Just Madness Everywhere

2015, and we still seemingly have racially motivated attacks on historically black churches in the Southern United States. Wonder what the cooling-off-period is between a shooting and the inevitable right-wing response that it all could have been prevented if only everyone were armed.  Elementary Schools, Universities...why not Churches ?  Arm the congregation and clergy alike.

Elsewhere in the news, Hong Kong still seemingly hasn't come to terms with the consequences of returning to mainland-rule and the fact that the PRC never had any intention whatsoever of allowing actual democracy to prevail under its rule, even in its special administrative regions,...NATO is continuing its lunatic tit-for-tat escalation with Russia by acting out war-games off the coast of Kaliningrad,...and bankers Goldman Sachs are attempting to show how humane they are and how great their concern for their staffinterns desperate for any foothold on the jobs-ladder to pay off student-debt, by insisting that they only work a maximum seventeen-hour workday.

And then there's this:

The increasingly tense relationship between the United States and Russia might be about to face a new challenge: a Russian investigation into American moon landings.

In an op-ed published by Russian newspaper Izvestia, Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the government's official Investigative Committee, argued that such an investigation could reveal new insights into the historical space journeys.

According to a translation by the Moscow Times, Markin would support an inquiry into the disappearance of original footage from the first moon landing in 1969 and the whereabouts of lunar rock, which was brought back to Earth during several missions.

“We are not contending that they did not fly [to the moon], and simply made a film about it. But all of these scientific — or perhaps cultural — artifacts are part of the legacy of humanity, and their disappearance without a trace is our common loss. An investigation will reveal what happened,” Markin wrote, according to the Moscow Times translation.

Er, what, why ?.

So, why is Investigative Committee member Markin speculating about conspiracy theories surrounding US moon landings that happened decades ago? In his op-ed, the Russian official also emphasized that “US authorities had crossed a line by launching a large-scale corruption probe targeting nine Fifa officials,” according to the Moscow Times.

We're descending to this level of pettiness in our new cold war already ?

Well, why ever not ?  The US hadn't even started its war in Iraq (you know the one I mean, don't quibble) before it was going after its own erstwhile allies with that 'freedom fries' & 'old Europe' nonsense.  This is how we do geopolitics in the twenty-first century apparently.  The grownups left the game long ago.

Just What Are You Thinking, Jack Warner ?

Ex-FIFA Official Slams John Oliver as "Comedian Fool"

John Oliver is not making any friends with FIFA officials.

The HBO host recently bought television airtime in Trinidad to lampoon former FIFA vice president Jack Warner's televised message to the nation. In his video, Oliver encouraged Warner to reveal all the secrets that he had previously threatened to disclose. 

Now, Warner has fired back, posting a video of his own in which he refers to Oliver as a "comedian fool."

Good grief.  Jack Warner surely should be preparing himself for his looming jail-sentence, and whether flipping on a certain other official might shorten said sentence.  Instead of which, he responds to provocation by John Oliver, who is rapidly making a career of taking down people like Jack Warner.

Of course, this is the same man who recently, and very publicly, mistook an article by 'The Onion' as actual news, and was rightly skewered by Oliver for the very same.  Does a man with his kind of money really have no-one around him to provide advice ?  You do not mess with John Oliver and Last Week Tonight.  This cannot end well for you, fool.

And what the hell is up with that music ?


Update:

And did Oliver respond ?  Oh, c'mon, you know he did.

Jack, concentrate on trying to get a cushy cell due to your age.  Taking on the (not-yet) American 'Comedian Fool' is not going to work out for you.

Oh and yeah, they answered the question of the music as well.

Getting There...

Six Fifa officials including vice president Jeffrey Webb arrested

Six Fifa officials, including vice president Jeffrey Webb, have been arrested on suspicions of corruption in dawn raids at a Zurich hotel ahead of Friday's presidential election.

The members of the world governing body were held by Swiss police at the US Department of Justice's request.

They are suspected of having received bribes totalling millions of US dollars, the Swiss authorities said.

Yes, yes, yes...

Fifa president Sepp Blatter, who is seeking a fifth term in charge of the organisation when he stands for re-election on Friday, is not one of the arrested.

Ah, crap.