April 19, 2022

Can this Kasparov "coup" tactic be adapted to work here?

Grandmaster Garry Kasparov Predicts 'Palace Coup' May Oust Putin Over Ukraine

“First, the Russian public and Russian elite, they have to recognize the war is lost,” he said. “The bad news coming from Ukraine will inspire more people to rise because economic hardship will increase.”

“So, military defeat in Ukraine, social-economic revolt and then you will have conditions, the right conditions, for a palace coup,” Kasparov predicted.

“Because many of Putin’s inner circle will be looking for a scapegoat and it’s always a dictator who should be blamed for all the failures.”

Putin knows losing the war on Ukraine “is not an option for him,” said Kasparov.

“It’s a matter of political survival and in many cases … of physical survival,” he added. “That’s why he has to pretend he is winning the war.”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/garry-kasparov-putin-ukraine_n_625e644ae4b06c2ea32e63ab

TFG must become the big, fat scapegoat to the greedy wannabes.

April 12, 2022

Netflix Documentary on Jimmy Saville.

So many times in this documentary brought tfg to mind. His crimes of child molestation and sexual assaults of children also has this odd connection to the Catholic Church.

I watched because I lived in London for 3 years and could not understand the obvious devotion to this man. Or observe any talent, other than "cheek". They do tend to go all out with their sex scandals.

But his reveling in getting away with his atrocities while being praised by the entire country, is confounding. Despite him clearly being an odd duck, he gets a pass. It took brave women to finally - after his death - see him exposed as a criminal. Margaret Thatcher was alive to see it, but as she suffered from Dementia it's doubtful she understood that she had a sexual predator Knighted.

https://www.netflix.com/us/title/81520549?s=a&trkid=13747225&t=cp&vlang=en&clip=81593300

March 23, 2022

Senator Ben Sasse, a man among "Squealers".

"I'm not an attorney. So, the farming and ranching people where I come from know that John Kennedy is a super-smart Rhodes lawyer who kinda pretends to be an ahh shucks kind of guy as he picks your pocket," quipped Sasse..."

And he voted 'yay' in round two of the American Putin's impeachment.

https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/ben-sasse-joke-john-kennedy/

https://twitter.com/axios/status/1506728640800772099?t=jsrUW0ONg42H37cmIUOTig&s=19

https://www.rawstory.com/lindsey-graham-ted-cruz-jackassery/

Fyi: "Squealer is a fictional character, a pig, in George Orwell's 1945 novel Animal Farm. He serves as second-in-command to Napoleon and is the farm's minister of propaganda."

March 23, 2022

Devastating article on the Republican Party

How Republicans Spent Decades Cozying Up to Putin’s Kremlin

The man who once worked to connect Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff to Russia is now chief of staff to Marjorie Taylor Greene. Any questions?

["...You have two forces with deep political ties that are fighting American democracy in order to keep Putin in power and install a Putin-like system in America. And to that end, they have penetrated deep into our think tanks, our media, our journalism...."

https://newrepublic.com/article/165782/republicans-putin-history-relationship-manafort

Is it just for the money and a desire for "the strong man"? It might be. "Greed is good". Apparently. And conversely democracy isn't.

March 23, 2022

Putin Plans To Attend G-20 Summit

Vladimir Putin Plans To Attend G-20 Summit. Because It's Not About Ukraine, Russian Ambassador Says

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/vladimir-putin-g-20_n_623af35ae4b019fd81352427

I say it's an opportunity to arrest him for war crimes.

March 22, 2022

"Servant of the People" 2015-2019 on Netflix.

Was having a hard time figuring where to post this. So GD gets it by default.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6235122/

March 17, 2022

Wish Beijing Winter Olympics had a large audience.

Then, maybe, these stories would have sent a stronger message about the human need to breathe free and bring more attention to Russian tendency to cheat.

(Reuters)After bolting to Ukraine to escape political persecution in her native Belarus, Olympic swimmer Aliaksandra Herasimenia never thought she would again be forced to flee, this time to save her family from Russian attack.

Herasimenia, a three-time Olympic medalist, found herself among thousands of Ukrainians massing at the border with Poland as Russian troops advanced on Kyiv....

https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/17/sport/olympic-medallist-aliaksandra-herasimenia-belarus-ukraine-spt-intl/index.html

March 15, 2022

Randy Rainbow Strikes Again!

March 15, 2022

Daylight Savings and the Designated Hitter.

With all the drama in the world, these two changes are still major. At least to our day to day life at work and at play.

(CNN)The Senate on Tuesday passed a measure that would make Daylight Saving Time permanent across the United States.

The Sunshine Protection Act passed the chamber by unanimous consent. The bill would still need to pass the House and be signed by President Joe Biden to become law.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/15/politics/senate-daylight-saving-time-permanent/index.html

PHOENIX (AP) — It was an impressive holdout for the National League, which made it nearly 50 years staving off a full-time designated hitter rule that the American League implemented before the 1973 season.

“We'll continue to play by baseball rules,” NL President Chub Feeney famously said back then.

Well, the rules have finally changed.

https://news.yahoo.com/half-century-holdout-over-dh-211459278.html

March 15, 2022

Excellent News About Belarus...

I can envision a free Belarus after all is said and done.

Exiled Belarus opposition leader says her people oppose Russian invasion

By Marie Woolf
News, Politics
March 11th 2022

Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya speaks during a press conference after a meeting with Executive Director of ICAN, the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize winner Beatrice Fihn in Vilnius, Lithuania, Feb. 3, 2022. (AP-Mindaugas Kulbis)

Belarus's exiled opposition leader says ordinary Belarusians are actively resisting the invasion of Ukraine, disrupting railway supplies to Russian forces and warning Ukrainians about movements of Russian aircraft.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said other Belarusians have travelled to Ukraine to help defend Kyiv against a Russian assault.

Tsikhanouskaya told a defence conference in Ottawa that most Belarusians do not support the invasion of Ukraine, saying "antiwar sentiment in Belarus is on the rise."

The leader, who gained a standing ovation after addressing the conference via video link, said it was important to distinguish between Alexander Lukashenko's Kremlin-controlled regime and the Belarusian people who have no way to influence his policies.

She said Ukraine's bold resistance to the Kremlin was inspiring the Belarusian resistance to Lukashenko, saying "the fate of Belarusia and Ukraine is interconnected."

Tsikhanouskaya claimed a first-round victory over Lukashenko in the 2020 Belarusian presidential election after she stood in the place of her husband, who had been detained. She was repeatedly threatened, forced to go abroad into hiding, and several members of her campaign arrested during the campaign.

She disputed the eventual election of Lukashenko, who is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2022/03/11/news/exiled-belarus-opposition-leader-says-her-people-oppose-russian-invasion