What has Kenny MacAskill been up to today?
Kenny MacAskill is MP for East Lothian and a member of the Scottish National Party party.
Kenny MacAskill has 19893 followers on Twitter.
NATO and a War Foretold - http://CounterPunch.org https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/06/29/nato-and-a-war-foretold/
Up to 100,000 people attended the unveiling of the Dundee Burns statue in 1880 to assert their Scottishness and demand democratic rights. Our banner is in the background. @GlasgowBurns @McManusDundee @billykayscot @DundeeLH @paulmalgrati
A plebiscite election is a terrible idea, it wouldn't work, the Unionists would refuse to engage, the international community would laugh at us, it would damage the cause of independence, it would what's that Nicola YAY PLEBISCITE ELECTION! https://wingsoverscotland.com/remembering-pete-wishart/
"Julian Assange is a victim of torture and inhuman treatment. This is a threat not just to Assange himself but to freedom of speech everywhere in the world. Nils Melzer’s book is the essential, utterly forensic analysis of this case" @VersoBooks https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/5243-the-trial-of-julian-assange-a-letter-from-the-editor
Let us all spare a thought for poor @PeteWishart at this difficult time. https://wingsoverscotland.com/remembering-pete-wishart/
Watch this. Important context that you will not find in mainstream media. (Doesn’t justify the invasion, of course). https://twitter.com/ivan_8848/status/1541736949001723904
Ukraine was not in NATO, but NATO was in Ukraine since 2014
The alliance began training the 🇺🇦 military in 2014 averaging 10 000 trained troops annualy
"The US & its allies were effectively turning 🇺🇦 into a defacto memeber of NATO"
A lecture by John J. Mearsheimer
Bizarre:
Reopen nightclubs to help level up towns, says Labour leadership.
Whatever happened to reducing inequalities; decent wages/pensions/benefits; investment in infrastructure, the NHS, housing, writing-off debts of the poor, rejuvenating town centres?
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/reopen-nightclubs-to-help-level-up-towns-says-labour-8f5vbnrzm
👀 After he was rescued by the Navy from Libya in 2014, future Manchester bomber Salman Abedi agreed to be "debriefed", the official inquiry heard.
So did this debrief take place?
The MOD says "we have found no information pertaining to the question".
#DCUKparliament
⚠️ The Abedi brothers were rescued by the Royal Navy from Libya in 2014, 3 years before the Manchester bombing.
What were they doing there?
The Foreign Office says it "cannot comment further on this for national security reasons".
#DCUKparliament
👉 NEW -- Manchester bomber was a UK ally
By @MarkCurtis30
Salman Abedi and his closest family were part of Libyan militias benefitting from British covert military support six years before he murdered 22 people at the Manchester Arena in 2017
https://declassifieduk.org/manchester-bomber-was-a-uk-ally/
On this day in 1954, the United States backed a coup against Jacobo Árbenz, the progressive, democratically elected leader of Guatemala, because he sought to restore land to small farmers and Indigenous communities that had been dispossessed by US fruit companies.
👉 NEW -- Counter-terrorism officials allowed Manchester bomber to operate in Libya warzone
by @markcurtis30
MI5 & police had numerous opportunities to stop Salman Abedi gaining military experience in Libya for years before 2017 Manchester bombing.
https://declassifieduk.org/counter-terrorism-officials-allowed-manchester-bomber-to-operate-in-libya-warzone/
June 27 1880 - Birth of Helen Keller, radical US socialist; member of the IWW and Socialist Party of America. She was the first blind & deaf person to earn a degree and the author of 12 books including "Out of the Dark" a book on socialism.
Check out the bonus episode of our podcast with Ricky Tomlinson to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the building workers' strike, discussing his experiences in prison, working in construction and as a trade unionist. Out now for patreon supporters:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/68190739
⬛️ 22 people were murdered. The families, Manchester and the public deserve answers.
Part one is here -- https://declassifieduk.org/manchester-bomber-was-a-uk-ally/
Please retweet.
Just another reminder why we need #ScottishIndependence https://twitter.com/David__Osland/status/1541019720668921857
An MP could defect from the Tories to Labour without having to change stance on one single major political issue. That shouldn't be the case.
⚠️ The ever-revolving door of the UK military-industrial complex -- former head of civil service (and national security adviser) lands job with country's largest arms exporter.
https://thismon.ee/a/10946491
Prince Charles has a long history of accepting lavish gifts from corrupt/repressive regimes. Imelda Marcos gave him a speedboat in the 1980s
“Korean War” started today in 1950. The main complaint of US pilots by 1951 was that there was nothing left to bomb. In the North not 1 structure taller than 1 story still stood. But the US kept bombing for 2 more years. 4 million Koreans died. US still won’t sign Peace Treaty
#OtD 25 Jun 1943 the Jewish Fighting Organisation in the Polish Częstochowa ghetto launched an armed uprising. They held out against Nazi troops for 5 days, and over 5,000 survived through the ghetto until liberation by the Red Army in 1945
Part3 of Doubting Thomas fringe16 coming soon folks #playwrite #writer #Schemelife #Reallife
The United Nations:
- Israeli forces killed Shireen Abu Akleh
- Abu Akleh clearly wearing 'PRESS' jacket
- No warning shots issued
- No other shooting taking place nearby
- Israel has killed 58 Palestinians in the West Bank this year, incl. 13 children
https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/06/1121252
❓ Whitehall is encouraging a war crimes case against Russia at the International Criminal Court.
Is there a rational argument for not also bringing a case against the UK (and others) at the ICC, over Yemen?
https://declassifieduk.org/its-not-just-putin-uk-ministers-are-also-complicit-in-war-crimes-in-yemen/
More than just a gangsters story #scottishwriters #scottishcrimefiction #Scottishscreenwriting #crimebooks #Glasgow #georgemcduff #Schemelife
24 June 1314: During the First War of Scottish Independence, #Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce defeat the #English at the Battle of #Bannockburn. #history #OTD #SendTips #ad https://amzn.to/2Ysv94E
The great Jimmy Dore! Hilarious! As others see us! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMVZqq3FCEo
Eugene Debs was right about the Supreme Court:
"With every drop of my blood I defy their law, and I despise them. I am appealing to you, the common people; I care nothing about the Supreme Court, corporation lawyers every one of them."
http://www.marxisthistory.org/history/usa/parties/spusa/1919/0501-debs-maydayspeech.pdf
Insanity. Dr Strangelove and his pals. Never ending war
The Russia-Ukraine war at three months https://brook.gs/39LhttM via @BrookingsInst
Every Friday, we bring you our #ScottishWordOfTheWeek! This week's word is... ken!
⠀
This means to know someone or something. It is often used to agree with someone or let them know you understand what they mean.
It can also be used as a question: "d'ye ken what I mean?"
Almost six years later, clips from Al Jazeera's expose The Lobby are still being shared and copied online by activists all the time. This one alone has more than 400k views.
This is a problem for the Israel lobby that is never going away. https://twitter.com/TheBirmingham6/status/1540272710617649154
@AsaWinstanley @jeremycorbyn @kennardmatt Why was Israeli Government spy Shai Masot dangling £1m in front of the LFI Chair at Labour Party Conference ?
“Let me give another explanation. An unjust law is a code inflicted upon a minority which that minority had no part in enacting or creating because it did not have the unhampered right to vote."
#MLK #DrKing
Ukraine Update – 23 June 2022 http://dlvr.it/SSjyTM by @KennyMacAskill
Patrick Grady’s actions were wrong, and he has been rightly censured. It’ll be for him, his local party and the electorate what he does next.
You can read my thoughts here 👇
https://kennymacaskillmp.scot/its-the-hypocrisy-not-the-actions-23-june-2022
It’s The Hypocrisy Not The Actions – 23 June 2022 http://dlvr.it/SSk81w by @KennyMacAskill
The UK formally approved the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the US.
Anyone who cares about press freedom should condemn this case and implore the Justice Dept. to drop its charges. https://freedom.press/news/the-extradition-of-julian-assange-must-be-condemned-by-all-who-believe-in-press-freedom/
#OTD in 1971, a half-day general strike took place on Clydeside, to defend Upper Clyde Shipbuilders. Forty-thousand people marched through Glasgow – the biggest demonstration in the city for decades.
Couple people asking when the interview with Evo Morales from his house in Amazon is coming. Soon. I'm working on it now. It's another long one. Can't wait to share.
Morales called time on 500 years of colonial rule in Bolivia. A historic event for Latin America - and the world
"Community policing has been suffering, in terms of numbers and a loss of experience." Former Justice Secretary @KennyMacAskill in the June edition of 1919: https://1919magazine.co.uk/june2022/?i=7
It’s Jeremy Corbyn’s turn to speak. Unfiltered by the establishment media.
Here’s my 6k word interview with him for @declassifieduk. It’s a window into how he was brought down. But, more crucially, it’s a window into who really runs Britain + for whom.
https://declassifieduk.org/exclusive-jeremy-corbyn-on-the-establishment-campaign-to-stop-him-becoming-pm/
Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by extreme flooding in China.
Water levels in more than a hundred rivers have surged past flood warning levels, state-run media said, and record-high heat in some provinces is causing roads to buckle. https://nyti.ms/3ya51NQ
Solitary confinement is torture. It is a form of cruel punishment intended to break the human spirit with disproportionate negative long-term impacts on people of color, youth, and those experiencing mental illness.
👉 NEW -- Exclusive: Jeremy Corbyn on the establishment campaign to stop him becoming PM
Corbyn sits down with Declassified's @kennardmatt for his most candid interview yet – on UK media, military & intelligence, Israel, Starmer, Assange, Saudi & more.
https://declassifieduk.org/exclusive-jeremy-corbyn-on-the-establishment-campaign-to-stop-him-becoming-pm/
A handy instruction video for any ESOL students on the verb ‘to lie’ from the @RMT here 😉
👏🏿👏🏾👏🏽👏🏼👏🏼
“You’re lying”
“That’s a lie”
“You’re a liar”
📝 ALBA Party supports strike action by rail workers
🗣 @KennyMacAskill MP: "It is in the interests of everyone who uses our rail services that we stand up for the workers who are essential to its running and its operation."
#ALBAStandsForScotland 🏴
https://www.albaparty.org/alba_supports_strike_action
This week Belgium returned the only piece of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba’s body that survived after the rest was boiled in acid in 1961. He was killed in a US/Belgian operation. One of the killers took a tooth as a souvenir. I wrote about it last year: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/06/04/opinion/lumumbas-tooth-other-remnants-1960s-idealism/
Today is World Press Freedom Day. I spoke this morning in Westminster Hall on Julian Assange and Craig Murray.
You can watch my contribution here
https://youtu.be/qpY7bqTa6v0
🟥 Congo's leader Patrice Lumumba was assassinated in 1961 and his family will now receive his sole remaining body part, a tooth. His body was never found. It was cut up and dissolved in acid.
❓ The question remains -- Did MI6 help murder him?
https://declassifieduk.org/did-britain-help-murder-an-african-leader-and-u-n-secretary-general/
Alcohol sales (Nielsen CGA data) Scotland excess vs England & Wales
2011 - 20%
2016 - 16%
2021 - 4% https://twitter.com/aveek18/status/1539192240526041089
Alcohol-specific death rates, 2017-20:
Scottish men: up 3%
Scottish women: up 9%
English men/women: up 16%
(Scottish men are 3x more likely than women to die of an alcohol-specific cause)
"Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns this decision (on Julian #Assange), which represents a failure by the UK government to protect press freedom and will have dangerous implications for journalism around the world" @RSF_inter
https://rsf.org/en/uk-home-secretary-orders-us-extradition-wikileaks-publisher-julian-assange