This has to be the word for this past month of August:
Let's look at the evidence:
SHAM DIPLOMACY: The Julian Assange debacle handled by the UK; and especially their
threat to usurp international law and 'storm' the embassy to get him
SHAM DETAINMENT: Julian Assange stuck inside the Embassy of Ecuador - he has been
granted political asylum by Ecuador yet languishes on
SHAM DETAINMENT: Bradley Manning. Has the United States government absolutely no
shame at the shocking treatment of this whistleblower?
SHAM TRIAL: Pussy Riot trio jailed for three years in Moscow for anti-Putin punk
dance in Moscow's largest cathedral
SHAM TRIAL: Bahraini activist Nabeel Rajab jailed for three years for anti-
government posts on Twitter
SHAM ECONOMICS: The ongoing LIBOR banking scandal - I don't profess to understanding
it all, but its greedy bankers up to their usual sinister tricks
SHAM POLITICS: The entire US Presidential election farce - on both sides, and in
every way
Sham - the only word that can describe the month that has been.
Do you get my point?
Whilst doing a Google Images search today using phrases like "Conservatives are Idiots" and "Proud to be Liberal" (as one does), I came across a really interesting site called Old American Century (www.oldamericancentury.org).
Clearly progressive/ liberal and anti-Republican/ conservative to the hilt, the site's most interesting feature is a series of brilliantly executed posters that evoke the splendid posters of the 1940s, but very much modern themed and very, very anti-conservative. Below are just two examples of their excellent fare:
Better still is the deep irony used in so many of the posters, playing on the bombastic and nonsensical vitriol that conservatives so love:
Great stuff. I just love it when liberals show they too can have balls and stick it to the other side - and, oh my, don't conservatives just make that so very, very easy!
Below are two posters from this terrific site, one gloriously retro, the other more mdoern, that really do say it all in this era of American-led paranoia (read: control) in the name of "terror" and "security":
Do you get my point?
Earlier this week, the first man ever to set foot on the moon passed away.
When he took that small step, it was a giant leap not only for all of humanity, but for everything good and brave and awe-inspiring in all of us.
Small steps and giant leaps - you did it all, Mr. Armstrong. Your legacy shall live forever.
R.I.P.
So the Pussy Riot (sham) trial came to an end today in Moscow, with the punk grrrrl band being handed down sentences of two years with hard labour. This was ordained by the trial judge (a woman, let it be noted) on the grounds of the three women 'inciting hatred' and for their 'religious contempt.'
It's beyond preposterous. It's a shocking indictment of the Russian legal system, not to mention the monstrous walking ego that is Vladimir Putin.
These women are now the conscience of an entire nation.
Yet I am not at all surprised. I was even expecting them to get more time in jail, given that the maximum sentence being bandied around a few days ago was that the charges could carry up to seven years imprisonment. That is what it has become like to live in this hyper-cynical age in which free speech and democracy are under constant and ever-growing assault by governments all over the world.
At a time when global contempt (including mine) against the United States and most of the West just grows and grows and seems to be at an all time high, Russia had a golden opportunity to slap the women with a light fine and proclaim that Russia was a true democracy where free speech is protected and revered - unlike, increasingly, in the West. Instead, Putin paraded around pontificating about them like some paternal gargoyle and a Russian court, no doubt egged on by the Russian government and President Egoski himself, decided to find them guilty and mete out a ridiculous sentence.
A golden opportunity missed, Russia. You have only shown yourself up as the shabby, paper-thin crony democracy that you really are. And played right into the hands of self-righteous, hypocritical Western powers. Tut, tut.
I really feel for these women. The rest of us around the world may vent and be angry today and for a few days yet with their plight, but we shall move on, to live our lives and fight whatever battles we see fit to fight. Yet those three women will face their reality every day, pilloried and driven hard for two years in a Russian prison, which one can have no doubt will be as grim and horrid a place as penally possible.
What a terrible shame. What an outrage. And yet another nail in the coffin that is free speech and democracy in today's world.
A world gone mad. A world in desperate need of every Pussy Rioter possible.
Do you get my point?
I should have been happy, overjoyed in fact (!!!), about the news yesterday that Julian Assange had been granted political asylum by Ecuador. So this should be a rave. Yet even with that news I am niggled by fear and apprehension - apprehension borne of how ugly this entire affair got this week and how it could yet get a lot uglier. Hence my need to also rant about this.
So, let me deconstruct the affair as I see it as succinctly as possible:
The Victim: Julian Assange. There are two camps in the world today - those who believe Julian Assange is being persecuted on the one side, and those who believe he is a 'terrorist' and a 'threat' to American hegemony (read: imperialism) on the other side. There is no room for grey - it's that black and white.
The Heroes: Ecuador. I admittedly had my doubts that the Ecuadorian government would capitulate to Western (read: American) pressure. Many had those doubts and fears. Even his mother must have had her fears an doubts. But they came through for Julian, in unapologetic, crystal clear and frankly stunning terms. This small South American country did what very few countries would dare to do. All power to Ecuador for what they have done this week. Simon Bolivar would be proud.
The Enemy/ Bitch Whore of the Arch Enemy: The United Kingdom. When it's foreign affairs crowd even dares to suggest that the UK would see fit to rip right through centuries of diplomacy and international customary law and storm the Ecuadorian embassy to seize Assange, then it is a country that has lost all sense of the rule of law and its own sense of self. It's democracy and legal system is a sham. All so it can do the bidding of its Imperial Master. The UK should be ashamed of itself.
The Passive-Aggressive Bitch Whore: Sweden. This Scandinavian country, always so smug in its own sense of level-minded, content democracy, is at the very epicentre of this entire crisis. All it had to do was reassure Ecuador that Assange would not be extradited to the United States once handed over to Sweden by the UK. This Sweden refused to do, which spoke volumes - and the Ecuadoreans rightly saw this as overwhelming evidence of the political persecution of Assange. Game over. Sweden is a sham democracy doing the shabby bidding of the biggest bully of them all. It too should be thoroughly ashamed of itself.
The Arch Enemy: The United States. Need one say more?
And that's what this entire debacle boils down to: a man who did nothing more than publish the truth about the shocking shenanigans of world powers is being persecuted by three of what were once the most respected democracies on Earth.
And that is why, whilst I can rave about Julian Assange being granted his asylum, I can only rant at all the other malevolent ingredients in this putrid mix.
And I am sincerely, genuinely, horribly worried at how the entire Julian Assange affair may yet unravel. And expose the true, sickening nature of the world in which we live.
Do you get my point?
I REALLY HATE bad spelling and poor grammar. We all make mistakes and my e-mails and even these posts have typos, no doubt. But the standards these days are beyond the pale - at every level, whether it be in the workplace, in social media or simply receiving correspondence from someone.
But what I ABSOLUTELY ABHOR AND WILL NOT FORGIVE is bad spelling or poor grammar by people who should know better. By this I mean the likes of book publishers, editors, journalists and frankly anyone who uses the English language as a means of making a buck - and, once again, should know better.
It's NOT acceptable.
Sometimes one can spot an innocent typo and move on - I don't wish to be a Grammar Nazi - but sometimes the 'mistake' is so glaring that it is nothing more than stupidity, ignorance or laziness.
Take this corker of an example I came across when reading an article today about gold medals versus total medals at an Olympics, as linked from Yahoo News:
"There are some critics who balk at the medal count debate, citing the sheer
number of competitors from bigger countries like China and the United States.
The country of Cypress has just 13 members in its Olympic party. They probably
aren't going to compete in any medal tallies."
Cypress?! Where the hell is that? Is that near the country of Lesbian, I guess? Or should that be Lebanon...? Is it Angora or Andorra? Gonorrhea or Ghana? Endives or Maldives? The possibilities are endless...
I know, I know, I am being so pedantic and so picky, even though last time I checked it was Cyprus, you lame excuse for a human being!
And this on a well-regarded site like www.bleacherreport.com and written with such assured aplomb by a 'professional' called Dan Levy, who is accredited as being no less than the site's "National Lead Writer." And that's what really, really irks - here's some pillock who doesn't even know how to spell a country like Cyprus, and yet he has a no doubt cushy job writing away an online sports site. He probably works all comfy from home, has a whole host of online followers and 'fans' and is feted as a proper journalist.
Cypress is a tree - I know, I know, they sound awfully similar but, hey, bitch to the citizens of Cyprus, Danny boy. I wasn't at the naming ceremony of that particular nation state - sorry.
And that is where we are today - crass mediocrity of this sort gets a good, paying job as a writer, when he would have been laughed at (and unemployed as a writer) just twenty short years ago. And I have to read this ignorant crap and just pretend it's all okay? I don't think so.
So, which is it? Ignorance? Stupidity?Or plain laziness? It actually doesn't matter - they're all bad.
And stupid, ignorant laziness should never be acceptable.
Do you get my point?
You have to love Morrissey. Well, at least I do. The former lead singer and lyricist of the seminal 80s indie band The Smiths, and avowed vegetarian and animal rights activist, he has never been shy to voice his opinions on politics, royalty, the state of the planet, the very state of the world. The pic below of him on stage says it all:
Dubbed by some of his detractors as an 'anarchist' (and so what if he were?) and 'perpetually gloomy' (which makes perfect sense), the man speaks his mind because he is no doubt one very pissed off man who is highly attuned to the sheer hypocrisy and pedantry of the modern world. Which is why every time he says something which alienates and outrages half the world (who know of him), then I'm with the other half - with all those who relish what he has to say.
A well-known anti-royalist (right there he's one of mine), Morrissey has now taken a full-blooded swipe at the ongoing London Olympics, whilst also taking a well-aimed swipe at the British royals. Call that two very hard punches, in fact. It's left some howling in disdain, and others (myself included, of course) clapping and cheering in gleeful agreement.
This is what he had to say about the Olympics and those tiresome Windsors, as quoted on www.dlisted.com, and as reported on the excellent gay news site www.towleroad.com:
"I am unable to watch the Olympics due to the blustering jingoism that drenches the event. Has England ever been quite so foul with patriotism? The "dazzling royals" have, quite naturally, hi-jacked the Olympics for their own empirical needs, and no oppositional voice is allowed in the free press. It is lethal to witness. As London is suddenly promoted as a super-wealth brand, the England outside London shivers beneath cutbacks, tight circumstances and economic disasters. Meanwhile the British media present 24-hour coverage of the "dazzling royals", laughing as they lavishly spend, as if such coverage is certain to make British society feel fully whole. In 2012, the British public is evidently assumed to be undersized pigmies, scarcely able to formulate thought."
Brilliant. He goes on to say:
"As I recently drove through Greece I noticed repeated graffiti seemingly everywhere on every available wall. In large blue letters it said WAKE UP WAKE UP. It could almost have been written with the British public in mind, because although the spirit of 1939 Germany now pervades throughout media-brand Britain, the 2013 grotesque inevitability of Lord and Lady Beckham (with Sir Jamie Horrible close at heel) is, believe me, a fate worse than life. WAKE UP WAKE UP."
Hmmmm. They sure as hell don't make music stars like this anymore. Makes me even more proud to have been an 80s teenager! Seriously, at least this is a man who thinks about the world around him, and doesn't speak as if he were being thought-managed and opinion-styled by some Hollywood agent creep or 'image consultant.'
Maybe that's why I admire a guy like Morrissey so much. Yeah, he made lots of money. Yeah, he disses all the jingoistic paraphernalia at the Olympics (which I have to admit I have always loved, and still do, so there!). But at least he has an opinion that goes beyond what some other celebrity said or what the media is saying about him.
At least Morrissey is an original that is self-thought, self-styled and self-created. In this age of regurgitated celebrity fluff, that can only be described as refreshing.
He is not just another walking corporate hack who speaks in soundbites and has, like, really, no opinion whatsoever, like, you know. That in itself is avant garde in this shallow, soundbite-ridden day and age. And for that alone I easily make Morrissey the Man of the Day.
Off with their heads indeed!
It couldn't be said better than the UK chapter of Amnesty International, courtesy of a link at www.valeriepalmer.wordpress.com:
Links to the US or UK Amnesty International website allow one to take part in an online petition in support of the Russian female punk band.
For those of us sitting back in the comfort of our homes and our cushy little lives, these Russian women deserve our online support at the very least. It's not much, but it's something. In this Internet age, digital solidarity is the most many of us can do at times.
It's very simple: FREE PUSSY RIOT!
The trial of the punk feminist girl group Pussy Riot continues in Moscow. Three of the punk group's members (Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Ekaterina Samutsevitch) are facing criminal charges due to taking part in anti-Putin protest at Russia's largest and most well-known Russian Orthodox cathedral, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow.
The protest took the form of a punk skit at the altar of the said cathedral, in which they sang and danced and, according to Wikipedia, "In the song, the group asked the “Theotokos” (Mother of God, i.e. the Virgin Mary) (Bogoroditsa in Russian) to 'chase Putin away.'" The song also mentioned Russia's Patriarch Kiril I of Moscow as someone who 'believes in Putin rather than in God.'
So, in essence, this was nothing more than a political protest in a so-called 'holy place.' Big deal. Yet, they are up on 'hooliganism' charges, which in Russia is a serious offence, especially a Russia firmly within the bosom of their mother religion, not to mention firmly under the iron control of the very man whom the band despise, one Vladimir Putin.
Of course, Putin finds it all quite bemusing and just 'hopes that they will learn to be more responsible and respectful in the future.' He would.
He has further gone to great lengths in TV interviews to insist that the verdict will remain 'firmly at the discretion of the court,' as if this was anything but a show trial of momentous political proportions. Again, he would.
Not surprisingly, the laughable and decidedly politicized trial of Pussy Riot has garnered huge outcry from artists and people all over the world. Many, yours truly included, find it a despicable show of unyielding (and jittery?) state power in a country trying so hard to assert itself as a democratic nation. This is a 'misdemeanour' at most, worthy of a small fine and possibly community service, the equivalent of a legal slap on the wrist. It could, unfortunately, prove more costly to these brave, determined punk rockers.
Pussy Riot are the epitome of what I have always admired about punk - anti-establishment, socially angry for all the right reasons and fundamentally political. Even if I don't always relish the music, I am at heart punk. Because punk is about giving it to The Man and making damn sure everyone knows about it. Who the hell can argue with that?!
So, as their show trial unravels and as their legal fate hangs in the balance, my only determination is that this Russian girl punk band must be assertive, proud and, above all else, defiant.
Always it should only be Go, Pussy Riot, Go, Go, GO!!!
As my previous post attests, I am getting seriously worried about all the time that is lapsing as Julian Assange sits in the Ecuadorean embassy in London, waiting to be granted asylum by Quito.
It just all seems to be taking too long. And now signs are that Ecuador is somehow trying to negotiate with the UK, Sweden and, astoundingly, the United States. That just doesn't bode well.
Ultimately, whether or not Ecuador grants Assange asylum and thereby prevents him from being eventually tried and possibly even murdered in the United States all rests on the shoulders of one man:
President Rafael Correa of Ecuador: the choice is his.
Now is his chance to provide his small country with a moral stature and impetus that very few countries could ever aspire to have. Now is his chance to make or break the legacy he has tried to build as a populist leader in a region sick to death of the meddling, often deadly machinations by the Yanks up north.
Will Correa be up to it? The coming days and weeks will tell.
President Rafael Correa of Ecuador: he simply must do the right thing.
After all, how many people actually realize that Correa is currently one of the most powerful people in the world?
His destiny and the destiny of his country is also our collective destiny.
Do you get my point?
Julian Assange continues to wallow inside the Ecuadorean embassy in London, and, according to his mother, Christine, his health is deteriorating. She claims that the strain of the relentless persecution against her son over the past two years are taking a toll on her son.
Christine Assange met with the Ecuadorean authorities in Quito on Monday, basically pleading for them to grant him the asylum that he is seeking from the South American nation. Asylum that many of us thought would surely be quite forthcoming, considering that Julian had had a very candid interview on Russia Today with Ecuador's charismatic president, Rafael Correa, just a few short months ago.
In fact, President Correa appeared downright smitten with Assange's whistleblowing achievements, and the mood between the two men was decidedly warm and mutually admiring.
In fact, I distinctly remember Correa at one point during the interview inviting Assange to go to Ecuador where he would be "well received and always welcome." Is it any wonder then that Julian Assange chose to seek refuge in that very country's embassy just weeks after that interview...?
So, what am I and others following this saga supposed to make of these words from Ricardo Patino, the Foreign Minister of Ecuador, as reported by CBS news?:
"Ecuador is doing "everything possible to protect the life of Mr. Assange."
Okay, that sounds good, but then its stated by CBS that, "Ecuadorean officials have said they will not announce a decision on the asylum
request until after the London Olympic Games end in mid-August."
Why?! What is so damn special about the fact that the bloody Olympic Games are being held in London? Is Julian Assange SUCH A HUGE THREAT to the very security of the Olympic Games itself, never mind the whole of the UK?!
Patino continues by saying: "For that reason we are engaged in
conversation with the Swedish and government and also with Great Britain before
speaking to the United States."
What?! Since when is it necessary for a sovereign nation to be liaising with the United States of all countries in a matter taking place in the UK and with implications too with Sweden, when we all know that the Yanks are the very reason why Assange is so fearful for his life and took refuge in the Ecuador embassy in the first place...!
What the hell is going on with Ecuador? The CBS article does continue by stating that, "Ecuadorean officials are seeking assurances that Sweden and Britain would not
allow Julian Assange to be extradited to the United States, Britain's Guardian
newspaper reported last week, citing unnamed officials at the country's London
embassy."
Right...uh huh...as if the United States of all countries would ever give those types of assurances, never mind if they even stoop to do so...yeah, right!
I'll say it again: what the hell is going on with Ecuador? Why all this time? Why all these delays? Why all this kowtowing to the likes of the United States, to which Ecuador has supposedly thumbed its nose at so many times a la Hugo Chavez's Venezuela?
Was seeking asylum with Ecuador a bad idea for Julian Assange after all?
Does Ecuador in reality not measure up to its international bravado? What is Ecuador so scared of? Does Ecuador have another agenda? Is Julian now their pawn? One can only shudder at that thought.
I can only hope for the best, and indeed hope that Ecuador is just playing for time and playing all the right cards in diplomatic gamesmanship. I do hope that.
But I can't help believing that Assange would have possibly done better in rather seeking asylum with Venezuela. My mom certainly seems to believe that. She may have a point.
I somehow don't see Hugo Chavez having flip-flopped quite like this. Not with a golden opportunity like this to yet again flip the Imperialist States of America a big, fat middle finger.
I do hope Quito doesn't quit on Assange.
Where is Cuba at the height of Fidel Castro when you need it? Where indeed...
Do you get my point?
It was with great sadness today that I heard that the inimitable and brilliant (not to mention unbelievably prolific) author, essayist, historian and social philospoher Gore Vidal has passed away.
They simply didn't get much more brilliant than Gore Vidal. His was a wit so razor sharp, so merciless and so exacting that I'm almost glad I was never famous (or political) enough to have strayed into his universe of critique!
This Renaissance man had a life so rich and so monumentally successful that to write any 'mini biography' in this mere blog would be, to be very frank, arrogant and affected. Instead, I think the best way to pay homage to such a towering intellect is to quote some of his more memorable barbs and sayings over the years, which included:
- "There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party ... and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat. Republicans are a bit stupider, more rigid, more doctrinaire in their laissez-faire capitalism than the Democrats, who are cuter, prettier, a bit more corrupt — until recently ... and more willing than the Republicans to make small adjustments when the poor, the black, the anti-imperialists get out of hand. But, essentially, there is no difference between the two parties..."
-
"Certain societies at certain times, usually in the interest of maintaining the baby supply, have discouraged homosexuality. Other societies, particularly militaristic ones, have exalted it. But regardless of tribal taboos, homosexuality is a constant fact of the human condition and it is not a sickness, not a sin, not a crime ... despite the best efforts of our puritan tribe to make it all three. Homosexuality is as natural as heterosexuality. Notice I use the word 'natural,' not normal."
-
"Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically by definition be disqualified from ever doing so."
-
"Fifty percent of people won't vote, and fifty percent don't read newspapers. I hope it's the same fifty percent."
-
"Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn."
- "I never miss a chance to have sex or appear on television."
- "
We should stop going around babbling about how we're the greatest democracy on earth, when we're not even a democracy. We are a sort of militarised republic."
-
"We’ll have a dictatorship soon in the US...[America] is ‘rotting away...and don’t expect Barack Obama to save it." [in an article about Vidal in the The Times of London, September 2009]
-
"a triumph of the embalmer's art." [
of Ronald Reagan]
-
"the stupidest man in the United States." [of George W. Bush]
And three of my favourites of his:
-
"A narcissist is someone better looking than you are."
-
"Every time a friend succeeds, I die a little."
and...
- "The four most beautiful words in our common language: I told you so."
How much more brutally honest can you get than that?
They do not make them like Gore Vidal any more. They simply do not. And the world is all the more impoverished for that.
