Mike Graham Racism Hypocrisy

For people who revel in the ability to shoot off North And South for hours at a time, the hosts at Murdoch noise floor occupant TalkRADIO are terribly sensitive souls, none more than Mike Graham, the Mr Blobby of the Baby Shard bunker, who has been so hurt by being called a racist that he is apparently prepared to go to law over the accusation.

Sadly, like his fellow host Julia Hartley Dooda, Graham’s knowledge of how this defamation business works is somewhat lacking, as is his sense of self-awareness, and, indeed, his sense of timing. We can see this from the time stamp on the Tweet that launched his latest offensive - 0042 hours yesterday morning.

Responding to Michael Walker, sometime of Novara Media, he blustered “Hey Michael. Just discovered your [Novara Media] video where you called me a racist. Can you please furnish me with your address for legal correspondence? Thanks”. “Furnish me with your address”? You don’t need someone’s address to send a Letter Before Action.

That assumed Graham was serious about doing so. Walker, later that morning, took a relaxed view: “Happy to have my day in court on this one Mike”. Very soon after that, Ash Sarkar pitched in. “I'm no legal eagle, but I reckon suggesting that repeatedly calling a South Asian woman a man with a moustache might be motivated by racism could be covered by ‘honest opinion’ [Mike Graham]. Also, you quote tweeted the wrong video”.

Would Graham care to respond? “I didn’t quote tweet the wrong video. And having an opinion about racism isn’t the same as calling someone racist. That’s a big difference I’m afraid. As any lawyer will tell you”. Any lawyer, to quote Graham’s happy phrase, would tell you that you don’t need someone’s address before launching a defamation action.

Meanwhile, Aaron Bastani had also got the message on Graham’s hissy fit. “The idea these people believe in ‘free speech’ is absurd … I’ve been called racist (and all kinds of things) over the years. I obviously don’t think that’s true (!) but in a free society I think an individual should be able to say that. Freedom is freedom to disagree”. It’s true that the TalkRADIO crowd are hot on telling their critics that it’s just FREEZE PEACH.

The problem that Graham faces in perhaps going to law in order to sooth his hurty feelings is that calling racist on people with very little other than hot air to back up the claim is something he does rather a lot. And it does seem to happen at the same time of day - or, rather, night. Last June, just after midnight, off he went: “Oh look. Another racist Leftie”.

In October, there were two late night snipes at Labour MP David Lammy, with “A racist speaks” at 2317 hours followed half an hour later by “More dangerous lies from the racist Lammy”. If anyone is on shaky ground dishing out the R-Word, it’s Mike Graham doing it to David Lammy. Even this month he was still at it, sneering “Miffy the racist” at Miffy Buckley.

That last one, once again, was soon after midnight. In the cold light of mid-morning, Ms Sarkar suggested he pony up his action: “we look forward to hearing from your lawyers. Perhaps they could have told you that all the information you needed to begin legal correspondence was already publicly available, and you didn't need to harangue anybody on Twitter at midnight to get things started”. Quite. So where’s the lawsuit? We’re waiting.

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Nigel Farage - Now An Irrelevance

After Combover Crybaby Donald Trump left the White House for the last time earlier this week, to the great relief of all those who wished the SOB had never arrived there in the first place, some of his supporters were left bereft. They had backed The Donald to the exclusion of any thought that he might lose. And their number included the now forlorn figure of Reform UK Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage.

Nige was certain Trump would beat Democrat challenger Joe Biden, so certain that he let it be known he had wagered £10,000 on the outcome. And he lost. He also lost his cachet as someone with access to a serving President. Worse, there was the prospect that Trump was facing an impeachment trial and may be barred for holding office ever again.

So Farage had to not only defend Trump, but make himself sound knowledgeable and relevant. Sadly, he achieved none of these goals, starting with his claim “This is why impeaching Donald Trump is a mistake”. Yeah, right. Holding to account someone who incited the armed storming and trashing of the United States Capitol is a mistake.

Like heck it is. But do go on. And on he went to talk to fellow bigot Rowan Dean (still alleged to be editor of Spectator Australia, even after losing that lawsuit) on Sky News Australia, that well-known Antipodean variant on Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse), asserting that Republicans who want to dump Trump are “making the biggest mistake of their political careers”. Yeah, why bother saving their party from wipeout, eh?

And while he was in pretend mode, Mr Thirsty pretended something else - that Trump has some kind of Presidential legacy, other than that of a chiselling gangster. “I will be posting a new video on the Trump legacy later today … Watch my thoughts on the Trump Legacy” he pleaded. What legacy? Tax cuts for the rich, his followers dishonestly gaslighted into believing the election was stolen, a country divided, Covid-19 almost ignored.

So that’s For Some Value Of Legacy, then. Still, there were still media appearances, weren’t there? Well, if you count a chat with dribbling bigot Mike Graham at Murdoch noise floor occupant TalkRADIO, maybe there are. Here, Nige told anyone not yet asleep that the Democratic Party had been taken over by The New Hard Left. This means that THE SQUAD got re-elected to Congress, and added two new members. Yay The Squad!

Not going too well, was it? And it got worse, as Farage desperately blubbered “There are media reports that the bust of Winston Churchill has been removed from the Oval Office. If true, this is a slap in the face to the British and any prospects of good relations”. Who gives a flying foxtrot what he thinks? And as to that photo he posted, well.

James Doleman pointed out that Nige had posed “While standing in front of a portrait of George Washington, who carried out a successful armed insurrection against the British Crown”. One last pointless gesture from Mr Thirsty? You got it. "Trump’s greatest legacy is that he restored faith and trust in politics. He made promises and kept them”. Master, how far shall I tell him to Fuck Off? Trump spent four years lying his head off. End of.

That desperation tells you all you need to know. Nigel Farage is irrelevant at home with his pals protesting about Covid restrictions while the death toll skyrockets, and he’s even less relevant in the USA now Trump has gone. All that hot air and no-one listening. Sad!

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Biden Shames Bozo - And Our Press

And so, at noon on a winter’s day in Washington DC, the dark shadow of hatred was lifted and the grownups returned to clear up the mess. Combover Crybaby Donald Trump had skulked off to his Florida mansion, and Joe Biden, the great survivor, was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. His inauguration speech not only set the tone for the next four years. It sent a warning across the North Atlantic.

“Politics need not be a raging fire destroying everything in its path. Every disagreement doesn’t have to be a cause for total war. And we must reject a culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured”. That manipulation and manufacture drives too much of UK politics. It has infected too much of the UK’s media.

There was more on that subject. “Recent weeks and months have taught us a painful lesson. There is truth and there are lies. Lies told for power and for profit. And each of us has a duty and responsibility … especially as leaders … to defend the truth and to defeat the lies”. Lies drive the UK’s Government. It is sustained by falsehood and misinformation.

Here in the UK, neither alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, nor any of his motley convocation of sycophants, can have noted the clear sub-text of Biden’s oration with any satisfaction. Bozo, especially, knows that Biden has already expressed his displeasure at what he sees as a similarity between the PM and Trump. That Bozo also dissed Joe’s friend Barack Obama with a little casual racism will also count against him.

Worse for the Tories and their media pals was Biden’s vision of what a USA brought together in unity could achieve. “We can right wrongs. We can put people to work in good jobs. We can teach our children in safe schools. We can overcome this deadly virus. We can reward work, rebuild the middle class, and make healthcare secure for all. We can deliver racial justice”. Meanwhile, Bozo’s press pals sneer at anyone they see as “Woke”.

Moreover, Biden understands the challenges facing his country. “We face an attack on democracy and on truth. A raging virus. Growing inequity. The sting of systemic racism. A climate in crisis. America’s role in the world. Any one of these would be enough to challenge us in profound ways. But the fact is we face them all at once, presenting this nation with the gravest of responsibilities. Now we must step up”.

As the great Harvard economist and commentator J K Galbraith pointed out, “All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership”. Joe Biden has demonstrated his willingness to confront unequivocally those major anxieties. Including the attack of the truth.

Falsehood and misinformation propelled Bozo to power in 2019. But the corrosive effect of systemic dishonesty will, with the inevitability of night following day, rot the foundations of that power and leave the UK open, especially in a post-Brexit reality of a country becoming poorer and less relevant, to the kind of fracture and violence seen recently in the USA.

Bozo and his pals cannot expect to gain any favours from the EU, not after the vicious abuse they meted out over Brexit. Now they know that Joe Biden may also take a dim view of their behaviour. The lies have to stop. Bozo has to stop them. Or someone else will.

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Roger Daltrey - Would Get Fooled Again

The succession of enthusiastic Brexiteers to discover that Project Fear was in fact Project Reality grows by the day. The fishing industry was an early addition, meat processors and exporters followed soon after, financial services and European stock marketeers have since been added to the list, and now has come Roger Daltrey.

It's the way he tells them

The frontman for The Who, or THEE OO as it is more correctly spoken, has proved the old law that some Slebs are best keeping out of those areas of life about which they pretend to know a lot, but in reality know very little. Daltrey was bullishly, even aggressively pro-Brexit before the event, and did not care who knew it. So we soon did.

Asked in March 2019 if Brexit would be bad for rock music, Daltrey responded “No. What’s it got to do with the rock business?” How would bands tour in Europe? “Oh dear. As if we didn’t tour in Europe before the fucking EU. Oh give it up. If you want to sign up to be ruled by a fucking mafia, you do it … like being governed by FIFA”. And there was more.

Talking to the BBC Radio 4 Front Row Programme in 2018, he claimed “It’s nothing that can’t be solved. I mean, we used to work in Europe before Europe was even thought about [!], or the EU was even thought about [not in his case, he didn’t]. We had the golden period of the 60s and 70s. Come on … wake up a bit”. And yet more. Revealingly more.

“I’m not against Europe at all, it’s Brussels and the construct of Brussels and the democratic deficit of it [did he not know about the European Parliament?]. There’s no direct link between the voter, and to get through to those people who run our lives [yes there is], and there’s far too many people on far too many gravy trains soaking us dry”.

One wonders how vocal he has been at the news of all those Tory Party donors and hangers-on securing multi-million pound contracts on the back of the Coronavirus pandemic, and without competition. We should remember that Daltrey just sang the words and Pete Townshend actually wrote them. He can’t actually see for miles and miles.

So today’s news should not come as a surprise. As the BBC has reported, “Some of the UK's biggest music stars have written to the government demanding action to ensure visa-free touring in the European Union. Sir Elton John, Liam Gallagher and Nicola Benedetti are among 110 artists who have signed the open letter. It said they had been ‘shamefully failed’ by the government over post-Brexit travel rules for UK musicians”.

Who else signed? As if you need to ask. “Ed Sheeran, Sir Simon Rattle, Sting, Radiohead, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Kim Wilde, Roger Daltrey, Glastonbury organisers Michael and Emily Eavis, and Judith Weir, Master of the Queen's Music”. As Fred Flintstone might have said, hold it … HOLD IT! Roger Daltrey? The Beeb reporter saw that too.

“The Who frontman Daltrey has also signed despite telling the BBC Radio 4's Front Row programme in 2018: ‘It's nothing that can't be solved’”. He also claimed falsely that there was a democratic deficit, no direct link with voters, and no EU in the 60s and 70s, when the EEC, the EU’s forerunner, began life with the Treaty of Rome. In 1958.

Daltrey’s credibility, to paraphrase the words of My Generation, died before he got old.

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1,610 Deaths - On With The Denial

We in the UK are, as alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson likes to tell us, world beating. And in the case of the Coronavirus pandemic, he has been proved right in spades, with the death toll officially at the 90,000 mark, and the actual number of deaths, when those dying after 28 days of a positive test are included, in excess of 100,000. And yet the denial merchants continue shamelessly on.

1,610 more deaths were recorded yesterday. This was a new record one-day total. It was as if six Lockerbie bombings had happened at once. Or 17 Hillsborough stadium disasters. Or more than 14 Harrow and Wealdstone rail crashes (the last rail accident to claim more than 100 passengers’ lives). Or something more deadly than the sinking of RMS Titanic.

Yet not only has there been little media attention paid to this grim news - the daily death toll having been bad for some days now - but those who have peddled irresponsible nonsense about the pandemic have not missed a beat, continuing to pump out misinformation while seeking to direct blame elsewhere. 1,610 deaths, remember.

The grim number (did I mention it was 1,610 deaths, a new daily record?) can be explained very easily: Bozo relaxed household mixing rules for Christmas. Count the time for infections to occur, positive Covid-19 test results to be confirmed, symptoms to worsen, hospitalisations to occur, condition of patients to deteriorate, and there you are. Dead.

Was this now time for the denial mob to stop? As if you need to ask. Enter the loathsome Toby Young, accompanied by no self awareness whatsoever. “Today’s update on Lockdown Sceptics is here. Includes a look at the wildly inaccurate predictions of the lockdown zealots about the risks of mixing over Christmas - it caused no uptick in infections - and a moving plea from a depressed university student”. There are no words.

1,610 deaths. But no uptick here guv, honest. And Tobes is not alone: over at the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph, they’re at it too. “In a new episode of 'Planet Normal' [Liam Halligan] and [Allison Pearson] interview [MP Graham Brady] who says lockdown causes as much harm as it solves and restrictions should be lifted once the top four 'at risk' groups are vaccinated”. Lift restrictions. What could possibly go wrong?

It’s true that pushback against the so-called Lockdown Sceptics has increased. But there are, in turn, those willing to defend them. Like the beings from the planet Spiked. “We’ve had three lockdowns and Covid is still spreading. Yet instead of questioning the efficacy of lockdown, the media elites are witch-hunting lockdown sceptics, blaming them for everything. The intellectual dishonesty is staggering, says Brendan O’Neill”. Ri-i-ight.

Lockdowns, let us not drive this around the houses for too long, reduce transmission of the virus. That in turn brings down the number of infections, which in turn reduces the number of hospitalisations. AND DEATHS. Yes, Bozo and his pals are beyond inept in delaying their introduction when they are needed. But the behaviour of people like Tobes, Brendan O’Neill, Allison Pearson (and not forgetting their hangers-on) is beyond the pale.

It’s not just scepticism. It’s not just “having a debate”. It’s not just FREEZE PEACH. It’s thousands upon thousands of deaths. It’s about a pandemic made worse by a tsunami of misinformation. 1,610 dead. And damn every one of these selfish imbeciles to hell.

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The Long Tory Road To Insurrection

The 2020 United States Presidential Election resulted in a win for Democrat challenger Joe Biden, who is due to be inaugurated tomorrow as the 46th President of the USA. This reality, though, has still not been accepted by some out there on the right, who continue to believe that the election was stolen, that there was widespread voter fraud (there wasn’t), and that Combover Crybaby Donald Trump should be declared the winner.

This refusal, when mixed with a little conspiracy and a lot of guns and aggression, is what brought the USA close to seeing a coup two weeks ago, as the Capitol was stormed and trashed. And there are still those talking of making a last stand, one of whom will be familiar to Zelo Street regulars, but what may not are the Tory Party links in play.

Rocking up somewhere near Washington DC yesterday was washed-up motormouth Katie Hopkins, who has recorded a message for Citizens of the Union. “The reason I’m here in your country, and I’ve broke in to this country, is because I need you, because we are looking to you for hope. We need you to stand up for all that is bright and you are fighting for the light, and Europe looks to you for hope, and together we will make a last stand”.

John Mappin

So routine, so desperate from a has-been who lost her LBC show, her Sun column, her Mail Online column, and her access to Twitter. But look closer, at the mug placed next to the mic. THE CANDACE OWENS SHOW. Thus the trail that leads back, through wacko conspiracy land, to supposedly mainstream Tories who might now be wishing it didn’t.

It was Ms Owens who turned up at the launch of Turning Point UK in December 2018 and in response to a question about nationalism told “Whenever we say nationalism, the first thing people think about, at least in America, is Hitler … if Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, OK, fine”. This was excused as a mere “gaffe”.

Candace Owens

Meanwhile, the media spotlight was shone on John Mappin, the Camelot obsessive who was TPUK’s main man, at least, for wealthy donors. Mappin, let us not drive this one around the houses for too long, is a fruitcake. Even Arron Banks called him “a complete fruit-loop”. Mappin’s latest stunt is even more cringeworthy for TPUK backers.

As the Observer has reported, “A key supporter of Nigel Farage and Donald Trump has provoked ridicule after using his Cornish castle to fly the flag of a prominent conspiracy theory identified by the FBI as inspiring rightwing violence. John Mappin, who owns Camelot Castle at Tintagel, used the hotel to promote a rightwing hoax known as QAnon”.

Viewers may still want to look away now

And as Nick Reeves has shown, Ms Owens has been favourably received by the Member for times long past Jacob Rees Mogg, former YBF Golden Dolphin recipient Steve Baker, as well as Brexit Party Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, plus the Trump Gang and their hangers-on. TPUK was backed by other Tory MPs, too.

Those others included Bernard Jenkin, and Priti Patel, the latter now mystifyingly elevated to the post of Home Secretary. All of those Tories now have a clear link, through Ms Owens, to an act of incitement to overthrow the democratically elected Government of the United States. With a dash of wacko conspiracy theory on the side.

Will they now distance themselves from Turning Point UK? Don’t all shout at once.

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Mike Graham Breaks Himself

Nothing encapsulates the deeply unpleasant right-wing orientation of Murdoch noise floor occupant TalkRADIO than the equally unpleasant behaviour of the station’s hosts. And none of those hosts is quite as unpleasant as dribbling bigot Mike Graham, the Mr Blobby of the Baby Shard bunker, who has targeted Ash Sarkar of Novara Media, only to discover that this was a campaign destined to develop not necessarily to his advantage.

Blobby blobby blobby

After Ms Sarkar had passed adverse comment on Graham’s equally avoidable colleague Julia Hartley Dooda, Graham wobbled into action. “Ash still won’t reveal who bankrolls the ghastly [Novara Media] shills. But at least Twitter is waking up to her nastiness”. An unpleasant has-been calling nasty on someone who he’s frightened witless of debating.

Ash Sarkar

Mark Coates reminded The Great Man just who was being nasty, observing “As for your own immaculate twitter conduct. Where to begin”, and quote Tweeting Graham’s gratuitously abusive “Sarkar the parody witch”. Iron Mike wasn’t going to take that lying down. So he made sure he was sitting up before attempting a put-down.

“I break people who come after me [punctuation missing] Mark. You wouldn’t know what it’s like to get death threats, insults and leftie inspired poison. Don’t be an arse”. How does he break people, then? By sitting on them? Farting in their general direction? Tearing up a copy of the Guardian live on air? Or causing them to die laughing at him?

Few were impressed. And Ms Sarkar was one of them. “The last thing ‘Iron Mike’ over ere broke was wind, but still you gotta respect the tough guy talk from someone tweeting from home at 1am. No instinct for self preservation, could do anything. 10/10 hard man behaviour”. Might not just have been wind. He could have broken the toilet seat.

So what did Graham decide to do at this point? What would a sensible person have done? What would Nietzsche have done? The sensible approach might have involved realising that Ms Sarkar had got the measure of Iron Mike and his assembled bellies. But the equally iron code of the Murdoch mafiosi meant he could not lose face by admitting it.

The result was as predictable as it was pathetic. “Great to see your kind supporters wishing me dead [punctuation missing] you absolute horror show of a woman. Keep shilling those pounds out of the idiots. And how do you think it’s all going to turn out for your rabble?” Why does he have such a problem with an assertive young woman?

While others were contemplating that question, Ms Sarkar returned briefly to the fray in order to deliver the coup de grace: “I’d take your spirited defence of civility a little more seriously if you hadn’t spent a significant amount of your time calling me a ‘bloke with a moustache’ … I don’t wish you dead. I think having to live trapped within the confines of your own personality is punishment enough”. BOOM! OUCH!!

What is his problem? Well, perhaps this exchange from last April answers that one. After the TalkRADIO Twitter feed had told “Border force seen fitting face masks on migrants at Dover”, he sneered “How about just sending them back?”

Is it just another case of bigotry? You might wish to ask that. I couldn’t possibly comment.

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