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The Saker
A bird's eye view of the vineyard

offsite link Alternative Copy of thesaker.is site is available Thu May 25, 2023 14:38 | Ice-Saker-V6bKu3nz
Alternative site: https://thesaker.si/saker-a... Site was created using the downloads provided Regards Herb

offsite link The Saker blog is now frozen Tue Feb 28, 2023 23:55 | The Saker
Dear friends As I have previously announced, we are now “freezing” the blog.? We are also making archives of the blog available for free download in various formats (see below).?

offsite link What do you make of the Russia and China Partnership? Tue Feb 28, 2023 16:26 | The Saker
by Mr. Allen for the Saker blog Over the last few years, we hear leaders from both Russia and China pronouncing that they have formed a relationship where there are

offsite link Moveable Feast Cafe 2023/02/27 ? Open Thread Mon Feb 27, 2023 19:00 | cafe-uploader
2023/02/27 19:00:02Welcome to the ‘Moveable Feast Cafe’. The ‘Moveable Feast’ is an open thread where readers can post wide ranging observations, articles, rants, off topic and have animate discussions of

offsite link The stage is set for Hybrid World War III Mon Feb 27, 2023 15:50 | The Saker
Pepe Escobar for the Saker blog A powerful feeling rhythms your skin and drums up your soul as you?re immersed in a long walk under persistent snow flurries, pinpointed by

The Saker >>

Public Inquiry
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

Public Inquiry >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link Can Science Tell Us the Meaning of Life? Mon Dec 23, 2024 19:54 | Dr David Bell
At Christmas time, Dr David Bell reflects on what has true value in this world, the limits of science to tell us what that is and what a baby in a manger might have to say about it.
The post Can Science Tell Us the Meaning of Life? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Non-Crime Hate Incidents Surge in Half of Police Forces Despite Government Crackdown Mon Dec 23, 2024 17:46 | Will Jones
The number of?non-crime hate incidents?recorded by police has surged in half of Britain's forces despite attempts by the previous Government to crack down on the practice, official data show.
The post Non-Crime Hate Incidents Surge in Half of Police Forces Despite Government Crackdown appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Reeves?s Simplistic Thinking Spawned This Budget from Hell Mon Dec 23, 2024 15:44 | David Craig
Simplistic linear thinking by Rachel from Accounts and the Treasury spawned this Budget from hell, says David Craig. A systems thinker would have known it would send the economy into a doom loop of recession and decline.
The post Reeves’s Simplistic Thinking Spawned This Budget from Hell appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link British Drivers Steering Away From New Cars In Their Droves Mon Dec 23, 2024 13:00 | Sallust
British car-buyers are turning away from new vehicles in their droves and keeping their reliable old petrol models going for far longer as Labour's Net Zero war on affordable motors heats up.
The post British Drivers Steering Away From New Cars In Their Droves appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Britain on Brink of Recession After Growth Revised to Zero Following Reeves?s Horror Budget Mon Dec 23, 2024 11:09 | Will Jones
Britain is on the brink of a recession after official figures were revised to show zero growth in the third quarter of the year and living standards fell, with Rachel Reeves's horror Budget blamed.
The post Britain on Brink of Recession After Growth Revised to Zero Following Reeves’s Horror Budget appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

RTÉ Primetime Parrots State Propaganda on Water Charges

category national | bin tax / household tax / water tax | other press author Sunday December 14, 2014 19:39author by wsm Report this post to the editors

On Thursday night RTE Primetime presented what many have described as a 'regime broadcast', an utterly transparent hatchet job of the anti-Water Charges campaign. This featured, supposedly, an anonymous water meter installer describing being accosted by knife, hatchet, baseball bat, and golf club wielding maniacal protesters – the sinister fringe. The core message transmitted in the program was 'you can protest, but don't protest effectively'. If you watched it (link below), what did you think?
rte_prime_time_hatchet_job.jpg

It was a 'Greatest Hits' compilation of government talking points. The issue which defined and dominated the program is captured in a framing question the RTE narrator posed at the beginning: 'Will it remain a broad based campaign, or will the hardline elements [the sinister fringe] come to the fore?' This divisive narrative will be familiar to anyone who has even cursorily been following the anti-Water Charges campaign. The mainstream media, in line with the government, has obsessively focused on the question of whether or not any particular protest action is 'peaceful', continuously querying if the campaign has erupted into chaos yet.

Central to this narrative is the division of protesters into good and bad ones, 'legitimate' and 'illegitimate', 'peaceful' and 'non-peaceful'. This serves to turn protesters against each other, to make protesters fixate on appearing 'legitimate' (and hence become more biddable), to draw attention away from the real issues, and to foster anti-protester hostility among non-protesters and the undecided.

Instead of discussing privatisation, the bank debt, Garda brutality, or austerity, we're supposed to endlessly contend that our protest, and our campaign, is 'legitimate'. As the narrator noted about the December 10th rally, 'the vast majority ... were polite and engaged in legitimate protest. But a small concentrated group of people are targeting water meter installations, but they are a very small element, of what is for the most part a group of people genuinely frustrated at the charges, and the way the government and Irish Water have handled things'. Could it be more obvious? As William Hederman wrote in his opinion piece in today's Irish Times: 'the water-charge demonstrations have worked because of civil disobedience. When people break the rules of protest they force governments to act '.

RTE secretly filmed a protest preventing the installation of water meters, but found none of the violence described by the silhouette in the picture. However, they made sure to remind us that it was illegal, in breach of an injunction's 20 metre exclusion zone, and later that Water Meter Fairies were committing 'Criminal Damage'. It's not surprising in the slightest that they are so keen to deter people from taking direct action, as it has been the backbone of this campaign and is the greatest assurance of our rights in general. It's well known that the prevention of water meter installations has been a crucial rallying and organising point for the movement.

As if it weren't parodical enough already, the program aired Kevin McSherry, the Irish Water executive who leads the water installation program, who after recounting an oh-so-rabid pack of youths shouting 'Irish Water scum' and slashing his tyres implored the viewer: 'don't attack the working man who's there to do their daily job'. This regular working class hero added 'I can't understand why anyone would protest against the working man. If someone wants to protest then you're welcome to walk to the Dáil or walk on O'Connell street' (even though, ironically, people were not free to walk to the Dáil on December 10th). Again the subtext here is that we should walk around with placards, but should not take direct action, especially not prevent the installation of meters.

A debate between Anti-Austerity Alliance TD Paul Murphy and Fine Gael TD Regina Doherty concluded the show, with the latter pontificating about legality despite the fact that, as Goldhawk notes, 'Doherty has broken company law by taking out a director’s loan from her company, Enhanced Solutions Ltd' (link below).

This vigorous muddying of the waters reveals a vital point of clarity: the establishment is deeply troubled by the anti-Water Charges campaign, that it is a mighty platform for general opposition to this government and what it represents, its widespread adoption of direct action, and its de-centralised character. In the particular case of RTE, the water charges campaign has been the greatest generator of distrust for Radio Telefis Eireann in recent times.

Obvious attacks like this, and there are plenty (see below for a recent example), should spur us on to be more bold, more persistent, and to demand greater justice.

RTE Primetime 'On the frontlines of the water protests'
http://:http//www.rte.ie/news/primetime/2014/1212/666444-prime-time-11-12-2014/

Related Link: http://www.wsm.ie/c/rt%C3%A9-primetime-parrots-state-propaganda-water-charges
author by Ratatoskrpublication date Fri Dec 19, 2014 12:59author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Contempt is the word, the ruling class see themselves as superior to the ordinary folk and it's blatantly obvious in their verbal and body language. They are repulsed by the fact that people even have the audacity to resist their agenda, as if we should just be happy that we can barely scrape a living together. Comfort and disposable income are the preserve of the chosen few because 'They're worth it!'. We have been in a strange slumber for a time now but we don't come from submissive stock, we are our ancestors children, disobedience and stubborness are fine traits in a human being and we need to bury the heels in good.

Regina Doherty is a dangerously hungry politician and if I have to see those batshit crazy eyes peering out from behind those glasses on tv on a regular basis I think I'll have to leave the country. She appeals to a certain conservative demographic who would hold the belief that the poor are poor because they deserve to be and we need enterprise, enterprise, enterprise and if it means whoring ourselves out the highest bidder then so be it.

 
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