Tuesday, June 12, 2018
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
Monday, June 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.
Today's Tweet
Horse sense
Another winner who knows @realDonaldTrump is a loser. pic.twitter.com/eSEUFzh4Ch— USMC (@Infantry0300) June 11, 2018
Saturday, June 09, 2018
Motivation
We've known about "conservatives" and people who would eventually become Cult45 devotees for a very long time.
The Magic Christian - 1969:
The Magic Christian - 1969:
And yes - Cult45 can be understood in some relatively very simple terms.
It ain't rocket surgery.
Today's Tweet
Damn genius is all that is.
Trump’s take on an American classic:— Robert Reich (@RBReich) June 9, 2018
God bless America,
Land that I rule.
Stand beside me,
Don’t indict me
With fake news saying
I’m a Russian tool.
From the witch hunts
To the trade wars
To the athletes on a knee,
God bless America.
It’s all about me.
ProLeft
Holy crap - how did the GOP get so full of Republicans all of a sudden!?!
 |
| The merch will set you free |
And would it kill ya to throw a few bucks at 'em once in a while? No - no it wouldn't. In fact, it might help keep us all alive for a bit longer.
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| The Professional Left |
Friday, June 08, 2018
Thursday, June 07, 2018
In The Marketplace Of Ideas
We now have further confirmation that Fox News’ role as a mouthpiece for Donald Trump is affecting the network’s bottom line.
According to a report by Gabriel Sherman in Vanity Fair, the network is struggling to sell ad space on their 9 and 10 PM respective programs.
While Fox News dominated the ratings in May—a fact Trump bragged about on Saturday—the network is having new difficulties monetizing its most pro-Trump programming. According to three sources briefed on the numbers, advertising revenues for Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham are down in recent months. “The pro-Trump thing isn’t working. We can’t monetize DACA and the wall and that right-wing shit,” one staffer said. “Despite all the hype on Hannity, they can’t sell it,” another insider told me. (Tucker Carlson’s show is faring better, sources said).But until some management imposes real standards and consequences at Fox News, it’s up to activists and advertisers to shoulder the burden. As Media Matters president Angelo Carusone wrote in October:
Mostly driven by concerns around digital advertising, companies are becoming increasingly mindful about brand safety and intentionality in that advertising. And that mindfulness is starting to influence other advertising decisions as well, like television sponsorships.
Companies do not want their advertising to be associated with rank partisanship, bigotry, or deceit. They recognize that it’s bad for business. But Fox News continues to offer all three in spades, and as a result, I suspect it is beginning to have a downward effect on the network’s commercial viability as a whole.
Bottom line is this: Fox News’ ad revenue plummeted. It’s likely largely attributable to Hannity’s growing advertiser losses. And it also appears to reflect a deeper vulnerability in Fox News’ business model of bigotry, deceit, and partisanship.
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