Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact 2.0

 Or the Shitcan-Fart Pact, since that is what the names of the respective leaders now negotiating it are synonyms for, after all.

Further to this, the Russian despot's next move, in the face of so much appeasement from the west, may well be to carry out Anschluss on Belarus, who they'll see as Russians even more than the Austrians could have been considered Germans.

Meanwhile, in Yankeestan, no one seems to have picked up much on the red hats of MAGAts being an acknowledgement of submission to impending totalitarianism in the Soviet mould, this from followers of the inexplicably named 'red' party, the Republicans, who decades back were hell-bent on rooting out the 'reds under the beds'. This is schizophrenia on a mass scale, which leads to sociopathy, which leads to not caring about anything beyond their own noses.

If the last sentence has a familiar ring, it's transparently the same progression as "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering". Yes, the path to the dark side.

Xmas

So, it's that midwinter break again where we gather with family and friends to eat and drink too much in the name of the supposed birthday of an itinerant preacher from Palestine approximately 2,000 years ago. The date was appropriated from a logically placed pagan festival, where the days clearly started becoming longer again, by a growing horde of monotheists across the Roman empire, choosing monotheism over the even more batshit pantheism that preceded it, deciding on December the 25th as put forward by Hippolytus in the 3rd century CE. The exact date continued to be disputed for centuries by the various factions of the new religion, and still is by the Eastern and Western branches, never mind their smaller offshoots. In any case, what is celebrated by both at the more flexibly timed Easter is the crucifixion by the Roman occupiers and local Jewish theocracy of a bothersome man who made them feel threatened by saying some things about social equality and being nice to each other. This wasn't enough for Christians, who had to convert the pagans of the planetary natural cycle-based festival they'd taken over to join their ranks. So they retrospectively gave the victim superpowers and, just to be on the safe side, also asserted that he was the direct son of an invisible, inaudible entity that purportedly created the whole universe, and confusingly the the entity itself made flesh. The incarnation was also necessary so that the other tenet of their fairytale, the concept of the Christ figure taking the burden of the sins of the whole of mankind on his back and then 'saving' us all through getting killed about 30 years later, would carry more weight.

I do like the tunes of many carols (if I ignore the hatstand lyrics, which can be hard to do) the idea of having a period of peace, exchanging presents and having fir trees and candles in our houses. I just wish there weren't even more of the nutjobs around spreading the 'good word' than there are normally. And I'd also appreciate it if they stopped trying to tell people to worship 'little Lord Jesus' all the bloody time. Oh well, at least they left the summer solstice alone.

Merry Christmas.

A quick summary of Abrahamic religions for Easter

Judaism: a localised faith with a sadistic deity either demanding sacrifices or committing genocide, with the idea that you get punished for eating pork or mixing shellfish with dairy products, or not mutilating the genitals of male infants. And then get sent to hell.

Christianity: a slightly better version where the god character raped a married woman and the resulting child grew up to be an itinerant preacher with a humanistic moral philosophy, and then got executed by the authorities for being popular, but the adherents to his cult gave him superpowers too just to be able to compete with the deities of the time, and have killed each other, ever since the stories about the man were compiled, over slightly different interpretations of what he may have said.

Islam: a later offshoot of the two above, with a new preacher declaring that he is on a divinely mandated mission, which then involves a lot of murderous military conquest. Also the customary punishment of people for eating pork or not mutilating the genitals of male infants, with drinking alcohol and allowing women to dress as they like as added offences leading to being sent straight to hell.

Considering all of the above, Easter may not be that bad since it now largely just means some holiday time with your family and eating a lot of chocolate, but it is still celebrating the gruesome crucifixion of a character presumably based on a real historical person, as if that were a glorious thing and could grant you absolution for anything bad that you've done. In short, at heart quite mentally ill.

Why keep a blog going?

 After so many years of not touching it, it becomes like a spring clean for the mind. I expect no readership; that's not the point of it. So, to clear all the bees from my bonnet, here goes.

Putin: now falling back on a modern-day version of Mainila, because he has nothing else left. Trying for Stalin without any actual Nazi invaders to justify being an egocentric amoral dictator.  

Trump: lies always seemed like a dependable option, as well as calling the man in charge too old when he's hardly much younger and has never been competent at anything, including business, understanding communication or the human race.

BAME: yes, right-minded people care, but every single white person isn't responsible for American slavery, so drop that if you want to be seen as a rational human being. Read some history, please.

Woke: a horrible American term again, but apparently we're now stuck with it, and it seems to have led to this. Go on, start burning books in the name of not offending anyone at all. I wonder who else burnt books to delete history?

LGBT plus all the add-ons: all the gay people I've ever known haven't wanted to, or given a shit about being bracketed together with people who are feeling that their sense of misalignment is not recognised. 

Just got the wankiest job ad I've ever seen...

and the competition for that is stiff:

Publicis Groupe has identified a unique opportunity to embed intelligence into our Production capability with the introduction of a new and innovative role called the Data Translator. The role has already proven initial success with a recent pitch win with a consumer healthcare brand, and has the potential to unlock new, untapped opportunities for clients. By being both reactive to insight and responsive to unforeseen trends, the Data Translator will influence the creative production process in a new and impactful way. In collaboration with the Production Accelerator, the Data Translator sits at the heart of the creative production process as one of two new ‘hybrid’ roles, enabling the flow of insight through the entire production process, from creative development and asset management through to audience targeting and media performance. Moreover, with increased focus on insight and optimisation, the Data Translator can empower the cross-functional team to deliver increased media effectiveness and efficiency while reducing creative waste and cost per asset. Knowledge of production process, omni-channel data expertise, and experience of media activation is critical to the role with a unique selling point focused on integration of creative asset, production usage and media performance data. This integration will provide a new depth of understanding on what creative assets are produced, how they are used and the performance they deliver as well as insight into asset decay and wear out over time. The Data Translator will need to collaborate with a range of partners as well as internal and client stakeholders to enable the necessary data integration and access additional data sources. This includes working with media operations and the production team to ensure the necessary data taxonomies are defined, implemented and cascaded to brand/market teams. It also means collaborating with insight and IT teams within the client organization to access consumer, social and digital insight. The insight derived from the data, combined with ongoing test and learn focused on audience, creative and asset performance, will provide a level of intelligence that is unique to our offering.

Trump did not have Coronavirus, did he?

Of course it's a massive insult to hundreds of thousands who have died. But you expect nothing less from the largest turd imaginable dominating the international media. The polls are looking bad for him, even the twisted constitution of the US may not allow him to annul a losing result in the election through outright dictatorship, and so he grabs on to the only thing he believes will perpetuate his self-created myth of invincibility, when it's just long enough before he has to finally face the music that he can make out that not only is he physically fit enough again to lead the country but that God is on his side. That and pity votes, as if flouting all medical advice to supposedly catch the virus somehow makes him closer to the average Joe. 
I no longer want Trump assassinated. Castration live on air without anaesthetic would certainly be an acceptable option, and every American who voted for him should be barred from ever leaving their shores again...if only either were achievable. This has all had the unfortunate side effect that when you see Johnson on TV, for all his self-involved bluster and hopelessness, you just think "Oh, bless. At least we've just got an utter twat in charge."

All paedophiles are white

This has gone too far. I just watched a new version of Alan Bennett's 1998 Talking Heads episode Playing Sandwiches, with Lucian Msamati (black) taking the role played in the original version by David Haig (white), of a paedophile living under a false identity. The role is utterly independent of, and without reference to, race. Yet because it's now a black actor playing a paedo, the BBC has seen it necessary because of the Black Lives Matter movement to add the disclaimer: “This film is set in the 1990s and reflects the language and social attitudes of its time.” Why stop at sex offenders? From now on, will we have this disclaimer before every piece of fiction or entertainment if it contains black characters who aren't saints? Jesus wept.