Wednesday 23 November 2011

'And following England's disappointing Rugby World Cup, leaked reports criticise some players for being more interested in money than team performances, we look at the state of the professional game.'

If not the relative value to 'news' media of some stories that get leaked vs. others?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KheJE71GzpA&feature=feedlik

MIGHT THE GOVERNMENT ALSO 'CONSIDER' TIMELY PAYMENT OF INVOICES?

I was 35 years in small business (

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MIGHT THE GOVERNMENT ALSO 'CONSIDER' TIMELY PAYMENT OF INVOICES?
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I was 35 years in small business (

KEISER REPORT 213

He says it so much better than I do.

https://maxkeiser.com/

Still no email from Blogdog re 3 and 5. No idea what I am supposed to have done.

MIGHT THE GOVERNMENT ALSO 'CONSIDER' TIMELY PAYMENT OF INVOICES?

I was 35 years in small business ("less than" symbol removed £1,000,000 pa) and the UNIVERSAL BURDEN, in that sector, was GETTING IN MONEY OWED. Many companies had one employee who did NOTHING ELSE. This is not civilisation under rule of law, it's dog eat dog, cultural corruption.

Only the banks gain - as usual.

PS: I do not mean government, token fiddling about, resulting in a pathetic fudge, like charging interest on what is, in fact, STOLEN MONEY.

A merchant addressing a debtor
Set down in the course of his lebtor
“It is fair to suppose a man knose what he ose
And the sooner he pays it the bedtor.”

IT FELT LIKE SUCCESS JIM (#4)

I hardly lost a day through illness, made my own rules, supported the family, survived multiple recessions and the odd strike (+ three day week) and ended up trading the last ten years 'in the black'. Dissolved the company and sold the lease, at a profit.

You are right: Dave will not be consulting me.

IF NN want to turn the heat up - How about getting the Uk energy minister in there for some questioning as anyone can see very not enough is being done regarding an effective UK energy policy?

'6. At 15:39 23rd Nov 2011, barriesingleton wrote:
Still no email from Blogdog re 3 and 5. No idea what I am supposed to have done.

The default seems to be to excise, just in case. But, at least, all well now?

This principle of 'watertight oversight', coined by BBC Editor Richard Black is as confusing as it is applied selectively. Depending.

As the topic is still very much in the frame I have been following his blog since the latest climate email story broke.

Sadly, if without surprise, well short of a day it has now closed.

With good reason, on is sure. Yes, sure.

'9. At 16:33 23rd Nov 2011, nautonier -
IF NN want to turn the heat up - How about getting the Uk energy minister in there for some questioning as anyone can see very not enough is being done regarding an effective UK energy policy?

While at it, might he also be tasked on how the latest (good one, this time) leak seemed to make it to, by some odd coincidence, the new Newsnight political editor's old, and not too publicly representative paper?

'dpcarrington Damian Carrington
#huhne #energy statement: oops. I get a mention in Commons for tweeting upcoming statement 32 mins before Labour knew'

Allez 'oops'?

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ice uk gas futures have been dropping like a stone. why haven't prices? why have there not been the same kind of price rises in europe? what are they doing better?

11.At 16:47 23rd Nov 2011, JunkkMale wrote:

It's just manipulation of the 'news' with no real action.

The BBC & NN don't seem to get that CEO's of big corporations like B Gas & banks & other multi-national have no real interest in their customers - they have cartel or monopoly position as in case of B Gas as is main UK energy custodian and are only, in theory, answerable to their shareholders and Board of Directors.

In constitutional terms, as far as customer is concerened - they are a law unto themselves fixing prices & tariffs & their own pay with very little effective competition & near zero accountability.

When will BBC & NN realise that B Gas is, despite likely spin of CEO this evening, is not answerable or accountable to its customers, in any meaningful way?

New legislation is needed to break foreign national cartel profiteering while Brits shiver through winter.

What we need is a competent energy minister to shake things up and break the supply chain price manipulation as centrica profits swell under their cartel arrangements.

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I can't help speculating that Jeremy's interview with the British Gas stock market celebrity tonight may never achieve anything enlightening as far as reducing the impact of energy bills on consumers is concerned. After all its the key policy pillar of the current CONDEM coalition to maintain the UK economy as a virtual corporate fiefdom. Its all too easy for the individual members energy cartel to pretend that they are doing their best to help out those in fuel poverty, especially with schemes like home insulation. The simple fact is that although government grants are theoretically available the fact is that the job of doing the insulation itself ( and its not suitable for many properties ) probably costs twice as much as getting a local handyman to do it for you. The energy companies participating in said scheme are perhaps making an additional fortune on sub letting the said insulation work out to franchised sub contractors.

Most houses have already got the big hits on energy saving like double glazing and the loft insulated at least to some extent anyway, cavity wall insulation is said to rot your floor joists. The fact the whole current scheme is a scam in the interest of the energy cartel ( and perhaps particularly gas suppliers ) screams out in that there is no provision for an old boiler scrap scheme. Replacing your old boiler is perhaps the biggest hit you can make on your heating bill , ( we have already done it on our own initiative ) and the new boiler can pay for itself in four years. Labour did introduce a boiler scrap scheme for a time as part of its energy efficiency policy but again it was controlled by the corporates. The " warm front " sponsored " corporates " were typically charging 4,000 ( the grant was only 2,000 ) when you could get any good quality local plumber to do a better job for less than 2,500. As with everything related to anything to do with alleged green investment its just an excuse to support a false market to promote false economic growth which in turn increases the financial apartheid between rich and poor.

nautonier wrote: "The BBC & NN don't seem to get that CEO's of big corporations like B Gas & banks & other multi-national have no real interest in their customers - they have cartel or monopoly position as in case of B Gas as is main UK energy custodian and are only, in theory, answerable to their shareholders and Board of Directors."

Of course the BBC and NN get that. It's just that some of the viewers don't appreciate that tit's the job of the production team to get the politicians and other guests to expose themselves to viewers. It their job to bring the viewers the news. The interviewers all have an adversarial style - it's just that they can only push so far and still have people coming on the programme. One saw a bit of that the other Night when Paxman interviewed Grant Shapps and last night a, Liz Truss did a very good job at showing herself to be a rabid Libertarian in all her talk of letting the consumer choose their banks etc conveniently forgetting (hence her fluency) that there is massive individual diversity in cognitive ability and that as more and more people haven't a clue what's going on (young and old) they can't read or comprehend the small print given their low literacy/numeracy ability or their age. The BBC team does a good job at rolling out the predators I suggest. One even gets rolling eyes etc form Paxman and co as signals if one misses anything.

This is supposed to be TV for grown-ups (and more and more, I fear, potential emigres)..

brossen99 wrote: "The " warm front " sponsored " corporates " were typically charging 4,000 ( the grant was only 2,000 ) when you could get any good quality local plumber to do a better job for less than 2,500.
As with everything related to anything to do with alleged green investment its just an excuse to support a false market to promote false economic growth which in turn increases the financial apartheid between rich and poor."

That's the sort of post which might help some people put their thinking caps on .... for a while.

Consumers are, alas, just conduits in this predatory system, and yet most will be surprised if not a little "offended", because of their daily conditioning not to think badly of people (who may have had a "persecuted" history). They never ask WHY they were allegedly "persecuted" though - now how daft is that? Those working at their desks are just following orders.....and if they didn't do it, someone else would....

https://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/18/us-wallst-disconnect-idUSTRE7AH0Z620111118

"IT'S THE (LIBERTARIAN) SYSTEM STUPID"

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no politician of any note will ever meet Jeremy, so anyone the energy companies put up will be an automaton underling with an inplanted script encased in his brain and any deviation his batteries will cease to function.....

17.At 17:52 23rd Nov 2011, brown-dog wrote:
nautonier wrote: "The BBC & NN don't seem to get that CEO's of big corporations like B Gas & banks & other multi-national have no real interest in their customers - they have cartel or monopoly position as in case of B Gas as is main UK energy custodian and are only, in theory, answerable to their shareholders and Board of Directors."

Of course the BBC and NN get that

++

Really? Brossen99 'got it'

Sounds like the questions are agreed in advance between the BBC & their visitors otherwise few would be likely to make an appearance?

"It's just that some of the viewers don't appreciate that tit's the job of the production team to get the politicians and other guests to expose themselves to viewers."

Are you sure about that - I know its on after the water-shed but the BBC & viewers might, sooner or later, get more than it bargained for?

However, might work wonders for the viewing ratings?

Aboriginaljim wrote: "Capitalists have very craftily socialised the blame and costs of their "liberal" politics and economic fiddles onto public servants and the public themselves.It`s "our fault" there`s no growth and we are stuck in the EU!

They can get away with this because they control the media ..."

The first part is right I suggest, but they don't get away with because they control the media. There are millions of people out there "making up their own rules" who can't be told anything unless they already "agree" with it - i.e who won't be told what to do. They'll even fight for their freedom to self-destruct, just like many of the not-so-smarts on the streets of Cairo today. Look up the position of Egypt in OECD PISA and/or the standardised mean Egyptian IQ relative to European norms. That's probably why democracy won't work there. Kids (of whatever chronological age) tend to do best when they do as they're told. Not all nations are the same - gene barriers have been at work, and other dark demographic forces which have made some populations rise and others fall.

I have a question Mr Dimbleby - "When is Britain going to join the Euro" ?

"Oh yes - well - We'll pass on that one tonight"

"But Mr Dimbleby - Why hasn't the Euro exchange rate price crashed yet"?

"Well we might comes onto that later if we get time"

"Can I just ask if the banks are unable to borrow from each other because they're holding too many Euros as will soon be worthless"

"Well I don't want to speculate on that right now"

" Why not, Mr Dimbleby, Goldman Sachs & every other spiv is doing just that"

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Perhaps with alleged speeding points issue hanging over him Chris Huhne is now more than ever the prisoner of the corporates and especially the energy cartel, so what's the point of including him in a debate with the top guy from British Gas, unless the whole object of the exercise is to ideologically outnumber Paxo. I expect that in his current predicament Huhne is likely spew just exactly what the energy cartel and his former stock market parasite mates want him to ?

21
Suggested pre-amble to tonight's programme (looks like another 'early night' for me):

"WARNING!
This programme is likely to show explicit material of the production team trying to get the politicians and other guests to expose themselves to viewers."

24.At 19:51 23rd Nov 2011, Aboriginaljim wrote:
Perhaps we could confront what the media really represent in our society today.

++
Excellent post - all mainstream media is censored as being suitable for the very level apple cart's of the vested interests?

https://www.conwiththewind.com/

Given the supine nature of politicians to take on the privatised utilities, the failure to restore British Coal + CO2 sequestration to replace gas & strip mined foreign coal imports, plus the likely Sterling crisis next year, get ready for MASSIVE price rises in energy prices.

I've decided to do my best to get out from under this - I've invested in 4 Kw of photovoltaic electricity and a 35 Kw wood chip boiler & harvested 3 yrs of fuel by coppicing a small wood - and I'm planning a biodiesel plant to make 1k litres PA, which gives me diesel @ 40p per litre, but only for an old diesel pickup - don't put it in a hi tech modern car!

It's a big investment, but hopefully it will insulate my family from the impending energy crisis - it also gives me £4.5K from HMG in FIT & RHI payment for 20 yrs - and as the money came from my non-performing pension & overall gives me a 12% ROI -and gets my money out of the tottering financial system.

I bined the water company years ago by investing £2k in a borehole & small treatment plant + septic tank which has paid for itself many times over - and with a few animals for meat & eggs and a cottage garden, we're pretty close to "The Good Life".

Unfortunately very few people can do what we've done, but all I can say is that the prospect of being trapped in a city home with falling living standards and uncontrollable rising energy & food prices terrifies me.

Given that privatisation of energy companies and globalisation was supposed to deliver a cheaper, more competitive market for fuel, food & water, to be where we are now leaves me feeling we were conned iinto to letting a few multinationals get very rich by squeezing consumers, so my response is to opt out of as much of it as I can possibly manage.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/goldmans-sigma-x-hints-who-next-contagion-target

@Barrie various

I quite agree on the late payment issues. It seems that amongst the worst culprits is at least one cash-rich major supermarket with its own bank. New research shows that it fails to pay within the agreed term in 33% of cases.

https://www.theaccessgroup.com/news/industry-news/concern-over-late-payments-to-small-suppliers.aspx

In general, supermarket payment terms to suppliers are hardly generous. They effectively coerce small suppliers to borrow money to subsidise their profits.

In the meantime, today another big supermarket overcharged me 16p for a courgette, because the wrong price had been plugged into the computer. At 8pm. the under-under-under-manager in charge took a long 10 minutes to correct the problem. 16p might sound trivial, but the difference between £1.65/kg and £1.90 is not. And if 100000 people bought courgettes today and were similarly overcharged, they will have saved the equivalent of someone's salary.

And of course the very helpful staff sorting it out were innocent parties to whom I made a point of being very polite. But as a lifelong member of the awkward squad, I couldn't let it go!

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BTW Jericoa and Barrie (1) I agree that if we make sustainability the main aim, that should largely take care of the other problem too.

(2) I accept that peer review has limitations, as the case of Dr von un zu Googleberg showed, and that there might be instances when decent research is suppressed. However, there needs to be quality control, and peer review, whilst imperfect is far better than no peer review. How do we know that processes are sustainable without this quality control?

Apart from plagiarism

* The qualifications and experience of the authors needs to be made clear.
* Financial sponsorship/backing needs to be fully declared.
* The maths and methodology needs to be checked.
* It also needs to be checked that referenced sources are quoted honestly and in context.

I have seen stuff quoted here and other places as "true" which does not pass any of these tests, but which has been cleverly put together with the aim of masquerading as honest research.

It just crossed my mind that another really good reason to start a boiler scrap programme as a true method of both reducing fuel consumption and saving people money on their GAS bills, It would appear that the most popular new boiler is also built in the UK. I think that there are a few other companies building central heating boilers here in the UK so its likely almost all the government spending would remain within the UK economy and produce true economic growth.

I'm just wondering as the whether Susan Watts will get into the direct debits scam where energy companies take money out of your account every month despite the fact that your account is actually in credit. Nobody usually notices until they actually take the meter reading, and just as an example of what the potential savings our estimated bill for the summer quarter was around 400 quid after reading the meter and using the internet the actual bill was only 200. The energy must be sat on an absolute fortune of consumers money which they then probably " invest " in the stock and commodity price casino, no doubt forcing up energy costs even further.

32

good points! To quote Lily Allen:

..I am a weapon of massive consumption
And its not my fault it’s how I’m programmed to function
I’ll look at the Sun and I’ll look in the Mirror
I’m on the right track yeah we're on to a winner

I don’t know what’s right and what’s real anymore
I don’t know how I’m meant to feel anymore
When do you think it will all become clear?
‘Cause I’m being taken over by the fear

(C) Lily Allen - (NB Moderator - "fair dealing" principle allows reasonable quotation - plus Liy encourages online discussion of her work)

She's right - and my "fear" is that the whole financial, economic and environmental edifice is now tottering under the massive consumption we seem to think can simply go on growing - on our very small, overcrowded planet.

Sasha Clarkson wrote: "In general, supermarket payment terms to suppliers are hardly generous. They effectively coerce small suppliers to borrow money to subsidise their profits."

Has any particular group historically dominated the supermarket and retail sector to the best of your knowledge?

@36 - Yes - Yorkshire/Lancashire - Morrisons/Coop - traditionally - lad! ;-D

I think its called profiling:

I just heard on the BBC 10 oclock that the the border control workers go on strike next wednesday and that the Govt are running around trying to get fill-ins from other civil servants willing to man the passport desks. Maybe the management should instruct the border control fills-in not to bother stopping Catholic nuns and good English speakers who pass their desks but ...well, you can guess the rest.

It's already a legendary Jeremy interview with Huhne...."bogus statistic" and "non-free market"....and increases bills, but people will use less energy because they will freeze to death instead :p
" I have no idea what you are talking about" - sums it up for all politicians really.
£200 billion for infrastructure, which is paid for by consumers......good grief....

In the States they have Al Gor-Leone...here in the UK we have Chris Huhne. Are we supposed to take this man serious or what?

What we (perhaps) need is a "Free Science Foundation" - a new charity which would aim to give a quality controlled online voice to the genuine scientific maverick. Those who wanted to have a paper published online would pay a fee, equivalent to 1% of their P-60 declared net income of the previous year. Their paper would then be published as provisional. The charity would then pay suitably qualified people to check the relevant aspects of the work, and personally guarantee the aspect they reviewed. The author would retain the copyright. Anything which passed all the above tests would then be republished as "verified". This would not mean that the foundation certified the conclusions as true, but that it did agree that acceptable standards of scholarship and honesty had been achieved.

Any multimillionaires out there interested? I'm a poor sick retiree, but I'd donate £500 to help kick it off!

Tonight just gets better :o)
Numerous 500+ tariffs, which needs to be looked at after OFCOM rapped British Gas :p
Jeremy v Bentley......he's toast, and he knows it.
Loved the graph too - pity Bentley refused to understand it.
:p it was morally wrong when profits were 9% and not 5%.....

This is TOP notch Jeremy at his finest

What a load of nonsense from Bentley, particularly since:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2050961/Thousands-dying-afford-heating-bills.html

I'm a fan of profit, I'm a believer in the market but it has to be said the energy companies have operated like cartels and for way too long.

Brown-dog "Has any particular group historically dominated the supermarket and retail sector to the best of your knowledge?"

"Sasha Clarkson wrote: "Yes - Yorkshire/Lancashire - Morrisons/Coop - traditionally - lad! ;-D"

Sasha Clarkson wrote ""I have seen stuff quoted here and other places as "true" which does not pass any of these tests, but which has been cleverly put together with the aim of masquerading as honest research."

https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7245944.stm

Good research requires honesty and resilience in the face of unpleasant results - not creative subterfuge, distraction and spin in order to look good.

Meanwhile, Happy Thanksgiving to our friends over the Pond ;-D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccj2BH25c0I

Seriously smoking hot tonight with the Bahraini Minister too :)

@45 "subterfuge" Does this include having multiple accounts, identities and conversations with yourself?

Glass houses etc!

Huhne did say that their policies would mean that the rise in the annual bill would be 7% lower than it would otherwise have been. To be fair, he laboured that point to Parliament in the clip which Newsnight showed before Paxman interviewed him in the studio.

Expecting any Libertarian Government to control the Private Sector would be unrealistic - it would be nice, but totally unreasonable.

brossen99 posted a link to a very depressing figure in link 30. I'd like to say thanks.....:-(

@45 Also, say what you mean - AND WHAT YOU PROPOSE TO DO ABOUT IT!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgZzCrpqT5E

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MEN BEHAVING BADLY

Jeremy Paxman is an embarrassment. The Gas Weasel would have looked much closer to the ground, had Jeremy not joined him down there. And berating Johnnie Foreigner official, out of imaginary, de facto superiority (Iraq war Mr P?) belongs to Victorian retired military.

What a total NewsyNighty.

Why does it take Paul Krugman to highlight these comments By Andrew Haldane of the BOE

https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/23/a-gigantic-scam/

https://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/7314

Perhaps Chris Huhne will go down in history as the key architect of the Green Holocaust, no need for anything like expensive concentration concentration camps, just freeze and starve all lower income people to death in their own homes. I will have to watch it again but the key message from Huhne would appear to be that your bills are going to go up 200 quid for the next ten years to pay for useless wind farms etc. Looks really impressive if you spin that bills would have gone up 300 quid but for government energy policy you will save 100, just conveniently forget the fact that more people froze to death last winter than were killed on the roads. What it going to be like for low income families at current and future prices, and they want to suspend the inflation rise in benefits for the chronically sick and disabled ?

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All this user's posts have been removed.Why?

Could someone please explain to me what Chris Huhne was saying tonight. Energy bills will go up but prices will go down. It's a miracle! Chris 'Marvo Magician' Huhne.

As for British Gas boss, Phil Bentley (wonder if he drives one?) he admits they've confused customers with an amazing array of price tarrifs and his company has used loss leader tarrifs making it harder for smaller competitors to enter the market.

So why is he not offering his resignation immediately for leading an organisation using tactics which are likely to stifle competition in a limited marketplace.

This is surely an admission British Gas has been manipulating the market to the potential cost of customers.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2065360/Expect-gas-price-rises-warns-Energy-Minister-Huhne-insists-government-pin-increase.html

Sasha Clarkson wrote: "@45 "subterfuge" Does this include having multiple accounts, identities and conversations with yourself?

Glass houses etc!"

You are making false accusations again. That is a fact. You have been corrected on this before and yet you persist with your false beliefs. At the same time you also miss important truths. Is it worth it? Tu Quoque is an ad hominem. Are you sure you understand what's important in logic and research, and why it is important?

As to the Lily Allen credit assignment, Richard Bunning (35), it may seem a small point, but in this blizzard of false attributions and credit assignments,.might it be Greg Kurstin who does most of the work with Lily doing the singing and taking the credit? We live in a world where image is all and where truth and talent often just plays second fiddle.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fear_%28song%29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Kurstin

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Always value the Newsynighty 'reviews' here to help decide the iPlayer commitment.

From the sound of it, Mr. Huhne was left untroubled, and the gas man was only troubled on areas that suited.

So less of a challenging news magazine, more a Hello! polishing of terribly unctuous right-on declaimers?

Think I'll pass.

Russia Today has a very good analysis of Cameron's attempt to prop up UK house prices

https://rt.com/programs/keiser-report/episode-214-max-keiser/

I think I am going to have to start watching Russia Today a bit more. Wish I had seen Grant Schapps grilled in this way.

ALL IN THIS TOGETHER - "WHAT IS WRONG WITH US?" (#60)

Fire, language, farming, metallurgy, industry, technology, electricity, pharmacology - all discovered by agitated, vulnerable cerebral tinsel, riding on a BASE VEHICLE-APE - a simple 'procreationist'.

It is apparent that, being born bright-but-helpless, inclines us to aberrance in later life. Having to have parents, is a paradoxical curse.

Puberty at 30 might just fix us; meanwhile: constrain CLEVERNESS - bring back WISDOM.

The above applies - at different ages and stages of mankind - on any part of the globe, in any society, UNLESS THE SOCIETY IS SMALL, ISOLATED AND SUSTAINABLY CONFIGURED. Small is viable.

HOMO SAPIENS ISN'T WORKING.

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THERE YOU GO JIM - YOU KNEW THE ANSWER ALL ALONG! (#64)

Dunno why I Bother . . .

Russian newsreader gives Obama (the Wall street owned tele promter sock puppet president) the finger. Which surprised me some as Obama is a hard core Leninist/Marxist.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2065327/Russian-newsreader-Tatyana-Limanova-makes-finger-gesture-mentions-Obama.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

This gives a whole new meaning to having the third world at your doorstep -or up against your garden wall.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2065584/Pee-parking-Traffic-warden-caught-camera-relieving-wall-broad-daylight.html

Big respect for the photographer with catching that. Maybe he can be a fill-in at the border control whilst the pension-greedy workers are on strike next wednesday.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

@66 "Obama is a hard core Leninist/Marxist." No he isn't, he's a Libertarian Trotskyite-anarchist follower of Mises and Hayek! (;-D )

@68 Mods: fair enough, but DO something about it!

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All this user's posts have been removed.Why?

NOT JUST A FINGER PUPPET - A DEMON-DRIVEN FINGER PUPPET (#71)

Now that psychiatry/psychology has teamed up with neurophysiology, there are some truly wonderful books delineating our plight. But, as I might have already said, a few generations are all it takes to turn aberration into 'given good'. Example areas are: mothering/breast feeding and schooling (for Mammon).

Obama is simply ANOTHER ONE. Chaotic beginnings engender demons. Then begins a lifelong quest to gain the power to 'shake them off'. Desperate individuals make good finger puppets for, more powerful, desperate individuals.

Paradoxically, those without demons seem content to make the best of the status quo. Good works have a much lower 'drive potential'. That demons drive mankind, is the 'singularity' that gives rise to universal artistic expression, throughout millennia.

APE CONFUSED BY LANGUAGE 'AT HOME' IN AGE OF PERVERSITY?

@71: yes, Barry Obama is all that but at his core he's a Leninist/Marxist. What else would you expect from a Chicargo community organiser with staple gun and pamphlets.

Here are a raft of related stories just in todays Telegraph.

There is a quiet crisis in Britain's education system
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/8909128/There-is-a-quiet-crisis-in-Britains-education-system.html
The Tories' pet projects are irrelevant to the forgotten majority of schools.


Hundreds more young black men are in prison than at leading universities
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8911456/Hundreds-more-young-black-men-are-in-prison-than-at-leading-universities.html
Hundreds more young black men are in prison than attending the country’s leading universities, the Deputy Prime Minister will warn today, as he issues a fresh call to end racial discrimination.


Focus on 'soft subjects' harming teenagers' job prospects
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8910472/Focus-on-soft-subjects-harming-teenagers-job-prospects.html
Researchers warned of a “strong correlation” between the youth unemployment rate and failure to gain at least a C grade GCSE in English and maths at the age of 16. According to data, the link is strongest in deprived towns and cities with fewer job opportunities and a larger number of school-leavers competing for skilled employment.


One serious poster on this blogsite has been smart enough to work out why they are related and what the real root causes are.

Yet some on here will persist in name-calling and obfuscatory practice despite the very serious (and dire) warnings that this person rightly makes. The consequences, if unheeded, will affect us all for the worse for decades to come.

And here’s another one…

Migration in 2010 at record high
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/8912005/Migration-in-2010-at-record-high.html
Net migration to Britain last year hit a record high, according to official figures published today.

And these are only the ones the state/ONS knows about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJLel-2MBYU&feature=feedlik

QUIET CRISIS IN EDUCTION? OR 'ACOUSTICALLY DAMPED TO ZERO' FREE SPEECH? (#74)

My sister is a retired head teacher; I am a retired, one time refusnik schoolee.
WE BOTH ARRIVED AT THE SAME VIEW OF ENGLISH PREPARATION FOR LIFE!

The crisis is way deeper than education. But 'successful' MPs are generally 'good' products of the school system - institutionalised.

Nuff sed

'No exposures' last night, after all.

What I think Huhne was saying is that the measures being taken on energy efficiency will ensure that no matter how much average? fuel bills rise between now & 2020 - they will be ?7% lower than they would otherwise have been if the energy efficiency measures were not to be introduced as equating to less than 1% fall in energy prices (& not in real terms prices).

In other words, the energy cartels and monopoly of B Gas (with e.g B Gas Transco relationship is a monopoly & not a cartel as wrongly corrected by JP with FOE rep) - created and reinforced by Labour under the foreignised disguise of energy competition will be preserved & enhanced by Coalition govt as having zero effective energy policy, for the UK.

B Gas chief saying return on gas/fuel only 5% - this is net return to ? (shareholders?) after deducting for all & sundry & indicates that fuel supply. purchase & distribution would be better nationalised?

Bentley may be sorry on camera for BG ripping off customers with tariffs - but why doesn't OfGEM require all overcharged on fuel bills to be immediately repaid to all customers by lowering their bill as is tantamount to fraudulent conspiracy?

Energy policy with windfarms etc is wrong direction as immediate need is for UK gas production from waste food, sewerage, silage on farms etc - UK can more easily make gas than it can make electricity - so investment should be focussed more on gas production in UK as not electricity as gas can be made to make electricity & more heating can be provided by electricity with smaller local nuclear power plants.

UK govt should set the ambition for UK self sufficiency by 2030 & go for it & put people back to work.

Other misinformation - entire housing stcok suitable for cavity wall insulation?
No it is not - good proportion of housing stock is either solid wall or narrow cavity width (less than 50 mm) and cannot be done/ receive insulation grant - as grants not available yet for insulating solid wall & other problem housing.

Loft insulation is messy - but surely an inflatable membrane positioned in the loft space of most houses, would be cleaner & much more efficient at reducing heat loss in conventional loft-spaces & could be deflated in summer when not in heating season.

Huhne has been left a huge energy mess by Labour and guess who was energy minister for Labour?

However, powerful cartel & monopoly interests are dominating the energy market when the govt should have much a much better vision of a UK that is self sufficient in UK power production; with a nationalised section in the interim for buying & distributing fuel as current UK greedy inefficient cartel is weak at buying fuel internationally as simply leveraging own profits at customer expense.

There is a huge no of UK jobs in UK energy self sufficiency - and the investment cost is zero over a 20 year period if UK energy self sufficiency succeeds as would fit with electrification of most if not all UK road vehicles.

Lack of vision & strategic planning by policy makers?

No - a chronic lack of everything that is competent in running a country that is declining and for which energy self sufficiciency is the most critical component of its long term economic survival.

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museV wrote:

'Hundreds more young black men are in prison than at leading universities
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8911456/Hundreds-more-young-black-men-are-in-prison-than-at-leading-universities.html
Hundreds more young black men are in prison than attending the country’s leading universities, the Deputy Prime Minister will warn today, as he issues a fresh call to end racial discrimination.'

Well thats a given. Considering our leaders are more than familiar with the eugenics doxy, I wonder why Clegg puzzles himself on the matter? This will be him grabbing the black vote. Well what would you expect from a man who never had a real job nor produced a product or service, comes from an elite family and ony worked as a bureaucrat before filling his time with politics. You see similiar traits in teachers...except the elite background bit.

Sahsa..a question for you. Who was it who said:

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

Sasha Clarkson wrote "@45 Also, say what you mean - AND WHAT YOU PROPOSE TO DO ABOUT IT!"

Oh dear. Do you realise that before the creation of antibiotics, it was very common (and absolutely necessary) to fumigate in order to get rid of lice which led to typhus? A somewhat paranoid highly emotional, and often justifiably angry/frightened group of people may have mistaken that for something more sinister, or induced to think so by those with political motives? What many wanted before that was an end to predatory, anarchistic political/economic behaviour. That's all. That's what the numbers suggest was the case too, Look into below replacement level fertility and Karl Kautsky chapter 5 in 1914, it's online. he was a Marxist too..

Energy Bills

Well done Mr Paxman for getting Mr Huhne to admit who is going to be paying for this politically driven Green Agenda, the customers.

The interview with the head of British Gas was interesting too. He mentioned the “cost of transportation” twice , I had a quick look at the EU plans, it seems to be the case that energy companies have also to invest in what's being called the European Super Grid.
It seems in 2005 European governments agreed to pull resources under the EU umbrella, they came up with a Energy Security Plan (EU propaganda video).

So it seem , regardless if our current government wanted to change the previous UK governments energy plans , they would have to seek approval of 26 other member states to do so.


Changing the subject to domestic politics -

I found a gem. Labour before ,during and after the general election said that the Conservatives plan to reduce the government deficit by 2014-15 to 3% of GDP would be wrong and it showed the Tories hadn't changed blabber blabber etc . Maybe they would like to explain why they agreed to the same reduction scale over the same period of time in Nov 2009 , just short of six months before our general election ??

I quote -

“3.1 The UK entered into Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP) following a decision by ECOFIN Council in July 2008. In November 2009, the Council concluded that the UK should correct its excessive deficit by reducing the Treaty deficit below 3 per cent of GDP by 2014-15 at the latest. A deadline of 2 June 2010 was established by the Council for the Government to take effective action to meet the recommendations. Some 23 other EU Member States are also currently subject to the Excessive Deficit Procedure."


So why did they agree with it at the EU level ?

Sasha Clarkson wrote: "Why does it take Paul Krugman to highlight these comments By Andrew Haldane of the BOE"

When you (and no doubt others) cite people like Krugman, is it because Krugman (and others) present any formal logic or any sound empirical evidence? Or is it because in your view, he writes ("argues") authoritatively and entertains and impresses you (and others).

This is a a serious question/point, because, believe it or not, to be impressed and/or influenced by authority or by a name (who wins busines
prizes) is often an example of the ad hominem (PR) at work (argument from authority).

Is this not precisely what is wrong with Libertarian celebritism?. Is it at root not exactly what has gone wrong in our society? First prizes are created for an in-crowd. Then, these people are given platforms. Then their celebrity status is used to endorse other products. It's all a theatrical construction, and what they utter is performance art.

Is it not all a case of mistaken identity? False Credit Assignment?
Paranoia?

For some reason eugenics has become a topic on this forum, mooted by some as a possible root cause of societies problems.

At one extreme, we learn that the Israelis are getting smarter and smarter as they practice what might be described as 'intelligent' breeding.

And at the other extreme, we sometimes get Pakistani communities marrying their first cousins, which in England means that less than 2% of the population are currently responsible for some 23% of all birth defects.

It is probable, going forward, that this issue will dilute somewhat as insurance companies start to seriously use genetics to 'cherry-pick' customers.

By this means, people will be subliminally 'encouraged' to choose their mating partner carefully.

Aboriginaljim wrote: ""the personal squabbling is a wicked waste of your minds and time....and "we" British mugs are a hoodwinked and betrayed gang of people who cannot afford to squabble if our grandchildren are not to despise us for our stupidity and weakness."

What I have been trying to do is highlight some of the behaviour which, writ larger, are precisely what we will have to deal with if we are ever to find our way out of this Libertarian social and economic mess. So long as people keep defending the very behaviours which brought about and sustained our decline (and it's been happening for a long time), I fear we have no future. If the behaviour is genetic expression (as I fear it is), and the numbers are now beyond a tipping point (i.e a critical demographic mass brought about by he demographic processes I have repeatedly highlighted and referenced elsewhere) even that is a waste of time. What would be good is some critical analysis with data of those processes and trends, and some evidence that those who are highly self-centred (egocentric) in their referential behaviours, CAN shift towards a more allocentric mode of behaviour.

As to China and Russia, just remember that their socialism (with Chinese
characteristics) is something which Britain largely originated. The Russian system was for years a genuine Labour Party, vilified and caricatured by Libertarian West as a threat to its system. It was Old Left not New Left. If they can make their ring-fenced capitalists work for the good of the state whilst protecting everyone else via an internal passport system, why can't we? What stops this is greed and self-centredness writ large - . Ethnocentricism.

ALLEGED INDUSTRIAL EXTERMINATION (#81)

I have followed your 'finger posts' from way back "Brown-Dog", and have an open mind on the matter. Have you ever addressed the alleged 'serial-combustion furnaces'? I have been led to believe engineering drawings exist, and have a vague memory that the manufacturer suffered some reverse 'thereby' after the war. Can you post a link or two - I don't think Blogdog would allow detail.

Aboriginaljim wrote:"What is WRONG with us?"

Here's something which is perhaps worth looking into further.

https://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/22/8951282-13-more-students-surrender-in-sat-cheating-scandal-in-ny

This is a subtle one, but given the demographics of NYC (which have been linked to here in recent times), i.e the surprising ethnic composition of the White American sub-population of NYC and their cognitive characteristics, and given all else that is known about cognitive abilities and groups, would one not expect the NYC SAT (and NAEP) scores to be significantly higher for the overall White American population of NYC compared to the White populations of others big cities in other states?

For those who don't know, this testing of The Null Hypothesis in the context of "priors" is how a lot of good research is done. Note that one only assumes equality in order to reject it, and one does hat in order to find useful relations in data which allow one to predict and control.

That is the essence of science and engineering as well as all good management, as, if one can not predict and control reliably, one can not know with any degree of certainty what is going on and one even can't talk about the world rationally let alone manage events in it. If there is evidence of any forces working against such investigation, who and what are those forces working for?

Here's a follow up from the New York Times.

"Bernard Kaplan, the principal of Great Neck North, said he believed cheating was pervasive. “I think it’s widespread across the country,” he said Tuesday. “We were the school that stood up to it.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/23/education/more-students-charged-in-long-island-sat-cheating-case.html

be sure to read some of the (in places ironic given Iran) background.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Neck,_New_York

Elsewhere, has "social-networking" become a (addictive) behavioural problem? It exploits and reinforces proximal/local i.e self absorbed behaviour. The big hook in recent times has been the feminised brained demographic. In the 80s and 90s it was mainly boys and ballistic or strategic computer games but now it is social self absorption. Just look at girls and women behaviour on Facebook and you will see how irrational and self-centred it all is. It is not productive at all, think GDP. This is part of what is wrong with US.

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Barriesington wrote "HOMO SAPIENS ISN'T WORKING"

A tad grandiose, as usual I suggest. It is only true perhaps, if one looks too "locally".

May you not be too ethno-centred to see the alternative? Cast your eye further afield to China:

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-03/20/content_9616962.htm

"Different countries have different election rules and a socialist China won't follow Western election campaigns," told China Daily following the adoption of the latest amendment to the Electoral Law last Sunday.
//
"Western-style elections, however, are a game for the rich. They are affected by the resources and funding that a candidate can utilize.
Those who manage to win elections are easily in the shoes of their parties or sponsors and become spokespersons for the minority," Li said, referring to Western elections at the national level."

Li Fei, deputy director of the legislative affairs commission under the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature (2010).

They seem to be working. What are they doing which we are not? What polices (of behaviour) do they have which we do not? Many here seem to completely ignore or vilify this non self-centred society which now leads the SCO and BRICS which is over half the global population. Why?

https://english.peopledaily.com.cn/constitution/constitution.html

A somewhat disingenuous comment from the NY Times last year:

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/world/asia/21china.html

Democratic-Centralism or Chinese "Stalinist" socialism is essentially Old Fabian Labour (not modern Milibandist New Left Labour) and is bottom up democracy led by a big Civil Service (The Party). It is something which we once had up to the 80s before it was undermined by the USA and its New Left university indoctrinated). The Chinese seem to think they are running a truly democratic society and that what we have is a plutocracy or plutarchy. Michael Young and others suggested long ago in 1958 that our decline would be inevitable because of our poorly thought through promotion of elitism (narcissism) and "meritocracy", where like segregates with like at expense of community.

kevseywevsey wrote ""Which surprised me some as Obama is a hard core Leninist/Marxist."

Surely you don't buy that rabid Republican nonsense? If that were at all true he'd have been subjected to regime-change before he'd got as far as he did would he not? He and his party would be applying to join the SCO and BRICS not upsetting Mr Bear (Medvedev) over START II...

Stop following your own thoughts and start letting them be driven by geopolitics and what's happening not what Libertarians say is happening as they have little or no grasp of pursuit of truth. Language is all a matter of interpretation "as we all know".....(except most don't, hence all the disagreements).

Sasha Clarkson wrote: "@66 "Obama is a hard core Leninist/Marxist." No he isn't, he's a Libertarian Trotskyite-anarchist follower of Mises and Hayek! (;-D )

@68 Mods: fair enough, but DO something about it!"

I suggest you watch (or read about) Max Mosley giving evidence to the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics, namely the NOTW slur upon Mosley's reputation, as all of this is germane to what many claim to value as freedom of speech and the press.

One has to accept that there has been abuse of propaganda images and or stories, regardless of the truth or accuracy of such material in order to promote and reinforce one type of politics at the expense of all others. By that, I'm referring to recent deregulation (anarchism) and its clear costs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosley_v_News_Group_Newspapers_Limited

Some of this High Court inquiry, and its publicity, MAY help go some way towards rectifying recent degenerative trends, on the other hand, listening to part of this evidence session today, what struck me was just how much is made of the term "Nazi" and all that can be associated with it, to deter some people ("guilty by association") from voting for any sort of regulation (in the Public Sector especially) and even in shaping how people are employed.

It was this term which kept being repeated, not references to sexual behaviour. My point here is that this IS political. It is an effort to bias people away from a regulating state. This is just one way that right-wing political correctness has been abused to politically bully in the hegemonic interests of the right-wing (which is how many young females behave in adolescence alas). This would also appear to be reasonable explanation for OBSERVATIONS which are dramatically different to what one would otherwise EXPECT given known population BASE-RATES, the statistical Null Hypothesis and an assumption of EQUALITY.

This is how rationality is supposed to proceed and yet it would seem that you want it censured/censored.

kevseywevsey wrote: "@71: yes, Barry Obama is all that but at his core he's a Leninist/Marxist. What else would you expect from a Chicargo community organiser with staple gun and pamphlets."

Take on board that throughout the 1920s and 1930s there was a bitter political battle between two factions in the USSR. Both claimed to be Leninists. One faction, the Trotskyites and Left-Opposition was purged in the 1930s, just as they were in Germany. This is an important point of history. Many of those purged (thrown out) found their way to the USA. They morphed into the Neo-Conservatives. They wanted the state to be eroded. They still do. The others believe in Big Government as in China, Vietnam, North Korea and former USSR.

if one gets this wrong, once gets geopolitics all wrong. The SCO and BRICS are not Trotskyite. That is why the members of The Socialist International (see New Labour, the past parties of Greece, Spain etc) are opposed to the regulative statist policies of the BRICS and SCO.

barriesingleton wrote "I have followed your 'finger posts' from way back "Brown-Dog", and have an open mind on the matter."

I don't think I have been saying much which has been technically original on this matter. All that I have endeavoured to do here is to raise a little concern about the way that some very simple explanations for otherwise are somewhat hard to believe (and largely forensically unsubstantiated) stories which appear to have been spun after WWII much as we have seen WMD stories pun and many other instances of spin, in more recent times.

My point is primarily about political bias in behaviour and its consequences. This is what I am repeatedly drawing attention to. China, I would say, is National Socialist. To the best of my knowledge, they try to treat their people well. As such it makes no sense to me that people use the term "Nazi" pejoratively unless they are doing so in order to egregiously facilitate deregulation. Like you, I abhor the consequence of this which has led to massive inequality, deterioration of behaviour in our school, communities, and businesses etc so I think it's foolhardy and irresponsible to let people who argue against curtailing all that play what is effectively the race card. It is one which is played by the feminised-brained through a failure to biologically develop sound spatial relations, I suggest, i.e, it's a human cognitive deficit which has to be better managed, not licensed and encouraged as it has been..

Aboriginaljim wrote:" I am sensible (as they used to say) of the dilemmas you face BD....determined as you have become to see things through the lens of genetics and to go so far as to suggest that we can breed a better master race by careful "selection" and weeding out weaklings of various kinds."

It is the physical environment which selects. It selects genes through emitted behaviours.

It isn't a lens. Genetics is at the core of biology and medical science etc. We know how this all basically works. Behaviour is emitted and only shaped/selected by the environment. That's just how Natural Selection works, and it's why we are the way we are. Lots of people are ignorant of basic biology, and that's why they go to doctors - but you won't find people talking about doctors looking at them through a lens of genetics and biology any more than you'll find educated people saying that a chemist looks at the world through the lens of atoms, molecules and bonds etc. Social scientists (lawyers, teachers, politicians etc) who talk the way they do, often do so out of an ignorance of science, that's all. It's why they are so verbal and create ineffective systems.

There is a growing risk of many people ignoring what matters by believing in fantasies like "mental effort", "hard-work" and "choice"
etc rather than coming to terms with who and what they are and better managing it with the help of others

"Why do we know Obama can mince around the world stage after 2008? Yes, Professor Dog.....because he CAN....because he`s the front man for global financial organised crime...and despite what you might consider certain genetic impediments he`s accomplished at doing it.

Will anyone ask him about his connections with criminals and homicidal secret police across the world when he pontificates about freedom democracy and human rights?"

Libertarianism may be venal (to some), but as it's a legalistic system one can't describe it as criminal except in relation to some other legalistic system. Remember that. It's relational. All one can hope to do is change this legalistic system, hopefully, democratically, as that's how we manage behaviour. There are those in the EU and Washington who want to do it non democratically. Do they know something we don't?
They may.

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96.At 18:30 24th Nov 2011, Aboriginaljim wrote: ""Know your market Prof ...or risk getting ignored."

I don't need Libertarian advice thanks. I don't have a market, and if you, or anyone else ignores what I write, that's fine by me, as I'm not looking for an appreciative audience.

".or abused"

You miss the point. If you feel the need to abuse go ahead, but that will just serve to show that you've missed the point, as what's posted here is not personal..

"Yes of course ....creating any expectation which a person cannot ever meet is tyranny.....but are you really sure that there are such gross differences in potential ability ?"

Yes. Absolutely. Did you say you had experience as a Social Worker?

"The comments you made about by reference to Obama are insultingly trivial and appear to be irrelevant to the point I think you must know I was making."

There you go again referring to yourself. What you write above suggests that you didn't understand what was written. How likely is it that the team managing Obama would have him doing things which were illegal? Are you sure that you've been fully understanding what you've been reading so far? It doesn't look like it with remarks like the above.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

All this user's posts have been removed.Why?

All this user's posts have been removed.Why?