‘People are scared shitless around him — but it’s fear without respect’ Putin is 70. Meduza’s sources say his ‘power vertical’ is ‘collapsing.’ — Meduza

“People are scared shitless around him. But it’s fear without respect. They haven’t had respect [for Putin] for two or three years now,” a source close to the Russian government told Meduza. Two other sources close to the government and one close to the Kremlin gave similar accounts of the mood in Moscow.

According to the sources, Russian elites’ feelings towards Putin soured after his decision to raise the country’s pension age in 2018 — a move a majority of Russians opposed. Formally, the Cabinet of Ministers was updated in 2020, when Mikhail Mishustin replaced Dmitry Medvedev as prime minister, but many mid-level government workers have held their posts since long before that. They still remember how Putin shifted the blame for the consequences of his pension reform on the ministers — ultimately accusing them of causing the entire government’s approval ratings to drop. “When people [in the government] hear the word ‘ratings,’ they still wince,” a source close to the government told Meduza.

In more recent years, the situation has only gotten worse. According to Meduza’s sources, Putin has gradually stopped warning the ministers of his plans both for the short term and the long term.

“Up until recently, the [ministers] would at least serve as a kind of Google for the president. He would voice scenarios that he thought were likely and ask, ‘What if we do this? What will the consequences be? And what if we do it this way? Then what?’ But that’s stopped,” said a source close to the government.

According to the source, after the start of the pandemic, Putin (who’s known to worry obsessively about his health) stopped consulting the ministers altogether — and limited his decision-making process to brief discussions with his “inner circle” (which, in recent years, is believed to consist primarily of the heads of Russia’s security agencies).

Source: ‘People are scared shitless around him — but it’s fear without respect’ Putin is 70. Meduza’s sources say his ‘power vertical’ is ‘collapsing.’ — Meduza

Brazil’s indigenous people fight agribusiness land grabs | openDemocracy

Betikre is part of a new generation of Indigenous people determined to defend their territory through political participation. Like many of his Indigenous peers in other villages, he is using technology to contribute to the defence of his land. He was trained by the Instituto Socio Ambiental (ISA) in geographic monitoring technology, and uses a mobile phone app called SOMAI (Sistema de Observación y Monitoramiento de la Amazonia Indígena). The app allows him to monitor his territory and warn of encroachments, deforestation or fires around his village. Of course, he can only use it when he has a secure satellite connection, which, due to the remoteness of his location and the precariousness of the equipment, is not always available.

Betikre is a public face of this remote village, but the villagers are united in their determination not to allow pressure from the all-powerful extractive industries destroy their traditional way of life. They feel secure in their position because they have been living on Indigenous land that has been legally demarcated for decades.

Source: Brazil’s indigenous people fight agribusiness land grabs | openDemocracy

♫ Walk On By ♫ (Redux)

Filosofa's Word

I had about 40 different songs in my mind to play for you yesterday, but by the time I sat down to actually put fingertips to keyboard, they had all flown from the coop of my mind.  Happens a lot these days.  So, I pondered at 2:30 a.m. … not what would I like to hear, but who.  And the answer came swiftly and without hesitation … the one, the only …

Dionne Warwick!

dionne-warwick

The songwriting team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote this. Bacharach came up with the music, and David wrote the lyrics about a woman asking her former lover to leave her alone.

This was released as the B-side to Warwick’s single Any Old Time Of The Day. She’d had several releases that went nowhere, and her latest tune was, in the opinion of her label, her manager, and herself, her last shot at…

View original post 445 more words

Da Snark Just Keeps On Coming

Filosofa's Word

Of late, I’ve been trying … well, sort of … to be less snarky than usual, more serious minded if you will.  But, as the late Popeye the Sailor famously said, “I yam what I yam.”  And what I yam seems to be snarky today, so instead of fighting it, I will go with the flow.


Do as I say, not as I do?

The ‘Christian Nationalist’ movement seems to have gained momentum in recent years.  I mean absolutely no disrespect toward those Christians who believe as they do, yet do not attempt to impose their will on everyone else.  The ones I am calling out here are those diehard Christian evangelicals who believe that they and they alone know all the answers and would force their will on us through a series of laws and punishments.  They have had some success already in stripping women of their right…

View original post 838 more words

Californians get gas tax refunds beginning today: What to know – Los Angeles Times

The Golden State will send tax refunds to about 23 million Californians starting Friday to help them navigate the rising costs due to inflation.

California will spend $9.5 billion as part of the “Middle Class Tax Refund Estimator” program, with one-time payments ranging from $400 to $1,050 for couples who filed jointly on their 2020 state income tax return and $400 to $700 for those who filed independently.

Payments will arrive in several ways starting Friday, including direct deposits to roughly 8 million bank accounts for those who e-filed their 2020 state income tax return. The state expects the majority of all direct deposits to hit bank accounts by the end of October, and more will be sent out through Nov. 14. An additional 10 million payments will be mailed on debit cards to California residents. Those recipients can expect their payments to arrive from Oct. 25 to Jan. 15, according to the state Franchise Tax Board.

Source: Californians get gas tax refunds beginning today: What to know – Los Angeles Times

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