Author: Kit Knightly

Jackie and Me: A Brooklyn Thing

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Philip Farruggio We have memories, like flashes of lightning from afar- now we see them, now we don’t. Yet, one can almost call upon them at will, these bits and pieces of our lives, once so vivid, once so real, filed forever as nostalgia. So it is for me, fifty years after the fact. Brooklyn, circa 1955, was truly a special place. Those who did not live or come from Brooklyn told us that we were only a part of New York City- admittedly a large part, but a part. What did they know!? After all, to Brooklynites, who in the hell would brag about being from Manhattan or Queens or Da Bronx? No, they were all wrong. Brooklyn was a city, a world onto itself… and everyone knew it! I was born in Bensonhurst; actually I was born in Bay Ridge Hospital, located in the (duh!) Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn, as different from Bensonhurst as Toledo is from Cleveland. Bay Ridge was home to countless Scandinavians; with more blondes per square block than …

U.S. Continues Supplying Kurds to Counteract Turkey

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Firas Samuri The mass media has been widely covering the details of the disastrous humanitarian situation in Rukban refugee camp over recent months. By the way, the crisis in other sites deserves more considerable attention. Al-Hol refugee camp located in Al-Hasakah province and run by the Syria Democratic Forces is one of them. Every single day from 10 to 20 people, mainly women and children die due to the lack of drinking water, essential goods, and medicine. Only for the past two months, 250 children passed away in the camp. According to estimates, now more than 50,000 refugees reside there, although initially it was designed only for 25,000. It turned out that the catastrophe of Al-Hol residents is caused by the illegal actions of the U.S. authorities. Their homes and shelters in the northern and north-eastern part of Syria have been destroyed by the indiscriminate airstrikes of the U.S.-led international coalition. Apart from Rukban camp situated in the 55-kilometre zone near Al-Tanf, the American servicemen organized ’humanitarian assistance’ for the people in Al-Hol. However, it …

Will Albania fail again to join the EU?

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Dr. Ana L. Scheer On April 11th, the majority of Parliament of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, upon request of the three parliamentary groups: the Christian Democratic Party, the Socialist Party and the Liberal Party, voted for the proposal of the reinstatement of visas for Albanian citizens due to the growing criminality as well as the increase of the illegal emigration in Holland. Yesterday, on April 17th, the Parliament of the Netherlands voted in favor of the reinstatement of visas for Albania proceeding with the formal request for the approval of the EU institution to implement such a decision. This came as a big blow for Albania’s government which most likely will face another refusal from Brussels on the invitation of opening the negotiations for the EU membership. Whilst there has been no official response by the Albanian government on this decision, the opposition and the Albanian political spectrum was quick to blame premier Edi Rama and his government for this grievous action by the Parliament of the Netherlands. “This is a harsh punishment for …

The Obvious Dirty Dealings Behind Julian Assange’s Arrest

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The US has been planning to have Julian Assange handed over for a longtime, that much is obvious. Mike Pence, the Vice President, was visiting Ecuador last year, notionally to discuss the Venezuela situation, and trade. But it was fairly obvious at the time, and even more so now, that they were discussing the details of Assange being handed over to UK authorities, and eventually extradited to the US. “Trade”, indeed.

WATCH: Collateral Murder

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With yesterdays arrest of Julian Assange, we thought it important to remember WHY he was in the Empire’s crosshairs. The video Collateral Murder is WikiLeaks’ most famous, most shocking release. Footage of US military personnel murdering civilians and journalists and laughing about it.

Discuss: Julian Assange Arrested

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This morning, officers of the Metropolitan police were invited into the Ecuadorian embassy by President Lenin Moreno. They proceeded to arrest WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and literally drag him out of the building.

The Big Picture

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Eddison Flame There is a trend that seems to have been going on in the world for a pretty long time now. Rulers in the world have been actively suppressing a particular kind of social movement whenever and wherever it appears. These movements vary in name and in scale, but they are united in principle. In principle, what they all have in common is they are inspired by and founded upon principles of cooperation among people. Consider for example the United States’ long standing anti-socialist policies toward Latin America. These have led the overthrow of one socialist government after another all throughout Latin America and for many years. Even now this policy has not changed, an overthrow attempt in Venezuela is ongoing. Commenting on the subject publicly in mid February Trump tweeted, “We are here to proclaim that a new day is coming in Latin America. In Venezuela and across the Western Hemisphere, Socialism is DYING…”. Even more, as documented by Wayne Madsen for the Strategic Culture Foundation, a number of right wing leaders throughout …

Japan – A quiet geo-economic giant

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Dr. Masahiro Matsumura In the turbulent world politics involving extensive international coverage, stable and humdrum Japan does not have much of a presence. Yet, Japan is the world’s largest creditor nation while continuously playing significant roles in trade, direct investment and economic assistance. Japan in the background has reinforced itself as a leading geo-economic power while having almost thoroughly eliminated its huge non-performing loans in the banking sector and other structural vulnerabilities over the so-called “lost two decades” consequent on its bubble burst in the early 1990s. Let us examine it by deploying the famous 5 Es of prof. Djawed Sangdel. Emphasizing Japan’s world-largest public debts that amount to nearly 240% of its GDP is misleading given that its public assets amount to nearly 200% and that the holding of the government bonds by the Bank of Japan, practically, a part of the government, amount to more than 80%. This is consistent with the good stability of a strong yen and very low long-term prime rates. On the other hand, the U.S. faces deepening structural …

DISCUSS: Theresa May Promises to Resign

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The weird world of post-Brexit vote UK politics swirls around some more. Now, in order to try to force her deal through the commons, May has pledged to resign as Prime Minister.

Mueller’s Sideshow Closes – But it has Served its Purpose

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To state my position clearly – I never believed, for a second, that the Mueller investigation would find any evidence of “Russian collusion”. Not simply because there isn’t any. Let’s be honest, the powers that be “find evidence” of things that never happened all the time.

Corbyn was right – TIG should have no role in our politics

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Kit Knightly On Wednesday, following her latest series of total disasters, Theresa May called an emergency meeting of party leaders to deal with Brexit. Despite not being a party leader, and the fact The Independent Group not actually a political party, Chuka Umunna was invited. Jeremy Corbyn refused to take part in the meeting if Umunna was there. The press, and the chattering classes, dragged Corbyn over the coals for this decision. Mostly because it’s what they do, it’s a reflex at this point. But also because of a general misunderstanding about the reality of the “independent” group. The tabloids engaged their best hacks headline writers, displaying the limitations of their vocabularies (or demonstrating that they take orders from the same place): CORB WALKOUT Jeremy Corbyn ridiculed after storming out of Brexit talks as ex-Labour MP Chuka Ummuna was there” The Sun Jeremy Corbyn STORMS OUT of Theresa May’s Brexit talks in protest at Chuka Umunna invite” The Express While the quote-unquote more reputable papers had their laziest op-ed writers vomit out a few hundred …

Censorship and Arrests in Wake of Christchurch Attack

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No matter the source of the violence, no matter the politics or casualties or the location, it seems the reaction of governments in the face of “terrorism” is virtually always the same – clamp down, hard, on individual rights.

Guardian getting behind Beto O’Rourke?

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Headlines are important, sometimes they’re the only part of any story people will read. They scan over the words, assume they got the gist of the article, and move on. It’s why they’re almost always the most dishonest part of any story in the mainstream news. Case in point: Beto O’Rourke, one of a crowded field of democratic hopefuls for the 2020 Presidential bid, raised 6.1 million dollars for his campaign, in 24 hours. This “stunning sum” apparently “smashes” Bernie Sanders’ record. If you read the article you’ll find, near the bottom, that Bernie raised 5.9 million in 24 hours. How 6.1 million “smashes” this record I’m not sure. I don’t have the dictionary definition of “smashed” memorized, but I’m fairly positive it isn’t “increase by slightly over three percent”. This sort of language is an indicator that O’Rourke is going to be the Guardianista pick. Well meaning liberals will rejoice in his ability to sound good whilst saying absolutely nothing of any value. His nice smile, his youth, and the fact he is as …

Jess Phillips Emerges as Establishment Pick to Replace Corbyn

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It seems The Times is willing to give column inches to any Labour MP willing to insult and undermine their leader, and is determined to try and tell the public which politicians are the “trendy” ones. To bring back that “cool Britannia” New Labour image. To force us to like them by clamouring about how progressive and normal and popular they are.

The MSM just realised the “Integrity Initiative” is a thing

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…and it turns out it was all Russia’s fault Kit Knightly For those of you who don’t know, the Integrity Initiative is (was?) a UK-government funded operation to “counter disinformation”. It was run under the auspices of the (fake) charity the Institute for Statecraft, paid for by the foreign office and intelligence agencies, and co-opted journalists to spread propaganda. This was all revealed months ago, when internal documents were leaked online. (Moon of Alabama did great work on this, as did Kit Klarenberg). Journalists and other influencers were collected into cells, what the Integrity Initiative’s (II) internal memos called “clusters”, usually by region. These clusters were tasked with “combating Russian disinformation”, or other polite translations of “disseminating propaganda”. The II’s target list is short but predictable – it attacked Russia, Russian media and “Russian bots”. It attacked Scottish nationalists and the independence movement, and it attacked Jeremy Corbyn. Essentially, they turn the fire of their “clusters” on those perceived to be enemies of the status quo. Those contributing to these clusters are then little more …

Anti-Capitalism is NOT Anti-Semitism

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Austerity is a brutal crime against humanity. The rich get richer whilst the poor are starving. The 1% deserve to be held up to scrutiny, criticism and even prosecution. Attempts to distract from political rhetoric based around class, wealth or inequality with unfounded accusations or a focus on identity politics are nothing but a well-oiled machine protecting itself.

Owen Jones Unpersons Chris Williamson

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Kit Knightly UPDATE & CORRECTION: Owen has claimed he changed the article in question some time before the expulsion of Williamson. We have now checked his claim on the Wayback Machine and it appears to be true. Syme was not only dead, he was abolished, an unperson. George Orwell – 1984 Chris Williamson should never have been suspended from the Labour Party – he should never have been rebuked or chastised for his words at Sheffield. He told the truth, and those who have deliberately taken his words out of context to vilify him in smug, dishonest editorials, have a political axe to grind that is nothing to do with genuine antisemitism. This should be the position of everyone on the left who has a genuine interest in a socialist Labour government. Sadly, it is not. Williamson has been thrown under the bus. Ritually sacrificed. That New Labour climbers like Tom Watson, and braying media whores like Rachel Riley, play an active role in this surprises nobody. Their glee is as evident as it is …

People’s Vote: Corbyn Signs His Own Death Warrant

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Kit Knightly Throughout his leadership of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn has disappointed some of his most ardent admirers by his refusal to hang tough. Yes, he has played many situations with canniness and subtlety, but too often he has been soft, appeased and conciliated where it is either unnecessary, or worse, entirely counter productive. Too often he vows to “listen” to the problems of dissenting New Labour MPs, instead of asserting his authority. Too many times he has promised to “tackle antisemitism”, instead of bluntly telling everyone – “Labour is NOT antisemitic, this is a smear campaign”. Corbyn should know by now that he can’t win by playing their game by their rules. You can’t appease people who do not want to be appeased. You can’t clean up a smear campaign, and trying just spreads the smears further. However, none of his previous mistakes compare to the kamikaze of backing a people’s vote on Brexit, a huge mistake that undermines the Labour movement from multiple angles. Firstly, there is “The Independent Group” to consider …

Labour Splitters: Getting the Bland Back Together

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As of this morning, seven MPs have officially resigned the whip and quit the Labour Party. They are now “independent”, apparently. Their names, if you don’t know already: Chris Leslie, Chuka Umunna, Luciana Berger, Mike Gapes, Angela Smith…and the other two.

“New Knowledge” and the same old same old

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Most of us in the UK-based alternate media are familiar with the Integrity Initiative by now. A disinformation campaign funded by the foreign office through the (very dodgy sounding) Institute for Statecraft. Their job was to smear people opposing Theresa May’s government – be they foreign or domestic. Less well-known in this country is New Knowledge, a direct US-based parallel of the Integrity Initiative. They’ve been conducting “counter propaganda” and “social media experiments” in the US since 2015, but only just hit the headlines.