Retsdon

It seems that the Russians are calling for a UN Security Council meeting to discuss this whole thing. Sorry, but that's excellent news. No matter who is right or wrong, international relations can't be conducted through unsubstantiated threats, bluster and insulting tweets a la Boris Johnson. Surely that's enough now. Time to re-establish the rules of evidence and law and kick into touch the law of the whipped-up hysterical lynch mob that for the last decade or so is apparently how we do our idiplomacy in the west. This has zilch to do with who was or was not involved in the Salisbury affair. It's an apoeal to conduct international relations by the rulebook and in a civilized fashion - because without diplomacy the only way to resolve differences is on the battlefield. And really, really we surely don't want to go there.

It's a kicker. Bill Maynard was quintessentially 'English' in the best possible way. They don't make them like him anymore. And to be honest, I'm getting fed up with all these pillars and stalwarts of my childhood and youth getting knocked off the perch. Anyway, here's to you Bill...

The Germans, French, Spanish, and Italians still have their own automotive industries. For short-term profit, we sold ours years ago. We sold the steel industry too. Our utility companies have also mostly been sold to the highest bidder.In fact, from iconic football teams to Rolls Royce cars and household name whiskys, the whole lot's been flogged off to goose the short term profits of City wide boys. Until now, about the only industry to escape this three decade long fire-sale has been defence manufacturing. But it looks like that's going under the hammer too now. Betrayal is a hard word, but sometimes you just have to say it as it is.

I just watched this. My only reservation is that by engaging with the outright lunatic whose video he rebuts, Dankula is actually giving the moron a platform. But quite honestly it's all stuff from that twighlight zone of fail videos and pontificating untalented and ill-educated narcissists that seemingly make up so much of what's watched or shared on social media.

What's so unsettling about this case is that he was convicted of the offence of inciting racial hatred. But in the video, he clearly sets out the joke. His girlfriend dotes sickeningly on tbe pug claiming it's cute, so he sets out to turn the pug into the least cute thing he can think of - a Nazi. Admittedly it was probably a bit of a tasteless joke, but at no point was he advocating Nazism, in fact the opposite. I hope he gets his conviction overturned on appeal.

+++. So sick of these people.

It must be difficult to prove though that race per se is the motivating factor in a lot of these crimes. Is it race or is it 'otherness' of some kind or other. It's always been the case that speaking wirh ths wrong accent, or being from the wrong area, or dressing the wrong way, or any number of minor'othernesses' would render you liable to assault if you were unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. And of course, being the wrong colour or ethnicity can just be yet another on the same list....in other words, it's just an excuse for a spontaneeous assault that's underlying cause is really that the assailant or assailants are feeling punchy and looking for someone to do over. Any excuse. I think to be a 'race' crime, the court would have to determine that the assailants go out with a premeditated intention of attacking someone purely because of their race. And without sone kind of evidence - phone messages, social media posts, membership of r racist organization, etc...that has to be hard to do. What could be fixed though, are the sentencing tarrifs for unprovoked assaults. Most don't fesult in custodial sentences - bound over, a fine, maybe a susoended sentence.... It's not good enough really. I've never understood why a nasty swine who for no apparent reason,sets about a bloke standing next to him in a bar will almost certsinly get a lesser fine than would a Perthshire hill farmer caught driving down his and his neighbours mutual public road on a January night after a single nip over the limit. No justice at all..

Sounds like he's trying to defraud his creditors.

Quite. And of course it's a vicious circle. Who would risk opening a shop for that kind of money when the footfall past the door is almost solely comprised of people looking for bargains in thrift or charity shops? The risk far outweighs any possible reward so the downward spiral continues. You would have thought, if 3/4 of the shops are closed, that it shouldn't be beyond someone's imagination to piece together a target sales-mix of retailers and producers who can offer either services or goods that are not easily obtainable online, and then target them by giving proper incentives to take the risk to move into the empty spaces. If it could be done as a one-off transformation so much the better. The claim is always made that the area would need to be 'redeveloped' first and there's no budget for that, but to my mind that's nonsense. If 3/4s of an areas shops that were previously closed were to suddenly open with a mix of interesting and worthwhile outlets, that in itself would be a massive development. But these boys like to collect and spend money, and that's where it stops. The work of strategic planning is seemingly not even part of the job description anymore..

I haven't been fishing for years, plus all my old fishing tackle, bar one rod and a couple of ancient lines and reels is under the stairs at my sister's house in the UK. Anyway, I'm going on a tropical saltwater fishing jaunt this summer and and have just ordered replacement tackle direct from the Chinese manufacturer/wholesaler. Two saltwater fly rods, two large-arbor sealed-drag CNC machined reels, 600 yards of braided backing, a Renzetti-clone vice, a waterproof all-singing backpack, 300 yards of divers florocarbon tippet material, a few fly lines, and a whole slew of tools, tying materials, gadgets, clothing, etc, etc. Basically I went mad. And the cost? Four hundred and fourteen quid, and that includes $110 shipping. I'm not altogether convinced about the fly lines, but everything else I can find the exact same item - not a replica - on either E=Bay or an American or British tackle seller's website at 2-3 times the price. If I'd bought this lot on the high street it would have cost me well into 4 figures. The thing is, because I used to work in the fishing tackle business, I know that the mark up on many of these items is massive and that's why I did a bit of detective work online. But if I can do it, anyone can. In the past the domestic mail-order businesses crushed the local shop, then international online shopping swallowed the magazine-based mail order businesses, and now it seems that anyone who is prepared to order off an Xcel stock sheet and an online catalogue can bypass everyone and get their stuff straight from the factory gate. It's the future. And because of that, one of the discussions that really should be undertaken - quite possibly at governmental level - is what to do about the demise of retail in city centres. At the moment it seems that when left to market forces alone there's a tendency for dying retail shops to get replaced by theme pubs or thrift shops, and the city centre becomes just a shadow of its former self. A bit of foresight and planning might not go amiss.

No, there's definite 'grooming' (for want of a better word) of people's perceptions and language by the mainstream media. I don't visit the UK that often these days, and when I do I' find myself shocked at how people I've known for years and years will have changed the way they speak about certain topics. Like they don't say so and so's 'boyfriend' or 'girlfriend', they say 'partner' - presumably to leave you guessing as to so and so's sexual orientation. And they'll even correct you if you use either of these words yourself. it's incredible.

It's just a discussion about a news item for Pete's sake. No need to get personal.

Can you point to anyone who "could not accept the possibility" that Putin ordered this bloke to be nerve-gassed? It's a possibility, sure. But as yet nobody has convinced me - and from what I can see any of the others expressing doubts concerning Russian culpability - as to what a logical motive might have been. Off the top of my head I can think of probably half a dozen reasons why it would have been a terrible idea, and not one on the plus side. So until there's some proper evidence or a plausible motive presented, I'll keep my powder dry and reserve judgement. The thing is that when somebody - in this case the government - is breathlessly trying to sell you something without proper provenance sensible people treat their words with healthy skepticism. There's no 'conspiracy theory' about it .

Clear to you,, but not clear to the people training them? From the Sofrep link above... "Meanwhile, in Turkey, a similar quagmire unfolded. Among the rebels that U.S. Special Forces and Turkish Special Forces were training, “A good 95 percent of them were either working in terrorist organizations or were sympathetic to them,” a Green Beret associated with the program said, adding, “A good majority of them admitted that they had no issues with ISIS and that their issue was with the Kurds and the Syrian regime.” " As for the TOW weapons - "That Nusra captured TOW missiles from the now-defunct Syrian Revolutionary Front is unsurprising, but that the same anti-tank weapons supplied to the FSA ended up in Nusra hands is even less surprising when one understands the internal dynamics of the Syrian conflict. "Distinguishing between the FSA and al-Nusra is impossible, because they are virtually the same organization. As early as 2013, FSA commanders were defecting with their entire units to join al-Nusra. There, they still retain the FSA monicker, but it is merely for show, to give the appearance of secularism so they can maintain access to weaponry provided by the CIA and Saudi intelligence services. The reality is that the FSA is little more than a cover for the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra." Of course, it could be argued that supplying Al Nusra with training and weaponry was an accident - the result of military incompetence rather than a deliberate policy. I have my doubts about that, quite honestly. I think that as far as the CIA was concerned, any group fighting to overthrow the Syrian government was worth supporting. But even if you subscribe to the incompetence theory, there comes a point where incompetence morphs into criminal negligence. And handing out advanced weaponry to unknown ragtags to use against their own governments falls into that category. Pease read the Sofrep link above. it's from a magazine that is written for US Forces personnel! And the whole point of the article is to discuss the training and supply of Al Nusra and other Jihadis. So there are no revelations be revealed, or brought to the attention of 'the relevant authorities' - the facts are out in the open and in plain sight! They might unpalatable facts for sure, and that's why they've been largely ignored by a main stream media who support the western agenda to overthrow the Syrian Ba'aath regime. But that doesn't make the facts themselves any less true. That you choose to ignore them is fine - that's up to you.. But honestly, it would probably be better not go around calling people 'conspiracy conspirators' just because they are more open-minded and better informed than you are. It's both pointless, and frankly, not particularly well-mannered.

You could hardly have got your toes wet! From the very first paragraph.." “Nobody believes in it. You’re like, ‘***** this,’” a former Green Beret says of America’s covert and clandestine programs to train and arm Syrian militias. “Everyone on the ground knows they are jihadis. No one on the ground believes in this mission or this effort, and they know they are just training the next generation of jihadis, so they are sabotaging it by saying, ‘ **** it, who cares?’” “I don’t want to be responsible for Nusra guys saying they were trained by Americans,” So are you asserting that these Special Forces were mistaken as to the identity of their trainees? And from further down... That Nusra captured TOW missiles from the now-defunct Syrian Revolutionary Front is unsurprising, but that the same anti-tank weapons supplied to the FSA ended up in Nusra hands is even less surprising when one understands the internal dynamics of the Syrian conflict. Distinguishing between the FSA and al-Nusra is impossible, because they are virtually the same organization. As early as 2013, FSA commanders were defecting with their entire units to join al-Nusra. There, they still retain the FSA monicker, but it is merely for show, to give the appearance of secularism so they can maintain access to weaponry provided by the CIA and Saudi intelligence services. The reality is that the FSA is little more than a cover for the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra. And do you think that the people responsible for supplying these weapons were so ill-informed as to be less aware of the situation than their own NCOs and privates? No, they were aware all right, but it suited them to play dumb. It's called plausible deniability - although these days they barely bother with the ''plausible' part. As long as they can deny it, they don't care.

Are these Green Berets engaging in anti-western propaganda do you think? https://sofrep.com/63764/us-special-forces-sabotage-white-house-policy-gone-disastrously-wrong-with-covert-ops-in-syria/

Before getting contacts, rain - especially the fine, mizzly kind - was a pain. I found that my glasses would steam up too if I wore a mask. Contacts changed all that. Certainly some people can't get on with them, and if you have astigmatism the cheaper disposables aren't an option. But I'd recommend giving them a go if possible.

It most certainly is a cultural difference. That's my point - only the Korean would be able to make the move to the UK without bringing an entirely incompatible alien culture along with him. But it's too late now. The horse has bolted.

So you won't even view these awkward texts in the originals then?.... If you want to maintain credibility, I wouldn't brag about it if I were you. Engage and refute!

No reason to believe them at all. Do the necessary research and find if what he's saying/asserting is true or not. That's what I did, and that's why, fundamentally, I'm pretty much on Russia's side these days. I'd help you by sticking up some links, but to be honest until this latest and, to my mind, dangerous nonsense over the poison gas thing went down, I'd sworn myself off politics as a waste of time.And, like throwing out the fags when you're giving up smoking, I deleted all my instant political argument links.....it was a sad hobby for a while.. But anyway, I'll stand by my notion that in a democracy it;s both a duty and a privilege to actually know what's going on. And that's impossible to do if one relies solely on the mainstream news outlets. One - they have an agenda. Two - the issues are too complex to be reduced into 750 word two column copy, and consequently become distorted to the point of fiction. And now I have to go to bed..

Given the larger political campaign against Putin that has its roots in the links posted above, I don't necessarily believe that he's responsible for all these evil doings laid at his door. But even were that to be the case, as a Brit I don't see Russian domestic politics as being my business. I do however see international nuclear war as being very much my business. Incidentally did you bother to watch any of the linked speeches, or are you just ploughing on regardless?

There's a long running conspiracy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqD8lIdIMRo in which Britain, as America's poodle, will doubtless play its part, particularly when the cold winds of post-Brexit isolation begin to rattle the windows. I keep posting these Putin links because I hope people will listen to the man. He talks like an adult talking to adults. When was the last time you heard that from any of our politicians?

It's worrying just how facile political discourse has become in this country. If you want to know where Putin is coming from - why not listen to the man himself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4MAsIh3zMA in 2007, or again here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q13yzl6k6w0&t=283s in 2015. Sure, it takes a bit of effort to sit through major foreign affairs speeches ( they're not twitter soundbytes) but if you live in a democracy in which you elect your government it could be argued that it's a duty to actually learn something about the world in which that government is supposed to operate. Even if you're convinced that Russia is our sworn enemy, take a look at the links. Know your enemy as the saying goes. If you've only got your info from the BBC et al, why not see this demonic Svengali in action. Read the original book kind of style. You might find that they changed the plot a bit before they made the movie for you to watch.

Quite. We agree. I'm happy to reserve judgement as to to who was responsible. You think it was the Russians. Fair enough - that's your prerogative. I think differently. All I'm saying is that at this point, unless there is evidence being withheld and the fact of that evidence existing being withheld, then all anyone has is 'I think'. And while that might be good enough on the Pigeon Watch off-topic forum it's a **** poor way to run a government.

What is it you don't understand?