Friday 12 October 2018

Blither Watch No. 1: Stuart Munro (Oct. 13, 2018)

https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-13-10-2018/#comment-1535010

Morrissey9
Blither Watch
No. 1: Stuart Munro
Blither Watch is an occasional series dedicated to compiling some of the more ridiculous ranting by people struggling on the blogosphere. It is compiled by Hector Stoop and Serena Sopwith-Fotherington, for Daisycutter Sports Inc.
Special thanks for the sterling work in this case by Drowsy M. Kram.

  1. [Sorry Morrissey this is just going to flame things. Argue the policies. Do not attack commenters. Final warning – MS]
    • Ed19.1
      One of the most abusive and deranged rants ever seen on this site.
      Remember Stuart knows more than
      Robert Fisk,
      Glenn Greenwald,
      Jeremy Scahill,
      Nicky Hager,
      John Stephenson,
      John Pilger,
      George Galloway,
      Patrick Cockburn,
      Seamus Milne,
      Naom Chomsky and Craig Murray
      He knows because Bellingcat told him so.
      • Morrissey19.1.1
        Someone on this site—I think it was our friend Stuart—slammed me for citing a “weird” site. The site was Noam Chomsky’s.
        • Stuart Munro19.1.1.1
          You never did cite it, Morrissey the Liar.
          I’m still waiting for your link in which you “prove” that Britain funded ISIS.
          Try hard not to lie Morrissey – it’s shameful in grownups.
          • Morrissey19.1.1.1.1
            ISIS and Al Qaeda and Al Nusra have been funded and diplomatically supported by the U.S., the U.K., Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E. and France, as well as minor vassal states like Australia. Unless you are utterly determined to ignore that fact, you know that as well as everybody else on this mostly excellent forum. Your demand that I “prove” the universally known is simply nonsense. I’m also not going to cite for you evidence that today is Saturday, or that the sun came up this morning.
            Your tactic of endless time-wasting mixed with personal abuse is understandable, of course, but don’t expect me or anyone with an I.Q. above room temperature to get sucked in to your games.
            • Stuart Munro19.1.1.1.1.1
              Links please Morrissey the Liar.
              Real links – and they had better be adamantine given the ambitious nature of your assertion.
      • Stuart Munro19.1.2
        Ed, the fellow who knows even less than George Galloway and Craig Murray ðŸ™‚
        Ed, the constant dupe of and apologist for Assad’s and Putin’s warcrimes. If he had a brain, or a conscience, his shame would drown him.
        • Morrissey19.1.2.1
          Have you read Drowsy M. Kram’s compilation of your Leighton Smith-calibre ranting, Stuart?
          Have you NO shame?
          • Stuart Munro19.1.2.1.1
            I am not ashamed for calling ED out for his lies and support of murderous dictatorships. I shall do so until he desists.
            When will you resile from or support your lie about the UK funding ISIS Morrissey? We are waiting with bated breath.
            When will you resile from or support your lie that those who question Ed’s rants are motivated by a desire to send others to die Morrissey? I know you have no more credibility than a rag in the wind but you really can’t talk about truth or shame until you’ve fessed up, my little cabbage.
    • Stuart Munro19.2
      You won’t let it rest will you Morrissey the Liar?
      Now about that lie that those who rebut Ed’s fantasies have an overwhelming urge to send other people to die. Are you ready to retract it yet?
      Or is all your tottering edifice of bullshit so fragile that a single truth will bring it all down?
      • Morrissey19.2.1
        You’ve been caught out. Time to rest in the pavilion, and lick your wounds.
        • Stuart Munro19.2.1.1
          Actually, no, Morrissey the Liar.
          You and your stormtrooper couldn’t catch a cold, much less apprehend the truth of a complex geopolitical situation.
          Now about your lies Morrissey. Do the UK fund ISIS. Let’s see your “proof” Morrissey.
          You’re big on noise but light on proof, Morrissey the Liar.
          • David Mac19.2.1.1.1
            Morrisey and Ed aren’t lying, it suits their mindset to believe what they do. The Jehovah Witness folk that call on me aren’t lying, they believe with all their hearts. But gee, I struggle to climb onboard….Where were all these people when I was selling dodgy secondhand cars?
            • Ed19.2.1.1.1.1
              Is Sy Hersch lying?
              • David Mac
                I can see you in this one Ed, only 300,000 kilometres and your new Toyota Cavalier comes with that renowned Toyota reliability.
                I don’t need to click on your copious loaded links Ed. I already know 2 big hetrosexual Russian guys don’t say “Hey I know, lets go and trudge through the snow in Salisbury this weekend.”
              • Stuart Munro
                I don’t follow him Ed – the only thing of his I’ve seen was his piece on Bellingcat that you posted, which did not cover him in glory.
                You could analyse some of his content, check whether he supports his claims or is proven true or false over time. There is a news reliability maphttps://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-biased-is-your-news-source-you-probably-wont-agree-with-this-chart-2018-02-28
                And there is probably some kind of rating maintained somewhere for individual journalists.
                • Ed
                  I see the BBC is ion the green rectangle as ‘news.’
                  So ‘MarketWatch’s graph itself is not reliable!
                  The BBC has shown itself to be simply an arm of the British state propaganda machine.
                  This documentary ‘London Calling’ shows the BBC’s bias during the Scottish referendum.
                  • Stuart Munro
                    It’s not free from bias Ed, it’s merely better than the rest.
                    Reuters is better.
                    Now check where your goto pundits sit.
                    • Ed
                      How is Bellingcat and Snopes placed?
                      I don’t see Robert Fisk and Patrick Cockburn on the list, my two favourite journalists on Syria.
                  • Stuart Munro
                    Some things Ed, you may have to do yourself.
                    This chart is from a US perspective, and mainly concerned with larger news sources. I imagine that the BBC, being free of some of the influences that compromise local US sources, is pretty good there – the anti-Corbyn stuff wasn’t produced for US audiences for example.
                    No doubt someone is studying or has studied individual reporter reliability, see if you can find it.
                    And if you can’t maybe you should build one – I can think of a few NZ media ‘personalities’ whose objectivity could be measured fruitfully.
                    I’m not sure about Bellingcat, but Snopes rates pretty highly, however much the fringe may detest it.
              • McFlock
                Does “Sy” actually say what you think “Sy” says?
            • Stuart Munro19.2.1.1.1.2
              I think they may be in two minds.
              You can see that Morrissey knows he can’t substantiate his ISIS claim, and that his position is untenable, but he doesn’t seem to have a template for a graceful climb down.
              This makes him pretty angry, but I’m not inclined to let him off the hook and spell it out for him, because he started the day by trying to chase me.
              Looking into the issue, these simplistic positions are pretty absurd, there are over 40 distinct groups identifying as the Free Syrian Army, and they split or merge with some frequency. And these are by no means the only rebel forces in play.
              When we see the noisy crowd discussing the character of distinct groups and unique populations like the Yazidis we may conclude that there is more to their assertions than sound and fury.
              • David Mac
                Pulling them up requires more than an accusation that sticks, it will take shifting a mindset.
                The prize ain’t worth the fight mate.
                • Stuart Munro
                  It’s not only a fight.
                  Imagine if a few of these opinionistas actually took their advocacy into a useful direction. That’s what the Bellingcat model is about – harnessing concerned citizens so that truth is not a casualty of the war.
                  Research is powerful – imagine what the impact of comprehensive housing, poverty, freshwater habitat destruction or foreign purchase data would have been on the last government.
                  • Ed
                    “Bellingcat is an amateur run, supposedly independent, source of image analyses on controversial images. Its operator, Eliot Higgins has been praised by The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Guardian. He was the subject of a BBC piece on 27 September 2018.[1] Robert Parry termed Bellingcat’s analysis of satellite photos related to the shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 an amateurish [and] anti-Russian… fraud”.“[2] Another commentator claimed that Higgins has constantly been a source of dis/misinformation on Syria and Ukraine: “It’s not so much ‘Bellingcat’ as ‘smell a rat’.”[3]”
                    • Ed
                      More from that article destroying the claims of Bellingcat to be independent.
                      “What Bellingcat does have is a track record of ‘shilling for the security services’. Bellingcat claims its purpose is to clear up fake news, yet has been entirely opaque about the real source of its so-called documents.
                      “MI6 have almost 40 officers in Russia, running hundreds of agents. The CIA has a multiple of that. They pool their information. Both the UK and US have large visa sections whose major function is the analysis of Russian passports, their types and numbers and what they tell about the individual.
                      “We are to believe that Boshirov and Petrov were GRU agents whose identity was plainly obvious from their passports, who had no believable cover identities, but that neither the visa department nor MI6 (which two cooperate closely and all the time) knew they were giving visas to GRU agents. Yet this information was readily available to Bellingcat?”[13]
                    • Stuart Munro
                      OK – Now how about you go through this piece and check the validity of the assertions.
                      And, you might want to check the confidence rating of wikispooks.
                      Bellingcat material is published by major news organizations because it has proven itself reliable.
                      As for your second piece
                      “Yet this information was readily available to Bellingcat?”
                      If Murray were only a little more thorough he would have noticed that Bellingcat have a rather vigorous Russian partner organization called Insider.
                      If I were to hazard a guess about Insider’s staffing, I imagine disaffected former journalists would be abundant – journalism having taken something of a downturn in Russia since Putin ascended to the presidency.
                    • Stuart Munro
                      The thing you need to bear in mind, Ed, is that you really don’t know anything about Bellingcat, and that people like Craig Murray are very properly reviled for propagandizing for the despotic Putin regime.
                      Before you go running to sites like wikispooks, you should do your own homework, so that you don’t end up copying and pasting untenable nonsense.
                      You should have started here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellingcat
                      or maybe here (it’s a TEDx)
                    • Ed
                      Robert Parry was an American investigative journalist. He was best known for his role in covering the Iran-Contra affair for the Associated Press (AP) and Newsweek, including breaking the Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare (CIA manual provided to the Nicaraguan contras) and the CIA involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking in the U.S. scandal in 1985.
                      He was awarded the George Polk Award for National Reporting in 1984 and the I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence by Harvard’s Nieman Foundation in 2015.
                      He wrote this in 2015
                      “The Dutch investigation into the shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine last July has failed to uncover conclusive proof of precisely who was responsible for the deaths of the 298 passengers and crew but is expected to point suspicions toward the ethnic Russian rebels, fitting with the West’s long-running anti-Russian propaganda campaign.
                      A source who has been briefed on the outlines of the investigation said some U.S. intelligence analysts have reached a contrary conclusion and place the blame on “rogue” elements of the Ukrainian government operating out of a circle of hard-liners around one of Ukraine’s oligarchs. Yet, according to this source, the U.S. analysts will demur on the Dutch findings, letting them stand without public challenge.
                      Throughout the Ukraine crisis, propaganda and “information warfare” have overridden any honest presentation of reality – and the mystery around the MH-17 disaster has now slipped into that haze of charge and counter-charge. Many investigative journalists, including myself, have been rebuffed in repeated efforts to get verifiable proof about the case or even informational briefings.
                      In that sense, the MH-17 case stands as an outlier to the usual openness that surrounds inquiries into airline disasters. The Obama administration’s behavior has been particularly curious, with its rush to judgment five days after the July 17, 2014 shoot-down, citing sketchy social media posts to implicate the ethnic Russian rebels and indirectly the Russian government but then refusing requests for updates.”
    • Sacha19.3
      Put it away, you pathetic creature.
      • Morrissey19.3.1
        ?????
        Do you endorse Mr. Munro’s obscenity-larded tirades?
        • Sacha19.3.1.1
          If you are this fond of digging, take up gardening. You and a few others are wrecking this discussion space.
          • Morrissey19.3.1.1.1
            Do you endorse those tirades?
            How am I “wrecking” this space? Do I swear at people? Do I use foul language? Do I accuse anyone of being an apologist for Russia or indulge in other such offensive ad hominem nonsense?
            Is it offensive to you to see someone challenged over such things?
            But, of course, you were one of those hapless naïfs who warmly welcomedMatthew Hooton on to Russell Brown’s site to “pay tribute” to Nelson Mandela by comparing him to Thatcher and Reagan.
            That should always be remembered by anyone who takes the time to consider anything you say—and especially any advice you hand out.
            [Feck it. Morrissey you are in moderation. Argue points. Do not attack commenters – MS]
            • Bewildered19.3.1.1.1.1
              Stuart Munro arguements are credible, yours and your slave boy Ed dog collar and all with his daily appeal to dubious authorities ( including a cat lover) that he puts on dieity status daily are,been nice, entertaining at best
              • Morrissey
                You’re just not someone I respect. I’ve ripped your wings off in the past; don’t feel like wasting my time repeating that exercise.
                • Bewilderd
                  Your a Legend in your own lunch Morrissey, plus a bare faced liar, just put up evidence not opinion that the uk where financing ISIS not some fanciful arguenebt with a million degrees of separation Also let Ed of his leash, it’s getting warm in the basement
                • Bewilderd
                  Your a Legend in your own lunch time Morrissey, plus a bare faced liar, just put up evidence not opinion that the uk where financing ISIS not some fanciful arguement with a million degrees of separation Also release Ed’s from his collar and leathers it’s getting warm in the basement
                • Ed
                  It is disturbing how many people fall for the propaganda over Skripal, Syria and the Ukraine. Hook, line and sinker.
                  Were they not around in 2002/3 when we were lied to over Iraq?
                  It does make you wonder…….
            • Sacha19.3.1.1.1.2
              Clutching at straws. Step outside into the fresh air.
              • Morrissey
                What the hell are you talking about?
              • SaveNZ
                I think the biggest posters of misinformation plus them meanest and most abusive are the posters who are paid for or used to work for the Auckland council and government. Must explain why the above organisations now spend million of dollars on PR and have so many different contractors spinning for them.
                I guess we now have a Trend where the truth is disposable and money is well spent on controlling all avenues of free speech and influencing for money.
                As well as the sinister new way of spying on people and influencing groups via third parties like Thompson & Clark.
                • David Mac
                  Yep the information highway is in gridlock. It’s become impossible to sort the bona fide from the BS and the default position has become: Choose a side.
                  • McFlock
                    We’re flooded with information, so trying to figure out what’s going on is like fishing.
                    Information sources are like fishing spots. Any individual story is like a particular catch.
                    Some spots are usually plentiful with healthy fish, others are often sparse, and there’s a sewer outflow or two around, as well.
                    Perfection is unachievable, but we can still make a good catch every day if we put a bit of thought into it.
                    • gsays
                      One person’s sewer outlet is another’s fishing spot.
                      Recently in regards to the double spy poisoning bru haha the tone round here has really lowered.
                      It is unpleasant and unattractive and off putting the aggro and bullying that has to go on when exchanging political points of view.
                      Willy waving.
                      With the league test in mind: play the ball, not the man.
                    • David Mac
                      I think the value views come from those that anchor and have a go all over the bay.
                      To my mind, I’d rather engage with someone that has the outlook: ‘What are they harping on about at Whaleoil today?’ than someone who feels ‘I’d never visit that disgusting tripe.’
                      I think knowing why some feel Kavanaugh is fabulous matters.
                    • McFlock
                      re: whaleoil, tried there ages ago. Caught so many used johnnies and floating turds that it put me off whatever good fish might have been there, if any. If someone can cook up a tasty turd fritter, more power to them but I ain’t eating it.
                      Sources do count. Bad sources waste your time and attention. I have better things to do. If they produce meaty stories that pass credibility tests, maintain a focus, justify strong claims with strong evidence, don’t disguise opinion as fact, don’t build towers on a few small assumptions, then they’re probably fair enough for most topics. If they’re biased, is the bias consistent? And if they just throw out contradictory stories, many of which look obviously fabricated, then why waste you’re time? One shotgun pellet might hit the bullseye, but you never know which one will do it when they’re still in the cartridge. That’s the point to shotguns.
                • Sacha
                  “the posters who are paid for or used to work for the Auckland council and government.

                  spying on people and influencing groups via third parties like Thompson & Clark.”
                  Yes, knowing about a system because you have worked in it is exactly the same as infiltratating activist organisations.
                  Get a grip.
          • gsays19.3.1.1.2
            From where I sit Sacha, this discussion space is ruined by comments like:
            “You and your stormtrooper couldn’t catch a cold, much less apprehend the truth of a complex geopolitical situation”
            “Or is all your tottering edifice of bullshit so fragile that a single truth will bring it all down?”
            “Ed, the constant dupe of and apologist for Assad’s and Putin’s warcrimes. If he had a brain, or a conscience, his shame would drown him”
            Now that the tone is set you join in with:
            “Put it away, you pathetic creature.”
            I get robust debate, and healthy back and forth but these snipes just make the cite closer to whale oil, stop others who are reading joining in and when there are more than a couple with this tone, reeks of bullying.
            • JanM19.3.1.1.2.1
              Oh please, I so agree – it’s horrible!!!
            • SaveNZ19.3.1.1.2.2
              +1 gsays, Yep, too personal and just plain abusive. There is a difference with being upset about political events or people in the media and just plain abuse at other posters which seems to have become a trend for some people to start the day abusing ED, for example and others.
              At least ED has a point of view, unlike some of the bullies that only post negative comments about other posters and contribute little to zero view points themselves.
              If there is no content and just abuse from people getting kicks from it, or their morning ritual to abuse certain people, it just devalues the site.
              I can understand it from the right wingers but TS has collected a few woke lefties that just bully and stalk others each day.
              • greywarshark
                I have counted the inconsequential garbage that has come up since I put a query about the blog on 14.
                You can see who are the incontinent bedwetters that need to grow up before they are let near a keyboard:
                Ed 10
                David Mac 6
                Morrissey 9
                Stuart Munro 14
                gsays couldn’t resist 5
                Bewildered 3
                Sacha 3
                Savenz 2
                McFlock 2
                maui 1
                e&oe
                • Ed
                  My comment at 15 about neoliberalism is not inconsequential.
                  • joe90
                    I bother with the claptrap you post day in day to check on who the host is and who they feature in their popular channels.
                    BarakalypseNow has pewdipie featured, because you know, laughing about the Holocaust is edgy.
                    So yeah, vile and inconsequential.
                    • Ed
                      Joe, I post regularly on a variety of interesting topics.
                      Neoliberalism, Corbyn, Palestine, Child poverty, Syria, Alcohol, Ukraine, Sugar, Climate Change, the Salisbury affair and plant based diets to name a few,
                      Just because you disagree with my opinion on some of these should not mean you revert to abuse.
                      Be kind to people.
                • Morrissey
                  Well done, Ed and Stuart.
                  You guys are the champs!
              • Ed
                Thank you.
                Each time I post my point of view on a subject a bunch of stalkers attack me.
            • Sacha19.3.1.1.2.3
              gsays, I was objecting to a specific post that carefully and deliberately dragged up a comment thread from 2 days earlier to keep a willy-waving argument going. Hence ‘put it away’.
              There are a handful of commenters who have been behaving very anti-socially during the past week at least – and others have noted that. I am not a moderator here and nor do I have the patience to reason with adults who are acting like unruly children.
              I did try to engage Mr Breen’s behaviour briefly and politely yesterday:https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-12-10-2018/#comment-1534921
              Morrissey has been behaving like this over many years and has been banned from other discussion spaces over it. If you and others reckon that’s what you want this site to be about rather than discussing labour movement politics, it’s good for all of us to understand your expectations.
              • gsays
                Hey cheers for that Sacha, I wasn’t aware of the context and past with you two.
                I would say however, I haven’t seen Ed abuse anyone, in fact ask repeatedly for a few folk to tone it down.
                We can all disagree fine, but the abuse over the last week or so from a few commenters is unnecessary.
                I agree, it is childish at times.
                • Sacha
                  Thank you. It’s nothing personal for me beyond a dislike for repeat behaviour that puts off plenty of people from coming together in places like this. I do not envy the moderators.
        • JC19.3.1.2
          “Do you endorse those tirades?”
          Gardening sounds like an appropriate hobby …
  2. Exkiwiforces20
    Sorry for being a bit in day for this been digging tenches as I’m trying found a leak and now the drive way looks like the tench lines from Tobruk, but had to post this or else I’ll forget in morning.
    It appears on current polling that Australia may looking at hung parliament after the Wentworth by-election, if the Lib’s get below 40% and if Phelps does well on 1st preference votes head of Sharma then she within shot of winning. The problem with Phelps is that she is Liberal in a ture sense, not a progressive Liberal you would see from Labour. But in saying that a couple of her senior campaign staff are from the Labour Party which has pissed off a number of people from the Lib’s and Labour, so pull up a pew, grab the popcorn and grab your favourite poison to the watch the mud, the dirt and the blood fly about as the turn into the final corner as they head down the final straight folks. As is this going to one mud run you don’t want to miss and the best part about this mud run is you won’t get dirty unless you choke on your popcorn or your on favourite poison.
    • Dennis Frank20.1
      Cool, except that we face the distasteful prospect of male aussies using their hung parliament to claim that they’re well-hung…
      • Exkiwiforces20.1.1
        To be honest, I don’t think it would be a hung parliament if Phelps gets of the line as she has said that “ She would Lib’s on supply and on votes of no- confidence matters” unless Labour gets over the line.
        One adding thing I would like to add is that Phelps stood for the Liberal pre- selection for the Wentworth by- election but was knocked back in favour of old mate Sharma. Now if Phelps does get over the line, then the Liberal old boy network, NSW Liberal Party HQ and other parts of the Liberal Party who hate the Rainbow branch of the Liberal Party are going to look like a bunch of drongos.
        • greywarshark20.1.1.1
          Thanks ex kiwi forces for bringing us up to date on Oz politics. I dislike the way they go on but as near neighbours it is necessary for us to follow the
          doings and your explanations are gold.
  3. eco maori21
    Kia ora R&R Would you have even dreamed of the changes that are happening in our society alot of positive for the common tangata whenua.
    I agree with the Wahine that tanngata whenua have to realize that if they do shady stuff this day & age 2018 you will be called out nothing can be hidden well it can but one needs $100. million to have that in there tool box.
    Marae based work is the a charitable based one ka kite ano
  4. eco maori22
    Kia ora Hui Its is sad that QJ had a bad out come from that accident I wish him and his family all the best he has a long road to recovery they have a give a little page thats the way get the tangata to help in your times of need.
    I won’t talk about one subject as it is not appropriate at the minute .
    I think te Tane is saying to bend the system into one that treats maori Equally and don’t try and chuck the system out .
    Te wahine is correct we need more maori in management doctors lawyers all the top professions and then maori will be treated fairly .When they can free education that move stop maori getting into these high profession’s .
    Kia kaha te tangata whenua ka kite ano
    • greywarshark23.1
      Thanks for that eco maori. And their last words ‘Nothing really matters to me’ I think are not what you feel. Kia kaha with the things that matter to you.
  5. eco maori24
    Kia kaha to the German pro Equality and human rights people these people are environmentalist and are anti neo fascist who are cheating their way into power in Europe with the help from neoliberal capitalist around the world whom have a love for money over common sense.
    I see the dirty tricks these people use all over the world trying to hack our democracy I’m quite glad that at least 250k of people turned up to this rallie in Berlin . One thing I don’t agree with is who gave the neoliberal capitalist the right to use right in there name’s or branding a lot of people would see this and think well not think ? and believe the neo’s are automatically right in there false lying opinions on Equality animal rights climate change .
    Because of this fact this gives Eco Maori the clearances to call out anyone that is a neoliberal capitalist oil loving fool . Kia kaha to the intelligent humane environment pro
    Wahine right’s people .Ka kite ano



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