Who’s he?
You speak on behalf of exactly nobody, so there’s no point claiming support for your weirdo views.
In my informed opinion neither Warren nor Sanders will get the Democratic nomination as they have embraced far left views that average Americans will not support. Bernie had a shot in 2016 but his time has come and gone. Having said that I would vote for any of the current Democratic nominees given that they are all preferable to Trump and all preferable to the obnoxious cunt ran by the DNC at the last election.
It is not bigoted to oppose illigal immigration, every western country does it, and is is most certainly not bigoted to defend the rights of young girls who are being forced to share bathrooms with biological males. Only a sick weirdo like yourself would support a young girl’s privacy being invaded by a biological male.
Trump’s base are working class Americans, the people you claim the left represents but yet have the audicity to call racists and bigots. This is the reason the left have lost all credibility, claiming to represent “ordinary people” while accusing them of being bigots, racists and Nazis.
The modern left is inhabited by delusional morons, useless wankers who spend their days spunking at their screens in faux outrage.
What’s this you’re freaking out about the trannies now?
If you had a daughter and you found out that she want to the bathroom and there had been another woman there who had a sex-change operation would you say “Oh my God, my daughter’s privacy has been invaded by a biological male.”? That would be a very strange reaction.
If it was my daughter I wouldn’t give a fuck anyway. How would that be an “invasion of her privacy”? Did this trannie bitch creep into the cubicle?
You’re showing the cultural distance between Ireland and the US here, no-one in Ireland gives a fuck about trannies in ladies bathrooms. Why the fuck would they?
The attitude of almost everyone in Ireland to trans-sex rights is “I don’t really give a shit about trannies in bathrooms. I’m happy to have trans-sex people just get along happily and live the lives that they want. It doesn’t bother me. There are fuck-all of them anyway. The obsession of right-wing and left-wing Americans with this issue is bizarre. Americans are weird fuckers.”
(Perhaps this is a discussion for another thread.)
So the issue isn’t with girls (former boys) who have had a sex change operation (which is another issue, who the fuck thinks sex change surgery is a good idea for children?), the issue is with biological boys who identify as girls. What activists are pushing for (and has been implemented in many schools already without any consultation with parents) is only have “all gender” bathrooms and changing rooms, keeping in mind most public schools have combined changing rooms / bathrooms where kids get changed for sports etc. The activists are arguing that sex segregated bathrooms discriminate against those that identify with the opposite sex, e.g. a boy who identifies as a girl should not be forced to go a to a boy’s bathroom.
There’s an easy enough solution to it, build a few all gender facilities for the transgenders to use, no need to be forcing all gender bathrooms on the entire student population.
Anyway, I was using it as one example of many where the left has lost it’s mind and has gone through the looking glass let alone the Overton window.
I’m pretty sure left-wing Americans don’t give a shit about trans people using whichever bathroom they want
Right-wing Irish tend to have a similar view to right-wing Americans
They are obsessed with the idea of a woman having a dick
They can’t work out whether it arouses them or repulses them more
I think it’s the fact that it repulses them so much that arouses them so much, paradoxically
But whatever it is, they can’t ignore it, it drives them cray cray and for some reason these mostly men that are obsessed with the concept have somehow internalised a bizarre victim and oppression complex out of it all
See above posts by another poster
I’ll give you one thing pal. the right wing and the left wing’s obsession with the trans-sexual issue, especially in America (only in America) is fucking bizarre.
I don’t really have an issue with unisex bathrooms, even with girls using them, but I think that women are drastically underestimating how filthy men’s toilets are.
There obviously needs to be some rationality to the trans-sex debate, especially with sports. If just 1 in 1000 men turned trans-sex and started competing in women’s events then it’s basically guaranteed that every single women’s track medal in the Olympics would be won by a trans-sex person, no birth-woman would ever win a gold medal in track again.
So the idea that it’s bigoted to question that is obviously nuts but that’s what a lot of people are saying now.
[this debate should be moved to another thread.]
Hmmmm.
Nope, I’m not buying that, Thanks.
If you’re looking for a dick you can always just look at your face in the mirror
If you want to buy one I think there are reasonably realistic prosthetic ones avaliable these days
I don’t think unisex bathrooms are a good idea for women, especially in Ireland, for the simple reason that most Irish men aim their wee wee all over the seat and/or outside the bowl altogether
That was certainly the case in the unisex toilets in the stadium in Bordeaux in 2016
My aim was straight and true but I guarantee the Limerick lads on this forum who were there were dribbling theirs all over the place
Relax Sidney. There’s really no need for that sort of aggression. It’s a fair old jump to say right wing people are obsessed with women having dicks. Its a bizarre claim, in fact. But sure carry on.
Not at all
It’s a major issue for right-wing nut jobs in general, the absolute freaks
Wrote Moby Dick
In the film version coming out soon Boris Johnson will play the title role
Right wing people are generally obsessed with things that don’t affect them. It stands to reason they’d be obsessed with women having dicks.
BBC News is now modelling itself on Rock Bottom from The Simpsons
The Tories were already caught out doing something similar a few weeks back
That is mental.
#RussiaReport Thread
In 2000 I went to Chechnya undercover twice, once for the BBC, once for C4. I saw Putin’s war crimes with my own eyes. Three Russians - Anna Politkovskaya, Natasha Estemirova and Boris Nemtsov - warned me over the years about Putin.
They were shot.
1/
In '14 I reported for @bbcpanorama on MH17. 10 Britons were among 298 dead. I challenged Putin in person. Last yr while making “Taking On Putin” Kremlin media accused me of desecrating a shrine to Nemtsov. While being hunted by Moscow police we sought sanctuary at BBC Moscow. 2/
BBC Moscow boss said “leave and take your rushes with you”. While we were in police station he phoned Foreign Min to let them know I had been filming without a press pass. They routinely don’t give me one. My passport details went online. My fixer had to leave Russia for good. 3/
Last yr someone poisons Evgeny Lebedev’s dog. The Russian-British media baron - his dad was KGB - reportedly blames Kremlin. This summer @openDemocracy reported that Boris Johnson may be a security risk coz many stays at Evgeny’s palazzo in Umbria. BBC bosses were there too. 4/
On November 4th it is clear Johnson won’t release #RussiaReport. That same day I write my letter to OfCom. You can read it on my Blog at johnsweeney.co.uk/?blog=blogs/ar…
It sets out six Russia-related stories that were not broadcast.
I love BBC. But our democracy is under threat. 5/
Bullet point: The BBC is allowing itself to be compromised by Russian influence
https://www.johnsweeney.co.uk/?p=letter.to.ofcom
John Sweeney
November 4 2019
PRIVATE AND IN CONFIDENCE
To the Chief Executive, OfCom,
Dear Ms White,
I am writing to you as a reluctant whistle-blower to ask for a thorough investigation into BBC News and Current Affairs in regard to, firstly, a number of films relating to the far-right, Russia and Brexit that were not broadcast, secondly, films that were broadcast but were improperly compromised and, thirdly, a number of senior journalists who have been allowed to compromise BBC editorial values by taking financial inducements or benefits in kind.
At the outset I should say that I have been informed, entertained and educated by the BBC my whole life. I worked for the BBC for 17 years and left last month and I feel grateful to many of my extraordinary colleagues who do great work for the public good. I pay the license fee and passionately believe in the BBC’s mission.
It is exactly because of that belief that I feel compelled to share what I know from the inside of BBC News and Current Affairs. BBC management, led by Director-General Tony Hall, has become so risk-averse in the face of threats from the far-right and the Russian state and its proxies that due impartiality is being undermined and investigative journalism is being endangered. Films have been not broadcast or enfeebled. Senior journalists have taken money or benefits in kind from Big Tobacco, a dodgy passport-selling company, and proxies for the Russian state.
My concerns centre on the following programmes or films:
-
Our Panorama on far-right activist Tommy Robinson which should have been broadcast in February or March this year. It had fresh information on Robinson’s links with German far right sources and there was potential to explore how Robinson was being indirectly funded by Kremlin money. Robinson set out to intimidate the BBC. Not broadcast.
-
Our Newsnight investigation into Lord Mandelson which caused him to change his House of Lords’ register recording money he got from a Russian company connected to the mafiya. After a direction intervention by Mandelson’s friend, then BBC Head of News, James Harding, the investigation stopped. Not broadcast.
-
Our Newsnight investigation into the dubious connections between former Culture Secretary John Whittingdale MP and Dmitri Firtash, the pro-Kremlin oligarch currently fighting extradition to the United States. Not broadcast.
-
Our Newsnight investigation into Henley & Partners, a dodgy passport-selling firm which sought to silence Daphne Caruana Galizia before she was assassinated. Outside a H & P event in London I was physically assaulted by security for the Maltese PM. Inside a BBC presenter was doing a paid corporate gig for H&P. Not broadcast.
-
A Newsnight investigation into the pro-Russian sympathies of Labour spin doctor, Seumas Milne. Not commissioned. Not broadcast.
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A Panorama on Roman Abramovich: made and completed. I did not work on this but know of it. Not broadcast.
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A BBC News investigation into Brexit funder Arron Banks. I did not work on this but know of it. Not broadcast.
Please note that roughly in the same time frame BBC News – not Current Affairs - did broadcast investigations into Cliff Richards and Lord Bramall and Lord Brittan on the basis of a fantasist. Both investigations should never have been broadcast.
The BBC did broadcast films I made that were weakened by management. They include:
-
A series of Newsnight films into Arron Banks, the man who helped fund Brexit and Nigel Farage. Some were broadcast but the strength of the journalism was enfeebled by management. One, exploring Nigel Farage’s worries about Mr Banks’ connections to Russia, was not broadcast. A second, on Katya Banks and how she came to the United Kingdom, was not broadcast.
-
A Panorama on Russia called Taking On Putin. This was broadcast last year. In the course of making it the acting head of the BBC Moscow bureau told our Panorama team to leave the bureau though we had sensitive rushes on us and were being pursued by Moscow police. He then informed the Foreign Ministry that I had been filming without a press pass. Not giving me a press pass is a routine piece of administrative harassment by the Russian state. Our fixer was forced to leave Russia for good. It felt like our BBC Moscow colleagues saw the Kremlin as their friend and us as the enemy.
On all the films above I worked on, I sought to complain to BBC management about failures to broadcast or weakening of editorial stance. Most did not seriously engage with my complaints. One senior manager did not reply to four emails I sent asking for a meeting so we never spoke.
To be fair, BBC management have an extraordinary difficult task. Brexit has split the country and maintaining fairness and due impartiality under ferocious pressure, accelerated by social media, is exhausting. The problem is this exhaustion has led to corporate risk aversion and this is destroying investigative journalism at the BBC.
Separately, I fear that BBC values have been undermined by the following senior editors and presenters. Jon Sopel, BBC North America, doing a paid corporate gig for US tobacco giant Philip Morris this year. Justin Webb, Today programme presenter, doing a paid corporate gig for Henley & Partners on two separate occasions.
Sarah Sands, editor of the Today programme and Amol Rajan, BBC Media Editor, receiving benefits in kind from their former employer, Russian oligarch Evgeny Lebedev. They attended parties thrown by Lebedev in his Italian palazzo. A third guest was Boris Johnson, now prime minister. It seems impossible for any reporter on the Today programme to fully investigate widely reported stories that as Foreign Secretary Mr Johnson was seen as a “security risk” because of his attendance at Mr Lebedev’s parties if their editor was also a beneficiary of Mr Lebedev’s generosity. Amol Rajan as BBC Media Editor has reported on Mr Lebedev’s business affairs and he too has been a beneficiary of the oligarch’s generosity.
None of this non-BBC work or benefits are for the public good.
It is a characteristic of someone in my position to overstate the significance of their complaints. I do not want to do this. The vast majority of the BBC’s output is excellent and to be trusted.
But the sorry history of investigations not broadcast I report above demonstrates a general pattern of risk aversion and fearfulness. This is a common complaint of BBC journalists. My particular concern is the ability of the Russian state and its proxies to cramp the BBC’s journalism when it investigates what the Kremlin & Co are up to. You cannot make a series of Panoramas on Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump without seeing the evidence of the Russian state and its proxies interfering with democratic politics around the world. That interference includes the United Kingdom. I note that Number Ten has indicated that blocked the publication of the Commons select committee on Russian interference today.
Beyond these points there is a wider issue of the effective non-regulation of social media. The experience of being attacked by Tommy Robinson’s supporters – they behave like a cult – whilst the BBC did not broadcast our Panorama on him was maddening for me, literally so. A freelance colleague made a radio programme about one of his supporters. The stress of being a victim of the far-right online hate machine caused my colleague, who was heavily pregnant at the time, to have a panic attack so intense she mistakenly feared it was a miscarriage. Happily, mother and baby are fine. My observation as a front-line investigative journalist is that public interest broadcasting is over-regulated and social media hardly at all. Social media must be brought within the rule of law or our democracy will be poisoned.
I have evidence to back up every point I make in this letter and practical suggestions to reform and develop the OfCom code if you decide to take the matters raised here further. Please let me know what your response is. I am separately writing to the chair of the House of Commons select committees on the media and copying in the chairs of the intelligence and foreign affairs committees.
Yours sincerely,
John Sweeney
Sorry for the delay.
Q1 Is it true that it is now a criminal offence to say that any Polish people were complicit in the Holocaust?
A1: No. The law when it was originally introduced did make it a criminal offence but following outcry from among others the United States and Israel, it was adjusted down pretty sharpish to a Civil offence. This has happened a few times with this Government, they overreach and then pull back.
The Poles are very sensitive about the notion of “Polish Death Camps”, that didn’t just start with this Government. Just recently the PM wrote to the head of Netflix complaining about the maps of Poland used in the Demanyuk documentary. Of course there is an element of the ruling party (PIS) who are nationalist and Catholic and right wing who would dispute that any Poles participated in Nazi outrages. But they are wrong.
Q2 Did the murder of that liberal mayor of Gdansk have any impact on the way people see politics?
A2: I would say not really. There was shock and disgust on all sides when the murder happened and there were the usual words about the tone of debate but I don’t see any difference.
Q3: To what extent is the press clamped down on in Poland?
A3: The press is free. A lot of the print media is owned by international players. The biggest selling newspaper is a tabloid; “Fakt” a Polish version of “Bild”.Gazeta Wyborcza the Solidarity paper is still in existence but with declining sales. It’s all gone on line now anyway.
TV is a different story. The head of Polish State TV is always a political appointment and whoever is in Government puts their man in charge. PIS have done this blatantly and the National TV is so biased now as to be almost a parody. On the other hand, TVN the commercial station which is very pro opposition (Civic Platform - PO , Tusk’s party) is almost as biased on the other side.
Q4: To what extent is the judiciary compromised or influenced by the ruling party?
A4: Not much. PIS didn’t get a sufficient majority to change the constitution which would have allowed them to do so. The President was quite concerned at the protests last year so I doubt be would pass it into law anyway. Judicial reform is the brainchild of Artur Ziobro one of the leaders of one of the PIS factions (it is a coalition of parties not one party). A nasty piece of work but fortunately is not in the ascendancy in PIS at the moment.
Q5: Are there fringe groups pushing anti-Ukrainian sentiment, I’m sure I heard about that
A5: I don’t hear any anti Ukranian sentiment. About a million Ukranians have moved to Poland in the last couple of years in search of employment. They are well integrated. The far right or a collection of rightist parties who cobbled together as one electoral group in the election got about 6.5% in the election. Included in that group are the Ruch Narodowy (The National Movement) who won 5 of their 11 seats. They are Eurosceptic and Pro Russian. They would be anti Ukranian. They are usually skinheads or body builders, or football hooligans. They don’t like LGBT either. They are very much a minority group.
Q6: Is there any realistic prospect of the ruling party being turfed out in the foreseeable future or is Poland increasingly moving towards what Hungary is like, or is it even already there?
A6: Good question. PIS won an unprecedented overall majority for the second time but despite a higher vote share their majority reduced. They lost a sizeable majority in the Senate. The Civic Platform (PO) also lost ground but the leftist groupings won about 60 seats. The PO are going nowhere. They are rudderless since Tusk went to Europe.
PIS have won the election on the back of strong economic performance. They have redistributed the wealth, bringing in 500 zlots per kid allowance per month which has had the effect of taking some low earners out of the workforce (hence the need for Ukranians), and paying an extra month’s pension for pensioners. They are running into budget trouble however and with global economies slowing down the next four years will be bumpy. The economy is effectively at full employment.
Usually in Polish elections a third party gets cobbled together from somewhere and does enough to influence power. If the left stick together and unite under the PSL leader Kamysz they could be in with a shout. But PIS have a Fianna Fail like machine.
PIS would like to go down the Viktor Urban route and follow his playbook in many ways but I don’t see it happening. Can’t take things for granted though.
Exactly what was relayed to me by locals when I was in Warsaw last month.