“VAZIANI TRAINING AREA, Republic of Georgia — Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airmen from the U.S., Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Ukraine participated in the opening ceremony here July 15 for the training exercise Immediate Response 2008.”

“‘Over the next several weeks, we will live together, work together, and train together,’ SETAF commander Brig. Gen. William B. Garrett III said in his remarks at the event. ‘This is an invaluable opportunity to get to know and understand one another, to learn about different cultures, and to build enduring relationships between professional militaries.’”

–

Coincidence?

Bound to be.

Despite today’s anti-Russian frenzy in the British media here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, to give a few examples, at least one UK citizen has demonstrated he has an ounce of wit, commenting in the Telegraph, “Better leave the bear alone and get busy with that cunning fox (Saakashvili). I have an impression every word of his is a lie. The whole day he’s been claimin’ his troops pulled out of Ossetia and now even Sky News reported seeing many Georgean troops around Ossetian capital ready to strike. I presume that’s their usual tactics - hit & run.”

Couldn’t agree more.

In order to offer some kind of counter to the media spin, here’s a transcript of an interview between Wolf Blitzer and Alexander Darchiev, Russian charge d’affairs in Washington, on last night’s CNN Late Edition:

BLITZER: Mr. Darchiev, thanks very much for joining us. Why is your government, your country’s military attacking targets in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia? Mr. Darchiev, I don’t know if you can hear me

DARCHIEV: Yeah, I can hear you, and so what actually is going on on the ground, yeah, I can hear you. What’s actually going on the ground is precision strikes against military infrastructure in order to prevent Georgian aircraft and military attack on our peacekeepers.

BLITZER: Let me interrupt, Mr. Darchiev, but I’m not exactly clear. What do targets inside Tbilisi, which is relatively far away from the front lines in this battle — what do targets in Tbilisi have to do with what’s going on in Ossetia?

DARCHIEV: There is a military airfield there, so what we’re actually doing is we are striking against legitimate military targets in order to prevent Georgian aircraft and military attack our peacekeepers.

BLITZER: The Bush administration is not very happy with what Russia is doing right now, with what the prime minister, Mr. Putin is doing, or the president, Medvedev, is doing. The deputy national security adviser to President Bush issued a statement in Beijing today, and I’m going to play it for you. Listen to this.

Let me read it to you. “We have made it clear to the Russians that if the disproportionate and dangerous escalation on the Russian side continues, that this will have a significant long-term impact on U.S.-Russian relations.”

How worried are you right now, Mr. Darchiev, that this could have an enormous impact on the future of U.S. and indeed western relations with Russia?

DARCHIEV: You know, yes, what actually is going on so we are trying to enforce the adventurous Georgian leadership to peace, and the best thing our American partners could do is to tell Mr. Saakashvili, to tell him quite clearly that he could not prevail militarily, that he should be held accountable for the barbaric and treacherous attack on innocent civilians in South Ossetia, that he should be held accountable for the aggression against South Ossetia.

And the best thing he could do right now is to unconditionally, I repeat, unconditionally withdraw his troops and sign a legally binding agreement with Ossetians on non use of force. In no ways do we have plans to invade Georgia. Again, our goal is to force adventurous Georgian leadership to peace.

BLITZER: But don’t you recognise Ossetia as part of the territorial integrity of Georgia, because the rest of the world does?

DARCHIEV: You know, what happened on August 7th, I mean, the aggression and indiscriminate shelling of residential neighborhoods of Tskhinvali. You know, Tskhinvali itself is completely ruined. There’s 20,000 refugees, there are more than 2,000 civilians killed. There are credible reports that Georgian special forces were throwing grenades into the shelters where women and children were hiding; wounded civilians including little kids and peacekeepers were finished off by gunshots and bayonets.

In this circumstances, in this aggression, there should be no talk of South Ossetia remaining in Georgia. You know, the people there have voted several times for their independence, you know, and after what happened, after that aggression I think there should be no further talk for South Ossetia being part of Georgia.

BLITZER: So you’re saying it’s now what, part of Russia?

DARCHIEV: We’re not saying that. That’s the people for South Ossetia to decide, you know.

BLITZER: What about — there’s word now that Ukraine, another strong ally of the United States like Georgia, is siding with Georgia against Russia and in fact taking military action and blockades involving Russian vessels. What’s your reaction to that?

DARCHIEV: I think it’s a very unfortunate development, and I just want to make it quite clear this is not a naval blockade. We want to be sure no military equipment from abroad is being shipped abroad from the zone of conflict by sea. And again, what’s going on, on the ground in South Ossetia, is a peace enforcement. We want to force the Georgian leadership to peace, and what we see right now on the ground is that Georgian troops not withdrawing but regrouping, including heavy armor and increased attacks on Tskhinvali. Mass mobilisation is still under way.

BLITZER: So I take it, Mr. Darchiev, you’re in no mood for a cease-fire, a return to the status quo any and to what existed a few days ago?

DARCHIEV: You know, what is right now, and with every day passed, what should be done first for — and the best thing that Mr. Saakashvili can do, that he should unconditionally withdraw his troops, right now. And the sooner — and the sooner he does it, the better.

BLITZER: All right, Mr. Darchiev, we’ll — we’re going to leave it right there, Alexander Darchiev, the charge at the Russian Embassy here in Washington.

The Financial Times reports today that “Opec nations earned as much in the first half of this year as they did in the whole of 2007 – thanks both to record oil prices and record production – triggering a big increase in its spending.”

The question is, what are they spending it on?

One answer came in yesterday’s Sunday Times.

So,  London based financial interests artificially drive up the price of oil, their friends in Saudi make pots of money, and in return, London based defense companies get lovely big contracts, safe in the knowledge there’ll be no corruption inquiry.

I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about here. Move along, now.

In the future, people will look back on the 8th of August, 2008 as the day WWIII began. Long in the planning, the defeated Lisbon Treaty faction within the EU has been pressing ahead anyway with their policy of destabilisation in the Balkans and the Caucasus.

Back in February, when the EU supported the unilateral independence of Kosovo, it was already perfectly clear that this destabilisation would not only touch the Balkan states, but was also giving the green light to every conceivable separatist movement and minority throughout the world.

Just as the war in the Balkans lead up to World War I, this ethnically complicated region is serving as a chessboard for EU geopolitical destabilisations, drawing Europe and Russia into conflict, with the ultimate aim to subsume Russia into an even more massive European super state.

Yesterday morning, an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council was called at the behest of Russia. The Georgian Ambassador stated his position - that Georgia offers South Ossetia autonomy, but only along “European lines,” with international guarantees. This “European” style autonomy is the same strategy defined by the Centre for Liberal Strategies, based in Bulgaria, from where it is argued that the entire region must become a “post-modern European order,” with no nation states. As a result, they say, a clash with Russia is inevitable, because Russia “embodies the nostalgia both for the old-European nation-state, and for a European order organised around the balance of power and non-interference in the domestic affairs of other states”

That Russia is the ultimate target was made clear at the end of last month in a Newsweek article by Mark Leonard, Director of the European Council On Foreign Relations. An anti-Russian propaganda piece, he rounded it off by saying “This one lingering issue [the Litvinenko affair] is but a glaring illustration of the kinds of problems Russia poses to the rest of Europe. It is therefore time for the EU to agree, at least on principle, to a common response to these shows of Russian aggression. The EU’s population is more than three times the size of Russia’s; its economy is 15 times larger. But its biggest strength lies in interdependence, solidarity and consensus. When the next crisis comes, all European states will need to be prepared.”

Clearly, some in the EU corridors of power are beginning to think like Hitler.

On the very same day, another ECFR “thinker,” Nick Whitney, released a report which argued for a group of European nations to press ahead with the establishment of the military and defense institutions envisaged by the Lisbon Treaty, thus creating a “two speed” European defense policy.

Although there is no requirement for EU countries to participate, he wrote, they then have no right to interfere with EU “pioneer group” decisions on sending troops abroad.

There should be the creation of an EU headquarters in Brussels, which would integrate civilian assets for crisis management, for example the police, with the military. (Just a few days ago, Silvio Berlusconi deployed Italian troops onto the streets of Italy, to “help police fight crime,” in what’s clearly a trial run of this policy recommendation.)

Whitney’s report calls for the consolidation of the pioneer group’s men and materiel, and the creation of a cartel of streamlined defence industries which are, he says, presently too focused on sovereign national priorities. He demands that pioneer groups of countries, with their expeditionary force capabilities, pool together around the European Defense Agency - the EU’s mini Pentagon.

Many European nations have been well aware for some time of Georgia’s intentions to attack South Ossetia. Indeed, they have been planning it. Under EU Secretary General Javier Solana’s direction, the EU organised a diplomatic group which traveled to Transdniestria, Moldova, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. They arranged visits to Brussels and London by leaders they were cultivating from these so-called “unrecognised republics.”

In this effort, the EU group has been working closely with Georgia’s “Rose Revolution” leader, President Michael Saakashvili, who said himself in May: “We are the fighting ground for a new world war.”

Last week, I let off a bit of steam about an article in the Times which reported that the public was blaming the banks for the state of the global financial system.

Today it was the turn of Ambrose Evans-Prichard, who bemoans the blame falling on Capitalism, and instead blames “governments.”

The collapse of today’s financial system really began the day Kennedy died. On the 4th of June, 1963, Kennedy had issued Executive Order No. 11110, which returned the power to issue currency to the US Government, rather than the Federal Reserve. With his death, the direction of US economic policy once again came under the control of politicians whose only allegance was to international banking, rather then the Constitution.

Subesquent governments ended up being run by “think tanks” such as the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations, who, having successfully destroyed the Breton Woods system through control of Nixon’s premiership, went on to promote a “controlled disintegration of the economy” as detailed in their joint “1980s Project.”

As the CFR say themselves, “As it turned out, the title of the project was a little premature; not until the 1990s did the issues explored truly dominate the international agenda. But many 1980s Project authors were by then installed in government policymaking positions, and when the Cold War came to its unexpectedly sudden end the Council had provided for the public record an impressive database for the global issues confronting coming generations.”

So the Nixon, Ford and Carter administrations and their counterparts here in Europe, all worked hard to lay the groundwork which would destroy the productive capabilities of their respective economies, turning them instead into a grotesque global monetary-financial betting shop.

This betting shop has allowed the top 2% of the population in terms of monetary income to make an unprecidented grab for assets. In the meantime, just enough of the profits have been thrown to the rest to keep us quiet.

As I said in that earlier post, though, while bankers and politicians are clearly corrupt, greedy, almost Satanic in their world view, they are not to blame for anything. Just in the same way Monsanto is not to blame for Aspartame becoming the most widely consumed food additive.

It’s the rest … the silent, “go along to get along”, “you can’t change the system” majority who sit and do nothing, who is responsible. Banks, governments, think tanks and “leadership training charities” only have power because we give it to them, and we’re so scared of losing our cheap, plastic, slave-built gadgets that we don’t want to act. The irony is, they’re shitting bricks in case any more of us waken up any time soon.

So, after months of “pressure” from the “regulators,” Citigroup and Merrill Lynch agreed to compensate thousands of investors who are stuck in the frozen Auction-Rate Securities market.

Citigroup agreed to buy back $7 billion worth of ARS from retail investors in the next three months, while Merrill agreed to buy back $10 billion worth at the start of next year.

UBS is still in discussions with the regulators about their own similar deal.

Brian Gerrish’s latest video on Common Purpose.

Many of the world’s biggest banks are proposing reforms that would limit the size and scope of their businesses in one of the most dramatic responses to the credit crisis.

The proposals would hold down the number of investors who can buy complex financial products, bring large swathes of the derivatives markets into regulators’ sights and call on banks to spend more on technology and risk management.

–

Too little, too late.

The building blocks are being put in place for a war between Europe and Russia. A new report from European Council for Foreign Relations makes calls for a “two speed” European defence policy - effectively urging certain nations to proceed with one of the key tenets of the Lisbon Treaty / European Constitution without the need to wait for agreement from the rest. To hell with you, Ireland!

The report is written by ECFR Senior Fellow Nick Witney. Educated at Oxford, Witney is a career diplomat for Britain, among other things he supervised the Al Yamamah contract (BAE) for the U.K. Ministry of Defense, before becoming the first head of the European Defense Agency, the EU’s mini-Pentagon.

The report (pdf) calls for the reduction of the total number of Europeans in uniform, the reduction in “useless” military equipment such as tanks (consolidation), and the creation of a cartel of streamlined defence industries which are, he says, presently too focused on sovereign national priorities. He demands that “pioneer groups” of countries, with their expeditionary force capabilities, pool together around the EDA.

Although there is no requirement for EU countries to participate, he writes, they then have no right to interfere with EU “pioneer group” decisions on sending troops abroad.

There should be the creation of an EU headquarters in Brussels, which would integrate civilian assets for crisis management (such as police) with the military. (Are this weeks events in Italy a trial run, do you think?)

The report also urges the creation of a civilian reserve corps, to ensure the right personnel are available.

On the same day the Witney report was released, his colleague, Mark Leonard, Director of the ECFR, had an anti-Russian propaganda piece published in Newsweek. He rounded off by saying “This one lingering issue [the Litvinenko affair] is but a glaring illustration of the kinds of problems Russia poses to the rest of Europe. It is therefore time for the EU to agree, at least on principle, to a common response to these shows of Russian aggression. The EU’s population is more than three times the size of Russia’s; its economy is 15 times larger. But its biggest strength lies in interdependence, solidarity and consensus. When the next crisis comes, all European states will need to be prepared.”

Is it a coincidence that these two reports from the same think tank were published on the same day?

I think not.

In another step towards a society based upon the feudalism of the middle ages, British police have begun blocking food deliveries to the “climate camp” being held at Kingsnorth coal power station in Kent.

While the protesters’ reasons for protest are simply wrong, their right to protest is inviolable. The attempted use of hunger as a crowd control mechanism is a giant leap too far. When will the general public start getting angry about this stuff?

Meanwhile, in Italy, Silvio Berlusconi deployed more than 1000 troops on Italian streets yesterday, to “help police fight crime.” He intends to raise the number to 3000 in the near future. Will it stop there, do you think?

And the “critics” of the deployment? Giving us another example of how to narrow the public debate on any issue, they called it a “useless” “publicity stunt.”

That’s alright, then.

Ambrose Evans-Prichard, that mouthpiece of the City of London Establishment, has joined forces with Deutsche Bank to promote the nonsensical idea that commodity prices are at their peak.

Sell, sell, sell, he spews, because “oil will slide back towards its ‘marginal production cost’ of $60 to $80 a barrel; gold will slump to $650 an ounce as the dollar recovers against the euro; copper, lead and tin will slowly halve in price; grains will calm down as harvests in Australia and the Eurasian Steppe return to normal.”

And if there was any doubt he’s lost it completely … “Yes, oil and food price rises have pushed headline inflation to 4.1pc, but core inflation has fallen from 1.9pc to 1.8pc over the past year.” Oh yeah?

In a sense, I can see where he is coming from. He sees the onrushing collapse of global manufacturing as a result of the collapse of the financial system. So, he argues, the demand for commodities will also collapse.

Well, maybe it will. But any such effect will be more than compensated for by the fact simple fact that in the very near future, people aren’t going to want to invest in paper anymore, because they’ll finally realise that it’s all already worthless. Keep in mind, folks, that Gold is only a third of its inflation adjusted highs of the last century, the dollar isn’t going to recover against the euro, and does anybody actually know when harvests are going to return to normal in Australia and the Eurasian Steppe?

–

Update: Right on queue, as predicted by DB and Ambrose, commodity prices are retreating. So was Ambrose right after all? Nope. According to today’s FT speculators don’t have a clue which way to place their bets, “… hedge funds were almost equally balanced between those betting on further declines for oil prices and those expecting prices to rally” and “traders said the outlook for gold was becoming increasingly polarised with bulls encouraged by concerns over the likelihood of further problems in the US financial system and bears finding support from any bouts of dollar strength.”

Particularly for gold, that sounds like clutching at straws to me. Any downward price pressure is going to be more than compensated for, as I said, by the sad facts that the dollar is not going to recover, and oil production infrastructure is crumbling as fast as the financial system.

The Observer instructs us to fear Muslim women now. “European intelligence chiefs have launched a major investigation into the threat posed by female Islamic militants within the EU, whose involvement runs from logistics or propaganda activity to suicide bombing, they say.”

What a load of bollocks. Samuel P. Huntington must be laughing up his sleeve.

The Sunday Times reports that the Royal Bank of Scotland is about to announce a £1 billion loss at least for the first half of the year, with anal-ists warning that it could slide to £1.7 billion. That, they say, is the largest loss in UK banking history.

So I’m adding RBS to the UK watch list:

Barclays
Bradford & Bingley
HBOS
RBS

August is going to be an interesting month.

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad called it like it is yesterday …

“Saddam has been hanged, Karadzic was recently arrested, but this man goes around the world, lecturing on the rule of law,” he said, referring to Tony Blair’s presence in Malaysia yesterday, giving the 22nd Sultan Azlan Shah Law Lecture, an annual event of Universiti Malaya since 1986. The lecture was entitled “Rule of Law and Good Governance,” both of which are subjects Blair is singularly unqualified to speak about.

“I am disgusted that Tony Blair has been invited to Malaysia. This man, to me, is a war criminal. Through instigating the war in Iraq, he has killed more than Radovan Karadzic and Saddam Hussein,” said Mahathir at his office at the Petronas Twin Towers.

“It is disgusting to see this criminal of the highest order being welcomed in Malaysia, and worse still to talk on the rule of law when he broke all international laws and the laws of his own country by deliberately lying and sending young British soldiers to die in a war of aggression.

“Yet you have seen how readily the United States and its cohorts condemn the President of Sudan, Omar Bashir, for alleged war crimes in Darfur when there is no evidence that he deliberately issued orders to war against anyone.”

“The conspiracy of silence by Malaysia’s media is to be condemned, for you are lending support to a War Criminal whose criminal acts must not go unpunished.”

At the time of writing, a search of Google shows only three news articles covering Mahathir’s remarks, so the media silence goes a bit beyond Malaysia, I think.

Today, Mahathir Mohamad is Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal chairman.

I wonder how many times I’ll get to use that headline? First Priority joins the list.

Failed Banks So far:

Northern Rock
Bear Stearns
IndyMac
First Integrity Bank
ANB Financial
Hume Bank
Douglas National Bank
First Heritage Bank
First National Bank of Nevada
First Priority Bank

Forthcoming failures(?):

Barclays (senior execs jumping ship)
Bradford & Bingley
HBOS
Downey Financial
Corus Bankshares
Doral Financial
FirstFed Financial
Oriental Financial
BankUnited Financial
Washington Mutual

… etc.

I find it amusing when China is criticised for censoring Internet content. It becomes clearer by the day that the “powers that be” here in Europe, and especially in the UK, would love to be able to do the same out in the open, just like China.

But one of the “great” things about living in a democracy is that the fact that I am a slave to the system is fairly well hidden. So I have the freedom to live my life with my head up my ass, in blissful ignorance of my own slavery, while my actions are policed by public opinion and the derision of my peers. Sure it’s a more convoluted technique, but, really, do the “powers that be” have any reason to be jealous?

The Guardian reports today that “the internet industry must take more responsibility for protecting young people from the ‘dark side’ of digital content relating to abuse, violence and suicide, according to a committee of MPs.”

Apparently, the committee “recommended the establishment of a self-regulatory body to create better online safeguards to protect children from being exposed to unsuitable material. The body would police websites, adjudicate on complaints and could help crack down on piracy and illegal file-sharing in Britain.”

Why? Are kids not entitled to know this stuff goes on? And where will the line be drawn? Sex? Drugs? Or, maybe, it’ll be any content which might open young people’s eyes to the truth of this Brave New World we live in.

What the hell do these MPs think qualifies my ISP to police my or my children’s Internet usage anyway? I’d have thought it’s the responsibility of parents to manage their children’s Internet time, and not some nameless, unaccountable little Hitler at an ISP?

Just another in a long line of those they want me to bend over for.

Apparently, banks and building societies are to blame for the economic turmoil, with the finger of public opinion being pointed at the biggest players, in particular.

Bloody cheek! While the banks are clearly corrupt, greedy, almost Satanic in their world view, they are not to blame for anything. Just as Monsanto is not to blame for Aspartame becoming the most widely consumed food additive.

JOE PUBLIC IS TO BLAME!

Yes, folks, instead of staring wide eyed around yourselves to find an excuse for your increasingly shitty lives, why not look in the mirror for a change and take some personal responsibility? No-one forced you to speculate wildly on the housing market, remortgage to the hilt to buy your gold plated bath. No-one forced you to run up massive credit card bills at Gordon Ramsay restaurants. Wise up! And while you’re at it, how about taking some responsibility for your children as well?

That’s the headline in today’s Telegraph coverage of the “trial” of three men accused of helping the alleged suicide bombers who blew up London Underground trains and a bus on the 7th of July 2005.

Except that these men didn’t assist the alleged bombers, because the alleged bombers didn’t do it.

What’s rarely noticed is that, by the official story, the “bombers” took a train with their rucksack bombs from Luton to Kings Cross Station. Except that train doesn’t go to Kings Cross station - it goes to Kings Cross Thameslink station.  It’s a walk of several minutes to the Kings Cross underground station. Even if the bombers had run through the tunnels, out onto the street, over the top of the rush hour commuters, through more tunnels, and even if there had been a tube train just waiting to pull away as they got on, it isn’t possible to get to Edgeware Road on time. I know - I tried. Couldn’t do it.

Never mind all the other holes in the official tale.

The whole story is a pile of shite, so it’s no wonder the Jury at the trial of the supposed co-conspirators can’t reach a unanimous verdict. No wonder the government refuses to hold an official inquiry.

With the news today that two more US banks have failed, I thought it would be useful to see where we are with the continuing collapse of the global financial system.

Failed Banks So far:

Northern Rock
Bear Stearns
IndyMac
First Integrity Bank
ANB Financial
Hume Bank
Douglas National Bank
First Heritage Bank
First National Bank of Nevada

Forthcoming failures(?):

Barclays (senior execs jumping ship right now!)
Bradford & Bingley
HBOS
Downey Financial
Corus Bankshares
Doral Financial
FirstFed Financial
Oriental Financial
BankUnited Financial
Washington Mutual

… and many more. Keep you posted.

It feels like the summer of 1931. The world’s two biggest financial institutions have had a heart attack. The global currency system is breaking down. The policy doctrines that got us into this mess are bankrupt. No world leader seems able to discern the problem, let alone forge a solution.
–
Were you around in 1931, Ambrose? [...]

If there’s one thing I object to in the strongest terms, it’s the use of the Holocaust as a political battering ram to shut people up when they criticise fascist behaviour.

In this case, it was Brazil’s foreign minister, Celso Amorim, who, with some justification, said rich countries’ deception in trade talks reminded him of tactics used by Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.

The US delegation, led by Susan Schwab, immediately hurled her decendancy from Holocaust survivors straight back at him, in order to deflect media attention from the fact that the policies of the World Trade Organisation can quite justifiably be compared to those of the Hitler regime.

Bloody typical.

Bank share prices were on a rollercoaster last week. Can it get worse?
–
Yes.

Marriage and family life could be boosted by getting more jobless young men into work, the Tories will argue this week in a controversial new approach to single motherhood.
–
No shit, Sherlock?

Science was recently able to announce proof that women’s brains are different to men’s. Anyone with a wife probably knows that anyway. But what science has so far not been able to prove, is whether Jacqui Smith, the British Home Secretary, has a brain at all.

On the 17th June, the government published the crime figures for 2007/08 (pdf). The statistics show a 12% fall in violent crime over the previous year, and yet, as part of the British government’s effort to disarm the general population of everything from guns to rolling pins, we have all been bombarded with story after story about the rise of knife related crime.

According to the British crime figures, no-one knows whether or not knife crime is more common now than in previous years, because they haven’t collected statistics on this specific area before - the numbers were rolled into the statistics for general violent crime, which as I already pointed out, are down on the previous year.

So in an effort to make certain that next year’s figures show an upward trend, Ms Smith is encouraging members of the public to intervene in knife related incidents. I can’t think of a better way to get yourself killed, which would be ideal for the propagandists at the Home Office, who would have a field day.

This government doesn’t want to see a reduction in knife related crime, or any other crime - they are using it as an just another excuse to degrade civil liberties, in the same way they use the non-existent terrorist threat.

Some months ago, the Orange Order decided that their image needed a revamp. Out of their “minds” popped “Orange Dan,” a superhero to end all superheros, and the answer to attracting sophisticated Northern Irish kids into the clan.

Now, I grew up in Belfast, and I know lots of Orangemen. I felt that rather than looking like this:

that a more accurate mascot might be this:

Well, anyway, the point of this post is that it turns out that the Orange Order actually stole the image from a designer in Essex and have had to desist from using Dan until such times as he is legally licenced.

–

Several months ago, the BBC foisted its iPlayer on an unsuspecting Internet, severely denting the already tight profits of Britain’s Internet Service Providers.

It seems they feel the need to conduct a review of how they are funded, as there is no legal requirement in the UK to buy a TV licence unless you watch or record broadcast TV, and they are getting “concerned” about their future income. Oops.

Up yours, BBC, is what I say.

The Guardian headlined a story yesterday with, “Policing to be put in the hands of directly elected mayors as part of radical shakeup.” The article says, “Directly elected mayors are to be given democratic control over their local police as part of a shakeup to be detailed today by the home secretary, Jacqui Smith.

So far only 12 towns and cities, including London, have directly elected mayors. Ministers hope the powers will increase the appeal of such a post.

Under the proposals, to be spelled out in a Home Office green paper on policing this afternoon, mayors such as Boris Johnson in London will become  the “new crime and policing representative” for their city, replacing the  existing police authority.”

So, what’s this all about, then?

Feudalism

Feudalism does not, as the word might suggest, require a society of kings and noblemen with peasants living in mud huts any more than to be a fascist requires the wearing of a swastika.

Rather, a feudal society is one where 95% of the population is treated like ill-fed, poorly educated (if at all) cattle, where there is no hope of a better life for the next generation, and where the top 5% live as an oligarchy, feeding off the rest via their corporations, supported by their unelected puppetmasters (think tanks, NGOs) who manage the so-called elected representatives.

Lisbon Treaty

One of the key authors of the Lisbon Treaty was Giuliano Amato, erstwhile President of Italy. In an interview with Barbara Spinelli*, printed in the Italian daily La Stampa on the 13th July, 2000, Amato explained his vision for the future:

“Frankly, I do not want a continental Europe only, without the immense patrimony of England, and of the Scandinavians linked to England. Nor would I like to lose Spain, which is skeptical of the vanguard … To have England among us would not be bad: In many ways, London is already where we would like to be. It would not be bad if England, with its experience of economic reforms, were present in the council of States belonging to the euro … Therefore I prefer to go slowly, to crumble little by little pieces of sovereignty, avoiding sudden shifts from national to federal powers … I do not believe in a federal sovereign, because our globalised universe is post-Hobbesian.”

Spinelli: “The world you describe seems to be pre-Hobbesian. It seems to precede the nation-state.”

“And why not going back the period before Hobbes?” replied Amato. “The Middle Ages had a much richer humanity, and a diversity of identity which today can be a model. The Middle Ages is beautiful: It can have its policymaking centers, without relying entirely on anyone. It is beyond the bounds of the nation-state. Today, as then, nomads are reappearing in our societies. Today, also, we have powers without territories … Without sovereignties, we will not have totalitarianism. Democracy does not need a sovereign.”

So, the idea behind the Lisbon Treaty, and surely Amato must have agreed this with the other authors, is for a return to middle ages style feudalism, which was characterised, for the vast majority, by a complete absence of human rights or justice, by short life expectancies, and by rampaging war and disease. To consider this “beautiful” is insane, is it not?

City States

Another characteristic of the middle ages, was the City State, and there lies the second front in the destruction of the nation state.

The modern drive to re-establish the City State came in April, 2006, with the “First Transatlantic Conference of Mayors,” held in Lyon, France.

Opening the conference, Denver Mayor, Wellington E Webb said, “If there is one theme that I would like to impart during this session, it is: the nineteenth century was the century of Empires. The twentieth century was the century of nationstates. The twenty-first century will be a ‘century of cities.’”

The Policy Of Dictatorship

So just as the Lisbon Treaty moves power from soveriegn nation state governments to an unelected dictatorship, the City State takes power via devolution. In combination, they leave the nation with no power of self determination, because in the end, the City State will only exist to implement the policies handed down by the unelected dictatorship.

This political architecture represents the goal of a centrally managed, global, fascist dictatorship. The key elements are being put in place slowly, but surely, and the migration of control of the police from the Police Authority to the City Mayors is just another step.

–

* The full interview can only be found by using La Stampa’s archive search. Use the search term “Europa,” change the next drop down to “Frase esatta,” change the dates to 13th July 2000, and click on Ricerca. The article is entitled “DAL SOGNO DEL PRINCIPE AL GOVERNO DI BRUXELLES DIBATTITO AMATO all’Europa non serve un sovrano” and is the first result returned.

The UK has completed the ratification process for the Lisbon Treaty according to today’s Independent. Apparently, “under the UK’s ratification process, both houses of Parliament must pass the treaty.

The Queen then gives Royal Assent, and signs goatskin ‘instruments of ratification’ along with the Foreign Secretary.

These are then sealed, bound in blue leather, and deposited with the Italian ministry of foreign affairs in Rome.”

Which all raises an interesting question - can the reigning monarch be guilty of treason? What is treason in a so-called modern democracy anyway?

I suppose, in general terms, it is any act which will in any way weaken the integrity of the nation state. The BBC defined it as “the crime of betraying one’s country,” when discussing the possibility of prosecuting Islamic “radicals” a few years ago.

There is no question that the Lisbon Treaty weakens the integrity of the nation state of Great Britain, and it certainly looks like a betrayal of the country to me. But does the Queen’s ratification of that Treaty constitute treason against the nation state and the Monarchy itself?

I’d really like to know the answer to that …

Apparently, an education official in New South Wales has called for study of the Holocaust to be made mandatory at all schools in his charge. He is appalled, he said, to discover that students did not know about the genocide of the Jews of Europe.

While reading that article, I realised that he was right, but maybe not for the reasons he might think. Perhaps then, people would recognise how, today, Israel is out-Ghettoing the Nazis without much comment from the rest of the world.

But the real lesson of the Holocaust is not the death of six million Jewish people. Actually, I couldn’t give a shit that they were Jewish - they were human beings! And they weren’t unique in their suffering.

In Masquerade - Dancing Around Death In Nazi-Occupied Hungary, George Soros’s father wrote, “When systematic persecution of the Jews began, it was carried out not by the Germans, nor by their Hungarian lackeys, but–most astonishingly–by the Jews themselves.  One of the first things the Germans did was to form a so-called Jewish Council, consisting of the leaders of the Jewish community.  Council members were made personally responsible for the implementation of the various German measures relating to the Jewish population.  As a reward, they, their families, and those who worked for them were exempted, at least at the beginning, from these restrictions… The Jewish Council carried out the German wishes far more conscientiously than the Germans could themselves.”

This should be the lesson of the Holocaust as we watch the renewed march towards fascism happening before our very eyes - how easy it to manipulate people’s behaviour through fear. That until we are willing to open our eyes and stare the enemy in the face, until we are willing to stand up and fight for the rights of our children, our civilisation is doomed to continued and continuous slavery at the hands of people who think like Nazis.

Because those of us that sit back and do nothing are worse than the George Soros’ of this world*.

–

* Describing George Soros’s contribution to the Nazi operation, his father wrote, “As Jews couldn’t go to school any more and their teachers couldn’t teach, they were ordered to report to Council headquarters.  The children were enlisted as couriers under the command of their teachers.  My younger son, George, also became a courier.  On the second day, he returned home at seven in the evening.

‘What did you do all day?’

‘Mostly nothing. But this afternoon I was given some notices to deliver to various addresses.’

Did you read what they said?’

I even brought one home.’

He handed me a small slip of paper, with a typewritten message [a summons]. ‘Do you know what this means?’ I asked him.

‘I can guess,’ he replied, with great seriousness. ‘They’ll be interned.’”

His father explained that George was “clearly disappointed that I wouldn’t let him work anymore.  He was beginning to enjoy his career as a courier; it was all a big adventure.”

George today continues to make his own contribution to the deaths of millions. His attitude to humanity is best summed up in his introduction to his father’s book, “It is a sacreligious thing to say, but these ten months [of the Nazi occupation] were the happiest times of my life … We led an adventurous life and we had fun together.”

Today is quatorze juillet here in France, commemorating the 14th July 1789 storming of the Bastille, which ultimately triggered the Jacobin Revolution.

The storming of the Bastille is typical of those events in history, such as the burning of the Reichstag, or the 11th September “attacks;” events which are entirely fabricated and manipulated for the sake of public opinion - in this case to arrange for the restoration of Swiss born Jacques Necker as Finance Minister, who had been dismissed from his post by Louis XVI on the 11th July.

It was certainly clear to Jean-Sylvain Bailly, first deputy of Paris to the Estates General, first president to the National Assembly, first Mayor of Paris, and later beheaded during the Jacobin Terror of Robespierre, that the storming of the Bastille was such an event. “The agitation of the people, had changed to fury,” he wrote. “It was clear that an order had been given to storm the Bastille.”

By 8 o’clock on the morning of the 14th July, the cannons on the Bastille were already pointing at the people. Why? Why defend such an unimportant post? It was only a prison, after all. What’s more, there were only seven prisoners - four forgers, two “lunatics” and one “deviant” aristocrat, the comte de Solages. The Marquis de Sade had been transferred out ten days earlier, by “coincidence.”

At around 1.30 pm, the guns fired on the crowd outside. By 3pm, the crowd was reinforced by “mutinous” gardes françaises and other “deserters” from among the regular troops, along with two cannon. At 5pm, the governor, de Launay, ordered a cease fire. The gates were opened and at 5.30 pm the vainqueurs swept in to “liberate” the Bastille.

Bailly wrote in his memoires, “there is no doubt that orders were given to defend himself [de Launay] to the very last; and I cannot conceive of the reason for this, because the Bastille was neither a citadel, nor an important post … Whatever may have been his orders, a general insurrection was surely not intended; it necessarily had to force a modification of them. The Bastille was a prison and not a citadel; it was not worth defending at the cost of the people’s blood; even the commandant of a post must defend himself differently, whether he is attacked by the people or by the enemies of the nation. This situation required more precise orders, much more appropriate to the circumstances of the moment, which were not known in Versailles, for taking the extreme decision to open fire and to massacre Frenchmen. De Launay has not recognised the deputations that were sent to him; furthermore it was his duty to call on the city to discuss [the situation] with him.”

Bailly believed that the whole affair had been a pre-planned insurrection organised by Jacques Necker, Philippe Égalité, and Baron Besenval de Bronstadt. It bears an uncanny resemblance to the Jacobin storming of Newgate prison in London, nine years earlier.