dan maertens's List: Nieuws

• Not sure if this helps and I realize you are "bad at social media" but, as Blaise suggested upthread, highly suggest you either join or follow Twitter.
  
  In particular, follow a Reuters Videojournalist named Justin Ziras who tweeted the opening of the DRC/M23 negotiations today in Kampala- where, I assume, he is based.
  
  Here's how:
  
  A) Join twitter: go to www.twitter.com and create a real simple profile. Then, where you see "Discover", type in various "hashtags"- which are search terms in Twitter-speak- related to this effort. Terms like "#M23", "#DRC", "#Congo", etc. You will notice certain people posting on the subject. Click on their name and "follow" them. You can follow Justin by going to his profile: https://twitter.com/JZiras.
  
  B) Or, if you have a cellphone, you can actually get tweets as texts from certain folks on Twitter who "do" Congo, as it were. :) To do so, text the number 40404 and enter text "follow xyz". So, if you want to follow Justin, enter 40404 and follow jziras.
  
  If the latest news on negotiations is what you want, I suggest the following Tweeters:
• 1) This blog's author: @jasonkstearns
  2) Justin (Ugandan journalist)
  3) Digital Djeli: ‏@digitaldjeli
  4) Melanie Gouby: @Melaniegouby
  5) Johnny Hogg: @jonnyhogg1
  6) Howard French: ‏ @hofrench
  7) Daniel Howden: @howden_africa
  8) Angelo Izama: @Opiaiya (Ugandan journalist)
  
  For more Tweeters who tweet on Congo regularly just take a look at who THEY follow and then follow them. Folks who tweet on Congo seem to mostly be academics (Jason, Laura Seay, Mvemba Dizole), journalists stationed in the region (Melanie Gouby, Johnny Hogg, Justin, etc), and activists like ourselves.
  
  I personally highly recommend following the journalists. They know the region well and tend to write objectively and competently on the Congo- hard to do given all the emotions/propaganda swirling around these days. I tend not to follow the academics and activists primarily because tweets from both tend to be binary (people who love/have no issue with Rwanda vs people who hate Rwanda) or ill-informed on this issue.
  I know this doesn’t get to your question about the different forces/mandates but I’m sure if you follow these folks a picture will start to come into view. From what I can gather from @JZiras the opening talks are a) framework discussions- so discussing what will actually be discussed in the negotiations b) predictably confusing and accusatory.

• You might also be interested in this list of 16 online tools for newsgathering.
• time:New York
• define:dactylion
• vacant houses wales filetype:pdf
• site:journalism.co.uk "New York Times" into Google.
• site:uk.linkedin.com trinity mirror
• site:flickr.com "brecon county show".
• There is
• It is particularly useful for verification. For example, you could ask "what was the weather in Islamabad the day Osama bin Laden was killed?”
• Topsy
   
   Topsy is really useful search engine which lets you to search not only the web but also Twitter, Google+, photos, videos and other platforms, filtering by a date range.
• Create a custom search engine
   
   Another option to create a shortcut for a site search is to create a CSE – or custom search engine – in Google. For example, you can specify which sites you want to be included in the search and get a URL. Here is a search engine that only searches Journalism.co.uk.
• PeekYou
   
   You are probably familiar with searching Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus and LinkedIn for people but it is worth knowing about PeekYou.
   
   This online directory trawls more than 60 social networking websites and more than 3 billion links. It describes its mission as "indexing the public web around people".
• You are no doubt aware that it is tricky to find tweets older than about 10 days on Twitter. Use SnapBird for a deeper search.
• It is also worth being aware of video search engine blinkx and the handy feature in Bing
• Use Google's custom date range
• you can use the tool below the search box

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• The only way to search the newspaper archives now is to go to the regular google search at www.google.com, and PRECEDE your search by "site:google.com/newspapers" (without the quotes.) followed by your search terms. In another customer-unfriendly change, you can't filter your newspaper results by date anymore
• http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/news/Gl23RwnTIlg

• Online replacements. There are a few free services, such as Mention.net and Talkwalker Alerts, that can fill the gap Google Alerts leaves behind. In most cases, these services are modeled on Google Alerts, so they’re easy to set up and easy to manage. I’ve tinkered with a few of these, and I’ve found that the results have been surprisingly valuable. The tools may not be Google based, but they do seem to work.

• Google News offers 72 editions in 30 languages, drawing content from more than 50,000 sources.
• The time or date displayed (including in the Timeline of Articles feature) reflects when an article was added to or updated in Google News.”
• Social discussions in Google+ (but not from other social sites, such as Twitter or Facebook).
• So Google must rely on other clues, such as the date when a webpage file was saved or changed on a web server, or on-page dates inserted by either a writer or a perhaps less-than-reliable bit of code.
• This is a hidden gem – click on “see realtime coverage” and you’ll get streaming headlines as Google crawls and adds them to its index.
• But that’s not all – you’ll also see a timeline of the number of sources covering the story over the past month, links to “In Depth” coverage (similar to the “Spotlight” stories on the main news homepage menu), displaying stories that may not be super-fresh, but that offer deep or longer-lasting insight), and in some cases, related links (for example, in the story about North Korea, links to stories from South Korean news sources).
• Regular Google News search only allows you to search articles from the past 30 days; advanced news search retrieves content from the defunct Google News archives, with articles dating back in some cases to the 1800s.
• Want to learn more about Google News and how it works? Check out Google’s News Help, or Search Engine Land’s extensive Google News archive of coverage.

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• Here he reveals his unique perspective on the civil war, the early days of Communism and Mao's philosophy.

• Unlike Stalin, Mao sentenced no-one and certainly did not intend to create a terrible famine.

   

  But he did know full well that he was engaged in huge social experiments, which disrupted the lives of multitudes - and that he himself was not sure what the outcome would be.

   

  He confessed as much to the left-wing American writer Anna Louise Strong in 1958, when she was about to write a book acclaiming Mao's Great Leap Forward.

   

  "Wait another five years before you write it," he told her, explaining that he was not sure yet what the outcome would be.

• The answer is "No", in both cases.

   

  Bo was simply using demagogic egalitarian slogans to catch the fancy of the poor.

   

  As for Xi, his reform policies run directly counter to Maoist economics, but he makes adroit use of Maoist dialectic logic to analyse China's problems and their putative solutions, and he argues for acknowledging the positive achievements of Mao's leadership.

• Which leads us to the really interesting point - almost universally overlooked by Western scholars, with a few honourable exceptions, like Cambridge's Peter Nolan: Mao's analytic/synthetic philosophy is China's genuine secret weapon, although much neglected even in China today.

   

• A few in each squad wore baste shoes, most tramped along in self-woven grass sandals. Of the 10 men in a squad, five or six would have captured Japanese rifles; the rest carried knotty clubs or red-tasseled spears.

   
• Yet, they did win, and quite handily at that. Why? Because of a superior, more scientific way of thinking, which led to ingenious and highly popular policies (like land reform) and to versatile tactics that clobbered the stodgy KMT officer corps.
• Mao always described himself to visitors as a "primary school teacher". He was, in fact, probably the largest-scale teacher of philosophy in human history. Among his main tenets were
• Seek truth from facts.
• "No investigation, no right to speak," said Mao.
• One divides into two.
• Find his buttons, and push them.
• This should be a continuous "down-up-down" process of leadership
• Historians in China and abroad will continue to study Mao's role for centuries, but this multi-talented figure with the great good and great bad he gave rise to, is not likely to be cast aside by the Chinese people

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• Door Dirk Adriaensens, 08-01-2014 22:35       

  De situatie is inderdaad complex

    

   

  Beste Charles,
   Ik wil best eens de situatie haarfijn uitleggen. En ze is inderdaad complex…. en ook weer niet.
   Vooreerst: Al Qaeda werd opgericht door de VS. Daar zullen we voorlopig verder niet op ingaan.
   Niet alleen steunt de VS Al Qaeda, ze werkten en werken ook samen met Iran om Irak te 'pacificeren". Ik weet het, het is behoorlijk ingewikkeld…. en toch ook weer niet.

   

  Ik wil alleen antwoorden op je onwetendheid over de steun door het Wahabbistische Saoedi-Arabië aan ISIL. Een kleine opzoeking zou je veel wijzer kunnen maken.
• Christof Lehmann (nsnbc) , – The newly formed Army of Mujaheden (AOM) has declared war against Al Qaeda in the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The AOM, which is primarily funded by the Muslim Brotherhood governed Turkey, Libya and Qatar, is proclaiming its war against the predominantly Saudi Arabia funded ISIL as “A New Revolution”, claiming that after three years, the “revolution” has returned to its true path.
   The Role of Saudi Arabia and Qatar in the Recruitment and Deployment of Mercenaries and the Functions of the Infighting. While both the predominantly Saudi Arabia – backed, Al-Qaeda backed and the predominantly Qatar – backed Muslim Brotherhood – linked mercenary brigades ultimately are functions of a war on Syria which fulfills the geopolitical ambitions of the core NATO members USA, UK and France as well as Israel, the infighting between these two main groupings is in no way a new phenomenon. In fact, this infighting is fulfilling several functions for these core stakeholders.

• • Increasing the recruitment potential for mercenaries by including both Muslim Brotherhood affiliated individuals and organizations and Wahhabi or Salafist individuals and organizations.
   • Expanding the political aspect of the anti-Syrian alliance by including both sides.
   • Plausible deniability and respectability for core NATO members USA, UK, France and the possibility for their governments to claim that they are supporting the “moderate armed opposition” and not the most radical brigades.

   

  The repeated use of this strategy has been observable sine June – July 2012, when the predominantly Qatar and Turkey backed, Muslim Brotherhood dominated brigades in Syria led two, decisive defeats, which then necessitated the subsequent, internationally organized and substantial recruitment efforts for Wahhabi / Salafist fighters from African, Middle Eastern and Asian countries. The situation became widely known as Washington’s Salafist quagmire.
   http://nsnbc.me/2014/01/04/infighting-between-insurgents-in-syria-can-dr...

• Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been working overtime arming rebel groups in Syria. But events of the last month suggest these American allies have been throwing their lots in with radical, hardline Islamists.
   Some observers are bullishly optimistic about the foreign policies of America’s Gulf allies, suggesting Saudi Arabia backs “the least Islamist component of the rebellion” and Qatar’s young new emir is displaying a more “mature” foreign policy that seeks to avoid controversy in places like Syria. However, there is worrying news coming from Syria’s Raqqa Province, now controlled by the al Qaeda affiliate Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Hateful books described by several different sources as the area’s new academic curriculum, reportedly originate from Saudi Arabia.
   http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/25/saudi-arabia-qatar-ma...

   

  It’s rare that Washington and Tehran are on the same wavelength.
   But the US and Iran are in agreement when it comes to Iraq: on Sunday, the two countries both said they would support Iraqi authorities faced with an insurrection led in large part by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a group of al Qaeda-affiliated jihadists.
   http://www.france24.com/en/20140106-usa-iran-find-common-enemy-jihadist-...

• “Ahmed al-Alwani (an Iraqi MP held on terrorism charges after clashes killed at least six people during arrest raid on his home) and Ali al-Sulaiman (the chief of the Dulaim tribes in al-Anbar province) who are under prosecution have paved the political ground for terrorism and the ISIL has entered a proxy war to fight for Saudi Arabia,” Head of the Security Committee of Baghdad province’s Council Sa’d al-Matlabi was quoted as saying - See more at: http://www.islamicinvitationturkey.com/syriatruth/2014/01/06/iraqi-force...

   

  Dit is een kleine greep na ongeveer 2 minuten opzoekingwerk. Uncle Google kan wonderen doen…..

   

   

    

  • Beantwoorden
   
  •   Aanstootgevend?    
   

   
    
    

    Door Dirk Adriaensens, 09-01-2014 09:50       

  Over mafiosi Abu Risha

• Charles, je schrijft: "En vooral; die clans trekken niet aan één zeel; ze schragen zich, om diverse redenen, ofwel achter Ahmed Abu Risha of achter sheik Ali Hatem al Suleiman die elkaar, om redenen die mij ontsnappen, elkaar het licht in de ogen niet gunnen."

   

  Ik zal je hierna even wat wijzer maken over de mafiosi Abu Risha, maar eerst toch even een algemene beschouwing:
   De zogenaamde “gevechten” tegen ISIL (Al Qaeda) zijn een voorwendsel om de vreedzame protestsites aan te vallen.
   ISIL, die voor alle bomaanslagen verantwoordelijk wordt gesteld, hebben weinig invloed op de vreedzame betogers, zijn zelfs niet echt massaal aanwezig op de protestsites. Dat zijn de stemmen die wij vanuit Irak horen.
   Door opzettelijk de vreedzame protesten te bestempelen als "geïnfiltreerd door Al Qaeda", heeft Maliki gebruik gemaakt om Ramadi en Fallujah aan te vallen. De tribale troepen van de protestbeweging hebben daarop de protestsites en de steden verdedigd en de aanvallen met tanks, mortieren en helikopters, succesvol afgeslagen.
   Verschillende tribale leiders uit het Zuiden hebben hun mensen, die dienen in het leger van Maliki, de raad gegeven om niet te vechten tegen de vreedzame betogers. Velen hebben die raad opgevolgd en de wapens neergelegd.
• Volgens onze bronnen zijn er in vele provincies gevechten uitgebroken, ook in Bagdad, tussen Maliki's troepen en SWAT teams en het gewapend verzet, dat is dus NIET Al Qaeda.
   Net als in Zuid-Vietnam, na de terugtrekking van de Amerikaanse troepen, kan het leger van Maliki de gevechten op langere termijn nooit winnen, omdat de wil van de bevolking om Maliki te verdrijven groot is. En de bevolking is vastberaden om dictator Maliki van de troon te stoten.
   De leiders van de VS en Groot-Brittannië herhalen Maliki's woorden en ze weten dat ze liegen. De media in de VS en de BBC, die mensen ter plaats hebben, hebben eveneens opzettelijk de feiten verkeerd weergegeven en iedereen die de grote steden verdedigt tegen Maliki's horden bestempeld als Al Qaeda militanten. Het is één grote leugen en de verklaringen van Human Rights Watch, Struan Stevenson en de tribale Sheikhs van Ramadi en Fallujah bevestigen dit.
• De Standaard en andere Vlaamse media herhalen gewoon de leugens van de grote persagentschappen, net zoals dat het geval was voor de inval in Irak in 2003.
   Wij houden jullie op de hoogte maar kunnen met zekerheid zeggen dat het defensieve karakter van de tribale troepen waarschijnlijk zal omgebogen worden in een offensieve positie en net zoals het Amerikaanse leger moest vertrekken, zullen ook Maliki's troepen het onderspit delven, aldus onze informatiebronnen vanuit het hart van de gevechtszones in Irak.
   Dus een update zal er zeker komen. Het zou ook een leugen zijn dat tribale troepen samen met Maliki's troepen tegen Al Qaeda vechten. De "Awakening Councils" die samen met Maliki's leger vechten tegen de opstandelingen dat zijn de "troepen" van Abu Risha, een ordinaire crimineel, handlanger van de VS. Zie hieronder:
   Het is ook belangrijk om te weten dat Iran samen met Maliki (mét de goedkeuring van de VS) tegen de opstandelingen vecht. In tegenstelling tot wat in de pers wordt verteld, heeft Iran milities "on the ground". Ze zouden enkel zorgen voor materiaal, maar ze zetten dus ook hun milities in. Dat werd overal gerapporteerd: "The US and Iran have declared their backing for the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki Monday, while both governments felt compelled to rule out sending troops to support regime forces in the escalating battle in Iraq’s western Anbar province." De VS en Iran werken dus samen om de volksopstanden te breken.

• Bovendien is het NONSENS om te denken dat de +/- 2.000 ISIL strijders van enige betekenis zouden kunnen zijn en zouden gevechten kunnen aangaan met een regulier leger. THINK TWICE ! ISIL kan enkel hier en daar bomaanslagen plegen en wat terreur veroorzaken. De verdediging van hele steden met + 300.000 inwoners, het terugdringen van een reguliere troepenmacht kan enkel met MASSALE INZET EN STEUN VAN DE BEVOLKING.
   Vergeet niet dat Maliki serieus geavanceerd Amerikaans oorlogstuig inzet tegen de opstandelingen. Dat kan niet anders dan met raadgevers van ervaren landen zoals de VS en Iran.

   

  Source: Fallujah lives deliberate disorder, Daash didn’t control fully
   Saturday, 04 January 2014 14:11 http://www.shafaaq.com/en/security/8462-source-fallujah-lives-deliberate...

• al Shafaq News / Informed Iraqi official sources said on Saturday that the city of Fallujah in Anbar province is living a deliberate confusion from some parties for the purpose of presenting it as being turned into a dangerous area and that groups linked to al-Qaeda took over it completely.
   “The information that speaks about the spread of armed groups of the Islamic state in Iraq and the Levant " Daash " is not all true because the city is still subjected to the clans , with the presence of insurgents linked to Daash but not as media states ,” the source who asked for anonymity told “Shafaq News”.
   “Deliberate confusion in the information and attempts to create a dangerous atmosphere in the city to be dealt with in a militarily way in every way,” the source added.
   About the situation on the ground , he said, " Fallujah and even other cities are still experiencing quieter days that before “.
   Some media have published news on the control of the so-called " Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant " on Fallujah city .

   

  Tuesday, January 07, 2014

   

  Iraq snapshot

• http://thecommonills.blogspot.be/2014/01/iraq-snapshot_7.html

   

  Tuesday, January 7, 2014. Chaos and violence continue, Odierno explains what's going on in Iraq but the press ignores him and distorts him, Nouri continues his assault on the people, if a government has no power-sharing and has no president and has nothing but Nouri it's not a government, and more.
   This wave of violence was kicked off by Nouri's forces storming the home of an MP in Anbar and when Osama al-Nujaifi attempted to lead an investigation into Nouri's actions that left six people dead, al-Nuajifi was prevented from leaving Baghdad.

   

  This and so much more really going on in Falluja gets ignored. Kieran Kelly (Dissident Voice) reports:
• The Iraqi government has declared that Fallujah has fallen entirely into the hands of “Al Qaeda and Daash”. This follows over a month of US and Iraqi PR campaigning in the news media touting Al Qaeda’s ambitions to carve out an emirate in the region. It also comes just days after the revelation that the regime in Baghdad has received hellfire missiles and drones from the United States for the stated purpose of fighting Al Qaeda in the last month.
   Behind the scenes, however, Shafaq News reports that some government sources admit that the claims are a deliberate deception. One source describes the government stance as: “Deliberate confusion in the information and attempts to create a dangerous atmosphere in the city to be dealt with in a militarily way in every way,” but in reality, “Fallujah and even other cities are still experiencing quieter days than before”. By citing Al Qaeda and linking it to the brutal terrorist mass-murder campaign as well as alleged ambitions to create an entire state, the Iraqi government may be working towards justifying unleashing high levels of military violence on Fallujah, but who really is controlling Fallujah?

• Throughout the week, Sahwa leader Ahmed Abu Risha's been stamping his feet and issuing statements (such as here) demanding other tribal leaders and the people of Anbar join with Nouri's assault.

   

  Why?

   

  Why's actually two part.

   

  First off, no one really listens to him. Other tribal leaders are stronger -- especially those not echoing Nouri's calls.

   

  We're not talking about whoring -- yet -- although Risha is a whore.

   

  We're talking history.

• The tribes fall apart as a real influence in the 1960s. As Iraq moves closer to a nation-state, the tribes matter less. The US government, after the illegal war started in 2003, began (briefly) talking up the tribes and did so for a number of reasons. The two primary ones? The US was losing the illegal war and desperate to grab onto anything so the notion that the tribes had been helpful in 'pacifying' Iraq earlier became something to pimp. But earlier was with the British at the start of the 20th century. Again, by the 1960s their power had waned.

   

  Their power waned because of the second reason that the US government wanted to pimp the lie. If tribes really matter, heavens, why hasn't the US government been pumping money into them! Immediately that began. And that's why tribal leaders lost influence in the 1960s. A number of them were cheap whores -- that includes Risha's family -- and took money from Saddam Hussein. They ran corrupt little areas and grew rich.

   

  And the people in the tribe were betrayed.

   

  Not all tribal leaders in Anbar were like that.

• And some still have influence because they were not bought paid for -- by Saddam or the US.

   

  And it's these leaders that Whore Risha tries to intimidate and bully.

   

  Risha knows a lot about bullying. He learned it from his trashy mafia family. His brother was a 'hero' to the US government in the early part of the illegal war. Maybe the same fate awaits Risha? September 13, 2007, his brother -- then the leader -- was assassinated on the outskirts of Ramai. That's when Risha takes over. He's known as the less charismatic brother. Making Sense of Proxy Wars: States, Surrogates and the Use of Force (edited by Michael A. Innes) notes Risha is considered mafia in Iraq. He's a mobster. He was that before the US came calling and put him in charge of Sahwa (also known as Awakenings and Sons Of Iraq).

   

  In 2009, Dahr Jamail (Huffington Post) reported:

   

  As early as April 2006, the Rand Corporation released a report, "The Anbar Awakening," identifying America's potential new allies as a group of sheiks who used to control smuggling rings and organized crime in the area.

• One striking example was Sheik Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, who founded the first Awakening groups in al-Anbar and later led the entire movement until he was assassinated in 2007, shortly after he met with President Bush. It was well known in the region that Abu Risha was primarily a smuggler defending his business operations by joining the Americans.

   

  Not surprisingly, given the lucrative nature of the cooperative relationship that developed, whenever an Awakening group sheik is assassinated, another is always there to take his place. Abu Risha was, in fact, promptly replaced as "president" of the Anbar Awakening by his brother Sheik Ahmad Abu Risha, also now in the "construction business."
   [. . .]
   Abu Risha's compound in Ramadi was even larger than Sheik Aifan's mansion -- and even more heavily guarded. We arrived to find an election official already waiting to take Aifan's written complaint on the rigging charges. The chief of police for the province was in attendance too, a sign of the power and influence of these two men who share a bond of power and money. (Abu Risha even owns a camel farm.)

   

  Was it necessary to note that Risha's a thug, a mobster? Considering that in today's State Dept press briefing, Marie Harf referred to the crook as a "moderate," yeah, it was.

   

   
    
  • Beantwoorden
   
  •   Aanstootgevend? 

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• PS. Gelieve lange niet-Nederlandstalige teksten in commentaren voortaan te vermijden. Dat hoort daar niet thuis. Normaal laten we dat niet passeren.

• But I have to admit it: I have another feeling that, at a purely personal level, outweighs all of the above.  In terms of journalism, of expression, of voice, of fine reporting and superb writing, of a range of news, thoughts, views, perspectives, and opinions about places, worlds, and phenomena that I wouldn’t otherwise have known about, there has never been an experimental moment like this.  I’m in awe.  Despite everything, despite every malign purpose to which the Internet is being put, I consider it a wonder of our age.  Yes, perhaps it is the age from hell for traditional reporters (and editors) working double-time, online and off, for newspapers that are crumbling, but for readers, can there be any doubt that now, not the 1840s or the 1930s or the 1960s, is the golden age of journalism? 

• Think of it as the upbeat twin of NSA surveillance.  Just as the NSA can reach anyone, so in a different sense can you.  Which also means, if you’re a website, anyone can, at least theoretically, find and read you.  (And in my experience, I’m often amazed at who can and does!)  And you, the reader, have in remarkable profusion the finest writing on the planet at your fingertips.  You can read around the world almost without limit, follow your favorite writers to the ends of the Earth.

   

• The problem of this moment isn’t too little.  It’s not a collapsing world.  It’s way too much.  These days, in a way that was never previously imaginable, it’s possible to drown in provocative and illuminating writing and reporting, framing and opining.  In fact, I challenge you in 2014, whatever the subject and whatever your expertise, simply to keep up.

   
• Still, perhaps someday, amid its inanities and horrors, it will also be remembered, at least for a brief historical moment, as a golden age of the reader, a time when all the words you could ever have needed were freely offered up for you to curate as you wish.  Don’t dismiss it.  Don’t forget it.

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• But that in turn doesn’t mean that whoever is not practising access journalism is somehow directly challenging the might of the security state. There are plenty of the more marginalised journalists, myself included, who decry access journalism but rarely work with more information than that available in the public realm. Where we often add value is in our ability to challenge the (mis)information disseminated by access journalists. We test the elite’s claims about what happened against the reality – by going to see, for example, the facts on the ground, and by talking to those who witnessed the events or have a special expertise in the subject.

• Again, the old order wants to discredit his argument that we should not legitimise our corrupt political systems by voting for them.
• The most interesting thing about these confrontations is watching Brand’s skilful manoeuvring as he refuses to allow himself to be intellectually sidetracked or cornered. It’s like watching an Olympic athlete. He has to use every skill in his considerable emotional and intellectual armoury: humour, matiness, intelligence, quick-wittedness, compassion, muted anger. So few of us have quite such a complete range of talents.
• This looks like hard work even for Brand. The reason is not that Snow is intellectually superior or has the better arguments; it is simply an illustration of power. Snow is representing the elite consensus, the version of reality that we are presented with day in, day out by the corporate media. Snow does not have to make his case, because his case is assumed to be the rational, sensible one. He can simply concentrate on various lines of attack. Brand, on the other hand, has both to turn complex, rarely expressed, non-intuitive arguments into soundbites and to ward off Snow’s attempts to discredit him at the same time. That is hard, exhausting work – and one senses how difficult it is even for Brand.

• Nonetheless he joins the ranks of the tiny number of people, like Noam Chomsky and Glenn Greenwald, who can do this against these very experienced enforcers of consensus.

   

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