Tag Archives: UK

Are the US and China Stumbling Toward at ‘Islands War’? by Patrick J. Buchanan

Posted on September 21, 2021 | Leave a comment

Fighting over a bunch of islands in the South China Seas does not look like a good odds bet for the US. From Patrick J. Buchanan at buchanan.org:

In a diplomatic coup, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a deal last week with the U.K. and U.S. to have those Anglo-American allies help build a nuclear-powered submarine fleet for Australia.

A $66 billion French deal to provide Canberra with diesel electric-powered submarines, among the largest defense contracts Paris had ever negotiated, was blown off.

“A stab in the back!” said Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who had been kept in the dark on the secret talks. “There has been duplicity, contempt and lies.” Le Drian compared President Joe Biden to former President Donald Trump.

President Emmanuel Macron recalled his ambassadors to both the U.S. and Australia. In two centuries of U.S.-French diplomatic relations, no such recall had ever occurred.

What does this Australia First submarine deal mean?

Canberra, which has sought to steer a middle course between its great customer China and its great ally America, is coming down on the side of the Americans in the rising great-power quarrel.

This “AUXUS” partnership, says Beijing, will “severely damage” peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing is demanding to know whether Australia regards China as a “partner or a threat.”

This new clash comes as China is using its military to speak for its claims to islands and islets hundreds of miles off its coast.

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Posted in Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Governments, History, Military, Politics

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Crossing the Rubicon: The UK Slips into a Repressive State, by Mark Chapman

Posted on August 1, 2020 | 1 comment

What can be more repressive than telling people they can’t breathe fresh air, that they must rebreathe their own respiratory waste? From Mark Chapman at off-guardian.org:

Julius Caesar’s crossing the Rubicon River in 49 BC in defiance of Roman law placed him and his army on a direct collision course with Rome, leading to the Civil War which established him as Roman dictator. It is a well-established metaphor for a point at which there is no going back and at which things will never be the same.

I predicted a few weeks ago that the UK Government would in the near future try to force everyone to wear facemasks in public. Leave aside the plethora of information that makes it clear face masks are of practically zero benefit in everyday circumstances, and may in fact be dangerous, the forced wearing of facemasks is a transgression so fundamental and of such significance that it is difficult to adequately express.

It implicitly hands your body over to state control, and renders one of your most basic existential freedoms subject to state interference. For the first time, the right to exercise a choice of whether you should inhibit your respiratory faculties and hide your face in public is taken out of your hands. If you doubt the significance of this, try to remember the public outcry that followed a debate regarding banning the wearing of burkhas and hijabs in the face of Islamic terrorism, and the connotations this had for civil liberties at the time.

Facemask wearing is the visible hallmark of Asian states perceived in the West as repressive and authoritarian. It is a badge of serfdom, akin to the yellow star that Jews were forced to wear in Nazi Germany. There is no greater invasion of your person possible short of tattooing you with a number.

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Posted in Civil Liberties, Collapse, Governments, Medicine

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Forget Iran, Maximum Pressure Has Shifted to China, by Tom Luongo

Posted on August 7, 2019 | Leave a comment

Is the Trump administration forgetting its pressure campaign on Iran to intensify one on China? From Tom Luongo at tomluongo.me:

In the past week the pressure on China by the U.S. has escalated daily. Since the trade delegation came back from China with lunch barely digested the Trump Administration has gone into over drive on demonizing China here at home.

From finally declaring China a currency manipulator after years of threats on Monday the latest is now a planted story in Axios that Vice-President Mike Pence bringing forth a list of Chinese officials to sanction for Human Rights violations under the Global Magnitsky Act.

This is based on a lie, of course. A lie helped along by Bob Fu, the head of ChinaAid, an NGO working, nominally, to alleviate the horrors of the Chinese government. Or, at least, that’s what you’re supposed to believe.

Vice President Mike Pence has signaled that the Trump administration is open to using the Global Magnitsky Act to sanction top officials in Xinjiang, China, where more than 1 million Uighur Muslims are being held in internment camps, according to a Chinese religious freedom advocate who met with Pence at the White House Monday.

Notice how Axios still states this as fact, that the Chinese are running 1 million people in concentration camps, even though the story was quickly debunked as the rogue statement by U.N. committee member, Gay MacDougall, who claimed this 1 million number was real.

It’s not true, because if it was someone credible would have confirmed it. But it’s a lie that has been breathlessly repeated for the past year to create the illusion of reality so that now Pence can pile on to further inflame the ‘China is evil’ story to hapless Trump supporters giddy at their chosen savior’s tough stance on China.

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Posted in Currencies, Debt, Economy, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Governments, Politics, Trade

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Eight Reasons the EU Will Suffer Far More Than UK in Brexit, by Mike “Mish” Shedlock

Posted on August 7, 2019 | Leave a comment

The general consensus that Brexit will hurt the UK far more than the EU may be dead wrong. From Mike “Mish” Shedlock at moneymaven.io:

The EU would be wise to make a deal with the UK. It will get clobbered in the event of no deal.

Conventional wisdom says the UK will get hit harder than the EU in the event of a no deal Brexit. Conventional wisdom is wrong.

Here are eight reasons the EU will suffer more in both the short and long term.

Reason 1: Corporate Taxes

The UK can and likely will slash corporate tax rates. A lower corporate tax rate will mitigate much of the profit damage suffered by UK corporations in the event of no deal.

Note that one of the EU’s biggest complaints against Ireland now is the “unfair” corporate tax structure of Ireland.

Reason 2: Currency Fluctuations

A falling currency is good for exporters and bad for importers. The British Pound has been falling in anticipation of Brexit.

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Posted in Debt, Economy, Financial markets, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Governments, Insurrection, Law

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Conspiracy within the German Military Uncovered: Armed Groups Pose Threat to Europe, by Alex Gorka

Posted on November 15, 2018 | Leave a comment

There have been neo-Nazi groups within Germany since the original Nazis exited the scene after World War II. No surprise that some of the neo-Nazis are in the German military. From Alex Gorka at strategic-culture.org:

Sometimes real-life stories are the equal of the best screenplays for breathtaking action movies. You can’t make this stuff up — the facts seem stranger than fiction.

It’s clear to everyone how political polarization is tearing up German society. Violence has become widespread and is drawing in the extreme right, radical left, and Salafists. In October, German police arrested six men on suspicion of belonging to a far-right terrorist group that had attacked foreigners in the city of Chemnitz. This time that terror ring had devised a conspiracy to sow chaos throughout the entire country and put an end to democracy.

According to the British Sun, Germany’s Focus magazine has reported that some 200 far-right special operations forces (KSK) soldiers and vets had conspired to kill Green Party leader Claudia Roth, Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, and former President Joachim Gauck, as well as the leaders of asylum groups. The plot was uncovered by German criminal police [1].

The investigation found that far-right groups had tried to establish neo-Nazi cells within the German armed forces. A lieutenant colonel from military intelligence tried to obstruct the investigation and warned the plotters. This was surprising. Usually very serious vetting procedures are conducted before anyone can become a German serviceman, especially a commissioned officer. Far-right elements have normally been barred from military service, even back in the days of conscription. Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, defense spokeswoman for the Free Democratic Party (FDP), has demanded that the military conduct their own investigation.

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Posted in Crime, Culture, Governments, History, Immigration, Media, Military, Society

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Collapse of Construction Giant with 43,000 Employees Globally Sparks Fear and Mayhem, by Don Quijones

Posted on January 15, 2018 | Leave a comment

If you’ve never heard of UK infrastructure group Carillion, you will. From Don Quijones at wolfstreet.com:

“The company that runs Britain”: profits were privatized, costs will be socialized.

The decline and fall of 200-year old UK infrastructure group Carillion was as spectacular as it will be costly. It was forced into compulsory liquidation this morning, following the breakdown of crisis talks with its banks and the government. The company, with global sales of £5.2 billion in 2016, has 43,000 employees, including 20,000 in Britain and 10,000 in Canada. It’s saddled with debts and an underfunded pension plan.

Its shares had plunged by 95% over the past 12 months, from £2.40 ($3.53) in January 2017 to as low as £0.12 ($0.17).

“We have been unable to secure the funding to support our business plan, and it is therefore with the deepest regret that we have arrived at this decision,” the company said in a statement. And the government is now forced to guarantee public services, ranging from school meals and hospital maintenance to roadwork.

Carillion’s problems began after a spate of contract delays and a decline in new business left it at the mercy of its lenders and battling a burgeoning debt pile. The rot became irreversible once the hedge fund community, scenting fresh blood, began shorting the stock en masse in November 2016.

In July 2017 a partial review by auditors KPMG identified £845 million of contract write-downs, sparking a massive rout in the shares. The finance director who helped unearth those problems, Zafar Khan, was duly fired by management in September, but the damage had already been done: Carillion shares were down 70% and the stock was the most shorted in Europe. As a leading City analyst told City A.M, the extent of the problems was “gobsmacking.”

Last week, senior government ministers held a crisis meeting to discuss further steps. The choice was stark: either bail out the firm or it let it fail, with ugly ramifications for its project partners, employees, creditors, including three lenders, HSBC, RBS and Santander UK, and UK public services as a whole.

The government chose the latter.

To continue reading: Collapse of Construction Giant with 43,000 Employees Globally Sparks Fear and Mayhem

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Posted in Business, Collapse, Debt, Economy, Government

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The Persecution of Julian Assange, by Paul Craig Roberts

Posted on January 14, 2018 | Leave a comment

One of the clearest markers of a civilization is how it treats those who tell or disclose the truth. From Paul Craig Roberts at paulcraigroberts.com:

“We need a political intervention to make this situation end. He (Assange) is the only political prisoner in Western Europe.” Juan Braco

The persecution of Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, is now seven years old. Ecuador has protected Assange for the past half decade from being turned over to Washington by the corrupt Swedish and British for torture and prosecution as a spy by giving Assange political asylum inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Ecuador has now given citizenship to Assange and attempted to provide his safe transit out of England by giving him diplomatic status, but the British government continued in its assigned role of jailer by rejecting Ecuador’s request for diplomatic status for Assange, just as the most servile of Washington’s puppet states rejected the order by the UN Committee on Arbitrary Detention to immediate release Assange from his arbitrary detention.

Assange got into trouble with Washington, because his news organization, Wikileaks, published files released by Bradley Manning. The files were a tremendous embarrassment to Washington, because they showed how Washington conspires against governments and betrays its allies, and the files contained an audio/video film of US military forces murdering innocent people walking down a street and then murdering a father and his two young children who stopped to give aid to the civilians the American soldiers had shot. The film revealed the heartlessness and criminal cruelty of the US troops, who were enjoying playing a real live video game with real people as their victims.

It was Manning who suffered, not the troops who committed murder. Manning was held for two years in conditions that experts said constituted torture while a case was framed against him. Some believe the harsh conditions affected his mind. Manning was convicted by a kangaroo court and sentenced to 35 years in prison, but Obama in an act of humanity unusual for Washington pardoned Manning.

Washington wanted Assange as well, and the chance came when two Swedish women, attracted to Assange by his celebrity status, seduced him. The two women had not secured the cooperation they wanted from Assange in the use of condoms and, brainwashd by HIV fears, wanted Assange to join them in being tested.

Assange, misreading the extent of their fears, was too slow to comply, and the women went to the police to see if he could be required to be tested. According to the women, the police made up the charge of rape. The women themselves disavow the charge.

The charges were investigated, and the chief Swedish prosecutor Eva Finne dismissed the charges, saying “there is no suspicion of any crime whatsoever.”

To continue reading: The Persecution of Julian Assange

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3-Year-Old London Child Deemed “Extremist” and Placed in Government Reeducation Program, by Michael Krieger

Posted on July 27, 2015 | Leave a comment

Kreiger’s phrasing is apt: “The United Kingdom has gone batshit crazy.” If you’re looking for a byline from The Onion on this story, there is none. It really happened. From Kreiger at libertyblitzkrieg.com:

It’s 8pm in Cambodia and time to find something to eat, but before I do, something caught my attention that I just have to share. It has to do with Great Britain’s continued insanity when it comes to it’s own version of the so-called “war on terror.” This topic will come as no surprise to regular readers, as I have previously highlighted the UK’s unique brand of Orwellianism on several occasions. Here are a couple of examples from late last year:

The UK’s Conservative Party Declares War on YouTube, Twitter, Free Speech and Common Sense

The BBC is Using Anti-Terror Surveillance to Find Tax Dodgers
In case you aren’t aware, there is something called the Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill 2014-15, currently moving through the UK Parliament. The Bill completed its committee stage in the House of Commons in mid-December, and will enter its report stage and third reading on January 6th and 7th. Accompanying this bill, which is controversial in its own right, is a 39-page consultation document that directs nursery school staff and registered childminders to “report toddlers at risk of becoming terrorists.” Think this is a joke? Think again. From the UK Telegraph:

Nursery school staff and registered childminders must report toddlers at risk of becoming terrorists, under counter-terrorism measures proposed by the Government.

The directive is contained in a 39-page consultation document issued by the Home Office in a bid to bolster its Prevent anti-terrorism plan.

To continue reading: 3-Year-Old London Child Deemed “Extremist”

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