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Breaking: Russia ‘Dismisses’ Acclaimed Journalist Who Came Out As Gay In August

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While Russia’s president Vladimir Putin today was telling the press that there is “no infringement on the rights of sexual minorities,” executives at the state-controlled Russian TV network Rossiya K were parting ways with an acclaimed journalist who came out as gay August 30. Oleg Dusaev worked for Rossiya K (Россия К), an arts and culture network originally named Kultura (Culture).

A few hours ago Dusaev announced via Facebook, “Today is my last day working at the TV channel Culture.”

Technically, the Russian government just didn’t renew Dusaev’s contract, but the document Dusaev posted, which The New Civil Rights Movement had examined by a Russian expert, is very formally signed, stamped, and states it is an “order” and uses the word “dismissal.”

Others, like RUSA LGBT, a group for the Russian-speaking American LGBTQ community, say he was fired.

Dusaev, who is 33, posted to Facebook the document from his employer, dated September 5 — days after coming out — stating that his annual contract would end today, September 19.

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Later today on Facebook Dusaev wrote, “Friends, I ask you, no offense, but I just physically can’t answer. Please give me time to be alone to think, just relax. I really appreciate your support very much. But I have no strength.”

Dusaev came out publicly on August 30, in a Facebook post:

“Today and for me it’s a time to be brave,” the journalist, who is also an accomplished pianist, wrote. “Openly and honestly I want to tell you that I am gay.” Dusaev wrote that “[my] orientation…is not a determining factor in my attitude to life and people.”

“I am totally the same person you knew before. All the same, the pianist and journalist Oleg Dusaev.”

Saying that “any hatred is evil,” Dusaev exclaimed, “I am a faithful Christian, convinced that God created and loves me for who I am. And I will with conviction defend the most important right in my life, which I have identified–that is the right to do good for people.

“That we have no homophobia–this is false. The fact that homosexuals have the same rights as everyone else–it’s a lie.

“Let’s stop lying and, above all, stop lying to ourselves.”

On September 2 Dusaev, also via Facebook, announced he was in a relationship.

The termination, however disturbing, sadly cannot have come as a surprise.

In his August 30 post, Dusaev mentioned his friend, Anton Krasovsky, another journalist fired earlier this year by the Russian government, for being gay. Duseav commended Krasovsky for being “bold.”

In an interview on the day he came out, Dusaev told Russian news site Gay.ru, that what “I’m much more worried about now is not my career, but the fact that the thugs kill and maim Russian gays and lesbians. Silence in such a situation is impossible.”

Dusaev noted it is a “Shame to observe how deeply divided the gay community is in Russia. My hope is that my move could set an example to others, and we really turn into a community, not in words but in deeds.” He added, “My boyfriend has supported me, for which I am very grateful to him.”

 

Image of Oleg Dusaev via Facebook 

Editor’s note: All quotes of Dusaev’s comments from the original Russian were translated via Google or Bing and some words have been slightly modified in the translation to English for readability and comprehension.

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News

White House Teases Out What Trump Will Say in Rare Oval Office Address

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President Donald Trump has delivered only two Oval Office addresses this term, with a third set for Wednesday night. He announced the speech on social media but offered few details. The White House has since teased additional information, fueling speculation.

“My Fellow Americans: I will be giving an address to the nation tomorrow night, live from the White House, at 9 P.M. EST. I look forward to ‘seeing’ you then. It has been a great year for our Country, and the best is yet to come!” Trump wrote in a mixture of all-caps and standard lettering.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt subsequently offered a few more details, suggesting the speech will pump up the administration’s political messaging.

READ MORE: How Trump ‘Dramatically’ Expanded Presidential Power and Beat His First Term Record

“We greatly look forward to President Trump addressing the nation tomorrow night, 9 o’clock Eastern,” she told Fox News. “I hope your audience will tune in, and Americans across the country will tune in to hear from their president, as well, about the historic accomplishments that he has garnered for our country over the past year.”

“If you look at the security of our border, if you look at stopping Joe Biden’s inflation right in its tracks, bringing down gas prices to the lowest level in five years, President Trump will be talking about what’s to come. The best is truly yet to come, as he often says.”

Inflation is officially at about 3% currently, where it was for the month of January when Trump took office. As of Tuesday morning, unemployment jumped up to 4.6%, a four-year high. One economist warned the nation is in a “hiring recession.” Trump’s poll numbers, especially on the economy, are at or near his second-term lows.

READ MORE: ‘Intraparty Brawl’: Johnson Driving Moderate Republicans ‘Into the Arms of Democrats’

Leavitt added that the president will also give remarks “about all of his historic accomplishments over the past year, and maybe teasing some policy that will be coming in the new year, as well, as we head into this Christmas season.”

According to The Independent, Leavitt told reporters it would be a “really good speech.”

“He’s going to talk a lot about the accomplishments over the past 11 months, all that he’s done to bring our country back to greatness, and all he continues to plan to do to continue delivering for the American people over the next three years,” she said.

READ MORE: ‘Warning Sign’: Unemployment Jumps as Experts Sound Alarm on ‘Hiring Recession’

 

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How Trump ‘Dramatically’ Expanded Presidential Power and Beat His First Term Record

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On Monday, President Donald Trump signed his 221st executive order, surpassing his entire four-year first term record of 220. Unlike many other presidents who partnered with Congress to pass legislation to advance their agenda, President Trump has opted to “dramatically expand presidential authority with moves that have tested the bounds of the Constitution,” according to The Washington Post.

“American presidents have consolidated executive power to skirt Congress since the beginning of the 20th century. But Trump has accelerated the trend that intensified in recent decades amid a decline in legislative activity and rising partisan brinkmanship.”

Continuing at his current rate, Trump would finish this four-year term with more than 880 executive orders to his name.

According to The American Presidency Project, President Joe Biden signed a total of 162 executive orders in four years. President Barack Obama signed 276 across eight years. President George W. Bush signed 291 in eight years, and President Bill Clinton, 364.

READ MORE: ‘Intraparty Brawl’: Johnson Driving Moderate Republicans ‘Into the Arms of Democrats’

“Trump has used the orders to impose sweeping tariffs, seek retribution against his perceived enemies and weigh in on cultural issues big and small, from challenging immigration laws to regulating water pressure from showerheads,” the Post reported.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller has “major influence” over Trump’s executive orders. The Post reported that one White House official said that every executive order is “fully vetted and reviewed” by the White House Counsel, the president’s staff secretary’s office, and Miller.

Trump’s approach is distinguished by both the volume of executive orders and the scope. They reflect a strong effort to shift power away from Congress and toward the Oval Office — an expansion of presidential authority that courts are now being asked to rein in.

The courts, according to the Post, have stepped in numerous times, halting Trump “from unilaterally changing federal election-registration rules, banning care for transgender people and punishing law firms who have represented causes or clients that he opposes. A majority of Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical of Trump’s tariffs during oral arguments last month, and the high court said it would hear a case examining Trump’s ban on birthright citizenship.”

READ MORE: ‘Warning Sign’: Unemployment Jumps as Experts Sound Alarm on ‘Hiring Recession’

 

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‘Intraparty Brawl’: Johnson Driving Moderate Republicans ‘Into the Arms of Democrats’

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Moderate House Republicans concerned about re-election next year have been pushing for a vote to extend the Obamacare premium subsidies, but Speaker Mike Johnson is strongly opposed. House Democrats need only four Republicans to cross the aisle and sign their discharge petition, which would force a vote on the House floor — and Democrats may get exactly what they want.

That’s according to Punchbowl News and its co-founder, Jake Sherman.

“This week,” Sherman wrote, “was designed to give House Republicans a way to push back on Democratic attacks that they’re indifferent to skyrocketing health care costs hitting millions of Americans. Instead, the House GOP leadership has facilitated an untimely — and particularly nasty — intraparty brawl, pitting moderates against Republican Party leaders and further strengthening Democrats’ political hand as the Obamacare cliff looms.”

READ MORE: ‘Warning Sign’: Unemployment Jumps as Experts Sound Alarm on ‘Hiring Recession’

Speaker Johnson is “pushing” moderate Republicans “into the arms of Democrats,” Sherman added, “as the House Republican leadership refuses to allow the centrists a vote on extending the enhanced Obamacare premium subsidies.”

One moderate Republican, Sherman also reported, U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) “stood up in a House Republican Conference meeting and said that not having an up-or-down vote on extending the enhanced Obamacare subsidies is malpractice.”

He also reported that many moderate Republicans “share this sentiment.”

“They feel like they have to have a vote and the conference won’t give it to them. Driving them into the arms of democrats.”

Sherman explained that by refusing to allow the vote, Republicans have delivered a “political advantage” to the Democrats. If just four House Republicans sign Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ discharge petition, “Democrats have exacted the precise policy win they’ve been seeking, even if that never becomes law.”

READ MORE: ‘Grifters’: A MAGA Civil War Is Eating Away at Its Own Power

 

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