Voices from Russia

Wednesday, 12 November 2014

12 November 2014. A Photo Essay. Is It Siberia? NAW… It’s Just the Midwest USA… the “Siberian Express” Brought Record Lows

00 midwest cold 01. St Paul MN. 12.11.14

St Paul MN… are they heading for a hot Juicy Lucy (it’s a hamburger, you dirty-minded pervert)?

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00 midwest cold 02. Bismarck ND. 12.11.14

Bismarck ND… “40 Below Keeps the Riff -Raff Out”… actual bumper sticker that I saw in Bismarck many moons ago… betcha they’re still on sale!

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00 midwest cold 03. Minneapolis MN. 12.11.14

Minneapolis MN… no, it ain’t Nome AK… betcha it was warmer in Nome!

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00 midwest cold 04. Coloma WI. 12.11.14

Coloma WI… “It’s not winter yet! It ain’t comin’ until 21 December?” “Waddaya want… go complain to God… now, get back to work!”

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00 midwest cold 05. Duluth MN. 12.11.14

Duluth MN… I always thought that you called somebody’s brother-in-law, who always had jumper cables…

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Brrr… bring out the woolies, snuggies, and long johns! Temps in the Midwestern USA were about 19 degrees (40 degrees F) below normal… now, that’s COLD. All aboard for the “Siberian Express“… via Calgary, Nome, Unalaska, and Cape Anadyr! Don’t forget the jug and don’t forget your mittens…

BMD

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Saturday, 11 January 2014

11 January 2014. A Note From Your Indefatigable Editor… Niagara Falls DOESN’T Freeze Solid, Even in Cold Snaps

00 Frozen Niagara Falls. Canada. 11.01.14

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As I live in upstate New York, I might know a thing or two about local winters. Yes, it does get plenty cold. It always does. There’s always freezing on the rivers, and the spring thaw is always dicey as a result. The farther you go from the sea, the colder it gets. That’s why Albany’s winters are relatively mild for the region, and why the St Lawrence Valley is better off than some areas farther from the ocean winds. Of course, winters in the Upper Midwest and on the Canadian Prairies are the most brutal, leading to bumper stickers in Fargo and Edmonton reading, “40 Below Keeps the Riff-Raff Out”.

I know people in the Buffalo area… they all tell me that Niagara Falls NEVER freezes completely, even though winters are always Siberian-grade. A state trooper told me that they’re always on the lookout for nutters who try to walk across the ice… it never freezes “solid” (there’s always water underneath), so, this makes winter “interesting” for them. He said, “I don’t mind summer, it’s just crowds, drunks, and a few scuffles. Winter… you’ve got to keep an eye out at all times for idiots trying to walk on the ice. It’s dangerous, we fish out a body every winter, it seems”. Niagara Falls freezing solid is an urban legend, along with cats in the microwave and alligators in the sewers.

Oh, yes… Niagara Falls did “stop” once, in the 1840s. However, that was due to ice floes on the Niagara River, NOT the Falls freezing solid. That’s the only time that happened in historical memory. Sorry, kids…

BMD 

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Sunday, 27 February 2011

Republicans Harm Recovery with Ill-Considered Cuts… They Refuse to Tax the Rich… WHY?

Demonstrators in Little Rock AR supporting the trades unionists in Wisconsin

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Read these, click here and here. Let’s keep this short and focused. Dropout Scott Walker is a liar… full stop. There’s a budget crisis in Wisconsin because he and his GOP cronies gave away the state surplus to their rich backers. Firstly, the state must cancel all of the giveaways to the rich enacted by Dropout Scott and REMF Fitzgerald at the beginning of the year. Then, and only then, Dropout Scott can say that there’s a crisis. He refuses to rescind these foolish gifts to the rich… therefore, he’s a liar and, what’s worse, a thief of the money of the working people of Wisconsin. As for the “budget cuts”… they’re SLOWING the recovery (if there ever was such a creature). The Republican Party refuses to tax the rich. It’s an emergency! Ergo, we should return to New Deal taxation levels for the oligarchs. If they refuse to cooperate, treat ‘em the same way that VVP treated Khodorkovsky. Bust ‘em and put ‘em in prison orange… that would learn ‘em good!

Dropout Scott Walker is one of the stupidest politicians I have seen in my life. If the GOP is to carry the Upper Midwest in 2012, it needs the support of at least some of the white working class. This shoots that all to hell… it’s even more crackbrained than the GOP government shutdown in the 90s. It hands the area to Obama, for socially conservative working people will hold their nose and vote for him, to preserve their livelihoods, even if they oppose his social views. The GOP will pay dearly for supporting such juvenile airheads as Dropout Scott and Reinhard Priebus. The last election showed that the economy, not social issues, was the concern of virtually all voters (it didn’t matter what party that they voted for, by the way). However, let the Republicans continue… as Val Zorin of VOR put it, reality will kick in, regardless of who’s in power. You can’t have a recovery by laying off people.

Do we want a repeat of the 30s? That’s what we’ll get if the GOP has its way. God do save us from that.

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Sunday 27 February 2011

Albany NY

Friday, 25 February 2011

Scott Walker Pisses on Working People… It Ain’t Law Until the Senate Passes It, Dropout!

He’s not called Dropout Scott for nothing! Loser! This bill is really personal payback for being flunked out of college. Do note that he’s attempting to punish teachers, most of all. Am I the only to notice it, but doesn’t Scott Walker look like a cretinous knockoff of Pee Wee Herman? Can we catch him in the back of a dirty movie theatre doin’ goofy stuff, too? Perspirin’ minds wanna know!

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Read this. Scott Walker just handed the next election in Wisconsin to the Democratic Party. In a fluky election in 2010, an abnormally low voter turnout in the state led to a GOP victory. The turnout was 37 percent less than in 2008. Trust me, the next time around, the Dems are gonna guarantee that their people get to the polls. I’ll betcha it’s gonna be the largest turnout in Wisconsin history. The Republican pigs will be turned out in a landslide. Never again shall voters stay home to “punish” the Dems. Walker hasn’t won until the Democratic senators return… and they won’t until he compromises. This little snot-nosed smarkach has shot the GOP in the foot. You see, the Republicans need the votes of socially conservative working people to win in the Upper Midwest. By taking away the rights of workers (and attempting to enforce arbitrary managerial control of the workplace), Walker has handed all those votes to the Dems. The voters aren’t concerned about abortion or gun rights… like it or not, that’s a fact. In putting the most radical voices in control, the Republican Party has slit its own throat. I agree with Val Zorin of VOR:

The very “success” of the recent rightwing election “victory” hindered their reaching their objective, no matter what they think, at present. There’s an array of reasons to explain why the Republican Party leaders lost their political clout. Firstly, their ambitions and the ambitions of those whose interests they represent don’t correspond to the reality of the modern world, nor does America have the capability to carry them out.

There it is, in plain language. Mr Zorin was a Gosteleradio correspondent in the US since 1963, so, his experience of American politics is longer than Dropout Scott’s life! In short, the ambitions of the oligarchs are going to end on the rocks… America doesn’t have the ability to carry them out. Note well that the cops weren’t overly enthusiastic in their search for the Democratic pols. The GOP represents a shrinking demographic… Protestant Anglo whites. Most of the population increase over the past ten years was in Spanish-heritage people… and most of them are anti-GOP to the bone. Ergo, the last election may have been the swan song of the WASP. God willing, that’s so…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Friday 25 February 2011

Albany NY

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