Blavatnik is the closest buddy and partner of Vekselberg. And Vekselberg is Putin’s most faithful, obedient puppy. 

And, of course, Blavatnik is paying for Trump’s legal team in the Russia probe. 

Yes, it’s very hard to look at all of this and say nothing. But here’s the thing. If they wanted to hide this, it would have been so easy. But they clearly want to make it as obvious as possible.

Oligarchic regimes with no freedom of speech are very profitable for Zuckerberg. Once Putin destroyed the Russian blogosphere, all of the talented authors who used to post content on their blogs (and make money from that) were forced to go to Facebook and work for Zuckerberg for free. So why would Zuckerberg not be in favor of such a setup?

What’s curious is that even in view of the recent revelations as to FB’s complicity in subverting the recent elections, there are no calls to resist Facebook, or at least give a little bit less of free labor to a billionaire who did so much to saddle us with Trump. 

Zuckerberg is playing dumb on TV, pretending he didn’t know whose interests he was promoting during the last election. As if his tech support services didn’t ban every anti-Putin dissident in Russia under the flimsiest of excuses. As if whenever a Russian troll insulted and threatened a Ukrainian FB user, Facebook’s tech support didn’t immediately ban the Ukrainian.

Here, for instance, is an old post of mine about Zuckerberg siding with the Russian trolls. This is just one tiny example. I read Ukrainian and Russian Facebook, and this is a daily occurrence. 

If Democrats really care about Dreamers, they need to close with Trump on it fast. This is the only thing that will make his base turn away from him, and he’s going to realize it pretty soon. 

The only anti-Trump argument that will work in the next election will have the word “immigration” in it. Whoever finds a way to talk to people freaked out by fluidity in a way that reaches them without shaming and condemning will win. 

There are definite benefits to age. Aside from the obvious negatives, of course. For instance, being at a more advanced stage of your career, which gives a lot of freedom. 

To give an example, Klara is unwell today. She started throwing up last night, plus she’s been listless and uninterested in food. Obviously, there’s no chance of me taking her to daycare in this state. So I just stayed home with her. I had meetings and obligations at work today, but I cancelled, delegates, moved things around, etc because I’m at a stage in my career where I get to decide how to organize my work. And that’s great. 

It was so hot today and I dehydrated myself so badly (because I’m dumb, that’s why) that I seriously considered joining the protesters and behaving in such an unruly way that police would have to be called to hose me down. 

After my classes, I took Klara to the splash pad. I was so desperate for water that I walked under a huge bucket of water in my formal dress, makeup and hair. Of course, people in swimsuits and shorts stared but a huge advantage of age is that the last time I cared about what anybody thought was in the last century.

And mind you, there were many people who saw that installation, wrote on it, stared at it, congregated around it. Many faculty members. Obviously, it was all organized by faculty members to begin with. And not a single person was bothered by the hammer and sickle. OK, students are young and ignorant. What about professors? What’s their excuse?

There is no side here for me to pick. I despise the buggers who write racist crap and post it on their colleagues’ doors. But for some maddening reason, those who oppose them have so many impotent, vapid, self-congratulating idiots among them that their whole side starts to stink, as well. It’s not just today, of course. It’s always, always, always like that. If I go to a meeting against racism, somebody will start saying crap against immigrants sooner or later. Feminist clubs do nothing but quote Cosmo-level mantras at me. And so on. In the end, there is no joy in it for me, no excitement, just wariness and the thin excuse that their opponents are even worse.

This is from a student protest against racist incidents on campus. See top right-hand corner.

It’s funny how everyone is a victim except for us. What we experienced doesn’t count. We get no safe spaces and no recognition.

Why, why does it always have to be, “I’m against these evildoers but in favor of those other evildoers”?

I just granted admission to the FB page for local moms to somebody who’s lived here her whole life. Because I discovered the page first! I know things! I’m swelling with pride.