The Blog




Night"?

So here's "England Lost"
https://youtu.be/98gj0z0RkXE

Pull yourself together, mate. Get a grip.


[from: Google+ Posts]

If you're pro-EU, want or wanted Remain, but are also pro-Labour and Pro-Corbyn you need to read this.

https://musealoudblog.wordpress.com/2017/07/27/the-corbynremain-supporter-dilemma/

Especially if you're one of the majority of new Labour members, supporters and voters who voted Remain.

Ooh, Jeremy Corbyn!

"The best and most honest judgement at this point is that Corbyn is a barrier for pro-Europeans. It is perfectly reasonable to choose Corbyn over Europe, and many have, but this should also be problematic for former remainers as they will know his hard Brexit will damage the economy and make his vision undeliverable without huge borrowing and risk. Without the promise of the vision, and without the integrity & honesty, what do you really have?

Therefore, in all conscience you cannot be simultaneously a “remainer” & a Corbyn supporter. The 2 are incompatible."

Of course that leaves you with a huge problem. Because the LibDems have imploded which leaves no viable opposition to the Tory-Brexit debacle. The best you can hope for is that the Tories will implode as well.
 The Corbyn/Remain Supporter Dilemma »
Extended version of a twitter post. I’ve potentially been a bit obsessive about Corbyn & Brexit and many have said “why attack him, he’s a decent stick, why not turn the fire …

[from: Google+ Posts]




br />
"And round we go again. The vast majority of Labour members, supporters and voters want Remain. Especially the new and young ones. So how bad does Brexit have to get and how bad does the Tory chaos have to get before Labour's stance and policies reflect that?"

So they said,

"If this is true, why did pretty much every Labour constituency outside London vote Leave?"

So compare the maps. Election vs Referendum
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2017/jun/08/live-uk-election-results-in-full-2017

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2016/jun/23/eu-referendum-live-results-and-analysis

There's a kind of truth there, particularly in the North. But there's also clearly a lot of nuance. There's quite a number of constituencies outside London that were Labour-Remain. And that's true even in areas that might be thought of as "Traditional Labour Heartland".

The Labour problem that 60% (or whatever) voters want remain, but 60% of Labour seats wanted Leave is still around. But that was then. What's important now is whether that dynamic is changing. The perception is that the proportion wanting Remain is rising. And the proportion in the marginal and balanced seats is also rising. So even though there are seats that were Labour-Leave then, on balance now they're Labour-Remain. But that's a guess. What is there to back it up?
[from: Google+ Posts]




It'll be 800 years old this year.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/neweconomics/celebrating-800th-anniversary-charter-forest/

Among other things, it enshrines the rights of commoners to common land for basic subsistence.

It was only fully superseded in 1971.
 Celebrating the 800th anniversary of the Charter of the Forest »
This year is the 800th anniversary of a founding document of the British constitution, and of other constitutions as well. Issued in the name of a ten-year-old King Henry III alongside the modified Charter of Liberties that had been sealed by King John and the barons at Runnymede on June 15, 2015 th...

[from: Google+ Posts]





[from: Librarything]


[from: Librarything]


[from: Librarything]


[from: Librarything]






---

Dear Partner,

I am looking for a buyer for 83.000 containers, which consists of half
of the container 40ft and the other half of the container 20ft
container. All are in Kuwait (see attached photos)!

The containers were used by the Americans to transport their war
machines / material to distribute the Iraqi occupants from Kuwait about
1991.

An acquaintance has bought these containers from the US Department of
Defense. In addition, he had founded a company in Jordan, which is the
owner. In the purchase contract the containers are defined as scrap to
reduce the price. In reality, they are well-functioning as containers,
as you can easily see in the photos.

The buyer can buy a part of the containers, or if he wants he could buy
all of them or buy the company and take over the entire 83,000
containers. This can significantly reduce the price.

If you have a buyer, we can talk about it, see attached info too.

Best Regards

Radhi

-

[from: Google+ Posts]


Original provides links and screenshots to back up each point. Here's the copy-pasta because Twitter is a terrible way to read long form text.

https://twitter.com/EmporersNewC/status/884474494512975872

1. Hello, United Kingdom, it’s the United States of America here, and we need to talk.
2. We understand that you chose to split up with the EU, and we’re cool with it, but we thought we’d tell you how we see it.
3. When you entered the Common Market you negotiated the creation of Regional Funds.
4. In 1979 you began pushing a policy involving further coordination of Foreign Policy in Europe.
5. In 1983 you renegotiated the Common Fisheries Policy.
6. In 1987 you were leading the way in Cap Reform.
7. Remembering 1983, the year that you were so proud that you had played your part cementing peace within the European Community.
8. In 1988 you were excited when you launched the Single Market.
9. In 1991 you secured an agreement that would see community members fined if they did not live up to their responsibilities.
10. In 1992 you set the EU on the route to further expansion.
11. It was 1992 when you also began to push for the ex-Soviet states’ entrance to the community.
12. In 1997 you pushed for a reform of voting involving the use of QMV in areas that were unanimous before.
13. In 1998 you were instrumental in bringing WEU defence programme into the EU, and led greater defence collaboration.
14. By 2001 the budget was starting to come down year on year, and it wasn’t the first time.
15. In 2005 you voted to speed up Turkey accession, and by 2010 you were the only country fighting for that.
16. In 2006 you began convinced the EU to adopt energy efficient lightbulbs.
17. By 2010 you had secured some new opt outs.
18. The open voting reform you sought was in place.
19. We were all delighted when you seemed to be taking the mature step of taking control of your destiny.
20. Then one day you said you needed to chat and you met up with the EU to discuss your issues
21. I was under the impression the EU gave you almost everything you asked for, including additional security measures.
22. Then you went away and announced that you were leaving, which is totally cool, we respected that.
23. But then you said the EU gave you nothing, and you couldn’t protect your borders.
25. The irony that you only knew that because of the reform you got did not escape us in the USA.
26. Largely because that 76 number included votes you didn’t take part in because they were in the area of your opt outs.
27. We thought you were just having a funny 5 minutes, until you said you didn’t have control of the direction the EU was taking.
28. That you don’t like the EU forcing those energy saving lightbulbs on you.
29. That you want to leave the EU because it is pushing for Turkey to join.
30. That the EU budget only ever went up.
31. That you had no idea why the EU needed a military, and why it was pushing for further defence collaboration.
32. That the EU had forced you to replace unanimity with QMV.
33. That all the ex-Soviet citizens that are now in your community is all the fault of the EU.
34. That too many countries have joined and are joining the EU
35. That you don’t like being held accountable and fined by the ECJ.
36. That all this regulation coming out of the EU is strangling you, and the scope keeps increasing.
37. That the European Community had nothing to do with peace and it was all NATO.
38. That CAP has always been bad for you.
39. That the CFP deal the EEC forced on you damaged the fishing industry in the 1980s
40. That it is a disgrace that you have to collaborate in certain areas of foreign policy.
41. And… That regional funds are stupid and you should be allowed to spend your money how you like.
42. Now, I hate to cast aspersions, but are you absolutely sure the EU is to blame?
43. To be honest, some think you are pandering to a part of you that blames anybody but themselves when things go wrong.
44. So, I am asking you to do some soul searching and rethink this whole thing.
45. Just to be clear, we’ll still be friends, and it doesn’t matter if you decide to leave the EU, or not
46. But if you leave for the reasons you have stated, you will not be respected in the global community for many years to come.
47. Oh, and I heard you were talking about WTO reform. Seriously? After this?!?

And at the end in the comments there's a lot of wittering about the populace not understanding immigration. And US-Neolib corporate interests pushing Brexit through their pet media. Whatever. It's still a piece of work.
[from: Google+ Posts]




Bruce Sterling has noticed LoFi House. Or rather he's noticed Google and Youtube's recommendation algorithm.

"From heads who have been around since house’s beginnings, to a younger generation now thoroughly burned out on the vaporwave zeitgeist—both of which lie at the heart of the style’s burgeoning audience"

O, RLY?

https://www.wired.com/beyond-the-beyond/2017/07/music-globalista-lo-fi-house-recommendations-machines-really-like/

 Music Globalista: “Lo-Fi House” — the recommendations machines really like it | WIRED »
It’s the lowest common machine-learned denominator In a paper written by Google/YouTube developers Paul Covington, Jay Adams, and Emre Sargin for the 2016 ACM Conference on Recommender Systems, the researchers laid out a sketch of the basic mechanics now driving their Related Videos algorithm. As the site has shifted away from the primitive tagging system…

[from: Google+ Posts]






Mixmag on OOUKFUNKYOO, Moskalus and Hurfyd and their role in breaking new (LoFi House) music on Youtube.
http://mixmag.net/feature/diy-videos

How to "Lofi house"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8LKGgW-7ZM


[from: Google+ Posts]





https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Publications/Files/WPP2017_KeyFindings.pdf
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/jun/21/world-population-to-hit-8bn-in-2023-says-new-un-survey

A quick skim suggests projections haven't changed much compared with the 2015 report.
- Linear growth +83m/yr
- 24 years for last +2b = +1 every 12 years
- Currently 7.55b
- 9.7b in 2050
- No peak this century
- Main growth from Africa / India / China.

The pages at http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/ haven't yet been updated to suit but the projections look broadly the same. eg 8b in 2023, 9b in 2038, 10b in 2056

There's the usual rider from this observer. This analysis is based on business as usual continuing as long as possible and certainly out to 2100. It doesn't take into account any Limits to Growth style instability or non-linearity.
[from: Google+ Posts]




There's about 5 miles of the M4 around Reading where you get to see a medium sized wind turbine (still big) over the Green Park (home of Ecotricity) and then a fairly large solar farm on flat land. I suspect both of these are part of the Green Marketing Board's activities. In the same way that hovering kestrels by the side of the road are sponsored by the RSPB and Tourist Boards.

What I've yet to see is solar panels over a pig farm rather than sheep grazing. Pigs are prone to sunburn so need a certain amount of shade which would seem to make them a natural fit. But maybe they're too destructive. The solar panel supports and cable would have to be as pig proof as a Pig Ark. Which means there's an obvious dual use case here. Solar Pig Arks!

Which for some reason brought to mind those VIP coffin kennels that rich people hire at Glastonbury. Solar Pig Arks with built in USB chargers that can double as both upmarket festival shelters and refugee shelters for the coming crisis. There's money to be made here. Quick, check Alibaba!
[from: Google+ Posts]




Search local to Mastodon Cloud






Public Link






There's a story being distributed that I've seen several times in the last few days. The Labour surge among those under 45 is from people "who weren't alive during the 1970's to experience first hand the results of policies now espoused by JC". This got pushed during #GE2017 as "Corbyn will take the country back to the 70s.". The suggestion is that the current Labour Manifesto is a repeat of the disastrous policies of the Wilson/Callaghan government. Or that it's the same position as Michael Foot's opposition.

I think this is a right wing Tory lie being spread to limit the potential damage from a centrist social-democratic alternative. Corbyn's policies look extreme "Left Wing" only in relation to the extreme right wing that is now considered normal. The Overton window has been pulled so far to the right that a position like Heath's Tories or even John Major's is now portrayed as dangerously socialist. The policies of Thatcher, Blair/Brown, Cameron/Osbourne have been normalised.

What I don't have is the analysis and understanding of the 2017 manifesto compared with the positions of mid-70s and early 80s Labour. How similar are they, really?
[from: Google+ Posts]




http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2017-40240120

A time line.

#Brexit referendum
=> The people have spoken
=> Brexit Means Brexit
=> Hard Brexit
=> No Deal Better Than Bad Deal
=> Snap Election
=> Soft Brexit
=> Delayed Brexit
=> No Brexit

=> UK Joins Euro
Ooops sorry! Forget that last one.

#UK #Politics innit.
 Hard Brexit not backed by most MPs, remain campaigners say - BBC News »
Pro-EU campaigners say most MPs elected last week want to avoid a so-called "hard Brexit".

[from: Google+ Posts]

In case you haven't seen it. A breakdown of last Thursday's vote.
http://lordashcroftpolls.com/2017/06/result-happen-post-vote-survey/#more-15330

Note especially the parts about Tory-Labour and Brexit Leave-Remain. There's a clear split 2/3 Tory voted Leave. 2/3 Labour voted Remain.

Also this, among others.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/election-2017-40229786/jeremy-corbyn-the-draw-for-young-voters

2 working days in and we're into the stats analysis blame game. Again.

It's young people wot did it. Or the Remainers. Or University Towns. Or London. Or Working class in failed industrial towns. Or Social Media.

-

Media Bias
The press were biased against Jeremy Corbyn's Labour in the election, study finds https://www.indy100.com/article/media-bias-jeremy-corbyn-theresa-may-express-sun-daily-mail-labour-conservative-7785776

And that's just the print media.

Let's not forget Kuenssberg's "Shoot to kill" out of context quote, BBC Trust reprimand and then viral promotion by the Tories.

TV were masters of the snide remark, knowing smirk, "of course we all know he's unelectable" sub-text without coming right out and saying it. Even Channel 4 did this at times.

Then there's Farage. Constant attention and coverage, despite it resulting in UKIP ZERO.

But you know this.

-

Anyway, the bullshit is coming so thick and fast that a week can go by and you've completely forgotten the previous omnishambles as if it never happened.

This Tory car crash has been going on for at least a year now.

Thanks Farage!

Anyway. Here's a quick summary of Mrs May's "New" Bigotory cabinet.
https://assets.mastodon.cloud/mastodoncloud/media_attachments/files/000/871/482/original/fe860294a5facc6c.jpg

-

It's #UK #politics #GE2017 , innit.
 How did this result happen? My post-vote survey - Lord Ashcroft Polls »
By Lord Ashcroft. I surveyed over 14000 people on election day who had already cast their vote to help understand how this unexpected result came about. My poll came very close to reflecting the outcome of the election, with 41% saying they had voted Conservative, 39% Labour, and 9% voted Liberal ...

[from: Google+ Posts]




Today's UK Politics.

10 reasons to vote against the Nasty Party
- Austerity
- Brexit No Deal
- NHS Funding
- Dementia Tax and social care U-Turn
- Education cuts
- Faith and Grammar Schools
- Benefit cuts
- Council funding cuts
- The Daily Mail / Express / Sun / Times
- Trump

And add these. How many more do you need?
- Police and security services cuts
- Support for foreign wars and arms sales
- Winter Fuel allowance
- Fracking, Climate, Energy

Judge them on their record. The LibDems are being punished for their part in the coalition. Now it's time to punish the Tories for their part in the last 7 years. But as always this election is about the future, not about the past. Do you really want the country to be governed by people who lie, and lie, and lie for their own personal gain and that of their friends?

https://www.theguardian.com/global/commentisfree/2017/jun/05/theresa-may-election-campaign

---

Did Theresa May's script writers watch too much of The Wire? Brexit means Brexit. Enough is enough. Terrorism breeds terrorism. Breakfast means Breakfast. No deal is better than a bad deal. The Game is The Game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoyq88niVEU

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/london-bridge-terror-attack-theresa-may-terrorism-speech-downing-street-what-she-refused-to-tell-you-a7773011.html

It’s the same baby language as “Brexit means Brexit”, the double emphasis mere proof that May has lost the ability to convince us of anything she says.

---

Tactical Voting is not ideologically unsound.
https://www.tactical2017.com
https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/uk_vote_smart_loc_cp/

---

10,000 turn out in the rain to see Corbyn in Gateshead.

70 turn out for May in Leith and have to be told to clap.

Guess which event got covered by the BBC?

https://www.thecanary.co/2017/06/06/thousands-came-see-corbyn-yesterday-wouldnt-know-watching-bbc-video/

#GE2017 #UK #Politics

[from: Google+ Posts]






I found this on a friend's page earlier and i think it is profoundly descriptive of how misguided and misinformed our election has become.

---

"Woah....
'Here's what I'm really struggling to understand. All I've ever heard from people, for years, is
"bloody bankers and their bonuses"
"bloody rich and their offshore tax havens "
"bloody politicians with their lying and second homes"
“bloody corporations paying less tax than me”
"bloody Establishment, they're all in it together”
“it'll never change, there's no point in voting”
And quite rightly so, I said all the same things.

But then someone comes along that's different. He upsets the bankers and the rich. The Tory politicians hate him along with most of the labour politicians. The corporations throw more money at the politicians to keep him quiet. And the Establishment is visibly shaken. I've never seen the Establishment so genuinely scared of a single person.

So the media arm of the establishment gets involved. Theresa phones Rupert asking what he can do, and he tells her to keep her mouth shut, don't do the live debate, he'll sort this out. So the media goes into overdrive with…
“she's strong and stable”
“he's a clown”
“he's not a leader”
“look he can't even control his own party”
“he'll ruin the economy”
“how's he gonna pay for it all?!”
“AND he's a terrorist sympathiser, burn him, burn the terrorist sympathiser”

And what do we do? We've waited forever for an honest politician to come along but instead of getting behind him we bow to the establishment like good little workers. They whistle and we do a little dance for them. We run around like hypnotised robots repeating headlines we've read, all nodding and agreeing. Feeling really proud of ourselves because we think we've came up with our very own first political opinion. But we haven't, we haven't came up with anything. This is how you tell. No matter where someone lives in the country, they're repeating the same headlines, word for word. From Cornwall to Newcastle people are saying
“he's a clown”
“he’s a threat to the country”
“she's strong and stable”
“he'll take us back to the 70s”

And there's nothing else, there's no further opinion. There's no evidence apart from 1 radio 5 interview that isn't even concrete evidence, he actually condemns the violence of both sides in the interview. There's no data or studies or official reports to back anything up. Try and think really hard why you think he's a clown, other than the fact he looks like a geography teacher. (no offence geography teachers) because he hasn't done anything clownish from what I've seen.

And you're not on this planet if you think the establishment and the media aren't all in it together.
You think Richard Branson, who's quietly winning NHS contracts, wants Corbyn in?
You think Rupert Murdoch, who's currently trying to widen his media monopoly by buying sky outright, wants Jeremy in?
You think the Barclay brothers, with their offshore residencies, want him in?
You think Philip Green, who stole all the pensions from BHS workers and claims his wife owns Top Shop because she lives in Monaco, wants Corbyn in?
You think the politicians, both Labour and Tory, with their second homes and alcohol paid for by us, want him in?
You think Starbucks, paying near zero tax, wants him in?
You think bankers, with their multi million pound bonuses, want him in?
And do you think they don't have contact with May? Or with the media? You honestly think that these millionaires and billionaires are the sort of people that go “ah well, easy come easy go, it was nice while it lasted”?? I wouldn't be if my personal fortune was at risk, I'd be straight on the phone to Theresa May or Rupert Murdoch demanding this gets sorted immediately.

Because here's a man, a politician that doesn't lie, he can't lie, he could have said whatever would get him votes anytime he wanted but he hasn't. He lives in a normal house like us and uses the bus just like us. He's fought for justice and peace for nearly 40 years. He has no career ambitions. And his seat is untouchable. That's one of the greatest testimonies. No one comes close to removing him from his constituency, election after election.

His Manifesto is fully costed. It all adds up, yes there's some borrowing but that's just to renationalise the railway, you know we already subsidise them and they make profit yeah? One more time… WE subsidise the railway companies and they walk away with a profit, just try and grasp the level of piss taking going on there.

Unlike the Tory manifesto with a £9 billion hole, their figures don't even add up.

And it benefits all of us, young, old, working, disabled, everyone. The only people it hurts are the establishment, the rich, the bankers, the top 5% highest earners.

Good, fuck them, it's long overdue. VOTE LABOUR."

https://www.facebook.com/michael.butt.1447/posts/10154424071392274

[from: Google+ Posts]

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