Author Archives: Alan

Time for a chill….Nora the polar bear…

Gotta love this….the BBC’s response to a complaint about a ‘comic’ calling Jacob Rees-Mogg an arsehole on The Now Show…

This was not about calling random people ‘arsehole’ indiscriminately. This was a satirical piece about Jacob Rees-Mogg and his claim that ‘experts’ were in the same category as ‘soothsayers and astrologers’. Nish Kumar felt this was a preposterous statement from an MP and pick ed up on Rees-Mogg rather pretentiously quoting the Roman philosopher and politician Cicero on Newsnight to support his argument.

Nish Kumar provided a genuine quote from Cicero in return, countering Rees-Mogg’s argument and ended with a comic undercut in the form of the made -up quote from Cicero saying, “the guy is a total arsehole”.

This concluded a sophisticated argument by using anachronistic modern terminology,  which also satirised Rees-Mogg for his pretension.

Rees – Mogg is fair game in this context as a public figure he often plays up to the image of being old-fashioned and more comfortable with classical allusions than modern ones.

Get her…‘a sophisticated argument by using anachronistic modern terminology,  which also satirised Rees-Mogg for his pretension.’….blimey and there was me thinking it was just something slapped together on the 54 bus on the way to the studio….and it seems a bit of a leap to suggest it is somehow justified to call Rees-Mogg an arsehole because he likes the classics…..what can we call Mary Beard then? [No need to answer that one thanks]

And the use of the phrase ‘hideously white’?  Not apparently prejudicial to white people at all….and other media outlets used the phrase, so OK…

It was the lack of diversity and representation which was being described as hideous in this phrase, not any particular ethnicity itself. Other media outlets quoted the phrase from the report too. 

Just in the same way the BBC thinks it amusing to bandy about the phrase ‘Pale, male and stale’…sexist, ageist and racist…but it’s OK for BBC presenters to use it.

Try using ‘Hideously Muslim’ if you believe the BBC has an over-abundance of Muslim employees….see where that gets you….it wouldn’t of course be about ethnicity or religious identity but merely an argument about too much diversity and an over-representation of Muslims in the BBC that isn’t merited by their actual presence in society.

Thanks to Mice Height for this…

 

A former Obama administration official who knew Kalugin called his mention in the dossier “a head scratcher” because Kalugin was so capable in his economic job.  McClatchy

The BBC is going big on the Russian angle and is claiming that a Russian diplomat was withdrawn in a hurry to cover his tracks…because he was a spy, a spy that helped Trump steal the election…despite the BBC admitting there is absolutely no evidence…it carries on regardless spinning away..

The BBC has learned that US officials “verified” a key claim in a report about Kremlin involvement in Donald Trump’s election – that a Russian diplomat in Washington was in fact a spy.

So far, no single piece of evidence has been made public proving that the Trump campaign joined with Russia to steal the US presidency – nothing.

Trouble is the BBC hasn’t verified the claim, and it’s not a ‘key claim’ [a rhetorical trick to justify the feeble claims made by the BBC in this piece]…the BBC is merely reporting what someone in the US intelligence wants them to hear…and it’s probably from an agency at odds with the FBI, the ever present inter-agency rivalry…whom the BBC admits is called the ‘Feebs’, ie feeble minded, by the CIA…

If anyone looks like a harmless economist, rather than a tough, arrogant KGB man, it is the bland-faced Kalugin.

But sources I know and trust have told me the US government identified Kalugin as a spy while he was still at the embassy.

It is not clear if the American intelligence agencies already believed this when they got Steele’s report on the “diplomat”, as early as May 2016.

But it is a judgment they made using their own methods, outside the dossier.

A retired member of a US intelligence agency told me that Kalugin was being kept under surveillance before he left the US.

In addition, State Department staff who dealt with Russia did not come across Kalugin, as would have been expected with a simple diplomat.

“Nobody had met him,” one former official said. “It’s classic. Just classic [of Russian intelligence].”

As for the FBI being  so feeble?  If that was the case why did 003.5 only talk to them, deliberately avoiding the Russia ‘experts’, the CIA?…

He gave the FBI the names of some of his informants, the so-called “key” to the dossier.  But the CIA never interviewed him, and never sought to.

Our BBC boy explains it away [contradicting the above where he blames the CIA]…just not the right faces at the CIA despite being the experts….

I understand that Steele himself did not ask to brief the CIA because he had a long-standing relationship with the FBI.

The Russia people at the CIA had moved on and he felt he did not have the personal contacts he would need.

Anyway…a great surprise, a Russian spy possibly posing as a diplomat and being watched by the intelligence agencies… all embassy staff are routinely kept under some kind of surveillance…the fact Kalugin was being watched meant nothing in particular…never heard of a spy posing as a diplomat?…nor has the CIA…er….

A former U.S. intelligence official said it wouldn’t be unusual for an officer in a Russian intelligence agency, or even an American one, to hold an economic post such as Kalugin’s.

“Everyone does that, but the Russians do it more than anyone else,” said the official, who declined to be identified because the issue is sensitive.

So, the BBC tells us no one ever met Kalugin and that he was rushed out of the US pre-emptively…all true?…hardly…..he was a constant on the Russian-American economic co-operation circuit meeting many people [as  the two videos show] and his leaving was known 6 months in advance…one who can tell us ….

Those acquainted with Kalugin, who was chief of the embassy’s economic section, described him in different ways, from shy to arrogant.

Earl Rasmussen, a vice president of the Eurasia Center, a group that promotes trade with Russia and its neighbors, said Kalugin “knew issues of concern to him and of concern to the other side.” He said the diplomat had spoken of his planned departure for months and the two men had lunch a week before Kalugin flew home.

“I knew of his departure a minimum of six months prior,” Rasmussen said. “He was planning on taking time off to get his family settled before going back to work in September in Moscow.”

Did he live like a hermit behind twitching net curtains with his notebook?

A former Obama administration official who knew Kalugin called his mention in the dossier “a head scratcher” because Kalugin was so capable in his economic job.

“He was certainly present at a lot of events with the Russian ambassador,” said the official, insisting on anonymity to avoid damaging relationships. “Normally you don’t want to put somebody in a position to embarrass your government in those public positions.”

Kalugin spoke at an event organized by the U.S.-Russia Chamber of Commerce of New England and to some other business councils. In a YouTube video, he was interviewed by China’s CCTV-America.

The BBC is bigging up ex-MI6 spy Steele’s dodgy dossier trying to make it sound more credible….a supposedly top intelligence agent who misspelt many names and got many simple facts wrong…such as there is no Russian consulate in Miami as he claimed…not inspire confidence really does it?

Kalugin may well have been a spy but this BBC hatchet job is complete trash and doesn’t even bother to cover the ground properly…they don’t show any of Kalugin’s contacts or public speaking events…a video of which is above and below…easily available…BBC just not interested in providing facts that counter their own ‘facts’.

More BBC fake news……no facts just speculation and supposed intelligence revelations from ‘trusted sources’.  Shame we cannot trust the BBC at all.

Another video…Kalugin’s on the right…he never met anyone in the US says the BBC…..er…

Russia Direct conducted a panel discussion “Future of Russian Hi-Tech/Science Cities and Innovation,” on June 25, in New York, which featured international experts in the field of investments, human resources, economics, high-technologies and innovation.

The BBC et al went to town on the Russians [and by alleged association Trump] for interfering in the democratic process of the US election by hacking, no proof yet that they did, Clinton’s and the Dem’s emails.  Apparently this providing to the American electorate of information about Clinton’s and the Dem’s activities and thoughts, often at odds with what they said in public, was anti-democratic…not sure how that can be…maybe illegally obtained but surely the information is relevant..otherwise why all the squealing?

No such outrage about the EU’s interference in the democratic elections of a sovereign nation within Europe, France, as the EU tries to stop Le Pen being elected [Just as Obama came to Britain and told us to vote for the EU and then trotted off to Germany to tell the Germans to vote for Merkel…and no one objected]…

Given that the French election could have vital consequences for the EU, the European Commission is not taking any chances. In an unusual move, it’s getting involved in French politics, albeit indirectly, with a fact-checking campaign to counter the anti-EU narrative coming from Le Pen’s National Front.

The EU-paid fact checkers rebut Le Pen attack lines such as the assertion that France would be better off without the euro or that the EU destroys French purchasing power.

While the EU seeks to counter core Le Pen Euroskeptic messages, the Commission doesn’t endorse any specific candidate in the French race. But there is no doubt that Brussels insiders see a Le Pen win as a threat to the EU.

Shockingly Trump’s team met some Russkies [so did Clinton’s] and Juncker is in talks with Le Pen’s opponents…no fuss about that collaboration then?….

Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is following the French campaign closely, officials say. So far, he has conducted one-on-one meetings with three of the presidential candidates at their behest — the centrist Macron, the conservative François Fillon and the socialist Benoît Hamon.

Once you’re in the EU they don’t want you to leave and will do anything to blackmail you to force you to stay…

Pierre Moscovici, the commissioner for economic and financial affairs, said in a press conference last week that “it’s a mistake” to not to fight anti-EU candidates such as Le Pen. “Europe is France’s future, and we need France to be a driving force,” the French socialist said, adding, in a clear swipe at the National Front leader: “I don’t even talk about those crazy ideas of France leaving Europe, which would both kill Europe and make France choke severely.”

Europe is your future whether you want it or not.

And look at this sneering comment….

One top diplomat likened the vote to Brexit and last year’s U.S. election. The voters who decided the outcome then, he said, were “those who don’t give a damn anymore about politics.”

On the contrary they vote the way they do because they do think politics is important and that we don’t just hand over power without holding the politicians to account as the EU would like…the EU failed Britain…bye bye…Obama failed the US…bye bye.

Vive la France!

BBC desperate to push heroic blacks battling against the odds narrative…if it was the same narrative as the BBC uses for Brexit they might as well give up now…..

The Nigerian bobsleigh team racing towards history

Fighting freezing winds, bone-breaking speed and up to five g-force, the Nigerian women’s bobsleigh team are training hard in western Canada.

So someone from a land of tropical sun and overbearing heat wants to compete in a winter sport….holy smoke….

Jamaica were there first a long, long time ago….

Funny old world…does anyone at the BBC have a clue?

They make the iPlayer inaccessible for anyone without a licence and yet chuck stuff on YouTube for free…

The question has to be asked…what is the point of the iPlayer when the BBC could have a channel on YouTube and what was the point of spending £100 million on a digital archive, that never materialised, when they could have made their material for journo’s to reference privately available on YouTube…or you could ask why when YouTube was originally set up for about £1 million the BBC couldn’t set up its own film library for a staggering £100 million?

It must be great to have the national broadcaster on your side, championing your cause and throwing doubt on your opponent’s arguments, sowing confusion about their aims, generating a vision of apocalyptic doom and gloom upon your opponent’s cause.  Yep, the EU must be overjoyed to have the BBC on its side.

The BBC is having a field day telling May & Co what they can and cannot have in the negotiations….who needs the EU wasting its time when the BBC is there to lay out the terms itself?

Andrew Neil casts doubt upon it all and declares…‘That’s just not possible, Prime Minister, is it?’

Laura Kuenssberg suggests May is fooling herself…

Is she fooling herself? Or does Theresa May have reserves of political magic as yet unseen?

Not only is May a fool but Brexit will wreck the economy and unleash the ‘demons’ in the Tory Party…meaning of course some sort of latent Fascist streak…..

All this, knowing that one false move could wreak havoc on the economy or unleash demons inside her own party.

Oh, not only foolish but pigheaded and wrong…Brexit is not the right course for the country….

Just as determination can go a long way to achieving any goal, politicians can be resolute and also wrong.

There are no guarantees that the prime minister’s aims are the right ones for the country. Still less certainty that they can be achieved.

Funny thing when Boris complained about the EU saying it would punish Britain for leaving the BBC jumped on him…..Brexit: Boris Johnson warns against ‘punishment beatings’…oh and the BBC’s political editor, James Landale, ridicules Boris [despite Boris being right]….Brexit memo to Boris Johnson: Don’t mention the War

Of course it was Landale who 25 years ago made up a rhyme about the Euro-sceptic Boris which may give us a clue as to what colours Landale’s reporting now…

“Boris told such dreadful lies It made one gasp and stretch one’s eyes”

Lansdale finished with this piece of advice…

Maybe Mr Johnson might remember the last line of the Fawlty Towers episode when a ranting Basil is being led away by the nurses and one of the stunned German guests asks: “However did they win?”

Well I guess we won the war because not only did we have God on our side but also the British Broadcasting Corporation which backed the British war effort rather than siding with the enemy.

So Boris is chastised and mocked but now the EU is saying we are blackmailing them the BBC once again jumps, not on the EU, but on the Brexit team…. John Humphrys on the Today Show telling David Davies that it was ‘inconceivable’ that Britain could get what it wants in negotiations…nice to have the BBC doing the EU’s dirty work pre-empting negotiations and claiming our own demands are ridiculous and unachievable.  Then Humphrys moved onto the nonsense claim that the government was blackmailing the EU quoting this from May from her speech….

In security terms a failure to reach agreement would mean our cooperation in the fight against crime and terrorism would be weakened.

Humphrys says…

‘and that has been interpreted as…..’give us what we want or else…’…It did rather sound like blackmail didn’t it?’

What he doesn’t bother to quote is the rest of her sentence….

In this kind of scenario, both the United Kingdom and the European Union would of course cope with the change, but it is not the outcome that either side should seek. We must therefore work hard to avoid that outcome.

She is not blackmailing anyone just stating the bleeding obvious…no agreement then other ways of cooperating on security must be worked out.

Humphrys also fails to note the huge amount of times May assured us that security and co-operation is a top priority…in her speech and in the letter itself…..

‘It is a plan for a new deep and special partnership between Britain and the European Union. A partnership of values. A partnership of interests. A partnership based on cooperation in areas such as security and economic affairs.

We will play our part to ensure that Europe is able to project its values and defend itself from security threats.

With Europe’s security more fragile today than at any time since the end of the Cold War, weakening our cooperation and failing to stand up for European values would be a costly mistake.

In an increasingly unstable world, we must continue to forge the closest possible security co-operation to keep our people safe. We face the same global threats from terrorism and extremism. That message was only reinforced by the abhorrent attack on Westminster Bridge and this Place last week.

‘So there should be no reason why we should not agree a new deep and special partnership between the UK and the EU that works for us all.

‘We seek continued cooperation with our European partners in important areas such as crime, terrorism and foreign affairs.

In the letter….

We want to make sure that Europe remains strong and prosperous and is capable of projecting its values, leading in the world, and defending itself from security threats.

In security terms a failure to reach agreement would mean our cooperation in the fight against crime and terrorism would be weakened. In this kind of scenario, both the United Kingdom and the European Union would of course cope with the change, but it is not the outcome that either side should seek. We must therefore work hard to avoid that outcome.

We should work towards securing a comprehensive agreement. We want to agree a deep and special partnership between the UK and the EU, taking in both economic and security cooperation.

We want to play our part to ensure that Europe remains strong and prosperous and able to lead in the world, projecting its values and defending itself from security threats.

Europe’s security is more fragile today than at any time since the end of the Cold War. Weakening our cooperation for the prosperity and protection of our citizens would be a costly mistake.

Together, I know we are capable of reaching an agreement about the UK’s rights and obligations as a departing member state, while establishing a deep and special partnership that contributes towards the prosperity, security and global power of our continent.

Talk about cherry-picking a single phrase and attributing a completely false interpretation to it that coincidentally suits your own purpose….casting doubt upon Brexit.  Good old BBC.

The Great Escape is on, watch the BBC goons, the Tristrams, try to stop Tom, Dick and Harry in the bid for freedom….and if you see it report it here on the new open thread…..

Just listening to Jon Pienaar giving us his EU analysis…apparently the extravagant promises made by the Brexit campaign are now facing the harsh light of reality…er…what ‘promises’ never mind ‘extravagant’ ones?  No one promised anything other than to leave the EU in the belief that we could then control our borders and politics…the intent was to control our own borders and who we let into the country.

Pienaar says immigration will actually go up and industry and universities will still be allowed to bring in people #DespiteBrexit….er…no one ever thought there would be a total stop on all immigration….so just one more strawman from Pienaar.

This is pure bunkum from Pienaar, a narrative shaped to paint a picture of Leave voters being betrayed and a ‘realisation’ that Brexit was nothing but a hopelessly unrealistic dream doomed to failure….much the same message that fanatic pro-EU Clegg delivered on Newsnight last night as he was given the keys to the BBC camera cupboard and free rein to produce whatever piece of propaganda he felt the urge to make.