I’m home, Ukraine win Eurovision, and somebody is going nuts with fireworks in the neighborhood. People will start saying that Ukraine’s win is political, as if that were a bad thing. If it were a bona fide song contest, who cares? But as a political statement, it’s important.
Of course, Russians got pouty and are going unhinged with the bombings. Pointless, nasty people.
In any case, this calls for a celebration.
Anyone who complains that the win is political has zero understanding of Eurovision. Of course it is political, it always is, and indeed it is part of the fun! Enmity from mainland Europe is the reason the UK ended up in the bottom few for many years (not sure why our entry did so well tonight, but I’ll take it). Happy to see all the support for Ukraine tonight!
I missed that UK got the second place! How wonderful. Europe’s new leaders lead.
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What do you think about the following offer?
// For Russia, It’s All About the Benjamins
Ending the circulation of the $100 bill would put far more political pressure on Putin over Ukraine than sanctions have.
For Russia, It’s All About the Benjamins
Ending the circulation of the $100 bill w,ould put far more political pressure on Putin over Ukraine than sanctions have.
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“Ending the circulation of the $100 bill”
IME people in the US have no idea how important $100 bills are outside the country. Similarly people in countries where it was/is important have no idea how… uncommon it is in the US (or at least used to be, you could go months or years without seeing one).
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In Spain before the crisis it was €500 bills.
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What about how important they are inside the country??
Ever tried to purchase a used car from the owner using only small bills? Darned inconvenient.
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I get that, but only because I’ve rarely had cause to use anything over a $20 in stores. But I have also never purchased a new car. We buy used, generally from by-owner classified ads, and if you show up with cash in hand, you are way more likely to be able to haggle the price down than otherwise. Most I’ve ever paid for a car is $7k. That works out to… 350 twenty-dollar bills. That you and the seller would have to stand there out in a public parking lot somewhere, counting on the hood of the car. Probably multiple times. Not. Cool. We aren’t drug-dealers, so we don’t have those handy automatic cash-counting machines available.
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Even with the Bidenflation, we probably won’t be seeing the $500 bill back.
Be careful what you wish for. Abolishing the $100 would also interfere with plenty of lawful activities by US citizens.
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The article begins with:
//
Most Russians haven’t been affected by Western sanctions, but there’s one thing the U.S. Treasury can do to put real political pressure on Vladimir Putin—immediately stop circulating and honoring $100 bills in Russia.
Rather than investing in a retirement fund, ordinary and wealthy Russians alike protect their life savings by converting their rubles to dollars and stashing them at home. Russian ruble volatility and U.S. dollar security and stability have made American currency a preferred savings mechanism. For years, Russians’ bill of preference has been the $100. As of 2019, more than 661,500 pounds of $100 bills were in Russia—many of them stashed in lumpy mattresses and home-sewn money belts. That’s $31.5 billion.
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The full text of the article (in Russian) is here:
https://storm100.livejournal.com/10781516.html
Cliff, look at the rest and you’ll see the author is aware of the international importance and that’s precisely why he wants to abolish the bill.
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“Ukraine’s win is political”
All Eurovision is political to an extent but Ukraine’s win was very credible. No matter how political you have to deliver the goods and they did.
Not necessarily my favorite song of the contest (that never wins…) or by Ukraine (that was last year’s) but a very good result and overall the best Eurovision in years (no one got skunked…).
I liked the song, too. At least it wasn’t one of those endless ballads. It was definitely not boring. And it felt confidently Ukrainian and not a sad attempt to imitate somebody else.
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Ukraine was in my top 5, but my personal favorite this year (after San Marino and Georgia were booted from the final…. no, I’m not over that yet….) was probably Moldova.
It was ethnic, strange and committed. They leaned into all of it and the audience went wild for them (esp the accordion and fiddle parts).
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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