Emily Carver is an ideological extremist from Conservative Home, who works for the opaquely funded free-market #IEA, & represents the interests of fossil fuel corporations & rich libertarians who want to kill the #NHS & remove worker & environmental protections. #PoliticsLive
The @BBC gives their influential platform to the opaquely funded free-market corporate propagandists, the #IEA, which represents the interests of overseas billionaires, & pushes for lowering taxes, & abolishing the #NHS & worker, consumer & environmental protections. #PolitcsLive
Ideological extremist Emily Carver moved seamlessly from the #IEA to Conservative Home last year. It doesn't really matter - the global network representing billionaire-interests includes the billionaire-owned/funded press/media, Govt Ministers, & #TuftonStreet 'think tanks'.
What sickens me about the @BBC's #PoliticsLive is that its topic agenda is dictated almost exclusively by the UK press - almost invariably by the Murdoch, Harmsworth, & Barclay press - who work hand-in-glove with 'think tanks' & Govt to promote free-market #framing of any issue.
To 'frame' something is "to select some aspects of a perceived reality & make them more salient in a communication text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation for the item described."
UK @Conservatives & US Republicans *themselves* adopt increasingly radical (illiberal, antidemocratic, & authoritarian) policies & rhetoric, while relentlessly framing progressives & the Left as the REAL radical menace in an act of strategic misdirection.
Yesterday's #PoliticsLive featured yet another #TuftonStreet free-market think tank, the Centre for Policy Studies. The @BBC NEVER tells viewers these lobbying groups flat refuse to disclose who funds them, thus depriving viewers of essential information.
And here's today's anti-#NHS article from #Spectator economics editor, Kate Andrews, who is also a regular on @BBC politics shows, a regular writer in the Telegraph (also owned by tax-avoiding billionaire Frederick Barclay), formerly of #TuftonStreet's IEA & Adam Smith Institute.
After eight years as US President, on Janury 17, 1961, Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower, former supreme commander of the Allied forces in western Europe during WWII, warned us about the the growing "military-industrial complex" (and Trump2.0) in his prescient farewell address.
Before looking at that speech, some context for those unfamiliar with Eisenhower, the 34th US president, serving from 1953 to 1961.
During WWII, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe and achieved the five-star rank as General of the Army.
Eisenhower planned & supervised two consequential WWII military campaigns: Operation Torch in the North Africa campaign in 1942–43 & the 1944 Normandy invasion.
The right-wing of the Republican Party clashed with him more often than the Democrats did during his first term.
In England, 18% of adults aged 16-65 - 6.6 million people - can be described as having "very poor literacy skills" AKA 'functionally illiterate'.
This leaves people vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation, and poses significant challenges for society and democracy.
Being 'functionally illiterate' means that a person can understand short straightforward texts on familiar topics accurately & independently, & obtain information from everyday sources, but reading information from unfamiliar sources or on unfamiliar topics can cause problems.
Adult functional illiteracy—lacking the reading, writing, and comprehension skills needed for everyday tasks—poses significant challenges for a country, society, and democracy.
The first asks "Is it OK to smoke while I'm praying?"
The Pope replies "No! You should be focused on God!"
The second Priest asks "Is it OK to pray while I'm smoking?"
The Pope replies "Of course, there's never a bad time to pray"
Nigel Farage’s rhetorical technique of framing controversial or inflammatory statements as questions, often defended as “just asking questions,” is a well-documented strategy - sometimes called “JAQing off” in online discourse - that has drawn significant criticism.
This approach involves posing questions to imply a controversial viewpoint without explicitly endorsing it, thereby maintaining plausible deniability. Farage often uses this strategy to raise issues around immigration, national identity, and 'wokeness' or 'political correctness'.
The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) was a response to the atrocities of WWII and the Holocaust, designed to prevent such horrors reoccurring.
Withdrawing risks weakening human rights, international isolation, destabilised peace agreements, and authoritarian drift.
Adopted in 1950 by the Council of Europe, the ECHR was a collective response to the Holocaust, during which about 11 million people, including 6 million Jews, were systematically exterminated, exposing the urgent need for a legal framework to prevent such horrors from recurring.
The Council of Europe, established in 1949 to promote democracy, rule of law, and human rights, made the ECHR a cornerstone of its mission.
Influenced by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the ECHR ensured states uphold fundamental rights.
Comparing political rhetoric across eras is a sensitive task, as context, intent, and historical outcomes differ vastly.
In 1990, Ivana Trump said her husband Donald owned a copy of “My New Order” – a printed collection of Hitler's speeches – which he kept by the bedside...
Some of Trump’s statements have been noted by historians, critics, and media for echoing themes or phrasing used by Adolf Hitler, particularly in their dehumanizing language, scapegoating of groups, and authoritarian undertones.
Below, with @grok's help, I’ll provide examples of Trump’s quotes that have been cited as resembling Hitler’s rhetoric, alongside Hitler’s statements for comparison, drawing from credible sources, focusing on specific language & themes, ensuring accuracy, & avoiding exaggeration.
Most people know very little about Trump's new best friend, El Salvador’s strongman leader, Nayib Bukele, who's been sat in the White House being adored by Trump and his team of fawning, dangerously unhinged sociopathic bootlickers...
Read this excellent article by Professor of International Politics at Lancaster University, Amalendu Misra, the author of seven critically acclaimed monographs on conflict and peace, whose primary research concerns violence in the political process.
Trump has unleashed a string of controversial policies since returning to the White House that have put his administration at odds with most of the world. He's also forged an alliance with one country that is willing to do his bidding abroad: El Salvador.