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It’s Time to Rise Up Against the Ignorant Masses!

June 30, 2016

It’s Time to Rise Up Against the Ignorant Masses!

And so it’s on…

James Traub, at Foreign Policy.com, has called for the “elites to rise up against the ignorant masses.”  In a spectacular display of the very ignorance against which he issues his call to arms, Traub shows how thoroughly infected the establishment is with their group-think.  God forbid the ‘fist shaking’ rabble would actually think for themselves and effect an “utter repudiation of the bankers and economists and Western heads of state who warned voters against the dangers of a split with the European Union.”  If there was a miscalculation on the part of David Cameron, it was “how utterly he misjudged his own people[‘s ability to think for themselves].”

Rise up against the ignorant masses? Be careful what you wish for, Mr. Traub… Your intellectual nakedness just might end up on full, public display.

The Foundational Issue: The Most Significant Unit of Society

Traub shows himself ignorant of both British and American history when he concludes: “[M]aybe we have become so inclined to celebrate the authenticity of all personal conviction that it is now elitist to believe in reason, expertise, and the lessons of history.”

Philosophically, ‘Scottish Common Sense Realism’ provides a framework for understanding how someone’s thinking would begin with ‘personal conviction’.  This framework lies at the heart of the thinking of authors like John Locke, on whom Thomas Jefferson depended heavily when writing the Declaration of Independence.

Locke’s philosophy of government and economics expresses this framework and stands in stark contrast to that of Thomas Hobbes. Between the two of them we can drive the difference down to a single question: What is the most significant unit of society?  The answer for those who would follow Hobbes is the State.  For those who would follow Locke it would be the individual.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

European Union’s Imperial Overreach

June 26, 2016

European Union’s Imperial Overreach

Exclusive: The European Union’s haughty and hasty expansion into low-wage Eastern Europe may be its undoing, as the Brexit vote shows popular resistance to the westward migration of workers that followed, writes Jonathan Marshall.

While few analysts are putting it this way, the European Union suffers from a self-inflicted crisis of overexpansion — a form of “imperial overstretch,” if you will. The Brexit vote was just the latest symptom of this policy disaster, which also includes escalating confrontations with Russia and the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.

Public opinion polls in the United Kingdom established that widespread concern over immigration was the single most important factor driving voters to support an E.U. exit. Pro-Brexit campaigners made much of the statistics released just last month that net annual migration into the U.K. reached a third of a million people in 2015, double the rate just three years earlier.

Flag of the European Union.

Flag of the European Union.

Such numbers fed public concerns over the impact of immigrants on the country’s National Health System and other social services, as well as jobs. They also fed deep suspicions about government credibility.

As the Guardian reported after the stunning election victory for the Brexit camp, “David Cameron’s failure to give a convincing response to the publication of near-record net migration figures in the first week of the EU referendum campaign has proved to be its decisive moment.

“The figure of 333,000 not only underlined beyond any doubt that Britain had become a country of mass migration but also meant politicians who claimed they could make deep cuts in the numbers while Britain remained in the European Union were simply not believed.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The consequences of leaving the party

June 26, 2016

The consequences of leaving the party

The collective decision of the British electorate is to reject the recommendation of its government, excepting those of its few dissenting ministers, that Britain should remain in Europe.

It is a signal failure of government policy. Above all, it is a failure that undermines the state’s control over ordinary people. Time will tell whether it is just a temporary setback for the world’s economic planners, or the removal of a keystone supporting the whole structure of modern statism.

There are, therefore, two aspects of this development that must be considered, domestic UK politics and the international economic and political consequences.

There can be little doubt that David Cameron and George Osborne the Chancellor are now only caretakers, with the duty of managing a planned withdrawal from Europe until their replacement as executive politicians. The withdrawal will be a lengthy process, which over the next two years at least, will lead to the final, official separation. It is possible there will be attempts by the European elite in Frankfurt and Paris, to come up with proposals to keep Britain in the EU club and to force a second referendum. Any such attempt will fail, because it cannot even be entertained by a caretaker Prime Minister.

David Cameron’s days as Prime Minister are numbered and he now has no real authority. The Conservatives will have to elect a new leader, and the bookies’ favourite is almost certain to be Boris Johnson. He is likely to be elected by the Conservative Party by the end of this year.

Britain’s future will therefore be subject to the policies of a Boris-led government, which it has to be admitted, will have obtained power basically through the failure of the Remain camp to come up with a convincing argument. It was arguably Remain that lost, and not Leave that won.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The consequences of leaving the party

June 25, 2016

The consequences of leaving the party

The collective decision of the British electorate is to reject the recommendation of its government, excepting those of its few dissenting ministers, that Britain should remain in Europe.

It is a signal failure of government policy. Above all, it is a failure that undermines the state’s control over ordinary people. Time will tell whether it is just a temporary setback for the world’s economic planners, or the removal of a keystone supporting the whole structure of modern statism.

There are, therefore, two aspects of this development that must be considered, domestic UK politics and the international economic and political consequences.

There can be little doubt that David Cameron and George Osborne the Chancellor are now only caretakers, with the duty of managing a planned withdrawal from Europe until their replacement as executive politicians. The withdrawal will be a lengthy process, which over the next two years at least, will lead to the final, official separation. It is possible there will be attempts by the European elite in Frankfurt and Paris, to come up with proposals to keep Britain in the EU club and to force a second referendum. Any such attempt will fail, because it cannot even be entertained by a caretaker Prime Minister.

David Cameron’s days as Prime Minister are numbered and he now has no real authority. The Conservatives will have to elect a new leader, and the bookies’ favourite is almost certain to be Boris Johnson. He is likely to be elected by the Conservative Party by the end of this year.

Britain’s future will therefore be subject to the policies of a Boris-led government, which it has to be admitted, will have obtained power basically through the failure of the Remain camp to come up with a convincing argument. It was arguably Remain that lost, and not Leave that won.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Brexit: The System Cannot Hold

June 24, 2016

Brexit: The System Cannot Hold


Stephen Green 18×24 inches. 2016. Acrylic on canvas. MuseumofAwesomeArt.com

Well, they did it. A majority of Britons made clear they’re so fed up with David Cameron and everything he says or does, including promoting the EU, that they voted against that EU. They detest Cameron much more than they like Nigel Farage or Boris Johnson. It seems that everyone has underestimated that.

Cameron just announced he’s stepping down. And that points to a very large hole in the ground somewhere in London town. Because going through a list of potential leaders, you get the strong impression there are none left. Not to run the country, and not to negotiate anything with Brussels. Which has a deep leadership -credibility- hole of itself, even though the incumbents are completely blind to that.

But first Britain. The Leave victory was as much a vote against Chancellor George Osborne as it was against Cameron. So Osborne is out as potential leader of the Conservatives. Boris Johnson? Not nearly enough people like him, and he fumbled his side of the Leave campaign so badly his credibility, though perhaps not being fully shot, is far too much of an uncertainty for the Tories to enter the upcoming inevitable general elections with.

Who else is there? Michael Gove? Absolute suicide. Likeability factor of zero Kelvin. That bus these guys drove around which proclaimed they could get £350 million extra a year for the NHS health care system in case of a Brexit will come back to haunt all of them. Just about the first thing Farage said earlier when the win became clear, was that the £350 million was a mistake.

I guess you could mention Theresa May, who apparently wants the post, but she’s an integral part of the Cameron clique and can’t be presented as the fresh start the party so badly needs.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Call for Cameron to Resign over Panama Papers

April 11, 2016

Call for Cameron to Resign over Panama Papers

Cameron

The revelation that David Cameron’s father had offshore accounts through Panama has continued to plague Cameron and could create a nudge toward the tipping point come the BREXIT vote in June. “I know that I should have handled this better, I could have handled this better. I know there are lessons to learn and I will learn them,” Cameron said in response to the building criticism. Yet many are starting to blame the Conservatives for protecting the rich while ratcheting up taxes on everyone else.

Cameron Demonstrations

The protests in Britain are growing with many asking why Cameron is still there after the resignation of the Prime Minister in Iceland. This may very well influence the BREXIT vote in June. Time will tell.

Panama partners in crime

April 8, 2016

Panama partners in crime

“We have broken no laws and cooperated with the government at all times.”

Variations of that statement seem to be the default defence of everyone from bankers to politicians when their names come up in the Panama Papers.

In the UK the latest to resort to some version of it, was first Downing Street on behalf of the Prime Minister David Cameron, and then HSBC on behalf of it’s notorious Swiss subsidiary.  The former because his father who lived in the UK, set up an off-shore company which has never paid any taxes in the UK, and the latter because it turns out HSBC has once again been handling dirty money, this time holding and moving money for off-shore companies owned by relatives of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Now HSBC is a well known money laundering bank. They have been indicted and convicted of money laundering so many times in so many different countries.  The best known case was in 2012 when HSBC were found guilty of  laundering drug money out of Mexico. HSBC were tried in the US and fined $1.9 billion. They paid and said how sorry they were, and their group Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver accepted responsibility for their past mistakes, but assured everyone they had now put all that behind them and had even,

spent $290m on improving its systems to prevent money laundering,

That was 2012. In 2015 HSBC all that was found to be blather. HSBC were caught laundering  – again. This time it was HSBC’s Swiss subsidiary which had laundered

the proceeds of political corruption and accepted deposits from arms dealers while helping wealthy people evade taxes.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Cameron Unleashes ‘Project Fear’ – UK Military Leaders Warn Against Brexit Threat To National Security

February 21, 2016

Cameron Unleashes ‘Project Fear’ – UK Military Leaders Warn Against Brexit Threat To National Security

Just as the government did in the lead up to The Scottish Referendum in 2014, it appears David Cameron is already unleashing resorting to the so-called Project Fear. As The Telegraph reports, following Boris Johnson’s lack of acquiescence to Cameron’s call for no Brexit, more than a dozen of the country’s most senior military leaders will argue that Britain should vote to stay in the European Union because of its importance to national security.

The Daily Telegraph understands that Downing Street is organising a letter stating the importance of the EU to Britain’s national security to combat the growing threat of Isil and increasing Russian aggression.

Those likely to sign the letter include Admiral Lord Boyce, General Lord Stirrup and Field Marshal Lord Bramall, three former Chiefs of the Defence Staff, and General Sir Peter Wall, a former Chief of General Staff.

Lord Stirrup told The Daily Telegraph: “I don’t carry a torch for the European Union at all but one has to look at the realistic alternative not just the World as we wish it to be. In light of the current threats like Isil, Russia and other threats that might emerge you have to think about how we secure our society.”

Lord Bramall said: “I have always felt that a strong Europe in political terms is infinitely stronger if it has Britain inside it.

“If Britain left it would be a much weaker Europe and therefore it would affect the whole balance of power and equilibrium in the Western World.

“That affects not just security, but the political side. The negotiations. It is important to have a match for the various power blocs – China, Russia – it’s complementary to Nato. I am sure America would very much want us to be in.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

UK’s European Future In Jeopardy: London Mayor Boris Johnson Will Campaign For Brexit

February 21, 2016

UK’s European Future In Jeopardy: London Mayor Boris Johnson Will Campaign For Brexit

Yesterday, when we summarized the statements by UK politicians regarding the June 23 EU referendum, we said the one most important opinion has yet to come: that of London mayor Boris Johnson’s whose “opinion may sway the vote one way or another in four months. As the Telegraph reproted that “David Cameron is mounting a last-ditch effort to woo Boris Johnson to back his campaign to stay in the European Union, by drawing up plans for a new constitutional settlement that puts the sovereignty of British institutions beyond doubt.”

As the Telegraph added, “sources close to Johnson said he remained “genuinely torn” and that he would “chew over” what the prime minister has to say when Cameron appears on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday, before issuing some form of statement this evening. He will then spell out the reasons for his decision in his column for the Daily Telegraph on Monday.”

It appears that Cameron’s effort to “woo” Johnson has failed because moments ago BBC reported that “Boris Johnson is to campaign to leave the EU in the UK’s referendum, BBC understands.”

The Guardian has more:

Boris Johnson is to transform the terms of the EU referendum by announcing that he is to throw his weight behind the campaign to take Britain out of the EU, according to the BBC.

In the biggest boost to the Leave campaign so far, the London mayor is to announce that after much soul-searching he now believes the time has come for Britain to sever its EU membership.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Deceptive Debate Over What Causes Terrorism Against the West

January 6, 2016

Ever since members of the UK Labour Party in September elected Jeremy Corbyn as party leader by a landslide, British political and media elites have acted as though their stately manors have been invaded by hordes of gauche, marauding serfs. They have waged a relentless and undisguised war to undermine Corbyn in every way possible, and that includes – first and foremost – the Blairite wing of his party, who have viciously maligned him in ways they would never dare do for David Cameron and his Tory followers.

In one sense, that’s all conventional politics: establishment guardians never appreciate having their position and entitlements threatened by insurgents, and they are thus uniting – Tory and Labour mavens alike – to banish the lowly intruders from their Oxbridge court (class and caste loyalty often outweighs supposed ideological differences). Corbyn’s reaction to all of this is also conventional politics: he quite reasonably wants to replace his Blairite shadow ministers who have been vilifying him as a Terrorist-loving extremist with those who are supportive of his agenda, a perfectly rational response which the British media is treating as proof that he’s a cultish Stalinist tyrant (even though Blairites, when they controlled the party, threatened to de-select left-wing MPs who failed to prove sufficient loyalty to Prime Minister Blair). In response to the dismissal of a couple of anti-Corbyn ministers yesterday, several others Labour MPs have announced their protest-resignations with the gestures of melodrama and martyrdom at which banal British politicians excel.

Rather than wallow in all that internal power jockeying of a former world power, I want to focus instead on one specific argument that has arisen as part of Corbyn’s cabinet “re-shuffling” because it has application far beyond Her Majesty’s realm. One of the shadow ministers replaced yesterday by Corbyn is a total mediocrity and non-entity named Pat McFadden.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Brexit Balance Sheet

November 12, 2015

The Brexit Balance Sheet

Prime Minister David Cameron’s offer to British citizens to hold a referendum on whether to leave the European Union might have seemed like a reasonably safe gamble just a few years ago. Most people then probably would have voted to stay. That was before the Greek crisis created havoc in the eurozone, and the arrival of hundreds of thousands of refugees caused the EU (although not the United Kingdom) to lose control of some of its borders.

Cameron might actually get other European leaders to agree to his demands for reform, without which he has said he would not campaign to keep his country in the EU. They are not extreme: a guarantee that non-eurozone members gain full access to the single market; less red tape at the EU level; a British exemption from “ever-closer union.” His last demand – fewer benefits for EU migrants – will be the hardest for EU leaders to accept.

Despite this reform push, some British Euroskeptics have criticized Cameron for being too soft. The temptation in Britain simply to abandon what appears to be a sinking ship and go it gloriously alone is growing stronger. This is understandable. The question is whether “Brexit” would be as glorious as its proponents like to imagine.

Unleashed from the rule of Brussels, the sirens of Brexit promise, Britain would once again be a beacon of freedom in the world, respected by China, tied to the United States in the bilateral “special relationship,” and all the while retaining friendly commercial ties with the European continent. Business would boom, the City of London would prosper, and Britons never would be slaves, not of the EU or anyone else.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

U.K. Government Proposes More, Not Less, Electronic Snooping

November 5, 2015

Two years after NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed the vast reach of U.S. and U.K. surveillance, the U.S. Congress rolled back the most manifestly unconstitutional element: the bulk collection of domestic phone data.

The U.K. government, on Wednesday, chose to double down instead.

The newly unveiled text of what critics are calling a proposed “Snooper’s Charter” or “Hacker’s License” would explicitly authorize the bulk collection of domestic data, require telecommunications companies to store records of websites visited by every citizen for 12 months for access by the government, approve the government’s right to hack into and bug computers and phones, severely restrict the ability of citizens to raise questions about secret surveillance warrants or evidence obtained through bulk surveillance presented in court, and oblige companies to assist in bypassing encryption.

Prime Minister David Cameron has said terrorists should have no “safe space” to communicate online, and Britain’s Home Office — charged with law enforcement, prisons, and border security — has presented in recent years several draft bills with that idea in mind.

The United Kingdom’s Home Secretary Theresa May, who is similar to the secretary of state for the U.S., insisted that the engines of Britain’s spy agencies would hum along as usual — just more efficiently, and with even more oversight, if the law passed. She answered questions from Parliament about the bill in the House of Commons in London on Wednesday.

There are some new limits in the bill. For example, if police wanted to use phone call information to try and track down a journalist’s source, those efforts would now have to be approved by a judicial commissioner. In fact, most warrants would need approval by a judicial commissioner, after the U.K. secretary of state signs off.

But overall, the bill, which May described as “world-leading” in its oversight provisions, remains a concern for privacy advocates because of its massive surveillance authorities and vague language and loopholes.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

U.K. Police ‘to Be Given Powers to View Everyone’s Entire Internet History’

October 31, 2015

U.K. Police ‘to Be Given Powers to View Everyone’s Entire Internet History’ 


Ministerio TIC Colombia / CC BY 2.0

British police are to be given the power to view the entire Internet history of everyone in the U.K. in a new surveillance bill to be published next week, reports say.

Under the proposed plan, telecoms and Internet service providers will be legally required to retain all Web browsing history for all customers for a period of 12 months, according to The Daily Telegraph.

The Guardian reports that “senior officers want to revive the measures similar to those contained in the ‘snooper’s charter,’ which would force telecommunications companies to retain for 12 months data that would disclose websites visited by customers.”

From the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph:

Home Secretary Theresa May will announce the plans when she introduces the Government’s new surveillance bill in the House of Commons on Wednesday.

The Telegraph understands the new powers for the police will form part of the new bill.

Police would be able to access specific web addresses visited by customers.

The new powers would allow the police to seize details of the website and searches being made by people they wanted to investigate.

They will still need to apply for judicial approval to be able to access the content of the websites.

Mrs May previously told the Commons enforcement agencies needed more powers to do their jobs effectively.

“I’ve said many times before that it is not possible to debate the balance between privacy and security, including the rights and wrongs of intrusive powers and the oversight arrangements that govern them without also considering the threats that we face as a country,” she told MPs.

“Those threats remain considerable and they are evolving.”

“They include not just terrorism from overseas and home-grown in the UK, but also industrial, military and state espionage.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

David Cameron Attacks Twitter Users, Following in the Footsteps of the Saudi Religious Police Chief

October 14, 2015

David Cameron Attacks Twitter Users, Following in the Footsteps of the Saudi Religious Police Chief

Screen Shot 2015-10-13 at 10.03.11 AM

You know things are not well in the world when you hear claims that the Prime Minister of Great Britain had sex with a dead pig’s head and you barely flinch. That’s because sexual relations with farm animal carcasses simply pales in comparison to the man’s disastrous, authoritarian political positions.

In his latest act of verbal diarrhea, David Cameron has gone on the offensive…against Twitter. Little did he know it, but he’s actually quite late in his perceived “insight” into those who use the social media platform. For instance, it was over two years ago when Saudi authorities made their position quite clear. Here’s a excerpt from the post, Saudi Religious Police Chief Goes on the Attack…Against Twitter:

The head of Saudi Arabia’s religious police has warned citizens against using Twitter, which is rising in popularity among Saudis.

Sheikh Abdul Latif Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh said anyone using social media sites – and especially Twitter – “has lost this world and his afterlife”.

Twitter was the platform for those who did not have any platform, he said.

Earlier, Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti, the kingdom’s most senior Muslim cleric, had dismissed Twitter users as “fools”.

Now here’s the UK Prime Minister’s take. From the Independent:

Delivering his keynote speech to the Conservative Party conference, the Prime Minister implied there were fundamental differences between most Britons and many of those who post on the social network. 

“Let me put it as simply as I can: Britain and Twitter are not the same thing. The British people are decent, sensible, reasonable.”

Despite his apparent disdain for the social network, Mr Cameron has been a user of Twitter for three years.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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