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Pourin' it down the drain
Author: TriSec    Date: 02/04/2023 13:46:40

Good Morning.

Have you ever actually boycotted anything? We're at least familiar with what it's supposed to be.


withdraw from commercial or social relations with (a country, organization, or person) as a punishment or protest.


A pure form of the free market if it's done right. I don't like you or your product for whatever reason - so I simply don't buy it.

Like everything else, the Republicans get it wrong.


Over the years, our red-hatted friends have made many public overtures of "boycotting" a company's product. How do they go about doing this? Well, they BUY the product, then videotape themselves destroying it, in some kind of manly display of loyalty to Donald Trump.


Over 50 years ago, the Beatles faced public outrage from Christian fans nearly five months after John Lennon was quoted as saying the band was “more popular than Jesus.” Lennon tried to clarify the comments, telling reporters in 1966: “I'm not saying that we’re better, or greater, or comparing us with Jesus Christ as a person.”

The damage had been done. His original comment led Bible Belt disc jockeys to ban the Beatles from the airways. Devout fans burned their records, and communities organized pickup points where “Beatles trash” (what would now be valuable memorabilia) could be disposed of. In retrospect, the boycott can be seen as impressive for its coordination and followthrough.

Today, as controversial quotes are posted straight to Twitter, backlash is in real-time, and boycotts are often fleeting. Over the past few years, Trump supporters in particular have made a habit of boycotting—for undetermined amounts of time—major companies that have allegedly disrespected their favorite president, their impression of American values, or typically both at the same time.

MAGA country has boycotted everything from CNN to the Oreo cookie; oftentimes making public display of themselves burning or destroying the offending merchandise.


So let's consider for a moment what should be an easy boycott for ALL Americans, not just the raging lunatics. It's my preferred tipple, Khoroshaya Russkaya vodka, Good Russian Vodka!

For years and years, my preferred tipple was Stolichnyy, Anglicized as Stolichnaya. A year ago, I had a bottle at the time of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As I noted at the time, they already had my money, so I was not about to dump it down the drain. Instead, I channeled Rachel Walker (Mrs. Paul Revere) and noted that I will drink it and enjoy it very much, as I expect it to be the last bottle of Russian vodka I would drink for a very long time. At the time of the Tea Party, Rachel famously made a pot of tea for the house, and advised everyone to drink and enjoy it, "for it will be the tea we have."

But - as I was researching for an alternate, I discovered that Stolichnaya is actually a Soviet vodka. While it was easy to call everything "Russian" back during the cold war, it's actually wholly produced and bottled in Latvia today. And the owner is an enemy of Vladimir Putin, to the point where he is currently exiled in Geneva. Stolichnaya itself was quick to re-brand after the invasion.



The maker of Stolichnaya vodka announced a major rebrand Friday, in direct response to its founder’s “vehement position” against the Putin regime and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Stoli Group’s founder, Russian-born billionaire Yuri Shefler, was exiled from that nation in 2000 because of his opposition to Putin. The liquor has long been marketed as Russian vodka, but its production facilities have been in Latvia since that year. Stoli Group is a unit of Luxembourg-based SPI Group.

The company also cited its employees’ desire to take action and to accurately represent the vodka’s Latvian roots.

Earlier this week, Stoli Group announced it would only use Slovakian sources to make sure that none of its ingredients are sourced from Russia.


So now the question for our differently-winged friends, is why aren't you buying Russian vodka and smashing the bottles in the street like Elliot Ness?

 
 

3 comments (Latest Comment: 02/05/2023 14:52:36 by BobR)
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Comment by TriSec on 02/04/2023 13:55:48
And adding additional information - In reading this again, it feels like something I should have written a year ago after Russia first invaded. But with the weather locally today, I was at my local packie re-stocking yesterday, and I was looking for something new or different. None found, but seeing the handful of "Russian Standard" vodka bottles still in my shop tucked away on a bottom shelf, I had this thought.

But even if Russian vodka is hard to find these days, finding Ukrainian vodka even harder. There are a handful of brands out there, but in some fairly relentless searching, I've never seen a single bottle of any of these in the stores that I frequent.

I did find a bottle of Ukrainian brandy, though. It's called "Odessa", made in the same city on the shores of the Black Sea, and prominently labelled "Product of Ukraine". It's actually pretty good - I find it to have strong notes of Port wine. It's heavy and fruity; quite unlike any other brandy I've tried.

Comment by Will_in_LA on 02/05/2023 02:22:33
I fear that some of our differently-winged friends view Russia as a model. It is a state run by a strong man who claims publicly to be a Christian, but whose actions seem to be little in accord to with an itinerant rabbi from Galilee. Religious minorities are barely tolerated in some cases and are treated with hostility in others. (See Chechnya.)


Comment by BobR on 02/05/2023 14:52:36
I remember during the Iraq war invasion, when France refused to buy the claptrap that the Bush administration was selling, one particular restaurant in the Atlanta area filmed themselves pouring out bottles of French wine into the river. It was a pretty stupid stunt because - as you write - they were already paid for.