How Stalin Toyed With Mikhail Bulgakov


vignetteThe-Master-and-Margarita

The devil went down to Moscow not long after the Bolshevik takeover, along with a valet, a vampire, an assassin, and a gunslinging man-sized cat called Behemoth. That’s the setup for Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, a scathingly satiric tale of Soviet censors, informers, and intellectual courtiers that doubles as an unorthodox retelling of the Book of Matthew. Finished in 1940, the novel was not formally published until the late 1960s, and then only in heavily censored form. The full novel finally appeared in 1973, but even then Russian readers were more likely to encounter a samizdat edition than the hard-to-find official printing.

Bulgakov had the misfortune of being a writer in the Soviet Union—worse yet, Josef Stalin’s Soviet Union. The dictator took a personal interest in the author, much as a sociopathic boy might take a personal interest in a pet he alternately rewards and tortures. Stalin admired some of Bulgakov’s plays (he reportedly watched The Days of the Turbins more than a dozen times), was known to intervene on his behalf, and refrained from imprisoning the man even when his work mocked the state. But that didn’t mean the mockery always made it to the stage or page: He constantly censored Bulgakov as well. At one point, hoping to lighten the repression, Bulgakov wrote Batum, a glowing play about Stalin to be performed on the dictator’s birthday. Stalin responded by banning Batum too.

Paradoxically, the censorship freed Bulgakov to make The Master and Margarita as subversive as possible: Once he realized the book was unlikely to appear in his lifetime, he poured ideas into it that he could never say publicly. And eventually it found an enormous audience. When I visited Russia in 1995, it seemed like everyone I spoke with about it had read it. One woman told me she knew people who carried a copy wherever they went.

Much of the novel’s action takes place at a Moscow apartment where Bulgakov had lived, and his fans have made the site a shrine of sorts. This began illicitly in the ’80s: They started leaving graffiti in the stairwell, returning to redecorate the walls whenever the authorities whitewashed them. By the time I stopped by, the apartment had become a formal tribute filled with Master-inspired paintings. But the stairwell was still covered with graffiti, some of it opposed to Russia’s war in Chechnya. The dissent, it seemed, had spilled out of the book and onto the walls below.

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How Stalin Toyed With Mikhail Bulgakov


vignetteThe-Master-and-Margarita

The devil went down to Moscow not long after the Bolshevik takeover, along with a valet, a vampire, an assassin, and a gunslinging man-sized cat called Behemoth. That’s the setup for Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, a scathingly satiric tale of Soviet censors, informers, and intellectual courtiers that doubles as an unorthodox retelling of the Book of Matthew. Finished in 1940, the novel was not formally published until the late 1960s, and then only in heavily censored form. The full novel finally appeared in 1973, but even then Russian readers were more likely to encounter a samizdat edition than the hard-to-find official printing.

Bulgakov had the misfortune of being a writer in the Soviet Union—worse yet, Josef Stalin’s Soviet Union. The dictator took a personal interest in the author, much as a sociopathic boy might take a personal interest in a pet he alternately rewards and tortures. Stalin admired some of Bulgakov’s plays (he reportedly watched The Days of the Turbins more than a dozen times), was known to intervene on his behalf, and refrained from imprisoning the man even when his work mocked the state. But that didn’t mean the mockery always made it to the stage or page: He constantly censored Bulgakov as well. At one point, hoping to lighten the repression, Bulgakov wrote Batum, a glowing play about Stalin to be performed on the dictator’s birthday. Stalin responded by banning Batum too.

Paradoxically, the censorship freed Bulgakov to make The Master and Margarita as subversive as possible: Once he realized the book was unlikely to appear in his lifetime, he poured ideas into it that he could never say publicly. And eventually it found an enormous audience. When I visited Russia in 1995, it seemed like everyone I spoke with about it had read it. One woman told me she knew people who carried a copy wherever they went.

Much of the novel’s action takes place at a Moscow apartment where Bulgakov had lived, and his fans have made the site a shrine of sorts. This began illicitly in the ’80s: They started leaving graffiti in the stairwell, returning to redecorate the walls whenever the authorities whitewashed them. By the time I stopped by, the apartment had become a formal tribute filled with Master-inspired paintings. But the stairwell was still covered with graffiti, some of it opposed to Russia’s war in Chechnya. The dissent, it seemed, had spilled out of the book and onto the walls below.

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Something Is Looming Geopolitically, And We Better Start Taking It Seriously

Something Is Looming Geopolitically, And We Better Start Taking It Seriously

Authored by ‘Sundance’ via The Last Refuge blog,

As a result of western governments’ taking collective action under the auspices of a ‘climate change’ agenda, we are on the cusp of something happening with ramifications that no one has ever seen before.

Western governments’, specifically western Europe, North America (U.S-Canada) and Australia/New Zealand, are intentionally trying to lower economic activity to meet the intentional drop in energy production.

This is the core consequence of the Build Back Better agenda as promoted by the World Economic Forum.

Anyone who says there is a reference point to determine both the short-term and long-term consequences is lying. There is no precedent for nations’ collectively and intentionally trying to reduce economic activity.

Hiding behind the false justification that current inflation is driven by too much demand, central banks in Europe, the Bank of England, Bank of Canada and U.S. federal reserve are raising interest rates.  The outcome we are currently feeling is an intentional economic contraction and global recession.

The Build Back Better monetary policy is successfully shrinking western economic activity; however, the impacted nations that produce goods for markets in North America and Europe, specifically southeast Asia, Japan and China, are not raising interest rates in an effort to try and offset the drop in demand.  China has announced they are dropping their central bank rates in a desperate effort to lower costs and keep their export dependent economy working.

Underneath all of this, is a drop in energy production in the same nations trying to lower economic activity.  The political policymakers are attempting to manage this process without informing the citizens of the unspoken goal.   Shortages of oil, coal and natural gas are self-inflicted problems, all part of the BBB agenda.

Beyond the massive increases in energy costs, which is the true source of inflation and a direct/intentional outcome of the BBB effort, Europe is now facing a looming winter without the energy resources to heat homes and sustain people.  Things are going to be very uncomfortable in Europe this winter as roaming brownouts are now predicted.

As the collective west attempts to, using their words, “manage the transition,” they do not have mechanisms to control an outcome of this magnitude.  It is simply too big a situation to manage.  Where the rubber meets the road, the think-tanks and high-minded climate change ideologues do not have the ability to manage a transition and still meet the needs of people.  Beyond the esoteric thinking, there are real consequences from these actions.

Many people have discussed the potential for longer-term food shortages and recently, shorter-term winter heating.  However, beyond that, the downstream geopolitical consequences are seemingly being ignored.  Instead, what we see is an effort to keep pretending the climate change ends will justify the means (disruption of energy production).

In this connected world, when the western nations stop buying things, we find ourselves domestically with economic trouble.  Businesses fail, unemployment rises, financial stress ripples throughout the economy, dependency on government subsidy increases and real pain is felt.  However, beyond the domestic issues the supplier nations run into even bigger problems.

Unemployment in Malaysia, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and even China, creates an entirely different set of regional stability issues on a geopolitical level.

There is no precedent for this.  Never before in the history of industrialized nations has any government intentionally tried to lower its economic activity.  It has never been done with intent before because within the contraction nations get more poor, people suffer.

Not only has no single nation ever tried to intentionally shrink its wealth, but there is no precedent whatsoever for an alliance of nations to join together with the same purpose. While this might seem like an academic economic modeling exercise, unfortunately it is very real.  What I am describing is happening right now, and we had better start talking about it before the unforeseen consequences start to become a crisis.

In North America (U.S-Canada), Europe and Australia, there will continue to be massive increases in food prices as a result of the collapse in energy production.  Beyond the western nations there will be food shortages as a result of lowered harvest yields and less industrial food production.  This is not controversial.

It is also not controversial that regions with harsh winter climates are going to be paying much more for scarce heating resources.

That being accepted, what happens geopolitically, even militarily, when the entire global economy starts to feel the impacts from western nation economic contraction on a scale -created by collective action- that has never been seen before.

I have no idea what that big picture consequence looks like, but whatever “that” is, will be happening at the same time as people everywhere will be more desperate as an outcome of their economic position.  I don’t have the answers, but I sure as hell can see the problem coming.

Political leadership in the aforementioned western nations are seemingly, perhaps intentionally, keeping people distracted with domestic shiny things to occupy time.  However, someone needs to start talking about, and seriously challenging, the big picture consequence of this Build Back Better future, before it’s too late.

Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/19/2022 – 23:40

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ATF Shows Up At People’s Homes To Confiscate Rare Breed FRT-15 Triggers

ATF Shows Up At People’s Homes To Confiscate Rare Breed FRT-15 Triggers

A new report from the gun blog website AmmoLand Shooting Sports News claims that Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents have shown up at the homes of “multiple people” to confiscate previously legal forced reset triggers for AR-15 style rifles that were recently classified as “machine guns.” 

According to the report, it is unknown how the ATF acquired the customers’ information – though the owners in question acquired their triggers via Gun Broker or the Rare Breed Triggers website.

Rare Breed Triggers FRT – Animation from RARE BREED TRIGGERS on Vimeo.

“It is possible the ATF received the customers’ information from credit card processors or shipping companies,” AmmoLand said, adding the federal agency had received customer information from Authorize.net and Stamps.com to track people who’ve bought 80% lowers from gun parts kits manufacturer Polymer80. 

A person named “Paul Britton Finch” is allegedly one of those gun owners who got a knock on the door from ATF agents. 

Just a heads up, I got a visit today from the AFT for a trigger I bought from gunbroker and one from Rare Breed directly…hide your dogs, ladies and gentlemen. They’re comin’ a knocking,” Finch said in a post in what appears to be a gun forum. 

He continued: “I don’t want to say much more on here because they [ATF] do infact watch this group and who posts what information. so take what you will of it. They’re out there with all the information you used to buy them with and enough to prosecute you if they want to push it. Yeah it sucks, but that’s the reality of it right now.” 

Finch provided pictures of the special agent’s identification card who visited his home that served him with a “warning notice: you may be in violation of federal law.” The notice was dated Aug. 16. 

We have thoroughly covered the ATF’s battle against Rare Breed Triggers. The gun parts company once legally sold a drop-in trigger for an AR-15-style rifle that forces the trigger to reset at such a high speed that it increases the weapon’s fire rate. 

Meanwhile, people are learning to 3D print these triggers, posing an even larger challenge for the ATF.

Under the Biden administration, the ATF has waged war against gun companies, parts manufacturers, and law-abiding citizens. 

Last month, a Delaware man was stunned when special agents rang his doorbell and asked if they could do an inventory audit of his legally-obtained firearms

And last summer we told readers that the “puzzle pieces were all laid out” – in terms of how the ATF, weaponized under the Biden administration, would try to ban semi-automatic rifles.

One year later, the US House of Representatives passed a bill to ban importing, selling, manufacturing, or transferring semi-automatic assault weapons. However, it has no chance of passing in the Senate. 

Meanwhile, the online gun community is quickly accelerating the 3D printing technology of guns that can be entirely printed at home, even the plastic ammo. We’ve pointed out that others have printed weapons at home for under $350, while one company in Austin, Texas, unveiled the 0% lower earlier this year. 

Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/19/2022 – 23:20

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These Are The 10 Biggest Military Spending Nations In The World

These Are The 10 Biggest Military Spending Nations In The World

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has continued, military spending and technology has come under the spotlight as the world tracked Western arms shipments and watched how HIMAR rocket launchers and other weaponry affected the conflict.

But, as Visual Capitalist’s Niccolo Conte details below, developing, exporting, and deploying military personnel and weaponry costs nations hundreds of billions every year. In 2021, global military spending reached $2.1 trillion, rising for its seventh year in a row.

Using data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), this visualization shows which countries spent the most on their military in 2021, along with their overall share of global military spending.

Which Countries Spend the Most on Military?

The United States was the top nation in terms of military expenditure, spending $801 billion to make up almost 38% of global military spending in 2021. America has been the top military spending nation since SIPRI began tracking in 1949, making up more than 30% of the world’s military spending for the last two decades.

U.S. military spending increased year-over-year by $22.3 billion, and the country’s total for 2021 was more than every other country in the top 10 combined.

 

The next top military spender in 2021 was China, which spent $293.4 billion and made up nearly 14% of global military spend. While China’s expenditure is still less than half of America’s, the country has increased its military spending for 27 years in a row.

 

In fact, China has the largest total of active military personnel, and the country’s military spending has more than doubled over the last decade.

While Russia was only the fifth top nation by military spending at $65.9 billion in 2021, it was among the higher ranking nations in terms of military spending as a share of GDP. Russia military expenditures amounted to 4.1% of its GDP, and among the top 10 spending nations, was only beaten by Saudi Arabia whose spending was 6.6% of its GDP.

Military Collaboration Since the Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February has resulted in seismic geopolitical shifts, kicking off a cascade of international military shipments and collaboration between nations. The security assistance just sent by the U.S. to Ukraine has totaled $8.2 billion since the start of the war, and has shown how alliances can help make up for some domestic military spending in times of conflict.

Similarly, Russia and China have deepened their relationship, sharing military intelligence and technology along with beginning joint military exercises at the end of August, alongside other nations like India, Belarus, Mongolia, and Tajikistan.

Since China’s breakthrough in hypersonic missile flight a year ago, Russia has now been testing its own versions of the technology, with Putin mentioning Russia’s readiness to export weaponry he described as, “years, or maybe even decades ahead of their foreign counterparts”.

Sanctions and Energy Exports: New Weapons in Modern Warfare

Along with advanced weaponry, sanctions and energy commodities have become new tools of modern cold warfare. As Western economic sanctions attempted to cripple Russia’s economy following its invasion, Russian gas and oil supplies have been limited and forced to be paid in rubles in retaliation.

Global trade has been turned into a new battlefield with offshore assets and import dependencies as the attack vectors. Along with these, cyberattacks and cybersecurity are an increasingly complex, obscure, and important part of national military and security.

Whether or not Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ends in 2022, the rise in geopolitical tensions and conflict this year will almost certainly result in a global increase in military spending.

Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/19/2022 – 22:40

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Details Of New Iran Nuclear Deal Approved By Tehran: Report

Details Of New Iran Nuclear Deal Approved By Tehran: Report

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

As the US is considering Iran’s response to an EU proposal to revive the nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, The Cradle reported on Thursday the details of the agreement Tehran put forward. The Cradle report cited an unnamed Iranian source who said that the deal includes comprehensive sanctions relief for Iran and a series of measures meant to deter the US from withdrawing from the agreement in the future.

Iran has to shut down some centrifuges to bring its nuclear program back into the limits of the JCPOA. The source said that the centrifuges will be left in a state such that if the US pulls out of the deal again, the centrifuges could be restarted within a year.

Iran’s FM Hossein Amir-Abdollahian with EU’s Josep Borell, AFP/Getty Images

“The platforms of the centrifuges will not be destroyed and their connections and electricity are collected, which brings our rebuildability to under one year and is a kind of guarantee,” the source said.

The source said that altogether, there are 21 guarantees written into the deal to alleviate Iran’s concerns about the US withdrawing from the agreement. Under one guarantee, if the US leaves the deal, there will be a three-year and one-month grace period during which foreign companies will be unaffected by sanctions.

It’s not clear if any guarantees that are reliant on US action would be enforceable on a future administration. Since the JCPOA is not a treaty, the next administration will not be bound by the agreement, and that issue has been a significant factor in the talks between the US and Iran.

During earlier negotiations in 2021, when the two sides were close to a deal, Iran wanted President Biden to give a guarantee that the US would stay in the agreement just for his term in officebut he refused, and the talks stalled.

According to The Cradle report, the ball is once again in Washington’s court. If the US approves the deal, its implementation will take place in stages. The first step would be the signing of the agreement in Vienna. Then, the US would cancel three executive orders signed by President Trump that withdrew the US from the JCPOA.

Iran would then have 60 days to test the sanctions relief by selling oil to Western countries and accessing Iranian funds that were frozen overseas. Sanctions against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) will remain in place, although some will be eased by allowing Western business with Iranian companies that make “transactions” with the IRGC.

The Iranian government declined to verify the details of The Cradle report, but Iranian media has said the main outstanding issue with the US was over “guaranteeing the continuation” of the JCPOA. It’s not clear when the US will respond to Iran’s proposal, and the Biden administration is coming under pressure from Israel and Iran hawks in Washington to scrap the negotiations altogether.

Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/19/2022 – 22:20

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Streaming Viewership Tops Cable TV For First Time, Nielsen Says

Streaming Viewership Tops Cable TV For First Time, Nielsen Says

For the first time, streaming platforms surpassed cable as the most popular way to consume shows, live broadcasts, and movies, according to new data from Nielsen. 

It was only a matter of time before streaming platforms, led by Netflix, would dominate how Americans watch television. In July, Nielsen revealed US households that streamed content accounted for 34.8% share of total consumption versus 34.4% for cable. 

Source: Axios

Netflix continues to be the most used streaming platform, accounting for 7.7% of the total share of consumption in the month. YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+ increased their share last month to 7.3%, 3%, and 1.8%, respectively. HBO Max was around 1%. 

Streaming usage has surged over the years and was supercharged during the virus pandemic lockdowns, though Netflix earlier this year disclosed in a first-quarter earnings report that years of blowout subscriber beats have ended with the first subscriber loss for a quarter since 2011. In the second quarter, the streaming giant reported another loss of subscribers

Also, consumers are grappling with price hikes across many streaming platforms. Netflix and Disney have raised their prices this year, leaving consumers with tough choices

Infographic: Price Hikes Leave Streaming Customers With Tough Choices | Statista

Nielsen reported earlier this year almost 60% of Americans using streaming devices have three or more video subscriptions, and with mounting inflation and negative real wage growth — some consumers are cutting back on the most expensive packages. 

Looking at the age gap in TV consumption and more streaming platforms acquiring live sports broadcasting rights, the future does look bright for streaming industry.

Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/19/2022 – 22:00

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Inflation Sends Car Ownership Costs Soaring To Over $10,000 Per Year: AAA

Inflation Sends Car Ownership Costs Soaring To Over $10,000 Per Year: AAA

Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Owning and operating a new car has become increasingly more expensive over the last year, driven predominantly by inflation and rising fuel prices, according to the American Automobile Association’s (AAA’s) annual “Your Driving Costs” report.

Gas stations serve customers at peak prices in Irvine, Calif., on Feb. 23, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

The overall average cost to own and operate a new car in 2022 is $10,728 on an annual basis, or $894 per month, marking a considerable increase from 2021 when owning a new car cost $9,666 annually, or $805.50 per month, according to AAA.

That marks a nearly 11 percent increase from last year.

AAA’s report (pdf) looked at 45 models in nine vehicle categories to come up with the average annual cost of owning and operating a new vehicle.

AAA selects top-selling, mid-priced models and compares them across six categories: fuel, maintenance and repair and tire costs, insurance, license/registration/taxes, depreciation, and finance charges.

The study, which does not account for used car prices, assumes a five-year ownership period, with the vehicle being driven 15,000 miles annually, or a total of 75,000 miles.

It found that it would cost drivers of gas-powered vehicles approximately $2,700 a year to fuel up, while owners of electric vehicles that charge at home would need around $600 a year to charge that vehicle to cover the same distance, marking a difference of $2,100 annually.

Fuel costs in the study were projected based on a weighted average of the first five months of this year, during which time they cost drivers about 17.99 cents per mile or $3.999 per gallon.

‘Purchase Price Not the Whole Story’

However, gas prices have drastically increased since early March, in part because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing supply chain crisis, meaning Americans are now having to splash out more if they want to own a vehicle. AAA noted that the cost of vehicle ownership has increased accordingly since its Your Driving Costs evaluation was completed.

As of Aug. 18, the national average price for gasoline was $3.94 per gallon, up more than $1 per gallon compared with August 2019 and 2020, albeit much lower than the $5 per gallon prices seen in June.

“You’re usually focused on the purchase price and that is not the whole story. Not even close,” Greg Brannon, director of automotive engineering for AAA, told USA Today. “I think [$10,000 is] a number that will surprise a lot of people.”

“We’re all feeling that at the pump,” Brannon said. “That is driving a big piece of [the annual price increase], and particularly with Americans’ desire to drive things like pickup trucks that don’t get good fuel economy.”

Read more here…

Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/19/2022 – 21:40

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Republicans Call For Pelosi To End House Proxy Voting

Republicans Call For Pelosi To End House Proxy Voting

On Friday, the House of Representatives passed the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, a $420 billion package that funds 87,000 more IRS agents, raises corporate taxes, throws hundreds of billions of dollars at climate projects and imposes a new tax on stock buybacks. 

There was plenty at stake in a bill that proponents are calling “historic,” and yet 158 House members — more than a third of the body — didn’t even bother showing up for the vote. Rather, they were content to take advantage of proxy voting rules that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi controversially ushered in during the pandemic and still clings to like microchip stocks.

To use proxy voting, House members must submit a signed statement to the House clerk declaring they are “unable to physically attend proceedings in the House Chamber due to the ongoing public health emergency.” In reality, members are using the scheme to take early recesses, schmooze donors and campaign for office. 

Despite the fact that only a few hardcore Branch Covidians still think Covid-19 presents a “public health emergency,” Pelosi on Aug. 9 extended proxy voting rules until Sept 26. Serving as an accomplice in the farce, House Sergeant at Arms William Walker continues to certify that a public health emergency exists. 

Even The New York Times has spotlighted the ulterior motives: 

Perhaps no one has benefited more from the arrangement than Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who recently informed lawmakers that proxy voting would be in effect for the remainder of the summer. It has allowed Ms. Pelosi, whose majority is so slim that she can afford to lose no more than four Democrats if every member is present and voting, to all but ensure that absences alone do not cost her pivotal support.

Central Texas House Republican Chip Roy decried the state of affairs in a colorful text to the Austin American-Statesman

“It’s bullshit the Democrats can just call a last-minute vote knowing half their caucus are free to vote by proxy. And it’s perhaps even higher level bullshit that many Republicans (even ones who signed litigation challenging it) similarly proxy vote and stay on vacation while those of us trying to defend any semblance of fidelity to the Constitution and respect of the institution to look each other in the eye and treat our offices with respect — and it’s exquisite next level bullshit that the Supreme Court hid behind speech and debate to avoid the plain text, obvious unconstitutionality of not being present to do our jobs.”

Chip Roy represents parts of San Antonio, Austin and the Texas Hill Country (Michael Brochstein/Sipa USA via Reuters)

In January, the Supreme Court chose not to hear an appeal by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who’d argued proxy voting is unconstitutional. Earlier, in a 3-0 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said courts had no jurisdiction to rule on House procedures, which are adopted under the Constitution’s speech or debate clause. The court didn’t rule on whether proxies count toward a quorum. 

That lawsuit originally had more than 150 Republican House members listed as plaintiffs. In the end, there were just two: McCarthy and Roy. While others still supported the suit, many removed their names after they’d used proxy voting themselves and reasoned it wouldn’t help the case to keep plaintiffs who’d taken advantage of the very rule they were challenging. 

Austin Republican representative Michael McCaul told the Statesman that proxy voting is having an insidious effect: 

“The broader concern is that it encourages disengagement by members — hearings and markups are nearly empty with little attendance. There is no reason to extend remote voting. It’s time we return to regular order — members should be here in D.C. working for their constituents.”

While this tweet doesn’t actually show proxy voting, it does illustrate the disengaged culture that McCaul spoke of, as an Arizona Democrat casually registers a committee vote from some leisurely setting far from DC:

The Senate hasn’t adopted a proxy voting provision. The House rule does not allow a “general proxy.” Absent members must provide exact instruction on each vote. Present members can vote on behalf of up to 10 others.

In the military, Democratic New Jersey Rep. Albio Sires would be derisively called “retired on active duty.” Cruising through his final term, the 71-year-old voted entirely by proxy from January through April.   

As mentioned earlier, many Republicans are indulging in the rule, too. For example, several GOP members declared they were unable to physically attend proceedings because of the purported health emergency, only to instead attend the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).  

Pelosi may not have the power to extend proxy voting much longer. “If Republicans earn back the majority, proxy voting will be eliminated on Day One,” a spokesman for McCarthy said in January. 

Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/19/2022 – 21:20

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Watch: Border Patrol Unlocking Gates For Illegals; Rand Paul Says Time For “Zero Tolerance Policy”

Watch: Border Patrol Unlocking Gates For Illegals; Rand Paul Says Time For “Zero Tolerance Policy”

Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

Video of Border Patrol agents unlocking a gate in Eagle Pass and allowing illegal immigrants to pour through after the National Guard had locked it prompted Senator Rand Paul to call for a ‘zero tolerance policy’ to be implemented.

Screenshot

Fox News reporter Bill Melugin tweeted footage of the incident, noting “For the first time, we witnessed the TX National Guard close & lock a gate on private property at a major crossing area in Eagle Pass, denying entry to migrants who just crossed illegally & expected to be let in. Border Patrol then came w/ a key & let them in for processing.”

Meliugin also noted “Border Patrol opening gates etc to allow migrants in is not new. They have to process migrants on US soil per federal law. What’s new is TX is now closing the gate & denying entry at this major crossing location. Always open in months past, including this video I shot in May.”

Commenting on the video, Senator Rand Paul stated “The Democrats love illegal immigration, and so they have not been willing to change the laws.

“Anybody who is caught in the act of coming in should be immediately placed back on the other side. No process, nothing. If you were caught breaking in, not through a normal portal of entry, you should go back on the other side of the river immediately,” Paul asserted.

The Senator further explained that he would like to see more incentives for legal immigration as a way of stemming the influx of undocumented migrants.

We should put more resources to allow more people to come and apply in a normal fashion at the port of entry. But I would have zero tolerance.

“Once you did that for about six months, and while I was not opposed to the wall, I think you could do it with helicopters and with maybe 50 stations along the border, and you could have it done in a month,” Paul said:

Watch:

 

Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/19/2022 – 21:00

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