Irish Time

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Pussy Riot vs Marian Price v Julian Assange v British Gestapo





Pussy Riot vs Marian Price -
To each their own Hero and Villain 

A couple of high profile freedom of speech cases are unfolding particularly in the UK. The Pussy Riot sentencing in Moscow, the granting by Ecuador of political asylum to Julian Assange and finally the continues interrnment in British occupied Ireland of Marian Price. These cases are in many ways similar, if not, at least comparable to each other.  In two of the cases, we have college drop-outs breaking the laws of major power, while the British Gestapo are prosecuting two and in all cases the offenders have become something of a symbol of resistance to the power of the state. The British gestapo state internement without trial and torture of Marian Price is essentially about denying the right to free speech.  There are also some important differences between them, critical ones, which would also make it reasonable to say these cases as not similar but opposites.

So in order to organize the issues it was decided to make a little table comparing and contrasting the Pussy Riot and Marian Price cases.  This is, of course, hardly an exhaustive comparison.  Think of it rather as a "back of the napkin" kind of quick review:
 


 
Pussy RiotMarian Price
OriginRussiaIrish
PersonaCollective & anonymousPersonal individual
CrimeProven hate crime
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALS92big4TY


 
Alledged holding of piece of paper at a political republican commemoration ceremony.
Ideological motiveRemove Putin from power, “3rd generation feminism”, homosexualitySelf-determination for Ireland. Open society, equality information freedom, free press, liberty.
Potential penalty2 years medium security (sentenced)Life supermax (in USA)
Defence tacticDeny responsibilityNO charge, no trial
LegalityIn line with mainstream law:
http://mercouris.wordpress.com/2012/08/07/pussy-riot-2/


 
Unprecedented application of overruling law and internement without trial
SupporterWestern governments
Western elites
Russian elites
Democratic republic
Worldwide opinion
People of no property.
Past activitiesVoina Performance Group:
http://kaifolog.ru/2010/08/27/poshto-pizdili-kuru-22-foto.html


http://plucer.livejournal.com/281211.html?nojs=1


 
Human rights activist, political prisoner activist. Irish republican.
EducationCollege drop-outNursing forced-out

 
And yet, looking at this table, I find myself wondering how a Russian "performance group" (that is what they call themselves) like Pussy Riot became the almost instant mega-hero of so many Western public figures.  Do you think that I am exaggerating?  Then check out this list of Pussy Riot supporters I found on Wikipedia:
Kate Nash, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Cornershop, Faith No More, Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand, Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys, Patti Smith, The Beastie Boys, Refused, Zola Jesus, Die Antwoord, Jarvis Cocker, Pete Townshend, The Joy Formidable, Peaches, Madonna, Genesis, Tegan and Sara, Johnny Marr, Courtney Love, Iiro Rantala, Propagandhi, Anti-Flag, Rise Against, Corinne Bailey Rae, Peter Hammill, Kathleen Hanna, Björk, Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, British comedian Stephen Fry, Reykjavík Mayor Jón Gnarr and Warren Kinsella.  A letter of support from 120 members of the German parliament, the Bundestag, was sent to the Russian Ambassador to Germany, Vladimir Grinin. The letter referred to proceedings against the women as being disproportionate and draconian. On August 9, 2012, 400 Pussy Riot supporters in Berlin marched wearing colored balaclavas in a show of support for the group.
To this, I would add the very intensive and, frankly, totally over-the-top coverage of the Western corporate media of the Pussy Riot trial.
Amazing, no?  Could it be due to the quality of actual "musical performance" (called "punk prayer") which got these ladies arrested?  Well, judge for yourself:

 

 
And to get a full "appreciation" for their artistic "talent", here is the translation of the lyrics:

 
St. Maria, Virgin, Drive away Putin
Drive away! Drive away Putin!
Black robe, golden epaulettes
All parishioners are crawling and bowing
The ghost of freedom is in heaven
Gay pride sent to Siberia in chains
The head of the KGB is their chief saint
Leads protesters to prison under escort
In order not to offend the Holy
Women have to give birth and to love
Holy shit, shit, Lord's shit!
Holy shit, shit, Lord's shit!
St. Maria, Virgin, become a feminist
Become a feminist, Become a feminist
Church praises the rotten dictators
The cross-bearer procession of black limousines
In school you are going to meet with a teacher-preacher
Go to class - bring him money!
Patriarch Gundyaev believes in Putin
Bitch, you better believed in God
Belt of the Virgin is no substitute for mass-meetings
In protest of our Ever-Virgin Mary!
St. Maria, Virgin, Drive away Putin
Drive away! Drive away Putin!
While I cannot disagree with some of the ideas contained in this screed (the Moscow Patriarchate is, indeed, both highly corrupted and totally controlled by the Kremlin, and "Patriarch" Gudaev is a scoundrel and crook of the worst kind), it is rather obvious to me that the real intention of this performance is not to denounce any wrongs, but to achieve a maximum shock effect.  In fact, the Pussy Riot collective is nothing but the latest re-packaging of the infamous "Voina" ("war" in Russian)  performance group which became famous by such "events" as organizing group sex flash mobs in public museums or having sex with a frozen chicken in a supermarket. You probably think that I am jocking, right?  Nope, and to prove this, I am (reluctantly) posting these (deliberately small sized) photos of these "events" here.  And if you think that I am exaggerating something, you can click on these photos for a better view of these "events" or you can even follow the following links for a full series of large, non-pixellated, and rather nauseating photographs:

 

 
http://plucer.livejournal.com/281211.html?nojs=1

 
 
If the first of these events was supposed to be some kind of statement about (then) President Medvedev, the second one - entitled "why was the chicken f*cked" and "tale about how the c*nt fed the war" - did not even carry some vague message of any kind.
 
It is rather obvious these ladies, whether packaged as "Pussy Riot" or as "Voina", have no other message and no other purpose than to offend, disgust or shock.  Their sole stroke of genius was to add to their usual sex-centered "performances" an anti-Putin and anti-Orthodox message.  Here, they really struck gold as that got them an overnight hero status in the West.  And that, in turn, says much more about the West, than about these sexually frustrated and otherwise dysfunctional women.
Indeed, while the western elites are lining up behind Pussy Riot, a putatively civilized western country like the UK is acting like some kind of comic-book Nazi regime, writing threat letters to a sovereign country like Ecuador:
 

 
For all the diplomatic verbiage wrapped around it, this is a crude, mobster like, letter of blackmail.  Furthermore, and as I already mentioned in my commentary yesterday, there is absolutely no precedent in recent history to the kind of behavior shown by the UK in this matter.  In fact, ALL of the Assange case is one never ending exercise in bending and abusing the law for the purpose of persecuting Assange: from the ridiculous allegations of non-protected sex, to the Interpol Red Notice, to the categorical refusal of the Swedish prosecutors to interview Assange in the UK, to the British refusal to give any guarantees of non-extradition and, finally, the the British threats to storm the Ecuadorian embassy - its all totally without precedent.
 
Compare that, again, to the case of the Pussy Riot prosecution in Russia which is very much in line, or even less severe, than what is considered the norm in most western countries (check this excellent and detailed legal analysis by Alexander Mercouris for more info).
 
It is true that what is at the core of both issues is free speech.  It does not matter whether speech is intended to be political or in support of some noble ideal, or whether free is used to offend, insult or shock.  Speech is speech regardless.  However, why is it that the western elites do not support all forms of hate-speech like they do support Pussy Riot's?
 
Would anybody seriously suggest that if these ladies had organized their performance in, say, a French synagogue, the western elites would all rise up in their defense?  Of course not.   So what is going on here?
 
Furthermore, speech is not the same as opinion.  If, at least in theory, western societies do not limit the expression of opinion, they all limit the freedom of speech be it for national security reasons, repression of hate crimes, liable laws, etc.
 
So let's cut through the crap here and set the record straight: the West's support for Pussy Riot is not due to to their opinions about Putin or the Moscow Patriarchate (such opinions can - and are -  frequently and freely expressed in Russia), and neither is it due to some unconditional support for free speech, which the West also restricts (much more so than Russia, I would argue).
 
The sad truth is that the West's support for Pussy Riot is, in reality, nothing more than yet another expression of its rabid hatred for anything Russian or Russian Orthodox.  And if that means erecting a small group of sexually dysfunctional women into a banner for freedom, so be it!  And that if that also means looking away from the obscene and outrageous persecution of a real hero for freedom like Julian Assange by the US Empire and its vassals - then so be it also!
In a paradoxical way, Pussy Riot are a perfect symbol of what the West stands for, just as Julian Assange has become a symbol for what Russia - and all the other nations on earth which refuse to submit to the US Empire - stand for.
 
I see some poetic justice here, a form of karma, really.  The modern, post-Christian, pagan, West, with all its boundless hypocrisy and arrogance, has sunk to a gutter level of ideological warfare, openly supporting the sick and pathological and persecuting the noble and courageous.  I also find it quite beautiful that a small country like Ecuador has dared to do that which all the otherwise self-enamored countries of Europe could not: show some true courage, dignity and self-respect.
 
Truly - to each his own hero and his own villain. 
 
Epilogue (provisional):
 
So Pussy Riot got themselves two years in jail.  I would have preferred that they be given 5 years of community service (you know, actually doing something halfway productive for their fellow Russians),  but that would immediately turn into yet another media circus, so I guess the judge made a good call.
 
As for Assange, his future will depend on the courage, or lack thereof, of the rest of the Latin American countries.  Ecuador cannot, by itself, prevail in a contest of wills against Uncle Sam's Poodle, but if this case sufficiently polarizes the public opinion in Latin America, the resulting public outrage might have some financial consequences for the UK and that might well force it to find some civilized and mutually acceptable solution to this embarrassing situation.  It would be nice if Russia or China also helped, but I am not holding my breath here - these two are not known for their altruism.
 
One more thing:
I apologize to anybody offended by the crude photos I posted today.  First, I assume that we are all adults here, but more importantly, and just like in my two articles about the "homo-lobby" (here and here), I feel that it is important to show things for what they really are and not just stick to abstract concepts.  It is one thing to discuss "sexual diversity" or "freedom of speech" and quite another to see a half-naked "man" with feathers or a woman publicly sticking a frozen chicken into her vagina.  A crude, disgusting, pathological and grotesque reality needs to be shown for what it is, and not for what its supporters want it to be.

 
The Saker

PS: Check today's BBC "coverage" of Julian Assange standing up to the British gestapo.

PPS: Here is the Ukrainian version of support for Pussy Riot:

 
Topless Protester Cuts Down Cross in Kiev
Activists from the Ukrainian feminist group Femen cut down a wooden crucifix in the center of the country’s capital, Kiev, on Friday in support of members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot whose trial on hooliganism charges comes to an end today.
A video posted online showed a topless blond Femen protester wearing red shorts, with the words “Free Riot” scrawled across her chest and arms, cutting the cross with a chainsaw and then pulling it down using a rope pulled by two other activists, and then posing with her arms extended crucifix-style.

The cross was put up on a high hill near Kiev’s downtown Independence Square during the 2004 pro-democracy Orange Revolution to commemorate the victims of political repression under Joseph Stalin.

“By this act, Femen is calling on all the healthy forces of our society to mercilessly cut out of our brains the rotten religious prejudices which dictatorships rely upon and which prevent the development of democracy and women’s freedom,” the Segodnya daily quoted the activists as saying.

USA UK COLONY





THE UNITED STATES IS STILL A BRITISH COLONY
(The Book 607 pages)

America Is Still A British Colony


Murdered by The Monarchs

                        THE UNITED STATES
                    IS STILL A BRITISH COLONY

                            EXTORTING

                      TAXES FOR THE CROWN!

                      A DOCUMENTARY REVIEW

                    OF CHARTERS AND TREATIES

go to link ;  http://www.apfn.org/apfn/bcolony.htm


Love of Country

Seldom Requited

By Fred Reed
August 18, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- I’m trying to understand love of country. It’s hard hoeing. Maybe some things just ain’t understandable. Or maybe it’s ‘cause I’m from West Virginia and don’t have shoes, ‘cause they ain’t any that fits people with twelve toes. How are you supposed to love a country where you can't get shoes?
I’m not even sure there’s any such thing as a country. Mostly my country seems to be a bunch of brigands in Washington who send you tax forms to get money so they can kill people in some place that never did anything to you and you probably don’t know where is. When did I ask them to do that?
It looks to me like a country is just a temporary mood ginned up to get everybody hooting and hollering behind the grenade industry with other people’s money. People just naturally like to get together in packs and kill each other, or beat each other full of concussions like in football, or have gangs and zip guns and ball bats and smack hell out of each other. A country’s just a teenage gang with older teenagers and better zip guns, I reckon. All you got to do is get them riled up about something that probably don’t exist. You send the dumb ones to get killed and the smart ones cash the checks at home. That’s what a country is.
Think about it. Isn’t it true? When the gummint wants to go kill folks we mostly never heard of, in Halfghanistan or Eye Rack this week anyway, it acts like the country is one solid thing, a big happy family, and has to think the same things. If the  gummint hates Halfghans, or wants their oil or something, we all got to hate them because we ought to love our country. It makes as much sense as lug nuts on a birthday cake.
I can’t see how there’s anything special about a country. It’s just a big herd full of little herds that hate each other and want to swindle each other and pick everybody’s pockets and burgle their houses if they can’t actually steal them. I mean, the blacks hate the whites and beat them lopsided so they can take pictures, and half the whites hate blacks but don’t dare say so, and want to run Mieesicans out of the country, and the Messicans hate the blacks and the whites that want to run them back to Messico, and everybody hates Moslems, whatever one of those is. Maybe that’s a country. It looks more like a bar fight waiting to happen.
What’s funny is how people talk about how they love their country, but don’t act like it. I mean, there ain’t nothing more patriotic than a businessman who thinks he can make money at it. The newspaper in Charlestown says the gummint spends a trillion dollars on wars every year, either fighting them or getting ready or looking for new ones. I don’t know how much a trillion is. I do know it never sees the inside of a soldier’s pockets.
No. All they get is stumps and blinded and dead. The businessmen don’t want them to win, because then the gummint wouldn’t buy as many helicopters to get shot down and then buy more. But businessmen don’t want the troops to lose either, for exactly the same reason. Nobody in his right mind stops a going concern.
We got two kinds of businessman, and they both love their country the way a bank robber loves a bank. One kind wants to bring the whole country of Messico to America so they can pay them twelve cents an hour under the table and get rich. The other wants to send all America’s factories to China where they can pay twelve cents an hour and get rich. Both kinds drip patriotism like oil from a 1964 Harley. If anyone loved me like businessmen love their country, I’d go into hiding.
Then we’ve got the military that loves its country something crazy. In West Virginia I noticed that ticks love cows. (Why did I think of that, I wonder?) In Washington you’ve got whole packs of colonels strutting around like barnyard roosters, but with less brains, and saying that hippies and reporters need to support the Pentagon’s troops in killing Halfghans. It’s so they can show how much they love their country.
See, colonels think they are the country, and nobody but them gets to decide what the country wants. But what if I think I’m the country as much as some useless tax-sucking colonel with colored gewgaws stuck on his coat jacket like a stamp collection? And what if I don’t want to bomb anybody that I don’t know, just to make money for bomb factories?
I didn’t know that Lockheed-Martin was a country. I do now.
I got my doubts about some other patriots too. Suppose you went up north to Wall Street and asked those Yankee tape worms if they loved their country. Reckon they’d say yes? Of course they would. Why, they love their country like a hog loves cornbread. Of course, the hog don’t care whose cornbread.
Thing is, the tapeworms, along with the other part of the gummint that stays in Washington, just busted the economy and left half of us with no house. If that ain’t patriotism, I don’t know what might be. And they didn’t even say they was sorry, probably because they were too busy hiding the money in off-shore accounts.  Somehow, patriotism usually seems to have dollar signs attached.
A famous fraud said, “Ask not what your country can do for you,” but that’s just what everybody does ask. Best I can tell, lots of folk love the United States till their gums bleed, but don’t want to do anything for it except run it broke. Congress takes bribes the way a Las Vegas slot machine eats quarters. Big Pharma swindles the public like a riverboat gambler with three decks of aces in his pockets. The Pentagon ain’t nothing but Section Eight housing with five walls, so’s you can tell whoever built it wasn’t paying attention.
I guess with lots of practice I might learn to love hookworm, or leprosy, or even rap music like they have on the radio out of Wheeling—though that may be stretching it. But I can’t go lower. I got my limits.
Fred's Biography: As He Tells It. - Fred, a keyboard mercenary with a disorganized past, has worked on staff for Army Times, The Washingtonian, Soldier of For tune, Federal Computer Week, and The Washington Times.fredoneverything.net
Love it ... LOVE it!................... Bless his heart.
jake ross's avatar
jake ross· 8 hours ago
This y'ere feller knows whut hes talkin' about...and I feel jes lik he does!
hankbob's avatar
hankbob· 8 hours ago
Famous frauds don't get assassinated.
Presidents like JFK that don't play ball with the central bankster thieves do. You started out pretty good
i don't love cages of people called nations..i just love people and one day we will all live within one global stateless society ruled BY THE PEOPLE using the system of participatory republic...
Share/Save/Bookmark
Here in The NeoCon ConDemNation of the UKplc we have some shit of our own going down. And there is going to be a larger demo on Oct.20th. Keep yourselves posted.http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2012/08/17/atos-g...
Dick's avatar
Dick· 5 hours ago
'Love of Country' is the patriotic expression of nationalism, which is an emotional expression of respect for a nations founding principles, geographic diversity, or cultural traditions. Being emotional it is the anti-thesis of rationality and has been used by nations for centuries to control popular opinion and influence popular support for government policies.

In America this process begins in Kindergarten where (in my experience) the first thing children learn is the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag, latter schooling teaches Americans that they are the freest and greatest country on Earth, and how the US in an act of benevolence defeated the Nazi menace in WW2 failing, of course, to mention the contribution of Russia's defeat of 300 Nazi divisions. As a result of this Americans grow up believing in American Exceptionalism and 'We are number 1', 'My country right or wrong', 'Love it or leave it' rhetoric. The problem with American patriotism is it is inclusive of government actions and policies whereas, for example, Russian patriotism is more generally for Mother Russia (the land the very soil of the nation) rather than of what form of government is in power.

Everyone knows the quote 'Patriotism is the last refuge of a Scoundrel', but I would suggest adding 'but Blind Patriotism is the last refuge of a Fool'. Patriotism in itself is a normal emotional response to your country, but Blind Patriotism can lead to catastrophic results when a governments policies are emotional supported without question, such as the German Reich. Any citizen of any country needs to view Patriotism rationally and question when necessary the actions and policies of their government. As a former American who has traveled extensively, I think Americans need to step down off their pedestal and rejoin the human race as an equal among nations. Otherwise, the America will ultimately commit a policy overreach based on irrational beliefs that will be catastrophic, similar to the German invasion of Russia. Emotionally love your country but rationally question your government.
amazindyes's avatar - Go to profile
JFK was no fraud. He tried to do the right thing and look where it got him...other than that, I agree with you completely. If you have any doubt, read JFK and The Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why it Matters.
rs ago
If anyone hasn't read that book, read it now. Very important.
dim mak's avatar
dim mak· 1 hour ago
a simple summary of what usa has de evolved into in plain english: a parasitic corporate police state of anti intellectual dullards


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