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Watching you 2

Posted on March 09, 2019 by

A real advert currently showing on TV:

An older version:

We aren’t the 99% 13

Posted on November 30, 2011 by

It's even happening in Bath. Even in one of the richest corners of Britain – a city so posh that it refused a local organic dairy farm permission to open a boutique ice-cream concession in its expensive new showpiece shopping development in case it "lowered the tone" – there's an Occupy protest. A couple of dozen tents huddle together in Queen Square, a small green space in the middle of a busy traffic junction that's more accustomed to hosting farmers' markets and games of boules.

To be honest, I'm surprised there are that many. Bath's housing, parking and public transport are all so cripplingly costly that poor people can barely get into the centre of town even for a visit. But still, like most of the Occupy protests nationwide (those that still survive at all, anyway), the numbers are pretty pitiful. At a time when the government has all but openly declared class war, when everyone from the Socialist Worker to the Daily Mail is furious at the greed of the wealthy, why isn't the whole country out on the streets, rather than a few little pockets camping in the cold?

The answer is obvious, but for some reason is never spoken aloud. Despite the Occupy movement's catchy and evocative slogan, we aren't the 99%. But that's understandable, because "we are the 33%" doesn't carry quite the same moral punch.

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The Hangman’s Lottery 21

Posted on October 04, 2011 by

A couple of weeks ago, a group of state employees took a man called Troy Davis from his prison cell in Atlanta, Georgia to a small room and strapped him to a gurney. They inserted a needle into one of his veins, hooked up the needle to some tubes connected to a machine and, at a given signal, pressed a button on the machine in the full and clear knowledge that it would cause poisonous chemicals to be pumped into his bloodstream until he died of asphyxiation.

These people – every one of whom doubtless considered themselves an ordinary, decent, caring member of society, living in the most civilised and cultured country on Earth – participated willingly in the killing despite knowing that there was an enormous degree of doubt as to whether Davis was in any way responsible for the death of the man in whose name he was being executed.

Bafflingly, very few people found this behaviour at all odd.

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    • Skip_NC on How it happened: “Thanks for the kind words, Jay. The question in your penultimate paragraph is a very good one. The presidential election…Nov 8, 02:33
    • Skip_NC on How it happened: “There was nothing from Harris to disbelieve. Her argument was that she isn’t Trump. It is still very early in…Nov 8, 02:12
    • Jay on How it happened: “Ros, in among 3 years worth of articles in Euromaidan Press you should find at least one showing the percentage…Nov 7, 23:56
    • Jay on How it happened: “Might any shareholder dividends from the US Military Industrial Complex end up in an eastern mediterranean coastal state?Nov 7, 23:45
    • g M on How it happened: “We’ll wait and see of course.Nov 7, 23:34
    • g M on How it happened: “I listened to it and it was a long list of fairly extensive measures he intended to take to break…Nov 7, 23:33
    • Andouilette on How it happened: “No. It was painfully obvious that Mr. Salmond was being stitched up. The orange gibbon is a disgusting waste of…Nov 7, 23:23
    • Jay on How it happened: “Skip, it is a relief to see comments from you. My experience is limited to reading of ‘current affairs’ for…Nov 7, 23:20
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    • sam on How it happened: “Thanks, Fearghas. Will watch them all.Nov 7, 21:51
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on How it happened: “Typo 2: FRANZ Fanon (not Frank!). Apologies.Nov 7, 21:36
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    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on How it happened: “SCOTLAND AS COLONY – a way forward… The above webpage (posted 3 April 2024) has a number of videos featuring…Nov 7, 21:26
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    • g M on How it happened: “Have a listen to his program for government RoS, sounds like he is serious to me.Nov 7, 21:05
    • g M on How it happened: “Skip, his program for government as announced via social media sounds far reaching. He might have just put himself in…Nov 7, 21:03
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    • gregor on How it happened: “I was listening to Radio Scotland phone-in this morning, amusingly, while weeding a garden. I normally listen to music.Nov 7, 20:33
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    • Robert Matthews on How it happened: “FYYFCNov 7, 20:02
    • Meg Merrilees on How it happened: “…well, anyone listening to Radio Scotland phone-in around 9.40 this morning would have heard the opinion of a Scottish journalist…Nov 7, 19:35
    • Hatey McHateface on How it happened: “To me it looks like folk didn’t believe Harris You defo have the experience and credibility to make that assessment,…Nov 7, 19:31
    • Aidan on How it happened: “There have been a number of cases heard in the Supreme Court recently specifically concerning the ability of the U.K.…Nov 7, 19:28
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