GHF-23 Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 Who would have thought this is where Mr Waldo would end up when his "Free Speech Anti-Woke" persona met his "Reflexively criticise anything done by a leftist or person who engages with politics outside of the screen that makes me anxious using fact free horseshit" persona? *I would 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freedom Farter Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 Norway's pension fund is the world's largest sovereign wealth fund. Yesterday, it announced it'd divested its entire Israel Bonds holdings. Norway hadn't divested from the Israeli state until yesterday but it had long since been divesting from Israeli private corporations. A major round of divestment came in 2014 following Israel's last bombing of Gaza: https://www.ft.com/content/53d00268-8a89-11e3-ba54-00144feab7de. Mentioned in that article is how Norway also at the time divested from a London-listed (typical!) Indian mining company. That company was responsible for booting Indian tribes (these folk: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adivasi) off their ancestral lands. When looking through recent Norwegian divestments, this one caught my eye: https://wsrw.org/en/news/norway-excludes-israeli-oil-company-over-western-sahara. An Israeli oil company conducting exploration off the coast of Western Sahara. That hits upon a pet bug of mine, Trump's Abraham Accords, continued on by Biden under the new name of "normalisation agreements". These were a series of deals between Israel and various Arab governments, all sponsored by USA. The aim was to promote arms and security tech transfers between the governments as well as to compel diplomatic support for each other's rights violations. Sudan and UAE, a great bunch of lads, signed on with Israel and USA, as did Morocco. Official American maps now show Western Sahara as part of Morocco, as do Israeli maps. Making them two of only three nations in the world who officially reject the existence of Western Sahara as an occupied territory, Morocco itself being the third. So that Israeli oil company was paying its exploration licence fee to the Moroccan state rather than to the Sahrawi people who are the actual owners of that maritime zone. To conclude; that Norway's sovereign wealth funds are able to divest like this shows Norwegian democracy to be particularly nimble and responsive to public will. It also shows Norwegians have an impressive awareness of global events. Or at least, that they've promoted technocrats who do. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Waldo Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 On 23/02/2024 at 21:32, welshbairn said: When most Palestinians talk about 'from the river to the sea' it's about the freedom to live in their recent ancestors lands, whatever their religion, it's not about exterminating the Jews. The reason ISIS are sworn enemies of Hamas is their refusal to disavow Palestinians Christians, although their attitude to Jews has certainly hardened. I don't think it's remotely antisemitic now to say that Israel's strategy is to force all Palestinians out of Gaza, and then to keep the apartheid system in the West Bank so repressive that they flee as well. The 2 state solution has been a fiction for decades. I don't think that's antisimetic either. But I do think you leave youself open to association when the likes of Ghazi Hamad of the Hamas political bureau answers "Does that mean the annihilation of Israel?" By saying "Yes, of course/...the existence of Israel is illogical. The existence of Israel is what causes all that pain, blood, and tears. It is Israel, not us. We are the victims of the occupation. Period. Therefore, nobody should blame us for the things we do. On October 7, October 10, October 1,000,000 – everything we do is justified." By all means 'ceasefire now', 'stop the killing' but, personally, I don't want someone confusing my support for the Gaza people as support for Hamas and their allies who carried out the Oct 7th attack. You might have already seen Liz Truss say a 'radical Islamic party' may win in Rochdale. Don't give them the ammunition 9 hours ago, GHF-23 said: Who would have thought this is where Mr Waldo would end up when his "Free Speech Anti-Woke" persona met his "Reflexively criticise anything done by a leftist or person who engages with politics outside of the screen that makes me anxious using fact free horseshit" persona? *I would I don't know what you are talking about. 'free speech persona". Are you against free speech? Freedom to hold an opinion? freedom to protest? You'll need to give your definition of 'woke' - it's got too many meanings now. The rest, nope, you've lost, no idea. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshbairn Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 (edited) The very concept of Israel is a state run by Jews, for Jews. The current rulers want that state to cover all the lands between the river and the sea, and it's been the hidden goal of every Israeli government since 1967, by continually expanding settlements in the West Bank and caging Gazans in an inmate run prison, and sporadically bombing, shooting and imprisoning them. Of course they want to see the end of Israel, it doesn't mean they want kill all the Jews, at least most Palestinians, every group has their psychos. Israel has encouraged extremists in Hamas for decades by imprisoning rational politicians within the PLO so It's led by feeble and corrupt old men despised by their own people, so they can say to the Americans, how can we possibly have 2 states, look who we're having to deal with! Edited February 24 by welshbairn 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freedom Farter Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 (edited) 5 hours ago, Mr Waldo said: By all means 'ceasefire now', 'stop the killing' but, personally, I don't want someone confusing my support for the Gaza people as support for Hamas and their allies who carried out the Oct 7th attack. You might have already seen Liz Truss say a 'radical Islamic party' may win in Rochdale. Don't give them the ammunition We can look at the reasons why some Pakistani-Brits in Rochdale have certain ideas. Here's some: UK divide and conquer strategy during colonial rule over the Indian subcontinent fostering distinct religious identities. UK's desire to maintain military bases in the sub-continent post decolonisation, therefore priming Jinnah as their man and giving him his own state (Pakistan). Pakistan becoming the world's first "Islamic Republic" and therefore having Islamic identity as the primary component to its national identity. USA building up the Pakistani military to an extent that far outstripped development of the nation's civic institutions. This led to the military suppressing democracy. Saudi, post-oil discovery, began using its new wealth to exert influence over Pakistan from the 1970s. USA supported this as they believed the Islamism Saudi was exporting would reliably snuff out communism. That Saudi-imported Islamism combined with military dictatorship gave rise to Zia-ul-Haq. He enforced new norms upon Pakistanis which are now (wrongly) understood by many contemporary Pakistanis to be age old, such as alcohol being forbidden. Pakistan built the Mangla Dam in Mirpur in the late 1950s which flooded much of the surrounding agricultural land. The local people survived off that land so became destitute overnight. UK needed textile mill workers so took them in. Those textile mills soon after got shut down during deindustrialisation. This made those same folk who'd been destitute in Pakistan now destitute in Yorkshire. That was the beginnings of Pakistanis in Yorkshire (still today, nearly all are Mirpuri heritage). They bumbled along at the very bottom of the UK economic ladder for the decades after. Combining that with the extreme racism they faced in Yorkshire led to their partial alienation from UK society. All the while there was a constant stream of shite ideas being fed to them from Pakistan (remember Bin Laden was a joint Saudi-Pakistani asset). So when the salafi jihadist boom kicked off in the late 1990s, the conditions were all there for the ideology to spread among the Pakistani-Brits of Yorkshire and the West Midlands. We can see the above has absolutely nothing to do with Palestinians. If some folk are too uninformed to realise this or if they want to listen to Liz Truss then that's their fault. The rest of us can't move at the pace of the slowest kid in the class. Edited February 25 by Freedom Farter 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vikingTON Posted March 1 Share Posted March 1 'The West': we stand for the rule of law and justice as opposed to big, bad regimes in the rest of the world. Also the West: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/01/uk-us-obstructing-inquiry-death-united-nations-dag-hammarskjold You'd think that 60 fucking years might be enough time to encourage full participation into the death of a key international statesman, but no. This is how empires (plus vassal state) work. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zetterlund Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 Warmongering witch Victoria Nuland has resigned. Amazingly, the hilarious statement from the State Dept praises her "leadership" in such models of stability and prosperity as *checks notes* the Sahel, Haiti, Ukraine and the Middle East. https://www.state.gov/on-the-retirement-of-under-secretary-of-state-for-political-affairs-victoria-nuland/ 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freedom Farter Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 This'd normally go in the "Israel and the Palestinians" thread but as I've previously slagged Kearns loads in this thread, I feel it more belongs here. Credit to her: 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SandyCromarty Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 On 24/02/2024 at 19:29, Freedom Farter said: Norway's pension fund is the world's largest sovereign wealth fund. Yesterday, it announced it'd divested its entire Israel Bonds holdings. Norway hadn't divested from the Israeli state until yesterday but it had long since been divesting from Israeli private corporations. A major round of divestment came in 2014 following Israel's last bombing of Gaza: https://www.ft.com/content/53d00268-8a89-11e3-ba54-00144feab7de. Mentioned in that article is how Norway also at the time divested from a London-listed (typical!) Indian mining company. That company was responsible for booting Indian tribes (these folk: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adivasi) off their ancestral lands. When looking through recent Norwegian divestments, this one caught my eye: https://wsrw.org/en/news/norway-excludes-israeli-oil-company-over-western-sahara. An Israeli oil company conducting exploration off the coast of Western Sahara. That hits upon a pet bug of mine, Trump's Abraham Accords, continued on by Biden under the new name of "normalisation agreements". These were a series of deals between Israel and various Arab governments, all sponsored by USA. The aim was to promote arms and security tech transfers between the governments as well as to compel diplomatic support for each other's rights violations. Sudan and UAE, a great bunch of lads, signed on with Israel and USA, as did Morocco. Official American maps now show Western Sahara as part of Morocco, as do Israeli maps. Making them two of only three nations in the world who officially reject the existence of Western Sahara as an occupied territory, Morocco itself being the third. So that Israeli oil company was paying its exploration licence fee to the Moroccan state rather than to the Sahrawi people who are the actual owners of that maritime zone. To conclude; that Norway's sovereign wealth funds are able to divest like this shows Norwegian democracy to be particularly nimble and responsive to public will. It also shows Norwegians have an impressive awareness of global events. Or at least, that they've promoted technocrats who do. A wee BTW on Norway. The Norwegian state oil company then named Statoil, (now Equinor), had a rep of drilling dusters especially off West Africa but mind you with all their money they could take the losses. On another tangent, in my lengthy career I only met one Norwegian working overseas off South Africa, mind you he was a dumbfuck when you consider offshore Norway is a two on four off working schedule. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freedom Farter Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 The "final cleaning" of 100 000 Armenians. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freedom Farter Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 Coll was based in Pakistan and Afghanistan in the '90s for the Washington Post so he witnessed what happened there first hand. He also talks about the conflicts Iraq engaged in through the '80s, '90s and '00s. His aim seems to be to educate Americans on the history leading up to USA's interventions in Afghanistan then Iraq. He points out that polling at one point showed three quarters of Americans thought Saddam Hussein had done 9/11. Also mentioned is the complete incoherence of USA's (especially the Republican Party's) attitude towards Iran. Despite Iran firmly being on the same side as USA in both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, they still somehow found themselves in Bush's Axis of Evil. Tony Blair gets discussed too. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlipperyP Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 2 hours ago, Freedom Farter said: Coll was based in Pakistan and Afghanistan in the '90s for the Washington Post so he witnessed what happened there first hand. He also talks about the conflicts Iraq engaged in through the '80s, '90s and '00s. His aim seems to be to educate Americans on the history leading up to USA's interventions in Afghanistan then Iraq. He points out that polling at one point showed three quarters of Americans thought Saddam Hussein had done 9/11. Also mentioned is the complete incoherence of USA's (especially the Republican Party's) attitude towards Iran. Despite Iran firmly being on the same side as USA in both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, they still somehow found themselves in Bush's Axis of Evil. Tony Blair gets discussed too. Thanks for that. One thing I disagree with, no country has used chemical weapons from the ww1 to 1983 Iraq. Some south east Asian countries may say otherwise. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salt n Vinegar Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 I see that Erdogan's party took a sore one in local elections in Turkey. According to the Independent ... "Turkey’s main opposition party has secured a sweeping victory in local elections, dealing a serious setback to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s two-decade grip on power and signalling a change in the country’s political landscape. The opposition candidate, Ekrem Imamoğlu, clinched a second term as Istanbul’s mayor despite Erdogan’s concerted effort to unseat him and, in the process, cemented his position as the president’s main challenger. “My dear Istanbulites, you opened the door to a new future today,” Mr Imamoğlu said addressing the overjoyed supporters of his Republican People’s Party (CHP). Starting from tomorrow, Turkey will be a different Turkey. You opened the door to the rise of democracy, equality and freedom …You ignited hope at the ballot box.” Anyone got a view on whether this is just a blip or might Erdogan's coat be on a shoogly? Article at. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/turkey-elections-erdogan-ekrem-imamoglu-b2521434.html 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshbairn Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 4 hours ago, Salt n Vinegar said: I see that Erdogan's party took a sore one in local elections in Turkey. According to the Independent ... "Turkey’s main opposition party has secured a sweeping victory in local elections, dealing a serious setback to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s two-decade grip on power and signalling a change in the country’s political landscape. The opposition candidate, Ekrem Imamoğlu, clinched a second term as Istanbul’s mayor despite Erdogan’s concerted effort to unseat him and, in the process, cemented his position as the president’s main challenger. “My dear Istanbulites, you opened the door to a new future today,” Mr Imamoğlu said addressing the overjoyed supporters of his Republican People’s Party (CHP). Starting from tomorrow, Turkey will be a different Turkey. You opened the door to the rise of democracy, equality and freedom …You ignited hope at the ballot box.” Anyone got a view on whether this is just a blip or might Erdogan's coat be on a shoogly? Article at. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/turkey-elections-erdogan-ekrem-imamoglu-b2521434.html Erdogan tanked the economy, partly by thinking you can control inflation by cutting interest rates, rather than the opposite which the rest of the world believes. Inflation is now around 70% and he's also held responsible for the lax building regs that made the earthquake much more devastating than it might have been, and a slow response to it. I think he's fucked. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freedom Farter Posted April 7 Share Posted April 7 (edited) The BBC News site has been promoting influential Nato figures quite frequently. They interviewed Kaja Kallas last week and now Jens Stoltenberg: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68743805 Here's who Stoltenberg is. Norway's Tony Blair. If you scroll down his Wikipedia page a bit further you see a photo of him with Putin in 2000. That'll have been shortly after Putin had finished up the Second Chechen War. From the Wikipedia page on Russia's conduct in that war: Quote According to Amnesty International, Chechen civilians have been purposely targeted by Russian forces, in apparent disregard of humanitarian law. The situation has been described by Amnesty International as a Russian campaign to punish an entire ethnic group on the pretext of "fighting crime and terrorism". Russian forces have throughout the campaign ignored to follow their Geneva convention obligations, and has taken little responsibility of protecting the civilian population. Amnesty International stated in their 2001 report that Chechen civilians, including medical personnel, have been the target of military attacks by Russian forces, and hundreds of Chechen civilians and prisoners of war are extrajudicially executed. That clearly parallels what Putin has ordered done to Ukrainians recently. Yet when he did it to Chechens in 2000 he was rewarded with handshakes by the likes of Stoltenberg. Surely Stoltenberg has since realised how wrong he and his fellow travellers were with their prior support for Putin. However, the lack of public admission from them over it dents their credibility when advising us now. On to that BBC article and while he's ostensibly talking about a quartet of nations, he seems to be drawing particular focus to China. He claims China's links with Russia are increasing: China has increased its trade with Russia since Russia invaded Ukraine. However, to a much lesser extent than other nations, especially a certain Nato member and a certain Nato ally: The dotted line is when Russia invaded Ukraine. Also of note is that as a percentage of GDP, Slovenia trade three times as much with Russia and Belgium twice as much compared to China. Such a comment doesn't help against the claim that Nato is, at least in part, about coaxing Europe into helping USA with their global interests. Edited April 7 by Freedom Farter 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freedom Farter Posted April 7 Share Posted April 7 To add to the above: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ae46993b-5c2b-4945-ab68-e99c7ab2531d?shareToken=119743eb131a1c6041a81bcc55be0c31 None of this is to say that China are a great bunch of lads. They're certainly not. The point I'm trying to make is that the worldview Stoltenberg presents is overly simplistic and at times misleading. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MazzyStar Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 On 07/04/2024 at 09:38, Freedom Farter said: The BBC News site has been promoting influential Nato figures quite frequently. They interviewed Kaja Kallas last week and now Jens Stoltenberg: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68743805 Here's who Stoltenberg is. Norway's Tony Blair. If you scroll down his Wikipedia page a bit further you see a photo of him with Putin in 2000. That'll have been shortly after Putin had finished up the Second Chechen War. From the Wikipedia page on Russia's conduct in that war: That clearly parallels what Putin has ordered done to Ukrainians recently. Yet when he did it to Chechens in 2000 he was rewarded with handshakes by the likes of Stoltenberg. Surely Stoltenberg has since realised how wrong he and his fellow travellers were with their prior support for Putin. However, the lack of public admission from them over it dents their credibility when advising us now. On to that BBC article and while he's ostensibly talking about a quartet of nations, he seems to be drawing particular focus to China. He claims China's links with Russia are increasing: China has increased its trade with Russia since Russia invaded Ukraine. However, to a much lesser extent than other nations, especially a certain Nato member and a certain Nato ally: The dotted line is when Russia invaded Ukraine. Also of note is that as a percentage of GDP, Slovenia trade three times as much with Russia and Belgium twice as much compared to China. Such a comment doesn't help against the claim that Nato is, at least in part, about coaxing Europe into helping USA with their global interests. Stoltenberg participated in protest rallies against the U.S. war in Vietnam in the 1970s.[170] In 2011, Stoltenberg said "We sang the chorus, 'Singing Norway, Norway out of Nato.' It was a hit."[170] In 2001, Stoltenberg crashed his Labour Party-owned car into a parked car; he then left the premises without leaving a note with his name or number; the damages cost 8000 Norwegian kronerto repair.[171] In 2002, Stoltenberg admitted to having used hashish (cannabis) in his youth.[172] He therefore asked the Ministry of Justice and Public Security to evaluate his impartiality in the upcoming government response to the report on drugs by the Stoltenberg Commission, headed by his father, Thorvald Stoltenberg.[173] In 2011 Stoltenberg got a 380,000 kroner boat as a birthday gift from the Norwegian Labour Party and the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions; the givers also paid the tax for the gift which led to criticism.[174][175] I like the controversies section of his Wikipedia. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlipperyP Posted Saturday at 02:42 Share Posted Saturday at 02:42 Thailand largest party MFP (151 sitting MP's), who were out voted by an unelected senate to form a government. Meaning the arch rivals (red and yellows) put their differences (actual murdering each other for decades) one side, to form a government, to keep those pesky upstarts on the side-lines. They are now going through at dissolution case, that they won't win. The old men/snakes don't get it. They will reform and come back bigger. https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/politics/2786249/move-forward-girds-for-dissolution-case 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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