Famous for 15 megapixels

Stef · at 9:14 am

30th May 2010

"The flotilla's commander, identified only as "Colonel O," was quoted by the Times as saying that the submarine force was "an underwater assault force. We’re operating deep and far, very far, from our borders."

The submarines could be used if Iran continues its program to produce a nuclear bomb. "The 1,500km range of the submarines’ cruise missiles can reach any target in Iran," a navy officer told the Times"

Israeli Dolphin Class submarine. Armament - 6 x 21-inch torpedo tubes and 4 x 25.5-inch torpedo tubes capable of launching nuclear-armed Popeye Turbo cruise missiles with a range of up to 1,500 kilometres

31st May 2010

Story Highlights

Turkish Aid Ship. Armament - electric-powered wheelchairs, prefabricated homes, water purifiers, cement and other building materials

A more complete list of prohibited items can be found here - shoes are OK though

My advice to the folks at GIYUS (including that bastion of British patriotism the Biased BBC blog) is to stock up on Jolt Cola, Cheetos and Bullshit. It's going to be a long week...

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edit: sad to say, it would appear that, unlike German U-boat manufacturers, PizzaIDF* does not deliver to the Israeli Navy, which is a real shame as, after a busy night machine-gunning passive resistors, I would imagine that a 12inch cheesycrustmeatfeast with extra chillies would really hit the spot

* "gifts of over $250 are eligible for a US IRS tax deduction."

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Stef · at 7:18 am

...Meanwhile, back in the UK, non conspiraloon acquaintances of mine who over the years have endured my predictions of financial and social Armageddon with long-suffering, and occasionally amused patience, have lately taken to conceding that yes I may have been onto something. A little over-the-top maybe but there was a kernel of prescience hidden in my, and a relatively small number of like-minded souls’, OTT ramblings

Fuck it, even the David Ickes and Alex Jones of this world have had to modify their speil to acknowledge the pre-eminent role that manipulation of finance capital plays in the world’s ills (an observation that was singularly absent earlier in their careers)

The Bank of England - just swarming with neo-liberal, pan-dimensional, alien space lizards ...apparently

The growing awareness that something is very wrong with the world of money is now mirrored in the Official Narrative of what the future holds for the UK and other similarly fucked-up countries

Without so much as an apology for all the horseshit they've been shovelling for the last decade, the mainstream UK media have quietly binned the 'No More Boom and Bust' Official Narrative and replaced it with the ‘Austerity’ Official Narrative

As far as I can glean from reading the UK press and chatting with people in the UK, Austerity is supposedly going to take the form of some kind of wifi-enabled rerun of the 1970s. Fuck it, some of the older folks even get nostalgic about the prospect and talk of a Golden Age when people made do, all mucked in together and were better off for it

Hmmm, music and cinema were definitely better back then

... well, some of it was

1970s 2.0 will, however, not play out quite the same way in the UK for one or two small reasons...

- One billion more competing workers from India and the Far East
- Computers
- No North Sea oil
- No coal
- Bugger all in the way of productive industry
- No organised labour worth its name to keep ordinary people's wages up with inflation when all that money printing really kicks in in earnest
- A lot less social cohesion

...for starters

Things could easily get very nasty indeed, for a generation or more

Unless, that is, people get together and seriously overhaul the way they go about their lives

(On the positive side, the UK is still a world-leading producer of weapons, mercenaries, unnecessary, arguably harmful, drugs, Ponzi schemes and money laundering. So, fingers crossed, if by some chance there happen to be a few really tasty wars, global pandemics and colossal financial frauds in the near future the outlook for UK plc isn't entirely bleak)

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Now, as it happens, I have been and continue to be optimistic about the UK’s, and other countries', long term future. The only fly in the ointment is that I believed and continue to believe that life is going to get really, really unpleasant in the UK, and other countries, in the short to medium term

Whilst chatting about this stuff with a chum the other day, she shared with me a favourite Engels quote...

'The state, therefore, has not existed from all eternity. There have been societies which have managed without it, which had no notion of the state or state power. At a definite stage of economic development, which necessarily involved the cleavage of society into classes, the state became a necessity because of this cleavage. We are now rapidly approaching a stage in the development of production at which the existence of these classes has not only ceased to be a necessity, but become a positive hindrance to production. They will fall as inevitably as they once arose. The state inevitably falls with them. The society which organizes production anew on the basis of free and equal association of the producers will put the whole state machinery where it will then belong - into the museum of antiquities, next to the spinning wheel and the bronze axe.'

Personally, I think that vision of the future needs updating a little to reflect the huge advances in technology that have been made since Engels' time.

Some anarchists would argue, as I referenced in my previous post, that you can view the countries of the world as a collection of human farms and the citizens of those countries as livestock...

and, if you pursue that analogy, it's an interesting exercise to ask yourself what do farmers do with their beasts of burden when they get their hands on tractors and other machinery?

Do the farmers let those animals graze and frolic in a quiet field somewhere or do they send them off for glue?

For that Engels' style vision of the future to work a lot of people are going to have to make, and demand, useful products that cannot be mass produced. There's a premium attached to labour-intensive produce, for sure, but if the benefits of mass production were more fairly shared people could afford it and would be happier and healthier for it

Now would be a very good time indeed for people to start digging a veggie patch and learning a honest, genuinely productive craft

...and not borrowing money to spank on tat, that would help as well

Though I'm not sure that I can see the State just sitting idly by if hordes of the newly unemployed start growing and making their own stuff and swapping it without any reference to paper money

Where’s the margin in that?

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Stef · at 5:21 am

I'm still Down Under and still not sure when I'll be returning to Europe or whether I'll have the time or inclination to crank this blog up properly again

though fantastic announcements like the following go a long way to remind me that there really is no escape wherever you are...

"HOMEBUYERS are to be offered never-ending mortgages in a bid to overcome Australia's affordability crisis."

"A mortgage partner for life"

The really fucking depressing thing is that being down here in NZ/ Oz is like being transported back 10, 15, 20 years in the UK and facing the prospect of living through what happened to the UK all over again for a second time - the privitisations, the credit boom and dislocations and inequalities that come with it, the rise of the service sector at the expense or productive industry, bonkers property costs, the Culture of Fear, the shite, propaganda-laden media, all of it

...and what makes it doubly depressing is witnessing, with the benefit of hindsight gained in the UK, just how easy all this stuff is to pull off

No-one ever failed to control a population by understimating people's susceptibility to greed and fear
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Stef · at 2:47 pm

Stef · at 1:34 pm

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Hoarders

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor

Tea Party

Stef · at 9:47 am

Cheers to Parabellum for the link to Chris Morris' latest...

Fellow fans of the genius cartoon series Monkey Dust would be forgiven for noticing one or two similarities between the Four Lions and Omar, Abdul and Shafiq...

Of course, Monkey Dust was made before 7/7, Four Lions was made afterwards. It was easy enough to take the piss out of the Official Terror Narrative before some trains and a bus got blown up. It's not so easy now

I've got a lot of respect for Morris. When I get to see the whole of Four Lions (which hasn't quite made it to the Southern Hemisphere yet) I hope he doesn't piss me off

but I've got a sneaking feeling that he probably will

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Stef · at 12:38 am

Homesick...

For reasons that aren't important right now, I find myself in a position where I have to choose between continuing to be an expat or returning home to the UK

Until a few days ago I was all set to click the button, buy the ticket and return back to Blighty. A decision my family and close friends were supportive of

And then something interesting happened

Quite a few of my friends and family have started suggesting that I hold my horses and think about hanging on for a bit, certainly until my right to return to somewhere a long way from the UK becomes unconditional

Some have pointed to the relatively high cost of living and dire economic prospects of the UK as a reason for staying away. Both of which are very fair points. From the point of view of anyone who isn't an oligarch, the UK fucked

A couple of other people though have cited the newly, er, 'elected' Conservative government as a primo reason for keeping the Hell away from Dodge

Bollocks

Personally, I think the Tories back in power is awesome news and the best conceivable outcome for the recent General Election

and the fact that the Tories have been forced into an unholy coalition with the Lib-Dems is just icing on the cake

It matters not a jot which figurehead is in charge of the supposed government. The Lords of Finance Capital controlled what went on in the UK before the General Election, and continue to do so after the General Election

What can change as the result of the election is people's perceptions of what is being done to them

I remember 20 years ago when a quarter of a million angry people tore up London in protest against a Community Charge which, in the scheme of things, was pretty much fuck all

And since then, with the noble exception of the protest against the invasion of Iraq, not a fucking squeak

Maybe, now that the Tories are nominally in charge, all those muppets who stood by all the ghastly things Nu Labour inflicted on the UK and world over the last 13 years might get off their arses and start opposing some of those ghastly things

Instead of supporting a political party on the basis that 'At least they're not the Tories' maybe it's about time a few more people defined their beliefs in terms of what they think is right and decent

because there ain't been much in the way of righteous and decency in the way the UK has been governed for a long, long time

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edit: and hats off to the Daily Mash, it continues to be by far and away the best serious news channel in the United Kingdom..

"Meanwhile the prospect of a Labour-led 'progressive' coalition has been welcomed by thousands of limbless Iraqis, torture victims and people whose DNA is now kept on a database because they signed a petition in the post office about a new bypass.

Abdul Al-Kaleem, a former limb owner from Basra, said: "I admire the British Labour Party. They managed to progress my legs off very efficiently, while my Uncle Karim was progressed over a wide area.

"I remember being handed what was left of his chin and thinking 'yes, this is definitely progress'..."

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