We have the power to be the people we claim to be; the power to become that more perfect union.
The 18th Century gifted us with a resurgence of humanism as a part of the Great Enlightenment. The concepts of liberty, equality, dignity, and reason took hold and led to our revolution. Philosophers like John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau challenged the divine right of kings and championed our right to self-governance. This country’s founders were very much products of their age. New ways of thinking about what it means to be human were percolating throughout the Colonies. We are, in large part, a nation founded on great ideas — ideas that are still evolving.
Now — today — two or three hundred years later, we still see a good deal of resistance to those great ideas. We’ve engaged in damn near endless debates about how we got here. The how isn’t nearly as important as the why.
The why is based in fear. Whether through cynical indoctrination by wealthy predators or the emergence of some recessive “scaredy cat” gene, the evidence tells us that a large minority of our population is petrified of change. That fear has had a large part to play in the Balkanization of America. Many people have become convinced that a level playing field (equality) is a threat to their unearned privilege; that any success by “others” diminishes their own prospects. Clearly, jealousy and feelings of inadequacy drive much of the activist conservative base. Otherwise, they wouldn’t worry so much about what other people achieve.
While these fearful folks present an ongoing problem, they are not the worst thing we have to face. The dignity of every human on the planet is under continuous assault by tinpot and pisspot dictators; by oligarchs and plutocrats; by autocratic political actors; by intolerant religious sects and cults; by criminal syndicates; and by propagandists in service to all of the above.
These anchors on our human potential appear in various places: ensconced in a many tentacled corporate headquarters in Wichita, Kansas; atop a golden toilet in a garish club in Palm Beach, Florida; or at one end of a bizarre desk in a red-bricked government building in Moscow, the aim is the same — subdue, subjugate and control the population for the personal enrichment of people who serve no purpose other than attending to their own comfort.
By their actions, ignoring the rights of others, they have forfeit their own rights. We need feel no remorse as we kick them to the curb and trample their ambitions into the loathsome puddle of their guilt. They are nothing more than over-chewed gum stuck to the bottom of the planet’s shoe. It’s a tedious pain to scrape them off; they’re great at making sticky messes; but, when you look closely, they are right where they belong — squelching around in the mud and filth, looking up enviously at the rest of us.
They are petty, small-minded, and empty of empathy. They are criminals. They will be defeated because history says they will be defeated. Fascist tyrants (and wannabes) don’t have much of a shelf life — they expire quickly.
Please do everything you can to support our Ukrainian brothers and sisters.
Slava Ukraini!
Keep your heads up and keep working together. We’ve got this.
Up the Resistance
(to continuing republican depredations)
That that, Tuckems [1:09]
Seth takes on the republican attempt to rewrite history [11:07]
We have some news to share (I’m just as shocked as your are).
There are lots of other places to get war updates, so I’m not going to include one here, except to say the Russians have not made any significant progress since yesterday and the Ukrainians have continued to inflict serious damage on the Russian supply lines.
Inside Russia
Columbia Journalism Review: John Allsop: Exit, voice, and loyalty in Putin’s Russia
One week ago, Marina Ovsyannikova—a producer at Channel One, part of the Russian state-TV apparatus that has been a key vector of Vladimir Putin’s lies about his invasion of Ukraine—burst onto the set of an evening news show and held a sign over the anchor’s shoulder. It was topped by the English words “NO WAR,” scratched between drawings of the Ukrainian and Russian flags, and continued, in Russian, “Don’t believe the propaganda, they are lying to you here”; Ovsyannikova also tried to talk over the anchor before the shot quickly cut away. Before making her stand, Ovsyannikova recorded a video message that was later made public. “I am ashamed that I let the Russian people be zombified,” she said in the video, before calling on her fellow Russians to join her in protest. “They can’t jail us all,” she said.
Ovsyannikova’s bilingual protest, aimed explicitly at both domestic and Western audiences, quickly succeeded in making headlines around the world. Concern spread, too, for her well-being—reports circulated that she had been detained and faced prosecution under a new law that harshly criminalizes anti-war speech (including the word “war”)—but by Tuesday night, she was freed having only been fined around three hundred US dollars for calling for protests in her video, with no extra punishment for the TV stunt itself. Ovsyannikova told reporters outside court that she had been interrogated for more than fourteen hours and denied a lawyer. She has since sat for interviews with a range of major international news outlets. On Wednesday, she told Reuters that she remained “extremely concerned” for her safety; on Thursday, she told France 24 that her young son has accused her of “destroying” the family’s life together, but that she thinks he will come to understand in time. Yesterday, she appeared on ABC’s This Week, where she started speaking in English before switching to Russian because it is “a great language of Pushkin and Tolstoy.” She continued, via a translator, that her “dissatisfaction with the current situation has been accumulating for many years.”
Ovsyannikova has tendered her resignation from Channel One. While her protest was uniquely visible, she’s not alone—as the BBC put it last week, state-aligned Russian TV channels have recently been hit by “a quiet but steady stream of resignations.” Zhanna Agalakova, an anchor for whom Ovsyannikova once worked as a writer, reportedly also quit Channel One; Lilia Gildeyeva and Vadim Glusker reportedly left NTV, while Maria Baronova, a former top editor at RT, resigned in the days after the invasion and has herself since spoken out about her departure in international media. VGTRK, the state-TV holding company, is rumored to have lost staffers, too, with Denis Kataev, of the banned independent network TV Rain, reporting in The Guardian that many more are considering their futures amid a “nasty” internal atmosphere. “This is a new feeling for people who work in these strict, pro-government places,” Kataev wrote last week. Ovsyannikova’s protest, he added, will likely “go down in the history books,” as both a radical act of dissent and “a revolutionary development for TV in Russia.”
Breaking (sort of): Ukraine Captures ISS Without Firing a Shot
Recent news from the International Space Station raises some questions:
- I wonder if these new cosmonauts think Putin will be gone by the time they return to earth?
- Do you think this moment was shown on Russian state TV?
- How much though went into planning what to wear under their pressure suits?
Regardless of the answers, there is some planetary level trolling going on here.
Update: The Mission Commander, Oleg Artemyev, has stated that the crew picked their flight suit colors around six months before their launch and they are the colors of their alma mater, Bauman Moscow State Technical University. So, even though it is probably a bit of unintentional trolling rather than an open act of defiance, I’m leaving it in because the picture is just too beautiful to omit.
Celebrate Ukrainian Music
Last time we were together, I included a video of Ukrainian band Dakhabrakha. Here’s some back story on the music scene in Ukraine and the impact Russians have had on it.
34th Street: Samara Himmelfarb: Reclaiming a Nation’s History Through Song
Ukrainian culture, specifically its music, has been a target of Soviet oppression for practically a century. As early as the 1930s, Stalin attempted to eradicate any semblance of state–building aspirations or a Ukrainian national culture. This included a massacre of the kobzari, the itinerant, bandura–playing musicians who were mainstays of Ukraine’s unique and vibrant folk tradition. The Soviet Union went so far as to mandate the registration of musical instruments and ban nomadic musical performances.
Despite having a legacy of ideological and cultural extermination dating back generations, many Ukrainians are determined to preserve their distinct cultural legacy. A musical revival of Ukrainian folklore and the current cultural boycott of Russia demonstrates the power of music and the resiliency of the Ukrainian people. The resurgence of Ukrainian folk music and its integration into modern society is a living testament to the existence of an unmistakable Ukrainian culture, discrediting the very foundation of Putin’s justifications for the invasion.
Since the Maidan revolution and annexation of Crimea in 2014, folk music and the Ukrainian language itself have been experiencing a major revival, transforming decades–old art into a modern statement. These events prompted many Ukrainian musicians to reach into their history and combine modern styles with lyrics and instruments inspired by the past independence from Russia. Groups such as DakhaBrakha, ONUKA, and KAZKA use ancient folk instruments unique to Ukraine such as the bandura. They source them from local artisans who have learned their trade from generations before them, ensuring their music is constructed from Ukrainian legacy and memory. Their music often incorporates the style of a variety of Ukrainian ethnic groups in order to “raise Ukranians’ self–identification and self–esteem,” according to one of the members of DakhaBrakha, who have been ending their shows with chants of “Free Ukraine!” and “No War!” since 2014. They hope their music will inspire and evoke action in other Ukrainian citizens to attain freedom from Russian interference.
Order in the Court
Old Chucklehead and his cohorts in hypocrisy are focused on their core strategy. They seek to have all of their members be so individually awful that we lack the will and the resources to debunk the mountains of nonsense they spew. For every Anthony Weiner on the Democratic side, they have hundreds of Roy Moore’s. We expel our bad actors they encourage and extol theirs.
Raw Story: David Badash: ‘Impossibly boring man of no principles’: Grassley slammed for remarks in Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmation hearing
U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, the seven-term Republican senior Senator from Iowa, promised his side would not turn Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's Supreme Court confirmation hearing Monday "into a spectacle," yet proceeded to do just that.✂️
Grassley, 88, running for re-election this year, is the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. On Monday he delivered his opening statement, using it to promote his fictious judicial theories, saying outright that he will use the hearing to determine if Judge Jackson subscribes to originalism – which only right-wing judges do.✂️
"Originalism" was created in the 1980s to turn the country back to the days of its founding. The Constitution was written as a living document, to be interpreted over the ages and amended as necessary. Grassley and most Republicans support this made-up theory of originalism.✂️
"Never has an endless lecture from an impossibly boring man of no principles been so intolerable to listen to," said professor of international relations, political scientist, and journalist David Rothkopf as Grassley spoke.
In Case You Were Wondering
I know this has been a question all progressives have been waiting anxiously to have resolved.
Mother Jones: Report: Noah Y. Kim: Largest Study Yet Shows Ivermectin Failed to Reduce Covid Hospitalizations
Antiparasitic drug Ivermectin became a partisan battleground during the Covid-19 pandemic, as anti-vaccine influencers and Republican politicians hawked it as a miracle cure, to the widespread skepticism of infectious disease experts.
A peer-reviewed study recently presented by Dr. Edward Mills, a professor of health sciences at McMaster University in Canada, offered significant new evidence that ivermectin was coronavirus snake oil all along.
In the largest trial yet analyzing the effectiveness of ivermectin on treating the coronavirus, Mills and his fellow researchers found that Covid-19 patients at risk of severe illness who received ivermectin did no better than those prescribed a placebo, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
“This is the first large, prospective study that should really help put to rest ivermectin and not give any credibility to the use of it for Covid-19,” Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told the Journal.
The Don, the Don, He’s at It Again (Or More Accurately, Still)
He just can’t stop committing crimes — or saying stupid things — or being a giant leaky colostomy bag. You might have missed news about this bit of criming in the ongoing coverage of Putin’s cavalcade of war crimes.
Huffington Post: Mary Pappenfuss: Trump Accused Of Campaign Finance Violation for 2024 Race In FEC Complaint
Former President Donald Trump has been accused in a complaint of violating campaign finance laws by raising and spending political funds for a 2024 presidential bid without declaring his candidacy in order to dodge reporting regulations and restrictions.
“Trump has been illegally using his multi-candidate leadership PAC to raise and spend funds in excess of [Federal Election] Commission limits for the purpose of advancing a 2024 presidential campaign,” said the complaint filed early this week by American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic super PAC.
Money has already been used for “payments for events at Trump properties, rallies featuring Mr. Trump, consulting payments to former Trump campaign staff, and digital advertising about Mr. Trump’s events and his presumptive 2024 opponent,” the complaint states.
He Sure Can Pick Them, Can’t He?
There have been endless bushels of pixels spent on explaining the general shortcomings of tfg’s legal team. Rudy Giuliani, anyone? As our worst president has morphed into our worse than worst ex-president, his legal team has also devolved into a group of yammering idiots who need a ladder to make it up to the scum at the bottom of the barrel. And then there’s Alina — a lawyer so bad, even pitiful excuses for lawyers are complaining about her. People are saying she was personally chosen by tfg, because she let him grab her briefs.
DailyBeast: Jose Pagliery, Asawin Suebsaeng: The One Trump Lawyer the Rest of Trump’s Legal Team Loathes
Facing high-stakes investigations that could cripple his business empire or even mean jail time for him and close associates, former President Donald Trump and his family’s armada of lawyers are facing a threat from within.
Her name is Alina Habba, and—almost out of nowhere—the relatively unknown New Jersey lawyer went from representing a college student ticked off at COVID-19 virtual learning to being one of the top attorneys defending the twice-impeached former president in some of the country’s most high-profile cases.
There’s just one problem for Habba: There’s hardly anyone in the Trump legal universe who can stand her.✂️
Habba’s professional conduct, decisions, and courtroom theatrics have routinely embarrassed her Trumpworld legal colleagues—to the point that there are multiple group chats of Trump lawyers where much of the discussion is devoted to profusely complaining about Habba or harshly mocking her. (Habba, naturally, is not included in the text or email threads.)
There’s Dumb, There’s Stupid, There’s Moronic and then There’s Lauren
Is anyone else surprised someone this stupid made it past puberty? You’d think all that glue sniffing and tailpipe huffing would have done more damage than turn her brain into scrambled mush. She’s not an airhead — she’s a lack of airhead.
The Independent: Nathan Place: Lauren Boebert ridiculed for using nonexistent military title to defend State of the Union outburst
‘Maybe there’s a “lieutenant corporal” in whatever Q army she’s in, but not in the actual US military,’ mocked one Twitter user✂️
At one point during that address, Mr Biden mentioned “flag-draped coffins.” Ms Boebert responded by shouting out, “Thirteen of them!” – referring to the 13 US service members killed in a terrorist attack on Kabul’s airport last August.
According to the
Colorado Republican, the mother of one of those troops wrote her a letter.
“After I spoke up, a few of the parents of our fallen soldiers reached out to me, and one of the moms encouraged me to share her thoughts with you,” Ms Boebert said on Tuesday, before beginning to quote – or misquote – the letter. “‘Hello Mrs Boebert. I am Shana Chappell, the mother of Lieutenant Corporal Kareem Nikoui…’”
They Have Cornered the Market on Idiots
eMpTy Greene and Candace Owens are just two of the republican army of dolts that insist on talking, even though they have nothing to say. They’ve collectively got all the intellectual depth of a bird bath, the IQ of a fried egg and the emotional maturity of a two-year old. It’s too bad for them that stupidity isn’t used as currency — they’d be filthy rich (emphasis on the filthy).
Wonkette: Evan Hurst: Was Ukraine Born In 1989 Or Did Obama Invent It? Candace Owens And Marjorie Taylor Greene Debate History!
Marjorie Taylor Greene and Candace Owens know Kremlin conspiracy theories totally real history facts about Russia and Ukraine. But who knows Kremlin conspiracy theories totally real history facts about Russia and Ukraine better? That is what we are here to find out.
Who will win the grand prize of one billion Russian rubles ($1.14 USD)?
First up, we have Candace Owens, last seen here telling everyone that what's ACTUALLY going on in Ukraine is literally whatever Vladimir Putin says it is, and that this is all America's fault, citing Putin's February speech at the UN Security Council.
Today she's here to tell us she's been nosing around the "history" books in Putin's study and learned that "Ukraine" wasn't even a thing before 1989. Wait, where have we heard that? Was it when Putin started aiming his missiles at Ukrainian babies while explaining that Ukraine was a "fiction"? Perhaps.
Andy? Are You There?
Of course he is. And he’s still a sharp witted thorn in the side of the treason consortium.
The New Yorker: Satire from the Borowitz Report: Trump Offers to Help Russia File for Bankruptcy
PALM BEACH (The Borowitz Report)—Donald J. Trump has reached out to Vladimir Putin to help Russia file for bankruptcy, the former U.S. President has confirmed.
Calling the Russian economy “in very, very bad, terrible shape” as a result of Western sanctions, Trump said that bankruptcy was “quite frankly” Putin’s only option.
“Bankruptcy is scary the first time you do it,” Trump said. “But once you’ve done it five or six times it’s the easiest and most beautiful thing in the world.”
Do You Like to Cook?
Since the state of our local delicatessens has declined to an abysmal state in recent years, I’ve been toying with the idea of learning to make bagels. This news is giving me an extra incentive.
Good News Network: Andy Corbley: Taking a Cooking Course Has Magic Pill Like Effects on Mental and Physical Well-Being
In a large study in Australia, a seven-week cooking class was found to significantly improve mental health and well-being, physical health markers, confidence and life satisfaction—as well as the ability to change eating habits.
These changes were not only seen in both men and women, but regardless of whether any increase in understanding of nutrition and the risks of obesity was obtained during the course.
It suggests that simply by returning to home-cooked meals, society could greatly improve the overall health condition of its citizens.
The story of the decline in physical and mental health in the western world is well known. An emphasis on work and study leads to the consumption of less nutritious food, which has exploded in availability as the decades have advanced.
Musical Interlude
WineRev’s History Lesson
Our resident history professor’s always interesting history lesson will appear here as soon as I notice he’s posted it in the comment section. Until then look for it in the comment section.
>>>>» Chuck Grassley and the Wacko GQP Senators getting ready to challenge Judge Jackson with “Originalism”? Fine. Bring it on! Judge Jackson? I hereby loan you my standing argument: Only what the Founding Fathers put in the Original Constitution with the Original Meanings of their Time counts, right?
So
A) Why did they Amend the Original Constitution 10 times 2 years after it was adopted? Didn’t they believe the Original Constitution was Original/Perfect enough? Soooo….if they can Amend it, so can generations that come after them.
B) One of those 10 changes to the Original/Perfect/On-Stone-Tablets/Given by God Constitution (how did James Madison figure in?) was Number 2, the “we don’t trust a standing army because we’ve seen too many instances of military coups in history and in our lifetimes” Amendment, calling for an armed citizenry to turn out as militia to fight in defense of the new country. Well, under the “Original Intent of the Founding Fathers” Doctrine discovered by Scalia, the Original Intent of the powdered wig set means that yes, YOU as an American citizen can have all the muzzle-loading, black powder, smoothbore, single-shot muskets you want. AND, you can have all the 9 pound, 5-foot long, muzzle-loading, black powder, rifled barrel, single-shot, takes-a-full-60-seconds-to-load-if you’re-good, can’t be fitted with a bayonet, Kentucky long rifles you want as well.
EVERYTHING else we can regulate the ever-loving crap out of, including banning stuff that goes “Bang” outright. The Original Intent of the Original Meaning of the Times is the only thing that counts. (Start with pistols, since pistols are nowhere mentioned in the Constitution, the 2A or any of the other 26, there is NO Original Intent…….) End of Rant
>>>>>>Lighter note inspired by Ukraine: “Farmers are very resourceful and let nothing go to waste. You never know when you will need a tank to defend the back 40.”
Slava Ukrain!
March 22nds that break past all those astronomical measurements of equinox-al vernal-ity to strut their stuff as the first solid day of spring, displaying both Good and Goofy of centuries past so that all of us on this March 22 can learn, nod, chuckle or regale each other all March 22 long.
1733 London, England Physicist Joseph Priestly is working on the properties of gases and liquids. On this day he combines the two under pressure and infuses carbon dioxide into water, which makes the water bubble. It picks up the name “carbonated water.” While scientists honor Priestly as the discoverer of----take a deep breath---oxygen, the rest of us can add a touch of sugar and some fruit syrup and toast him as the father of the soft drink.
1861 Washington DC A big war is clearly coming, and the need for medical care will explode. On this day Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female graduate of a US medical school, this day publishes a course of nursing to help train women serving as nurses for the Union Army. She adds more chapters in the next few months and it becomes THE curriculum for thousands of Union nurses. Dorothea Dix, Clara Barton and (“Mother”) Mary Bickerdyke work throughout the Civil War to establish standardized and professional care for Union soldiers. The lessons learned and used form the core curriculum for schools of nursing springing up immediately after the War.
1868 Greenock, Scotland Birth of Hamish MacCunn, composer and conductor. (Try that name out loud with your best Scottish brogue. What a name!) Son of a shipowner, he was able to go to London and was admitted at an early age to the Royal School of Music. Was so talented he became a professor of music at the Royal School at age 20. Like many of the “national/folk song” composers of this period, MacCunn incorporated Scottish tunes and themes into most of his works (Highland Suite, The Land of the Mountain and the Flood, Jeanie Deans, Bonny Kilmeny as samples.) Composed 3 operas, several overtures and fantasias along with a couple dozen choral works.
1895 Paris This evening members of the Société pour L'Encouragement à l'Industrie come by invitation to a salon, rented this night by two brothers, Auguste and Louis Lumiere. The brothers see that everyone is comfortable and explain what everyone is about to see, then go around the room turning off the gaslights. In the darkness they turn on their machine, which shines an electrical light onto a white sheet hung vertically and demonstrate movie film technology publicly for the first time. Sound, scripts, plot lines, special effects, an agreed standard for frames/second, American popcorn, and eventually color, will all come later, but it starts here.
1903 New York City Spring is here and that means baseball. On this day, for the first time, tickets for admission to see the NY Highlanders play ball go on sale. A couple of leagues have been formed and it looks like the season winners in each league will play each other in a season-ending series of games. They might call it a World Series. (A few years later the Highlanders would change their names to the Yankees.)
1919 Paris AND Brussels The Great War is over, and the growth of airplanes of various models was intense. Now some of the technology and engineering of the early bombers is converted to a far more pleasant use. On this day, the first regular (weekly) scheduled international airline service begins between these two capitals. (In another 25 years radar in control towers would make things a lot safer.)
1952 South Korea The “police action” is still on, and on this day a group of US Navy planes carry out a bombing mission on some North Korean rail and truck lines. US Navy pilot Kenneth Schechter’s plane is hit by ground fire and he was blinded. Nonetheless, group leader Lt. Howard Thayer was able to guide Schechter by radio to make a safe landing, with both pilot and plane coming down in one piece. (Holy cow! And I think taking off and landing from a carrier is a mark of pilot skill…….)
1955 Rochester, Minnesota The Mayo Clinic is here, a world-class medical facility. Showing their chops today, Linda Stout becomes the first person in the US (and second in the world) to have (successful) open-heart surgery with the aid of a heart-lung bypass machine. (Having had a valve replacement 7 years ago using the same (although much newer model) machine, I am personally utterly grateful in many, many ways….)
1960 Murray Hill, New Jersey Following up on a paper they co-wrote in 1958, this day Arthur Schawlow and Charles Townes receive the first patent granted for a laser. RCA laser discs, CD ROMs, DVDs, Blue-rays, metal cutting machinery, medical surgical lasers, and Federation phaser technology along with holodeck simulation technology (like on my home planet)! all stem from this seminal patent.
May all your News be Good, comforting and inspiring.
Shalom.
On the Lighter Side
From a comment by DKos user, Black Brant
Putin is being driven through the woods in his huge limousine to his enormous dacha (vacation house). His driver, Vasili, sees a hog in the road but cannot stop the limo in time to avoid hitting it. Vasili drives on for a short while, but does not see any other male pig in the rustic farm they pass - in fact, he only sees one sow.
He mentions it to Putin, who is characteristically unmoved, but his driver's honest grief at the fact that the farm may be too poor to buy another hog finally annoys him enough that he has the limousine stopped and gives Vasili some hard currency so that the farmers can buy another hog. However, Vasili must go on foot; Putin's not going to dirty his limo on some dirt road, nor is he going to deal with any filthy farmer personally. He also tells Vasili to hurry it up - he's got people to arrest.
Two hours later... Vasili returns, just before Putin was going to send in his bodyguards and have him arrested. His clothing is askew. He has a string of sausages coiled around one shoulder. He has a wheel of cheese under one arm, and a half-empty bottle in another. He might smell of perfume. He *definitely* smells like rotgut vodka.
Putin is furious; "What in the hell happened to you?"
Vasily, half-drunk, sheepishly replies, "Honestly, I don't know. The family took it so well, especially their young daughter. I couldn't just turn down that kind of hospitality. I just held out the money and said, I'm Putin's driver and I killed the pig..."
It is my understanding that Russians who lived under communist rule hated having to wait in long lines for everything. Wait in a line for bread, then wait in a line for meat, then toilet paper, etc. Coming back to Russia in a few days or weeks we’ll see someone who has been waiting in a bread line for hours, jump up and yell “That does it! I’m going to go kill Putin!” Then he’ll go storming off. About an hour later, he’ll come back and sheepishly ask the guy behind him to give him back his place in line. The guy behind him will say, “So what happened to going and killing Putin?” The first guy will reply, “That line was even longer.”
Quote(s) of the Day
Fiction was invented the day Jonas arrived home and told his wife that he was three days late because he had been swallowed by a whale. — Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Truth never penetrates an unwilling mind. — Jorge Luis Borges
The real hero is always a hero by mistake. — Umberto Eco
In politics, as in every other sphere of life, there are two important principles for a man of any sense: don't cherish too many illusions, and never stop believing that every little bit helps. — Italo Calvino
It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves. — Franz Kafka
I would like to see every single soldier on every single side, just take off your helmet, unbuckle your kit, lay down your rifle, and set down at the side of some shady lane, and say, nope, I aint a gonna kill nobody. Plenty of rich folks wants to fight. Give them the guns. — Woody Guthrie
Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle. — Benjamin Franklin
Pressley’s Picks
NNNE has criticized me for leaving little MAGAots all over the yard. Now I’ve got him thinking I’m dropping little Russki true believers instead. He’s such an optimist. He keeps hoping I’ll squeeze out a reliable blue voter. I just don’t have the heart to laugh at him about it.
Anyhow, this first pick is pretty obvious. After all, his name is Poo Tin.
Over in Wales, my friend Sybil has volunteered to make similar contributions to the one she made for the painting to the FSB’s current Feed an Oligarch effort, necessitated by those nasty asset seizures and sanctions. She’s not sure she’ll be able to handle the demand on her own, so she suggested the entire canine community should visit the nearest Russian embassy or consulate and leave a contribution.
Welwyn Hatfield Times: Dan Mountney: Artist paints Vladimir Putin using dog poo to raise money for Ukraine
An artist from Welwyn Garden City has found a unique way to raise money for Ukraine following Russia’s invasion, by selling a portrait of Vladimir Putin made out of dog poo.
Dominic Murphy is used to painting Alice in Wonderland scenes, but with the help of dog Sybil, he decided to make a statement against Putin and Russia’s aggression against their neighbours.
“I didn’t want to do anything wishy-washy like doves, I wanted to do something to insult Putin and still raise money for Ukraine,” he told the Welwyn Hatfield Times.
“So, I did a portrait of Putin using dog s***.
I wish you folks would quit trying to make monkeys out of us. (h/t BillFromPortlandMaine)
I’m trying to get NNNE to start a GoFundMe campaign to help cure my friend Brutus of his affliction.
Finally, this is what happens when you starve one of us. Go and give your nearest canine friend a treat right now.
Closing Notes
Thanks for slogging on through to the end of another Roundup. Remember to stay active and involved, while also looking out for your health. Your country needs you!
hpg keeps on keeping on. Last night’s Evening Shade: PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN---DAY425---SECOND YEAR DAY62---Evening Shade-Monday
We’ll close out with a song the Dead played more than 330 times in concert. This performance, from 1989, is considered one of the best.
Ain't no time to hate
Barely time to wait
Whoa, oh, what I want to know
Where does the time go?
Disclaimer: Protestations of innocence aside, Tuckems is still a worthless treasonweasel.
Today’s Decadent Libation