Saluting with a little twist 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/46AExT1OBc— Maggie Resists Trump (@Stop_Trump20) June 16, 2018
Jun 16, 2018
Today's Tweet
Jun 15, 2018
A Judge Who Gets It
I have to think it's unlikely because all kinds of weird shit can happen for people who're really close to the top of the power pyramid, but there's a real probability that Paul Manfort will spend the rest of his life in prison, starting today.
WaPo:
A federal judge ordered Paul Manafort to jail Friday over charges he tampered with witnesses while out on bail — a major blow for President Trump’s former campaign chairman as he awaits trial on federal conspiracy and money-laundering charges next month.
“You have abused the trust placed in you six months ago,’’ U.S. District Court judge Amy Berman Jackson told Manafort. “The government motion will be granted and the defendant will be detained.”
The judge said sending Manafort to a cell was “an extraordinarily difficult decision,” but added his conduct left her little choice, because he had allegedly contacted witnesses in the case in an effort to get them to lie to investigators.
“This is not middle school. I can’t take away his cell phone,” she said. “If I tell him not to call 56 witnesses, will he call the 57th?” She said she should not have to draft a court order spelling out the entire criminal code for him to avoid violations.
“This hearing is not about politics. It is not about the conduct of the office of special counsel. It is about the defendant’s conduct,” Jackson said. “I’m concerned you seem to treat these proceedings as another marketing exercise.”
And we still have a "president" who's going to keep pretending for the rubes. It's not that he doesn't get it. And it's not that he's pretending not to get it. He intentionally creates a different "reality", and the rubes pretend it's the way things are.
Trump added that Manafort “worked for me for a very short period of time.”
Today's Tweet
May the fake lord bless you and keep you, Mr Oswalt.
Dear people citing The Bible:— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) June 15, 2018
It’s a cool book with some wonderful passages but it also has ghost sex & giants & super babies & demons. It’s why we don’t make laws based on Game of Thrones, My Little Pony or Legend of Zelda.
Jun 14, 2018
Today's Tweet
I'm always in complete support of my country, ie: the founding principles as stated in the constitution (whether or not those principles have been realized).
I support my government - and the people running that government - when I think they've earned it.
Earn cookies, eat cookies.
Earn shit, eat shit.
— Sheila Stephany ✌🏼 (@jamesonsmom2) June 14, 2018
Today's Today
June 14 is flag day, and as a public service, I'll try to clear up a few things.
This is the American flag:
This is NOT the American flag - this is the flag of quitters and losers:
And this is not the American flag - it is also the flag of quitters and losers:
As a bonus, this is the last Confederate flag.
It's the only one that matters, and the only one worthy of honor:
Jun 12, 2018
Today On The Toobz
Overheard on Twitter:
Yesterday, Larry Kudlow said "there's a special place in Hell" for Justin Trudeau.
Today, Mr Kudlow suffered a heart attack.
And the karmic kicker is: now he has a pre-existing condition and could easily be denied coverage because of the GOP's plan to scuttle ACA.
Yesterday, Larry Kudlow said "there's a special place in Hell" for Justin Trudeau.
Today, Mr Kudlow suffered a heart attack.
And the karmic kicker is: now he has a pre-existing condition and could easily be denied coverage because of the GOP's plan to scuttle ACA.
Today's Tweet
Enjoy that freedom thing while it lasts.
Who ever made this is a genius 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/xBOgfgmOP9— Maggie Resists Trump (@Stop_Trump20) June 11, 2018
Jun 11, 2018
All About The Garbage
Laura Henry, The Conversation:
A steady stream of garbage-laden trucks moves the waste of Russia’s capital to landfills in the surrounding region. The resulting mountains of refuse emit noxious fumes and leach pollutants into nearby waters, endangering the residents of the region around Moscow.
Citizens living near these landfills have had enough.
Protests against garbage dumps have erupted in at least eight towns and villages around Moscow in the last six months. As a scholar who studies contemporary Russian politics, I believe these garbage protests reveal a crisis of basic governance that potentially poses a greater challenge to Putin’s government than pro-democracy activism.
'Scuse me, ma'am - not to get too nit-picky - but I'm thinking that when you turn people out for a public protest, that's what "Pro-Democracy Activism" actually is.
But, please continue.
Russian activists have come under increasing pressure since Putin returned to office in 2012. Protests have been relatively scarce after the 2011-2012 Bolotnaya demonstrations in response to election fraud. Long-standing nongovernmental groups working on environmental and human rights issues, which relied in part on funding from abroad, have been labeled “foreign agents” by Russia’s Ministry of Justice.
- and -
Since 2010, under the leadership of Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, Moscow has transformed into a dynamic global city, fueled by oil wealth and urban redevelopment. Moscow’s growing population and unfettered consumption mean increased waste. A report by the environmental group Greenpeace calculates that Moscow is responsible for 11 million tons of trash annually, approximately one-fifth of all waste in Russia. Only 4 percent of Moscow’s waste is recycled.
To preserve quality of life in the capital, the Moscow’s government sends streams of municipal waste into the surrounding regions. Greenpeace reports that 90 percent of Moscow’s waste goes to landfills in Moscow’s suburban region. Landfills created in the Soviet and early post-Soviet period, when there was little consumer waste, have been expanded, often with no community notification and despite being in close proximity to homes and schools. Air quality suffers as the dumps release fumes from decomposing waste.
In addition to established landfills, 52 illegal dumps were identified in the Moscow region in the first half of 2017.
As the stench rises and the public health risks – such as respiratory diseases that most acutely affect children – mount, citizen appeals to regional and national government officials have had little effect.
Local people are left with few options but protest. Demonstrations of more than 1,000 people occurred in at least eight towns and villages near Moscow. Citizens also have organized groups on VKontakte, a Russian social media platform, to coordinate petitions, block roads and even mount hunger strikes.
There' s always a link between individual commercial interests and the destruction of the commons, which is always brings the erosion of people's political and civil rights, so it always ends up having something to do with a small group of power-drunk people rationalizing the use of government force against its own citizens.
A steady stream of garbage-laden trucks moves the waste of Russia’s capital to landfills in the surrounding region. The resulting mountains of refuse emit noxious fumes and leach pollutants into nearby waters, endangering the residents of the region around Moscow.
Citizens living near these landfills have had enough.
Protests against garbage dumps have erupted in at least eight towns and villages around Moscow in the last six months. As a scholar who studies contemporary Russian politics, I believe these garbage protests reveal a crisis of basic governance that potentially poses a greater challenge to Putin’s government than pro-democracy activism.
'Scuse me, ma'am - not to get too nit-picky - but I'm thinking that when you turn people out for a public protest, that's what "Pro-Democracy Activism" actually is.
But, please continue.
Russian activists have come under increasing pressure since Putin returned to office in 2012. Protests have been relatively scarce after the 2011-2012 Bolotnaya demonstrations in response to election fraud. Long-standing nongovernmental groups working on environmental and human rights issues, which relied in part on funding from abroad, have been labeled “foreign agents” by Russia’s Ministry of Justice.
- and -
Since 2010, under the leadership of Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, Moscow has transformed into a dynamic global city, fueled by oil wealth and urban redevelopment. Moscow’s growing population and unfettered consumption mean increased waste. A report by the environmental group Greenpeace calculates that Moscow is responsible for 11 million tons of trash annually, approximately one-fifth of all waste in Russia. Only 4 percent of Moscow’s waste is recycled.
To preserve quality of life in the capital, the Moscow’s government sends streams of municipal waste into the surrounding regions. Greenpeace reports that 90 percent of Moscow’s waste goes to landfills in Moscow’s suburban region. Landfills created in the Soviet and early post-Soviet period, when there was little consumer waste, have been expanded, often with no community notification and despite being in close proximity to homes and schools. Air quality suffers as the dumps release fumes from decomposing waste.
In addition to established landfills, 52 illegal dumps were identified in the Moscow region in the first half of 2017.
As the stench rises and the public health risks – such as respiratory diseases that most acutely affect children – mount, citizen appeals to regional and national government officials have had little effect.
Local people are left with few options but protest. Demonstrations of more than 1,000 people occurred in at least eight towns and villages near Moscow. Citizens also have organized groups on VKontakte, a Russian social media platform, to coordinate petitions, block roads and even mount hunger strikes.
If an Unfettered Free Market System is great and beautiful and fair, then you don't need a large militarized police force to keep people in line.
As the USSR was falling apart, Poppy Bush sent Robert Strauss to Moscow to help them with "democratization", and whole platoons of Free Market True Believers went with him - to teach those silly Commies about good ol' western capitalism.
All the state-owned entities were sold off, which gave us Russian Oligarchs, which eventually gave us a "term-limited Russian presidency" that's been held by Vladimir Putin for 20 fuckin' years.
Some of the big problems we have with Russia now are at least partly due to our own meddling, as well-intentioned as it may have been.
(I'm not saying we had it coming, and I'm not saying our fiddling with the Russian economy is the same as Russian rat-fucking in the 2016 elections. Don't be daft.)
The point here is that when it's obvious that privatizing government leads to extremely bad outcomes, we need to call it out. Unfettered Free Market economic policies hurt people, and they lead us to the Daddy State.
Let's also be sure to remind ourselves that it didn't get all fucked up yesterday, and we're not going to get unfucked by tomorrow.
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