Very sensible of them. But I suspect that when the sanctions bite the average Russian they will blame Putin. I doubt the support for Putin is as widespread as he wants us to think.
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…but seriously. Most gulag sentences are 5ers or 10ers. People get out (if they are lucky to survive) but often are given internal exile. Places like Irkutsk and Gorky have many internal exiles.
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I am not being bombed. Therefore, my suggestions for Ukraine must be taken with that in mind.
I pray that the Ukrainians are able to minimize as much as possible the exposure to harm of civilians.
In point of fact, this war of Putin’s is hostage-taking. Innocent hostage taking.
And Moscow McConnell, by arranging for Trump to remain in office in the First Impeachment has the deaths of those innocents on his Ledger.
For people like McConnell, they are perfectly happy to have (deniability-capable) layers of connectives standing between their evil and that evil’s visibility.
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Putin is going to try very hard to blame the US and its sanctions all the sufferings that the Russian people have to endure, and he’ll probably get away with it for quite a while. What may turn the Russian public against the war, in the long run, will be ever-mounting casualties. That’s what soured the Soviet population on the Afghan War.
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Support for Putin’s war comes from an aging population which seems to be mostly female. He also depends on his enforcers.
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From the article:
"Kim Davis is entitled to protection to an accommodation based on her sincere religious belief. This case raises serious First Amendment free exercise of religion claims and has a high potential of reaching the Supreme Court," the group’s chairman, Mat Staver, said in the statement.
But the couples she victimized don’t have first amendment protection? I believe the establishment clause cuts both ways. But the Jeebus freaks never see it that way.
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But the couples she victimized don’t have first amendment protection? I believe the establishment clause cuts both ways. But the Jeebus freaks never see it that way.
Nor the NYT editorial page, apparently
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I read your friends email earlier and had to leave. It filled me with deep emotion. Please, next time you email them, tell them of the support they have from the Hive. Let them know people from all over place are with them; doing what they can to help.
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She can exercise her religion, she cannot stop someone else from exercising their religion. She can not force her religion on someone else.
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Even horrible outposts like Norilsk (the nickel-mining city far above the Arctic Circle) and the Kolyma gold fields of northeastern Siberia today have considerable populations that originated, several generations ago, with Gulag prisoners. The survivors hung on, having got used to life in those remote hellholes (and often being barred from returning to cities in European Russia).
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A workaround for her “sincere religious beliefs” was offered and rejected in favor of forcing the issue in the courts. That sort of manipulation should get shot down with prejudice. If that costs her everything she has - well, she chose poorly.
ETA Seems to me someone who has been married three or four times and cheated on their spouse at other times should really keep their opinion about who can and can’t be married to themselves.
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OT 
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Another one.
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O/T nothing to see here
McConnell Shrugs Off ‘Putin Wing Of The Republican Party’ | Crooks and Liars
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O/T and enjoyable.
I wonder if @castor_troy rides a slow rolling bicycle…
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You’re right - deaths from COVID are going back up in China I just read this morning.
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The long Twitter thread linked above uses the term babushka fascists to describe Putin’s support. Fascist grandmothers, the older folks who remember the Soviet days fondly for some reason, and support Russian nationalist goals. It’s the younger people who are protesting.
So change may come from the bottom-up in Russia, but not until the older generations die off. Some parallels to the political situation here in the US obviously, with regard to the demographics of youth of all colors vs. the older White population that leans GOP.
.
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Seems that she is quite selective over which sins are going to damn her soul to hell. Apparently, adultery isn’t one but issuing a fucking wedding license to a gay couple is even though adultery is specifically forbidden in the bible and that same fucking book says fuckall about being gay.
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He’s got a Rolls Cun Hardly. It rolls down the hills of Vermont and can hardly get up the next. 
Btw. That bike in the video looks like a Dutch type of bike. Maybe something custom made. The rider is definitely a serious cyclist.
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We’ve seen Russia’s negotiating demands, here is Ukraine’s.
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