THE WORLD’S best Olympians are soon heading off to Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy for the snow, ice and also ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) of the United States.
Sadly since the 1972 Munich massacre, security is needed but does that justify ICE’s presence? How does that support the motto “Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together”?
ICE is currently busy with taking a five-year-old boy and his father into detention and shooting innocent people but then they’re off to Italy.
Custom enforcement usually happens at the border of your country or an airport, not on a snow-bound mountain top, so why ICE?
Immigration enforcement used to mean stopping unwanted people getting into your country although now it seems to concentrate on shipping out thousands of people without reason. It also doesn’t usually happen on top of a mountain.
Is this going to be an extra encouragement to their athletes? “You don’t win a medal, you don’t come home.”?
There is now reason for ICE in Italy nor is there any adequate reason for ICE as it is now, in America.
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Any empty seats?
Two films premiered recently, the British one “Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision” at Windsor Castle, to a room full of celebrities and dignitaries whereas the American, one “Melania” was shown initially at the Whitehorse to viewers including Donald Trump’s staff and Mike Tyson, and it was officially premiered at the Kennedy Center. That venue may be hard to find as someone has graffitied it with Trump’s name as well.
Both could be considered niche documentaries but as the American late night comedians that Trump hates have shown, there are still plenty of seats available to see “Melania”, even some theatres where every seat is still available.
It will be interesting to see how much money “Melania” makes given it cost about $US75 million in rights and publicity although exact values are hard to get.
A note to the other approximately 190 countries in the world: if you want to make a documentary about your leaders and their families, you might want to do some audience research to gauge interest before you spend 50+ million dollars.
If you are worried about missing the opportunity to see the “Melania” film, you could include it in a trip to Australia as my local Cinema has it on in a 100-seat theatre and there are still 99 seats available on Saturday.
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Dummy spit about a dummy spit
Coco Gauff, currently ranked No. 3 in women’s world tennis, is upset that her smashing up a racquet after her lose was captured on a camera and then broadcast. Is she being childish about being childish?
There are millions of children who would like to play tennis but can’t given the cost of a racquet and would be delighted to get one of her castoffs, although not the one we saw.
There are a few who smash racquets and they should be stopped. First racquet – keep using that racquet for that game; second occurrence – whole set; and third time, it’s goodbye. There will be few occurrences once they exit tournaments for displays of anger.
There is also another childish factor to fix: all sports should treat equivalent offenders the same – send them home. If I did the same I would also expect to be spanked but that’s old-fashioned thinking (although it worked as I still have my racquet from the 1970s).
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Not for sale or conquest
State Secretary Marco Rubio of the US has stated that President Trump wants to acquire, presumably “buy” Greenland, a concept that seems rather offensive.
It would be the US, not Trump himself, that would make the purchase hopefully, although with the money he made, and others lost, on his crypto products he might be able to.
If a purchase can’t happen then the option of military force is available.
The situation is similar to a problem my home state of Victoria is facing, with sales of illegal cigarettes, a much smaller concern but often approached the same way. Anyone selling legal, heavily taxed, cigarettes are asked to switch to illegal cigarettes by criminal gangs and if they don’t then their stores might be fire bombed (over 125 were attacked in the last few years).
Basically, the little guy is going to get beaten up by the bully except that this little guy has a very strong big brother, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
How long can this sort of behavior go on? This may not seem important for many countries but Greenland and Canada are being pressured to join the US. Venezuela has been invaded, Mexico and Cuba are worried and this is all within one year – and there are three more to go.
It’s not paranoia if you are right. Does your country have resources to mine?/PN
