varleypix.com

18/04/2024

Going through archives yesterday and came across some photos of the incredibly philanthropic Hollywood 'A' lister Sandra Bullock on a visit to New Orleans which never made it online. Bullock has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Warren Easton High School and various other local charities. The school considers her to be their 'angel.'

Images added to the 'celebrities' galley at varleypix.com where another 44 'A' listers reside with others to come.



www.varleypix.com/gallery/29aug10-Sandra-Bullock-New-Orleans/G0000SIfbsHMYAnk/C0000l3b_wHc8eHU

02/02/2024

Haven't waded into any political stuff for ages, however as US political rhetoric from Trump supporting GOP wannabes, conspiracy theorists and nutters hits stratospheric nonsensical levels formerly impossible to imagine, The Independent publish a priceless story revealing just a little of the hypocrisy knows no bounds absurdity concerning US right wing conspiracy theorists who imagine that Taylor Swift is really some deep state dark asset ready to be deployed against Trump.

From the report......

'On NEWSMAX that same day, anchor Greg Kelly struck a note of evangelical disapproval when he denounced Ms Swift’s fans for “worshipping” her and declaring: “This is a little bit of what idolatry, I think, looks like. And you’re not supposed to do that. In fact, if you look it up in the Bible, it’s a sin!”'

- errrrm, has this cult supporting blowhard not noticed Donald J. Trump acolytes and their crazed worshiping of a false prophet? Look it up Greg! Bizarre.....

And then as if to hammer home his own deity status - 'Mr Trump is said to have boasted in private that no amount of celebrity endorsements will improve his opponent’s wretched polling and insisted, according to Rolling Stone, that he is “more popular” than the star anyway and, moreover, that his fans are far more dedicated than hers.'

The absurdity continues...... 'former White House adviser Stephen Miller suggested that the star’s popularity was “not organic”, and hard-right agitator Jack Posobiec declared: “The Taylor Swift girlboss psyop has been fully activated. From her hand-selected vaccine shill boyfriend to her D**K lifestyle to her upcoming 2024 voter operation for Democrats on abortion rights. It’s all coming.”
The theory then gained further momentum on 9 January when Trump-affiliated lawyer Jeffrey Clark shared a video on X claiming to show “the Pentagon psychological operations unit float[ing] turning Taylor Swift into an asset during a NATO meeting”.'

And what would a good conspiracy theory be without the absurd blowhard buffoon Sean Hannity clucking in with an attempt to deny what most know to be true of his ilk - “Maybe she just bought into all the lies about conservatives and Republicans, that they are racist and sexist and homophobic and xenophobic and transphobic and Islamophobic. And Republicans and conservatives want dirty air and water, and a total ban on all abortion with no exceptions. If she believes all that, she is believing a lie. Because those talking points are simply untrue.”

Which led to late night host Jimmy Kimmel Live 'dismissing the affair as a “chorus of cuckoos” and warning his audience: “This nonsense is now everywhere your angry grandpa goes.” He continued: “The same people who believe Joe Biden has dementia and needs Kamala Harris to feed him butterscotch tapioca every night also believe that he has somehow planned and executed a diabolically brilliant scheme to fix the NFL playoffs so the biggest pop star in the world can pop up on the Jumbotron during the Super Bowl in between a Kia and a Tostitos commercial to hypnotise her 11-year-old fans into voting for Joe Biden.
“I mean, it makes sense. It makes total sense. These people. These people think football is fake and wrestling is real.”
.......you couldn't make this s**t up. It is incredibly sad to note there are people who actually believe the s**t that comes out of Trump apologists' mouths. They have truly lost their minds.

I think it's fair to say that nobody has ever experienced the USA as fundamentally and dangerously divided as it is today. Even harder to fathom is how it's come down to a choice between The Orange One versus Grandpa Joe - I mean seriously, is this the best a nation of 332 million can manage? These 2 clowns?

As we embark on the inevitable collision course with the next US election, it seems all we offer the USA and her fundamentally broken and corrupted political system at this time is our 'thoughts and prayers' - yea, good luck with that............

Conservative media storm erupts over deranged suggestion that pop superstar could be Democratic ‘psyop’ used to brainwash voters into turning away from Donald Trump, writes Joe Sommerlad

31/01/2024

‘Signs of our Times.’ Haven’t had one of these in ages! Sign can be read a number of ways - some a tad grim! A proper old school butcher shop in Edenbridge, England. We still have a good number of butchers, bakers and green grocers here in France but sadly they too are in decline. The rise of supermarkets and newer ‘express’ type mini markets in many small towns has only accelerated the decline of traditional food stores. You won’t find anything in a pre sealed packet in this shop. Not a styrofoam carton in site. Their sausages are supposed to be superb. I’ll let you know tomorrow…🙂

20/10/2023

Here's the link to the story we covered for the Daily Mirror last Saturday from the CWGC cemeteries of Poperinghe and Lijssenthoek in Belgium in honour and remembrance of the British West India Regiments Heritage Trust. (BWIRHT).
Britain's respect for those who answered the call to serve long before Windrush is long overdue. Their service and sacrifice went above and beyond, despite the often disgraceful way in which they were treated.
At Poperinghe cemetery there are 3 graves of those from Caribbean descent. Gunner D.R. Manley, Private H. Morris and Private J. Gibbs.
Thanks to the persistence of my good friend, award winning journalist AAndy Lines with the exception of Private Gibbs who we do not know a great deal about, both Manley and Morris' stories have now been told. The Mirror was the only British paper to cover these events.
Extracts from an earlier report of Andy's;
'Morris was just 16 when he answered the call to defend the Empire and left his tiny rural Jamaican village. Morris joined the 6th Battalion of the British West Indies Regiment and was sent to Flanders. When he fled the front line, he was clearly suffering from shell.
“Herbert was so young,” said Chambers (Paul Chambers - Chairman of BWIRHT). After being arrested, a troubled Morris told the court martial: “I am troubled with my head and cannot stand the sound of the guns. I reported to the doctor and he gave me no medicine or anything.”
Sentenced to death – a verdict confirmed by Field Marshall Douglas Haig – he was paraded in front of his regiment and shot by his comrades.
Private Morris was pardoned in 2006.
“Douglas Roy Manley was a true hero. He should have been an officer but was rejected because he was too dark. Highly educated, and a brilliant soldier, Manley should by rights have been an officer – but he was banned because he was Black. Furious at his racist rejection, he went to South East London and joined up as rank and file Gunner but was killed at the age of 22 in 1917. His brother Norman, who was serving in the same unit, went on to become Prime Minister of Jamaica.
So little is known about the sacrifice of these thousands of men who travelled halfway across the world to fight. In all, 15,000 West Indians came over to the UK and then Europe.
“It really was the first big mass migration of West Indians to Europe. Behind the lines on the Western front in towns like Ypres and Poperinge, everyone mixed together. Many of these men were well-educated intellectuals who wanted to serve. But there was an unwritten policy in 1914: ‘If you’re not white you can’t fight.’ The one exception to this rule was Indians.
“When they arrived in Europe they were not allowed to use their rifles and were given a shovel instead.
“Only one battalion was allowed to fight. They were treated like navvies. They were deployed at the front but not allowed to fight.”
Paul Chambers described the event we attended as, “It’s a unique collaboration to right the wrongs of the past.”
Thanks to Andy for the above excerpts and as always for thinking of me when it comes to accompanying him on these stories. It was an honour to meet just a handful of surviving WW2 veterans and the many former and currently serving soldiers, airmen and sailors who attended the ceremony. Thank you for your service - and for your patience, good humour, co-operation and time taken standing around in the cold for this photographer.......

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/caribbean-war-heroes-who-gave-31204208

As part of Black History Month, veterans and serving soldiers travelled across to Belgium and France to play their respects - including sprinkling soil brought over from the Caribbean

16/10/2023

Outtake from Saturday's memorial services at Lijssenthoek Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Belgium.

92 year old Chelsea Pensioner and Korean war veteran Trevor John of the Welsh Regiment and King's Liverpool Regiment walks past some of the 10,000 grave markers paying respect to those who fell in WW1.

Sadly with so much conflict in the world today, it would appear that we humans have learned absolutely nothing from the sacrifices of the almost 10 million soldiers estimated to have perished during the 1st World War - excepting perhaps how better to attack and slaughter each other's tribes...

The Mirror Andy Lines Commonwealth War Graves Commission Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery Royal Chelsea Hospital Home Of The Chelsea Pensioners Royal Welsh British Army

11/09/2023

Remembering the day the world changed forever.

9/11 2001. Hard to believe this was 22 years ago today.

I was in Chicago, a stop over on my 3 year road trip around the USA. I was staying with a friend. Her mother called and told her to turn on the TV.

We sat transfixed, unable to believe what we were witnessing. I grabbed my camera, then shooting black and white film - and managed to catch this screen shot from CNN just as the second plane slammed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

I rang around the usual British newspaper photo editors and asked if anyone needed coverage? The Daily Mail immediately asked me to get downtown Chicago - there were still planes in the air and the Sears Tower was an obvious target. I raced downtown against a mass evacuation as people flooded out of Chicago’s financial district. Downtown became a ghost town occupied by cops as we waited nervously for a potential attack. Fortunately one didn’t come and I was instructed to drive to New York as fast as I could get there.

So many photographers were out of town on assignment and couldn’t get back because planes were grounded.

New York was locked down and there was no way in or out. I met a State Trooper eating at a Cracker Barrel roadside restaurant I’d stopped at a couple hours out of New York. He told me the George Washington Bridge would be the first entry point to open at midnight.

I arrived early and waited. The toll booths were occupied by an army of heavily armed cops. I wanted to get out and shoot a frame, but I knew that was potentially suicidal. When the bridge opened I asked one of the cops if I could walk back and drop a few frames. He told me anyone pointing anything looking like a weapon at the bridge in the dark would get themselves shot - move along.

Driving into New York you could see and smell the plume of smoke and dust from where the Twin Towers had stood. The streets were largely deserted in bizarre post apocalyptic scene after scene.

For the next 3 weeks I raced around New York, my assigned role largely that of, ‘I see dead people.’ The role of a ‘collect’ photograher as any news snapper will tell you is not an easy one. This is when we are tasked with visiting the families of the deceased - the victims of tragedy. Many Brits perished in the attack and the British papers were naturally keen to find the families in order that they could pay tribute to the dead.

It is a mentally exhausting task day after day to visit the bereaved. In most instances we newsmen are often the first people outside of family and the police the bereaved will meet. Sometimes we are greeted warmly, sometimes with hostility.

Most often this occurs on a small scale, but when a tragedy of this magnitude takes place we find ourselves visiting different families often several times a day.

The bereaved pour their hearts out to us over cups of tea and coffee as they go though deeply personal family albums, recalling in floods of tears the lives of loved ones lost. Often times we ourselves become grief counsellors. In our work, most of us have experienced this many times before, but never on a scale like this. It is never easy taking on board so much grief. Psychologically it consumes you.

It is impossible not to be touched by the images of dead people staring out from our screens as we transmit them around the world where they meet up with the words the reporter wrote in order that you the reader can put faces to the names of those victims of tragedy. So many lives lost. So many lives shattered. So much grief. So many tears - our own often added to the mix.

My heart will always go out to victims of tragedy and to the families and friends they leave behind. RIP to all those who perished in the attack of 9/11 and to all those subsequently killed in the post September 11 world, be they firefighters and first responders to the scene who were subsequently overcome with lung disease and other ailments, to all the soldiers who fought valiantly for politicians who sat thousands of miles away directing wars they did not understand and could never comprehend.

Not forgetting the hundreds of thousands killed and the millions displaced in far off lands in countries abandoned and left in tatters following wayward Western intervention.

The irony is not lost on me that the tragedy of 22 years ago today remains very much alive and a part of my life today every time I visit the desperate migrant refugee camps of Calais and Dunkirk less than an hour from my home.

The makeshift camps are filled with Afghans and Iraqis - the legacy of a war that will never end… #911

11/09/2023

Remembering the day the world changed forever.

9/11 2001. Hard to believe this was 22 years ago today.

I was in Chicago, a stop over on my 3 year road trip around the USA. I was staying with a friend. Her mother called and told her to turn on the TV.

We sat transfixed, unable to believe what we were witnessing. I grabbed my camera, then shooting black and white film - and managed to catch this screen shot from CNN just as the second plane slammed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

I rang around the usual British newspaper photo editors and asked if anyone needed coverage? The Daily Mail immediately asked me to get downtown Chicago - there were still planes in the air and the Sears Tower was an obvious target. I raced downtown against a mass evacuation as people flooded out of Chicago’s financial district. Downtown became a ghost town occupied by cops as we waited nervously for a potential attack. Fortunately one didn’t come and I was instructed to drive to New York as fast as I could get there.

So many photographers were out of town on assignment and couldn’t get back because planes were grounded.

New York was locked down and there was no way in or out. I met a State Trooper eating at a Cracker Barrel roadside restaurant I’d stopped at a couple hours out of New York. He told me the George Washington Bridge would be the first entry point to open at midnight.

I arrived early and waited. The toll booths were occupied by an army of heavily armed cops. I wanted to get out and shoot a frame, but I knew that was potentially suicidal. When the bridge opened I asked one of the cops if I could walk back and drop a few frames. He told me anyone pointing anything looking like a weapon at the bridge in the dark would get themselves shot - move along.

Driving into New York you could see and smell the plume of smoke and dust from where the Twin Towers had stood. The streets were largely deserted in bizarre post apocalyptic scene after scene.

For the next 3 weeks I raced around New York, my assigned role largely that of, ‘I see dead people.’ The role of a ‘collect’ photograher as any news snapper will tell you is not an easy one. This is when we are tasked with visiting the families of the deceased - the victims of tragedy. Many Brits perished in the attack and the British papers were naturally keen to find the families in order that they could pay tribute to the dead.

It is a mentally exhausting task day after day to visit the bereaved. In most instances we newsmen are often the first people outside of family and the police the bereaved will meet. Sometimes we are greeted warmly, sometimes with hostility.

Most often this occurs on a small scale, but when a tragedy of this magnitude takes place we find ourselves visiting different families often several times a day.

The bereaved pour their hearts out to us over cups of tea and coffee as they go though deeply personal family albums, recalling in floods of tears the lives of loved ones lost. Often times we ourselves become grief counsellors. In our work, most of us have experienced this many times before, but never on a scale like this. It is never easy taking on board so much grief. Psychologically it consumes you.

It is impossible not to be touched by the images of dead people staring out from our screens as we transmit them around the world where they meet up with the words the reporter wrote in order that you the reader can put faces to the names of those victims of tragedy. So many lives lost. So many lives shattered. So much grief. So many tears - our own often added to the mix.

My heart will always go out to victims of tragedy and to the families and friends they leave behind. RIP to all those who perished in the attack of 9/11 and to all those subsequently killed in the post September 11 world, be they firefighters and first responders to the scene who were subsequently overcome with lung disease and other ailments, to all the soldiers who fought valiantly for politicians who sat thousands of miles away directing wars they did not understand and could never comprehend.

Not forgetting the hundreds of thousands killed and the millions displaced in far off lands in countries abandoned and left in tatters following wayward Western intervention.

The irony is not lost on me that the tragedy of 22 years ago today remains very much alive and a part of my life today every time I visit the desperate migrant refugee camps of Calais and Dunkirk less than an hour from my home.

The makeshift camps are filled with Afghans and Iraqis - the legacy of a war that will never end…

#911

23/05/2023

Fake AI photo creates market chaos...

And so the saying goes - 'this is only the beginning.' Only it isn't - it's just getting smarter and more sophisticated by the minute.

One of yesterday's headlines - 'S&P sheds $500 billion (yes, that's BILLION!!) from fake Pentagon Explosion photo'.....

A fake AI generated photo caused short lived panic on Wall Street and on the markets. The image, shared by Russia's RT, then 'verified' by a fake Bloomberg feed allegedly showing the Pentagon shrouded in smoke was no more than an AI fake - and not a particularly good one at that. Yet it still managed to cause widespread, short lived financial panic.

One has to wonder just how much Mr Musk's money grubbing 'pay for blue badge' verification has to do with it - anyone can claim to be a Bloomberg or other genuine news outlet spin off and buy themselves a blue checkmark these days?

And then there's malevolent state interference - be that Russia or anyone else. It's not like these things can't go both ways, the West is more than capable of putting out it's own AI generated propaganda.

So what happens when these fake AI attacks are co-ordinated? In theory you could create an entirely fake 9/11 by swamping social media with hundreds of images over several hours, all purportedly from the scene.

And what happens when the AI bots start generating and posting fake images for themselves with no human intervention?

With it this bad now - how on earth are our kids' generation going to navigate this crap? How will anyone be able to distinguish fact from fiction?

It's hard enough as it is already - one only need look at Trump, the GOP, Fox not News, Evangelicals and other crazy cults, Brexit, the Tories in general etc, etc and sadly one might reluctantly reach the tragic conclusion that we humans are f**ked..........

A fake AI-generated image showing an explosion at the Pentagon goes viral on Twitter, highlighting the problems with Twitter Blue's ''pay-to-be-verified' checkmarks.

19/04/2023

AI generated images and photography, propaganda and the chaos which lies ahead when it comes to the veracity of your news sources, 'a picture tells a thousand words,' 'the camera never lies' and what we and future generations might believe to be true when in fact it is all lies? (Never mind Fox not News - that was an earlier post).

Who wants to open up this can of worms? Well done Boris Eldagsen for opening up the debate and exposing Sony's alleged controls on checking the veracity of the images they select for awards.

**tbafflesbrains

German artist Boris Eldagsen says entry to Sony world photography awards was designed to provoke debate

19/04/2023

Fox not News… just in case anyone were foolish enough to imagine Fox not News was in any way not ‘making it up as they go along’ and nothing more than perhaps the most dangerous propaganda peddling threat to American democracy today and since its launch in 96, then you need look no further than the hastily settled case against Dominion in the USA.

The basic principle is that despite knowing they were lying, Fox not News and many of its prime time blowhard bobble heads continued to repeat the lies, somehow imagining they could continue to bolster the fake Trump conspiracy theories that the election was somehow stolen from the one time Commander in Thief.

Only they were wrong. The FCC may long ago have been gutted of any powers to ensure that anyone with a license to broadcast ‘news’ actually has to broadcast the truth in order to keep their license and it is left to the courts to decide whether those who choose to lie to their audience must pay the price.

And pay they did - almost 3/4 of a billion dollars. If only it were enough to bankrupt Fox not News - an already morally bankrupt organization which has tragically poisoned, infected and filled with imaginary fears and conspiracy theories the minds of way too many citizens in the misnomer ‘Land of the Free…’

Let justice and truth prevail…

A few excerpts from the very basic piece in

‘FOX NEWS AGREED to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 million in a last-minute settlement on Tuesday that spared the network the humiliation of a publicized defamation trial. If you get your news coverage from Fox’s primetime stars, however, you’d have no idea it happened.
The outcome of the lawsuit was not mentioned once between the hours of 7 to 11 p.m. on Tuesday night — a block of time that includes network headliners Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and Sean Hannity, all figures who were implicated in Dominion’s case against Fox.

“Sidney Powell is lying by the way. I caught her. It’s insane.” Ingraham wrote. Carlson responded that “Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy,” and added his feeling that the whole circus was “unbelievably offensive to me. Our viewers are good people and they believe it.”

In a statement following the agreement, Fox indicated that the settlement “reflects Fox’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards.’

**t

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/foxs-primetime-hosts-dominion-settlement-1234717513/?fbclid=IwAR20eOBIH5rFMmBfrxyEcs5XH6gL2JUTuA9uzgb70X3IJz048-QXO4WjnxI

Fox’s primetime stars may have just cost the network $787.5 million, and they have no plans to acknowledge it on air

27/03/2023

Just wondering how that Brexit thing is working out for y'all who bought the bulls**t? An economic hit as bad as the pandemic and a government looking to relax the rules on foreign workers.... what a shambles. So much for taking back control - looks like the Tories totally lost control a long, long time ago. It would be funny if it were not so truly tragic for all the businesses and people directly impacted by this complete and utter folly.

**t **tbafflesbrains

"How much stronger would the economy be if we had stayed in the EU?"

06/01/2023

It's hard to end the week without posting a tribute to the late, truly great driving legend Ken Block who sadly passed away long before his time in a tragic snowmobile accident at his ranch in Utah earlier this week.

Block was an inspiration to many, an astute businessman and one of life's true daredevils who always seemed to have an easy smile and ability to positively impact those around him.

Most of all he was a loving family man who tragically leaves behind his wife and 3 children. They don't make many like him. The motor racing world, a devastated family and an army of fans mourn his loss.

RIP to a legend. Ken Block - November 21, 1967 – January 2, 2023.

Ladies and gentlemen, allow us to present you with an extended cut of a very special film: Matt LeBlanc on a tour of London with Ken Block and his Hoonicorn ...

05/01/2023

Please spare a thought for those living in unbearably miserable conditions out in the cold and wet this New Year, most through no fault of their own. So many of the migrant refugees I meet in Calais and Dunkirk are there as a direct result of failed Western policies, wars the West fails to execute for the better of the people leaving only death, destruction, corruption and ever more radical terror groups in their wake. Not forgetting harsh sanctions imposed on regimes directly hurting everyday people, economic oppression and Western exploitation of their homelands.

The camps are filled with those the West has f**ked over and over again - and after perilous journeys at the hands of people smugglers who plunge families back home into lifelong debt, when they arrive here desperate for the chance of better lives they are set upon by French CRS riot police who regularly disrupt the camps, confiscate and slash tents and steal and dump any meagre possessions left in the tents.

And then should the migrant refugees survive the last hazardous leg of the journey to Britain in dangerously overcrowded inflatables their families have paid small fortunes for them to board, they are greeted by hostile government policy and a population the majority of whom have been conditioned by right wing media and government ministers to hate these people without ever having met one or imagined traveling a mile in any of their shoes.

So many desperate people searching for better lives for themselves and their families. And yet on arrival so many are dumped in wholly unsuitable accommodation not open for press inspection, run by profiteering slumlords, unable to work, trapped in the hell holes of government hostility and bureaucracy. And yet not one of the hundreds of migrants I have met doesn't want to work, doesn't want to contribute, doesn't want to by default fill the huge cheap labour hole in the economy created by the raging Tory success that was Brexit and the laughable, dismally failed 'taking back control' of her borders PR catchphrases.

If we came across over 1,500 dogs, cats or livestock dumped out on wasteland, freezing cold, living in mud and crud I suspect the general public would be outraged. Yet dump 1,500 traumatized humans in these conditions and much of the public response is vile.

Only by the default of our birthrights, most of us are fortunate enough not to know and unlikely to ever experience this misery. I leave these camps deeply troubled with the words of one Iraqi Kurd I met a year ago churning round and around in my head. Wearing flip flops in the mud, his clothes wet through with cold rain soaking the camp in Dunkirk he said through chattering teeth, 'If Britain, America no come my country, I no come here.'

It really is that simple.........



Below a link to the story following the dramatic rescue of 39 migrant refugees and the drowning of at least 4 after their overcrowded inflatable sunk in The Channel just before Christmas. I probably shouldn't read the comments which follow the story.....

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/knife-fights-murders-calais-migrant-28758848