demmiblue
demmiblue's JournalA protester storms a live broadcast on Russia's most-watched news show, yelling 'Stop the war!'
The woman, Marina Ovsyannikova, worked for Channel 1, the state-run television channel whose news broadcast she stormed, according to a Russian rights group that is giving her legal support. The group also released a video in which Ms. Ovsyannikova says she is “deeply ashamed” to have worked to produce “Kremlin propaganda.”
The news show, “Vremya,” is among the Kremlin’s flagship propaganda outlets, watched by millions of Russians every evening. The off-script intervention underscored how dissent is seeping into public consciousness in Russia, even after President Vladimir V. Putin has stifled opposition to the war and has enacted a law to punish anyone spreading whatever the government deems “false news” about its Ukraine invasion with up to 15 years in prison.
“We are Russian people, thinking and smart ones,” she said in the video she recorded, calling for Russians to protest against the war. “Only we have the power to stop all this craziness.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/14/world/europe/russian-protester-tv.html
https://twitter.com/maxseddon/status/1503445657805373446
Manchin says he's reluctant to support the proliferation of electric vehicles
https://twitter.com/crampell/status/1503350056669360133
"We have, as a nation, stood by and watched this global free trade environment allow all of our manufacturing and key pieces of our supply chain go overseas," she said during the CERAWeek conference. "It has compromised our national security, our energy security, and certainly our economic security."
"We need to have the full supply chain here," she added.
Manchin also skewered his fellow Democrats' idea to spend billions to deploy EV charging stations across the country. Last year, while Congress was refining the infrastructure bill, nearly 30 House Democrats proposed increasing the bill's $7.5 billion expenditure for EV charging infrastructure to $85 billion. In addition to charging stations, the $85 billion would have been used to build more grid resilience in preparation for an electrified transportation sector.
Riding into the week like...
https://twitter.com/GoodNewsCorres1/status/1503353285759098886
Squatters occupy Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska's London mansion
Squatters have occupied a mansion belonging to the Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska in central London in the early hours of Monday.
The five squatters in the building in Belgrave Square – two from eastern Europe, though not from Ukraine – say they feel their countries are also under threat from Vladimir Putin. Their plan is to open up the mansion, which they say “has too many rooms to count” including a cinema and a wine cellar, to Ukrainians fleeing the war, along with other refugees needing shelter.
In a message to Russian oligarchs, the squatters said: “You occupy Ukraine, we occupy you.”
A significant police presence barred entry to the cream-coloured stone building with a black front door and pillars at the entrance.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/mar/14/squatters-occupy-russian-billionaire-oleg-deripaska-london-mansion
https://twitter.com/guardiannews/status/1503353568874610692
William Hurt, Star of 'Body Heat' and 'Broadcast News,' Dead at 71
Hurt’s son Will confirmed his father’s death in a statement Sunday. “It is with great sadness that the Hurt family mourns the passing of William Hurt, beloved father and Oscar winning actor, on March 13, 2022, one week before his 72nd birthday,” the family said. “He died peacefully, among family, of natural causes. The family requests privacy at this time.
A three-time nominee for Best Actor at the Academy Awards, Hurt won an Oscar in the category for his role in 1985’s Kiss of the Spider Woman. After first appearing on the big screen in the 1980 sci-fi horror film Altered States — a role that earned him a Golden Globe nomination — Hurt quickly became one of Eighties cinema’s most versatile leading men, bouncing between neo-noirs (Body Heat, Eyewitness), romantic comedies (Broadcast News, The Accidental Tourist) and drama (Children of a Lesser God).
“He can play any kind of part he wants,” producer Alan Ladd Jr. said of Hurt for the actor’s 1981 Rolling Stone cover story. “He’s a great character actor, but let’s face it, he’s a leading man.”
https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/william-hurt-dead-obit-1320664/
Who among us would be so brave?
https://twitter.com/DavidCornDC/status/1503059391175614465https://twitter.com/EvaHartog/status/1503052953690963968
Leaked Kremlin Memo to Russian Media: It Is "Essential" to Feature Tucker Carlson
Source: Mother Jones
The Russian government has pressed outlets to highlight the Fox host’s Putin-helping broadcasts.
On March 3, as Russian military forces bombed Ukrainian cities as part of Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of his neighbor, the Kremlin sent out talking points to state-friendly media outlets with a request: Use more Tucker Carlson.
“It is essential to use as much as possible fragments of broadcasts of the popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who sharply criticizes the actions of the United States [and] NATO, their negative role in unleashing the conflict in Ukraine, [and] the defiantly provocative behavior from the leadership of the Western countries and NATO towards the Russian Federation and towards President Putin, personally,” advises the 12-page document written in Russian. It sums up Carlson’s position: “Russia is only protecting its interests and security.” The memo includes a quote from Carlson: “And how would the US behave if such a situation developed in neighboring Mexico or Canada?”
The document—titled “For Media and Commentators (recommendations for coverage of events as of 03.03)”—was produced, according to its metadata, at a Russian government agency called the Department of Information and Telecommunications Support, which is part of the Russian security apparatus. It was provided to Mother Jones by a contributor to a national Russian media outlet who asked not to be identified. The source said memos like this one have been regularly sent by Putin’s administration to media organizations during the war. Independent media outlets in Russia have been forced to shut down since the start of the conflict.
Read more: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/03/exclusive-kremlin-putin-russia-ukraine-war-memo-tucker-carlson-fox/
https://twitter.com/MotherJones/status/1503003565450838020
I never thought I'd say this, but the world needs more clowns.
https://twitter.com/andrewkimmel/status/1502778757337292801
I did not do that thing...
https://twitter.com/FredSchultz35/status/1502075328533041154
US pays $2M a month to protect Pompeo, aide from Iran threat
Source: ABC/AP
WASHINGTON -- The State Department says it’s paying more than $2 million per month to provide 24-hour security to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a former top aide, both of whom face “serious and credible” threats from Iran.
The department told Congress in a report that the cost of protecting Pompeo and former Iran envoy Brian Hook between August 2021 and February 2022 amounted to $13.1 million. The report, dated Feb. 14 and marked “sensitive but unclassified,” was obtained by The Associated Press on Saturday.
Pompeo and Hook led the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran and the report says U.S. intelligence assesses that the threats to them have remained constant since they left government and could intensify. The threats have persisted even as President Joe Biden's administration has been engaged in indirect negotiations with Iran over a U.S. return to a landmark 2015 nuclear deal.
As a former secretary of state, Pompeo was automatically given 180 days of protection by the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security after leaving office. But that protection has been repeatedly extended in 60-day increments by Secretary of State Antony Blinken due to “a serious and credible threat from a foreign power or agent of a foreign power arising from duties performed by former Secretary Pompeo while employed by the department,” the report said.
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/us-pays-2m-month-protect-pompeo-aide-iran-83407630
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