Recent Appearances...

Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !
Recent Appearances...

Britain

‘This is for Gaza’: George Galloway wins UK seat after campaigning against Israel

2024-03-01

[IsraelTimes] Veteran left-wing political maverick

George Galloway
... a British national embarrassment, not particularly honest, more fond of dictators and terrorists than he is of his native countrymen except at the peak of the election cycle ...
, known for his heated anti-Israel rhetoric, wins a vote to become the new politician for the English town of Rochdale

…home of a number of “Asian” groom-and-rape gangs specializing in white schoolgirls. For decades the Asian traffickers were protected by the local authorities, who legitimately feared prosecution as racist were they to act to enforce the laws forbidding anyone to so use underage girls….

after a chaotic campaign which saw the main opposition Labour Party withdraw support from its candidate.

After running a pro-Paleostinian campaign, Galloway won over many of Rochdale’s Moslem community by attacking both Labour and Britannia’s governing Conservatives for supporting Israel in its war against Hamas
Hamas

...a regional Iranian catspaw,...
, making a foreign conflict the major issue — unusual in a by-election when local concerns usually dominate.

Elected to parliament for the seventh time, Galloway will be an irritant to Labour, a party he once belonged to before being ejected for criticizing then-prime minister Tony Blair over the Iraq War. He even went so far as saying the liquidation of Blair would be "morally justified" for Britannia’s involvement.

His victory underlines the divisions in Britannia over the Israel-Hamas war, which is in its fifth month and has brought protesters onto British streets in support of both sides.

With the national election later this year, Galloway’s return to parliament will be short-lived but explosive. He has accused Labour leader Keir Starmer of being in the "pocket of Israel."

Galloway won 12,335 votes compared with 6,638 for second-placed David Tully, an independent candidate. The former Labour candidate, Azhar Ali, came fourth after the opposition party pulled its support from him after his claims that Israel allowed the brutal Hamas-led October 7 massacres.

In other words, the locals were determined to elect a Jew-hater, and Mr Galloway was very happy to supply their need.

"(Labour leader) Keir Starmer, this is for Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
," Galloway says in his victory speech.

It will be the first time Galloway’s left-wing Workers Party of Britannia has been represented in parliament.

Link

-Great Cultural Revolution

Beware The Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum

2023-04-22

[Canada Free Press] Every emerging power has its little army, enforcers...Brown Shirts, Black Shirts, Stalin's Secret Police. For The World Economic Forum (WEF), it has its Young Global Leaders (YGL), attractive men and women, mostly in business attire, seemingly harmless. But these YGL members are near invisible, but dangerous.

The Young Global Leaders (YGL) was created by Klaus Schwab, founder of the WEF, architect of The Great Reset or The New World Order. The YGL, a non-profit organization managed from Geneva, Switzerland, is under the supervision of the Swiss government. The program was founded as part of the World Economic Forum in 1993 under the name "Global Leaders for Tomorrow" and was renamed Young Global Leaders in 2004.

SCHWAB WAS BORN A MEMBER OF THE NAZI CHILD ARISTOCRACY IN 1938
The YGL provides heavy indoctrination and training in socialist principles. Its aim is to provide 'suitable future leaders for the emerging global society, a one world global government. It includes politicians, business leaders, royalty, journalists, entertainers, and other cultural influencers.

Schwab was born a member of the Nazi child aristocracy in 1938, and was reared into Nazi eugenics...getting rid of undesirables. Schwab claims to be an economist, a champion of economic freedom. But, looking at him closely puts him far away. Schwab inherited Escher-Wyss from his Nazi father, a once high technology metals company entrusted by Hitler to develop nuclear weapons. The company was hailed by Hitler as a "Model National Socialist Company." After the war, the company moved to Switzerland, and with all the economic prowess he could muster, his company managed to go bankrupt.

Today there are over 1,400 graduates (some publications say 3,800) from more than 120 countries. Some well known graduates are Justin Trudeau (Canada), Emmanuel Macron (France), Gavin Newsom (Gov. Calif.), Bill Gates, Chelsea Clinton, Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Larry Fink (BlackRock), Peter Thiel (eBay), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Nikki Haley (US pres. candidate), Nathaniel Rothschild, Tony Blair (former PM UK), Angela Merkel (Germany), Jonathan Soros, (son of George), Huma Abedin (Hillary Clinton aide, Pete Buttigieg (former candidate for President), Sanna Marin (Finland PM), Alexander Stubb (former Finland PM), and Vlad Zelensky (President Ukraine).

As you can see, they are everywhere. These new, young leaders are to go back to their respective country and spread the gospel of a global socialist government. They are entrenched in places like Washington, Ottawa, London, and Paris. They don't care what their people want or need, their borders, their culture or tradition. They only answer to their bosses at the World Economic Forum, the likes of Klaus Schwab, Bill Gates, or George Soros.

Link

Britain

Tracking Bill: Hillary rides along to Bill's party in Ireland

2023-04-19

Not so much with as happening to be in the same country at the same time. He is looking well — she, not so much.

[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Bill Clinton delighted the locals of a city in Northern Ireland last night by surprising them with a visit to a local pub for a pint of Guinness.

The charismatic former president was seen in the crowded Londonderry establishment raising his glass before taking a sip of the Black stuff.

Clinton was there with Colum Eastwood, the leader of Northern Ireland's Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), who welcomed him to the city as the island of Ireland marks the 25th anniversary of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement.

Lively photographs from the Tap House pub showed Eastwood's wife Rachael Eastwood enthusiastically embracing Clinton, to the delight of the 42nd president, who to this day remains a popular figure on both sides of the Irish border.

With traditional local music playing the background and to the flashes of cameras, the raucous group cheered as they raised glasses of Guinness, before taking a sip.

Emerging outside, Clinton was mobbed by more crowds of well wishers with whom he shook hands and posed for selfies. He took time to speak to several of those gathered there before getting into his waiting vehicle to leave.

World leaders have flown in across the world to mark the occasion in Belfast. Clinton will be joined by ex-British prime minister Tony Blair, former Irish premier Bertie Ahern and European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic.

Irish premier Leo Varadkar and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will also address the conference on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton arrived at Limavady High School on Friday morning where she unveiled two benches to mark the new shared education campus with the adjacent St Mary's High School.

Mrs Clinton met the head boy and head girl from both schools in Co Londonderry before visiting woodwork classrooms where she talked with pupils and viewed their projects.

Link

Britain

Sir Tony issues stark warning ahead of President touching down in Belfast

2023-04-11

[Express UK] Sir Tony Blair has warned against putting "futile pressure" on the DUP to return to powersharing at Stormont ahead of Joe Biden's visit to Northern Ireland.

The former prime minister spoke of the importance of using "the American influence on the process with care and with sensitivity".

The ex-Labour leader told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "The Americans can play a real role but it's something that you need to do carefully because there's a difference between influencing and pressurising and the one tends to be positive and the other can be negative.

"One thing I learned about the unionist is if you try and pressurise them to do something that they're fundamentally in disagreement with, it's usually futile pressure, even if it comes from the US, so you've got to use that influence carefully."

The US President is due to arrive in Belfast this evening for the four-day trip to Northern Ireland and Ireland to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

Mr Biden is expected to meet members of Stormont's main political parties as part of a visit he said will underscore his nation's "commitment to preserving peace and encouraging prosperity" in Northern Ireland.

Link

Britain

Surveillance State: Tony Blair and Ex-Tory Leader Call for Chinese Communist-Style Digital ID

2023-02-25

[Breitbart] Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the ex-leader of the Tory Party William Hague have called for a “technological revolution” in how the state monitors citizens, including the imposition of a digital ID that would include swaths of personal data, in a scheme being likened to Communist China.

Demonstrating yet again the distinction without difference between the two main parties in Westminster, former Labour Party Prime Minister Tony Blair and his former Conservative opponent at the parliament dispatch box, William Hague penned a joint article for The Times of London, arguing in favour of the formation of a national Digital ID, that would include passport and driving licence details, as well as tax records and right to work documents.

In order to sell the scheme to the public, which roundly rejected previous attempts by Blair during his time in Downing Street to introduce a national identity card, the two globalist politicians played up how a digital ID would offer a “simpler and easier” means of accessing government benefits and that public services could be specifically tailored to individual needs.

Link

Britain

Knighthoods are being given to those the UK state wants to protect from prosecution

2022-12-30

[The Exposé] In the UK today, it seems, being knighted means you’re someone the UK state wishes to protect from prosecution for crimes against the British people. We don’t need to point to Sir Tony Blair, Klaus Schwab KBE, or even to Sir Jimmy Saville to corroborate this theory. Last week, Pascal Soriot, the French-born Australian and Chief Executive Officer of the British-Swiss pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca plc., whose ’vaccine’ for Covid-19 has produced reports of 875,000 adverse drug reactions in the UK public, including 1,334 deaths, was knighted ’for services to UK sciences and leadership in the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic’.

Link

Home Front: Politix

Analysis: What in the Actual F‐ Is Wrong With These People?

2022-11-29

[Free Beacon] You can't make this up. Earlier this month, some dough-faced dork named Sam Bankman-Fried—an MIT grad and son of Stanford law professors—vaporized the GDP of a small country after successfully conning the entire world of so-called educated elites.

All of them. The freaks in Silicon Valley, the freaks on Wall Street, the freaks in Hollywood, and the freaks in Washington. Even (or especially) the journalists who are supposed to be holding everyone accountable. The smartest, most enlightened professional experts and self-appointed moral referees.

Bill Clinton. Tony Blair. The Democratic Party. Larry David. Tom Brady. Fortune magazine. Andrew Ross Sorkin. CNBC. The bald guy from Shark Tank. BlackRock, the $10 trillion investment firm where former Obama aides go to get rich and serve as "Global Head of Sustainable Investing."

They all vouched for Bankrupt-Fraud and his blockchain stonk machine. Like they vouched for Elizabeth Holmes and her magic blood box. Like they vouched for Michael Avenatti and his bullshit litigation racket. The Lincoln Project. OZY Media. Stacey Abrams.

These are people who demand to be taken seriously. You know the type. You've probably heard them ranting about gullible rubes being duped by "misinformation," or denouncing half the country as irredeemably stupid, unserious, and uncultured.

Shockingly enough, most normal Americans are starting to suspect our elite overlords are full of shit, and the elite overlords are freaking out. This lack of fealty to their expertise is not merely misguided, we are told. It's an existential crisis imperiling American democracy.

This raises an interesting question: What in the actual f— is wrong with these people?

Bankman-Fried was the next J.P. Morgan. They actually said that. Of course they did. They adored his dorm-room bong-rip attire and corresponding philosophy—"effective altruism"—through which their capitalist sins can be absolved by attending charity galas and buying hideous art at silent auctions. Better yet, they can start a charitable foundation to avoid paying the tax rates they are constantly trying to raise on everyone else. Giving money to Democrats is also encouraged.

Time and time again, the unwashed masses of non-experts have watched the elite overlords get scammed by charismatic frauds, or team up to incinerate multiple Powerball jackpots—or in one case the entire global economy—only to shrug it off as a "whoopsie" and repeat.

They've been mocked as morally depraved by the same people who partied with Harvey Weinstein and attended his political fundraisers. The same people who hobnobbed with Jeffrey Epstein—before and after his conviction for sex crimes.

They've been lectured at for driving SUVs and complaining about gas prices by millionaires who fly around the world on leather sofas in private jets with nicknames like "Air F— One" and "Lolita Express," and shamed for being unable to afford an electric car that costs more than their annual salary.

They've been denounced as racist and subjected to corporate diversity training by woke weirdos who say "Latinx" and hyperventilate about "Jim Crow on steroids" when voter turnout is through the roof. The same people who attack successful black conservatives as angry, ignorant traitors.

They were told it was totally unreasonable to want their children to go back to school during the pandemic by the same experts who said mass public gatherings were safe as long as they were supporting a righteous left-wing cause.

They were called "out of touch" by the same political gurus who touted Beto O'Rourke, Elizabeth Warren, and Pete Buttigieg as the next generation of transformative leaders.

And they wonder why no one takes them seriously anymore.

To hell with these people.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

An 'emerging secular, democratic consensus' stares Iranian theocracy in the face

2022-11-26

[ARABNEWS] On Sept. 13, Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, was arrested in Tehran for violating the Islamic republic’s strict dress code for women. In the custody of the Gasht-e Ershad — the "Guidance Patrol," or morality police — she suffered a catastrophic head injury and, after three days in a coma, died in hospital.

Her death was the trigger for hundreds of protests across the country, which have seen men and women take to the streets in vast numbers, with women openly shunning the obligatory wearing of the hijab and cutting their hair in public in a gesture of defiance.

Now a new report from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change — TBI — backed by two consecutive polls of thousands of Iranians, has concluded that the widespread rejection of the hijab is nothing less than a symbol of a nationwide yearning for regime change.

The current protests are "no flash-in-the-pan moment," says Kasra Aarabi, co-author of the report and the Iran
Iran

...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate ~~Jews~~ ~~Zionists~~ Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
Program lead at TBI’s Extremism Policy Unit.

"The protests we are seeing now are unprecedented in their longevity, and in their size. But they are a continuation of the trend for unrest that emerged in 2017, since when we’ve seen Iranians consistently taking to the streets."

Aarabi, a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington and a native Farsi speaker, believes that the current unrest, some of the worst seen in Iran since the revolution in 1978 replaced the modernizing regime of the Shah, is a pivotal moment for Iran.

"This is the beginning of the end of the Islamic Theocratic Republic," he said.

"It’s been clear for years that the Iranian people don’t want reform, they want regime change, the downfall of the Islamic Theocratic Republic in its entirety and the creation of a secular democracy."

Young people in Iran, he says, are witnessing the great changes taking place elsewhere in the region, from the bridge-building of the Abraham Accords to the great modernizing reforms in Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
, "and they’re thinking, ’Why can’t we have that?’"

The TBI report draws on two polls carried out among tens of thousands of Iranians, which demonstrate the extent to which Iran has become a secular society, despite more than 40 years of life under a hard-line Shiite theocracy.

Key findings include that men and women in Iran are almost equally opposed to the mandatory wearing of the hijab, rejected by 70 percent of men and 74 percent of women.

This opposition also spans what might otherwise be expected to be the divide between town and country, where people are traditionally considered to be more conservative in outlook.

Only 21 percent of urban Iranians believe in the practice, support that rises only to 28 percent among rural communities.

Predictably, rejection of the compulsory wearing of the hijab is strongest among younger people — 78 percent of respondents aged between 20 and 29 oppose it.

Yet the practice is also opposed by 68 percent of Iranians aged between 30 and 49, and 74 percent aged over 50 — the so-called revolution generation.

Only a small minority of Iranians support the practice — just 13 percent of women and 17 percent of men.

The hijab protests, says the TBI, are clearly about regime change: 84 percent of those who oppose the dress code also want to see an end to the Islamic Theocratic Republic.

Furthermore, "the anti-regime protest movement in Iran is fundamentally secular," said the report, adding that "76 percent of Iranians who want regime change, also consider religion unimportant in their lives."

Link

Home Front: Politix

Trump not first politician to be ditched by Rupert Murdoch

2022-11-17

[BBC] The bashing of Donald Trump by Rupert Murdoch's US newspapers looks like a familiar pattern of the Australian-born media baron turning on political leaders who are no longer useful to him.

This was the confidential instruction for a political hit job issued by Rupert Murdoch in the mid-1970s to his editors, according to an American diplomat's telegram sent to the US Department of State.

The target was Australia's Prime Minister Gough Whitlam.

The Labour leader had been a guest at the Murdoch sheep farm outside Canberra, drawing admiring coverage in his left-leaning broadsheet The Australian.

But after winning election in 1972, Whitlam stopped speaking to Murdoch, as Michael Wolff recounts in his absorbing biography The Man Who Owns the News.

From that point the relationship only grew worse. Among other things, the Whitlam government dragged its feet on granting licences for Murdoch's venture into bauxite mining, before devaluing the Australian dollar, costing the media magnate in his foreign exchange dealings.

In response, The Australian began assailing the prime minister's administration with suggestions of financial and sexual scandal.

Murdoch himself penned articles savaging Whitlam, writes Wolff, and stared down a revolt from newsroom staff outraged by the paper's dramatic shift to the right.

Ten months after that "Kill Whitlam" directive, the prime minister was dismissed by the governor general of Australia amid a budget crisis.

Since Murdoch inherited Adelaide's The News 70 years ago, conjuring from these unlikely beginnings a multi-billion dollar global business empire, 18 Australian prime ministers have come and gone.

Through his media megaphone, Murdoch is said to have helped overthrow a few of them, including more recently Malcolm Turnbull and Kevin Rudd.

Thirteen British prime ministers and 10 American presidents, meanwhile, have taken office since Murdoch's raucous style of journalism began shaping voter opinion in the UK and US.

But the Sun King, as he has been dubbed, reigns on.

Former Fox News executive and chief Murdoch lobbyist Preston Padden watched his boss at close quarters as he exercised the art of political power.

"The Rupert Murdoch I knew was gentlemanly, courtly," says Padden, who scheduled the media baron's meetings on Capitol Hill as he built up his television holdings in the mid-1990s. "I never heard him raise his voice.

"He also gives generously. I mean, when [Senate Republican minority leader] Mitch McConnell calls Rupert and says, 'I need a million dollars for this Pac [political action committee] or that Pac', mostly Rupert complies.

"Particularly the Republicans were always eager to see him. Because he's a rock star, right? I mean, the world figure."

Despite Murdoch's genial manner, a sneering contempt for elected office-holders was said to lurk behind that craggy-faced smile.

In 2011, Kelvin MacKenzie, editor of Murdoch's Sun during the British tabloid's heyday, told the Leveson Inquiry into press ethics following a phone-hacking scandal at Murdoch's News of the World: "Rupert told me there is nothing more gut-wrenching than a room full of politicians.

"They queued up like the bloody seven dwarves to kiss his rear end."

There is perhaps no greater demonstration of the awesome power wielded by the Sun than when a collapse in pound sterling forced Britain into a humiliating withdrawal from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992, as detailed in Peter Chippindale and Chris Horrie's riveting history of the newspaper, Stick It Up Your Punter!

When Prime Minister John Major telephoned MacKenzie to ask how he planned to cover the story, the editor replied: "Prime Minister, I have on my desk in front of me a very large bucket of [expletive], which I am just about to pour all over you."

The next-day headline, a riff on the economic turmoil and Tory sleaze, screamed: "Now we've ALL been screwed by the Cabinet."

Though Murdoch says he has never asked a prime minister for anything, Sir John told a different story.

He claimed the News Corp titan had badgered him at a dinner in February 1997 to rethink his direction on Europe.

"It is not very often someone sits in front of a prime minister and says, 'I would like you to change your policy and if you don't change your policy my organisation cannot support you'," he told the Leveson Inquiry.

Sir John said he refused.

The Sun switched its backing a month later to Sir John's Labour rival, Tony Blair, who went on to win a landslide victory that spring.

Blair had already flown out in 1995 to Hayman Island in Queensland, Australia, to secure Murdoch's endorsement.

Australian PM Paul Keating offered some advice to Blair before that meeting.

According to the diaries of former Blair spin doctor Alastair Campbell, Keating told the British Labour leader of Murdoch: "He's a big bad [expletive], and the only way you can deal with him is to make sure he thinks you can be a big bad [expletive] too."

Lance Price, who was an adviser to Prime Minister Blair, says Murdoch was a de facto member of the cabinet, especially when it came to big decisions.

"Tony Blair would take into account how Rupert Murdoch and his titles might respond to any policy decision that he was thinking about," Price tells the BBC.

"He'd be more concerned about Murdoch, and at his reaction, than he was to the transport secretary or he would be at the secretary of state for the environment.

"So in that sense, I felt that he [Murdoch] had a place in the cabinet table."

Which brings us to Trump.

Despite their professed friendship, Murdoch's reported contempt for his fellow New York billionaire is laid bare in Michael Wolff's fly-on-the-wall books about the Trump presidency.

According to Fire and Fury, Murdoch once ended a phone call with the-then commander-in-chief by hanging up and referring to him as an idiot, adding an obscenity.

The chilly shift in tone among the media baron's formerly Trump-friendly outlets has been noticeable since Republicans fizzled out in last week's midterm elections.

On Tuesday night, Fox News cut away during Trump's announcement of his new White House campaign. The Wall Street Journal editorial board called Trump a "loser" and predicted certain defeat for him. The New York Post covered Trump's declaration with a bottom-of-front-page footer irreverently headlined, "Florida Man Makes Announcement".

Whether the Trump equivalent of a "Kill Whitlam" directive has gone out to Murdoch's editors is not yet clear.

The hostile tone is all the more remarkable bearing in mind that Trump is the first US president with whom Murdoch has been able to cultivate a friendship.

But as Trump is no doubt aware, the media baron's idea of a personal connection is just as transactional as his own is often said to be.

Or as one witness, in evidence to the Leveson Inquiry, said witheringly of the Murdoch media's treacherous dealings: "It's just business."

Link

Cyber

Twitter in peril as key executives quit, Musk warns workers of financial ruin

2022-11-12

[IsraelTimes] US regulators watching platform with ’deep concern’ after resignations follow botched launch of new paid verification service, widespread impersonation of top celebrities

Elon Musk’s ownership of Twitter descended ever deeper into chaos on Thursday as key security executives resigned from the platform, drawing a sharp warning from US regulators.

The walkouts came a day after the turbulent launch of new features introduced by Tesla and SpaceX owner Musk following his $44 billion buyout of the influential messaging app.

Musk on Thursday warned employees that the site was burning dangerously through cash, raising the specter of bankruptcy if the situation was not turned around.

"I’ve made the hard decision to leave Twitter," tweeted chief security officer Lea Kissner, who reportedly stepped down with other key privacy or security executives.

In the most extraordinary exit, US media reported that Yoel Roth, the site’s head of trust and safety stepped down just a day after staunchly defending Musk’s content moderation policy to advertisers.

The convulsions followed the unveiling of the site’s long-awaited Twitter Blue subscription service, which allows users to pay $7.99 per month for a coveted blue tick, as well as a separate gray "official" badge for some high-profile accounts.

But the release descended into tumult on Wednesday when Musk scrapped the new gray label almost immediately, overshadowing the launch of the pay service, which is currently only available on the mobile app on iPhones and in the United States.

The launch also saw the emergence of a flurry of fake accounts as users used the opportunity to impersonate celebrities and politicians such as NBA star LeBron James or former British prime minister Tony Blair.

Early media reports also said Robin Wheeler, who held a key role linking Twitter with advertisers and was considered a key Musk ally inside the company, was leaving but late Thursday she tweeted: "I’m still here."

’DEEP CONCERN’
The chaos drew a rare warning from the Federal Trade Commission, the US authority that oversees consumer safety which had put Twitter under watch for past security and privacy breaches.

"We are tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern," a spokesperson for the FTC said in a statement.

"No CEO or company is above the law, and companies must follow our consent decrees," the spokesperson added, referring to past commitments by Twitter to obey US privacy rules.

Violating FTC decisions could cost Twitter millions of dollars in fines.

The 51-year-old entrepreneur fired half of the 7,500 employees of the Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, company a week ago, 10 days after buying the site and becoming its sole owner.

For the first time since the layoffs, Musk on Thursday addressed his remaining employees and urged them to help the site reach one billion users, according to employee text messages seen by AFP.

Musk also warned that the company was bleeding cash and expressed fear about the effects of the poor economy on his newly bought business.

"You may have noticed I sold a bunch of Tesla stock. The reason I did that is to save Twitter," he is reported to have said.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives meanwhile warned that the Twitter episode could have serious repercussions for electric car manufacturer Tesla.

"Brand destruction is our biggest worry with this Twitter circus show. It’s that simple and I can’t ignore it for Tesla stock," Ives wrote on the site.

Twitter is also crippled by the decision of advertisers to stay away from the platform, concerned about Musk’s plans.

The tycoon announced he was ending work-from-home policies at Twitter, which had been a widespread practice at the the Socialist paradise of San Francisco
...where God struck dead Anton LaVey, home of the Sydney Ducks, ruled by Vigilance Committee from 1859 through 1867, reliably and volubly Democrat since 1964...
-based company.

"If you don’t show up at the office, resignation accepted," he told employees.

Link

Britain

'The Queen is Dead, But is the UK?

2022-09-12

[GG&G] I wrote a scathing piece on new UK Prime Minster Liz Truss the other day because I had to. Truss, I believe, is everything I said she is. Sadly, she was also the best choice among the Tories to potentially carry Brexit to its real fruition.

Queen Elizabeth II finally gave up this mortal coil and say what you want about the British Crown and its perfidiousness throughout the centuries, Elizabeth was, I believe, something different.

I’m no royalist, or even a fan of the Brits at the geopolitical level. I’ve spit enough fire and brimstone at them for their provincial attitudes towards all of their former colonies to level mountains. The British aristocracy is as corrupt and enabling of the corrupt as any group of people in human history.

And many of the people they have enabled have no intention of giving up that power. Hence, the mess we see in Europe and the UK.

For all of the complaints I level at our own government being in the pay and service of foreign actors, I more than recognize the UK is dealing with the same problem.

But that said, I have a more balanced view of Elizabeth II and will not be dancing on her grave this morning. In fact, I’ll remind you of the many posts I wrote back in 2018-19 about Brexit, Johnson and Trump bringing the Queen back on the chessboard to help get us out of the crisis we are now in.

The British crown has been a captured piece for generations to British globalists and Communists, but I repeat myself. They have dominated British foreign and domestic policy for decades.

And if there is one thing we know about Elizabeth, she hates Commies.

Sadly, so much of what we hoped for died when Davos stole the 2020 election and destroyed the Trump/Johnson/Elizabeth axis of power. Who do you think was really the target of COVID?

Us? The plebes? No. It was The Fed, Trump and the Queen. Davos got two of three. It ain’t bad, as the song goes, but without all three they can’t win.

That’s the most important part of Elizabeth’s story — as Queen she backed Brexit. Now, say what you want about what Brexit unleashed, the multiple power vacuums it created, and the confusion of who has sought to profit from it, in the end Brexit was an immense, world-shaking statement of popular sovereignty.

On this issue alone Queen Elizabeth II put paid Hans Hoppe’s trenchant analysis from 20 years ago in his book, Democracy, the God that Failed, that as bad as it is, even monarchy is a superior form of government than democracy because at least the monarch has a property right in their people.

Whereas in democracy, it’s just one big tragedy of the commons and all the corruption, graft, sloth and banality that implies. The crown at least purports to stand for something. And by backing Brexit Elizabeth stood for her people over those jackals in Parliament, the House of Lords and the Civil Service working so hard to tear them down.

Trump understood that Elizabeth was not Davos and Brexit the chance to really change the dynamic between not only the US and the UK but also between those two and Russia/China.

There was an opportunity for a negotiated settlement with them on behalf of the Global South and avoid the crisis we are in right now.

Elizabeth understood this as well, but was mostly powerless to stop the train because the UK government and its entrenched aristocracy is a cesspit.

Trump also understood that Charles was as compromised a figure as you could be. The manila folder on Charles is more than thick enough to ensure he does as he’s told.

Elizabeth, on the other hand, was no one’s toady. It simply wasn’t her. It doesn’t mean she was an heroic figure we should lionize. People are complicated. Stories are never as cut and dried as we would like them to believe. Charles is still taking the throne after all.

I view the British Crown the same way I view the Vatican — corrupt and the power it wielded caused mission creep over the centuries in defining "their interests." You’ll note how they’ve corrupted the United States with this same idea of "interests."

The imperial mindset is one of the stickiest things in human behavior. But at some point pure survival takes over and pragmatism trumps all those old ambitions and machinations. The problem, of course, is that the jackals have weakened everything to the point of unleashing the worst people to run around doin’ stuff.

So, when Trump "lost" the stage was set to off Johnson and reverse Brexit. Davos made their move against Johnson this summer because, as Alex Krainer reminded me in an email the other day, the British Cabinet actually runs the country, not Parliament.

This was why Marc Sedwill being both Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service under Theresa May was so dangerous. He was really Prime Minister, directing Brexit negotiations doing Davos’ bidding.

It’s also why Johnson firing him as nearly the first thing he did when taking power was the definitive statement of his position on Brexit, the Queen and the UK as a sovereign nation.

Sedwill’s power and betrayal of the UK showed in the Brexit deal May negotiated and left for Johnson to clean up. One of the things she left behind was the Northern Ireland Protocol.

It was Elizabeth that helped along the destruction of May and the ascension of Johnson. None of this excuses their activities in Ukraine, of course, but that’s a different matter.

Davos wanted Johnson gone because they wanted Brexit undermined. The Northern Ireland protocol is the key to this. There is a provision in the Brexit agreement where the NI protocol is to expire in a couple of weeks. There was a two-year time limit on it and if UK didn’t think the EU were acting in good faith (or whatever) they could cancel it and the UK would now be in charge of the border crossings.

Conversely, if the NI protocol remains in place, the EU will still set trade policy for the UK. Sunak was supposed to win and make sure the UK negotiated down.

Liz Truss has been at the forefront of pushing the legislation, now in the House of Lords, that would invoke that Article within the Brexit agreement and end the tussle over Northern Ireland.

So, this is the issue on which Brexit hangs. It’s why Davos couldn’t wait for Liz to die before removing Johnson and creating a fight within the Tories for control over the party.

It’s why Johnson kept saying they would have to remove him from office bodily. In the end BoJo may have been a clown but it looks like he was, on balance, a patriot.

The goal was for Davos to get their dark-skinned Tony Blair, Rishi Sunak.

They failed and got Johnson’s Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss.

And I think Elizabeth held on long enough to see this through to completion, for the UK to be independent of Europe and re-establish its sovereignty.

Truss then looks like a counterweight to Charles’ clear alliance with Davos on Climate Change and the Great Reset. Then again, he may surprise us now that he has the crown. I won’t speculate further.

The path to that is having nationalists in control of the cabinet who, in turn, control Parliament and the Civil Service.

Now, all of this analysis depends on how Truss handles Northern Ireland. If she stands her ground and wins then the above is correct and Brexit will eventually be achieved. Elizabeth’s legacy will be preserved.

If she caves Theresa May style, then the UK will be torn apart by Brussels/Davos to strip mine it. Remember, for Schwab’s plan to work in his mind, everyone must be brought low. If only Europe is destroyed he wins nothing except historical vilification.

Remember what I said about Elizabeth hating Commies?

Now, as for Truss, if she begins backing off on the foreign policy front and focuses all of her attention on domestic policy, then the UK could avoid some of the damage clearly aimed at them.

If she doesn’t and continues Johnson’s insane belligerence against Russia then the UK’s future is far murkier.

For now, the early returns are good. Her lifting the ban on fracking and oil/gas exploration is exactly the thing the UK needs to do. It will put the Scottish Nationals led by Nicola Sturgeon on their back foot. Expect increasingly strident calls for Scottish independence in the coming months.

Will Truss have the strength to ride herd over all of this? I doubt it, especially with Biden/Obama in the White House. This may all change post-mid-terms here in the US and Italy’s elections in two weeks.

As it stands, on balance, Elizabeth did the best she could with a terrible post-war hand as monarch. The march towards this moment was well beyond her control. If, in the end, she was able to help the UK out of the mess she couldn’t or didn’t do enough to stop, then her legacy will have been a good one.

Link

Afghanistan

Tony Blair brands Biden an 'imbecile'

2021-08-23

Possibly not even that smart on the technical scale. But then, he always was.

[Daily Mail, Where America Gets Its News] Tony Blair has blasted Joe The Big Guy Biden
Joe <q>The Big Guy</q> Biden

...46th president of the U.S. Old, boring, a plagiarist, fond of hair sniffing and grabbing the protruding parts of women, and not whatcha call brilliant. Just look at the competent way he dumped Afghanistan...
's 'imbecilic' decision to withdraw US troops from Taliban
...Arabic for students...
-controlled Afghanistan, calling the President's scuttle 'tragic, dangerous and unnecessary' and claiming the move had 'every Jihadist group round the world cheering'. Mr Blair, who was in Downing Street when London sent UK troops to the Middle Eastern country 20 years ago following the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington DC, said Britannia has a 'moral obligation' to stay until 'all those who need to be are evacuated'.

In a 2,700 article on the threat of 'radical Islam', the former British prime minister said the exit was not in the West or Afghanistan's interest as he lamented the likely reversal of gains made during the occupation, with the Taliban reasserting itself across most of the country in recent days.

Speaking to Sky News, Mr Blair said he has 'enormous respect' for Mr Biden, but suggested that the President - who campaigned on a slogan of ending 'forever wars' and is likely to be keeping an eye on the midterms next year - had withdrawn US troops for domestic political reasons.

He repeated his assertion that the withdrawal was a 'serious mistake' and 'not something we needed to do' and said there had been 'a lot of gains' made in the past two decades, stressing that the deaths of British Armed Forces personnel were 'not in vain'.

Mr Blair also issued a stark warning to Boris Johnson
...pro-Brexit British prime minister, succeeding no-Brexit Theresa May. BoJo is noted as much for his sparkling personality and his hair as for his Conservative policies....
that the manner of the US' handling of the exit indicated the UK could be relegated from the top division of international powers, with reports Britannia was largely kept in the dark about when American armed forces would leave.

Speaking to Sky News today, Mr Blair added that countries including China and Russia are likely to applaud the withdrawal and occupy the 'vacuum' in Afghanistan left by the NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
powers. Both the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab have suggested Britannia will now have to turn to Beijing and Moscow to assist with exercising a 'moderating influence' over the Taliban post-withdrawal.

Relations between Britannia and US are strained, with Defence Secretary Ben Wallace warning 'no nation will be able to get everyone out' of Afghanistan as Mr Biden's August 31 date makes the mission even more time-pressured, in what is likely to be seen as a plea to Washington.

Cabinet insiders have suggested the President was 'gaga' and 'doolally' for withdrawing so quickly, while the Prime Minister has allegedly privately referred to Mr Biden as 'Sleepy Joe', the nickname coined by Donald Trump
...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons......
. Mr Johnson also allegedly remarked Britannia 'would be better off with Trump' - allegations branded 'categorically untrue' by Downing Street.

'For Britannia, out of Europa
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
and suffering the end of the Afghanistan mission by our greatest ally with little or no consultation, we have serious reflection to do,' said Mr Blair. 'We don't see it yet, but we are at risk of relegation to the second division of global powers.'

His comments come as the US President signalled he wanted evacuations from Kabul airport completed by the end of the month as he prepares to withdraw all American troops - a move that would likely force Britannia to wrap up its operation at the same time.

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-12 More