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That for his long stay;

Abroad and away in a distant land.

Turned a helpful hand;

With non-barbaric plan: night long.

Tame as of the shrew; headlong

He sprung to civilize the Britons ’till farewell song.

 

By Courtenay Barnett

Dear beloved, we are again at the altar of the Almighty Truth. Gathered for delivery and receipt of words of enlightening and everlasting truth.

Our topic today is the mission of civilization which saw me trying to redeem the British from lives of drudgery and stoic resolution.

The beginning is normally the correct place to start, but here already steadily advancing towards the peroration and already at the third paragraph might do just as well – so let us begin.

In the beginning I lived in Jamaica. When I was sixteen, I was shipped off to England to further my education. Projecting that I would be doing a first degree and post-grad studies, I was the fortunate recipient of a flat ( ‘apartment’ as the Americans term it). My father sagaciously and with considerable financial foresight, bought a place in a well appointed part of London – south east London in Upper Norwood where I lived during the course of my studies.

Now, the shift from the Caribbean to England was initially a culture shock. ‘They’ were not me and I was not them. Despite the differences I quickly learned the ways and largely adjusted to patterns of behaviour and alternate ways of living and doing that were quite different to me than the way we did things back home. However, I vowed to remain civilized and refused toconvert to certain barbaric and insularly withdrawn ways accompanied by antiquated and dowdy existential practices.

Barbaric is a strong word, but at its worst, it was actually a form of villainoussadisticintrospection accompanied by withdrawal into one’s own personality. Simply put, the majority of people were not gregarious andnotinstinctively and/or habitually warmly open. They were not unduly hostile, but the personality was one of cautious rectitude accompanied bypoliteness. At its best, politeness was present to a fault. Of course I am reflecting loosely and collectively, but the general at times can nevertheless sum up the specific. Watching the cricket crowd at Lords and observing the English is quite a different tell on cultural disposition, be it at Lords or the Oval, of being within the West Indian stands, versus watching the game with the stiff and stoic upper lip. In those days much of that was needed by the Englishin great quantity for it was then that under the captaincy of Clive Lloyd the West Indies was on a fifteen to eighteen year winning streak. But back to the point and the mission.The best summary of English cultural traits is written by a Hungariantravel author, George Mikes, in ‘ How to be an alien’,being the most successful of all his many humourous books. Mikes wrote, “the English have no soul; they have the understatement instead.” To sum up what I was getting at earlier, they are a reserved lot of people, and so the West Indian cricket ground cavorting is simply not British. The English will sit quietly, intelligently, and in a deliberately studied fashion watch the game whilethe spirited West Indians can do what the bloody hell they want to; they simply are not British. There I stared the problem in its faceand I wasdetermined to fix it.But how so?

When I moved into my flat, it took me far too long to get to know my neighbours. There we were coming in and out – seeing the same faces week in and week out and it took so bloody long to get to know people. Not that they were impolite ( far from it) – much too polite and withdrawn. Time for a change.

I like parties. Nothing like a few drinks, friends, music and dancing to raise the spirits. Good start. My first party in true West Indian style got going around 11p.m. and went all the way through into the morning.Those who drove were heading home somewhere between 5 or 6 in the morning and the buses for others would start running around 6 a.m. ( no all night services back then in the 1970s). So, a neighbour rings the bell and comes in and marches to the record player and takes the record off and complains to me that he has to go to work early next morning. I turn the music down a bit, the food is served around 2:00 a.m. and we party all night and morning long. Not the best start, but a start nevertheless. How can I civilize them? How can I introduce levity, laughter, humour of an effervescent type and not studied, wry or intellectually clever humour with subtle undertones and the ol’double entendre ? How can I make them all in all less dull and dreary people? That was my challenge – that was my mission, hard as it may seem, I was determined to give it my best.

New party and new strategy and this time I invite everyone in earshot of my flat. They all get in the groove and love it, curry goat, chicken, rice and peasand more and music like they had not heard before. Ah, I am making progress.And so it continued over the years with eager inquiries coming as to when would be the next one. They were finally letting their hair down andwere realising that there is more to life than work and home and vice versa each day.

I was not the first from the Caribbean who had this concern,for there was the well established Notting Hill Carnival addressing the problem on a mass scale each year. It had become, during my years in London,the largest carnival in all of Europe. All a part of the civilizing mission born of care and concern for responding tothe hungry needs of the backwardBritish psyche.

Face it, being reserved, very reserved,can be and is astoundingly boring and ultimately of no good for one’s psychological well-being. It takes forever and a day to get to know one’s neighbours and making good acquaintances and developing friendships are both in the general English milieu – laborious tasks instead of joyous endeavours which are supposed to feed the heart and enliven the spirit. Face it, life is not long enough along the English trajectory to have a happy life with such great distances between meeting a person to thereafterwalking the verylong road to friendship . How does one get them to open up spontaneously and– well – to put it bluntly – simply learn habitually to live as happy human beings?All a part of the hard task taken on.

So, there was this particularly good party. College friends, flat mate’s friends and acquaintances, the wholly bloody adjoining neighborhood of inhabitants of flats and a truly cosmopolitan bunch of people with music blaring in merriment. Then there is my friend Trevor’s Uncle Bert. Trevor was also from Jamaica and in England studying and he lived with his uncle, not far down the road from me in Croydon. Uncle Bert accompanies Trevor and jumps right into it. Did he now. Ol’ Bert ends up dancing ( if dancing it can be so termed) with this Mayfair Playboy Bunny in a secluded corner for about 5 or 6 songs. She happened to be the live in girlfriend of my immediate neighbour who had been to my parties before; before he and she met Bert that is. Well, Bert seemed to be making the breast of it – sorry – best of it, and she seemed to be enjoying every moment, but then, there was this boyfriend whowas not amused. For some strange reason, once the music took a little break and Bert too, the boyfriend, it appears, made a hasty dash for his girlfriend followed by an equally hasty retreat home, next door. If Bert ever came to another party, I cannot recall that the neighbor ever did – or – if he did it was a quick hi and goodbye. I wonder why? Ah well, despite the interlocutor meeting such as with ol’ Bert,the mission overallproceeded over the years, quite well.

Over time, my parties became a staple. The English ( at least those who could attend my entertainment college) learned in rapid order how to be open, warm, friendly and even indulgent at times ( someone said “Uncle Bert”?).

Yet as the years wore on, I noticed that there seemed to be an overarching depression within Britain. I was perturbed for I had been doing my best to assist the people uplift in spirits from their psychological plight. So, I investigated. It turned out that during my years abroad, this coincided with the West Indies consistently, for an extended period, beating England in their national game, cricket. This led to great depression. What could I do? The mission, not only in my flat, but in places such as Dalston, Brixton, and up north in Birmingham and Manchester and across the country the mission had effective and active volunteers engaging the English, with considerable success over a number of years. We could not permit West Indian cricket success to defeat the mission. Churchill’s words came to mind, “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills;…”

TheWest Indies cricket team did all that and not even in beach cricket could England then defeat us. But, the victories were havinga deleterious effect on the national psyche which was in turn adversely affecting the civilizing mission. There simply had to be an answer and a reversal before the several years of “blood, toil, tears and sweat” were expended all for nought. Blood in Brixton rioting against racist mistreatment; toil in factories rebuilding Britain after World War 11; tears at how West Indians were so badly mistreated; and my sweat in a hot flat throwing parties in diligent service to and support of the noble cause of civilization.

The solution came as a flash of inspiration. The West Indies, for the greater good of Britain, would simply have to stop winning in playing thenational game of cricket. After all, they did invent the game; we merely showed them how to play it masterfully.So said, so done. Once more, Winston Churchill came to the rescue of his people, for as he said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” We were successful in the extreme; English failures in cricket,with us being humane people of conscience, care and concern, simply could not permitthis to be fatal for the English psyche; and so in volunteering and discretely desisting from winning, we reinstilled in the English the courage to continue playing the game of cricket. It was a joyous period to see what we had done once the smiles started to shine once more on English faces at Lords, the Oval and elsewhere.

I can reflect now after more than four decades having finally departed London to resume residence in the Caribbean. Just goes to show that it takes all types to make a world convivial and pleasant;and, culturalconversion is not always a bad thing. I learned how to be serious about my studies and advanced myself to a worthy profession and in exchange I gave some to the best years of my life to naturalising the British into being human. I don’t takefull credit,nor for that matter, claim any exclusivity on applying the mission’s methodology. Last time I checked the mission was still in progress and others seemed to have also made great headway; for here is but one recent example as proof:-

https://twitter.com/nevaxpectdis/status/994354413161582596?s=12

Fair cop ol’ Blighty?And a jolly good time was had by many in the best spirit of the civilizing mission.

One love and no Amen for this sermon.

Hallelujah!

 

Courtenay Barnett is a graduate of London University. His areas of study were economics, political science and international law. He has been a practising lawyer for over thirty years, has been arrested for defending his views, and has argued public interest and human rights cases. He lives and works in the Caribbean.

 

by Courtenay Barnett

Dear beloved, we are gathered here today to hear words of truth, as straight as an arrow, spoken from the Altar of The Almighty Truth.

This truth is directed against the twin-headed dragon of lies and deception US Foreign Policy is aimed at.

Thus, such policy in relation to the wisdom – or – lack thereof in siting the US Embassy in East Jerusalem is the bane of our discourse.

No better way than to have informed proponents directly state their positions and then consider where next we go.

Nikki Haley – present ( US Ambassador Haley – permanent representative to the UN)

Noura Erakat – present (Palestinian- American human rights attorney and assistant professor at George Mason University)

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/nikki-haley-denies-gaza-violence-related-us-embassy/story?id=55178732

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/how-are-palestinians-reacting-to-the-u-s-embassy-in-jerusalem-and-violence-in-gaza/

So there we have two competing points of view. One sees absolutely no fault, no error, not even an iota of miscalculation in US Foreign Policy in placing the US Embassy in East Jerusalem: it is all the fault of the Palestinians and Hamas.

Another perspective takes account of the history, the political context, the reality of being corralled in Gaza indefinitely with no right of return for the refugees, which the Palestinians actually are under international law.

These competing thoughts and positions take me back almost 40 years to a time at University. It was one of those bulletin board announcement moments. A Palestinian Professor and a Jewish Professor agreed to have a round-table discussion on the question of Palestine/Israel and students and staff alike were duly informed of the venue for discussion.

There were about 15 people in attendance and I was one of them. It was not merely the erudition of the two scholars which impressed me – but – as a good lesson in debating skills – their civility.

After the papers were delivered and discussions took place, questions followed and conclusions were drawn. Although many years now have passed since that discussion, I still recall it as being as relevant now as it was then.

From one viewpoint, there was the pressing need for a homeland for the Palestinian people in relation to the settler- colony РIsrael; from the other side, there was an expressed need to continue with a home for Jewish ̩migr̩s to the state of Israel. There at its simplest was where the divide between these two erudite scholars existed. So, within this context of dual land claims, now let us exercise our minds with the aid of historical facts.

A. The historical context

B. The twentieth century twin catalysts of the demise of the Ottoman Empire – and the Nazi onslaught on the Jewish people leading to a UN response in establishing the state of Israel; and

C. The catastrophic situation facing the Palestinian people post- US Embassy location in East Jerusalem and immediate implications arising therefrom.

First, A: The historical context

Jews had lived in the land called Palestine for about a thousand years, side by side with the Arabs, as mainly pastoral people – Jews and Arabs lived peacefully- so – what changed?

Second, B (i): The end of World War 1

This saw the end of the Ottoman Empire and the formation of The League of Nations [Belgium, Britain, France, Greece, Italy, and Japan] that divided territories that had been formerly under Ottoman rule. Entities were created called “mandates”. Under the mandate system territories would be administered by such powers as Britain and France with accountability to the League and the mandate would remain until the territories were determined by the League to be at a level of readiness for independence.

Syria and Lebanon were awarded to France. Iraq went to Britain along with the entity termed Palestine, so defined in modern history at San Remo, and at the time included the lands on both sides of the Jordan River and the present-day countries of Israel and Jordan. Boundary changes were made over time. July 1922 witnessed the League of Nations ratifying the mandate arrangements and changing the map which had been established in 1920. A picture is worth a thousand words – so – for broad historical reference do see the map below. A picture saves my use of a thousand words, which this troublesome international problem indubitably invites use of:

Second, B (ii): The end of World War 1 and inter-war years

Witness the Nazi onslaught on European Jewry.

The conscience of the world is struck by the Holocaust.

Then C (i), The immediate pre and post World War 11 periods

Establishment of the state of Israel

Zionists find a basis to advance a convincing case to establish a national homeland for the Jewish people. Only problem is that with Palestinians living in Palestine there is mass expulsion to accommodate the new Jewish settlers and therein commences the lasting problem to this day with some 700,000 Palestinians initially being left stateless as refugees. The consequential conflict between Palestinians and Israelis is an outgrowth of this historical reality.

Then C (ii), The immediate pre and post World War 11 periods

The contemporary conflict

The 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, adopted as UN Resolution 181 (11) is an important reference point relative to the ongoing conflict. There was to be an Arab section; a Jewish section; and Jerusalem would reflect that reality with there being designated areas for both peoples and an international zone for all ( having regard for the importance of the city of Jerusalem for major world religions). That in essence was the plan.

Fast forward to 2018 with President Trump placing the US Embassy in East Jerusalem and question what this does. Note that the vast majority of nations treated Tel Aviv as the proper location for placement of their Embassies in Israel. Why? Because they noted and acknowledged the reality which the UN from the 1947 Plan had tried fairly to address. Now, the prospect, any prospect for a two state solution has had hopes dashed by the US making unilateral and lopsided embraces of Israel; for East Jerusalem was designated to be the Palestinian capital. So, full circle we go back to the perspectives of US Ambassador Nikki Haley and the Palestinian scholar Noura Erakat. Haley sees absolutely only Palestinian fault: Ekarat places fault at the doors she sees it necessary to be placed.

And geographical facts versus expressed differences of opinion on the Palestine/Israel conflict is again subject to the saving of many words by way of simply viewing maps:-

Solution

There has been talk of a two state versus one state solution to the Palestine/Israel conflict. I do not see any realistic chance of a two state solution for a number of reasons:-

1. The expulsion of Palestinians to make space for Jewish arrivees in Israel and the confinement in Gaza and permanent exile of Palestinian refugees do not demographically permit establishment of a Palestinian state for reasons stated below as 2, 3 ,4, 5 and 6. How can the Palestinian population’s demographics and geographical locations proffer any hope for a two state solution?

2. Israel, aided and abetted by the US, permits encroachment, capturing and expansions by Jews into Palestinian lands beyond the 1967 borders. Those settlements are intended to be permanent. So, given the US Foreign Policy stance ( as was the case when President Reagan supported and cossetted the White regime in South Africa along with his friend UK Prime Minister Margret Thatcher) – so yet again the US finds itself on the wrong side of history – doesn’t it?

3. There is a deliberate policy by Israel of making contiguous land space non-existent for the establishment of a state, which logically and of necessity would need contiguous land space if at all it is to be – or can ever be established. Apartheid walls separate and crisscross Palestinian territories. What is termed the ‘West Bank’ ( see Map #4 entitled “Now”) creates the new reality for Palestinians’ divided land which makes a two-state solution impossible. Hasn’t Israel willfully done this and concomitantly corralled the Palestinian people in open air prisons?

4. Within Israel there is Apartheid discrimination against Arabs and so the twin evils of prejudice and denial of the sovereignty of the Palestinian people makes this two state solution an impossibility. Did the state of Israel not discriminate against the darker skinned Ethiopian Jews; ostracize African migrants; reserve exclusivity based on ‘race’, religion and skin colour ( lack thereof) to the select ones ( chosen people) who are the only ones who have any real voice in the Knesset, despite having a 25% non-Jewish population as citizens in Israel? Doesn’t the state of Israel do all of this? With absolutely no principled and/or moral leadership coming from the US to address and ultimately resolve the Palestinian/Israel conflict – does President Trump’s unilateral move of the US Embassy present any hope to the Palestinian people in their fight for freedom, justice and a homeland?

5. How can the embrace by the Trump Administration of the mantra that Jerusalem is the “united” city and the eternal capital of Israel permit any religious acknowledgement for legitimate Arab interests or politically permit the claim of Palestinian rights being addressed?

5a. In April 2017 Russia was the first country in the world to have recognized West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Implicitly then, if not expressly stated by Russia, East Jerusalem would be the Palestinian capital. What then for the US position in not embracing West Jerusalem for the geographical space as Jewish capital, as declared by Russia, but instead effecting a provocation regarding the Jewish “united” city of Jerusalem? Doesn’t the Russian recognition of only the Western part of Jerusalem, say to the world that it denied Israel’s claims to the eastern part, including the Old City, which then leads to the conflict exaccerbations created by the Trump administration under now officially declared US policy – doesn’t the US decision do just that – present an already intractable problem with an irreconcilable decision?

Note: the majority position in the international community, does not go as far as Russia did in its decision, but rather is consistent in holding the position that the status of the entire city of Jerusalem has to be determined in peace negotiations.

6. Since Jerusalem is advanced by Netanyahu and Trump as being the “united” city ( i.e. for Jews) and a solution for the Israel/Palestine conflict is contingent on a solution to the question of Jerusalem, then it would seem Netanyahu’s and Trump’s decisions would naturally lead to escalation, more conflict, and likely war.

The 1967 Middle East war resulted in Israel capturing land from Jordan and annexing it, which is not a right arising under international law and which move has not been recognized by the international community. Now that the captured land is declared as Israel’s “united” city and President Trump has taken sides 100% with Israel, there is simply no hope for a two state solution, given, at the very least, the religious and political significance of Jerusalem, and more particularly, East Jerusalem, as was intended for the Palestinian capital.

Come 1999 and the publication of The New York Times article by Professor Edward Said, the only solution, as I see it ( as was the case with the White South African problem), is a one state solution with all religions and ethnic groups being guaranteed legal rights of equality. Anything short of this only spells conflict, confrontation and war until that day arrives. Ultimately, the South African experience proves that while Nelson Mandela, as a lawyer, could have won his case in court by arguing, it isn’t arguments that won his battles for self-determination and sovereignty. It was not the rightness of the ANC’s case that defeated Apartheid. The Africans had to fight with weapons because Apartheid South Africa, fully aided and abetted by the West ( inclusive of Israel which assisted the White regime in acquiring nuclear weapons), was armed to the teeth, supported by these nations replete with double-standards. Power respected violence and force in South Africa. Israel is fully prepared to be unrelentingly and unrepentantly brutal. President Trump, as did President Reagan in cosseting Apartheid, has even gone further and not covertly – overtly picking a side. The Palestinians in these circumstances have exhausted their peaceful options and appear to have no choice but to confront politically and most likely militarily in varying ways. They seem not to have been given any further option. Whether the Palestinians are prepared to take alternate steps to those advanced in the past is a central question for them to answer – what must we do to achieve justice? They now may not see any other solution near, far or maybe somewhere over the horizon but that of increased conflict. I am swayed by the sagacity of Professor Said’s analysis, so present it here in its entirety:-

https://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/10/magazine/the-one-state-solution.html

Interestingly, Netanyahu is referenced by Professor Said ( deceased) in his article and so again in 2018 we find Netanyahu as Israel’s Prime Minister proceeding along a path which guarantees further Palestinian suffering while employing brute force oppression to maintain the status quo – but – nothing lasts forever. Apartheid South Africa could not and did not and neither shall the current status quo in Israel, even with all the assistance of the ‘great again’ President Donald Trump. History teaches that lesson.

Once circumstances dictate that a challenge has to be placed to obtain justice, the issue for the Palestinian people then seems not to be if they fight – but rather how they fight. What other choice now exists in all the circumstances now that the last hope that the intended preservation of East Jerusalem as a place for the capital of Palestine has been dashed? What choice? What other options?

An Arab commentator made this observation:-

“None of the usual media suspects has taken it upon themselves to explain how it is that the term “clash” can possibly apply to a situation in which Palestinian men, women, children, and old people – all of them trapped on a sliver of land with no escape – are attacked by an Israeli military with a monopoly on violence and a penchant for utilising the Gaza Strip as its own personal shooting range.”

N.B.

For one set of people – a celebration of ‘independence day’ ( 14th May); for the other, the dejection ( ejection as a people and rejection as refugees) of the ‘Nabka Day’ ( 15th May).

Just about all Western journalists seem either unable or afraid to ask the logical question: Why must Israel, as the only such nation on earth, exist as an ethnicractic state and be preserved as such a construct ( see below the footnote referenced book by Shlomo Sands), while Palestinians, upon a false premise of a ‘two state solution’, are to be left living in open air concentration camps?
In 2015 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this, “I am asked if we will forever live by the sword – yes.”

The die has been cast as PM Netanyahu has proclaimed. However, the Palestinians can choose. The choices are actually quite stark for it is either that of subservience in perpetuity or fighting over rights and ‘sovereign state freedom’. The circumstances on the ground as unequivocally confirmed by President Trump’s decision has erased any choice of two states and now leaves but one state as ‘the final solution’. There now seems to be no middle ground between that single state solution and the alternative of permanently stateless Palestinians living on Israel’s borders. Axiomatically, the prevailing circumstances dictate that justice is a potentially belligerent precursor for peace.
Justice – Peace – then: AMEN!

Footnote

Those interested in having a deeper understanding of the issues might care to read a book by a Jewish scholar, who wrote a best seller in Israel and then wrote a sequel:-

Shlomo Sand – “The invention of the land of Israel”
For a review – visit – https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/apr/18/invention-land-israel-shlomo-sand

Just how far reaching is Trump’s decision to site the US Embassy in East Jerusalem?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/jerusalem-trump-meaning-why-important-what-does-it-mean-happened-israel-palestine-middle-east-latest-a8095991.html

 

Courtenay Barnett is a graduate of London University. His areas of study were economics, political science and international law. He has been a practising lawyer for over thirty years, has been arrested for defending his views, and has argued public interest and human rights cases. He lives and works in the Caribbean.

Please share, forward, or otherwise disseminate this article as widely as possible. Richard John Stapleton, Editor & Publisher, Effective Learning Report, May 21, 2018

by Courtenay Barnett

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today after a hiatus. Fortunately, we have now returned to the place of the almighty truth.

The sermon today shall dwell on racism, rationalisations and resentments and uses Her Majesty’s Government’s duplicity as examples in the field of legality and a resolute steadfastness to undermine the delivery of justice. Our points of reference shall be:-

The Mau Mau case ( i.e. the Compensation claims for torture, rape, wrongful detention and forced labour brought by 40,000 Kenyans who alleged that they were mistreated by British officials).

The Diego Garcia disgraceful conduct ( i.e. the depopulation of the Chagossians from the Chagos Islands to ensure that Her Majesty’s Government received Polaris missiles).

The Matrix Churchill case ( i.e. The Arms-to-Iraq affair concerning the uncovering of the government-endorsed sale of arms by British companies to Iraq after having declared war on that country).

The Skripal incident ( i.e. Prime Minister Theresa May’s support for the bombing of Syria based on the claim that Russia was behind the poisoning of Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter).

The attempted denial of persons of Caribbean heritage to their British pension rights.

Merely five(5) points of reference to illustrate not merely the historical – but also – the contemporary consistency in corrupt practices emanating from the highest levels of government and the judiciary in Britain.

Mau Mau

So HMG finds Her benighted self in Kenya, robbing and looting as is her wont. In this instant of colonial exploitation, the Kenyans are exiled from the highlands which was their homeland for centuries, having coincidentally, the most arable lands in Kenya. The White settlers take control. Not surprisingly, the indigenous people are resentful and rebel. Britain sets up concentration camps and tortures the Kenyans in response ( inclusive of President Barak Obama’s grandfather). Prior to this act of colonial affirmation, it had been Britain in South Africa that for the first time in history had used internment camps for the purpose of complete depopulation. As a further historical fact, the Nazis did give credit to the British as the source from which, years later, they got the idea for concentration camps. It was not just the name, but also the principles and practices which the Nazis copied from the British. Years later, the Kenyan victims filed a class action claiming damages as compensation in the British courts. HMG then hid achieves which would have assisted in providing evidence to prove the case. A Harvard history researcher found the papers and then made the information public. HMG relented ( not necessarily repenting) and the case was settled.

Diego Garcia

HMG wanted from the US Polaris missiles. The US wanted to establish a geopolitically strategic location in the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean. The UK then effected a trade-off deal to obtain a discount on the purchase of Polaris missiles. The US was willing to do the deal if they could get the Chagos islands without inhabitants on them. The only practical problem was that the islands had on them long established inhabitants. The UK solved the “problem” by forcibly evacuating all the islanders and dumping them on the Seychelles and Mauritius mainlands to be forgotten forever, while leasing the largest of the islands, Diego Garcia to the US. The US got its bases; the UK got its missiles; the Chagossians got nothing but expulsion and exile. They sued.

Matrix Churchill case

An MI6 front company with UK government’s approval sold arms to Iraq at a time after the UK had declared war against Iraq. In other words the UK government was knowingly sending her sons and daughters to war and at the same time was selling the armaments to the enemy which would be used to kill UK soldiers. The Government under the strangest of strange circumstances prosecuted the company “Matrix Churchill” only to find at a later stage when the evidence led back to MI6 that the Government under then Prime Minister Tony Blair intervened and stopped the case based on reasons of the continuation of the prosecution not being in the “national interest”. A more sordid piece of corruption at the governmental level could not be dreamt up in the greatest of fictional novels. Truth, however, at times, is stranger than fiction.

The Skipral poisoning case

A Russian spy, Sergei Skipral, worked as a double-agent and is discovered to be a traitor by Russia and is caught and sentenced to thirteen years in prison. The UK for which he worked traded him and he is released for Russian spies in the UK and then lives in the UK with his daughter, Yulia. There is a poisoning incident involving both Skiprals and Prime Minister Theresa May blames the incident on the Russian government and President Vladimir Putin. In consequence, she supports the bombing of Syria, without parliamentary full debate and approval, nor verification by the international body designated to verify such incidents. May claims that she is justified under international law to bomb Syria. Now lunacy meets the ludicrous for the following reasons:-

Professor Dapo Akande, a Professor of Public International Law at Oxford University, gave this opinion for the Labour Party…

” In the opinion I reach the following conclusions:-

1. Contrary to the position of the government, neither the UN charter nor customary international law permits military action on the basis of the doctrine of humanitarian intervention. There is very little support by states for such an exception to the prohibition of the use of force. The UK is one of very few states that advocates for such a legal principle but the vast majority of states have explicitly rejected it.
2. The legal position advanced by the government ignores the structure of the international law rules relating to the use of force, in particular, because a customary international law rule does not prevail over the rule in the United Nations charter prohibiting the use of force. To accept the position advocated by the government would be to undermine the supremacy of the UN charter.
3. Even if there was a doctrine of humanitarian intervention in international law, the strikes against Syria would not appear to meet the tests set out by the government. The action taken by the government was not directed at bringing “immediate and urgent relief” with regard to the specific evil it sought to prevent, and was taken before the inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons were able to reach the affected area.
4. If the position taken by the government were to be accepted by states globally, it would allow for individual assessments of when force was necessary to achieve humanitarian ends, with the risk of abuse. It is because of the humanitarian suffering that will ensue from such abusive uses of force, that other states and many scholars have been reluctant to endorse the doctrine of humanitarian action.”

Stated at its simplest, the height of lunacy, duplicity, deception and corrupt practices have now been reached by Her Majesty’s Government.

The Caribbean pensions matter

The UK newspaper, the Guardian, of the 16^th April, 2018 ran the story headlined, “Amber Rudd ‘sorry’ for appalling treatment of Windrush-era citizens” with the words therein:-

“The British home secretary has delivered an unprecedented apology for the “appalling” actions of her own department towards Windrush-era citizens, acknowledging that the Home Office had “lost sight of individuals” and become “too concerned with policy”.

Racism had motivated HMG to try and avoid pension payments to persons of Caribbean heritage who had migrated to Britain and now were of pensionable age and entitled to receive pensions. Solution? Simply expel them from Britain and not pay their pensions. The Guardian reported:-

“Their accounts have been further supported by the emergence of Border Force guidance, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, that appears to contradict the government’s justification of a decision to destroy an archive of Windrush-era arrival slips.

The Border Force note appears to undermine the Home Office and Downing Street’s rejection of the documents’ significance. Giving details of how landing cards are used currently, the document stated: “Information from a landing card may be used by an entry clearance officer in making a decision on a visa application.”

Article: “Whistleblowers contradict No 10 over destroyed Windrush landing cards” of 18^th April, 2018.

Thus, papers that exist to prove entitlements are being denied as existing and/or being of use when policy, existence and practice belie the position of HMG. How absolutely racist and shameful!

Postscript: Resignation followed on the 29^th April, 2018 when the Home Secretary said this inn a letter to the Prime Minister, “I feel it is necessary to do so because I inadvertently misled the Home Affairs Select Committee over targets for removal of illegal immigrants,” and “I should have been aware of this, and I take full responsibility for the fact that I was not.”

So, the racism and corruption is past, present – and we can realistically expect – future.

So now, do not expect either natural justice or rational thought to see the light of day anytime soon. Much that is disseminated in the mainstream Western media ( MSM) is a willful avoidance and ignoring of some of the greatest violence and injustices existing before our eyes in the world ( if we care to open them). News as propaganda and distortions then become the order of the day, be this via the BBC or CNN, Fox news – pick your deceptor as you will. Yet, when thinking and questioning minds are left to find meaning for themselves, beyond the news as so reported – the truth might just emerge. Sometimes, truth does actually see the light in MSM, but not necessarily so as a general rule.

The sermon today merely wishes to conclude that a state otherwise known as Perfidious Albion, demonstrably has little principle and is just about as opportunistic and corrupt in its governmental practices and judicial processes as many others on planet earth. The question then is not whether Britain is or is not fundamentally corrupt – but – the degree to which such corruption exists.

My people – forgive them – for they deny what they do.

There I end my sermon for today having spoken this truth to the corrupt powers that be.

AMEN!

 

Courtenay Barnett is a graduate of London University. His areas of study were economics, political science and international law. He has been a practising lawyer for over thirty years, has been arrested for defending his views, and has argued public interest and human rights cases. He lives and works in the Caribbean.

 

Or So It Seems To Me Today

By Richard John Stapleton, PhD, CTA

During the past month the major concern has been wars and threats of wars and what President Trump might do about them. Unfortunately we are living in increasingly insecure and threatening times. Every day new reports of unrest, violence, and human suffering flash across our TV and computer screens.

Perhaps the biggest worry is the president himself. He says he is a smart stable genius. We were expected to believe from the beginning that he must be highly intelligent since he was so rich, and the implication was he was qualified to be president because of the experience he gained promoting business deals. Maybe so, but how could a fully rational intelligent person have the life history he has, including two failed marriages, several bankruptcies, a history of not paying his bills on time, and promiscuous sexual behavior with women of various sorts outside his marriages, which we have constantly heard about since he has been in office.

There is no evidence he has ever excelled in any sort of intellectual pursuits, good grades in school, serious academic study, or books or papers authored and published. You can tell by listening to him that he has a limited vocabulary and difficulties clearly and logically expressing facts, reasoning, and conclusions. He talks in short disjointed sentences mostly expressing predetermined dogmatic opinions, many of which are ad hominem slurs against critics and antagonists. He sounds like a New York City mafia boss in an old gangster movie.

Is this the sort of person you want making life or death decisions affecting millions if not billions of people around Spaceship Earth? Why couldn’t we have somebody like Captain Kirk on Star Trek for a leader? For sure he’s not what I would want; but he’s what we’ve got, thanks to about half the voters who voted in the 2016 election. Since about fifty percent of eligible voters do not vote in US presidential elections, that means about twenty-five percent of the total eligible voters in the US elected Trump. You might say we are being ruled by a tyranny of a minority, thanks to fifty percent of US voters irresponsibly not voting. I voted for Jill Stein of the Green Party in the last presidential election, a highly intelligent articulate woman with a MD degree and a good working knowledge of US and international politics.

Despite his many shortcomings Donald Trump promised when he was running for office he would get the US out of stupid wars (his words), increase spending on US infrastructure, and deal with foreign countries rationally. Instead, he has given the US military the largest budgetary spending increase in history, we are still fighting stupid wars, and little or no infrastructure has been constructed, with the possible exception of a few miles of work done on the wall between the US and Mexico he promised his voters.

A week or two ago Trump tweeted one day he was going to get us out of Syria, that he would be bringing the troops home, very soon, where they belong. A few days later he was tweeting he had decided to bomb Syria very soon because Assad had used chemical warfare against his own people, again. A few days later he was tweeting he had decided we might not bomb Syria very soon, implying we might not bomb them at all. A few days after that he went on television and told us the US had shot missiles into Syria, again, and may god bless America.

Nobody knows what’s going to happen now. It’s now been a few days since the missiles were fired and there have been scant reports of casualties or property damage. It appears they may have targeted places where few people would get killed, more or less faking a serious military attack. So far there have been no serious retaliations from the Russian government, and Trump is again tweeting we will be getting out of Syria soon, again, if the Syrians do not use chemical weapons against their own people, again.

All this happened despite the fact there is no proof showing the world that the Syrian government did in fact use chemical weapons against its own people, again. It may have been another false flag operation. There are several other ways chemical weapons could have been released other than by the Syrians, and as numerous reporters and analysts have pointed out Assad and the Syrian army would have had to be falling down stupid to use chemical weapons where they were found, in a part of the country in which the Syrian army had already defeated and routed the rebels.

Regardless, most likely we are going to have to put up with this sort of thing from now on, as long as Trump is in office, listening to him change his mind in tweets with no good leadership on anything. Some say Trump has been seriously threatened recently by the deep state and military people surrounding him in his administration are now telling him what to tweet and do.

It seems to me the only hope for indefinite human sustainability is to evolve better political, economic, and religious systems, and better ways for humans to relate to one another. While I have no fantasies about this happening anytime soon, it seems to me it might happen through time through synergistic learning, a phenomenon I have covered in my article “Toward the Creation of Spaceship Earth Incorporated,” first published by MWC News (Media with Conscience) at http://mwcnews.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=31023&catid=38&Itemid=125. I first encountered synergistic learning, learning in whole systems not predicted by observing subsystems of the whole, in Buckminster Fuller’s bookOperating Manual for Spaceship Earth.

A major assumption of transactional analysis is that human feelings, thoughts, and behaviors are caused by stimuli people are exposed to as they live their lives and, therefore, it seems to me, if this is true, then people are not to blame or praise for what they feel, think, or do, and If this is true then all people are equally OK, not especially good or bad, but OK. In this light a poor homeless person considered mentally ill would be equal to someone like Donald Trump, having been caused by the same sort of causative forces.

As I point out in my TA books, it seems to me there are three basic types of OKness: existential, subjective, and objective. Existential OKness is what I just discussed, people being equally OK by virtue of coming into this world without asking for it, and being gradually shaped and formed by stimuli as they live. Subjective OKness is how a person subjectively perceives and judges her or his self, other individuals, groups to which one belongs, other groups one perceives as different, and the world in general. While these perceptions vary in terms of positive and negative social merit existentially they are equally OK because they were automatically caused to happen. Objective OKness is how OK one is in light of measurable criteria, for health, wealth, education, strength, intelligence, achievements, accomplishments, and the like. It seems to me global OKness would significantly increase if all people would take into account the relevance of all three types of OKness. While objective OKness would necessarily be most relevant in daily working lives, world peace and Earthian OKness would be increased if existential and subjective OKness were acknowledged by all people in all groups and organizations around Spaceship Earth.

In a nutshell, as I discussed and demonstrated using matrix algebra in my article, “Toward the Creation of Spaceship Earth Incorporated,” it seems to me for long term survival the human species must evolve a computerized mathematical management system to produce and fairly distribute the necessities of life for a reduced human population aboard Spaceship Earth, which requires something like a one woman/one child rule for several generations to peacefully reduce the human population through natural attrition, natural deaths exceeding births. There is no way humans can have infinite population growth on a planet with finite resources that are rendered useless or harmful in production and consumption processes.

Most mainstream media play a psychological Game of GREENHOUSE, participating in a societal Happiness Racket designed to lull people into a sense of security and to make federal and state governments, their politicians, their political parties, their rich donors, their locust lobbyists, and their voters look good, or at least make it seem they are doing a better job of governing than they are. For more on psychological Games and Rackets, read my book Born to Learn: A Transactional Analysis of Human Learning at https://www.amazon.com/Born-Learn-Transactional-Analysis-Learning/dp/0692584331.

For more on the fallacy of composition as it applies to organizational life, i.e. harming or destroying the whole system by maximizing subsystems, read my book Business Voyages: Mental Maps, Scripts, Schemata, and Tools for Discovering and Co-Constructing Your Own Business Worlds at https://www.amazon.com/Business-Voyages-Schemata-Discovering-Co-Constructing/dp/1413480810.

Following in the EFFECTIVE LEARNING DIGEST are some outstanding articles and one audio interview recently published in various media around Spaceship Earth, primarily Internet media, shining light on relevant states of affairs. As Romeo said in Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, as time was running out for the star-crossed lovers, “More light and light it grows, more dark and dark our woes.”

I am a Certified Transactional Analyst, a CTA, explained at http://www.itaaworld.org/what-transactional-analysis-training.

Feel free to forward, share, copy, abridge, reprint, or otherwise disseminate this Effective Learning Digest any way you see fit.

Just punch on the web addresses and this month’s selections will pop up.

Richard John Stapleton, Editor & Publisher, 32 East Main Street, Statesboro, Georgia, USA, www.effectivelearning.net.

 

April 11

As I pointed out in my “Br’er Trump Burrowed Up In His White House Briar Patch” article in the Intrepid Report at http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/23879, in some ways Donald Trump is a psychological Victim, and if Luongo’s article immediately below is correct Trump’s fate will not be a good one. The raid on his lawyer’s office may have been the coup de grace. As I pointed out in my Br’re Trump article I think Trump basically wanted to do the right thing for ordinary people when he ran for office, and here lately he has shown signs he still wants to do it, however confusing his ways might be; but assuming Luongo is right in this article he has now been neutralized by the shadow state. As Luongo shows with compelling logic in this article it appears somebody has been writing fake tweets for him in the last day or so, or at least changing words in those he does write.

Luongo believes Internet media making it possible for ordinary people to learn facts around Spaceship Earth in real time is making it possible for them to really understand what is going on, enabling them to reduce the power of military-industrial-intelligence complexes to start wars with fake news and lies, since ordinary people for the first time in history knowing what is going on can take corrective political action. If so this is a major breakthrough for humanity around Spaceship Earth.

SOURCE: “The Coup is Complete – Trump is Done,” by Tom Luongo, TOMLUONGO.COM, https://tomluongo.me/2018/04/11/the-coup-is-complete-trump-is-done/.

 

April 16, 2018

This US Marine in a great video minces no words telling us why we should not bomb Syria.

SOURCE: “When A US Marine Drops A Massive Truth Bomb,” by Ken O’Keefe, NEONNETTLE.COM, a video at https://www.facebook.com/neonnettle/videos/1180361458730023/UzpfSTEwMDAwMDM0OTY1MTE4NjoxNzQ3MTA3MjkxOTc3NTc2/ .

 

April 16

Could not agree more.

SOURCE: “The American Military System Dissected: How to explain the paradox of a superb military that never gets the job done?,” by Andrew J. Bacevich, TRUTHDIG.COM, at https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-american-military-system-dissected/ .

 

April 16

So it seems.

Here is one of Mad Dog Mattis’s more famous quotes in 2005: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2005/02/gene-f07.htmlFeb 7, 2005 – “You know, it’s a hell of a hoot. It’s fun to shoot some people. I’ll be right up front with you, I like brawling.” The general, also known as “Mad Dog Mattis,” led the 1st Marine Division during the initial invasion of both Afghanistan and Iraq, and returned to command marines during the occupation of Iraq, where …

SOURCE: “Trump is Done, Mattis Won, Thank the Gods” by Tom Luongo, TOMLUONGO.ME, https://tomluongo.me/2018/04/14/trump-is-done-mattis-won-thank-the-gods/.

 

April 16

Say It Aint So Joe.

SOURCE: “Take The Red Pill – The History Of Syrian False Flags,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE.COM, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-15/take-red-pill-history-syrian-false-flags-exposed.

 

April 16

Was the Syrian bombing a criminal offense? We shall see.

SOURCE: “Syria: What Just Happened?,” by Eric Zuesse, STRATEGICCULTURE.ORG, https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/04/15/what-just-happened.html.

 

April 15

Well worth a read.

SOURCE: “Market Farce,” by Frank Scott, INTREPIDREPORT.COM, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/23920.

 

April 15

Mouthpiece Trump’s mouthpiece Nikki Haley in the UN is even more clueless than he is.

SOURCE: “Global Leaders Condemn Trump’s ‘Scorn for International Law’ as Haley Threatens More Possible Air Strikes,” by Julia Conley, INTREPIDREPORT.COM, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/23920.

 

April 15

Robots are nothing to worry about.

SOURCE: “ROBOTS causing millions of job losses could lead to the rise of communism,” by Jerry Lawton, DAILYSTAR.CO.UK, https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/696123/robots-cause-job-losses-could-lead-communism-bank-of-england.

 

April 15

It’s beginning to look like the UK ruling class is as greedy and power hungry as the US deep state.

SOURCE: “The British Government’s Legal Justification for Bombing is Entirely False and Without Merit,” by Craig Murray, CRAIGMURRAY.ORG, https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/04/the-british-governments-legal-justification-for-bombing-is-entirely-false-and-without-merit/.

 

April 14

Trump’s tweets do make interesting reading sometimes. Take a look at this selection.

SOURCE: “‘These Freedom Fighters Fly Planes Into Our Buildings’–A List of the Times Trump Warned Against Attacking Syria,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE.COM, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-14/these-freedom-fighters-want-fly-planes-our-buildings-heres-list-all-times-trump.

 

April 14

Another good summary of world affairs by Jim Rickards.

SOURCE: “Russia’s Real Endgame,” by Jim Rickards ZEROHEDGE.COM, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-12/russias-real-endgame.

 

April 14

Another sane analysis.

SOURCE: “Taking the World to the Brink of Annihilation,” by Rick Sterling, ORIENTALREVIEW.ORG, https://orientalreview.org/2018/04/10/taking-the-world-to-the-brink-of-annihilation/.

 

April 12

David Stockman lays it out in this three part article series. Trump has been taken over by the deep state that is determined to have another war come hell or high water. I used to give the Pentagon and the CIA credit for knowing more about whether we should go to war than most people. But no more. Look at what has happened because of destroying Iraq.

Not only is Stockman a great writer, he has walked the walk of politics and economics, having served as a US budget director under Ronald Reagan and as a US Representative in Congress, before a career on Wall Street.

SOURCE: “The Deep State Closes In On The Donald, Part 1: There Will Be War,” by David Stockman, ZEROHEDGE,COM, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-12/deep-state-closes-donald-part-1.

 

April 13

Stockman in part 2 nails it. Trump has fully capitulated to the deep state, and thus he announced the US attack on Syria tonight, along with the UK and France. We are all victims now and we can only wait to see how many people will be killed and how much more property and treasure will be destroyed, probably including US citizens on US territory if WWIII gets triggered.

SOURCE: “The Deep State Closes In On The Donald, Part 2: Mueller’s War,” by David Stockman, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-13/deep-state-closes-donald-part-2-muellers-war.

 

April 14

David Stockman, one of the best blogsters out there, tells it like is regarding Trump and his predicament, in Part 3.

SOURCE: “The Deep State Closes In On The Donald, Part 3: The Capture is Complete,” by David Stockman, ZEROHEDGE.COM, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-14/deep-state-closes-donald-part-3-capture-complete.

 

April 13

On the march toward a full blown police state in the US. This is an excellent article by a constitutional lawyer.

SOURCE: “The slippery slope to a Constitution-free America,” by John W. Whitehead, INTREPIDREPORT.COM, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/23934.

 

April 13

Another audio economic update by Richard Wolff, must listening for anyone wanting to stay informed about relevant economic problems and issues.

SOURCE: “Economic Update: Distorting Economic Truths,” Audio presentation, by Richard Wolff, TRUTH-OUT.ORG, http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/44155-economic-update-distorting-economic-truths.

 

April 12

Another article by Paul Street, a great writer.

SOURCE: “When is Hysteria Treason,” by Paul Street, COUNTERPUNCH.ORG, https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/04/12/when-is-hysteria-treason/.

 

April 13

Another blogster has been paying attention.

SOURCE: “Hot War and Cold Markets,” by Raul Ilargi Meijer, THEAUTOMATICEARTH.COM, https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2018/04/hot-war-and-cold-markets/.

 

April 12

There will always be wars and rumors of wars – the Christian bible. This dogmatic statement still rings true, but let’s hope it gets proved wrong before too long. Excellent essay by one of the best bloggers out there.

SOURCE; “Warmonger’s Remorse,” by James Howard Kunstler, KUNSTLER.COM, http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/warmongers-remorse/#.WtF2tziWgsw.facebook.

 

April 13

This is not false or fake news just because the foreign minister of Russia, Sergey Lavrov, said it. It is beginning to seem that the UK and France are about as dependent on manufacturing war weapons and materials for export as the US. The US, UK, and France are now allies in Eastern Europe fighting for resources in the Ukraine and elsewhere against Russia. Germany and Italy dropped out of the war against Syria. It’s going to get lonely if Germany and Italy ally with Russia and China. One can build the case the US, UK, and France should also cooperate with Russia and China rather than try to undermine them. One can build the case all nations should cooperate with one another rather than try to undermine one another, but they probably won’t do it because it would put military-industrial-intelligence complexes out of business.

SOURCE: “Russia Has ‘Irrefutable Evidence’ UK Staged Syrain Chemical Attack,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE.COM, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-13/russia-has-irrefutable-evidence-uk-staged-syrian-chemical-attack.

 

April 12

Some great wisdom here.

SOURCE: “I’m Not Right, Left, Or Center – I’m A Free-Thinking Human…,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE.COM, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-12/im-not-right-left-or-center-im-free-thinking-human.

 

April 9

Here’s another excellent essay by Courtenay Barnett in which he chronicles recent events involving the US and the UK and their new leaders Trump and May showing how both countries have tried to slander and undermine Russia with fake news about chemical warfare in the UK and Syria.

This article contains an embedded video of US President Dwight David Eisenhower delivering his famous warning about the threat posed by the US military-industrial complex when he left office in 1961.

SOURCE: “A Sermon of Two Blunders,” by Courtenay Barnett, EFFECTIVE LEARNING REPORT, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/a-sermon-of-two-blunders/.

 

April 12

Good question and a good analysis by Patrick Cockburn, a world class investigative reporter.

SOURCE: “How Can We Know If a Chemical Weapons Attack Took Place in Syria,” by Patrick Cockburn, COUNTERPUNCH.ORG, https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/04/12/how-can-we-know-if-a-chemical-weapons-attack-took-place-in-syria/.

 

April 12

Why go to war in Syria? To destroy the Assad government? That might start a war with Russia? Are people nuts or what?

Pathetic warmongering. Complacent population. Seem to think war is fun. Last week Trump said we would be coming home from Syria very soon, where we belong. Now all of a sudden, after Bolton, his new military adviser, got in the White House everybody seems to think for some unknown reason war with Syria sounds like a great idea. Are people bored? Or what. Do they really think destroying another weak government would be a fun, moral, or profitable thing to do? It’s insane. No more war! Unless a nation should seriously threaten the US militarily. People, buildings, homes, and treasures get destroyed in wars. Why do it if you do not have to do it to protect yourself? Call it what it is, vandalism and theft. Several wrongs do not make a right. Just because the leaders of France and the UK want to destroy Syria, that does not mean the US should.

SOURCE: “Corporate Media Reprise Iraq in Beating War Drums for Trump Attack on Syria,” by Jake Johnson, TRUTH-OUT.ORG, http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/44144-showing-they-learned-nothing-from-iraq-corporate-media-help-beat-war-drums-for-trump-attack-on-syria.

 

April 13

Here is the best map I have seen showing what is going on in Syria.

SOURCE: “A Map Of The Syrian War: Who Is Who (And Where),” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE.COM, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-13/map-syrian-war-who-who-and-where.

 

April 13

Here we go again as if watching fireworks on the fourth of July.

SOURCE: “Trump Orders Syrian Military Strikers, 3 Waves of Airstrikes Launched at Various Targets,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE.COM, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-13/watch-live-president-trump-expected-announce-military-strikes-syria-tonight.

 

April 13

The tragedy in Syria

Bombs, Bombs, and more Bombs

I knew when I wrote this article there was some chance Trump would bomb Syria, but I did not know how probable or imminent it was. I thought there was some chance Trump might refuse to go along with the deep state, but I was wrong. He is now a mouthpiece for the deep state. He is a victim, the deep state is the persecutor, and the immediate victims are the Syrians who will die in the bombing. If this sets off WWIII we the people of the US will be victims too.

SOURCE: “Br’re Trump Burrowed Up In His White House Briar Patch,” by Richard John Stapleton, EFFECTIVE LEARNING REPORT, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/brer-trump-burrowed-up-in-his-white-house-briar-patch/.

 

March 23

Here’s another great article by Courtenay Barnett, an historical overview explaining how the US developed some of its most significant foreign policies. Be sure to watch this video along with the article at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSLF1gYhzek.

SOURCE: “Today’s sermon – hope for America,” by Courtenay Barnett, EFFECTIVE LEARNING REPORT, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/todays-sermon-hope-for-america/.

 

March 22

Lest we forget how far astray the US can be led, let this be read.

SOURCE: “The Phoenix Program, My Lai and the ‘Tiger Cages’,” by Douglas Valentine, EFFECTIVE LEARNING REPORT, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/the-phoenix-program-my-lai-and-the-tiger-cages/.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Richard John Stapleton

What connection does Donald Trump have with Br’er Rabbit in Joel Harris’s Uncle Remus folktale about a rabbit that tricked a fox into throwing him in a briar patch?

Trump said he really didn’t want to be president. Running for president was just another Game he was playing to get structure, recognition, and stimulation, and to make more money. He thought the free publicity he would receive from complicit mainstream media running for president would more than pay for whatever he had to pay in his own money to run, causing the sales of his various “brands” to increase–selling and renting hotel rooms, rounds of golf, apartments, condos, office space, retail space, steaks, wine, beauty pageants, reality TV shows, college courses, books, casino gambling, and what have you.

Br’er Rabbit got caught in a tar pit and got so much tar stuck to him that he couldn’t run fast enough to escape a fox that caught him and wanted to eat him for supper. Knowing his situation was dire the rabbit pleaded with the fox to do whatever he wanted to do with him, “except please do not throw me in that briar patch over yonder.” After listening to several alternative punishments suggested by the rabbit other than throwing him in the briar patch the fox decided throwing the rabbit in the briar patch might be an interesting thing to do, so he threw the rabbit in the briar patch just to see what would happen. The rabbit licked the tar off him in the briar patch and escaped, making a fool of the fox. Adding insult to injury, Br’er Rabbit taunted the fox as he merrily ran away, letting him know he had been born and raised in a briar patch.

Not only did Trump say he didn’t want to win the presidency, he said he didn’t think he had a chance of winning; and reports are he and his wife were initially distraught when he did win, even shedding tears, crocodile tears perhaps. Unfortunately for Trump, assuming this story is true, he over-estimated his Republican opponents in the primaries; and after he won the Repub nomination, a smart rich hedge fund fox, Robert Mercer, decided he wanted to see what would happen if Trump won the general election, so he shelled out big money and helped craft a winning strategy for his campaign, thereby throwing Trump in the briar patch.

“Winning” the general election showed reverse psychology can work assuming Trump really did want to be president; or his original plan and scheme failed, if he truly did not want to be president of the US. Regardless, he is now burrowed up in a political briar patch in the White House, having been thrown in there by oligarchs and his voters. It remains to be seen whether Trump can escape his briar patch to merrily live happily ever after, as the rabbit presumably did in Uncle Remus’s folktale.

Although Trump appeared shocked and dismayed at first because of winning the general election, after giving his “victory” more thought, the story goes, he decided it must have been a good thing for him to win or it would not have happened, proving he really was special, so he decided to get on with the job in a manly forthright way, switching on the Drama Triangle from the Victim position to the Rescuer position.

Trump would have looked foolish indeed if, after winning the general election, he had said something like, “Look, guys, I was just kiddin’ about wantin’ to be president. I just ran for the fun of it. I was just foolin’ around. I’m not gonna do it. You gotta find somebody else.”

In any case, alas, it now appears Trump must have decided he likes being president for some reason, since he has hired a campaign manager for the 2020 election, implying he wants to “win” a second term.

Trump’s story about his election experience and Uncle Remus’s story about a rabbit thrown in a briar patch are not fully analogous, but there are some interesting parallels, one of the most salient being that neither the rabbit nor Trump could be believed about not wanting to be thrown in the briar patch.

Some Red State evangelical religious folks said after he won the election they thought Trump was chosen through some sort of divine intervention, and decided he would help them promote their religious brands. The current Catholic Pope who is fine with Trump recently blurted out to a reporter in a private conversation that hell does not exist, which the reporter reported in a mainstream medium, which was quickly denied by lawyers in the Vatican who know the Catholic religion needs hell to sell their brand of religion to sinners. What better promoter of sinning and possibly going to hell could evangelicals and Catholics find than Donald Trump as president to promote their brands?

President Jimmy Carter, by far the least sinful of US presidents of my lifetime, who was not very popular with a lot of religious folks in Red States when he left office after one term, recently appeared on a late night mainstream TV show hosted by Stephen Colbert where he said he was praying for Trump and he hoped he would do a good job.

It’s hard to know what doing a good job is as a US president. Most people probably consider doing a good job as a US president to be taking actions and working for and signing rules, legislation, and laws that will make them better off at someone else’s expense, which is not exactly Christian-like. On the other hand, US presidents are supposed to entertain people and make them feel good about themselves, which is why most US presidents have movie-star looks with good teeth and nice smiles, and can memorize humorous lines in speeches, or at least read lines from teleprompters with effective emotional body language. Probably the more sinful presidents are the more entertaining they are for most viewers. Who wants a boring president who is only concerned about justice, reality, fairness, productivity, paying bills on time, and that sort of thing? That would be worse than having a boring teacher in school.

A good leader of a good organization according to organizational behavior educators such as I is a person that causes an organization to do what the sign on the door says, whether it says building houses, growing food, selling clothes, educating people, curing the sick, enforcing laws, creating good laws, or protecting people from miscreants and criminals. Organizations can either do the work they were supposed to do or play Games, that is engage in entropic activities that waste the potential productive energy of the organization for doing what the sign on the door says they’re supposed to do. The US government has been wasting an incredible amount of time, energy, and money playing Games since Trump got elected, probably more than most administrations, dealing with scandals, investigations, making paybacks to supporters, stupid wars (Trump’s words), and budgets.

According to sayings among members of the International Transactional Analysis Association back in the 1970’s there are five deadly organizational sins–money, power, righteousness, smarts, and sex. This may sound a bit counter-intuitive since all these things but sex are required for an organization to succeed in external markets; but if any of the sins are applied in excess internally by participants they will sub-optimal organizational performance. If all organizational participants care about is their personal money received from the organization, they will not focus as well as they might on the organization doing what the sign on the door says. If all participants care about is their personal power in the organization, the organization will be less successful than it otherwise would have been. If all organizational participants are concerned about is proving how smart they are the organization will not be as successful as it would have been. If all participants care about is proving how right their ideologies are the organization will not be as successful as it would have been. And if all organizational participants care about is proving how sexually functional they are obviously the organization will be less successful than it would have been, in competition with other organizations.

To maximize organization performance good leaders cause internal participants to focus on doing what the sign on the organization’s door says it is supposed to do, rather than play their individual Games.

In this light, all organizations are somewhat sinful, but some are worse than others. The US government is unquestionably a world leader in light of the five deadly organizational sins, which are often considered job requirements for participants, especially presidents and their close advisers.

There is no way a president of the US can please everyone. According to recent surveys, despite his past sins coming home to haunt him, e.g., Stormy Daniel, or perhaps because of them, Trump is now pleasing from thirty to fifty percent of the US electorate, possibly the most sinful segment of the population.

Unfortunately, sins, as most preachers, priests, and people commonly consider sinning–adultery, lying, cheating, stealing, murdering, and the like–are now job requirements for a president of the US, with the possible exception of adultery. Presidents have to lie by keeping state secrets secret; they have to murder by ordering drone strikes and bombings; they have to steal from other countries by erecting tariffs against them and sometimes bombing them to steal their resources. Loving his neighboring countries as he loves his own would be considered insane and traitorous in a US president.

Trump may have been better qualified for being president than most past presidents were, with one possible deficiency. I have yet to read an article in any supposed information medium alleging Trump had someone whacked or rubbed out by a mafia-style hit man to cover up his sins and crimes, which is not the case with Lyndon Johnson, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. But, Trump is fully qualified to legally steal for the US as evidenced by his bankruptcies he has bragged about, enabling him to walk away with bundles of cash in his bank account, with creditors left holding an empty bag. He is also very good at legally stealing by avoiding taxes, and not paying his bills, which he said proves he’s smart, maybe even a stable genius. For sure he has not loved his neighbor as himself, being a firm believer in always putting himself first. Stuff like adultery is chump change to him. He has said most people are too moral to make any money.

Most people would readily agree a good US president should want to make the US money at the expense of other nations. This is almost guaranteed with Trump, since he can make money for his Trump Organization as he enriches the US.

I think Trump is probably one of the most experienced and skillful psychological Game players we have had as a US president. Psychological Games have various outcomes in which people win and lose, not merely money, but self-esteem, power, and high positions. Born with money, high self-esteem, and a high social position in his environment, Trump does not know what it is not to have these things. How much money he has actually made with his own intelligence after the fortune he inherited is adjusted for inflation is debatable, since he refuses to publish financial statements or tax returns; but, to his credit, he has not yet lost it all. Evidently his supporters think he is a real winner, financially, and presumably in other ways.

No doubt about it, Trump is a good NIGYSOB player, Now I’ve Got You, You SOB, a one-upmanship Game. He knows how to get in one-up positions relative to people around him, I’m OK–You’re Not (or less) OK, having had much experience playing the Game all his life. As he has demonstrated in the White House, all a person in his position has to do to win a NIGYSOB Game is fire anyone who will not at least pretend they think he is superior. People like Rex Tillerson, no matter how superior they may actually be as managers, almost never can call a boss like Trump a f*****g moron and get a way with it. Trump has by now fired several people close to him who were unwilling or unable to act as if he is superior. Robert Mueller and his congressional inquisition team may be Trump’s only remaining serious antagonist. Whether Trump NIGYSOBs Mueller before Mueller decides to indict him or not remains to be seen.

Psychological Game-players act out Rescuer, Persecutor, and Victim roles. Trump was elected as a Rescuer of his supporters and as a Persecutor of their scapegoat Victims, emigrants primarily, necessitating constructing a Great Wall between the US and Mexico to keep illegal immigrants out, but also including of course Trump’s supporters’ heinous Persecutor internal antagonists and scapegoats–those abominable liberals–plus all foreign countries who would dare compete economically against the morally pristine always-right US, playing the most common political psychological Game of all, If It Weren’t for You, in which people assert everything about the US would be just hunky dory if only it weren’t for Demos or Repubs, or that idiot Trump in the White House, or Obama, or whoever, or Iran, or Russia, or North Korea, or China, or whatever.

Unfortunately the US has never been fully OK and has steadily become less OK for decades regardless of who was President or which party was in power, although I must say it does seem to me the Repubs during their terms caused the US to become less OK at a faster rate than the Demos.

To his credit or discredit, Trump has tried to get that wall constructed for his voters, however foolhardy it might be. He has also tried to please his voters in the Rust Belt by starting a trade war for them, however insane it might be for everyone else. He has also repaid his rich donors by signing a new tax cut bill and the largest military budget increase in history. Yesterday he decided to send the military down to the US southern border to keep Central Americans out of the US, who were marching through Mexico in caravans with intentions to enter the US, since he had not been able to get his wall built in time to stop them.

Where he is having the most trouble Making America Great Again is dealing with the US military. During his presidential campaign he promised to Rescue peace lovers, by getting the US out of stupid wars (Trump’s words), the worst sort of briar patch to be thrown into, by stopping fighting unnecessary wars against nations not posing a military threat to the security of the US, unlike what he said Crooked Hillary would do, as seemed likely to me. In the interests of full disclosure I voted for Jill Stein of the Green Party.

After getting elected Trump promptly forgot about that promised reduction in military activity after getting confronted face to face by the deep state, the US military-industrial-intelligence protection racket, the largest Game-playing Persecutor and Rescuer on Earth, that needs wars to keep its cash flow flowing and meet its payroll, that not only starts wars but destroys nations because they posed an economic threat to the US. Shortly after the confrontation Trump began Tweeting messages from the Persecutor Game role to various possible external enemies, threatening to wipe them off the face of the Earth so to speak if they did not do what he said, since he was commander in chief of the most powerful fighting force on Earth and he would not put up with any s**t from any foreign country.

But here lately he seems to have changed his Tweeting tune about using the US military to enforce his will, switching from Persecutor to Rescuer on the Drama Triangle in a few cases. He has now apparently become a buddy of Kim Jung-un of North Korea, having planned a trip to go see him; he has maintained his friendship with Vladimir Putin of Russia; and, all of a sudden, a few days ago, he Tweeted that the US will be getting out of Syria very soon, ISIS or no ISIS.

Let’s You and Them Fight is a common psychological Game played by people who like to start fights for others to fight but who do not like to fight them up close and personal themselves, including most US presidents, politicians, and military planners and plotters. Such Games are played to alleviate boredom, and to gain money and power; and Trump is probably pretty good at it, having played Let’s You and Them Fight most of his life within his Trump Organization dealing with departmental conflicts, and externally doing battle with competing organizations to steal and protect business and market share.

Psychological Games vary in terms of hardness. First degree Games involve mainly insults, tricks, discounts, threats, and humiliations, such as those used by Br’er Rabbit; second degree Games involve shouting, yelling, threatening, and serious insults; third degree Games, sometimes called tissue-tearing Games, entail consequences such as going broke, or getting fired, divorced, sued, or being put in a jail, hospital or morgue. All psychological Games entail deceiving, belittling, or “discounting” the worth and right to exist of the opponent, or “mark”.

By various accounts first and second degree Games are omnipresent in the Trump White House. On the other hand, it’s possible Trump can’t abide third degree tissue-tearing Let’s You and Them Fight Games that entail killing masses of people and causing widespread wanton destruction of property and treasure in foreign countries. Let’s hope so. It seems he is attracted to and enjoys pretty people and buildings more than most people, especially big tall pretty ones with his name on them, so he might be less inclined to destroy buildings and people with bombs in foreign countries than most presidents.

Disagreeing with what President Jimmy Carter told Stephen Colbert, I don’t think praying for Trump will do any good, since most people Trump’s age are set in their ways. It seems to me we the people are currently at the mercy of his life script and the scripts of people he hires and doesn’t fire that he personally communicates with making decisions. On the bright side, it does seem to me there is some evidence his life script is not as anti-social as it appeared to be when he first came on stage as a possible new dear leader of the US.

The briar patch Trump is now burrowed up in is probably stickier and thornier than he ever dreamed it would be. I don’t know how he stands it, just knowing about the possible consequences of decisions and actions coming across his desk every day, especially knowing more than anyone else what the US deep state is doing to people all around Spaceship Earth. The last time a US president seriously played Games with the deep state, John F. Kennedy, he got assassinated in a third degree NIGYSOB Game, involving covert operators in the deep state. Barack Obama said he didn’t want to wind up like John F. Kennedy. He cooperated with the deep state, and he merrily vacated the White House briar patch after eight years unscathed.

Who knows what sort of tar pit Trump fell into doing business before he got thrown into his White House briar patch. Most people would never think of Donald John Trump as a psychological Victim, but in some ways he is, like most of us. Most likely he won’t seriously try to reduce the cash inflows and power of the deep state, having already given them the biggest military spending increase in history, as his protection racket payment; but it seems to me there is some chance he might reduce military attacks as the so-called commander in chief of the military more than most presidents, letting the chips fall where they may, at least trying to do the right thing for most people in some ways–trying to do some of what he said he wanted to do when he was running for office–get the US out of stupid wars, create new infrastructure at home, and rationally interact with other countries around Spaceship Earth. He could even decide to become a martyr, at age seventy-plus, if necessary script messages were automatically absorbed into his life script before he was eight years old, that are now stored somewhere in his brain cells, that might get cathected.

What’s the probability this might happen? I have no idea, but it’s not very high. Regardless, we can always hope for the best.

Richard John Stapleton, PhD, CTA is an emeritus professor of organizational behavior and business policy and a certified transactional analyst, who writes on business and politics at www.effectivelearning.net. He is the author of Born to Learn: A Transactional Analysis of Human Learning at https://www.amazon.com/Born-Learn-Transactional-Analysis-Learning/dp/0692584331.

Please forward, share, publish, print, reprint, or otherwise disseminate this article any way you see fit. Richard John Stapleton, Editor & Publisher, Effective Learning Report, 32 East Main Street, Statesboro, Georgia, USA, www.effectivelearning.net.

by Courtenay Barnett

Hear ye…hear ye…hear ye. Today’s sermon is the “Sermon of two blunders” in this, the second quarter of the year 2018 anno domini.

Be warned – I am a full time lawyer and a part time preacher. The lawyering is done in the name of justice; the preaching is done in the name of the almighty truth. Both pursuits are likely to be lifelong: for ‘justice’ is an illusive ideal and ‘truth’ can be both illusive and some say even ‘illusory’. Nevertheless, let us reason towards a ‘truth’ based on assumptions of facts and logic. Should we abandon both facts and logic then we are indeed left in that illusory world of thoughts and ideas devoid of any anchored expression and ultimately – any meaning. So, if we are seeking truth and meaning then advance we must with our sermon for words shall be used, thoughts shall be expressed and truth shall be pursued.

Imagine, if you will, being in a movie theatre. The projector just started rolling – but – you don’t know yet what the film will be. It could be a film based on fact or fiction – truth or lies – illusion or reality. Watch and listen and we shall see.

The projector starts to launch its early images on to the screen. You see there Prime Minister Theresa May and next to her is President Donald Trump. There the film starts. We now know that the movie is entitled, “Two blunders”. With sound reason we might then safely assume that we have just seen the image of the two blunderers who shall star in the movie.

And it came to pass that the United Kingdom declared several Russian diplomats, persona non grata. Washington gave support with expulsion of sixty Russian diplomats.

The United States of America, for its part, decided to inflict trade tariffs against China.

There are the two blunders which we shall examine closely in our sermon.

The simple question – is – why? Why blame the Russians; why impose trade tariffs? Those are easy questions for the sermon, while the really difficult task is to combine the two blunders into the whole picture of looming disaster. So, good people, be attentive.

United Kingdom and the Skripal affair

Who is Sergei Skripal?

He is a Russian military intelligence officer, a colonel, who was also a double agent working for the United Kingdom’s intelligence services ( MI6).

He was discovered by his homeland as a double-agent and in 2006 he was sentenced to prison in Russia for 13 years for treason.

He was subsequently exchanged in a spy swap and set free from Russia and his prison term. The Russian authorities estimated that the UK had paid Skripal a total of $100,000 or about $20,000 annually for five years. This latter point will be reverted to.

On the 4^th March, 2018 along with his daughter, Yulia, he was poisoned in Salisbury, England.

Thereafter the story becomes an international news item and the Government of the UK, PM May and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, loudly proclaimed that the Skripals were poisoned by Russia and a complicit President Putin.

The plot thickened and lead to blunder number one. But, before we consider why so, let us visit the background on blunder number two then revert to both for careful consideration in attempting a holistic approach in this our almighty sermon.

United States of America and China trade tariffs.

Karl von Clausewitz made this expression famous, “war is a continuation of politics by other means.”

Quite seriously, when one observes the leadership of Donald Trump, one has to wonder whether when applying von Clausewitz’s maxim a reversal to ” politics is a continuation of war”, might not be more appropriate for Trump’s actions, for the sheer belligerence of his audacious outbursts. Makes one wonder whether Trump’s politics, as practised, is not a steady push for and continual pursuit of the next war. Fabrications are the indicatory signs that the perpetrators of the fabrications, the lies, untruths and reasons ( casus belli – if you like) are directed along a trajectory which the military-industrial complex approves of. Let us divert a little:-

The architect of the ‘Cold War’ , George Kennan, said this:-

“Were the Soviet Union to sink tomorrow under the waters of the ocean, the American military-industrial establishment would have to go on, substantially unchanged, until some other adversary could be invented. Anything else would be an unacceptable shock to the American economy.”

And he also said this:-

“The United States cannot reshape other countries in its own image and that, with a few exceptions, its efforts to police the world are neither in its interests nor within the scope of its resources. This whole tendency to see ourselves as the center of political enlightenment and as teachers to a great part of the rest of the world strikes me as unthought-through, vainglorious and undesirable.”

There you have prescient commentaries from a US perspective which accurately saw US/Soviet relations within the context of a policy of containment; versus the inherently inane pursuit of US foreign policy projection of global power and militaristic adventurism. So, from a serious thinker to Donald Trump as President.

While this is a serious matter of a trade-war, with implications for US/China relations and implications for the wider world economy, then to demonstrate and, of engendered necessity, mock President Trump’s conduct, the trade tariff’s commencement and implementation might be summed up as follows.

The headlines announce:-

“Trump threatens China with $100bn more in tariffs as response to Beijing’s ‘unfair retaliation'”

So, in Trumpland, the sequence of events might be summarised as…

Mr. A slaps Mr. B.

Mr. B returns a slap to Mr. A.

Mr. A then says, “unfair retaliation”.

Oh – so B should just have absorbed the slap like a good little boy; or – did A for a moment, before delivering the first slap, think that maybe, just maybe, B might slap back.

Sorry my friends, for being trite – but – even in my court work a little humour can creep in. This version just rushed into the room…slam..wham…bam….ouch!

End game equals being hit with counters by China and ultimately compelled talks at the governmental level to address the trade imbalance between China/US and probably finally a rational outcome despite all of Trump’s ‘fire and fury’.

The wider picture

In the case of Trump’s trade-war, he clearly has not thought through the implications of what he is doing. What he is doing is playing, in a dangerous, stupid and irrational manner, to an approving local political audience of supporters. Events, however, will overtake him and the negotiating table will be forced to the front because the fallout for both the US and China does not auger well for long-term economic and financial sustainability.

There is a sort of crude analogy to be made between the China trade-war and BREXIT. Both involve a biting off of the economic nose to please the political face, only to find out as events unfold that the choice really does produce a rather undesirable and ugly outcome. Anyway, it is done and the game has to be played out as the fait accompli invites damage control as a natural and ultimate necessary reaction.

So far as the UK government’s claims of Russia’s culpability is concerned the facts can be examined to find the truth:-

1. Skripal’s professional history is as stated above.
2. Russia is not the only state with the ability to produce the nerve agent which poisoned the Skripals ( i.e the colonel and his daughter).
3. PM Theresa May at a very early stage pronounced Russian culpability, yet had no evidence then or now to prove any case against Russia.
4. There is and always was a framework, under international law, that was applicable to the Skripal case, which the UK simply sidelined and ignored compliance with.
5. Boris Johnson, the UK’s Foreign Secretary, likewise professes Russian guilt.
6. Why did the British Government lie and state that dozens of people had been affected by the alleged nerve agent? There is a letter from the Salisbury Hospital’s consultant, Dr Stephen Davies, who wrote to The Times newspaper saying:-

“no patients have experienced symptoms of nerve agent poisoning in Salisbury.”

7. The British Government went further and embarked on an anti-Russia campaign by circulating a six-page document to 80 foreign embassies in Moscow which set out the UK’s “case” for blaming Russia.

 

8. One hundred and ninety two states are members of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the applicable law under the Chemical Weapons Convention 1993. Thus, the UK and Russia are included and the starting point should be the applicable protocols of this organistaion and the applicable law. So, why would the UK refuse to provide a sample to the OPCW?
9. The UK, contrary to that aforestated piece of international law, and again in relation to the other applicable piece of international law, has isolated the Skripals – yet it stands that the Vienna Convention 1963, does actually apply, in terms:-

“(1) (a) A consular officer shall be entitled within the consular district to communicate with, interview and advise a national of the sending state and it may render him every assistance including, where necessary, arranging for aid and advice in legal matters.

(b) No restriction shall be placed by the receiving state upon the access of a national of the sending state to the consulate or upon communication by him with the consulate.

So, the Russian consular staff do have a right of lawful access to the Skripals, unless the Skiprals both have said they don’t at all want any contact with any diplomatic representative of their native country.

10. The OPCW having been endorsed by both the UK and Russian sides, find that PM May has been trying to avoid the OPCW participation, and rushed to judgment while an OPCW investigation with blood samples to determine the nerve agents with any traces of any chemical warfare records and/or identifiers to link to a culpable party were still pending. The British blood sampling would, to my legal mind, have to be associated with a verifiable chain of custody, failing which, what May by reference to the OPCW standards and established legal principles of evidence, really has yet to comply and stand up to the standard of proof I have had to deal with for over 30 years of practice in courts of law ( comply – at least up to the time of my writing this ‘sermon’). So, pardon my less than judicious language – but what a “right royal cock-up on the part of both May and Johnson.” A serpentine concoction of lies, might be a more elegant way of putting it. What is emerging from the relevant facts, as same trickles out into the public domain, is a really botched UK political and legal job. .

The reality

1. In a case such as the Skripals’ poisoning, there is a duty on the part of the UK Government to give the OPCW a sample of the poison for examination. The UK, meanwhile dances outside the main ball room and shouts to the world that the Russians sent poison inside into the UK. So, what of OPCW findings being made, before proclaiming guilt of a President or country? We therefore have, in factual and sequential terms, a situation like that of the mad Queen in Alice in Wonderland; sentence before verdict: conviction without evidence.
2. The Porton Down *experts have been unable to state exactly where the poison came from. So – how can or could PM May have accurately stated – Russia? Why did Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson lie that Porton Down stated categorically that it was Russia – when they never said any such thing?

 

• Porton Down: it is a site of the UK’s Ministry of Defence’s Science and Technology Laboratory, near Salisbury, Witshire, England. It is the most significant military research facility in the UK.

 

1. The UK, it seems, by pushing this warfare with Russia agenda, then obviously if pursued to its logical end, it could lead to extremely destructive forces being unleashed into the world. What do I think? This is all happening within a BREXIT disengagement period. Thus the Skripal allegations are focused on both politically and economically deflecting UK public opinion focus on the disaster for the UK which BREXIT actually is. So – Britain post- BREXIT might become a basket case, but just divert public and international attention instead to a fabricated accusation against Russia ( so far it is working with the assistance of a complicit mainstream media which comes no where even near to commenting on or, heaven forbid, even asking the kind of questions this sermon raises). The UK as a vassal state of the US, is also assisting the US long-term agenda, of which President Eisenhower warned; so, the economic competitor EU has to be challenged/ distanced from/destroyed even – and because it is a main competitor of the UK’s ally, the US, then the US agenda and preservation of the petrodollar fits well into this scripting for the UK’s anti-Russia/Putin protestations *. Left to its own economic devices, Russia would simply develop and sell a lot more of its oil and gas via pipelines into Europe. A geographically and economically sound and sensible choice for Europe – but – not so if viewed from an American geopolitical perspective.

 

• Recall that Saddam Hussein had pledged to sell Iraqi oil in the Euro, after UN sanctions ended, and end the petrodollar purchases. Analysing recent historical events, one finds that it is far cheaper for Russia to run a pipeline into Europe and sell its gas and oil at much more competitive prices than the US could ever match by shipping mainly fracked US oil across the Atlantic ( and in what currency would Russia do this via the then intended ‘Southstream’ project into, initially, Bulgaria?) Sanctions were then implemented as targeted by the US and directed against the Russian energy sector and thereby set out to cripple Russian economic aspirations to have more EU countries as primary buyers of affordable Russian gas and oil; and the EU replicates the US sanctions. Ha…quite helpful to set out to shut off the most logical European oil and gas supply from existing pipelines from Russia, or prevent intended expansion of oil and gas and/or agri-business with Russia. Geopolitics in play and so the vassal, UK state, has its role to play in this Skripal unfolding development – which logically one can link from one set of events to another and then discern the geopolitical and economic underlay.

 

Conclusion

The controversy over Russia links to trillions of dollars in potential warfare earnings ( the kind of observation that General/President Dwight D. Eisenhower had warned of):-

So, that is what probably is presently afoot, with the demonisation of the Russian President and the accusation being made about Russian state culpability which leads to potential largesse to benefit the bureaucratic warfare-state parasites and defence contractors. Same lot who want war and would simply suck further the lifeblood out of the American people while bringing the world closer to global disaster. The UK plays its political part, while the US continues to push its global agenda of “full spectrum dominance”. Global hegemony as a central US foreign policy objective in play.

For anyone seriously interested in how the world really works and not so much listening to the journalistic echoes and misrepresentations – then watch this ( link below) and then read what I had to say in 2006:-

 

The Crisis of Civilization – Full Length Documentary Movie HD

 

Oil, conflict and the future of global energy supplies

 

Truth be told, both May and Trump have been lying. Both when pressed on the facts, can be seen to be comic figures for the ludicrous nature of their public behaviour. As the movie advances to its conclusion, the initial comedy may ultimately turn out to be a tragedy. Beyond that – then, just think and act as an informed individual.

So endeth my sermon for today.

PEACE AND AMEN!

Footnote: Clients should not lie to their lawyers; politicians should not lie to their citizenry. In both instances the mendacity can lead to disastrous and tragic results. Let’s then ask some pertinent questions and find out for ourselves via the answers:-

Credibility of the US and UK

1. Was it the US via then Secretary of State, Colin Powel, who made a calculated fallacious presentation to the UN Security Council to justify an attack on Iraq?
2. Was it then Prime Minister Tony Blair who willingly endorsed the US position on advancing the attack on Iraq?
3. Did there exist a document called the “Downing Street Memorandum” which confirmed that the UK had signed on and fully committed to a US attack on Iraq a year before the illegal invasion of Iraq was launched?
4. Did the then head of the United Nations monitoring, verification and inspection commission as Chief UN weapons inspector, Hans Blix, not indicate that no WMDs had been found; and did he, or did he not, actively seek to have a final extension of 6 weeks before any war was launched, first to ensure and assure that the reason being advanced by the main protractors for war did first fully and finally ascertain whether or not WMDs existed in Iraq – which offer the US and UK flatly rejected?

N.B. Hans Blix, being fully cognizant of the implications of a war being commenced against Iraq, quite rationally and reasonably, wanted the US and UK to see the angles concerning WMDs not intuitively, but in actual measured and verifiable terms. This analogy is here drawn, for the OPCW internationally and Porton Down, domestically, actually exist to provide that verifiability. The kind of verifiability ( any reasonable person would have expected the US and UK at the time to have obtained before attacking Iraq; or – for that matter PM Theresa May attacking and condemning Vladimir Putin and Russia). So, the common link if engaging in a complete process of verification before condemnation and then making pronouncements after the conclusion of such a process instead of before. In a logical way of proceeding – evidence first; condemnation after. What we really have in the Western MSM is condemnation first; evidence, if any, after.

5. Did over a million human beings finally lose their lives after the US and UK proceeded along the trajectory, adumbrated and listed as 1 to 4 above, devoid of verification and evidence?
6. Were the US and UK caught fabricating evidence of Syria using chemical weapons against the Syrian people?
7. In light of 1 to 6 above and this ‘sermon’ – is it outlandish to conclude that the US and UK were complicit in advancing a war of aggression contrary to the provisions of international law, and more precisely, the provisions of the UN Charter, Article 1?
8. What rational sense is there to be gleaned when a low level double-agent who was in Russian gaol was not then killed while in custody, is, at a time when Russia is to host the World Cup subsequently to be killed on British soil, when his ‘value of any significance’ to the UK was a paltry $20,000 per year? Does this attempted murder allegedly inflicted by the Russian state stand up to serious questioning, scrutiny and logic?

The logic of a trade-war

1. Was it under then President Nixon and Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, that a rapprochement with China in the early 1970s was arrived at with concomitant economic and trade relations being established on a large scale which has inured to this day?
2. Did US corporations not benefit for several decades from comparatively a more attractive production environment in China from:-
3. Significantly lower labour costs;
4. Virtual absence of environmental standards laws;
5. Absence of constrictive labour laws as, from a US corporations perspective, exists in the US;
6. Absence of pension benefits to workers;
7. Much lower safety standards in the Chinese factory and work place;
8. Consequentially – much more affordable end products on the shelves in the US at places such as Walmart?

So – who, if anyone, forced the US to enter into such economic relations with China?

3. Is China in the same economic condition in the 1970s as it is now in 2018 – and – if not, then can the US effectively flex unilateral political muscle now as it could have back then in the early 1970s?
4. If China has leverage over US Treasury Bills and other financial US instruments then can any assumption of US political demands and dictatorship over China be considered and viewed as either logical or realistic in the existing symbiotic economic relationship between China and the US?

Conclusion: If you want to start becoming aware of dubious US and UK conduct and very sceptical about the recent moves made by Prime Minister May and President Trump then answer the questions and draw your own factual and/or inferential conclusions without me preaching.

_____________________________________________________

Courtenay Barnett is a graduate of London University. His areas of study were economics, political science and international law. He has been a practising lawyer for over thirty years, has been arrested for defending his views, and has argued public interest and human rights cases. He lives and works in the Caribbean.

 

by Courtenay Barnett

There is no need for obscurantist speculations about world affairs. In very clear and historically precise terms one can see why and how America, as the world’s most powerful nation, has reached where it has at this time. With just Nixon, China and the military-industrial complex expenditures as reference points one can see in very clear economic terms what has transpired from the early 1970s until the present day.

In the early 1970s then President Nixon and his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, made a rapprochement with China using cheap Chinese labour combined with the investment of American capital to ensure huge profits for American capital (cheap labour; no union challenges; no environment protection legislation to contend with; no pension obligations etc = huge profits – for a while for American corporations). China, during the same period purchased huge amounts of American debt and holds today significant amounts of Treasury Bills etc. ( i.e. China could tank the US economy if it made a call on all the outstanding debt; it won’t; no good biting off your financial nose to spite your economic face – it is a symbiotic relationship which exists of which the Chinese are well aware of as they now invest usable US dollars globally while the dollar still has some value).

Add A and B together and include now the size of the defence budget relative to the demands of the military-industrial complex and you will clearly see the challenge which America is presently facing. Conclusion: one simply cannot continue printing fiat money and expect an economy to thrive and survive.

So, how do you change the process of decline of the US economy? Simple. For all the pontification and pontificators circulating on the internet, they can put this in their intellectual pipes and take a good draw on those ideas and then in reverse order, apply the following process, for the benefit of the American people and by extension, the vast majority of humankind:-

C Substantially reduce the budget relative to the military-industrial complex’s demands on public expenditures. For, there is an opportunity cost to be paid for the directing of such a large proportion of the US budget to arms production, militarism and war.

B Design a transitional global financial plan which fully includes, for starters, the national interests of the so-called BRICS nations.

A Set out to recapitalise the US domestic economy on a basis which factors in the social needs of ordinary American people while simultaneously making job space to absorb the steadily declining military human spill over from the reduced military-industrial complex.

Simple.

Or, continue to believe the ‘fake news’ ( yes – really – a lot of what is circulating on the internet and in MSM, does not want people to look at the most obvious explanations staring everyone in the face). To look at the financial and economic elephant in the Congressional room is also to discern that there is a better way. Alas, Congress is bought and paid for. And, the US status quo (assisted by a complicit MSM) simply therefore never finger the true foundational and structural roots of the America’s economic problem – for then the people’s eyes will start to be opened. Thus – just blame the Mexicans; the immigrants; the Blacks; the Muslims; the whoevers – but never, never look at the economic and financial fundamentals to then try from that foundational understanding to then extrapolate into addressing the obvious pressing and real difficulties the American economy is facing.

But – who am I to say – that most of the MSM analysts argue around the core source of the problem but rarely, if ever, start from the core and reason therefrom outwards?

Obfuscate as much as possible, feed false information, fake news and confound any chance of ordinary people beginning their understanding of the underlying structural problems at the core of America’s economic problems – which affect them.

Yeah – the armchair revolutionary can say what he wants for he shall but recline in his armchair when all is said and little is done.

AMEN!

 

For years I have observed, read and written on world affairs. I had been accepted as a post-graduate student to read International Relations, but I changed my mind and focused solely on a career in the law. My intention at that time was to become a diplomat. However, despite abandoning that ambition and substituting it with an activist practice in the law, I have never lost my interest in world affairs – and would therefore describe myself as a self-educated student of world affairs.

So – read and/or listen to each piece – and – hopefully there will be a realistic and comprehensive, objective understanding of some of the major tenets which presently drive our world. Not a majority of global issues here broached, by any stretch of the imagination, but at least a lucid introduction to some of the immediate and major ones – oil – the avowed violation of the concept of sovereignty – US Presidential racism – and so on. I shall confine myself to the post World War 11 period – for that is what the past 30 plus years of my readings have mainly focused on. The list of 5 issues below, for me is a brief refresher course. For all to whom I forward this email – it is also an invitation to share ideas, disagree with me at will, make comments if so motivated to do – and – please do so and tell me where I got it wrong.

1. The structure of the post World War II period based on American ascendance. First – one needs to be acquainted with the name “George Keenan”, who was the US architect of the “Cold War”. He can be googled, but I share with you some of his more prescient observations:-

“We should cease to talk about vague and unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better.””• George F. Kennan

( i.e. he is speaking here of what imperialism actually is – and – I observe that this is not a mere aberration. To better understand what I am conveying – please watch the youtube video of General Wesley Clark below)

“Were the Soviet Union to sink tomorrow under the waters of the ocean, the American military-industrial establishment would have to go on, substantially unchanged, until some other adversary could be invented. Anything else would be an unacceptable shock to the American economy.””• George F. Kennan

2. One needs to understand that the basis for making sustainable argument is to back same with unassailable empirical evidence. Any properly trained scientist would have been taught this. The empirical evidence of US/NATO global aggression is there for all to see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUCwCgthp_E

3. On a smaller scale I forewarned of what Libya would become after the imperialists attacked that country. In Pazambuka, the largest of all Africa online news publications, my article was published:-

https://www.pambazuka.org/human-security/natos-neo-colonial-war-whither-international-law

4. On a non-racist – and progressive note, the same publication accepted my submission on President Trump:-

https://www.pambazuka.org/democracy-governance/president-trump-and-past-and-present-cognitive-dissonance

5. And – as a catalyst for global conflict, I explained my views and observations on the Iraq invasion, in this piece. I was invited to give a public lecture, which I did, and it was the US State Department official in attendance who asked the most questions of me ( but – details of that for another time):-

Oil, conflict and the future of global energy supplies

HAPPY READING.
Courtenay

Courtenay Barnett is a graduate of London University. His areas of study were economics, political science and international law. He has been a practising lawyer for over thirty years, has been arrested for defending his views, has beensubjected to death threats, and has argued public interest and human rights cases.