Frankreichs Präsident Emmanuel Macron hat 51 Tage gebraucht, um nach der Parlamentswahl im Juli einen Ministerpräsidenten zu nominieren. Sein Auserwählter möchte es offenbar möglichst kurz machen: Michel Barnier, seit dem 6. September neuer Hausherr im Pariser Regierungssitz Hôtel Matignon, will bereits in der kommenden Woche ein politisch »ausgewogenes« Kabinett präsentieren. Das dürfte ihm schwerfallen. Weil Barnier seinen Posten nicht nur Macron, sondern vor allem dem Entgegenkommen einer Marine Le Pen verdankt, wird er wohl oder übel auch in trüben Gewässern des rechten politischen Sektors fischen müssen.
She is also professor of operational research at University College London. I have come across her before from an article she did in 2020 for the Guardian which I wrote about, More Lies (The Guardian). Link repeated at the end of this article.
There is a Wikipedia page on her although it is relatively brief. However, certain information on her parents has been removed from later and current versions for some reason.
This is the version as of 22 July 2020 which I would have seen for my article of 15th August 2020.
I will use the wiki article as a basis for assessment. Text in italics from the link unless otherwise indicated. To repeat earlier she
is a British–German mathematician and professor of operational research at University College London (UCL).
She is the first female director of the Clinical Operational Research Unit (CORU) at UCL, which applies operational research, data analysis and mathematical modelling to problems in health care. Pagel also holds an honorary researcher position within Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Early life and education
Pagel was born in London to German parents in 1975. Her father, Manfred Pagel, was a journalist, later senior manager, at Reuters and her mother, Barbara Pagel, was a teacher. She attended St Paul’s Girls School in London.
It seems her father died on 31st January this year. I assume this is his funeral notice.
Pagel graduated with a BA in Mathematics from Queen’s College, University of Oxford in 1996. She also holds an MSc in Mathematical Physics from King’s College London, and MAs in Classical Civilisation, Medieval History and an MSc in Applied Statistics with Medical Applications from Birkbeck College, University of London.
I took Applied Statistics at ‘A’ level which has been very useful. However, it is a truism that ‘There are lies, damn lies and statistics’, that is they can so easily be manipulated to justify what you want.
And given that one of the two longest single anagrams from ‘Applied Statistics’ is ‘plasticities’, one can see that the phrase contains the nature of such things.
In 2002 Pagel was awarded a PhD in Space Physics on Turbulence in the interplanetary magnetic field from Imperial College London.
“Turbulence in the interplanetary magnetic field” is also known as ‘The attraction of farting in space’.
Note Imperial College London is where Neil Ferguson is based, he of the spaghetti statistics.
Research
Wikipedia gives information but it is probably simpler to read her UCL biography here.
However, in essence she has been involved in applying medical statistics since 2005 when she was around 30 years old.
In her own words from her substack she is not a clinician or immunologist, so her work is based essentially on the applied theory of statistics and assumptions from them.
She is a pure academic in other words.
I will highlight this from Wikipedia.
In 2019 Pagel was awarded the Lyn Thomas Impact Medal from the Operational Research Society, along with her colleagues Dr Sonya Crowe and Prof Martin Utley.
‘Lyn Thomas Impact Medal’ has the word ‘mathematically’ as one of three longest single word anagrams. Thus we can get the phrase ‘dons mathematically pm’.
Whether this is statistically significant would need someone like Christina to assess.
Outreach and public engagement
Wikipedia says
Pagel is active in school and university outreach, encouraging participation in mathematics and science subjects.
Her work in developing the children’s heart surgery website formed the basis of a national guide for researchers in how to involve the public and was separately featured in a Health Foundation guide on engagement.
She also contributed to the Sense about Science guide “Making Sense of Statistics”.
As regards the last paragraph one might think she had contributed something substantial. Here’s the document.
Pagel uses tools from her research to design and analyse political data from public polls, particularly in the context of Brexit and health policy, and she is known as a regular podcast contributor on both themes.
As regards Brexit there is a foot note link to an article in The New European entitled ‘Why an election is the best bet to stop Brexit’ which she apparently wrote in 2019.
The New European is of course pro the European Union. It was founded in 2016 after the Brexit result in 2016, part of many people’s attempts to undermine and reverse the process.
If nurses and doctors believe that the NHS will get worse after Brexit, they should spread this message—it could change minds, says Christina Pagel
For someone working in the NHS, it can feel as if all you can do is watch the disaster of Brexit unfold, and that none of it lies within your control.
The at the end it says
At worst, you would be advocating for the NHS, and at best, you could help create new remain voters. Such advocacy represents a way that you too can take back some control in this time of confusion and division.
And
Competing interests: Christina Pagel has been working with the People’s Vote Campaign in analysing their survey data in her spare time. She is volunteering her time and has not received any payment for the work.
This is the Wiki page on the People’s Vote Campaign which wanted a second referendum to try and reverse the original vote.
So her bias is clear, she is a pro-remain in the EU which is hardly surprising given her German roots.
She talks about the NHS and people believing it will get worse because of Brexit.
Well it did get worse but not because of Brexit. As much as anything it was because of the insanity of the COVID 19 deception, contributed to by the likes of Christina Pagel, which proved to the wise and experienced that the NHS is substantially a useless organisation.
And most doctors and nurses bound to big pharma drug pushing and toxic vaccines.
In May 2020, Pagel joined the Independent SAGE committee, whose aim is to offer independent advice to the UK Government during the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of her work for Independent SAGE, she has been quoted in several newspapers and appeared on ITV News, Sky News, and BBC Newsnight discussing the UK response to the pandemic.
Independent SAGE committee is not to be confused with SAGE although I guess many were confused. Mind you, the conflicting information from the government was bad enough. This is the Wiki page giving some brief information.
In May 2020, Independent SAGE warned against ending lockdown prematurely in places like schools. In July 2020, they published a strategy pressing the UK government to achieve ‘zero Covid,’ stating ‘The prospect of many thousands of further deaths from COVID-19 over the next nine months is unacceptable,’ although in the same report they noted only one infectious disease, smallpox, has ever been successfully eliminated.
There is a foot note link to the published strategy.
It displays the members’ gross ignorance about COVID 19, the ‘flu rebranded which many of us worked out in 2020.
Its members include Danny Altmann who I mentioned in my ‘Long Covid – what is it?’ post. He is also of German parents. He is based at the fount of all immunology wisdom (ahem), Imperial College London.
This is Christina speaking, a sublink from Independent SAGE’s website.
OMICRON: CHRISTINA PAGEL SPEAKS TO SKY NEWS
3 Dec 2021 | Media highlights, Vaccines & variants
was on @SkyNews last night discussing what we know about Omicron – making the point that while there is so much crucial we don’t know, there is legitimate cause of concern and early action & why we’re boosting. pic.twitter.com/ZLeiCWCjjO— Prof. Christina Pagel (@chrischirp) December 2, 2021
The interviewer says scientists have no idea what threat the latest variant poses. Her reply says it all, the usual waffle ending up with
‘…pretty sure they (the so-called virus variant) will evade them (the vaccines) to some extent, what we don’t know is whether the booster will be enough to prevent severe illness. Now we suspect it (the booster) will be and that’s why we’re accelerating the booster program.’
‘pretty sure’, ‘we suspect’, this is all cretinous nonsense, moronic.
Which is an anagram of Omicron, Christina, I hope you realised. But it describes you to a ‘T’.
Now for some anagrams of her name.
Anagrams
Before I look at her name I thought I would look at what happens if we combine ‘British German’, her nationality. This is what we can get.
– Rib nightmares
– Harbinger mist
– er GM shit brain
– Barmier things
– Brim nearsight
– Harming tribes
– Brim shit anger
All of which do not bode well. The stuff of nightmares, mists of confusion, genetically modified shit brain, full of short sightedness, missing the wood for the trees etc.
Still on the positive side we can get
– Mrs AI brighten
– Remains bright
So maybe there’s hope for change.
On to her name. Here is my selection.
Christina Pagel
Christna Pgel =11
Single words:
– Sphincteralgia – longest single word, to do with sphincter muscles which could be the anus, so a pain in the arse!
I thought I would also have a quick look at her name including the title ‘professor’.
Professor Christina Pagel
Profes Chitna gl = 14
These are the top three longest words.
– Arteriosclerosis – hardening of the arteries
– Placentographies – to do with images of the womb
– trigonocephalies – a congenital condition related to the skull
Two out of three are not encouraging. As to phrases I thought this would be appropriate as she boosts the fear.
– As Hitler’s GP fear scorpion
Summary and final thoughts
There’s Christina Pagel for you. Christina means ‘Christian’, but ultimately a ‘little Christ’. So maybe we can say she is a ‘Christ’, someone chosen, but in this case chosen to promote lies about vaccines and undermine Brexit.
Indeed another anagram of her name is ‘pagan lie Christ’.
And if we take ‘Professor Christina Pagel’ we can also get ‘A false Christ RPG poisoner’
But given her German roots I think that ‘As Hitler’s GP fear scorpion’ sums her up rather well.
Nevertheless even those from her name alone are perfect, the ‘ghastlier panic’ she has helped foment, ‘eg lip anarchist’, her words undermining the Brexit process and, and the ultimate root cause the fallen angel Satan, whose poisonous agenda she pushes whether she realises or not, the ‘Satanic girl hep’.
Still, the word ‘sphincteralgia’ is amusing, the first time I have come across a one word anagram for an individual. It seems very significant to me as she is a pain in the arse.
But whether this is statistically significant would need someone like Christina to assess.
Look out for the sign of Baldmichael, he will be back!
P.S. Here is the Independent SAGE website home page for further reference.
Ex-Porsche-Boss Wiedeking hat in einem Interview scharfe Kritik an der Ampel-Koalition und Kanzler Olaf Scholz geäußert, den er als „größte Enttäuschung“ bezeichnete. Zudem forderte er harte Einschnitte bei Volkswagen und warnte vor den Folgen für die Automobilindustrie durch strenge CO₂-Vorgaben.
Wendelin Wiedeking, der frühere Vorstandsvorsitzende von Porsche, hat in einem Interview mit der Bild am Sonntag heftige Kritik an der Ampel-Koalition und besonders an Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholz geübt. „Der Kanzler ist die größte Enttäuschung überhaupt“, erklärte der langjährige Konzernchef. Er kennt Scholz persönlich und ist überrascht, wie schlecht dieser das Land regiert. Auch Wirtschaftsminister Robert Habeck stand im Fokus seiner Kritik. „Dem Habeck spreche ich die Sachkompetenz im Sinne von Wirtschaft völlig ab“, sagte der 72-Jährige.
Wiedeking kritisierte die Regierung für ihre strengen Vorgaben gegenüber der Automobilindustrie. Seiner Ansicht nach werden der Branche zu hohe Lasten aufgebürdet, insbesondere durch die strengen CO₂-Vorgaben. „Man stranguliert den wichtigsten Wirtschaftsfaktor, den Europa hat“, so Wiedeking. Er warnte vor den wirtschaftlichen Folgen: „Wir verlieren den wichtigsten Wirtschaftsfaktor und damit einen Großteil unseres Wohlstandes.“ Bereits im nächsten Jahr drohen der Automobilindustrie Strafen in Milliardenhöhe, sollten die CO₂-Ziele nicht erfüllt werden.
Neben der Kritik an der Regierung äußerte sich Wiedeking auch zu Volkswagen. Der Ex-Porsche-Chef forderte harte Einschnitte beim Wolfsburger Autobauer. „VW täte gut daran, sich in Deutschland einer Rosskur zu unterwerfen“, sagte er. Für VW-Chef Oliver Blume sieht er keine Alternative zu einer harten Sanierung. Effizienzsteigerungen seien unumgänglich, und alle Standorte – auch das Stammwerk Wolfsburg – müssten sich dem internationalen Wettbewerb stellen. „Jetzt muss man sehen, dass man sie auch in überschaubarer Zeit erledigen kann“, betonte Wiedeking.
Zusätzlich beklagte er den Mangel an beruflicher Erfahrung vieler führender Politiker. „Wir werden heute von Politikern gelenkt, die keinerlei wirkliche Berufserfahrung haben“, so Wiedeking. Als Beispiele nannte er die Grünen-Vorsitzende Ricarda Lang und den SPD-Politiker Kevin Kühnert, die laut ihm nicht ausreichend qualifiziert seien, um die Geschicke Deutschlands zu lenken.
Britain’s Labour government is vulnerable to a public backlash because of its blatant duplicity.
Keir Starmer’s Labour Party won a landslide election in July with the slogan “a new deal for working people”.
Already the electioneering can be seen as a sham. This week, the Labour government won a majority vote in the House of Commons to cut winter fuel payments for pensioners. Around 10 million senior citizens will no longer receive a financial grant to help them pay soaring energy bills and keep their houses warm this winter.The 5-Ingredient Cookb…Kelly, BenjaminBest Price: $5.31Buy New $10.88(as of 01:00 UTC — Details)
The energy crisis for households in Britain and across Europe is a result of the NATO proxy war in Ukraine and the cutting off of Russia’s abundant gas and oil supplies to the continent. The Biden administration ordered the blowing up of the Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany. That was in September 2022. The best way to end the energy crisis for European households would be to stop the war, make peace, and return to normal relations. But the new Labour government is having none of that common sense. It is eagerly fueling the proxy war as much as the Conservatives before it, and what’s more now making the poor of Britain pay for the warmongering.
Prime Minister Starmer told angry unions and workers that he would make no apology for the winter fuel payment cut. His ministers are claiming they have “no choice” but to repair a “£22 billion blackhole” in public finances gutted by the predecessor Conservatives.
Starmer’s Labour is warning that more “tough choices” are coming in the coming weeks, meaning that working people and low-income families are going to face more economic austerity. So much for a democratic change from the hated Tories and the supposed “new deal for workers”.
The warped priorities of this government (as with the previous one) can seen from the promises to boost spending on Britain’s military. Starmer has vowed to uphold a commitment to increase Britain’s “defense” budget from £54.2 bn (€64 bn, $74.7 bn) a year to £57.1 bn. That represents a 4.5 percent increase.
Under Starmer, Britain will continue to donate billions of public money to the Kiev regime.
This week, while the Labour government was voting to cut winter welfare for pensioners, the British foreign minister David Lammy traveled to Kiev alongside the U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken, where they assured the Ukrainian regime that they would deliver more weapons, hinting at ending restrictions on long-range missiles to hit deep inside Russia.
Meanwhile, Britain’s defense minister John Healey will be in Ramstein, Germany, this week to meet with other military chiefs of the so-called Ukraine Contact Group. Healey, who calls himself “Mr Ukraine”, is to unveil another British military aid package of multi-role missiles worth £162 million. Healey is very much a deep-state figure inside the Labour government. This means a continuity in foreign policy despite the name change in Downing Street.
To date, since the eruption of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022, Britain has doled out £12.5 bn (€14.7 bn) in military aid to the Kiev regime, including the training of up to 45,000 Ukrainian soldiers.
Britain is the third-biggest military aid donor to Ukraine after the United States and Germany.
Starmer’s new Labour government is showing itself every bit as committed to funding the proxy war against Russia as its Conservative predecessor was.
Just three days after the general election on July 4, the new defense minister, John Healey, made his first overseas visit to Ukraine on July 7. Healey vowed to continue Britain’s support.
So while the Labour government claims that it has “no choice” but to slash public spending at home, it unquestioningly keeps spending on militarism at home and abroad.
This is a matter of political choice. If a Labour government were to genuinely prioritize the needs of working people, it could find the finances easily by cutting Britain’s excessive military budget and the largesse it bestows on a NeoNazi regime and the reckless proxy war against Russia that could escalate into a nuclear conflagration.
The insulting deception of Labour’s “new deal” means that Starmer’s government will require close shepherding, just in case it wobbles from the inevitable public backlash.
The vote this week to axe winter fuel payments to elderly citizens has sparked fury among the wider population. The anger will grow as more austerity measures against citizens kick in and while the proxy war in Ukraine continues to receive endless support with British public money.
It seems no coincidence that this week Britain’s Starmer is to visit the White House. The visit by Blinken to London and thence to Kiev alongside his British counterpart, as well as the Ramstein meeting for UK defense chief Healey, all suggest that a close eye is being kept on Downing Street to ensure that it does not get any notions about “serving the people”.
To that end too, it seems significant that the former Conservative defense minister Ben Wallace has taken to whipping up public fears of Russia.
Wallace wrote a recent oped in the Daily Telegraph in which he claimed that Russian leader Vladimir Putin “will soon turn his war machine on Britain”.
The article was reported in several other British media outlets. The same fear-mongering has been echoed by the new head of Britain’s armed forces, General Sir Roly Walker, who warned that the United Kingdom could be in an all-out war with Russia in the next three years.
Wallace, who is a cipher for Britain’s deep state, claimed that “Britain is in Putin’s cross-hairs”. He added: “Make no mistake, Putin is coming for us… we must be prepared for the inevitable.”Speed Reading: Learn t…Knight, KamBest Price: $12.26Buy New $12.59(as of 06:32 UTC — Details)
The hysteria from Britain’s ruling class is of course cringe-making. These claims about Russia’s malign intent and comparing Putin with Hitler are completely bereft of any historical facts, such as NATO expansionism and the weaponizing of a Nazi-adulating regime in Ukraine to provoke Russia.
Russian leaders have repeatedly said they have no intention of attacking any NATO nations. They say their involvement in Ukraine is a special operation to neutralize NATO threats to Russia’s national security.
Sooner or later, the British and Western public are going to demand accountability from their governments on why such huge finances are being ladled into promoting a highly dangerous conflict with Russia.
Britain’s Labour government is vulnerable to a public backlash because of its blatant duplicity.
That would explain the close attention from Washington to London’s policy, ensuring Starmer keeps toeing the line of NATO’s hostility to Moscow. British deep state assets like Ben Wallace also need to keep writing scare stories to frighten the public away from common sense criticism of London’s deranged warmongering and betrayal of working people.
Finian Cunningham, former editor and writer for major news media organizations. He has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages.
Gilbert Doctorow, a cautious commentator, has arrived at a position similar to my own. On September 10, Doctorow wrote in his article, “The insane recklessness of Collective Biden,” that “I cannot say how close we are to midnight on the nuclear war watch. But a Third World War fought at least initially with conventional weapons is now just days, at most weeks away.”The Politically Incorr…Thomas E. Woods Jr.Best Price: $1.51Buy New $8.71(as of 06:15 UTC — Details)
What has pushed the cautious Dr. Doctorow to my position “is the near certainty that the United States and Britain have just agreed to give the Zelensky regime permission to use the long-range missiles which have been delivered to Ukraine, certainly including Storm Shadow and likely also the 1500 km range stealth missile known as JASSM to strike deep into the Russian heartland, and so ‘to bring the war to Russia’ as the Zelensky gang put it.”
Doctorow reasons that Russia’s destruction of Ukraine’s army has prompted the neoconned Biden regime into one last desperate and reckless act of trying to deprive Russia of its victory “by escalating the conflict to a world war.”
Simultaneously with this US idiocy of underwriting missile attacks deep into Russia, Doctorow believes that “the United States has given Israel the go-ahead to launch a full-blown war on Lebanon.” This despite the fact that Lebanon has Iran’s protection, and Iran has Russia’s protection.
So, we have at hand two prospects for the outbreak of major wars that will go nuclear.
Extraordinary, isn’t it, that there is no discussion whatsoever of this duel crisis in the Western media or in the “debate” between Trump and Kamala. It is as if the US has no foreign policy experts and no Russian experts, but only supporters of the official narrative. The controlled narrative world in which we live makes us blind to reality.Freedom Betrayed: Herb…Best Price: $28.84Buy New $49.94(as of 03:15 UTC — Details)
Indeed, it does seem that we do live in The Matrix in which there are no explanations other than the fraudulent ones protected by “fact checkers” in the official narratives.
Doctorow concludes that “a presently localized conflict in the Middle East can in a flash become a regional war that in a further flash becomes a second front to the war between the United States and Russia which I foretold above when speaking about Ukraine.”
Doctorow is a person with whom I can agree.
But I have a doubt. Just as for eight years Putin was lost in his delusion about the Minsk Agreement and failed to prepare for the coming conflict, and just as Putin seems yet to realize that he is at war with NATO, not conducting a “limited military operation in Donbas,” and just as Putin has refused to realize that by conducting a never-ending war he has permitted the West to become totally involved, thus changing the character of the conflict and vastly expanding it, can it be that Putin is still in denial of reality and does not see the war that is unfolding, partly because of his own inaction?
With the Russian media itself reporting that the Chinese are cooperating with Washington’s sanctions against Russia and refusing to handle Russian/Chinese financial transactions, thus accepting Washington’s wedge into the purported Chinese-Russian alliance, perhaps Washington will prevail over those who challenged the American hegemonic order but were unwilling to move forward with their challenge.
Putin’s problem is that he is a mid-20th century American liberal who believes in good will. His Western opponent is operating on the Marxist principle that violence is the only effective force in history.
The Best of Paul Craig RobertsPaul Craig Roberts, a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, has been reporting shocking cases of prosecutorial abuse for two decades. A new edition of his book,
The Tyranny of Good Intentions, co-authored with Lawrence Stratton, a documented account of how americans lost the protection of law, has been released by Random House. Visit
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the man who as the UK’s Chief Prosecutor made the decisions to prosecute and imprison and keep in prison Julian Assange, is now on September 13th visiting the White House in order to persuade U.S. President Joe Biden to enable Ukraine to use NATO missiles to strike deep inside Russia, including The Kremlin, which is less than 317 miles from Ukraine’s border.
On September 12th, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin had issued the following warning about this potential decision:33 Questions About Ame…Thomas E. WoodsBest Price: $2.91Buy New $9.99(as of 07:05 UTC — Details)
(see here the video of him saying it with subscripts in English, but below is the English transcript)
After his speech at the plenary session of the United Cultures Forum, Vladimir Putin answered a question from a media representative.
September 12, 2024 18:55 Saint Petersburg
Question: Over the last few days, we have seen and heard how at a very high level in Great Britain and the United States, the topic has been discussed that the Kiev regime will be able to strike deep into Russian territory with long-range Western weapons. And, apparently, this decision is either about to be made, or, apparently, has already been made. This is, of course, an extraordinary thing. I wanted to ask you to comment on what is happening.
V. Putin: There is an attempt to substitute concepts. Because we are not talking about allowing or prohibiting the Kiev regime from striking Russian territory. It is already striking with the help of unmanned aerial vehicles and other means. But when we are talking about using high-precision long-range weapons of Western manufacture, it is a completely different story.
The thing is – I have already spoken about this, and any experts will confirm this both here and in the West – the Ukrainian army is not capable of delivering strikes with modern high-precision long-range systems of Western manufacture. It cannot do this. This is only possible using intelligence data from satellites, which Ukraine does not have, this data is only from satellites of either the European Union or the United States – in general, from NATO satellites. This is the first thing.The Origins of the Fed…Rothbard, Murray NBuy New $5.95(as of 08:11 UTC — Details)
The second and very important, perhaps the key, is that flight assignments for these missile systems can, in fact, only be entered by NATO military personnel. Ukrainian military personnel cannot do this.
So it’s not a question of allowing the Ukrainian regime to strike Russia with these weapons or not. It’s a question of deciding whether NATO countries are directly involved in a military conflict or not.
If this decision is made, it will mean nothing less than the direct participation of NATO countries, the United States, and European countries in the war in Ukraine. This is their direct participation, and this, of course, significantly changes the very essence, the very nature of the conflict.
This will mean that NATO countries, the US, European countries are fighting with Russia. And if this is so, then, bearing in mind the change in the very essence of this conflict, we will make appropriate decisions based on the threats that will be created for us.
Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.
No major western leader is ever again going to be able to speak about human rights or ethical values, without attracting howls of derision. They are turning on their own people in order to prevent protest at a genocide they actively support.
Keir Starmer stepped up the pressure on opponents of Zionist genocide on Thursday with the arrest of journalist Sarah Wilkinson and the charging of activist Richard Barnard, both under the draconian Section 12 of the Terrorism Act which carries a sentence of up to 14 years in prison.
The UK MSM has of course ignored these, but is universally carrying outrage at the conviction of two Hong Kong activists for sedition, which carries a maximum sentence of … 2 years.The Neoconservative Th…Roberts, Dr. Paul CraigBest Price: $7.49Buy New $15.31(as of 10:30 UTC — Details)
But they tell us it is China and not the UK which is the authoritarian dictatorship.
(To be plain, I do view the Hong Kong convictions as also an unwarranted interference with free speech. I merely point out the incredible hypocrisy of the British Establishment and far worse laws here).
Richard Barnard has been charged and will face trial, apparently related to public speeches supporting the Palestinian right to armed resistance.
Sarah Wilkinson was released on bail after about 14 hours. Like the recent arrest and bailing of Richard Medhurst, the arrest and bailing is a device to chill her reporting and activism.
The harassment of dissident journalists at ports, using the extensive powers of the Terrorism Act for questioning and confiscation of communications equipment, has become routine. I myself suffered detention, interrogation and confiscation of equipment for “terrorism” last October.
But the Sarah Wilkinson case is an escalation, in that this is a raid on a journalist whose home was invaded by 16 policemen at 7.30am, while she was arrested and taken to the police station as her home was comprehensively turned over, presumably looking for gunmen under the bed.
More details of the raid have come out which are scarcely believable. Armed counter-terrorism police wearing balaclavas were used against a peaceful, female journalist. She was manhandled and physically hurt. The ashes in her mother’s funerary urn were desecrated in a “search”. And Sarah’s bail conditions include that she may not use a computer or mobile telephone.
It is a fascist government that sends 16 police to bust a peaceful journalist at home at 7.30am.
Like the stopping of Richard Medhurst’s plane on the tarmac by police vehicles and his being dragged from the plane (which had just landed and was en route to the gate anyway) this is an authoritarian theatre of intimidation, a Nazi stamping of the violence of the state.
Richard Barnard is a co-founder of the brilliant Palestine Action, which has done so much to disrupt the Israeli arms industry in the UK as it continues to send vital equipment to carry out the mass destruction of civilians in Gaza.
BREAKING: After a targeted campaign by the zionist lobby, Palestine Action’s co-founder Richard Barnard is facing three charges for two speeches.
He is accused of supporting a proscribed organisation under the Terrorism Act and encouraging ‘criminal activity’. pic.twitter.com/cWq0qwk15v
Richard has been charged under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act over two speeches he made supporting the Palestinian resistance.
I have of course said this before, but it bears repeating:
Palestine has the legitimate right of self-defence against the illegal occupation. The occupying power Israel has no right of self-defence. That is the plain position in international law.
Yet in the UK, it is legal to offer full-throated support to Israel’s genocide and to wish that all Palestinians are exterminated.
IDF participants in genocide happily move between Israel and the UK with no legal consequences.
Yet it is illegal to support certain Palestinian organisations when engaged in legal acts of armed resistance.
The state’s actions against activists have been ramped up – as I predicted – since Starmer came to power.
Five young activists in Glasgow were ten days ago given sentences ranging from 12 months to 24 months in prison for direct action against Thales weapons plant in Govan, which makes parts for Israel’s Watchkeeper drones, widely used against civilians in Gaza.
The sentences from Sheriff Judge McCormick were savage – far higher than would normally be given on the specified charges, which were of breach of the peace, vandalism, disorderly conduct and acting in an abusive manner.
These normally would attract at most a suspended sentence on a first offence. McCormick also ignored the Scottish government guidelines not to give custodial sentences of 24 months or less but to seek alternatives.
More tellingly, McCormick completely ignored the elephant in the room: the genocide in Gaza, which Thales are supplying.
(The fact the action occurred before the genocide should be properly viewed as a commendable act of prescience.)The Problem with Socia…Thomas DiLorenzoBest Price: $9.49Buy New $11.93(as of 06:45 UTC — Details)
The Zionist Starmerite Establishment were quick to crow over the jailing – notably Luke Akehurst and John Woodcock (who is laughably called Lord Walney nowadays and is the Government Adviser on political violence) who said “Activists considering breaking the law to get their way need to see there will be consequences”.
This follows similarly harsh sentencing of climate change activists, including those who merely took part in Zoom calls discussing direct action.
The authoritarian reaction of the threatened Zionist ruling class is a worldwide phenomenon. Redoubtable Australian journalist Mary Kostakidis has been ludicrously charged under hate speech laws for retweeting mainstream pro-Palestinian tweets.
American activist Professor Danny Shaw was turned over by the FBI on return to the USA following a trip which included speaking on a panel alongside me at the Palestine International Film Festival.
Also in the United States my friend Scott Ritter has been raided by the FBI and all his electronics and other materials confiscated.
It’s now been nearly 35 years since E.L. Jones first published his watershed book The European Miracle. Jones’s history of Europe’s economic development examined the reasons why Europe—a comparatively poor and backward part of the world in the Middle Ages—somehow became the wealthiest and most productive place on earth in the nineteenth century. The fundamental question remains: why did Europe surpass other civilizations1such as Islam and China—which had once been much richer than the west?
According to Jones, a major factor in Europe’s drive to economic prominence was the high degree of economic freedom. As Jones puts it: “Economic development in its European form required above all freedom from arbitrary political acts concerning private property.” Or, as historian Ralph Raico concluded, Europe’s industrialization was closely connected to the fact that “the economy achieved a degree of autonomy unknown elsewhere in the world except for brief periods.”Breaking Away: The Cas…McMaken, RyanBest Price: $11.49Buy New $11.50(as of 07:44 UTC — Details)
This, of course, raises the question of why Europeans enjoyed higher levels of economic freedom. As Raico shows in his work on late antiquity and the Middle Ages, Europe’s political institutions were different from anywhere else, thanks largely to the unique position of the Western Church as a rival and competitor against the civil power. Consequently, no single state or polity was able to consolidate power across the region. Ongoing rivalries between the Church, various kings, and countless private “corporate” organizations further solidified a decentralized political structure in which various groups jealously guarded their property and economic interests from the grasping hands of princes and legislators.
But there’s even more to it than that. Another institution at the core of the story of the European miracle is the family, and specifically the European nuclear family. We find that specific European factors led to growing numbers of nuclear families which, in turn, supported the rise of Europe’s private “corporate” organizations that fueled Europe’s ecosystem of decentralized, diverse, and private organizations.
The Historical Origins of the Nuclear Family
One notable characteristic of Western Europe after the Early Middle Ages is an unusually high proportion of nuclear families. Outside Western Europe, so-called “stem families” and “joint families” were more common. In these two family types, grown children and elderly adults more commonly lived together, and the creation of new households was less common than in areas with nuclear families. In joint families, large extended families could be found living together in close proximity or even on a single estate.(One variation of this model is the Roman ideal of the “pater familias.”)
In the case of stem families, most of the grown children leave to start new households while one of the children—often the oldest son—remained living with the elderly parents in anticipation of inheriting the parent’s land or business.
The historical extended families, and the clan structures that accompanied them, went into relative decline during the Middle Ages in Europe. The resulting rise in prevalence of nuclear families appears to have been encouraged by economic factors and also by religious factors tied to the Catholic Church.
According to economic historian Avner Greif, the Catholic Church in the early Middle Ages “instituted marriage laws and practices that undermined kinship groups.” Polygamy, concubinage, divorce and remarriage we all discouraged, and this worked to limit the overall size of families. Moreover, the Church restricted “consanguineous” marriages—generally marriages among first cousins or other close relatives. The Church also required that women explicitly consent to their marriages. These latter two factors did much to curtail the power of patriarchs and patriarchs of large families who might seek to consolidate their power through arranged marriages and marriages among cousins.
Over time, this all encouraged a proliferation of nuclear families, and Greif notes
By the late medieval period … the nuclear family was dominant. Even among the Germanic tribes, by the eighth century the term “family” denoted one’s immediate family and, shortly afterwards, tribes were no longer institutionally relevant.
The Rise of the Corporations
This created a need for new organizations to replace the old services offered by extended families. That is, individual nuclear families are generally unable to provide their own means of settling disputes and fostering economic exchange beyond the immediate family.1 Clans and tribes often provide these resources. So, in order to replace what had once been offered by family networks, groups of families participated in the creation of “corporations.”
These were not the corporations we today associate with joint-stock companies. These organizations were “voluntary, interest-based, self-governed, and intentionally created permanent associations. In many cases, they were self-organized and not established by the state.” These included the Church itself, but also monastic orders, universities, the Italian city-states, urban communes, militias, and merchant guilds. All actively sought to protect their own commercial interests in Europe’s various legal institutions.
Moreover, whatever their provenance, these corporations tended to think of their own interests as distinct from the interests of the prince or civil power. The corporations thus acted as yet another institutional brake on state power. As Raico shows, Europe’s decentralized political power—and the accompanying protections for private property—grew out of complex legal environment of contracts, rights, and other legal considerations forced upon princes and civil authorities by the demands of these corporate groups. Thus, Europe came to be home to political and legal philosophies respecting the idea of “mine and thine” rather than the idea that all belongs to the prince or the collective.
Other Factors
Of course, the rise of nuclear families was not only the result of Church reforms. Economic and ideological factors were significant as well. Greif notes that Europeans were more accepting of relatively high levels of individualism—which he claims stemmed from earlier Greek, Roman, and Germanic ideals.
Economic realities also affected the shift in family types.
The Black Death was one factor. As one pair of historians put it in 2013, “By killing between a third and half of the European population, it [the Black Plague] raised land-labor ratios.” Moreover, Christopher Dyer notes “Unskilled workers’ wages rose more rapidly than those of the skilled after 1349, a sure indication of a labour shortage…” It thus became easier to create new, economically viable household under these conditions.
By the sixteenth century, wages were also rising due to increases in urbanization, new forms of wage work, and new economic opportunities that came with proto-industrialization.
Rising economic opportunities did not, however, erase the desire among nuclear family groups to further pursue economic and social opportunities through corporations that provided critical services to member families. Over the long term, as Greif concludes, these corporations contributed to the economic growth of Europe by streamlining greater economic exchange, developing a reliable legal framework, and by fostering trust among non-kin groups. These benefits accrued to Europeans also in how the corporations limited state power—a key factor in the European miracle, according to Jones.365 Manners Kids Shoul…Eberly, SherylBest Price: $1.84Buy New $4.40(as of 08:13 UTC — Details)
The Decline of the Corporations
Unfortunately, the rise of new political ideologies and movements in Europe eventually destroyed many independent, non-state corporations while bringing many others under the control of states. Mercantilism, absolutism, and nationalism, for instance, all weakened or destroyed the non-state corporations by promoting the consolidation of state power. As Murray Rothbard notes about the rise of the French absolutist state:
The sixteenth century French legalists also systematically tore down the legal rights of all corporations or organizations which, in the Middle Ages, had stood between the individual and the state. There were no longer any intermediary or feudal authorities. The king is absolute over these intermediaries, and makes or breaks them at will. Thus, as one historian sums up Chasseneux’s view: “All jurisdiction, said Chasseneux, pertains to the supreme authority of the prince; no man may have jurisdiction except through the ruler’s concession and permission. The authority to create magistrates thus belongs to the prince alone; all offices and dignities flow and are derived from him as from a fountain.”
By the late nineteenth century, the free corporations—once tools of the rising tide of nuclear families in the late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period—had become essentially adjuncts of states.
Nonetheless, by then, Europeans for centuries had benefited from the economic growth and political decentralization fostered by these organizations. Even today, we continue to benefit from their important contributions to the European miracle.
Some historians who subscribe to the “nuclear hardship hypothesis”—such as Peter Laslett—have suggested that the rise of nuclear families created more economic hardship, and that nuclear families were forced to turn to some form of outside assistance. Laslett contended that nuclear families were forced to turn to early states to provide this assistance, although it can be argued that in some cases, the corporations provided these safety nets. Other historians, such as Jan Luiten, believe the data shows no increase in hardship from the rise of nuclear families. See more: https://academic.oup.com/book/27038/chapter-abstract/196324046?redirectedFrom=fulltext
Note: The views expressed on Mises.org are not necessarily those of the Mises Institute.
Republicans in the US Senate have been urging the White House to provide Ukraine with long-range missiles that can strike deep into Russia. Such is the madness of pro-war sentiment.
America’s lackluster Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, hasapparently confirmed that Washington plans to shortly deliver such strategic weapons to Ukraine. This week, arrived in Washington to discuss more strategic arms for Ukraine.How the West Brought W…Abelow, BenjaminBest Price: $4.98Buy New $9.99(as of 11:01 UTC — Details)
One is vividly reminded of the mobs of idiots who thronged Paris train stations in August 1914, screaming ‘on to Berlin.’ As a British historian aptly noted, `if patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels, then war is the first platform of fools.’
US-supplied missiles are the last step between what was a border conflict and all-out war that will very likely go nuclear.
Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stated that he reduced conventional forces to divert funds to Russia’s stunted civilian economy. Nuclear weapons, said President Putin, will be used to replace conventional forces if Russia is attacked. We must take him at his word.
The border war with Ukraine, which began in 2014, has shown just how much Russia reduced its former conventional might. The once mighty Red Army has proven a shadow of its former self. Under Putin, armies of tanks have been replaced by new apartments across the sprawling nation.
The idea of sending more long-range missiles to Ukraine is sheer madness. Ukraine is slowly being ground down in this long war of attrition. Ukraine’s current strategy is to provoke a direct clash between Russia and the United States. Interestingly, Israel used the same strategy to provoke direct US military intervention against Syria and various Arab militias.
The United States, dominated by pro-war Republicans and wealthy pro-Israel special interests, appears eager to promote war with Russia. Most important, neoconservatives are urging intensified war against Russia to advance their goal of breaking up the Russian Federation into small, weak pieces dominated by Washington.The Ukraine War & the …Diesen, GlennBest Price: $30.95Buy New $23.21(as of 11:22 UTC — Details)
Such was the case under former Russian president Boris Yeltsin who allowed US financial interests to dominate Russia while he made merry. Former KGB officer Vladimir Putin put an end to Washington’s attempted to turn Russia into an American satrapy.
I interviewed the leaders of KGB at Moscow’s Lubyanka Prison in 1991. They expressed disgust with Russia’s then communist leadership and told me there would be a housecleaning. The result was, of course, KGB officer Vladimir Putin’s surprising rise to power. Putin quickly became the target of US media hate. He committed terrible brutalities in Chechnya but without him Russia might have ended up today’s supine, graveling Germany.
The US overthrew Ukraine’s last pro-Russian government. Ukraine had been part of the Russian state for hundreds of years and the center of its heavy industries. This coup cost the US $5 billion, according to its author, leading State Department neocon Victoria Nuland. An actor, the amiable Volodymyr Zelensky, was put in charge by Nuland. US funds and arms poured into Ukraine. Efforts by Washington to shatter the old Soviet Union were a brilliant success.
Except that Washington had to foot the bill, so far an astounding $44 billion, and deprive the US military of many important weapons systems. One also wonders why Donald Trump did not raise the issue of Ukraine’s payments to President Biden and his son.
As a veteran war correspondent and old friend of Ukraine, I see the US and Russia heading to a major war. The western powers have been relentlessly provoking Russia. The idea of supplying Ukraine with a new class of long-range missiles will likely ignite a horribly dangerous war that may very likely go nuclear. Now is the time for the great powers to impose peace, not supply arms. Time to end the unnecessary suffering of Ukrainians and Russians. Genuine diplomacy, not more weapons, is the answer.
Großbritannien hat die Reichweitenbeschränkungen für seine der Ukraine gelieferten Storm-Shadow-Raketen aufgehoben. Die USA werden wohl schon bald nachziehen. Russlands Präsident Putin sieht das als direkte Kriegsbeteiligung der NATO-Länder und kündigte bereits Gegenmaßnahmen an. In Deutschland scheint die Gefahr, die durch diese Eskalation ausgeht, noch nicht angekommen zu sein. Dabei wäre es höchste Zeit, jetzt auf die Bremse zu treten. Eine Aufhebung der Reichweitenbeschränkung wäre nämlich in der Tat eine direkte Kriegsbeteiligung mit möglicherweise schwerwiegenden Folgen. Von Jens Berger.
Dieser Beitrag ist auch als Audio-Podcast verfügbar.
Der frisch gewählte britische Premier Keir Starmer hat ein Talent für politische Lügen. Zur Reichweitenerhöhung der von Großbritannien an die Ukraine gelieferten Raketen sagte er gestern: „Die Ukraine hat ein Recht auf Selbstverteidigung“, dieses Recht unterstütze Großbritannien voll und ganz und biete in diesem Kontext Ausbildungsmöglichkeiten an. „Aber wir suchen keinen Konflikt mit Russland – das ist nicht im Geringsten unsere Absicht.“
Das ist von vorne bis hinten falsch. Es geht hier nicht um „ukrainische“ Raketen, sondern um britische und amerikanische Raketen. Und es geht um die Zieldaten. Die Ukraine hat nicht die Möglichkeiten, exakte Zieldaten tief in Russland zu ermitteln. Diese Daten kommen von NATO-Staaten, allen voran von den USA, aber auch von Großbritannien. Und es geht um die Frage, wer die britischen und amerikanischen Raketen programmiert. Spätestens seit dem abgehörten Gespräch deutscher Generäle (Taurus-Leaks) wissen wir, dass die Briten die Raketen vor Ort programmieren.
Also wenn’s zum Beispiel darum geht, die Missionsplanung zu machen, ich weiß wie es die Engländer machen, die machen es ja komplett im Reach-Back. Die haben auch paar Leute vor Ort, ähm, das machen sie, die Franzosen nicht. Also, sie „qc-en“ auch die Ukrainer beim Beladen des SCALP, ne, weil Storm Shadow und SCALPS sind rein vom technischen Aspekt relativ ähnlich. – Auszug aus den Taurus-Leaks, Aussage von Luftwaffengeneral Ingo Gerhartz
Als Reach-Back-Verfahren wird in der militärischen Fachsprache die Einsatzoperation aus dem Heimatland bezeichnet. Bei Marschflugkörpern heißt das, dass die gesamte Programmierung der Einsatz- und Zieldaten nicht vor Ort in der Ukraine, sondern in diesem Falle von den Briten in Großbritannien vorgenommen wird. Zusätzlich unterstützen die Briten – so General Gerhartz – die Ukraine auch noch vor Ort.
Bei den Amerikanern dürfte die Programmierung ähnlich verlaufen. Wir halten fest: Es geht um britische und amerikanische Raketen, für die die Briten und Amerikaner die Zieldaten liefern und die von britischem und amerikanischem Personal programmiert werden. Die Ukraine ist „lediglich“ der Ort des Abschusses und ihr „Abwehrkampf“ die öffentlich vorgetragene Begründung. Wenn wir das beiseitelassen, handelt es sich um britische bzw. amerikanische Angriffe auf russisches Territorium.
Wenn das keine direkte Kriegsbeteiligung ist, was ist soll es dann sein? Und genauso bewertet die russische Führung die angekündigte Reichweitenerhöhung. Großbritannien und die USA spielen mit dem Feuer. Wenn die Bundesregierung tatsächlich eine Eskalation des Krieges verhindern will, muss sie diesen Wahnsinn stoppen und sofort Druck auf ihre „Bündnispartner“ ausüben.
Der Friedensstifter 