Greece’s newest government minister, carrying an axe

The most important article I read this week:

Austerity & Fascism In Greece: The Real 1% Doctrine - Exiled Online
Mark Ames - Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Here is a stream-of-angry-consciousness passage I wrote about it.

Just in case it wasn't clear:

One of the 'technocrats' installed in the new Greek government is a card-carrying, Jew-hating, leftist-bashing fascist in the classic style. The occasion of the near-collapse of the Greek state is the opportunity they've been dreaming of since the fall of the Colonels.

Another Papandreou driven from power, by no means guilt-less, but at least he tried. This one, unlike his father, remembered to fire the army leadership before stepping down. Greece remains second only to Turkey in Europe for deep-state and army skullduggery, with a side of ethnic-identity fascism.

I know this isn't as interesting to most people as the nice pictures of babies and how they look 20 years later, but it's important to realise that the 'austerity' is a Trojan horse for the kind of hard-right politics that has been in the doldrums for 20 years.
The Strong State is back, and it's going to fuck you again.

Were 20 armoured cars really necessary?

At the start of July, not too long after the British election which ended in a draw, ex-convict Raoul Moat went on the run after shooting his girlfriend, her new partner and later a police officer. An enormous police operation swung into action, with armed police brandishing automatic weapons all over the place. The public were in terrible danger from this half-baked commando, and so on.

Rumours of roid-rage abound

The pathetic tale of Raoul Moat came to an end in the little village of Rothbury, where he holed up and eventually shot himself by a river, after a stand-off with police.

Former English football star, and noted oddball, Paul Gascoigne, better known as Gazza, turned up in Rothbury in the middle of the siege, clutching a fishing rod and dressing gown. In a phone interview, he claimed to  have known "Moaty" in the old days, as a bouncer. Gazza brought Moat "a can of lager, some chicken, a mobile phone and something to keep warm".

"a can of lager, some chicken"

Here are some more quotes from the interview:

"He is willing to give in now. I just want to give him some therapy and say. 'Come on Moaty, it's Gazza'."

"I heard he was by the river, and I brought my fishing rod too so we can fish together and have a chat. I want to talk to him because I think I'm the only man to help him."

"The police wouldn't let me through because they were frightened he might shoot me, but I know he won't. I have just been in a car crash, hit a wall at 90mph. I survived that, so I can survive a bullet - knowing my luck he will probably miss."

When Gascoigne's long-suffering agent heard about this latest escapade,  he remarked:

"He's doing what? I am sitting having an evening meal in Majorca. I'm speechless."

Yet another bizarre story surrounding Raoul Moat, and the mother who brought her children to his funeral, claiming it was "better than Legoland".


Update: Thanks to Robin, here's the full interview:

Click to enlarge.

Ask yourself why we hear so much about a disease with such a relatively small death-toll.

Ask yourself why we don't hear about all the other much more important diseases.

Ask yourself why we countenance motor vehicles but not war.

Ask yourself why we're so bad at judging risk.

Ask your local pharmacist how much money he's made in the last 300 days on face-masks, hand-wash, Tamiflu and so on.

Making comparisons between modern-day Britain and 1984 or Brave New world is becoming rather trite at this stage, so I won't bother.

BoingBoing posts about Council bans parents from play areas. Watford Borough Council is banning parents from public playgrounds, since they cannot be trusted around other children, perhaps even their own children.

Sadly, in today's climate, you can't have adults walking around unchecked in a children's playground and the adventure playground is not a meeting place for adults.

What is "today's climate"?
Is the ambient air temperature particularly conducive to the creation of paedophiles?

Caravans on the runway

Airline jobs once inspired respect and envy. But at Los Angeles International Airport about 100 airline employees - from mechanics to pilots - are living in mobile homes parked just yards from one of the busiest runways in the world.

BBC News link here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8186690.stm

This story of mechanics and pilots living under the planes they fly is really quite depressing, and quite Ballardian. The article details how the dream of flying, the mystique and chic, have been stripped away. These men who followed their dream have found nothing at the end of the road.

Bob Poster, airline pilot, even looks like a Ballardian hero/anti-hero:

Bob Poster, airline pilot

Yes, that's right, he got it all wrong. Anti-intellectualism disguised as false intellectualism, and spelt wrong to boot. I wish this man was joking.

At the same time, James Murdoch from News Corporation (who proudly own Fox News) has been attacking the BBC for being too "dominant", saying that it threatens journalism.

I know which I'd rather have.

FIT Watch campaigner Emily Apple assaulted by police

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2009/jun/21/fit-watch-kingsnorth-arrests

You must watch this video.

Another extremely worrying video from The Guardian showing the British police acting like the fascist thugs they are.

The two women are campaigners with FIT Watch, who undertake 'sousveillance' of the British police teams who monitor and record campaigners at marches and other events. The FIT Watch campaigners photograph and catalogue the police who are cataloguing and photographing them. They watch the watchers.

They are assaulted, restrained at the arms and legs, arrested and thrown into the back of police vans and held without bail for 3 days for nothing more than asking a police officer who has removed his badge numbers to identify himself.

This is Britain today.

I urge everyone to watch this video and see the increasingly desperate and violent efforts of the Iranian state to put down its people.

Video from Iran of clashes between riot police and protesters

Riot police on motorbikes in Iran