A Vacation in Spain (2): Guernica

One of the "must-see's" for my trip to Spain was Picasso's Guernica.  This mural-sized painting is perhaps the most moving and powerful anti-war painting in Western art.  It was returned to Spain from the Museum of Modern Art in New York some years after the death of the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco - Picasso having stipulated that the painting not be returned to Spain until democracy was re-established there.  It now resides at the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid.

On July 18, 1936, right-wing Spanish military officers in Spanish Morocco revolted against the elected leftist Republican government.  The rebellion, which became the Spanish Civil War, spread quickly to mainland Spain.  General Francisco Franco led the revolt of what came to be known as the Nationalist faction.

The Nationalists proposed the Basque village of Guernica to the Germans as a target to test the concept of aerial bombardment of cities.  "At about 16:30 on Monday, 26 April 1937, warplanes of the German Condor Legion, commanded by Colonel Wolfram von Richthofen, bombed Guernica for about two hours. Germany, at this time led by Hitler, had lent material support to the Nationalists. Later, intense aerial bombardment became a crucial preliminary step in the Blitzkrieg tactic." (Wikipedia entry "Guernica")

It was the first time that aerial bombardment had been directed against civilians in Europe (1).  The town of Guernica was annihilated.

Picasso's Guernica (Museo Reina Sofia)

Source Page  -  Fair Use

When the attack occurred, Picasso was struggling to create a large mural for the 1937 World's Fair in Paris.  The mural had been commissioned by the Republican government hoping to gain support for their cause.  Picasso read an account of the bombing of Guernica and immediately abandoned his original approach for the mural.  He began work on Guernica and  finished the painting, which is more than 11' tall and more than 25' wide, in 35 days.

While in Madrid, I visited the Museo Reina Sofia.  Guernica is the museum's most famous painting and its greatest attraction.  Set in a large room, it presents an impressive and powerful depiction of the human suffering caused by war.  As was true in the bombing of the village, most of the casualties are women and children.  On the left, a woman holds her dead baby and wails in agony.  On the right, what might be flames from the bombardment or the jaws of some beast consume a screaming person.

The light bulb at the top unmasks war as the senseless destruction of human life that it is.   A figure appears to be holding a light over the painful scene and enters the space from some outside position, becoming an empathic witness to the suffering.

The bull and the horse are animals associated with Spain.  Picasso refused to say what these figures symbolize in the painting.  The gored horse is thought by some to represent Spanish democracy, being destroyed by the Nationalists.  By others, the horse is thought to represent the innocents (the "non-combatants", the "civilians") suffering in the midst of war -  a "portrayal of the people as a helpless animal dying a senseless death, without the light of hope."  The bull, on the other hand, remains unharmed - the only figure in Guernica not in distress.  Is the bull a symbol of a fascist state watching impassively as the people suffer?  Or is it a future Spain that survives fascism and returns to democracy?

Picasso's great work is prophetic.  Although civilian casualties had occurred in past wars, the scale of the civilian suffering and death caused by bombing from the air was inconceivable.  Picasso captures the utter hopelessness of innocents in the face of overwhelming destructive force raining down on them from above.

I wonder how foreign policies would look if we thought of all children everywhere as our own. Then we could never wage war anywhere, because wars, especially in our time, are always wars against children, indeed our children.

- Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States

Note 1 - Correction (May 18, 2017): The original post did not contain the qualifier "in Europe." Sven Lindqvist in A History of Bombing (London: Granta 2001) provides at least nine earlier examples of the saturation bombing and/or bombing of civilians by Western powers against populations in colonial Africa and the Middle East.

A Vacation in Spain (1): Return to the Trumpocalypse

“O, wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion.”

- Robert Burns, "To a Louse"

After almost four weeks traveling - mainly in Spain, I am back in the US.  I did my best to avoid news from the Land of the Trumpocalypse but it was inescapable.  Europeans are looking on in astonishment at Trump's tweets and his ongoing gaffs, outbursts and contradictions.  Nearly everyone we spoke with about the situation in the US was somewhat mystified and/or appalled by Trump's election, rhetoric and executive actions.  A BBC news anchor wondered how the Trump budget was in any way "populist". Spanish newscasters got a kick out of reporting the number of executive actions issued in the short time Trump has been president.

As Trump issued his second travel ban for six Islamic countries and continued blathering about a border wall with Mexico, I saw a "Refugees Welcome" banner on a public building in Madrid while on a city tour bus.  Spain's unemployment rate is among the highest in Europe - hovering around 18%.  Yet here is this huge banner draped atop a public building.  What a contrast to the statements and actions of the leader of the richest nation on the planet!

As in the US, European democracies are also under threat from the far right, complete with anti-immigrant and Islamophobic rhetoric.  Britain's exit from the European Union was partly due to the far-right's ability to play on those fears.  Trump's election in November and his right-wing cabinet and advisers seemed to be yet another victory for this nationalist/nativist "populism". 

Finally, though, some good news for democracy came out of the Netherlands.  Voters there rejected the far-right in the national election on Wednesday March 15.  "Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte won reelection by a wide margin on Wednesday, defeating anti-Islam and Euroskeptic candidate Geert Wilders in a vote that was seen across Europe as a crucial test of democratic liberalism." (Christian Science Monitor, March 16)  The Dutch put a finger in the dyke, so to speak, at least for now....France, Germany and Italy have national elections in the coming months and far-right politicians are trying to gain more power.

Now back home, I wonder how long it will take for working-class Trump supporters to realize how little is being done for them.  Tax breaks for the wealthiest, increased funding for the obscenely bloated defense budget, and drastic cuts in domestic spending, environmental programs and foreign aid: this first Trump budget moves the country further down the path of inequality.  Hardly what anyone would call populist.  Tim Murphy in a Mother Jones article notes the ways Donald Trump's budget screws over the people who elected him.

Or does Trump and his administration just have to toss out the occasional red meat of anti-immigrant, Islamophobic rhetoric, mix in accusations against our first black president, and demean Obama's policies to keep their allegiance?

On the last point, I wish a Republican voter or Congressman would tell me how a health care plan that almost immediately deprives 14 million Americans of their health insurance while simultaneously providing a huge tax break for couples making over $250,000/yr is better than Obamacare.  Even those on the right are scratching their heads over the Republican health care plan.

In an interview with Paul Ryan, Fox News political commentator Tucker Carlson "suggested that Ryan was missing the big picture.  'The overview here is that all the wealth basically in the last 10 years has stuck to the top end. That’s one of the reasons we have had all this political turmoil, as you know,' Carlson said. 'So, it’s kind of a hard sell to say, ‘We are going repeal Obamacare, but we are going to send more money to the people who have gotten the richest over the last 10 years.’ That’s what this does, no? I am not a leftist; that’s just true.' ” (Salon, Mar 9)

Health care protests are springing up across the country but the House is too overwhelmingly Republican for the protests to stop the health care plan from passing.  At least 23 representatives would have to defect against what has been the primary rallying call for the party's base for the past seven years. Assuming Republicans get their health plan through the House, it will then be up to Senate Democrats to stop it.  Even the most outrageous of Trump's cabinet appointees were approved by the Senate and there is no reason to think that 3 or more Republican Senators would vote against the health bill. Democrats will need to filibuster it.

The courts are keeping Trump within the bounds of the Constitution - most recently by throwing his own words back at him. "In placing a temporary restraining order on the revised version of a Trump executive order restricting entry from Muslim majority countries, a federal judge in Hawaii cited quotes from several TV and print interviews of Trump and his surrogates.  'These plainly-worded statements, made in the months leading up to and contemporaneous with the signing of the Executive Order, and, in many cases, by the Executive himself, betray the Executive Order’s stated purpose,' wrote District Judge Derrick Watson.  A second federal judge in Maryland made a similar case on Thursday in a second restraining order." (Time, March 16)

So thank the founding fathers for the checks and balances.  We may yet be able to avoid becoming an autocracy within the next four years.

Trump's Foreign Policy: Aggressive and Dumb

It took 10 days for the glue that holds this country together to crumble. And our democracy is unraveling as quickly as our new President can sign executive orders.

- Linda Stasi (NY Daily News, Jan 31)

As if its domestic agenda wasn't bad enough, the Trump Administration is rapidly escalating tensions around the world with allies and rivals alike.  President Twitter's most recent forays into foreign relations have been a disaster.  I wonder if newly-confirmed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is having second thoughts about his position given the horror show he's being handed.

The "Mexico tariff to build the wall" fiasco has been followed by wide-ranging missteps and misguided threats.  The past week's shenanigans reminded me of a comment by my senior manager back some years ago.  Referring to some new hires, he said,  "There is no one as dangerous as an aggressive, dumb person."  And yet here we are...

Credit: calendariu.com

Trump's travel ban against refugees and seven Muslim countries met with instant and near-universal outrage. The UN, the Vatican and the EU have all issued statements opposing it.  (The Oklahoman, Feb 1)  A petition is circulating in the State Department against it.   An acting attorney general was fired for refusing to defend the executive order, deeming it unlawful.  Federal Courts have begun to issue injunctions and stays of deportation.  Four states and several cities are suing the Trump Administration's travel ban and its threat to limit funding to so-called sanctuary cities.

For centuries, America has been a refuge for people escaping oppression, war and poverty.  We even have a national monument dedicated to that sentiment.  And don't believe the nonsense about this refugee ban making us safer.  I can't see how a two-year-old Syrian given asylum in the US is any threat.

This week, Trump "lambasted the leader of Australia over a refugee agreement before...abruptly hanging up the phone, according to senior officials" in what was supposed to be an hour-long telephone call.  (NY Daily News, Feb 2)

The most troubling of the past week's escapades was the "putting Iran on notice" comment by National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who "made a surprise, first-on-camera appearance Wednesday, using the authority of the White House briefing room... 'As of today, we are officially putting Iran on notice,' Flynn said, in a statement condemning a recent Iranian ballistic missile [test] launch." In a briefing later in the day, an anonymous senior administration official "did not rule out the possibility of a military action against Iran. Asked whether the U.S response could 'include a military option,' the official said: 'We are considering a whole range of options. We’re in a deliberative process.' "  (CNN, Feb 2)

Let's hope they don't do anything too aggressive and dumb.

Trumpocalypse Week One: Alternate Reality

Facts and the truth are not partisan. They are the bedrock of our democracy. And you are either with them, with us, with our Constitution, our history, and the future of our nation, or you are against it. 

-  Dan Rather, January 22, 2017

It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.

― George Orwell, 1984

If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. 

- Joseph Goebbels

It's been just one week since the inauguration of the man who, in the words of The Atlantic magazine,  "might be the most ostentatiously unqualified major-party candidate in the 227-year history of the American presidency."  His first week in office goes a long way towards proving that conjecture.  The ignorance and distorted sense of reality evidenced by Trump and his inner circle are stunning.

The most obvious demonstration of ignorance in Trumpocalypse Week One is the border wall "tariff".  After universal mockery, the 20% tariff was quickly disavowed by the administration as just one of the ideas to build the $15 billion Trump Wall without costing Americans anything.  You learn about how tariffs work in Economics 101: the tariff is passed on to the domestic consumer.  If a consumer buys the products, she pays the price.  Also, the administration seems to have missed the fact that rules that govern world trade prevent a country from unilaterally imposing such a tariff.

Note to the Trump Administration: you cannot make up your own rules...or, for that matter, your own reality.

Trump continues to claim he would have won the popular vote were it not for millions of illegal votes.  This totally unsubstantiated statement is being disavowed even by Republicans.

Trump says the Park Service understated attendance at his inauguration.  But photos and Metro fare figures don't lie.  You are starting your term with a 36% approval rating.  Get over it.

The "alternative facts" comment of senior Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway makes us wonder if we have fallen into a time warp and landed in George Orwell's 1984. (Not coincidentally, that book hit the number one spot at amazon.com this week.)

These comments may seem trivial but the "illegal voters" lie can have some serious consequences for American democracy - especially in this era of disenfranchisement and voter suppression. The comments come at a time when we will soon have an Attorney General who thinks the Voting Rights Act is intrusive and who prosecuted and lost a "voter fraud" case against African-American civil rights activists in 1985.

As if this weren't bad enough, the Washington Post reports today: "In a private meeting with congressional Republicans this week, Vice President Pence vowed that the Trump administration would pursue a wide-ranging probe of voting rolls in the United States to examine whether millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 election as President Trump has charged."

What nonsense.  Every study ever made on voter fraud in the United States has found it to be so rare as to be almost non-existent.  Now, the party that has disenfranchised and suppressed millions of voters is undertaking an investigation on voter fraud.  Perhaps they will find "alternative facts" that fit their bizarre take on democracy.

Climate change will, of course, also be "under review" in the administration of Donald "Climate change is a Chinese hoax" Trump.  As the Associated Press reported, the Trump administration is requiring that political appointees review all Environmental Protection Agency studies and data prior to public release,  I guess in search of some "alternative facts."

Rounding out the week:
- An entire level of  career senior officials that manage the State Department, its outposts and its people resigned
- Our new ambassador to the UN warned U.S. allies that if they do not support Washington, then she is "taking names" and will respond
- The administration ordered that "all contract and grant awards [at the EPA] be temporarily suspended, effective immediately" and imposed a blackout on communicating with the public about taxpayer-funded work at the Agricultural Research Service.

I can't wait 'til Trumpocalypse Week Two.

And so the resistance begins

"Trump supporters are saying this is a day of reckoning.  

Well, yeah, as in, I reckon we are all f**ked."

- Bill Maher, Jan 20

Donald Trump's inauguration has come and gone.

Trump enters the White House with the lowest favorable rating of any President-elect in at least four decades.  He lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 3 million votes.  Attendance at his inauguration, from photographic evidence and Metro fares, was significantly less than that at either of Obama's inaugurations.  (Churlish as ever, Trump and his press secretary spent time on his first full day in office berating the media for "falsely reporting" the attendance.  The Trump Administration's grasp of reality apparently has not improved.)

In what could have been a healing and uniting inaugural speech, he failed miserably.

Trump didn't create our country's racial divide or its xenophobic mistrust, but he stoked their flames and rode those fears to victory.  His "all blood is red" was a paltry concession to the bigotry unleashed by his campaign.

Trump didn't create the bitter partisanship that dominates the political scene, but he lashed out at "all talk and no action politicians" - words similar to those he used to attack civil rights activist and Democratic congressman John Lewis.

When he pledged to end "the American carnage" of the inner cities and the rust-belt, he somehow seemed to lay this at the Democrats' doorstep.

When he spoke of  "forgotten men and women," one wondered if he meant all the American people, those of every color and creed.

When he declared "their victories were not your victories", one wondered whom he was addressing and what victories he was talking about.

Women's March, Washington D.C.
Credit: Slate.com Jan 21

The massive Women's March on Washington followed Trump's inauguration by a day.  More than a million people demonstrated across the country and around the world in solidarity.  Madonna's dropping the F-bomb got a lot of coverage, but it was Latina actress and activist America Ferrera who best expressed the sentiment of the marchers.  Ferrera declared that “our new president is waging a war” on the values that define the country with “a credo of hate, fear, and suspicion of one another....It’s been a heart-rending time to be both a woman and an immigrant,” said Ferrera, whose parents are from Honduras. “Our dignity, our character, our rights have been under attack....But the president is not America,” she said. “We are America.” (Washington Post, Jan 21)

In a more moderate vein, Pope Francis in his congratulatory message to President Trump said, "Under your leadership, may America's stature continue to be measured above all by its concern for the poor, the outcast and those in need who, like Lazarus, stand before our door."  But, as the French news agency AFP noted, in his inauguration speech, Trump gave little indication his thoughts matched the Pope's as he vowed to put only "America first" and to make it rich again.

Aside from his nationalist blathering, much in Trump's inaugural speech was good - if what he was saying was meant to address our nation's inequalities of opportunity and its income disparity.  The speech had a populist ring to it.  As with many of Trump's pronouncements, we need to look at his actions rather than just hear his words.  His generally appalling choices for the Cabinet and his initial orders after taking office do not give us much hope.  Within hours of his inauguration, he issued executive and administrative orders that would pave the way for dismantling the Affordable Care Act and put an end to President Obama's efforts to cut premiums on FHA-insured home loans for low-income home owners.

While many news organizations are touting they will "hold Trump accountable", the rest of us need to resist.  Resist mean-spirited bigotry.  Resist the alt-right's agenda.  Resist the marginalization of the vulnerable and of those different from ourselves.  Resist the assaults on civil and voting rights.  Resist despair and fear and finger-pointing.

And in four years time, take America back to its real, best values.

The Health Care Battle

The opening volleys in the shredding of the social safety net have been fired.  The 2017 Republican attack on the Affordable Care Act is officially underway.

Republicans have been threatening to repeal ACA since it was enacted.  Until now, President Obama's veto has been all that stood in the way.  On Thursday the Senate and on Friday the House adopted budget resolutions that, with simple majority votes, could repeal the Affordable Care Act without replacing it.

Democrats, notably including Senate Minority Leader Schumer, have promised to resist the Republican efforts at repeal unless there is a replacement plan in place.  "Senate Democratic sources familiar with Schumer’s thinking say he will not engage in any negotiations to pass a watered-down version of the landmark healthcare reform law if Republicans unilaterally force its repeal first under special budgetary rules." (The Hill, Jan 15)

On Saturday, president-elect Trump, who favors simultaneous repeal and replacement, entered the fray.  In an interview with the Washington Post, "President-elect Donald Trump said...that he is nearing completion of a plan to replace President Obama’s signature health-care law with the goal of 'insurance for everybody,' while also vowing to force drug companies to negotiate directly with the government on prices in Medicare and Medicaid." (Washington Post, Jan 15)

The Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") has helped at least 20 million people gain access to health care.  The uninsured rate has almost halved: dropping from 16% to 8.9%. (Bloomberg.com)

One of the most important elements of the Affordable Care Act is the Medicaid expansion.  The following graphic shows the states that would be at risk of losing this coverage.

Repeal of the ACA would have repercussions across the country:

• the number of uninsured would climb by almost 30 million by 2019 [1]
• the health care industry would lose $3 billion in premiums [1]
• the newly uninsured would seek an additional $1.1 trillion in uncompensated care between 2019 and 2028 [1]
• up to 3 million jobs in the health sector and other areas would be lost [2]
• $1.5 trillion reduction in gross state product from 2019 through 2023 [2]
• cost the Federal government $350 billion over the next decade [3]

In addition, repeal would seriously disrupt the health care market.  "The speed of Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act has stunned health industry lobbyists, leaving representatives of insurance companies, hospitals, doctors and pharmaceutical makers in disarray and struggling for a response to a legislative quick strike that would upend much of the American health care system." (Boston Globe/NYTimes News Service, Jan 10)

So, the rallying cry of the Republicans has become "repeal and replace."  Unfortunately, there is no Congressional Republican replacement plan that could pass Congress.  The Affordable Care Act took two years to craft.  To think that Republicans can come up with a suitable replacement in two weeks or even two months is ludicrous.  And that is the point of concern.  Is Republican hatred of Obamacare (and of Obama's legacy) so great that they will throw 20-30 million people off health care insurance, disrupt the market, blow a hole in the Federal budget and wreak havoc with state economies?

The Republicans have painted themselves into a corner.  For seven years, they have screamed about repeal.  It's been red meat to their base, a sure-fire vote getter.

Then, late last year, anecdotes started coming in from the hinterlands about Trump voters who were getting worried.  Concern was particularly high in coal country.  “ I voted for Trump,” Neil Yonts, who was a coal miner in Kentucky for 35 years, told CNN’s Miguel Marquez. But, he added, he felt it “may be a mistake” after being diagnosed with black lung disease and learning about the Obamacare protections, which may soon disappear. “When they eliminate the Obamacare they may just eliminate all the black lung program,” he said. “It may all be gone. Don’t matter how many years you got.”  (deathandtaxes website, Dec 26)

Now some Republican governors whose states benefit from the ACA are raising concerns.  At least "five of the...Republican governors of states that took federal money to expand Medicaid are advocating to keep it or warning GOP leaders of disastrous consequences if the law is repealed without a replacement that keeps millions of people covered."  (Politico, Jan 13)

These mounting concerns of Republicans combined with Democratic opposition to repeal and the as-yet-undisclosed Trump plan may be enough to slow the dismantling of the ACA until a replacement can be in place.  If not, if Republicans somehow successfully push through "partial repeal that keeps in place Obamacare regulations but not the spending to maintain the program,...[Republicans will create] a recipe for a long, drawn-out political catastrophe in which the individual health care marketplace slowly collapses." (Boston Globe, Jan 10)  And the lives of tens of millions will be affected.

[1]  "Implications of Partial Repeal of the ACA through Reconciliation", the Urban Institute 
[2]  CNBC, Jan 5 citing a joint study by the Commonwealth Fund and the Milliken Institute
[3] CNN, Jan 4 citing an analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget

Trump's Attorney General and the Future of American Justice

It doesn’t matter whether Sen. Sessions may smile or how friendly he may be, whether he may speak to you. We need someone who will stand up and speak up and speak out for the people who need help, for people who are being discriminated against. And it doesn’t matter whether they are black or white, Latino, Asian or Native American, whether they are straight or gay, Muslim, Christian or Jews. We all live in the same house, the American house.

- Rep. John Lewis (D-GA)

Senator Sessions has not demonstrated a commitment to a central requisite of the job: to aggressively pursue the congressional mandate of civil rights, equal rights, and justice for all of our citizens.

- Sen. Corey Booker (D-NJ) testifying at Attorney General confirmation hearings

Alabama State Troopers Attacking
Civil Rights Activist John Lewis - Selma, AL 1965

Corey Booker's and John Lewis' moving testimony not withstanding, Jeff Sessions will be confirmed as the Attorney General of the United States. Thanks to a Democratic- supported change in Senate rules several years ago at the height of Republican obstructionism, Democrats cannot filibuster his confirmation.  That no Republican senator will "cross the aisle" to oppose his nomination is a given. The moderate Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine is one of two senators introducing Sessions at the confirmation hearings. It is more likely that Democrats from some red states will break rank and vote to confirm Sessions.

Sessions is Trump's most controversial cabinet nominee, and he is nominated for what is arguably the most important domestic cabinet position.  The AG decides what laws the Federal government will enforce.  He can use that power to enforce voting and civil rights or he can use it to deport undocumented immigrants.  He can enforce environmental laws and labor protections or he can ignore them.  He can continue the criminal justice system reform started in the Obama Administration or he can let it wither.  He can expand the surveillance of the American people or he can dial it back.

So this anti-immigrant, climate change skeptic, defense hawk, right-wing Senator who opposes the Voting Rights Act, will soon be charged with protecting the rights of all of us.  He thinks the Voting Rights Act is "intrusive" but that voter ID laws (aka voter suppression laws) are not a problem. When Sessions was the United States attorney in West Alabama in 1985, he unsuccessfully prosecuted three African-American civil rights activists, accusing them of voter fraud.  This disgraceful episode, which he still defends as a necessary action, should have been more than enough to disqualify him for the post.  But politics and partisanship being what they are, Jeff Sessions will be confirmed.  

Southern Poverty Law Center's Heidi Beirich says that his mere presence in Trump's inner circle is “a tragedy for American politics.”   His attorney-generalship is more than that.  It is an affront to the most distinguishing right in a democracy - the right to vote.  

Our democracy and its freedoms are in danger - not from Russian hacks but from within.  Is this alarmist?  If you think so, take the example of North Carolina, a leader in the Republican gerrymandering and voter suppression efforts. A recent report from the Electoral Integrity Project, based at Harvard University and the University of Sydney, indicates that North Carolina can no longer be considered a functioning democracy.    In fact, the EIP ranked US elections last among all Western democracies.  The highly-acclaimed Varieties of Democracy Project (V-Dem) agrees.  The only democracy with the same general ranking for free and fair elections in V-Dem's study is Lithuania.

With the Federal government about to abrogate its duty to protect civil rights and voting rights and with xenophobia so richly rewarded in the last elections, we will once again, for the first time in many years, need to rely on private organizations such as the ACLU, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the NAACP, and the Immigrant Legal Resource Center.  Let's wish them success.