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2019 On OffG

Image source here.

On the first day of a new year we take a look back at 2019 on OffG, and offer our choice of highlights. If you disagree or would include others we miss drop a comment below.

In strictly chronological order:

January

Why is Theresa May still Prime Minister? – Kit Knightly

Guardian’s Reputation in Tatters After Forger Revealed to Have Co-Authored Assange Smear – Elizabeth Vos

Privatization is at the Core of Fascism – Eric Zuesse

GM Cotton – Reckless Gamble – Colin Todhunter

February

Labour Splitters: Getting the Bland Back Together – Kit Knightly

What the Press Hides From You About Venezuela – Eric Zuesse

10 Reasons the Gilets Jaunes are the Real Deal – David Studdert

March

Censorship and Arrests in Wake of Christchurch Attack – Kit Knightly

Anti-Capitalism is NOT Anti-Semitism – Kit Knightly

Jess Phillips Emerges as Establishment Pick to Replace Corbyn – Kit Knightly

Lone Wolf Myth Covers Up Possible Mossad Role in New Zealand Terrorist Attack – Max Parry

April

WATCH: Collateral Murder – Kit Knightly

The Obvious Dirty Dealings Behind Julian Assange’s Arrest – Kit Knightly

Operation Gladio – The Unholy Alliance – Anthony C. Black

May

Leaked Report: Douma “Chemical Attack” Likely Staged – Kit Knightly

The OPCW, Douma and the Skripals – OffG Editorial

CNN & MSNBC Caught Meddling in US Democracy – Joe Giambrone

June

The Hitlerization of Jeremy Corbyn (Among Others) – CJ Hopkins

EXPOSED: The Guardian’s Role in State Censorship – Thomas Scripps

Global Warming, Carbon Dioxide and the Solar Minimum -Renée Parsons

July

Channel 4’s “Inside Idlib” – The Last Gasp of a Dying Campaign – Kit Knightly

The Guardian Deletes Open Letter Defending Chris Williamson – OffG Editorial

If You Provoke the Entire World, Something May Happen – Andre Vltchek

August

8chan – Another Mass Shooting, Another Internet Purge & 8chan: The Latest Fearporn Drive – Kit Knightly

“Today Saudi Arabia Finally Lost the War on Yemen” – Eric Zuesse

Amazon Burning? Well, maybe not so much – Catte Black

September

In Defense of Cory Morningstar – Hiroyuki Hamada

Why Does Chris Hedges Hedge his Bets? – Edward Curtin

America’s Billionaires Congealing Around Warren and Buttigieg – Eric Zuesse

October

Brexit: Parliament Tethers Britain to a Failing Experiment – Kit Knightly

Guaido and Wong – The New Generation of Pro-West Saints
– Andre Vltchek

WATCH: Udo Ulfkotte – Bought Journalists – Terje Maloy

November

Assange Lawyers Links to US Govt/Bill Browder Raises Queastions – Lucy Komisar

GE2019 Reveals True Purpose of “Antisemitism” Smear Campaign – Kit Knightly

Schiff Committee Finds no Impeachable Offense – Renée Parsons

December

Did Laura Kuenssberg Just Commit a Massive Breach of Electoral Ethics? – OffG Editorial

Boris Johnson’s Incredible Landslide – Catte Black

The Art of Doublespeak: Bellingcat and Mind Control – Edward Curtin

NSA Whistleblower: “Mueller Report Based on Fabricated Evidence” – Eric Zuesse

2019 – The Year of Manufactured Hysteria – CJ Hopkins

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Antonym
Antonym
Jan 4, 2020 12:39 PM

Have some fun reading the Guardian of Feb. 22 2004 quoting the Pentagon that by 2020:

major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a ‘Siberian’ climate. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2004/feb/22/usnews.theobserver

These guys need “Armageddons” to keep their budgets in the stratosphere.

Mike Ellwood
Mike Ellwood
Jan 3, 2020 7:25 PM

BTW, when there is nothing new to read on Off-G, perhaps some here might care to have a look at Lobster Magazine, which I must confess I have only recently discovered (or perhaps re-discovered after a long period). Although older issues are archived behind a paywall, issues from Winter 2009 onwards are freely available online. Some very good stuff on the anti-Labour smear campaign(s) citing (alleged) anti-semitism, for example, among much else.

Mike Ellwood
Mike Ellwood
Jan 3, 2020 7:19 PM

Interesting to read (for the first time in my case) the “Jess Phillips Emerges as Establishment Pick to Replace Corbyn” article. I notice that she has not “declared” yet, and is listed by the Grauniad as one of those “Weighing up their options”.

Dungroanin
Dungroanin
Jan 2, 2020 5:57 PM

What not one Spikey Hard Brexiteer article ?

Ah well just 30 days to go!

Yee haaa

Harry Stotle
Harry Stotle
Jan 2, 2020 5:45 PM

Off-G certainly have their work cut out for them.

Nowadays we are literally drowning in a sea of bullshit!

Seamus Padraig
Seamus Padraig
Jan 2, 2020 1:49 PM

Happy New Year, Off-Graun! Looking forward to another truthful, enlightening year with you and your commenters.

Gezzah Potts
Gezzah Potts
Jan 2, 2020 11:33 AM

Went to set up a PayPal account to make a long overdue donation to you guys, and it required my email address. No problem there.
And my password.
And I couldn’t bloody remember it.
Sigh.
Tried every password I’ve ever used.
And bloody…. Klunk.
Will get it there soon, even if it means starting a new email account.
Your work is much appreciated, and if it wasn’t for sites like this, I’d just go nuts.
Period.
Especially when you’re surrounded by people who fully swallow the presstitutes bullshit, and think the ‘International Community’ are the ‘good guys’ defending freedom and democracy.
Which as we know is utter bollocks.
I also wonder if this year we see the global economy implode like a collapsing house of cards?
Keep on keeping on Offg, cheers.

Robbobbobin
Robbobbobin
Jan 2, 2020 1:29 PM
Reply to  Gezzah Potts

PayPal accepts cards without requiring a PayPal account unless the payee has blocked that option. Look for “Checkout as Guest” or words to that effect.

Gezzah Potts
Gezzah Potts
Jan 2, 2020 10:12 PM
Reply to  Robbobbobin

Thanks again Rob. I tend to live a bit of a Luddite existence! Even if I’m buying groceries, or at a cafe, almost always use cash instead of my bankcard to pay.
Hope you have a good weekend…

richard le sarc
richard le sarc
Jan 4, 2020 5:36 AM
Reply to  Gezzah Potts

Always cash, so they know as little about you as possible.

tfs
tfs
Jan 2, 2020 10:52 AM

Looking forward to 2020 being the yeat OffG and other alternative media sites/bloggers (Caitlin J, Jimmy Dore, Lee Champ. Grayzone, The Canary………………….) all come together to push one item to get behind.

I suggest making the OPCW the 20/20 THING. You collectively have enough readers to warrant a Petition in Parliament being heard, not to mention several FOI’s. With RT/George Galloways followers it should be a walk in the park to garner intrest.

Oh, and as a side issue it help Julian Assanges case; John Pilger and his followers would be on board.

Own it and run with it…….

1. Petition.
2. Foi’s
3. Emails to all MP’s
4. Any email to friends contains link to peition for friends.

TFS
TFS
Jan 2, 2020 11:16 AM
Reply to  tfs

In fact the OPCW case touches on the alledged Chemical Attack in Douma, The Assange Case and the Skripal Case.

Even more reason to collectively run with it.

Seamus Padraig
Seamus Padraig
Jan 2, 2020 1:33 PM
Reply to  TFS

Great idea! Hope it happens.

lundiel
lundiel
Jan 2, 2020 9:01 AM

Looking forward……..There is a real danger of recession this year. The American economy is barely growing and only being kept afloat by consumer debt, a whacking $13 Trillion.
When America coughs, we all catch a cold.

eddie
eddie
Jan 2, 2020 10:22 AM
Reply to  lundiel

When the US has a brain fart: Huawei 2019 revenue 122 billion; annual increase of 18%..
source: chinadaily.com

richard le sarc
richard le sarc
Jan 2, 2020 10:30 PM
Reply to  eddie

The Exceptionals shot themselves in the head there, alas. Huawei are just making their own chips and developing their own software, so that they won’t need to buy US stuff. And as the Huawei Boss said, even if Uncle Satan destroyed Huawei, its tens of thousands of technologists, researchers and developers would just found another 100 new Huaweis. Yankee thuggery has met its Nemesis, so war must follow, soon. They know no other way to exist by to bully, murder, pillage and destroy.

Estompista
Estompista
Jan 2, 2020 7:36 AM

Hopefully, 2020 will be the year that flying saucer fraudster Bob Lazar stops with his debunked fan-fiction.

Petra Liverani
Petra Liverani
Jan 2, 2020 5:41 AM

Thank you, OffG!

Estompista
Estompista
Jan 2, 2020 7:32 AM
Reply to  Petra Liverani

Nice ironic jab 🙂

Robbobbobin
Robbobbobin
Jan 2, 2020 2:02 PM
Reply to  Estompista

Off-Guardian should organise a Contingency Fund for Petra. So far Alex Jones has dropped over $1m and counting for Sandy Hook denial. Sort of thing that could easily jump jurisdictions and catch on in Australia. Sandy Hook, Manchester Arena… On the other hand, give it a few years and somebody might accost her on a dark night, trying to strangle her before fleeing unidentified. Vigilante? Only Petra will know for sure–male, teens, masked, with the fingers on one hand shorter than the fingers on the other–but nobody will believe her, even when she shows them her ruler.

norman widom
norman widom
Jan 2, 2020 7:33 PM
Reply to  Robbobbobin

alex jones is a time warner employee
he states clearly and often that the arabs own and run hollywood
he never talks of christopher bollyns work

jones made millions from tangy tangerine aspartame drink
keep guzzling that zio juice
it sure is yummy : )

pasha
pasha
Jan 2, 2020 12:24 AM

I’m an old fart and I’ve seen too many fucking new years to get excited or depressed about one more. We’re totally fucked either way and have been since 1980. So here’s my comment on 2020.

Can you feel it coming?
Can you feel it go?
Long time
Methusalem syndrome
(Adrian Hates, aka Diary of Dreams)
No, I don’t know what it means either. But it seems somehow appropriate.

Happy new fucking year to all who hold an independent view.

RobG
RobG
Jan 2, 2020 12:51 AM
Reply to  pasha

I understand your pessimism, Pasha.

But please be available to see what unfolds over the next year or so.

pasha
pasha
Jan 2, 2020 3:28 PM
Reply to  RobG

Thanks for your sentiments. Things can only get worse.

RobG
RobG
Jan 1, 2020 10:59 PM

I don’t usually get maudlin on New Year’s Day, yet so many people seem to be a bit down at the moment that I think maybe I should say something.

I grew-up in the same part of south east London that David Bowie did (and also Mick Jagger). Bowie was a generation older than me, yet I was there as a ‘yoof’ during the late sixties and the 1970s. I saw most of them perform live in London before I was out of school trousers.

When Bowie died in 2016 it was a big shock to many of us.

For whatever his faults (and Bowie did have quite a few) his legacy is inescapable. This track, by a Toronto choir, sums it all up for me. The poignant thing for me is that the people in this choir seem to know the difference between right and wrong…

Gwyn
Gwyn
Jan 1, 2020 11:33 PM
Reply to  RobG

Thanks, Rob! That sounds excellent on the fancy new headphones that I treated myself to just before Christmas. The chorus kicking in has just given me goosebumps…

Loverat
Loverat
Jan 2, 2020 4:06 AM
Reply to  RobG

RobG
That might be Beckenham, The Three Tunnes Bowie played a bit before my time apparently. Never got into Jagger. Bowie like Mercury quite a distinctive voice – real talent.

As regards below, the ‘alternative media’ has always bothered me as a description. Sounds likes media for whackos. Independent or truthful media better.

George Mc
George Mc
Jan 2, 2020 9:17 AM
Reply to  RobG

I wasn’t a huge Bowie fan but everything I heard about him since he died has boosted my admiration for him. I love his explanation for why he turned down a knighthood:

“I would never have any intention of accepting anything like that. I seriously don’t know what it’s for. It’s not what I spent my life working for. It’s not my place to make a judgment on Jagger, it’s his decision. But it’s just not for me.”

And I found this list of those who turned down honours:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/e477656b-eed1-470c-ad56-3e06fa50901a

I was happy to see one of my favourite composers, Vaughan Williams, in there.

Mike Ellwood
Mike Ellwood
Jan 3, 2020 6:55 PM
Reply to  George Mc

Ditto Humphrey Littleton.

norman widom
norman widom
Jan 2, 2020 1:33 PM
Reply to  RobG

no doubt bowie wrote very good pop songs and was indeed a star
of david

a fallen one
his tools seduction and deception
a mason a man of zion
all in the finger action the eye winking the
finger on the lips schhhh can you keep a secret.
he married a man called imman

he is not even mort he was on sky news the day after as a character called jack stephens or was it stevens.

he always was an actor not a good one

the man who fell 2 earth is a great movie

be seduced but understand he was a high level agent
and follower of
alistair crowleigh o. t. o. group and the golden dawn

and what of man love

The Church of Man is a reference to the Luciferian doctrine, which worships above all else the human intellect, Reason.
The luciferian doctrine is accepted in all masonic cults.

I’m closer to the Golden Dawn
Immersed in Crowley’s uniform
Of imagery
I’m living in a silent film
Portraying Himmler’s sacred realm
Of dream reality

music heroes are in the main kaballa babylonian deceivers
init

Seamus Padraig
Seamus Padraig
Jan 2, 2020 2:03 PM
Reply to  RobG

Bowie is definitely missed. And 2016 was a rough year for music fans: think of all the stars who died that year!

But one mystery I’m trying to get to the bottom of now, is what position–if any–did Bowie actually take on the Donbass question a few years ago, before his death? At the time, I remember people circulating (what seemed to be) a Tweet of his proclaiming his support for the Donbass rebels; but I can’t now find it anywhere on Twitter. ‘Stopfake‘, which, I admit, is a very questionable source, also argues that the whole thing was a psy-op from–you guessed it!–Russia. So what is the truth on this issue? Does anybody here know?

norman widom
norman widom
Jan 2, 2020 4:04 PM
Reply to  Seamus Padraig

missed by who?
he is still here
not even far away certainly mot as far away as little america
not that america the admiral bird one
what a true man show

his last record an ode 2 satan saturn sold badly
his music videos had maybe 50 thousand hits on youtube

until the point of news death
at the point of death of the sim character called david bowie
then record sales rose fast

black star was sinking faster than a tin machine compact disc

was he a savage a low level evil animal like sin natra
no
david robert jones made a deal with satan

he
got the power
for a whiles anways

not now and never more
he is slowly sinking in the quicksand
of his own deception

i must admit he was one of the grand masters
of deceipt

Should I kiss the viper’s fang
Or herald loud the death of Man
I’m sinking in the quicksand of my thought
And I ain’t got the power anymore

Don’t believe in yourself
Don’t deceive with belief
Knowledge comes with death’s release
Ah!
Ah!

RobG
RobG
Jan 1, 2020 10:02 PM

Another corporate puff piece pumped out by the Guardian…

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jan/01/ai-system-outperforms-experts-in-spotting-breast-cancer,

Health care (which includes care in old age and all the rest of it) has barely been covered on this site.

The Tories in the UK are going to completely privatise the National Health Service. During last month’s general election this was quite starkly pointed out by the opposition Labour Party.

Despite this we are told that Labour heartlands in some of the most deprived areas of Britain voted Tory.

And pigs might fly…

This election was totally rigged.

lundiel
lundiel
Jan 2, 2020 8:31 AM
Reply to  RobG

Puts me in mind of this comment by “Rick” on the Boris Johnson ‘did we get what we deserve article’.
“Entrepreneurs” are queueing up to provide ‘services’ to the nhs. I saw a marketing job for a pocket-sized ultrasound scanner the other week, it connects to and iphone. So, rather than have consultants buy this if they so wish, health authorities are buying it and iphones for them. It, in no way, replaces full-sized scanners, but it is another (American) tool in the ever expanding box.

George Mc
George Mc
Jan 2, 2020 2:42 PM
Reply to  RobG

I can’t access the articles in the Grundiag due to their new “sign in” policy – but I think I have the gist of this one: “AI system outperforms experts in spotting breast cancer” i.e. another case of technology removing the need to engaged with those troublesomely unpredictable organic blobs known as people. Once the experts have been outmoded, perhaps the patients can also be dispensed with. AI systems will spot impending problems in female androids’ breast units. This could be duplicated in supermarkets where the check-out tills have already been replaced by scan-it-yourself screens thus leading to android customers. Banking systems likewise. If the helpers are already robots then why not have the customers as robots too?

lundiel
lundiel
Jan 2, 2020 3:18 PM
Reply to  George Mc

“Outperforms” is a bit misleading. Of course a computer can identify anomalies quicker than humans but you then have to factor in the cost of the software licences vis a vis human resources and get a human to conduct follow-ups.
Health care tech is overpriced and overegged at the current stage of development.

richard le sarc
richard le sarc
Jan 2, 2020 10:36 PM
Reply to  lundiel

Capitalist ‘healthcare’ is intended to maximise profits, not human welfare.

Gall
Gall
Jan 1, 2020 9:57 PM

A Happy New Year to everybody at Off-G and thanks for being there as an alternative to all the sh*t they are shoveling to us from the MSM (Mockingbird Sh*t Media) 🙂

Gwyn
Gwyn
Jan 1, 2020 9:12 PM

Thanks for doing what you do, OffG. Your hard work is much appreciated.

Happy New Year!

BigB
BigB
Jan 1, 2020 8:44 PM

2019: the year of the culturo-political shitshow from start to finish. The only positive can be if it gives a heads up to what is coming. Don’t forget the ‘Mayday, Mayday’ “climate emergency” …an OED word of the year. Oh, you are not going to forget that neoliberal Zeitgeist neologism ever …for as long as you live.

2020: if you can’t feel it coming …2020 is the year of neoliberal globalisation’s green finance capital’s final assault on humanity and the biosphere. And all out assault led by a little girl, leading the climate change Trojan Horse, ridden by Mark Carney. If that is not a surreal enough iconography: it will soon be real enough.

We dodged a bullet in the election. I know, I know, the NHS, austerity, homelessness, blah, blah, blah. If we don’t wise up: we’ll all be homeless in austerity …permanently. From the neoliberal Nomenklatura, down through the WEF/BIS plenipotentiary Carnage – every corporate boardroom in this land and the next has a climate action plan – complete with ESG scorecard (environmental, social, (global) governance criteria). In line with the UN’s PRI (Principles of Responsible Investment): portfolio managers will be ethically and consciously investing in anything that is not already privatised property …mainly Nature: but us as well (natural and social capital – including the NHS). Those who do not invest ethically will be driven out of business. Conscious capital is greenwashing itself: and we are the welfare state’s captured stakeholders. If we want an NHS: we need tactics and an alternative to green finance neoliberalisms highly leveraged final hostile takeover bid of all that can still be called humanity. Fast.

2020: the year binary reductive logic finally evolved into a fully-formed non-dualising logic. Greta Thunberg is telling the truth AND is being weaponised by the neoliberal Nomenklatura. Witness yesterday’s Radio 4 programme with Carney and Attenborough. Don’t blame Greta for all the Eurocentric neoliberal bourgeois suffering we have imposed on the world. Not limited to, but including, the poisoned climate. Ostrich tactics will not work. Either Mark Carnage will design a ‘just transition’ for you: or we will finally rise up from our passivity and design the transition to the socialised world we want. *Tertium non datur* – there is no third option available.

Talking of poisoned climates: did the ‘must vote’ election heal the state sectarianism of ‘Broken Britain’? Or did it open fresh wounds? And didn’t it return the market state monopoly of hyper-capitalism to usher in the ‘naturalised’ Neoliberal Endtimes? 2019 was the death of politics in the UK. There can be no repetition.

2020: the year of the rapid evolution of politics into a new form of global consciousness and transnational humanist-emancipatory solidarity to finally free humanity from the hegemony of the soon to be greenwashed fictitious finance capital. With Boris and Trump in charge: that might actually become a thing. Ladies and gentleman, comrades, brothers and sisters …welcome to the resistance!

2020: the decade of “hope and glory” when humanity finally takes its own destiny into its own hands – having banished finance capitalism for a more humane global ethics. One that puts people and interspecies communities at the forefront of polity and socialised use-value only exchange. When the producer gets the full value of their socialised and shared co-responsible labour. Within the peace and harmonisation with a regenerative and sustainable nature. Which either we design: or we let green finance neoliberalism design for us.

I know what decade I want!

RobG
RobG
Jan 1, 2020 10:11 PM
Reply to  BigB

BigB, don’t be too down with it all. I think 2020 might surprise a lot of awake people who live in the West.

The signs have been there throughout 2019.

Although it might all be very violent/nasty for a while.

Keep your head down, and a happy New Year to you.

Loverat
Loverat
Jan 2, 2020 4:34 AM
Reply to  RobG

Agreed. 2019 a year where the truth got a look in.
Important highlight for me was the Working Group on Syria. Their work crucial which Peter Hitchens, albeit behind the curve taking forward and not giving up. Hitchens a master at slapping down the trash still promoting the nonsense narratives. Working Group on Syria have probably saved lives in Syria and possibly even brought the world back from the brink by preventing another fabrication. Hopefully 2020 will be the end for Bellingcat.

BigB
BigB
Jan 2, 2020 11:47 AM
Reply to  Loverat

Thanks for the encouragement (my genuine heartfelt response and not sarc!). I genuinely made my peace with this world in the 80s – when Thatcher and Reagan were trying to start all-out nuclear war. When over a million people marched with Joan Ruddock and Michael Foot …and Labour even adopted a policy of unilateral nuclear disarmament. If we called a march tomorrow against the existential threat posed by neoliberal finance capital’s ‘green’ takeover and privatisation of humanity: do you think anyone would turn up?

This is arguably the biggest threat to humanity that humanity has faced. And it is not even perceived as a threat. Anyway: you are right to point out that the situation is not without hope. It is my hope for the coming decade that a new global environmental socialism arises from the abject horror that UK politics has sunk to. Rising from the grotesque global social and historic circumstances neoliberal globalised finance has violently imposed on not just us, but the rest of humanity and the environment (you do know that the UK is the neoliberal vanguard chosen to lead the world to the false-utopian solution of the ‘climate economy’?). And the Trump/Johnson axis at the imperialist core of the world system might just catalyse the internationale of the oppressed we always needed …but never quite got round to forming.

To ‘green’ capital: this far and no further! You shall not pass.

¡No pasarán!

richard le sarc
richard le sarc
Jan 2, 2020 10:39 PM
Reply to  RobG

Violent/nassty is precisely what the parasites want. It’s their strongest suit and heart’s desire. But any alternative is beyond me.

Gaudy
Gaudy
Jan 1, 2020 6:52 PM

Thanks – I will work my way through these, as a new follower I have catching up to do.

Gwyn
Gwyn
Jan 1, 2020 9:49 PM
Reply to  Gaudy

Even though I’ve been reading OffG for years, Gaudy, I’ve got some catching up to do, too…

George Mc
George Mc
Jan 2, 2020 2:43 PM
Reply to  Gwyn

Just make sure you have a large box of tissues to weep into and stacks of painkillers.