News Category
The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann: TV at its most pathetic
Netflix’s Madeleine McCann documentary was full of shocks and theories from experts in ‘Our Maddie’ Studies (OMS). So dire was the that the missing child’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, refused to take part. How can you fill an eight-part TV show if the people who knew the subject best won’t say anything new? Will eight hours of grainy footage, newspaper cuttings and speculation be enough to keep subscribers tuned in to a show without end?
The director wants “to take the viewer on the journey that the public went on”. This is what happens when you watch the X Factor too often: you realise a journey can lead nowhere.
The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann opted for timeline over insight. So we get Madeleine McCann jetting off on her hols; Madeleine McCann playing on her hols; Madeleine McCann going missing on her hols; get the full glossary of OMS terms – Cuddle Cat, Tapas 7, Arguido, Amaral – and then lots of ‘Our Maddie’, and how the British child became public property and a docu-drama on pay-for-view US telly.
The single thread story spun by a voracious media was all Netflix had and it wasn’t going to bother finding anything more.
If you know what happened to her, call the police. If you want to see a crime show, watch an Agatha Christie.
Posted: 15th, March 2019 | In: Key Posts, Madeleine McCann, News, TV & Radio | Comment
College bribery scam: the education system is a game; Hallmark sacks actress; rich kids are just donors-in-waiting
Hallmark Channel has severed business dealings with actress Lori Loughlin. Hallmark dims the lights to a 20watt soft-focus in rose-pink, tilts its head, and says it’s “saddened” by news of the allegations that Lori pays to game the college system.
Who knew? We thought America was a meritocracy. The fact that Ivy League schools take in more children of families in the top 1 per cent of the income distribution than from the bottom 60 per cent was surely just a weird quirk.
Loughlin, previously seen on Full House, the Garage Sale Mysteries films and When Calls the Heart, and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, are accused of bribing college officials to get their children into decent schools. They and others are implicated in a scam to pass their progeny off as bright and able, often as budding athletic stars.
The FT:
The children of the accused parents were presented as nationally ranked athletes in tennis (Georgetown), pole-vaulting and rowing (University of Southern California), women’s soccer (Yale), and sailing (Stanford); but these “sailors” didn’t know a tiller from a toolbox. In some cases, photographs of athletes were Photoshopped to look like the applicants.
I sail therefore I math.
(Has anyone actually seen Prince Edward play real tennis? The Earl of Wessex scored a C and two Ds at A level. He was given a place at Cambridge to read history – a course kids with less hidden talents needed 3 As to attend.)
Investigators claim Loughlin and Giannulli agreed to pay $500,000 in bribes to help their daughters get into the University of Southern California, by pretending they were crew-team recruits… The fallout has also extended to Loughlin’s daughters, Olivia Jade Giannulli and Isabella Rose Giannulli. Sephora dropped its partnership with Olivia, a YouTube star and social media influencer. Critics are now calling for USC to expel both of the young women.
Not their fault, though, right, that their neurotic, vain, insecure and needy parents look like skinflints? Reports suggest Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, got into Harvard after his father made the school a $2.5m donation. Look not at my thicko daughter’s apathy, dead headmaster, but consider instead the state of the taps in your bathroom and how solid gold ones never rust.
The system is flawed. A USA Today writer opines: “As Stanford and Yale and the University of Southern California scramble to distance themselves from these criminal corruptions, perhaps we might all consider all the legal corruptions of the entire college admissions process.”
Tyler Cowan adds: “First, these bribes only mattered because college itself has become too easy, with a few exceptions. If the bribes allowed for the admission of unqualified students, then those students would find it difficult to finish their degrees. Yet most top schools tolerate rampant grade inflation and gently shepherd their students toward graduation. That’s because they realize that today’s students (and their parents) are future donors (and potential complainers on social media). It is easier for professors and administrators not to rock the boat. What does that say about standards at these august institutions of higher learning?”
It all says one thing: school’s a racket. Learn a trade. Do a job.
Posted: 15th, March 2019 | In: Celebrities, Key Posts, Money, News | Comment
Madeleine McCann: Netflix show says actors kidnapped child
There’s a “Maddie shocker” on the Daily Star’s cover. The paper doesn’t tell you what it is until you reach page 13. That location’s a clue, isn’t it. It tells us that the story isn’t shocking and certainly doesn’t reveal what happened to Madeleine McCann back in May 2007. But let’s take the bait and flick through…
The story is about that new Netflix drama into the child’s vanishing. It will, says the marketing and the tabloid, “contain explosive new claims”. They’d best be good. We’ve heard some pretty edgy stuff in the decade and more since a 4-year-old girl on holiday became ‘Our Maddie’.
The Mail also trails the show. It tells us: “Haunting last footage of Madeleine McCann boarding a plane to Portugal with her family days before her disappearance is unearthed in new Netflix documentary.” Haunting because..? No reasons are given. She didn’t go missing on the plane to The Algarve. She didn’t board the plan and then – poof! – vanish. It’s not haunting to see the child on the plane’s steps. It’s ghoulish.
On page 29, the Mail conducts an interactive study. “Is this Maddie playing in Portugal just days before she vanished.” Before. Not after. So let’s say ‘yes’, it is her. Because a four-years-old on holiday will do a lot of playing. The Mail says the image of a child seen from the back who might or might be Madeleine McCann is “haunting”. The Mail sees ghosts where the rest of us see a flesh and blood child, and a mystery most likely rooted in the criminal rather than the supernatural.
Indeed, as part of Netflix’s armchair detective show, we see a “dramatic reconstruction of Maddie’s abductors…running through the resort’s streets with a child in their arms.” These kidnappers are played by “actors”. This is no CCTV footage of this as an actual event. And for reasons uncertain, the “couple” seen carrying a child in plain view constitute one man (brown skinned; 30-ish; jeans and trainers) and one woman (white; 30-ish, headscarf). Why they’re portrayed like this is unsaid. But, you know, telly. And it’s hard to get Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman to patch up their differences, even if it is to help with an open case. Also, very few actors resemble this early suspect:
The “fleeing couple” also look not a lot like these “suspects”:
But there has been a breakthrough. Over in the Sun we get the answer to the Mail’s question. “Maddie,” says the paper, “New pic playing on hols.” Not now. Way back then.
Such are the facts.
Posted: 15th, March 2019 | In: Key Posts, Madeleine McCann, News, Tabloids | Comment
Uefa pause from flogging junk food, debt and gambling to investigate Neymar for swearing in private
We like footballers to be on-message when they talk, to speak about knife crime (against), isotonic drinks and potato crisps – two of your five a day, kids! – (for) and betting (do it lots because watching football is only fun and truly matters if it includes gambling and the chance to lose your home). So when Neymar, the irritating Paris Saint-Germain forward, offered his opinion that the perennial French chokers had been robbed by an absurd refereeing decision to award Manchester United a penalty that proved decisive when the two sides met in the Champions League he should have known to speak carefully. He didn’t. Uefa is all for football promoting betting, booze and debt but very much against footballers calling bollocks on VAR in a private comment to people who follow them. Uefa have, as the Times puts it, “launched an investigation into his sweary rant at the match officials after last week’s defeat”.
You will recall that referee Damir Skomina awarded United an injury-time penalty when Diogo Dalot’s wayward shot hit Presnel Kimpembe’s elbow. Having hands and lower arms in the penalty area is now an offence. Marcus Rashford scored from the spot to give United a 3-1 win on the night and send them through on away goals. No-one who loves the game laments the loss of PSG, a fashion brand masquerading as a sporting entity. But Neymar was rightly cheesed off.
“This is a disgrace,” Neymar wrote to his followers on Instagram. “They put 4 people that know nothing about football in charge of looking at the replay for VAR. There is no penalty. How can it be a handball when it hits his back! Go f**k yourselves!”
In response, Uefa has detailed an – get this – “Ethics and Disciplinary Inspector” to investigate Neymar’s comments. If found guilty of being rude, Neymar, one the world’s best players, could be banned for three matches. Which makes you wonder what the ban would have been had he said what he really thought of the ***** VAR ***** ****s!
Now eat your junk food, make your bet and obey the rules. Uefa is watching.
Josh Stone plays North Korea
Joss Stone has sang at a bar in North Korea, as part of her Total World Tour. Stone intends to perform in every one of the worlds country’s. She’s ticked off North Korea, Iraq and Syria without problem.
“It was a little scary crossing the border as of course we have absolutely no idea what might transpire,” said Stone to her Instagram followers. “We just have to trust the people on the ground that are advising us and looking after us”.
In Mr Kim’s kingdom, Stone got to hang out with British ambassador to the country, Colin Crooks. “Amazing to meet @JossStone tonight in #Pyongyang and see her perform,” Mr Crooks wrote on Twitter. Given his usual entertainment diet of mime acts and the glorious leader on the telly boasting about the country’s 8th World Cup victory and moon landings, Stone’s show can only have been a huge relief. Crooks must have clapped loudly, and possibly whopped before sobbing about missing out on the Brazil job.
Posted: 14th, March 2019 | In: Celebrities, Key Posts, News | Comment
Brexit: cats bark in the House of Fools
All tabloids bar the Daily Star lead with Brexit. The Star begins its take on world affairs with news that a thug has glassed “EastEnders Girl” Katie Jarvis. The actress plays Hayley Slater in the soap opera without end. We wish her well. But it’s another soap opera elsewhere that occupies the rest.
The Daily Mirror says the country is facing “months of chaos” and “mayhem”. Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock or got poked in the Big Brother house at closing time – and lucky you if you have been – Theresa May’s Brexit deal was last night defeated for a second time in the Commons. MPs rejected her withdrawal agreement by a whopping 149 votes. More votes will now follow. MPs will vote on whether the UK should leave the EU without a deal and, if it should not, on whether Brexit should be delayed. Funny, no, how MPs get to have so many “meaningful” votes when we are just afforded just one – and it’s the one they’ve done their utmost to stymie.
Inside the Mirror, and over pages 4 and 5 we get odds on what will happen next. You can get 40-1 on May getting her deal through; 30-1 on a second referendum; 10-1 on a “softer Brexit – although what the means is moot; and 15-1 on a General Election. iI shot: no-one has a clue (dead cert). Odds on May having an affair with Jeremy Corbyn (80-1); Boris Johnson having an affair with Jeremy Corbyn (25-1); and Jeremy Corbyn f****** himself (11-10) are all available on request.
On page 6, we hear Corbyn urge MPs to ‘back Labour’s rival Brexit plan”. What that plan is remains less certain than a Corbynista queuing for the toilet at a conference of black, transgender Jewish lesbians. The paper notes: “After detailing Labour’s Brexit proposals, he [Corbyn] added: ‘We believe there will be a majority for the , but there will also be the potential of negotiating them.” The Mirror does not bother to outline the proposals. They just exist and are able to change. Why waste the ink?
What the papers do agree on is the need for a map. Political intrigue is great for graphic designers and illustrators.
And what of Mrs May, the architect of a useless plan? The Daily Mail blames not her for the mess, rather “contemptuous MPs” for plunging “our despairing nation into chaos”. It calls the House of Commons a “house of fools”. Is that bad? Umberto Eco identified fools as one of four kinds of people:
Fools are in great demand, especially on social occasions. They embarrass everyone but provide material for conversation…Fools don’t claim that cats bark, but they talk about cats when everyone else is talking about dogs. They offend all the rules of conversation, and when they really offend, they’re magnificent…
Fools they are, then.
Posted: 13th, March 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Tabloids | Comment
Transfer balls: Manchester United in for Sancho, Coutinho; Arsenal want Tagliafico; can Liverpool rescue unpaid Karius?
Manchester United are all set to invest up to £100m in Borussia Dortmund’s 18-year-old English winger Jadon Sancho. Formerly of Watford and Manchester City, Sancho will not be the only new face at Old Trafford come August. The Indy says Barcelona are trying to offload their own £100m-plus disappointment, offering United the chance to buy Brazilian midfielder Philippe Coutinho. The lad’s ageing fast. The BBC says Coutinho’s 28. He’s 26.
As for the top job, well, the Sun says Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is a shoo-in to be named the club’s permanent manager. He’ll welcome new boys Sancho, Coutinho and an “£80m centre-back” whose identity has yet to be made public.
And there’s more. United also like Ajax left-back Nicolas Tagliafico. They’ll be competing for his signature against Arsenal and Liverpool.
We’ll end this round-up of gossip with another word on the Reds. Loris Karius will remain on loan with Besiktas despite coach Senol Gunes saying “something is wrong” with the 25-year-old, says the BBC. The full quote is a little less suggestive of illness. Shame on the BBC. What Gunes said was: “Karius has gone a bit stagnant, something is wrong with his electricity, motivation, enthusiasm for the game… It has been like that since the beginning. He does not really feel a part of the team, it’s something we haven’t been able to work out and, of course, I am partly to blame for this.”
Maybe it’s abut money. According to Goal, Karius hasn’t been paid for four months.
Brexit: ‘traitor’ Tony Blair readies France to invade the UK in 45 minutes
Look out for the air and sea invasion. Tony Blair has been advising France’s President Macron on ways to beat the Brits in Brexit negotiations.
We voted for Brexit but Tony’s a bit ‘whatevs’ on the democracy lark. That Blair has no truck with democracy is something echoed by supporters of Saddam Hussein who voted their man into power on the kind of majority politicians dream of. On 16 October 2002, Saddam polled 100% of the popular vote, eclipsing the 99.96% received in 1995. The first message is clear: be careful what you wish for, dear Remainers, the second referendum might go worse for you. The second message is: a 52% percent approval rating for Brexit is the kind of result that gets Blair on the phone to fighter command. If he goes with form, France should invade the UK in around 45 minutes.
The Telegraph says the storied interventionist told Macron to “hold firm” while events play out in the UK. Blair told him that Parliament may eventually accept a customs union or grant the British public a second referendum on Brexit. So don’t give the sods an inch.
Ukipper Douglas Carswell writes in the Telegraph:
Stop and think about that for a moment. The French government is taking advice on how to deal with our country from someone last elected to public office fourteen years ago. That’s the same year that YouTube started – or two years before the first smartphone appeared.
TREASON! screams the Express. The paper hears “ex-Labour MP George Galloway” take to Twitter to say: “This is treason!” Last month the Express reported: “John Mann brands George Galloway a ‘TRAITOR to Labour.” Is Blair merely the alleged traitor’s alleged traitor? Is Macron Blair’s lovechild?
And vitally: can we start the air, rail and sea blockade with Blair still in Paris?
Posted: 12th, March 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Politicians | Comment
After the Jack Grealish attack: it’s time all footballers were armed
After Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish was attacked by a Birmingham City fan during Sunday’s derby at St. Andrew’s, reaction was swift. The idiot was jailed for 14 weeks.
Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville wondered that would have happened had the criminal been carrying a knife. It was a good question, although I wondered why Neville had thought only of a knife and not, say, a gun, candlestick or length of lead piping?
Neville’s thinking was doubtless shaped by historical events, particularly when Monica Selles was stabbed between the shoulder blades by a keen Steffi Graf fan during a break between games in a 1993 match in Germany. If it can happen in the rough trade of women’ tennis, why not in football’s controlled and marshalled realm?
Such is his breadth of Neville’s sporting knowledge, we should expect to hear the ubiquitous former Manchester United defender commentating at Wimbledon soon.
Meanwhile, over the airwaves on BBC Radio Wales – thus marking the punch as an international incident – ex-Birmingham forward David Cotterill served up the suggestion that police attending football matches be armed with guns. “Shoot” scream the crowd as the players take cover.
Again, the ex-pro is not going far enough. Why not twin football with darts or the javelin? Moreover, if the Modern Pentathlon can test athletes for their prowess with fencing, freestyle swimming, equestrian show jumping, and a final combined event of pistol shooting and cross country running, surely its within the wit of the FIFA to equip all footballers with rifles and print targets on replica kits issued to all fans at the turnstiles. Although given many football hooligans’ predilection for the Stone Island fashion brand, anyone clad in crosshairs is already fair game.
Posted: 12th, March 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Sports | Comment
Manchester City: how much compensation can a club owned by trillionaires afford to pay victims of sexual abuse?
Former Manchester City youth coach Barry Bennell abused children at the club and at Crewe Alexandra between 1979 and 1990. He is serving a 31-year prison sentence.
To date, City are aware of 40 men who could take up the club’s decision to offer them compensation and a face-to-face apology.
But how much cash is enough? City say any claims will be dealt with within seven weeks. That’s faster than the civil courts. And how would City defend the indefensible?
The BBC says there are also allegations against a second man from the club’s youth set-up in the 1960s – John Broome. He was involved at City from 1964-71. He’s dead. He’s accused of raping children.
Gary Cliffe, one of Bennell’s victims, goes on the record: “They [City] let us down, they didn’t challenge him. They knew who he was and they allowed it to continue because he was producing results.”
How much is the right amount of compensation for being raped and abused as a child? And should the payment be linked to the club’s extraordinary wealth? The BBC says victim can apply for general damages, “potential loss of earnings if their careers have been affected, therapy fees and legal costs. The list had me up to “if”. Everything is affected. No ifs. No buts.
The talk if of six-figure sums. Enough? The Guardian:
…Bennell, who was convicted last year of 50 specimen charges relating to 12 boys, aged eight to 14, from 1979-91, and has been described by the police as one of the worst paedophiles in UK criminal history, numbers-wise, with potentially hundreds of victims – in one case, even taking one of City’s youngsters on to the pitch at Maine Road, the club’s former ground, to abuse him behind the goal…
Police documents from the 1990s question City’s stance during the criminal investigation, with one detective suggesting the club’s priority was to avoid damaging publicity. The now-deceased Len Davies, a scout who worked alongside Bennell, admitted that one of England’s major football clubs was “beguiled and hoodwinked” by the man, now 65, who liked to be known as “the star-maker.”
Of course that was then. Nothing of the sort happens now, does it?
Posted: 12th, March 2019 | In: Key Posts, Manchester City, News, Sports | Comment
Michael Jackson: beat him and burn him but don’t miss the Wacko Jacko exhibition at The Tate
No-one’s dug Michael Jackson up and beaten the corpse with sticks. Nor have they set his remains alight – and given his latter-years’ waxy appearance, stuck a wick in his head and let him burn so that all the living can see what we do to dead stars accused of molesting children and getting away with it. For now we’ll have to make do with burning Wacko Jacko’s memorabilia, which is what anyone who tuned into HBO’s four-hour-long documentary Leaving Neverland saw as the closing credits rolled. Before we got to the burning pyre of branded Jackson merchandises, we heard the harrowing and credible testimonies of Wade Robson and James Safechuck. The two claim that they were abused as children by Michael Jackson.
But unless Jackson begins to speak and justice can grind and arrive at some incorruptible truth, facts are hard to ascertain, and people will take sides and turn hideous, grim alleged crimes into a shouting match.
All we have is a spark of light in the darkness that is soon extinguished, leaving us to flounder in search of its source. Maybe the next spark will alight on a new angle and flash us glimpses of different propositions, thing to stir our hunches and armchair investigations based on prejudice, righteousness, caprice and schadenfreude? After all, as Tim Black notes, “Robson was convincing and credible in 2005, when he took to the stand in defence of Jackson, over allegations of child molestation. And then he was not facing the sympathetic director of Leaving Neverland, Dan Reed, but fearsome prosecution attorney Tom Sneddon.” But that’s child abusers for you: they know their quarry are easily scared.
So what are you going to do with your Michael Jackson clobber and records? It’s not as if he sang about paedophilia and promoted it as a lifestyle choice. The music and videos were wildly entertaining. Can you ignore the man and delight in their product?
Last year, the Tate exhibited the work of English artist Edward Burne-Jones (28 August 1833 – 17 June 1898). The brochure says he “brought imaginary worlds to life in awe-inspiring paintings, stained glass windows and tapestries”. You can see his work at the National Portrait Gallery. When not making worthy art, Eddie was busy being a virulent anti-Semite. His Jew hatred was “blatant and repulsive“. And what of Phil Spector? He murdered a woman. You can hear his records on the radio and buy the house where the crime took place.
Patience, Jackson diehards. Your hero will rise again. The smart investor will be buying up Jackson’s oeuvre and old tour jackets while prices plummet. One day they’ll put on a show at the Tate and that stuff will be worth a bomb.
Posted: 11th, March 2019 | In: Celebrities, Key Posts, News, TV & Radio | Comment
Woman offers umbrella to Python eating a wallaby
“I was driving back up the drive and glanced back across the paddock and saw something big and thought ‘oh no, I don’t like the look of this’,” says Miss Lisa Delany, of Queensland, Australia.
“I parked the car and had a look and from a distance I could see that it was a python. It was starting to get quite hot and I felt kind of sorry for the snake because it was going to all this effort. I went and got a really big umbrella and sort of laid it so it was casting some shade on it.
“I went back later and had a look and it had sort of regurgitated a bit of [it] and was trying to work its way back up the body. Whether it got too hot or it felt threatened, it had just given up … I’ve just been keeping an eye out in the meantime.”
Spotter: ABC
Posted: 11th, March 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Strange But True | Comment
Shamima Begum to get Duke of Edinburgh gold award
Aid workers and refugees were in mourning today at the news that a child has died in a refugee camp. “We’re inconsolable,” says Farida Agha, a Yazidi woman living in a nearby camp. “I just hope the refugee community can finally come together over this terrible tragedy. Like me, Shamima Begum experienced the horror of war. Sure, I was raped, sold into slavery, my brother beheaded and father buried alive in a pit, and Shamima’s role was to make tea, babies and cheers for the killers, but we both of us now live in tents. There’s a common bond.”
“Up til now no-one had ever died in a refugee camp,” says Kurdish widower Ibrahim Kalhor. “We Kurds used to live in houses and flats, too far away from nature. We ate processed food and took drugs and pills for our ailments. But thanks to the likes of Shamima and her friends’ tireless efforts, our diet is now one exclusively of flour and water. Our cancers, mental illness and my son’s diphtheria can be treated with fresh air and the warming sun.”
“They should give Shamima an MBE,” says one source known locally as ‘Jihadi Jane’. “Or at least a job running the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme. (May death be upon him!) Doing the Jihad Scheme is one of the best experiences I’ve had in my life. It’s been an amazing adventure. Shamima inspired me to explore new territories. I’ve gathered friendships and the experiences and memories that will last a lifetime. Not your’s obviously, because you’ll be dead as soon as I’ve finished polishing my knife.”
Shamima Begum: the baby is alive, dead and possibly British
Shamima Begum is back in the news because her lawyer, Tasnime Akunjee, has “told the Guardian”: “We have strong but as yet unconfirmed reports that Shamima Begum’s son has died. He was a British citizen.” We can debate the boy’s nationality at our leisure. And we can all wonder why the lawyer has gone on the record with a rumour?
But, boy, have the media ever lapped it up. Akunjee seems to “told” the Guardian pretty much exactly what he told everyone else on Twitter, posting today: “We have strong but as yet unconfirmed reports that Shamima Begums son has died. He was a British Citizen.”
“Leaks said that ISIS bride Shamima’s son died are fake. The bebe [sic] is alive and healthy,” tweeted Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces.
Fact. Who needs ’em…
Billionaire with Short Man Syndrome dies in penis enlargement operation
Sometimes enough is enough. He was 65. What a schmuck. Not a big one – well, not as big as he wanted to be. But rest well Ehud Arye Laniado, a billionaire diamond trader who reportedly died during penis enlargement surgery that triggered a “heart attack’ at a Paris clinic for big swinging dicks.
The Sun’s obituary is choice:
According to media reports, Laniado suffered from a so-called Napoleon complex due his short stature. The old friend [no that ‘old friend’] said that Laniado was “always focused on his appearance and how others perceived him”. According to Laniado’s friends, the only time he forgot about his short height was when he asked his accountant to read out his bank statement, something which he did multiple times a day, it was reported.
You can argue about why he grew big in diamonds – rock-hard diamonds prized for quality over size – amongst yourselves.
Posted: 7th, March 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Strange But True | Comment
Watch Donald Trump call Apple CEO Tim Cook ‘Tim Apple’
Donald Trump capped a meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook by referring him as “Tim Apple”. And nobody in the room – not one person – laughed.
Nobody in the room ever laughs. Why is that?
Is this why he named his company Trump, so he could remember what the hell it was called? That question to you Ivanka Trump, daughter of Ivana Trump.
Posted: 7th, March 2019 | In: News, Politicians, Technology | Comment
Jeremy Corbyn ally accused of defending blatant anti-Semitism
More on Jeremy Corbyn and his problem with Jews and anti-semitism in his version of the Labour Party. The Times says an ally of the Labour leader’s blocked the suspension of Labour Party member Kayla Bibby, who posted “an antisemitic image of an alien with the Star of David on its back grasping the Statue of Liberty by the face, suggesting control over the US.” Want to see it? Here it is:
The Times reproduces details from what it says are leaked emails. The exchange goes like this:
Labour complaints official:
“We have received a complaint about Kayla Bibby relating to the attached posts. The most worrying of which being the final one that depicts a monster with the star of David printed on it on the face of the statue of liberty suggesting that jewish people control America. I recommend suspension, can you confirm your view?”
A figure described as a “Corbyn ally”:
“I think it is clear that all the post appear to be directed at Israel, not at Jews. However, there is clearly room for significant misinterpretation, as for example the alien image on post 4 has a blue Star of David, which could be taken as an image representing either Jewish people generally, or the state of Israel specifically. However, the context of the other posts would point to it being anti-Israel, not anti-Jewish. There does not appear to be use of generalised use of antisemitic imagery, but rather these are generally distasteful cartoons about the perceived relationship [of] Israel and the US. The first post did concern me, and the language of “Israeli agent” should be subject of the warning, but given that it was closely based on a news story from a mainstream publication, I don’t think it is more widely actionable.”
Zero tolerance to anti-Semitism was what was promised.
Wes Streeting, a Labour MP, goes on the record: “I don’t see how anyone could objectively look upon this grotesque image and fail to conclude that this is racist, antisemitic filth of the highest order. Not only is it worthy of the Nazis, it literally features on a far-right website.”
A Labour party spokesperson is quoted: “This is a malicious, selective briefing from a disgruntled former employee. It is a deeply unfair attack on staff working in good faith to apply the Party rule book to individual cases and progress complaints through the party’s disciplinary processes.”
Can it be that a vote for the Labour Party is a vote for Jew hatred?
Posted: 6th, March 2019 | In: News, Politicians | Comment
Madeleine McCann: Netflix and Maddie Podcast in ratings battle
Netflix and chill to the Maddie McCann documentary soon-to-be streamed to your living rooms. It’ll be a show that tugs hard on the single-thread story: child vanishes. What light it will shed on the vanishing is clear to anyone whose followed the story since May 2007, when the British child disappeared on a family holiday to Portugal. None. This is entertainment. Child vanishes, possibly abducted and, if the media narrative is right, maybe sold into slavery and sexually abused. Netflix and chill.
Madeleine McCann’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, have taken no part in the show, say reports. But they’ll know about it, and if the McCanns take out a Netflix subscription they can watch it and thereby find out if Maddie is a hit.
But who needs to wait for Netflix’s hot take when the ‘Our Maddie’ show has barely paused for breath since it first aired on May 3 2007. On today’s 9News (Australia) you can read: “Top Maddie cop: ‘I’ve seen nothing to make me think Gerry and Kate McCann had something to do with daughter’s disappearance’.” Well, d’uh. If you had done, Mr Top Cop, you’d have surely questioned them about it. But the bigger question remains: can you build a media career on knowing nothing?
Before we hear from Jim Gamble, the former head of Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre (CEOP), know this: “Maddie is currently the number one podcast on Australia’s iTunes chart, reaching that spot inside of 24 hours of launch.” We’re Number 1!
In episode two of Maddie, Nine.com.au’s new podcast investigating Madeleine’s disappearance, Gamble outlined the profilers’ mission, and potential crime scene scenarios his team explored.
“When the case first began to unravel … I began to simply watch the news feed and then get direct feedback from our team on the ground,” Gamble said. “Being a police officer, I am a cynic… I believe that any good investigator clears the ground beneath their feet. So of course the first people you suspect are the parents, because they are there, they are in proximity, it is their child. Did I believe at the beginning that the parents could possibly have done it? Yes. As time went on, did I see evidence that supported that hypothesis? No, I did not.”
Adding apropos of ‘ME!’:
“Now that’s not to say that something couldn’t turn up in the future where I think: ‘Oh flip, you know I was right in the beginning and I’m wrong now’. But I’ve seen nothing, been briefed on nothing and heard nothing that would make me think that Gerry and Kate McCann [had] something to do with their daughter’s disappearance.”
What utter balls. Speculation is not news. But enough of that old copper because here comes another one. The Mail hears the plod of shiny boots on media studio carpet: “Friend of Kate McCann slams retired police chief who said their claims Maddie was abducted through their apartment window raised a ‘red flag’.”
A family friend to Kate McCann has slammed claims made by a top superintendent that the story around her disappearance raises ‘red flags’.
In a podcast by 9 News, retired superintendent Peter MacLeod cast doubt on the logistics of an abductor theory and said it would have been ‘difficult’ for a kidnapper to have entered the Praia da Luz apartment as three-year-old Madeleine slept. However a friend of the family refuted the ‘spurious allegations’ and the suggestion that Madeleine’s parents, from Rothley, Leicestershire, had anything to do with her kidnapping.
The family “friend” remains nameless, as ever it was. The Mail quotes McLeod:
During the podcast, titled Maddie, the retired police chief said: ‘The window is only an absolutely maximum 50cm wide, in reality 46 wide, and it’s already a metre off the ground. I had a look at that and my shoulders are wider than that little window. So although you could climb in sideways you certainly can’t jump in if you are a normal sized person.’
[Size of his shoulders unstated but available on request.]
‘I frankly do not think it’s possible. It would be difficult enough to get yourself in. You’d have to grab hold of windows, grab hold of things. Then you’ve got to pick up a child without waking it up without waking the other two children. I do not think it can be done, or let me put it another way, I do not see how anyone could do it.’
Insight be damned!
A “friend to the McCann family” tells the Sun: “Spurious allegations discussing what might have and might not have happened that night have been made umpteen times. Anybody can do a podcast, it doesn’t mean it’s right, and one spouting off about what they did and subsequently said is something quite frankly they will ignore. What would he know?”
Well ignored. And now for the main event… which will be right after over a decade of prequels…
Posted: 6th, March 2019 | In: Key Posts, Madeleine McCann, News | Comment
Man escapes guilty verdict by not swearing an oath on the Bible
Flashbak to a courtroom in Camden County, New Jersey. It’s 2011. Dr. Abbas Husain is being found guilty of sexual harassment. He’s a Hindu and didn’t place his hand on the Bible when making his oath to tell the truth. A juror, described as being “very passionate” about Bible matters, complained. And then the law grinds. The NJ.com:
“The juror’s comment regarding the Bible raises the specter of religious bigotry,” the court’s ruling said.
The decision reversed a Camden County Superior Court judge’s denial of a new trial for Husain in 2016. A jury in 2011 found Husain created a hostile work environment, sexually harassed and retaliated against a then-part time office employee, who was awarded $12,500 in the civil case…
“The Law Division judge said the juror who made the observation was only concerned with Husain’s credibility, i.e. that a person who refused to place his hand on the Bible was incapable of taking the oath seriously and was therefore incredible,” the decision said. “He contrasted this with out-and-out religious bigotry. But if he was correct, that too is simply impermissible. The exercise of a person’s religion should not make him or her per se incredible.”
“Only a new trial would ensure that the outcome was untainted,” the decision continued. “The possibility that the verdict was a miscarriage of justice is too great for us to decide otherwise.”
What should he put his hand on? And, note, he is accused of having wandering hands…
Image: Shortly after US president John F. Kennedy was shot dead, Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as the new president on board Air Force One.
Posted: 6th, March 2019 | In: News, Strange But True | Comment
Knife Crime UK: Government calls in RAF; Javid declares state of National Emergency; Cressida Dick and shoot to kill
Home Secretary Sajid Javid says the country is in a state of “national emergency” over knife crime, or what is now universally referred to as the “knife crime epidemic“. Last weekend, 17-year-old Jodie Chesney was stabbed to death in East London. Her assailant was unknown to her and reportedly said nothing before he struck. In Manchester, Yousef Ghaleb Makki, 17, was killed in a knife attacker. Horrendous. But is it a national emergency?
No. It’s war, says Gavin Williamson, the over-promoted defence secretary. He says the full might of the country’s armed forces is “stand ready” to intervene in the knife crime epidemic. How? He doesn’t get to that bit. But military rule is an option to replace parental power, absentee dads, reduced police numbers, gangs, drugs, skin tones, memes, drill music, Brexit, Instagram, race, poverty, wealth or whatever it is that drives someone to equip themselves with a blade and kill.
Williamson says military personnel “would always be ready to respond” to calls for help while the Ministry of Defence “always stands ready to help any government department… I know that the home secretary is looking very closely at how he can ensure that everything is done to tackle this problem at the moment.” London sold its water canon. But here comes Williamson with some real ones.
The Army on the streets? Williamson sounds nuts. But he’s not alone. Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police commissioner and advocate of a shoot-to-kill policy, says she’d be willing to call in troops to support her officers. That’s coppers for you. Sod all that therapy guff, community liaison officiating and listening, the police exist to tell not to hear.
Send for the guns, Cressida. What can go wrong? “I don’t exclude it, I really don’t,” Ms Dick said in an interview on LBC. “I think we all need to work together on this and if there are things that the military would offer for us then of course I would think about it, not to carry out policing functions but other supplementary functions.” (Don’y they do that already?)
What supplementary functions the RAF, Navy or Army could offer are not specified, but bombing Hackney remains an option.
Knife criem is a growing menace. Joanna Williams:
Knife attacks on teenagers across the country are reported to be up by 93 per cent in five years. Hospitals report that the number of children aged 16 and under admitted for assault by a knife or sharp object rose by 93 per cent, from 180 admissions in 2012/13 to 347 in 2017/18. Teenagers are not just victims of knife crime — they are perpetrators, too. Fatal knife attacks committed by those aged 18 or under are reported to have risen by 77 per cent between 2016 and 2018, from 26 to 46 deaths. Non-fatal knife attacks have also reportedly increased: the number of robberies by a teenager with a knife are said to have risen by over 50 per cent in the past two years.
What to do? You could start with trusting adults and stop presenting children as fragile victims in need of cosseting and counselling.
Ilan Omar: the Left knows a Muslim woman can’t be an anti-Semite
Ilhan Omar is the Somali-American elected to a seat in the US congress. She is noticeable by her hijab, a rare sight in Congress. This Democrat is also making headlines for her problem with Jews.
She’s not a far-Right anti-Semite. No tattooed knuckles, Swastika and bone head for her. Omar’s little problem is that she keeps casting Jews as things less worthy than the rest of society, things outside the civilised norm. She says “Israel has hypnotised the world” for its “evil doings”. She says US politicians defend Israel because “It’s all about the Benjamins” paid by the American Israel Political Action Committee to blind the world to that age-old unique Jewish barbarity.
This is about Jews and their kabbalistic rites. Jews and their money. Jews and their control of world affairs. Jews cannot be trusted. Jews can never be patriots. Jews are always something other. Never trust a Jew.
Alerted to such blatant anti-semitism – I believe they’re called tropes – and pressured by leading members in her party to apologise – Omar realised her error. She offered an apology or sorts in which she cast herself as the victim and embarked on a familiar journey away from ignorance.
And then she took a turn back to her old path. “It’s all about the Benjamins,” shouted a member of her fan club as she attended a meet and greet at a Washington DC book store. Omar did not slap the commenter down. She smiled. And then she told the throng: “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is okay to push for allegiance to a foreign country”.
Got that? Pledge allegiance to the US flag and you’re pledging allegiance to Israel and those pesky Jews. That’s not a long-standing alliance. It is, dear readers, a Jewish conspiracy. Klu Klux Klan leader David Duke branded the US federal government the ZOG (Zionist-Occupied Government). But Omar’s nothing like that white, Christian man.
She dug down. Omar replied to a tweet from Representative Nita Lowey of New York, “should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress.”
To Omar’s side at the book store sat her fellow Muslim congresswoman, Rashida Tlaib. She once opined that American political supporters of Israel “forgot what country they represent”. To see Israel as an ally is to be a traitor to the USA. Anti-Semitic much? No! Perish the thought. “A lot of our Jewish colleagues, a lot of constituents, a lot of our allies, go to thinking that everything we say about Israel to be anti-Semitic because we are Muslim,” says Omar.
You see. She can’t be an anti-Semite because she’s a Muslim woman. Everyone on the enlightened, colour-blind Left knows that.
Posted: 5th, March 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Politicians | Comment
Jeremy Corbyn and the egging: what really happened
John Murphy, the man accused of assaulting Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, has been talking. He tells the Guido Fawkes blog:
“Yesterday I squished an egg on Jeremy Corbyn’s head. I look forward to coming to parliament to meet with Mr Corbyn. He has invited Hamas and IRA so I am sure he will be happy to invite a harmless egg thrower like me. My one request? That he respect the referendum result. The suffragettes believed that if you reject democratic rights, civil disobedience is acceptable. Jeremy Corbyn and hundreds of other MPs are seeking to deny the democratic rights of most of our country, so I believe that makes civil disobedience egg-ceptable.”
Yep. “Squished”. There is no footage of the incident. Corbyn was “unharmed” says the BBC. And if Murphy claims it was a “squished” egg, can we argue otherwise? Yes, because how the egg made contact with Corbyn has been the matter of much heated debate.
“The Labour leader was visiting a mosque in north London when the egg was thrown at him on Sunday” – BBC
Corbyn was “punched” with an egg:
The egg was “fisted” in the Guardian:
The Labour MP Jess Phillips tweeted after the Corbyn incident: “Acts of violence against politicians, loses your argument, lessens your cause and demeans our democracy. It’s also just horrid. Don’t do it. If you don’t agree with him raise your voice not your fists.”
The “punched” egg might have contained a knife:
The Scottish Daily Record says Corbyn was “pelted” with a “thrown” egg.
The Metro says: “A man has been arrested after hitting Jeremy Corbyn with an egg.”
What egg? Show me the egg!
Sky News says the egg was “placed” on Corbyn’s head.
It’ll all come out in court, of course – and in the wash, should Corbyn have an eggy stain to remove.
Posted: 5th, March 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Politicians | Comment
Stem-cell transplant rids man of AIDS
A stem-cell transplant has rid a patient of AIDS. Tests showed HIV is no longer detected in the patient’s body. The man was being treated for cancer. The BBC reports:
The male London patient, who has not been named, was diagnosed with HIV in 2003 and advanced Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2012. He had chemotherapy to treat the Hodgkin’s cancer and, in addition, stem cells were implanted into the patient from a donor resistant to HIV, leading to both his cancer and HIV going into remission.
Cancer and HIV – a link?
HIV can cause Kaposi Sarcoma, Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, and one type of eye cancer. It can also play a role in a number of other cancers. These include Hodgkin Lymphoma, cervical cancer and anal cancer.
Only 1 in 1000 cases of cancer in the UK are caused by HIV. This is partly because eye cancer and Kaposi sarcoma are very rare cancers in the UK. But virtually all cases of Kaposi sarcoma occur in people who have HIV.
People with HIV who develop AIDS are at higher risk of cancer than those who do not.How can HIV cause cancer?
HIV infects and kills T-cells. T-cells are part of our immune system. They can usually destroy cells infected with cancer-causing viruses. This immune response can help to clear the infection before cancer can develop.
People with HIV have fewer T cells, so they can’t fight infections as easily. Viruses like Kaposi’s Sarcoma Herpes Virus (KSHV), Human herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and Human papillomavirus (HPV) can then cause cells to grow and divide out of control. This can lead to cancer.
Some way to go until cancer is cured, but we’re getting there.
Knife Crime: stop and search wanted; austerity blamed; a Government licence to carry a knife
The Times is alone in not leading with knife crime. For all other national newspapers the biggest story is of “warzones on our streets” (Express) and what the Government can and cannot do about teenagers being stabbed to death.
The Telegraph wants police to be given stop-and-search powers. Readers see a photo of school friends of stabbing victim Yousef Makki embracing. Yousef, a pupil at Manchester Grammar school, was stabbed to death in Gorse Bank Road, Hale Barns, near Altrincham, on Saturday. Two 17-year-old boys have been arrested on suspicion of murder.
Are more police the answer to the “knife crime epidemic’? The Guardian says it is. The paper says there is a link between stabbings and reduced police numbers brought about by austerity. “How many more, Mrs May?” asks the Mirror, blaming the Prime Minister for 27 murders.
But is that why 27 teenagers have been knifed to death this year, because there are not enough police to control them? Surely there’s something more at the root of the matter than control? May says there is “no direct correlation between certain crimes and police numbers”. So certain crimes police are powerless to stop? Focus less on knife crime, perhaps, and more on people not paying their TV licence, doing 34mph in a 30mph zone and saying nasty things online.
Maybe the State could issue licences for people to own a knife, making a nice little earner from the horror and hitting the perps where the Government likes to hit them hardest: in their pockets?
Nuts? One other proposal for knife control was floated:
A judge wants the points of kitchen knives to be rounded and blunted to reduce the number of young men dying from stab wounds in street attacks.
Judge Nic Madge said ordinary kitchen knives were causing a “soaring loss of life”, rather than more heavily regulated large-bladed weapons… Kitchens contain lethal knives which are potential murder weapons and only butchers and fishmongers need eight or 10 inch kitchen knives with points,” the judge said.
Knives for only those who need them? Look out for the looming fork crime epidemic.
Posted: 5th, March 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Tabloids | Comment
When Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott and Barry Gardiner wanted to ban Keith Flint
On 08 December 1997, Jeremy Corbyn wanted to ban us from knowing about a song by The Prodigy. The groups’ frontman Keith Flint has died too soon at the age of just 49. The early day motion to ban the mesmeric, relentless Smack My Bitch Up went:
That this House expresses its disgust and outrage at the advertising billboard campaign to promote a record album entitled Smack my Bitch Up; and urges the recording company to withdraw this advertisement immediately.
Of the 41 people who wanted music banned, the following are notable:
Where are they now? Yep – ‘Disgusted of Westminster’ are threatening to lead the country.
Spotter: Keith Flint, the last punk
Posted: 4th, March 2019 | In: Key Posts, Music, News, Politicians | Comment
