemasons and the Secret Societies you’re never going to get it. Cos that’s “how they’ve been communicating since God confused the languages”(Masonic Encyclopedia).”
Did you watch the Christine Lagarde video? What did you make of that?
Personally, I have no interest in numerology or symbology, it’s not my thing at all, I’m not that way inclined at all, however, that doesn’t mean I won’t recognise it where it’s used. You need to understand how the power elite works and numerology and symbology are a very big part of it.

RPD
RPD
Apr 22, 2018 8:48 AM
Reply to  flamingo

The London constabulary need to employ the services of Tony Abbott, the former prime minister of Australia. He seems to believe that his ‘detective-skills’ are exemplary. He was able to convict Vladimir Putin for the MH17 tragedy within 24 hours of the plane-crash.

Ross Hendry
Ross Hendry
Apr 22, 2018 4:55 PM
Reply to  flamingo

Apparently the police are hot on the trail:
“…Counter-terrorism police are now trying to build a case against “persons of interest”, who are believed to be back in Russia.
The Telegraph has been told that the criminal inquiry, expected to take many more months , [you don’t say? That’s convenient] is understood to have made a major breakthrough in identifying key people over the nerve agent attack.
It is thought that a search of flight manifests in and out of the UK has yielded specific names in the hunt for the Skripals’ would-be assassins. Police have also drawn on extensive CCTV footage in Salisbury and have also trawled car number plate recognition cameras…”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/20/police-identify-key-suspects-nerve-agent-attack-sergei-skripal/
So we are to believe a laughably pathetic hit team beat a hasty retreat out of the U.K. after one of the most cack-handed assassination attempts in history? Most people will easily use Occam’s Razor to come up with far more plausible scenarios.

JudyJ
JudyJ
Apr 23, 2018 9:17 PM
Reply to  Ross Hendry

I suspect that, as with all the other official lines of enquiry, this ‘major breakthrough’ in identifying the possible perpetrators is yet another red herring to place the focus on Russia. If the investigators have identified ‘persons of interest’ – and that is open to question – I can well imagine it is most likely that they are simply innocent people who travel as single people and maybe as a pair on short business trips to Europe, and they just happened to arrive in the UK before the Salisbury incident and departed a day or two after. Nothing more than that. Anyone think that flight manifests in and out of any other countries have been scrutinised with the same vigour? No? I thought not. I note also the references in the same update to “…drawn on extensive CCTV footage… and … trawled car number plate recognition cameras…”, leading unsuspecting readers to presume that this data has contributed to the identification of the ‘suspects’ when in fact I am very doubtful there has been any connection of the sort.

Ivan
Ivan
Apr 21, 2018 8:43 PM

I don’t like using the “fake news” term,
We all know by whom (more or less) this was invented, and why all of a sudden it became a “key issue”.
One should use the usual words: libel, disinformation, defamation, slander, propaganda.
This Guardian publication, as many others, is disinformation and propaganda. There is little doubt that, as bbc and the likes, they are lying consciously and intentionally.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Apr 21, 2018 11:28 PM
Reply to  Ivan

Don’t forget lies, hypocrisy and service to malevolent power.

iamcrawford
iamcrawford
Apr 22, 2018 1:12 AM
Reply to  Ivan

That is a really good point.
Using fuzzy terms with no clear meaning like “fake news” ( and “zionist” etc) should be discouraged.
This term in particular has been used as a label for lies or something that others prefer not to to be widely known which renders it meaningless IMO.

James Scott
James Scott
Apr 22, 2018 9:10 AM
Reply to  Ivan

Yes Ivan i have for some time had the feeling that fake news is fake news.

flaxgirl
flaxgirl
Apr 22, 2018 2:04 PM
Reply to  James Scott

But fake news is extremely dangerous to our democracy, extremely dangerous to our democracy, extremely dangerous to our democracy, extremely dangerous to our democracy, doncha know?

flaxgirl
flaxgirl
Apr 22, 2018 2:05 PM
Reply to  flaxgirl

Sorry, wrong video.
youtube.com/watch?v=7yzwV8jUfXQ&index=2&list=TLGGwph6V4WUiggyMTA0MjAxOA

flaxgirl
flaxgirl
Apr 22, 2018 2:20 PM
Reply to  flaxgirl

“Take me to the hospital” was the wrong video but it contains all great examples of fake news nevertheless – just not what the media identify as fake news but rather the fake news they terrorise us with.

flaxgirl
flaxgirl
Apr 24, 2018 1:25 AM
Reply to  flaxgirl

Damn, they removed the “Take me to the hospital” video already.

flaxgirl
flaxgirl
Apr 24, 2018 1:30 AM
Reply to  flaxgirl

Sorry, my mistake, “Take me to the hospital” is still there – somehow had the wrong address.
youtube.com/watch?v=xa9ped-Dl6w&list=TLGGwph6V4WUiggyMTA0MjAxOA

elenits
elenits
Apr 21, 2018 6:59 PM

This point is excellent –
“Is it false memory that prompts me to hanker for the good old days at the Guardian – when the warmongering lies were competently manufactured, slickly packaged and often appeared deceitfully credible?”
and actually points to the deterioration we are experiencing on all fronts. The old high standard of finessing lies has plummeted both in western governments’ foreign policy statements and in journalistic propaganda (the tabloids are better these days); todays ‘leaders’ are fourth rate nobodies, more often than not with criminal connections; while some governments are openly staffed with criminals (Kosovo, Bulgaria, Israel)…..not to mention the totalitarian laws and Israeli trained militarised police in each western country….while “they” scream about the threat of fascism.
Obviously they figure their audience is as crude as they are, or cruditised…..

James Scott
James Scott
Apr 22, 2018 9:35 AM
Reply to  elenits

I think that the crudity compared to the past deceptions is more about many of us having been made aware of those past lies are now better attuned to bullshit when we smell it. I think the modern method is based on drowning out dissenting voices by a sea of propaganda that is often on its first appearance clearly a nonsense, but as Mr Goebbels said ” A lie told a thousand times becomes the truth”.
With today’s supermarket style news from few news gatherers the same story from the same source is repeated verbatim millions of times by almost as many broadcasters and newspapers. I note that the ABC in Australia and the BBC worldwide have been stating that all the chemical incidents in Syria were done by the “regime”. In fact in almost all events this has been disproved and in all events guilt has been widely attributed before proof is provided and when the claims are disproved or shown that there is no proof there are no apologies and a period of silence until a new incident or claim of an incident and then the same media go back to attributing guilt based on the old incidents being true once again and implying that Russia and Syria have a track record. Terrorists of course are presented as fighters for democracy when in fact they want a Sharia State with only one God allowed, in which democracy is a sin.

intergenerationaltrauma
intergenerationaltrauma
Apr 21, 2018 5:25 PM

Here in the U.S. we have the “National Enquirer” and similar yellow journalism publications which breathlessly provide the public with the latest breaking – “news” – offering such juicy headlines as -“Hillary Clinton adopts alien baby,” “Bigfoot kept lumberjack as sex slave,” and “Elvis is Alive!” It would appear that the Guardian, New York Times, and the rest of corporate Western media are now offering stiff competition to the likes of the National Enquirer when it comes to providing the public with such breaking “news” – particularly on issues of war and peace. I look forward to future “reporting” from the Guardian or NYT’s calling for immediate war with Russia based on the headline story – “Elvis was poisoned by Putin’s grandson using an alien time machine.”

reinertorheit
reinertorheit
Apr 21, 2018 9:42 PM

[[ It would appear that the Guardian, New York Times, and the rest of corporate Western media are now offering stiff competition ]]
Although I enjoyed the wit of your contribution, I can’t agree with you on this. The National Enquirer, Buzzfeed, and the rest of that stable of gonzo journalism are intentionally self-denigrating and published solely with humourous intent. I don’t believe that anyone, anywhere, has ever cited the National Enquirer for moral or informational backup.
The Guardian was saved from financial fizzle-out by an anonymous and unknown umbrella of neocon donors, ‘sponsors’ and ‘patrons’. Readers have no idea whose cash is underwriting the tissue of fabrications it prints.
The point is that whoever has bought the use of ‘The Guardian’ title, has done so with the intent to deceive. The Guardian now is a simulacrum of a newspaper, a bogus publication whose content is calculated to win the hearts and minds of people who believe themselves to be ‘independent thinkers’. Of course, in reality its content is repackaged neocon dross – but since dross appears below the Guardian masthead, it becomes imbued with a (false) expectation that what it prints is fair, balanced, and truthful.
Here in Moscow we have ‘The Moscow Times’ – a pile of neocon ooze published to discredit the Russian government, and Russia as a country too. The title sounds so pukka, doesn’t it? Yet this thunderous masthead was conceived especially as a channel to deceive. It is owned abroad, and written by American neocon interns who refuse to use bylines, or write under fake names like “Unreliable Observer”. Yet their Pentagon-authored codswallop is eagerly syndicated worldwide – precisely because ‘The Moscow Times’ sounds like an authoratative and pukka title that represents what the Intelligent Ivans are secretly thinking.
Not just fake news – but fake newspapers to print it in.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Apr 21, 2018 11:32 PM
Reply to  reinertorheit

The Saker observed that the Russian authorities allow filthy tripe like the Moscow Times to publish because it allows Russians to see just how depraved and vicious the West’s stooges really are.

Lucy
Lucy
Apr 29, 2018 11:48 AM
Reply to  reinertorheit

I think you will find that the film Men in Black referenced the National Enquirer for informational backup.

Harry Law
Harry Law
Apr 21, 2018 5:00 PM

It is not only the Guardian that is lying through their teeth, the Metropolitan Police put out a statement on 11-04-18 on behalf of Yulia Skripal “I have access to friends and family” this is a lie, not a single friend or relative confirms such contacts, Interestingly none of her relatives or friends can contact her, when she was in hospital ALL patients should have access to the Hospedia telephone system at every patients bedside or at the least access to a mobile phone. The Metropolitan Police are F- -KING LIARS. Both Skripals are detained incommunicado by the state. This is a disgraceful state of affairs, to which the Russian Embassy should be more attentive. What are the UK government going to do with them?

elenits
elenits
Apr 21, 2018 6:43 PM
Reply to  Harry Law

The Russian embassy has made endless applications from the first day to HM gov to visit them – the application is bureaucratic politesse but in fact the embassy has both the right and the duty to check on its citizens under international law, and the UK gov under international has no right to deny access. The UK gov has repeatedly stalled and turned them down.
Julia Skripal has a fiancee. If this poisoning were real and above board he would be at her side and the tabloids would be all over it. Instead this fact has dropped into the memory hole and we hear only about her aunt.

Kaiama
Kaiama
Apr 21, 2018 3:50 PM

Had an election communcation for 3rd May shoved through my letterbox with an email address for the local conservatives in it. I ate my hearty breakfast and fired off an email. It won’t make any difference except to my blood pressure but I hope they get shafted at the polling stations.

BigB
BigB
Apr 21, 2018 1:57 PM

I feel comparisons with 1984 or Orwell’s MiniTru may apposite: but also slightly misleading. Sure, the surveillance capitalism, the algorithmic dehumanisation of dissent, perpetual war scenario, and and indoctrination to an ever changing simulated meta-reality [“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”] are praeternaturally prescient …but it is the Inner Party as benefactor and hidden repository of power that is disempowering. The modern concept (or confusional fudge of multi-conceptualised theories) of the “Deep State” is also furtive and hidden. It is vertically integrated into material society, but buried and secretive (synarchic). This does not aid clear conceptualisation or redefining of the internationalised class structural analysis of modern society.
To say the stenographers of the Guardian does not speak for the people but serve a deeper, hidden agenda is probably obvious to most who visit this site. It is possibly the common causal factor in coming here. Yet, the new Cold War agenda is not a national agenda, but a supra-national one. The Guardian is now a propaganda organ not of the Deep State: but of the ‘supra-society’*. As such, it serves a superior agenda (a ‘supra-ideology*’) that transcends national boundaries, interests and sovereignty. Like the Inner Party regulating IngSoc: only VISIBLY integrated, ABOVE the national interest.
The Guardian is among the lower echelons of the supra-society (correspondent to Orwell’s Outer Party); creating, amplifying, and sustaining supra-ideological algorithmically-generated information porn (“prolefeed”) for the Proles. Information porn like the Skripal conspiracy theory that defies rational and logical analysis: and is reliant on existent or non-existent authoritarian reports secreted outside the open source public domain. Thus belief is an article of faith in the status hierarchy of the Outer Party. We do not have a Thoughtpolice just yet [the con-Fusion Doctrine?]: but virtual “vaporisation” of online purveyors of alternative rational conceptual analysis or “dissent” is on the cards. Or dehumanising their relevance. Particularly, under the cover of the coming “Russian” cyber-attack: a covert ideological attack on the West by the West.
Allegiance is thus implicit or explicit loyalty to Western supra-society: the very trans-national few who will benefit from the demonisation and eventual collapse into supra-societal vassal status of the RF. Yet with a re-visualisation and reappraisal of West-East dynamics (such as I am advocating): this is the HIGHLY VISIBLE weakness and attack point of their ideological overreach. Do the mass populations of the UK and US benefit in any way from such a perpetualised stand-off? Not in any way I can imagine. Even the lower dregs of the supra-society that conduit without reasoned thought the supra-ideological groupthink benefit in only an ancillary way (self-serving status, authority, and a modicum of wealth and security to continue to comply).
Exposure of the agenda and fostering of trust in an West-East accord thus becomes an act of resistance. It may not stop them: but it really seems to be pissing them off …which is some sort of victory. Resistance is NOT futile! I am not a bot!
[*These concepts are borrowed from Alexander Zinoviev, who unfortunately did not live long enough to see Vladimir Putin revive the fortunes of the FSU. But he was uniquely positioned to contemporaneously critique BOTH capitalism and communism from first hand experience. As we are inveigled by the very few of the superclass ‘Inner Party’ to re-conceptualise West-East relations as a monomythical Cold War dynamic: so Zinoviev’s prescient insights regain their former relevance and power to paradigmatically understand the situation, IMHO. And, at least potentially, exposes and overcome.]

milosevic
milosevic
Apr 22, 2018 3:05 AM
Reply to  BigB

the new Cold War agenda is not a national agenda, but a supra-national one. The Guardian is now a propaganda organ not of the Deep State: but of the ‘supra-society’. As such, it serves a superior agenda (a ‘supra-ideology’) that transcends national boundaries, interests and sovereignty.

milosevic
milosevic
Apr 22, 2018 3:16 AM
Reply to  milosevic

rogerglewis
rogerglewis
Apr 21, 2018 1:52 PM

https://www.rt.com/shows/renegade-inc/424239-weapons-mass-distraction-issue/
This is from the Brilliant Rosh Ashcroft of Renegade Media & Four Horseman fame.
Off Guardian extensively namechecked essential viewing

bevin
bevin
Apr 21, 2018 1:47 PM

“… journalists who are utterly detached from the consequences of the pro-war, pro-establishment agenda they do so much to promote.”
I wish that you were right, nobody wants to accept the sad truth that the journalists in question are utterly corrupt, riddled with the cancer of careerism and conformism that has been a hallmark of the British middle classes the high noon of the Empire.
Alas I am sure that these people are, insofar as the poverty of their imaginations allows them to understand anything, very well aware of what their poisonous words are doing to the world- that without their covering fire the snipers would not be mowing down Palestinian protestors in Gaza, that without their barefaced lies public opinion would rise up and condemn not just the bombing of Syrian targets but the wholesale creation of the war there, financed by the same taxpayers who find it financially impossible to maintain the minimum standards the elderly and vulnerable need.
They are, in the old British middle class tradition, doing their bit to maintain the horror of Empire in the face of a global movement for national autonomy and self rule. Fascism has always been Imperialism at home and the middle class in Britain, the quintessential imperialist class, regards all the world as untermenschen.
The Guardian treats its readers with contempt because it holds them in contempt-the sincere convictions of a million of them are not worth the merest whim of a few people with real power. As the constitutional facade, never very convincing, crumbles the death’s mask of fascism is revealed. And at this moment fascism in the world sports a Star of David alongside its more familiar emblems.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Apr 21, 2018 11:52 PM
Reply to  bevin

The dominance of the Western political and fakestream media apparatuses by the Zionists is a situation unprecedented in history, to my knowledge. The apotheosis of this power, and the generally malign ends to which it is being mobilised, is the fanatic campaign of lies, invention and vilification being waged on UK Labour and Jeremy Corbyn, under entirely invented charges of ‘antisemitism’. In this campaign you see the Zionist’s unrivaled malignant narcissism in action, where they crave and demand to always be the centre of attention. In fact real Judeophobia has dropped to very low levels, itself, of course a good thing. Meanwhile, the most vicious Islamophobic hatred runs rampant, much of it fomented and promoted by Zionists and goy stooges of Zionism. To complete the circle of lies and hypocrisy, the Islamophobes deny that Islamophobia even exists. No lie too big, no act of chutzpah or hasbara too grotesque. And, furthermore, the Zionists have the stupefying gall to deny that they are inventing these charges of ‘antisemitism’, even as every sane observer can see them doing it, right in front of our eyes.
The hate campaign based on lies against UK Labour tells us that the Zionists believe that they deserve a veto over the policies and moral consciences of UK citizens. The drive to ban ALL criticism of Israel, a barbaric, racist, terror state engaged in a decades long oppression and imprisonment of the Palestinian people, tells us that the Zionists believe that they can destroy Freedom of Opinion and Conscience EVERYWHERE, simply by instructing their political stooges to do so. This can only end in total Zionist control of Western societies and mass oppression of any who dare deviate from compulsory adoration and groveling, while a Final Solution to the Palestinian Problem is worked out by Netanyahu and the other Zionist elite, or in a outburst of resistance to Zionist aggression and assertion. Either way it is an unhappy prospect.

rtj1211
rtj1211
Apr 21, 2018 1:40 PM

My view is that never visiting the Guardian website and never buying the paper is the best way to ignore the nonsense. Hopefully if their figures keep going down they will either go bust or change policies……

Kaiama
Kaiama
Apr 21, 2018 3:56 PM
Reply to  rtj1211

Problem is that it was their lack of commercial acument that forced them to accept money from sources which hold very different political views. They are the wolf in sheep’s clothing. Luckily most of the sheep can tell the difference, even though they do have blind spots.

wardropper
wardropper
Apr 21, 2018 4:03 PM
Reply to  rtj1211

I also have a hunch that they either have a deathwish, or are behaving like the terminally ill, desperately wanting to hasten their own demise and just get it over with.
Personally, I look in to the Guardian about once a week, as others here have done, simply in order to know what they would like me to believe.
“Know thine enemy” is not a pointless exercise…

elenits
elenits
Apr 21, 2018 7:05 PM
Reply to  rtj1211

Yes – the only time I’m exposed to the Guardian is on this site! I’d say a good twelve years has passed since I read a single Guardian article. Thank you God.

notheonly1
notheonly1
Apr 21, 2018 12:49 PM

Excellent assessment. Had I not already commented on the equally brilliant article “The Guardian as George Orwell’s Ministry of Truth” by Eric Zuesse, I could transfer the comment without need to edit it.
While some of the reasons for these ‘Verdicts’ are somewhat excusable for whatever conceivable reason of coercion, others are absolutely inexcusable. No journalistic publication – even under the lowest standards for what goes as ‘journalism’ – should be allowed to spread such vile and disgusting propaganda, without being compared to the worst Fascist rags there ever have been.
And my infinite gratitude for calling the UK administration what it indeed is, a regime – administering policies malevolent to the public and beneficial to the string pullers.

rogerglewis
rogerglewis
Apr 21, 2018 12:41 PM

A very good piece in the Indy referring to a Baby Milk Factory bombing back in first Iraq War.
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/syria-assad-uk-government-christian-persecution-isis-foreign-office-a8314616.html
https://twitter.com/RogerGLewis/status/987627615375814657
Roger Glyndwr Lewis

@RogerGLewis
More
Rise of the Russbots V Corporate Clinton Thumb http://www.wetube.io/video/rise-of-the-russbots-v-corporate-clinton-thumb/ … #IseenoBots
11:42 AM – 21 Apr 2018

reinertorheit
reinertorheit
Apr 21, 2018 9:46 PM
Reply to  rogerglewis

The video has already been scuppered. It won’t play ‘for technical reasons’

Harry Stotle
Harry Stotle
Apr 21, 2018 12:38 PM

“Surely we can expect a better standard of disinformative propaganda from the flagship organ of British imperialist liberalism? Because otherwise even the imperial regimes and their individual oligarchs will be disinclined to shake their money trees to cover the bloated deficit of an organ whose journalistic bankruptcy is approaching even faster than its financial one.” – yes, its high time minitrue at the Guardian raised its game.
They’re doing their best of course, so as well as invoking cold war rhetoric the Guardian continues to attack anyone who might have the tiniest doubt about the neocon’s version of events in Syria.
Today for example we more hysteria about Corbyn’s alleged antisemitism, and how it is leading us down the road to the next Aushwitz – but that’s the sort of shite one has come to expect from journalists who are utterly detached from the consequences of the pro-war, pro-establishment agenda they do so much to promote.
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2018/apr/21/people-dont-know-about-the-holocaust-they-dont-care

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Apr 22, 2018 12:12 AM
Reply to  Harry Stotle

Yes, Hadley Freeman has a tried and tested line in Jewish self-obsession and narcissism. The ‘Holocaust’ is always dragged out for obsessive exposure every time Israel is butchering the Gazans or Lebanese, or preparing to do so. Freeman, in her tribal self-obsession, would NEVER stop to think just what percentage of Americans, so famously ignorant of everything, know anything about the Nazi genocide of the Roma and Sinti, or of twenty-five million Soviet citizens, let alone of the numerous other genocides, many of which took more victims than the Nazi Judeocide, in history. Or how many Americans know anything about Sabra and Shatilla, Deir Yassin or the Nakbah. Not just irrelevant to the likes of Freeman, for whom only one people’s suffering counts, but ‘antisemitic’ to their core.
Of course you can easily sympathise with any Jew’s obsession with the Nazi Judeocide, such an hideous outburst of Evil and suffering. But when it has become a de facto State pseudo-religion in the West, and all the other victims of the Nazis are totally ignored, let alone the victims of all the other genocides of history, something unpleasant is occurring, and being imposed on Western societies. This unpleasantness is doubled when the Zionists use the horror of the Nazi Judeocide to justify their brutal repression of the Palestinians and their ruthless aggression against their neighbours, which is a very great moral Evil, indeed, in my opinion at least.
And Freeman descends even deeper into the moral sewer, I would say, when she uses the opportunity provided by her own ‘Holocaust’ obsession, to launch into vicious attacks on UK Labour over the phony ‘antisemitism’ campaign, and, in particular, to drop a load of Zionist slime on Ken Loach, a man who has contributed more to human decency and compassion than she would if she had a hundred lives of the like of which she has lived so far. An absolutely nauseating exercise in moral insanity, in my opinion, but so very typical of the Zionist cabal that controls the reeking corpse that once was the ‘Guardian’.

Comment Isn't Free
Comment Isn't Free
Apr 22, 2018 11:15 AM

Oh my goodness I’ve just had a look at that ‘article’.
Even by the dismal standards of the Guardian and Hadley Freeman, that is a horrific piece. To use the Holocaust to have a to at Corbyn and Ken Loach is just staggering in its awfulness. Corbyn really should be more assertive about slander like this.
And yes, Freeman is a total Jewish narcissist. So only one third of ‘millenials’ know about the Holocaust? I would say that’s actually a pretty impressive number, given the well-known ignorance of Americans when it comes to world affairs. How many of them know about the Great Leap Forward? Or the Rwandan genocide? Both were more recent than the Holocaust. Wasn’t there a survey which suggested that most Americans can’t find the Pacific Ocean on a map?
Freeman’s real issue here – like her equally despicable mentor Jonathan Freedland – is that not everyone is as obsessed with her religious heritage as she is.

redrabbit
redrabbit
Jul 23, 2018 12:13 PM

OK, you lost me at ” a tried and tested line in Jewish self-obsession and narcissism”. Most of what you say is true, but how would anti Zionist Jews view your opinion that they too are self obsessed and narcissistic?