villakram

Sums things up pretty good blandy! It's the ignorance or lack of concern on the part of the populace that really worries me. I think only a small part of this is deliberate, most of it is out of ignorance (absence/lack of knowledge not stupidity) and much of this is a direct result of the propaganda emanating from media central and a duplicitous political class.

Would this mean that if a UK citizen was killed by a British national who was a member of a drug gang in Mexico, that going and bombing there would be ok too, because it's not like the state is fully functioning there either. Btw, I realize that this is a bit of a strawman, but the basic point more or less holds. Also, where in UK law does it say that the government can murder one of their own citizens? where was this threat? I mean if you walk around a war zone, what should one exactly expect? Same applies to the US too. The legal advice allowing this is as firm as that allowing the "extraordinary measures" aka the torture memo.

Fair enough, I guess... I just think that there is a breach of ethics/morals or what I would envision society to be more like, in the illegal invasion/bombing/murder. This is only a short few years after a huge financial crash brought about by grossly similar behavior. This is where I have the problem, a little bit of bad somewhere leaks elsewhere and then is pretty much accepted with a shrug of the shoulders across the entirety of society.

I was thinking more along the lines of 5 lads w/ 3 bullets. The whole precision guided munitions thing is a load of shite. Spec ops or some other person of some form painting the target with a gps tracker or via laser from distance is the way the most "actual precision" strikes happen. So the fact that the SAS lads are running around illegally in a foreign country murdering British citizens in an extra-judicial manner is not surprising at all. No word on the collateral damage though... It simply amazes me that people are ok with the targeted assassination of their own citizens... murder as non-orwellians might call it.

Just back in the real world after a mental weekend. Brilliant seeing Rockhold knock some into Weidman who was really starting to believe the hype. The difference between these two was amazing... I don't know what Luke eats/trains at/with, but that man is ripped! ... and that fight should have been stopped, the entire crowd was wtf'n watching that ground and pound. It was a great night that started to be getting a little scary felling with Gunnar getting taking apart, but we should have never doubted the man Conor... foook ya!!! Any of you see the previous nights action as the mood around was that the Edgar/Mendes stop was on the premature side... Mendes be rightly screwed now as he's lost to all the top dogs.

Care to provide a source for any of this? I am incredibly skeptical of hero stories like this, stinks of propaganda, e.g., how do we know that the guys that sniper shot were ISIS soldiers as opposed to some logistics guys or kids that are doing some of the grunt work?

Could you be a tad more specific here, e.g., I interpret this as fairies and such? And I'm not really sure how inserting objects created by the human mind has any bearing on the physical happenings of things, and a lucky thing that... can you imagine the mess we'd be in if Geller was in charge? How would one eat his morning cornflakes with those spoons?

The other side of Nate's work, a part which he fully acknowledges, is that both Trumps numbers and background are an outlier w.r.t. previous and as such the predictive ability of models and extrapolations need to be interpreted with some caution, i.e., he can win or maybe ?!?

errr Blandy, it was a coup d'etat, sure yano was a complete asshat and had he stuck around then the legal process would have likely resulted in him losing power legally. Instead, he legged it as things were turning very nasty and a horribly illegal process occurred.

Nice article about the great man on footy365 today http://www.football365.com/news/profile-of-an-icon-paul-mcgrath "On November 5, 1989, Paul McGrath played 90 minutes for Aston Villa in a 6-2 league win over Everton. The game was unusual for McGrath in that the central defender played with sweatbands on both wrists. Few of the 17,637 in Villa Park would have noticed McGrath’s sartorial tweak. Nor too Robert Millward of the Birmingham Mail. ‘Aston Villa produced their own box of fireworks to set Villa Park alight with thoughts of another League championship,’ the Birmingham Post reporter wrote. In fact, those sweatbands were covering up a series of cuts on McGrath’s wrists, caused by a Stanley knife a few days earlier."

Trump... wow! Anyway, definitely worth reading the contents of the link below. There is a long and "distinguished" history of this kind of thing: Top 6 Times US government Excluded Millions based on Race or Religion. http://www.juancole.com/2015/12/government-excluded-religion.html "... These twin pathologies of racism and religious bigotry were implicated in a whole series of white, Christian supremacist laws aimed at excluding whole swathes of the world from immigration to the United States enacted between 1882 and 1924. Here are the highlights. Or, lowlights." Note the date of expiry of a number of these measures!

Careful... de-humanzing the opposition is War-prep 101. Do not allow yourself to be manipulated so! ISIS soldiers are humans existing within a social structure that has resulted in them acting in a certain manner, that most humans find deeply repulsive. However, the use of language like "apocalypse" etc. acts to de-humanize the individuals, hence making their subsequent eradication more palatable. I think that is a path best avoided.

Maybe some confusion on your part caused by me. I am not suggesting that Israel are bombing Syria on a regular basis ala the "heroic" Yanks/Rooskies etc., but their airforce have bombed targets in Syria on a number of occasions over the past couple of years... allegedly in the name of preventing weapons transfer to Lebanon. Now, I say allegedly, because this came from some military/political PR type. This is public record... and, errr a quick google suggests they're even up to it as we speak.

So the war criminal Blair was on CNBC over here this morn. Now being the business channel, the interviews and comments made here are generally a little more insightful and less PR sludge. To his credit, he made a really good point, emphasizing the need to promote education in the mid-east... but education in a proper format in place of the super-religious indoctrination that occurs in all the Wahabbi financed mosque-schools throughout anywhere they can get away with it. This is exactly what is needed... education + education + education + time - bombs = Now of course, dear Tony forgot to mention his love affair with those rascal Saudi's, e.g., squishing of the Al-Yamamah investigation: "Our relationship with Saudi Arabia is vitally important for our country in terms of ... That strategic interest comes first.". When in power, he did exactly nothing to tackle this issue, and do not for one minute think this current situation came into being courtesy of ISIS. A scumbag of the highest order. How these people have the neck to comment on this region given the blood they've spilled... and to finish by more directly connecting to the quoted post, the amount of God bless... blah blah blah coming from Obama's mouth during his terrorism speech last night was truly dismaying.

Related to the above mentioned dumbfookery is an essay that I saw somewhere today (maybe Krugman's NYT stuff). I recommend reading this if you wish to have some understanding of conspiracy germ and the human mind. The Paranoid Style in American Politics, Hofstadrer 1964 via Harpers magazine. E.g., circa 1820 "... The anti-Masonic movement was a product not merely of natural enthusiasm but also of the vicissitudes of party politics. It was joined and used by a great many men who did not fully share its original anti-Masonic feelings. It attracted the support of several reputable statemen who had only mild sympathy with its fundamental bias, but who as politicians could not afford to ignore it. Still, it was a folk movement of considerable power, and the rural enthusiasts who provided its real impetus believed in it wholeheartedly." http://harpers.org/archive/1964/11/the-paranoid-style-in-american-politics/

...as intended then. The actions of the British government will make no difference to improving the situation in Syria or in finding a long term solution, and amount to no more than the most disgraceful grand standing by Cameron and the government he leads. Please note, that the actions of the British government are illegal in terms of international law, just as those of the USA, France and Israel in bombing the nation state of Syria. Now I realize that international law is, strictly speaking, only enforceable via the rules of the Jungle. But in order to find a comprehensive solution to what is going in the middle east as a whole, and in this epoch where the global power balance is returning to an equilibrium post WWI/II, nation states are going to have to start playing by the "rules" again. We have absolutely no credibility nor ethical/moral legitimacy given our recent and current course of actions.

Agreed... SOHR stinks in a Chalabi-esque manner. Now you would think they would be suffering given the array of adversaries, but we know that the US has been very tentative in their bombing (unsurprising given their duplicitous geopolitical aims), while France initially targeted abandoned ISIS targets provided by the US and well the 6 bombs dropped by Her Majesties army is a rather pointless effort whose goal is simply to gain access to the adult discussion table.

MLS cup final: Columbus vs Portland Columbus keeper with a huge ricket 20s in.. 0-1, ouch! Ball is 2 feet out of play for a throw 40yd from goal, lino is asleep, crew players don't play to the whistle... 0-2. Truly pathetic Portland goalkeeping... 1-2 18mins gone

star wars promotional tie ins.... grrrr

pity he didn't do that for the goal though... plonker

at least Romeau was offside there, ffs

westy ya filthy coward... pulled out of that

Richardson

Really... just because they say it does not make it fact. They are intelligent and as demonstrated by their behavior, capable of coming to terms with the reality of their little empire and the contradictions resulting from its location. Caliphate/Empire/Nation-state... all much of a muchness and something that lawyers and admirers of imperial clothing like to argue about. Deaths due to actions of USA in 2014 vs deaths due to ISIS... what about the period 2000-2015? ISIS can be negotiated with, now that they may not wish to negotiate with us because we are barbaric animals etc. is beautifully ironic. Unfortunately, there is a lack of will to solve this right now, regardless of the protestations and best/any intentions of our elected political class. It's not the first time this has happened, e.g., Vietnam. You can be sure that ISIS has various internal factions and power structure issues the same as the rest of us also. They have made significant gains, I'd be amazed if they haven't at least internally discussed the settling for what we have scenario.

You are paying zero regard to history here or frankly the facts on the ground. They are following a well worn path.