Obama: Send In The Drones

The Guardian et al.

Hell yes, I'm sure the President of the Holy American Empire publicly lecturing African leaders and telling them what to do is definitely the best way to advance this.

And if they won't come and join you up on the moral high ground (on this one issue), why don't you do your usual trick and send in the drones?

Generic gay media editorial: 'This was truly an historic moment from surely the greatest president of the greatest country on Earth since Hillary. Heroic gay icons both. MLK. JFK. What we say goes, loser countries. Cry freedom!' etc etc...

Malala: Nobel Peace Prize Winner 2014

"I am convinced Socialism is the only answer and I urge all comrades to take this struggle to a victorious conclusion. Only this will free us from the chains of bigotry and exploitation.”

Malala Yousafzai, 2013.

PS Malala had some words of advice for a certain previous Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Drones: We Kill All

Do you think a drone missile can tell the difference between Yazidis and ISIS?

Why does America suddenly care about the plight of a people 99.99% of them would have had to Google yesterday?

Why not bomb Tel Aviv?

^^^ My friend Darren done made this cartoon. x

PS Here's Chris Woods' excellent DronesWatch.

Fagburn: So Here It Is Merry Xmas Everybody's Having Fun...

Created by Amsterdam-based designer Ruben Pater, the Drone Survival Guide is, on one side, a rough bird watcher's guide to the modern robot at war. The other side is a short section of printed survival tips, and the guides are available in Pashto, Dutch, German, Italian, Indonesian, Arabic, and English. 

The selection of drones included in the guide leads heavily towards those from NATO member countries, with the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, and the United States all represented, as well as NATO itself, for the other member countries that use these drones. Partly because those are the countries that have used drones, in Afghanistan and elsewhere,,,

Also represented are drones from China, Morocco, India, the United Arab Emirates, and Israel. In fact, Pater told Popular Science that part of his inspiration came from people in the Gaza Strip, who filmed Israeli drones overhead, and the challenge of making out what kind of machine it is from the silhouette alone...

• Chris Woods' Drone Watch.

• There were no trains from Brighton to London yesterday, so Fagburn will not be spending Christmas day at his mum's.
He is thus very, very sad (Though our Tom finally managed to make it to Plymouth - without DLB! Swings, roundabouts etc.)

Terror: Droning On

The Independent.

• Under The Shadow Of The Drone, Brighton. 

Out Readers' Awards: But First A Word From Our Sponsors...

Don't forget it's the first Out In The City Readers' Awards at some swanky London hotel tonight.
Though Fagburn would be surprised if many readers would have heard of many of the nominees.
You get the feeling editorial staff didn't have much say in the choices, and wonder what purpose it's really meant to serve. 
Still, at least the sponsors include some genuine household names.
RBS - After we've given them £45 billion in bailouts and the LIBOR scandal these guys have to be the best loved bank in Britain!

Barclays - They owe us billions through tax avoidance, invest a lot of that in the arms industry. and pay their most successful corporate crooks millions in bonuses alone, and they sure did a lot to support diversity in South Africa during the apartheid years.
Good to know these banks are putting their - okay, our - money to good use.
And don't forget those equal opportunity killers at the Royal Air Force.
Maybe our boys will get some of their sexy new drones to do a flyby tonight?
That's if they're not too busy killing kids in Afghanistan and Pakistan!
And remember, if they're sponsoring a gay awards event, that means they must really care.
More champagne? 

PS It's also Stonewall's Workplace Conference today - also "supported by Barclays".
Obviously it's nice if employers are encouraged to be nice to their LGBT employees, but why chummy up to organsations that do such nasty things to other people?
And maybe - just maybe - when some say they love The Gays it's more about trying to create good corporate PR.
Just ask that ex-PR man, David Cameron.

President Obama: You Had A Wet Dream

Coverage of the second inaugural speech by President Obama - Dear Leader of the Free World etc - was so fawning I trust the North Koreans were taking notes.
Gay bloggers and journalists of the knicker-wetting tendency got rather over-excited because... he mentioned The Gays! *

"Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law – for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well."

Later invoking/mentioning-in-passing the Stonewall riots - sans irony - once more we are told that gay liberation now means gay marriage.
Give me a long-term committed relationship recognised by the state, or give me death!
Of course, in the midst of America's "guns, god and gays" kulturkampf this is hardly meaningless.
But do such nice platitudes and rousing rhetoric - essentially a single sentence plus one word - mean we can and must forgive and forget all else Obama has done.
As with David Cameron, support for equal marriage is a "progressive/liberal" totem which covers a multitude of sins.
One of the few party poopers pissing in the punchbowl was The Onion; Obama Begins Inauguration Festivities With Ceremonial Drone Flyover

WASHINGTON—Taking the oath of office for his second term today, President Barack Obama joined thousands of supporters in the nation’s capital for traditional inauguration festivities that included a prayer invocation, a parade along Pennsylvania Avenue, and a ceremonial flyover of three combat drones. “When Obama was being sworn in on the Capitol steps, we could hear the drones screeching by overhead and everyone got really excited,” spectator Andrew Meyers, 34, said as he eagerly trained his eyes on the unmanned aerial vehicles that have taken out several hundred innocent civilians during presidentially authorized strikes in Pakistan and Yemen. “They go by super fast, but luckily there are Jumbotrons all over the National Mall, so nobody missed out. Wait, they’re coming back!” At press time, sources confirmed that inaugural celebrants were enjoying the Jumbotron’s live closed-circuit feed of the still-open prison facility at Guantánamo Bay.

Can only a court jester criticise a king?

PS The Guardian front-page above has a trail for an article about prejudice against the trans community. Presumably part of what could be a long-running mea culpa by the Guardian/Observer post-Burchillgate...

* A selection of comments from American gay pundits. Barftime!

Update: 'Obama selects his causes carefully, politically. It’s good he has, in his own understated way, paid tribute to the Stonewall uprising. I’m sure many thousands are Google-searching that term since the speech, maybe some feeling inspired by what they learn. But as we revisit the Stonewall experience, should we not also recall how the Obama administration arms the police in countries like Saudi Arabia where gays are flogged, lashed or executed? And should we not note that the campaign for gay rights, however important, is no substitute for a campaign to topple U.S. imperialism, the endless source of war?' - Gary Leupp, Counterpunch. Via @howupsetting. x

Update 2: Obama, civil rights is about legislation, not alliteration. Nancy Goldstein, Guardian Cif.