[BITList] TO HELLE AND BACK

[John Feltham]

A view from America…..




TO HELLE AND BACK - THE SELFISH SELFIE

December 24, 2013

Hello all

Merry Christmas.

On his recent trip to South Africa, President Obama joining the Adeste Fidelis pilgrimage of world leaders to the Mandela funeral, came closest to who Fidel is and shook hands with Raul. Unscripted handshaking is very disruptive in the world of the State Department. But Raul wasn't the only thorn that pricked the President.

It may have been more fitting to summon a throng of 500,000 to the Washington Mall to pay tribute to Mandela with a speech beamed broadcast on TV, and spare the $20 million or so it cost to go to Helle and back. I know some will say it was mandatory for Prezzie to join the faithful and show up so he could have a few yuks with David Cameron and shoot a selfish selfie with Helle Thorning-Schmidt the Danish rose—as you can see, no matter what she's called, Michelle didn't think this thorn smelled so sweet.




David Cameron, the Prime Minister who is pretty much a pimple on the rear end of progress, made more of a blight of himself on Blighty's established reputation for bad taste by suggesting that it would be a Helle of a thing if she auctioned off the selfie for a lot of money. http://rt.com/news/cameron-selfie-mandela-auction-286/. Then, in spin worthy of Putin, "for charity" was added.

The appraiser on Antiques Road Show mumbled that Cameron's mug in the picture reduced its value but if Helle had had a shot of Prezzie on the steps of Air Force One, she'd have paid for at least her trip.

So, we've lost another 4-5 weeks of inattention to real problems: fixing the ACA website, fixing the NSA debacle, fixing the USA mess in general.

On top of all this, we have a spat with the Indians about the arrest of one of their diplomats. That is a wild story getting wilder so I'll make it the subject of a second breakfast.

And I suppose for a second cup of coffee or tea, we should finish off on a comment about Edward Snowden and the NSA stuff. That too will follow.

Meanwhile, Putin pardoned Khodorkovsky, or according to Mr. K, granted him clemency, meaning that he did not admit guilt. Less than a year ago, I remember Medvedev saying that as long as Putin was alive, K would not get out of prison. What a tragic ten years for a guy who crossed Putin.



ooroo

Bad typists of the word, untie.





-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20131225/4a09c086/attachment-0001.htm 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Selfish Selfie - Obama to Helle and back.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 29308 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20131225/4a09c086/attachment-0001.jpg