The 2018 Winter Olympics: Closing Ceremony Pt.5

A continuation of Part 4; https://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/the-2018-winter-olympics-closing_28.html

The Big BANG! Theory:

You can't seriously have thought you were getting through a Korean Olympics without some hardcore physics could you?

This sequence began with hundreds of English numerals counting up being projected on a black arena floor. As they counted up they appeared to move towards and then collapse into a vortex in the middle of the arena.

Although it wasn't technically correct this was an artistic representation Einsteinian phenomenon of; "Time Dilation."

Essentially time moves more slowly the closer an object is to a gravitational source.

Some of the most powerful gravitational forces in the Universe are Black Holes.

However there is also slight time dilation between objects orbiting the Earth and even between objects at sea level on Earth and objects high up mountains. Such as Olympic competitors in alpine events.

Time Dilation is part of Albert Einstein's; "General Theory of Relativity (GTR)." He published this in 1915.

In part Einstein's GTR allowed two German scientists - Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann - to discover the concept of Nuclear Fission in 1938.

The discovery of nuclear fission prompted a number of scientists to write to then US President Franklin D. Roosevelt warning of the dangers of this discovery. Signed by Albert Einstein in 1939 this became known as the; "Einstein-Szilard Letter."

The Einstein-Szilard Letter prompted US President Roosevelt to start the; "Manhattan Project" later in 1939. By 1945 the Manhattan Project had produced the first nuclear Atomic bombs (A-bombs). These were promptly dropped on Japan in August 1945.

I think you can see where we're going with this.

Suddenly a single performer runs the length of the vortex. Revealing it is not a vortex at all. Just a trick of the light.

At the other end of the vortex he meets a group of other performers. Together they raise a column rather like a flag pole or mast.

These performers are dressed in a black and white striped costume. This is similar to a costume wore by the; "Doctor Sheldon Cooper" character in the US TV Show; "The Big Bang Theory."

That sitcom is very popular amongst scientists. It brings complex scientific principles and introduces them to a wide audience.

The shows scientific credibility is summed up by the; "Doctor Amy Farrah-Fowler" - neurobiologist. She is played by Doctor Mayim Bialik - a neurobiologist.

In the show one of Sheldon Cooper's hobbies is making a webcast called; "Fun With Flags" dedicated to flags in all their forms.

This makes the show very popular with the people who produce Olympic ceremonies. They have to draw up their grand artistic vision. Then constantly have to stop and start it to allow the IOC to mess about with flags.

In this particular costume Sheldon Cooper had been invited to a fancy dress party. So he decided to go as the; "Doppler Effect."

The Doppler Effect is the phenomenon of waves changing their frequency in relation to their observer. People commonly notice this when emergency sirens sound different when they're moving towards you then when they are moving away from you.

The Doppler Effect also has a number of important practical applications.

For example Doppler Radar which allows you to track weather events. The Doppler Effect also allows a medical doctor to perform an echocardiogram to check on the health of a patients heart.

The Doppler Effect is also used in astronomy and astrophysics. It creates either; "Red Shift" or; "Blue Shift." This allows you to measure the distances to and from objects in space.

If you watched the Closing Ceremony then you watched it on a satellite feed. In order to do that the satellite needs to correct for the Doppler Effect. It also needs to correct for Time Dilation. Time moves faster in orbit.

After raising the flag pole like mast the performers then arranged themselves in a neat line. Not only in front of it but in line with it. This formed a shape very similar to the train carriage like structure seen in the; "Beaten Black & Blue" sequence in the Opening Ceremony.

From the flag pole like mast a beam of white lite started making its way around the arena in a clockwise direction. This signified the movement of a clock or watch's hand.

Accompanied by apocalyptic choral music it was a specific reference to the Doomsday Clock. This was established by the Atomic Scientists Society in 1947 to warn of the danger of global nuclear war. The closer the minute hand is to midnight the closer we are to total destruction.

Due to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK/North) advancing nuclear weapons program the Doomsday Clock was set in January 2018 to two minutes to midnight. The closest it has ever been.

I suppose it could also be a reference to a woman's biological clock. After all the Birth Strike is the other Extinction Level Event facing the RoK.

As this was happening waves of light were snaking their way around the arena. To highlight the reference to the Doppler Effect.

Then the performers fanned out from their line and arranged themselves in something of square like formation. Each with their own individual spotlight. Making them appear to be particles of light.

This introduced you to the concept of; "Wave-Particle Duality."

For a long time physicists thought that light only existed as a wave. Then they discovered that in certain circumstances it behaved as if made up of particles.

This led to them exploring what those particles were made up of. A field known as; "Quantum Physics."

It is through the study of Quantum Physics we learnt to identify and manipulate particles smaller then atoms (sub-atomic). This allowed for the creation of things like China's Quantum Encryption communications Satellite (QUESS).

Eventually Quantum Physicists formulated the; "Unified Quantum Field Theory."

This holds that everywhere in the Universe there are these tiny elemental particles. Although they are far too small to detect they make up everything and surround everything. Somewhat like water in a swimming pool.

If you disturb these tiny elemental particles it knocks the quantum field out of equilibrium. This has something like a ripple effect causing hard to predict outcomes elsewhere in the quantum field.

One fun example of this is the so-called; "Rihanna Effect."

In 2007 Rihanna released a single called; "Umbrella" which was the biggest selling song in the UK throughout the summer. It rained throughout that summer. The theory is that the Rihanna song getting stuck in everyone's head disturbed the quantum field making it rain.

During Rihanna's 2013 Diamonds World Tour (DWT) the US government of Barack Obama seriously put forward this Rihanna Effect as an alternative explanation for Climate Change.

I'm sure Obama's commitment to the Paris Agreement comes from a good place though.

In October 2013 scientists at the CERN supercollider discovered the Higgs-Boson. One of the key tiny elemental particles. Thus proving Unified Quantum Field Theory.

A discovery which no doubt had Korean Taoists looking at the Wu Xing and going;

"You call that news?!"

Funnily enough at around 21:00 on 28/2/18 (UK date) I'm going to have to pick this up tomorrow.

Edited at around 14:45 on 1/3/18 (UK date) to add;

This sequence was something of a competition over who had the best scientific knowledge and understanding of physics.

The DPRK obviously has a deep understanding of physics. They've been able to produce not only A-bombs but much more powerful Hydrogen bombs (H-bombs).

The RoK has never produced any sort of A-bomb or H-bomb. It seems important though to remind the DPRK that is through choice. Not because the RoK lacks the expertise in science.

The other much talked about nuclear program is Iran's.

The DPRK have been pursing nuclear weapons technology because they want to possess nuclear weapons. Iran however seem to be pursuing nuclear weapons because they want to increase their scientific and engineering capacity. Whether that results in them ending up with nuclear weapons almost seems by-the-by.

A good example of a big project improving a nations science and engineering capacity more generally is the Space Race of the 1950's and 1960's. The US and the Soviet Union raced each other first to put objects into space and then travel to the moon.

Before you can even think about sending rockets to the moon you first have to find a way to build the rockets. To do that you need to increase your scientific knowledge and develop new engineering techniques.

At one point during the Space Race the US produced what they thought was the smallest drill bit ever made. They sent one to Russia as a boast.

Russia promptly drilled a hole in it and sent it back.

As the Sheldon suited performers were raising the flag pole like mast they resembled the famous Joe Rosenthal photograph.

This depicts US Marines raising the US flag on Mount Suribachi on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima during the Second World War. It has since been turned into a statue as the US Marine Corp's War Memorial.

The Battle of Iwo Jima was really what prompted US President Roosevelt to drop A-bombs on Japan ending the war. This was nod to Korea's wartime past. It was by defeating Imperial Japan the US liberated South Korea. The Soviets liberated the north.

Also it was a reference to the February 4th 2018 (4/2/18) US Super Bowl. This saw American Footballers who have long protested the flag being confronted by a veteran of the Battle of Iwo Jima during the pre-game coin toss.

This Super Bowl in particular revealed that the flag protesters really had no idea that 2018 marked the 100th Anniversary of the start of the tradition of flag and anthem ceremonies before big US sporting events.

With US troops finally engaged in the First World War there was debate over whether to hold the 1918 Baseball World Series.

Eventually it was decided that cancelling the event would damage troop morale. So it went ahead with the anthem being sung and flag raised by a military guard as a sign of respect for the sacrifice of the living and the dead.

Appearing amid this discussion of hardcore science and engineering the reference to the Super Bowl seemed to be a reminder to Obama's Warriors;

"Women's Studies is not a degree.

It's a lesbian chat-up line that's gotten out of hand." 

15:20 on 1/3/18 (UK date). 

Edited again at around 17:25 on 1/3/18 (UK date) to add;

Athletes Commission:

The International Olympics Committee (IOC) has an Athletes Commission to advise and assist on its operations. At each games competitors vote to elect new members to this commission.

It is tradition the winners are welcomed during a sequence in the Closing Ceremony.

The new delegates elected at this games are;

Emma Terho. A 36 year old Ice Hockey player from Finland. She made her debut at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. The team went on to win Bronze.

Kikkan Randall: A 35 year old Cross Country Skier from the US.  She made her debut at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy finishing 9th. This year she won Gold in the Team Sprint event.

Both Emma Terho and Kikkan Randall are women. Their election brings the number of women on the 100 strong athletes commission to 28. Prompting discussion about gender equality.

Both women are also mothers. Kikkan Randall in particular campaigned on a platform of improving childcare provision at winter sports events. A hot topic given the RoK's Birth Strike.

Their first duty as members of the commission was to thank the volunteers who helped staged the games.

After presenting the volunteers with handshakes and bouquets of flowers they posed together for the obligatory "Selfie" photograph.

Go On Home Yankee Soldiers, Go Home:

This next sequence was a performance by K-Pop star Lee Chae-rin better known by her stagename; "CL."

Born on Seoul. RoK CL spent a lot of her time growing up in France and Japan. Highlighting the strong links/rivalry between Korean Pop (K-Pop) and Japanese Pop (J-Pop).

At the tender age of 13 CL moved to France and lived there for two years on her own. A example of a South Korean child adopting an adult role.

In 2009 CL became a founding member of the girl band; "2NE1" before leaving in 2014 to pursue a solo career.

Here she performed her biggest hit; "Baddest Female" and the 2NE1 song; "I Am The Best."

With flames rolling down from the Olympic Cauldron to fill the arena floor CL's performance was almost identical to the; "Twitchy Eye, Psychotic Face Emoji" sequence from the Opening Ceremony.

Bathed in red that sequence explored the greatest thought crimes created by Obama's (Black Lives Matter) BLM warriors was that of; "Cultural Appropriation."

Or more specifically it highlighted their hypocrisy. They don't seem to mind black American groups like the Wu Tang Clan misappropriating aspects of Asian Martial Arts culture.

The; "Twitchy Eye, Psychotic Face Emoji" sequence itself was almost identical to a sequence in the 2012 Summer Para-Olympics Closing Ceremony. This saw Rihanna and Jay Z perform the song; "Run This Town" while surrounded by fire.

The CL single; "Baddest Female" was originally intended to be called; "Bad Girl." Despite the name change it continues to contain lyrics about bad girls. Rihanna's third album is called; "Good Girl Gone Bad" and her Instagram handle is "Badgirlriri."

As such it is very easy to accuse CL of appropriating black American culture. Specifically Rihanna's culture.

However in parts Baddest Female reminds me of the song; "Salute" by British pop (B-Pop?) girl band; "Little Mix." 

Much like Multicultural Britain Little Mix are very much a mixed race band. One member is white British, one member is of black Caribbean ancestry (Bajan & Jamaican), one is of Middle-Eastern (Yemeni & Egyptian) ancestry and I think one is actually mixed race (white British & black African).

So if CL is copying the Little Mix song the obvious question is; "Which Culture is she Appropriating?"

The 2012 Summer Para-Olympic Closing Ceremony was of course also my marriage ceremony to Rihanna.

In November 2012 Rihanna embarked on her; "777 Tour." This included a concert in the UK. I was not included on that guest list. However Little Mix were.

Six years on I think I'm entitled to a little; "Do You Know Who I Am Now!" tantrum.

Particularly now Rihanna's stopped using Instagram because I've started following her and someone needs to introduce Little Mix to the World.

The Little Mix song is unashamedly inspired by the Beyonce song; "Run the World (Girls)"

That along with CL's song; "Baddest Female" and the 2NE1 song; "I Am The Best" are examples of Female Empowerment Anthems.

Female Empowerment - more women participating in the work force -  a major factor in the RoK's Birth Strike.

Throughout the Opening and Closing Ceremonies the RoK have made many references to US popular culture.

One of the main reasons why South Koreans have such a depth of understanding of US pop culture is because they have thousands of US troops stationed in the country. They bring that pop culture with them.

So through this discussion of cultural appropriation the RoK seems to be saying to Obama's BLM warriors;

"Stealing your 'culture'?!

We're trying to get rid of it!"

Of course if music rather than Rihanna, Beyonce, Little Mix, CL is you thing I understand there is a band called; "The Clash." They have a song; "I'm So Bored of the USA."

For those interested in the current war in Syria there is obviously an IRA version. There's always an IRA version.

17:35 on 1/3/18 (UK date).
 

The 2018 Winter Olympics: Closing Ceremony Pt.4

A continuation of Part 3; https://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/the-2018-winter-olympics-closing_23.html

Parade of Nations:

It is protocol that each ceremony must include a segment in which the flags of the competing nations are paraded around the arena and then raised.

Although it's not compulsory in the Opening Ceremony many competitors choose to join their flag in the parade. So you have the teams led out in orderly blocks behind their flags.

The Closing Ceremony is more relaxed. So the flags tend to be paraded together. Then the competitors enter the arena in one big, chaotic but happy mess.

This Closing Ceremony was no exception.

The only thing of note I noticed was that Ukraine's flag seemed to have a certain prominence amid the flags. This seemed a little protest against the US and the IOC. A reminder of what was done during the 2014 Winter Olympics held in Ukraine's almost direct neighbour Sochi, Russia.

Also the parade was accompanied by an impressive live band. They seem to play one continuous song that included all styles of music including rock, country, folk, jazz and polka.

The stewards in the arena were also impressive. I don't know if they had their own music on headphones but the certainly had a dance routine. They stuck to that dance routine regardless of what the music was doing. Giving proceedings the anarchic air of a silent disco.

The sequence ended with those bird-like 5G controlled drones. These were supposed to have featured in the Opening Ceremony but were cancelled amid talk of the; "Olympic Destroyer" cyberattack.

The drones formed the Olympic mascot Soohorang. However with the games ending he disappeared to become the shape of a love heart.

Crowdstrike - the US cybersecurity firm who remain the only source of claims Russia interfered with the US' 2016 election - went onto claim that Olympic Destroyer was also a Russian cyberattack.

I'm pretty sure I saw Soohorang flipping them the bird during this sequence. 

Dust in the Wind:

It is a tradition that at least one of the ceremonies include an moment of reflection. A period to reflect on those who lost their lives either during the games or since the previous games.

This is particularly important at the Winter Games because competitors in winter events do get killed with worrying regularity.

Famously Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed during the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver, Canada. He was the fourth winter Olympian killed during competition in the 21 games which had been held up to that point.

In 2012 Canadian Skier Sarah Burke was killed in a training accident in the US.

In 2014 Para-Olympic Snowboarder Matthew Robinson was killed just before the games. This took a huge toll on his Australian team literally leaving an empty bed and an empty chair at the dining room table during the games.

Just before these games in November 2017 French Skier David Poisson was killed during training in Canada.

This ceremony of remembrance also carries with it a special significance in 2018.

On November 11th 2018 (11/11/18) it will be the 100th Anniversary of the end of the First World War. The tremendous loss of life during that war really brought the notion of moments of silence and remembrance into the public's consciousness.

You don't have to use this time of your own personal thoughts to remember athletes who have been killed.

You could use it to remember the 71 Russians killed in a plane crash on February 12th (12/2/18), the 66 Iranians killed in a plane crash on  February 18th (18/2/18) or the 17 Americans killed in the Parkland shooting.

The Opening Ceremony focused on comparing Korea's traditional Animist religions with the Abrahamic religions. It also referenced a US TV Show called; "Firefly."

In discussing it I said that it was easier to explain Abrahamic religions then Animist ones. That's because the Abrahamic beliefs have been codified into a book, To learn about them you simply need to read the book.

In Firefly there was a character called; "Book." He'd been a army Chaplin in what every the main religion was during this fictional society's civil war.

He was played by the actor Ron Glass. He died in November 2016. Watching that unfold online was something of a cast reunion for Firefly.

The sequence took the form of a funeral procession for Black Turtle. One of the Four Guardians featured in the Opening Ceremony.

The procession entered a circle of light showing falling leaves. Rather like the Cherry Blossom leaves featured in that sequence of Firefly which explored gun control as an existential concept. Or the Poppy leaves that are synonymous with First World War remembrance.

As Black Turtle reached the centre of the circle his physical body was dismantled and a video projecting showed him embarking on a journey into the afterlife.

This was a little difficult for me to watch. In the Opening Ceremony Black Turtle was used to signify my longevity in the face of the Red Architects of the UK Labour Party.

There have been arguments in the actual UK High Court over why I'm in the situation I currently find myself in. However that situation is quite heavily dependent on my father. I live in his house rent free although he's paying rent. If my father were to die my financial situation would become considerably more challenging.

The Red Architects think they're playing the long game. Waiting for my father to die so victory will finally be theirs.

This sequences helps to remind them that everybody knows what their cunning plan is.

The sequence showed not the end of Black Turtle's longevity. Instead it celebrated the ultimate longevity of eternal life.

Medal Ceremonies:

It is protocol that the Closing Ceremony must include a medal ceremony. As a reminder of all the medal ceremonies that have taken place during the games.

The local organisers however retain a lot of choice over which particular medal ceremony they use.

Traditionally they go for the penultimate event.

The last event is traditionally the Men's Ice Hockey Final. Giving out medals to the 100 or so players who make up three Olympic Ice Hockey teams is a bit complicated for a Closing Ceremony.

Possibly in response to the US' National Hockey League's (NHL) boycott of the Olympics Men's Ice Hockey was stripped of the prestige of being the final event. Instead this year that honour went to the Men's Four Man Bobsleigh.

The men of Germany and the Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) seemed to have something about that. The Ice Hockey final dragged on into overtime in what seemed to be a race with the Bobsleigh see who could finish last.

The South Korean organisers though went with the Women's and Men's Cross Country Skiing.

This is a sport which requires an extremely high level of cardiovascular fitness.

The women's medals were given out first. Gold went to Norway, Silver went to Finland and Bronze went to Sweden.

The men's medals were given out second. Gold went to Finland. Silver went to the OAR. Bronze also went to the OAR.

This was hugely embarrassing for IOC President Thomas Bach.

The man who was giving out the medals and the man who'd defied rulings by the Court of Arbitration in Sport (CAS) to force Russians to compete as OAR over doping allegations.

The hypocrisy of the IOC's stance on Russian doping is laid bare in the case of Russian Tennis player Maria Sharapova. Who was actually born in Sochi.

It's well known that throughout her career Sharapova has used a drug called Meldonium to improve her cardiovascular performances. However with Meldonium not being a banned drug this has never been considered a problem.

Then at the start of 2016 the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) suddenly banned Meldonium. Specifically so they could label Sharapova a drugs cheat and ban her from competition.

Meanwhile WADA continued to grant US Tennis player Serena Williams Theraputic Use Exemptions (TEU) to allow her to use asthma drugs like Prednisone and Prednisolone to improve her cardiovascular performance. This despite those drugs being long banned by WADA.

During the games the OAR protested this themselves. Their Curler Alexander Krushelnitsky tested positive for Meldonium. Curling is not a sport where you need even an average level of cardiovascular fitness.

In preparation for the games Norway announced that it was bringing 6,000 doses of asthma drugs including Prednisone and Prednisolone for their athletes to use. This was something like 10 times the amount of asthma drugs that any team has ever brought to any games.

When you make an announcement like that you are doing it to make a point. 

So in the women's ceremony we saw Gold going to IOC approved doping.

In the men's ceremony we saw what the result would have been if it wasn't for IOC approved doping. Followed by two athletes the IOC won't give approval to dope.

Needless to say Thomas Bach looked very embarrassed throughout not just the medal ceremony.

As I've been writing this today the IOC has ended Russia's suspension. 

17:35 on 28/2/18 (UK date).

The 2018 Winter Olympics: Closing Ceremony Pt.3

A continuation of Part 2; https://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/the-2018-winter-olympics-closing_27.html

Video Highlights:

As has become tradition this Closing Ceremony featured a short video presentation showing the highlights of the games that had just taken place.

These games have really been dominated by events in America.

On technically the RoK's Thursday (15/2/18) - Wednesday (14/2/18) local - there was a mass shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the Parkland area of Florida, US. This resulted in the deaths of 17 people.

Having suffered under the long dictatorship of Park Chung-hee and the much shorter dictatorship of his daughter Park Guen-hye the RoK can certainly consider itself a Park land.

At the 2012 Presidential Election South Korea's equivalent of the FBI certainly tried turning it into the Land of Eternal Parks.

The response to this mass shooting saw the usual calls to ban the Armalite Rifle model 15 (AR-15). Amongst nationalist liberation movements such as the Irish Republican Army (IRA) the Armalite Rifle model 18 (AR-18) has a near iconic status.

On technically the RoK's Saturday (17/2/18) - Friday (16/2/18) US Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller announced he was indicting 13 Russians. Over their work with what has been called the; "Internet Research Agency (IRA)."

These two events seemed intended to sabotage US Secretary of State (Senior Foreign Minister) Rex Tillerson's Thursday (15/2/18) through Saturday (17/2/17) vital diplomatic trip to Turkey.

This made it abundantly clear that there is an element of the US intelligence community - including the FBI - which is trying to conduct a shadow US foreign policy. In direct conflict with the US' democratically established foreign policy.

Not only that this section of the US intelligence community is prepared to kill US citizens within the borders of the US in order to pursue its wholly illegal shadow foreign policy.

Technically this means that the US is in a state of Civil War.

Many spent the weekend of Saturday the 17th (17/2/18) anxiously waiting to see if this limited civil war would spread more widely.

The situation became so shocking that even organisations like CNN leaned in to stop events escalating.

How they did this is almost imperceptible. It is one of those things that requires specialised knowledge and experience to pick up on.

The only way I can think to describe it is that the usual words were there. It's just there was no longer usual intensity behind them.

The best example I can point to illustrate this is that of shooting survivor and protest leader David Hogg.

Almost immediately information began to circulate on social media that David Hogg's father - Kevin Hogg - is a retired FBI Agent. The same FBI which had the Parkland shooter on speed dial.

One of these social media messages was "liked" by Donald Trump Jr. Son of the US President Trump.

This allowed CNN to run their usual programming about what a monster President Trump is.

However in doing so they were able to confirm to their viewers that this is not a conspiracy theory.

Kevin Hogg is a former FBI Agent and through their pension scheme the Parkland protesters are at least in part being funded by the FBI.

As the week progressed the fallout from events in America allowed the US Olympic team to pick up two extra Gold Medals. In the Women's Ice Hockey and Men's Curling events.

I covered this in more detail on Sunday; https://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/orson-welles-would-be-appalled.html

Needless to say the sport of Curling and the US Women's Ice Hockey team featured heavily in the video highlights.

The video highlights also heavily featured the sport of Biathlon.

The Biathlon is essentially what happens if you try to conduct a marauding terror attack in the snow.

Competitors have to cross country ski to a rifle range where they have to target shoot. They then have to ski to another rifle range before skiing some more to complete the course.

Their success is determined by how long it takes them to ski the course minus any time penalties they may have incurred for misses on the shooting range.

Needless to say Olympic Biathletes really know their firearms.

People calling for increased gun control in the US and in particular in response to the Parkland shooting really don't know their firearms.

They immediately demanded that the AR-15 rifle should be banned because it was used in the Parkland shooting. This in part at least is correct. An AR-15 was used in that shooting.

However US "Scared of Guns Club" then went on to claim an AR-15 rifle was used in the June 12th 2016 (12/6/16) Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, US.

That is incorrect.

The Pulse nightclub shooting was an Islamist terror attack. It used a Sig Sauer 516 rifle. Specifically to convey a threat to the British police's newly formed Counter Terror Force (CTSFO) who mainly use Sig Sauer 516 rifles.

The US scared of guns club also claimed the October 1st 2017 Las Vegas shooting was carried out using an AR-15.

The Las Vegas shooter was in possession of 24 separate firearms including AR-15's. However the weapons he actually used were Sig Sauer manufactured rifles based on the AR-10 design.

The AR-15 uses 5.56mm (.223) ammunition. This is accurate to around 550 metres/yards. The AR-10 uses 7.62mm (.308) ammunition. This is accurate to around 650 metres/yards.

If you don't think that is an important distinction you should really try standing around 600 metres/yards away from the gunman.

Generally when the US anti-gun lobby refer to AR-15's they are using it as a blanket term for any sort of; "Assault weapon." This is defined in law as any sort of semi-automatic rifle featuring a pistol-grip an a detachable magazine of more then 10 round capacity.

The Parkland shooting was inspired by an episode of the US TV Show; "The Unit." Specifically an episode entitled; "In Loco Parentis."

That revolved around the Special Operations Force (SOF) unit attempting to rescue students from an elite school in Virginia attended by children of many of America's business and political elite.

Although the story unfolded throughout the episode the school had been attacked by Chechen Islamist terrorists on the anniversary of the September 2004 Beslan School Massacre in Beslan, Russia. They were targeting the son of the Russian Ambassador to the US.

Aside from Asian inspired architecture and a Korean American SWAT team leader the episode featured lines of dialogue such as;

"I can't tell if it's Columbine (April 1999 school shooting) or Beslan (September 2004 school massacre) in there!"

As the characters launched "June Bug" sized camera drones to investigate.

Rather like the bird like drones that were supposed to be featured in the Opening Ceremony but were cancelled amid rumours of a Russian Cyberattack.

Within the episode the Islamist terrorists use Simonov SKS rifles.

A precursor to the Kalashnikov AK-47 this is a Soviet assault rifle firing 7.62mm (.308) ammunition at a range of 400 metres/yards. However it lacks a pistol-grip and has only a 10 round internal magazine.

It highlights that banning legally defined "Assault Weapons" the US would not be able to prevent mass shootings like the June 2017 "Congressional Baseball Shooting" which took place in Virginia. In order to prevent that the US would also have to ban most types of hunting and sporting rifles.

After having that pointed out to them the FBI backed Parkland protests then demanded the banning of all types of semi-automatic rifles. Weapons which use the energy of a bullet being fired to load a fresh bullet into the chamber and reset the firing mechanism.

The type of rifles used by Olympic Biathletes are bolt action rifles. They require the user to manually load a fresh bullet into the chamber and reset the firing mechanism.

You only need to look at the video highlights to see that this can be achieved with a simple flick of the thumb.

Although it is not the objective of Olympic target shooting even bolt action weapons can produce a devastatingly high rate of fire.

The Simonov SKS was actually introduced with a view to allowing Soviet conscripts to compete with the high rate of fire produced by well trained British soldiers using Lee Enfield bolt action rifles.

Then of course the US anti-gun lobby has the problem that the April 1999 Columbine shooting was carried out using manually operated shotguns.

Following the August 1987 Hungerford massacre the UK banned all rifles except 5.6mm (.22) rimfire manually bolt action rifles. The Hungerford massacre killed 17 people. The same number as the Parkland shooting.

However that ban on rifles did not stop the March 1996 Dunblane massacre. Perpetrated using lever action revolver pistols that claimed the lives of 18 people. One more then the Parkland shooting. This led to the UK banning all handguns.

The UK's gun laws are so strict that when it hosted the 2012 Summer Olympics competitors in the shooting events had to obtain special exemptions from the highest level of government to bring their weapons into the country.

Even that hasn't stopped mass shootings and gun crime.

In June 2010 a lone gunman used a bolt-action 5.6mm (.22) rimfire rifle to kill 12 people in a shooting spree in Cumbria. In 2017 there were more then 2,500 shootings in the capital city of London alone.

At around 22:05 on 27/2/18 (UK date) I'm going to pick this up tomorrow.

Edited at around 14:20 on 28/2/18 (UK date) to tidy up a bit and add;

The highlights video also featured the 17 year old American Snowboarder Chloe Kim.

She was a popular figure at the games because she is a KOREAN American.

She was also popular because she served as a cipher for the; "Mostly Asian, Always Hungry" US actress Chloe Benet. During the Opening Ceremony Chloe Benet was a major talking point about cultural appropriation and just how crazy America became under former President Obama.

Following Chloe Kim's success US radio host Patrick O'Conner referred to her as; "A hot piece of Asian ass" amid some other pretty graphic sexual comments. He then reminded listeners that it will be legal to have sex with her on April 23rd 2018 (23/4/18). Her 18th birthday.

Patrick O'Conner was then fired from both of his radio jobs.

His comments feed into the Asian sexual fetish and if/how it overlaps with paedophilia which was featured in the Flag & Anthem portion of this ceremony.

Another sport which featured heavily in the video highlights was Speed Skating.

This was in reference to Britain's Elise Christie. Hers was one of the big stories going in to the games.

At the 2014 Winter Olympics Elise Christie was one of Britain's best hopes for a Gold Medal. Unfortunately she made a mistake and was disqualified.

However Britain decided that as 2012 Summer Olympics hosts Elise Christie should be granted Gold regardless of her actual performance or the rules. So they started this really ugly campaign to get her disqualification overturned. It had the opposite effect and she ended up being disqualified from all of her events.

So Elise Christie went to the 2018 Winter Olympics hoping to win gold. Everyone else went hoping for the opportunity to kick Elise Christie.

It seems that everyone except Elise Christie was in on the joke. However I gather at one point the judges had to tell the Chinese to tone it down just a little bit.

The Speed Skating montage also featured a female skater - I think Japanese - pulling down the zip at the front of her race suit. This exposed the thermal underwear she was wearing underneath.

This seemed to be a reference to something that happened at the 2014 games.

The Russian Speed Skater Olga Graf finished her race and pulled down the zip at the front of her race suit. However she wasn't wearing any underwear at all exposing the global audience to not only her breasts but also I think her genital area.

There was a similar incident during this years games featuring French Figure Skater Gabriella Papadakis. During her routine her breast popped out forcing her to complete her routine in that state of undress.

Unlike Olga Graf this seemed to be on purpose. In protest at the US broadcast regulator - the FCC's - absurd; "No Nipples" rule.

The irony is that because the FCC's rule has been adopted by many social media companies I didn't realise we were talking about a Janet Jackson style "Nipplegate" until several days later.

The video highlights ended with the screen being divided into 49 mini-screens each showing a different sport/athlete.

One thing there is not at an Olympics is a shortage of things going on.

However viewers only get to see the things their national broadcaster shows them. Britain in particular has in the past taken the aggressive position of only showing British athletes rather than taking an overview of the games as a whole.

The use of multi-screens seemed to be a suggestion that broadcasters add channels to show all available feeds. Possibly using Internet streaming services.

The IOC is already attempting this with its Internet; "Olympic Channel" which was launched following the 2016 Summer Games.

I would have been interested in seeing how that was progressing. I just plain forgot though.

I spent the first week of the games writing up the Opening Ceremony. I then spent the second week of the games catching up on all the work I'd missed because I'd spent a week writing up the Opening Ceremony.

So I didn't really get to watch any of the sport until the highlights of the Men's Ice Hockey Final. Shown about an hour before the Closing Ceremony.

15:10 on 28/2/18 (UK date).

The 2018 Winter Olympics: Closing Ceremony Pt.2

A continuation of Part 1; https://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/the-2018-winter-olympics-closing.html

Flag & Anthem:

It is a matter of Olympic protocol that each ceremony must include a sequence in which the flag of the host nation is raised and its national anthem is performed. In closing ceremonies this is simply so it can be taken down again later.

It has become a tradition that during this sequence a large, unfurled flag is paraded around the arena before being raised. It is paraded by often six flag bearers who each have their own significance.

Here the South Koreans decided to break with that tradition and do something creative.

The flag was brought into the arena by Jang Sa-ik, a popular South Korean singer. He was accompanied by 23 elementary school aged children wearing adorable hat, scarf, mittens combinations which made then resemble Snow Tigers. Rather like the games mascot Soohorang.

In the UK we had a particularly nasty Member of Parliament (MP) by the name of Jo Cox. She abused her position to provide material and political support to Islamist terror groups in Syria. She was resolved on June 16th 2016 (16/6/16). The only downside being that it rather ruined the second half of the England v Wales Euro 2016 match.

Jo Cox's evil work was then picked up by her husband Brendan Cox. During the games on February 18th (18/2/18) Brendan Cox resigned from a number of charities. It had been revealed that like most Islamist terrorists in Syria he's just a vicious little rapist.

Both Jo Cox and Brendan Cox's favourite slogan was that we as humans have; "More in Common than Divides Us."

Although both of them liked to repeat this slogan ad nauseum it is clear that neither of them understood what the words actually mean.

One of the things that is common to all humans on Earth regardless of race, gender or religion is the fact that elementary school aged children are absolutely adorable.

There is something almost hardwired in our nature that we must feel immense affection for these mini-humans and do everything to nurture and protect them.

So if you were an Islamist terror group operating in Syria you would look to legitimise yourself by releasing pictures, videos and stories of children suffering. You might even go so far as naming them something like Omran Daqneesh or Bana Alabed. 

Likewise if you were an Islamist terror group operating in Florida, US you might conduct a gun attack on a school. You would then exploit the children killed and those who survived as part of your political campaign.

This type of Atrocity Propaganda using children is explicitly forbidden under the Geneva Conventions - the Laws of War. Therefore anyone engaging in it can legitimately be described as a War Criminal.

This hardwired, almost genetic impulse is also why crimes such as paedophilia are met with such rage and anger in society.

So if you were an intelligence service dealing with a dissident who is too high profile for you just to kill. Well, you could put around a rumour that they were a paedophile in the hope it would spur the public into killing them for you.

Anthropologists have suggested that the extreme protectiveness adults feel towards even other people's children has something to do with their physical appearance. Aside from being very small children tend to have very round faces, very flat features like noses and cheekbones and large eyes.

Other anthropologists have suggested it is the mimicking of those traits which has allowed our feline overlords to infiltrate our homes and force us to do their bidding. Domestic cats are also quite small and unlike dogs have very round faces, very flat features and large eyes.  

Members of the Asian race also tend to be quite small, have very round eyes, flat features and large eyes.

Amid certain sections of western men. Particularly American servicemen who served in Korea, Japan or Vietnam. There is a recognised sexual fetish for Asian women.

I think any fetish for a particular race is a little bit creepy. However with the similarity between children and the Asian appearance there is a certain talking point about this particular fetish and how it overlaps with paedophilia. Particularly as it seems to overlap with child sex tourism in South East Asia.

Curiously one group that doesn't seem to find Asian children to be in any way adorable are South Koreans of child bearing age.

In 2017 the RoK's birthrate plunged to a record low with just 360,000 babies being born. This has caused serious concern about a so-called; "Demographic Timebomb" with there not being enough of the new generation to sustain the existing generations who are all living longer.

Unlike in US TV Show; "The Handmaid's Tale" the main driving force behind the RoK's falling birthrate are economic and sociological factors. Some have even described it as a; "Birth Strike" with young South Koreans almost refusing to have children as a form of protest against government policy.

The problems begin almost from the point that South Korean children are born.

From that moment on South Koreans entire lives revolve around working extremely hard in highly disciplined conditions to do well in the Suneung or College Scholastic Aptitude Test (CSAT). If they do well in that exam their lives start revolving around working extremely hard in highly disciplined conditions to do well at college.

If they do well at college South Koreans lives start to revolve around working extremely hard in the highly disciplined conditions of one of the giant Chaebol corporations like Samsung.

When they do finally reach the world of employment South Koreans work the third longest hours of any nation on Earth. That leaves very little time for a social life let alone a romantic life or family life.

Another significant problem is that South Korean society is still very much set in the traditional belief that men go out to work while it is women's work to raise children. Therefore few men are prepared to help around the home and few companies provide parental leave let alone child care.

The problem is that while much of society still functions like that many South Korean women view themselves as empowered and want to choose their own lives and careers. So forced to choose between children and their jobs more South Korean women are choosing not to bother with children.

Some Feminist commentators have also suggested that it is part caused by a gender-pay gap. This issue of women being paid less then men is something of a fascination amongst western Feminists at the moment.

However I should point out that it was the Feminist school of thought which led to me dropping out of my degree in human geography. In order to pass I had to pump out essays explaining how the building of phallic skyscrapers was contributing to a rape culture in a patriarchal society.

As I was being forced to write this sort of women's studies drivel I could feel the braincells dying.

Japan has a similar problem with falling birthrates and demographic concerns. However with Japan being the RoK's great rival I've certain their problem is much worse.

At the strange convergence of children who look like cats and falling birthrates you have the Japanese island of Tashirojima.

In the 1950's Tashirojima was a thriving fishing community. One day someone decided to introduce cats to the island to control the rodent population. 

Since the 1950's the human birthrate on Tashirojima's - like Japan's as a whole - has collapsed. Those children who are being born grow up to move away and live in cities. 

The island's only elementary school was closed in 1989 and it has been classed as a; "Genkai shuraku" or; "Terminal Village" meaning that more then 50% of the population are aged over 65 years.

Meanwhile the island's cat population has continued to grow and thrive. 

So at this point Tashirojima is pretty much just an island ruled by cats.

The 23 children used in this sequence symbolised the 23 Winter Olympics that have taken place. Although I didn't catch the names they actually came from two different Elementary Schools. Symbolising the two Koreas.

As the flag was being raised by the Royal Guard Jang Sa-ik led these two unified school choirs in singing the South Korean national anthem. 

Meet The New Boss:

This sequence centred around the 13 year old Yang Tae-Hwan playing a rock guitar interpretation of "Winter" from Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons."

This obviously fitted with the stated theme of this Winter Olympic ceremony of the combination of old and new.

It also showed a South Korean child being thrust into a very adult role. Almost as soon as they are born South Korean children are thrust into the adult work ethic by being forced to prepare for the Suneung.

Yang Tae-Hwan's performance could invoke memories of many guitar rock gods. Queen guitarist and Doctor of Astrophysics Brian May playing a solo on the roof of Britain's Buckingham Palace in 2002 for example.

Mainly though it seemed intended to invoke memories of the British rock band; "The Who." They of course famously headlined the Closing Ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics held in London, UK.

The Who also became something of a talking point during the 2014 Winter Olympics held in Sochi, Russia. Their song; "Baba O'Reilly" is influenced in part by Russian polka music. 

The London 2012 ceremonies were quite aggressive in nature. 

They seemed centred around a sort of psychological shock and awe intended to confuse and disorientate those who experienced it. If you are familiar with Russian polka music you would know that Russia certainly had that sort of weapon in its arsenal. But as good hosts chose not to use it.

Through their song; "Won't Get Fooled Again" The Who also seem to have written the soundtrack for the Turkish-led Muslim Brotherhood's wars against particularly Egypt and Syria. With lyrics such as;

"They're fighting in the streets
With their children at their feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song."

With his military style jacket Yang Tae-Hwan may also have reminded you of that son of a former British Ambassador to Turkey Joe Strummer and his band; "The Clash." Their song; "(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais" was quite the anthem of the gay-rights-for-gays protests at Sochi.

Well, in Burton suits the American snowboarders certainly thought it was funny. Turning rebellion into money.

Yang Tae-Hwan performed his guitar solo at the base of the Olympic Cauldron. I think I've mentioned how proud the South Koreans are that this resembles a "Martian War Machine" from the 1897 novel; "The War of the Worlds" by H.G Wells.

The podium where the cauldron stands is connected to the main arena floor by a ramp.

While Yang Tae-Hwan was playing performers appeared on this ramp held in place by horizontal cables. Light projected moving vertical lines along the ramp. This made it resemble a fretboard of a guitar.

The arena then became the guitar body. Here a large numbers of performers were playing this version of Vivaldi's Winter on Geomungo's. A traditional Korean stringed instrument.

This further emphasised the theme of the combination of old and new.

In the centre of the arena there was a recessed inner circle. This represented the sound hole of a guitar.

From it rose the South Korea post-rock band; "Jambinai" playing their song; "Time of Extinction." You could describe the Birth Strike as the other Extinction Level Event facing the RoK.

The Birth Strike is of course in part the result of the conflict of old South Korean attitudes to family life and the young South Korean women adopting the new idea of female empowerment.

The arena became filled with dancers performing a very graceful, classic dance routine. This was a nod to the figure skaters. It is their presence which makes the Winter Olympics the far classier of the two Olympics.

Not growing up in a particularly cultured environment I know that if I say I like figure skating I'm going to get beaten up for one of two reasons.

Watching men prance about in frilly costumes obviously means I'm gay.

Alternatively watching 15 year old Russian Gold Medal winner Alina Zagitova means that I'm a paedophile.

What those people don't realise is that figure skating combines the non-sexual beauty of art with the non-sexual beauty of physical perfection. You could almost describe it as the beauty of life itself.

Above the arena there was a structure resembling a multi-level roof of a Pagoda.

For reasons I will go into in more detail in the next instalment an episode of the US TV Show; "The Unit" entitled; "In Loco Parentis" has featured heavily at these games. In early shots the school building portrayed in the show seems to be influenced by this Asian architecture style.

Also the Opening Ceremony featured the Sacred Bell of King Seongdeok the Great. A copy of this known as the; "Friendship Bell" sits in the Korean Pagoda in Angel's Gate Park in the US city of Los Angeles, California.

The BBC commentator at the Opening Ceremony at least seems to need to be reminded of that. He still seems convinced it was the Japanese; "Peace Bell" which hangs in a peace garden at the UN headquarters in the US city of New York, New York.

The Opening Ceremony of course dealt heavily with Korea's traditional Animist religions such as Buddhism and Taoism. During the games on February 18th (18/2/18) there was a small fire at the ancient Tibetan Buddhist Jokhang Monastery in Lhasa, China.

There were two noteworthy things about the way that this was reported.

Firstly Americans CNN network first reported on it on February 20th (20/2/18). They actually described the events of two days ago as; "Breaking News."

China's Xinhua News reported on it as it happened. They described it as a Tibetan Temple. This is unusual. China is normally very sensitive about the use of the word Tibet.

Emphasising that a good Olympic Ceremony can allow you to spiral off into pretty much any topic of conversation this point is demonstrated by the 2016 US movie; "Doctor Strange."

In the Marvel comic book version of Doctor Strange one of the key characters is a Tibetan mystic. In the movie version though this is changed to a Celtic mystic played by Tilda Swinton. The reference to Tibet was removed to allow the movie to be widely distributed in China.

In the last few years the Oscars like much of American society has become obsessed with race and the thought crimes of; "Cultural Appropriation" and "Whitewashing."

Curiously nobody seemed to notice or be bothered by the whitewashing in Doctor Strange.

They were though utterly furious about white actor Matt Damon being cast as a Chinese character in the 2016 movie; "The Great Wall."

What everyone seemed to fail to realise is that The Great Wall is a Chinese movie produced by a Chinese company. They insisted on having a well known American actor as their lead to allow the movie to be more widely distributed in America.

The growing role of China as both a consumer and producer of movies is actually quite a major topic within the movie industry.

Throughout this sequence LED lights attached to seats in the stadium flashed as if little particles of light. They were sequenced to make them appear as if they were soundwaves.

This was a reference to the concept from Quantum Physics called; "Wave, Particle Duality."

If you start Googling it now there's a chance you might get your head around it by the time it becomes a major feature. 

17:20 on 27/2/18 (UK date).

The 2018 Winter Olympics: Closing Ceremony.

Yesterday (25/2/18) the 2018 Winter Olympics drew to a close in PyeongChang in the Republic of Korea (RoK/South). It ended with the traditional Closing Ceremony.

There are a few rules of protocols about what Olympic ceremonies must contain. Generally though, like so much in life, they are defined by the people who turn up.

That said Opening Ceremonies tend to be used to welcome visitors to the host nation and try to set the agenda for the games. Closing Ceremonies tend to be a much more relaxed celebration of the games that have just taken place. 

The Countdown:

Olympic Opening Ceremonies are broadcast live across many different broadcasters in many different nations. Therefore it is a longstanding tradition that they have to begin with a video countdown from 10 to 1. This allows everyone to calibrate and synchronise their coverage.

As broadcast technology has advanced over the years this countdown video has become less important. This has meant that the countdown has become part of the show itself. Some nations now use it as an opportunity to have some fun.

It can also be a sign of how much respect a broadcaster is giving to the games. Do they show the video countdown or simply show the bit after the countdown. The official start of the ceremony.

Due to the time difference I actually recorded this Closing Ceremony. The recording I watched did not include a video sequence. It began with the countdown taking place within the arena.

This might mean that there wasn't a video sequence. It might mean that the recording started late cutting out the video sequence. It might even mean that the broadcaster I was watching on - the BBC - cut out the video sequence to promote discussion about the level of respect they've been showing to the games.

This has been something of a talking point at these games. Particularly with the much hyped British Women's Curling team being dumped out of the competition without a medal.

The Olympics is a huge event of the global community. It provides a stage for a vast array of topics from all corners of the World.

Since the 2012 Summer Olympics which Britain hosted though British Olympic coverage has focused entirely on British athletes for British viewers. It's resembled a sort of extreme nationalism at the expense of everything else.

The BBC's coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympics was particularly bad.

One of the stars of those games was the Chinese swimmer Fu Yuanhui. She won Bronze in the 100m backstroke but then immediately gave an interview thinking she's finished outside of the medals.

I appreciate you may not speak Chinese. But watching this video see if you can identify the exact moment she realises she's won a medal; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcMkhVujZ7w

Later Fu Yuanhui gave another interview in which she was worried about her ability to perform because she was having her period. Within Chinese society, as in many societies, menstruation remains a taboo topic. The fact that Fu Yuanhui was able to talk about it openly became a big sociological discussion within the games.

British viewers though didn't get to hear about any of that. Instead they were being forced fed a relentless diet of what Britain's Johnny No-Mark, his parents and some people his parents went to school with were doing to prepare for him finishing last in some god awful event no-one had ever heard of.

I must say that the BBC's coverage of these games has been much better.

Obviously they've gone heavy on their Curling coverage. As an established sport in particularly Scotland this is what attracts viewers. However they have also done a daily review show which occasional featured events and storylines that don't feature British athletes.

In the UK the Para-Olympics will be covered by the government owned Channel 4 network. They are already showing signs of being extraordinarily difficult.

When covering big events such as the Olympics it is common for broadcasters to add extra channels. At the 2012 Summer Olympics the BBC as host broadcaster had something in the region of 25 extra satellite channels.

For the 2018 Winter Para-Olympics Channel 4 are going in the opposite direction. They've removed their HD channels. From my rather unique satellite package at least.

The objective of this is to force people to watch the games being held in the very technologically advanced RoK on their online, Internet streaming platform - 4 On Demand (4OD).

The problem is that Channel 4's streaming platform has got to be the most obnoxious of all the UK's streaming platforms.

Obviously if you want to use a pay service such as for football matches you have to register and pay for the services you use. Non-pay services like the BBC and ITV really don't care. They just let you watch what you like, no questions asked.

BBC's iPlayer in particular seems to be Britain's Soft Power gift to the world.

Despite being a Non-pay service Channel 4 forces you to register with them before you can use their streaming platform. This involves you giving away more personal information then when using a pay service.

The idea is to allow Channel 4 to track you and your viewing habits in real time. They can then sell that information to advertisers or use it for some sinister government purpose.

There was a small scandal about this type of behaviour in December 2017.

The streaming platform Netflix contacted a user to check if he was alright after noticing he'd been watching the US TV show; "The Office" days in a row. As they'd concluded he was deeply depressed.

In doing this Netflix revealed they were able to track their users to such an extent they were able conduct a detailed assessment of their mental state.

The problem is that I can't record from a streaming platform. So Channel 4's behaviour is going to make it very difficult for me to cover the Para-Olympic ceremonies in the way I've covered the Olympic ones.

I may even have to boycott them. At least until bootleg versions become available on YouTube.

Broadcasters aside the 2018 games have been the Britain's most successful Winter Olympics. So particularly on the political side of things the British team must have been doing something right.

Video sequence or not the recording I watched featured a 10 to 1 countdown being projected onto the arena floor.

Like the countdown in the Opening Ceremony this featured English numerals and phonetic way to pronounce those numbers in Korean written in the Latin alphabet. Korea's alphabet the Hangul is actually phonetic in nature with vowel and consonant sounds being grouped together.

This sequence was big, bright and colourful. In stark contrast with the minimalist and serious blacks, whites and greys of the countdown sequence in the Opening Ceremony. That was centred around the Sacred Bell of King Seongdeok the Great.

The sequence ended with a big projected image of the Olympic Cauldron. The South Koreans seem extremely proud of the design of the Cauldron.

The Cauldron of course resembles one of the "Martian War Machines" from the 1897 novel; "The War of the Worlds" by H.G Wells.

In 1938 Orson Welles produced and directed a radio dramatisation of The War of the Worlds. This is widely recognised as the greatest Fake News hoax in US broadcasting history.

Or at least it was going into the games. The US' place on the medal table seems to represent where Orson Welles' broadcast now stands in the all time list of Fake News hoaxes in US broadcasting history. 

All the Rings of the Circus:

In English speaking nations such as Britain or the US when something is a big, chaotic spectacle it is often referred to as; "A Three Ring Circus."

The traditional circus features a giant tent known as a; "Big Top." Inside the tent you have a circular arena where all the entertainment happens. If the circus has three of these rings you know it's a really big event.

If you're not familiar with the concept there is a 2017 US movie called; "The Greatest Showman." This tells the story of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Particularly Hollywood movies are on everyone's mind a bit at the moment. Next Sunday (4/3/18) the Oscars take place. The peak of America's cultural year the Oscars really give the US a right-to-reply following the Olympics and just before the start of the Para-Olympics.

The 2018 Winter Olympics featured 102 events across 15 sporting disciplines. That means that it is much more then a mere three ring circus. It is the greatest spectacle of the year.

This sequence really paid tribute to the Olympics status as one giant chaotic circus. It featured very circus style music and multiple rings being projected onto the arena floor in various formations. It also featured little cartoons of the Olympic venues - the rings or arenas of the Olympic circus.

The Opening Ceremony dealt heavily with Korea's traditional Animist religions such as Taoism and Buddhism.

Those religions believe in the balance an unity of all elements of the physical environment. As a result circles and rings play a big part in the imagery of those religions. As a symbol of an unbroken and unified line.

Although I didn't recognise anything specific many of the circles used in this sequence resembled imagery from Animist religions.

The sequence also used the five colours of the Wu Xing that featured heavily in the Opening Ceremony Particularly Korean Taoists believe the Wu Xing contains the five essential elements of life existing in balance and harmony.

Within the war in Syria  the area in the north-east of the country under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF/QSD) has been designated; "Shangri-La." The mythical concept of Shangri-La actually shows how there can be wide variations in the interpretation of concepts between even the same branches of Animist religions.

In north-west Chinese Taoism the concept of Shangri-La is laid out in the poem; "The Tale of the Peach Blossom Spring."

It tells of a fisherman who discovers a peach grove populated by happy and contented people cut off from the outside world. He decides to stay in this sanctuary away the tumult of what is referred to in Chinese history as The Warring States period. In roughly the 5th Century B.C.

Within Kalachra or; "Wheel of Time" Buddhism and Hinduism Shangri-La or; "Shambhala" is said to have been a place established by the extremely wise Rishis who were banished by King Manjusrikirti for refusing to abandon Sun Chart Buddhism to convert to Wheel of Time Buddhism.

Eventually the King realised the Rishis were the wisest of all and asked them to return. They refused. It is said though that when the world has descended in war and greed the Rishis will emerge from Shangri-La to vanquish dark forces and usher in a new Golden Age.

It's almost as if it's that sort of ambiguity which makes the codename so effective.

This sequence featured lots of performers on inline roller skates. This is not uncommon for Olympic ceremonies because it allows the performers to float and glide around the arena. It's also particularly common at Winter Olympics where ice skates feature heavily in many of the events.

What was unusual about this sequence though was that it featured performers on roller skis. Essentially snow skis with wheels on the bottom. This seemed like a cheeky little reference to 2022 Winter Olympic hosts China.

China will be hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing where they hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics. They'll even be using the same venues with the aquatic centre becoming the Curling arena.

Beijing's lack of winter has left quite a few people concerned that it won't be properly able to host a Winter Olympics.

The alpine events like skiing are already going to be held on fake snow. However they've not decided where yet because there aren't any mountains or alps tall enough close to Beijing.

So it seems reasonable to assume there's going to be lots of discussion and controversy to come ahead of the 2022 games.

This sequence ended with the performers gathering together to form the shape of the five Olympic Rings.

As fireworks were set off TV viewers were treated to another prominent shot of the Cauldron.

Introductions & Handshakes:

It is protocol that each Olympic ceremony features a short segment in which VIP's are welcomed. This is normally the head of the IOC - in this case former Olympic fencer Thomas Bach - and the Head of Government/State (HOG/S) of the Host Nation. In this case RoK President Moon Jae-in.

After they've been welcomed everyone in the VIP box shakes hands, have a bit of a chat and sit down. Normally it's quite dull.

At these games though it has been anything but dull.

The RoK is still technically at war with its neighbour the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK/North). The rapprochement for the Olympics has seen high level delegations from the RoK and the DPRK sitting together during the ceremonies.

It must be said that former Reality TV star and current US President Donald Trump has trolled this like an absolute General.

The thing that everyone hates to admit about Donald Trump is that he's a moderate centrist. He's driven by a pragmatic approach to problem solving rather than any grand ideological vision.

President Trump is certainly the most moderate candidate his Republican Party has selected since George H. Bush in 1988.

Trump is much closer to the centre ground then the Republican's 2012 candidate Mitt Romney. As for 2008 candidate John McCain, well he seems to have never met a Nazi he didn't like.

This has caused huge problems for the Democrat Party. While the Republicans have moved to the centre under Trump the Democrats have become ever more extreme in their views.

The reign of former President Obama in particular resembled an Islamist tinged constant war against the concepts of the rule of law and democracy. Both internationally and domestically.

Having abandoned the centre ground the Democrats are unable to criticise President Trump on matters of policy. So they've been forced to invent ever more vicious and extreme ways to try and attack him.

Primarily this has involved them just shouting; "Russia!" constantly and baselessly accusing President Trump of being mentally ill. However there have been even more sinister things. Such as the September 2017 response to Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico.

The Federal Government response to Hurricane Maria led by President Trump was very good. They'd dispatched the required relief supplies to Puerto Rico even before the hurricane had struck.

However those relief supplies then went into the hands of local Democrats. They refused to distribute those supplies. The objective was to depopulate non-voting Puerto Rico transferring the population to the key swing state of Florida in the hope they would vote Democrat at the 2018 midterms.

At the Opening Ceremony President Trump sent his Vice President Mike Pence to represent the US. Vice President Pence represents the very extreme Evangelical Christian wing of the Republican Party.

Pence made quite mess of his visit. While everyone was talking peace and harmony Pence was constantly talking about war. He also appeared unaware that Japan and the RoK weren't the same country. The theme of the Opening Ceremony comparing Animist religions with Abrahamic religions like Christianity seemed to specifically mock Vice President Pence.

At the Closing Ceremony President Trump sent his daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump to represent the US.

Ivanka Trump certainly knows more then Vice President Pence about Asian culture. Her daughter Arabella is something of a star in China after video of emerged of her speaking an singing in Mandarin.

So the contrast between Vice President Pence and Ivanka Trump seemed to be President Trump going to the Republican Party and the World at large;

"Don't worry. Here comes a Trump to sort out the mess."

The effect of this may have been so great it even ended up setting the theme for the Closing Ceremony. Officially this was the combination of Old and New. Vice President Pence being the old and Ivanka Trump being the new.

The North Korean delegation also employed this theme of old and new.

At the Opening Ceremony the DPRK were represented by Kim Yo-jong. The sister of Kim Jong-un she represented the new generation of the Mount Paektu bloodline.

At the Closing Ceremony the DPRK were represented by Kim Yong-chol. He was a senior figure the DPRK intelligence service under Kim Jong-il. The previous generation of the Mount Paektu bloodline.

During his time in North Korean intelligence Kim Yong-chol has been involved in many atrocities. The most significant here though seems to be the November 23rd 2010 (23/11/10) "Bombardment of Yeonpyeong."

This was seen by many as North Korea's old guard trying to prepare Kim Jong-un for leadership by inducting him into their ways of business. So far Kim Jong-un has shown little interest in following Kim Yong-chol's methods.

As they were in the Opening Ceremony the RoK were represented by President Moon Jae-in

A clear reminder of how the South Korean equivalent of the FBI rigged the RoK's 2012 election to install Park Guen-hye as President over Moon Jae-in. Eventually leading to Park Guen-hye going to prison.

17:55 on 26/2/18 (UK date).

Orson Welles Would Be Appalled.

Today (25/2/18) the 2018 Winter Olympics have formally drawn to a close in PyeongChang in the Republic of Korea (RoK/South). It ended with the traditional Closing Ceremony.

I have not yet seen the Closing Ceremony. And due to a growing feud over football on a Roku box probably won't be able to see it until NBC repeat it in the US. Which for me will be in the early hours of the morning.

However I am going to hazard a guess. At some point the Closing Ceremony featured the extinguishing of the Olympic Cauldron.

That Cauldron of course resembles one of the "Martian War Machines" from the 1897 novel; "The War of the Worlds" by H.G Wells.

In 1938 Orson Welles produced and directed a radio dramatisation of The War of the Worlds. This is widely recognised as the greatest Fake News hoax in US broadcasting history.

Or at least it was going into the games. The US' place on the medal table now seems to represent where Orson Welles' broadcast now stands in the all time list of Fake News hoaxes in US broadcasting history.

At the midway point of the games the US was languishing in fifth. The US continued to languish there until Thursday (22/2/18). They were then elevated to their finishing position of fourth by the awarding of two surprise Gold Medals.

The first of these came in the Women's Ice Hockey where the US defeated Canada in a penalty shoot-out.

In 2017 the US Women's Ice Hockey team refused to participate in the World Championships unless they were paid the same as the men's team. Made up of players from the US National Hockey League (NHL). Eventually they won their equal pay dispute.

At the 2018 Winter Olympics the NHL has decided that it's too profitable to suspend its season for the Olympics. Therefore most of the World's top Ice Hockey players have been absent depriving the Olympics with a large source of revenue.

Therefore there was a lot of support for a US women's team prepared to stick it to the NHL.

Questions of where the money will come from to pay the women will have to come later.

Also while the Final between the US and Canada was taking place there was something of a background event.

The RoK is an extremely technologically advanced nation. It is a nation that is also technically still at war with its northern neighbour the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK/North).

As a result the topic of "Soft Power" in the digital age has been a major theme of the games. The hosts even staged a Cyberattack during the Opening Ceremony to promote discussion about this topic.

On Thursday (22/2/18) - Wednesday (21/2/18) in the US - the US broadcaster CNN staged its own Cyberattack on Twitter users.

This took the form of a Town Hall style debate on the topic of gun control. In was organised in the wake of the February 14th (14/2/18) shooting at the Marjory Stoneman High School in the Parkland area of Florida. It was advertised using the Twitter hashtag; "#StudentsStandUp."

I hate to break it to you but CNN's social media accounts are automated. These infamous "Bots" that have been talked about so much in the US Democrats claims of Russian interference in the 2016 US election.

During the Town Hall debate CNN's bots Tweeted out pretty much everything that was said during the debate. Not only that but they Tweeted out the same messages on both the same accounts and separate accounts such as their main account, their politics account and their breaking news account.

This was done in an effort to get the #StudentsStandUp hashtag trending on Twitter. In order to give a false impression of how popular CNN's own political bias actually was.

The effect of this network of CNN bots or "botnet" if you like on Twitter users was a sort of Cyberattack. Similar to a Denial Of Service (DOS) attack.

Essentially the effort of loading all these duplicate Tweets each with images, videos and hashtags sucked up memory causing Twitter to slow down for individual users and even causing some computers to crash.

This sort of tactic is sometimes known as a; "Twitter Bomb."

Just the day before Twitter announced that they would be cracking down in exactly this type of behaviour. Accounts and users engaging in it would find themselves banned in what has been dubbed the; "#TwitterPurge"

As always CNN were totally lacking in self-awareness as to their actions. People have learnt that when CNN are doing a Town Hall style event you just Mute the account(s) in advance.

However on this occasion someone decided to make a talking point of it. By chucking actual bombs - hand grenades - at the US Embassy in Montenegro.

These muffled rumours of a bomb attack on a US Embassy during the Women's Ice Hockey Final may well have made Canada feel overly sympathetic towards their opponents.

Then of course NATO member Canada had it pointed out to them that Montenegro has been a NATO member since June 2017.

Canada then swiftly apologised.

They allowed the US men's team to beat them in the Curling semi-final. Curling was introduced to the Olympics in 2006. Since then pretty much every Curling Olympic Gold Medal has been won by Canada.

Curling is a sport centred around trying to slide things called; "Stones" into something called a; "House." There is even an Olympic themed episode of the US TV Show; "The Simpsons" where Marjorie discovers she's very good at Curling.

So I think we all know what the US' main "Stoneman" John Schuster's new nickname is going to be.

Curling is a painfully dull sport. So dull in fact it actually has a rule called; "Shaking" which allows a team to concede because they've suddenly realised just how dull it is.

So by allowing the US into the Curling final Canada was providing a very big stage on which Marjorie Stoneman could concede the futility of it all.

However in that final the US faced Sweden who allowed them to win. Giving the US a further Gold Medal.

Recently US President Trump suggested holding a military parade to mark the centenary of the First World War on November 11th 2018 (11/11/18). This was met with consternation by certain sections of the US media.

Therefore I think it is fair to assume that a lot of Americans don't know that the history making First World War ended on November 11th 1918 (11/11/18).

Those people aside though I think it is widely known that the Second World War began in 1939. When Nazi Germany invaded Poland.

What I think though is less well known is that while Nazi Germany was invading Poland Nazi Sweden was invading Finland. This became known as the; "Winter War."

Sweden lost that war and adopted a position of neutrality from then on. This meant that it has not been forced to face up with its shameful past in the same way that Germany and Japan have been forced to do.

It also means that Sweden have seethed over their defeat by the Russians and have been looking for revenge ever since.

Throughout the Cold War and beyond this has taken the form of Sweden's intelligence services mounting Soft Power operations against Russia. Specifically through a network of 'Human Rights' 'Charities' known collectively as; "Human Rights House."

So when the US overthrows Ukraine's government during the 2014 Winter Olympics. Well then Human Rights House are on hand to start rumours of Russian soldiers being killed in Ukraine.

When Georgia starts a war with Russia during the 2008 Summer Olympics. Well then Human Rights House are on hand to claim Russia started the war by committing Human Rights abuses.

When Islamist terrorists attack a school in Beslan murdering at least 334 people. Well then Human Rights House are there to claim the Islamist terrorists are entirely innocent. The deaths are simply Putin's fault.

Probably Sweden's intelligence services biggest operation to date occurred during the Balkan Wars of the 1990's which saw the break up of Yugoslavia. Eventually creating the nation of Montenegro.

This is really too big a topic for me to get into on a Sunday afternoon.

However Croatia and Yugoslavia were on course to repeat Czechoslovakia's famous; "Velvet Divorce." This peaceful solution though would have left Yugoslavia largely intact and still allied with Russia.

So the NATO nations started the Balkan Wars to tear Yugoslavia apart in order to make sure their rather than Russia influence dominated the region.

Sweden's contribution to this effort was to accuse Russia of Islamaphobia backing Serb forces in things like the Srebrenica massacre. Then they recruited Russian Muslims to carry out things like the Beslan massacre and the Chechen War.

This strategy forced Sweden to put its money where its mouth was. In order to sustain allegations of Russian Islamaphobia Sweden was forced to take in tens of thousands of Balkan Muslim refugees.

Over the ensuing 20 years those Balkan Muslim refugees have created ghettos in Swedish cities. These have created extremely violent so-called; "No Go Zones"

People talk about the US' levels of gun crime. In Sweden's No Go Zones the weapons of choice are hand grenades and Improvised Explosive Devices (IED's).

US President Trump of course has been condemned by certain sections of the media and Twitter users with the hashtag; "#LastNightInSweden" for acknowledging that Sweden's ghettos exist.

So no. I don't think Men's Curling Gold was a medal the US' Marjorie Stoneman really wanted to win.

A point reinforced when at the medal ceremony the US team were actually handed the wrong medals.

16:25 on 25/2/18 (UK date).

Operation Featherweight: Month 44, Week 3, Day 2.

This should be read as a direct continuation of yesterday's post; https://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/operation-featherweight-month-44-week-3.html

I'm not sure if this is an Olympic story, a Syria story or an America story.

However the big story of the past week has been the epic meltdown by US Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller and his Russia investigation team.

On Friday (16/2/18) Mueller announced that he was indicting 13 Russians based on electronic evidence of interference in the US 2016 Election.

Mueller seemed to believe that this fresh attack on Russia would result in him being mobbed by a cheering crowd. The FBI's role in the Parkland shooting would all be forgiven and forgotten.

As it happens Mueller did find himself mobbed by a crowd. However they were not cheering his name in celebration.

There are many examples of the criticism Mueller received. The main one though was the release on Monday (19/2/18) of the details of the investigation into the so-called; "Dark Web Paedophile" Matthew Falder.

This is significant because the investigation began with the FBI declaring that they had electronic evidence proving that Falder was a Russian based in Russia.

However believing he had international victims the FBI launched a joint investigation with equivalent law enforcement/espionage agencies in the UK, the EU, Israel, Australia and New Zealand.

That joint investigation revealed that the FBI's electronic evidence that Falder was Russian was false. Eventually America's allies proved that Falder was British working at the University of Birmingham.

The US tech company Apple even piled in on Mueller.

Aside from Erdogan's "Sledgehammer" case one of the most famous examples of electronic evidence being falsified in a political trial is the 2017 corruption trial of former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. This has been dubbed; "Fontgate."

In short the daughter Maryam Sharif presented documents in her defence which she said proved she was not involved in corruption. The documents which were supposedly produced in 2006 used a Calibri font which Microsoft did not introduce until 2007.

Immediately following Mueller's announcement people starting noticing that Apple iPhones would crash if they received a single character from the Telugu language. A reasonably obscure language used in Pakistan's neighbour India.

Obviously if a character from Pakistan's main language of Urdu had caused iPhones to crash a lot of people would have noticed a lot sooner.

The Telugu textbomb as its become known reminded people of Fontgate. It also seemed to remind Mueller and everyone around him that a single rogue character can bring everything crashing down.

On Tuesday (20/2/18) Mueller took steps to clarify the tenability of his position.

He announced charges of falsifying evidence against Alex van der Zwaan. These relate to Mueller's case against Paul Manafort and Richard Gates. That case relates to tax evasion in Ukraine dating back to 2012.

On July 17th 2014 (17/7/14) Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot-down over Ukraine.

The US immediately said that it had electronic evidence proving that Russia had fired the missile that brought down the aircraft. They strongly implied that this was Russian revenge for the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 during the 2014 Winter Olympics held in Russia.

The US used this as an excuse to impose further sanctions on Russia. Sanctions which by an amazing coincidence hampered Russia's fight against ISIL and Al Qaeda in Syria.

Flight MH17 originated in the Netherlands. As a result it fell to the Dutch to conduct the investigation. Probably a job that absolutely nobody wanted.

The Dutch took the position that they are a nation that values the truth above all else. So they commendably played the investigation straight simply laying out the facts. Nothing more, nothing less.

A feat made all the more impressive by the fact this was the first aircrash investigation in history which had to formally rule out an attack by extraterrestrial aliens.

The Dutch investigation did not explicitly accuse the US of falsifying electronic evidence against Russia. 

However it did conclude that it was impossible to show who had fired the missile. Strongly implying that they were not treating the electronic evidence produced by the US with any degree of credibility.

It went on to conclude that the main cause of the crash was the decision by Ukrainian Air Traffic Controllers (ATC's) to fly a civilian plane into a warzone. A warzone where planes were being shot down on a regular basis.

At the time Ukraine's ATC's - like the rest of the country - were under the command of the US' CIA spy agency. With then CIA Director John Brennan proudly visiting Ukraine in April 2014 the US was making no attempt to disguise this fact.

Efforts to bring criminal prosecutions in the MH17 case have stalled. As the Dutch wait for the US to hand over the CIA officers who were directing Ukraine's ATC's at the time.

The Netherlands have been engaged in their own Russian Aggression scandal of late.

On February 13th (13/2/18) Dutch Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra was forced to resign. He'd claimed he had evidence of Russian President Vladimir Putin declaring that he wanted to create a Greater Russia in Eastern Europe.

Halbe Zijlstra was found to have faked that evidence.

Today (23/2/18) the Netherlands have struck back again against Mueller. They've formally recognised the 1915 Armenian Genocide as genocide and Turkey as a perpetrator of genocide.

On Wednesday (21/2/18) Mueller again attempted to assess the tenability of his position. He announced further charges.

However he did not initially announce what those charges were. Instead he left people to speculate.

Every time Mueller has announced charges people have speculated whether they include the 1799 Logan Act. This forbids US citizens from conducting a shadow foreign policy.

The time of Muller's February 16th (16/2/18) announcement along with the February 14th (14/2/18) Parkland shooting seemed intended to sabotage US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's visit to Turkey. 

Therefore people are now asking whether Mueller himself should be prosecuted under the Logan Act for attempting to conduct a shadow US foreign policy.

Yesterday (22/2/18) Mueller confirmed the charges were some boring tax stuff against Manafort and Gates. These charges are only interesting because they relate to Ukraine.

In late 2013 early 2014 the US didn't so much meddle in Ukraine's democratic process. The US completely overthrew Ukraine's democratic process and placed the country under CIA control for more than a year.

During this period the CIA appointed Georgian President Mikhail Saahashvili s Governor of Ukraine's Odessa region. In March 2010 Saakashvili faked an entire Russian ground invasion of Georgia in order to rig an election.

So Mueller's investigation into foreign interference into the 2016 election has clear evidence of links between Obama and the US Democrat Party and Mikhail Saakashvili. A foreign man who has a proven track record of faking evidence of Russian aggression in an effort to rig elections.

The obvious question for Mueller then is whether the US Democrats under the advice of Saakashvili simply faked claims of Russian aggression to rig the US 2016 Election.

Yesterday (22/2/18) Ukraine produced further indications that Mueller's shadow foreign policy is not only in conflict with US foreign policy. It is even in conflict with the policies of the nations it supposedly relates to.

Ukraine banned Saakashvili from their country for the next three years.

At 15:25 on 23/2/18 (UK date) I'm going to have to start dinner and pick this up in about an hour.

Edited at around 16:20 on 23/2/18 (UK date) to tidy up above and add;

Mueller's apparent shadow foreign policy sabotaged Secretary Tillerson's visit to Turkey.

This certainly gave the impression that the US is unable to support the SDF in Afrin Canton or elsewhere. Needless to say that caused a degree of concern amongst the SDF.

This failure of formal US foreign policy came just a week after the US-led coalition CJTFOIR bombed Syrian troops in the Shangri-La area. This destroyed the fragile trust between the Syrians and the SDF.

So in revenge the Syrians decided to capitalise on the SDF's concerns by pressuring them to accept Syrian forces in Afrin Canton. This process began on February 20th (20/2/18) and remains subject to debate.

The arrival of Syrian troops risks a direct confrontation between regular Syrian forces and regular Turkish forces.

This will end any charade of a popular uprising in Syria and make it clear that this is a war between nation states. Not only that it risks being a war between Russia and the NATO alliance of which Turkey is nominally a member.

Even falling short of that doomsday scenario the deployment of Syrian forces is likely to result in one of two possible scenarios;

Firstly the Syrians and the SDF are not able to hold off the Turkish forces. This results in Afrin Canton falling under the control of Turkey and its proxy forces of ISIL and Al Qaeda. Not something the US and its allies can support.

Secondly Turkish forces withdraw from Afrin Canton leaving the area under the control of the Syrians rather than the SDF. Again not something the US and its allies can support.

Within the Sudetenland the Syria's of course liberated Abu al-Duhur on January 22nd (22/1/18).

From there the Syrians initially attempted to liberated the town of Saraqib. This sits around 25km (15 miles) north-west of Abu al-Duhur and around 20km (10 miles) south-east of Idlib City.

Although never officially stated the Syrians objective seemed to be to bypass Saraqib on route to the towns of al-Fuah and Kafraya. These sit around 15km (10 miles) and 20km (12 miles) north-west of Saraqib. They also sit around 10km (6miles) north-east of Idlib City.

Within the conflict in Syria the towns of al-Fuah and Kafraya are very famous.

Over the course of the war there have been numerous agreements for civilian evacuations and aid deliveries to various towns and cities. Most notably Aleppo City in December 2016.

Every time the Syrians have formed one of these agreements it has been on the condition that the towns of al-Fuah and Kafraya receive the same treatment.

Every single time the Al Qaeda forces keeping al-Fuah and Kafraya have failed to hold up their end of the agreement.

As a result there is great pressure on the Syrians to break through Al Qaeda's lines and rescue the civilians being held hostage in these towns.

The Syrians liberation of Abu Duhur of course triggered a mass collapse in Al Qaeda's lines. In wars there are worse problems to have.

However this Al Qaeda collapse did cause the Syrians one problem. Al Qaeda fled at such speed the Syrians didn't have the troops to move into all the territory they'd vacated. So ISIL were able to move in to replace Al Qaeda.

On January 28th (28/1/18) Al Qaeda and ISIL launched a joint offensive against the Syrians from Saraqib. They promised this counter-offensive would be; "Epic."

By January 30th (30/1/18) this combined Al Qaeda and ISIL offensive had collapsed. Both groups were back in full retreat with the Syrians gaining territory at the rate of around 20 villages a day.

This prompted Al Qaeda and ISIL to do what they always do in that situation. Make false allegations of chemical weapons use by the Syrians in the hope it would trigger calls for a ceasefire to protect them. Or even the US joining the war on their side as it did in April 2017.

At the time the Syrians main problem was that they were gaining territory at a faster rate than they could properly secure and control it. The notion they would resort to chemical weapons to speed up the rate they could gain territory is utterly ridiculous.

On February 5th (5/2/18) Al Qaeda used a Turkish supplied MAN Portable Air Defence (MANPAD) missile to shoot down a Russian Su-25 close to Saraqib killing the pilot. Erdogan's calculation was that this use of MANPAD's would cause Russia to suspend air operations in the area further protecting Al Qaeda and ISIL.

The opposite happened. Russia massively intensified its air operations. They also instructed Turkey to recover the Su-25 pilots body making clear that Erdogan had command and control over Al Qaeda forces in the area.

However the Syrians did shift their focus away from Saraqib. Instead they focused on clearing ISIL from the territory they had gained after Al Qaeda had fled.

The Syrians completed this task on February 9th (9/2/18) with the liberation of the villages around Abu Awjah. This forced the remaining ISIL fighters to seek shelter from Al Qaeda at Abu Dali. Al Qaeda formally granted ISIL their protection on February 13th (13/2/18).

Since then Syria's elite Tiger Forces have been redeployed from the Sudetenland to the East Ghouta suburb of Damascus - the Syrian capital. They took up positions at Dumayr Air Base on February 19th (19/2/18).

East Ghouta is currently under the occupation of Al Qaeda and the Army of Islam/Jaish al-Islam (JAI). The Army of Islam are a very extreme terrorist group which views ISIL as too moderate and has executed ISIL members for that reason.

Together Al Qaeda and the Army of Islam have formed the Army of Mohammad/Jaish al-Mohammad force.

Wherever Al Qaeda have faced Syria's Tiger Force such as in the Sudetenland they have been comprehensively defeated.

In October 2017 the combined Army of Mohammad launched an operation against Syrian forces in the Golan Heights area in the south of the country. Even without the involvement of the elite Tiger Forces the Army of Mohammad were totally defeated there offering their surrender on December 27th 2017 (27/12/17).

So it should come as no surprise then that the deployment of the Tiger Forces to East Ghouta has seen Al Qaeda and the Army of Islam massively ratchet up the Atrocity Propaganda to levels not seen since the liberation of Aleppo City in December 2016.

There hope is that a ceasefire will be called so they don't have to face the Tiger Forces.

17:35 on 23/2/18 (UK date).