100 days of Misery in America

The first 100 days have been a disaster. Let us count the ways. 
1) In spite of criminal and ethics violations, no action has been taken against one of the most corrupt regimes in American history. The Government Office on Ethics, America's top ethicists, some judges and constitutional lawyers have noted the violations. Americans still haven't seen his tax returns, but we've seen his conflicts. Billionaires, nepotism, and dark money rule. 

2) A "mine's bigger than yours" presidency has been exposed. It's hype over policy-making, show over substance. Those 30 Executive Orders that reflect his obsession with numbers add up to little more than petty, self-aggrandizing efforts to undo the Obama legacy and boost the profits of oil companies, big corporations, and the president and his family. So we have Orders against Muslim immigration (halted by the courts); for a border wall; overturning the ACA; abolishing sanctuary cities; eliminating Obama's climate change policies and his ban on drilling in the Arctic. What a blowhard!  

But it's enough to keep his tiny 30% base happy, and his ratings low, the courts alert, the lawyers on their toes, the Dems spinning their wheels, and the resistance movement growing. The Women's March, the Scientists' March, the huge Climate Change Marches today in DC, in NYC, Seattle and other cities, demonstrate the outrage of millions of citizens here and around the world at Trump's environmental policies. Trump's  puny "campaign rallies" cannot touch these numbers. Not even close. 

3) While the White House is full of cons, liars, relatives and cheats, the Cabinet is loaded with billionaires, bankers and corporate execs with obvious conflicts of interests in charge of agencies they hate and want to eviscerate or eliminate. Senate Republicans approved them all, KNOWING that the anti-democracy, treasonous Transition Team of Bannon, Pence, Rebekah Mercer and Nunes chose them because they opposed the mission and programs of the agencies they were to head. "Let's deconstruct the government," tra la! Welcome to the Tillerson, Sessions, Devos, Mnuchin, Wilbur Ross, Carson et al Billionaires Club. In 100 days the damage has begun. 

4) Those Russian ties? 100 days gone by and the treason and tyranny continue unabated. Congressional investigations are tainted, with Rep. Adam Schiff (D, CA) the people's only hope, a slim hope. Not sure where the FBI, CIA, Treasury and Defense Departments, and other investigations are. Where is a special prosecutor? The Muscovite Candidate and cronies like Manafort, Paige, Mike Flynn, Wilbur Ross are getting away with treason like Putin is getting away with his invasion of Ukraine. 

The cover-up is so huge that if it's ever uncovered, the current regime will explode as if North Korea had unloaded a bomb on targets White House and Congress. The R members of Congress approved cabinet members and other top officials with Russian ties even after intel agencies briefed them. They knew the information was damaging, and ignored it. Rachel Maddow has connected the dots and made the case. So have other top-notch journalists and some Congressional Democrats. Millions of Americans have heard them, and agree. 

5) How smart is it to damage the White House's relationship with the Intelligence community?  We have our doubts about James Comey, but the FBI has its doubts about Trump. It's investigating the president. All seven Intel agencies are doing the same. We say this as though it were an everyday occurrence. It's shocking. The National Security Council, less Bannon finally, and its various departments are in confusion. The CIA is not impressed with Trump's braggadocio, on display while speaking in front of its Wall of Heroes. The director called Trump's comments "The most despicable display of self aggrandizement ever seen here." The Intel agencies are on to this hollow man and his sordid regime's web of conflicts, collusion, and unsavory connections. When will we see some action? 

6) We've had 100 days of lying. We are witnessing a president who delights in calling facts and truth "fake news" and a press secretary, silly Sean Spicer, who puts out Trump's lies as news. The tweets, one more outrageous than the next in flinging out accusations with no evidence, add to the litany of lies. It would be laughable (and many reporters do laugh at the excesses), if it weren't so tragic. Yep, fact check everything. As Maxine Waters said, this president "can't be trusted." On his 100th day he touted as an accomplishment "pushing back against the media." What kind of a president does this? What kind of man in the Oval Office would call the free press "an enemy of the people?"  

7) It took just 100 days for Trump not only to alienate the intel community and the media, but also the judicial branch of government. Have we ever had a president so ignorant of the US Constitution, Rule of Law, and the role and purpose of our three branches of government?  A guy so unread and unfit that he has blasted the courts' rulings and raised doubts in the mind of Chief Justice Roberts? Maybe Roberts is keeping an eye on his newest member, Neil Gorsuch, too, the Pence on the Bench who arose with $10 million dark-money backing on the ashes of Obama's Merrick Garland nomination, a nomination intentionally held up with malice aforethought by corrupt McConnell and the Senate's Republican majority. Roberts and the Court know the truth. So do we the people. It must mean something.  

Riding the bomb down,
Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove

8) Warmongering is up, diplomacy is down. Tillerson is over his head. Trump has alienated our allies, the EU, NATO, Canada and Mexico, and beyond. He's America's joke. The most transparent thing about him is how little he knows. 

That's why I think the Generals hold sway. General Maddox has a job on his hands managing such an ignorant president, but he and the generals are finding it easy to get their way. They just feed Trump his lines, and he's off like a rocket. Diplomacy takes great intellect, special skills, nuance, and patience--traits Trump lacks. War, on the other hand, can deliver a great macho image for a weak, ego-driven man. The Generals are pros at dealing with this kind of guy. Let's pray the Generals consider the options and the consequences of their talk and their actions more than Trump is capable of doing, and that they encourage the necessary restraint in any overkill type of thinking.  Is taunting Kim Jong's North Korea a good idea?

9) Trump does not speak like a president, act like a president, or think like a president. He lacks gravitas. He lacks impulse control.  Do you feel safe knowing  that Trump has his hands on the nuclear codes? He has an insatiable need for self-aggrandizement and adoration.  He lies.  He's running the White House like he runs his businesses, in chaos. He changes his chatter like a weak reed in the wind, turning back his promises, deflecting the real issues, appropriating other people's comments for his own use, twisting the truth in maniacal tweets. How can we trust a lying con? The overwhelming majority of Americans are on to him, and despise him.   

10) The next 100 days don't look good either. There are the ongoing investigations, the ongoing conflicts; doing the NRA's bidding on guns; undoing government agencies, including getting rid of 2300 skilled workers at the State Department; more tinkering with the ACA, an outrageous FY18 budget, and screw the middle class tax reform. Lots of programs are on the chopping block, from Education, Social Services, Health Care, and the EPA to the NEA/NEH and PBS. I fear for the USAID and Peace Corps budgets. So-called tax reform stands to make Trump, his family and the wealthiest Americans richer, and the rest of us poorer. Mnuchin has indicated as much. "Trickle down" economics has never worked. Why will it now? The Earth, our public lands, our environment, our cultural and social fabric, our social safety nets, our National Security, and a precarious world hang in the balance. 

I could go on.  Andrew Romano, a yahoo journalist, hit the nail on the head in his story about how Trump talks, which is at the level of a five year old: "The campaign allowed him to keep doing what he’s been doing his entire adult life: selling himself. The presidency is different: It requires you to sell your policies." Trump doesn't have any real policies beyond his own self-aggrandizement wrapped in massive conflicts of interests. Nor is he able to make a strong case for any position he takes, as is clear in his orders banning Muslim immigration from six countries for no clear reason.

He can't make a case; he can only spout doublespeak. How easy to turn vice into virtue, slander into truth, thievery into honor, brutality into patriotism, sadism into justice!  How well Joseph Heller captured this presidency in his 1961 Cold War novel "Catch-22."  The first 100 days have revealed a president who is a hollow shell of a man incapable of talking or acting like a president because he has no knowledge, no sense of justice or nuance, no aptitude for discernment. The latter will prove his undoing. The next 100 days of Misery in America starts now. 

Now imagine this scenario, posted by a fellow resister: "Hillary Clinton is president. It's learned that she has deep ties to Putin. She puts utterly unqualified billionaires in cabinet posts. She puts her daughter Chelsea in a position of influence in the West Wing. And Chelsea's husband is Hillary's chief advisor. She refuses to release any tax returns, she blocks access to the visitor logs in the White House and Bill refuses to live in the White House so our tax dollars are spent keeping him safe in Chappaqua. Hillary spends almost every weekend lounging in a resort. AND, in an interview she names the wrong country she bombed while bragging about the chocolate cake she was eating while she did said bombing. Impeachment proceedings would already be underway, I have no doubt." #Impeach45 Phyllis Farnham post on "Donald Trump is not my president" site.
 Why haven't impeachment proceedings started against Trump?  Will they? Will a special prosecutor ever be appointed? By whom? Certainly not Jeff Sessions. How about the new deputy director at the Justice Dept? How long will it take? Where are the lawyers? Where are the lawsuits. Where are the consequences for Trump's obvious ethics violations, his nepotism, his massive conflicts of interest using the presidency to make himself and his family richer.  How long will this travesty go on? 

Sources:  https://www.yahoo.com/news/fact-check-white-houses-claims-trumps-first-100-days-132313392.html Fact checked.  there are several other fact check articles.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/29/politics/trump-world-leaders-image-100-days/  trump rather a joke on the world scene.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-immigration-idUSKBN17S2GN Justice Roberts expresses concern over Trump's executive order and what it reveals. 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/04/27/russia-gave-to-citgo-and-citgo-gave-to-trump.html?source=TDB&via=FB_Page The Russian connections, treason and corruption. 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/100-days-nepotism-ignoring-ethics-094649487.html 

http://www.msn.com/en-ph/news/opinion/donald-trump%E2%80%99s-ruthlessly-destructive-first-100-days-set-the-stage-for-new-type-of-us-government/ar-BBAuI00.  A scary article on how trump is destroying American govt as we know it, to the applause of the Freedom Caucus in Congress, the Koch brothers and Mercer family,and other dark money sources now ruling America. If only his base cared to be informed of how he has and will continue to betray them.   

Paul Manafort and Me in Ukraine

Paul Manafort had been in Ukraine for five years when I arrived in 2009 as a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV). Our experiences could not have been more different.

Manafort spent most of his time in Kyiv (Киев) or running back and forth between Kyiv and Moscow and Cyprus, where there are big money-laundering banks.  Remember the Bank of Cyprus, the bank once headed by Trump's Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross.

With master embroiderer Marta.

I spent most of my time in Starobelsk, a rural town in far-eastern Lugansk oblast near the Russian border. This is part of the industrial region of Ukraine called the Donbas, and it covers Lugansk and Donetsk oblasts, my old stomping grounds. Friends joked that I could see Russia from where I lived. They weren't far off.  Large swaths of the Donbas have been invaded, occupied and destroyed by Russia since 2014.

AP photo. 

Manafort worked for the pro-Russian Party of Regions and its candidate Viktor Yanukovych, a corrupt oligarch and buddy of Putin. Manafort helped him revise his image in order to become the president of Ukraine in 2010.

During the election, I accompanied friends to polling places in Starobelsk. They were not for Yanukovych, who was never popular and ended up fleeing to Moscow with his billions after the 2014 Euromaiden revolts. That's when Putin was making plans to invade Crimea and destabilize eastern Ukraine. I'm sorry that Yulia Tymoshenko, a veteran of the Orange Revolution for Ukrainian autonomy, didn't win that election.  Now we are learning that it was Manafort who helped Yanukovich put her in jail, with the help of the Skedden Law firm and the lawyer now under indictment, Van der Zwann, connected to the Russian mob by marriage.

Manafort worked for Ukrainian and Russian oligarchs, like the mineral magnate Oleg Deripaska, who paid him lots of money to promote Russian interests and curry favors with the USA. Manafort arranged special meetings, like the one between Yanukovych and Obama in 2012. During the Trump campaign, he flew Russian colleague Konstantin Kilimnik to the USA to meet with Trump and his advisers, and he arranged the secret and now-suspect Mayflower Hotel meeting between Russian Ambassador Sergay Kislyak, Jeff Sessions, and Jared Kushner.

The closest I came to any oligarch was knowing of Rinat Akhmetov, one of the richest men in the Donbas, who built a fabulous soccer stadium in his hometown of Donetsk. Football in Ukraine is as big as it is in any European city. Turns out Manafort worked for Rinat Akhmetov, too. Russian troops and Russian-armed proxies have since decimated the city of Donetsk.Manafort has Ukrainian blood on his hands.

While Manafort worked with the rich and powerful, I worked with the ordinary and powerless. It was my great privilege to become part of the community of Starobelsk, and to find out the best way I, an American stranger in Ukraine, could help them achieve their dreams. What were their stories? What did they want? What did they need? I was there to help. This is what PCVs do.

After many cups of tea, listening, and gaining trust, I began to make lists. I loved the people. I saw the faint hope. I saw the doubt and suspicions. "Why is she here?" I was the first American most of them had ever met. I made myself accessible. I never turned down an invitation, even if I didn't understand where I was going, which was half the time. I created my own well-worn path between Panfelova Street, where I lived with my host mom Luba, to the Market (where you could get everything you ever needed), and to the center of town, St. Nikolas Church, Schools #2 and #3. The Monastery on Kyrova was also nearby. I learned from my friend Olga, a font of Ukrainian history, that this was a place Polish army officers were imprisoned during WWII, before being shot to death on Stalin's orders. It's part of the story known as the brutal "Katyn Massacre," its history shrouded in mystery until recently.

That's how I learned first hand the history, culture, traditions and folkways of the people. I learned about Starobelsk poets and writers, artists, embroiderers, jewelry makers and dressmakers. I learned about Ukrainian national culture, sometimes strained, but I focused on the things that united Ukraine east to west of the Dneiper River.

It's hard to accept that Manafort, on the contrary, exploited and even provoked divisions on behalf of Putin and against the interests of Ukraine and its people. It's hard to accept that he helped shove Putin's puppet Yanukovich down Ukrainians' throats, helped imprison Yulia Tymoshenko, and used the same propaganda techniques during Ukraine's 2010 election that were subsequently used here during the 2016 Trump campaign. I believe Manafort and his associates carried his Russian connections with him to the Trump campaign, and worked on behalf of Putin against the United States as he had worked for him against Ukraine.

A collage of English Club photos: club meetings, getting books, sharing.

Meanwhile, I was busy working from the bottom up. I discovered that there was great interest in learning English and practicing with a native English speaker. That led to the English Club at the Public Library (Biblioteca).  I learned the Library had no English-language books. That led to a successful book drive, with friends from America joining in.  I learned the Library needed computers and the community wanted free public access to the internet. That led to an application to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which led to getting ten computers and WiFi for public access. I learned through my work with the human and women's rights NGO Victoria that many people were victims of violence or falsely detained for crimes they did not commit. That led to a "Know Your Rights" project that reached 10 rural villages around Starobelsk.

With friends after an English Club meeting. 

While I tilled the fields, as it were, Manafort milked the oligarchs. He was busy in Kyiv with his projects for undermining Ukrainian nationalism and making Putin look good in the USA.  He sure made more money than a Peace Corps Volunteer, who got a monthly stipend closer to what the average Ukrainian lived on, about $300 a month.  I wonder now what Manafort did with all the money from the Oligarchs.

Manafort flew all over the place, while I took trains and buses. At first, the 20 hour overnight train ride between Lugansk and Kyiv was a killer, and on top of that it took almost 2 hours to get to and from Starobelsk to Lugansk. I got used to it, grew to like it. I was a traveler meeting all kinds of interesting people: students, workers, teachers, nurses, a trucker, a psychologist, farmers, computer specialists, small business people. I made friends of strangers. As soon as they learned I was American, and that didn't take long, they wanted to talk. My Russian was basic but we managed to get around it. I doubt Manafort ever had these experiences.

Manafort hung out with the super rich and dined in mansions or ate at fancy restaurants, while I

Luba's Paska bread at Easter, a Ukrainian.
tradition.

Luba's New Year's Eve meal,
12 delicious salads

I ate delicious home-cooked meals with Luba, sometimes with her grown son Sergei or her grandson Nikita, often with her many friends. She was an extrovert--witty, brilliant, funny. She was a fa+++++ntastic cook, using fresh vegetables, herbs and fruits in season from her garden to make borscht, vereneky, and holubtsi. Luba prided herself on using "all natural" foods, no pesticides (Все натуральные продукты, без химических веществ). I also remember memorable meals with Natalya on Kyrova Street and with dear friends Olga, Tonya and Natalia the English teacher. I doubt Manafort could say the same.

Lunch at Olga's. I fell off my bike. and broke
my arm.  Home healing helped.

Not only did I savor the food but I savored the culture. I took the train all over Ukraine, to Lviv, Uzegorod, the Carpathians, Slavsky in the far west, down to beautiful Odessa and Crimea to the south. I spent as much time in Crimea as I could because my PCV friend Barbara worked with the Crimean Tatar library (forced to shut down). We visited fabulous places: Simferopol, Bachysaray, Yalta, Yevpretoria.  It saddens me that Crimea has since been been illegally invaded and occupied, Stalinized and militarized, its social fabric destroyed, its tourism economy in ruins, and the Tatars, the indigenous people, once again victims of Russian human rights abuses. 

Manafort doesn't care.  He doesn't care that the train station so many of us relied on in Lugansk or the beautiful airport in Donetsk have been destroyed. He didn't travel by train across Ukraine's sunflower fields, where a Russian BUK missile blew MH-17 out of the sky killing 298 people. He wouldn't know about those fabulous English bookstores in Lugansk either, where we bought books for the Starobelsk Library. They are gone. The great Taras Schevchenko National University is shut down.

Vera Flyat, head of NGO Victoria, at a seminar 
on women's rights in Lugansk. The women leaders 
learned from each other. I had the chance to
to tour the city & meet up with Lugansk PCVs..

With Natalia, the fabulous English teacher and
interpreter, & her husband Vasyl, at
the Lugansk Train station. 

Nor would Manafort know much about the dedicated non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that work on a shoestring to promote civil society and transparency in government, defend the poor, the disabled, the victimized. PCVs work with lots of NGOs. Sadly, their leaders had to flee the Donbas, along with thousands of other "internally displaced persons." When I hadn't heard from Vovo, director of an eastern Ukraine civil society NGO, I got worried. He finally emailed that he was living in Kyiv, that his name was on a target list and he had to leave his beloved Lugansk. My friend Serdar, whose family still lives in Crimea, fled to Lviv to finish dental school; he now volunteers his services on the front lines of war-torn Ukraine.

When I left Ukraine in 2011, unrest was growing, young people couldn't find jobs, taxes were rising and wages were going down.  The Party of Regions was viewed as a den of thieves, and Yanukovych's approval rating was lower than tRump's is now.  My friends in Starobelsk worried about their jobs and railed against the rampant, outrageous corruption. "What can you do?" I'd ask them. They'd smile at my American "can do" attitude. I was accused of being always positive! They would shrug their shoulders and say "That's the way it is" (Так оно и есть).

I didn't know when I left Ukraine how bad it would get, how unsettled, how vicious and violent. Then all hell broke loose.

What I didn't know then, what no PCV knew then, was that while we worked with dedication and enthusiasm to strengthen and support Ukraine, there were Americans like Manafort working to undermine it. While we worked on behalf of the people to help them build their communities, Manafort worked with Yanukovych on behalf of Putin to undermine loyalty to Ukraine. That remains one of the greatest shocks to absorb.

Sources:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/manafort-served-top-us-pols-sketchy-cast-abroad-200517899.html

https://qz.com/257563/the-invasion-of-ukraine-in-mab-satellite-photos-and-video/

Natalia Artelava, "How (Not To) Cover Lies," Coda, 3/28/2017.  Excellent article on how Putin went into Crimea and how his "alternative facts" propaganda campaign fooled western journalists.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/manafort-linked-accounts-on-cyprus-raised-red-flag/ar-BByZjc1

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/03/paul-manafort-trump-campaign 

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/122ae0b5848345faa88108a03de40c5a/manaforts-plan-greatly-benefit-putin-government

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/08/19/paul-manaforts-complicated-ties-to-ukraine-explained/?utm_term=.dfdd7a3389e7

*Steven Lee Myers and Andrew E. Kramer, "How Paul Manafort Wielded Power in Ukraine Before Advising Donald Trump," New York Times, July 31, 2016.  This is one of the best articles on Manafort's work in Ukraine.

This just out on Mariupol, as I was finishing up this blog: https://www.yahoo.com/news/ukrainian-state-security-officer-killed-163539924.html 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/20/world/europe/paul-manafort-ukraine-allegations-trump.html?_r=1.  Reprinted in the Kyiv Post, an excellent source for Ukraine news.

Natalya's beautiful beaded artwork, a special gift.
This photo doesn't do it justice.

Natalya and son Ivan visited me and my family
in Sylvania,  December 2016. We were amazed 
it really happened! She was visiting
 Ivan and his wife, who live and work in NYC.

The people of Mariupol protest Putin's aggression. "Putin out."
I think Putin still has his sights on this strategic  port town on the Sea of Asov.
(AP photo/Sergei Grits) 

My three host moms: Vera in Chernigov, where I had 3 months of culture and language training;
Olga (we're sledding down Panfelova Street; and for my last few months,
Natalya on Kyrova Street. All great cooks and fabulous women. 

Manafort helped Putin's propaganda machine, which was incessant and brutal, full of fake news and "alternative facts" before most western reporters knew what hit them.  Hyper cyber warfare full of hyper nationalistic propaganda.  Manafort even "echoed Putin's justification for the annexation" just recently saying the majority of its people wanted to be part of Russia. Wrong. I weep for Crimea and the Donbas.

Manafort views Ukraine as belonging to Russia. He thinks Crimea belongs there, too, recently saying "the people voted for it." That's a lie. It was a totally rigged election. People voted at the point of a bayonet, with only one choice on the fake ballots. Manafort was simply repeating the propaganda he had a hand in creating to whip up a hysterical nationalism in preparation for Putin's takeover. It infuriates me. But it was the election that served as the protoptype for our 2016 election, full of hyper cyber propaganda from Russian trolls and bots.

I view Ukraine as an autonomous sovereign nation with clearly defined, internationally recognized borders, with its own distinctive history and culture. Russia invaded the territorial integrity of a foreign country, and has gotten away with it. Russian-speakers had close ties to Russia, yes, but no more. They feel betrayed. Putin turned on them, like Stalin had done during and after World War II. It's a story told by historian Timothy Snyder in "The Bloodlands."  Today, in the Donbas, a renewed Ukrainian identity has been forged and it is stronger than ever. If nothing else Putin's aggression has solidified a sense of Ukrainian unity. Russia is a common enemy.

No on Neil Gorsuch

Photo: Leadership Conference on Civil Rights/Twitter

On March 22, the Supreme Court ruled against Neil Gorsuch's opinion in a case involving autistic children's access to a meaningful public education, as required in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion.  It was unanimous. 

This rejection of Gorsuch's reasoning says it all: His views of the law are extreme, in this case more extreme than the conservative justices on the Court.  

Gorsuch prides himself on being an "originalist," meaning he interprets the U.S. Constitution as it was originally written in the 1780s. He's stuck in the 18th century and calls it "the law."  In 1787, folks, only white males with property could vote. Does he support this, too?  

Do we really need a justice who channels John Jay (1789-1829), John Marshall (1798) or Roger B Taney (1777-1864), the most racist justice in America leading up to Civil War?  Do we really need another Antonin Scalia on the court for life?

This is the 21st century, and we have 21st century issues that the original founders could not have anticipated or imagined. We don't need a justice who rules against women, autistic children, and a frozen truck driver, and who supports big companies, bosses over workers, and "dark money" in politics, all in the name of "It's the law."

No, it's not the law, Gorsuch. It's YOUR opinion of the law, taking us back to 1787. 

Here are 10 reasons to vote "No on Gorsuch," which I've collected and borrowed from various online article.  He is no Merrick Garland, Obama's nominee and a true moderate.  
1. Thinks corporations are people who can hold religious views and deny women coverage for birth control. Remember Hobby Lobby.
2. Believes women are "manipulators," as in women "manipulate maternity leave."
3. Endangers Planned Parenthood. Come on folks, this is the 21st century. What's wrong with birth control?
4. Rules against the rights of people with disabilities, as in his ruling against autistic kids.
5. Opposes marriage equality and gay rights. Pence and the extreme-right evangelicals support him for this reason.That's why I call Gorsuch Pence on the Bench.
6. Rules against workers, like the frozen truck driver, and for employers & big companies.
7. Has ruled against Environmental Protection. Is he a climate change denier?
8. Has ruled against consumer protection.
9. Supports Citizens United, like the $10M 'dark money' now funding his campaign for the Court,which he refuses to discuss. If you want to limit the influence of money in politics, this is NOT your man.
10.Has weakened the Sherman anti-trust laws, and will continue to do so, with his narrow reading of the law. 

TIFF Final Night Honors Migrants and Mayans

The final evening of the 2017 Toledo International Film Festival concluded with Who is Dayani Cristal? (2013), a documentary drama that puts a human face on our current and distressing immigration policies, and Ixcanul/Volcano (2015), a Mayan-language film that takes us into the indigenous world of the Guatemalan Kaqchitel and their encounter with a cruel modern-day reality.

Who is Dayani Cristal? begins when the dead body of an unidentified young immigrant is found in Arizona's Sonora Desert with the words Dayani and Cristal tattooed across his chest. We learn that this "John Doe" is just one of hundreds of migrants who die every year in this "corridor of death." It's a sad and surprising fact. We follow along as the dedicated coroners and staff of the Pima County Coroner's Office, and employees at various consulates, work like detectives to put together the pieces of the puzzle in order to learn the man's identity. We are glad that, given the grim task, they are earnest and compassionate. The investigation runs parallel to the drama of a family in Honduras anxiously awaiting word about a missing migrant named Yuban, a beloved son, husband, and father of three children. We learn about the migrant's home, the family circumstances, the daily struggle to survive, and the reasons the young man decides to go to America. It's the universal dream of a better life that has pushed and pulled all immigrants throughout the ages.

Another thread in the developing investigation retraces the young man's journey from Honduras through Guatemala and across Mexico to the Arizona border, where he climbs over a high fenced wall onto the arid desert. He is holding "The Migrant's Prayer" for a safe journey, given to him by a priest who provides shelter and comfort along the rail route. The photography, of the landscapes of Central America and the Arizona desert, is stunning, but the journey, mostly atop trains, is treacherous and the outcome heartbreaking.

Marc Silver, the director who embedded himself in the Pima County Coroner's office to document the story, and Gael Garcia Bernal, the actor who plays the young migrant (also a producer), brilliantly develop the three threads of the migrant's story into a seamless and powerful mosaic of the human cost of migration. We can't help but think of how demented, in the face of it, the focus on building a wall. How cruel and insensitive the plans for mass deportations. How galling the attacks on immigrants when America is a nation of immigrants. How heartless the treatment of people who make the journey against the odds, and whose families are now under the gun, being disrupted, tragically so. It makes me weep.

The second film is no less haunting. Ixcanul, meaning volcano or more precisely the spirit of the

volcano in the Maya language, focuses on two strong women, a mother Juana, played by Maria Telon, and her daughter Maria, a shy 17-year old, played by Maria Mercedes Coroy. Director Jayro Bustamante insured the authenticity of the story, as well as its magic realism, by casting Mayans from the local community and training them to act in the film. It's lovely. Bustamante grew up in this part of Guatemala and learned Kaqchikel from his grandmother, though he was warned not to use it in public "for fear of getting bullied." This is how strong the prejudice is against the indigenous people.

Maria lives with her mother and father on a coffee plantation near the foot of the big mountain. They work hard, crushingly so, but they receive little wages in return. In a quiet but moving scene, the father hikes a long distance up the mountain, a huge bag of coffee on his shoulders, to get his money from the plantation overseers, only to be accused of adding water weight to the bag to make it look bigger than it was. He is thus denied the wages he has earned. It's a form of modern-day slavery that makes it impossible to survive. It reminded me of the sharecropping economy endured by former slaves after the American Civil War. The system was so exploitive and demeaning that sharecroppers could barely make a living, barely support families. They viewed sharecropping as another form of slavery, and it was. Out of desperation, farmers and sharecroppers left the South in the "Great Migration" to the North, swelling our cities and changing our culture. The ramifications of this internal migration are still felt today. Yes, we are all migrants and we are all immigrants in this land.

In Ixcanul the ever-present volcano is a silent witness to the struggle for survival."What's behind the mountain?" Maria asks. It's America, the dream of a better life. Pepe, the young suitor Maria is supposed to marry, falls under its spell, follows the dream, leaves Maria behind, and pregnant, and is not heard from again. It's the story of "Who is Dayani Cristal?" .

Another marriage is arranged for Maria, but not before her devastating encounter with the Spanish-speaking Guatemalan doctors and authorities who care for her after she gets a deadly snake bite. She survives, but she is told her baby did not. She is given a paper to sign, which is in Spanish and which she does not understand, and given a sealed coffin to take home for burial. Only when Maria opens the coffin to find it empty are the consequences of her signing a document in the hospital revealed. The language barrier had been used to take advantage of her. A thumb print had taken her baby away. The discovery is shocking and we gasped at the injustice. It was as if the volcano had suddenly erupted and destroyed everything in its path. Through the tragedy, the mother remains as strong as the volcano, and she helps Maria survive. Juana becomes the hero of the story, a determined survivor in the face of adversity, a bulwark of strength in the face of pain and depression, the elegant saving grace of her family.

Once the movie won accolades in America and abroad, it was well received in Guatemala, where filmmaking is new and a film that focuses on the indigenous populations is rare. It put the Guatemalan film industry on the map.

The evening program also featured a film discussion and a special performance by El Corazon de Mexico Ballet Folklorico. Dancers of all ages in wonderful costumes filled the stage of the Ohio Theatre. The beautiful dancing, in different styles, all with gusto, added to the celebration of diversity that makes Toledo's International Film Festival a wonderful asset to our welcoming community.

Art Connects Toledo and Mexico

 At the Sofia Quintero art exhibit, Rasquache Artist Residency. Some art work from the exhibit; street paintings and murals along Broadway; artists in Mexico, maybe Puebla; super volunteer Linda greets visitors.  

Exhibit catalogue.

An artist residency in San Francisco Cuapa Cholula, in the state of Puebla, Mexico, led to a wonderful exhibit at the Sophia Quintero Art and Cultural Center in Toledo, Ohio.  The Rasquache Residency, as it's called, honors the traditions and cultures of the pre-Hispanic indigenous people of the Cholula region in central Mexico and connects Mexican and American artists across cultures.

The Rasquache residency also seeks to increase awareness of the difficult situation of undocumented immigrants in the US, now under the threat of building a wall and deportations. It's a nightmare.  A friend at the exhibit said Border Patrol agents were scouring the neighborhood, stopping people, demanding documents. "We know them when we see them," another friend said, "in their large white van with green lettering." They said the intrusions are getting worse and people who have been long-time residents are scared.

Karina Monroy

That's why this exhibit is so important.  It's a bridge to understanding and a testimony to the contributions of Latino/Latina artists to our culture. The exhibit features the works of Mexican and American artists in residence and visiting artists and scholars. It consists of installations, video projects, ceramics, poetry, digital prints and drawings. It's a fascinating mix of artistic visions and mediums.

The 2016 artists are Matthew Sibley, Christina Erives, Sa'Dia Rehman, Karina A. Monroy, Jairo Banuelos, and Federico Cuatlacuatl. Visiting artists and scholars are Amy Youngs, Ken Rinaldo, and Leo Herrera. Kudos to all of them.

Toledo's Mexican-American community has a long history. I remember when Baldemar Velasquez, from a Texas migrant family who settled here, started the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) in 1967/1968. Another early organizer, Sesario, was recently honored for his work with FLOC and remains a stalwart member of the community. These were history makers.  I remember meeting Velasquez at a grape boycott protest in front of Kroger's grocery store near the Old West End, and hearing him talk about the struggle here in our own backyard. Migrant tomato pickers, who worked from sun up to sun down, were organizing to secure wages, jobs and decent working and living conditions.

Delicious tacos at Michoacana, the best. 

A walk along Broadway in South Toledo still feels like a walk down a Mexican street in a country I love and visit as often as possible, full of color, paintings on storefronts and restaurants, and fantastic murals. Even on an overcast day, it sparkles. In summer the neighborhood is ablaze with flowers and freshly grown vegetables and herbs in Sophia Quintero's thriving community garden. The bounty from the garden graces meals in private homes, businesses, and in restaurants.

And here's another reason to visit and support this important neighborhood. I think it offers the best Mexican food in the city. For authenticity, this is the place to be. My friend Teddy and I had the best tacos--fresh, homemade, tasty--at Taqueria La Autentica Michocana, a little restaurant next to where the art exhibit was held. Our visit to the barrio lifted our spirits at this time of mourning and outrage over what is happening to our government and our democracy.

Jairo Banuelos

The Sofia Quintero center was founded in 1996 by members of the Mexican American community to support Latino/a art, heritage and culture. The center is named after Sofia Quintero, the first Latina to be elected to the Toledo Board of Education.  Her life was cut short due to illness, but her spirit and determination live on through the multifaceted programs of the Center. "She is our angel, watching over our work," the director has said of her.

Last night, I think Sophia the angel was hovering over us and the neighborhood, and it felt safe and comforting.

Lies, damned Lies: Defamation of Character Grounds for Lawsuits?

Here are some definitions of defamation of character that I looked up online. It seems to me there are grounds for defamation lawsuits against tRump and his regime in the White House and Congress. 

Defamation is an act of communication that causes someone to be shamed, ridiculed, held in contempt, lowered in the estimation of the community, or to lose employment status or earnings or otherwise suffer a damaged reputation. Such defamation is couched in 'defamatory language'. Libel and slander are subcategories of defamation. Defamation is primarily covered under state law, but is subject to First Amendment guarantees of free speech. The scope of constitutional protection extends to statements of opinion on matters of public concern that do not contain or imply a provable factual assertion.


Slander is the oral communication of false statements that are harmful to a person's reputation and causes someone to be shamed, ridiculed, held in contempt, lowered in the estimation of the community, or to lose employment status or earnings or otherwise suffer a damaged reputation. Slander is a subcategory of defamation.

Libel is published material that is defamatory either on its face or indirectly;  the defamatory statement is about someone who is identifiable to one or more persons; the material is distributed to someone other than the offended party; i.e. published, as distinguished from slander. Publication may consist of a writing, printing, picture, effigy, or other fixed representation to the eye, which is communicated to another. There is an exception for certain privileged communications, such as those contained in answers to interrogatories, in affidavits, or judicial or legislative proceedings.

Under any of these definitions of defamation, slander, and libel, aren't there plenty of legal cases to be made against tRump/Bannon, McConnell/Ryan,  and other Republicans who stretch the truth to slander and libel opponents?  Aren't "alternative facts" defamation?

Doesn't Hillary have a case against tRump/kellyannspicer/fox/breatbart/Comey and the alt-right and alternative news sources who dehumanized and demonized her beyond recognition? Lied and made up stories? How about McConnell/Ryan obstructing president Obama and attacking him unmercifully for 8 years, and sitting on a Supreme Court nominee out of pure hatred and racism?

Are tRump's tweets and lies grounds for defamation and libel law suits?

Is deliberately undermining a candidate, as FBI Comey did at the end of the campaign, grounds for a defamation lawsuit?

How about the defamation of  a whole religious group identified in Trump's first executive order written by Bannon and Steve Miller, now in the Courts?

We are inundated with lies, damned lies, every day, compounded with the "alternative facts" and made up stories of the alt-right press and it's followers, including tRump. We have Jeffrey Lord and other tRump surrogates (who I can hardly name without cringing) on CNN and FOX spouting one deception after another. We have a guy in the White House who just kicked out some news media he didn't like from a press briefing, an attack on truth and freedom of the press.

We have lies propagated by Russia to interfere with and destabilize our election and in fact our government and our democracy.  It's actually similar to what Putin did in Crimea as he was preparing to invade and occupy Ukrainian land. Hr's gotten away with murder.

Aren't there grounds in any of these written and spoken words and actions for defamation suits?

TIFF Celebrates India's Magic Realism and New Zealand's Majesty

Pari takes her brother Chotu's hand as they begin their journey across the desert to
find the great Bollywood actor Shah Ruch Kahn,who is filming in Jaisalmer 
 and encouraging people to give their eyes so new surgery can restore the sight of the blind.   

The second night of the Toledo International Film Festival (TIFF) featured the films Dharak, (Rainbow in Hindi) by Indian filmmaker Nagesh Kukunoor (2014), and Hunt for the Wilderpeople, directed by New Zealander Taika Waititi (2016). They were enchanting movies, beautifully crafted. They opened our eyes to new worlds and illuminated TIFF's purpose to explore and celebrate cultural diversity and promote international understanding.

Both films tell the stories of young children without parents who are on their own paths to find their dreams and their sense of self in the larger world of relationships and place, fantasy and reality. Both films were shot in spectacular settings with stunning cinematography.  Dharak was filmed  in the great Thar desert of Rajasthan state in northern India, home of the fairy tale city of Jaisalmer, while Wilderpeople was shot in the lush green rainforests of North Island, New Zealand, near Auckland.

The stories unfold against sweeping vistas in perpetual motion, tan and yellow rolling dunes and ridges and wild vegetation in every shade of green swaying on mountain tops. These spectacular backdrops lend an almost other-worldly quality to the heroic treks and down-to-earth struggles of resilient and resourceful children in search of hope. Will Pari and Chotu, the kids in Dhanak, make it across the harsh, arid desert? Will Ricky and Hec, the "wilderpeople" in Waititi's film, survive the entangling bush?

Dharak is the story of an orphaned sister and brother, 10-year-old Pari, ever ebullient, and 8-year-old Chotu, who live in a small desert village with a wicked aunt and neer-do-well uncle. Chotu, played by Krish Chhabria, lost his eyesight in an accident when he was four years old, but he is a happy and precocious kid. Pari, played with wonderful effect by Hetal Gatta, had promised her brother that he would regain his eyesight before his ninth birthday, and that birthday is coming up in a few months. When Pari spots a poster announcing that her Bollywood idol Shah Rukh Khan is filming in Jaisalmer and that he is encouraging people to donate their eyes for special surgery there, she believes her hero will help her fulfill her promise.

Thus Pari and Chotu, hand in hand, walk the panoramic desert to Jaisalmer. It's truly a journey across the culture and history of Rajesthan as I remember it when a traveler in the late 1980s. Nagesh Kukunoor's India is full of light and sound and saturated color, sacred temples and profane places, and a lively cast of  cool and crazy characters, literally and figuratively. There is the fake fortune teller in heavy makeup and gaudy red costume; the stereotypical American hitchhiker walking the globe for peace, guitar in hand. There's the kidnapper out for no good and the kindly merchants who help with food, water and transportation. There's the stunning bandita dressed in the finest sari and adorned with beautiful jewelry holding a huge fake or real gun.  And there's the eccentric man who lost his family, went mad, and walks the desert with a steering wheel in his hands, going nowhere it seems. A magic realism combined with gritty reality defines the essence of the Indian spirit, and the filmmaker and the actors capture it beautifully.

The Great Brahmin temple in Pushkar, a holy Hindu city. Our
 driver Mr. Gupta took us there from Jaipur, another beautiful city

I perked up every time Chotu said his parents had lived in Pushkar, hoping for a shot of this beautiful white city. Instead, a deep blue lake surrounded by ghats and whitewashed temples rose up in my memory. I met a Hindu man there who took me by the hand as I was coming out of the great Brahmin Temple. He walked to the lake with me as he talked about being a holy man in India. I listened, enraptured.

When I told him I had to leave to join friends at the bazaar near the Temple, where I had seen a profusion of marigold garlands to buy for the gods, he held out his hand. I hesitated, looked at him, and gave him 20 rupees, not knowing if I had talked to a priest or a beggar.  That's when I learned that in India one never knows for sure, and it doesn't matter. And so it was in Dhanak the movie.

From India, following a taste of wonderful food from the Pan Asian Grill and a fluid and  powerful drumming dance performance by Kaze No Daichi Taiko Drum Ensemble, we traveled to New Zealand for the second film. I was again transported into a long-ago travel adventure that introduced me to the magnificent landscapes, diverse cultures, and wonderfully friendly peoples of New Zealand's North and South Islands, including the history and culture of the Maori.

Ricky and Hec in the New Zealand bush, wild and funny at times, learning
from and about each other, with an undercurrent of loss and abandonment.

Ricky the Maori warrior in mudface, ready to battle his demons.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople is a fascinating adventure drama about the lives of lost kids of all ages who are looking for close relationships and love. Ricky Baker, whose mother abandoned him, is "a city kid raised on hip hop and foster care" (program notes). He is played with great spirit by Julian Dennison. Ricky gets a fresh start in the New Zealand countryside when his zealous social worker Paula and her lackadaisical policeman sidekick Andy drop a jaded Ricky off at the ramshackle home of Bella, played with great warmth by Rima Te Wiata, and her husband Hector (Hec), played in a low key by Sam Neill, New Zealand's gift to cinema.  Hec is distant and self-absorbed, but Bella is able to soften Ricky's defenses with her amazing hunting skills (a wow moment) and the gift of a dog, which Ricky names Tupac, after his hip hop idol Tupac Shakur. Ricky has some pretty good moves, too, and a nice voice.  The happy birthday scene, Bella making up a song and Ricky joining in, is wonderful.

When Bella dies suddenly, and Ricky learns he'll be sent back to foster care, he decides to run away.  A city kid in the bush is pretty helpless,so it's a good thing Hec hunts him down and joins him on the run. Rumors spread that Ricky is with a molester, which starts a wild and crazy national manhunt that spreads like wild fire. It's a comedy of errors and close calls, along with meeting up with some wacky folks like Crazy Sam. Ricky and Hec become folk heroes, while Paula the social worker is given a grand canvas for her over-the-top enthusiastic pursuit of justice.

The film is tops in all categories, a fantastic cast, an up-and-coming director who also wrote the screenplay based on a Barry Crumb novel; and awesome cinematography and music.  I love the bush scenes in winter and spring, so verdant and stunning. Hec, who is illiterate, calls them "majestical."  And they are.

The beauty of the New Zealand Bush.  "Majestical" Hec called it.
"Majestic," Ricky corrected, but he was fine with "majestical," and it fit.

A hilarious car and helicopter chase looks to be the blazing end for our heroes, a sort of Thelma and Louise ending. But wait, that's not really the ending afterall. The end turns out to be a new beginning: the beginning of the blossoming of Hec, who is learning to read; the growing maturity of Ricky, with a new foster family who wants to get close; and the start of a real father-son relationship. It doesn't get any better than that. Ricky and Hec return to the bush, this time not to run away, but to be together, to photograph a beautiful bird, a huia, once thought to be extinct. They have found their calling. Love is not extinct, and hope springs eternal.

NZ Huia bird, sacred to the Maori.
I found it interesting that these birds
find a loving partner for life. Love birds, a
hidden & fitting symbol for this film.

                                                             
                                                                            * * * *

Saturday, February 18, Last night of the Film Festival 
5:00 pm  Who Is Dayani Cristal? (Mexico/USA)
8:00 pm  Ixcanul/Volcano (Guatemala)

TIFF is a collaborative project of the Lucas County Commissioners' Welcome Toledo-Lucas County (TLC), President Pete Gerken and Commissioners Carol Contrada and Tina Skeldon Wozniak; the Ohio Theatre and Event Center; and United North, a community development corporation in Toledo's Old North End.

Thanks to TIFF's community partners: Zonta Club of Toledo, NAAP (Network of Arab American Professionals), Toledo/Lucas County Public Library, BGSU Department of Theatre & Film, Sofia Quintero Art and Cultural Center, World Affairs Councils of America, BGSU School of Cultural and Critical Studies, Leadership Toledo, Glass City Rollers, ABLE (Advocates for Basic Equality), La Conexion de Wood County, Toledo/Lucas County Sustainability Commission, BGSU Global Village, MultiFaith Council of Northwest Ohio, Adelante.

Sponsors include: Toledo Sister Cities International, Lucas County, The Fair Housing Center, S&G, Toledo/Lucas County Public Library, Manos Greek Restaurant, the Jewish Federation of Greater Toledo, and Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, LLP.