March 14, 2022

Jacob Rees-Mogg's claim about Russian money backfires spectacularly

Jacob Rees-Mogg has been left red-faced after inadvertently revealing the “massive scale of dirty Russian money lodged in London”.

https://www.thenational.scot/news/19972806.jacob-rees-moggs-claim-russian-money-backfires-spectacularly/



The Tory has recently been given the prestigious title of UK Government Brexit Opportunities Minister – though nobody has been able to figure out what his job actually entails.

We’re pretty sure Rees-Mogg isn’t supposed to be drawing attention to his party’s links to Russian cronies, however. But that’s exactly what he did on Saturday after bragging about Downing Street’s highly criticised response to the war in Ukraine.

Rees-Mogg shared an image on Twitter that shows the total value of Russian bank assets sanctioned by the UK, US and EU. The graph shows the UK has introduced measures against £258.8 billion worth of assets, while the US and EU lag behind respectively on £240bn and £38.8bn. “The City of London leads the way in the effects of sanctioning Russian banks,” the Tory minister boasted.

https://twitter.com/Jacob_Rees_Mogg/status/1500125956140371969
Yet SNP president Michael Russell couldn’t help but notice a flaw in his argument. He replied: “You didn’t mean to make this point, but all this confirms is the massive scale of dirty Russian money lodged in London. So with apologies to Burns; “Bought and sold for Russian gold “sic a parcel o’ rogues in a nation.”

https://twitter.com/Feorlean/status/1500202234625282053
snip



my add

Sic a Parcel o' Rogues is a Scottish folk song whose lyrics are taken from a poem written by Robert Burns in 1791, protesting bitterly about the Union of Scotland and England in 1707.

Fareweel to a' our Scottish fame,
Fareweel our ancient glory
Fareweel ev'n to the Scottish name,
Sae famed in martial story
Now Sark rins over Solway sands
An Tweed rins to the ocean
To mark where England's province stands -
Sic a parcel o rogues in a nation!

What force or guile could not subdue
Through many warlike ages
Is wrought now by a coward few
For hireling traitor's wages
The English steel we could disdain
Secure in valour's station
But English gold has been our bane -
Sic a parcel o rogues in a nation!

O would, or I had seen the day
That Treason thus could sell us,
My auld grey head had lien in clay
Wi Bruce and loyal Wallace!
But pith and power, till my last hour
I'll mak this declaration
We're bought and sold for English gold -
Sic a parcel o rogues in a nation!

March 14, 2022

now more than ever: TRUMP - I'm your Puppet

March 14, 2022

Grimes - Kill V. Maim

Label: 4AD – none
Format:
CDr, Single, Promo
Country: UK
Released: 25 Mar 2016
Genre: Electronic
Style: Electro, Dubstep

March 13, 2022

Sister - Would You Love a Creature (Peacemaker Season 1 Soundtrack HBO MAX)

Swedish sleaze and punk influenced dark glam metal band from Stockholm and Jönköping, founded in 2006.

Label: Deadlight Entertainment – none
Format:
Vinyl, Album, LP, Limited Edition
Country: Sweden
Released: 2011
Genre: Rock
Style: Dark Glam Metal/Punk

March 13, 2022

Under New Scrutiny: China's Nuclear Pledge to Ukraine

Beijing’s 2013 promise to protect Ukraine in a nuclear attack appears to now further muddy its stance on Russia’s invasion

https://www.wsj.com/articles/under-new-scrutiny-chinas-nuclear-pledge-to-ukraine-11647007200

https://archive.ph/JU8mO



An unusual and mostly forgotten pledge Chinese President Xi Jinping signed eight years ago that China would protect Ukraine in the event of a nuclear attack is getting fresh attention following Russia’s invasion of its Eastern European neighbor.

China’s 2013 promise to Ukraine of unspecified security guarantees echoed the kind of commitment nuclear-armed states—including China—have long made to nonnuclear ones, assurances that the U.S., U.K. and Russia had earlier also extended directly to Ukraine for relinquishing Soviet-era weapons. Yet Beijing appeared to be promising more than it had in past commitments, and why it singled out Ukraine for such an arrangement has confounded nuclear experts ever since.

Now, its existence appears to further muddy Beijing’s policy stance in the context of Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine and Moscow’s warning last month it was raising the alert level of its nuclear forces.

“It’s a promise of a nuclear-weapon state to stand up for a nonnuclear-weapon state being threatened by a nuclear-weapon state,” says Gregory Kulacki, a Japan-based analyst who focuses on nuclear issues and China for the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists. “It means something and it should be pointed out to China,” he says.

snip

March 12, 2022

INTERVIEW: Would the EU defend Sweden if it was attacked?

Could the EU's mutual defence clause, which says member states will help each other if one is attacked, provide extra security for Sweden?

https://www.thelocal.se/20220309/explained-would-the-eu-defend-sweden-if-it-was-attacked/



Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has reignited Sweden’s long-running debate about its own defence, and in particular whether it should join Nato. Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson has rejected joining the transatlantic alliance, but has written to EU leaders along with her Finnish counterpart to remind them of the bloc’s mutual defence clause, which says member states will come to each others’ aid “with all possible means” if one of them is attacked. Sweden and Finland are close partners of Nato, but as non-members they can’t count on Nato intervening militarily if attacked, as they aren’t covered by the alliance’s Article 5 guarantee.





Andersson this week ruled out joining Nato, saying that an application to join “would destabilise this part of Europe even further.” But does the EU’s mutual defence clause really provide Sweden with a cast-iron guarantee? Björn Fägersten, head of the Europe program at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, says there are some key differences between the EU’s and Nato’s guarantees.

The Local: Does the EU’s mutual defence clause have a similar effect to Nato’s Article 5?

Björn Fägersten: In a purely legal sense they are equivalent – in some ways the EU is a bit sharper. But on the other hand, the EU’s clause has a sub-clause that makes clear that it doesn’t affect member states’ individual choices on security policy, for instance for those countries that are neutral.

A key difference between the EU and Nato is that the EU has no real apparatus. Nato has a joint military headquarters, SHAPE, but the EU doesn’t have an equivalent. Within the EU there are also expectations that Nato will be at the centre of European planning – most EU countries are members. In the EU’s Global Strategy from 2016 it is made clear that Nato is the cornerstone of the EU’s defence.

snip










Sweden says it built a Russian fighter jet killer — and stealth is totally irrelevant

https://archive.ph/Jou88#selection-1659.0-1659.85

March 12, 2022

Florida Lawmakers OK DeSantis' Election Police Force

https://www.thedailybeast.com/florida-lawmakers-ok-ron-desantis-election-police-force



Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ proposal for special police force dedicated to investigating voter fraud—which is incredibly rare and has no significant impact on election outcomes—was approved Wednesday by state lawmakers.

Democrats say there is no need for the force and that it could be turned into a partisan weapon and weaken public confidence in election integrity.

“What bills like this do is say there’s a problem with our elections system that we’re trying to solve,” said Rep. Fentrice Driskell said during the House debate, according to the Associated Press. “It perpetuates this concept that they shouldn’t be able to trust what happens in government. This is a monster that will eat us alive if we let it.”

The Senate previously approved the bill, which now heads to DeSantis’ desk.


https://eu.tallahassee.com/story/news/politics/2022/03/09/top-items-desantis-wish-list-advance-house-senate-bills-florida-legislative-session-2022/9432664002/

March 12, 2022

ICON and Lake Flato build 3D-printed House Zero in Austin

https://www.dezeen.com/2022/03/04/icon-lake-flato-3d-printed-house-zero-austin/





Construction technology outfit ICON and architecture studio Lake Flato have completed a 3D-printed, modern ranch-style home in Austin to be displayed during the SXSW festival. ICON, the company to first sell ready-to-own 3D homes in the US, worked with San Antonio and Austin-based architecture studio Lake Flato to design House Zero.





The home is sited in a single-family residential neighbourhood in East Austin, Texas, and was built using ICON's Vulcan construction system. The system uses 3D printing, a technology that dispenses layers of material mechanically based on a computer program, to lay the walls of the 2,000-square-foot (186-square-metre) home. The 3D-printed wall aspects took 10 days to print. "House Zero is ground zero for the emergence of entirely new design languages and architectural vernaculars that will use robotic construction to deliver the things we need most from our housing: comfort, beauty, dignity, sustainability, attainability, and hope," said Jason Ballard, co-founder and CEO of ICON, in a release.





Reinforced by steel, the walls are printed with a proprietary material ICON calls Lavacrete – a cement-like substance that is air-tight while also providing increased insulation. "We let the Lavacrete lead the way," Ashley Heeren, associate architect for Lake Flato, told Dezeen. "We could then use other materials in ways that were not only honest to their nature but also supported and complemented the concrete".





"While the organic nature of the 3D-printed concrete and curved walls are new design languages for us, House Zero was still entirely in line with the natural connections we seek in our architecture," said Heeren continued. "The home expresses our shared passions for craft and performance in an inviting and comfortable family home constructed through a totally new way of building".

snip

March 12, 2022

How to Dip Your Toes Into the Grimy World of 'Indie Sleaze'

(I added a lot of extra material/media)

It's a term that keeps popping up, but what is it?

https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/indie-sleaze-explained



There's something in the air. It's something that seems more innocent but also grimy. It's the Wolf Parade needle drop in that episode of The Dropout. It's the slow creep of American Apparel onesies back into wardrobes. It's the return of "indie sleaze." "Indie sleaze" is a term that's been popping up in the internet lexicon recently. It's been defined for Gen Z on TikTok and is the subject of a popular Instagram account. Spotify has published an "indie sleaze" playlist. In Allison P. Davis' much-shared New York Magazine piece about how we're headed toward a "vibe shift," she wrote that trend forecaster Sean Monahan "thinks the new vibe shift could be the return of early-aughts indie sleaze."

Gorillaz - DARE (Death From Above Remix) (absolute banger)



But what exactly is indie sleaze? As with most vague trends, indie sleaze means different things to different people. Generally, it's an aesthetic that took hold in the early aughts and lasted through about the end of that decade. If you're a late millennial in a major metropolitan area it will probably make you think of high school or college, drinking Sparks and listening to M.I.A.'s Arular. You might have attended a Misshapes set. You bought Nylon magazine. You wore bright hoodies and headbands and gold lamé shorts. You read Hipster Runoff.

CSS - Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above



Olivia, who asked for her last name not to be used, started regularly posting to the "indiesleaze" Instagram account sometime around January 2021, seeing a revival on the horizon. "I had a hunch that there would be renewed interest in bloghouse and electroclash and new rave due to where we're at in music trends," she tells Thrillist. "It's an aesthetic that hasn't really been revisited yet or neatly defined, which made it all the more interesting for me to explore."

Goldfrapp - Ooh La La (When Andy Bell Met Manhattan Clique Mix)



On her account, Olivia posts pictures from the era: Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs makes frequent appearances; Kate Moss is there; paparazzi shots from when Drew Barrymore was dating Fabrizio Moretti of The Strokes dot the page. She also links out to her playlist of "indie sleaze" music—certainly not the only one circulating. Matthew Perpetua, a music journalist who runs Fluxblog, recently posted "This Is Indie Sleaze 2002-2008," which he describes as "a tighter, more historically accurate version of someone else's idea."




Christopher Shar of the group Man Man, Santogold, and M.I.A. backstage during day 1 of the Coachella Valley Music Festival and Arts Festival held at the Empire Polo Field on April 25, 2008 in Indio, California.





snip


🍾🕶 🌃 2000s & 2010s indie sleaze style explained 🌠 📸🚬



Some Sort of Blog House Mix [mixed by Muffin]



$URG3's BLOGHOUSE revival mixtape




We Owe Everything to Bloghouse

https://www.papermag.com/bloghouse-2655912825.html

March 11, 2022

The Supreme Court signals it may empower state legislatures to subvert elections

Republicans are pushing the independent state legislature doctrine, which would bolster unfettered gerrymandering and Trump’s efforts to undercut democracy.

https://boltsmag.org/independent-state-legislature-doctrine/



The U.S. Supreme Court signaled on Monday that at least four justices are ready and willitheirng to bless a legal theory that was never really taken seriously until the 2020 elections. The so-called independent state legislature doctrine, if adopted, would provide new legal cover for Republicans to use their vast powers in states to subvert elections, shield aggressive gerrymanders, and restrict access to the vote in Democratic strongholds at the local level.

Their feverish idea is that state legislatures should have complete and unfettered control over how federal elections are run and regulated, shielded even from the oversight of state courts. Against the backdrop of efforts by President Donald Trump’s supporters to reverse the last presidential election and prepare for the next one, the doctrine would give carte blanche to Republican-run legislatures in swing states like Georgia and Wisconsin, which the GOP has gerrymandered, to ensure it never loses.

In 2020, Texas and other Republican-led states implored the Supreme Court to block certification of the presidential election results in key states like Pennsylvania that Joe Biden won. They claimed that those states had flouted the Constitution and past legal precedents purportedly making it clear that “a single branch of State government”—that is, the state legislature—has the authority to set the rules governing the appointment of presidential electors. Because “executive and judicial officials made significant changes to the legislatively defined election laws in the Defendant States,” Texas insisted, these states had violated the Constitution’s Electors Clause and Elections Clause.

As Texas and its allied states see things, these clauses teach that only a state’s legislature may establish or modify the rules governing who elects the president and other federal offices. All other state “non-legislative actors,” like courts or election administrators, must abide by those rules. The Supreme Court rejected their plea at the time without opining on the merits. Weeks later, the Jan. 6 insurrection on the Capitol attempted by brute force what the justices wouldn’t do through the force of law.

snip