Maria Butina is a Russian Spy who has been working with US politicians and the NRA to develop special relationships.

That spy is now being charged by the US Justice Department.

From WaPo:

Butina is accused of developing relationships with American politicians and a “gun rights organization,” none of which are named in the affidavit supporting the criminal complaint. FBI Special Agent Kevin Helson wrote that Butina was attempting to “establish a ‘back channel’ communication for representatives of the Government of Russia.”

The affidavit also contains apparent communications, by direct message on Twitter, between Butina and the unnamed Russian official. “Your political star has risen in the sky,” the official told Butina. “Now it is important to rise to the zenith and not burn out (fall) prematurely,” and they later discussed the “Russia-USA friendship society.”

In 2017, Butina and the official attended the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, the affidavit states.

Is your representative in Congress one of Maria Butina, friend of the Proboscidea’s traitors? (Though perhaps I should not assume all the turncoats are Republicans.)

Here’s her facebook page, by the way.

Click here to find out who represents you in Congress.

Then, click here to find out if they are a spy for Putin.

Fascism has deeper historical roots, but the earliest acts and events that can be tied to its widespread rise early in the 20th century date to the early 1920s.

Racial supremacy, exclusionary nationalism, and fascism, started up or grew from earlier roots in the US, UK, France, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Germany, and many other places. In 1922 it would have been impossible to predict which nation or nations would give rise to a charismatic dictator with one or another final solution. (Probably Germany, yes, but Germany and what two or three other nations?)

The rise of facism consisted of acts of containment, harassment, and sanctioned theft by governments, as well as violent attacks against target groups and displays of martial power by both private mobs and governments. It involved individuals popping in and out of popularity, as populists, occasionally winning elections. It involved elected officials carrying out regular streams of illegal acts, and a great deal of corruption in the ranks of their supporters.

In other words, it looked like today.

The rise of facism took 17 years before the first Jews were put in German run ghettos (in Poland). But about half way to that point, facism had become unstoppable.

That is why the famous quote is famous. Learn and remember it.

That is why people today are making a legitimate comparison between things happening now, like putting assylum seeking toddlers in dog kennels, or neo Nazis marches, and then.

So, let us repeat:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

-Martin Niemöller

You may remember that last May, I reviewed Pandora’s Lab: Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong by Paul Offit, and around the same time, interviewed him. My original post and a link to the interview are here. It is an excellent book, and the kindle version is now on sale for $1.99, so now’s your chance to find out bout the seven cases of science going badly wrong!

You might also want to check out Walter Tevis Sci-Fi Novels: The Man Who Fell to Earth, Mockingbird, The Steps of the Sun

Periodic Tales: A Cultural History of the Elements, from Arsenic to Zinc by Hugh Aldersey-Williams is also available for two bucks.

Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream by Doris Kearns Goodwin is a must read, and cheap in Kindle form right now.

A more interesting and fruitful than usual bunch of books cheap in Kindle format: Continue reading Sex at dawn, Smart birds, Lincoln: Excellent cheap book deals →

The Kepler Space Ship, is this, via NASA:

The centuries-old quest for other worlds like our Earth has been rejuvenated by the intense excitement and popular interest surrounding the discovery of hundreds of planets orbiting other stars. There is now clear evidence for substantial numbers of three types of exoplanets; gas giants, hot-super-Earths in short period orbits, and ice giants. The challenge now is to find terrestrial planets (i.e., those one half to twice the size of the Earth), especially those in the habitable zone of their stars where liquid water might exist on the surface of the planet.

The Kepler Mission, NASA Discovery mission #10, is specifically designed to survey our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover hundreds of Earth-size and smaller planets in or near the habitable zone and determine the fraction of the hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy that might have such planets.

I heard something rather mind blowing about the hunt for planets elsewhere, and I’ve not followed up on it. Apparently, every single one of the one thousand or so plantery systems that have been found follow a similar pattern, except for our. The large planets (like Jupiter) are close to the sun, the smaller Earth-like planets are farther out, beyond the Goldilocks Zone. In other words, rather than the plethora of planetary systems signaling a high probability of life elsewhere, it may in fact turn out that the Earth-like scenario is very rare.

The Drake Equation now looks like this, if true: Continue reading Kepler Space Ship Death Imminent →

I like to think of myself as part South Minneapolitan. This is because I lived there for several years and adopted it as my community. A large part of me would prefer to live there than any other part of the Twin Cities.

So, I write this post with sadness as well as anger, because the fundamental core of society and politics in South Minneapolis — intelligent politics of inclusion and caring — have been sullied by stupid, selfish, and craven politics.

This is a complicated mess, and it will require some background for those not in the know about our local esoteric political system. If you already know everything about SD62 and recent events there, skip right to the big block of quote down below, and ignore my preface. Continue reading Something is Rotten in South Minneapolis →