Putin’s Reign of Terror
Plus: ‘Evil Dead Rise’ Review.
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CATHY YOUNG: Putin’s Reign of Terror.
The mind-boggling 25-year sentence handed down in a Moscow court on Monday to activist and journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza, one of the leading figures in the Russian opposition, is a horrifying landmark in the escalation of political repression in Russia over the past year. The grim news prompted me to rewatch Kara-Murza’s remarks at the September 2017 Oslo Freedom Forum in New York, where I had the privilege to meet this modern hero.
Kara-Murza’s remarks on that occasion were eloquent and inspiring, but they would in time also prove startlingly prophetic, and not only because his words about his murdered comrade-in-arms Boris Nemtsov—“He chose to stay, and he chose to fight, and in the end he gave his life to that fight”—are uncannily echoed in his own fate today.
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SONNY BUNCH: ‘Evil Dead Rise’ Review.
As a longtime fan of The Evil Dead and its sequels—one of the few set of films I’ve owned in four different home video formats over the years—it’s always interesting to me to see which variety of the Sam Raimi classic people prefer. Is it the original’s relatively straightforward low-budget horror about a group of campers plagued in the woods by an unseen evil awakened following the recitation of some evil words? The first sequel’s deft mixture of comedy and over-the-top gore that featured, among other things, a man cutting off his own hand and then strapping a chainsaw to the stump? Or Army of Darkness’s dive into action-comedy, something akin to the Three Stooges by way of Ray Harryhausen?
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Friday! Twitter continues to suffer as Elon’s spectacularly dumb plan to render verification marks worthless has a low rate of conversions to Twitter Blue. Here’s a thread of those who paid getting mad they’re part of a pointless club. Worse, state actors are now just… accounts.
In Tennessee.. A quick resignation. No word if Republicans were prepared to expel Rep. Kenny Powers, I mean Rep. Scotty Campbell.
…and in Texas… Gov. Gregg Abbott might have wanted to wait a bit before announcing plans to pardon a “racist murderer who also sent explicit texts to an apparent minor.”
A hot Japanese import… No, it’s not a great Casio watch, but a small pickup truck.
American truckers are getting squeezed… Hard.
Things are continuing to go not great for Ron DeSantis… A former Rep. who sat next to him had some harsh words for his interpersonal skills. But he is beginning to campaign on talk about Florida’s news abortion law.
Is it time… For Disney to sue Florida? And would that be a DeSantis death knell, or would it revive his flagging non-campaign?
Could Hunter’s problems… Become President Biden’s? Bill Kristol weighs in.
The parallel economy sure seems expensive! Katherine Abughazaleh does some math on the “savings” of a Mammoth subscription. Meanwhile, the “Ultra Right” beer is running into some problems.
When Russia invaded… this former House staffer rushed to Ukraine. Put this in perspective:
“For an amount equal to about 15 percent of this year’s [Defense Department] budget, the Ukrainians have taken the second most powerful army in the world and turned it into the second most powerful army in Ukraine,” Moore said. “And not one U.S. soldier has been killed doing that. To me, that’s a fiscal conservative’s dream.”
#WeekendWatch: Atari fans flocked to a New Mexico landfill to see the worst video game in history unearthed.
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