A direct continuation of Part 2; https://watchitdie.blogspot.com/2019/05/eurovision-2019-asie-app-pt2.html
The Czech Republic: This year they were represented by Lake Malawi. With the song; "Friend of a Friend."
Taken on its own this was a strange little song which didn't make much sense at all.
It began as a boyfriend talking to his girlfriend. Initially they were hearing the sounds of another couple having sex. Either in another room or another apartment. He was complaining that their relationship was no longer as passionate as the couple they were overhearing.
Then the boyfriend starting talking about another woman. Who may or may not have been the woman in the couple they were overhearing. He was explaining to his girlfriend that this other woman was someone he used to know a long time ago. Possibly while they were at school together. Or she's the friend of a friend of his.
It was only once you watched the video in support of the entry that things started to make sense. This was made up of fans, particularly female fans, of the band singing along to the song. In short video clips of the sort you get on social media such as Instagram and Facebook.
So the song was really about a boyfriend who has been caught by his girlfriend. Liking pictures of other women and secretly sending them direct messages on social media. Sliding into their Direct Messages (DM's). This has very much emerged as the modern form of relationship cheating in the social media age.
The boyfriend in the song is the ultimate Distracted Boyfriend. A meme that recently became very popular based around a stock photograph of a young man holding his girlfriend's hand. Only he's checking out another woman behind her back, she's just noticed and is not happy.
The Czech Republic's entry obviously touches on the emergence of this sort of social media cheating. It also touches on the Israel/Palestine Conflict. By urging people to listen to what's going on behind the wall (between Israel and the West Bank).
The main focus of the Czech Republic's entry this year was the;
Directive (EU) 2019/790 of the European Parliament and of the Council of
17 April 2019 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single
Market and amending Directives 96/9/EC and 2001/29/EC.
The title of a piece of EU legislation which itself would probably take up much of a three minute song.
ED 2019/790 was passed by the EU Parliament on March 26th 2019 (26/3/19). Amid the noise of Brexit it was quietly adopted that the April 15th 2019 (15/4/19) EU Council (EUCO) Summit. All EU member states are now obligated to adopt it as domestic law within the next two years.
It should certainly be fun watching British MP's try to adopt ED 2019/790 by passing domestic legislation. Normally they wouldn't have to worry their pretty little heads about something like that. Replaced as they were by the 1972 European Communities Act.
The purpose of ED 2019/790 is to provide universal protection to copyright holders online. Across the EU.
ED 2019/790 has been particularly supported by songwriters and music publishers. A group which is well represented at the Eurovision Song Contest.
They object to large tech companies such as Facebook and particularly YouTube allowing copyrighted material to be uploaded to their platforms. The big tech companies then make money from this copyrighted material through adverts and subscriptions. Without paying the copyright holders their fair share of that money.
Big news organisations also support ED 2019/790. They particularly object to big tech companies, mainly Facebook, including copyrighted articles written by their journalists on people's news feeds. Then making money from that copyrighted material through adverts and subscriptions. Without paying the copyright holders their fair share of that money.
The big tech companies are obviously very opposed to ED 2019/790. It prevents them from profiting from other people's copyrighted material.
It also obligates them to spend money to remove copyrighted material from their platforms. Where it is uploaded without the copyright holders permission.
ED 2019/790 has also met with opposition from ordinary Internet users. They're concerned that it will affect things like memes. The Distracted Boyfriend meme is based on a stock photograph which is presumably protected by copyright.
Although it is intended to target the unearned profits of big tech companies ED 2019/790 could well make it illegal to post things like the Distracted Boyfriend meme. With tech companies forced to tag the image and automatically remove it. They same as they do with child pornography or terrorist propaganda.
Even the band's name "Lake Malawi" sounds like a possible copyright violation. Copied as it was from a song of the same name by the band Bon Iver.
The Republic of Ireland: This year they were represented by Sarah McTernan. With the song "22."
This also touched on ED 2019/790. It could easily be mistaken for a violation of the copyright on the 2012 Taylor Swift song; "22."
In the history of Internet meme wars Taylor Swift has a special place.
Around 2013 some Internet users started producing memes featuring Taylor Swift songs set to video of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler giving speeches. Presumably for no other reason than they thought it was funny.
Taylor Swift's lawyers did not see the funny side. So they very aggressively threatened to sue the Internet users who made the memes along with the tech companies which hosted them for breach of copyright.
Despite the fact that, as they well knew, the use of small amounts of copyrighted material is permitted for the purpose of parody. A form of protected speech under the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
You suspect that Taylor Swift didn't know much about this. Instead her lawyers were motivated only by a desire to send Taylor Swift a large bill for all the work they'd done threatening innocent Internet users.
Either way the Internet took its revenge.
It quickly became a matter of established Internet fact that Taylor Swift is a fully fledged Nazi and White Supremacist. She was merely waiting for Donald Trump to become US President so she could proudly let her true beliefs be known.
To her credit even Taylor Swift got in on the joke. The artwork for her 2017 Reputation album included lots of references to the Nazi style. Such as rune type lettering.
It's testament to how utterly insane US leftists have become that after releasing the album Taylor Swift was met with demands to publicly denounce Trump and White Supremacists.
In a nice touch Taylor Swift's lawyers responded by threatening to sue.
At around 15:45 on 31/5/19 (UK date) I'll pick this up later.
Edited at around 11:40 on 2/6/19 (UK date) to copy & paste from another window;
The Taylor Swift song 22 is about being aged 22.
The 22 in the Sarah McTernan refers to a house number. Home to a boy with whom she did something she now regrets.
Amongst Song Contest viewers there is a popular game called; "Eurovision Bingo."
Rather
than matching randomly drawn numbers to a scorecard you try and match
Song Contest cliches. Such as someone singing a song about love, someone
singing a song about peace. Someone using fire as part of their stage
show or someone using a rain machine.
In traditional
bingo, particularly in the UK and Ireland the numbers have their own
little nicknames based on their appearence. Such as 88 being known as; "Two Fat Ladies" or 11
being known as; "Legs Eleven."
22 is known as; "Two Little Ducks."
So the main message of Ireland's 2019 entry was to remind everyone of Ireland's 2018 entry. "Together" by Ryan O'Shaughnessy.
That song was all about Brexit.
Particularly the effect it would have on both Ireland's economy and on
the cross-border trade between Ireland and Northern Ireland which is so
important the 1998 Belfast Agreement.
So it was a really vicious and
bitter break-up song.
Except in the middle of the staging you had a young gay couple, very much in love. Which made absolutely no sense.
No sense until you realise that the Song Contest has a very large gay and gay friendly fanbase. Once on of the most successful nations as Eurovision Ireland were absolutely desperate to qualify for the Grand-Finale, after years of falling short.
So Ireland simply included this gay couple in the cynical hope that Eurovision fans would vote them through.
Since then this practice
has become so widespread that it's developed its own name; "Queer
Baiting." When celebrities and corporations tease the idea that they
might be gay in order to con gay people out of their money.
Now
we're into June, Gay Pride Month, this is something you'll see a lot.
Particularly from alcohol companies such as Absolute Vodka.
Even before you get into the prejudice and discrimination being gay can be pretty miserable.
Only
about 3% of the population are gay. So when it comes to finding a life
partner straight people have around 50% of the population to choose
from. Gay people only have around 1.5% of the population to chose from.
Making the chances of success much lower.
As a result the gay community experiences much higher levels of loneliness, depression, drug and alcohol abuse.
When
big alcohol companies announce that they are supporting Pride Month
it's not because they support gay people. It's because they want to
profit from their misery.
The 2019 Eurovision Song Contest was of course held in Tel Aviv, Israel. Leading to calls for it to be boycotted over Israel's role in the Israel/Palestine Conflict.
One of the largest Palestinian political parties is Fatah. They were founders of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO).
A
Revolutionary Socialist organisation the PLO was part of the Cold War
Arc of Resistance. Made up of groups like the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Turkey and the Irish Republican Socialist Party/Irish National Liberation Army (IRSP/INLA) in Ireland/Northern Ireland.
This
has meant there have long been deep links of solidarity between
Palestinians and Irish Republicans. Meaning that the Republic of Ireland
was under particularly pressure to boycott the 2019 Song Contest.
Rather than boycotting the Republic of Ireland decided to attend.
But used their song to remind everyone of the really offensive thing they did last year. In the hope of being voted out at the earliest possible opportunity.
It worked.
11:50 on 2/6/19 (UK date).
Friday 31 May 2019
Tuesday 28 May 2019
Eurovision 2019: ASIE: The App Pt.2
A direct continuation of Part 1; https://watchitdie.blogspot.com/2019/05/eurovision-2019-asie-app.html
In that post I looked at how the Eurovision Song Contest is the gala event of the European Broadcast Union (EBU). A professional association of TV and radio broadcasters established in 1950 further technological advancement in the field of Information Communications Technology (ICT).
As a result the Song Contest is accompanied by lots of discussion about changes and trends within the field of broadcasting. Particularly technological innovations.
Finland: This year they were represented by Darude featuring Sebastian Rejam. With the song; "Look Away."
Real name Toni-Ville Henrik Virtanen Darude is probably the most successful Finnish musical artist ever. A World famous House/Trance dance music DJ he had a massive hit in 1999 with; "Sandstorm."
This song sold more than 11 million copies worldwide and pretty much dominated radio airplay through the summer of 2000. It was one of the first ever Internet only hits, becoming famous after being posted in the file sharing site MP3.com.
Sandstorm is also the name of a fictional domestic terror group. Featured in the US TV show; "Blindspot."
That TV show provides something of a talking point about the changing role of women within the TV industry.
The premise of the show is that a woman is discovered suffering from amnesia. She then joins forces with the FBI team investigating her case to solve other crimes.
In many ways Blindspot is very different from other US police procedurals. Such as; "NCIS: Los Angeles." Featuring 2018 Song Contest host Daniela Ruah.
For example it features character and story arcs running through each season. Meaning you have to watch all episodes in order rather than having the seasons chopped up for syndication.
However it is very much centred around good guys with guns chasing bad guys with guns. In a series of gun fights, explosions, fight scenes and other action sequences.
Most TV shows, particularly in this genre, tend to be made from a slightly male perspective. Not being a woman I can't fully comment on how that affects women's enjoyment of the shows. However I'm only talking about an ever so slight bias that most people wouldn't even notice.
What is interesting about Blindspot is that it seems to be made from a slightly female perspective. This is so slight that, as a man, it doesn't affect my enjoyment of the show.
While only slight that female perspective does seem particularly important given the show.
The woman with amnesia is actually found fully nude. Covered head-to-toe with elaborate, full body tattoos. These tattoos are clues to the crimes the woman and the FBI team go on to solve.
It does somewhat remind me of; "Sesame Street." Which goes; "This episode is brought to you by the letter A."
Blindspot tends to go; "This episode is brought to you by her right buttock." Or; "This episode is brought to you by her left inner thigh."
In the wrong hands that is the sort of thing that could get very creepy very quickly. "Blindspot, produced by Harvey Weinstein" seems a particularly terrifying proposition.
The lead actress, Jaimie Alexander, not only has to put up with her nude body being a major feature of each episode. She also has to put up with it being part of the opening titles and publicity campaign.
Even in an age where productions are increasingly hiring so-called; "Intimacy Coordinators" to deal with nudity and sex scenes on set that seems to ask a lot from an actress.
This shift of the role of women in TV, as both viewers and as program makers, has been slowly happening for a while now. Another interesting artifact in the discussion is the US TV show; "The Unit."
The Unit is about a special, secret Special Operations Forces (SOF) unit within the US military.
This type of program has traditionally fitted in a genre I like to call; "Boys TV." With a lot more action than plot it has long been made by men, for men. Women are not expected and, seemingly, not welcome to watch or enjoy.
The exact SOF branch featured in The Unit is never mentioned. However it is based on a book written by someone who served in the US Army Delta Force.
I think the most famous Movie/TV show about Delta Force is the 1986 Chuck Norris movie; "The Delta Force."
That is Boys TV at its most ridiculous. Even as a man who has some experience of war I find it too stupidly macho to be enjoyed as anything other than a satire of the genre.
Featuring as it does dirt bikes with machine guns on the front and rocket launchers on the back. A world where not only does no-one's gun ever run out of ammunition no-one even has to bother carry supplies of ammunition.
I don't think a lot of people realise that The Delta Force is actually an Israeli movie. Made by the production company "The Cannon Group." Founded by Israeli Jewish cousins Menahem Golan and Yorum Globus.
Meaning that The Delta Force isn't just an example of Boys TV at its absolute worst. It's also a ridiculous piece of pro-Zionist, anti-Iranian propaganda.
So all the good guys use Israeli-made mini-Uzi submachineguns. The Palestinian terrorists are compared to the Nazis. Jews and Christians unite to battle and defeat the evil Muslim enemy. All amongst copious shots of portraits of Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini.
In real life Menahem Golan and Yorum Globus were also every negative stereotype about pushy, in-your-face Israelis. Even the American Jews who supposedly control Hollywood thought they were too much.
There is an interesting 2014 documentary about them called; "Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films." It says a lot about the company that the surviving cousin, Menahem Golan rushed out his own, low budget, version of the documentary to beat the release date of the unofficial one.
From its start The Unit sets out to be very different from that type of macho nonsense. It's conceived to be not just about the men of the SOF unit. But also about their wives, girlfriends and families.
So in each episode there is the main plot. About the men and the SOF mission. However there is also a significant sub-plot. Featuring their wives and families. How these two plots connect and interact create much more rounded characters with significantly more emotional depth.
It shows how much TV has shifted that watching The Unit ten years on it doesn't seem particularly innovative. What it did which was so clever is now considered normal and really the barest minimum expected.
The baton of The Unit has really been picked up by a current US TV show called; "SEAL Team." Which is about US Navy SEAL SOF's. Along with their wives and families.
In a nod to this SEAL Team has actually cast the actor Michael Irby in a small role. Micheal Irby played one of the main characters in The Unit. The big finale of the show was his wedding.
In SEAL Team Michael Irby plays a training officer. There to teach the new guys how it's done.
Which is the sort of little in joke which makes me smile.
At around 18:25 on 28/5/19 (UK date) I'll pick this up tomorrow.
Edited at around 17:00 on 29/5/19 (UK date) to copy & paste from another window;
Being familiar with the darker side of technology I was very hesitant to get into Internet TV. To the point that I left my Roku sitting in a box, unopened for a year.
When you are watching traditional television it is a very one-sided relationship.
You receive the information that is being broadcast through an aerial or satellite dish. The broadcaster has no idea what program you are watching, or even if you are watching any program at all.
Internet TV is much more of a two-way conversation.
While your Internet enabled device is receiving information for the broadcaster it is also sharing a lot of information with the broadcaster about what you are watching.
In short Smart TV's watch you as much as you are watching them.
When I did finally decide to activate this Roku box I decided to run it in with short, uncontroversial programs.
I think the first show I watched was; "The Orville." A parody of Sci-Fi shows like "Star Trek" made by the team behind; "Family Guy." I can't help but wonder if that's the reason the second season seems to have completely lost its sense of humour.
Once I'd become used to the technology Blindspot was the first long season show I watched. Simply as a way to wind down and relax at the end of the day.
That idea really did not go to plan. The reason I became aware of the show in the first place should have been a bit of a warning.
On the Fourth of July weekend 2016 there was a small explosion in Central Park in New York City, US. Specifically on July 3rd (3/7/19). This occurred in the run up to the November 2016 US Presidential Election.
It also occurred when the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) were at their most potent in terms of attacks on foreign soil. Less than a month after the June 3rd 2016 (3/6/16) attack at the Pulse Nightclub in Florida, US and less than two weeks before the Bastille Day attack in Nice, France on July 14th 2016 (14/7/16).
So as soon as news of this Central Park explosion broke I was all over it. Using social media to try and piece together what had happened. Initially all I could find out was that Jaimie Alexander, from the TV Show Blindspot had been seen working out in Central Park at around the time of the explosion.
This sent me into a bit of a frantic rush trying to find out who Jaimie Alexander is and what the TV show Blindspot was about. To determine if it was relevant to any potential message that was being sent by the explosion.
As it turns out the explosion was neither terrorism nor politics related. It seemed to be someone just messing about with homemade explosives on what is America's national festival of trying to blow things up.
When I eventually started streaming Blindspot I got disturbed in almost every episode by a message alert on Twitter.
Normally a bot account liking a Tweet in a way that seemed pointedly similar to the episode I was watching. At one point I was even approached by an account claiming to be the mother of the young man who lost part of his leg in the Central Park explosion.
I was doing all this in the aftermath of the poisonings of the Skripals and others in March and June of 2018.
That story of Russian spies using a Novichok like contact poison against the Skripals in Salisbury already sounded a bit suspicious. Due to the Season 7 of US TV show; "Homeland" which was being broadcast in the UK at the time.
The main plot of that season of Homeland revolved around Russian spies using a Novichok like contact poison to attack people. One of the main Russian spies in the story was played by Sandrine Holt. An actress so British I think I know some people who went to school with her.
Homeland is of course a remake of the Israeli TV show; "Prisoners of War." In a little nod to that it features a recurring Russian spy character played by Israeli actor Mark Ivanir. Before becoming an actor Mark Ivanir did his compulsory military service with a signals intelligence unit of the Israeli Army.
So the Russian spy in Homeland is actually a real life Israeli spy.
Blindspot also features a number of storylines which seem remarkably similar to the Skripal poisoning story.
One episode revolves around a Russian spy ring. Which is attempting to assassinate people with a Novichok like contact poison.
Another episode revolves around the government conducting illegal medical experiments on unsuspecting members of the public. Using a Novichok like chemical warfare agent. One of the victims of these experiments even shares the first name of Charlie Rowley. One of the victims of the June 2018 Novichok poisonings.
A third episode features a Novichok like nerve agent being stolen. A central character in that story line is also played by British actress Sandrine Holt.
It would be reassuring to think of spies as these suave, sophisticated James Bond like characters. The reality though is probably closer to the British TV show; "Killing Eve." Sandra Oh sitting there in her cheap plastic anorak. Copying things she'd seen on TV.
One of the main story arcs running through Blindspot is the woman trying to find out who gave her amnesia and covered her body in tattoos.
In one of the episodes featuring a Novichok like poisons she discovers a video she made of herself, for herself. It reveals that she gave herself amnesia and covered her own body with tattoos. She was the mastermind behind the plot all along.
The memorable, and often repeated quote is; "Remember. You did this to yourself."
After those coincidences things just started to spiral. With every passing episode of Blindspot seeming to get more and more stressful to watch.
For example it's revealed that one of the main characters is originally from South Africa. A South African Rand coin becoming an important icon within the story. I discovered this on the eve of British Prime Minister Theresa May travelling to South Africa. Her first overseas trip since the Skripal poisonings.
As I've said much of the show centres around a domestic terror group called; "Sandstorm." The big attack they're planning, what it is, when it will be and if the FBI team can stop it.
I was watching these episodes as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were undertaking their first, failed attempt to liberate the Hajin Pocket area from ISIL. They were hampered by real-life sandstorms blowing in allowing ISIL to mount counter-attacks.
So much like the characters on Blindspot I was very much frustrated by the terrorist damage being wrought by Sandstorm.
The fictional Sandstorm's big plot centred around a Russian Soyuz rocket. It was the big finale of season 2.
The day before I was due to stream that episode the launch of the real-life Soyuz MS-10 rocket had to be aborted on October 11th 2018 (11/10/18). Following the failure of a piece of equipment which looks remarkably similar to the injector kits which featured so heavily in the Blindspot, Homeland and Skripal poisoning storylines.
That struck me as taking TV spoilers into a whole new price bracket.
In its staging Finland's entry was very much like a dance club. Darude was in his DJ booth. There was a female podium dancer and giant video screens put on a visual display.
The video screens were showing lots of images of ice sheets, glaciers, the sea and water. The podium dancer was dressed in green. As such it would be easy to interpret Finland's entry as a protest against Climate Change. Melting ice sheets and rising sea levels.
That interpretation was intended to provoke discussion about Eurovision's No Overt Politics rule. It would be tempting to mark Finland down for appearing to break that rule.
Although Finland would probably argue that Climate Change is such a severe threat to all people it shouldn't be considered a political issue. In much the same way it's not considered a political issue to state that the Earth is round, rather than flat, and exists in a solar system orbiting around the Sun.
However the main message of Finland's entry was not a protest against Climate Change.
The green of the podium dancer was not the green of environmental activism. Instead it was the green of the Aurora Borealis. The Northern Lights.
That is not to be confused with the; "Aurora Boreanaz." Which guided the Stewie and Brian the dog characters as they made their way to the North Pole in an episode of Family Guy. A role admirably played by SEAL Team actor David Boreanaz.
Alongside the ice caps and glaciers the Aurora Borealis were intended to highlight Finland's role as an Arctic Nation.
Just before the start of the 2019 Song Contest US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attended a Foreign Ministers summit for the Arctic Council. Held in Helsinki, Finland on May 7th (7/5/19).
Secretary Pompeo used it as an opportunity to announce an increase in the US military presence in the Arctic and urged other members of the Arctic Council to follow suit. In order to guard against the threat of Russia.
The recurring chorus of Finland's entry was; "Is it in my head? // Am I the only one? // Is it in my head? // Where the war has just begun?"
It was the host of the Arctic Council mocking anti-Russian paranoia. Particularly in the context of Britain blaming Russia for the Skripal poisonings.
Finland of course were knocked out at the First Semi-Final. There's probably a host of reasons for this.
Firstly I have to take a moment to point out just how extremely competitive the Song Contest was this year.
There were 41 entries competing for 26 slots in the Grand-Finale.
Of those slots 6 automatically went to the so-called Big Six. The five nations that pay a premium for an automatic pass to the the Grand-Finale. Along with the host country.
Every year there are also a couple of nations which get waved through to the Grand-Finale because they represent one of the main political themes. I think this year both Albania and North Macedonia could have entered three minutes of complete silence and still made it through.
So in reality there were 33 nations competing for just 18 Grand-Finale slots. That meant that 1 in 2 nations were going to fail to make it through.
Also the message of Finland's entry was intentionally confusing. I think a lot of, particularly professional juries, would have got bogged down in whether Climate Change is considered a political issue. Without even noticing the ,message about anti-Russian paranoia.
Finally Darude is a huge global star. Much like with Saara Alto and Finland's 2018 entry this can make it look like they're trying too hard to win. Which can be a turn off for some people.
A particular problem if there isn't an overlap between the artists fanbase and Song Contest fans. Something which seems to be true in Darude's case.
Part Three to Follow.
17:25 on 29/5/19 (UK date).
In that post I looked at how the Eurovision Song Contest is the gala event of the European Broadcast Union (EBU). A professional association of TV and radio broadcasters established in 1950 further technological advancement in the field of Information Communications Technology (ICT).
As a result the Song Contest is accompanied by lots of discussion about changes and trends within the field of broadcasting. Particularly technological innovations.
Finland: This year they were represented by Darude featuring Sebastian Rejam. With the song; "Look Away."
Real name Toni-Ville Henrik Virtanen Darude is probably the most successful Finnish musical artist ever. A World famous House/Trance dance music DJ he had a massive hit in 1999 with; "Sandstorm."
This song sold more than 11 million copies worldwide and pretty much dominated radio airplay through the summer of 2000. It was one of the first ever Internet only hits, becoming famous after being posted in the file sharing site MP3.com.
Sandstorm is also the name of a fictional domestic terror group. Featured in the US TV show; "Blindspot."
That TV show provides something of a talking point about the changing role of women within the TV industry.
The premise of the show is that a woman is discovered suffering from amnesia. She then joins forces with the FBI team investigating her case to solve other crimes.
In many ways Blindspot is very different from other US police procedurals. Such as; "NCIS: Los Angeles." Featuring 2018 Song Contest host Daniela Ruah.
For example it features character and story arcs running through each season. Meaning you have to watch all episodes in order rather than having the seasons chopped up for syndication.
However it is very much centred around good guys with guns chasing bad guys with guns. In a series of gun fights, explosions, fight scenes and other action sequences.
Most TV shows, particularly in this genre, tend to be made from a slightly male perspective. Not being a woman I can't fully comment on how that affects women's enjoyment of the shows. However I'm only talking about an ever so slight bias that most people wouldn't even notice.
What is interesting about Blindspot is that it seems to be made from a slightly female perspective. This is so slight that, as a man, it doesn't affect my enjoyment of the show.
While only slight that female perspective does seem particularly important given the show.
The woman with amnesia is actually found fully nude. Covered head-to-toe with elaborate, full body tattoos. These tattoos are clues to the crimes the woman and the FBI team go on to solve.
It does somewhat remind me of; "Sesame Street." Which goes; "This episode is brought to you by the letter A."
Blindspot tends to go; "This episode is brought to you by her right buttock." Or; "This episode is brought to you by her left inner thigh."
In the wrong hands that is the sort of thing that could get very creepy very quickly. "Blindspot, produced by Harvey Weinstein" seems a particularly terrifying proposition.
The lead actress, Jaimie Alexander, not only has to put up with her nude body being a major feature of each episode. She also has to put up with it being part of the opening titles and publicity campaign.
Even in an age where productions are increasingly hiring so-called; "Intimacy Coordinators" to deal with nudity and sex scenes on set that seems to ask a lot from an actress.
This shift of the role of women in TV, as both viewers and as program makers, has been slowly happening for a while now. Another interesting artifact in the discussion is the US TV show; "The Unit."
The Unit is about a special, secret Special Operations Forces (SOF) unit within the US military.
This type of program has traditionally fitted in a genre I like to call; "Boys TV." With a lot more action than plot it has long been made by men, for men. Women are not expected and, seemingly, not welcome to watch or enjoy.
The exact SOF branch featured in The Unit is never mentioned. However it is based on a book written by someone who served in the US Army Delta Force.
I think the most famous Movie/TV show about Delta Force is the 1986 Chuck Norris movie; "The Delta Force."
That is Boys TV at its most ridiculous. Even as a man who has some experience of war I find it too stupidly macho to be enjoyed as anything other than a satire of the genre.
Featuring as it does dirt bikes with machine guns on the front and rocket launchers on the back. A world where not only does no-one's gun ever run out of ammunition no-one even has to bother carry supplies of ammunition.
I don't think a lot of people realise that The Delta Force is actually an Israeli movie. Made by the production company "The Cannon Group." Founded by Israeli Jewish cousins Menahem Golan and Yorum Globus.
Meaning that The Delta Force isn't just an example of Boys TV at its absolute worst. It's also a ridiculous piece of pro-Zionist, anti-Iranian propaganda.
So all the good guys use Israeli-made mini-Uzi submachineguns. The Palestinian terrorists are compared to the Nazis. Jews and Christians unite to battle and defeat the evil Muslim enemy. All amongst copious shots of portraits of Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini.
In real life Menahem Golan and Yorum Globus were also every negative stereotype about pushy, in-your-face Israelis. Even the American Jews who supposedly control Hollywood thought they were too much.
There is an interesting 2014 documentary about them called; "Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films." It says a lot about the company that the surviving cousin, Menahem Golan rushed out his own, low budget, version of the documentary to beat the release date of the unofficial one.
From its start The Unit sets out to be very different from that type of macho nonsense. It's conceived to be not just about the men of the SOF unit. But also about their wives, girlfriends and families.
So in each episode there is the main plot. About the men and the SOF mission. However there is also a significant sub-plot. Featuring their wives and families. How these two plots connect and interact create much more rounded characters with significantly more emotional depth.
It shows how much TV has shifted that watching The Unit ten years on it doesn't seem particularly innovative. What it did which was so clever is now considered normal and really the barest minimum expected.
The baton of The Unit has really been picked up by a current US TV show called; "SEAL Team." Which is about US Navy SEAL SOF's. Along with their wives and families.
In a nod to this SEAL Team has actually cast the actor Michael Irby in a small role. Micheal Irby played one of the main characters in The Unit. The big finale of the show was his wedding.
In SEAL Team Michael Irby plays a training officer. There to teach the new guys how it's done.
Which is the sort of little in joke which makes me smile.
At around 18:25 on 28/5/19 (UK date) I'll pick this up tomorrow.
Edited at around 17:00 on 29/5/19 (UK date) to copy & paste from another window;
Being familiar with the darker side of technology I was very hesitant to get into Internet TV. To the point that I left my Roku sitting in a box, unopened for a year.
When you are watching traditional television it is a very one-sided relationship.
You receive the information that is being broadcast through an aerial or satellite dish. The broadcaster has no idea what program you are watching, or even if you are watching any program at all.
Internet TV is much more of a two-way conversation.
While your Internet enabled device is receiving information for the broadcaster it is also sharing a lot of information with the broadcaster about what you are watching.
In short Smart TV's watch you as much as you are watching them.
When I did finally decide to activate this Roku box I decided to run it in with short, uncontroversial programs.
I think the first show I watched was; "The Orville." A parody of Sci-Fi shows like "Star Trek" made by the team behind; "Family Guy." I can't help but wonder if that's the reason the second season seems to have completely lost its sense of humour.
Once I'd become used to the technology Blindspot was the first long season show I watched. Simply as a way to wind down and relax at the end of the day.
That idea really did not go to plan. The reason I became aware of the show in the first place should have been a bit of a warning.
On the Fourth of July weekend 2016 there was a small explosion in Central Park in New York City, US. Specifically on July 3rd (3/7/19). This occurred in the run up to the November 2016 US Presidential Election.
It also occurred when the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) were at their most potent in terms of attacks on foreign soil. Less than a month after the June 3rd 2016 (3/6/16) attack at the Pulse Nightclub in Florida, US and less than two weeks before the Bastille Day attack in Nice, France on July 14th 2016 (14/7/16).
So as soon as news of this Central Park explosion broke I was all over it. Using social media to try and piece together what had happened. Initially all I could find out was that Jaimie Alexander, from the TV Show Blindspot had been seen working out in Central Park at around the time of the explosion.
This sent me into a bit of a frantic rush trying to find out who Jaimie Alexander is and what the TV show Blindspot was about. To determine if it was relevant to any potential message that was being sent by the explosion.
As it turns out the explosion was neither terrorism nor politics related. It seemed to be someone just messing about with homemade explosives on what is America's national festival of trying to blow things up.
When I eventually started streaming Blindspot I got disturbed in almost every episode by a message alert on Twitter.
Normally a bot account liking a Tweet in a way that seemed pointedly similar to the episode I was watching. At one point I was even approached by an account claiming to be the mother of the young man who lost part of his leg in the Central Park explosion.
I was doing all this in the aftermath of the poisonings of the Skripals and others in March and June of 2018.
That story of Russian spies using a Novichok like contact poison against the Skripals in Salisbury already sounded a bit suspicious. Due to the Season 7 of US TV show; "Homeland" which was being broadcast in the UK at the time.
The main plot of that season of Homeland revolved around Russian spies using a Novichok like contact poison to attack people. One of the main Russian spies in the story was played by Sandrine Holt. An actress so British I think I know some people who went to school with her.
Homeland is of course a remake of the Israeli TV show; "Prisoners of War." In a little nod to that it features a recurring Russian spy character played by Israeli actor Mark Ivanir. Before becoming an actor Mark Ivanir did his compulsory military service with a signals intelligence unit of the Israeli Army.
So the Russian spy in Homeland is actually a real life Israeli spy.
Blindspot also features a number of storylines which seem remarkably similar to the Skripal poisoning story.
One episode revolves around a Russian spy ring. Which is attempting to assassinate people with a Novichok like contact poison.
Another episode revolves around the government conducting illegal medical experiments on unsuspecting members of the public. Using a Novichok like chemical warfare agent. One of the victims of these experiments even shares the first name of Charlie Rowley. One of the victims of the June 2018 Novichok poisonings.
A third episode features a Novichok like nerve agent being stolen. A central character in that story line is also played by British actress Sandrine Holt.
It would be reassuring to think of spies as these suave, sophisticated James Bond like characters. The reality though is probably closer to the British TV show; "Killing Eve." Sandra Oh sitting there in her cheap plastic anorak. Copying things she'd seen on TV.
One of the main story arcs running through Blindspot is the woman trying to find out who gave her amnesia and covered her body in tattoos.
In one of the episodes featuring a Novichok like poisons she discovers a video she made of herself, for herself. It reveals that she gave herself amnesia and covered her own body with tattoos. She was the mastermind behind the plot all along.
The memorable, and often repeated quote is; "Remember. You did this to yourself."
After those coincidences things just started to spiral. With every passing episode of Blindspot seeming to get more and more stressful to watch.
For example it's revealed that one of the main characters is originally from South Africa. A South African Rand coin becoming an important icon within the story. I discovered this on the eve of British Prime Minister Theresa May travelling to South Africa. Her first overseas trip since the Skripal poisonings.
As I've said much of the show centres around a domestic terror group called; "Sandstorm." The big attack they're planning, what it is, when it will be and if the FBI team can stop it.
I was watching these episodes as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were undertaking their first, failed attempt to liberate the Hajin Pocket area from ISIL. They were hampered by real-life sandstorms blowing in allowing ISIL to mount counter-attacks.
So much like the characters on Blindspot I was very much frustrated by the terrorist damage being wrought by Sandstorm.
The fictional Sandstorm's big plot centred around a Russian Soyuz rocket. It was the big finale of season 2.
The day before I was due to stream that episode the launch of the real-life Soyuz MS-10 rocket had to be aborted on October 11th 2018 (11/10/18). Following the failure of a piece of equipment which looks remarkably similar to the injector kits which featured so heavily in the Blindspot, Homeland and Skripal poisoning storylines.
That struck me as taking TV spoilers into a whole new price bracket.
In its staging Finland's entry was very much like a dance club. Darude was in his DJ booth. There was a female podium dancer and giant video screens put on a visual display.
The video screens were showing lots of images of ice sheets, glaciers, the sea and water. The podium dancer was dressed in green. As such it would be easy to interpret Finland's entry as a protest against Climate Change. Melting ice sheets and rising sea levels.
That interpretation was intended to provoke discussion about Eurovision's No Overt Politics rule. It would be tempting to mark Finland down for appearing to break that rule.
Although Finland would probably argue that Climate Change is such a severe threat to all people it shouldn't be considered a political issue. In much the same way it's not considered a political issue to state that the Earth is round, rather than flat, and exists in a solar system orbiting around the Sun.
However the main message of Finland's entry was not a protest against Climate Change.
The green of the podium dancer was not the green of environmental activism. Instead it was the green of the Aurora Borealis. The Northern Lights.
That is not to be confused with the; "Aurora Boreanaz." Which guided the Stewie and Brian the dog characters as they made their way to the North Pole in an episode of Family Guy. A role admirably played by SEAL Team actor David Boreanaz.
Alongside the ice caps and glaciers the Aurora Borealis were intended to highlight Finland's role as an Arctic Nation.
Just before the start of the 2019 Song Contest US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attended a Foreign Ministers summit for the Arctic Council. Held in Helsinki, Finland on May 7th (7/5/19).
Secretary Pompeo used it as an opportunity to announce an increase in the US military presence in the Arctic and urged other members of the Arctic Council to follow suit. In order to guard against the threat of Russia.
The recurring chorus of Finland's entry was; "Is it in my head? // Am I the only one? // Is it in my head? // Where the war has just begun?"
It was the host of the Arctic Council mocking anti-Russian paranoia. Particularly in the context of Britain blaming Russia for the Skripal poisonings.
Finland of course were knocked out at the First Semi-Final. There's probably a host of reasons for this.
Firstly I have to take a moment to point out just how extremely competitive the Song Contest was this year.
There were 41 entries competing for 26 slots in the Grand-Finale.
Of those slots 6 automatically went to the so-called Big Six. The five nations that pay a premium for an automatic pass to the the Grand-Finale. Along with the host country.
Every year there are also a couple of nations which get waved through to the Grand-Finale because they represent one of the main political themes. I think this year both Albania and North Macedonia could have entered three minutes of complete silence and still made it through.
So in reality there were 33 nations competing for just 18 Grand-Finale slots. That meant that 1 in 2 nations were going to fail to make it through.
Also the message of Finland's entry was intentionally confusing. I think a lot of, particularly professional juries, would have got bogged down in whether Climate Change is considered a political issue. Without even noticing the ,message about anti-Russian paranoia.
Finally Darude is a huge global star. Much like with Saara Alto and Finland's 2018 entry this can make it look like they're trying too hard to win. Which can be a turn off for some people.
A particular problem if there isn't an overlap between the artists fanbase and Song Contest fans. Something which seems to be true in Darude's case.
Part Three to Follow.
17:25 on 29/5/19 (UK date).
Thursday 23 May 2019
Eurovision 2019: ASIE: Brexit. Pt.2
A direct continuation of Part 1; https://watchitdie.blogspot.com/2019/05/eurovision-2019-asie-brexit.html
Sweden: This year they were represented by John Lundvik. With the song; "Too Late For Love."
Aside from writing Sweden's entry John Lundvik also wrote Britain's entry "Bigger Than Us."
Under Song Contest rules it doesn't matter who performs a song. The song itself though must be written by a citizen of the country it represents. Raising the question of how John Lundvik was able to write both Sweden's and Britain's entry.
The answer is that John Lundvik has a quintessentially EU life story.
He was born in Britain, in London in fact. At a young age he was taken into local authority care. He was then adopted by a Swedish couple, living as EU citizens in London. At the age of six he joined his adoptive parents when they returned to Sweden.
That touches on the question of what to do with the children of captured members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Although a black British man John Lundvik was adopted into a white Swedish family. Taking on parts of Swedish culture, such as the language and his family name.
It also raises all sorts of questions about the rights of EU citizens living in Britain after Brexit.
For example would they have the same rights to adopt as British citizens? Are children of EU nationals who have been placed into local authority care, even adopted, still considered EU citizens? Allowed to return to their parent's country of birth?
With his life story John Lundvik is really the poster boy for EU integration. Like Denmark's entry the song, at first, reads like a Remoaner call for Brexit to be reversed.It's not too late for love. Article 50 can be withdrawn, a second referendum held and Brexit cancelled.
The staging of the live performance though featured a flashing golden light. Perhaps;"The sun that lights your dark//The spark that lit your dark." Towards the end John Lundvik is joined on stage by four black women of a Gospel choir.
Although this is really his first move into performing John Lundvik already has an established career as a song writer. In 2010 he wrote the official wedding song for the heir to the Swedish throne -Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden.
So Sweden's entry was actually mocking the British Royal Family. Over the much publicised 2017 wedding of Prince Henry (Harry) Windsor and Meghan Markle. Subsequently known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
While there are many factors the British Royal Family's popularity has really diminished in line with non-white immigration into Britain. Non-white people have found it very hard to connect with the very white Royal Family. Often viewing it as an oppressive relic of Empire, Colonialism and Slavery.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex is not fully white. So the British Royal Family have been using her marriage to Henry, Duke of Sussex to heavily target this untapped market of potential supporters.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex is also American. So the British Royal Family have been using the marriage to boost support amongst Americans. A group with whom British Monarchs have not been particularly popular since that little War of Independence in 1776.
Brexit has prompted much debate over whether Prime Minister at the time, David Cameron, is in fact the worst British Prime Minister in history. That title was previously held by Frederick Lord North. Prime Minister during Britain's defeat in the American War of Independence.
As the popular claim goes; "Lord North lost America. Prime Minister Cameron lost Europe."
Apart from the national embarrassment that is the Duke and Duchess of Sussex Sweden is particularly mocking the British Monarch's refusal to intervene in Brexit. In order to bring the chaos to an end.
The current Duke of Sussex seems to very much like public money, but not so much the public service that comes along with it. The Monarch though still very much has a constitutional role within British politics.
One possible way out of the Brexit deadlock is for the Monarch to dissolve Parliament. Then adopt the Withdrawal Agreement on Britain's behalf. Allowing Parliamentarians to return only after voters have decided if they want to keep employing them.
Initially that would sound like a very controversial proposal. Much of the last 800 years of British politics have been focused on limiting the power of the Monarch.
In 1215 there was the Great Charter (Magna Carta). Although a famous political ruse this was intended to limit the power of national King John had over the local Lords. Essentially mini-Kings. It was all very Game of Thrones back then.
In 1295, following the failure of the Magna Carta, these Lords were given a formal role in the passing of British laws. When the first House of Lords was established to replace the King's Great Council.
The House of Commons was established in 1649, initially as a replacement for the House of Lords. However in 1690 the House of Lords was reestablished, working alongside the House of Commons.
It's worth pointing out that the House of Commons is not there to represent the general public. It is there to represent "Commoners." A specific legal class of peasant who are afforded grazing rights on lands owned by the Crown. It still very much applies in the New Forest, particularly amongst horse people.
The notion of allowing the public to vote to choose who represented them in the House of Commons didn't come into effect until 1832. It wasn't expanded to include all citizens aged over 18 years, including women, until 1969.
However at no point throughout that 800 year history has Britain faced a constitutional crisis like the one it is in now. All the conflicts have been about trying to get the unelected and powerful to respect the will of the wider population.
In Brexit we are seeing elected representatives simply refusing to respect the the will of the people. It has turned the whole structure of the British constitution on its head.
Providing a safety valve in this sort of extreme and rare situation is exactly why Britain still keeps a Royal Family on the payroll.
The Song Contest community are likely to be particularly unconvinced by claims that it would be unconstitutional for the British Monarch to intervene in Brexit. They're familiar with how the British Monarch has already intervened in Brexit.
While it may be hard to remember the Brexit referendum took place all the way back in June 2016. In May 2016 Britain was represented at the Song Contest by Joe & Jake with the song; "You Are Not Alone."
With lyrics such as; "Heartbeat, when you’re not around its beating" and; "All that you want is right here forever, and they don't need to know" it was a reference to this hidden, unseen power.
It's main message was that the Brexit referendum would not be free and fair. The British Monarch would intervene to ensure that Britain remained in the EU.
On June 16th 2016 (16/6/16) that promise was kept. Just as the result of the referendum looked like it was slipping away from Remain and into the hands of Leave.
The Labour MP Jo Cox was shot and killed in her Batley & Spen constituency as she campaigned for Remain. Her killer was initially portrayed as a supporter of the Leave campaign.
If British counter-terrorism police weren't completely in the thrall of that strange alliance between Muslim extremists and British leftists this would have triggered an investigation into Jo Cox's role as an unlawful combatant.
Someone who was providing both material and moral support to declared enemies of Britain such as Al Qaeda and the Army of Islam/Jaish al-Islam. Despite being in the full knowledge that they were committing War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity in Syria.
Contrary to Article 4 of the Third Geneva Convention & Article 7 of the 1998 Rome Statute. Just in case any of Jo Cox's co-conspirators wish to dispute that fact. In Court or elsewhere.
Unfortunately British counter-terrorism police are completely in the thrall of that strange alliance between Muslim extremists and British leftists. Something the debate over captured ISIL members has shown they very clearly need to work on.
The immediate objective of the entirely lawful killing of Jo Cox was to smear the Leave campaign. At the same time freezing the referendum campaign while Remain still had a small lead.
A big part of the reason I voted Leave was because I thought this would work. Meaning Remain would win so voting Leave allowed me to participate without actually affecting the result. It was the one time I wanted my vote not to count.
At the 2017 Song Contest Britain was represented by Lucie Jones. With the song; "Never Give Up On You."
This featured lyrics such as; "Tell me your secrets // I’ll keep ‘em safe," "You're not defeated // You're in repair" and; "Just give me your hand and hold on // Together we’ll dance through this storm."
Its main message was another reassurance to the EU. That the secret, hidden power would make sure that despite the referendum result Britain would never actually leave the EU.
At the 2018 Song Contest Britain was represented by SuRie. With the song; "Storm."
This featured lyrics such as; "I still have faith" and; "Storms don't last // Forever.. forever.. // Remember."
Again the main message another reminder that the secret, hidden power would make sure Britain remained in the EU. Although by that point even they were starting to doubt themselves.
17:20 on 23/5/19 (UK date). More to follow.
Edited at around 19:30 on 23/5/19 (UK date) to copy & paste from another window;
This year Britain seems to have finally given up hope of the Monarch stepping in to block Brexit. Their song was based entirely around the idea that Britain would have already left the EU by this point.
My experience suggests they are right in that assessment.
You may have noticed that I was almost completely absent during the referendum campaign. I was also almost completely absent in the period between the referendum and the Withdrawal Agreement being sent to the British Parliament.
Then I suddenly got very involved.
That wasn't because I'd suddenly developed an interest in the topic. Nor that I suddenly discovered I had a lot of free time on my hands.
It's because I got the impression that an order had come down from that secret, hidden power. Giving me the task, or mission of making sure the Withdrawal Agreement was adopted and Britain left the EU.
For example my local area suddenly became flooded with these supposedly rare 50p pieces. Rather the special 50p piece which is supposed to be issued to mark Brexit.
Providing me with an example of the Regulatory Divergence that already exists between Northern Ireland and the British mainland. The issuance of currency.
Then there was that strange, anonymous phonecall I received telling me, in code obviously, that the December Parliamentary vote had been cancelled. And rescheduled for January 15th (15/1/19). I got that call before Parliament was informed and, I almost think, before the Prime Minister was informed.
Meanwhile there was that saga of the drones at Gatwick Airport. Highlighting to possible consequences of the Withdrawal Agreement being rejected. Even as late as March 29th (29/3/19) HM Armed Forces were in place to manage a No Deal.
I'm still not particularly interested in Brexit. I am though very interested in democracy. The basic principle that elected representatives must respect the outcome of elections.
So much like Yahya Jammeh in The Gambia that was a request I felt I could accept. Plus I thought it would only last a couple of weeks. Until March 29th (29/3/19) at the latest.
Sweden certainly thinks its time for Remoaners to give up on the idea of blocking Brexit. And for the British Monarch to intervene to break the Parliamentary deadlock.
There is an old saying that; "It's not over until the fat lady sings."
Sweden's performance featured four fat ladies. All singing.
It seems to have been a popular opinion. Sweden finished 5th.
However this Swedish mockery did not go down well with the British Royal Family.
So on May 9th (9/5/19) there was a very curious incident. At the Seven Kings Masjid/Mosque in London, UK.
Apparently a white man, similar to the one who lawfully killed Jo Cox, had become very angry at Muslims. So angry that he'd gone to the trouble of illegally obtaining a firearm, totally banned in the UK. He then marched into the Mosque to kill Muslims. In a repeat of the Christchurch, New Zealand shootings.
Upon entering the Mosque his anger suddenly disappeared. He decided not to carry out his terror attack because he was politely asked not to.
British leftists and counter-terrorism police were obviously appalled by this victimisation of Muslims.
To everyone else though it sounded about as credible as Jussie Smollett's claim that he'd been a victim of a racist attack. Carried out by supporters of US President Trump.
You may remember that the actor from the US TV show; "Empire" paid two Nigerian brothers to stage a racist attack on him. Either out of simple attention seeking, to boost his profile during contract negotiations or to politically smear President Trump.
As I've mentioned Jon Lundvik is already an accomplished song writer.
Alongside the Swedish Royal Family and the British Song Contest delegation he's also written for this US TV show. I believe it's called Empire.
19:40 on 23/5/19 (UK date). More to follow. Tomorrow.
Edited at around 15:00 on 24/5/19 (UK date) to copy & paste from another window;
Another major theme of this years Song Contest has been the Western Balkans issue. I will deal with that more fully in the appropriate section.
However the main element of the Western Balkans issue is plans for Albania and Macedonia to join the EU. Therefore there was always likely to be some overlap with Britain's plans to leave the EU.
Albania and Macedonia's attempts to join the EU was scheduled to be the main item on the agenda for the December 2018 EU Council (EUCO) Summit. Up until the point the summit was hijacked by Britain and its Parliamentarians complete inability to comprehend the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.
At that point the Western Balkans and Brexit issues became inextricably linked in EU politics.
They became even more closely joined together when current EUCO President Donald Tusk conspired with British Remoaners. In order to block Brexit despite the referendum result.
North Macedonia: This year they were represented by Tamara Todevska. With the song; "Proud."
The long standing barrier to Macedonia joining the EU has been its name.
Macedonia the country shares its name with the Macedonia Province of Greece. Greece's Macedonia province immediately borders Macedonia the country. So Greece has long objected to the country's use of the name as it implies a territorial claim over the Greek province.
Since its inception Macedonia has been formally known as; "The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Or FYR Macedonia.
After years of EU-led negotiations Greece agreed to allow Macedonia to join the EU. Provided FYR Macedonia agreed to change its name to; "North Macedonia." The Macedonian government agreed. Pending the idea being supported by a public referendum in September 2018.
In writing the rules of this referendum the EU agreed that it would need a turnout of at least 50% in order to be legally binding.
However the name change idea was deeply unpopular amongst Macedonian voters who boycotted the vote. Meaning that it had a turnout of 36%. Effectively meaning that 64% of Macedonians rejected the name change.
In its own uniquely democratic way the EU then overturned the referendum law and imposed the name change of Macedonia anyway. Without a hint of irony the EU even hailed this deeply unpopular and widely boycotted referendum as an amazing victory for democracy.
This is the first Song Contest where Macedonia is appearing under its new formal name; "North Macedonia."
Officially the song is written for Tamara Todevska's two daughters. It is about having the strength of character and live your own life in a man's world.
However the opening verse features the lyrics; "They will try to tell you what to do // How to look, smile, act and move // All the rules are made for you to lose."
The recurring chorus is; "Tell them // Raise your voice and say it loudly // Show them, what it means to stand up proudly // Tell them // This is me and thanks to you I am proud."
It is a barely disguised protest against the EU. And the name change the EU has imposed on Macedonia.
In defiance of the will of the Macedonian people, clearly expressed through the referendum.
As such it also serves as a protest against the EU. And EUCO President Tusk's attempts to trap Britain in the EU.
In defiance of the will of the British people, clearly expressed through the referendum.
The song was extremely popular.
It actually won the vote by the national juries. Meaning that if the public vote had not been included then this protest against the EU would actually have won the 2019 Song Contest.
Which was in danger of giving me a panic attack . Not that I have anything against Macedonia. After Israel my only hope for the 2020 Song Contest was the safest of safe European homes.
That protest against the EU finished 7th overall.
15:25 on 24/5/19 (UK date).
Sweden: This year they were represented by John Lundvik. With the song; "Too Late For Love."
Aside from writing Sweden's entry John Lundvik also wrote Britain's entry "Bigger Than Us."
Under Song Contest rules it doesn't matter who performs a song. The song itself though must be written by a citizen of the country it represents. Raising the question of how John Lundvik was able to write both Sweden's and Britain's entry.
The answer is that John Lundvik has a quintessentially EU life story.
He was born in Britain, in London in fact. At a young age he was taken into local authority care. He was then adopted by a Swedish couple, living as EU citizens in London. At the age of six he joined his adoptive parents when they returned to Sweden.
That touches on the question of what to do with the children of captured members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Although a black British man John Lundvik was adopted into a white Swedish family. Taking on parts of Swedish culture, such as the language and his family name.
It also raises all sorts of questions about the rights of EU citizens living in Britain after Brexit.
For example would they have the same rights to adopt as British citizens? Are children of EU nationals who have been placed into local authority care, even adopted, still considered EU citizens? Allowed to return to their parent's country of birth?
With his life story John Lundvik is really the poster boy for EU integration. Like Denmark's entry the song, at first, reads like a Remoaner call for Brexit to be reversed.It's not too late for love. Article 50 can be withdrawn, a second referendum held and Brexit cancelled.
The staging of the live performance though featured a flashing golden light. Perhaps;"The sun that lights your dark//The spark that lit your dark." Towards the end John Lundvik is joined on stage by four black women of a Gospel choir.
Although this is really his first move into performing John Lundvik already has an established career as a song writer. In 2010 he wrote the official wedding song for the heir to the Swedish throne -Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden.
So Sweden's entry was actually mocking the British Royal Family. Over the much publicised 2017 wedding of Prince Henry (Harry) Windsor and Meghan Markle. Subsequently known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
While there are many factors the British Royal Family's popularity has really diminished in line with non-white immigration into Britain. Non-white people have found it very hard to connect with the very white Royal Family. Often viewing it as an oppressive relic of Empire, Colonialism and Slavery.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex is not fully white. So the British Royal Family have been using her marriage to Henry, Duke of Sussex to heavily target this untapped market of potential supporters.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex is also American. So the British Royal Family have been using the marriage to boost support amongst Americans. A group with whom British Monarchs have not been particularly popular since that little War of Independence in 1776.
Brexit has prompted much debate over whether Prime Minister at the time, David Cameron, is in fact the worst British Prime Minister in history. That title was previously held by Frederick Lord North. Prime Minister during Britain's defeat in the American War of Independence.
As the popular claim goes; "Lord North lost America. Prime Minister Cameron lost Europe."
Apart from the national embarrassment that is the Duke and Duchess of Sussex Sweden is particularly mocking the British Monarch's refusal to intervene in Brexit. In order to bring the chaos to an end.
The current Duke of Sussex seems to very much like public money, but not so much the public service that comes along with it. The Monarch though still very much has a constitutional role within British politics.
One possible way out of the Brexit deadlock is for the Monarch to dissolve Parliament. Then adopt the Withdrawal Agreement on Britain's behalf. Allowing Parliamentarians to return only after voters have decided if they want to keep employing them.
Initially that would sound like a very controversial proposal. Much of the last 800 years of British politics have been focused on limiting the power of the Monarch.
In 1215 there was the Great Charter (Magna Carta). Although a famous political ruse this was intended to limit the power of national King John had over the local Lords. Essentially mini-Kings. It was all very Game of Thrones back then.
In 1295, following the failure of the Magna Carta, these Lords were given a formal role in the passing of British laws. When the first House of Lords was established to replace the King's Great Council.
The House of Commons was established in 1649, initially as a replacement for the House of Lords. However in 1690 the House of Lords was reestablished, working alongside the House of Commons.
It's worth pointing out that the House of Commons is not there to represent the general public. It is there to represent "Commoners." A specific legal class of peasant who are afforded grazing rights on lands owned by the Crown. It still very much applies in the New Forest, particularly amongst horse people.
The notion of allowing the public to vote to choose who represented them in the House of Commons didn't come into effect until 1832. It wasn't expanded to include all citizens aged over 18 years, including women, until 1969.
However at no point throughout that 800 year history has Britain faced a constitutional crisis like the one it is in now. All the conflicts have been about trying to get the unelected and powerful to respect the will of the wider population.
In Brexit we are seeing elected representatives simply refusing to respect the the will of the people. It has turned the whole structure of the British constitution on its head.
Providing a safety valve in this sort of extreme and rare situation is exactly why Britain still keeps a Royal Family on the payroll.
The Song Contest community are likely to be particularly unconvinced by claims that it would be unconstitutional for the British Monarch to intervene in Brexit. They're familiar with how the British Monarch has already intervened in Brexit.
While it may be hard to remember the Brexit referendum took place all the way back in June 2016. In May 2016 Britain was represented at the Song Contest by Joe & Jake with the song; "You Are Not Alone."
With lyrics such as; "Heartbeat, when you’re not around its beating" and; "All that you want is right here forever, and they don't need to know" it was a reference to this hidden, unseen power.
It's main message was that the Brexit referendum would not be free and fair. The British Monarch would intervene to ensure that Britain remained in the EU.
On June 16th 2016 (16/6/16) that promise was kept. Just as the result of the referendum looked like it was slipping away from Remain and into the hands of Leave.
The Labour MP Jo Cox was shot and killed in her Batley & Spen constituency as she campaigned for Remain. Her killer was initially portrayed as a supporter of the Leave campaign.
If British counter-terrorism police weren't completely in the thrall of that strange alliance between Muslim extremists and British leftists this would have triggered an investigation into Jo Cox's role as an unlawful combatant.
Someone who was providing both material and moral support to declared enemies of Britain such as Al Qaeda and the Army of Islam/Jaish al-Islam. Despite being in the full knowledge that they were committing War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity in Syria.
Contrary to Article 4 of the Third Geneva Convention & Article 7 of the 1998 Rome Statute. Just in case any of Jo Cox's co-conspirators wish to dispute that fact. In Court or elsewhere.
Unfortunately British counter-terrorism police are completely in the thrall of that strange alliance between Muslim extremists and British leftists. Something the debate over captured ISIL members has shown they very clearly need to work on.
The immediate objective of the entirely lawful killing of Jo Cox was to smear the Leave campaign. At the same time freezing the referendum campaign while Remain still had a small lead.
A big part of the reason I voted Leave was because I thought this would work. Meaning Remain would win so voting Leave allowed me to participate without actually affecting the result. It was the one time I wanted my vote not to count.
At the 2017 Song Contest Britain was represented by Lucie Jones. With the song; "Never Give Up On You."
This featured lyrics such as; "Tell me your secrets // I’ll keep ‘em safe," "You're not defeated // You're in repair" and; "Just give me your hand and hold on // Together we’ll dance through this storm."
Its main message was another reassurance to the EU. That the secret, hidden power would make sure that despite the referendum result Britain would never actually leave the EU.
At the 2018 Song Contest Britain was represented by SuRie. With the song; "Storm."
This featured lyrics such as; "I still have faith" and; "Storms don't last // Forever.. forever.. // Remember."
Again the main message another reminder that the secret, hidden power would make sure Britain remained in the EU. Although by that point even they were starting to doubt themselves.
17:20 on 23/5/19 (UK date). More to follow.
Edited at around 19:30 on 23/5/19 (UK date) to copy & paste from another window;
This year Britain seems to have finally given up hope of the Monarch stepping in to block Brexit. Their song was based entirely around the idea that Britain would have already left the EU by this point.
My experience suggests they are right in that assessment.
You may have noticed that I was almost completely absent during the referendum campaign. I was also almost completely absent in the period between the referendum and the Withdrawal Agreement being sent to the British Parliament.
Then I suddenly got very involved.
That wasn't because I'd suddenly developed an interest in the topic. Nor that I suddenly discovered I had a lot of free time on my hands.
It's because I got the impression that an order had come down from that secret, hidden power. Giving me the task, or mission of making sure the Withdrawal Agreement was adopted and Britain left the EU.
For example my local area suddenly became flooded with these supposedly rare 50p pieces. Rather the special 50p piece which is supposed to be issued to mark Brexit.
Providing me with an example of the Regulatory Divergence that already exists between Northern Ireland and the British mainland. The issuance of currency.
Then there was that strange, anonymous phonecall I received telling me, in code obviously, that the December Parliamentary vote had been cancelled. And rescheduled for January 15th (15/1/19). I got that call before Parliament was informed and, I almost think, before the Prime Minister was informed.
Meanwhile there was that saga of the drones at Gatwick Airport. Highlighting to possible consequences of the Withdrawal Agreement being rejected. Even as late as March 29th (29/3/19) HM Armed Forces were in place to manage a No Deal.
I'm still not particularly interested in Brexit. I am though very interested in democracy. The basic principle that elected representatives must respect the outcome of elections.
So much like Yahya Jammeh in The Gambia that was a request I felt I could accept. Plus I thought it would only last a couple of weeks. Until March 29th (29/3/19) at the latest.
Sweden certainly thinks its time for Remoaners to give up on the idea of blocking Brexit. And for the British Monarch to intervene to break the Parliamentary deadlock.
There is an old saying that; "It's not over until the fat lady sings."
Sweden's performance featured four fat ladies. All singing.
It seems to have been a popular opinion. Sweden finished 5th.
However this Swedish mockery did not go down well with the British Royal Family.
So on May 9th (9/5/19) there was a very curious incident. At the Seven Kings Masjid/Mosque in London, UK.
Apparently a white man, similar to the one who lawfully killed Jo Cox, had become very angry at Muslims. So angry that he'd gone to the trouble of illegally obtaining a firearm, totally banned in the UK. He then marched into the Mosque to kill Muslims. In a repeat of the Christchurch, New Zealand shootings.
Upon entering the Mosque his anger suddenly disappeared. He decided not to carry out his terror attack because he was politely asked not to.
British leftists and counter-terrorism police were obviously appalled by this victimisation of Muslims.
To everyone else though it sounded about as credible as Jussie Smollett's claim that he'd been a victim of a racist attack. Carried out by supporters of US President Trump.
You may remember that the actor from the US TV show; "Empire" paid two Nigerian brothers to stage a racist attack on him. Either out of simple attention seeking, to boost his profile during contract negotiations or to politically smear President Trump.
As I've mentioned Jon Lundvik is already an accomplished song writer.
Alongside the Swedish Royal Family and the British Song Contest delegation he's also written for this US TV show. I believe it's called Empire.
19:40 on 23/5/19 (UK date). More to follow. Tomorrow.
Edited at around 15:00 on 24/5/19 (UK date) to copy & paste from another window;
Another major theme of this years Song Contest has been the Western Balkans issue. I will deal with that more fully in the appropriate section.
However the main element of the Western Balkans issue is plans for Albania and Macedonia to join the EU. Therefore there was always likely to be some overlap with Britain's plans to leave the EU.
Albania and Macedonia's attempts to join the EU was scheduled to be the main item on the agenda for the December 2018 EU Council (EUCO) Summit. Up until the point the summit was hijacked by Britain and its Parliamentarians complete inability to comprehend the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.
At that point the Western Balkans and Brexit issues became inextricably linked in EU politics.
They became even more closely joined together when current EUCO President Donald Tusk conspired with British Remoaners. In order to block Brexit despite the referendum result.
North Macedonia: This year they were represented by Tamara Todevska. With the song; "Proud."
The long standing barrier to Macedonia joining the EU has been its name.
Macedonia the country shares its name with the Macedonia Province of Greece. Greece's Macedonia province immediately borders Macedonia the country. So Greece has long objected to the country's use of the name as it implies a territorial claim over the Greek province.
Since its inception Macedonia has been formally known as; "The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Or FYR Macedonia.
After years of EU-led negotiations Greece agreed to allow Macedonia to join the EU. Provided FYR Macedonia agreed to change its name to; "North Macedonia." The Macedonian government agreed. Pending the idea being supported by a public referendum in September 2018.
In writing the rules of this referendum the EU agreed that it would need a turnout of at least 50% in order to be legally binding.
However the name change idea was deeply unpopular amongst Macedonian voters who boycotted the vote. Meaning that it had a turnout of 36%. Effectively meaning that 64% of Macedonians rejected the name change.
In its own uniquely democratic way the EU then overturned the referendum law and imposed the name change of Macedonia anyway. Without a hint of irony the EU even hailed this deeply unpopular and widely boycotted referendum as an amazing victory for democracy.
This is the first Song Contest where Macedonia is appearing under its new formal name; "North Macedonia."
Officially the song is written for Tamara Todevska's two daughters. It is about having the strength of character and live your own life in a man's world.
However the opening verse features the lyrics; "They will try to tell you what to do // How to look, smile, act and move // All the rules are made for you to lose."
The recurring chorus is; "Tell them // Raise your voice and say it loudly // Show them, what it means to stand up proudly // Tell them // This is me and thanks to you I am proud."
It is a barely disguised protest against the EU. And the name change the EU has imposed on Macedonia.
In defiance of the will of the Macedonian people, clearly expressed through the referendum.
As such it also serves as a protest against the EU. And EUCO President Tusk's attempts to trap Britain in the EU.
In defiance of the will of the British people, clearly expressed through the referendum.
The song was extremely popular.
It actually won the vote by the national juries. Meaning that if the public vote had not been included then this protest against the EU would actually have won the 2019 Song Contest.
Which was in danger of giving me a panic attack . Not that I have anything against Macedonia. After Israel my only hope for the 2020 Song Contest was the safest of safe European homes.
That protest against the EU finished 7th overall.
15:25 on 24/5/19 (UK date).
Wednesday 22 May 2019
Eurovision 2019: ASIE: Brexit.
One of the major themes of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest was Britain's exit from the European Union (EU). The Brexit.
Long before a chord had been played or a note sung this theme was dominated by the nation which is leaving the EU.
The United Kingdom: This year they were represented by Michael Rice with the song; "Bigger Than Us."
What was particularly interesting about Britain's entry was the way it was chosen. Through the televised "Eurovision: You Decide" program in early February 2019.
This saw Britain's professional Eurovision delegation select three songs and six acts.
So two acts performed different versions of the first song.
Two acts performed different versions of the second song.The final two acts performed different versions of the third song. In the first round of voting viewers selected the winning act for each song.
Then in a second round of voting they selected the winning song.
This helped educate viewers by showing how the same song can been given very different meanings. Through the context in which it is presented. The musical arrangement and the physical staging of the performance etc.
The alternate act for the song Bigger Than Us was Holly Tandy.
She performed the song in a Country & Western style. With the emphasis very much on the Western. The staging of the performance invoked the classic American western movies such as; "High Noon" and "Gunfight at the OK Corral."
In this context the song was a warning to the Hard Brexiteers.
The British MP's who want to withdraw from the EU without any sort of agreement. The No Deal scenario. Then use Britain's outstanding debts to the EU as a weapon to force the EU into giving Britain favourable future trading terms.
The warning to the Hard Brexiteers being that the EU is bigger than Britain. It's bigger than you and me. Starting that fight will be a losing game.
Britain was scheduled to leave the EU on March 29th 2019 (29/3/19). Then again on April 12th (12/4/19).
So back in early February 2019 both Britain's professional delegation and the voting public reasonably concluded that Britain would have left the EU by the start of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest. Which began on May 12th (12/5/19).
Rendering the Hard Brexiteer's demands for a No Deal moot. Along with Holly Tandy's interpretation of the song.
So instead they selected the Michael Rice version.
In this context the song is all about Britain's future relationship both with the EU and the rest of the World.
It expresses a lot of love for the EU and wishes for a continued close relationship. However it also expresses the importance of seeking close relationships with others.
Essentially the World is bigger than just Britain and the EU. Or; "Bigger than us, bigger than me and (E)U."
In its staging the song invoked lots of the imagery of outer space and the galaxy. Or how the globe, not just Europe, is viewed from space.
In this is was similar to the staging of Australia's entry. A nod to Australia and the Commonwealth being the type of nations Britain would be seeking a closer relationship with.
Beyond that main message there was also a very solid sub-plot to Britain's entry. Provided by Michael Rice's life story. As emphasised by the official artist biography submitted in support of the entry.
Micheal Rice worked in the fast-food chain; "McDonald's." He appeared on the UK version of X-Factor in 2014 and won the similar TV singing contest; "All Together Now" in 2018. He used the £50,000 prize money from that victory to open his own Waffle and Crepe Shack restaurant in his native Hartlepool.
Hartlepool is a town in the North-East of England. At the 2016 EU referendum it voted Leave with 69% of the vote to Remain's 30%. One of the largest margins in the entire country.
In this tradition of xenophobia Hartlepool is probably most famous for once hanging a monkey as a French spy. During the Napoleonic Wars. What makes the story even worse is that they actually arrested the monkey, put it on trial, allowed it to submit a defence, convicted it and then executed it.
More than 200 years later Hartlepool has still not lived that down. Instead being forced to steer into the skid by erecting a statue to the monkey. The town's local football and rugby teams all claim ownership to the; "Monkey Hangers" nickname.
You have to wonder how much appetite there is for Belgian waffles and French crepes in a town like Hartlepool.
With it being hosted by Israel there has been lots of talk about boycotts surrounding the 2019 Song Contest. For a long time I have boycotted McDonald's. First as a political stance, then more as a habit. After all there are many better burger restaurants you can easily find.
During this year's Song Contest events conspired to force me into a branch of McDonald's for the first time in about 15 years. I was stunned by how it had changed since my last visit.
McDonald's has always been a fast-food restaurant rather than a fine dining experience. It was the first such company to use production line techniques to provide large amounts of pretty low quality food very quickly.
It's gone even further now. Rather than being any sort of restaurant McDonald's is now essentially an Amazon warehouse. Or; "Customer Fulfilment Centre." People order their food at home via the McDonald's App. The food is prepared in a kitchen and then collected by delivery drivers who take it to the customer.
If you wander into a branch in person, trying to buy food with cash you don't half confuse people.
Michael Rice's time spent working at McDonald's allows you to get into a discussion about the so-called; "Gig Economy." A shift in many European economies where big tech companies employ people to do little jobs like delivering orders on an ad-hoc basis.
In Britain, in the catering sector the two big companies are; "Deliveroo" and "JustEat." I think the most famous overall is the car-share company "Uber" which is effectively a taxi service. Uber are even trying to get into the food delivery business with; "UberEats."
All of these companies are very clear on the fact they don't employ people in the legal sense of the word. Instead they sub-contract the work to independent business owners. This means that they don't have to pay pension contributions, payroll taxes, etc. Or provide holiday pay or sick pay.
This is a big problem across the Eurovision area. The people who work in the gig economy are exactly the sort of low skilled, poorly paid workers much of the last hundred years has been spent trying to secure protections for. Things like holiday pay and sick pay.
It is also costing governments a huge amount of money in lost payroll taxes and pensions contributions. While they're still being expected to provide pensions and unemployment insurance.
If you were able to stretch it you could also use this to talk about London's growing violent crime problem.
In July 2018 London made global headlines when a gang on motor scooters attacked six people with acid. At various locations across the city in a spree of attacks. The gang were using scooters stolen from Deliveroo and JustEat drivers to attack more Deliveroo and JustEat drivers and steal their scooters. Either to sell or to commit more crime.
Once you start talking about London's growing violent crime problem you have to talk about Sadiq Khan, the Mayor responsible for it.
An ethnically Pakistani, rather than Arab, Muslim Sadiq Khan is a member of the famously anti-Semitic Labour Party. His election in 2016 was marred by London's Jewish population being systematically denied their right to vote.
Michael Rice's career path also allows you to discuss the effect of technology on the economy.
Although it's not quite there yet you can easily see McDonald's becoming a fully automated business. The food is ordered by App, prepared by robots and then delivered by self-driving vehicles. That is obviously going to leave a lot of people unemployed.
Michael Rice's Waffle and Crepe Shack though might be one of the areas of the catering industry which survives the rise of automation. Somewhere that continues to employ people because interaction with people is more part of the dining experience than the food.
My mothers actually provide another good example of this.
As you may have guessed from the lack of an apostrophe my mothers are lesbians. However I don't bring that up as an attempt at queer-baiting. Like the Republic of Ireland did in 2018, and were very keen to remind us about this year. It's simply a fact, without which it's quite hard to tell the story-
Dispelling precisely no lesbian stereotypes last summer my mothers decided to acquire some kittens. Which are now growing up into fully fledged cats.
My mothers didn't acquire these kittens by going to a pet shop or a rescue centre. Instead there is a coffee shop they regularly attend. Not really to drink coffee. Instead to have a bit of a chat and watch the world go by.
Whilst chatting to one of the members of staff they learnt that another regular at the coffee shop had a cat who had just had kittens. Kittens they were looking to find homes for. After being introduced by the coffee shop staff that customer decided my mothers would provide a suitable home for at least two of those kittens.
As you may have heard my mothers live in Salisbury. So simply mentioning them brings all that up again.
Obviously there are issues around ground rents and business taxes. However a coffee shop is the sort of low overhead business that might survive the move to automation. By providing that human interaction and social environment.
While they may still provide jobs coffee shops won't be able to pay their staff the sort of salary you would expect if you've just lost your job as, say, a doctor or a lawyer. That brings up a possible future role for government in providing a sort of Universal Basic Income for its citizens.
In short big corporations get to make massive profits by replacing their human workers with robots. However rather than those profits being kept by a small group of shareholders governments take a large part of them in taxes. Those taxes are then paid to citizens. They can live on that basic income or top it up by working in a place like a coffee shop.
The companies might actually be more supportive of this idea than you would think. Even in an automated economy you still need humans with money to buy products. I don't fancy McDonald's chances of feeding its burgers to a robot.
There has already been a little experimentation with the broad idea of Universal Basic Income. Switzerland had a referendum on introducing one in 2016. Finland actually launched one for a one year trial in 2017. Britain's Labour Party have adopted a manifesto pledge to introduce one.
That though is far too premature. Universal Basic Income is only being discussed as something in the very distant future. Rather like how a hundred years ago the notion of only having to work eight hours a day, five days a week sounded like the height of laziness.
You could even drag this issue back to the Brexit debate. One British MP who is extremely opposed to Brexit is Labour's Jess Phillips. She is the absolute personification of people who only get into politics because they too incompetent to find work elsewhere.
Having absolutely no understanding of the issues or even basic competence Jess Phillips likes to play up her "Woman of the People" routine. She spends much of her time in her constituency office drinking tea with lonely people who would otherwise be hanging out in coffee shops.
For that Britain pays her £77,000 per year. Far more than your typical barista.
If Britain had left the EU as planned on March 29th (29/3/19). Or even on April 12th (12/4/19) Michael Rice stood a strong chance of winning.
The entry set the right tone on the Brexit issue. It also had a strong sub-plot. The way the song was selected also helped.
Britain's big problem at the Song Contest is that it treats it with utter contempt. It spends the whole time mocking it and the people involved in it as stupid. Then expects to those people to declare Britain the winner.
This year Britain showed respect for the competition by putting the selection show on primetime television. All the way back in February.
That helped people engage with the competition early on, far earlier than just the Grand Finale. The use of the same song being performed by different acts also helped educate people about the Song Contest and how it works.
Up until the point British Parliamentarians got involved the Brexit it negotiations had been conducted in a spirit of goodwill by all sides. If things had gone to plan its likely that mutual goodwill would have continued and transferred over into Eurovision.
As is the point of the song Britain leaving the EU is not the end of the process. It is merely the start of a two year negotiation over Britain's future relationship with the EU.
There are many members of Eurovision who are not also members of the EU. Iceland, Israel, Belarus just off the top of my head. I think a lot those nations would be very interested in the idea of sending a delegation to Britain in the spring of 2020. To see up close how things are going.
Those who are bitter about Britain leaving the EU would certainly see the funny side in forcing Britain to pay to host the 2020 Song Contest.
Unfortunately Britain has still not left the EU. Which rather turned its Song Contest entry this year into crap.
So even above all the noise of Brexit Day (29/3/19) I think you could still just about hear British Song Contest fans uttering the immortal phrase;
"Oh, B*llocks."
The country which won the Brexit theme was the Netherlands. They actually went on to win the entire competition. So I will cover them fully in a Winners & Stand-Outs section.
The Netherlands: They were represented by Duncan Laurence with the song; "Arcade."
This was heavily inspired by the Roy Orbison song; "Penny Arcade." Or more accurately the version used by Northern Ireland's Protestant marching bands to antagonise Northern Ireland's Catholics.
In that context it is a song about the history of how the recent civil war, "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland began.
In the city LondonDerry local Catholics were protesting against their poor living conditions. A government subsidised house had just been denied to a Catholic family. So it could be given to a single Protestant woman.
The Protestant "Apprentice Boys" organisation decided to antagonise the Catholic protesters by rolling pennies down the street at them. This worked and an absolutely massive riot ensued. From the ashes of that 1969 "Battle of the Bogside" the Catholic Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) rose like a Phoenix.
For a very long time the traditional colour of Irish Catholics was blue. Then it became the green is still used today. On that day in Derry the green rapidly changed to the red of anger.
The opening line of Penny Arcade is; "A light shown in the night some way ahead, blue turned into green then it was red."
So although its not what Roy Orbison intended in that context Penny Arcade is Protestants mocking Catholics for being poor. And challenging them to a fight. To see if they can; "Ring the bell on the big bagatelle."
The Dutch song "Arcade" also cleverly references another famous Protestant marching song called; "The Sash My Father Wore." That's about travelling to a foreign land and being carried home again.
This provides a teachable moment about the Song Contest's golden "No Overt Politics" rule.
With its hidden political meaning Penny Arcade is the sort of song you can get away with at Eurovision. With its clear political meaning The Sash is the sort of song you definitely won't get away with at Eurovision.
The main message of the entry though is the Netherlands showing support for the Backstop Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland in the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement. This is intended to preserve the 1998 Belfast Agreement which ended the civil war.
Reminding people how the war started also reminds people why it's important that it ended.
It is highly significant that it is the Netherlands delivering this message.
Northern Ireland's Protestants oppose the Backstop Protocol because they see it as a threat to their British identity. The irony is that through their marching season they're actually marking the anniversary of the Dutch invasion of Ireland in 1690. Under King William (Billy) of Orange.
One of the largest Protestant organisations in Northern Ireland is the Orange Order. As in the Order of the House of Orange. The Royal house which still rules over the Netherlands.
Northern Ireland's largest Protestant political party is the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). Much of their support comes from within the Orange Order.These days the neither the DUP nor the Orange Order have much at all to do with the Dutch House of Orange.
The big theatrical gesture here though is the House of Orange ordering the Orange Order and the DUP to support the Backstop Protocol.
More precisely though. It is common in functioning democracies for small parties to oppose something only for it to pass anyway. Making their opposition little more than a symbolic gesture. That's not intended as an insult. It's the way the game is played.
So I think everyone involved in the Brexit negotiations recognises and respects the DUP's 10 MP's right to vote against the Withdrawal Agreement. In fact they seem to be relying on it to make sure the next phase of negotiations is completed on schedule. Meaning the Backstop Protocol is never used.
Therefore the real target of the song is the Hard Brexiteer and Remoaner MP's who don't have the DUP's mandate. Yet have latched themselves onto the DUP's cause for their own selfish reasons.
It is those people's supposed love for the DUP which is the losing game.
At around 17:15 on 22/5/19 (UK date) there's so much more to add.
Edited at around 20:00 on 22/5/19 (UK date) to copy & paste from another window;
Denmark: This year they were represented by Leonora with the song; "Love is Forever."
This song was performed in three languages. Leonora's native Danish. Along with English, French and German.
Britain, France and German are considered the Big Three of the EU. The three largest economies which have dominated the EU since its inception. The builders of the EU as it were.
In all the promotional work for the entry the Danes made a point of declaring that the message of the song was to show that; "Love is for everyone, regardless of nationality or religion." The lyrics of the saccharine sweet song made that message quite clear.
Lyrics such as; "Why should we fight, all we need is love" and; "Come discover life, the good weather is not over."
So you would think this would be the anthem of the Remoaners of Remainiacs. Those in Britain, particularly MP's who are desperate for Britain to remain in the EU.
It really wasn't though.
Denmark appears to have grown so frustrated by these Remoaners or Remainiacs and their constant delays to Brexit they were not happy to simply tell Europe Denmark thinks they're idiots. They were trying to trick the Remoaners or Remainiacs to prove to all of Europe that they're idiots.
The main gimmick of the staging of the performance was the singers sitting on this massive chair.
In the video in support of the song that chair was supposed to represent the structure of the EU. With the Danish singer sitting alongside backing singers in traditionally German, French and British outfits. Intending to show that we are all just small parts of the EU superstructure.
However it also resembled that famous photograph of workers eating lunch on a steel girder. As they built New York City's famous 30 Rockefeller Plaza in 1932. The picture is formally titled; "Lunch Atop a Skyscraper, 1932."
With this Denmark took its first shot at British Remoaner MP's who keep blocking Brexit.
When Britain failed to exit the EU on March 29th (29/3/19) British Steel, the steelmaker became liable for a £120m bill. To offset the cost of its carbon emissions. The British government lent the company £100m to cover the cost of that bill.
That though wasn't enough and, just today, the company went bankrupt. With the loss of 20,000 jobs across the supply chain.
So when British Remoaner MP's tell you they're blocking Brexit to protect British workers. Don't be fool enough to believe them.
Also the workers in the famous photograph aren't actually doing any work.
Much like how British Remoaner MP's aren't actually doing any work.
In fact the real reason they keep blocking Brexit is because they're terrified of actually having to do a day's work. Rather than relying on the EU structure to do it for them.
By the time of the Song Contest itself Denmark's frustration with the Remoaners had grown even further.
The massive chair was now the centrepiece of a stage decorated like a children's nursery. The performers were the silly little children messing about in the nursery.
Just like British Remoaner MP's are the silly little children messing about in Parliament.
Britain's Remoaners or Remainiacs brought this on themselves. By constantly dragging Denmark into their; "Project Fear." Attempts to terrify the public to remain within in the EU.
Denmark is one of the World's largest manufacturers of the drug Insulin. Providing almost all the EU's supply of the drug. Including Britain.
Remoaners or Remaniacs like to claim that the moment Britain leaves the EU it's Insulin supply will be cut off. Diabetics will die in their hundreds in the streets.
Some of the more theatric have even taken to bursting into tears on actual news programs, traumatised by the prospect of the death of their friends.
Denmark of course knows this is all complete nonsense.
The Withdrawal Agreement Remoaner MP's keep voting against will keep Britain's trading relationship with the EU exactly the same for two years. Even in the event of No Deal Denmark will keep doing what it's always done with Britain's Insulin supply. Fly it in on EU registered aircraft.
Most of Britain's medical drugs don't even come from the EU. They're made by generic manufacturers. One of the largest, Teva, is actually based in Israel. It's Jerusalem factory has caused a lot of controversy in recent years.
As some people may have pointed out recently Israel is not a member of the EU. We're all still waiting for the Remoaners to explain how Brexit is, in any way, going to affect Britain's ability to import drugs from Israel.
This claim that diabetics will die in their hundreds is just one example of the astonishing lies Remoaner MP's feel they can tell public. It is also a serious indictment of the bias of British journalists who won't correct even the most obvious Remoaner lies.
For example, according to the Remoaners and the BBC, everything that has gone wrong is the result of Britain leaving the EU.
The only exception is today's collapse of British Steel. Which has undeniably being brought about by Britain failing to leave the EU as planned.
That though, is apparently the only thing which has absolutely nothing to do with Brexit.
Denmark also took a shot at the Irish Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Leo Varadkar.
In December 2017 Leo Varadkar released a video address to the nation. It showed him sitting in a chair which seemed too large. Behind a table which seemed too big. On that table stood an absolutely massive lamp.
In short it made Leo Varadkar look as though someone had put him in a washing machine on too hot a wash and he had shrunk.
The video was released on a Friday. That weekend was spent with the entire population of Ireland making fun of Wee Leo Varadkar.
Within the Brexit negotiations Leo Varadkar is starting to behave like one of the silly children messing about in the nursery. He keeps trying to block Brexit because he doesn't want it to disrupt trade between Ireland and Northern Ireland.
What he seems to have failed to realise is that cross-border trade is covered by the 1998 Belfast Agreement. As such it is an aspect of National Security. It is well established under both EU and international law that national security takes all precedence over trade policy.
So even in a No Deal the EU couldn't force Ireland to stop cross-border trade with Northern Ireland.
It certainly couldn't do it in the time a No Deal would force British Remoaner MP's to back down, apologise and adopt the Withdrawal Agreement.
Hungary: This year they were represented by Joci Papai with the song; "Az e'n apam (My Father).
The main theme of Hungary's entry was primarily a protest against Israel's behaviour in the Israel/Palestine Conflict. By comparing the suffering of Europe's Jews with the suffering of Europe's Gypsies. First under the Nazis and then under the Soviets.
Europe's Jews suffering under the Nazis is of course well known. They seem to have got a country out of it and a free pass to behave as badly as they like.
Particularly in America Europe's Jews suffering under the Soviets is also very well known. It was a recurring story of the Cold War.
Throughout the Cold War Russian Jews would try to flee Soviet oppression by emigrating to Israel. Every time they applied for an exit visa it would be refused. The application form coming back with the word; "Otkaz" or "Refusal" stamped on it.
As a result these Russian Jews became known as "Otkazniks" or "Refuseniks." Those who have been refused.
The British media have taken to referring to Remoaner MP's, such as Yvette Cooper etc, who are trying to block Brexit as; "Refuseniks."
The worst offender is the ITN politics editor Robert Peston. It are ITN reports which go out to the EBU newspool. So Peston's Brexit coverage is the Brexit coverage most seen by EBU members.
If you know a bit of Russian or are familiar with the very famous Cold War story having Remoaner MP's described as Refuseniks really sets your teeth on edge. Every time you hear it.
In the Brexit metaphor the Refuseniks are the are the MP's who want to leave the EU. Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage, Jacob Rees-Mogg etc.
The likes of Yvette Cooper are the anti-Semitic, totalitarian bureaucrats who keep stamping "Refusal" on the application to leave.
The correct Russian term for what the Remoaners are doing is; "Maskirovka." In this sense meaning; "Little Masquerade."
It's a tactic developed by Josef Stalin. The idea is you bombard the public with false and conflicting information.
Such as Brexit means diabetics will die in the street. When in reality Denmark will keep flying in Insulin, just the same as before.
Or that the Withdrawal Agreement must be rejected to protect workers rights. When in reality the Withdrawal Agreement keeps workers rights exactly as they are now.
Or that Brexit will restart The Troubles civil war in Northern Ireland. When in reality the 1998 Belfast Agreement, as a peace treaty completely protects cross-border trade.
The objective of Maskirovka is to confuse the public to the point they just give up and stop trying to understand what is going on.
Instead handing all decisions and all power to anti-Semitic, totalitarian bureaucrats like Stalin.
Part Two to follow.
20:10 on 22/5/19 (UK date).
Long before a chord had been played or a note sung this theme was dominated by the nation which is leaving the EU.
The United Kingdom: This year they were represented by Michael Rice with the song; "Bigger Than Us."
What was particularly interesting about Britain's entry was the way it was chosen. Through the televised "Eurovision: You Decide" program in early February 2019.
This saw Britain's professional Eurovision delegation select three songs and six acts.
So two acts performed different versions of the first song.
Two acts performed different versions of the second song.The final two acts performed different versions of the third song. In the first round of voting viewers selected the winning act for each song.
Then in a second round of voting they selected the winning song.
This helped educate viewers by showing how the same song can been given very different meanings. Through the context in which it is presented. The musical arrangement and the physical staging of the performance etc.
The alternate act for the song Bigger Than Us was Holly Tandy.
She performed the song in a Country & Western style. With the emphasis very much on the Western. The staging of the performance invoked the classic American western movies such as; "High Noon" and "Gunfight at the OK Corral."
In this context the song was a warning to the Hard Brexiteers.
The British MP's who want to withdraw from the EU without any sort of agreement. The No Deal scenario. Then use Britain's outstanding debts to the EU as a weapon to force the EU into giving Britain favourable future trading terms.
The warning to the Hard Brexiteers being that the EU is bigger than Britain. It's bigger than you and me. Starting that fight will be a losing game.
Britain was scheduled to leave the EU on March 29th 2019 (29/3/19). Then again on April 12th (12/4/19).
So back in early February 2019 both Britain's professional delegation and the voting public reasonably concluded that Britain would have left the EU by the start of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest. Which began on May 12th (12/5/19).
Rendering the Hard Brexiteer's demands for a No Deal moot. Along with Holly Tandy's interpretation of the song.
So instead they selected the Michael Rice version.
In this context the song is all about Britain's future relationship both with the EU and the rest of the World.
It expresses a lot of love for the EU and wishes for a continued close relationship. However it also expresses the importance of seeking close relationships with others.
Essentially the World is bigger than just Britain and the EU. Or; "Bigger than us, bigger than me and (E)U."
In its staging the song invoked lots of the imagery of outer space and the galaxy. Or how the globe, not just Europe, is viewed from space.
In this is was similar to the staging of Australia's entry. A nod to Australia and the Commonwealth being the type of nations Britain would be seeking a closer relationship with.
Beyond that main message there was also a very solid sub-plot to Britain's entry. Provided by Michael Rice's life story. As emphasised by the official artist biography submitted in support of the entry.
Micheal Rice worked in the fast-food chain; "McDonald's." He appeared on the UK version of X-Factor in 2014 and won the similar TV singing contest; "All Together Now" in 2018. He used the £50,000 prize money from that victory to open his own Waffle and Crepe Shack restaurant in his native Hartlepool.
Hartlepool is a town in the North-East of England. At the 2016 EU referendum it voted Leave with 69% of the vote to Remain's 30%. One of the largest margins in the entire country.
In this tradition of xenophobia Hartlepool is probably most famous for once hanging a monkey as a French spy. During the Napoleonic Wars. What makes the story even worse is that they actually arrested the monkey, put it on trial, allowed it to submit a defence, convicted it and then executed it.
More than 200 years later Hartlepool has still not lived that down. Instead being forced to steer into the skid by erecting a statue to the monkey. The town's local football and rugby teams all claim ownership to the; "Monkey Hangers" nickname.
You have to wonder how much appetite there is for Belgian waffles and French crepes in a town like Hartlepool.
With it being hosted by Israel there has been lots of talk about boycotts surrounding the 2019 Song Contest. For a long time I have boycotted McDonald's. First as a political stance, then more as a habit. After all there are many better burger restaurants you can easily find.
During this year's Song Contest events conspired to force me into a branch of McDonald's for the first time in about 15 years. I was stunned by how it had changed since my last visit.
McDonald's has always been a fast-food restaurant rather than a fine dining experience. It was the first such company to use production line techniques to provide large amounts of pretty low quality food very quickly.
It's gone even further now. Rather than being any sort of restaurant McDonald's is now essentially an Amazon warehouse. Or; "Customer Fulfilment Centre." People order their food at home via the McDonald's App. The food is prepared in a kitchen and then collected by delivery drivers who take it to the customer.
If you wander into a branch in person, trying to buy food with cash you don't half confuse people.
Michael Rice's time spent working at McDonald's allows you to get into a discussion about the so-called; "Gig Economy." A shift in many European economies where big tech companies employ people to do little jobs like delivering orders on an ad-hoc basis.
In Britain, in the catering sector the two big companies are; "Deliveroo" and "JustEat." I think the most famous overall is the car-share company "Uber" which is effectively a taxi service. Uber are even trying to get into the food delivery business with; "UberEats."
All of these companies are very clear on the fact they don't employ people in the legal sense of the word. Instead they sub-contract the work to independent business owners. This means that they don't have to pay pension contributions, payroll taxes, etc. Or provide holiday pay or sick pay.
This is a big problem across the Eurovision area. The people who work in the gig economy are exactly the sort of low skilled, poorly paid workers much of the last hundred years has been spent trying to secure protections for. Things like holiday pay and sick pay.
It is also costing governments a huge amount of money in lost payroll taxes and pensions contributions. While they're still being expected to provide pensions and unemployment insurance.
If you were able to stretch it you could also use this to talk about London's growing violent crime problem.
In July 2018 London made global headlines when a gang on motor scooters attacked six people with acid. At various locations across the city in a spree of attacks. The gang were using scooters stolen from Deliveroo and JustEat drivers to attack more Deliveroo and JustEat drivers and steal their scooters. Either to sell or to commit more crime.
Once you start talking about London's growing violent crime problem you have to talk about Sadiq Khan, the Mayor responsible for it.
An ethnically Pakistani, rather than Arab, Muslim Sadiq Khan is a member of the famously anti-Semitic Labour Party. His election in 2016 was marred by London's Jewish population being systematically denied their right to vote.
Michael Rice's career path also allows you to discuss the effect of technology on the economy.
Although it's not quite there yet you can easily see McDonald's becoming a fully automated business. The food is ordered by App, prepared by robots and then delivered by self-driving vehicles. That is obviously going to leave a lot of people unemployed.
Michael Rice's Waffle and Crepe Shack though might be one of the areas of the catering industry which survives the rise of automation. Somewhere that continues to employ people because interaction with people is more part of the dining experience than the food.
My mothers actually provide another good example of this.
As you may have guessed from the lack of an apostrophe my mothers are lesbians. However I don't bring that up as an attempt at queer-baiting. Like the Republic of Ireland did in 2018, and were very keen to remind us about this year. It's simply a fact, without which it's quite hard to tell the story-
Dispelling precisely no lesbian stereotypes last summer my mothers decided to acquire some kittens. Which are now growing up into fully fledged cats.
My mothers didn't acquire these kittens by going to a pet shop or a rescue centre. Instead there is a coffee shop they regularly attend. Not really to drink coffee. Instead to have a bit of a chat and watch the world go by.
Whilst chatting to one of the members of staff they learnt that another regular at the coffee shop had a cat who had just had kittens. Kittens they were looking to find homes for. After being introduced by the coffee shop staff that customer decided my mothers would provide a suitable home for at least two of those kittens.
As you may have heard my mothers live in Salisbury. So simply mentioning them brings all that up again.
Obviously there are issues around ground rents and business taxes. However a coffee shop is the sort of low overhead business that might survive the move to automation. By providing that human interaction and social environment.
While they may still provide jobs coffee shops won't be able to pay their staff the sort of salary you would expect if you've just lost your job as, say, a doctor or a lawyer. That brings up a possible future role for government in providing a sort of Universal Basic Income for its citizens.
In short big corporations get to make massive profits by replacing their human workers with robots. However rather than those profits being kept by a small group of shareholders governments take a large part of them in taxes. Those taxes are then paid to citizens. They can live on that basic income or top it up by working in a place like a coffee shop.
The companies might actually be more supportive of this idea than you would think. Even in an automated economy you still need humans with money to buy products. I don't fancy McDonald's chances of feeding its burgers to a robot.
There has already been a little experimentation with the broad idea of Universal Basic Income. Switzerland had a referendum on introducing one in 2016. Finland actually launched one for a one year trial in 2017. Britain's Labour Party have adopted a manifesto pledge to introduce one.
That though is far too premature. Universal Basic Income is only being discussed as something in the very distant future. Rather like how a hundred years ago the notion of only having to work eight hours a day, five days a week sounded like the height of laziness.
You could even drag this issue back to the Brexit debate. One British MP who is extremely opposed to Brexit is Labour's Jess Phillips. She is the absolute personification of people who only get into politics because they too incompetent to find work elsewhere.
Having absolutely no understanding of the issues or even basic competence Jess Phillips likes to play up her "Woman of the People" routine. She spends much of her time in her constituency office drinking tea with lonely people who would otherwise be hanging out in coffee shops.
For that Britain pays her £77,000 per year. Far more than your typical barista.
If Britain had left the EU as planned on March 29th (29/3/19). Or even on April 12th (12/4/19) Michael Rice stood a strong chance of winning.
The entry set the right tone on the Brexit issue. It also had a strong sub-plot. The way the song was selected also helped.
Britain's big problem at the Song Contest is that it treats it with utter contempt. It spends the whole time mocking it and the people involved in it as stupid. Then expects to those people to declare Britain the winner.
This year Britain showed respect for the competition by putting the selection show on primetime television. All the way back in February.
That helped people engage with the competition early on, far earlier than just the Grand Finale. The use of the same song being performed by different acts also helped educate people about the Song Contest and how it works.
Up until the point British Parliamentarians got involved the Brexit it negotiations had been conducted in a spirit of goodwill by all sides. If things had gone to plan its likely that mutual goodwill would have continued and transferred over into Eurovision.
As is the point of the song Britain leaving the EU is not the end of the process. It is merely the start of a two year negotiation over Britain's future relationship with the EU.
There are many members of Eurovision who are not also members of the EU. Iceland, Israel, Belarus just off the top of my head. I think a lot those nations would be very interested in the idea of sending a delegation to Britain in the spring of 2020. To see up close how things are going.
Those who are bitter about Britain leaving the EU would certainly see the funny side in forcing Britain to pay to host the 2020 Song Contest.
Unfortunately Britain has still not left the EU. Which rather turned its Song Contest entry this year into crap.
So even above all the noise of Brexit Day (29/3/19) I think you could still just about hear British Song Contest fans uttering the immortal phrase;
"Oh, B*llocks."
The country which won the Brexit theme was the Netherlands. They actually went on to win the entire competition. So I will cover them fully in a Winners & Stand-Outs section.
The Netherlands: They were represented by Duncan Laurence with the song; "Arcade."
This was heavily inspired by the Roy Orbison song; "Penny Arcade." Or more accurately the version used by Northern Ireland's Protestant marching bands to antagonise Northern Ireland's Catholics.
In that context it is a song about the history of how the recent civil war, "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland began.
In the city LondonDerry local Catholics were protesting against their poor living conditions. A government subsidised house had just been denied to a Catholic family. So it could be given to a single Protestant woman.
The Protestant "Apprentice Boys" organisation decided to antagonise the Catholic protesters by rolling pennies down the street at them. This worked and an absolutely massive riot ensued. From the ashes of that 1969 "Battle of the Bogside" the Catholic Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) rose like a Phoenix.
For a very long time the traditional colour of Irish Catholics was blue. Then it became the green is still used today. On that day in Derry the green rapidly changed to the red of anger.
The opening line of Penny Arcade is; "A light shown in the night some way ahead, blue turned into green then it was red."
So although its not what Roy Orbison intended in that context Penny Arcade is Protestants mocking Catholics for being poor. And challenging them to a fight. To see if they can; "Ring the bell on the big bagatelle."
The Dutch song "Arcade" also cleverly references another famous Protestant marching song called; "The Sash My Father Wore." That's about travelling to a foreign land and being carried home again.
This provides a teachable moment about the Song Contest's golden "No Overt Politics" rule.
With its hidden political meaning Penny Arcade is the sort of song you can get away with at Eurovision. With its clear political meaning The Sash is the sort of song you definitely won't get away with at Eurovision.
The main message of the entry though is the Netherlands showing support for the Backstop Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland in the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement. This is intended to preserve the 1998 Belfast Agreement which ended the civil war.
Reminding people how the war started also reminds people why it's important that it ended.
It is highly significant that it is the Netherlands delivering this message.
Northern Ireland's Protestants oppose the Backstop Protocol because they see it as a threat to their British identity. The irony is that through their marching season they're actually marking the anniversary of the Dutch invasion of Ireland in 1690. Under King William (Billy) of Orange.
One of the largest Protestant organisations in Northern Ireland is the Orange Order. As in the Order of the House of Orange. The Royal house which still rules over the Netherlands.
Northern Ireland's largest Protestant political party is the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). Much of their support comes from within the Orange Order.These days the neither the DUP nor the Orange Order have much at all to do with the Dutch House of Orange.
The big theatrical gesture here though is the House of Orange ordering the Orange Order and the DUP to support the Backstop Protocol.
More precisely though. It is common in functioning democracies for small parties to oppose something only for it to pass anyway. Making their opposition little more than a symbolic gesture. That's not intended as an insult. It's the way the game is played.
So I think everyone involved in the Brexit negotiations recognises and respects the DUP's 10 MP's right to vote against the Withdrawal Agreement. In fact they seem to be relying on it to make sure the next phase of negotiations is completed on schedule. Meaning the Backstop Protocol is never used.
Therefore the real target of the song is the Hard Brexiteer and Remoaner MP's who don't have the DUP's mandate. Yet have latched themselves onto the DUP's cause for their own selfish reasons.
It is those people's supposed love for the DUP which is the losing game.
At around 17:15 on 22/5/19 (UK date) there's so much more to add.
Edited at around 20:00 on 22/5/19 (UK date) to copy & paste from another window;
Denmark: This year they were represented by Leonora with the song; "Love is Forever."
This song was performed in three languages. Leonora's native Danish. Along with English, French and German.
Britain, France and German are considered the Big Three of the EU. The three largest economies which have dominated the EU since its inception. The builders of the EU as it were.
In all the promotional work for the entry the Danes made a point of declaring that the message of the song was to show that; "Love is for everyone, regardless of nationality or religion." The lyrics of the saccharine sweet song made that message quite clear.
Lyrics such as; "Why should we fight, all we need is love" and; "Come discover life, the good weather is not over."
So you would think this would be the anthem of the Remoaners of Remainiacs. Those in Britain, particularly MP's who are desperate for Britain to remain in the EU.
It really wasn't though.
Denmark appears to have grown so frustrated by these Remoaners or Remainiacs and their constant delays to Brexit they were not happy to simply tell Europe Denmark thinks they're idiots. They were trying to trick the Remoaners or Remainiacs to prove to all of Europe that they're idiots.
The main gimmick of the staging of the performance was the singers sitting on this massive chair.
In the video in support of the song that chair was supposed to represent the structure of the EU. With the Danish singer sitting alongside backing singers in traditionally German, French and British outfits. Intending to show that we are all just small parts of the EU superstructure.
However it also resembled that famous photograph of workers eating lunch on a steel girder. As they built New York City's famous 30 Rockefeller Plaza in 1932. The picture is formally titled; "Lunch Atop a Skyscraper, 1932."
With this Denmark took its first shot at British Remoaner MP's who keep blocking Brexit.
When Britain failed to exit the EU on March 29th (29/3/19) British Steel, the steelmaker became liable for a £120m bill. To offset the cost of its carbon emissions. The British government lent the company £100m to cover the cost of that bill.
That though wasn't enough and, just today, the company went bankrupt. With the loss of 20,000 jobs across the supply chain.
So when British Remoaner MP's tell you they're blocking Brexit to protect British workers. Don't be fool enough to believe them.
Also the workers in the famous photograph aren't actually doing any work.
Much like how British Remoaner MP's aren't actually doing any work.
In fact the real reason they keep blocking Brexit is because they're terrified of actually having to do a day's work. Rather than relying on the EU structure to do it for them.
By the time of the Song Contest itself Denmark's frustration with the Remoaners had grown even further.
The massive chair was now the centrepiece of a stage decorated like a children's nursery. The performers were the silly little children messing about in the nursery.
Just like British Remoaner MP's are the silly little children messing about in Parliament.
Britain's Remoaners or Remainiacs brought this on themselves. By constantly dragging Denmark into their; "Project Fear." Attempts to terrify the public to remain within in the EU.
Denmark is one of the World's largest manufacturers of the drug Insulin. Providing almost all the EU's supply of the drug. Including Britain.
Remoaners or Remaniacs like to claim that the moment Britain leaves the EU it's Insulin supply will be cut off. Diabetics will die in their hundreds in the streets.
Some of the more theatric have even taken to bursting into tears on actual news programs, traumatised by the prospect of the death of their friends.
Denmark of course knows this is all complete nonsense.
The Withdrawal Agreement Remoaner MP's keep voting against will keep Britain's trading relationship with the EU exactly the same for two years. Even in the event of No Deal Denmark will keep doing what it's always done with Britain's Insulin supply. Fly it in on EU registered aircraft.
Most of Britain's medical drugs don't even come from the EU. They're made by generic manufacturers. One of the largest, Teva, is actually based in Israel. It's Jerusalem factory has caused a lot of controversy in recent years.
As some people may have pointed out recently Israel is not a member of the EU. We're all still waiting for the Remoaners to explain how Brexit is, in any way, going to affect Britain's ability to import drugs from Israel.
This claim that diabetics will die in their hundreds is just one example of the astonishing lies Remoaner MP's feel they can tell public. It is also a serious indictment of the bias of British journalists who won't correct even the most obvious Remoaner lies.
For example, according to the Remoaners and the BBC, everything that has gone wrong is the result of Britain leaving the EU.
The only exception is today's collapse of British Steel. Which has undeniably being brought about by Britain failing to leave the EU as planned.
That though, is apparently the only thing which has absolutely nothing to do with Brexit.
Denmark also took a shot at the Irish Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Leo Varadkar.
In December 2017 Leo Varadkar released a video address to the nation. It showed him sitting in a chair which seemed too large. Behind a table which seemed too big. On that table stood an absolutely massive lamp.
In short it made Leo Varadkar look as though someone had put him in a washing machine on too hot a wash and he had shrunk.
The video was released on a Friday. That weekend was spent with the entire population of Ireland making fun of Wee Leo Varadkar.
Within the Brexit negotiations Leo Varadkar is starting to behave like one of the silly children messing about in the nursery. He keeps trying to block Brexit because he doesn't want it to disrupt trade between Ireland and Northern Ireland.
What he seems to have failed to realise is that cross-border trade is covered by the 1998 Belfast Agreement. As such it is an aspect of National Security. It is well established under both EU and international law that national security takes all precedence over trade policy.
So even in a No Deal the EU couldn't force Ireland to stop cross-border trade with Northern Ireland.
It certainly couldn't do it in the time a No Deal would force British Remoaner MP's to back down, apologise and adopt the Withdrawal Agreement.
Hungary: This year they were represented by Joci Papai with the song; "Az e'n apam (My Father).
The main theme of Hungary's entry was primarily a protest against Israel's behaviour in the Israel/Palestine Conflict. By comparing the suffering of Europe's Jews with the suffering of Europe's Gypsies. First under the Nazis and then under the Soviets.
Europe's Jews suffering under the Nazis is of course well known. They seem to have got a country out of it and a free pass to behave as badly as they like.
Particularly in America Europe's Jews suffering under the Soviets is also very well known. It was a recurring story of the Cold War.
Throughout the Cold War Russian Jews would try to flee Soviet oppression by emigrating to Israel. Every time they applied for an exit visa it would be refused. The application form coming back with the word; "Otkaz" or "Refusal" stamped on it.
As a result these Russian Jews became known as "Otkazniks" or "Refuseniks." Those who have been refused.
The British media have taken to referring to Remoaner MP's, such as Yvette Cooper etc, who are trying to block Brexit as; "Refuseniks."
The worst offender is the ITN politics editor Robert Peston. It are ITN reports which go out to the EBU newspool. So Peston's Brexit coverage is the Brexit coverage most seen by EBU members.
If you know a bit of Russian or are familiar with the very famous Cold War story having Remoaner MP's described as Refuseniks really sets your teeth on edge. Every time you hear it.
In the Brexit metaphor the Refuseniks are the are the MP's who want to leave the EU. Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage, Jacob Rees-Mogg etc.
The likes of Yvette Cooper are the anti-Semitic, totalitarian bureaucrats who keep stamping "Refusal" on the application to leave.
The correct Russian term for what the Remoaners are doing is; "Maskirovka." In this sense meaning; "Little Masquerade."
It's a tactic developed by Josef Stalin. The idea is you bombard the public with false and conflicting information.
Such as Brexit means diabetics will die in the street. When in reality Denmark will keep flying in Insulin, just the same as before.
Or that the Withdrawal Agreement must be rejected to protect workers rights. When in reality the Withdrawal Agreement keeps workers rights exactly as they are now.
Or that Brexit will restart The Troubles civil war in Northern Ireland. When in reality the 1998 Belfast Agreement, as a peace treaty completely protects cross-border trade.
The objective of Maskirovka is to confuse the public to the point they just give up and stop trying to understand what is going on.
Instead handing all decisions and all power to anti-Semitic, totalitarian bureaucrats like Stalin.
Part Two to follow.
20:10 on 22/5/19 (UK date).
Monday 20 May 2019
Eurovision 2019: ASIE: The App.
My coverage of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest already seems to have developed an introductory section. Along with a list of required reading.
Both of which can be found here; https://watchitdie.blogspot.com/2019/05/eurovision-2019-and-so-it-ends.html
The Eurovision Song Contest is the gala event of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
The EBU is a professional association of 73 television and radio broadcasters from 57 nations. Founded in 1950 its mission is to further technological advancement in the field of Information Communications Technology (ICT).
It's almost hard to believe but back in 1950 broadcast television was the absolute cutting edge of ICT technology.
The Coronation of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 was one of the first, big televised events. It was what prompted, only Britain's richer, households to go out an buy their very first televisions.
When England hosted and won the 1966 World Cup it was the first time that football matches were shown on television, in colour. At least by that upstart Independent TV (ITV) network. The BBC were still stuck in black & white.
The first satellite, Sputnik-1, wasn't launched until 1957. So at the founding of the EBU you certainly didn't have satellite TV.
One of the first challenges the EBU set itself was to see if it could use ICT technology to broadcast a live program across all of the EBU area.
Even then that included what is traditionally considered Europe. Along with the Middle-East, nations such as Israel and Lebanon and North-Africa, nations such as Egypt and Morocco.
By 1956 the EBU had finally developed the ICT technology to do this. The just had one remaining problem. They needed a program to broadcast.
So someone happened upon the idea of broadcasting a Song Contest. Things escalated from there.
Even today a major part of both the EBU and the Eurovision Song Contest is advancing ICT technology.
So behind-the-scenes there is this massive, almost competition within a competition, of nations showing off the new ICT technology they've developed in the past year. Then sharing it with all the other nations as a condition of their EBU membership.
At the 2018 Song Contest the big, exciting new piece of technology was Augmented Reality.
This is still so new that its not really well defined. However the term generally refers to any live viewing that is augmented by computer generated sensory stimuli. Be that sight, sound, touch or smell. Most commonly though it refers to images.
Augmented Reality is something like the filters you use on Snapchat. Or the cell phone game; "Pokemon Go."
So lots of the nations at the 2018 Song Contest used Augmented Reality as part of their entry.
Norway's entry featured the singer, Alexander Rybak playing a host of Augmented Reality instruments on stage. On TV this of course looked spectacular. However viewed live it looked like a man waving his arms about like a complete lunatic.
A lot of Augmented Reality was also used at this year's Song Contest. For example Estonia's Victor Crone seemed to have this magic guitar which kept disappearing and reappearing. An effect achieved through Augmented Reality.
Generally though my brain was a bit too busy this year to concern itself with all that.
When the EBU was founded broadcast television was the cutting edge of ICT technology. These days all anyone seems to talk about is how broadcast television is dead.
Gone are the days of a broadcast network airing a set number of shows across a set number of channels at set times. Either using traditional aerials, digital aerials or satellites.
Nowadays much more of what would traditionally be considered television content is accessed via Internet Streaming.
This allows people to choose what programs they want to watch and when they want to watch them. It also allows them to access content from not just TV networks but specialised, Internet only services like Netflix, Amazon Prime and YouTube.
It's an occupational hazard that I'm quite paranoid about the negative aspects of technology. So I actually own several Smart phones. Which sit in drawers gathering dust as I continue to proudly use a flip phone. Which has amazing battery life, I may add.
Internet TV has become so common now that even I've been forced to join the revolution. The First-Semi Final of the 2018 Song Contest was the first I watched using Internet TV.
Specifically I used a piece of a equipment made by a company called "Roku." This little box functions rather like a wi-fi modem for a TV. Along with Apple TV it is one of the most commonly available ones on the market and seems similar to your typical Smart TV.
The big difference is that you can unplug a Roku box. Keeping it separate from your TV, satellite decoder, digital aerial, DVD etc. If you think having hackers "Brick" your cell phone is expensive and annoying wait until it happens to your Smart TV, let alone your domestic electricity and central heating supply.
Another major attraction of the Roku box is that in the UK they are marketed in partnership with; "Now TV." A subsidiary of the Sky TV corporation. Meaning you can buy in Sky Sports, Premier League football, on a daily, weekly or monthly pay-as-you-go basis.
So technically I didn't live stream the First-Semi Final of the 2018 Song Contest. I live streamed a football match and watched Eurovision on catch up. Israel, as hosts of the 2019 Song Contest, seem to have decided it's better to clash with Ramadan and Nakba Day than the end of the European football season.
Using the Internet on a Roku box is a very different experience to using the Internet on a traditional PC.
If I want to use the Internet on a PC I open up a program called a web browser.
Within that browser I can open up one window with Twitter in it. Next to it I can open up another window with the Eurovision.tv website in it.
Next to that I can open another window with Wikipedia in it. Next to the that I can open up another window with Wikimapia in it.
Next to that I can open up another window with Google's YouTube in it. And so on.
On that browser I could also open up another window with Facebook in it. However I'm not an idiot. I know about Q-Tel, the CIA backed venture capital firm which created Facebook as a way to farm data from across the World.
On a Roku box there is no web browser. For each service you have to use a specific program known as an; "App." You can only open one App at a time and you can only use the App's on sale in the Roku market place.
So on a Roku box I'm unable to access any part of the Song Contest directly from the EBU, through the Eurovision.tv website. Instead I have to use the YouTube App to access the Song Contest through the Eurovision YouTube channel.
This move away from browsers and websites is very much the direction big tech companies are moving the Internet in. For the simple reason that it allows them to squeeze even more money out of users by trapping them in what are known as; "Ecosystems."
A prime example of this is the Amazon Fire tablet I commonly use. This is sold at a massive loss by Amazon. They do this because they view the tablet as a way of making sure users spend money at other parts of the Amazon ecosystem.
The operating system on the Fire tablet is Google's Android. However it is a specially adapted version of Android that only really works for Amazon services.
So if you want to buy an App for a Fire tablet you can't just go to the Android App store. Instead you have to go to the Amazon App market. Likewise if you want to buy an ebook to read on your Fire tablet you can only buy it from Amazon.
Fire tablets do have a web browser. However even this is deceptive.
What appears to be the address bar at the top of the browser page is in fact not an address bar. It is the search bar for Microsoft's "Bing" search engine.
So even if you type in the exact address of the website you want to visit the browser won't take you there. It will take you to the Bing results page.
The reason this happens is that Microsoft pay Amazon a lot of money make it happen. The reason websites appear at the top of Bing's search results is because those companies pay Microsoft a lot of money to make it happen.
In case you haven't worked out where all this money comes from? It comes from you.
You are not the customer. You are the product. The livestock. What certain sections of the Internet would claim certain sections of Israeli society would call the; "Goyim."
On the version of the Fire tablet I use there are a number of simple workarounds you can use to avoid all this. However to use them you first have to know you have to use them, by understanding what is happening.
Amazon though are not best pleased with the customers who use those loopholes and are keen to close them.
These artificial ecosystems are of course great for the profits of the big tech companies who create them. However they seem to be quite destructive for society as whole.
You may have noticed that I'm naturally quite an argumentative person. So if anyone thinks I'm being anti-Semitic when I call Israel an extremely argumentative country I strongly suggest they bring it up with me on Twitter.
My argumentative nature doesn't just apply to people on, or off, the Internet. I often seek out articles and opinion pieces written by people who hold a completely different points of view to my own. Then argue with them as I read them, silently and in my head.
I often find this simply boosts my ego and confirms my point of view. By allowing me to go through their point of view and tear it to pieces. Occasionally though there is an argument I can't dismiss. This often teaches me something and forces me to adjust my point of view accordingly.
Particularly social media companies like Twitter and, particularly Facebook, heavily segregate the ecosystems they create. So people are only ever presented with the points of view they already agree with.
I think one of the worst decisions Twitter ever made was to change their; "Trends" feature.
It used to show you what was being most talked (Tweeted) about either globally, in your country or in your city. Now the default shows you what's being most talked about in your network/ecosystem/silo. The people you follow on Twitter.
I immediately turned that feature off. I already know what the people in my network are talking about. I'm following them.
As always segregation breeds division. Only listening to your point of view has a way of making you arrogantly think your point of view is the only valid one.
Increasingly these days it seems that on the rare occasions that people are presented with a different point of view it makes them very angry. They demand the people with the different point of view be silenced and destroyed.
This is something we've particularly seen in Britain as part of the Brexit debate. Those who support Brexit only ever talk to people who also support Brexit. Those who want to Remain in the EU only ever talk to people who also support Remain.
When someone who supports Brexit is forced to talk to someone who supports Remain it always seems to lead to anger, aggression and violence.
Some have compared it to Britain being on the brink of civil war. Although Britain has had about seven civil wars. We're not quite there yet.
Although the one that only ended about 20 years ago continues to be a bit of a worry.
You also see this problem a lot in American politics.
People who support President Trump only ever talk to people who also support President Trump. People who think Special Counsel Mueller should have impeached Trump only ever talk to people who also think Trump should be impeached. The results seem very shouty.
The art form of the Song Contest is really forcing the thing you want to talk about into the conversation.
It should be very easy to use this digital segregation as an allegory for the Israel/Palestine Conflict. That wall Israel has built along the West Bank is certainly segregationist. As are the "Peace Walls" from "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland which inspired it.
The rise of Internet Apps is not just providing new ways for people to access programs. It is also affecting the way that people watch traditional broadcast TV.
The Eurovision Song Contest is really the place to bring up any issues or discussions about any sort of TV program. I remember last year complaining that on their Now TV library Sky TV don't include subtitles for deaf viewers. Immediately afterwards Sky did start adding subtitles to their Now TV library.
The type of TV program the Song Contest is most interested in though are obviously other TV song contests. Shows like "X-Factor," "The Voice," "{Insert Name of Country} Idol." For quite a few of the contestants this year appearing at Eurovision is part of their prize for winning one of those reality TV shows.
Many of these TV shows now have an accompanying App you can download.
There is of course a very positive side to this. It allows fans to join something of a community with other fans. A place where they can catch up on all the backstage gossip about how their favourite, or most hated, contestant is doing in the time between the show being broadcast.
There is though the darker side. Where the production company behind the TV show are using the App as a way to make money out of the fans.
A lot of this is overt, through what are known as; "In App Purchases."
For example I think the App for the UK version of X-Factor allows you to vote 5 times for free. You can then buy more votes through the App much like how you can would by a day pass for Sky Sports or top up the credit on your cell phone.
The App will also help you access the online store. Where you can but concert tickets, albums and other merchandise.
As is often the case with technology Asian nations such as China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (RoK/South) have taken this to a whole new level.
Their Apps and social media companies allow you to buy digital gifts, like emojis, to send to your favourite popstar/Reality TV contestant. These things are not just totally pointless, they don't even physically exist.
There is also the more sinister, hidden ways that Apps make money from their uses. Not just the Apps that accompany TV shows but Apps general.
If you actually read the terms & conditions for most Apps you will find that by downloading them you are giving all the information on your device (phone, tablet, etc) to the company which makes the App.
This is not just your contact list or any pictures or video you may have saved. It also includes anything the device can pick up with its microphones and cameras. Which you have often given permission to have remotely operated.
The company making the App then sells that information on. Covertly recorded conversations between real people are a valuable resources when it comes to developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems.
If you're using something like an Amazon Fire tablet this is particularly risky. As part of Amazon's ecosystem to get the full functionality out of a Fire you have to sync it with your Amazon account. Which, in turn, is synced with your bank account.
So while I'm happy to use an Amazon Fire tablet, with limited functionality, there is no way in hell I'm letting my elderly father near one. He can put up with reduced battery life in return for increased security controls.
Any electronic device I download an App to is first stripped of any personal information. Or where personal information is required fake information is given. To the point I often forget what my actual date of birth is.
As a result all the suggested adverts I get shown are based entirely on my search history.
Due to the war in Syria my search history is a bit strange. Meaning I'm constantly being bombarded with adverts for weapons systems like the F-35 jet or Chinook helicopters. It is bizarre what you can buy online these days.
Although I did recently buy a rowing machine I'd researched online. Then I researched testosterone boosting supplements as part of the Caster Semenya story. My suggested ads at the moment are very tedious indeed.
The EBU and the Song Contest does just serve to further ICT technology. It also provides a forum for the ethical and social issues surrounding them to be discussed and examined.
So the Eurovision Song Contest has its own accompanying App. Including things like voting functionality, an online store, Augmented Reality filters and special emojis.
This year the EBU have been very keen for people to download it and make it the main technological theme of 2019.
I seem to have irritated some people by refusing to download that App and participate in that discussions. I found Twitter hashtags to be perfectly functional rather than the national flag emojis included in the App.
Not so much downloading the Eurovision App but using it as part of the discussion would have required a lot of extra work on my part.
This year I spent about 10 days researching just the acts that would appear on stage. If I downloaded the App I would have had to spent another week or so completely taking the App to pieces to see how it worked.
Due to existing commitments in some of Israel's neighbours I really couldn't justify that time. In fact those commitments mean I will probably have to limit my coverage this year. I certainly can't justify dragging it out until July.
If the 2019 Song Contest were happening in somewhere like Portugal, where the 2018 Song Contest was held, I could probably have got away with downloading the App and just winging it. The mistakes being part of the fun.
However this year's contest was held in Israel. Which is an extremely technologically advanced country.
The reasons why Israel is so technologically advanced are deeply tied up with its compulsory military service and its entire defence strategy. That is the sort of area where mistakes are rarely considered amusing.
In that vein rather than trying to rush through it now I will have to pick it up properly tomorrow.
If you want an example of the non-linear thinking required at the Song Contest. I bet I can get from the App to Israel winning the 1978 contest in fewer than five moves.
19:15 on 20/5/19 (UK date).
Edited at around 18:25 on 21/5/19 (UK date) to copy & paste from another window;
Particularly amongst Americans. Particularly those who were around in the 1960's and 1970's there is this romantic view of Israel as this plucky little country. Bravely standing up to the big bullies which surround it.
I don't want to contribute to that. Particularly as these days its certainly not true.
The armed wings of both Fatah who control the West Bank and Hamas who control Gaza are very small military forces. They barely even qualify as military forces in the conventional warfare sense of the term.
Although if US National Security Adviser John Bolton does want to invade Iran. Well, he's going to have to send at lot more than 120,000 US troops to do it on his behalf. A fact US President Trump seems well aware of.
What is true though is that Israel is quite a small country. In terms of population the entire country is only about 80% of the size of the city I live in.
As quite a small country Israel actually has quite a small military. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) only has 34,000 active duty personnel. By comparison China's Air Force (PLA-AF) has 398,000 active duty personnel.
To compensate for its small size the Israeli military has become a World leader in gathering intelligence to alert them to threats. They then use this information to surgically apply a small amount of force to destroy threats while they're still small. Not allowing them to grow into big threats.
I appreciate people will probably disagree with me when I say that Israel is famous for only using small amounts of force. However I don't think those people quite appreciate just how far, in terms of violence, war can go.
Delegations for the Eurovision Song Contest actually began arriving in Israel on the weekend of May 4th (4/5/19). This was 'celebrated' by a short but pretty intense bout of fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza. Some 700 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel and around 300 airstrikes were carried out by Israel in Gaza.
During this bout of fighting Israel took the opportunity to show off its use of small amounts of surgical force. They used an airstrike to assassinate Hamas commander Hamed Hamdan al-Khodari while he was travelling in a car in Gaza City. On Sunday, May 5th (5/5/19).
Israel claimed that Khodari was in charge of funnelling money from Iran to Hamas. Seeming to fit in with John Bolton's worldview. But at the same time Israel was making clear that it was another Palestinian group, Islamic Jihad, who were responsible for most of the problems in Gaza. Seeming to very much challenge John Bolton's worldview.
The vehicle Khodari was travelling in was a mid-sized saloon, travelling at around 30-40km/h. For some reason Israel won't let me have the exact details but I suspect it was struck by a Hellfire missile travelling around 1,600 km/h. That missile was probably fired from an F-16 jet several kilometres away, also travelling at around 1,600km/h.
To hit a target of that size, travelling at those speeds is extremely difficult to do. However the Israelis managed to hit that target, and only that target. As it was intended to do the explosion killed everybody in the vehicle. It did not though injure, let alone kill anyone in the surrounding area.
Once you've got past the moral question of deciding that Khodari was a combatant and therefore someone Israel was allowed to kill that is actually extremely impressive.
In comparison the rockets being fired into Israel were mostly variants of either Katyusha or Grad rockets. Insofar as these are aimed they're aimed at a target roughly the size of a football pitch.
These rockets designed as part of a Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS). The idea being you fire half dozen of these rockets into that football pitch sized target in the space of about three seconds. Killing everything in the football pitch sized target.
What militants in Gaza tend to do is fire one of them at a time, into a target the size of southern Israel. Although around 700 were fired over that weekend they were being fired from many different launch sites, in many different directions.
Although I wouldn't want one landing on my house when they're used like that Katyusha and Grad rockets aren't particularly effective as a weapon. Meaning that normally the rocket fire into Israel fire is more of a very, very serious police matter than an out-and-out military one.
Another good example of Israel using intelligence to surgically eliminate a threat is the assassination of Yahya Ayyash. The chief bombmaker for and leader of Hamas' armed wing in the West Bank. He was killed in January 1996.
His assassination however began in October 1995. Israel's domestic security bureau, the Shin Bet, blackmailed one of Ayyash's childhood friends into giving him a cell phone they had supplied. Supposedly so they could listen in to his phone calls.
The Shin Bet then waited for several months until Ayyash used to phone. Confirming it was him using the phone Shin Bet then remotely detonated a small amount of high explosive they'd hidden in the phone. This killed Ayyash instantly, but didn't injure anyone else. Even the other people in the room with him.
Again you have to get past the moral question of deciding Ayyash was a combatant and therefore someone Israel was allowed to kill. Once you do though it's very hard not to be impressed by the way Israel carried out the killing.
One of the most significant victories for Israeli intelligence was the 1973 Yom Kippur War. This saw Egypt and Syria launch a joint attack on Israel.
It was supposed to be a surprise attack. Timed to coincide with the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. The thinking being that the Israeli military would be weakened by having many of its troops home on leave.
However it wasn't a surprise attack. Israel knew about it in advance.
Several months previously Israel had launched a covert Special Operations Forces (SOF) mission deep into Egypt. In order to physically tap into the cables carrying the communications of the Egyptian military.
Knowing the attack was coming the Israelis were able to prepare and quickly won the war.
It was this defeat the forced the Arab nations into the negotiation process which became the Camp David Accords. Which were signed in September 1978. Just five months after Israel won the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time. In April 1978.
I'm not saying the Eurovision Song Contest single handedly secured the Camp David Accords.
However the pressure of hosting the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest certainly made it much harder for Israel to walk away from the negotiations.
At around 18:40 on 21/5/19 (UK date) I have a lot more to add. Here and in a part two of just this App matter. That will have wait until I clear the Brext theme before the EU elections.
Edited at around 17:00 on 28/5/19 (UK date) to copy & paste from another tab;
This type of intelligence gathering has always relied on cutting edge technology. The first, real, computer was developed by Alan Turing. As a way to break the Nazi Enigma code during the Second World War.
So the Israeli military has always had a large, first signals intelligence, then cyberwarfare division. Israel also has compulsory military service. Meaning that with very few exceptions every Israeli has to serve in the military at some point.
What branch of the military Israelis serve in depends on what skills they have. The 2018 Song Contest winner Netta is clearly good at singing. So she was sent to serve with the band of the Israeli Navy. The actress Gal Gadot is very charming, So she was sent to serve in the public relations department.
If you are quite good at maths, or a bit handy with computers the Israeli military will immediately send you to their cyberwarfare division. There they will train you and make you amongst some of the best in the World.
When Israelis leave the military they not only have all this training and specialist knowledge they also have a large networks of contacts.
So if you have a brilliant idea for a new product or App one of your old army buddies will probably be able to put you in touch with someone who works in venture capital. Who will help you turn your idea into a profitable business.
As developed economies are becoming more dependent of technology governments are becoming increasingly focused on so-called; "Tech Incubators." Environments and networks which can help new ideas quickly develop into profitable businesses. By putting innovators easily in contact with finance experts, marketing experts, programmers and low cost server space.
A example of this is Britain's East London Tech City. Often known as; "Silicon Roundabout." A combination of national and local government strategy has seen major tech companies and leading universities set up shop is a small area around the Old Street Roundabout in the Shoreditch area of London. Just in case you didn't already think that Shoreditch was the absolute worst.
Almost accidentally the IDF has created a massive tech incubator for Israel. With very little further effort or spending required on behalf of the Israeli government.
As a result the Israeli economy has an extremely large and dynamic tech sector. The orientation video the host broadcaster Kan described Israel as a; "Start Up Nation."
Due to its roots in the military Israel's tech economy tends to focus on the security sector.
You may remember that in 2015 there was an Islamist attack in San Bernadino, California, US.
The FBI were unable to break the encryption on the attacker's iPhone. Leading to a dispute between the FBI and Apple over whether Apple could be compelled to decrypt the phone. In the end the FBI just gave the phone to the Israeli start-up Cellebrite who cracked the encryption in all of about five minutes.
Amongst enthusiasts of the darker side of technology there is another famous Israeli tech company called NSO Group Technologies. It was founded by three former members of the IDF's Unit 8200. The SOF unit which tapped the Egyptian military's communications ahead of the 1974 Yom Kippur War.
NSO Group Technologies is particularly famous for a piece of spyware called; "Pegasus."
Pegasus allows the user to create what's known as a; "Mirror" of the target's cellphone. Essentially a real time copy of the device. This not only allows you to see all files, including audio and video, saved on the device it allows you to see what the device is doing as it happens.
Not just phone calls being made and emails written but also complex location data. Sensors in a modern iPhone not only allows it to pinpoint you on a GPS grid. It is also able to tell whether the phone is being held in your hand, in your pocket or placed in a bag. Along with whether you're sitting down, standing up, walking or travelling in a vehicle.
When they were first introduced the early, analogue cellphones were actually quite hard to eavesdrop on. Unless you were in direct line-of-sight with the device as it was being used. Which rather defeats the purpose of electronic surveillance.
What you would need to do was physically steal the target's cellphone. Replacing it with an identical cellphone which you had modified with the surveillance equipment built in.
Things got a lot easier with the introduction of digital cellphones. These saw all communications - calls, sms, emails etc - routed through a central computer belonging to the network operator. So all you needed to do was hack into that computer. From there you could access all of the cell phone's on the operator's network.
Things got more complicated with the introduction of the mobile Internet and Apps like WhatsApp, Telegram etc. These encrypt communications on the sender's device and then decrypt them on the receiver's device. As a result all the data being sent through the network operators central computer is encrypted and, in theory, unreadable.
This means that you have to remotely put software onto either the target's device. To create a mirror allowing you to see messages being written before they're encrypted or read after they've been decrypted.
What is so special about NSO's Pegasus is how effective it is at loading itself onto the target's device. Rather than having to rely on the target clicking an infected link to download the software it can load itself simply by dialling the device. Often without the user's knowledge. Meaning that to target a device you simply need to know the phone number.
Recently there has been growing concern about to whom private companies like NSO Group Technologies have been prepared to sell software like Pegasus to. Advanced technology which would normally only be the preserve of nation states.
Back in October 2018 Turkey and Qatar accused Saudi Arabia of killing Muslim Brotherhood activist Jamal Khashoggi. As part of Qatar and Turkey's feud with Saudi Arabia over the Muslim Brotherhood.
At one point they accused Saudi Arabia of using Pegasus to track Khashoggi. There is no greater insult you can level against an Arab or Muslim state than colluding with a Jew, let alone an Israeli.
Just as the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest was beginning Facebook confirmed that the encryption on its WhatsApp messenger could be completely defeated by NSO Group Technologies Pegasus spyware. Putting the topic up for discussion.
Pegasus also happens to the name for the regional military alliance Saudi Arabia has been trying to build against Iran. This is sometimes described as; "An Arab NATO."
It was efforts to build that Pegasus which saw the Sudan of Omar al-Bashir break off ties with Iran to establish ties with Saudi Arabia. When this was suggested as a possible route for Syria under Bashar al-Assad back into the international community it saw Qatar, Turkey and the Muslim Brotherhood overthrow Omar al-Bashir.
The main issued raised by the WhatsApp/Pegasus story though were concerns about security cooperation between the Palestinian Authority and Israel.
As I mentioned in the required reading section Palestine is divided into two areas. Gaza which is controlled by Hamas and the West Bank which is controlled by Fatah.
Officially both of these areas of Palestine are semi-autonomous regions of Israel. They're supposed to be controlled by the Palestinian Authority. Made up of whichever political party the people of Palestine elect.
It is Israel's job to collect the tax revenues for Palestine. This money is then handed over to the Palestinian Authority to be disbursed throughout both Gaza and the West Bank. However as part of a power struggle the Fatah controlled Palestinian Authority has long refused to hand Hamas controlled Gaza its share of the money.
In February 2019 the situation started getting even worse than that.
The Palestinian Authority pays death benefits to the relatives of militants killed in the struggle with Israel. In February 2019 Israel announced that it would be withholding the amount used to pay these death benefits from the Palestinian tax revenues it hands over to the Palestinian Authority.
In response the Palestinian Authority refused to accept any Palestinian tax revenues collected by Israel. That accounts for about 65% of the Palestinian Authority's entire budget.
As a result there are now serious concerns that the West Bank will follow Gaza into complete economic collapse. People are worried that if that happens security personnel working for the Palestinian Authority will no longer be able to work with Israel to prevent attacks.
Worse than that going unpaid the Palestinian Authority's security personnel may follow the example of Israeli companies like NSO Group Technologies. Selling intelligence, and more crucially, weapons to people who probably shouldn't have them.
17:10 on 28/5/19 (UK date).
Both of which can be found here; https://watchitdie.blogspot.com/2019/05/eurovision-2019-and-so-it-ends.html
The Eurovision Song Contest is the gala event of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
The EBU is a professional association of 73 television and radio broadcasters from 57 nations. Founded in 1950 its mission is to further technological advancement in the field of Information Communications Technology (ICT).
It's almost hard to believe but back in 1950 broadcast television was the absolute cutting edge of ICT technology.
The Coronation of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 was one of the first, big televised events. It was what prompted, only Britain's richer, households to go out an buy their very first televisions.
When England hosted and won the 1966 World Cup it was the first time that football matches were shown on television, in colour. At least by that upstart Independent TV (ITV) network. The BBC were still stuck in black & white.
The first satellite, Sputnik-1, wasn't launched until 1957. So at the founding of the EBU you certainly didn't have satellite TV.
One of the first challenges the EBU set itself was to see if it could use ICT technology to broadcast a live program across all of the EBU area.
Even then that included what is traditionally considered Europe. Along with the Middle-East, nations such as Israel and Lebanon and North-Africa, nations such as Egypt and Morocco.
By 1956 the EBU had finally developed the ICT technology to do this. The just had one remaining problem. They needed a program to broadcast.
So someone happened upon the idea of broadcasting a Song Contest. Things escalated from there.
Even today a major part of both the EBU and the Eurovision Song Contest is advancing ICT technology.
So behind-the-scenes there is this massive, almost competition within a competition, of nations showing off the new ICT technology they've developed in the past year. Then sharing it with all the other nations as a condition of their EBU membership.
At the 2018 Song Contest the big, exciting new piece of technology was Augmented Reality.
This is still so new that its not really well defined. However the term generally refers to any live viewing that is augmented by computer generated sensory stimuli. Be that sight, sound, touch or smell. Most commonly though it refers to images.
Augmented Reality is something like the filters you use on Snapchat. Or the cell phone game; "Pokemon Go."
So lots of the nations at the 2018 Song Contest used Augmented Reality as part of their entry.
Norway's entry featured the singer, Alexander Rybak playing a host of Augmented Reality instruments on stage. On TV this of course looked spectacular. However viewed live it looked like a man waving his arms about like a complete lunatic.
A lot of Augmented Reality was also used at this year's Song Contest. For example Estonia's Victor Crone seemed to have this magic guitar which kept disappearing and reappearing. An effect achieved through Augmented Reality.
Generally though my brain was a bit too busy this year to concern itself with all that.
When the EBU was founded broadcast television was the cutting edge of ICT technology. These days all anyone seems to talk about is how broadcast television is dead.
Gone are the days of a broadcast network airing a set number of shows across a set number of channels at set times. Either using traditional aerials, digital aerials or satellites.
Nowadays much more of what would traditionally be considered television content is accessed via Internet Streaming.
This allows people to choose what programs they want to watch and when they want to watch them. It also allows them to access content from not just TV networks but specialised, Internet only services like Netflix, Amazon Prime and YouTube.
It's an occupational hazard that I'm quite paranoid about the negative aspects of technology. So I actually own several Smart phones. Which sit in drawers gathering dust as I continue to proudly use a flip phone. Which has amazing battery life, I may add.
Internet TV has become so common now that even I've been forced to join the revolution. The First-Semi Final of the 2018 Song Contest was the first I watched using Internet TV.
Specifically I used a piece of a equipment made by a company called "Roku." This little box functions rather like a wi-fi modem for a TV. Along with Apple TV it is one of the most commonly available ones on the market and seems similar to your typical Smart TV.
The big difference is that you can unplug a Roku box. Keeping it separate from your TV, satellite decoder, digital aerial, DVD etc. If you think having hackers "Brick" your cell phone is expensive and annoying wait until it happens to your Smart TV, let alone your domestic electricity and central heating supply.
Another major attraction of the Roku box is that in the UK they are marketed in partnership with; "Now TV." A subsidiary of the Sky TV corporation. Meaning you can buy in Sky Sports, Premier League football, on a daily, weekly or monthly pay-as-you-go basis.
So technically I didn't live stream the First-Semi Final of the 2018 Song Contest. I live streamed a football match and watched Eurovision on catch up. Israel, as hosts of the 2019 Song Contest, seem to have decided it's better to clash with Ramadan and Nakba Day than the end of the European football season.
Using the Internet on a Roku box is a very different experience to using the Internet on a traditional PC.
If I want to use the Internet on a PC I open up a program called a web browser.
Within that browser I can open up one window with Twitter in it. Next to it I can open up another window with the Eurovision.tv website in it.
Next to that I can open another window with Wikipedia in it. Next to the that I can open up another window with Wikimapia in it.
Next to that I can open up another window with Google's YouTube in it. And so on.
On that browser I could also open up another window with Facebook in it. However I'm not an idiot. I know about Q-Tel, the CIA backed venture capital firm which created Facebook as a way to farm data from across the World.
On a Roku box there is no web browser. For each service you have to use a specific program known as an; "App." You can only open one App at a time and you can only use the App's on sale in the Roku market place.
So on a Roku box I'm unable to access any part of the Song Contest directly from the EBU, through the Eurovision.tv website. Instead I have to use the YouTube App to access the Song Contest through the Eurovision YouTube channel.
This move away from browsers and websites is very much the direction big tech companies are moving the Internet in. For the simple reason that it allows them to squeeze even more money out of users by trapping them in what are known as; "Ecosystems."
A prime example of this is the Amazon Fire tablet I commonly use. This is sold at a massive loss by Amazon. They do this because they view the tablet as a way of making sure users spend money at other parts of the Amazon ecosystem.
The operating system on the Fire tablet is Google's Android. However it is a specially adapted version of Android that only really works for Amazon services.
So if you want to buy an App for a Fire tablet you can't just go to the Android App store. Instead you have to go to the Amazon App market. Likewise if you want to buy an ebook to read on your Fire tablet you can only buy it from Amazon.
Fire tablets do have a web browser. However even this is deceptive.
What appears to be the address bar at the top of the browser page is in fact not an address bar. It is the search bar for Microsoft's "Bing" search engine.
So even if you type in the exact address of the website you want to visit the browser won't take you there. It will take you to the Bing results page.
The reason this happens is that Microsoft pay Amazon a lot of money make it happen. The reason websites appear at the top of Bing's search results is because those companies pay Microsoft a lot of money to make it happen.
In case you haven't worked out where all this money comes from? It comes from you.
You are not the customer. You are the product. The livestock. What certain sections of the Internet would claim certain sections of Israeli society would call the; "Goyim."
On the version of the Fire tablet I use there are a number of simple workarounds you can use to avoid all this. However to use them you first have to know you have to use them, by understanding what is happening.
Amazon though are not best pleased with the customers who use those loopholes and are keen to close them.
These artificial ecosystems are of course great for the profits of the big tech companies who create them. However they seem to be quite destructive for society as whole.
You may have noticed that I'm naturally quite an argumentative person. So if anyone thinks I'm being anti-Semitic when I call Israel an extremely argumentative country I strongly suggest they bring it up with me on Twitter.
My argumentative nature doesn't just apply to people on, or off, the Internet. I often seek out articles and opinion pieces written by people who hold a completely different points of view to my own. Then argue with them as I read them, silently and in my head.
I often find this simply boosts my ego and confirms my point of view. By allowing me to go through their point of view and tear it to pieces. Occasionally though there is an argument I can't dismiss. This often teaches me something and forces me to adjust my point of view accordingly.
Particularly social media companies like Twitter and, particularly Facebook, heavily segregate the ecosystems they create. So people are only ever presented with the points of view they already agree with.
I think one of the worst decisions Twitter ever made was to change their; "Trends" feature.
It used to show you what was being most talked (Tweeted) about either globally, in your country or in your city. Now the default shows you what's being most talked about in your network/ecosystem/silo. The people you follow on Twitter.
I immediately turned that feature off. I already know what the people in my network are talking about. I'm following them.
As always segregation breeds division. Only listening to your point of view has a way of making you arrogantly think your point of view is the only valid one.
Increasingly these days it seems that on the rare occasions that people are presented with a different point of view it makes them very angry. They demand the people with the different point of view be silenced and destroyed.
This is something we've particularly seen in Britain as part of the Brexit debate. Those who support Brexit only ever talk to people who also support Brexit. Those who want to Remain in the EU only ever talk to people who also support Remain.
When someone who supports Brexit is forced to talk to someone who supports Remain it always seems to lead to anger, aggression and violence.
Some have compared it to Britain being on the brink of civil war. Although Britain has had about seven civil wars. We're not quite there yet.
Although the one that only ended about 20 years ago continues to be a bit of a worry.
You also see this problem a lot in American politics.
People who support President Trump only ever talk to people who also support President Trump. People who think Special Counsel Mueller should have impeached Trump only ever talk to people who also think Trump should be impeached. The results seem very shouty.
The art form of the Song Contest is really forcing the thing you want to talk about into the conversation.
It should be very easy to use this digital segregation as an allegory for the Israel/Palestine Conflict. That wall Israel has built along the West Bank is certainly segregationist. As are the "Peace Walls" from "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland which inspired it.
The rise of Internet Apps is not just providing new ways for people to access programs. It is also affecting the way that people watch traditional broadcast TV.
The Eurovision Song Contest is really the place to bring up any issues or discussions about any sort of TV program. I remember last year complaining that on their Now TV library Sky TV don't include subtitles for deaf viewers. Immediately afterwards Sky did start adding subtitles to their Now TV library.
The type of TV program the Song Contest is most interested in though are obviously other TV song contests. Shows like "X-Factor," "The Voice," "{Insert Name of Country} Idol." For quite a few of the contestants this year appearing at Eurovision is part of their prize for winning one of those reality TV shows.
Many of these TV shows now have an accompanying App you can download.
There is of course a very positive side to this. It allows fans to join something of a community with other fans. A place where they can catch up on all the backstage gossip about how their favourite, or most hated, contestant is doing in the time between the show being broadcast.
There is though the darker side. Where the production company behind the TV show are using the App as a way to make money out of the fans.
A lot of this is overt, through what are known as; "In App Purchases."
For example I think the App for the UK version of X-Factor allows you to vote 5 times for free. You can then buy more votes through the App much like how you can would by a day pass for Sky Sports or top up the credit on your cell phone.
The App will also help you access the online store. Where you can but concert tickets, albums and other merchandise.
As is often the case with technology Asian nations such as China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (RoK/South) have taken this to a whole new level.
Their Apps and social media companies allow you to buy digital gifts, like emojis, to send to your favourite popstar/Reality TV contestant. These things are not just totally pointless, they don't even physically exist.
There is also the more sinister, hidden ways that Apps make money from their uses. Not just the Apps that accompany TV shows but Apps general.
If you actually read the terms & conditions for most Apps you will find that by downloading them you are giving all the information on your device (phone, tablet, etc) to the company which makes the App.
This is not just your contact list or any pictures or video you may have saved. It also includes anything the device can pick up with its microphones and cameras. Which you have often given permission to have remotely operated.
The company making the App then sells that information on. Covertly recorded conversations between real people are a valuable resources when it comes to developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems.
If you're using something like an Amazon Fire tablet this is particularly risky. As part of Amazon's ecosystem to get the full functionality out of a Fire you have to sync it with your Amazon account. Which, in turn, is synced with your bank account.
So while I'm happy to use an Amazon Fire tablet, with limited functionality, there is no way in hell I'm letting my elderly father near one. He can put up with reduced battery life in return for increased security controls.
Any electronic device I download an App to is first stripped of any personal information. Or where personal information is required fake information is given. To the point I often forget what my actual date of birth is.
As a result all the suggested adverts I get shown are based entirely on my search history.
Due to the war in Syria my search history is a bit strange. Meaning I'm constantly being bombarded with adverts for weapons systems like the F-35 jet or Chinook helicopters. It is bizarre what you can buy online these days.
Although I did recently buy a rowing machine I'd researched online. Then I researched testosterone boosting supplements as part of the Caster Semenya story. My suggested ads at the moment are very tedious indeed.
The EBU and the Song Contest does just serve to further ICT technology. It also provides a forum for the ethical and social issues surrounding them to be discussed and examined.
So the Eurovision Song Contest has its own accompanying App. Including things like voting functionality, an online store, Augmented Reality filters and special emojis.
This year the EBU have been very keen for people to download it and make it the main technological theme of 2019.
I seem to have irritated some people by refusing to download that App and participate in that discussions. I found Twitter hashtags to be perfectly functional rather than the national flag emojis included in the App.
Not so much downloading the Eurovision App but using it as part of the discussion would have required a lot of extra work on my part.
This year I spent about 10 days researching just the acts that would appear on stage. If I downloaded the App I would have had to spent another week or so completely taking the App to pieces to see how it worked.
Due to existing commitments in some of Israel's neighbours I really couldn't justify that time. In fact those commitments mean I will probably have to limit my coverage this year. I certainly can't justify dragging it out until July.
If the 2019 Song Contest were happening in somewhere like Portugal, where the 2018 Song Contest was held, I could probably have got away with downloading the App and just winging it. The mistakes being part of the fun.
However this year's contest was held in Israel. Which is an extremely technologically advanced country.
The reasons why Israel is so technologically advanced are deeply tied up with its compulsory military service and its entire defence strategy. That is the sort of area where mistakes are rarely considered amusing.
In that vein rather than trying to rush through it now I will have to pick it up properly tomorrow.
If you want an example of the non-linear thinking required at the Song Contest. I bet I can get from the App to Israel winning the 1978 contest in fewer than five moves.
19:15 on 20/5/19 (UK date).
Edited at around 18:25 on 21/5/19 (UK date) to copy & paste from another window;
Particularly amongst Americans. Particularly those who were around in the 1960's and 1970's there is this romantic view of Israel as this plucky little country. Bravely standing up to the big bullies which surround it.
I don't want to contribute to that. Particularly as these days its certainly not true.
The armed wings of both Fatah who control the West Bank and Hamas who control Gaza are very small military forces. They barely even qualify as military forces in the conventional warfare sense of the term.
Although if US National Security Adviser John Bolton does want to invade Iran. Well, he's going to have to send at lot more than 120,000 US troops to do it on his behalf. A fact US President Trump seems well aware of.
What is true though is that Israel is quite a small country. In terms of population the entire country is only about 80% of the size of the city I live in.
As quite a small country Israel actually has quite a small military. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) only has 34,000 active duty personnel. By comparison China's Air Force (PLA-AF) has 398,000 active duty personnel.
To compensate for its small size the Israeli military has become a World leader in gathering intelligence to alert them to threats. They then use this information to surgically apply a small amount of force to destroy threats while they're still small. Not allowing them to grow into big threats.
I appreciate people will probably disagree with me when I say that Israel is famous for only using small amounts of force. However I don't think those people quite appreciate just how far, in terms of violence, war can go.
Delegations for the Eurovision Song Contest actually began arriving in Israel on the weekend of May 4th (4/5/19). This was 'celebrated' by a short but pretty intense bout of fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza. Some 700 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel and around 300 airstrikes were carried out by Israel in Gaza.
During this bout of fighting Israel took the opportunity to show off its use of small amounts of surgical force. They used an airstrike to assassinate Hamas commander Hamed Hamdan al-Khodari while he was travelling in a car in Gaza City. On Sunday, May 5th (5/5/19).
Israel claimed that Khodari was in charge of funnelling money from Iran to Hamas. Seeming to fit in with John Bolton's worldview. But at the same time Israel was making clear that it was another Palestinian group, Islamic Jihad, who were responsible for most of the problems in Gaza. Seeming to very much challenge John Bolton's worldview.
The vehicle Khodari was travelling in was a mid-sized saloon, travelling at around 30-40km/h. For some reason Israel won't let me have the exact details but I suspect it was struck by a Hellfire missile travelling around 1,600 km/h. That missile was probably fired from an F-16 jet several kilometres away, also travelling at around 1,600km/h.
To hit a target of that size, travelling at those speeds is extremely difficult to do. However the Israelis managed to hit that target, and only that target. As it was intended to do the explosion killed everybody in the vehicle. It did not though injure, let alone kill anyone in the surrounding area.
Once you've got past the moral question of deciding that Khodari was a combatant and therefore someone Israel was allowed to kill that is actually extremely impressive.
In comparison the rockets being fired into Israel were mostly variants of either Katyusha or Grad rockets. Insofar as these are aimed they're aimed at a target roughly the size of a football pitch.
These rockets designed as part of a Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS). The idea being you fire half dozen of these rockets into that football pitch sized target in the space of about three seconds. Killing everything in the football pitch sized target.
What militants in Gaza tend to do is fire one of them at a time, into a target the size of southern Israel. Although around 700 were fired over that weekend they were being fired from many different launch sites, in many different directions.
Although I wouldn't want one landing on my house when they're used like that Katyusha and Grad rockets aren't particularly effective as a weapon. Meaning that normally the rocket fire into Israel fire is more of a very, very serious police matter than an out-and-out military one.
Another good example of Israel using intelligence to surgically eliminate a threat is the assassination of Yahya Ayyash. The chief bombmaker for and leader of Hamas' armed wing in the West Bank. He was killed in January 1996.
His assassination however began in October 1995. Israel's domestic security bureau, the Shin Bet, blackmailed one of Ayyash's childhood friends into giving him a cell phone they had supplied. Supposedly so they could listen in to his phone calls.
The Shin Bet then waited for several months until Ayyash used to phone. Confirming it was him using the phone Shin Bet then remotely detonated a small amount of high explosive they'd hidden in the phone. This killed Ayyash instantly, but didn't injure anyone else. Even the other people in the room with him.
Again you have to get past the moral question of deciding Ayyash was a combatant and therefore someone Israel was allowed to kill. Once you do though it's very hard not to be impressed by the way Israel carried out the killing.
One of the most significant victories for Israeli intelligence was the 1973 Yom Kippur War. This saw Egypt and Syria launch a joint attack on Israel.
It was supposed to be a surprise attack. Timed to coincide with the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. The thinking being that the Israeli military would be weakened by having many of its troops home on leave.
However it wasn't a surprise attack. Israel knew about it in advance.
Several months previously Israel had launched a covert Special Operations Forces (SOF) mission deep into Egypt. In order to physically tap into the cables carrying the communications of the Egyptian military.
Knowing the attack was coming the Israelis were able to prepare and quickly won the war.
It was this defeat the forced the Arab nations into the negotiation process which became the Camp David Accords. Which were signed in September 1978. Just five months after Israel won the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time. In April 1978.
I'm not saying the Eurovision Song Contest single handedly secured the Camp David Accords.
However the pressure of hosting the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest certainly made it much harder for Israel to walk away from the negotiations.
At around 18:40 on 21/5/19 (UK date) I have a lot more to add. Here and in a part two of just this App matter. That will have wait until I clear the Brext theme before the EU elections.
Edited at around 17:00 on 28/5/19 (UK date) to copy & paste from another tab;
This type of intelligence gathering has always relied on cutting edge technology. The first, real, computer was developed by Alan Turing. As a way to break the Nazi Enigma code during the Second World War.
So the Israeli military has always had a large, first signals intelligence, then cyberwarfare division. Israel also has compulsory military service. Meaning that with very few exceptions every Israeli has to serve in the military at some point.
What branch of the military Israelis serve in depends on what skills they have. The 2018 Song Contest winner Netta is clearly good at singing. So she was sent to serve with the band of the Israeli Navy. The actress Gal Gadot is very charming, So she was sent to serve in the public relations department.
If you are quite good at maths, or a bit handy with computers the Israeli military will immediately send you to their cyberwarfare division. There they will train you and make you amongst some of the best in the World.
When Israelis leave the military they not only have all this training and specialist knowledge they also have a large networks of contacts.
So if you have a brilliant idea for a new product or App one of your old army buddies will probably be able to put you in touch with someone who works in venture capital. Who will help you turn your idea into a profitable business.
As developed economies are becoming more dependent of technology governments are becoming increasingly focused on so-called; "Tech Incubators." Environments and networks which can help new ideas quickly develop into profitable businesses. By putting innovators easily in contact with finance experts, marketing experts, programmers and low cost server space.
A example of this is Britain's East London Tech City. Often known as; "Silicon Roundabout." A combination of national and local government strategy has seen major tech companies and leading universities set up shop is a small area around the Old Street Roundabout in the Shoreditch area of London. Just in case you didn't already think that Shoreditch was the absolute worst.
Almost accidentally the IDF has created a massive tech incubator for Israel. With very little further effort or spending required on behalf of the Israeli government.
As a result the Israeli economy has an extremely large and dynamic tech sector. The orientation video the host broadcaster Kan described Israel as a; "Start Up Nation."
Due to its roots in the military Israel's tech economy tends to focus on the security sector.
You may remember that in 2015 there was an Islamist attack in San Bernadino, California, US.
The FBI were unable to break the encryption on the attacker's iPhone. Leading to a dispute between the FBI and Apple over whether Apple could be compelled to decrypt the phone. In the end the FBI just gave the phone to the Israeli start-up Cellebrite who cracked the encryption in all of about five minutes.
Amongst enthusiasts of the darker side of technology there is another famous Israeli tech company called NSO Group Technologies. It was founded by three former members of the IDF's Unit 8200. The SOF unit which tapped the Egyptian military's communications ahead of the 1974 Yom Kippur War.
NSO Group Technologies is particularly famous for a piece of spyware called; "Pegasus."
Pegasus allows the user to create what's known as a; "Mirror" of the target's cellphone. Essentially a real time copy of the device. This not only allows you to see all files, including audio and video, saved on the device it allows you to see what the device is doing as it happens.
Not just phone calls being made and emails written but also complex location data. Sensors in a modern iPhone not only allows it to pinpoint you on a GPS grid. It is also able to tell whether the phone is being held in your hand, in your pocket or placed in a bag. Along with whether you're sitting down, standing up, walking or travelling in a vehicle.
When they were first introduced the early, analogue cellphones were actually quite hard to eavesdrop on. Unless you were in direct line-of-sight with the device as it was being used. Which rather defeats the purpose of electronic surveillance.
What you would need to do was physically steal the target's cellphone. Replacing it with an identical cellphone which you had modified with the surveillance equipment built in.
Things got a lot easier with the introduction of digital cellphones. These saw all communications - calls, sms, emails etc - routed through a central computer belonging to the network operator. So all you needed to do was hack into that computer. From there you could access all of the cell phone's on the operator's network.
Things got more complicated with the introduction of the mobile Internet and Apps like WhatsApp, Telegram etc. These encrypt communications on the sender's device and then decrypt them on the receiver's device. As a result all the data being sent through the network operators central computer is encrypted and, in theory, unreadable.
This means that you have to remotely put software onto either the target's device. To create a mirror allowing you to see messages being written before they're encrypted or read after they've been decrypted.
What is so special about NSO's Pegasus is how effective it is at loading itself onto the target's device. Rather than having to rely on the target clicking an infected link to download the software it can load itself simply by dialling the device. Often without the user's knowledge. Meaning that to target a device you simply need to know the phone number.
Recently there has been growing concern about to whom private companies like NSO Group Technologies have been prepared to sell software like Pegasus to. Advanced technology which would normally only be the preserve of nation states.
Back in October 2018 Turkey and Qatar accused Saudi Arabia of killing Muslim Brotherhood activist Jamal Khashoggi. As part of Qatar and Turkey's feud with Saudi Arabia over the Muslim Brotherhood.
At one point they accused Saudi Arabia of using Pegasus to track Khashoggi. There is no greater insult you can level against an Arab or Muslim state than colluding with a Jew, let alone an Israeli.
Just as the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest was beginning Facebook confirmed that the encryption on its WhatsApp messenger could be completely defeated by NSO Group Technologies Pegasus spyware. Putting the topic up for discussion.
Pegasus also happens to the name for the regional military alliance Saudi Arabia has been trying to build against Iran. This is sometimes described as; "An Arab NATO."
It was efforts to build that Pegasus which saw the Sudan of Omar al-Bashir break off ties with Iran to establish ties with Saudi Arabia. When this was suggested as a possible route for Syria under Bashar al-Assad back into the international community it saw Qatar, Turkey and the Muslim Brotherhood overthrow Omar al-Bashir.
The main issued raised by the WhatsApp/Pegasus story though were concerns about security cooperation between the Palestinian Authority and Israel.
As I mentioned in the required reading section Palestine is divided into two areas. Gaza which is controlled by Hamas and the West Bank which is controlled by Fatah.
Officially both of these areas of Palestine are semi-autonomous regions of Israel. They're supposed to be controlled by the Palestinian Authority. Made up of whichever political party the people of Palestine elect.
It is Israel's job to collect the tax revenues for Palestine. This money is then handed over to the Palestinian Authority to be disbursed throughout both Gaza and the West Bank. However as part of a power struggle the Fatah controlled Palestinian Authority has long refused to hand Hamas controlled Gaza its share of the money.
In February 2019 the situation started getting even worse than that.
The Palestinian Authority pays death benefits to the relatives of militants killed in the struggle with Israel. In February 2019 Israel announced that it would be withholding the amount used to pay these death benefits from the Palestinian tax revenues it hands over to the Palestinian Authority.
In response the Palestinian Authority refused to accept any Palestinian tax revenues collected by Israel. That accounts for about 65% of the Palestinian Authority's entire budget.
As a result there are now serious concerns that the West Bank will follow Gaza into complete economic collapse. People are worried that if that happens security personnel working for the Palestinian Authority will no longer be able to work with Israel to prevent attacks.
Worse than that going unpaid the Palestinian Authority's security personnel may follow the example of Israeli companies like NSO Group Technologies. Selling intelligence, and more crucially, weapons to people who probably shouldn't have them.
17:10 on 28/5/19 (UK date).
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