This Week in The Guardian #1
Our inaugural edition sees the return of Syrian hospitals, how censorship is good for public health and the dangers of “conspiratorial thinking”
Five years ago this month, OffGuardian posted its first article. Since then nearly 4000 more have been posted, all with pretty much the same aim – fact-checking the media, countering propaganda, highlighting concealed agendas. Trying to be honest.
As a bulwark of establishment dishonesty, and the catalyst for this site’s creation, The Guardian has always had a special place in our hearts. It’s not just personal either, its (unearned) reputation for being reasonable and and “liberal” make it the thin end of a lot of wedges.
Every future dystopian nightmare will have started with an op-ed in The Guardian written by an outraged woman in big glasses.
As such, it was always fully deserving of its own category – On Guardian. In that category, we have hundreds of articles seeking to provide a counter-balance. Answering hysteria with reason, baseless assertions with careful research, and pointing out the sheer numbers of complete lies.
But sometimes you don’t need all of that. Sometimes you just need a headline, a summary, and little call-out of the all-to-obvious agenda. To that end, welcome to This Week in the Guardian.
Essentially these will be weekly articles that shine a brief spotlight on the establishment narratives that tick over behind the scenes. These won’t be big headlines or breaking news, but throw away articles and opinion pieces. Mood testers and trend setters that need to be called out.
Every week, on a Sunday, we will highlight three or four of these stories.
We will also encourage reader-participation here. The Guardian has dozens of new articles every day, making it too easy for something potentially dangerous to slip through the cracks, so if you come across something you feel should be included in the next edition, post a link below.
Our aim here is to keep a nice, comprehensive archive of how The Guardian is steering discussion, spreading propaganda, and foreshadowing the future big agenda.
That said, let us begin. As it’s our first edition, we’re doing a bumper 2 weeks-worth.
“The Guardian view on Idlib: nowhere left to run“
We start with something of a Golden Oldie. Apparently, there are still some hospitals left standing in Syria, which by our count had more than one per person before the war started.
You know this article before you read it. It’s anonymous (although it has the air of Simon Tisdall about it), it’s full of the same lies we all know by heart (refugees this, Rebels that), and off-handed acceptance of NATO-backed illegal activity (in this case Turkey has invaded Syria and is killing Syrian soldiers).
It’s half-hearted, to be honest. A tired, aged rock band playing their old chart-topper, one last time. The war for Syria is over. Both the literal war and the information war. That’s the political reality. The media and the political class haven’t admitted this yet, but they know it. The only question is whether they will simply keep the conflict on quiet simmer, or try and tear the temple down on top of all of us.
The agenda here is really setting up talking points for next time, if they kick up enough fuss about “the cost of Western inaction” in Syria, they can use it as a terrifying example next time they want to invade somewhere and the public is reticent to let them.
“Idlib’s despair won’t end bloodshed in Syria“
The Guardian, and their masters, are not done with Syria just yet, as another opinion piece which appeared to today suggests. It’s written by Hassan Hassan director of “non-state actors” at the Washington-based “non-partisan think tank” Center for Global Policy (I can’t find out how they’re funded, but can take an educated guess).
The article tells us:
Freed from the need to defend their last stronghold, the jihadists there will be well placed to regroup and take the struggle underground
….and doesn’t remotely seem to suggest the author considers this a bad thing.
You would be forgiven for thinking it reads like a combination of a threat and a mission statement.
“Misinformation on the coronavirus might be the most contagious thing about it“
This piece is interesting in a couple of ways. Firstly, the fact it seems to exist purely on the basis of a pun – a (claimed) virologist talking about things “going viral” on the internet. Outside of the pun, the author has no training or expertise in information technology.
That doesn’t stop him praising the idea of censorship and dystopian information controls:
Last year, Pinterest announced it had rewired its search results to make it harder to find vaccine misinformation. It had struggled to remove the content completely – the equivalent of finding all the cases during a disease outbreak – so instead focused on reducing how many people might be exposed to harmful content. During the current outbreak, Google is attempting to reduce people’s susceptibility to misinformation by displaying links to reputable health sources when users search for information about the virus.
Suppress dangerous opinions, boost government sources, to protect “public health”. Very Guardian.
Ironically enough, this article IS misinformation about the coronavirus, and – we have to agree – it is far more dangerous than the disease itself.
“The Trump era is a golden age of conspiracy theories – on the right and left“
This is a great one, one of those Guardian editorials that claims to be about one thing but is really about something else.
On the surface it’s your standard ad hom attack on “conspiracy theorists”, trying to encompass both the left and right. The authors do a brilliant job of at once a)admitting conspiracies happen, b)saying only irrational people believe in them and c)saying Russia got Donald Trump elected. Which seems to go one better than Orwell ever imagined and emerge into a wonderful new world of TripleThink.
But deeper than that usual craziness is the warning:
The only way to fight the spread of conspiracy theories is to reduce the conditions of social inequality that produce them
This is the kind of coded language that members of, and supporters of, the elite use with each other. It’s not really meant for us. It’s essentially saying “the ever-increasing and deepeningly desperate poverty experienced by the working class is stoking up resentments and building doubts in the current power structures. We need to put a halt on the widening inequality, or people will further question the system, leading to possible actual revolution.”
Which is very possibly true.
Caroline Flack, Domestic Violence and Shutting Down Social Media
This is a nice little interplay of Guardian themes.
Firstly we have Julie Bindel asking “Why do men keep getting away with killing women?” an interesting question, considering they don’t. Not really.
In 2018 there were around 700 homicides in the UK, which is a very small number, and women being killed by men made up less than 25% of that (149, according to the author). That’s a tragedy for 149 families, but in a country of near-enough 70 million people, it’s not really anything to get worked up about, and certainly doesn’t speak to some kind of society-wide problem with gender-based violence.
All in all, people in the UK live in one of the least violent countries in the world, and certainly, it’s safer in terms of violent crime than it has been for 99% of human history.
It’s also true that over two-thirds of the homicides in Britain are men, but when that is discussed the “femicide” sites claim it’s different because men are killed by strangers, but women are killed by partners or ex-partners. The problem they say, at its heart, is domestic violence.
What’s interesting about that, is pairing this with articles about TV presenter Caroline Flack’s suicide, blaming the press and social media for her death. There’s no real discussion of the accusations of domestic violence against her, and not one use of her (alleged) victim’s name.
Instead, we’re treated to a lot more “social media = bad” commentary, and some buzzphrases about mass psychology.
For those of you who had been wondering about The Guardian‘s priorities, it seems they are OK with domestic violence if it’s female on male, and certainly if you can use the aftermath to criticise social media in a plea for more regulations about what you can and cannot say.
It’s interesting to imagine what would be different had Caroline Flack been a man, accused of beating his much younger girlfriend with a table lamp. Would The Guardian oppose the prosecution then? They certainly didn’t have a problem with the social media “witch hunt” against Harvey Weinstein.
RUSSIA! RUSSIA! RUSSIA!
Just an update for anyone who likes to keep track, this last week the Russians have been very busy engaging in information warfare. First they were boosting Donald Trump’s bid for re-election. Then they were helping Bernie Sanders win the primaries, and now they’re spreading misinformation about the coronavirus.
On top of that, Putin’s “regime” is going after poor, vulnerable billionaire bankers who did nothing but embezzle from their businesses and defraud their customers. It’s all go at the Kremlin these days.
BONUS – The Dissident Artist Strikes Again
In case any of you were wondering whatever happened to the “brave dissident” artist/arsonist Petr Pavlensky who used to set police stations on fire and nail his scrotum to Red Square. Well, he’s in legal trouble in France for a sex-tape scandal involving a French politician. This is after being released following a jail term for setting fire to a Paris bank. No word yet on whether or not his latest artworks will be reviewed favourably by Jonathan Jones.
* * *
All told, a busy week for The Guardian, we didn’t even touch on the persistent efforts to redeem Tony Blair, the “problem of whiteness” or the fact Sanders is better than Corbyn because he voted to bomb Kosovo in 1999. Did we miss any others? Tell us about them in the comments below, and keep an eye out for articles that should go in the next issue.
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The latest Guardian bullshit voxpop of ‘members who have changed their vote after last nights ‘live’ debate which wasn’t broadcast live by the Groan.
They are trying to do to JLB what they did to JC by pushing for Starmer and chickencouper and scion of Liberal peer Nandy with their absurd vox pop article.
——
Who Labour members vote for matters.
It is Keir Starmers PERSONAL fault that a kangaroo court is taking place at Belmarsh and freedom of investigative journalism and revelation of State crimes is threatened – that alone should disqualify him from the leadership. He was put into the position of CPS head by the nulabInc cabal that included Campbell.
The infamous memo to Swedish prosecuters telling them ‘ Don’t you dare’ drop the bogus investigation into Assange were on Sir Keirs leadership of the CPS.
As the kangaroo court at Belmarsh attempts to destroy freedom of the press and send a hero of journalism to a death sentence in a US Guantanamo via a conspiracy of a magistrates court…
DON”T VOTE FOR STARMER or NANDY.
The choice is between, a return to the neocon warmongering of Blairism that led to the crimes of collateral murder of innocents revealed by Wikileaks and their lackeyism to the US warmongering and torturing – or a furthering of the original Labour party cause of raising the poorest and closing the vilest wealth gap in society and imperialism in the world.
Only RLB offers that. VOTE FOR BECKY.
It goes on and on with the Guardian and the rest of the presstitutes.
Paris mayoral candidate drops out over sex video scandal
No mention in the above article that prosecutions will be delayed because every single lawyer in France is presently on strike (along with most of the rest of the country).
Down in Spain…
Spanish carnival’s Holocaust-themed parade of dancing ‘Nazis’ sparks outrage
… but no mention of the present widespread civil unrest in Spain (note that the Spaniards have now started wearing yellow vests).
It isn’t the Grauniad anymore.
It’s the Schutzstaffel.
It’s Die Sturmer for Identitaryans.
From todays’s reporting:
“Earlier, the Seoul city government banned all gatherings of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a minor Christian sect believed to be responsible for a surge in the number of coronavirus infections in the country.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/feb/25/coronavirus-live-updates-outbreak-latest-news-italy-italia-deaths-symptoms-china-stocks-wall-street-dow-jones-economy-falls?page=with:block-5e54c58f8f0811db2fafdf0d#liveblog-navigation
Notice here the assertion that the Christian sect is responsible for the increase in cases, as if they had purposely spread the virus.
The Guardian never misses a chance to trash-talk Christianity in any manifestation.
Perhaps they did deliberately spread the disease-they are an apocalypticist cult, whose first overseas base of operations is in Wuhan, of all places.
have any cases of the virus been found in amereeka?
Yes.
“In the United States, an additional 18 people tested positive for the coronavirus, the CDC said Monday, bringing the total number of confirmed U.S. cases to 53.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/coronavirus-china-live-updates/2020/02/24/58bdab58-56ad-11ea-ab68-101ecfec2532_story.html
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/feb/24/my-boyfriend-wedding-dress-unveiled-shortcomings-masculinity
Just when you think the self-parody can’t get any better.
Third time of trying to post Martin ‘Chulov of Syria Campaign PR’ Gruaniad presstitute turning his attention from the defeated head choppers he has been ‘reporting’ on for years and turn his gaslighting skill to :
‘In the Middle East, concerns are mounting that Iran is now a major hub of the coronavirus’
Pathetic
Chulov is well-known to be MOSSAD. I well remember the ease with which he covered al-Nusra in the early days of the salafist assault on Syria, including his hectoring ‘interview’ of a captured SAA soldier who was undoubtedly murdered shortly thereafter.
The Syria Campaign PR setup with UK SS background goes back to at least early 2010’s involving the likes of Hamish de Bretton Gordon/ Le Mesurier and a whole bunch of private companies setup with spookiness.
Chulov and Shaheen were double teaming their reports from Beirut and Turkey supposedly. I am not sure of the mossad links but may well be true after all it is a 5+1 eyed gollum monster stomping around the ME for almost a century now.
https://www.unz.com/pcockburn/with-wikileaks-julian-assange-did-what-all-journalists-should-do/
The opening arguments by the prosecution seem rather weak to me, especially using stuff from the Guardian for support, as if the Guardian is some kind of authority! Cockburn shows in the article above that Wikileaks didn’t do what the Guardian alledges at all. In fact the opposite happened. It was the Guardian that published the secret key/code that allowed anyone to access the material. The defence, I would imagine and hope, should be able to demolish this with one hand tied behind its back.
‘“We deplore the decision of WikiLeaks to publish the unredacted state department cables, which may put sources at risk,” the organisations said in a joint statement, which Lewis read out.’
The Groan being quoted by the prosecutor wanting to extradite Assang for political purposes and being a publisher of leaks showing criminal acts of murder by the US state
No mention of Roger Waters speech yesterday – I bet they all love and listen to Pink Floyd as ‘liberals’.
No mention of Belmarsh and a tiny court there.
The fucking fuckers of the media presstitutes at the Guardian – it’s time the print wokers took action even if the toady employees of the rag won’t.
Next to Wikileaks’ Iraqi cables there is other evidence of nefarious usage of Islam fanatics for the CIA’s “foreign policy”, a “Green” predecessor to Blackwater mercenaries – cheaper. After all, Brezinski’s Afghanistan Russian Bear trap was such a “success” with the supported “Mujaheddin; just look at the country now… 9/11 was just a few of those US imported freaks going rogue – oops.
Like Michael Springmann a former diplomat in the State Department’s Foreign Service, with postings to Germany, India, Saudi Arabia, and the Bureau of Intelligence and Research in Washington, D.C. He was Chief of the Non-Immigrant Visa Section in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from 1987 to 1989. In his position in Jeddah, he was routinely overruled by superiors when he denied visa applications submitted by unqualified travelers to the United States.
The USA and Israel are long involved in a close allegiance with Sordid Barbaria and the other Gulf despotisms in using jihadist butchers to murder and destroy. How is that you always leave Israel out of the equation? Modesty?
“How is that you always leave Israel out of the equation? Modesty?”
nah, Ant’s a single-issue guy. He’s a professional Islamophobe (but not paid, I know, Antonym!) . I bet you love the Gatestone Institute’s writings, don’t you, Antonym? Right up your dark fetid Israel-Firster alley
You guys just can’t manage one hour without your anti-zionism- crack cocaine can you? Its like Climate Change, it is everywhere – always was, causes everything and will end the world in 10 years counting, 97% sure.
I come with good links, motive logic, financial facts and all you have is finger pointing and arm waving at the most persecuted little bunch of people on earth.
Zionazism (pardon the tautologous usage)plus anthropogenic climate denialiasm-what’s not to admire about our Antsie?
Well, those Islamists were needed in the USA to serve as patsies for the 9/11 false-flag committed by the MOSSAD, US sayanim and elements of the US Deep State, including those long-term Continuity of Government droogs, Rumsfeld and Cheney.
Those ‘al-Qaeda’ operatives were required to be the patsies in the 9/11 false-flag operation, committed by the MOSSAD, US sayanim and elements of the US Deep State, eg Cheney, Rumsfeld et al.
The salient point is that Assange did NOT release unredacted documents, he put them onto a web server in encrypted form for The Guardian, as respected journalists, to redact and edit as appropriate for publication; separately giving them the password, written in an obscure way on a paper napkin, in a face-to-face meeting. David Leigh, the then editor’s brother-in-law, and Luke Harding, Vladmir Putin’s secret boy toy, subsequently wrote a book about their most excellent adventure with Assange and kept the story pantsingly hot by retailing the episode of the password in full napkinly detail, thus enabling people like me–just one of a great many who had downloaded the encrypted file on first hearing of it–to sneak a peek at the intrepid journalists’ novel and hop, step and jump from there to the unredacted documents in no time flat. One day I should at least thank our buddies David and Luke for the experience, as I didn’t pay a cent for their tome, the booksellers who left it out on a table for any prospective buyer to peruse did that. I think the word is ‘complicit’. All the rest–Waters, Belmarsh, etc.–is just window dressing.
Yes Robbo but also don’t forget that when Wikileaks gave the documents to the papers to process BEFORE publication THEY were supposed to make redactions – which THEY refused and planned to publish without removing names – so JA himself was forced to personally redact 10,000 names in 48 hours!
They were planning to fuck him up THEN.
All of this is being hidden in the media as much as the fake rape bs and Starmers CPS’s ‘Don’t you dare’ memo to stop the Swedes dropping their investigation.
The can of worms being sat on at Wormwood scrubs kangaroo court.
Kit or Catte? In any case, a great start to your new weekly series. It looks set to run and run (alas).
Maybe not-perhaps the shite-rag will go broke, or some anarchistic meteor might intervene.
One story you have clearly missed is the Billington Award (or prize, can’t remember the exact title). In honour of recently retired Guardian theatre critic Michael Billington, )naturally his successor is a young female woman of colour) the Guardian has inaugurated an eponymous prize in honour of Billington, to be awarded to the ‘best new play of the year’. Guess who won the inaugural prize? Of course it went to ‘A Very Expensive Poison’, a ludicrous production based on convicted plagiarist and all round fantasist Luke Harding’s book claiming Alexander Litvinenko was murdered by polonium poisoning on the orders of arch villain Putin. You really could not make it up.
When Litvinenko died, I Googled Po 210 poisoning. First entry-‘accidental’ Po 210 poisoning at Dimona in Israel. It appears to have been Memory Holed since. And Arafat suffered the very same fate. Funny old world.
The seat on the BA plane Litvinenko sat in on flight back from Tel Aviv to London had traces of polonium. It is most probable Litvinenko was a courier of polonium who managed to contaminate himself. Incidentally, today’s Guardian has a plug for a new opera based on the Harding book/theatre production. Mindboggling.
“And Arafat suffered the very same fate.”
which was known about and discussed at the time, and, as you say, memory holed when it came time to discuss this very particular type of poisoning.
Viktor Ostrovsky is very forthcoming about poisoning in his excellent book, By Way of Deception and its follow-up The Other Side of Deception (not an ad!)
The MOSSAD operates a secret facility where assassination poisons are tested on live victims, mostly Palestinians. You won’t read about it in the Guardian, however. Remember when the Sunday Times exposed Israel’s long-standing policy of mass torture of the Palestinians? Before the Murdoch take-over, of course.
Excellent idea Off-G ( I have been agitating for a pinned article on the Groan to add to constantly as you may recall).
I expect them to zero in on it and this site as a judaeophobic journalist attackin Putin nazi Trump loving Assang rapist excusing novichok fake news spreading site, that is need of censorship and closing down.
Of course you know that and ready for the battle and will not let all the articles and comments be deleted but will ensure they are archived and mirrored on sites across the world so can never be disappeared.
I have pointed to how CP Scott was the instigator of the Zionists access to the UK government that led to the Balfour Declaration and we all know the paper was always more Liberal than Labour socialist. Hence their clamour for Nandy (a Liberal grandee scion) or Sir Keir (for a new Camelot) the chief prosecutor behind the conspiracy agains Assange (“don’t you dare..”) as they guarantee the kowtowing to the same interests , better than the self made actual lawyer and northern woman RLB.
Let’s never forget how their phone hacking expose got away from their limited hangout hands and ended up as a actual honest judicial Inquiry expertly managed by Leveson and hos recommendations which were REJECTED by the hypocritical Groaniad! Which has led to continued abuse by the press including on Meghan and Flack and their own fact free coverage as mouthpieces of Russophobia and anti Corbynism.
—–
I’ll readily contribute new and old Obsessive Groaniad crap – starting with this fabrication on Douma and Hospital report which lost visibility in the list of Syria stories of the attack once me and others pointed out their glaring LIE.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/17/syria-crisis-medics-intimidated-over-douma-gas-attack
A picture says a thousand words – the give away was the red shirts and the logos on them – red crescent – so not Douma !
They disappeared it and me instantly and no independent press complaints body to appeal to!
On the subject of Caroline Flack. I was incensed to email ITV with my take on this sad event:
Dear ITV,
Had you thought that your disastrous programme, Love Island, is merely a dysfunctional and dangerous psychological tool to entrap poor celebrity-blinded Millennials et al in a continuous round of angst and bitterness. I have never watched your appalling programmes, especially not Love Island, but now someone, one of your own creations, has died because of it and you should be held responsible. You cannot offload your guilt on to other parties, the responsibility rest entirely with you, in my opinion.
The complete Americanisation of ‘reality’ sensationalised programming for the ultimate prize of advertising, eyeballs and profit represents the lowest form of human existence and should be banned by all right-thinking folks. Hold your collective heads in shame.
From
An angry bystander, at the totally unnecessary loss of a valuable life.
What happens to this column if you don’t read the guardian – ? I haven’t read the guardian for years because it was crap then – it’s crap now and yet people still post links to it as if it has something of meaning to say about the real world!
The column is good because it Drew’s attention to some of the worst lies and propaganda in the Guardian without the necessity of reading it and contributing to it’s survival.
Gosh, who’d have thought it, a formally intelligent, thoughtful publication like the Guardian churning out thousands of stories which today bear no resemblance to reality. I wonder what it feels to be a journalist there – knowing full well the stories are false and distorted and have resulted in prolonging numerous wars abroad, unnecessarily heightening tensions with Russia and betraying Assange and free speech. I wonder how history will judge them. Anyway, at least we have a progressive Off G to counter the daft and delusional. Far better to run a media site on a shoestring than be over paid to write nonsense for a living.
‘Formerly’ not ‘formally’, I think.
The presstitute vermin sell out slowly, at first, then rapidly. Your paycheck depends on TOTAL ideological reliability. The neo-liberal oligarchies are the real totalitarian States, with torture, disappearance and murder kept for the colonies, and mass and unrelenting brainwashing sufficing, so far, at home.
How many Last Hospitals in Aleppo
More ‘hospitals’, ‘mosques’, ‘schools’ etc than the rest of the world put together.
With regard to Syrian stories published by the Guardian and other media outlets in the UK, I have long been concerned that none of these outlets has people on the ground but many quote “activists” in besieged areas. Channel 4 News, in particular, uses them in conjunction with reports from Lindsy Hilsum in Jordan or Turkey. Well, MoA has solved the riddle, it’s a media spoofing attack run by British intelligence, much like the White Helmet sham.
This all filters through to other media outlets and ensures they are all singing from the same hymn book. And it makes writing an article on Syria, something you can do from your desk in London.
This would have been how so-called “citizen journalist” Waad al Kateab made her jihadi soapie “For Sama” while she, her husband Hamza al Kateab and their child were living in East Aleppo in collaboration with the UK-based director Edward Watts. During the time the film was made, Watts apparently did not set foot in Syria, let alone visit the jihadi-held area where the Kateab couple was stuck. How could Watts have received the film and been able to shape it into a story and how was he able to communicate with Waad al Kateab? How did they even know each other initially? A third party had to have brought them together – it was very likely someone connected to the UK government or MI6.
James le Mesurier and his Swedish second wife would have been two of the military intelligence / MoD / FCO offciers involved in managing the network of Syrian “opposition activists” (some of whom were genuine and others not) and their sources and contacts.
Like the anti Assad Damascus lesbian who turned out to be a middle aged Scottish man.
I think it’s about time they gave us some more Incubator Babies.
There is NO ‘Syrian opposition’ but mostly foreign jihadists and salafists. The German BND intelligence told Merkel as long ago as 2012 that ‘ The Free Syrian Army is al-Qaeda’.
How about “This Week On The BBC” where homelessness can be fun!:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-51120565
That’s just parasite class schadenfreude.
One of the amusing, perhaps grotesque? ironies about the Guardian/BBC coverage of events in Syria, is that apparently none of the intrepid, highly trained and paid journalists ever wonders why, if Assad’s ‘regime’ is so ghastly and evil, they’ve built so many bloody hospitals all over Syria! I mean I’ve been given the distinct impression that they’re all more hospitals in these Syrian towns and cities than can be found in the UK and we’re far richer and have had the NHS for seventy years!
It’s also appalling that not a single journalist at the Guardian has the guts to buck the trend and write articles that support Wikileaks and Julian Assange and the profound legal and ethical questions surrounding the affair. One would think, just from purely commercial angle, that this would make good sense and raise the Guardian’s profile compared to the rest of the press. The uniformity is so boring and uninteresting with nothing new to read and no alternative perspective available.
But I suppose the truth is that the Guardian, which once, on a strictly limited basis, allowed a degree of ‘controlled dissent’ to appear… is dead and gone. Today, even that is considered too dangerous.
Happy 5th birthday Offguardian🎂🎉
The bastards will keep trying to grind you into the dirt, and dissappear this truly valuable site that powerfully speaks truth to power, but, like, er, a Staffy Pit Bull, I’m sure you’ll keep fighting for truth and justice and basic human decency and not give in to these psychopaths.
Which reminds me – more money shortly.
The only time I know what’s happening in that… rag thing, is when I read about it here, or at another alternative news site.
So, no, I won’t be passing on any ‘news’ from TG to OffG, cheers….
Gosh, you chaps have been going for 5 years – I thought it was a little longer than that, however, I remember well posting on CIF and adding links to Off Guardian and the censors on CIF would disappear said posts rapidly. Thankfully, stopped reading and linking to The Guardian in August 2016 and can’t say I miss the propaganda rag, this having purchased a physical copy of the paper since early 1983 on a daily basis – and still, somehow, they soldier on with mass deception.
At the grief stricken Guardian, death and destruction awaits us all..Everywhere!
Meanwhile on the Life Style pages:
Ne me touche pas. The shift in sex and power sweeping France. Since #MeToo, France’s notoriously liberal attitudes to sex and sexual power are under the microscope as never before. {No Yellow Vests here be assured.}
‘I feel invincible after a trip to the mountains’: why the slopes provide the ultimate relaxation {Providing the perfect antidote to the stress of everyday life.. Ahhh}
Beauty and the bloke: why more men are wearing makeup. Foundation, concealer, a little eyeliner… More and more men now put on makeup on a daily basis. {Papering over the cracks is a good thing.}
Shuteye and sleep hygiene: the truth about why you keep waking up at 3am. You eschew caffeine after lunch, have stopped drinking alcohol and eat healthily. But you’re still staring at the ceiling in the small hours. Here’s why. {Probably reading too much of the Guardian?}
Ed..That’s enough parody
That would be a real triumph for the Identity Politics feminazis, to destroy a culture of friendly, relatively free, and mutually satisfying sexual relations, and replace it with the US version.
I hope your new column fails. (Guardian Media Group declares bankruptcy. Scott untrusted. All assets to be auctioned. NUJ objects to Liquidator’s proposed human trafficking in Opinionators.)
What has happened to Natalie Nougatbrain? I miss her unhinged Russophobe rants.
I think of her as N3: Nutty Natty Nougat.
Nutty Natty Nougatnoggin (N-derangement to the power of 4!) is still active over at The Fraudian nattering away on her new column series Europe Now.
Anyone who truly misses N4’s nutty nougat nuggets could try following her on Twitter where she natters away with other patients (I noticed Bellingcrap and Timothy Garbage Trash) in their collective psychosis in their asylum.
Thank you, made me laugh at the sick ironies they produce. But what made me laugh most was the ‘billionaire banker’ article, complete with a soft picture of the billionaire and such sweet words about his mistreatment, and how he’s at a total loss to understand why this is happening, and what made me laugh – ‘Luke (Collusion) Harding’ is the author! Brilliant! LOL!
A more cynical meta-view might suggest that the recent action of the WHO in making an explicit call for the “suppression of Internet misinformation” is just another co-option into the broader “suppression of dissentformation” movement that is–somehow*– all the *simultaneous rage in the upper echelons all the authoritative bodies of our times. A repositioning of the pre/non-Trumpian “fake news” rustle up.
I don’t know who Flack is but what I understand it’s the central problem with the so called #metoo movement – and why it’s increasingly unhinged and discredited. Accusations are, in the normal world, supposed to be taken as accusations, until and unless compelling evidence is provided. But the same elitist class that approves bombing defenceless countries on fictional grounds without regard for evidence (Jihadi Julian Röpcke of Bild is still daily demanding the bombing of Syria, for example) is increasingly demanding that its accusations in other things should also be taken as fact. While a lot of women are of course sexually harassed/raped, through history they actually were held to the same standards of proof as anyone else. Instead now the demand is that accusation alone is enough. Well, no, it is not enough and the laws still demand evidence. Therefore one single case that is promoted by the media but falls through in court taints the rest. One single case that proves to be *a deliberate false accusation* totally discredits all of them. I’m talking about everything here, not just #metoo – Russiagate, Syria, everything. And that danger is clear to the elites, who therefore will do whatever they have to in other to keep questions from being raised. About anything.
The Guardian is a security blanket for the smug middle class. Most of whom live in the virtual world.
Sleepers awake.
Dear Off-Guardian,
Happy 5th Anniversary to you all!
It seems odd perhaps to wish you all another happy five years doing what you do because that would imply that the MSM as it is, will still be existing then, if another five light-years down in the abyssal black hole.
I confess to having my doubts about this new Sunday weekly initiative of yours. Your inbox will surely clog up even after just a couple of weeks with thousands of suggestions, so dismal and egregious and above all numerous are the scribblings of Guardian regulars like Freedland, Tintin Harding, Shaun of the Dill Walker and others too numerous to mention. The whole thing will get out of hand in a short time and you’ll soon need to hire an army of call-centre bots from your nearest university suffering from a dearth of money (because the government grants have dried up and half the student body is still stuck in China) to vet the suggestions flooding in.
The likes of Freedland, Harding and other easy targets at The Fraudian are too far gone to be resuscitated without suffering brain seizures and eventually becoming recidivist so you would be better off going after things that The Fraudian would never report openly, such as Deputy Editor Paul Johnson joining the UK Ministry of Defence’s Defence and Security Media Advisory Notice (aka DSMA or D-Notice) committee in 2014.
On a more serious note, I have seen other news in which the Russian “dissident” performance artist Petr Pavlensky claims to have other dirt on other French politicians and wonder if, while he was in prison, he agreed to become an intelligence asset and got early release as a result. He had been living in poverty in Paris before the BNP arson incident.
Nice one Jen, Shaun the “Dill Weed” Walker, enjoyed the joke of that particular joker.
Here’s Jonathan Steele’s review of Walker’s book The Long Hangover – Putin’s new Russia. The last thing I think JS managed to get published in the Graun and amazingly so – just read it if you haven’t already.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/mar/09/long-hangover-putin-russia-shaun-walker-review
Clearly Steele sees through the blatant narrative mongering of the MI6 in-house mag.
What about doing very public, sacrificial burnings of copies of The Guardian? Make it really creepy, like some Satanic ritual, but the light from the fire of thousands of burning Guardians will enlighten many souls and lift them from their trance. I’m thinking The Level in Brighton, with loads of copycat burnings flaring up all over the country. Shape the papers into words, reading things like “The Guardian Must Burn”, then set fire to them, so the words are etched in the grass for a few weeks. We need to start upping the ante, and what better way to kick that off than with public sacrificing of the emblems of the filth.
Here is some brill Bill (he had all this figured out):
Time to Evolve
hmm…burning Guardians (or anything else) is creepy all right, but it doesn’t remind me of Satanic rituals. Something else entirely.
The burning of the books by the Nazis? That’s no doubt how the Guardian propagandists would portray it.
Burning the paper at the bottom of the cat litter tray.
“Disco sucks?”
Those copies would have to be bought and that would enrich the Guardianagandists.
“Those copies would have to be bought and that would enrich the Guardianagandists.”
Donated. What happens to unsold or pre-loved print editions now? Used to be inedible fish skin. And don’t burn them on grass. Gotta be a (far) preferable canvas. The planet is not ours to fubar for any ideology, not even just symbolically. Remember at least one marsupial a day.
Burning copies of The Fraudian would consume unnecessary amounts of wood and contribute significantly to Britain’s carbon emissions.
Burning the staff of The Fraudian would only need to be done once. I daresay the sulphurous stench would be very overpowering though.
Oh so Bernie supported the neoliberal continual “humanitarian bombing” of Serbia and thus this makes him better than Corbyn. I see. Bernie also said when interviewed by the NYT that he would consider a preemptive strike against North Korea and Iran. Whatever.
Personally I’d rather it be Corbyn running instead of Bernie who mouthed the usual platitudes and boiler plate about the plight of the Palestinians before voting for $38B more extorted from tax payers for the terrorist state and one trillion more in “defense” (actually aggression) spending for the war mongering money pit shaped like a Pentagram showing from where it really takes its marching from.
But hey Bernie’s a nice guy compared to Trump even he’ll probably carry out the same neoliberal policies that Trump and Obama before him carried out. He pretty admitted that fact when interviewed by the New York Times. I mean can ya “feel the burn”!
One thing though at least he’s honest about carrying out America’s Global “Manifest Destiny” well into the 21st Century unlike Trump and Obama who conned us into believing otherwise which is why I am hoping for the financial collapse that will end this madness.
As far as Idib. I think the Syrians, the Russians along with the Axis of Resistance have the situation well in hand. They have promised a Turkey shoot (pun intended) for any hostile aircraft entering their airspace and thanks to Uncle Vlad have the capability to carry it out.
Not even the morons that consider themselves “elite” are stupid enough to risk WW III over Syria but then that remains to seen.
As far as the tin foil hatted Russia conspiracy theorists. They are just too ridiculous to take seriously. Anyone who does has an IQ lower than their body temperature.
Censorship will that’s easy to get around. The self righteous idiots over at the Atlantic Council published a list of what they considered “fake news” sites with their web address making it easier to find them since the GoolStapo was blocking access.
Proving once again what total morons the “elite” really are. If they didn’t cause so much death, pain and suffering they’d be as comical as one of those B grade “dramas” where the acting is so bad that it’s hard not to laugh hysterically while watching it except in this case it’s more like being Alex in Clockwork Orange.
Barack Hussein Obama painted a rainbow flag on the bombs it dropped every three minutes during its eight years in the White House. Burnie would paint a faint, barely visible, red blob on every bomb it will drop during its time in the White House.
The reason why Amerikastanis hate Trump is simple: it reminds them too much of themselves. Trump – bellicose, pig-ignorant, openly corrupt, greedy to the bone – is as American as it gets.
Proof of the Anglo-Arab oil in U$ for protection pact here in in interview with ex-DHS Phil Haney who recently was found shot in suspicious circumstances. The gist: G.W. Bush’s State Department in early 2008 proposed to have DHS data base on Wahhabi funds for Sub continental Islamists to be shut down. A bit later Obama’s guys simply erased the whole thing, plus put Haney 9x through the wringer. KSA buys a lot of arms and helps the dollar afloat on their oil and gas, so nothing is too high a price, not even terrorists entering the US unknown.
Israel’s close friends and allies. the Wahhabist doenmeh, have spent billions proselytising the Wahhabist genocide cult throughout the Islamic world.Zionism’s beloved ‘Clash of Civilizations’ will rage on to the end.
Why do ya think Bashar Assad call the “Best American President”? Yep good ol’ Bashar was onto something 🙂
Sanders backed sanctions on Iraq from 1990 – 2003, responsible for the deaths of 1.2 million children under age-five.
He supported the rape of Yugoslavia and 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF).
He backs illegal US occupations of Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and elsewhere, along with supporting Israeli aggression against defenseless Gazans.Bernie Sanders backs the putschist regime in Ukraine. He voted for the 2014 Ukraine Freedom Support Act – authorizing lethal and other aid for the country’s military to wage war on its own people.
He’s silent about America’s rape and destruction of one country after another, supporting US-led war to topple Gaddafi in Libya and Assad in Syria.
He shamefully called Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez a dead communist dictator.
Wednesday, 19 February 2020
BERNIE SANDERS
Bernie’s play will be the same one he made in the ’16 Primary and that is as a sheep dog candidate since there is no way that the DNC will allow him to the candidacy. They’ll either take him out with the Super Delegates or with their recently passed by-law called the “nuclear option” where they can say that Bernie isn’t really a “Democrat” even though he’s been running as a Democrat during the Primary.
They can say this because Bernie ran as an Independent for the Senate and is listed as the Independent Senator from Vermont. The “Democratic Party” is probably the most undemocratic party in America since unlike the Republican, Libertarian, Green, Reform and other parties they’re not obligated to chose the most popular candidate according to their own party bylaws using an arcane article written by Alexander Hamilton writing as Publius who was big fan of establishing a monarchy in America on Electors recommending that if needed they could overthrow the will of the electorate. Something they urged the Electors to do that actually back fired badly on them when Trump won the Electoral College vote with Hillary Clinton scoring a record for “unfaithful electors” that hasn’t been matched for almost 140 years!
Undaunted though by that minor failure the idiots and being true to Einstein’s definition of insanity they’ve incorporated what is called the “Hamilton Electors” as part of their party bylaws which again are determined undemocratically by party big wigs instead of those unwashed party supporters.
Thus the “Democratic Party” has gotta be the most undemocratic party in America!
Not only that but they want to make the Federal Election undemocratic as well by forcing the Electors in some states to vote for the candidate that “won” the “popular vote”, which is actually easier to rig than the “antiquated” Electoral College, even though the electorate in that state voted for another party.
Funny thing is that this “law” which actually violates the Constitution has only been passed in states that voted “Democrat” in the last election anyway but go figure.
Back to Bernie who’s brain washed followers ( and I can say that because I was one of them in the last Presidential election until he threw his support behind the odious warmongering Hildabeast that “slouches toward Bethlehem” and the scales fell from my eyes, one could say) are unaware of his short comings and think he’s the reincarnation of Eugene Debs. That is those who knew who Eugene Debs was while the others think he’s their great” socialist savior” when in fact he’s just another neoliberal wrapped in the packaging of “socialism”.
As they say on Mad Av its all about the packaging. Trump knew this and that’s why he won. He also ran very few ads unlike Clinton who spent over a billion on them because the media who hated him did it for him. As Huey Long once said “I don’t care what you say about me in the press just as long as you spell my name right.” but that’s another story.
This is what passes for an “informed electorate” in America today.
I know that if you told the cult like “Berner” or “Bernie Bros” any of this they’d look at you blankly like sheep being led to the slaughter or try to rationalize these er…short comings just as some of us in the antiwar movement did with the Mr. Great Black Hope and Change who managed to start more wars then “exceptional” (also a nice way of saying mental retard) Bush.
Anyway it’s unlikely that Democrats will let Bernie run but even if they did and he won he won’t be much of an improvement and may actually be worse than Trump by giving rapacious neoliberalism a friendly face while they continue to rape and pillage the planet in the name of Manifest Destiny AKA American Exceptionalism.
I see one main role of ‘The Guardian’ in the domestic context as being the use of identity politics to fracture the society along as many different fault lines as possible. Blacks against Whites, women against men, gays against straights, millenials against boomers, and of course all the different genders and on and on and on.
Divide and rule.
Congrats OffG on the first five years.
Great Site!
Easy to find who funds Center for Global Policy. A shitload that’s what!
Foundations supporting the Center’s work in 2008 include:
The Angelina Fund
Heinrich Boell Foundation
The Boston Foundation
Center of Concern
The Christopher Reynolds Foundation
Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
Colombe Foundation
The Compton Foundation
The Educational Foundation of America
The Ford Foundation
Fourth Freedom Forum
Open Society Institute
The Samuel Rubin Foundation
Sea Change Foundation
The Stewart R. Mott Charitable Trust
The Streisand Foundation
Tides Foundation
Previous years
The CarEth Foundation
The General Service Foundation
The Ploughshares Fund
The Schooner Foundation
https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Center_for_International_Policy
Lotsa Motts.
Here’s a bit of interesting info from an article by Thomas Scripps
entitled: “The Guardian’s direct collusion with media censorship by secret services exposed.”
“Minutes of Ministry of Defence (MoD) meetings have confirmed the role of Britain’s Guardian newspaper as a mouthpiece for the intelligence agencies.
Independent journalist Matt Kennard revealed that the paper’s deputy editor, Paul Johnson, was personally thanked by the Defence and Security Media Advisory Notice (or D-Notice)
committee for integrating the Guardian into the operations of the security services.”
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/06/22/guar-j22.html
I had memory, hard drive and boot drive problems for several years. Usually after I lost my rag and called utter bullshit in the Guardian comments section or shared a link to anything by Craig Murray. Since I stopped commenting in The Guardian four months ago I haven’t had a problem with my PC.
Interesting–Wikileaks did reveal the security state’s ability to remotely control a wide variety of household devices. I’ve had a similar experience to yours when posting comments on–Bellingcat– TD.
As I wrote elsewhere:
Fuck me, the Grauniad finally has an article friendly towards Assange:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/feb/23/julian-assange-was-harassed-by-cell-search-claims-father
We know that it’s only because the poor bugger is definitely on the verge of being sent to the US and so the bastards at the Grauniad need to momentarily show some miniscule “support” before he’s extradited.
The Guardian’s position may have shifted slightly but NOT because their neoliberal sympathies have altered, but because they had been publically shamed by those who conducted serious research exposing the all too obvious geopolitical motives driving this vindictive pursuit.
One minute Guardian columnists are lambasting individuals for transgressing identity politics shibboleths, the next producing snidey articles downplaying the fact a fellow journalist has been held in arbitrary detention for the best part of 10 years (including a year in solitary) while fearing the inevitable consequences of being shipped off to the world’s foremost terror state.
Can you imagine these cappuccino guzzlers producing the same sort of shite if they had been locked up in Belmarsh or were facing life in a US gulag knowing the extradition request has already been signed off by a neocon arse licker like Sajid Javid?
Moore, Ball, Hyde, Malik, Freeman produced damaging articles that smacked of groupthink and all designed to damage Julian’s reputation in a way that implied he kind of deserved what was coming, while at the same time raising the distinct possibility their primary motive was to lessen public revulsion at the way intelligence agencies terrorise those that question their methods.
Amongst this abysmal group Hyde excelled herself for having virtually zero insight into factors underpinning what has become one of the most important legal cases in living memory.
I am not expecting it but the Guardian needs to do at least two things if they wish to salvage their dreadful mishandling of this story – first apologise for their monumental miscalculation, secondly open up comments BTL so that that their lame analysis can be placed over the knee of more knowledgeable commentors in order to receive a sound thrashing.
Freeman’s narcissistic self-obsession is hideous enough, but Hyde really takes the cake. It was she, I think, who gave the Assange ‘faecal smearing’ lie credence, but in a sort of’jocular’ fashion. One really hopes and prays that she gets banged up in a couple of rooms for several years, one day, purely for karmic hygiene purposes.
For reasons I can’t recall I stumbled on this Guardian article recently. It’s not exactly “This Week”. Indeed, it’s from 5 years ago:
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2015/aug/31/terry-pratchett-is-not-a-literary-genius
Now I don’t even care about Terry Pratchett but I was struck by this first bit:
Is that not the height of sheer provocation just for the sake of it? Effectively: “I’ve never read him but he’s shit!” You can imagine the editors thinking, “Nothing much we can admit to today so….why don’t we just stir the buggers up a bit and keep them occupied?” And going by the comments, it worked. And of course, since I mentioned it, it continues to work!
“Is that not the height of sheer provocation just for the sake of it?”
Looks like provocation, is Guardian’s widely acclaimed house style.
I love the picture of Jones that the Guardian has (no doubt years old)to accompany his dross. Physiognomy as destiny, it’s a real Guardianista dial.
Appalling, malicious nonsense in the “Nowhere left to run” editorial. “Thousands of civilians are fleeing” shelling by Turkish tanks and artillery only to be filmed by the Turks, as learned from their White Helmet allies for propaganda, also, VT reports that Turkey has closed the border to stop their mercenary terrorist allies from crossing to avoid facing the SAA. Turkey has suffered significant losses of equipment, and possibly manpower in Syria, no mention of that or the Syrian statement that any overflight of their territory would be shot down (by the Russians), leaving Turkish/Hayat Tahrir al-Sham armour in a very precarious position.
No wonder the msm have gone quiet on Syria. I also note that there is no mention in any UK outlet of a New York Times report that:
This means he (Soleimani) was assassinated purely to stop a de-escalation of tensions with Iran.
Zero surprises there then.
In other words, Major General Qassem Soleymani had to be killed because he was on a peace mission.
The Turks have had around 230 military fatalities since the start of the war. That is probably fairly accurate. They have also lost things like Leopard tanks. This is likely to escalate sharply if they try to go head to head with the Syrian army. Up to now they have used their head chopper proxies to provide the necessary cannon fodder. But the size of the force they have fielded inside Syria so far isn’t capable of any major operation.
The main cost to Syria for their support for regime change lies in 3.5 million refugees. Endemic instability and terrorism inside Syria, including the abortive coup, leading to internal repression. The economic costs, Russian sanctions, loss of tourist revenue. Confrontations with many countries it was previously on good terms with. America, EU, Israel, Iran, Iraq.
To date, it has got off fairly lightly. That could change, particularly as Erdogan is now meddling in the Libya quagmire as well, and picking fights with Greece/ Cyprus/ Israel over oil/ gas drilling.
Yesterday in the Guardian:
UK left activists attended events with far right antisemites
Ex-Labour members secretly recorded at meetings with Holocaust deniers
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/feb/22/uk-left-activists-at-far-right-events-antisemites-holocaust-deniers
The Guardian is such an obvious supporter of Zionism and is still accusing Labour of antisemitism. This whole article is simply a huge list of names and attempted guilt by association. Even the “Israeli General’s Son” Miko Peled is accused:
“Another speaker at Keep Talking meetings was Israeli writer Miko Peled, who addressed the group after appearing at a Labour party conference fringe event in Brighton in 2019.
During a Labour party conference in 2017 he reportedly told a fringe event that: “This is about free speech, the freedom to criticise and to discuss every issue, whether it’s the Holocaust: yes or no, Palestine, the liberation, the whole spectrum.”
Like all Zionist supporters, the Guardian is desperate to shut down debate on the Palestine question. Smearing supporters of Palestinian rights as ‘Holocaust deniers’ or ‘anti-Semites’ is the way it’s done.
“They scream out in pain as they hit you.”
The Guardian has chiseled out an uneviable reputation as a go-to platform for regime change.
Given this backdrop is it surprising that the rehabilitation of Tony Blair’s reputation trumps the death of a million Iraqis, or the ensuing crises that has engulfed the Middle East?
The smug Andrew Rawnsley is especially contemptible, here laying it on thick about Blair’ glorious election victories.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/23/tony-blair-and-the-lefts-perverse-preference-for-failure-over-success
Of course the article is really an attack on the idea that there might be alternative to austerity, or a 1,000 neoliberal reich, in particular warning readers about the dangers of ‘Corbynists’ like Zarah Sultana , and the ‘hard left’ in general (i.e those who think functioning public services and fewer illegal wards might not be a bad idea).
Rawnsley is a meant to be a political analyst yet appears to have almost no insight into what Blairism really represents or how his leadership was in effect the death knell of Labour as an even nominally left wing entity, and the driving force behind the party’s ever present divisions.
As an aside great article by Cat Johnstone and the baleful consequences of the kind of Vichy journalism toads like Rawnsley embody.
https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/assanges-persecution-has-exposed-media-depravity-the-world-over-2e5e47a1f0f0
‘Vichy journalism’-perfect! Quisling is a bit shop-worn from over-use.
5 years already. I remember when OffG just started and have liked the blog from the beginning for its truthfulness, wittiness, and the possibility to comment BTL, without censoring and the openness of admin and commenters to join in conversations BTL. The DDOS attacks are a nuisance but trolling does not really exist here.
It’s also been 5 years now that I became interested in social media (for me it started with Charlie Hebdo; not being Charlie I had to find out if there were others who held a similar view as I had, and the rest is history). I have followed many blogs and sites since that time. Some are no longer updated (eg Parenti’s blog) others turned out to be fake (Chomsky, Counterpunch), some are ‘mildly’ interesting because they are close to crazy (Unz Review), and some lost track (Media Lens, Zerohedge).
But OffG is still a beacon, which is quite an achievement in an age of dishonesty and where truth is seldom shown.
I haven’t read the above article closely yet, so apologies for being slightly off topic. But then I just wanted to congratulate OffG for being ‘here’ for 5 years, so there you go!
I love OffG but I still read Zerohedge, although agree it has “lost track”, partly due to predictions of imminent collapse since 2010/11 have proven premature.
May I suggest Caitlin Johnstone and John Michael Greer’s Ecosophia as good sites for insightful essays.
Agreed. And thanks for the suggestion
So much of the stuff that appears in the Guardian these days is so soaked in liberal/left identity and gender… ‘values’ that they border on self-parody, probably because they appear so self-righteous and… ‘woke.’ This is, I’d argue, a disaterous shift that’ll mean ‘doom’ for the Guardian in the long run.
The Guardian, like the BBC, is almost like a vanguard promoting a ‘cultural revolution’ driven by a minority of gender-identity zealots who have virtually no real traction among vast swathes of the public at all. Yet, the Guardian’s writers believe they represent, like the BBC, all the best liberal virtues.
The other day the BBC World Service, which reeks of Foreign Office propaganda, had a report on ‘femicide’ in Mexico. This term ‘femicide’ worries me. Anyway they mentioned that Mexico had a very macho culture and this was linked to violence against women. Now, it’s true, a lot of women are killed in Mexico; but so are an incredible number of men. In fact many times more men are killed in Mexico than women, only the BBC failed to mention this or put the killings in a wider perspective. Don’t the deaths of tens of thousands of men even matter compared to the women?
Mexico is a very violent society indeed and it’s linked to massive social and ecnomic inequality, not gender inequality, which is merely a minor symptom, though tragic, of a far, far, deeper structural problem inside Mexican society, linked to the drugs trade and rival gangs and cartels battling one another over a vast market in the United States for recreational drugs.
The Guardian, like the BBC, are becoming obssessed with pushing their version of the Chinese Red Guards Cultural Revolution and they literally search the world for stories about ‘identity’ and ‘gender’ inequalities. Yet there’s not much evidence that the wider public are anywhere near as interested in these ‘woke’ stories, compared to the media and the liberal elite.
One rarely hears anyone questioning the validity of the ‘progressive’ dogma that absolute equality is possible or even something worth striving for, in a society that’s so unequal in purely economic and social terms.
To be fair the BBC World Service has always been run by the Foreign Office for propaganda purposes, unlike the rest of the BBC which is a mixture of home and abroad propaganda.
They will do ANYTHING to prevent the class terror and parasitism of neo-liberal capitalism being criticised, confronted and ended. Identity Politics, where transgender toilets are more important than the 200,000 murdered by Tory austerity, is just a clever, ‘Divide and Rule’ tactic, that relies, as does the Zionist Lobby, on noisy and ceaseless screeching, supported whole-heartedly by a morally corrupt and Evil, capitalist MSM.
On Syria nothing beats the BBC for relentless broadcasting of ‘humanitarian disaster’ about to be caused (again!) by nasty Russians in alliance with even nastier Assad. All the attention is on “millions” (sic) of women and children being slaughtered. There is never any mention of Jihadi shells hitting Aleppo suburbs or the recent Jihadi offensive that began with 3 suicide bombers clearing military posts. No mention of the ferocity exhibited by Turkish mercenaries executing people on roads sides or the sheer numbers of Jihadi fighters – approximately 50,000. Some, like the 7000 Chinese Jihadis are universally feared by Syrians. The BBC can’t mention them without casting doubt on their other great story of a million Muslim prisoners held in re-education camps. And definitely no mention of our own system known as Prevent.
On the flu I happened to have read today how at the end of the first week in February 1,119 people in Britain had died as a result of catching the illness – in one week. There was no big fuss. The King cancelled a few events and the deaths were a minor news story. I should mention this was February 1933. Times change.
The ‘Chinese’ jihadists are Uighurs who every MSM rag orders us to worship as ‘freedom fighters’ against Xi’s Reich in Nazi China. Of which ‘regime’ you are obviously an apologist because it is THREE million Uighurs confined in ‘concentration camps’, as you very well know. Indeed one doughty local forty year Murdoch servant, Philip Adams, observed, on his ABC Radio sinecure, that it was ‘all’ the Uighurs, but he is visibly and audibly senescing at rapid rate, so it may just have been a slip of the tongue in an excess of enthusiasm, as when he spews hatred at Corby as an ‘antisemite’ or drops the definite article from ‘Holocaust’ to signal his famed, and often boasted of, ‘philosemitism’.
the G, corporate shilling at it’s best. none come close!