Iz 🌟

IKIMONOGAKARI QUALIFIED LETS GOOOO Thank you everyone for getting Pest through :heart:, I'm obsessed with it right now.

Good luck everyone! I rather enjoyed my semi and there's a bunch of lovely tracks in semi 1 so I hope we don't lose many (if any) of them.

Thought this might be Trump hitting a right note for once in his life and saying Starmer's doing a 'very good job' as that's all over the airwaves this morning. But no, as much as you are willing to listen to what Trump says, that'd never get in the way of your Starmer hatred. It's a really weird approval stat because there's not much he's done wrong. The painful headlines, where it comes from, are an after effect of the Conservative government and every communication from Starmer doing the business of government shows he and his team are doing a lot of really good stuff. Except on PR, where they're woeful. Can't see them going below 20% in the polls, at least not for long. The last week has been comparatively good; historically government approval tends to recover up to high 20s/low 30s given good outlook (and there is good outlook), adjust slightly downwards for polarisation and there's not much impetus to change horses.

It is the best choice they had, it's a fun pop song and those always come across well in French, I saw that she teaches music theory which explains why it feels rather well put together, and of course it has that reference to 1965. A reference is something I was hoping from a Luxembourgish entry at some point given they have such a strong history in the contest - so that makes me happy.

None of these have a patch on Bambie unfortunately (was always going to be a hard ask so I wasn't expecting), but Bobbi Arlo comes the closest in that it would continue a relatively artistic and interesting pick, and it's not a copy at all. That's the smart pick, now it's on Ireland to choose the smart pick.

That really was a poor final after such a good series. It felt just kind of cruel to see Faithfuls voting each other off with no Traitors left and Charlotte's machinations were completely undone by the Seer accidentally picking her - good concept but it was used poorly here. all to lead to the most predictable outcome - Frankie should have listened to me, the lack of trust around that fire was set from Charlotte's admittedly well-placed reactions throughout the day leading up to it. Justice for Frankie & Alexander, both really good players throughout who got questioned way more than they should have while Leanne and Jake sailed through without so much a hint of suspicion. Good for the winners but it would have been far more feelgood if it were shared with all of them, I feel I would have had a massive amount of guilt banishing Faithfuls when not necessary, odd they didn't seem to show that.

Almost every permutation of Frankie saying to the group 'Charlotte is a Traitor' leads to Frankie being banished at some point because Charlotte's only defense is to counter and the non-reveal of roles won't let the other 3 feel safe. So the only way she survives is having other Faithfuls trust her enough and ironically that's saying Charlotte is not a traitor originally and leaving them to figure out why she's done that when she later swings back towards Charlotte.

Well her strategy would be to only have other Faithfuls left who would understand the position she was put in and that she would always get voted off if she told them and got into a direct accusé with Charlotte. Which is basically only Alexander lol. It's go in on Leanne, then probably Jake too, and then continue the game with Charlotte, Alexander and herself and hoping Alexander figures out why she's continued the game. just spitballing as to how a player who now seems utterly doomed could still win. I like Francesca but I would be amazed if she pulled that off. I can't quite call what Charlotte would do in that situation and she'd be far more likely to win than Francesca at pretty much all stages of that plan by convincing the votes to go some other way. I also kind of hope it happens (or gets down to 3 in some fashion with Charlotte still there) because that's the most fun conclusion to any game of Mafia/Werewolf-likes.

Really hoping that Frankie thinks on her feet enough to realise that saying that Charlotte's a Traitor will pretty much always lead to her own banishment and tells the rest of the group instead that Charlotte's a Faithful. Which does massively increase the odds of Charlotte winning, but it sets up a potentially really interesting set of final banishments where Charlotte and Frankie are working against each other to swing the rest of the group in their favour (and pretty much the only way that my preferred option of Alexander and Frankie sharing the prize pot comes to fruition x)

How far this will go may be a crucial stress test on how robust American democracy really is. Russia and Turkey both have, in theory, term limits on their presidencies. In practice, of course, Putin has stuffed the laws around term limits with a bunch of clauses, exceptions and constitutional changes that boil down to 'two term-limit, except if you're called Vladimir Putin', and the same for Erdoğan. They're not alone in the strongman world either, it's not a democracy but Xi relatively recently removed term limits in China. Likely once these strongmen are gone, whoever replaces them will continue changing the constitution every so often with similar transparently ridiculous ploys to allow them to rule for life unless huge changes to the political culture of those countries occurs. This amendment for example, has to be a non-starter, in a similar way to those Russian and Turkish amendments, it allows someone to be elected to the Presidency three times, but if they serve two consecutive terms, they cannot be elected to another one. That might as well read, in this current political moment, 'two-term limit, unless you're called Donald Trump'. Which is being done of course because Obama 2028 is waiting in the wings should Trump try any other method of abolishing term limits. Anyone with more brain power than a potato shouldn't see any distinction between 'two terms, a break, then one' and 'one term, a break, then two', if term limits are to be extended (so of course most Republicans won't), but the precise reason they are there in the first place is to stop megalomaniacs and strongmen from holding onto the presidency for the sake of power and allowing them the time necessary to cement that power by controlling the institutions around democracy such that they won't get voted out. to whit, to the post two above, I counter, Donald Trump and Elon Musk are egotistical lunatics who shouldn't be anywhere near power; precisely because they have shown they are willing to bend the rules of democracy to keep themselves in power longer than the constitution allows or the people decide.

I guess the initial logic is that Frankie tells everyone, Charlotte's only defense is accusing Frankie, and then the other 3 very understandably vote both members of the pair off because there's no way to verify whose word is more reliable. Seems straightforward now and potentially robs the final of some drama. Hopefully Frankie realises this once she learns and plays it a different way with what she tells the whole group, though I'm not sure how many other ways there are to play because I'm not really seeing a reason to not share should the interviewed player be a Faithful. This is a good power to see in the show as it does come into many Mafia/Werewolf-type games but I'm not sure on the implementation here, the face-to-face aspect and the way the role was assigned kinda dooms the Seer should they find a Traitor.

It's classic modern fascist textbook modus operandi, do the thing you want to do that's transgressive and shocking, in a way where there's plausible deniability, any sycophants you may have gathered can go out telling people it's a joke, and revel in people tripping over themselves in discussions about you clearly and deliberately doing a Hitler salute on stage. Twice. Absolutely 100% intentional.

With Joe, I found him often obnoxious at the round table but now he's out and has no threat of winning I can sorta see that he's an extroverted guy who got quite into the traitor hunting part, just wasn't very good at it and banished people we quite like. At least he was trying to play the game. Leanne though, I find is so blinkered. Multiple instances throughout the game where she's said stuff where it's clear she thinks she's more important than she is, like thinking in an earlier murder that the Traitors had murdered into her shield before the obviously more likely possibility of recruitment, as Alexander pointed out to her. And when stuff like that is pointed out to her, and indeed the latest two-faced thing, rather than take it in grace and figure that there must be a non-malicious reason for it (in the latter, the Traitors had to pick someone), it's all investigative mood to find out who wronged her. She is the centre of the universe and it comes across badly - she seems to have it out for Alexander now and it seems far more likely that it's because he stood up to her than her thinking he's the most likely Traitor - and it's this personal game-playing that swings me against her. She's had some nice moments too much like the rest of the cast but I do get this off vibe from her. That said, incredible episode last night, Minah was an excellent player throughout, and leaves with her head held high, I can't wait to see how Charlotte's machinations turn out, whether she's a genius and they work or it all blows up in her face it should be excellent TV. Would very much like Alexander to win as a Faithful but that seems like a long shot, though I've been convinced he's going for a few episodes in a row now.

I volunteered to start this thread as a containment thread so ongoing debates about Israel's participation or their song do not find their way into other threads like the Green Room. Several fansites including my own have decided not to cover their inclusion, so I will set this up less like a standard national thread and more as a commentary on how Israel will impact the contest this time, as they are almost certain to. KAN has had their yearly 'will the Israeli conservatives pull funding' drama already, so no saviours from that front. They selected last night (shockingly not even a medalist in controversial things that happened yesterday in the Eurovision sphere) Yuval Raphael from the talent show that they use to select such things. One of course hopes that she is less abrasive and dislikeable than Eden Golan, who came across without an ounce of grace or understanding the entirety of last year. Raphael was in attendance at THAT music festival, which probably explains in part why she was chosen. She's also spoken about that day at the UN. edit: BBC article on the subject https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ceve4ww7n90o

Erika has been granted a gift, One Morning Left have been disqualified :o

ONE MORNING LEFT ARE DOWN I REPEAT ONE MORNING LEFT ARE DOWN

Moldova have withdrawn from Eurovision 2025 ~ article: https://escxtra.com/2025/01/22/breaking-new...urovision-2025/

Viva BRICS (the S stands for Spain) good to know the idiocy is still alive and well

Rooney and Suedehead said as much already but this is classic 'everything proves the conspiracy' nonsense. The laws around reporting the Southport case were followed duly and that does mean that people get information a little later than they might like. I would never expect nor want the sitting PM to do anything like release information that might pervert the cause of justice (very important this is not done for a jury trial!), especially as he had been in power for less than a month at that point. This is what I mean about uncharitability, Labour have called an inquiry into the historic failures that led to the Southport killer not properly being assessed by Prevent, something that does need a fresh look, while you, or whoever's information you're parroting berates the government for doing their duty and covering up details, and yet when it was about a well-known issue like grooming gangs that has had multiple inquiries over the last decades we had screeching from the rafters calling for yet another one that only slightly relented when Labour announced some local ones to cover any gaps. Reform supporters/bots are doing this all over Twitter and they look insane. By all means criticise the government but actually take notice when they do things or you just look ridiculous, that's how most of us here operated for 14 years under the incompetency of the Conservatives, if there was something right they did it was accepted.

Starmer's read my posts! He's approaching this from a standpoint of expanding the definition of terrorism, which is very good. He's also called for an inquiry into it, and correctly reasserted that he could not give out information still under investigation at the time, though I'm sure all his uncharitable critics will come up with a new reason for why him calling an inquiry this time is a cover-up and why following our legally defined processes of justice is bad actually.

Please explain, I explain my thought processes and why things are bad/good according to my ideology. All respectable opinions are welcome here but you don't get to vaguepost and not get called out for it.

That list of executive orders looks like a deranged wishlist of quick fixes that right-wing midwits have been dreaming up of doing without considering the very harmful consequences of.... seeking to remove birthright citizenship, deportations, withdrawing from WHO (what?!) and Paris climate agreements, and topping it all off with backwards gender ideas and useless renaming policies. This is going to be a long long administration and it's not going to end well for many of the vulnerable within the US.

Skunk Anansie sounds the best to me - Architects, Biig Piig and Inhaler also very good.

Vylet Pony - Pest BMYy8v-FzqY Starlight lounged in the palace gardens, alone, and aimless. The unicorn's pink coat was trimmed and tailored with precision, and her furled mane was sectioned into shades of purples and mints. In her hooves was a relic known in many worlds as the "Staff of Sameness". In a few paradox instances of the Equestrian System, this staff is merely an idol of status, rather than a magical conduit. Curiously, it is a true conduit in Wolf's world, thus seducing the beast in pursuit of the unicorn who wields it. Yes. Wolf did arrive in the garden, clutching a greatsword that she had plundered from a precursory confrontation. Starlight greeted her rather sociably. The unicorn seemed not to be perturbed by the presence of the murderer standing before her, rather, she smiled recognizingly and expectantly, as if awaiting an embrace. Alas, Starlight's charlatan grin soured abruptly, jerking into a contortion of agony as Wolf's blade swiftly excavated the furthest recesses of the unicorn's body. The precise, methodical tactics that the beast had employed upon all previous victims were abandoned entirely. Wolf's frenzied shrieks, which were noticed by residents far off in every direction, turned to delighted convulsions as Starlight perished in the beast's arms. She allowed the body to slip from her grip and splatter into chunks of gore and viscera on the palace steps. Wolf pounced onto the corpse; fluids and foams curdled into viscous pools beside her as the relentless shredding and bludgeoning fractured and segmented the body into unidentifiable biological masses. Her repeated strikes and lacerations rended the flesh and its concealed bounties only ribbons and slivers of decay, which she devoured frantically. And once Wolf had finally relented, she grasped the Staff of Sameness and prevailed over the grub and entrails of her old acquaintance. > I have been in awe at what Vylet Pony has done lately.

the f*** you mean the UK need to follow suit we just got rid of 14 years of extreme incompetent right-wing governance over here we sure as hell don't need more of it The deportation and harsh border orders Trump is pushing through already will not lead to good outcomes of that I can assure you.