Saudis kill dissident journalist – Facebook kills hundreds.

I applaud the media’s outrage over the Saudi state’s murderous approach to dissent. But where is the outrage over Facebook’s killing of multiple dissenters, because their views differed from the accepted mainstream? Included were leftwing, rightwing and wingfree pages and accounts, including some concerned with apparently unacceptable subjects, like civil liberty.

Facebook always keeps an eye out for spurious accounts and those that exist only to spam us or direct users off of Facebook onto click-bait sites. One would expect nothing less. Convincing reasons for this mass extinction in Facebook’s blog post speak of spam and “inauthentic activity” and click bait. Unfortunately, these reasons cannot explain why accounts like Police the Police and CopBlock came down, or those highlighting government excess and corruption. The excellent libertarian Free Thought Project came down, as well as the very Right Wing News, Anti-Media and countless others.

“Countless” because Facebook released no list of the sites deleted, so that we might see how well they fitted the sanctimonious blog post. Nor did they give warning. Surely eliminating fraudulent or dangerous (how to make bombs) pages should be done as they are discovered, rather than waiting until hundreds have been identified and then taking the lot down with a one-size-fits-all blog post in explanation. Under the umbrella of general housekeeping, Facebook have begun to delete dissent – sweeping it away. Many of Facebook’s victims have also had their Twitter accounts closed. This is a major and coordinated assault upon the freedom to exchange and debate ideas on the edge of mainstream. It is devastating to see something with the people power of Facebook getting into bed with the coercive state. Devastating and disturbing.

Facebook is guided in these activities by the Digital Forensics Lab, which is an arm of the Atlantic Council think tank — a neoconservative group funded by Gulf monarchies, defence giants like Raytheon, megabanks like HSBC, foreign state actors, and the US government — to weed out pages and accounts that challenge the status quo. Key architect of the assault is Facebook’s Head of Cybersecurity Nathaniel Gleicher, who was former White House National Security Council Director of Cybersecurity Policy. See Free Thought Project.

Many of these accounts were developed through years of dedicated hard work that built hundreds of thousands, or millions of followers. The urge to get an important message or awareness across to as many as possible created the followers . It is grossly unjust to delete the fruit of such passionate work without warning or explanation. What will now happen to all the comment and information and connections that were made in good faith over years?

Without a list we cannot tell how many of the deleted pages and accounts were fraudulent, making weird shit up to attract clickbait, or pedalling outright lies. Perhaps most of the 800 were, and good riddance to such rubbish. I can accept that social media giants draw lines and police the content of their platforms. But many of the deletions were not clickbait oriented, fraudulent schemes or of “inauthentic activity.” They were taken down in this mass execution for no apparent reason beyond their questioning of the status quo.

Look for these pages and all you get from Facebook is “Sorry, this content isn’t available at the moment – The link you followed may have expired, or the Page may only be visible to an audience that you aren’t in.”   “May have expired” in this case translates to ‘killed by us’ as the sole explanation. It is usual custom, when executing or otherwise punishing entities to give a specific reason for doing so, not some generalized explanation that sounds reasonable, but does not apply to many of the cases.  Deleting what might be the sum total of somebody’s work is a major action, however allowable it may be in the Terms and Conditions.  Reasons must be given and a means to appeal open. Kafka would understand.

With this drawing of lines around a state-determined status quo, we are approaching a situation where in a modern equivalent to the Kennedy assassination those questioning the Oswald lone assassin explanation would have their social media shut down.  Are Facebook assuming the role of official government censors?  One reason the mainstream was not so upset at this is because they are the status quo, regurgitating government news releases as a matter of course. The alternative media is competition they look down upon, like London black cabs versus Uber drivers. End of.

Back to Saudi Arabia. I am still pleased to see the outrage over their murder of journalist Khashoggi. Yes, it’s because he’s an American resident and writes for the Washington Post and yes, why was there no real outcry over the busload of children blown up with US munitions, or the starvation facing millions of children and adults in Yemen, caused by a Saudis coalition including  the US, UK and France? After getting away with that, and the beheading of minor dissenters at home, it’s no wonder they thought the disappearance of one dissident journalist would quickly blow over. If Jamal Khashoggi had not broadcast his murder from an Apple Watch, it may have done so. I wonder if he took pleasure in knowing that his last dreadful moments were making history. Watching this one with interest.

 

New fake gas attack to prolong war in Syria? (take 2)

Another so-called chemical gas attack is due any time now.  Same old story. The Syrian army is winning decisively by conventional means and the jihadists are up against the wall. Their only hope is to bring in Western forces with another fake gas attack, knowing they are all too eager to engage.

The last one happened this April 7th in Douma, with a short video shot on location. Six days later the US, UK and France hurled 100+ missiles at Syrian targets in punishment. One day after that, the OPCW (Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) inspectors arrived in Douma to examine the scene of the crime.

Remember all that? It received headline news coverage, complete with video of scud missiles launching from ships and inspectors arriving in Damascus. What came of their report?

Twelve weeks later the OPCW issued its report, to a whisper of publicity, reporting that no evidence was found of a chemical weapons attack. Traces of chlorine were found at two locations. It’s a household chemical. They found no evidence on the ground, or residues in people, of chemical weapons use, saying only that “the persons affected in the reported incidents may, in some instances, have been exposed to some type of non-persistent, irritating substance.”

The OPCW report is somewhat less than conclusive. Note the vagueness of “may in some instances,” which indicates a possibility not based on evidence, and limited to a few. In other words, some of “the persons” may have been exposed to a temporary irritant before the event, which was filmed on the spot by the White Helmets. Or they may have just been acting. The mention of “persons affected in the reported incidents” does not identify them as victims and suggests that some may have been exposed to something temporary. So the others, most of them, were not exposed to even anything. What are they telling us, in this round-about manner? There is no mention or confirmation of any dead or damaged victims of the so-called attack, despite the media horror story we were fed, based on unverified photos and reports from the jihadists who, it appears, stage-managed the entire event.

At that time, with the real Syrian army ascendant, gassing civilians near a hospital would have been a pointless military move, putting aside the madness of waving such a red flag at Uncle Sam. Whatever the propaganda tells us of Assad, there is never any suggestion that he or his generals are that stupid.

The Syrian Army now needs to end this war, and cannot leave an important province in the hands of armed and murderous foreign fighters of ISIS, Al Nusra and Al Qaeda. The weakened terrorist forces have only two options – to surrender or play the chemical weapons card again. This time they could create real casualties, from the ranks of captive young women and children taken during ISIS’s murderous assault on the Yazidi population. They are without scruples or morals.

On August 22^nd, Trump’s National Security advisor, John Bolton, appears to have given the cue to the jihadist insurgents for another false flag event by once again publically pronouncing that “…if the Syrian regime uses chemical weapons we will respond very strongly and they really ought to think about this a long time.” American ambassador to the UN, Madeleine Albright, expressed similar sentiments. They are laying the foundations for another fake attack. America, and perhaps Britain and France, will be poised to send more missiles to an undeserving recipient and do whatever they can to prolong conflict in the Middle East and maintain healthy profits for their arms industries.

The US military establishment would hate to lose some of its new best enemies, at a time when they are terrified that Trump might make peace with Russia. Without enemies, how could the military and intelligence communities defend their ever-increasing budgets? As I have put it before, the voracious military establishments of America and Britain are threatened not by any enemy, but by the absence of one. Without an enemy to fear who needs to support the expensive and destructive military and intelligence communities that act like a state within a state?

Of course, I hope another gas attack is never staged, and that events move swiftly to an end of the conflict in Syria without further fighting or civilian death. I hope that the Yazidi captives are freed and able to rejoin and rebuild their communities. Most of all I look forward to the day when peace has comfortably settled into the whole of Syria, from where my father’s parents emigrated to America over a century ago. I have been twice to the village where my father’s aunt’s descendants lived, as did that aged aunt when I visited Mishtaya, a village in the hills outside Homs mercifully unscathed by the war.

May there be an end to pointless conflict. Peace is not an unnatural condition for mankind. It was the norm for millennia before rulers imposed themselves upon developed and largely peaceful civilisations around the world.

Primed for another Chemical Weapons charade

Will there be another fake chemical attack soon, staged by the forces of ISIS or Al Qaeda still controlling Syrian territory in Idlib province? There have been at least three so far, the last one in Douma, outside Damascus last April. The OPCW inspectors who visited that site finally released their report (see below), which found neither evidence nor victims of any chemical attack. 100+ missiles were lobbed into Syria by the US, UK and France, as punishment, a day before they even arrived.

Whenever the jihadists are up against the wall, with the Syrian Army winning by conventional means, they fake a chemical weapons attack in the hope of giving Western powers an excuse to intervene. And they are all too willing for any excuse to play with their deadly toys.

The Syrian Army now needs to end this war, and cannot leave an important province in the hands of armed and murderous foreign fighters. The weakened terrorist forces have only two options – to surrender or play the chemical weapon card. This time they could create real casualties, from the ranks of captive young women and children taken during ISIS’s murderous assault on the Yazidi population of Iraq (older women and men were killed).

Here is the tell-tale timeline for that last so-called chemical gas attack, the one that launched a thousand missiles:

April 7 – alleged gas event in Douma, last outpost of insurgents around Damascus. Our media’s  information on this was unverified, coming from anti-government sources. The jihadist White Helmets made a short film, widely broadcast.

April 13 – America and its allies launch 100+ missile attack upon Syria as punishment, also making millions for the US arms industry.

April 14 OPCW (Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) inspectors arrive at Douma to examine the scene. Their report was expected in “the usual” 3-4 weeks.

July 6 (12 weeks later) the OPCW issues its report, to a whisper of publicity, reporting that no evidence was found of a chemical weapons attack. Traces of chlorine were found at two locations. It’s a household chemical. They found no evidence on the ground, or residues in people, of chemical weapons, saying only that “the persons affected in the reported incidents may, in some instances, have been exposed to some type of non-persistent, irritating substance.”

The OPCW report is somewhat less than conclusive. Note the vagueness of “may in some instances,” which indicates a possibility not based on evidence, and limited to a few. In other words, some of “the persons” may have been exposed to a temporary irritant before the event, which was filmed on the spot by the White Helmets. Or they may have just been acting. The mention of “persons affected in the reported incidents” does not identify them as victims and suggests that only some of them may have been exposed to a temporary irritant. So the others, most of them, were not exposed to even anything temporary. What are they telling us, in this round-about manner? There is no mention or confirmation of any dead or damaged victims of the so-called attack, despite the media horror story we were fed, based on unverified information from the jihadists who, it would appear, stage-managed the entire event they filmed.

At that time, with the real Syrian army ascendant, gassing civilians near a hospital would have been a pointless military move, whether or not it was waving a red flag at Uncle Sam. Whatever the propaganda tells us of Assad, there is never any suggestion that he or his generals are that stupid.

On August 22^nd, Trump’s National Security advisor, John Bolton, appears to have given the cue to the jihadist insurgents for another false flag event by once again publically pronouncing that “…if the Syrian regime uses chemical weapons we will respond very strongly and they really ought to think about this a long time.” Suggestions keep appearing in the media that Assad will use chemical weapons in the battle for Idlib. They are laying the foundation for a fake attack. America, and perhaps Britain and France, will again be poised to send more missiles to an undeserving recipient and do whatever they can to prolong conflict in the Middle East and maintain healthy profits for their arms industries.

What surprises me is how they get away with it, and why so many of the mainstream media appear to believe the lies they are fed. If not then how do they sleep at night? ISIS and their associates are a truly unpleasant murderous bunch. If you did not look at the link to their  Yazidi genocide then take a look now. They are not deserving of continued tacit support and sympathy from our governments and media. It is past time for the conflict to end, though the enclave of armed fundamentalists in Idlib will continue to fight in any way they can, including the staging of terrorist attacks abroad. It’s what they do.

The US military establishment would hate to lose two of its favourite enemies, ISIS and Al Qaeda, and are terrified that Trump might make peace with Russia. Without enemies, how could the military and intelligence communities defend their ever-increasing budgets? As I have put it before, the voracious military establishments of America and Britain are threatened not by any enemy, but by the absence of one. Without an enemy to fear there is no perceived need to support the expensive, and destructive, military and intelligence communities that act like a state within a state.

Of course, I hope another gas attack is never staged, and that events move swiftly to an end of the conflict in Syria without further fighting or civilian death. I hope that the Yazidi captives are freed and able to rejoin and rebuild their communities. Most of all I look forward to the day when peace has comfortably settled into to the whole of Syria, from where my father’s parents emigrated to America over a century ago. I have been twice to the village where my father’s aunt’s descendants lived, as did that aged aunt when I visited Mishtaya, a village in the hills outside Homs mercifully unscathed by the war.

May there be an end to pointless conflict. Peace is not an unnatural condition for mankind. It was the norm for millennia before rulers imposed themselves upon developed and largely peaceful civilisation.

 

 

The wheel needs a whole new hub, not just another revolution.

 

High Noon in Queen’s Park

I will be in conversation with former Newsnight Editor Stephen Haggard next Sat, 30th June talking of life without the state, perhaps touching on VegeBurger, living stars and what comes up. It’s a day out in the park at the Queen’s Park Book Festival, with loads of other authors and interesting people speaking, panelling and tickling minds throughout the day. Some are charged and some free including ours, event number 3, on at 12 noon in the Queens Park Community Tent, billed as

LOCAL LEGEND WITH GREG SAMS 

A literary brunch with veggie burger king, fractal artist and New Age entrepreneur Greg Sams (founder of Whole Earth foods, creator of the veggie burger, alternative thinker, published writer, entrepreneur), in conversation with local journalist and former Newsnight Editor Stephen Haggard.    

https://qpbookfest.com/sessions/event-3-local-legend-with-greg-sams/

 

 

 

The Primo Nutmeg interview

Another good interview that is well-illustrated with pics from my own archives and selections by the Nutmeg people. Quite a bit of my life story stuff, with an opening blast at the concept of Limited Liability that allows those who own companies to shirk responsibility for broken commitments and damages inflicted by actions from which they profited. That’s a relatively new ‘invention’ that I have for some time regarded as a curse upon our culture. When I did VegeBurger it was as sole proprietor with unlimited liability for my actions. It does focus the mind and keep one responsible.

Video on Youtube

Video on Soundcloud

Video on Facebook

 

Taxation – how to pluck the goose

While readying words to accompany this Nugget in a Nutshell on taxation I turned up the clearest most concise piece I have yet to read on the subject, by Dominic Frisby, who seamlessly combines his career in financial journalism with that of stand-up comic.      Taxation – in a minute 

Did you know that the UK tax code is ten times longer than the complete works of William Shakespeare? I sum it up in a minute on the video, as what it has always been – a funnel shifting wealth from the many to the few.

Why we need to simplify our tax code – Dominic Frisby

Back in August I took a show to the Edinburgh Festival all about tax. Not perhaps the most fertile subject for comedy – HMRC’s cock-ups aside – but I’d concluded that the dearth of media about such an important subject needed to be put right.

Tax is and has always been power. Whether kings, emperors or governments, if they lose their tax revenue, they lose their power. The aim behind every conquest in history has been to take control of the tax base. The purpose of every revolution is pretty much the same. Every war has been funded by some kind of tax, either before or after the event.

Tax permeates everything that we do. It’s as much a part of our lives as eating, drinking or sleeping. Can you name me an activity – apart from breathing – that doesn’t involve taxation in some way?

I know what you are thinking. All you’re doing by that is creating future taxpayers.

The way that a society is taxed speaks volumes about that society. In the UK taxes are taken at source, by stealth, by force and without choice. So, there’s a relationship between taxation and freedom, as well.

Click and continue reading…

Why the Western diet sucks

Raising the popular consciousness on food was the primary driving force in my life from the age of 19, when a quirk of fate led me through a series of companies that were the first to offer organically grown natural food products to the British public. My focus was always to accentuate the positive – the greater flavour, satisfaction and vitality of a plant-based diet based on unrefined traditional staples, with seasonal vegetable foods. It was cheaper too. More detail about that activity is on my website.

It was clear, even in 1967/8, that our governments were implicit in the introduction of the factory farm and chemically supported agriculture. In the 1970’s the veil was lifted from my eyes when I learned about the fundamental nature of the state, understanding why they make a mess of things that we could do much better. Yeah, I wrote a book about that one.

So it is most heartening to see aspects of both those interests combined in this illuminating article from the well-respected American Institute for Economic Research.

Why Unhealthy Food Is Cheap and Plentiful

By Jeffrey A. Tucker

Every health nut will tell you the reason why the US food market is such a mess. It’s fast food and corporate farming. We need to get back to local food and organics, they say. And no processed foods ever.

Let’s look more closely, based on an experience I had just today.

The waiter in this airport bar walked by carrying huge plates of food, piled high with fries and burgers on puffy golden buns…

 

Continue reading…

I’m pushing stateless, on the BBC. That’s irony.

At the end of last year I was asked to describe a positive vision of the future for “Newtopia,” an online BBC channel. An exciting first job of 2018 and, of course, I went for a world without the state, stressing the positive and not dwelling on the negatives (just listen to the news for that).

The challenge was to compress my entire book into 2.5 minutes of audio. Phew! It would have been easier to produce 60 minutes. Feeling good about being up top on the viewing charts with it.

So here it is. Enjoy.
What would life be like without the state?

All the best,
Gregory Sams

 

 

 

Faking it for War

Fake WMD took us to war in Iraq and disastrous conflicts throughout the Middle East, none of them justified. It was looking like we were about to see these conflicts finally come to a end.

Now, alleged chemical attacks on the last active terrorists in Syria are being used to justify Western intervention that prolongs a vicious campaign aimed at making Syria an Islamic state. The last remaining militants in Douma,  Eastern Ghouta, are the Army of Islam (Jaysh al-Islam), supplied and funded by Saudi Arabia. The Saudis are great friends with America and Britain, and their largest customer for military equipment.

The voracious war machines of America and Britain are threatened not by any enemy, but by the absence of one. This conflict is good news for the military and arms industries. Israel hates Syria and Iran, and would like to see those strong nations collapsed and fragmented. The media has leapt onto the bandwagon, laying blame for this “alleged” attack on Syria and, ominously, Russia and Iran. Their crime is to support the Syrian government in its fight against an array of Islamic fighters who would stop at nothing to impose their version of Islam on that secular nation.  Israel has already attacked an unrelated Syrian airfield, in response to this unfounded allegation.

Not for a moment could the Trumps, Theresa Mays, and Macrons of this world believe that Assad launched this attack. It is as clearly fake as the WMD for which there was never evidence. For the legitimate Syrian government the battle for Damascus was virtually over, with 90% of Eastern Ghouta recaptured, with the militants and their families safely evacuated to Idlib Province, allowed to keep their belongings, including their personal handgun or AK-47.

Only Douma was still controlled by the Army of Islam, who held 3,500 hostages  prisoner, mostly Syrian military, their family, or sympathisers. They rained shells upon Damascus daily, and received return bombardment, but had no chance of military victory, none whatsoever. There was only one strategy that could prolong the struggle – to bring in Western military support. Their only way to prompt this was a staged chemical weapons attack, choreographed by the infamous White Helmets, who have form on this. It is alleged that real victims were taken from their hostage stock. The White Helmets were extensively trained by their Western backers in the arts of propaganda, and make great use of children.

After their final fling, even the Army of Islam now appears to be leaving Douma under safe conduct. With no rational reason whatsoever to rain rockets on Syria, some emotional video provides the excuse for our macho leaders to make war on that ancient cradle of civilization. President Trump’s reputation is on the line, with May and Macron wanting in on the act. This is more like bukakke than war, unless Russia becomes engaged, in which case the military will have their hot war, may the gods help us.

Our ruling elite want Russia back as a fearful enemy and magnifies or fabricates whatever it it can to foster this unfounded paranoia.  Back when Russia threatened to spread communism across the free West, Americans understandably built bomb shelters and proudly proclaimed that they’d rather be dead than red.  The US kept a fleet of nuclear laden B-52 bombers in the air 24/7, just in case.  It was an ideological clash that ended in 1991 with the dissolution of communism and the Soviet Union. But Russia was the best enemy the West ever had, and we witness a monumental effort to re-instate it as a fearful threat to our democracy, way of life, and cyber security. Hogwash.

They just keep faking news to make war! The first Gulf War was fuelled by an emotional report of babies being taken out of incubators by Iraqi forces. A public relations firm created that story, using the Kuwaiti ambassador’s daughter as the video “witness.” The second Iraq war was based on fake WMD. Destruction of Libya based on a phoney attempt to protect the people of Libya from their evil ruler.  Ditto Syria, a successful secular nation with a strong army having no mission other than to protect its homeland.

All this calculated conflict is funded by our hard-earned taxes, and sadly, this is what ruling elites do and have done for a millennia or two. Without our fear of the enemy, we might start questioning the need to be owned by a big shepherd and directed by their sheepdogs – dogs well trained to do whatever they are told. We might stop worrying about what we would do without the state and start wondering about what we could do in a state of connection and freedom.

——————

Yes, I wrote a book that takes this further, so if you wonder whether we could live successfully in a state of freedom, without the protection of men in uniforms, then do check it out. It’s as fresh today as the day it was written, and even more relevant. For a 2.5 minute condensation, go to this BBC Newtopias page.

The wheel needs a whole new hub, not just another revolution.

Uncle Sam Shuts Down – Again!

Uncle Sam shuts down again, for the 19^th time. Long ago, the US government thought it could legislate itself into sanity by putting a ceiling on the amount of money it could borrow – to stop the national debt getting out of hand. Since 1960, Congress has 78 times over-ridden that good intention and permanently raised, temporarily extended, or revised the definition of the debt limit. And what of the national debt? It’s out of hand.

This latest shutdown arises from another session of ‘horse-trading’ as one party holds another to ransom over a cause or project that it supports, before agreeing the increase. This time it’s about child migrants. 4 of the previous 18 shut downs were abortion related.

The politicians focus on political issues, not on the debt or budget. Do any sane voices suggest the government tries to manage with the vast sums it scoops out of the economy through its vast array of taxes? Must it forever borrow more in order to cover out-of-control spending?

All the top ends of the state, including the military, will be virtually untouched by the “shutdown.” State employees deemed non-essential (to core state survival) will not get paid, and there are many of them. National Parks, passport offices and other services stop. Many people will get pissed off, rightly so.

The business of war will continue as usual, and pointlessly. $5.6 trillion has been spent in the Middle East since 2001, not counting future liabilities to vets. Neither Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, nor Iran ever had ambitions to invade or attack the United States. The so-called hijackers of 9/11 were from Saudi Arabia anyway. It’s a sham, with horrific consequences. Western powers continue to fund a relentless expansion of the world’s conflict zones.

One day, perhaps, governments of the world really will shut down, on the back of a global financial collapse, such as that barely averted in 2008. Should this ever happen we must remember that bankers and governments do not invent or produce smart phones or airplanes, peas or wine, shoes or houses. We do.

Such a collapse would clearly be a difficult experience – but a survivable one. Humans are brilliant at self-organizing to meet each other’s needs and the evidence is everywhere you care to look. We already have established crypto currencies ready to step into the breach as a means of exchange. Amazon, EBay, Pay Pal et al keep their markets secure with constantly evolving algorithms, not police and prisons.

Today we are connected as never before and have the tools to replace, if it becomes necessary, those vital functions that the state was running, financing them with some of the wealth no longer consumed by taxes. If need be, we could even replace the archaic and expensive justice system, with joined up algorithms and no victimless offences. A modern spin can be put on the cost-free ancient deterrent of exile. The threat of exclusion or even deletion from social media, phone, Internet access, and other features of the digital world could both deter and protect. Jails are so last century.

The raison d’être of the state is to protect us from other versions of themselves.   We do not need the burden of a political beast, which thrives on conflict in order to live in peace with each other and exchange things of value in a safe and organized manner. It has never been a natural or inevitable way for human beings to organize their affairs. We have survived for centuries despite the world’s ruling states, not because of them. We can survive and thrive, in peace, without them.

The wheel needs a whole new hub, not just another revolution.