So I Super Bowled.

Yesterday (5/2/17) I wrote that due to the current war against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and associated groups I couldn't really justify staying up all night to watch the 51st Super Bowl - Super Bowl Xi.

In writing that I came to terms with the fact that I would have to stay up to watch it for exactly that reason. So I planned my evening accordingly. For example I didn't have lunch until 5pm and dinner until 9pm.

Part of that plan was that I didn't actually watch the first two quarters of the game. That was a good plan because it was bound to annoy me. When I did come back to watching close to half-time the Atlanta Falcons were beating the New England Patriots by 23-0. In short the Patriots were getting destroyed and it seemed certain that they would lose.

What was doing the damage was the Falcons' running back Davonta Freeman. He kept tearing through the Patriots defence. This seems to have all been done for the benefit of Judge James L. Robart who on Friday (3/2/17) had decided to get into the Super Bowl spirit by temporarily suspending US President Donald Trump's executive orders on immigration.

As I've said the Atlanta Falcons could be interpreted as a reference to a number of armed groups currently fighting in Syria. Particularly the Falcons of the Levant/Suqour al-Sham group. They fight as part of the Army of Conquest/Jaish al-Fatah coalition. Another large group within that coalition are the Islamic Movement of the Freemen of the Levant/Harakat Ahrar ash-Sham al-Islamiyya (Ahrar al-Sham).

Throughout the conflict Turkish President/Prime Minister/Emperor has blackmailed the US and particularly Europe into supporting ISIL and the Army of Conquest by threatening to dispatch terrorists to attack them if they don't give him what he wants. Judge Robart's legally unsupportable ruling allows Erdogan to follow through on that threat. In short he's thrown America's defences wide open.

It also sends out completely the wrong message. Erdogan has got to be looking at the protests and particularly Judges who are prepared to disregard the law to make a political statement and thinking that he has got a chance of bringing down President Trump. That makes it less likely that Erdogan will respond to diplomatic pressure. That in turn makes it more likely that conflict between the US and Turkey will become inevitable.

It turns out that the Falcons don't have a Sultan Mehmed playing for them.

In the final two quarters of the game the Patriots did slowly start to mount a comeback. With just two minutes left the Patriots tied the score at 28-28. This sent the game into sudden death overtime. A first in Super Bowl history. Four minutes into overtime James White scored a touchdown giving the Patriots a 34-28 victory.

Due to the pile of bodies on top of White as he crossed into the endzone this touchdown was sent to video review to confirm. However no-one told the stadium manager who immediately flashed messages on the video screens declaring the Patriots the winners and set off fireworks and confetti cannons in celebration. This forced the Falcons to concede the game before the video review confirmed that it had been a touchdown.

This greatest comeback in Super Bowl history serves as something of a metaphor for the 2016 US Presidential Election.

Represented by the Falcons here Hillary Clinton and her supporters were certain that they were going to win and nothing could stop them. Then following a surprising late rally they actually went on to lose. Although it took an agonisingly long time for Clinton to concede it's when they cancelled the fireworks and packed up the confetti cannons at what should have been the victory party you knew that they knew they'd lost.

The fact that the Patriots won their fifth Super Bowl meant that their star quarter back Tom Brady accepted the trophy from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. You may remember that following their victory in the 2015 Super Bowl the Patriots were caught up in the so-called; "Deflategate" scandal. This all got very bad tempered and led to Goodell suspending Brady for the first part of this season.

I think Tom Brady just had the last word.

The big winner though was Lady Gaga who absolutely destroyed the halftime show in quite some style.

At around 12:45 on 6/2/17 (UK date) I'll be back to cover that shortly.

Edited at around 15:30 on 6/2/17 (UK date) to add;

Lady Gaga began her halftime show atop of the stadium roof. While surrounded by hundreds of retail type flying drones she sang; "God Bless America."  This obviously a very patriotic song about America being one nation under (a Christian) God.

This entire sequence was a direct and overt rip-off of the 2016 Israeli Eurovision Song Contest entry; "Made of Stars" by Hovi Star. That too features hundreds of retail type drones in the video. Although it was done in the context of a wider discussion about religious and racial tolerance it expressed Israel's desire to be a solely Jewish state. One nation under the Star of David.

As such this sequence was a prime example of that bete noire of American liberals - Cultural Appropriation. It's almost like taking that phrase from the Jewish Torah; "To save one life is to save all of humanity" and falsely claim that it in fact comes from the Islamic Qu'ran.

Lady Gaga then merged God Bless America into; "This Land is Your Land" by Woodie Guthrie. That song actually has a Super Bowl history all of its own having featured in the inexplicably controversial 2015 "Beautiful Lands" commercial for the Jeep Renegade.

For the last nearly 400 years capitalist economic thought has been dominated by the work of John Locke. Often referred to as the Father of Liberalism John Locke was one of the leading thinkers in the Enlightenment movement. It was this movement that prompted English Pilgrims to board the Mayflower to establish the New England colonies in 1620.

Aside from writing the Constitution of what is now the US state of Carolina one of Locke's most important works is his Labour Theory of Property.

This asserts that because the natural environment is a gift from God it is only by applying labour - work - that people can take ownership of the natural environment turning it into their property. This theory drives the Homestead Principle on which America was built. In short if you farm a patch of land through your hardwork that land becomes your property.

Woodie Guthrie was a hardcore Communist. The song This Land is Your Land is a protest against Locke's Labour Theory of Property. It argues that the natural environment is shared by all and can be owned by none.

In the run-up to the December 2015 Paris Climate change conference the conflict between Locke and Guthrie's theories of property was an extremely hot topic. In short before former US President Obama ruined everything people were trying to develop a mechanism to allow Greenhouse Gas (ghg) absorbing Rainforests to generate money without labour being applied to cut them down. Essentially reversing Locke's Labour Theory of Property.

The model of Jeep Renegade being sold by the Beautiful Lands commercial was the lightest, most fuel effcient, least ghg emitting model Jeep had ever made.

Therefore the use of This Land is Your Land was intended to signal to US environmental protesters that Jeep had got the message and could they please stop burning down their dealerships. It even ends with the; "Water is Life" slogan that has been recently popularised by the Dakota Access Pipeline protests.

The 2015 commercial features brief glimpses of stereotypically Gulf Arab imagery such as Bedouins on Camels and a woman wearing a Hijab in the desert. This was intended in part to show that America is a responsible and inclusive country and that Jeep is a responsible and inclusive company.

However is was also a suggestion that perhaps the environmental protesters could focus their attention on the Gulf Arab states such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia who are very opposed to action on Climate Change. After all they've got extremely rich expending a tiny amount of labour extracting oil and gas from the natural environment.

This brief glimpse of a woman in a Hijab prompted a bit of a backlash against the commercial. Or more accurately it prompted the Qatari owned, Muslim Brotherhood operated 'news' outlet Al Jazeera to claim that there'd been a backlash in order to whip up anti-American sentiment in Muslim nations by claiming the US was Islamaphobic.

During the furore the US under Obama crashed a train in to a Jeep at a crossing in Valhalla, New York state. This was done in support of ISIL and in mockery of Jordan over their pilot Muath al-Kasasbeh whom ISIL had burnt alive just a few weeks previously.

Since then This Land is Your Land has become something of a battle cry for the Muslim Brotherhood even though they've completely misunderstood its meaning.

I'm surprised it didn't put in an appearance at the January 21st 2017 (21/1/17) Muslim Brotherhood organised "Sister Marches" against Donald Trump. Along with earnest beat poetry someone playing a terrible cover version of This Land is Your Land on a battered acoustic guitar is the ultimate cheesy stereotype of leftwing protest marches.

Prior to the Super Bowl three female cast members of the massively hyped "Hamilton" musical performed the song; "American the Beautiful."

However in an act of protest they changed the lyric; "And crown thy good with brotherhood" to; "And crown thy good with Sisterhood." Thus demonstrating that they'd spectacularly misread the conversation.

Following that light opening Lady Gaga then descended into a post-industrial hellscape on a stage in the centre of the arena. This was heavily inspired by the "Mad Max" movies.

"Mad Max: Fury Road" was one of the huge movies at the 2016 Oscars. It's about a group of sex slaves who escape captivity to form a militia to defeat the war lords who'd held them prisoner. In short it served as a metaphor for the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) - or more accurately the feminine YPJ - fight against ISIL. The was the most successful film at the Oscars winning 6 awards.

Next Lady Gaga performed part of her 2009 hit "Telephone" which she released with Beyonce who stole the show during Coldplay's Super Bowl performance last year. Lady Gaga's own Super Bowl appearance was rather overshadowed by Beyonce's announcement last week that she is pregnant.

The fact that Beyonce is expecting twins could possibly suggest that her pregnancy was the result of IVF treatment in a lab rather than a natural conception. As a result this was a good moment to start the silly showbiz rumour that Beyonce planned her pregnancy specifically to steal the spotlight from whomever was doing the Super Bowl show this year. After all it would lighten the mood.

Lady Gaga then went on to perform her 2011 hit "Born This Way." This is a gay rights protest song making clear that being gay is not a choice. This sequence was unapologetically a gay rights protest. Lady Gaga was accompanied by dancers wearing purple. Although the Rainbow flag is more well known within Anarchist circles purple is used to signal specific support for gay rights.

It also seemed to be a tribute to Prince who died over the course of the past year. His 1984 "Purple Rain" album really helped traditionally black music break through into the mainstream. At the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest this issue of; "The Black Music" was used as a coded way for nations to express support or opposition to Obama. The Song Contest is normally very strict about it's no overt political messages rule.

Lady Gaga then led the specially assembled crowd of her super fans in a sort of Torch Lit rally.

Every year the people of Shamali Province (nee; Ukraine) hold a Torch Lit rally on January 1st to celebrate their hero Stepan Bandera. During the Second World War Bandera fought for Nazi Germany's Waffen SS division and was an enthusiastic participant in the Holocaust.

It's very hard to watch a rally celebrating Bandera and be left thinking that the Russians are the bad guys in this situation.

Lady Gaga herself attended a big campaign rally for Hillary Clinton on the eve of the November 8th 2016 (8/11/16) US Presidential election. After being whipped up into a frenzy the crowd were then marched to the polling booths to vote for Hillary Clinton.

The whole spectacle rather resembled one of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's Nuremburg rallies. Lady Gaga turned up in a black tunic with a red arm band. Basically a Waffen SS uniform.

I think it is fair to assume that Lady Gaga's support for Hillary Clinton has ended.

Finally Lady Gaga was joined on stage by male dancers wearing American Football helmets and not much else. Specifically they were wearing White Helmets.

Within Syria the White Helmets are the propaganda arm of the Army of Conquest terror coalition which much of the western media seems to have fallen head-over-heels in love with. Demonstrating the extent to which they are made of lies the White Helmets have chosen as their motto the quote from the Torah; "To save one life is to save all of humanity" which they falsely claim is taken from the Qu'ran. We wish them luck at the Oscars.

The song playing while Lady Gaga was joined by these White Helmets was her 2009 hit; "Bad Romance."

So Lady Gaga's halftime show was intensely political. Not only that it managed to make extremely detailed references to what are quite complex political issues. The best bit is that it was all done so subtly that most people seem to have completely failed to notice.

Even Hillary Clinton took to Twitter to congratulate her on the message they both share. That is despite it being a 15 minute mockery of Hillary Clinton. However that is not to be confused with support for President Trump.

If Lady Gaga could manage to compress it all into just three minutes that was serious Eurovision Song Contest level work.

At around 17:15 on 6/2/17 (UK date) I need to take moment to consider the commercials.

Edited at around 19:40 on 6/2/17 (UK date) to add;

From a cultural perspective alongside the half-time show the commercials are the most important part of any Super Bowl. However for me they are also the most time consuming.

In part this is because there are just so many of them. Mainly though it's because here in the UK we don't the commercials as part of the coverage. As a result unless a commercial was so widely talked about that it trended on Twitter I have to spend a couple of days trying to track them down to watch on the Internet.

Due to time constraints I won't be doing that this year. I will though look at some of the most talked about commercials this year. They all focused on the political theme of immigration.

First up there was the Budweiser commercial; "Born the Hard Way" which was actually released prior to the game; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtBZvl7dIu4

It tells the story of Budweiser co-founder Eberhard Anheuser's journey to America as an immigrant and his eventual meeting with Andulphous Busch with whom he founded the company. Some people have interpreted this as a protest against President Trump and his calls for better immigration controls.

However those people probably don't realise that Anheuser was an immigrant from Germany. President Trump is the son of German immigrants. Budweiser obviously think that their beer is the best thing ever to happen to America.

In one scene Anheuser is show sitting on a raft alongside a black man who could be a reference to former President Obama. In the next scene a boat is seen ablaze in a scene of fiery destruction. This could be viewed as a sharp criticism of the way Obama tried to burn America to the ground in order to make the place ungovernable for President Trump.

Then there is the Airbnb commercial; "We Accept;" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yetFk7QoSck

This commercial was so political that I heard about it because former US Secretary of State John Kerry re-Tweeted former UK Foreign Minister David Miliband Tweeting about it. The very unsubtle message of the commercial is that regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation etc Airbnb will accept you.

This commercial comes hot on the heels of Airbnb announcing that it will house anyone affected by President Trump's executive orders on immigration. In short Airbnb have looked at the millions of people joining the Muslim Brotherhood's anti-Trump protests and gone;

"Wow! There's a lot of morons we can con out of their money and their rights."

If you suffer from Obama levels of anti-Semitism you might even talk about Airbnb viewing the protesters as; "Goy" which is generally used a Hebrew insult for people who are worth less than cattle.

It is an example of capitalism at its most cynical and its most exploitative. It is exactly what you would expect from a company with a record as appalling as Airbnb's. Wherever the company operates it stands accused of wilfully breaking local laws in order remove the supply of longterm rental accommodation in order to drive up rents.

In New York City alone 55% of Airbnb's listings are illegal and they are blamed for causing rates of homeless not seen since the Great Depression; http://www.sharebetter.org/story/new-report-shows-how-airbnb-short-term-rentals-have-hijacked-nyc-housing-market/

In short Airbnb perfectly represent exactly the sort of exploitive authoritarian capitalism that former politicians like David Miliband and Hillary Clinton worship.

Finally there is the untitled commercial for US construction supply company 84 Lumber; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPo2B-vjZ28

This begins with a young girl waking her mother in some unspecified Hispanic south American nation. Don't assume that everything south of Texas is Mexico. Together the two look at photographs of the absent father is away working - presumably illegally - in construction in the US.

The two then embark on a long perilous journey to be reunited with the father in America. Throughout the journey the girl picks up scraps of coloured plastic which she shapes into a US flag.

At one point in the journey the pair are shown coming face-to-face with literally a Coyote. This is slang term for the often drug cartel linked people traffickers who control this trade in human suffering. The pair are also shown walking along train tracks and struggling to jump on and off moving trains. The number of what I would consider refugees killed and maimed in train accidents as they try to make it to Mexico let alone the US is truly shocking.

When the pair arrive at the US border they discover a wall blocking their illegal crossing. But then suddenly the father appears and he's built a door within the border wall made with timber supplied by 84 Lumber.

The Fox network actually refused to air this commercial in its entirety specifically because it featured a border wall.

It's clear that the message 84 Lumber were trying to send is that they are a deeply caring company that will stand with America as it battles racist President Trump.

However the message they were actually sending is that 84 Lumber would rather break up families and subject very young children to death, serious injury and sexual exploitation that obey labour laws and pay their workers properly.

Woody Guthrie's "Do Re Mi" set to footage of the Great Depression seemed the only appropriate response;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0H9_uy-qX8

20:55 on 6/2/17 (UK date).