Iz 🌟

It's one potential upside* of the geopolitical situation swapping around this much, pretty clear that the status quo had been pretty uncomfortable for Assad. *not that the rebels are good, but they're probably better and them winning would effectively end the Syrian war or otherwise encourage the disparate factions to formalise the future of the country.

I suppose democracies should just roll over, shrug their shoulders and say 'look, the votes are unquestionable' when shit like this happens.

There's one very good way why Romania might be different, they're close enough to Russia to be used by them in geopolitical maneuvers, and this Russian asset who won the first round poses a threat. Meanwhile the Georgian elections are entirely non-credible and full of anti-democratic practices by those in the country who want to make it a Russian satellite state. Very telling that exactly the two elections currently under major scrutiny from the international community due to being influenced by Russia are your examples. But more broadly, don't be so obtuse. It's quite clear that voters can be influenced, the media in our own countries is damaging enough to democracy and they're ostensibly operating within the bounds of the law. Election results can be faked, or are the democratic results in your favourite nations Russia and Syria also sacred? It's not about declaring what the western consensus (media, courts, security services, NGOs, NATO, central banks, the Illuminati) doesn't like to be undemocratic, it's about recognising the threats that autocratic nations outside the liberal sphere pose to the liberal system and stopping them in their tracks.

If that certain way is avoiding the election being corrupted by Russian interference, a persistent problem in the undermining of liberal democracy, then yes.

pretty cool to see Romania cancelling their presidential election results, it's good for the Russians buying elections to know that democratic forces can step in to stop them so they'll just get less egregious

Not a fan of Starmer's team running out yet another set of milestones, or missions, or whatever the f***, I get the idea of it but it does not sell well when he's done about 5 versions of these over the course of his leadership. Starmer's speech rhetoric has toughened up though, but as ever you seem to have people convinced that this is the worst government in living memory if the QT audience and that recent poll is anything to go by but when you look at policy and drive to get things done it's the most positive I've ever felt about a government in my adult life. That said, if they don't make people feel better they're gonna be goners.

That's the same Vladana as 'Breathe'! That aside, indicates something wrong with the broadcaster's process - I'm not so certain this'll be as simple as sending the runner-up in now.

Macron's masterful strategy of ignoring the left and saying 'f*** them specifically' going well I see.

The Ludvig and Tautumeitas have real good potential in the turbofolk department, definitely think the former has a great chance of standing out. probably gonna be Citi Zeni again tho ~

#1 IRyS - Carbonated Love [séyetana 167] #3 Babymetal & Electric Callboy - RATATATA [botanikka 170] #4 Visions Of Atlantis - Tonight I'm Alive [séyetana 166] #7 Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Babys In A Thundercloud [séyetana 169] #8 Deathbrain - Stargazing With You [séyetana 161] #9 Akini Jing - Call Me Shadow [séyetana 162] #11 Seven Spires - Almosttown [séyetana 164] #12 Phantom Siita - Zoku Zoku [séyetana 170] #15 Beast In Black - Power Of The Beast [FSR Rontvia 166] #17 MISSIO - Aztec Death Whistle [séyetana 163] #18 Grossstadtgeflüster - Ich kundige [sovarasma 162] #20 Pixel Grip - Stamina [séyetana 168] #27 Dai - Happiness Of Marionette [séyetana collaboration entry] #28 Fat Dog - King Of The Slugs [sovarasma 161] #30 Karpe, Kaifi Khalil and Delara - Piya Piya Calling [Lotunia 167] #43 Bingo Players and Pure Shores - Summer Dreaming [Kluminican Republic 166] #64 Kiss Facility - So Many Ways (feat. POiSON GiRL FRiEND) [Kathaldazia 167] #83 Descartes A Kant - After Destruction [séyetana 165] #96 TURQUOISEDEATH - So Far Away [Trifoski 169] as ever the main reason my entries are all up at the top is that I listen to very few songs on heavy rotation EXCEPT for songs I plan on entering - and it's very rare I enter a song I'm not in love with ofc, IIRC the main reason After Destruction is lower than the others is that I had decided to enter it in a spare month at the tail end of last year and just delayed it quite a while Beast In Black my most-played 'new to me' song from the contest this year, something that tracks as I loved discovering that, epic track. The two Sovarasma winners too, both on regular rotation.

IRyS - Carbonated Love #1 for me (on Apple Music Replay), expected as I was playing that all summer. Nightwish and Within Temptation performing strongly as always with new album for the former and seeing the latter live. Went through lots of artist back catalogues this year so those with large ones like Taylor Swift, Eminem and Kanye are higher than they would otherwise be. Not checked Spotify which I only used for certain playlists this year so there might be something there. As I'm checking last.fm religiously and make sure that everything is aggregated there none of this is really a surprise to me.

'Revealing my Eurovision 2025 Top 1' channels in shambles A good move to avoid a certain NQ (and move past the slight controv), I would expect Nina to be given the offer as the runner up which would be a decent choice.

South Korea is the worst instincts of capitalism in a political system. You have essentially their Trump declaring himself the supreme arbiter of the law and the military have backed him, I wish it were as simple as the parliament saying no. Not got much hope that this has a happy ending. He's not particularly popular but if anything they have a worse right-wing cult than America, if you've seen the stats on how South Korean men view feminism it makes for incredibly sobering reading.

It's a revealing of implicit biases, not just Liam sota but anyone who talks about this, and indeed lots of Americans who voted for Trump, blind with rage about something that Hunter Biden did, somewhere, as a totem of distrust of government, because they've bought into Trump (or, if they don't support Trump like I suspect LS, they've bought into the idea that the establishment is wrong and someone else needs to fix it). He's fixing things, you see and so can't be bad, ignore his many personal failings. Doesn't help when the media gives the same leniency to the right-wing or admonishes the left-wing for not being better. not that Biden, Harris or Starmer are left-wing but that's neither here nor there. Well, I do see that there's a point of moral superiority coming from neoliberal consensus centre-left people, but their governments bring better outcomes on the whole so I'll afford them that. Then if they want to get elected in the future they need to embrace the populist left and not treat them worse than the supposed fascists the American centre left are happily handing the government over to. So on that point I do agree with Liam sota, but focusing in on the same specific point that every dumb small-government conspiracy theorist has been doing the entirety of the Biden administration as a way to make that point is not it. When in reality Joe Biden probably did this because of the whole right-wing rage, his son was probably going to face incredibly punitive punishment because the right-wing vortex has villianised him and he had the power to protect his son. And that's all there really is to this specific case.

who cares? Like seriously, who cares about anything Biden does to protect his son as the last action of his now dead political career, when a president with form for pardoning his close business associates and campaign financiers is about to take office with a conservative Supreme Court ruling him above the law in advance to get him out of his own personal convicted felonies. I don't see any circumstance in which someone is maddened about Biden doing this while not being in with the Trump cult.

Coming off a streak of 5 is pretty good for me - think that's almost certainly in my top 5 streak runs of qualifying. shame to break it by losing out by a single point but we move on 2011 3/4 (6 not entered) 2012 8/10 2013 5/10 2014 5/10 2015 6/10 2016 8/10 2017 4/10 2018 10/10 2019 6/10 2020 4/10 2021 5/10 2022 5/10 2023 7/10 2024 7/10 2018 just looks so abnormal when I look at it like this.

Thank you Freeze, I hoped you might be a fan, so glad that it resonated with you I'm always on the look out for good J-pop, I took a fairly lengthy break from Japan but if I find more great songs from there I'll send them in.

12 🦎 Hinterlandia 🦎 Felix Lee - And The Parasite Speaks (feat. Ecco2k) 10 🦎 08 🦎 07 🦎 06 🦎 05 🦎 04 🦎 03 🦎 FSR Rontvia🦎 Kit Sebastian - Bul Bul Bul 02 🦎 01 🦎 Ben's Sanctuary 🦎 &Tilly & Color Theory - I Cannot Rain shame to lose those and myself and then Farc and Herbilore weren't too far off so most of the NQs were in my top half of the semi at least Eastovka and therefore the other J-pop entry is through x

noooo hinterlandia!!! that was my clear 12 of the semi results not the best I have to be honest :(

that is a surprise, I thought Ben's Sanctuary would be safe, good track. great to see East Rukahavian through though

shenanigans!!! had a good year as far as Qs go but I'd hoped to sneak in a J-pop one before it finished off. :( continue listening to it because it's a hella good grower x

ugh I'm very 50/50 on my chances (even though my song's structure and sound is amazing) be kind both semi 1 DNQs so far were very close to my votes but just about missed out, shame

@1862507730680041474 really diverse range of 'for's and 'against' (Starmer, Sunak, Anderson & Denyer vs Badenoch, Patel, Farage, Corbyn & Abbott!!), Parliament should do free votes more often. Like there's a very vague correlation between establishment vs anti-establishment MPs but not 100% by a long shot. Underscores how difficult of a decision this was though, somber moment in the chamber as the results were read out.

Not happy about that, she was one of the bright spots of the new government and was doing great work over at transport - rails into public ownership, addressing Euston's issues, the bad stuff about transport so far in this government has come from higher up. Also apparently one of the few in cabinet not in the McSweeney faction, which tracks, and might be a more pertinent reason than a spent (and hardly disqualifying, in the eyes of most reasonable people) conviction from over a decade ago suddenly becoming a problem.

The fact that Leadbeater is the one leading the bill has made me more positively inclined towards it than I would otherwise, she's certainly one of the MPs I trust more in parliament and my instinct is she's determined to get this right. The bill is entirely focused on mentally sound terminally ill adults making an informed choice, in these sorts of situations it prevents more suffering, so in those cases I'm good with it. I am edgy about any legalised dying, but under specific circumstances, where our medicine can only painfully delay, not fix, the inevitable, that's fine. I don't feel too strongly on it either way though as this is one of the rare commonly debated political issues where both sides do have legitimate points.