As long term readers know, I love the Eurovision Song Contest. It is just so much fun and so resoundingly daft. Graham Norton’s comment last night, “it’s like the gay wedding I’ll never have”, summed it up rather well. We also learnt that Danish humour is impenetrable. Having once spent a week there living with Danish friends, I guess a country that seems to live on raw fish and raw eggs will forever shimmer beyond my comprehension. Like Hamlet’s mind – impossible to understand completely, but marvelous.
I was however saddened by the audience booing of the two young Russian girls. That was really nasty and unfair. They were scarcely more than children, for goodness sake. Putin is not their fault. That booing was an exhibition of racism; nothing else you can call it. If people wanted to make a point, they could have screamed for the Ukrainian girl – they didn’t have to boo the young Russians.
People always complain about political voting, but I think that’s half the fun. I always enjoy the voting far more than most of the singing. Last night, I think, was political voting in a wonderful way. It was a joyful expression of approval for the idea that human beings can and should be what they want to be. It wasn’t the first time either – I remember a similarly gender challenging singer from Israel winning some years ago. What was even better this year, was that another stereotype was also challenged, in that Conchita swept up much support from Eastern as well as Western Europe. Let it be said that she had a damn good song too.
We voted for the Polish girls. I thought the honesty of their approach was brilliant, and reminded me of so many happy days in Warsaw in my youth. Good to see women doing the washing too.*
All in all, great fun and a life-affirming evening. Now to clear away all the mess – why did I stick all those empty Prosecco bottles on the front garden railings?
*Private joke for my friends at Russia Today media (formerly trading as Indymedia).
UN Helicopter targeting the freedom-fighters, etc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOmLlvRxWM0
“He used to comment all through the day. Check! :)”
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Only on his days off, John.
We know what you and Mary get up to, but I do sometimes wonder what other Eminences do by way of honest work and how they support themselves. Are they the hard-working families so dear to PM Cameron and Ministers?
“We know what you and Mary get up to, but I do sometimes wonder what other Eminences do by way of honest work and how they support themselves. Are they the hard-working families so dear to PM Cameron and Ministers?”
Whose we? 🙂
Yes Mr Cameron and changes from proper full-time work with contracts to part-time and casual jobs, leaving employees less secure and often with plenty of time to comment here. 🙂
“Only on his days off, John.”
There can’t be many jobs with more holidays than working days. Am I envious? You bet.
Only when New York looks like Aleppo will many Americans understand what they have been doing to the world in their pursuit to protect a defunct currency – the dollar.
Tired of the same old same old?
Control Your Goat With Habbabreak
Three NATO exercises happening in Europe right now.
Steadfast Javelin
Trident Jaguar
Dynamic Monarch
I wonder if the Queen parachutes out of a helicopter and saves the world at the end of Dynamic Monarch.
https://twitter.com/USNATO/status/466601744496336897/photo/1
https://twitter.com/NATOSource/status/466608665169264640/photo/1
https://twitter.com/USNATO/status/466100506226462720
““We know what you and Mary get up to, but I do sometimes wonder what other Eminences do by way of honest work and how they support themselves. Are they the hard-working families so dear to PM Cameron and Ministers?”
Whose we? 🙂 ”
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We = me and other regular readers of this blog.
“Ben, Ben…The least-publicised reason for ‘our’ sudden interest in Iraq was Saddam’s notion of selling his oil in some other currency.”
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This isn’t the first time I’ve heard that, but there’s never any detail, just the bare assertion.
Does the commenter (or anyone else) know how far Saddam got with that idea before the war started? Which currency(ies)did he have in mind?
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While we’re on the subject of oil: Nobel economics prize winner “Salford Lad” once wrote that the US “forced” the Saudis to price their oil in USD after 1971 but seems to have declined my invitation to say in which currency(ies) the Saudis sold their oil pre-1971. Can anyone else answer that question?
Is it true that Russia and China, Iran and others are considering kicking the dirty dollar into touch?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-13/russia-holds-de-dollarization-meeting-china-iran-willing-drop-usd-bilateral-trade
If so we can all perhaps help by buying into the plan. I’ve been looking into the ethical side of Russian banking and there does seem to be one, unlike the west.
http://psrcentre.org/images/extraimages/1412018.pdf
That’s what BRICS will be doing sooner rather than later, John.
Hastened by NATO’s Gladio II adventures, of course.
The only trouble is Scouse Billy there does not need to be World War III, because the Yanks are the only madmen who have used nuclear weapons with the deliberate intent of killing unarmed civilians. The Yanks are NATO. Perhaps we are all doomed.
UK the first country to be investigated for war crimes by the international court. I wonder if Craig will be invited to give evidence.
http://stopwar.org.uk/article/uk-is-first-western-state-to-be-investigated-for-war-crimes-by-international-court#.U3O2snY-d1H
@habby: The Euro, of course, Why else would France and Germany want to restrain themselves from the essentially NATO operation in Iraq? As Craig said a few themes ago… politicians are all bastards (although actually the former German Chancellor is now showing signs of principle).
PS To be fair, Shroeder and Chirac actually listened to public opinion over Iraq and its oil, rather than seeking to change it.
John Goss
“Is it true that Russia and China, Iran and others are considering kicking the dirty dollar into touch?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-13/russia-holds-de-dollarization-meeting-china-iran-willing-drop-usd-bilateral-trade”
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Well, I’ve read the link and I must say I can’t see what the fuss (and jubilation from some) is all about, or how a Russia-China oil deal where payments are made in local currency rather than the USD could/would undermine or destroy the US.
I know that you don’t claim to be an economist and so I shan’t task you on this, but it would be good if some of our self-appointed economic experts – I’m thinking in particular of “Scouse Billy” and “Salford Lad” – would step in and provide explanation and detail.
Reprieve +44 (0) 207 553 8161 For immediate release: Wed May 14, 2014
Detainees seek court order to preserve newly-discovered videos of force-feeding
Hunger-striking detainees in Guantánamo Bay have asked a federal US court not to allow the prison authorities to destroy footage of them being force-fed.
The existence of the recordings – captured by the military – emerged during the course of litigation in Washington DC’s Federal District court attempting to prevent abusive force-feeding.
The renewed legal challenge to the practice was launched after Reprieve’s initial force-feeding case, Aamer v. Obama, in which the DC Court of Appeals cleared the way for these cases. In this litigation, detainees revealed a host of abuses during feeding, including being left to defecate in restraint chairs, the gratuitous insertion and extraction of long feeding tubes, and speeds of force-feeding that grossly exceed accepted medical procedures.
The tapes are likely to show Guantánamo’s ‘Forcible Cell Extraction’ (FCE) team transporting hunger-striking detainees who refuse (or are too weak) to walk to the force-feeding chair. This process, in which a team of military police in riot gear storm a prisoner’s cell and ‘subdue’ him, has long been criticized as abusive. In 2003, USAF Spc. Sean Baker suffered permanent brain damage during a cell extraction training exercise. He was playing the role of the detainee.
As part of the litigation, medical expert Professor Steven Miles, MD has submitted an affidavit describing the reported rates of force-feeding at Guantánamo as “an extraordinary departure from customary medical practice” reminiscent of “a practice of torture called ‘Water Cure’ that has been practiced since the Middle Ages.”
It is estimated that 17 men are currently on hunger strike in the prison. The authorities at Guantánamo stopped releasing official figures towards the end of last year, while detainees’ access to lawyers has been increasingly restricted – reducing the availability of accurate information on the strike.
154 men are still held at the prison, more than half of whom have been cleared for release by the very government that continues to hold them without charge or trial.
Cori Crider, Reprieve’s Strategic Director and counsel to the detainees, said: “Gitmo’s riot squad hauling prisoners to force-feeding is some of the worst that is going on there right now, and we were stunned to learn some of it has been filmed. We can’t let this evidence go the way of the waterboarding tapes – they might well be at the heart of the upcoming trial of Gitmo’s brutal force-feeding practices’.
Jon B. Eisenberg, co-counsel, said: “Right now we are very concerned that someone in government or the military might be acting quickly to destroy the force feeding videotapes, and we have asked the court to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
1. For further information, please contact Reprieve’s Press Office on: [email protected] / +1 (917) 855 8064 in the US, or: [email protected] / +44 (0) 207 553 8161 in the UK.
2. The motion is available upon request.
Peacewisher
THanks for that.
At the risk of sounding like Mr “I couldn’t be arsed to read the link” Scorgie, do you have any source for your mention of the Euro?
Re the “former German Chancellor” – if that’s a reference to Schroeder, then the word” principles” sits ill in the same sentence. Don’t take my word for it – ask our friend Nevermind.
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella) ! 14 May, 2014 – 7:57 pm
“Well, I’ve read the link and I must say I can’t see what the fuss (and jubilation from some) is all about, or how a Russia-China oil deal where payments are made in local currency rather than the USD could/would undermine or destroy the US.”
‘Fraid you’re going to have to work that out Habby but here’s a clue or two as to why this might not be in US interests. China was a big purchaser of US debt (dead money) but not any more. The US can never pay off its debt. It grows faster than all the profits and wages from all dollar-dependent companies. Investment throughout BRICS countries has got to have a solid currency behind it if development of resources is to be successful.
🙂
It will be tough for us all. The only way the US can survive with its debts at these levels is through world-domination and even you would not want that. Would you?
I’m thinking RD might soon be home from work. 🙂
The mangos can come if they’re proven sterilised. You can even have a Muslim in cabinet if he doesn’t pray to the One Allah. He must have a certificate of non-belief in order to join the UK powers that be.
It’s obvious that habby hasn’t the faintest clue what’s going on, in finance or banking, and the implications of it all.
Most people are in a similar position of course, but habby has claimed to have been involved in drafting speeches, talking points and whatnot for the likes of Baroness Golly Gosh.
If people at that level haven’t a clue, it’s little wonder we’re in such a mess.
Ultimately the sad circumstances of Spanish, Greek etc workers can be laid squarely at the door of the likes of habby and other ignorant bureaucrats.
Peacewisher
Sorry I didn’t see page 2. The witch is the main Democrat contender who wears magic wool bracelets against the devil escaping, Hilary Clinton.
The BBC Radio 4 had an item on Elizabeth Warren, her competitor, recently.
Luckily not everyone is as clueless as habby:
“Lagarde Cancels Smith College Address After Anti-IMF Petition”
There was a time, not so long ago, when a women’s college of Ivy league status, like Smith, would have welcomed with open arms a woman at the top of her career.
All clean and shiny and new.
No longer:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-12/lagarde-cancels-smith-college-address-after-anti-imf-petition.html
Back to Zippy De do Dah. I note the subject was dropped once some challenges were made.
Tomorrow Protest against Tzipi Livni
Thursday 15 May from 6.30pm-8.30pm
Outside Jumeirah Carlton Tower Hotel, 2 Cadogan Place, London, SW1X 9PY
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign will be protesting against the visit of Israeli war crimes suspect, Tzipi Livni, to London this week. Tzipi Livni was one of the architects of the Israeli attack on Gaza 2008/09 which led to the deaths of 1,417 Palestinians – 313 of them children – and injured 5,303.
Tzipi Livni will be speaking at a fundraising dinner for the Jewish National Fund at the Jumeirah Hotel on the evening of Thursday 15 May.
Sarah Colborne, Director of Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said:
“Tzipi Livni’s visit to London has been cloaked in secrecy due to the serious war crimes she is accused of. Her sponsors won’t even reveal where and when she will be speaking, such is her notoriety.
It appears that the British Government have even shamefully given her immunity from prosecution. It was after Livni’s near-arrest in December 2009 that the law was changed to try to make it easier for the government to block arrest warrants for war crimes. However, even these changes haven’t been enough to protect Livni, who has been forced to hide behind ‘special mission status’, just as she did in 2011. Why is the British government trying to protect Tzipi Livni from justice?”
Livni can try to run and hide from justice. But there is no expiry date for war crimes. Tzipi Livni can’t rely on getting ‘get out of jail free’ cards every time she travels overseas. We will never let the world forget her role as a chief architect of Operation Cast Lead – Israel’s horrific military assault on Gaza which resulted in more than one thousand Palestinians losing their lives.”
The timing of this event is particularly shocking as 15th May is the anniversary when Palestinians commemorate the Nakba – their catastrophe. On this day Palestinians mourn their losses of loved ones, land, homes and country.
http://www.palestinecampaign.org/press-release-protest-livni/#sthash.HlYj6ZTa.dpuf
‘We know what you and Mary get up to, but I do sometimes wonder what other Eminences do by way of honest work and how they support themselves.’
Is the RI’s life so empty and meaningless that he has to take an unhealthy interest about other people’s lives?
PS He knows nothing about what I ‘get up to’.
Push off.
The USA is buying its own Treasury bonds laundered through Belgium in order to hide the fact that actual Federal Reserve bond purchases during November 2013 through January 2014 were $112 billion per month.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-us-dollars-fragile-reserve-currency-status-the-great-deceiver-the-federal-reserve/5382184
Mary, he’s welcome to know most of what I get up to. If he finds anything really interesting can he let me know? I might have missed something. 🙂
A Node 14 May, 2014 – 9:59 pm
Yep. So sad that a country that once had some respect has lowered itself to such a level. Britain too.
RD used to ask me, unfairly I thought, if I had no shame. Well the deterioration of my country’s integrity fills me full of shame.
It has been a sad day. People are still being killed by fascists in Ukraine. But there has also been a terrible mining disaster in Turkey killing hundreds which local people are blaming on the mining company – profit before safety. Finally Stephen Sutton, who Cameron has managed to get some publicity out of, raised millions for cancer and dies today. Stephen’s mother said something to the effect that “my heart is full of pride, but also full of pain”.
The terrible cost of coal in Turkish lives.
Fury over worst Turkey mine disaster
Riot police firebombed in Ankara – 14 May
Scuffles and arrests in Soma – 14 May
Anger erupts over the mine disaster in western Turkey, as the death toll rises to 274 making it the deadliest such incident in the country’s history.
Mine disaster Turkey PM’s car attacked
Watch ‘Hanging on to hope’
Watch Protesters clash with police
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27415813
Turkey’s mining safety: Bleak track record
By Enis Senerdem BBC Turkish Service
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27414972