[V]olodymyr [Z]elensky at the Grammys

What the hell is [V]olodymyr [Z]elensky doing turning up at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards? 

If you don't already know, a pre-taped message from him was aired during Sunday’s night of escapist entertainment at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada in the US of A. Really, it’s nothing more than his usual propaganda bullshit! 

In any case, he had wanted the audience to tell his version of the “truth” about the Ukraine conflagration on their social networks and TV! I betcha he knows he has them wrapped around his little finger. 

It’s an easy task actually, given the overwhelming buy-in from the mainstream media who are already abetting [Z]elensky to promote the propagated lies that have been meticulously manufactured to paint his country as an innocent victim of Russian aggression. 

Watch media personality Katie Hopkins speak on it:

 

All this while, I thought brave [Z]elensky is busy fighting tooth and nail, hand to hand in the trenches, and perhaps even charging heroically towards the Russian frontlines. 

Definitely not! 

We shouldn't forget he is an actor, a comedian and now, a two-bit politician.

Ukraine is Decoy to Bait Russia and Profit US

The conflict between Ukraine and Russia is 40 days old today and it is expected to continue for quite some time. 

After all, when two countries trade blows, some countries are jumping for joy! 

That explains why the US, for example, is not at all interested in initiating talks between the adversarial parties to try to put a stop to the worsening flare-up. Its arms manufacturers and defence contractors want the fighting to never cease. 

It is in their business interest that the strife persists. They have a business case for it to prolong, if not escalate further. 

Start with the US. According to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the global military spend in 2020 was almost $2 trillion, of which $778 billion was spent by the US. 

As military data generally has a year's lag, this figure doesn't capture the jumbo amount of money being spent now to keep the Ukraine-Russia armed engagement going. According to last month's India Today report, former US president Donald Trump approved $47 million worth of weapons exports to Ukraine in 2017, despite a Reuters commentary warning that the decision to arm the country "is bound to make a conflict that is mostly frozen into a more deadly one". 

This notwithstanding, President Joe Biden is doing what Trump did, but with more vengeance. The reason isn't hard to find. After all, the US is the world's largest arms exporter. 

SIPRI research tells us that out of the 10 largest defence contractors in the world, five are in the United States. Lockheed Martin Corporation, the company that supply the Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, are said to be the largest among them. The others are Boeing, Raytheon Technologies Corporation, Honeywell and General Electric. All spend millions of dollars annually lobbying the federal government to prod elected officials, shape policy, and win profitable government contracts. 

Last year, an analysis by businessinsider.com revealed that at least 15 lawmakers who hold powerful positions on House and Senate committees that control US military policy had financial ties to these defence contractors.

Now, you know why the US loves wars! 

And this conflagration between Ukraine and Russia is the latest manifestation. The US with the connivance of NATO uses Ukraine as a decoy to bait Russia. It's not just a geopolitical maneuver but it produces an economic spinoff because the country's powerful military–industrial complex profits immensely from it.

Jimmy Carter who's the 39th President of the United States of America – in 2019 – himself referred to his country as the most warlike nation in the history of the world!

Chicken-San Sings Led Zeppelin

Rubber chickens squeak! Of course, we all know that!

And that’s because there is a plastic device that looks like a cross between a kazoo and a duck call hidden inside it. Compressing the chicken's body forces air through the whistle to create the ear-assaulting noise. 

But I just found out that rubber chickens can sing too! 

Don’t believe me? Check out Chicken-San belting out Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song, complete with howling vocals:

 

Yesterday’s match at Ibrox saw Celtic triumph 2-1 over Rangers. The former has now taken a giant stride towards reclaiming the Scottish Premiership title after battling back to beat the latter. 

The Rangers’ opener in the third minute was cancelled out inside seven minutes by Tom Rogic's close-range strike, before Celtic took control when Cameron Carter-Vickers forced home after a free-kick in the forty-third minute.

With a six-point lead and a 16-goal advantage with six games to play, Ange Postecoglou's men are in a commanding position to win the league, even with one more derby to come at Celtic Park. And they have no European football to distract them.

Body Language Analyst Reacts to "Slap Chris" Incident

Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Academy Awards after the comedian made a joke about the Oscar winning actor's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. 

That “moment of madness” from him – read my post “Slap Chris” published March 29 – didn’t end just there. 

Not long after that, there was Smith's tearful best actor acceptance speech, in which he (left) apologized to the Academy and his fellow nominees – but then, at the same time, he had defended his action, even framing himself as a protector of his family. And he received a standing ovation. 

He then made a show of posing and dancing with his best actor statuette at the after-show party in classic Big Willie style, as if nothing had happened. 

And yet, on Friday, he resigned his membership from the Oscars Academy and had acknowledged how "shocking, painful and inexcusable" his “Slap Chris” stunt was. 

Let me say here that I’m not a fan of Will Smith but this video which offers an analysis of body language and behavior of that “moment of madness” from the actor is worth checking out – more so, when some people have speculated that it was all staged!

Malaysian Politicians Are Busy as Bees

In Malaysia, GE15 is expected to be called soon and politicians are busy as bees. They've already begun to lay plans and start to plot and scheme. 

Najib Razak in a Facebook post yesterday contended that Perikatan Nasional's Muhyiddin Yassin (right) is hypocritical in his support for Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, saying that he is meeting opposition leaders behind his back to topple him. 

He said Muhyiddin had covertly met with Pejuang’s Dr Mahathir Mohamad, PKR’s Anwar Ibrahim and Warisan’s Shafie Apdal in his bid to wrest back the premiership from Ismail. 

“But these three leaders – Mahathir, Anwar and Shafie – who he is lobbying support from also want to become the PM”, asserted Najib.

In fact, a Malay Mail news report published yesterday had Muhyiddin himself confirming that he had met Mahathir to discuss possible collaboration to unseat BN. 

His admission came because a day earlier, Mahathir had already divulged that Muhyiddin had sought his help to enable him to return as prime minister. A FMT report published April 01 had Mahathir even saying Pejuang are not ‘going to support somebody who as the prime minister was as much a failure as Najib (Razak) was”! 

Muhyiddin had in 2020 taken Bersatu out of the Pakatan Harapan coalition, leading to the collapse of the government. He then joined forces with former political enemies UMNO and PAS to form the PN government, with him as the prime minister. 

And in August last year, Muhyiddin, in turn, was supplanted by Ismail (right) who is from UMNO.

I’m reminded by what former US president Ronald Reagan once said: “Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first”. 

Anyway, Malaysian politicians don’t have a good reputation!

Yesterday, Liverpool got the job done, despite an unconvincing performance when they beat Watford 2-0. 

Portugal forward Diago Jota jumped between two Hornets defenders to meet a Joe Gomez cross and head past the opposing side’s goalie in the twenty-second minute. And then, Fabinho's penalty in the eighty-ninth minute secured the points.

The Reds face Benfica on Tuesday in the quarter-finals of the Champions League in Lisbon, Portugal before meeting Manchester City on Sunday in what many are billing as the game that could decide the Premier League title. Needless to say, these are the two games in which they must win!

Facebook Fight Dirty Against TikTok

The Washington Post put out a piece on Wednesday that Facebook parent company Meta are paying one of the biggest political consulting firms in the US to orchestrate a blistering crusade seeking to turn the public against rival TikTok. 

The campaign includes placing op-eds and letters to the editor in major regional news outlets, promoting dubious stories about alleged TikTok trends that actually originated on Facebook, and pushing to draw political reporters and local politicians into helping take down their biggest competitor. These bare-knuckle tactics, long commonplace in the world of politics, have become increasingly noticeable within a tech industry where companies vie for cultural relevance and come at a time when Facebook are under pressure to win back young users. 

The firm, Targeted Victory allegedly undermined the Chinese-owned app that has become one of the most downloaded apps in the world, often outranking even Meta’s popular Facebook and Instagram apps through a nationwide media and lobbying campaign portraying it as a danger to American children and society, according to internal emails shared with The Washington Post. 

Check out this video clip where CGTN Anchor Wang Guan breaks it down in the latest episode of “Reality Check with WangGuan”:

 

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone defended the campaign by saying, “We believe all platforms, including TikTok, should face a level of scrutiny consistent with their growing success”. 

And a TikTok spokesperson said the company are “deeply concerned” about “the stoking of local media reports on alleged trends that have not been found on the platform”. 

It’s plain to see that Meta are increasingly fighting dirty and methinks it's all part of an insidious grand plan to promote American hegemony on the social media scene!

A 3D Printed Beak for a Great Hornbill

A skin cancer-stricken hornbill in a US zoo has been given a new lease of life thanks to a 3D printer. 

Animal caretakers at Zoo Tampa in Florida were fearful for Crescent, a 25-year-old great hornbill (Scientific name: Buceros bicornis). 

The colorful bird had developed an often-fatal cancer on her large beak, squamous cell carcinoma – but her keepers refused to give up. The median survival time for birds once they catch the disease is 357 days. 

Zoo associate veterinarian Dr. Kendra Baker said the tumor was typically found near the front of the casque in hornbills, but Crescent's was found in the back. Experts could not kill the tumor through typical cancer removal surgery as it would leave the bird's sinuses vulnerable to bacterial infection. 

That's when the team made the call to print and design a new custom 3D casque for the great hornbill. And Crescent's prosthetic beak had to be lightweight, hard and durable. 

After her January surgery, surgeons used dental acrylic to apply Crescent's new bill before permanently attaching it with titanium screws. The replacement beak covered her sinuses, and she immediately had full use of it.

Zoo officials said this was the first time this surgery has been performed on a hornbill in the US and the second procedure worldwide. 

Crescent is now cancer-free and recovering, although she is still being closely monitored after being restored in her aviary. 

A native of the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, the great hornbill's population is decreasing due to deforestation. The species is listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Banned Letters Z and V

Yesterday, I had mentioned about the letter Z finding itself in trouble in Europe. 

Today, I came across a news report that Latvia's parliament have adopted a new law that bans the display of the letters "Z" and "V" in public, under the pretense that these symbols, which are being used by Russian troops in Ukraine, stand for glorifying "military aggression and war crimes".

Anyone found guilty under the new law will be fined up to €350, while companies can be fined up to €2,900. 

The vote on the new law was introduced as an "urgent procedure"! 

And then there was another report that Kiev had asked Slovenia's embassy on Thursday to take down its flag (left) because it was too similar to that of Russia! 

This is all becoming farcical and ludicrous!! But when you have a Ukraine President who is a real-life comic, what do you expect?!

The Diamond Priced at RM56

"The Diamond in Your Speech" deals are over! And the book is now retailing at RM56 a copy!

We're encouraging you to get the book by going to this web link @ 

https://bit.ly/3r9BNd4

We appreciate the fact that we’ve already surpassed 300 copies – 324 to be exact! We know that a little progress each day adds up to big results!

Anyway, we’re still focussed on direct selling and we're sticking to our original target of 400 copies on or before June 30. We certainly don't intend to pressure ourselves.