Sochi gets even creepier

The Sochi Olympics are not boosting Russia's reputation.

On the same day the Russian deputy prime minister told gays coming to the Winter Olympics not to touch children, he divulged that cameras are keeping an eye on Olympic tourists while they’re in the shower.

The blunder happened when Dmitry Kozak was asked about conditions in hotels and the lack of water, the subjects of ongoing media criticism.

Kozak suddenly became defensive and blurted: “We have surveillance video from the hotels that shows people turn on the shower, direct the nozzle at the wall and then leave the room for the whole day.”

If anything, the Olympics seem to be lowering Russia's reputation in the world. I don't think this is what Puti intended.

Sochi. Ugh.

The horror stories are flowing out of Sochi -- as is the yellow water. Reporters and others are sharing their tales about the appalling accommodations available in Sochi. Short version: nothing is ready, everything's a wreck. Here's a bit:

Stacy St. Clair of the Chicago Tribune was ready to take the Olympic torch to her place.

“My hotel has no water,” she tweeted. “If restored, the front desk says, ‘do not use on your face because it contains something very dangerous.’”

She later tweeted a somewhat terrifying picture of two glasses filled with a urine-colored liquid.

Lookin' good, Puti. You sure knocked this one out of the park. Seriously, read the linked article. It's a nightmare.

And now for your special bonus, a photo of a Russian woman who lives just outside Sochi. Don't you love the fashion sense of these Russians? I snapped this during last night's TV news. This coat is a case of leisure piping gone mad. Russian fashion is typically 20 or 30 years out of date. And color is not allowed. Only black and grey, please.

It was actually a sad story. The woman lives in a town that has been obliterated by Sochi construction crews. The town's people are cut off from the only road out of town, their water is undrinkable and the land itself is poisoned. And though they've complained loudly, no one in the Russian government will respond to their concerns. After all, this is Russia.

The omens have spoken. This is going to be a tacky, dangerous, third world-style Olympics. I don't envy anyone who's attending the games. Poor babies!

PS: Don't turn on your electronics in Russia. I watched an NBC segment last night that showed how a computer or smartphone is hacked within one minute after it is turned on. Seriously. This is the Sochi Criminal Olympics. No one should bring a smart phone or computer into the country unless they want their finances ruined.

Russia: land of opportunity. Oy.

Russian males die early because of vodka

As we head toward the Sochi Anti-Gay Bombing Olympics, let us consider the drunken nature of the Russian male:

The high and sharply fluctuating death rates in Russia are due mainly to alcohol, particularly vodka, a new prospective study of 151,000 adults confirms.

Currently, 25% of all Russian men die before the age of 55 years, compared with only 7% of UK men. Alcohol and tobacco account for most of this large difference in premature mortality (appendix, pages 3-5).

"Russian death rates have fluctuated wildly over the past 30 years as alcohol restrictions and social stability varied under Presidents Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and Putin, and the main thing driving these wild fluctuations in death was vodka. This has been shown in retrospective studies, and now we've confirmed it in a big, reliable prospective study", said co-author Professor Sir Richard Peto from the University of Oxford, UK.

But Russia will exercise great control during the Sochi Olympics. Have no fear. Why, just yesterday president Obama said it's "safe" to go to Sochi. Uh-huh.

Did you ever wonder whether those Russian thugs were drunk when they beat up innocent gay guys, videotaped it and put this vile product on the internet? The answer is probably. But there's some consolation. At least the thugs will probably die before the age of 55.

Russia is a pig sty. Nothing new here. Lookin' good, Vladdy! Boo-yah!

The cursed torch of the Sochi Olympics

Someone is sending Russia a message.

It was bad enough when the Olympic flame went out and had to be relit with a disposable lighter rather than the official backup flame, and even worse when a torchbearer managed somehow to set himself on fire in the Siberian city of Abakan.

But perhaps the low point in what has seemed less like an Olympic torch relay than an exercise in ineptitude and misfortune came earlier this week when one of the runners carrying the torch to the Sochi Games had a fatal heart attack while attempting to walk his allotted distance, about 218 yards.

OMD. A higher power seems to be sending Russia a stern message. It must be the Russian Orthodox Christian god, that Jeebus fellow. But, but...I thought Jeebus loved the Russian pogrom against gay people. Jeez!

Oh, the schadenfreude. It tickles.

Johnny Weir is an asshole

John Aravosis rips Johnny Weir to shreds in a blog post today. Good, the man is a joke.

I mean, here he is, America's uber-gay skater, and he won't say a thing against Russia's anti-gay law. He even appeared on TV in a Russian military uniform last night. He is a major, world-class fool.

Johnny Weir is and always has been a "look at me" person rather than a gay person. There's a big difference. It's almost like he's gay just for the attention.

Piss on you, Weir.

More Olympic piggery

So now the IOC is threatening athletes, thinking this will stop demonstrations against Russia's filthy anti-gay law. Sure, that'll work. Hah. 

Note: paragraphing is my own.

BUENOS AIRES — Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, said Sunday that athletes would be warned about rules prohibiting demonstrations at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia. 

Chernyshenko said that athletes and spectators at the Sochi Games would not be affected by the law and that organizers were “absolutely confident that there will be no conflicts in that regards.” 

That is so funny! No conflicts at all. Good prognosticator, eh? 

But Gerhard Heiberg of Norway, the Olympic committee’s marketing chief, said he had heard from corporate sponsors, particularly from the United States, “about what they are afraid of could happen.”

Six of the committee’s 10 worldwide sponsors are based in the United States: Coke, General Electric, McDonald’s, Visa, Dow Chemical and Procter & Gamble.

Heiberg urged the I.O.C. to be prepared with a plan in case demonstrations against the Russian law occur.

“I think this could ruin a lot for all of us,” Heiberg said.

He urged the committee to adhere to Rule 50 of the Olympic charter, which says that “no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted” at any Olympic site.

Rogge said athletes would be reminded about the rule, as they were before the 2008 Beijing Games.

But see, Beijing wasn't planning a holocaust for gays in 2008. Russia is. The games in Sochi are going to be interesting. There's no doubt about that. I hope Coke, McDonald's and all the other sponsors of this criminal Olympics lose business and suffer tremendous financial losses because they didn't stand up for human rights when they had a clear opportunity to do so. These companies are acting like pigs -- and they'll be in good company in Sochi.

Delicious Sochi goings-on

Check out John Aravosis' post about the state of the Sochi Olympics. Seems the evil slobs in the IOC and Russia are finally getting upset about all the negative publicity. But all they want to do is make gay people's lives miserable. So why is everyone so upset with them?!

The head of the Sochi Olympics has asked the International Olympic Committee for help in making you annoying gays, and friends of gays, stop being so mean to them.

I love the idea that hardly anyone will attend the games. That would be the best outcome. The athletes would get to compete, while Russia would look like the pig sty that it actually is. Good stuff!

IOC "comforted" by Russia's "assurances"

The members of the IOC seems to be mushy dunderheads. Today, they've come out with a new, asinine statement.

International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said Friday he is "comforted" that Russia has agreed to respect the Olympic Charter's ban on any kind of discrimination following its adoption of a law against gay "propaganda" that has sparked an international backlash. 

Well, isn't that special? I dare say no one else is "comforted" by Russia's threatening statements -- and that's been the only kind they've uttered. Russia keeps saying that it will enforce the law. That's exactly what we don't want to hear. But the IOC is "comforted", so that's all that matters.

"We have received strong oral but also written reassurances that there will be no discrimination for the people who will attend the games in Sochi," Rogge told several reporters after addressing the U.N. General Assembly...

Um, would you mind sharing those reassurances with us? Because we haven't heard anything that could be characterized as an assurance that discrimination against gays won't occur at the games. And note the phrasing: "no discrimination for the people who will attend the games in Sochi". What about the competitors?

Rogge then offers this:

"We are going to inform now all the national Olympic committees, and all the athletes who want to have clarity," he said.

Indeed. We all want clarity. And where would we find that, exactly? Certainly not in your remarks, nor in the statements of Russian bureaucrats. I'd like to hear more about this "clarity" of which you speak.

These are going to be interesting games. There's no doubt about that. And who the hell are these IOC people? This is a group that needs to be thrown out and replaced.

Poor, misunderstood Yelena

Today we're told that "Russian pole vault great" Yelena Isinbayeva didn't mean those nasty things she said about gay people yesterday. Heaven forfend! She loves the gays!

"English is not my first language and I think I may have been misunderstood when I spoke yesterday...I respect the views of my fellow athletes and let me state in the strongest terms that I am opposed to any discrimination against gay people."

Sure you are. That must be why you said, just a day ago:

"If we allow to promote and do all this stuff on the street, we are very afraid about our nation because we consider ourselves like normal, standard people. We just live with boys with woman, woman with boys."  

The poor thing. This was obviously just a translation problem. Reading those words (which she doesn't say are incorrect), how could anyone think she hates gay people? I mean, really, her words speak of true Christian love.

And now, Yelena, if I may speak for all the non-standard people in the world, piss off, you hateful creature. And know that for the rest of your life, you'll be remembered -- on a global basis -- as the woman who hates gay people. In real countries, (i.e., countries other than Russia), we all see you clearly for the pig you are.

More of this, please

At least two Swedish athletes at the world championships in Moscow competed with rainbow-colored fingernails Thursday, showing support for gays and lesbians in contrast to Russia's new anti-gay law.

Things are looking up for Sochi. In fact, I think these are going to be the gayest, proudest Olympics evah.

Roundup of Sochi failures

A NY Times story comes down hard on the International Olympic Committee -- and others -- for failing to address Russia's anti-gay law when they had a chance. Some excerpts:

Before the law was passed, the I.O.C. could have pressured Russian officials, saying it would not support the Sochi Games under such conditions. Instead, the Olympic Committee acquiesced. 

“There should have been early, alarmed communications by the I.O.C. in relation to the law,” said Minky Worden, the director of global initiatives and an Olympics expert for Human Rights Watch. “As far as we know, there weren’t.” 

Olympic sponsors like Coca-Cola and McDonald’s also have been publicly muted. In effect, they are underwriting the Games in Sochi that contradict their own corporate policies against discrimination. 

Failure all around. The IOC always seemed to me like a bunch of distant one-percenters. That vision is confirmed. There's one hopeful note in the story, and it's from NBC:

Recently, Mark Lazarus, the chairman of the NBC Sports Group, told television critics, “If it is still their law and it is impacting any part of the Olympic Games, we will make sure that we acknowledge it and recognize it.” 

They'd better. And if they're smart, they'll have Rachel Maddow as the NBC voice of the Sochi Olympics. She'll knock it out of the park. 

I wasn't going to watch the Olympics this year. But now I'll have to. In closing, a special boo for the IOC: You people stink.

Make Olympics in Russia the Gayest Ever

That's the headline of an opinion piece at CNN today. Here's an excerpt:

[L]et's turn the Winter Games into the gayest games in history. Let the Russian police, if they want, arrest every athlete, every coach from Europe, North American, Australia and other forward-looking countries -- that includes you, Uruguay, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa. The teams should march during the opening ceremonies brandishing rainbow flags, holding hands, proclaiming that every one of them supports equal rights for gay and lesbians -- in Russia and everywhere else. Make it an "I am Spartacus" moment for the world.

I think the Sochi Olympics may end up being the biggest gay party ever. Russia is a pig sty and everyone's going to realize this by the time the games are done.

PS: Remember, the excerpt is from an article at CNN, not at Joe Jervis' blog. The world is with us on this one.

IOC needs to cancel the Sochi Olympics

Russia will enforce a new law cracking down on gay rights activism when it hosts international athletes and fans during the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, the country’s sports minister said Thursday, appearing to contradict assurances to the contrary from the International Olympic Committee.

As I said yesterday, there can be no Olympics in Sochi. Russia is far too barbaric. The more savage members of its population are running amuck now that the government is encouraging sociopathic behavior against gay people.

But should the lilly-livered IOC foolishly decide to hold the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, I hope Russia is ready to arrest all the American athletes. Because I suspect they'll trot onto the field wearing pro-gay "propaganda" slogans. If they don't, I'd be shocked.

Once again, for the record: Russia is a pig sty.