Pussy Riot is a Russian feminist punk rock protest group based in Moscow. Founded in August 2011, it has a variable membership of approximately 11 women ranging in age from about 20 to 33. They stage unauthorized provocative guerrilla performances in unusual public locations, which are edited into music videos and posted on the Internet. Their lyrical themes include feminism, LGBT rights, opposition to the policies of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom they regard as a dictator, and links between Putin and the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church.

On February 21, 2012, five members of the group staged a performance in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Their actions were stopped by church security officials. By that evening, they had turned the performance into a music video entitled “Punk Prayer – Mother of God, Chase Putin Away!” The women said their protest was directed at the Orthodox Church leader’s support for Putin during his election campaign.

On March 3, 2012, two of the group members, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, were arrested and charged with hooliganism. A third member, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was arrested on March 16. Denied bail, they were held in custody until their trial began in late July. On August 17, 2012, the three members were convicted of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred”, and each was sentenced to two years imprisonment. Two other members of the group, who escaped arrest after February’s protest, reportedly left Russia fearing prosecution. On October 10, following an appeal, Samutsevich was freed on probation, her sentence suspended. The sentences of the other two women were upheld. In late October 2012, Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova were sent to separate prisons.

The trial and sentence attracted considerable criticism, particularly in the West. The case was adopted by human rights groups including Amnesty International, which designated the women prisoners of conscience, and by a number of prominent entertainers. Public opinion in Russia was generally less sympathetic towards the women. Putin stated that the band had “undermined the moral foundations” of the nation and “got what they asked for”. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said he did not think the three members of Pussy Riot should have been sent to jail, but stressed that the release of the remaining two imprisoned members was a matter for the courts. Having served 21 months, Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were released on December 23, 2013 after the State Duma approved an amnesty.

Vlad, in addition to having the perkiest nipples of any major world leader which he loves to expose at every opportunity by posing topless, is a 16 year veteran of the KGB, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.  To note he’s a ruthless corrupt despot is as obvious as pointing out that homophobic persecution is symptomatic of individuals who have unresolved issues with their own sexual desires.

Just saying.

Pussy Riot tell New York ahead of Sochi they will perform again

By Edith Honan, Reuters

NEW YORK Tue Feb 4, 2014 7:16pm EST

Two members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot may have remade themselves as global human rights advocates since their imprisonment for hooliganism, but on Tuesday they vowed to return to the stage as performers.

“It’s absolutely impossible to take this out of us,” Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 24 told a New York news conference ahead of Pussy Riot’s appearance at an Amnesty International concert on Wednesday, a day before the Winter Olympics open in Sochi, Russia.

Tolokonnikova and her bandmate, Maria Alyokhina, 25, will be introduced at the Amnesty concert by pop star Madonna, and will speak but are not expected to perform at the event.

Oh, where to begin.  Perhaps with the fact that Sochi is a sub-tropical beach resort and all the snow is manufactured.  In it’s own way that’s the perfect metaphor for the Potempkin Village that is the XXII Winter Olympiad.

It’s long been known that the International Olympic Committee is the most corrupt governing body in sports, eclipsing Bernie Ecclestone, FIFA, the NFL, Major League Baseball, and the World Wrestling Federation aggregated in a package.  Indeed this 18 day spectacle will cost more than all the previous Games put together, $51 BILLION, most of which is going into the pockets of Putin’s toadies, sycophants, and cronies because it sure isn’t going into the half finished hotels and venues or the stinky yellow water or the two toilet ‘lover’s stall’ bathrooms.

Then of course there’s the Phineas and Ferb edge-of-insanity, kiss-your-butt-goodbye, gravity’s-a-stone-cold-sucker nightmare rail skate track obstacle course of doom athletic safety issues that have competitors standing at the top of the hill debating whether a shot at what is basically just another Gold Medal that will gather dust in your trophy case until you blow it off to show your Grandkids (assuming you live that long) is worth a career and endorsement ending injury, and some are already saying- no.

There is the threat of terrorism delivered by the #1 sponsor of State terrorism, Saudi Arabia’s Prince Bandar “Bush”, who’s pissed off that because John Kerry’s an idiot who should never have been let near the State Department stupidly told the truth instead of lying the way the House of Saud instructed him and his boss Barack to and has made it impossible (so far) for Saudi backed Al-Queda elements to take over the Syrian government and maintain Saudi (and Wahabi Sunni) dominance in the oil trade under increasing pressure from Shia Iran to be the “swing” producer who can cover shortfalls in periods of high demand and dial back production to jack up the prices when necessary.  That’s why it’s soooo important we bomb, bomb, bomb Iran too.

Oh, and for the record I think Mohammed’s nephew had at least as good a claim to be his spiritual heir as any of the regional warlords they called Caliphs, not that as an atheist I believe in anything except the historical (but non-Western) record of 600 or so C.E.

Anyway, this threat has led Budwieser (Budwieser!) to scale back it’s sponsorship (though they’re contractually obligated for some things) and keep it’s executives away from Sochi where they had expected to do the usual round of boozing and schmoozing favored and potential clients.  Coca Cola on the other hand has no problem with private security guards prominently sporting the ‘Coke’ logo while they beat up protesters for LGBT rights and turn them over to the real cops for a nice Siberian vacation in the Gulag.

And let me state once again for the record that I think Mr. “Perky Nipples” Putin has some issues with his own fantasies.  Big game hunting?  Treasure diving?  Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s damn hypocritical which is I suppose the best you can say about a Lt. Colonel in the KGB who spent 16 years torturing and murdering people as a profession.

They are also killing dogs.

You may ask yourself, and I have, why I’ll be covering this at all.  My only answer does me no credit, which is that at the Olympics, every 4 years, you get to see some sports that you never see anyplace else.  For me it’s Curling and Women’s Hockey, you might be into Figure Skating or Biathalon.  Women’s Ski Jumping is making its debut and I’m looking forward to that, there are several technical reasons Women might (in time) come to dominate Ski Jumping just as they dominate long distance swimming today.

Here’s how it will work- every day at about 6 pm I’ll put up the schedule for the next 24 hours.  This will be at some disconnect with actual events because NBC is broadcasting most things on an at least 11 hour time delayed basis so if you have an ignorant friend you want to sucker into a bet you can play the ‘Wire’ scam from The Sting.  

I’ll try to include some suggested alternatives if you are boycotting.  I respect your convictions.

Events of interest that deserve live blogging will be live blogged.  If you’re following something and don’t wish to diary yourself, well, that’s what the comments section is for.

Tonight is fairly simple, Opening Ceremony (broadcast) is scheduled for tomorrow.  This evening we have footage of some sports that start early because of the short schedule of the Games.

8 pm NBC Figure Skating, Snowboarding, Freestyle Skiing

From Sochi, Russia. Figure skating team events: men’s short program, pairs’ short program; snowboarding: men’s and women’s slopestyle; freestyle skiing: women’s moguls.

(Slopestyle == Phineas and Ferb edge-of-insanity, kiss-your-butt-goodbye, gravity’s-a-stone-cold-sucker nightmare rail skate track obstacle course of doom)

Repeats at 1:30 am and 3 am.

House GOP abandons plans to tie debt ceiling to O-Care, Keystone

By Peter Schroeder and Russell Berman, The Hill

February 05, 2014, 11:49 am

House Republican leaders have concluded that they cannot pass an increase in the debt ceiling without help from Democrats, abandoning plans to tie legislation either to ObamaCare or the Keystone pipeline.

GOP leaders had been looking at pairing legislation boosting the debt limit with either an authorization of the pipeline or  rolling back a portion of ObamaCare. But after presenting those ideas to members and huddling Wednesday, they determined neither would receive 218 votes from House Republicans.

It is now officially the Barack Hussein Obama Climate Change Death Funnel.

Transcript

Mining Tar Sands Produces Much More Air Pollution Than We Thought

By Joseph Stromberg, Smithsonian

February 3, 2014 8:02PM

Last week, the U.S. State Department released a report indicating that the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry oil from Western Canada’s Athabasca oil sands to the U.S., wouldn’t have significant environmental impacts. It’s worth noting, though, that the report didn’t say that extraction from the oil sands itself won’t have environmental impacts-just that this mining will proceed with or without the pipeline being built.

…

Frank Wania and Abha Parajulee, environmental scientists at the University of Toronto, came to the finding by looking at previous estimates for the PAH emissions that result from mining (gleaned from the pollutant release inventory and the mining companies’ environmental impact assessments) and comparing them to levels of PAHs that they measured in the air in the Athabasca region.  

“We found that these estimates are insufficient to explain what’s being measured in the environment,” Wania says. “The concentrations of PAHs that should be out there, based on these assumptions, are far too low.”

,,,

Impact assessments considered these PAHs “disposed,” Wania says. “But when they get mixed up with hot water, that creates ideal conditions for the PAHs to mobilize and enter the atmosphere.” When he and Parajulee created a new model that included PAHs evaporating from tailing ponds in their model, they arrived at estimated levels of PAHs in the atmosphere that were much closer to what’s been observed.

…

If nothing else, it is concerning that throughout decades of oil extraction in Athabasca, environmental impact assessments have dramatically underestimated the emissions levels of a key air pollutant. The finding provides one more reason to be worried about how oil sand extraction affects the environment.

Measured Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons are 100 to 1000 times higher than those listed in the State Department report and “the EPA does list them as priority pollutants [PDF] because in animal-based lab experiments they’ve led to tumors, interfered with the immune system and caused reproductive problems.”

Nor is it true “that this mining will proceed with or without the pipeline being built.”  If it were, why the need to build Keystone XL at all?

Or as Charles Pierce puts it in Esquire–

The whole project is simply shot through with bad faith, from the phony job estimates to the sharp practices by which people have been relieved of their property to any environmental evaluation emanating from TransCanada or any government to which it has attached itself. These apparently now include our State Department. There is no reason to trust a word coming from anyone who stands to make a dime from it.

Heiner Flassbeck served as the director of the Division on Globalization and Development Strategies at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, known as UNCTAD. He was once a vice minister at the Federal Ministry of Finance in Germany and is now a professor of economics at Hamburg University.

Transcript

Transcript

Transcript

Ed Snowden gave an interview, in english, to German Public TV network ARD on January 26, 2014.

Recent Interview With Edward Snowden Blacked-Out by Major Media Outlets

WRITTEN BY: Martin Hempfling, College News

January 31, 2014

It seems the only thing George Orwell got wrong in writing 1984 was the year. We are clearly living in a surveillance state which is blatantly violating the Constitution of the United States. It’s interesting to consider those who label Snowden as a “traitor” because, as Snowden himself puts it: “If I am a traitor, who did I betray? I gave all my information to the American public, to American journalists who are reporting on American issues. If they see that as treason, I think people really need to consider who they think they’re working for.”

(h/t Nicole Belle @ Crooks & Liars)

Transcript

Talking Troubled Turkey

Paul Krugman, The New York Times

JAN. 30, 2014

You may or may not have heard that there’s a big debate among economists about whether we face “secular stagnation.” What’s that? Well, one way to describe it is as a situation in which the amount people want to save exceeds the volume of investments worth making.

When that’s true, you have one of two outcomes. If investors are being cautious and prudent, we are collectively, in effect, trying to spend less than our income, and since my spending is your income and your spending is my income, the result is a persistent slump.

Alternatively, flailing investors – frustrated by low returns and desperate for yield – can delude themselves, pouring money into ill-conceived projects, be they subprime lending or capital flows to emerging markets. This can boost the economy for a while, but eventually investors face reality, the money dries up and pain follows.

If this is a good description of our situation, and I believe it is, we now have a world economy destined to seesaw between bubbles and depression. And that’s not an encouraging thought as we watch what looks like an emerging-markets bubble burst.

The larger point is that Turkey isn’t really the problem; neither are South Africa, Russia, Hungary, India, and whoever else is getting hit right now. The real problem is that the world’s wealthy economies – the United States, the euro area, and smaller players, too – have failed to deal with their own underlying weaknesses. Most obviously, faced with a private sector that wants to save too much and invest too little, we have pursued austerity policies that deepen the forces of depression. Worse yet, all indications are that, by allowing unemployment to fester, we’re depressing our long-run as well as short-run growth prospects, which will depress private investment even more.

So Turkey seems to be in serious trouble – and China, a vastly bigger player, is looking a bit shaky, too. But what makes these troubles scary is the underlying weakness of Western economies, a weakness made much worse by really, really bad policies.

(my emphasis- ek)

Let’s start at the top.  This is not the ‘Reefer Bowl’.  As poblano said Monday this is a pick ’em.  It’s actually incredibly rare that the two top teams in each Conference face each other, rarer still that the top offense (Broncos) faces the top defense (Seahawks).

Now poblano when pressed picks the Seahawks but I suspect that’s mostly based on sentiment and not statistics.  The Seahawks are the only team to have won Championships in both Conferences, but they’ve never really been very good and the rest of the teams in Seattle suck.

The Broncos have yet to recover from the Tebow incident and the Rockies, Avalanche, and Nuggets are legit (as long as they play at home).

Now me?  I agree with bmaz that this game will be decided not by how good the Seahawks defense is- Payton Manning, as much as you may hate him, will score some points.  It will be decided by how good the Bronco defense is and whether Russell Wilson can score more (he was an incredibly excellent draft pick, 75th in the 3rd round and has already performed well above that).  Now good Defense has won Superb Owls before, but the Seahawks is not that much better than the Broncos.  Broncos are 2 point favorites and will need to shut down the Seahawks ground game.

Weather will not be a factor though it might rain a little.

Now I know some of you are not at all interested in the Superb Owl and are looking to avoid it at all costs.  Here are some suggestions-

Alternative TV

• Anti-Super Bowl Sunday: TV alternatives include puppies, kittens, zombies, Star-Ledger

And I know some of you watch it just for the ads ($4 Million for 30 seconds last I looked)-

Ads

• Watch 22 Leaked Super Bowl XLVIII Commercials Before Sunday’s Game, Rolling Stone
• 2014 Super Bowl Ads, Boston Globe
• Rejected Super Bowl commercials, Boston Globe
• Unforgettable Super Bowl commercials, Boston Globe

You can always count on The Guardian to provide an offbeat take on American Throwball-

Funny

• Super Bowl XLVIII: a quick and mostly true guide to … the game
• Super Bowl XLVIII: a quick and mostly true guide to … everything else

And serious ones too-

Why the NFL is a Billionaire Scam

• The NFL Gameplan
• The Stadium Swindle
• The Great Pinkwash
• The Concussion Defense

The New York Times coverage is by comparison thin (WaPo non-existent, they’re too concerned about their imploding franchise).

This piece is an interesting comparison to the Wall Street Casino=

Big Time Betting

• The Super Bowl of Sports Gambling

They also have a couple of interesting analysis pieces-

Matchups

• Super Bowl XLVIII Matchup: Seahawks vs. Broncos
• Denver’s Offense (Unstoppable) vs. Seattle’s Defense (Unmovable)

The Superb Owl below.

If you’ve been a faithful reader you’ll know this site was an early adopter of the animal excitement and pageantry that is the Puppy Bowl experience.  Starting at 3 pm Zap2It is listing 3 two hour installments on Animal Planet as “New”- First and Goal, Going for 2, and Third & Long to be repeated at 9 pm with an additional repeat of First and Goal at 3 am.  I think it’s highly likely this is just a marketing ploy and it’s the same 2 hours on continuous repeat as it’s been in previous years.

Meep the Cockatiel will be back as ‘tweeter'(@MeepTheBird) but the Hedgehog Cheerleaders have been replaced by Penguins.  The National Anthem will be accompanied by a Police Dog Escort.  ‘Lil Bub’ the “‘perma-kitten’ dwarf cat” is added as a commentator and there is a new Puppy Bowl Fantasy League on the official Puppy Bowl web site.

Bissell Kitty Halftime

The featured performer this year is ‘Keyboard Cat’ who will be covering Bruno Mars’ Locked Out of Heaven about which Rolling Stone Magazine had this to say-

On the other halftime show with Bruno Mars – or the other Bruno Mars – they added Red Hot Chili Peppers just last week, because they were feeling the heat when we announced that Keyboard Cat was going to be on.

Keyboard Cat is the second of that nick, the original ‘Fatso’ Keyboard Cat having sadly passed over the Rainbow Bridge in 1987.

The show will open with a kitty parachuting into the Stadium, include over 30 kitties, feature a domino cascade, and the big finish is a pyramid of 30 cats (and you know how hard they are to herd).

Over 66 puppies will be competing this year, 13 of whom had the chance to participate in a special training camp with Michelle, Bo, and Sunny Obama (also in Politico).

This year the Puppy Bowl faces two new rivals– the Kitten Bowl on Hallmark and the Fish Bowl on National Geographic WILD, but at 12.4 Million viewers the Puppy Bowl is the clear leader.

• Washington Post’s 22 Puppies to watch
• Bleacher Report Best Videos from Last 9 Years (note: I couldn’t get this to work right in my browser)