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.
---

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.”

---

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".

---

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.

#GAYSAREHERE

(via J.M.G.)

I couldn't have said it better myself!

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! 
---

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. 

Meanwhile, at The Red Square in Moscow...

Pyotr Pavlensky, a Russian performance artist, today stripped naked and nailed his scrotum to a Red Square cobblestone. The performance is called "Freeze".

The artist sitting naked outside Lenin's Mausoleum in
Moscow, Russia, before police covered him with a blanket.

The Saint Petersburg-based artist said in a statement posted on the Grani.ru website that he was trying to draw attention to Russian society's development into a 'police state'.

Update 11/12/13: The video is taken down by YouTube with a peculiar statement of reasons.

Pyotr now faces up to 15 days of administrative arrest for disorderly conduct.

Urgent Appeal

This is an appeal from All Out that I choose to share with you and ask you to support!

"In 5 days the United Nations is set to elect Russia to the most powerful human rights body in the world. That's right – in Russia, lesbian, gay, bi and trans people are being arrested... shot... humiliated...and now Russian leaders will be in charge of global human rights?!

All Out members aren't going to let that happen without a fight. Russia's expecting to breeze through the vote and they haven't planned for anyone opposing this sham process.

But, if we can get to 500,000 signatures by Monday, we'll deliver our petition straight to the UN offices of every member country so they'll know the whole world is watching this vote. We're already over 385,346, so we know we can get there fast. Tell world leaders that they can't quietly let Russia get away with the anti-gay crackdown AND lead on human rights. Sign now:

https://www.allout.org/russia-attacks

Before running for the Human Rights Council, Russia published a pledge that claims they ban "any form of restriction on the rights of citizens on social, racial, gender, ethnic, linguistic, religious or any other grounds." But those words don't match what's actually happening in the country – Russian authorities are failing to protect people from discrimination and violence and to take action even in the most blatant cases. Check it out:"

FIRED for coming out at work

ATTACKED by thugs this week at a meeting of LGBT activists

BULLIED by an extremist hate group who has claimed hundreds of victims

TORTURED for being gay

BEATEN at a Pride parade

Straight and DETAINED for standing up for LGBT rights...

Send An Email To Coca-Cola

Via AllOut.org

"Coca-Cola bosses are meeting to decide if they should speak out against Russia's anti-gay laws. As a major sponsor of the Olympics, Coke has been under growing pressure for months.

Coca-Cola could claim Russia's anti-gay laws have nothing to do with them. But if thousands of us email them now, they could see that this is a growing threat to Coca-Cola's fun, friendly image.

It could be enough to get them to condemn the anti-gay laws, in a major blow to President Putin. Can you send a quick email?"

Follow this link to send an email to Coca-Cola!

XELLE - Red Flag

(via J.M.G.)

Join the I Raise A Red Flag movement for worldwide LGBT equality at iRaiseARedFlag.com.

Red Flag (Lyrics written by Zach Adam, JC Cassis, Rony G.)

I feel like we are moving back in time
The world seems upside down
We're crashing to the ground, yeah

Although I know some battles have been won
We've got a way to go
Until we win the war

Ain't gonna stop until I get there
Ain't gonna rest until I get fair
Ain't gonna stop, ain't gonna stop, ain't gonna stop
I have a dream, have a dream dream dream

Ain't gonna rest till I get respect
Can't let history repeat itself
Ain't gonna stop, ain't gonna stop, ain't gonna stop
I have a dream, have a dream dream dream

People shutting people out, I see a red flag
People taking people's rights, I see a red flag
See a red flag, see a red flag, gotta stand up for my brothers and my sisters
When they take away your freedom, it's a red flag
When they take what makes you human, it's a red flag
It's a red flag, it's a red flag, gotta stand up for my brothers and my sisters

This is about you
This is about me
This is about us all
Not one community
You're no authority on what is right or wrong
When you make somebody weaker, it doesn't make you strong
What if someone tried to take away your rights?
Told you who you can love, who you can marry, how to live your life?
Freedom shouldn't come with a price-pricetag
Time to raise your voice, raise your head, raise a red flag

Ain't gonna stop until I get there
Ain't gonna rest until I get fair
Ain't gonna stop, ain't gonna stop, ain't gonna stop
No, no, no

Ain't gonna rest till I get respect
Can't let history repeat itself
Ain't gonna stop, ain't gonna stop, ain't gonna stop
I have a dream

People shutting people out, I see a red flag
People taking people's rights, I see a red flag
See a red flag, see a red flag, gotta stand up for my brothers and my sisters
When they take away your freedom, it's a red flag
When they take what makes you human, it's a red flag
It's a red flag, it's a red flag, gotta stand up for my brothers and my sisters

There's blood in the streets
And fear in the air
Won't let 'em convince us
That we shouldn't care
'Cause we know what's wrong
And we'll stand together
Let's make a change that lasts forever

People shutting people out, I see a red flag
People taking people's rights, I see a red flag
See a red flag, see a red flag, gotta stand up for my brothers and my sisters
When they take away your freedom, it's a red flag
When they take what makes you human, it's a red flag
It's a red flag, it's a red flag, gotta stand up for my brothers and my sisters

People shutting people out, I see a red flag
People taking people's rights, I see a red flag
See a red flag, see a red flag, gotta stand up for my brothers and my sisters
When they take away your freedom, it's a red flag
When they take what makes you human, it's a red flag
It's a red flag, it's a red flag, gotta stand up for my brothers and my sisters

Go Germany. Go!

German athletes will wear the above rainbow-hued uniforms at the Sochi Olympics, but officials insist the design is not intended as a commentary on Russia's anti-gay laws.

The German Olympic Sports Confederation insists that the design was finalized "before the Russian protests had even begun."

Please continue reading on Joe.M.God. Germany Unveils Rainbow Olympic Outfits (url)

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I love it and it will look great against the snow too! I can see actually President Vladimir "Little Father" Putin choking on his own vomit when he see's this!

Eddi Haskell Is A Meanie

According to that rascal Eddi Haskell, previously my dear friend and mentor in blogging, this is how I was looking today when I visited Stockholm - in disguise - to greet President Barack Obama despite having a case of "political flu".

He tried to butter me up by telling me "You are much prettier than Princess Madeleine btw lol!". Eddi's flattery was of course not sincere so it did not help alleviate my enormous pain by being ridiculed in this fashion. (*joke*)

Eddi Haskell hereby wins the trophy as "The Meanest Man in The Western Hemisphere", it would have been the whole world but Vladimir "Little Father" Putin, President of Russia, saved him from that disgrace by snatching the title as "The Meanest Man in The Eastern Hemisphere".

Welcome to Sweden, Mr. President!

President Barack Obama arrives to Sweden this morning for the first bilateral state visit to Sweden ever by an incumbent American president. We had President George W. Bush here a couple of years ago, but that was for an International summit meeting.

Although we are well aware that the American presidents short visit to Sweden occurs only because of the the gap that arose in his plans when the Americans decided to show displeasure with the Russians for granting a temporary refuge to Edward Snowden (who leaked information about America's massive surveillance online) and cancelled a scheduled meeting with the Russian President Vladimir "Little Father" Putin.

Nonetheless we are thrilled to receive Obama as a guest and hope that he will have a wonderful stay with some straightforward and serious discussions with the Swedish representatives.

Alas the Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm, prince of Cascade Falls and sovereign ruler of The Commonwealth of Southern Enchantment with Outer Territories, will not be able to meet with the American President due to a "political flu", which has been brought on by the prevailing enmity between the beloved laird and the awful Silvia, Queen of Sweden. 

In Anticipation of a Punitive Attack

The Americans and the French have said that they are planning an attack to punish Syria for using chemical weapons in a "crime against conscience" that killed 1,429 people on August 21, 2013. This action is expected to take place during the weekend.

In response to this Vladimir "Little Father" Putin, President of Russia, has urged the Americans and the French to rethink their plans and consider the future victims that may follow on such a military action.

This is totally absurd and hypocritical coming from a bigoted bastard who has supported the murderous Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria, and his clansmen during the last two years while they have been slaughtering close to 150,000 of their own countrymen.

Putin and Russia have throughout the two years of bloodshed successfully blocked any action being launched by the United Nations against the atrocities and thus made the world stand helplessly by and witness the continued murdering and butchering going on, day after day, week after week, month after month for two whole years. 

Causing A Disturbance in Second Moscow

The Red Square and the Vasilij Cathedral in Second Moscow looked calm as usual from afar yesterday, but if you got closer you could see that there was something out of the ordinary going on.

A handful of women and three men had gathered outside the cathedral. One of the men was The Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm, prince of Cascade Falls and sovereign ruler of The Southern Enchantment Region with Outer territories. All of us wore the brightly colored knitted balaclavas that have become the trademark of the Russian feminist punk rock protest group Pussy Riot.

Pussy Riot is of course well known for staging unauthorized provocative guerrilla performances in unusual public locations. Their lyrical themes include feminism, LGBT rights, opposition to the policies of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom they rightfully regard as a dictator.

The gathering had been - or so I believe - organized by Vanessa Blaylock, virtual world artist and blogger, today going under the name Yoko Ono. We were there for a Pussy Riot Solidarity manifestation and I was also there to protest the infamous and homophobic Russian "gay propaganda" laws.

We started crawling all over the place, some of us assembled on a statue while others somehow managed to get up onto the roof of the cathedral itself. A while later I jumped up on the roof of a police car parked nearby.

When my buddy, the sexy, sublime, brilliant, humble etc., etc., Butch Diavolo arrived I started using him as part of my protest by pointing at him and shouting: "Look at Butch Diavolo, he is the incarnation of GAY PROPAGANDA!"

I was at the manifestation for an hour and 49 minutes and had loads of fun. However, my bosom buddy Apmel Goosson, who was there in the guise of his alt Ms. Apmelina Slingshot, reports on his blog "My Avatar's Name Is Apmel" that the real fun didn't start until after I had left. Apparently all the protesters and the Moscowites that had joined them were thrown off the sim and banned.

It seems totally unfair to me that Apmel always gets to have all the fun. That man has been banned in more places than the infamous performance artist SaveMe Oh, whom I for some reason am starting to suspect is non other than Vanessa Blaylock, but it may be my post-election paranoia playing pranks with me.