Ye're Heroes.

          While my thoughts were wandering through events during this pandemic, I kept remembering all the lauding of the health and care workers. Clap for the NHS, every one a hero, all get together and praise their gallant work. Not for one minute am I suggesting that they didn't deserve all that praise for their unstinting efforts day in day out, to try and protect the communities. However, a decent life with security and income with full safety on the job, would have done them more good than hurray and clapping.
       It's something our lords and masters are good at, their hypocrisy knows no depth to which it will sink, when they need you most expect praise a plenty and clapping a loud, but not much more. This lead me to remember a poem written by James Mitchell, during the time when coal was the fuel that fed the economy and the state war machine, then, miners were heroes.

 

                                                 The Miners.

Ye’re heroes, aye, Ye’re heroes,
When workin’ doon the mine.
They slap yer back an’ praise ye,
Ye’re gallant lads an’ fine,
Toilin’ there among the damp
Where nane o’ them wid daur,
Ye’re heroes, aye, ye’re heroes,
When getting’ coals for war.

They humour ye, praise ye,
as ye keep the bunkers fu’,
An’ the convoys bring the foodstuffs
that they ration out to you;
Or the troopships tak’ yer brithers
To the battlefields afaur,
Ye’re heroes, aye, ye’re heroes
When getting’ coals for war.

They’ll promise ye high heaven,
As the furnace flames ye feed,
In a world that’s mad wi’ murder,
Truth is sacrificed to greed;
As factories belch their smoke-clouds,
An’ their profits daily soar,
Ye’re heroes, aye, ye’re heroes,
When getting’ coals for war.

                                                                                 James Mitchell.

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When The Abused Pick Their Abusers.

      Well today is the day, the day when many of the abused run around selecting their abuser. They do it with an attitude of anticipation, they feel that change is in the offing. In spite of this process never having produced any meaningful change in the past, they harbour that insane thought, somehow, this time will be different. The babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, will of course be screaming at you all the intricacies and permutations possible in this charade of smoke and mirrors, attempting to reinforce the illusion that it is you that rules the country. However, choosing your abuser, never allows you to choose the abuse. 

     At 81, I have lived through many elections, (Crooks and Liars competitions), and at the start of each, the promises from the participants is always much the same, they will lift children out of poverty, the will end fuel poverty, they will solve the housing crisis, they will improve social services, education, health and welfare. The very fact that these promises keep coming up at the start of each Crooks and Liars competition, is proof that they have always failed. 

      So what's the betting, that once this new cabal of abusers take up the reins of power, each successful contestant will get richer, and when the next Crooks and Liars competition comes around, they will troop out the very same promises that they made at the last one. Another 5 years of failed promises, but the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, doesn't say something?

      Don't expect justice to handed to you my a bunch of millionaires sitting in a gilded palace, or freedom to be granted to you by a cabal of privileged parasites wallowing in the obscene pomp and splendour of the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption. Freedom and justice is something you have to take, at your level with your community, it is not a gift granted to you from above. Like I keep saying, we don't need them, to make the world a better place for us all, they do need us to keep them in their bubble of wealth and privilege.

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Hypocrites All.

      The tub-thumping hypocritical defenders of "freedom of speech", apart from their persecution of journalists, practically all of them have blood dripping from their fingers, but not in the defence of freedom, but in the defence of their own power, capitalism and the mighty corporate greed machine. 

       All they bring to the public out pouring of outrage, is hypocrisy, repression, warmongering, and hunger for power. Birds of a feather----. 

Jacque Swartz

12 January 23:51

Those marching in the front row of the Paris free speech march yesterday:
- Prime Minister Rajoy of Spain, whose government just passed the Ley Mordaza, a gag law placing historic restrictions on the right to protest in Spain.
- Foreign Minister Lavrov of Russia, which last year jailed a journalist for "insulting a government servant" .
- Foreign Minister Shoukry of Egypt, which as well as Al Jazeera staff has detained journalist Shawkan for around 500 days.
- King Abdullah of Jordan, which last year sentenced a Palestinian journalist to 15 years in prison with hard labour.
- Prime Minister Davutoglu of Turkey, which imprisons more journalists than any other country in the world.
- Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel, whose forced killed 17 journalists in Gaza last year (second highest after Syria).
- Foreign Minister Lamamra of Algeria, which has detained journalist Abdessami Abdelhai for 15 months without charges.
- The Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates, which in 2013 held a journalist incommunicado for a month on suspicion of MB links.
- Prime Minister Jomaa of Tunisia, which recently jailed blogger Yassine Ayan for 3 years for "defaming the army".
- The Prime Ministers of Georgia and Bulgaria, both of whom have a record of attacking & beating journalists.
- The Attorney General of the US, where police in Ferguson have recently detained and assaulted Washington Post reporters.
- Prime Minister Samaras of Greece, where riot police beat & injured two journalists at a protest in June last year
- Secretary-General of NATO, who are yet to be held to account for deliberately bombing and killing 16 Serbian journalists in '99.
- President Keita of Mali, where journalists are expelled for covering human rights abuses.
- The Foreign Minister of Bahrain, 2nd biggest jailer of journos in the world per capita (they also torture them).
- Sheikh Mohamed Ben Hamad Ben Khalifa Al Thani of Qatar, which jailed a man for 15 ys for writing the Jasmine poem.
- Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, who had several journalists jailed for insulting him in 2013.
- Prime Minister Cerar of Slovenia, which sentenced a blogger to six months in prison for "defamation" in 2013.
- Prime Minister Enda Kenny of Ireland, where "blasphemy" is considered a criminal offense.
- Prime Minister Kopacz of Poland, which raided a magazine to seize recordings embarrassing for the ruling party.
- Prime Minister Cameron of the UK, where authorities destroyed documents obtained by The Guardian and threatened prosecution.
- Prime Minister Orbán of Hungary, the autocrat of who Amnesty says has "put an end to the free press in Hungary."

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Homelessness Is An Indictment Against Society.

      A land of billionaires, Rolls Royce cars, fashionable restaurants and rising homeless, what a display of arrogance and hypocrisy, of greed and self interest in the midst of poverty and deprivation. This is all that capitalism can give us, an ever widening gap in living standards between the controlling pampered parasites, and the ordinary people of this world. Homelessness is a crime against humanity, an indictment against a system of economics that punishes the poor and the unfortunate. There are countless empty houses and still we push people onto the street in a country that has cold damp winters. Why should we tolerate such injustice? We produce all the wealth in this system, then abandon it to the vampire squids of the financial/corporate world, then proceed to try to scratch out a living from the crumbs they throw our way.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

A Butcher Dies.

      A psychopathic butcher dies and the world's statesmen wax lyrical on his “wonderful” qualities. None of those with the hypocritical syrup pouring from their lying mouths, cared to mention Sabra andShatila, nor the fact that as a 24 year soldier, Sharon lead the massacre of Qibya where 49 house were blown up, in many cases with the people still in them. He is also considered the bulldozing force that pushed settlements, stealing Palestinian land, and the architect of “the wall”, a 400km concrete poisonous snake that divides Palestinian from Palestinian. Nor did their eulogising mention that in September 2000, he, escorted by a thousand policemen, entered the Temple Mount in East Jerusalem, sparking the second intifada (Palestinian uprising) and the bloodshed that followed. His "career" was built on hatred and fueled with bloodshed.

 

  

    Our “leaders” are all in festering marriages with with those of their own kind, duplicitous, hypocritical, psychopathic power hungry liars. They will always pay homage to their own kind, no matter the blood stained path they may have walked. The bloodshed of the ordinary people drips from the fingers of each an every one of them, they need each other, and that is why they all come together to mourn the loss of a butcher, they recognise him as one of their own. 

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The Justice in Capitalism.

      Listening to our millionaire cabal in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, spouting their “economic strategy” of austerity and debt reduction, is a lesson in double speak, smoke and mirrors and illusion. As they slash at all our social services, benefits, pensions, etc. while freezing/cutting wages, we are told that there is no alternative, it is all for our benefit and will all come right in the end.   

   There monologue goes something like this, “All you 16 to 24 year old unemployed, (skivers), just put up with it for 8 to10 years, then, as we enter the economic land of milk and honey, you will all have a well paid job with a decent pension, in one fell swoop, you will have been transformed into upwardly mobile, (strivers). All you poor on benefit, (scroungers), quietly continue with trying to survive and bring up a family in a situation of poverty and deprivation for a mere 8 to 10 years and you will be magically transported into the land of the two car “middle class” (wealth creators). As for all you pensioners, (national burden), scrape-out your existence for a short period of 8 to 10 years and you will enter the land of bus-pass paradise, as the new UK is transformed into corporate Ecotopia.” 

     For the ordinary people of this country it is a philosophy of suffer today for pie-in-the-sky tomorrow, meanwhile, the hypocritical millionaire parasites who spew this “economic strategy” go blissfully on their greedy way, day by day amassing ever great wealth. Ah, the justice in capitalism.

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HOLLYWOOD HYPOCRISY.

Created by: Paralegal        Sent by Peter Kim.

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THEATRE, FARCE, ELECTION,---IT'S ALL THE SAME.

     

      It is that time again, yes, your wish is my command. Well not my command, those strange creatures we see every four or five years, they normally go under the heading of politicians. Though we don't see much of them between times, we do hear a lot about them, there is their phony expenses, their dodgy business dealing and their suspect relations with people in high places. Then there is their waffling and babble and those endless photo opportunities. Now it is the theatrical season, the phony actors are taking to the stage. Yes, it's election time.

VOTE!! WHIT HIV THEY EVER DONE FUR US?

      As the election nears I feel I'm in the promised land, well the promises are there, but that's about as near as I'll get. Each of the parties offer what they think you'll want to hear. More jobs, safeguarding essential services, a curb on excessive bonuses, more control of the banks, improvements in the NHS, better education opportunities for our kids, you name it, they'll offer it. Each one through that chiselled in smile or a face of gravitas go through their little spiel, their prepared pathetic little act, doing their damnedest to look honest and sincere. Sadly these are features that are completely unfamiliar to them, so they fail miserably.

     After the election there is the game of musical chairs, a wee reshuffle in the Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption, then the new actors (the politicians) settle in to the gravy train, keeping their snouts very close to the pig trough and become invisible in there constituencies. You and I, on the other hand, go back to our daily grin of struggling against cuts in our standard of living, unemployment, cuts in pensions, attacks on the National Health Service and a decimated education system, while trying to bring up our kids and taking care of our elderly parents.

 

     The only change in our lives after the election is the crop of new smiling faces plastered across the papers and TV screen. Vote? Why? On election day throw a party for your friends and family, take the kids away for the day, visit old friends, paint the house, read a book, just don't vote. Leave election day for the parasites to vote for themselves, after all that's what the election is all about, them.

 

 

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THE HAND OF HYPOCRISY.

     

      As Western Cruise missiles blast holes in Libya's infrastructure, killing Libyans to save Libyans, and possibly laying the ground work for a civil war, nobody is saying where they go from here. How long will the no-fly zone last, don't know. What do we do if the Libyans killing Libyans drags on in a long stalemate, do we send in the Western cavalry to take sides and give one side a wee push, more or less guaranteeing a prolonged civil war and possible occupation. Just to keep the peace mind you. As in Iraq and Afghanistan, the moral policemen are up to the necks in shit. The idea that this will be a nice clean surgical operation with all of Libya being ever thankful to the West is an illusion. We have been “policing” Iraq since 1991 and Afghanistan since 2001. When does our involvement in Libya end and at what cost? Not counting the Libyan deaths and injured, there is already one American plane down with one pilot missing, and we have just started.

        Setting aside the human horror of what is happening in Libya and casting a glance at the financial side, there must be questions. Each time a Tornado jet runs a sortie it takes approximately £30,000 of fuel. How many have we run so far? If a Tornado is brought down there is the £50 million cost of a replacement. Each cruise missile that is fired cost £500,000. There have been more than 110 cruise missiles fired so far. A quick calculation comes up with £55 million already up in smoke and misery from cruise missiles alone, with the arms industry rubbing its hands at the thought of all those being replaced. I don't know what proportion of those cruise missiles were fire by the UK but I reckon that we would fire our fair share. Then of course we have our submarines out there in the Med. and I have no doubt our boys wanted a shot at firing their gear off, I wonder what it cost to send a sub to the Med. and then fire off a few £500,000 missiles? While this little pygmy war is being played out in Libya, let's not forget our long running and on going £4 billion a year affair in Afghanistan.

       I know you can't put a price on human life but at a time when we in the UK are being faced with draconian cuts to every fibre of the social structure of our society, wage cuts and mass unemployment, is this the right policy. Can we in the UK really afford to strut around the world bombing democracy into other countries? When we look at the figures of death and misery resulting from our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan can Libya be justified?

       Meanwhile in nearby Yemen and Bahrain protesters are being brutally crushed but no call for a no-fly zone. Well Bahrain is really a US naval base, which is very handy to have so near all that oil, and Bahrain is also on best buddy terms with that other autocratic despot regime, Saudi Arabia. So we don't want to upset that little power structure do we? Then of course no call for a no-fly zone over Israel while it carried out its policy of genocide in Gaza 2008/09

 

      It's all hypocrisy and is really about oil, resources and power, the Western powers have proved often enough that when it comes to the people of the Middle East and Africa, they don't give a shit.

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CORPORATISM AND HYPOCRISY.

        As Gaddafi kills his own people in a last grasp at power, Obama, Cameron et al demand he stops killing the protesters and steps down, and nobody can complain about that. Of course it is not the people that they are concerned for, but the price of oil. This becomes obvious as we look at a country not a protesters stone's throw way in another part of the Middle East. A country where protesters have taken to the streets and the leader of that country orders a crack down on the protesters, and at least 29 are killed, without a murmur of complaint from the Obama/Cameron duo. Why, well because the killer in this case is the West's puppet in Iraq, namely Maliki. You see, if we put him there, then he must be a good man killing bad guys. In the hypocritical set up of Western politics, the last thing they want is to see is the people of Iraq take control of their own country. After all we have just spent a lot of time and blood setting up a pro-Western puppet government, the last thing we want is for the Iraqi people to be in charge of their country. So all protests in that country must be bad and have to be put down with whatever force it takes. Power, oil and profits first, people and democracy somewhere down the list. The system of corporate capitalism with its various governments prepared to use their military might to increase those sacred principles of power, oil and profits, will never work for the benefit of all our people. In the eyes of the corporate developed world, people are dispensable. However, we know that it is the corporate world that is dispensable and the people can create a world of mutual aid, based on the needs of all our people, founded on peace, co-operation and sustainability. The only question is WHEN.

 

More on this HERE:

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VICIOUS LIES FROM GREEDY, VICIOUS LIARS.

       As the well manicured twins from the millionaires’ club down at the Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption go ahead with the financial world’s plans to decimate the living standards of the working class, they are still, without laughing, muttering that blatant lie “we are all in this together” You and I are looking at a massive rise in unemployment, savage cuts to social spending, cuts in benefits, a shattered education system, reduced pensions, working longer to to get that lousy pension, if you have a job at all, and on top of that they are now about to rip apart the health service and turn it into a market governed grouping of private enterprises, in other words the privatisation of our health service. They are about to create a society where if you want something you buy it, at a profit to some corporate body. Of course if you can’t afford it then you do without and that will apply to health, education and special needs plus a host of other things that a civilised society should provide. While we, the ordinary people, are supposed to take this, the friends of this millionaire cabinet are still laughing all the way to the bank. For example, last year a certain Mr Justin King, chief executive of Sainsbury’s, faced the burden of austerity with an £8 million pay package, his previous year's earnings. Another of the millionaire cabinet’s friends who is in this with us is Marc Bolland of Marks & Spencer’s his contract could net him approximately £15 million for the following year's pay check. As you can see, we are all in this together.

        The most blatant lie about this whole affair is the fact that they keep repeating, “there is no alternative” what shit, and it is ideological shit at that. This is the biggest handover of public assets to the private sector that we have ever seen. You and I and any member of the working class know that we could create a society that would see to the needs of all our people, we know we have the ability, imagination and resources to create a society free from the profit motive, based on mutual aid and sustainability. We know we do not need that army of pampered, well manicured parasites that rip us off day and daily. We, the working class, are facing what is probably one of the biggest challenges that has arisen in capitalism, we now have the ability to organise across the whole of the European continent on an almost instantaneous basis. What is happening in this country is happening across Europe, it is a united attack by the financial institutions of corporate capitalism, it surely makes sense that we should respond with a united attack on those institutions that aim to destroy our already meagre standard of living. Local strikes, marches and demonstrations can be ignored and dealt with without too much trouble to the system. However a national general strike would be a different matter and much more difficult for the system to handle, a pan-European general strike would be impossible for the system to cope with, and would be our opportunity to restructure society to our aims based on that fair and universally desire, of a society free from the fear of deprivation and exploitation.

 

 

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THINK OF A NUMBER??

      

         So David Cameron, one half of the well manicured millionaire twins,  states we will be out of Afghanistan by 2015, making it a 14 years war on a poverty stricken country. Why 5 years, is that how long it will take them to complete their grand plan down to the last detail? If so what is their grand plan? Or is it just a nice number,  it sounds better than four and a bit years or there abouts, or, I'm not very sure. This 5 years is just an arbitrary number, a statement to please sections of the public but rather a callous way to approach the killing and maiming that is going on in that unfortunate country. Why not NOW, what will be different in 5 years? Does he know what state that country will be in in 5 years, can he tell us what will be regarded as a must for that withdrawal? How can he guarantee  they will have achieved their illusionary grand plan. At the moment the NATO forces are looking at an abject failure and defeat with an escalating rate of killing, but somehow in 5 years it will all be so different with peace and a true democracy flourishing in Afghanistan. The Karzai Mafia in Kabul will no longer be a cabal of drug barons, they'll be honest brokers seeking the well being of the Afghan people. Milk and honey will flow across the dusty plains of Afghanistan and our well manicured millionaires will be able to say it was all worth the sacrifice. Afghanistan will fade from the front pages, the killing will be forgotten and our troops will head off to fight another imperialist venture to make sure that the world accepts the might of Western corporate capitalism. Then the millionaires club at the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption will issue more lies about keeping Britain safe and building democracy in some other unfortunate corner of the globe, while issuing platitudes about the killing and maiming. Doesn't the system make you sick? We could work to change it!!

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RIGHT HONOURABLE GENTLEMEN!!!

         Every time I look at British politics all I see are power hungry greedy careerists, then I think perhaps I'm a little cynical. Now and again along comes a politician that seems to talk a little sense and be held with some respect. Somehow Vince Cable appeared as such a person. When he spoke on the economy people listened. So when he commented on George Osborne's billions of pounds of cuts this year and described them as dangerous and “crazy”, most people nodded approvingly. However, the honourable Vince made those comments shortly before he joined with rich boy George, in the cozy-up richboy's coalition, to help him implement those self same cuts and more for next year. What worth his words now? I should have known that it was not cynicism on my part but knowledge born of a long life of political observations and experiences. Right Honourable Gentlemen, is surely the greatest misnomer in the English language, this has to be a case where the trade description act must be enforced.

       It's the same old story, what is said in opposition has no connection with what is done when in power. What appears in a manifesto is just the car salesman's speel, none of it has any connection with the truth.  

THE PROPAGANDISTS.

When the hordes run with their flaming torches,

When they light the torch of freedom

Burning all injustices

Scorching all hypocrisies

Making a bonfire of poverty

Throwing dogma, patriotism and religion on the flames,

I’ll be there, among them with my box of matches.

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A FAIR SYSTEM???

         Last year Linda Cook, former executive of Anglo-Dutch Oil, had her pension pot more than doubled to app. £16.5 million, and on leaving the company was given a “golden-goodbye” of app. £5 million taking her annual earnings, not counting the wee pension, to app.£6.5 million. At the same time the company announced that it was to axe a further 1,000 jobs, making a total of 7,000 jobs axed since last summer. Bonuses for them, dole for us!!

       Mean while the bankers still pass themselves fists full of dollars in bonuses for the useless and politicians talk about the need for cuts to our standard of living. Of course not one of the MPs proposing the cuts will feel any of the effects.

       They call it democracy, I call it rip off and exploitation, how about you?

 
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