Conspiracy theorists take note: Bilderberg 2012 is here, and this year it’s back in CIA Country. Charlie Skelton’s posting regular dispatches at the Guardian:
It’s all change at Bilderberg this year, with a new chairman, new media and Occupy Bilderberg knocking at the gates….
The hotel is encircled by the offices of the world’s largest arms’ manufacturers, 15 minutes up the road from the headquarters of the CIA. I suspect they’ll be OK.
The Bilderberg conference was last here in Chantilly, at the exact same godforsaken spot, back in 2008 – which, like 2012, was a US election year, and the moment the current economic woes really started hitting the fan. You might remember, it was the year when then-senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton paid a flying visit to Bilderberg (aka ‘an event in northern Virginia’), after shaking off the press pack during the Democratic presidential campaign…
Aside from the US presidency, the big debate of Bilderberg 2012 is likely to be: what in Hades do we do about Greece? The Eurozone is Bilderberg’s biggest project, but it’s been looking distinctly shaky of late. What’s to be done? You can feel the unwillingness of Bilderberg to countenance a ‘Grexit’ in the stern words of Bilderberg spokesperson, the UK member of parliament for Rushcliffe, Kenneth Clarke. To leave the Euro, says Clarke, would be “disastrous” for the Greeks. “If they get a hopeless lot of rather cranky extremists elected at the next election then they will default on their debt.” Clarke took the time to brand eurosceptic British MPs “right-wing nationalists”, and euroscepticism itself “irresponsible”….
But we’re not in Europe now, we’re in Chantilly, and the CIA is just up the road from the conference venue, so protestors had better stay on their best behaviour. And we’re expecting plenty of them – gathering under the activist umbrella: “Occupy Bilderberg”
What a difference a year makes. Occupy Bilderberg? I love it. The Occupy movement seems finally to have realised that the problem isn’t the 1%, it’s the 0.001%. It’s the guys and gals and whatever David Rockefeller is who are meeting in Chantilly, Virginia, at the end of the week. Many hundreds of protestors have pledged to show up. And who knows, they may just manage to drag the mainstream news media with them…
Much more at the link, if you’re looking for weekend reading.
What else is on the agenda tonight?
Spaghetti Lee
I had a roommate in college from Chantilly. Maybe I should ask him if he’s a secret bilderberger.
Villago Delenda Est
Not likely. The lackies have their orders, and they will not endanger their supplies of cocktail weenies. No way, no how.
Punchy
Johan Santana 3 outs from a no-hittah
Villago Delenda Est
@Punchy:
Oh, great, you’ve jinxed it!
PeakVT
Chantilly? What an utterly uninspiring place for the world’s rulers to meet. Couldn’t they book some place in Leesburg, at the very least?
ETA: Also, it’s a tad more than 15 minutes from the CIA. Tysons is that close, but not Chantilly.
Punchy
@Villago Delenda Est: Dun. Yo-han with the Mets 1st no hitter. Dayum
SiubhanDuinne
Occupy Bilderberg.
That was inevitable.
SiubhanDuinne
@PeakVT:
Or Crystal City…?
Culture of Truth
I suggest it’s time for a moratorium on “_______ seems finally to have realised that _______”
I have never read this lately without thinking “get over your fucking self”
Suffern ACE
@PeakVT: The spies with eyes in the skies are headquartered in Chantilly. It’s the home of the National Reconnaissance Office is in Chantilly.
Baud
@Culture of Truth:
Culture of Truth seems finally to have realised that it’s time for a moratorium on annoying phrases.
mclaren
There, fixed that for all you conspiracy theorists.
:-)
Baud
@mclaren:
That would be way more awesome than the Eurozone.
Culture of Truth
@Baud: I am often late to the party.
PeakVT
@Suffern ACE: Yes, yes, some of the more important worker bees. They’re still little people, and I’m sure the head of the NRO would be happy to go to the Bilderbergers wherever they might meet.
Baud
@Culture of Truth: I’m just kidding around. I hate that phrase too. It’s one of my million or so pet peeves.
Culture of Truth
@Baud: I know – I thought your post was funny.
lamh35
Say what you will about Barack Obama, but when the campaign or administration goes in on some things, they go all in. Definitely no half-stepping, they just hit the ground running.
President Obama Celebrates Pride Month
Baud
@lamh35: Not good enough.
lamh35
whatever your politics, how can u not like a guy who does this? ya gotta check out the pic. The kid’s dad introduced Obama and he needed an excuse note for his teacher.
Absence Excused
Hill Dweller
@lamh35: Obama didn’t sign that executive order. I’m writing in Ralph Nader.
lamh35
Also, a collection of tweets and post on Obama’s visit to Honeywell in MN.
Get up close to Obama’s Minnesota visit
Ron
A couple of weeks ago I was at our doctor’s office and some woman was passing out little pieces of paper imploring us to watch some videos on youtube. I glanced briefly and saw the words “Illuminati” and “Bilderberger”. 30 minutes later the same crazy woman was at the local supermarket doing the same thing.
jeffreyw
Guinness mustard is OK, but I really like Guinness pork.
Cacti
@lamh35:
Okay, I’ll say it.
Barack Obama is a damn fine President.
I can’t think of a single way that he wouldn’t be superior to Romney.
Mouse Tolliver
How could anyone think it would be a good idea to cast Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist? A nuclear physicist named Christmas Jones. And is Christmas Jones a pun that I’m simply not getting? Vesper Lynd was a pun that I completely missed until I read somewhere that it was a pun.
Mark S.
Someone linked to this article in a previous thread, and it’s just unbelievable:
That really is all those assholes give a shit about. For a bunch of supposedly celibate men, they are obsessed with other people’s sex lives.
lamh35
David Shuster @DavidShuster
Chris
@Mouse Tolliver:
Having a James Bond themed evening? I’m screening Tomorrow Never Dies right now myself…
Casting Denise Richards as a nuclear scientist is generally considered a shitty idea to end all shitty ideas, maybe not quite the Jar Jar Binks of James Bond but not too far from it. They should’ve made the girl from the boat chase scene the second Bond girl, but oh well. Sophie Marceau more than made up for it, though.
The name “Christmas” appears to have been chosen strictly to set up the pun at the end of the movie. Unless I totally missed something. And I’m in the same boat as you re “Vesper Lynd.” Apparently the assonance with “West Berlin” was supposed to foreshadow her divided loyalties, or something of that nature.
Mark S.
@Mouse Tolliver:
It’s complicated.
Citizen_X
@Mouse Tolliver: Maybe somebody liked her as a perky starship pilot in Starship Troopers?
In what godforsaken production is she cast as a nuclear physicist?
magurakurin
@Villago Delenda Est: I thought that was for a perfect game. Does it apply for no hitters, too?
Egg Berry
Quite an interesting list of participants at der Bilderberger. Niall Ferguson and Charlie Rose among them.
Adding: If anyone needed a reason to suspect a global conspiracy, that list would be fuel for the fire.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mark S.: Jake Barnes in “The Sun Also Rises” noted that he spent too much time thinking about the bedroom habits of his friends.*
*Paraphrased as the book is not in front of me.
Omnes Omnibus
@Citizen_X: One of the Pierce Brosnan 007 movies (spit). Sophie Marceau (Praised be her name.) was the only redeeming aspect of the whole debacle.
Mnemosyne
@jeffreyw:
I see your Guinness pork and raise you Guinness cupcakes. With Bailey’s Irish Cream frosting.
(These are the cupcakes I made for my office a couple of years ago but had to make people frost them for themselves since I’d managed to gash my thumb open with a potato peeler while getting the corned beef ready for the crockpot.)
ShadeTail
Han isn’t the only one who shot first.
patrick II
@Omnes Omnibus:
sophie & Dame Judi Dench — the greatest M ever.
Chris
@ShadeTail:
FAN TASTIC. FAN FUCKING TASTIC. THANK you.
Omnes Omnibus
@patrick II: Okay, I’ll grant you Dame Judy as well. I stand by the term debacle though.
Brachiator
So, anybody got an extra ticket for Queen Elizabeth’s flotilla? Anybody planning on crashing the party?
BTW, the trailer for the new James Bond film, Skyfall, is gritty fun.
Ash Can
@lamh35: Now I’m wondering if the national-level Dems have been all hands-off and easy-going and conciliatory about the recall election because they have inside info about the hammer about to come down on Walker, and they don’t want anyone to think that they had anything to do with it.
jeffreyw
@Mnemosyne: Mmm… cupcakes!
rda909
Only if they link Barack Obama into the Bilderberg matrix. Then it’ll be frontpage for weeks, just like when the “occupiers” succeeded in being stooges to help kill Obama’s Jobs Bill last year.
Suffern ACE
“Who’s going to die next!” the actual screaming headline of the national Enquirer cover this week. Input is it really any worse than most of our other major newspapers in any given day. Sure, anyone can run obituaries AFTER someone dies, but where’s the risk? Where’s the investgative reporting?
Yutsano
@Brachiator: They did it well too. As far as you know it’s a Daniel Craig movie until the very end. Nice way of springing the surprise if you’re not in the know on these things.
Marc McKenzie
@Omnes Omnibus:
That was The World Is Not Enough. Not the greatest of the Bond films, but hell, Brosnan was solid, and I did dig Robert Carlysle (sic) as the baddie. And Sophie Marceau was HAWT in that film.
Surprisingly, I didn’t get that bent out of shape over Denise Richards as a nuclear scientist. For me, it seemed some people were upset that a female scientist would be that attractive…but maybe that’s just me.
Marc McKenzie
@Yutsano:
Have to agree. The Skyfall teaser trailer was amazing. Plus it did not give away the whole story.
I like Craig as Bond, because he’s portraying the character as Bond was written in the novels–a tough, no-nonsense “blunt instrument”.
And you should check out Jeffrey Deaver’s CARTE BLANCHE novel, which “reboots” Bond. It’s quite a good read.
Mouse Tolliver
@Chris:
Marceau is one of the best Bond girls ever, plus I like how that storyline was firmly rooted in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. She was even dressed like Tracy during the skiing scene.
And Boat Girl should have had a much bigger role, if not second lead. Maybe they were going for Beyond the Valley of the Dolls-like camp with Richards, but it didn’t quite take.
J.W. Pepper is the Jar Jar Binks of the 007 franchise.
Marc McKenzie
@rda909:
“…just like when the “occupiers” succeeded in being stooges to help kill Obama’s Jobs Bill last year.”
Well, that was the GOP that killed the Jobs Bill last year. And as always, the MSM (and sadly, some Progressives) seemed to have forgotten that–and the fact that the President not only had a Jobs Bill, but gave a rip-roaring speech about it.
However…while the Occupy Movement did not kill the Jobs Bill, I certainly didn’t hear a peep about the Jobs Bill from them. If it was mentioned and supported, then I stand corrected.
Mr Stagger Lee
But I thought Mittens would be the star of the Bildeburgers.(Then again that would totally fire up the teabagger’s John Birch fantasies)Now what is the difference between the Council of Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission.
Villago Delenda Est
@magurakurin:
Yes, you’re never supposed to mention that a no-no is in progress during the game.
Also, you’re supposed to sacrifice live chickens to wake up your bats. This from noted heavy bat guy Pedro Cerrano.
Yutsano
@Mr Stagger Lee: Birchers…birfers…is there even a difference anymore?
Mouse Tolliver
@Marc McKenzie:
For me, it’s the age more than anything else. That character should have been much older and with Honor Blackman’s personality.
Omnes Omnibus
@Marc McKenzie: Look, Connery and Craig are the only people who have done Bond well. Lazenby is a distant third (and he had Diana Rigg as Tracy). I feel strongly about this. I should have known that my marriage would never last the moment my ex said that Brosnan was her favorite Bond.
We can agree to disagree, but I am right.
@Villago Delenda Est: “Hats for bats.”
Edited to fix formatting.
some guy
stuxxnet worms for everyone, bartender. the next grexit is on me.
some guy
the Dept of War does not need no stinking Jobs Bill.
war all the time, VA is ours, fuckers.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mr Stagger Lee:
Only one of them requires membership in Skull and Bones.
Villago Delenda Est
If I had to rank the Bonds, it would go like this:
Connery, Craig, Dalton, Lazenby, Brosnan, Moore.
And my favorite Bond flick has to be From Russia with Love, followed by You Only Live Twice.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Omnes Omnibus: Timothy Dalton did Bond well. He’s probably my second favorite after Craig. However, he got two of the worst scripts imaginable to work with and then the franchise fell into legal limbo.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): Dalton could have done well, but the lad never had a chance. Like you said, horrible scripts.
OTOH, Best Bond girl: Eva Green/Diana Rigg (tie). Sophie Marceau was stuck with Brosnan and, of course, the less said about the Moore years, the better.
Kinky Beats
I love reading all of the Alex Jones stuff during the Bilderberg meetings. It’s insane, but you almost want to believe some of the crap they say goes on there.
Apparently, Mitch Daniels is at Bilderberg and that means he’ll be Romney’s VP.
Douche/Boring 2012
Suffern ACE
@Marc McKenzie: Wait. Which Jobs bill? The one in all caps (JOBS) or another one? I think the all caps one past and I wouldn’t be surprised if OWS was against that. I didn’t actually do anything about jobs, and made it easier to have an IPO, which is only an indirect way to put people to work, when one of those things is allowing them exemption from section 404 of Sarbanes Oxley compliance for five years. They didn’t kill it. Must be some other jobs bill.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Omnes Omnibus: What I liked about Dalton that I never got with any of the other Bonds before Craig was the sense that he really was in danger. That the reason that Bond drinks like a fish, smokes like a chimney and screws everything that moves is that none of these are going to be what kills him. One of these days his luck is going to run out and that’s what is going to kill him.
piratedan
@Omnes Omnibus: gotta respectfully disagree….
best bond girl…. Jill St. John, then Hallie Barrie and I have to admit to a strange fondness for Carey Lowell and Luciana Paluzzi
Omnes Omnibus
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): In one of the novels, Bond, at that time 37 years old, was convinced that he would not live to 45, the age at which a Double O was automatically retired from the field and given a desk job.
Yes, I have read all the Bond novels multiple times; why do you ask?
@piratedan: Them’s fightin’ words… But, Casey Lowell, I know what you mean.
redshirt
I just want to say
Bilderberger Asperger
That is all. Out.
Suffern ACE
Hmmpff. Barbara Bach is the best Bond Girl.
piratedan
@Omnes Omnibus: not sure that there is a wrong answer, but we are all attracted to different types
Omnes Omnibus
@Suffern ACE: I think I already said that the less said about the Moore years, the better. And, also too, no, just no.
@piratedan: I understand, yet I must stand by my choices and denigrate yours. It is beyond my control.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Omnes Omnibus: I have a strong fondness for Maud Adams but, yeah, that movie sucked. Actually, they were both pretty bad.
Edit: And I defy you to diss Jane Seymour. Moore was awful, but the Bond Girls of his era were pretty good.
Chris
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
Dalton’s probably my favorite, not counting Connery who comes in first in pretty much everyone’s list. I liked his movies, too, but that’s just me.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): Wasn’t Maude Adams in Tattoo?
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): I bite my thumb at Jane Seymour, sir.
piratedan
@Omnes Omnibus: well then Good Day to you Sir, Good Day!
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Omnes Omnibus: She was in The Man with the Golden Gun, which had Hervé Villechaize in it. She was also the title character in Octopussy.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Omnes Omnibus: She was in The Man with the Golden Gun, which had Hervé Villechaize in it. She was also the title character in Octo[moderated word].
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Moore had some of the best villains, though. Christopher Lee? Yaphet Kotto?
The problem with the Moore years is that the villains were so much cooler that you were cheering for them over Bond.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): This is the movie I associate with Adams not the Bond films.
@Mnemosyne: The problems with those movies are twofold. One, they star Roger Moore. Two, because they star Roger Moore, they do Bond as camp.
Citizen_X
Nobody mentioned Ursula Andress? Come on, she had one of the greatest entrances of all time. And I mean in movies, not just Bond movies. (So great, they had Halle Berry redo it when she was the Bond Girl.)
Mouse Tolliver
@Citizen_X: @Omnes Omnibus: They even made Daniel Craig repeat that entrance when he was trying to seduce the bad guys girlfriend.
Omnes Omnibus
@Citizen_X: She had a scene. Okay, a Scene. Oh, alright, Damn! Nevertheless, she did not equal either Eva Green or Diana Rigg overall.
Citizen_X
@Mouse Tolliver: Oh yeah, I forgot about that!
FlipYrWhig
Moar Kim Basinger plz kthxbai
Corner Stone
Daniel Craig.
That is all.
Brachiator
@Villago Delenda Est: Connery, Craig, Dalton, Lazenby, Brosnan, Moore.
Corner Stone
The first 20 minutes in the Daniel Craig version of Ca$in0 Royale should be immortalized in badassery moviemaking.
Brachiator
Oh yeah, the Bildeberg Group is obviously SPECTRE. Watch out if any attendee is seen cradling a white cat.
Omnes Omnibus
@Brachiator: I think I read On Her Majesty’s Secret Service when I was 10 or 11. It affected my judgment about cars, wine, food, and women for years. Not necessarily in a bad way.
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: You could just watch a 20 minute parkour video.
Mouse Tolliver
@FlipYrWhig: That one doesn’t count.
Mouse Tolliver
@Corner Stone: Well, they had to make up for all that cartoony cgi in Die Another Day. BTW, worst Bond song ever. Worse than All Time High even. I bet Madonna’s never even watched a James Bond movie.
Brachiator
@Omnes Omnibus:
No, the first minutes of the film mix in background scenes of newly minted Bond getting his first kill. It is a very gritty re-boot. His adversary doesn’t think that James has been properly “vetted.”
Omnes Omnibus
@Brachiator: Fair enough.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mouse Tolliver:
My favorite Bond theme is Goldfinger. Also fond of Nobody Does it Better.
Villago Delenda Est
@Suffern ACE:
Ok, Mrs. Ringo Starr is hot. No question.
How about Barbara Carrera? Holding Bond at gunpoint, demanding that he write down that the best piece of ass he ever had in all his days was Fatima Blush.
mouse tolliver
@Villago Delenda Est: I’d also rank the You Only Live Twice theme near the top. And the score for Moonraker — even though the song is kinda crap.
BruinKid
Yeah, Russia Today was running with this conspiracy-laden piece on Bilderberg, with lots of quotes from nutjob Alex Jones, which got my Ron Paul friends all crazy again about the “New World Order” crap.
Donut
@Mnemosyne:
Holy shit, I have to try this recipe.