Ramzan Kadyrov - The Dictator of Chechnya

Ramzan Kadyrov is the dictator of the republic of Chechnya, which is a federal subject republic of Russia.

As you can see from the picture below, Ramzan really, really, really - and I mean really - likes Vladimir "Little Father" Putin, the president of the Russian Federation.

Ramzan's cuddling up to Vlad has very good reasons. Firstly, it was Putin who put Ramzan in power after the previous dictator of Chechnya was (who was little Ramzan's father) killed. Putin also funnels over a whole lot of money (some say 80% of Chechnya's budget) to keep Ramzan in power with the main objective to keep the Islamic separatists in check and the country calm.

Despite his cuddling up with Putin, Ramzan really, really, really - and I mean really - doesn't like homosexuals. In fact he emphatically denies there are any Chechen homosexuals, and if there are he recently said that he would bugger them for badmouthing him and his wonderful republic with spreading rumors about state orchestrated persecution, torture and murder.

Putin, and his regime, just smile and deny any atrocities.

You Got Me At "Extremist Propaganda"

As soon as I read that this - or some other similar picture (no one is certain because a picture wasn't added to the directive) - had been outlawed by the Russian Federation as "extremist propaganda", I k-n-e-w I just had to publish it.

The simple reason is because I consider Vladimir "Little Father" Putin, president of the Russian Federation, a.k.a "The Murderer in Moscow", on of the five most truly evil people alive.

According to the Chicago Tribune the directive reads as follows: "Item 4071: a picture of a Putin-like person "with eyes and lips made up," captioned with an implicit anti-gay slur, implying "the supposed nonstandard sexual orientation of the president of the Russian Federation."

May he rot while he still walks among us and then forever more in hell.

2016

I will not miss you, 2016, you were a horrendous and worthless year with only a few redeeming qualities. 

I will not delve into all shit you caused, but I will drop a few names. Donald J. Trump, Vladimir "Little Father" Putin, Bashar Al-Assad, Julian Assange and, last but not least, Aleppo.

Among the few redeeming factors were Tomais, Dej, JJ, Pook, Kevin (previously known as Knox) and the Smith Boys, Kahvy and Garrett. I must also add Ebbe Linden and Bento and the welcome extra prims.

Let us all hope - and join forces - to fight for a better 2017!

Bock & The Russians (Updated)

I am probably a Russophobe. I have a profound and insistent belief that president Vladimir "Little Father" Putin, his fanboy prime minister Dmitry Medvedev and the rest of the present Russian leadership wish to expand the Russian hegemony over their neighboring countries (like Ukraine, Finland, the Baltic states and also Sweden).

Trump & Putin by Liutauras Strimaltis

In 2013 the (then) Supreme Commander of the Swedish Armed Forces admitted that in 2023 Sweden would not be able to defend itself longer than seven days against a concerted attack by an enemy (and "an enemy" for your information is Swedish code for the Russians) against any given target, until 2023 the time frame was shorter.

The Russian people, as a collective, seem to share the notion of being Biggest, Best and Most Beautiful with a god given or historical right to subjugate the rest of the world, much like the Americans today. (Just as the British and French people in the 18th and 19th centuries and perhaps also the Swedish people - in the time of our former glory - in the 15th and 16th centuries.)

Although Sweden has never been a part of any alliance, our defense policy has hitherto always relied on an intervention by NATO in the event we were attacked. Our defense policy has been built upon the reliance that we only need to see to it that an enemy cannot just roll in over us without expecting any losses or delays until the NATO - in it's own interest - would come to Sweden's protection if nothing other than keeping a buffer between NATO and the Russians.

After Trump's victory in the presidential election that defense policy is being jettisoned, because president-elect Trump is perceived as not abiding by formerly accepted rules, seems disinterested in in NATO and is a fan of Putin. So as a result we are now getting signals that the Swedish defense budget must be severely increased.
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Update, later the same day
The more I think about it, the more absurd it seems for a country consisting of some nine million inhabitants to keep up a defense against a country with 146+ million inhabitants.

Perhaps we should do as the Danish populist politician Mogens Glistrup (1926-2008) once suggested, that we replace our defense ministry and weapons with an answering machine that says "We surrender!", in Russian of course.

"Only I Can Save You!" (Edited)

The presidential election in the United States this year has caused a great deal of unrest and many rifts in the gay community in SecondLife, at least the part of it that I am in. Old friendships are broken and harsh words and derogatory adjectives are thrown about frequently.

Vladimir Lenin (April 22, 1870 –  January 21, 1924)

I have a fundamental belief in mankind, that we all strive for what we see as the best solution for ourselves and - mostly - for society as a whole. Some say I am naive, but I don't give a damn. I also believe in democracy and the political system to attend to our societies and address the issues that arise.

Josef Stalin (December 18, 1878 – March 5, 1953)

In our societies people - and large groups of them - are sometimes afraid, due to economic setbacks, sickness, unemployment, globalization, civil unrest, whatever or just from a feeling of being disenfranchised. No one sees their plight or listens to their complaints. No one tries to assist them in bettering their conditions, everyone else is just thinking of themselves.

Benito Mussolini (July 29, 1883 – April 28, 1945)

When such conditions are present we have more than once in our history seen politicians or parties arise who say they have the absolute remedy or know exactly how to go about creating "change" (unspecified and vague enough). 

Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945)

Most of the time these politicians will claim to be "outsiders" or "not part of the establishment", even though a simple background check will show that they actually are and have been for a long time.

Mao Zedong (December 26, 1893 – September 9, 1976)

Their often simple solutions start with pointing out who is to blame for the present predicament, it can be a particular race, religious or cultural affiliation, nationality, sexual orientation or economic class. Or better still all of the above jumbled together.

Donald J. Trump (June 14, 1946 -  )

Whenever I encounter a person or a group of people seeking political power who claim to know the the quick-and-fast solution to a given problem and asks me to "Trust me, I am the only one who can save you!", I back away as fast as I can.

Vladimir "Little Father" Putin (October 7, 1952 - )

There have been man politicians and groups throughout history who have made claims on the absolute way to "save" voters. Here are a few examples of "savior politicians", demagogues and despots, in the present and not too distant history (ordered according to date of birth).
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So how do we go from the existence of "savior politicians" to how to handle our friendships and relationships in SecondLife?

In my mind, the absolutely worst way to go about it is to distance yourself. I will never allow myself to assume that one of my friends or acquaintances is a misogynist, racist, Islamophobe, anti-Semite, homophobe or indeed anti-anything merely by whom they support in the American election, not until they express such views and opinions. Until that happens they will remain my friends.

Edit October 23, 2016: The edit today consisted only of moving the pictures, not a word was changed except for "globalization" which was previously misspelled.)

Kinsey Sicks: Putin In The Ritz

(Tipped by the wonderful Tomais)

Clip description - Published on Jul 20, 2015
We know that there is no news that does not involve Donald Trump. However, it may not have escaped your attention entirely that a certain Vladimir Putin (also known as the “Donald Trump of Russia”, only much richer and less humble) remains the head of state of a country next to/inside of Ukraine.

The Kinsey Sicks have released a musical love-letter to him, intriguingly filmed in an undisclosed military installation, as only America’s Favorite Dragapella® Beautyshop Quartet can. You will undoubtedly want to watch it right now, instead of reading the rest of this crap. If you like it, please share it with your many friends. If you hate it, please share it with your many enemies.

I love it, so I am sharing it with both my many friends and my many enemies!

A Social Experiment

(via J.M.G.)

In a social experiment two guys pretend to be homosexuals in Russia and walk the streets of Moscow holding hands.

The reactions are scary and shows how successful the President of Russia, Vladimir "Little Father" Putin, and his cohorts have been in their "Gay Propaganda"-efforts at focusing the Russian society on homophobia instead of their real problems, such as lack of democracy and criminal activities by the ruling nomenclatura.

After reading some of the violently hateful responses to the video on YouTube, I believe there is valid reason to fear for the two guys safety.

Putin Gives Assholes A Bad Name

The Russian president Vladimir "Little Father" Putin has given an interview to the Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera: Vladimir Putin, interview (Full transcript).

The editor Luciano Fontana asked Putin: “Is there an action that you most regret in your life, something that you consider a mistake and wouldn't want to repeat ever again?”

Putin pondered the question for a little while before he responded: “I'll be totally frank with you. I cannot recollect anything of the kind. It appears that the Lord built my life in a way that I have nothing to regret.”
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I didn't think I could despise this man more than I already did, but he has now plunged me to previously unchartered depths. 

The Laird's New Year Address - 2014

Friends, residents of SecondLife, countrymen in the Commonwealth of Southern Enchantment and residents in regions under Our protection,

As tradition bids We address you on this last day of the year. In a few hours the bells will toll and 2014 will end. The new year 2015 will be here. Of this we can be certain, and we look forward to it in hope and anticipation, but we cannot predict what it will bring us.

When We look back at the past year in first life and SecondLife it is - as always - with mixed feelings. Many things have moved forward and been improved but others are still the same or even worse.

From a strictly personal perspective the year 2014 will forever in Our heart be remembered as "Primus annus Thomaidis" (The first year of Tomais). Our royal consort's  love, patience, humor and thoughtfulness has been a great support for Us throughout the past year. His presence in Our life is a source of unceasing joy for which We will always be amazed and grateful.

For SecondLifer's in general and for SecondLife itself, We believe that 2014 will be remembered as the year when Ebbe Linden (in first life a.k.a. Ebbe Altberg) came to the salvation of us residents. Since Ebbe assumed the reigns of Linden Lab many advantageous changes in policies and practices have been made. We can - hopefully - look forward to many more years with Ebbe.

In Our first life We despair at the sight of such dictators as Vladimir "Little Father" Putin and the massmurderer Bashar al-Assad, not to mention others, with the help of their henchmen still in control of their respective countries to the detriment and misfortune of their countrymen.

However, we mustn't be discouraged, there is a New Year ahead with infinite possibilities and much hope of change. If we all, like the Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, resolve to work together to make our worlds into better places we can surely accomplish many improvements.

We wish you all a fabulous, fantastic and fruitful new year! Be happy, be safe and be forever vigilant against the powers of evil until the day you die of old age with a smile on your wrinkled face!

Little Father Blames Plummeting Ruble on "The West"

Via Reuters (and J.M.G.):

President Vladimir Putin assured Russians on Thursday that the economy would rebound after the ruble's dramatic slide this year but offered no remedy for a deepening financial crisis. In an assured performance at a three-hour news conference, Putin blamed the economic problems on external factors and said the crisis over Ukraine was caused by the West, which he accused of building a "virtual" Berlin Wall to contain Russia. Putin even cracked jokes at times, despite pressure to fix an economy that is heading into recession and caught by what his economy minister called a "perfect storm" of low oil prices, Western sanctions over Ukraine and global economic problems. The ruble has fallen about 45 percent against the dollar this year, and suffered particularly steep falls on Monday and Tuesday, but Putin said its eventual rise was unavoidable and avoided using the word "crisis".

Nota bene: The picture I use in this post is not from today's press conference but from another occasion.

And the Wall Came Tumbling Down

For those of you who are too young to remember and those of you who may have forgotten, this is the introductory paragraph of Wikipedia's article on the Berlin Wall.

"The Berlin Wall was a barrier that existed between 1961 and 1989 inclusively, constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off  West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin until it was opened in 1989. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc claimed that the wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" in building a socialist state in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that marked East Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period."

The date on which the Berlin Wall fell is considered to have been November 9, 1989.

It's only 25 years ago, but it feels like more than a lifetime has passed. I remember the day well. After having lived in the Diaspora in Central Sweden for a few horrible years, I had recently returned down south, to my native town again, and followed the news closely and was filled with great joy at what was transpiring.

So much changed after the fall of the Wall, the cold war ended and the world felt like a better and safer place with great hopes for the future. For a while.

Now tension seems to be building up again, aided by the Russian president Vladimir "Little Father" Putin's desire to restore Russia to it's former glory as a world power.

The Advocate's Person of the Year: Little Father

Driving the governmental, religious, and popular disdain for gays and lesbians, the Russian president became the single greatest threat to LGBTs in the world in 2014.

“Imagine a boy who dreams of being a KGB officer, when everyone else wants to be a cosmonaut.”

This quote appears early in The Man Without a Face, Masha Gessen’s 2012 biography of Vladimir Putin. It’s as succinct and illuminating a characterization of the Russian president as you’re likely to find. The KGB, after all, perfected the thuggery, espionage, and aimless bureaucracy that are hallmarks of Putin’s regime. The agency’s crackdown on dissidents offered a blueprint for Putin’s own strongman excesses. That he aspired to such a career as a child tells us something useful about his psychopathology: This is a man hardwired to intimidate.

Nowhere is this tendency more apparent than in his crusade against LGBT Russians. Since winning a third term in 2012, Putin has become ever more autocratic, and his antigay ideology ever more extreme. In June 2013, he signed the infamous antigay propaganda bill that criminalizes the “distribution of information…aimed at the formation among minors of nontraditional sexual attitudes,” with nontraditional meaning anything other than heterosexual. Individual violators are fined anywhere between $120 and $150, while NGOs and corporations can incur fines as high as $30,000. International outrage flared in the months before the Sochi Olympics, in response to which Putin reassured the gay and lesbian community they had nothing to fear as long as they left Russia’s children in peace.

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Read the full article here:  The Advocate's Person of the Year: Vladimir Putin

The Russians Are Here - Again!

Throughout the centuries my country, Sweden, has - due to it's precarious geopolitical position - had an eternally suspicious attitude towards our immense neighbor to the east.

This situation was aggravated after Sweden lost it's position as one of the major powers in Europe in the 18th century and especially after the Swedish-Russian war ended in 1809, with Sweden proper losing a third of the realm (Finland) to Russia.

King Charles XII (1682-1718) pointing to
the East to tell us from where the enemy
will come.

Depending on who the rulers in Russia have been the situation has been better or worse, but the suspicion has always been there. Whenever we think of the risk of war or aggression, we look to the East.

Since the cold war the official defense policy of Sweden can be summed up in the phrase "non-alignment in peace aiming at neutrality in war".

That policy has served us well for half a century, but it seems to be losing support as we see the Russians, under the present president Vladimir "Little Father" Putin, becoming increasingly aggressive and militant towards it's neighbors.

During the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's Sweden has had it's territorial borders violated repeatedly by Soviet Union/Russian submarines or or other submersibles.

Once one of them even ran aground in the archipelago of Karlskrona in the south of Sweden and created an international incident.

The "Whiskey on the rocks"-incident. 

"Soviet submarine S-363 was a Soviet Navy Whiskey-class submarine of the Baltic Fleet, which became famous under the designation U 137 when it ran aground on October 27, 1981 on the south coast of Sweden, approximately 10 km from Karlskrona, one of the larger Swedish naval bases. U137 was the unofficial Swedish name for the vessel, as the Soviets considered names of most of their submarines to be classified at the time and did not disclose them. The ensuing international incident is often referred to as the Whiskey on the rocks incident." Wikipedia

At this very moment a search is yet again going on, this time in the Stockholm archipelago, for what is suspected to be another Russian submersible.
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I am sad to admit that, like many other Swedes, I am increasingly leaning towards a change of our present defense policy and I am starting to believe in the necessity for us to apply for membership in NATO in the immediate future.

Conspiracy?

So here I am, just back after my modem died and it took my ISP four (4) days to send me a new one, when today my darling Tomais sends me an offline message from work informing me that his Internet at home is down and his ISP cannot fix it until late tomorrow afternoon.

If it wasn't for my healthy skepticism against all conspiracy theories, I would perhaps now be thinking that the NRA, Mossad, Little Father Putin's covert henchmen and the Swedish Secret Police were conspiring to keep me and my darling apart.

The European Union & The Malaysian Jetliner (Updated)

On Thursday May 17, 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 (en route from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) crashed in Eastern Ukraine, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew members.

The tragedy has since lead to many speculations concerning what caused the airplane to crash, among other theories so far it is believed that the plane could have been shot down by a missile.

John Aravosis, over at the AMERICAblog, yesterday posted an interesting analysis of the event and it's political ramifications involving Russia, the European Union and the United States, see Destruction of Malaysia Airlines flight poses huge conundrum for Obama, Europe.

At this point, US intelligence thinks the Russian-backed rebels in Ukraine shot down the Malaysian airliner, and they suspect it was with a Russian (Soviet) “Buk” missile. And the Pentagon said today that it was basically inconceivable that the rebels could have learned to operate the missiles without Russian help. There’s also a serious question as to where the Russian rebels got their Russian weapons from (take a guess).

But it’s worse than that. CNN was saying yesterday that while it would have been obvious to the Russians that this was a civilian airliner, it would have been next to impossible for the Russian rebels in Ukraine to know the difference between a Ukrainian military plane and a civilian airliner. The Russians knew they couldn't tell the difference, the Russians knew they were providing weapons and training to people who were planning on shooting down planes in an area that was a major corridor for international civilian air traffic. And the Russians went ahead and trained them to shoot down the planes anyway (if, everything we now suspect ends up being true).

That’s not an accident. And it’s not simple negligence. It borders on premeditated murder.

You train someone to shoot down planes, in a zone full of civilian airliners, knowing full well that the people you’re training have no way of knowing which planes are civilian and which are military. You know they’re going to be killing innocent people, and you simply don’t care (or perhaps even want them to). That’s not a “mistake.”

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Although we are still at an early stage, and there has been no formal inquiry into the cause of the crash yet, I believe that Mr. Aravosis is on the right track. 

It will now be very interesting to see if - and how - the European Union and the United States decide to take action against Russia and "Little Father" Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, in the latter's attempts  "to reconstitute the Soviet Union in all its deadly glory".

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Update
Malaysia Airlines has released the full names and nationalities of every person on board. There were:

• 192 Dutch, including one who had a dual Dutch/U.S. citizenship
• 44 Malaysian
• 27 Australian
• 12 Indonesian
• 10 British, including one who had dual U.K./African citizenship
• 4 German
• 4 Belgian
• 3 Filipino
• 1 Canadian
• 1 New Zealander

Kiss-In Against Putin in Argentina

Putin is visiting Argentina this week. LGBT rights orgs are staging a kiss-in tomorrow outside the Russian embassy… pic.twitter.com/jtWmjfS7AW
— Andrés Duque (@Blabbeando) July 10, 2014

(via J.M.G.)

"Little Father" is visiting Argentina and will be met by men kissing men and women kissing women outside the Russian embassy.

"Oh my!", as George Takei would say.

When the Games End

The 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, are coming to an end tomorrow. I am proud to say that I have been able to avoid it almost completely, the exception being listening to my co-workers discussions at lunches.

The reason for my personal boycott of these games are the state sanctioned heinous treatment of the LGBT community in Russia and the homophobic so called "Gay Propaganda" laws that the country has adopted with the full support of President Vladimir "Little Father" Putin.

"Stop the Hate" Photography by Tomais Ashdene

The eyes of the world have been focused on Russia during the months leading up to and during the games, which may very well have put a lid on some of the violence and outrages that would otherwise have occurred. Once the games have ended things may very well change to the worse. I am extremely worried for my LGBT brothers and sisters in Russia and for what may come in the near future.

Russia has a sad tradition of state sanctioned persecution against marginalized groups throughout it's history with pogroms, bullying and violence against Jews, Cossacks, Chechens to mention a few. Now the LGBT community is being used in the same way, to deflect anger and unrest in the population from rising against the regime and instead supplying the malcontents with an easy scapegoat to persecute without legal sanctions.

Of course I am aware that Russia is by no means the worst of the countries that are persecuting it's LGBT citizens, but I (wrongly) had higher expectations of Russia than for Uganda, Saudi Arabia and some other nations.

#liveandletlove

(via J.M.G.)

About the clip

2,000 people of the city of Stockholm gathered at the Stockholm Olympic Stadium to show their support to the LGBT people of Russia and to sing the most beautiful national anthem in the world.

You can do the same, make your own rainbow version of the song and upload under the hashtag #liveandletlove. You'll find sheet music and lyrics on www.liveandletlove.se.
...

Watch, like on YouTube and share! Show Little Father Putin, the Olympic Committee that we will not forget their homophobia and the Russian LGBT community that we support them in their struggles against the horrendous and discriminating "Gay Propaganda" laws. Gay Rights are Human Rights!

The Olympic Games, Russia & Putin

I was tipped about this post by John Aravosis on the AMERICAblog by the longtime Bock in SecondLife reader, my dear brother, Dejerrity Mycron.

Despite Dej's present sufferings in an old Manhattan building with a malfunctioning boiler and a worthless managing company in the midst of the coldest winter in New York for ages, my lovely and loving brother takes the time and makes the effort to send me tips. Isn't it clear from that fact alone, that the man is completely loveable?

Oh guys, he is single too at the moment so if you would want to meet this gruff diamond in disguise just drop a notecard on my profile and I may set you up for an introduction.

Send your notecards to The McMillan Matchmaking Agency (a part of the BMcM Corporation), c/o Bock McMillan.

If you pass my scrutiny, I may introduce you! First come, first served! 
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The AMERICAblog; "How Vladimir Putin sent 'Brand Russia'  into the toilet". The post starts like this:

"Russian President Vladimir Putin has done more to harm the image of Russia internationally than anyone in a generation.

Putin’s baby, the 2014 Winter Olympics being held in Sochi, Russia in just under two weeks, was meant to demonstrate to the world that Russia had entered the modern age.

Then a funny thing happened. The world actually paid attention to Russia, and found it to be a third-world cesspool run by a despot.

If Brand Russia had already been bruised by Putin’s reign, in the past 12 months it’s been utterly destroyed."

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I hope "Little Father" Putin reads it and takes notice, but that may be a vain wish.

The Advocate's 2013 Phobie Awards

The Advocate is an American LGBT-interest magazine, printed bi-monthly and available by subscription. The magazine also has a website Advocate.com.

The magazine today announced The Advocate's annual Phobie Awards.

Vladimir Putin (also unlovingly known as "Little Father" on this blog), president of Russia, was - quite correctly in my mind - announced as The Phobie of the Year for 2013.

Robert Mugabe (former freedom fighter turned heinous dictator), president of Zimbabwe, was named second runner up for the title. 

You can read the motivations for the choices and the full list of contenders here: Phobie awards; The 13 Worst People of the Year.