Just a strong reminder that not all religious people are hateful, nor are all Christians bigots. We have some great religious people that visit here. Hugs
They even recorded their vandalism, shouting, “This is an abomination!”
Volunteers repaint the church’s steps.Photo: Screenshot
Vandals defaced the rainbow steps in front of the Pitt Street Uniting Church in Sydney, Australia during the city’s World Pride celebration. But the church’s community repainted the steps less than half a day later, refusing to let the hateful act deter them from their welcoming message.
On February 24, someone recorded and posted a video to social media of a man walking up to church volunteers who were painting the steps. He asked them, “Is this Christian? What are y’all doing here… Is God for this?”
The woman in the video smiled and calmly answered, “Absolutely. God is for love, for welcome, for hospitality. God is very hospitable towards this.”
The man then asked where in the Bible God expresses support for same-sex marriage, adding, “God is love? Of course he is, but he’s holy too.”
The man continued, “You believe God is holy, you believe he’s got commandments, and do you believe we should obey them? Because God says, if you love me, keep my commandments. But love is not at the expense of truth, is it? This is an abomination to God. Do you read the Bible? Do you read your Bible?”
The woman repeated that God supports love and then said, “I don’t think these are Christian questions that you’re asking,” before saying that she needed to continue painting the steps.
The man literally growled and told viewers, loud enough for the woman to hear, “She’s disgusting.” He then told her, “You need to repent.”
The man continued, “A Christian is a Christ-follower. You’re not really following Christ. Without Christ, you’re going to a devil’s Hell. Did you know that? You’re being deceived, man, and I don’t want to be deceived. I’m worried for your soul.” He asked her repeatedly, “Do you know what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah?”
As he left, his camera scanned the stairs as he said, “This is not Christian. This is an abomination, and God is going to judge those people. It’s wrong. It’s wrong.”
Later that night, two unknown vandals recorded their visit to the church. One poured grey paint onto the steps and spread it with a paint roller. One vandal said, “F**k the LGBT.”
Soon after, Charlie Bakhos, a man who runs the Facebook page Christian Lives Matter, reposted the video. His post said the vandals were “superheroes” who were “adding their artistic touches to the church steps.”
Though the Sydney City Police Area Command is investigating the people behind the two videos, Facebook has previously removed content from the Christian Lives Matter Facebook group for violating the social network’s hate speech policies, The Guardian reported. The group also promoted an anti-LGBTQ+ speech late last month where a large mob physically assaulted a small group of pro-LGBTQ+ protestors. The mob shouted “Leave our kids alone!” and accused police of “protecting the pedophiles,” as the protestors fled by taxi.
Really good to be able to take part in blessing the Christians at Pride at start of @sydneymardigras
Sadly some zealous Christians decided to throw paint over their rainbow stairs at Church this morning…I reminded them that light dispels darkness & perfect love casts out fear pic.twitter.com/c8T9JYE79N
The morning after the vandalism, February 25, the church quickly repainted the steps and then posted photos of them on Twitter. Church members then marched in the World Pride parade later that day, under a banner that said, “Rainbow Christians Together.”
“A place of worship is a sacred space where all people should feel welcome and safe. I stand against these acts of vandalism and verbal attacks on Church members. We send our prayers and solidarity to Pitt Street Uniting Church in Sydney and to all LGBTIQA+ people of faith and their allies.”
Pitt Street Uniting Church’s Rev. Dr. Josephine Inkpin told Insights, “Such an attack is sad but not surprising and part of a range of harassments Pitt Street Uniting Church and fellow affirming Christians are enduring.”
“Pitt Street Uniting Church has met such opposition for years on our stand for various aspects of justice and the quick renewal of the rainbow is part of our strength and determination,” she continued. “We pray however that others may now see the need for more active affirmation in both church and world.”
Pitt Street Uniting Church is providing Applified events with @SydWorldPride.
— @JPMasters@aus.social (He/Him/They/Them) (@JPMasters) February 25, 2023
An estimated 500,000 people participated in the World Pride events, and nearly 300 Pride attendees attended the church’s February 21 pancake breakfast event. The church also regularly holds interfaith events and intercultural events for trans people and people of color.
This gutted me. What if they are in the hallway, or bathroom and all the doors are locked? This shouldn’t be a reality for these kids. Or anyone. pic.twitter.com/0IVCVslkc2
Are schools to now be prisons instead of learning facilities? Is that what we want as a country for our children while other advanced countries give advanced education, healthcare, and decent living for their children / public. Hugs
As I look into the mirror, shaving a greyed beard from a face lined by time and trouble, I remember a younger face once looking at me from this very glass with similarly sad eyes. A boy of dirty elbows and skinned knees, and behind that perpetually down-cast sight beat a heart filled with impotent rage. I knew my life was wrong, it was unfair, and it was a hot mess of a kid staring back from the mirror that reported horrible things filled with quiet unshed rage and denial of every truth that came anywhere near. At that younger time, I was pure lethality with a gun. I made a game of being able to spin the cap off a bottle without breaking the bottle by just nicking the side with the bullet, but I enjoyed the explosions of the shattering glass when I missed. Like many kids, I relished the wanton destruction, the control of continued existence or the end of that bottle. I felt powerful, skilled, and capable in a world where otherwise I foundered at the whim of forces I felt incapable of withstanding, weak, ineffectual.
If you have never held a gun, you know not the thrill of life, nor of death. For many a gun is the mark of independence, the goal of maturity, the status symbol of greatness. Instead, a momentary pull of a finger decides an accident of foolishness or the demands of a spurned heart and the most intimate of actions lets one be alive still and another not so very much. It is horror and excitement and at no point does the heartbeat slowly for any involved. It is but for targets, some may say, but what is target practice but the refinement of the skills necessary to kill that which you intend great harm? Some say it is an act of freedom to hold the means to life and death in your hands, but whose life, whose death? And why is the ability to take a life a definition for freedom?
From the tenor of this post, many would think I am against gun ownership. To be fair, I couldn’t care less if someone owns a gun. I similarly don’t care if someone owns a pit bull, a monster truck, or wants to live life as a raging karen. It is the unmitigated gall, the pretentious and pompous attitude that one’s ownership of a gun shall not be infringed, even in the misuse and mishandling. Bill upon bill has come before congress, requesting the mere modicum of relief to those of us unwilling to be set upon by others unfettered 2nd amendment rights, only to wither in committee, shot down by the special interests lobby. How sad a people who have decided money is far more important than the life of a school child.
I often wonder if Dylan Thomas knew about the lure of guns when he wrote “Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at the close of the day.” When imagined and closeted monsters come and seek to take all that we hold precious, when fear and anger burn so bright as to risk all that is dear, do hold tight to that instrument of power, that wand of courage that burns away the dark and sends the monster back into the closet? But power is fickle, isn’t it? It isn’t only our own fear, our own rage that dispels in the smoke of a smokeless powder concussion. Quiet little sparks in Uvalde, in Sandy Hook, splashed out little stars in last moments of terror. And as those little lives fade, do you wonder if their last thoughts are to be thankful that old men may rage, that young men may rage? Hold on to your fear, gentlemen, do hold on to your fear if that is all you have left.
Don’t be sad, little ones. It’s just the cost of doing business. You understand, don’t you?
Remember Florida prevents the real history of racism / slavery to be taught in schools and in fact one school district just stopped showing a pg movie about Ruby Bridges a 6 year old black girl who needed bodyguardescorts to go to an all white school because a white parent felt it would hurt white kids feelings to know how racist white people were / are. But we can damn well make sure that monuments to the attempt to keep those racist days and slavery as a state right must be protected and displayed. What does that say to all the black people in the state of Florida? Remember the Confederacy went to war to over turn the legitimate government of the US and to break up the country. The Confederacy was an enemy government that attacked the US and there are people who want to put up statues and monuments to the traitors / enemy soliders. What country does that. The losers of the war are dictating the winners must celabrate the losing army / officials. Hugs https://scottiesplaytime.com/2023/03/28/shameful-ruby-bridges-film-banned-from-school-because-white-parents-feeling-some-kind-of-way/
‘No group, no individual, has the right to demolish history that belongs to all.’
A House committee approved a bill that could end efforts to move or “re-contextualize” confederate monuments and other markers of war.
Rep. Dean Black, a Jacksonville Republican who noted he was a “10th generation resident of Florida,” explained that “history belongs to all Floridians, indeed to all Americans,” in introducing his bill.
“If someone destroys historic monuments in one part of the state, all Floridians are diminished because of it,” Black contended.
Asked by Rep. Jervonte Edmonds why this bill was introduced, Black lamented that “mobs that would descend upon a community and tear down their monuments, statues, works of art” until the community is “compelled” to remove these edifices.
The bill would encompass historical depictions represented in the form of a “plaque, statue, marker, flag, banner, cenotaph, religious symbol, painting, seal, tombstone, structure name, or display constructed and located with the intent of being permanently displayed or perpetually maintained,” honoring military or public service, “past or present,” with no exceptions contemplated.
Black warned that if monuments were torn down, “people would walk in those parks and say that the things memorialized never happened.”
“They already do that with the Holocaust now,” Black contended. “And if we’re talking about the Civil War, that should never be forgotten. All of the stories should be told.”
Monuments could not be removed, and plaques and signs attempting to put those constructions in historical context would only be permissible “on the monument and memorial” if Secretary of State Cord Byrd signs off. And local governments “are expressly prohibited from removing those memorials from public view.”
According to a committee analysis of Senate companion legislation, this process “may incur workload costs” for the Department of State. But the sponsor thinks the price is worth it.
“It is their proper purview,” Black said.
Those who remove or damage monuments would pay treble the cost to restore and move them back, with “punitive damages” also possible.
“No group, no individual, has the right to demolish history that belongs to all,” Black contended.
Public entities owning the monuments, legal residents of the state, and “historical preservation” groups would stand for civil action under this bill.
“I want every Floridian to have the standing to defend the history that belongs to each and every one of them,” Black said.
The bill does allow for moving monuments “for construction, expansion, or alteration of publicly owned buildings, roads, streets, highways, or other transportation projects.” When such a movement happens, the structures must be “relocated to a site of similar prominence, honor, visibility, and access within the same county or municipality in which the monument or memorial was originally located.”
In support of the bill, Rep. Chuck Brannan of MacClenny likened monument removal to graverobbing.
“I may say something today somebody doesn’t like. Is somebody 100 years from now going to go dig my grave up and move me?”
The bill would take effect July 1, if signed.
Black’s bill is the House companion to SB 1096, filed last month by Sen. Jonathan Martin, a Republican from Fort Myers. That measure is also moving through committees.
Florida doesn't want you talking to 17- and 18-year olds about sex or teenage girls about their periods, but it will do everything to protect Confederate monuments.
"House panel advances bill protecting war monuments"
We must defend and learn from our history. This includes protecting historic monuments across the state of Florida. I’m proud to introduce this important bill in the Legislature and look forward to finally CANCELING “Cancel” Culture! https://t.co/RIO76E4E2h
Great news! House Bill 1607 — Protection of Historical Monuments & Memorials, has just passed its first subcommittee and is one step closer to becoming law. Thank you to my colleagues who believe, as I do, that our history belongs to all Floridians and must be preserved! pic.twitter.com/TZ8y5Fwbdi
“History belongs to all of us… And if my family’s history isn’t safe today, no one’s family history is safe tomorrow…”
Then stop banning history books that teach everyone’s history. Obviously POC’s history isn’t safe in Florida… Can’t say gay in Florida… “History belongs to” who, again?
He’s made sure that his great grandchildren won’t be able to read about “his family’s history” in history books that teach the oppression POC and Native Americans were put through by “his family’s history”… aka, HERITAGE!
The little black girl was 6 years old when she lived it. Yet now white parents say that their kids older than she was are too young to learn how bad people of color including children were treated by white people. This is our history, the history of our country. This is one reason we need to keep repeating that black lives matter. The white supremacists do not want evil of the mistreatment of back people known but I wonder why. Is it so they can blame black people for their less economic situation today? Is it so they can repeat the same racist attacks? The reason to teach this is to show what we must not let happen again. Also I notice the same people that screamed “fuck your feelings” when trump was president are now showing a lot of feelings. Hugs
Candace McDuffie
·2 min read
U.S. Deputy Marshals escort 6-year-old Ruby Bridges from William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, in this November 1960, file photo.
Even though the Disney film “Ruby Bridges” has been shown during Black History Month in Florida’s Pinellas County for years, it was recently pulled because a parent was worried that it would teach white children about the racism that Black children faced.
Emily Conklin, whose child attends North Shore Elementary parent, refused to let the student see “Ruby Bridges” when it was shown earlier this month. Conklin believed that the movie was inappropriate for second graders.
She made a formal complaint on March 6, stating that the use of racial epithets and images of white folks who harassed Ruby as she walked into a school will allow white children to see the racist history of segregation.
School officials for Pinellas decided to ban the movie at the St. Petersburg school until a review committee can evaluate it. This is ultimately a result of Florida parents having more say in deciding what children can see and read in schools.
In an open letter, Ric Davis—who is president of Concerned Organization for Quality Education for Black Students—wrote: “Many from historically marginalized communities are asking whether this so-called integrated education system in Pinellas County can even serve the diverse community fairly and equitably.”
He continued: “The (Pinellas) district’s leadership appears to fear the potential consequences of not acting in the way they have on these two decisions. This approach to challenging times in education in our state raises serious questions about Superintendent (Kevin) Hendrick’s leadership.”
The demographics of enrollment in Pinellas district schools is 51% white, 20% Hispanic, 19% Black and 4% Asian, according to state records. The rest of the students enrolled are of Native American or Pacific Islander descent or are categorized as belonging to two or more races.
Conklin was one of two parents who refused to let their children watch the movie after the elementary school sent out permission slips, which included a link to a trailer two weeks before the movie before was shown to classes.
The cancellation of all showings of the PG-rated 1998 film "Ruby Bridges" at North Shore Elementary—following a factually inaccurate complaint by a lone parent who had not watched the whole movie—violated @my_pcs policy, reports @JuddLegumhttps://t.co/Mcvbkpb2uQ#BlackHistory
Ruby Bridges needed guards to walk her through a violent mob when she was 6 just so she could go to school, but apparently second graders in Florida are too young to learn about it. https://t.co/9j5dPDJcF9
After a White parent complained that a film about Ruby Bridges might cause White students to hate Black students, officials of North Shore Elementary in St. Petersburg, Florida, has removed access to the film for all students.https://t.co/col0Rvi2s0
— The Black Wall Street Times (@TheBWSTimes) March 27, 2023
She made a formal complaint on March 6, stating that the use of racial epithets and images of white folks who harassed Ruby as she walked into a school will allow white children to see the racist history of segregation.
It’s Florida. The higher-ups (notice it wasn’t the teacher or the curriculum) are looking for excuses to cancel anything having to do with civil rights, and those parents gave them the excuse they needed.
So, how far does this go? Just sit around and let them white wash history? Are people going to get mad and put a stop to this? I really don’t know, it seems they are getting away with re-writing history to placate Conservatives.
This is being allowed in the land of the free and where the laws apply to everyone! Yes the maga thugs who are the enforcement arm of the republicans preach about freedom but what they mean is freedom for them to oppress anyone who doesn’t do as the right dictates. This is a deliberate scare tactic telling other businesses that if you dare support something the right doesn’t like we will destroy your business and keep you from being able to make a living. Is this the USA we want to live in. When they get their way with the drag queens and drive the trans people from society who will they target next. Those gays who think they have a legal right to exist and marry, beat the shit out of everyone of them who dares to show themselves in public. Who next, any non-Christian? The Jewish people are already under attack by these same thugs who publicly support Nazism while working as the Hitler brownshirts for the republican party. There is a reason why these Nazi gang thugs support DeathSantis and other white supremacist republicans. Hugs
The attacks were relentless, and customers just stopped coming.
A bakery will permanently close its doors after experiencing months of vicious harassment for hosting a drag show.
Uprising bakery & café is located in a Chicago suburb called Lake in the Hills and owned by Corinna Sac, who opened the bakery in 2021 as an inclusive space for all. A press release announcing the closing details Sac’s desire for the bakery to be a space where LGBTQ+ couples could come for wedding cakes.
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“Her dream of an inclusive bakery has since become a nightmare no businessperson could have anticipated,” the release states.
“Closing our doors is the direct result of the horrific attacks, endless harassment, and unrelenting negative misinformation about our establishment in the last eight months,” Sac, who is bisexual, said in a statement. “From an award-winning bakery that donates to local organizations and supports diversity and inclusion, we have been rebranded by misinformation as ‘gay only’ and ‘pedophiles.’”
She added that the relentless protestors have caused local customers to be afraid to visit the bakery out of fear of harassment.
The press release describes the event in question as a “family friendly show featuring drag performers” that was hosted by the café in 2022 and required registration and a ticket.
“The event drew outrage from many resulting in a targeted attack of vandalism at the property the night before. The doors and windows were destroyed, the glass was shattered, and messages of hate were painted on the building.”
Sac said the man who did this, Joseph Collins, was a member of the white nationalist hate group Proud Boys and was charged with a hate crime.
After more attacks took place, the Village of Lake in the Hills then told Sac she could no longer hold events in the space due to zoning, even though she’d already been hosting events there for a year with no issues.
“A campaign was initiated to discredit, damage and defame Ms Sac, her staff, her food, and her patrons,” the press release went on. “Protestors spent more than 120 consecutive days on the property, creating disturbances, inciting violence, photographing license plates of patrons, and harassing them on social media and online.
Because patrons have been too intimated to visit the bakery, Sac’s sales have plummeted and thus, she cannot afford to stay open. She said she’d need $30,000 to keep her doors open.
Sac is currently working to raise money for employees so she can give them some financial padding. There are also events and fundraisers scheduled throughout the rest of the month to try to save the bakery. If they do not succeed, it will close on March 31st.
“Everything I have is in this business,” Sac said. “Our home, our cars, retirement, savings. We put everything we had on the line and personally secured this location, our equipment, and our dreams.”
No matter what happens, Sac vowed never to stop fighting for justice. She recently testified at the state legislature about her experiences.
“If we have to go out, we will go out with a BANG,” she declared in the release, “and make it long-lasting and positive. I will do everything I can to make sure what happened to my American Dream doesn’t happen to anyone else.”
Fueled by anti-LGBTQ+ misinformation on social media, over the past year, drag queen story hours and other family friendly LGBTQ+ events featuring drag performers have become a target for far-right groups like the Proud Boys as well Republican politicians. Earlier this month, Tennessee became the first state to pass a law intended to ban drag performances in public spaces. Similar legislation has been introduced in state houses across the country.
Now House Speaker McCarthy admitted that there were members of the republican party that were on the pay roll of Russia. Now there seems to be a lot more of them. How is it patriotic to be on the payroll of an enemy foreign government who has attempted for years to subvert our democracy to support their dictatorship? Hugs
The Kremlin is deploying new tactics by drawing on favorite themes and conspiracy theories of rightwing Republicans
A report found Russia-linked accounts on Twitter have shifted toward stressing energy and economic impacts of the war. Photograph: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock
As Russia’s ruthless war against Ukraine has faced major setbacks since it began a year ago, the Kremlin has deployed new disinformation themes and tactics to weaken US support for Kyiv with help from conservative media stars and some Republicans in Congress, according to new studies and experts.
Moscow’s disinformation messages have included widely debunked conspiracy theories about US bioweapon labs in Ukraine, and pet themes on the American right that portray the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, as an ally in backing traditional values, religion and family in the fight against “woke” ideas.
Further, new studies from thinktanks that track disinformation have noted that alternative social media platforms such as Parler, Rumble, Gab and Odysee have increasingly been used to spread Russian falsehoods since Facebook and Twitter have imposed more curbs on Moscow’s propaganda.
Other pro-Russian messages focused on the economic costs of the war for the US have been echoed by Republicans in the powerful far-right House Freedom Caucus such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, Scott Perry and Paul Gosar, who to varying degrees have questioned giving Ukraine more military aid and demanded tougher oversight.
Since Russia launched its invasion last February, the Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Trump ally – turned influential far-right podcaster – Steve Bannon have promoted some of the most baseless claims that help bolster the Kremlin’s aggression.
For instance, Bannon’s War Room podcast in February 2022 featured an interview with Erik Prince, the wealthy US founder of Blackwater, where they both enthused that Putin’s policies were “anti-woke” and praised Putin’s homophobia and transphobia.
Last month too on the anniversary of Moscow’s invasion, Carlson revved up his attacks on US support for Ukraine claiming falsely that Biden’s goal had become “overthrowing Putin and putting American tanks in Red Square because, sure, we could manage Russia once we overthrow the dictator”.
Analysts who track Russia’s disinformation see synergies between the Kremlin and parts of the US right that have helped spread some of the biggest falsehoods since the start of the invasion.
“Russia doesn’t pull even its most outlandish narratives out of thin air – it builds on existing resentments and political fissures,” Jessica Brandt, a policy director at the Brookings Institution who tracks disinformation and foreign interference, told the Guardian.
She added: “So you often have a sort of harmony – both Kremlin messengers and key media figures, each for their own reasons, have an interest in dinging the administration for its handling of the Ukraine crisis, in amplifying distrust of authoritative media, in playing on skepticism about the origins of Covid and frustration with government mitigation measures.”
“That was the case with the biolabs conspiracy theory, for example, which posits that the Pentagon has been supporting the development of biological weapons in Ukraine. The Charlie Kirk Show and Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, among others, devoted multiple segments to the claim. It’s not so much that we’re witnessing any sort of coordination, but rather an alignment of interests.”
Brandt also noted that Russia had an “interest in promoting authentic American voices expressing views that align with the Kremlin’s foreign policy goals. And that’s why you often see them retweet Americans that make these arguments.”
Likewise, two reports issued separately last month by the Alliance for Securing Democracy and the Atlantic Council, reveal how Russian state media have shifted some messaging themes and adopted new tactics with an eye to undercutting US backing for Ukraine.
The Alliance report documented a shift in messaging in the US and Europe from directly defending Russia’s invasion to stressing the energy and economic impacts that it was having, themes that seem to be resonating with some Republican politicians.
In the first six months of the war, Alliance data revealed that Russia-linked accounts on Twitter mentioned “Nazi” in more than 5,800tweets.
But in the following six months from August 2022 through January 2023, “the number of ‘Nazi’ tweets dropped to 3,373 – a 42% decline”. Likewise, mentions of Nato by Russian-linked accounts on Twitter dropped by roughly 30% in the second six-month period.
By contrast, in the most recent six-month period the report said that “tweets mentioning both ‘energy’ and ‘Ukraine’ increased by 267%, while tweets mentioning ‘cost of living’ increased 66%” compared to the first six months of the war.
In another twist, Bret Schafer, who leads the Alliance’s information manipulation team, told the Guardian: “In response to restrictions and crackdowns by major tech platforms, accounts and channels affiliated with Russian state media outlet RT, which has been banned entirely on YouTube, have fanned out across alternative social media and video sharing platforms like Rumble and Odysee that have less restrictive content moderation policies and that allow RT to operate without labels or restrictions.
“Those platforms also tend to cater to audiences who are not necessarily pro-Russian, but are certainly more apt, based on the other videos found on those platforms, to oppose continued support for Ukraine.”
Despite Moscow’s disinformation offensive and the $100bn plus in military and financial assistance that has flowed to Ukraine in one year, the ex-Republican House member Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania said that “most GOP members still support Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression”.
But Dent stressed that “the hardest edge of the Bannon-Carlson wing of the Maga movement in Congress is more sympathetic to Russian arguments and has an isolationist view of American foreign policy. There are some members who are less willing to push back against autocrats. There are others too who find common cause with Russia’s professed socially conservative orientation.”
Those voices are especially loud in the Freedom Caucus which is wielding growing influence with the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, who has said he will not support a “blank check” for Ukraine and this week declined the invitation of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to visit Kyiv.
Freedom Caucus member Greene from Georgia at the recent CPAC conference said flatly: “We’ve done enough.”
Democrats are especially worried about the embrace of pro-Kremlin disinformation by the American right.
The Democratic senator Chris Murphy blasted US conservatives for echoing Kremlin propaganda and traced its roots back to ex-president Donald Trump, who at the start of Russia’s invasion lauded Putin as “savvy” and a “genius”. Murphy said Trump’s “admiration for Putin” has “turned into a collective rightwing obsession”.
How big a threat does the hard right pose to US support for Ukraine?
Read more
Murphy noted that among the obsessed on the right are Donald Trump Jr, whom he follows on social media, and who is “relentlessly making fun of Zelenskiy online”.
Meanwhile, Putin’s own words and propaganda have lately shifted as he has tried to influence opinion in the US and the west, and blunt Russian dissent.
“Millions of people in the west understand they are being led to a real spiritual catastrophe,” Putin railed last month in a wildly hyperbolic speech that homed in on “the destruction of families”, and related themes.
Russia experts warn that Putin’s rhetoric and Kremlin messaging on these themes is far removed from the reality in Russia.
“One of the glaring mistakes of far-right propagandists is to view Vladimir Putin as some kind of defender of Christendom, of family values and as a protector of the white race,” said Ariel Cohen, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. “They repeat the Kremlin talking points and get excited about the Russian ‘gay propaganda’ law. Nothing could be further from reality.
“Today Russia is the leader in Europe of high divorce rates, HIV infections, and low church attendance and practice.”
Senator Murphy expects Putin to count “on the [American] right wing to advance Russian propaganda and exploit our internal divisions.”
Volunteers repaint the church’s steps.Photo: Screenshot
At that younger time, I was pure lethality with a gun. I made a game of being able to spin the cap off a bottle without breaking the bottle by just nicking the side with the bullet, but I enjoyed the explosions of the shattering glass when I missed. Like many kids, I relished the wanton destruction, the control of continued existence or the end of that bottle. I felt powerful, skilled, and capable in a world where otherwise I foundered at the whim of forces I felt incapable of withstanding, weak, ineffectual. 
and the most intimate of actions lets one be alive still and another not so very much. It is horror and excitement and at no point does the heartbeat slowly for any involved. It is but for targets, some may say, but what is target practice but the refinement of the skills necessary to kill that which you intend great harm? Some say it is an act of freedom to hold the means to life and death in your hands, but whose life, whose death? And why is the ability to take a life a definition for freedom?
It is the unmitigated gall, the pretentious and pompous attitude that one’s ownership of a gun shall not be infringed, even in the misuse and mishandling. Bill upon bill has come before congress, requesting the mere modicum of relief to those of us unwilling to be set upon by others unfettered 2nd amendment rights, only to wither in committee, shot down by the special interests lobby. How sad a people who have decided money is far more important than the life of a school child.
do hold tight to that instrument of power, that wand of courage that burns away the dark and sends the monster back into the closet? But power is fickle, isn’t it? It isn’t only our own fear, our own rage that dispels in the smoke of a smokeless powder concussion. Quiet little sparks in Uvalde, in Sandy Hook, splashed out little stars in last moments of terror. And as those little lives fade, do you wonder if their last thoughts are to be thankful that old men may rage, that young men may rage? Hold on to your fear, gentlemen, do hold on to your fear if that is all you have left. 
Photo: ShutterstockA report found Russia-linked accounts on Twitter have shifted toward stressing energy and economic impacts of the war. Photograph: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock
Scottie's Playtime 