What members of Congress wore to show support for Ukraine at the SOTU
Plus: This 21-star U.S. flag shows how few states have protections for queer Americans
Hello, in this week’s issue we’ll look at…
What members of Congress wore to show support for Ukraine at the SOTU
How to make your own Jon McNaughton
This 21-star U.S. flag shows how few states have protections for queer Americans
Ukraine wants Russia out of UNESCO after a famous Ukrainian folk artist’s work was torched
What members of Congress wore to show support for Ukraine at the SOTU
President Joe Biden’s comments on Ukraine during his State of the Union address Tuesday night received a standing ovation from a bipartisan crowd dressed in support.
Lawmakers carried Ukrainian flags, dressed in blue and yellow, and wore sunflowers, the national flower of Ukraine. Biden said Russia’s President Vladimir Putin “thought he could roll into Ukraine and the world would roll over. Instead, he was met with a wall of strength he never anticipated or imagined. He met the Ukrainian people.” Cue the applause.
First lady Jill Biden — who sported a sunflower mask Monday — wore a blue dress with embroidered appliqué of a sunflower on the sleeve. She invited Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova to sit with her in the viewing box.
Biden’s speech clocked in at about one hour, there was a “USA” chant when he spoke about building things in America, and he laid out a “Unity Agenda for America” that includes beating the opioid epidemic, taking on mental health with a focus on children and accountability for social media platforms, supporting veterans, and ending cancer as we know it.
How to make your own Jon McNaughton
For a New York Times story about how conservatives like Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) face pressure from the right because of a loss of competitive districts, Crenshaw posed in front of a painting you might be forgiven for thinking is a Jon McNaughton.
The painting shows a battle scene of Crenshaw with Jared Kushner, Don Jr., and Eric Trump as a cannon is fired. Crenshaw is waving a “Come and Take It” flag and former President Donald Trump is shown riding in on a horse.
The art is the work of Texas artist Kenneth Richard Turner, but none of the Trump sons were in the original painting. It’s an altered version of Turner’s “Come and Take It” (2015), and another artist added the faces of contemporary Republicans in, according to the Times’ Shane Goldmacher. I reached out to Turner by email to ask what he thought of the alteration, but didn’t hear back.
While some themes of Turner’s work overlap with McNaughton’s, including patriotic and Latter-day Saint art, if you want Trump fan art from Turner, you’ll need to get it custom made.
Turner’s 2004 “We The People” is in the collection of the George H. Bush Presidential Library collection, according to his website, and he’s painted portraits of executives like Hilton Worldwide CEO Chris Nassetta.
That’s more high brow than McNaughton’s latest, “The Emperor Has No Clothes,” which depicts a naked Biden speaking in the briefing room surrounded by Democrats, Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, and a pointing child.
This 21-star U.S. flag shows how few states have protections for queer Americans
To bring attention to how few states protect LGBTQ Americans from discrimination in areas like housing and medical care, Human Rights Campaign redesigned the U.S. flag.
The 21-star “Reality Flag” has a star for each state that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and it launched last Wednesday as part of a campaign in support of the Equality Act. The legislation would expand protections from the 1964 Civil Rights Act to cover sexual orientation, gender identity, federally funded programs, and public accommodations. It’s backed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable, the National Association of Manufacturers, and Taylor Swift, and Biden called on Congress to get the bill to his desk during the State of the Union.
An 85-foot-long version of “Reality Flag” is on display at HRC’s downtown Washington, D.C., headquarters, and a commercial about the flag was shot by Transparent creator Joey Soloway. The ad highlights stories of queer people who faced discrimination, including Staci J., an Indiana woman and Navy veteran who was denied healthcare because of her sexual orientation, and Queen, a transgender Georgia woman who was asked to move out by her landlord after he saw a transgender flag inside her home.
The campaign is the work of a cross-agency team from ad agencies VMLY&R, BCW, Wavemaker, and Hogarth, and done pro bono after their parent company’s LGBTQ+ employee resource group met with HRC to discuss ways to advance rights for queer Americans.
“The ‘Reality Flag,’ and the stories it tells, reflects the lived experience of so many LGBTQ+ people across the country, and it will have a real impact in our fight to deliver equal rights for our community,” HRC interim president Joni Madison said in a statement.
Fun fact: the historical 21-star U.S. flag looked like this and was only briefly flown after Illinois was admitted to the Union in 1818, because Alabama was admitted the following year.
Ukraine wants Russia out of UNESCO after a famous Ukrainian folk artist’s work was torched
A museum near Kyiv has been burned in the Russian invasion along with works from Maria Pryimachenko, a celebrated 20th century Ukrainian folk artist.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Monday that about 25 works by Pryimachenko had been destroyed at the Historical-Cultural Museum in Ivankiv. Self-taught, Pryimachenko was known for her work depicting flowers, animals, and birds. She designed Ukrainian postage stamps and was awarded Ukraine’s national prize for culture and the arts in 1966.
On Sunday, Oleksandr Tkachenk, Ukraine’s Minister of Culture and Information Policy, called for Russia to be booted from UNESCO, the UN’s Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.
“Russia's armed attack on Ukraine is currently destroying many civilian and cultural heritage sites in Ukraine,” Tkachenk said in a statement, calling Russia’s presence in the organization “inadmissible.”
Did Iowa Republicans use gradients to promote their response to the SOTU?
Yes, yes they did.
I wrote how newspaper front pages covered Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last week. Read the full story here. — Hunter
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