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Putin was searching for ‘the Russian idea’ and found fascism

Now in its fourth month, the war in Ukraine continues to rage with devastating destruction, unspeakable horrors and countless victims among civilian Ukrainians. Russia, too, has suffered catastrophic losses of troops and military equipment on a scale few had anticipated. Analysts are struggling with the question of how far Russian President Vladimir Putin will go, what his endgame likely will be, and what ultimately drives him. Clearly, no one can answer those questions with any certainty.

Russians called him “the black box” when Putin — pale, anonymous and until then unnoticeable — became Boris Yeltsin’s handpicked successor in August 1999. He is still opaque and hard to read. But speculation about who he is and what he stands for is peaking now that Putin has brought our world to the edge of World War III.

“Who is Mr. Putin?” journalist Trudy Rubin asked a panel of Russian political figures and business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2000. The Russians looked sheepishly at each other, laughed coyly, and the answer hung in the air. It’s still hanging there.

Putin remains a puzzle despite an interview book about his life and career. Published a short time before the presidential election in 2000, it was meant to make him recognizable and electable. Yet, even after all his news conferences, speeches and interviews over the past 22 years, it’s still hard for Russians and foreigners alike to figure Putin out. A long list of books has been published, both in Russia and abroad, including one I wrote in 2014.

One person who evidently played a role in Putin’s evolution as a political leader was the nationalist and anti-communist philosopher, Ivan Ilyin, as Putin apparently was searching for his own version of “the Russian idea.” Ilyin’s importance has become even more obvious for understanding Putin, who apparently regarded him as a teacher and spiritual role model. With regard to Ukraine, for example, Ilyin considered the country to be nothing more than a Russian province. In this view, Ukraine does not possess a national, cultural or historical identity that is distinguishable from Russia. Putin himself has proclaimed that Ukraine does not exist. 

Putin and his inner circle have reintroduced Ilyin as a genuine Russian thinker who defends basic Russian values, the rediscovered standard-bearer of Russian conservatism. Putin is considered by some supporters and his spin doctors as the lead figure of conservatism in Ilyin’s mold — not just in Russia, but globally.

Yet what we see is a laundered version of Ilyin. The newborn Ilyinists don’t mention that Ilyin, the father of Russian fascism, was considered to be an extremist in the history of Russian ideas and political philosophy. With a group of similarly minded philosophers, Ilyin was expelled by Soviet rulers around 1920 and spent the rest of his life in exile, primarily in Germany.

His nationalist views were not just expressed as his attraction to Nazism and fascism, but in undisguised tributes to the two ideologies. He described his position and worldview as “fascist monarchy.” He saw Russia as something exceptional, and the Russians as a nation standing above other peoples. He glorified their ability to carry heavy burdens, to suffer, and their willingness to sacrifice for their ideals and their leader. Ilyin supported national selection based on three fundamental values: God, the fatherland and the national leader.

He worked with and for Nazi institutions directly under Joseph Goebbel’s leadership. Ilyin never concealed with whom he sympathized, and even after the war, did not distance himself from Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini or any of his other fascist idols. He kept emphasizing the potential of fascism and his ideas about the national dictator. He condemned liberal democracy as something evil.

Putin has supported the repatriation of Ilyin’s archives, and the remains of Ilyin and his wife were brought back from Switzerland and reburied at a monastery in Moscow. Putin also was involved with including Ilyin’s work in a collection of like-minded Russian philosophers in several volumes that were given as a gift to the Russian power elite, so that everyone would know the winds that were blowing and how to align with them. 

For years, Putin has diligently quoted Ilyin in articles and speeches; he did it recently in an indirect manner in his May 9 Victory Day speech, by referring to some of the czars and warriors Ilyin often mentioned in his works. Referencing a thinker of the past adds to Putin’s credibility, status and legitimacy — not the least when he launches a war against Ukraine that is based on lies about Nazis ruling the country and threatening Russia with invasion and war. The de-Nazification of Ukraine has become the battle cry of Putin and his supporters.

As a Nazi himself, Ilyin might have a problem with this. Putin does not advertise this piece of information. So, there’s a glitch in his philosophical logic. As it turns out, Putin may have some explaining to do. It’s not as urgent as the need for an explanation of the war against Ukraine — which already looks like the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of our times, unlike the breakup of the Soviet Union that Putin referred to as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.” Putin’s use of Ilyin’s views are some of many political and historical inconsistencies needing an explanation. But the black box does not provide an answer to that problem.

Samuel Rachlin is a Danish journalist and former Moscow correspondent for Danish Broadcasting (1980s) and TV2 Denmark (1998-2006). He is the author of “I, Putin: The Russian Spring and The Russian World.” Follow him on Twitter @samuelrachlin.

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Anti-abortion groups press DOJ to investigate threats against pregnancy centers

More than 25 anti-abortion and conservative groups have sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland saying the Department of Justice (DOJ) needs to investigate threats against anti-abortion pregnancy centers. 

The letter, led by Catholic Vote, detailed threats and attacks against pregnancy centers and churches since the leaked draft opinion showing the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. 

Two anti-abortion centers and a pregnancy care center have been firebombed since the leak, according to the letter, along with vandalism at churches. 

“The relative silence from the Administration endangers Americans even more. One extremist group is advocating for violence in response to the final Supreme Court decision on Dobbs, while another group has published home addresses, and encouraged people to show up at Supreme Court Justices’ homes, churches, and their children’s schools in an attempt to coerce the Justices and influence their final decision,” the letter reads. 

A statement posted on Abolition Media saying it is from Jane’s Revenge, a pro-abortion access group, claims they will take extreme actions against anti-abortion organizations and centers.

“We have demonstrated in the past month how easy and fun it is to attack. We are versatile, we are mercurial, and we answer to no one but ourselves. We promised to take increasingly drastic measures against oppressive infrastructures,” the group wrote. 

“Rest assured that we will, and those measures may not come in the form of something so easily cleaned up as fire and graffiti. Sometimes you will see what we do, and you will know that it is us,” they added. 

The organization has previously taken credit for acts of vandalism and arson against anti-abortion pregnancy centers. 

The Biden administration condemned the threats from Jane’s Revenge. 

“Violence and destruction of property have no place in our country under any circumstances, and the President denounces this,” White House Assistant Press Secretary Alexandra LaManna said in a statement. “We should all agree that actions like this are completely unacceptable regardless of our politics.”

The letter from anti-abortion groups requests a meeting with Garland’s office and the Civil Rights Division. 

“We call on you to publicly condemn these unlawful attacks; to commit to vigorous efforts to prevent them, and to investigate and prosecute them; and to proactively engage with the affected faith communities to ensure their concerns and security needs are being met,” the letter reads. 

The letter comes the same day more than 100 Republican lawmakers told the DOJ they needed to investigate these types of attacks as domestic terrorism. 

“Americans should not have to live in fear because their own government is failing to aggressively enforce the law and prosecute domestic terrorism. I fear this Department of Justice has become so politicized that many have lost trust in their willingness to protect them,” Catholic Vote President Brian Burch said in a statement to The Hill.

The Hill has reached out to the DOJ for comment.

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Tom Hanks: Straight actor wouldn't be cast in lead role of 'Philadelphia' today

A straight man would never be cast today in the leading role of the 1993 film “Philadelphia,” in which Tom Hanks delivered an Oscar-winning performance as a gay man, the actor told the New York Times.

While discussing shifting cultural norms and their influence on cinema with the Times, Hanks said he would never get that role today.

“There’s no way a straight actor would be cast in ‘Philadelphia’ today,” the actor said. “Could a straight man do what I did in ‘Philadelphia’ now? No, and rightly so.”

Hanks went on to explain that current societal standards demand more authenticity in films.

“The whole point of ‘Philadelphia’ was don’t be afraid,” he added. “One of the reasons people weren’t afraid of that movie is that I was playing a gay man. We’re beyond that now, and I don’t think people would accept the inauthenticity of a straight guy playing a gay guy.”

Hanks, who stars in the new film “Elvis,” also explained why he hasn’t tweeted in two years, citing a divisive political climate and misinformation.

“I’d post something goofy like, ‘Here’s a pair of shoes I saw in the middle of the street,’… and the third comment is ‘[Expletive] you, you Obama-loving communist,’ it’s like, I don’t need to do that,” he said.

Hanks in January touted the work of the Biden administration with an ad narration for the Biden Inaugural Committee.

In the ad, which ran on the one-year anniversary of Biden taking office, Hanks says the country is “stronger than we were a year ago today.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Walmart raising pharmacy tech wages amid tight labor market

Walmart and Sam’s Club will increase the pay of their pharmacy technicians to more than $20 an hour starting this week. 

The pay increase will go into effect this week for the company’s more than 36,000 pharmacy technicians, the companies said in a news release.

“We are sending a strong signal to pharmacy technicians everywhere that Walmart is serious about attracting top talent and giving them the tools to build a successful career,” the statement added.

The company also said that technicians would receive more frequent, automatic raises worth up to $4 added to their starting base pay over four years. Walmart will also pay in full for the cost of getting certified as a pharmacy technician. 

The new changes come after Walmart and Sam’s Club technicians already saw another pay increase in August amid a push to attract more workers.

An American Society of Health System Pharmacists survey from March showed that nearly all pharmacy administrators were increasing their use of overtime to combat the short supply of pharmacy technicians. It also said 90 percent of pharmacy administrators asked pharmacists to do tasks usually completed by technicians. 

The same survey indicated that three-quarters of pharmacy technicians said a pay increase would help with retention. 

Nationally, the labor market in recent weeks has been strong. 

A Fitch Ratings report from last month showed that the U.S. was expected to recover all jobs lost in the pandemic by the end of the year.

It noted that all states except Hawaii and Louisiana had recovered at least 70 percent of the jobs lost at the peak of the pandemic.

Thirteen states, including Arizona, Colorado, Florida and Georgia, are already back to the job levels seen before the pandemic. 

The most recent May jobs report showed a slight slow down in terms of job market growth, which was largely expected by economists. 

“As we move to a new period of stable, steady growth, we should expect to see more moderation,” President Biden said of the report. 

“That’s a sign of a healthy economy with steady growth, rising wages for working families, everyday costs easing up,” the president added.

Source: TEST FEED1

Here are the 12 lawmakers who broke with their parties on ethanol fuels bill

The House passed a bill on Thursday that seeks to increase the availability of higher-ethanol fuel blends as a way to tackle the rising cost of fuel.

The legislation, dubbed the Lower Food and Fuel Costs Act, passed in a largely party-line vote, 221-204. One Democrat and three Republicans did not vote.

The bill, which includes several agriculture provisions meant to take aim at the cost of food and supply chain issues, would dismiss summertime constraints on the selling of a 15 percent ethanol blend and allocate $200 million to widen biofuel infrastructure and equipment, among other measures.

Republican Reps. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), Randy Feenstra (Iowa), Vicky Hartzler (Mo.), Ashley Hinson (Iowa), Dusty Johnson (S.D.), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (Iowa) and Don Bacon (Neb.) broke with the GOP to support the bill.

On the other side of the aisle, Democratic Reps. Vicente Gonzalez (Texas), Peter Welch (Vt.), Peter DeFazio (Ore.), Henry Cueller (Texas) and Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) bucked their party to oppose the measure.

Miller-Meeks wrote in a statement on Thursday that she supported the bill because it provides year-round availability of gasoline with 15 percent ethanol, also known as E15. She referenced the rising inflation and elevated gas prices in the U.S.

“Iowa farmers, consumers, and businesses have been hurting for too long, and the Administration has done little to support them. They are seeing record-high inflation, astronomical gas prices, and rising input costs that threaten to shut down multi-generational family farms across Iowa,” Miller-Meeks said.

“The majority of Iowa’s energy comes from renewables, including biofuels, wind, and solar power. I have consistently argued in favor of making E15 available year-round to support American energy independence, and I was proud to support legislation to do just that,” she added.

Hinson in a statement also pointed to the expanded sale of E15 fuel as reason why she supported the measure.

“House passage of my bipartisan PRECISE Act, as well as bipartisan legislation I championed to allow the sale of E-15 blended fuel year round, build out biofuels infrastructure, and shore up our domestic food supply chain is a hard-fought victory for Iowa producers,” Hinson said.

“Our farmers feed and fuel the world and I will never stop fighting, and delivering, for Iowa agriculture,” she added.

Source: TEST FEED1

Watch live: Biden signs Ocean Shipping Reform Act

President Biden will deliver remarks and sign the Ocean Shipping Reform Act into law Thursday afternoon.

The event is scheduled to begin at 3:10 p.m. ET.

Watch the video above.

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Luttig testifies Pence would have led ‘revolution within a constitutional crisis’ by following Trump order

Former federal judge J. Michael Luttig, a conservative who served as an informal advisor to then-Vice President Mike Pence, testified before the Jan. 6 select committee on Thursday that Pence would have led a “revolution within a constitutional crisis” if he followed then-President Trump’s order to reject the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the vice chair of the Jan. 6 panel, asked Luttig to elaborate on a statement he made prior to the start of Thursday’s hearing in which the former judge said that if Pence obeyed Trump’s plea, the U.S. “would immediately have been plunged into what would have been tantamount to a revolution within a paralyzing constitutional crisis.”

Luttig, after underscoring the importance of the rule of law in the U.S., said Pence would have led the U.S. to its first-ever constitutional crisis if he followed the president’s request and declared Trump the winner of the presidential election.

“That declaration of Donald Trump as the next president would have plunged America into what I believe would have been tantamount to a revolution within a constitutional crisis in America, which in my view, and I’m only one man, would have been the first constitutional crisis since the founding of the republic,” Luttig testified.

The Jan. 6 panel is focused at its Thursday hearing on the pressure campaign on Pence.

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Humans responsible for more oil slicks than previously thought

Oil spills may be one of the more consequential and tangible examples of humans’ impact on the natural environment, as photographs of slicked marine life and vegetation helped spur calls for improved ocean conditions following major incidents throughout the 2000s. 

Since 1969 at least 44 oil spills of over 420,000 gallons each have affected U.S. waters, while thousands of smaller spills occur each year, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data.  

A byproduct of oil spills are oil slicks, or microscopic thin layers of oil on the ocean’s surface. These can also be caused by other human activities like boating. 

Previously, it was estimated around 50 percent of oil slicks in the ocean resulted from natural causes and the remainder from human sources.

However, using satellite imaging technology, a group of researchers from the United States and China concluded a significantly higher proportion of chronic oil slicks – over 90 percent – are caused by human activity. 

Winds and currents are constantly moving oil slicks while waves break them down and can dissipate the slick further. These factors hinder large-scale investigations of oil slick prevalence, researchers explained. 

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But satellite technology poses a potential solution to monitor ocean oil pollution, especially in waters where human surveillance is difficult, explained study author Yongxue Liu, a professor at Nanjing University’s School of Geographic and Oceanographic Science.

To conduct the study, scientists used artificial intelligence to assess over 560,000 radar images taken from 2014 to 2019. Over 90 percent of slicks identified were within 100 miles of coastlines. 

“What’s compelling about these results is just how frequently we detected these floating oil slicks — from small releases, from ships, from pipelines, from natural sources such as seeps in the ocean floor and then also from areas where industry or populations are producing runoff that contains floating oil,” said Ian MacDonald, a professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science at Florida State University, in a press release. 

Notably, fewer slicks were found in the Gulf of Mexico compared with other waters, likely due to reforms put in place following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil spill.

This finding suggests government regulation, enforcement and oil platform compliance reduce leakage from wells operating in the area.

“If we can take those lessons and apply them to places globally, where we have seen high concentrations of oil slicks, we could improve the situation,” MacDonald said.

Oil has harmful effects on plankton, fish, whales, sea turtles, birds and other marine life.

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Celebrities and lawmakers to join Juneteenth festivities in D.C.

Celebrities, athletes, and lawmakers are set to join in a series of events honoring the Juneteenth national holiday in Washington, D.C. 

In a news release, the nonprofit organization Juneteenth Foundation announced its second annual Freedom Festival, a weekend-long celebration of the newly established national holiday hosted in the D.C. area and live-streamed online.

The four-day event will kick off on Thursday with the Juneteenth Honors awards ceremony highlighting Black excellence and the achievements within the Black community. 

The list of honorees at the Juneteenth Honors includes Vista Equity Partners CEO Robert Smith, “Power’ actor and activist Omari Hardwick, rapper Doug E. Fresh, and Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio.), the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus. 

The award show will also hand out a $20,000 college scholarships to students attending historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). 

In an interview with The Hill, Freedom Festival organizer Laquan Austion said he hopes the four-day event in the nation’s capital can help all of America celebrate what he called “the nation’s second independence day.” 

“You know, we often say that Juneteenth is not a black holiday, American holiday. It’s not just for Black folks, but it’s an American holiday and I think that’s clear for what it’s for,” Austion told The Hill. 

“So for us this Juneteenth is incredibly important, it’s special, and I’m excited about this year, in particular, being you know, the first year is a federal holiday, and making sure that people from all walks of life, all parts of the country are able to celebrate…the nation’s second independence day.” 

Others expected to appear at this weekend’s festivities are rappers T.I., Rick Ross, Big Sean, musicians Maxwell and Keri Hilson, former NFL quarterback Michael Vick, entertainer Terrence J., and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D).

A year ago, President Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law, establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday across the country. 

Juneteenth, often referred to as Jubilee or Emancipation, marked the emancipation of the last African Americans to be freed from slavery in the U.S. 

Producer Pharrell Williams’s music festival, Something in the Water, will also take place in D.C during the Juneteenth weekend.

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