Hey Toni,
You did manage to get right under my skin a few times, you put in a decent effort and it paid off well a few times.
And yes, I know you'll likley continue to do so, I wouldn't expect anything less, I might even think something was wrong if you changed now.
Happy New Year

//'Ergo: it's all an American plot. They don't exist. They're actors, kids, bodies and all.'

In a word ... yes. Why is that so hard to understand?//

It's not hard to understand. It's hard to swallow, because it's bollocks.

A bit like if somebody tells you they've seen fairies at the bottom of the garden. It's easy to comprehend their meaning, but it's not as easy to accept their assertions as an accurate reflection of reality.

Hi Killarney,

Love that logic !

"The British empire did it. The European empires did it. The Third Reich did it. The Japanese did it. The Roman empire did it (Caesar even admitted to it). I'm sure the Persians did it to justify their invasion of Greece." Therefore ....... oh, the US. Of course.

But not the Russians ? What, not ever ? No, never ! What, never ? Well, hardly ever. Don't mention central Asia, the Caucasus, the Baltic States, Poland, Siberia .......

You could have added, Killarney, that imperialism is an ideology of superiority which many people can never give up: they perpetually think that they have a right to rule others, areas of interest in which other states are sort of subordinate, secondary, unimportant. There are probably English imperialists who think that one day, they will get Ireland back.

Actually, I suspect that Russian imperialists like Putin (get stuck in) have plans to 're-incorporate' all those Central Asian and Caucasian states which were once part of the old Tsarist Empire, inherited eventually by the Bolshevik (both imperialists), and expanded by Stalin into eastern Europe and, effectively, the Balkans. I think Putin hankers to extend the borders of 'Russia' to include Serbia and Montenegro, with its huge port of Kotor. If I was a Finn, I would always be looking over my shoulder too.

Imperialism never dies in some minds. Think 'Zhirinovsky'. And it often finds useful idiots to justify it. Thanks, Killarney.

Joe

Loudmouth

'If I was a Finn, I would always be looking over my shoulder too.'

Finland was occupied by Sweden for 600 years. Sweden was an empire for over two centuries. Should we start ring-fencing Sweden with a military and nuclear missile build-up just in case Sweden starts returning to its old imperial ways? I'm sure there are a lot of imperial warmongering Swedes who'd just love to get Finland back.

Ditto Britain, France, Spain and Portugal. Let's do the same to them - just in case that old imperial itch starts up again.

These tired old excuses that 'lefties just want to blame everything on the US', or that anyone sceptical of war propaganda is on the side of the current enemy du jour, are getting tired and weak. Not only that, ignoring all the obvious warning signs that the US is aggressively preparing us for war with Russia is downright dangerous.

Toni Lavis

We're talking here about a very high-profile civil defence team that has been operating in East Allepo but no one there has heard of them; that is the darling of the overwhelmingly anti-Assad/anti-Russian Western media; that is positively swimming in cash donations from the highly corrupt and dubious Soros network; AND has managed to produce expensive, high production-value films AND easily despatch them from a warzone with no electricity, internet or phone service.

Methinks the fairies are at the bottom of YOUR garden, not mine.

Hi Killarney,

I suspect that "These tired old excuses that 'lefties just want to blame everything on the US'.... " are more valid now that Putin's bestie is about to take over the White House.

I don't think President Barnum will stay Russia's hand - I don't mean necessarily in the case of Finland (which was part of the Russian empire barely a century ago) - but certainly in the case of Ukraine and the Baltic states.

Reactionaries like those two will stick together. But it will be that much more inconvenient for the pseudo-Left to blame the US for anything when Putin is giving it to Barnum up the clacker - and when the pseudo-Left shares Barnum's fear of globalisation and love of isolationism and protectionism.

Yes, thanks for the advice about Sweden - even under the Tsars, the middle-class language in Finland was Swedish: 130 years ago, the composer Sibelius couldn't speak Finnish until he learnt it as an adult.

I suppose the lesson is, Killarney (surely an Irishman doesn't need this advice): don't trust any ex-imperialist power, especially those for whom human rights have never figured much.

Cheers,

Joe

Loudmouth

The rules of imperialism are as follows:

1. When WE do imperialism, we are spreading civilisation, democracy, prosperity and general goodness. When THEY do imperialism, they are meglomaniacal expansionists, enslaving all they conquer and depriving everyone of their basic civil liberties and toss all dissidents into concentration camps or 'disappear' them.

2. WE drop good bombs. THEY drop bad bombs.

3. OUR imperialists are nice, clean-cut family men (and occasionally women), with good-looking families and impeccable dress sense. THEIR imperialists are shifty, evil-eyed manipulators and we never see their wives, because they are locked away in purdah, or if we ever do see them, they are frivolously spending public money earned by their regime slaves on kitschy shoes and handbags.

4. OUR imperial diplomats are clear-eyed, objective and reasonable. THEIR imperial diplomats are immature obstructionists, who wreck every peace conference they attend by asking far too much and, if they happen to get their way, go away and break every agreement they signed up to.

5. OUR imperial politicians keep their sexual affairs discretely private (until they are found out and then they gracefully resign on a lucrative, taxpayer-funded pension). THEIR imperial politicians keep sex-slaves and rape everything in their path.

6.OUR imperial politicians always tell the truth. THEIR imperial politicians always lie.

7. OUR imperial media - ditto. THEIR imperial media - ditto.

8. OUR imperial security organisations act only in the interests of our national security. THEIR imperial security organisations act only to spread mayhem and deception.

9. OUR imperialists are mostly white and speak English. THEIR imperialists are various shades of non-white and/or have to speak through interpreters.

10. OUR imperialists make excellent Hollywood good guys. THEIR imperialists make excellent Hollywood villains.

I'm not sure what this has to do with the topic or anything you had to say, but I had fun wring it.:)