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The Saker
A bird's eye view of the vineyard

offsite link Alternative Copy of thesaker.is site is available Thu May 25, 2023 14:38 | Ice-Saker-V6bKu3nz
Alternative site: https://thesaker.si/saker-a... Site was created using the downloads provided Regards Herb

offsite link The Saker blog is now frozen Tue Feb 28, 2023 23:55 | The Saker
Dear friends As I have previously announced, we are now “freezing” the blog.  We are also making archives of the blog available for free download in various formats (see below). 

offsite link What do you make of the Russia and China Partnership? Tue Feb 28, 2023 16:26 | The Saker
by Mr. Allen for the Saker blog Over the last few years, we hear leaders from both Russia and China pronouncing that they have formed a relationship where there are

offsite link Moveable Feast Cafe 2023/02/27 ? Open Thread Mon Feb 27, 2023 19:00 | cafe-uploader
2023/02/27 19:00:02Welcome to the ‘Moveable Feast Cafe’. The ‘Moveable Feast’ is an open thread where readers can post wide ranging observations, articles, rants, off topic and have animate discussions of

offsite link The stage is set for Hybrid World War III Mon Feb 27, 2023 15:50 | The Saker
Pepe Escobar for the Saker blog A powerful feeling rhythms your skin and drums up your soul as you?re immersed in a long walk under persistent snow flurries, pinpointed by

The Saker >>

Public Inquiry
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

Public Inquiry >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link Labour?s Changes to Employment Law Are Already Stifling the Economy ? and They Haven?t Even Come in ... Thu Oct 03, 2024 16:17 | Steve Chilcott
Labour's planned changes to employment law ? ramping up trade union power and workers' rights ? are already stifling the economy in anticipation, and they haven't even come in yet, says Steve Chilcott.
The post Labour’s Changes to Employment Law Are Already Stifling the Economy ? and They Haven’t Even Come in Yet appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Starmer Hands Chagos Islands to China-Ally Mauritius Thu Oct 03, 2024 14:03 | Will Jones
Keir Starmer has given up the Chagos Islands, handing the Indian Ocean territory to China-ally Mauritius after 200 years of British rule.
The post Starmer Hands Chagos Islands to China-Ally Mauritius appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Dawn Butler?s Black History Month Poem About Being ?The Chosen One? Says Everything You Need to Know... Thu Oct 03, 2024 11:47 | Steven Tucker
Dawn Butler's Black History Month poem about being "The Chosen One" says everything you need to know about this whole fake festival of institutionalised anti-whiteness, says Steven Tucker.
The post Dawn Butler’s Black History Month Poem About Being “The Chosen One” Says Everything You Need to Know About This Whole Fake Festival of Institutionalised Anti-Whiteness appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Massive Electricity Price Rises Expected as National Grid Confirms Gas is the Only Back-Up for Inter... Thu Oct 03, 2024 09:00 | Chris Morrison
Massive electricity price rises are expected as National Grid confirms that gas is the only planned back-up for intermittent renewable energy, placing Britain at the mercy of global price spikes, says Chris Morrison.
The post Massive Electricity Price Rises Expected as National Grid Confirms Gas is the Only Back-Up for Intermittent Renewables appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link In Episode 16 of the Sceptic: Charlotte Gill on Labour?s Love for Hope Not Hate, Freddie Attenboroug... Thu Oct 03, 2024 07:00 | Richard Eldred
In episode 16 of the sceptic: Charlotte Gill on Labour's links to Hope Not Hate, Freddie Attenborough on the free speech fightback in Ireland, David Turver on Ed Miliband's green cronyism and more.
The post In Episode 16 of the Sceptic: Charlotte Gill on Labour?s Love for Hope Not Hate, Freddie Attenborough on the Irish Free Speech Fightback and David Turver on Ed Miliband?s Green Cronyism appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Poppies: Patriotism and pyromania

category international | anti-war / imperialism | other press author Friday November 11, 2011 19:33author by pat c Report this post to the editors

James Turley writes about the criminalisation of those who have burned poppies and elaborates on the imperialist agenda behind the whole remembrance charade. Those who fell should be remembered but not to glorify imperialism.

It is that time of year, again, when the world is colonised by plastic poppies. No establishment luminary will be seen in a public forum without one of these slightly naff trinkets pinned to his or her lapel; and thousands more people around the country will likewise sport the designated symbol of remembrance for the war dead.... .

More troubling is the fate of three Northern Ireland teenagers, about whom little is known except their ages - two are 17 and one 16 - and that they were pulled up before Coleraine magistrates court, charged with ‘incitement to hatred’. The 16-year-old also faces charges relating to ‘improper use’ of a social networking site, thanks to his publication of damning visual evidence of the ‘crime’ on Facebook....
Remember, remember ... the imperialist slaughter
Remember, remember ... the imperialist slaughter

The poppy appeal is not simply about commemorating the dead, however. It is about our dead - it is about a hundred years, give or take, of British history, during which ‘our brave boys’ (and girls) have been massacred in two truly apocalyptic wars, as well as picked off in countless relatively minor scuffles provoked by the decay of the empire.

The poppy ideology is, in fact, a bait-and-switch; the very real generalised empathy of the population to those who paid for capital’s rapacious drive to war with their lives is mobilised to support the very same institution - the state - which feeds the meat into the mincing machine. Like all ideology, it is participatory: the annual ritual of pinning the poppy to your lapel seals the compact, just as a few words of mumbo-jumbo transubstantiates cheap wine into the blood of Christ. The British Legion’s orgy of emotional blackmail, which complements the whole thing - pictures of gravely wounded soldiers and bereaved families all over the tube - does not hurt, either....

Related Link: http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1004614
author by serfpublication date Fri Nov 11, 2011 23:16author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The real nub of this is that the poppy campaign is used to indirectly help finance the current imperialist war machine.
Money they might otherwise have to fork out for looking after the victims of their escapades is paid by the public instead, leaving their coffers free to finance the next invasion and the killing of more cannon fodder economic conscripts and many anonymous brown people and their families who have the misfortune to be living near oilfields and other natural resources or strategic routes..

I think one poster put it well on this thread:
https://www.indymedia.ie/article/94848

"I think the very last guy from WWI died recently...
the money you collect in your tin won't really do anything for him or his comrades. All it would do is help "externalise" the expenses of compensating ex soldiers from Iraq, Afghanistan etc who were "unpatriotic" enough to be shot but not to die. Don't you think governments have learned anything from corporate behaviour at all??

By wearing the poppy you help to support any recent imperialist military adventures that such sociopathic politicians choose to engage in. And sadly, it's obvious that all the things that the poor tommy or paddy thought he was battling in the awful hell of the trenches for, have been subsequently taken away from his children by their corrupt governments by strokes of the pen.

The poppy is truly the most cynical insult to the ideals of those who fought in the trenches"

author by Pop Epublication date Sat Nov 12, 2011 10:30author address author phone Report this post to the editors

I really think the vast majority of people dont know that the money is goin to all the modern day veterns, lovely fellas like the paras who killed on bloody sunday, the sas etc. Is it worth havin a bit of a joined up awareness campaign on this???  It is one thing that gets on my goat this time of year.  And there is nothin worse when some idiot tells me, that we have to respect other peoples tradition as if the poppy is a protestant/orange symbol, since when did imperialism become a tradition. Is facism a tradition, that should be remembered equally? The vast majority of people in those wars did not want to be there, and were there because of poverty, it was not a valiant liberation struggle but the carvin up of power amongst the elites of the world, simple as.   

Anyone up for settin up an 'anti-war' poppy awareness stall where these brit legion fcukers are sellin these things

 
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