Fuck the Tories

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Re: Fuck the Tories

Postby MacCruiskeen » Thu Jun 15, 2017 1:37 pm

MediaLens latest : The Breaking Of The Corporate Media Monopoly

http://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/thr ... 28101.html

^^Link to the ML piece, plus thread with comments.

In March, Observer columnist Nick Cohen graphically predicted that 'Corbyn's Labour won't just lose. It'll be slaughtered.' In an article titled, 'Don't tell me you weren't warned about Corbyn', Cohen indicated the words that would 'be flung' at Corbynites 'by everyone who warned that Corbyn's victory would lead to a historic defeat':

'I Told You So You ####ing Fools!'

Apparently frothing at the mouth, Cohen concluded by advising the idiots reading his column that, following the predicted electoral disaster, 'your only honourable response will be to stop being a f*cking fool by changing your f*cking mind'.

Awkward, then, for Cohen to now 'apologise to affronted Corbyn supporters... I was wrong'; presumably feeling like a f*cking fool, having changed his f*cking mind.

http://www.medialens.org/index.php/aler ... opoly.html
"Ich kann gar nicht so viel fressen, wie ich kotzen möchte." - Max Liebermann,, Berlin, 1933

"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts." - Richard Feynman, NYC, 1966

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Re: Fuck the Tories

Postby Harvey » Fri Jun 16, 2017 5:21 am

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And while we spoke of many things, fools and kings
This he said to me
"The greatest thing
You'll ever learn
Is just to love
And be loved
In return"


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Re: Fuck the Tories

Postby MacCruiskeen » Sat Jun 17, 2017 2:43 pm

MacCruiskeen » Thu Jun 15, 2017 12:37 pm wrote:MediaLens latest : The Breaking Of The Corporate Media Monopoly

http://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/thr ... 28101.html

^^Link to the ML piece, plus thread with comments.

In March, Observer columnist Nick Cohen graphically predicted that 'Corbyn's Labour won't just lose. It'll be slaughtered.' In an article titled, 'Don't tell me you weren't warned about Corbyn', Cohen indicated the words that would 'be flung' at Corbynites 'by everyone who warned that Corbyn's victory would lead to a historic defeat':

'I Told You So You ####ing Fools!'

Apparently frothing at the mouth, Cohen concluded by advising the idiots reading his column that, following the predicted electoral disaster, 'your only honourable response will be to stop being a f*cking fool by changing your f*cking mind'.

Awkward, then, for Cohen to now 'apologise to affronted Corbyn supporters... I was wrong'; presumably feeling like a f*cking fool, having changed his f*cking mind.

http://www.medialens.org/index.php/aler ... opoly.html


A great piece by the great Jonathan Cook, spelling out a blatantly obvious point, but one that John Harris and his careerist colleagues are still utterly failing to understand (because understanding it is more than their bleedin' job's worth):

Election backlash [against the corporate media] is about more than gloating
17 June 2017

http://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2017- ... -gloating/

Guardian columnist John Harris, like a lot of liberal journalists at the moment, is moving rapidly out of a brief interlude of atonement for so badly misjudging the outcome of the UK’s recent election to a sense of resentment. Those of us who held firm against the media doomsayers over the past two years – rejecting their predictions of a Labour rout under its leader Jeremy Corbyn – are being accused of triumphalism.

In Harris’ words:

Haters, doubters and sceptics have been rounded on. Journalists with any history of disbelief or hostility should apparently resign or be sacked. Labour MPs who once wanted Corbyn to quit should be reciting the socialist equivalent of Hail Marys, and burying any hopes of a return to the shadow cabinet. …

Looking back at the very real woes that preceded the party’s breakthrough, there seems to be some implicit suggestion that a huge crowd of true believers always knew things were on track but could not be heard above the hostile braying. But this, obviously, is not true.


That “obviously” needs examining. The desire to hold journalists to account for their treatment of Corbyn is not about gloating – even if it looks that way to those now facing the backlash. Harris badly misunderstands and trivialises the current mood, just as he misunderstood the mood of the past two years.

There is real frustration and anger, and it is being directed at individual journalists because there is no one else to vent the rage at. Faceless media corporations have no meaningful presence on Twitter or Facebook. We cannot berate them directly. But we can channel our protests at the corporate media’s employees, those who acted as its spokesmen and women.

Our problem is not that individual journalists reached mistaken conclusions about Corbyn. The concern runs much deeper than that. It is that most journalists, even among the most liberal parts of the media, rejected Corbyn and what he stood for from the outset. Even those who had some sympathy for Corbyn’s politics, like Harris, were easily swayed by their colleagues into abandoning him. And therein lies our grievance. It is not a new grievance; Corbyn’s wholesale abuse simply clarified it for us.

The corporate media earnt its name for a reason. Like other corporations, it has a collective agenda. Its bottom line is support for a political, social and economic environment that is good for corporate profits.

That doesn’t make media outlets identical. There are liberal and rightwing parts of the media, just as there are branding variations in other markets. Apple wants to persuade you that it is a progressive and socially conscious company, even as underpaid and overworked Chinese workers throw themselves out of the top-floor windows of its factories. The reality is that Apple is no more concerned about workers rights than Microsoft – its packaging is simply better designed to persuade you that it cares, because that is what its users expect from it.

Harris and others at the Guardian did not fail just because they could not foresee how popular Corbyn would prove when put to the electoral test. They failed because it was their role to fail. Whether they understand it or not, they reached their positions of influence in the media either because their imaginative horizons had long ago been so beaten into submission that Corbyn’s success was impossible for them to contemplate or because their defences were so weakened – or maybe their desire to succeed in their organisations so strong – they could not withstand the tide of elite opinion.

Moreover, their failing is not just that they doubted Corbyn; it is that they collectively ridiculed those who thought differently. We were dismissed either as naïve fools or as dangerous subversives. Where were the outraged voices in the Guardian putting that calumny to rest?

Harris is right about one thing. The times are volatile, indeed:

Events of all kinds now seem to move at light speed. And look at how wildly the political pendulum swings: from Obama to Trump; from the SNP triumphant to Nicola Sturgeon in sudden abeyance; from Europe supposedly in hopeless crisis to the twin leadership of Macron and Merkel; and from the Brexit victory to the glorious shocks and surprises of last week.

As the cliche goes, the election proved that no one knows anything any more.


That volatility, however, is not as inexplicable as Harris implies. It has an explanation. It is caused by two factors that are coexisting dangerously together.

The first, much of it generated by social media, is a sense of outrage among large parts of the population. New avenues to information – bypassing the gatekeepers of yore, like the BBC and the Guardian – mean that we have access to more real information and analysis than ever before. Many now understand that our political and media class has been lying to them for a long time and that it no longer feels, or is, accountable.

The second factor is a profound sense of loss, alienation and confusion at the dawning realisation that the corporate media cannot be trusted. Social media have helped prove that the media and political class cannot be trusted, but it has not offered a clear path out of the bewilderment. People know they want change, but they have not yet found a compass they feel confident can guide them to a better place. That is why a Trump can be the beneficiary of the new mood as much as a Corbyn.

What we need now is a revolution in consciousness. We need to understand not only who are our enemies, but who are our friends.


The anger directed at Harris is not interested in simply making him feel bad for a day or two. It wants real change. And that change is being delayed by journalists like Harris, who continue to be incapable of understanding their role in the corporate media world.

Until those inside the corporate media become a voice of dissent from within, joining us in our demands for radical reform that stops the media representing only the interests of billionaires, that ends the influence of corporate advertising, and that ensures true pluralism, then they are the problem. And they will find that their social media accounts continue to bother them.

http://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2017- ... -gloating/
"Ich kann gar nicht so viel fressen, wie ich kotzen möchte." - Max Liebermann,, Berlin, 1933

"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts." - Richard Feynman, NYC, 1966

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Re: Fuck the Tories

Postby JackRiddler » Sat Jun 17, 2017 9:57 pm

Excellent, excellent summary of the last two years worth of attacks on Corbyn in the media and from inside Labour. I remember pretty much all of them, but it's a hell of a thing to read it all at once.

A History of Sabotaging Jeremy Corbyn
https://jacobinmag.com/2017/06/jeremy-c ... e-minister
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Re: Fuck the Tories

Postby AhabsOtherLeg » Wed Jun 21, 2017 10:55 pm

gnosticheresy_2 » Tue Jun 13, 2017 3:01 pm wrote:Doh! Just shows that a) I should try reading properly before posting (and not posting past my bedtime) and b) automatically assuming everything must be about Engerland....


I don;t think I've ever posted here without it being past my bedtime, often by a day or more.

Don't worry though, we have now begun to exact social revenge for the appalling long-term arrogance of you folk from Wearside (and surrounds), with your posh Southern accents and privilleged wealthy upbringings. :D

Court case delayed over 'Geordie' accent

Proceedings at a Scottish court were delayed after staff said they needed to "translate" the evidence of a man from the north east of England.

Perth Sheriff Court was told that Crown Office staff were unable to understand the words of accused Denis Boyd because of his "Geordie" accent.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-t ... l-40274003


Christ, when I first thought that would be a funny story to post up, I didn't realize it was a sexual assault case. Anyway, you get the point - no more chat about us being unintelligible, even if many of us are, even to me.
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Re: Fuck the Tories

Postby AhabsOtherLeg » Wed Jun 21, 2017 11:53 pm

MacCruiskeen » Sat Jun 10, 2017 11:49 am wrote:One very good thing about this election is that it has completely discredited practically every member of the liberal/pseudleft punditocracy, on both sides of the Atlantic. Yes, Owen Jones, you little snake, I'm looking at you and Cohen and Freedland and Toynbee and Rentoul and all those other capitalist-realist Blairite Guardianista smugsters who are now rushing to cover their own embarrassment. You all worked tirelessly to destroy Corbyn and everything he stands for, and none of you saw this result coming.


Rentoul's openly Tory, surely? And with Cohen and Freedland, it's debatable...

Otherwise, fully agreed. Owen Jones... what a dissy that lad has been.

He's continuing the good fight against the Conservatives as we speak - by complaining about the abuse he's supposedly been receiving from CyberNats.

A perennial complaint of those with nowt of substance to say. He should ask John McTernan to stop contacting him.

But if it's a real feast of political schadenfreude you're after Mac (I know it's not, but still) then you are missing some absolute belters from your list. The diehard Blairite blog Labour Uncut - "Serious About Labour Politics" - always provides sustenance.

Their editor, Atul Hatwal, predicted during the Labour leadership contest that Jeremy Corbyn would come fourth, beaten hollow by... Liz Kendall.

Before the most recent GE (I'm expecting another one in a couple of weeks, lol) he predicted an electoral "nuclear winter" for Labour, after hearing dark tales from the doorstep told to him by activists (Duncan Hothersall one presumes).

One of their writers, Rob Marchant, is still trying to convince himself and others - using graphs - that Corbyn performed poorly, and is a silly man who smells of poop.

The Hatwal columns are so good I just have to link them (comments are golden too):

http://labour-uncut.co.uk/2015/07/22/so ... sh-fourth/

http://labour-uncut.co.uk/2017/06/05/po ... t-to-give/

This kind of stuff is why I have misgivings about declaring for Jeremy as King In The North though. It's pointless if he keeps House Bolton as his deputies, which he is somewhat obliged to do.

But the one true king of shite predictions is the aformentioned John McTernan. Here's just a sample of his neverending wrongness:

There will never be a Scottish independence referendum - Salmond doesn't want one.

Scotland will vote No by 65/25.

The only winners after such a referendum will be Scottish Labour.

He managed Jim Murphy's campaign in 2015 - "We will not lose a single seat to the SNP." They lost forty of them, including Jim Murphy's.

Bonus video of an embarassed member of the Henry Jackson Society:



I was certainly dancing myself that night.

McTernan predicted with his usual supreme confidence that Brexit would not happen, and Hillary Clinton would inevitably win the US Presidency - he even went over to campaign for her, alongside Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale, which is when I realized Hillary would lose. (I believe Rev Stu from Wings Over Scotland got £100 off him on a Twitter bet over that outcome - or maybe it was the Brexit vote - but only after threatening legal action for recovery of a sworn debt).

McTernan stated that Corbyn would lose both Labour leadership elections, and that he had killed the Labour Party and movement itself, and that the British public would never vote for Jeremy in sufficient numbers to even pose an electoral contest to Theresa May.

People still hire this guy for his political expertise.

Btw, I watched Harlan County USA on your recommendation a while back (kept forgetting to mention it). It is brutal, honest, powerful, and great - but perhaps could have served as a warning to those who voted for Trump out of nostalgia for the "good old days" in coal country.

Not that I blame them really. They fought hard over decades for what precious little they had. Hard, very hard, to see your precious pittance taken away from you by forces that will always be vastly outwith your control. Why they thought a New York conman and robber baron would help them in their plight remains a mystery to me though. Desperate times, desperate measures I guess - like with the fishermen and oil workers in the north east here.

EDIT: I really like John Harris, but I know I won't for long. :tear
Last edited by AhabsOtherLeg on Thu Jun 22, 2017 1:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Fuck the Tories

Postby JackRiddler » Thu Jun 22, 2017 12:18 am

I like the shadow cabinet changes in the wake of the election, after Owen Jones did a suitably penitent crawl for mercy, and the Blairite submarines didn't wait a day before raising a call for Corbyn to unite the party by restoring those who had resigned from the front bench during last year's failed coup attempt. In response, Corbyn shuffled the back-stabbing Tom Watson from deputy leader to some cultural Siberia, replacing him with trades union loyalist Len McCluskey, and generously put Owen in as shadow Northern Ireland minister! The guy shows a strong if subtle sense of how to win, and he does not lack for a sense of humor.
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Re: Fuck the Tories

Postby AhabsOtherLeg » Thu Jun 22, 2017 2:01 am

JackRiddler » Wed Jun 21, 2017 11:18 pm wrote:and generously put Owen in as shadow Northern Ireland minister!


Generously!

You have a great sense of humour yourself Jack. :bigsmile

No one on God's green earth has ever wanted to be Northern Ireland minister. There are people in jail in Northern Ireland who would turn down that job.

Even the people who should be in jail but aren't in NI would rather hold positions at Stormont. I don't blame them.

The only person who ever made a success of the NI position was Mo Mowlam, and she was unique. Whenever Tony Blair tries to claim credit for peace in our time (even John Major tries to claim it on occasion) I like to remember Mad Mo, the gunman's foe. She was the right kind of pain in the arse to all sides and factions.

EDIT: Wait a minute, Len McCluskey's not even an MP, is he? How can he be deputy leader?
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Re: Fuck the Tories

Postby MacCruiskeen » Wed Jan 30, 2019 3:08 pm

Jeremy Hunt:
Image
Formely the UK's Health Minister, then Culture Minister, now Foreign Secretary.

Here’s 40 seconds of various people saying “Jeremy Cunt” instead of “Jeremy Hunt”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EngG1D-NT8

Anticipated by VIZ:
Image
http://viz.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Screen-Shot-2015-06-02-at-16.43.48.png

The BBC radio presenter James Naughtie's legendary "coughing fit", in full:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjH4arIn-80
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