Alexey @navalny has declared an end to his 24-day hunger strike. On April 20–the day before yesterday’s protests—he was transferred to a civilian hospital and examined by doctors. He tells his supporters: “This is entirely your doing.” instagram.com/p/COAeBxIFNpL/…
He didn’t seem to have gotten everything he wanted but he cites the open letter of his doctors, published yesterday, asking him to stop the hunger strike, “or soon, there won’t be anyone left to treat.” It seems the letter gave him cover to stop striking and avoid impending death
The symmetry is fascinating: yesterday, Putin announced a drawdown of the (inexplicable) massing of troops on the Ukrainian border after his big state of the nation address. Today, Navalny announces an end to his hunger strike after thousands protest on his behalf across Russia.
Interesting that Navalny had already been transferred to a civilian hospital on Apr 20 but his team didn’t announce the news until after the protests, clearly not wanting to give the Kremlin victory of blunting turnout. There are only two politicians in Russia: Putin & Navalny.
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I heard this story, about a woman dying of #COVID19 listening to Nora Jones in the hospital, and broke down remembering how, 3 months ago, I FaceTimed my grandmother in the hospital where she was dying of covid and played her a song from her youth. npr.org/2021/03/15/977…
She could just hear it over the loud whirring of the oxygen machine and her face lit up, a huge grin on her face. We swayed together and sang together until a nurse came in to give her more medicine. It was one of our last interactions.
My YouTube history tells me it was, in fact, this song: "You Are My Only One"
People ask me if I'm scared for my safety when I report from Russia, but they never ask this question about the U.S. The truth is: when a prominent conservative unleashes on you, you get harassment, rape and credible death threats. I have had to call the police numerous times.
I say "credible" because, in America, anyone can find my home address—as evidenced by the threatening physical mail I've gotten—go buy a gun, and show up at your door. I've spoken to numerous security consultants about this because I live alone and this stuff is legit scary.
I asked one if I should install video cameras in my home. "You could, but it wouldn't prevent anything. We would just have video of whoever killed you." Another told me to get a dog. Yet another "to make less Twitter." The sense of exposure and defenselessness adds to the stress.
What I still can’t get over is that none of you cancel culture warriors came to the defense of @kathygriffin or @rezaaslan or me when we were canceled by the right. It’s almost like you’re okay with the cancelation when it offends *you,* like if you’re pro-Trump or pro-Bibi.
It’s almost like you think one *should* get canceled for being a professor who criticizes the Israeli government on campus or makes a lewd joke about Trump. But that no one should get canceled for being racist or sexist bc what’s the big deal it’s just a joke.
(Setting aside the term “cancellation,” which is deeply problematic.) One the biggest warriors against cancel culture told me I had ended my career with a tweet about Trump—and that this was a fitting punishment. So, you know, what, exactly, are you fighting for—or against?
The phone lines are either past capacity or down entirely, depending on when I call.
DC had a budget surplus this year. Seems like they could've used some of it to, I don't know, hire competent software developers and/or server capacity.
DC’s vaccination registration site crashed less than 10 minutes into the release of a new batch of appointments. #COVID19#vaccine
I don’t know, maybe if one of DC’s local customer service billionaires *cough cough* Jeff Bezos *cough cough* stepped up the logistics of this so that the District’s residents aren’t waging what is effectively a DDoS attack on their government’s servers to get life saving vaccine