Britain never had a "Supreme Court" in the way it never had a "Constitution". Yet somehow the political system seemed to work after a fashion, if in a typically British way.

When I was serving for nearly 30 years in the British Parliament, the "Law Lords" shared a rickety corridor and a single secretary high above the chamber of the House of Lords. They were the final court of appeal, all of them members of parliament, albeit by appointment rather than election.

Before Tony Blair set up a separate Supreme Court (who else would be responsible for the distinctly un-common law "modernisation" of a US style "Supreme Court"), the delicate balance between legislature, executive courts and Crown was something to behold. A Heath Robinson Affair no doubt. But it worked.

Note: Greta's speech is reprinted below. Her quotes are in italics, mine follow each quote. If it turns out there were errors in transcription — as seems likely — I'll try to update with corrections. I apologize for the snarky tone, but if a 17-year-old can dish it out, I think she can take it.

"My message is that we'll be watching you. This is all wrong, I shouldn't be up here, I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean."

So in your first paragraph you confess that what you're doing is wrong, and you shouldn't be doing it. You note you should be back home and in school. OK, so far we're 100% in agreement. Next?

"Yet, you all come to us young people for hope, how dare you?"

The Infamous "Oded Yinon Plan". Introduction by Michel Chossudovsky

Introduction

The following document pertaining to the formation of "Greater Israel" constitutes the cornerstone of powerful Zionist factions within the current Netanyahu government, the Likud party, as well as within the Israeli military and intelligence establishment.

President Donald Trump has confirmed in no uncertain terms, his support of Israel's illegal settlements (including his opposition to UN Security Council Resolution 2334, pertaining to the illegality of the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank). In recent developments, the Trump administration has expressed its recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

"Greater Israel" is de facto part of the election campaign. Netanyahu has pledged to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank if he wins in the forthcoming September 17 elections.

Netanyahu, who is fighting for his political life after an inconclusive vote in April [2019], said that Israel will "apply Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea immediately" if he secured a fifth term in the September 17 polls. (Al Jazeera, September 11, 2019

Trump's "Deal of the Century" is supportive of the "Greater Israel" project, which also consists in the derogation of Palestinian's "right of return" by "naturalizing them as citizens of Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere regionally where they reside".

Bear in mind: The Greater Israel design is not strictly a Zionist Project for the Middle East, it is an integral part of US foreign policy, its strategic objective is extend US hegemony as well as fracture and balkanize the Middle East.

Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital is intended to trigger political instability throughout the region.

According to the founding father of Zionism Theodore Herzl, "the area of the Jewish State stretches: "From the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates." According to Rabbi Fischmann, "The Promised Land extends from the River of Egypt up to the Euphrates, it includes parts of Syria and Lebanon."

The United Nations' secretary-general António Guterres wanted international leaders to bring plans, not speeches to the Climate Action Summit being held in New York today. Greta Thunberg and 15 other young people don't seem to have much faith in these plans. On Monday, hours after Thunberg addressed assembled leaders at the summit's opening ceremony, the group of activists announced they were suing five of the biggest carbon polluters in the world — Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, and Turkey — for violating their rights as children by failing to adequately reduce emissions.

"You are failing us," Thunberg said, gazing at the crowd with fury. "We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line." Together with 15 international young people, each of whom have been affected by climate change, she filed a lawsuit arguing the carbon-polluting countries are violating the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states children have the right to life, health, and peace. The United States is the only country not to have ratified this convention, and so is not included in the lawsuit, despite its high levels of pollution.

The iconic golden dome of the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosque, located on the Temple Mount or Haram el-Sharif, is the third holiest site in Islam and is recognized throughout the world as a symbol of the city of Jerusalem. Yet, this ancient site that dates back to the year 705 C.E. is being targeted for destruction by increasingly influential extremist groups that seek to erase Jerusalem's Muslim heritage in pursuit of colonial ambitions and the fulfillment of end-times prophecy.

Some observers may have noticed the growing effort by some Israeli government and religious officials to remove the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosque from the Jerusalem skyline, not only erasing the holy site in official posters, banners and educational material but also physically removing the building itself. For instance, current Knesset member of the ruling Likud Party, American-born Yehuda Glick, was also the director of the government-funded Temple Institute, which has created relics and detailed architectural plans for a temple that they hope will soon replace Al-Aqsa. Glick is also close friends with Yehuda Etzion, who was part of a failed plot in 1984 to blow up Al-Aqsa mosque and served prison time as a result.

"In the end we'll build the temple and it will be a house of prayer for all nations," Glick told Israeli newspaper Maariv in 2012. A year later, Israel's Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel stated that "[w]e've built many little, little temples...but we need to build a real Temple on the Temple Mount." Ariel stated that the new Jewish Temple must be built on the site where Al-Aqsa currently sits "as it is at the forefront of Jewish salvation." Since then, prominent Israeli politicians have become more and more overt in their support for the end of Jordanian-Palestinian sovereignty over the mosque compound, leading many prominent Palestinians to warn in recent years of plans to destroy the mosque.

Should we chalk it up to coincidence theory that just days after Trump gives John Bolton the boot as his National Security Adviser, Iran is blamed for an attack on a Saudi oil facility, forcing Washington to forego any hope of peace with Tehran?

One day before Bolton's abrupt departure from the White House, Trump had reportedly discussed with his security advisers the possibility of easing sanctions on Tehran in an effort to create the "right conditions" for a possible meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at the United Nations later this month.

"We'll see what happens," Trump told reporters last week. "I do believe they'd like to make a deal."

Now we may never know how things may have turned out because one week later that comment looks like a page torn from ancient history.

Jordan Peterson, the Canadian psychologist and anti-political-correctness crusader, has checked himself in to rehab in New York, his daughter has revealed.

The "12 Rules for Life" author has sought help trying to get off the anti-anxiety drug clonazepam, his daughter Mikhaila Peterson said in a video posted to her YouTube account Thursday.

"I've never seen my dad like this," the 27-year-old diet blogger said in the eight-and-a-half-minute video. "He's having a miserable time of it. It breaks my heart."

The elder Peterson, 57, began taking the addictive medication to deal with stress from his wife's battle with cancer and other health problems earlier this year, his daughter said.

He tried to quit cold-turkey over the summer after his wife, Tammy Roberts, "miraculously" recovered from complications with a kidney surgery, Mikhaila said.

Most of the Democrat "leaders" and presidential candidates on offer of late are useful for little more than comedy television, if one considers hyper-political snipery (all done with proper parliamentary procedures) as comedy. It may be so, but we often find that some antacids are probably necessary after watching Jerrold Nadler's Incredibly Contrived Compleat Impeachment Fairy Tale. And, yes, my sarcasm is showing. But Tulsi Gabbard is a completely different story. She found favor with Tucker Carlson on Fox, and she has been on with Fox time and again to talk about very significant matters regarding Middle East policy, and she appears to be at least somewhat correct. She was correct enough to chagrin her interviewer in this video:

Tulsi drew two extremely significant points, one which makes a lot of sense and one which smacks of liberal progressivism. The sensible one is is that the notion that the US should commit its forces to yet another Middle East war, this one with Iran, is absolutely correct.

While it is extremely unlikely that her interpretation of President Trump's tweet is accurate, here is what she actually reacted to. Read for yourself:

American opponents of readmitting Moscow to the former G8 fail to understand the consequences.

Two years ago, I asked, "Will Russia Leave the West?" The world's largest territorial country — sprawling from its major European city St. Petersburg to its vast Far Eastern territories and long border with China — Russia cannot, of course, depart the West geographically. But it can do so politically, economically, and strategically. Indeed, where Russia belongs, where it should seek its identity, security, and future — in the East or in the West — has divided the nation's policymakers and intellectual elites for centuries.

In our times, as I also pointed out two years ago, a Russia departed, or driven, from the West would likely mean "a Russia — with its vast territories, immense natural resources, world-class sciences, formidable military and nuclear power, and UN Security Council veto — allied solidly with all the other emerging powers that are not part the US-NATO Western 'world order' and even opposed to it. And, of course, it would drive Russia increasingly afar from the West's liberalizing influences, back toward its more authoritarian traditions."

As this week's election results and exit polls continue to make grim reading for Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister not only faces the possible end of his political career but also a probable court appearance and potentially even jail due to allegations of corruption.

Netanyahu had hoped to pass legislation that would prevent him from being indicted on multiple allegations of corruption — but he can only do so if he remains prime minister. Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing and has said he is the victim of a politically orchestrated "witch-hunt" by the media and the left. But he may have to make that case in court.

With 97 percent of the votes counted as of Thursday afternoon, both Netanyahu's right-wing bloc in the Knesset and the centrist and left-wing bloc led by the Blue and White party fell short of the 61 seats needed to form a government in the 120-seat Parliament.