It was a surprise to no one that Ukraine won the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday night except maybe Sam Ryder who might have thought he was about to actually win. Hard luck Sam and deepest commiserations, I feel for you!

I don’t believe for a minute Ukraine won, there were many better songs in the contest but to paraphrase Not the 9 O’Clock News, ‘nice propaganda shame about the song’. But in these days of X-Factor style manipulation, CGI, media bias and outright lies who knows what to believe anymore.

And why all the concern for Ukraine? There’s been a war raging in Yemen for years and not a word about it, or anyone from the celebrity circus of the dire and meaningless showing up to support the downtrodden over there. But then it all depends on where the interests of the military/industrial complex lie doesn’t it, and who they own.

Formula 1 cancelled Sochi this year but were happy enough to go to Saudi Arabia, that bastion of freedom and social justice, and Australia, who were only outdone in lockdown tyranny by China. And, again, the silence was deafening from the world of entertainment. Who would have thought that Right Said Fred would have been the most vocal advocates for freedom and at the forefront of the anti-lockdown/mask/forced jab tyranny of the last 2 years? Not a word from Bono, Geldof, Sting, Paul Weller or Bruce Springsteen, all those fake grandstanders for freedom and justice, what a bunch of hypocrites and champagne socialists!

Surely cringiest moment of the year has to be Bono singing ‘Stand by Ukraine’ to the tune of Stand By Me, and in one foul moment desecrating, not only one of the great classics of the Motown era, but my love for it as well. I’ll never be able to listen to it again without seeing that self-righteous prick squawking along – some things are unforgivable, these people have no shame! Isn’t it strange too that all these celebrities can just pop over for a visit to a deadly war zone and not even a helmet or flak jacket needed for protection!! Hmmm…never a sniper around when you need one!

The sad thing about all this manipulation is that the genuinely talented and deserving get nowhere. Imagine if you were one of the other contestants on Saturday night; you put in all that effort, you possibly wrote the song, like Sam, learned it, practiced it and put yourself forward for selection, worked for months in preparation and, then, propaganda wars takes over and all your effort is rendered meaningless.

The same thing is happening in women’s sport. All those years of training and then some bloke with an overdose of oestrogen and a fake pair of tits comes in and takes it all away. Women’s sport is going to be wiped out because biological women cannot compete against biological male athletes. The physical differences that happen in puberty are irreversible and it is not possible to make a male a female regardless of how many hormones/suppressants they take or what they identify as. See link below.

All this so-called ‘social justice’ has a down side and it started with the ‘everyone’ gets a medal’ that killed off the school sports day. Jordan Peterson, in one of his lectures, talks about killing the spirit of a child and that the quickest way to do it is to put down their behaviour/effort when they are doing well. Isn’t that just what is happening here? Imagine the disappointment the child who was good at sports and who actually won the race must have felt. So what if poor little Johnny cried because he lost! Life is not always about winning and the sooner he learns to cope with loss and failure the better his life will be, a bit of adversity can build character.

Gone are the days when your abilities, skills and talents mattered as you strived for excellence in something. These things don’t matter in the world of social justice, the only thing that matters now is the content of your underwear, or your sexual preferences, or how many boxes you can tick for the neo-liberal fascist brigade. As noted in Jen Psaki’s replacement in the Biden administration:

Female – check,

Black – check,

Immigrant – check…the job’s yours. You’re not gay too are you, or feel a bit manly?

No,

Ok, pity though, we could have checked another box or two!

The other downside to this is that when you put people in positions based on a social justice box tick, and not on actual merit then, inevitably, there will be failure. Just look at the political leadership across the globe. How many of them are there because of their talents? You don’t have to delve too far into their history to see that they are all hand-picked for who they are and not what they can do. Justin Trudeau is where he is because of his father, a former Premier of Canada. Emmanuel Macron worked for the Rothschild’s before launching, or being launched, into politics. Jacinda Ardern graduated along with the likes of Tony Blair from the WEF’s young global leadership programme. See link below, you’ll note a few familiar names there.

But in all the shouting for ‘social justice’ I haven’t heard a mention of nepotism or connection to the upper classes and moneyed rich. British politics and all those top civil service jobs are all filled with graduates from Oxbridge who came up through the public school system. The ‘Old Boys Network’ is still going strong and not a word about the advantages mummy and daddy’s money and connections bought for their offspring. Nor has there been much about how the rich own and control everything already, or when the rules these governments enforced on the rest of us over covid, did not apply to them because when you have a private jet you can go anywhere, at any time, without restriction, or party at your leisure like Boris and the rest of them.

When ‘everyone gets a medal’ it undermines those who excel and kills off their reason for trying, why bother training, studying, acquiring a skill when someone with no training, no effort and no skills can walk in and take away all that you have worked hard for.

The 1960’s were a golden age in Britain, social mobility was at its highest, Britain led the world in industry, music and art, and it held the promise of a more equitable future. The working classes were better off than ever and had a strong voice that was finally being heard. It was the generations who remember those times that voted for Brexit because they saw how much their country had declined since joining the Common Market/EU and finally had the chance to stop the rot.

The Eurovison song contest which also began back in the 1960’s was one of those shows that the whole family used to gather around the TV to watch and see if you could pick the winner, like the Miss World Contest, before the feminist rabble intervened and killed it off. It was fun, a bit of harmless entertainment that everyone could enjoy. God forbid you try to have some fun now when cancel culture rules and the self-righteous and humourless are in charge!

Most of the social justice warriors/neo-liberal fascists are not even aware that they are just pawns in a rich man’s game, designed to keep us down and fighting amongst ourselves while they, quite literally, get away with murder. The stresses of the last two years have left us all fatigued and stressed, the world has been turned upside down and the lunatics are still in charge. It feels overwhelming.

And yet it is in the world of art and entertainment that I see hope. Artistic types have to be able to create and seldom fit into a one size fits all, homogenous, characterless world where you are not allowed to have fun, disagree and ‘MUST FOLLOW ZE RULES AT ALL TIMES!!’

The Sex Pistols have re-released God Save the Queen, just in time for the Jubilee (links below and a few more for the fun of it!) It is good to see that the spirit of punk is still alive and well. Stick it to them Johnny! While It may appear that the ‘elites’ have it all going their way at present, they control politics, the media and the corporate world but no one gets to have it all their way, all the time, forever. Change will come, people are waking up and the pendulum will eventually swing back the other way. I just hope it will be sooner rather than later so that the ‘architect’s’ of the present mess can be held to account. But, in the meantime, just to try and speed things along, you can always introduce your children/grandchildren to the Sex Pistols and see if we can inspire a new generation to bring on the Anarchy! Altogether now! I am an anti-Christ, I am an anar-chist…

Transgender women in female sport: why biology matters (sportsperformancebulletin.com)

World Economic Forum’s “Young Global Leaders” Revealed | Covert Geopolitics

Sex Pistols - God Save The Queen - YouTube

The Sex Pistols - Anarchy In The U.K (official video) - YouTube

Sex Pistols - Pretty Vacant - YouTube

I went to see The Dark Tower last week, the film based on the Stephen King books.  I think this was a one off and it wasn’t a bad effort.  Although, I thought, Idris Elba was too young and fresh-looking for the role of The Gunslinger.  In the books Roland is ancient and has been around forever.  Also, it was all a bit too quick for my liking but I won’t complain too much about having to look at Matthew McConaghey, for an hour and a half, or Idris Elba for that matter!

The Dark Tower is a whole epic of 7 books originally (apparently 2 more have been added which I haven’t read) and were all very enjoyable, except for the ending.  If you haven’t read the series, then you’ll have no idea what I’m talking about now, but I’ll try not to give too much away in case they’re on your ‘to read’ list.  The problem I had with the ending, was the very same thing Stephen King referred to in Misery (great book, mediocre film), when Annie Wilkes pulls Paul Sheldon up for cheating with the story like they used to do in the old Saturday shows, when you were sure the hero had died going over the cliff in the locked, burning car, or some such, but by the next week he has somehow managed a miraculous escape.

The Dark Tower had one of those endings.  Roland had moved back in time and was leaving with the horn of Eld after the battle of Jericho Hill but that didn’t make sense to me.  I’m doing an Annie Wilkes now! He would have had to go back and re-fight the battle in order to win it and in my mind he would also have to go back to when he entered Hambry and save Susan Delgado.

I’ve read quite a few Stephen Kings, they are my pleasure in between the heavy stuff.  Misery is my favourite book, and my favourite film adaptation is Stand By Me.  The re-make of It, is out this week and if the trailers are anything to go by, then it’s something to look forward to.  I know a lot of people were disappointed by the ending in the movie first time around so I’m not sure how that’s going to be rectified but what works in fiction doesn’t necessarily work on screen.  Anyway, I won’t spoil it by giving away any details.  However, I will say that the endings of several of Stephen’s more recent novels were disappointing, Under the Dome was one and Joyland another, Revival too, was a bit of a let-down but my biggest disappointment this year, was not a book but a film, the final Planet of the Apes movie, War for Planet of the Apes.

Firstly, it wasn’t a ‘War’, it was a battle and not much of a battle either and from looking at the trailers beforehand; I was expecting WW3 with nukes.  Mind you, the way Donald and the Young ‘Un are squaring up, we could be headed for the real thing any day now!  I’m convinced Lil Kim, could make a case for an Ulster Scots grant with his name!

The big let-down, apart from the ‘war’, was all the emoting that was going on.  It was like an episode of Dr Phil!  Caesar was giving it all the dramatics of rage and burning anger, like an obstreperous teenager.  While Maurice, the big orangutan, was giving out so much deep and meaningful advice, I half expected him to be given his own talk show. 

Then, there were parts of the story that didn’t make sense either.  How did the soldiers manage to capture the other apes when Caesar was following them, and the other apes had been left behind??  Go figure??  The real pity is, the cgi was the best I’ve seen but like so many ‘epics’, too much thought given to the ‘show’ and not enough to the story.  Yes, James Cameron, I’m talking about your Avatar (great visuals, lazy, old, clichéd story) You think you would have learnt from the hash Lucas made with Star Wars!

Anyway, if the books and movies have been disappointing, at least music brings its own rewards and the God of Rock, himself, the one and only Mr Robert Plant, returns to the Ulster Hall in December!  And I will be there! 

The new Star Wars is out then too, lets hope that's 2 bright spots on the December horizon to look forward to.  May the force be with you or rock on!  Whatever, is your wont!