Iz 🌟

I think I tend to be quite good at it when I bother to make final predictions, but then I'm infrequent because the main reason that draws me to want to make a prediction is when I think the existing predictions are missing something (no crowd following for me). Of course that makes me quite prone to bias, and this whole statement to confirmation bias based on a few on-point calls from select contests, but if I make a prediction, watch out x This month I think I will because it does seem quite interesting to have a go, so maybe I'll look silly later.

Trump is now threatening to sue the BBC to the tune of ONE BILLION DOLLARS for defamation here. I would really like the BBC to put reporting on this in perspective here. Let us not forget, this is a documentary surrounding an incident where Trump incited and attempted to be part of a coup, attempting to overthrow the United States government because the results of an election were not to his liking. Now for reasons known only to the Americans, this somehow did not disqualify him from public office for life and even more incredibly, he has managed to get himself back into power on the wishes of the American electorate. That does not erase the fact that he at numerous stages between November 2020 and January 2021 made multiple statements questioning the validity of the vote, at multiple points made phrases including the sentiment 'fight for your country', and the fact that the BBC shoddily stitched together some speeches on the documentary (honestly poor form from them when they had plenty of material to choose from to make the same point) does not take away from him being an anti-democratic danger. There is a concerted push from right populists to undermine the BBC. What we constantly pull it up for, that it subtly frames towards government institutions and has said right populists on too frequently in the name of balance doesn't even figure from them, they hate that it's the most popular news org in the UK and is mostly grounded in reality and accurate reporting. It's 'too pro-Palestinian', or it's even lefty. Anyway they would love if it could be replaced by GB News and I think we ought to be very careful and watch what they're doing as they go to war with the BBC. For instance, see this article from the Telegraph (archived link) about BBC's climate change coverage being too biased and to need a review. Of course reviews are generally good, and if the BBC were to be unbiased and honest about the climate change crisis it would be forever the top story, there would be so much more focus about what climate change is doing to equatorial countries such that they are becoming less habitable year by year and the tone would be meandering between highly alarmed and downright apocalyptic. However while this article does acknowledge what 'the Left' have a problem with, that being the standard and correct claim that having a climate scientist and a sceptic on the same program is a laughable way to claim balance, most of the 'accusations of bias' are more along the lines of deniers complaining that the BBC is being overzealous. Think for example that Attenborough documentary talked about in this thread in 2023 getting cut (quoted below), or claims about net zero. Essentially that the BBC shows any care for the climate crisis at all is a problem for them.

full house of my votes through and I'm through and I think most of the songs I couldn't quite fit into my votes for are also through - this has gone super well and has led to a very strong final! thank you Jade for hosting!

phew! glad to see Sayonara Maybe in - same for Red & Gold.

oh fantastic to see Flynnonda and Aelandor safe, two entries that were essential to get through and wasn't sure either was nailed on.

wait I thought I'd be out! thank you thank you! great to see Pendulum in also

Oh that's a good start to the qualifiers!

Trifoski! 🥲Just a bit less of a wrong semi would have got them through. Lotunia also one I remember enjoying from the listenthrough.

Galling that Trump as the most powerful man in the world has the ability to sway this over here - though you could certainly say the BBC were in the wrong here, the clip they're being brought up on implies something different from what was meant, though it was part of a documentary and documentaries do often use similar stylised speech cuttings to fit the direction of the documentary's argument. Not the sort of thing I'd think should be a director resigning matter, they've had far more egregious incidents and a long held subtle sway towards promoting the right that should have gotten Davie gone long before now. As exemplified quite well in my most recent post. Anyway now that that's done, hopefully there is an appointment who is not so clearly ideologically towards the Conservatives and/or Reform, though I have no doubt that Labour will make damn sure they don't put in anyone who could be seen as left-leaning because they must pre-emptively capitulate to the media landscape., and most especially when not doing so would actually help them.

Unsure at what will happen, tough semi, just need as many of the good songs in semi 2 to make it as possible.

Voted, but I've had to leave a not small number of excellent songs out of my votes and I really hope they can make the final too, that was a semi perfectly tailored to my interests.

'Lyla' I don't mind as much as many others, and honestly Oasis can really annoy me at times so that itself is an achievement. It's not great but it's fine. 'Lonely' I'd be sorely tempted to rank right at the bottom just for the crime of beating 'Feel Good Inc' while being bad. Unfortunately while doing that, I'd probably have to admit that as fits with my soft spot for high pitch, I do quite like what it does with mixing the high-pitched voices with Akon's soul (certainly in comparison to a lot of his other work) and it comes together in a sort of acceptable way. To probably end up with it about how you ranked it.

Bunch of educational reforms just announced: Very much on board with the majority of these, much needed updates to the school curriculum.

Very pleased with that, but indeed, now the hard task for Zohran starts, I feel he can meet that challenge but there will be a wave of misinformation regardless. obvious ludicrous cover goes kinda hard though

On the brink of Zohran Mamdani very likely being elected the next mayor of New York City, thinking back to a conversation some months ago where a certain poster tried to claim that this movement was elitist Like Bernie says at the start of this video, there's a reason people all over the world are watching this election: Mamdani is a blueprint for how to fight (and ideally govern!) with in-touch politicians who understand the needs of ordinary people and win that way, and hopefully this style can be repeated across the world - you might say Polanski's taken a lot of cues from him. Modern centrist politicians who end up pretending they're the last bulwark against fascism run such EMPTY campaigns and general appeal in comparison. Compare of course to the actual hysteria from billionaire-funded media that has been put out against him over the last month especially. all the best of luck to him tonight to win with as wide a margin as possible.