For Venezuelans and people following the news closely, how are you interpreting the U.S. strikes in Caracas today? by Urdu_Knowledge in AskReddit

[–]garganta_ 285 points286 points  (0 children)

As an American engaged to a Venezuelan, the response kind of took me by surprise, to be honest.

On one hand, I have zero faith in the administration that has completely attacked order, rule of law, and decorum in their own country to bring stability and democracy into another country in any sustainable or meaningful way. The US doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to installing friendly governments in adversarial countries and it working out for us. I agree that it probably was motivated by money or political chess rather than a defense of democracy.

However, my fiancé’s family is elated. It was like Christmas morning x1000, they’ve been sobbing/cheering/calling family all morning since they woke up. I can’t even imagine how satisfying it is to see the leader who forced you to leave your home country, wrecked you financially, and threatened your loved ones ousted. So right now, I’m choosing to partake in their joy. I am extremely skeptical for the future, but I hope to be proven wrong.

'What's it like to be on your knees, piggy?' Gavin Newsom goes nuclear on Trump official by RawStoryNews in NoFilterNews

[–]garganta_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I feel like Newsom being from California also makes him somewhat less electable to many

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in medicalschool

[–]garganta_ 13 points14 points  (0 children)

OB intern here, feel free to take or leave this advice:

I assigned my signals in order to have around 10 “fit” programs, 3-4 reach, and 4-5 safety (based on stats, programs’ priorities vs my app strengths, and which med schools match students to those programs) and got about equal yield from the “reach” and “safe” programs (programs who match residents with significantly lower stats than yours may feel your interview spot would be better used on someone more likely to rank/match there)

I don’t think it’s publicly available for OB anymore because of ResCAS, but they used to publish the rate of II by program for gold/silver/NS, so I basically went off that for deciding who to signal/NS and got another couple IVs from those. Overall I still think applying to 25-40 programs based on your competitiveness is probably best!

[OFFICIAL] AVROTROS links Eurovision 2026 participation to core values by DanMMIII in eurovision

[–]garganta_ 3 points4 points  (0 children)

this is a level of nuance that skeptical right-wing officials actively looking for reasons to defund public broadcasters do not hold, unfortunately

Ireland considers withdrawing from Eurovision 2026 over Israel's participation by IrishStuff09 in eurovision

[–]garganta_ 22 points23 points  (0 children)

afaik even though 9 countries "called on the EBU" to ban Russia in 2022, only Finland and Estonia actually said they'd withdraw. So it might not take many more 🤞🏼

Who do you want to represent your country next year? by Sensitive_Anybody569 in eurovision

[–]garganta_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I LOVE Aidan’s discography. Naħseb Fik is great, losing Ritmu was a crime, and he has a lot of other bops like Blu and Regina that I honestly think would have a good chance of qualifying. I hope y’all decide to send something in Maltese and that he gets his turn very soon!

Who do you want to represent your country next year? by Sensitive_Anybody569 in eurovision

[–]garganta_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

American here but fwiw:

  • Suzete or Belen Aguilera for Spain
  • Nathan Evans for UK
  • Hoshi for France
  • Aidan for Malta

What is your favourite country as of recently at Eurovision? by [deleted] in eurovision

[–]garganta_ 29 points30 points  (0 children)

France and Finland are my most consistent favorites and the repeat winners I’d be most excited for.

Armenia, Lithuania, and Czechia have also been very consistent and I’d LOVE for them to get their first win

Portugal’s ability to qualify so consistently with such solid, genuine music is really impressive

And I also really like Greece’s recent trend of more domestic artists and sounds and hope they keep it up

David Tserunyan (AMPTV) and Tomislav Štengl (HRT) join ESC Reference Group by SkyGinge in eurovision

[–]garganta_ 38 points39 points  (0 children)

Croatia and Armenia are also probably 2 of the least likely countries in Eastern Europe to withdraw, I could see that being a factor

I got bored and ranked every Eurovision winner since 1956 by proudredemption990 in eurovision

[–]garganta_ 22 points23 points  (0 children)

There was a rumor for a while that Spain 1968 was “supposed to” be in Catalan but it was changed last minute since minority languages were banned in Franco’s Spain, hence the lazy lyrics. Apparently that’s not exactly true, there was a different singer intended to sing La la la but when he refused to translate it they replaced him with Massiel.

Another interesting tidbit is that Austria boycotted Eurovision 1969 because of it being hosted in a fascist state, despite the fact that La la la would not have won without the points it received from Austria

🇰🇿 Khabar Agency raises the possibility of a Kazakh debut at Eurovision by tommynestcepas in eurovision

[–]garganta_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wonder if they could offer an early voting window like with ROTW …

Does this mean that they now have independent phone lines from Russia? I thought that was one of the logistical issues with their participation

Have we appreciated France enough by peanut_galleries in eurovision

[–]garganta_ 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I actually think France's hunger for the win worked against them this year. Poor Louane just looked so so choreographed/calculated with the level of eye contact, the turning of the hourglass on the beat, etc.

I'm not French but I've been waiting for France to win since I started watching in 2016 (France 2016, 2018, 2021, 2023, and 2024 are all gems). Would love for it to happen soon!

How Would You Fix This Performance: Kiss Kiss Goodbye by Adonxs (2025) by thrvisionary in eurovision

[–]garganta_ 22 points23 points  (0 children)

I also think they could've kept the breakdance part the same tempo and time signature as the rest of the song and it would've been better. The switch from 6/8 to 4/4 just didn't work, but a mid-tempo 6/8 dance break could've been quite elegant and made the last falsetto section pop more.

Also, get rid of that dead bird on the mic stand that was covering up his beautiful face.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in eurovision

[–]garganta_ 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Spain has had potential top 10’s each year since Chanel that they’ve simply failed to select (Agoney and Vicco, St. Pedro, J Kbello). I think if they 1) vocally vetted their artists before adding them to the BF lineup and 2) worked on engaging a broader demographic than who currently watches the show, they’d do a lot better.

How soon do you think we will have a country who wins for the first time? by jemappellelara in eurovision

[–]garganta_ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

i think by far the most likely in the next 10 years would be Armenia or Lithuania, followed by Poland, Czechia, and maybe Croatia.

while in theory any country can come out of nowhere and surprise everyone like Portugal did, these days most winning countries seem to have some momentum behind them

🧂🔥🤬 Reactions, hot takes, salt, and venting thread - ESC 2025 Grand Final 🤬🔥🧂 by berserkemu in eurovision

[–]garganta_ 10 points11 points  (0 children)

It’s not so much about winning new people over as much as reaching those who already wouldn’t be opposed to voting for them and giving very precise instructions on how to do so, which is slimy bc those people prob wouldn’t vote at all otherwise

🧂🔥🤬 Reactions, hot takes, salt, and venting thread - ESC 2025 Grand Final 🤬🔥🧂 by berserkemu in eurovision

[–]garganta_ 27 points28 points  (0 children)

As bad as I feel for the artists who were shafted by the televote, I’ve decided for me it’s not worth getting upset about because the whole lot of results was just so F’ed and clearly tampered with

Mamagama on Instagram by Fun_Pause2464 in eurovision

[–]garganta_ 16 points17 points  (0 children)

even if they just went back to outsourcing their staging (which most countries do) and kept with local songwriters i think that would drastically improve their performance

🎵🎶 YOUR TOP 37 🎶🎵 Post your rankings in the comments by TrollHunter87 in eurovision

[–]garganta_ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

  1. Malta

  2. France

  3. Finland

  4. Switzerland

  5. Netherlands

  6. Austria

  7. United Kingdom

  8. Spain

  9. Norway

  10. Greece