'Dead Cat' UK journalism

The most bizarre fall out of Hibs win in the Scottish Cup is the outrageous sense of 'dead cat' stories oozing out of every pore of the Rangers PR machine, especially when the forensic detailing of Wings over Scotland has demonstrated it was all a load of utter baloney. 

The Rangers 'fans' who invaded had only one intent, kicking ten bells of shite of any Hibbee 'fan' looking for a rumble and not the protection of 'their players'. This suggests a degree of pre-planning by the nutter fans on both sides which is not unknown, been going on for decades, and why most police forces retain a football violence cell to monitor known football fight organisers. None of this mattered as the usual slavering morons in the Scotch Tory Party tried make an argument that pre-arranged violence, triggered or not by sectarian singing was a good reason to get rid of the current law which makes sectarian singing and kicking ten bells of shite out of other fans at football matches a criminal offence.

We see the same sense of 'dead cat' journalism in the Daily Record over Calmac and the Scottish Islands Contract by the same unthinking Unionist journalists in support of the Scotch Labour Party who are trying to pretend what they said was going to happen, Calmac would loose out to Serco, and thus the service would be 'privatised' did not happen because it was their pressure that stopped the Scottish Government from 'privatising' the service. Even though it transpires Calmac were always the preferred bidder and the independent review of the contract offer (as required by EU competition laws) agreed Calmac should retain the contract. Serco made a statement to the London Stock Exchange saying they had not expected to get the contract, probably because they were not willing to retain Calmac's Scottish Government working wage policy and be able to make the sort of profit return they would be looking for, from their proposed multi-million pound investment. They also knew that any attempt to change working conditions and sailings (to enable them to make their expected profit margin) would see them at odds with not just the Trade Unions but the Scottish Government and a large section of Scottish public opinion. The reality is Serco winning the islands ferry contract would have been a loose / loose for Serco and their share holders.

Currently the biggest area where 'Dead Cats' are being hurled is the Conservative's civil war over EU membership where Cameron's stay two 'dead cats' are instantly called and then doubled by Boris' four out 'dead cats'. According to the UK Westminster bubble media we, the electorate, are making our minds up based on which of the contestants creates the largest pile of 'dead cats' in a case of never mind the stink, see the height. What not one of these clowns or their media commentator pals understands is the average member of the UK electorate, who is likely to vote, has already decided how they will vote on the 23rd of June. This currently suggests the UK north of Manchester and across Wales and NI will vote to stay whereas the majority south of Manchester will vote to go and because there are more of the UK electorate south of Manchester than north of Manchester, the UK will soon be negotiating its EU exit no matter the size or scale of 'dead cats' which are thrown at us by either side of a Tory Party currently at war over the EU.

If there is an 'out' vote we will then have a UK Government hiatus of several months while Tory blood letting takes place and Boris is anointed 'King' of a UK that will be soon missing one of its key cash cows, Scotland. At the same time Boris will be forced to deal with a NI teetering towards yet another collapse into violence as the pressure comes on NI Unionists to agree the only solution to NI not being dragged out of the EU is Irish Unification. This logical position will be faced with outright obstruction from the Orange Lodge and the inevitable return to 'war' from its 'military' wing, the UDF. The word I hear from friends in NI is they are pretty certain both the UDF and PIRA are in the process of rearming while the recent spate of shootings are the settling of old scores within and between these 'nutters' in the run up to renewed terrorist attacks on both communities.

The basic arguments for staying in are:

• Prevention of the rapid collapse of the remaining English economy outside of SE England which will only be saved by 'Oop North' being fracked to bits, as is already being made clear by the Tories in North Yorkshire Council saying 'Yes' to fracking 
• Prevention of an inevitable return to violence in NI
• Prevent Boris from ever being UK Prime Minister

The only positive reason to hope for an 'out' vote is the inevitability of Scottish Independence.

To see the real issues we need to start looking past the pile of Westminster media EU 'dead cats' blocking the view of what an 'in' or 'out' vote actually entails rather than just seeing it through the myopic lense of what is deemed best for the 'City of London', as predominates at present.

As most of us understand, Scottish independence in the current political reality of the UK is not going to be 'Scot Free', people across all parts of the failed UK are going to get hurt, either in their pockets or with the inevitable destruction of aquifers they rely on for water or actual violence in the case of NI. An independent Scotland will have to accept the impact on all current UK citizens created by the end of the UK political union and seek to ameliorate them where ever we can.

The Mental Cringe

Here are two scenarios:

Scenario 1

Friend: You are looking depressed, what's up?

You: I have caught genital herpes from ....

Friend: What a bastard / bitch! Lucky for you they have drugs that can knock it quickly on the head. 

You: That's right but I still feel dirty and let down ...

Friend: STDs are more common than you think, Shelia caught gonorrhea from Dave, seems he had been playing away with a work mate when they were away on business and she was non-symptomatic and a carrier ...

The conversation then wends its way on the subject of different STDs, those who have had them or the cures ancient and modern ... 

Scenario 2

Friend: You are looking depressed, what's up?

You: I am in the depressive phase of my manic depression.

Friend: (Long silence) ..... well at least it is a warm, sunny day ... life's not too bad ... George's treatment for prostate cancer seems to be going well .....

The inference being George has a 'real' illness so you should think yourself 'lucky' and just 'cheer up'.

There is no understanding that serious mental illness is just as life threatening as most cancers. This is because suicide, as the end result of mental illness, is seen as self inflicted, selfish and 'giving up' or 'throwing away your life for no real reason' in UK society and not as the fatal end point of the mental health disease process, in the same way as the total organ failure associated with cancer deaths is.

For a large percentage of UK Adults mental health problems remain a major taboo; even among those who are suffering from manic depression and other severe forms of mental health conditions. Folk who suffer from the severe end of mental health conditions learn quickly that trying to be honest with other folk is just a waste of energy, it is easier to lie, play at 'normal' and leave others with their security blanket of ignorance and self assurance. The problem with this approach is while you play at being 'normal', you actually feel even more isolated and lower in self esteem; plus play acting 'normal' eats up even more of your limited energy, making it harder to keep in place the cognitive coping strategies you have created with your psychiatrist and mental health support team. When you are at the bottom of a manic depressive cycle, the inherent lassitude makes the destructive voice telling you to walk in front of a bus or jump off a high bridge very convincing, throw in the additional energy reduction from playing at 'normal' when you are at this point and the destructive voice becomes increasingly attractive. After all, no one appears to give a shit about you; do they?

So we are in a fix; I am not going to tell you how I am actually feeling because you will just get embarrassed or uncomfortable and seek to avoid the discussion anyway but my 'normal' lie allows you to keep on ignoring the real problems for sufferers of mental health disease while increasing my own sense of isolation, paranoia and uselessness, the sense of being an 'outsider' and anything but 'normal'.

We have a long way to go in UK society before society is comfortable with the reality that mental health illness is as much a disease as cancer or STDs. Mental Health disease needs to be brought out into the open so it can be freely discussed and properly understood. The sad reality is that in 2016 it remains less embarrassing to have an STD than a mental health illness.

My manic-depression has its roots in combat PTSD. I often think it would have been easier if I had an limb missing or some wound scar to show people but I do not, my scar is deep inside my brain, invisible. It can not be healed by surgery nor can I be given a prosthetic brain. Instead, every morning, I wake up with the destructive voice asking me just what is the point of going on. Some days it is an easy to ignore whisper, on others it sneakily sticks reminders into my consciousness of just what a failure I am at different points during the day - usually just when I am feeling good about myself and on the days when it gets out of its cage, it spends all day screaming at me 'you are a useless wee shite, do yourself in!'.

Every day since 1992, when I was on the point of 'doing myself in!' and got help, this has been my personal fight. Some days the 'fight' is easier than others but everyday is a fight not to give in, just as much as if I had a prosthetic limb or loss of function due to a wound.

The answer is out there, the active word is empathy - we sufferers need 'normal' people to understand what the severe end of mental health disease is like and not be either ignored or 'cheered up'; but simply listened to and unconditionally acknowledged for who we are. 

My wee dug is great at empathy, he gets up on my knee, licks my nose and lets me know I have value to him. Now, I am not suggesting this is what folk should do - getting on strangers laps and licking their noses (then again why not) - but I am asking you engage with suffers like myself with empathy.

The EU is the Third Reich ...

So; according to Boris Johnson the EU is actually Hitler's plans for Europe writ large and brought to fruition, the Third Reich lives!

I await with interest to see tomorrow's condemnation of Boris' flatulent and ignorant outburst in the Telegraph, Daily Mail and all the other papers who rushed to condemn the same 'Hitler' comment when accurately applied to the current Zionist / Fascist government in Israel. I expect I will be waiting a long time before I see condemnation of Boris' stupidity splashed across in the banner headlines or the finger pointing Labour MP's and leadership recently received on the same issue.

Boris' contention does not stand up to the slightest scrutiny. The EU is not aggressively seeking 'lebenstraum' nor is it imprisoning and murdering EU citizens simply because they are the wrong religion or race. The only forced labour camps which exist are in Boris' neo-conservative world of zero hours contracts and low wages which Boris approves of to enhance 'competitiveness'.

My real concern for Boris and his political allies is this: they are happily ignoring the darkness at the heart of their own policies which are pro-plutocrat, oligarch and highly centralised governance all of which are markers of truly fascist politics, the very same politics espoused by Hitler's Nazi Party as the 'cure' to a sick Wiemar Germany. The irony that it is Boris' wing of the Conservative and UKIP party are the fascist kettle calling the EU pot black when the reality is the EU pot is pretty shiny in comparison.

The truly disgusting aspect of the pretense of this 'EU debate' is this; a serious issue has once again been reduced to to the handbags at forty paces, yah-boo, infantile politics of the Westminster bubble which is epitomised by Boris' latest outburst, cheer lead by a UK media that is controlled by just six media moguls combined with a BBC News outfit which is scared of its own shadow and whose idea of searching journalism is simply to regurgitate the latest party propaganda news sheet as fact.

We have seen the crass ignorance and stupidity of this Westminster media machine in the image they are trying to create of a great Conservative victory in Scotland's Holyrood elections over the last week, in an attempt to fill the vacuum created by the implosion of Labour's Scotch wing and the high level of denial the Unionist Parties are actually living with in Scotland. The Torys' 'success' was to beat an already collapsing 'Scotch' Labour vote into a distant second place, well behind the SNP, with a Conservative vote share which is still well behind the levels which lead to their wipe out in Scotland in 1997. The real story was 'Scotch' Labour's removal from its West of Scotland fiefdom by the SNP and the implication this has for next year's council elections and the potential destruction of 'Scotch' Labour's council stranglehold not just in the West but across the Central belt which the current cosy arrangements with Tory councilors and 'independents' will not plaster over.

Where does this leave us, the sovereign citizens of Scotland?

We have a UK Government we have not voted for and the Tory's as the main opposition party at Holyrood, a party which is actually the third choice of the majority of voters in Scotland. Just how will the Unionist journalists spin anything the Tories at Holyrood do in a positive light while understanding the reality the party lead by Ruth is still about as popular as a warm dog turd on the average Scot's doorstep?

How will the Labour lovies at BBC Scotland continue to trumpet all things Unionist when the vast majority of voters in Scotland have dumped their 'Scotch' Labour pals, rejected the Unionist Parties for the third time and did the same in no uncertain terms in 2015 UK General Election?

We punters know the first FMQ's is going to be a blood bath for Ruth as she will be handed her head on a plate on virtually any issue she cares to hold the SNP Government to account on. We will no doubt hear the usual unionist apologists at BBC Scotland desperately seeking to find some positive to 'blaw aboot' no matter how minuscule it may be and then calling it a 'telling blow'. How will the Marcus Gardham's of this world seek to promote a party which has been their longstanding foe, knowing by doing so they will be signing the death warrant for 'Scotch' Labour?

Yet all we hear from Unionists politicians is the SNP's continuing political control of Scotland is because we, the sovereign Scottish citizens, are not listening to them, the Unionists, and are therefore 'stupid'. We will continue to hear this level of denial and insult by the Unionist side to the Scottish electorate on a daily basis, from the same failed politicians and their media chums, between now and the next UK General Election or until enough Scots say 'We have had enough!' and we finally walk away from this failed and destructive political union called the UK.

Hmmmm .....

Well how was that for you?

What? You say Rise and the SSP did not get a seat and that is unfair because they were part of the 'Yes Campaign'? The reason is the dastardly SNP's shout for both votes .... and because of that the SNP have let the Tories in?

Now wait a wee minute, pal; the reason the SSP and Rise got squat didily seats was because they did not trigger enough votes to get a look in on the 'List' vote. The reason for that being, in the main, the vast majority of Scots do not buy the pseudo-Marxism by any other name both of these parties peddled. It is not the SNP's fault these parties got zip but the Scottish Electorate which rejected them and their policies. I know it is hard for 'left wing' activists to get a handle on just how democracy works, as they always know what is best for everyone else which is to vote for their party, but please try.

In other news; the SNP had a bigger vote share on both the constituency and list than in 2011 but ended up with fewer list seats because they won more constituencies than in 2011 and even with Dewar's specially rigged d'Hondt system were only three seats short of an absolute majority. This loss of seats has the media Yooners claiming this is a disaster for the SNP even though more Scots voted SNP in 2016 than in 2011.

I am at a loss to understand where the narrative of this result being a great 'Conservative victory' and a 'turning point' for the Conservatives in Scotland comes from. According to number crunchers, the Tory vote share in Scotland is still well below that of the 'Thatcher years'. It can only be seen in such hyperbolic heights in terms of the Tory 'defeat' of Labour but as Labour were to all intents and purposes a dead man walking, if not actual zombies, then it is not that great a result. The 'Scotch Tories beat a decomposing corpse to second place' does not have much of a ring to it, mind. What we are actually seeing is the Blairites returning to vote for the party they should have been voting for, for the last 19 years - The Tories.

So now Ruth, Tank commander, has won this great victory, for her second trick she will single handedly stop the SNP from putting any of their manifesto promises into place and as for any hint of a referendum if the UK exits the EU all she can say to Saint Nicola of the SNP is, 'Ils ne passeron pas' with not a hint of irony in her voice. 

But wait; down in the Labour crypt, under the Glasgow City Chambers, a zombie began to moan, "What we need is a referendum on home rule for Scotland." as the basis for Scotch Labour to begin yet another comeback from the dead which their consultant on 'comebacks from the dead', one Lazarus McShoogle, simply shook his head in disbelief (but not too hard, in case it fell off - part of the problem with being a Zombie, it is not all laughs and japes after all). In the mean times the Labour Zombie MSPs (ZMSP) swapped their only talking head among themselves and still were unable to agree on anything except it was all the SNPs fault for being much better at the politics game than they are. 

So as the dust settles from the latest round of Zombie extinctions what is the real situation?

Well I see it this way; 

Ruth and her 24 Tory Scorpion tanks has about as good a chance of survival when she comes up against Nicola's SNP Challenger 3 tank squadron, as a squadron of 24 Allied Sherman tanks would against a couple of well dug in Tiger Tanks - not a lot. Unlike the Allies in 1944, Ruth does not have more tanks, even if they are inferior, than her opponent and she is walking into a killing zone of her, well dug in, opponents choosing. A FMQ killing zone covered in mines just waiting for her to drive over, with well defined and ranged arcs of fire for the SNP's 'anti Ruth' guns. Not even a hint of a Pyrrhic victory there for Ruth, just another massacre (or as BBC Scotland's news team will report it, a close run thing, nearly forcing a concession from the SNP.)

It is going to be messy and a there is little chance of help from the Zombies as they triangulate themselves backwards to Keir Hardy in the hope that 'Home Rule' policies of the 1890's might breathe some life back into them. While the Zombies may survive having parts of themselves blown off, it is a messy job sticking the bits back on and what if they put Sawar's head on Baillie or mix up Dugdale's legs with Henry's body and she ends up walking in the wrong direction? So they will prefer to duck and stay out of the line of fire.

Then there is the Libdem 'Pushmepullyou' for Ruth to fall back on ... 'maybees aye an' maybees naw' on that one then.

 

Steve Bell; cartoonist or yooner?

Anyone see the Steve Bell Gruniad cartoon today?

The only thing wrong with it was the fact Steve Bell gave his supposed Nicola Sturgeon the 'sucking a wasp' face more typical of 'Jabba' the Baillie or Ruth 'Tankie' Davidson.

It was supposed to insult, that is what cartoonists do, as anyone who saw Gerald Scarfe at his peak hacking away at Thatcher knows. 

Yet on the Gruniad comments under the cartoon you would seriously think many Scots and SNP supporters considered St Nicola had been shot by umpteen arrows like a latter day Saint Stephen, had her tongue cut out and breasts hacked off or Bell had burnt her at the stake at Smithfield to yooner cries of  'apostasy and heresy' from the usual 'Scottish cringe', all to the backing of football style chants of 'Your just another Willie Wallace' from the rest of the crowd.

Here's what actually happened - nothing. The world did not stop spinning, Scots did not suddenly 'en masse' put on M&S Union Flag themed underwear or other apparel and the sun still peered wanly through the grey clag in the sky we call 'Spring' in Scotland. It is a cartoon and not the tearing up of the Scottish national psyche followed by a derogatory Morris Dance on the scraps.

It is the same humourless whining we have seen over the last few days because St Nicola was photographed holding a copy of the Sun. The difference this time being it was the Marxo-Socialist Jacobin Independistas who wanted her burnt as a witch at the head of the Cannongate for the taint of Rupert Murdoch on her hand.

Honestly folks it is enough to turn this manic, depressive.

I actually liked Steve Bell's idea that St Nicola was turning Scotland 'Scottier' in her wish to make 'Strongerland' strong. For me Bell's misplaced and misdirected 'Marxist Internationale' style critique in this cartoon rebounds back heavily on Bell and suggests the increasing fear growing down South that a Brexit from the EU on the 23rd of June means the end of the UK Union, an end for which the English will only have themselves to blame. 

Bell knows his socialist history so he knows where most of the social reforms he and others are watching being massacred in England started their life. From fairer rents to public responsibility for welfare all start in Scotland's past whether it was the Kirk ensuring the parish looked after the local people who were in poverty and were held to account in law for doing so to ending the curse of the 'means test man frae the 'bru'. Instead he is seeing on a daily basis all this inherently communal, social welfare collapsing where ever he looks in Englandshire while the English peasants cheer and dance around the bonfire of their own welfare and health provision.

I will wash my mouth out with soap after saying this but I also saw the dark humour in such a vehemently and virulently anti-Scotland paper suddenly coming up with the 'Boldly Go' meme in supposed 'support' of the SNP.

Maybe it is because I am a certified 'nutter' I view the world differently but I see the dark yoonist hubris embedded in both pieces has an unintended irony which back fires on both Bell and the 'Sun'.

So to all you 'Hillsboro' Independista's at Bella and soor ploom SNP supporters whinin aboot the Sun or Bell; huad a grip aa yersel's an if ye canny laugh at yirsel an' jist ken hoo muckle thon Yoonists are keeking their breeks - y 've aa jist lost the plot. Dae the rest o' us a favour an' slap yersel's aroon the heid wi a wet kipper an pit a smile back oan yer puss. 

Aye, an member's tae vote SNP ane an twa oan Thirsday.

I hate Squirrels ..

I remember an edition of Blackadder where Miranda Richardson played a female highway woman and would suddenly pull out a gun and shoot a squirrel simply because she hated them. This whole faux feud in the Labour Party, fanned by Blairites, the UK's Zionist lobby and the usual right wing media histrionics, over what is and is not an anti-Semitic comment, is just another squirrel which needs shooting. 

Today's reading has been guided by the stushy generated by the Blairite wing of the Labour Party with regards Ken Livingstone's alleged anti-semitic rant.  Poor old 'Red Ken' happened to point out, in his view, Netanyahu's Likud Party had much in common with Hitler's Nazi Party with regards Likud's policies of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians from Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.  

A little known bit of history is the German Zionist Federation did a deal in 1934, in support of the Nazi's 1934 Nuremburg Laws on German racial purity, in which they agreed, in their Zionist eyes, Jews were a separate nation and not Germans. In return any German Jew who signed up to the Zionist emigration program to Israel, funded and run by the SS, could leave Germany, draw down the full value of their German Assets, less an SS handling charge, on arrival in Palestine and also get low rate loans and special deals to import their goods back to the Greater German Reich. It is ironic that many of what are now Israel's major industries were kick started by Nazi funding and preferential trading agreements with the Nazi Reich.

In 1948 Albert Einstein and other non-Zionist Jews condemned the Zionist take over of the promised Jewish homeland of Israel, its inherent racism and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians which took place, in a letter to the newly founded UN, condemning the Israel of Begin's 'Freedom Fighters' as fascists in no uncertain terms. I wrote about my research and my surprise in discovering the close links between German Zionists and the Nazis in the 1930's in November 2014. The attempts to link Livingstone's comments with claims of holocaust denial / anti-Semtitism are vacuous in the extreme given a historical reality which has been long suppressed by Israel's Zionists, religious extremists and their apologists.

Instead of the failed UK media pursuing key issues such as:

• UK Supreme Court's decision which has made clear much of the current Welfare Policy of the Conservatives is unsound in law, breached claimants rights and has stopped any retro-active legislation to save what is left of Duncan-Smiths tattered Y-fronts in its tracks
• The scandal over the Conservatives improper use of election campaign funding and its accounting
• Ruth Davidson and the continuing saga of misuse of confidential postal voting data
• Hunt's disastrous attempts to claim it is him and not doctors who care about the NHS
• Cameron's use of tax avoidance scams
• Osborne's ever increasing national debt chasm and stagnant economy
• The Type 26 lies and failed promises and all the other things that would have happened if Scotland had left the UK which are actually happening because we stayed in the Union

We have a retread of 'Red Ken's a moron' articles from his days as London's Mayor filling the pages which pass as news, opinion or comment plus more scare and histrionics as to whether we should stay in or leave the EU with the 'stay in kettle' calling the 'get out pot' black and vice versa. Then there are the fairy stories about how Dugdale still thinks she will beat the SNP on Thursday, Willie Rennie will be elected on the constituency vote or Ruth's great break through of getting 19% vote share to Labour's 18% to become the 'real opposition' to the SNP at Holyrood.

The sad truth is the usual pro Zionist Israel junket has used the comparison of Likud's policies in the West Bank and Gaza to those of the Nazis by Livingstone as a smoke screen to hide the truth of the actual ethnic cleansing of Palestinians which the Israeli Defence Force is carrying out daily on the Likud Government's orders. It is not just the Palestinians who are feeling the heat of Likud's coalition push for Zionist purity and 'lebenstraum'; so are ethnic minority Jews from Africa, secular Jews, Reformed Synagogue Jews, Hasidim Jews, Samaritans and the homosexual community in Israel. Of course you will look hard to find civil rights protests by these non Zionist groups in Israel against the Likud Government reported in the UK media. Neither will you read reports of the Likud coalition, right wing religious party's push to have only committed Zionists and those of the Orthodox faith in Israeli Government positions and heading its civil service. 

It is something to ponder that modern Israel relied on Nazi Reichmarks to found and kick start its economy in the 1930's and now relies on annual multi-billion dollar funding from the USA, both Federal Government and Jewish donors, to keep its head above water and its repressive regime in place. Once Syria falls under the influence of Wahhabist Saudi Arabia's religious grasp, Saudi will have a controlling influence over much of the Middle East's remaining oil reserves, leaving Iran isolated and friendless in the region. If that happens, what will Russia do as it does not want Wahhabist religious nutters on its southern border or, for that matter, supposedly secular and democratic Turkey? 

If I was sitting in the Kremlin's Foreign Office, I would be looking to support the Kurds in that situation and trying to get Iran to agree the founding of a Kurdish State which would ensure instability in current Iraq and Turkey. Turkey would then be under pressure from both Saudi (to conform to their Wahhabist religious and political view point) and the Kurdish self rule grouping pushing for a Kurdish State. In the background both NATO and the EU would be having serious thoughts about Turkey's continuing or prospective membership. Turkey would have to give up its pretense of being that most Westernised and secular of Islamic countries or give into the Kurds wishes for a state and tell the Saudi's thus far and no further.

What then happens to a Zionist controlled Israel when Saudi Arabia takes defacto control of the Arabian peninsula, as it currently plans to do by sorting out Syria, fulfilling, in the Saudi's eyes, the promise the West made to Saudi Arabia in the bartering around the schizoid 1917 Balfour Declaration and Israel becomes, therefore, no further use as a bargaining chip for the USA Federal Government when dealing with Saudi Arabia?

These are just a few of the serious issues facing us in the near future which the failure to shoot this latest of the UK media 'look a squirrel' cover up leaves undiscussed an issue which does and will impact Scotland as an energy producer whether part of the UK or as an independent nation.