Even the Smallest Person can change the course of the Future*

BBC News:

Two figurines, with one saying “stop killing children”, photographed near the Kremlin

*Galadriel quote from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings movie adaptation

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19 thoughts on “Even the Smallest Person can change the course of the Future*”

  1. Ukraine war: Russians stage plasticine protests to oppose war – BBC News

    On the day Russia invaded Ukraine, Yevgeny went to an anti-war rally in St Petersburg. There he watched as demonstrators were brutally beaten and arrested, and knew that overt dissent was all but impossible.
    As the war intensified, the artist found another way to make his objections heard: a project he called “malenkiy piket”, or “little picket”.
    He made miniature figures out of plasticine, placed banners in their hands, took pictures of them “protesting” in locations around the city, and posted the results to Instagram with an invite for others to join the movement.
    It was a risky pursuit. Were he to be caught, he could face up to 10 years in prison under a new law against anti-war protests.
    But he would not be silent. “We were a gang, me and my little people. Afterwards I felt like I did something, like I wasn’t completely useless,” he told BBC Russian.
    Soon enough, hundreds of Russians started sending him photos of their own little protesters from cities all over the country, adding to growing underground dissent against the war.
    But the state hit back. Last March Sasha Skochilenko, another artist from St Petersburg, was charged with spreading “fake news” after swapping price tags in shops for leaflets about Russia’s devastation of the city of Mariupol.
    She was reported by a pensioner, arrested and now faces 10 years in prison. Her trial is ongoing.
    A month later, a married couple placed a child’s toy with a “don’t shoot” sign in a St Petersburg shop. Staff used CCTV to identify them, leading to their arrest and a fine the equivalent of $320 (£250) for “spreading fake stories about the Russian army”.
    Yevgeny says they haven’t sent photos since, but “they weren’t put in prison, that’s great”.
    Instagram and many other social media and news websites were blocked in Russia soon after the war started, but many Russians use private networks and encryption to get round the restrictions.
    The setbacks did not stop the movement, and nor did more upheaval in Yevgeny’s life. Nevertheless, the pressure on dissenters was unrelenting.
    […]
    In September, Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilisation of Russian men and Yevgeny, who had previously joked with friends about having a “lad’s holiday” abroad to get away, decided it was indeed time to go.
    He called a taxi, crossed the border into another country, and never returned to Russia. A few weeks later his neighbour received draft papers in his name.
    Meanwhile the “little picket” community reacted strongly to the mobilisation order, and Yevgeny was flooded with pictures of new little protests.
    His “holiday” became indefinite and he is now living in a former Soviet country. He had to sell his flat in St Petersburg to keep afloat.
    But his protest movement keeps him connected to Russia. People still send him their pictures and he still posts them on Instagram.
    “If I am not in Russia, if I am not thinking about Russian culture and Russia’s future, what’s the point?” he says. “My plan for the future is to decide how to remain a human being.”
    He is, however, worried about the safety of contributors, regularly warning them to be careful.
    He advises them on the riskiest places to stage protests: there are too many witnesses in churches, too many cameras in shops and both are problems at monuments and landmarks.
    Ukrainians who have seen the page on Instagram are not particularly impressed: Plasticine will not stop bombs.
    Yevgeny understands, but thinks that “malenkiy piket” helps with one important question many Russians have: “What can I do?”
    “I can do something every day. Yes, it’s only a small act, but here on the feed it’s going to look big. It’s an attempt to find a way to be united in this common pain,” he says. “This is necessary because [protest] is impossible.”

    Plasticine protester

    “I don’t want to cure people only for them to die in war”

  2. and even the smallest (status wise) of people by testifying can cause a former president of the united states to be indicted and hopefully convicted.

     Takeaways from the new charges against Trump, aide and Mar-a-Lago worker in the classified documents case | CNN Politics

    […]
    The newest defendant in the case places the former president in the middle of the attempts to delete the security footage. According to the indictment, De Oliveira told another Trump employee, who was director of IT at Mar-a-Lago, “that ‘the boss’ wanted the server deleted,” according to the indictment.
    This happened in June 2022 after prosecutors had subpoenaed for the security footage.
    When the unnamed Trump employee, identified as Employee 4, responded that he would not know how to do that and did not believe he would have the rights to do that, De Oliveira pressed him further, again referencing “the boss,” prosecutors said.
    “De Oliveira then insisted to Trump Employee 4 that ‘the boss’ wanted the server deleted and asked, ‘what are we going to do?’” the indictment alleges.
    According to the indictment, De Oliveira asked the IT employee how long the server retained security footage. He was told it was approximately 45 days. De Oliveira also said that the conversation “should remain between the two of them,” according to the indictment.
    De Oliveira also spoke by phone twice with Trump after Trump’s lawyers were notified of plans to subpoena the security footage.
    Trump and Nauta had already been charged with obstruction over the moving of boxes, but now the latest charges add a new dimension to the obstruction case that goes beyond hiding the documents themselves.
    [continues]

  5. Trump forced his lawyers to file an absurd motion yesterday to excuse him from the “inconvenience” of reviewing classified documents in a secure location. Smith’s response: “There is no basis for the defendant’s request that he be given the extraordinary authority to discuss classified information at his residence… he seeks permission to do so in the very location at which he is charged with willfully retaining the documents charged in this case.”

  6. Nice to see recently that the Putin Caucus in the House is failing:

    Rep. Matt Gaetz’s amendment prohibiting security assistance for Ukraine failed spectacularly by a vote of 358-70 — including 149 Republicans, nearly 7 in 10 members of the GOP caucus, who voted against it. Tennessee Rep. Andrew Ogles’s amendment to cut off lend-lease authority for Ukraine failed as well in a 360-71 vote — so nearly 7 in 10 Republicans in opposition. And Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s amendment to strip $300 million in aid to Ukraine failed by a massive 341-89 margin — with nearly 6 in 10 Republicans opposed. — Washington Post

  8. craig, anything like this ever happen back when you were a page?

    ‘Jackasses,’ ‘little s‑‑‑‑’: GOP congressman curses out teenage Senate pages | The Hill

    Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) is in hot water after he cursed out a group of teenage Senate pages in the Capitol rotunda early Thursday morning. 
    According to a transcript written by a page minutes after the incident and obtained by The Hill, Van Orden called the pages “jackasses” and “pieces of s‑‑‑,” and told them he didn’t “give a f‑‑‑ who you are.”
    The pages are a group of 16- and 17-year-olds who assist Senate operations, and when the Senate works late — as it did Wednesday night on National Defense Authorization Act amendments — pages generally rest nearby in the rotunda. 
    “Wake the f‑‑‑ up you little s‑‑‑‑. … What the f‑‑‑ are you all doing? Get the f‑‑‑ out of here. You are defiling the space you [pieces of s‑‑‑],” Van Orden said, according to the account provided by the page.
    “Who the f‑‑‑ are you?” Van Orden asked, to which one person said they were Senate pages. “I don’t give a f‑‑‑ who you are, get out.”
    “You jackasses, get out,” he added.
    The incident, which occurred just after midnight, outraged members of the upper chamber, with one calling the string of remarks “horrible.”
    Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) later on Thursday took to the Senate floor to defend the pages.
    “I understand that late last night, a member of the House majority thought it appropriate to curse at some of these young people — these teenagers — in the rotunda. I was shocked when I heard about it, and I am further shocked at his refusal to apologize to these young people,” he said.
    “I can’t speak for the House of Representatives, but I do not think that one member’s disrespect is shared by this body, by [Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)] and myself.”
    Van Orden did not dispute the exchange and defended his actions when asked by The Hill. 
    […]
    This is not the first time Van Orden has flashed his temper. Van Orden reportedly threatened a 17-year-old library page in his home state over a gay pride display and demanded to know who set it up. The page in question had set the display up, and she told her parents she did not feel safe to return to the library for work. 

  9. I’ve never heard of this Van Orden prick, but he certainly appears to be a MAGAt on steroids.  If McCarthy weren’t speaker I suspect he’d be hauled onto the floor of the House and shamed, if the House wasn’t recessed early for their August vacay.  

  10. Nothing ever like that I experienced, pat. Claiborne Pell yelled at me one time for using the senators-only phone in the cloakroom but there was no cursing.

  11. Re: the new charges against Dumbass, WaPo notes this:

    Trump spokesman Steven Cheung called the charges unveiled Thursday “a continued desperate and flailing attempt” to harass the former president — who is again seeking the GOP nomination for the White House — and those around him. A lawyer for Nauta declined to comment on the new charges against his client.
    …
    All three defendants are now charged with altering, destroying, mutilating or concealing an object, as well as a similar crime of corruptly altering, destroying, mutilating or concealing a document or object.

    There is one thing Jack Smith is not – desperate – and one thing he is not doing – flailing.  Conspiracy to obstruct justice (which is my everyday language translation of the charges brought yesterday) is IMHO a brilliant charge to get underlings to cooperate.  I expect some ass-saving conversations to be initiated by Nauta and De Oliveira’s attorneys in the near term.

  12. I am getting the suspicion that Jack Smith is executing a stepped pressure campaign.  He is using sfb own actios to keep the charges in the news.  Release indictment to stupid, the orange moron howls and whines.  The public attention drifts, do it again.  This is very entertaining.  Next up we can have dueling indictments and sfb gets this mixed up in his howling at the moon moments.

  13.   “I expect some ass-saving conversations to be initiated by Nauta and De Oliveira’s attorneys in the near term.”

    pogo, whose asses, theirs or their alleged clients?  don’t forget who pays (or promises to pay – maybe maybe not and on;y if they win an acquittal for the boss) those lawyers:  the house (in vegas speak) and the house controls the cards, dice and the table. 

  15. It is August in a few days, Congress is talking about flying saucers. And booking flights home for the month. It is time to pay attention to baseball. If you are like me and haven’t Then you may have missed what may be the greatest baseball story in my lifetime. The Japanese wonder, Shohei Ohtani. Last night, in a doubleheader against the Detroit tigers, he pitched a one hit shut going 9 innings and in the second game hit 2 home runs!! It is a story that makes you want to go back to the ballpark.
    Read more about him
    Jack

  16. Am i the only one who sees the irony of Christian conservatives vigorously pursuing evidence of extraterrestrial life that would directly undermine their faith 🧐 
     
    i guess they’re just that dumb?

  17. In the new Tolkien-inspired show, bad-ass Galadriel says “what cannot be known hollows the mind, fill it not with guesswork”
     
    GOP missed that episode

  18. He got booed off the stage but Will Hurd just delivered the line of the night at Iowa GOP dinner: “Donald Trump is running to stay out of prison”

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