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Gay Artist Juan Carlos Cabrera, Survivor of Domestic Violence, Has Show in Greenwich, Connecticut

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Artist Juan Carlos Cabrera-Ramirez has all too acute an understanding of how anti-gay domestic violence inside a single house can be a reflection of anti-gay domestic violence, so to speak, on a national scale, with a heterosexist majority oppressing LGBT minorities. Native to Tumbes on the northernmost coast of Peru, the now 33-year-old Cabrera even at an early age was subject to abuse from his own parents, who deemed him too gay-seeming. Early on, he manifested a spark of creativity which they tried to snuff, viewing creativity as a thing for maricones. After seven years in Lima, Cabrera in 2002 came to New York, here finding worlds of liberated inspiration. Tragically, he fell into the clutches of a gay domestic violence abuser, who at the end of a two-year reign of terror against him hoisted him into the air, slammed him to the ground and then trampled him, rupturing his spleen.

Artist Juan Carlos Cabrera

His abuser, who has been featured on Live With Regis as a New York City real estate expert, was arraigned on a felony assault charge and eventually convicted of assault, but given a wrist-slap sentence in a criminal justice process gruelling to Cabrera, who still struggles against severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Just over a year ago, though, Cabrera began art therapy sessions at a dedicated domestic violence victims’ center at a YWCA in Greenwich, Connecticut. The results have been astonishing, with Cabrera turning out artwork after artwork, many expressive of his ever-increasing self-acceptance and pride in being gay. An art show including his works continues at the Y through October.

“I felt such a hunger to express myself, ” he says in his charmingly accented English, “but I just couldn’t find a way to throw off my fears and inhibitions. I was always too shy to take that risk. I guess my God was waiting for the right moment to show me my direction.”

Raised Catholic, Cabrera has a personal feel for his faith that is very much at odds with the gay-bashing politics of the Catholic Church. “He’s El Demonio,” the Devil, he’ll say, in reference to Ratzinger. “That thing isn’t even human. Uck; look at it. How dare he talk against gay people and their rights, when I know that God made me gay, and loves me exactly the way I am?”

Sueño con Flores

Of the dozens and dozens of works Cabrera has so far created, some are oils, others are acrylics, still others water colors – and many are in soft pastels, even crayon. Like many of his creations, Sueño con Flores, which in English the artist calls Dreaming with Flowers, was inspired by a dream. “I like to experiment with different paints and artist’s pencils . . . I’ll just pick up what appeals to me at a given moment and run with it. Sueño con Flores is done in water colors and carbon pencil. The different textures . . . the solidity of the background, the whimsical appearance of the magenta flowers . .  . it shows a masculine and a feminine side.  We all have it, we accept it and we show it, I say. ”

Joie de vivre bursts forth from Cabrera’s painting ¡España! — an abstract expression of Cabrera’s pride in la tierra madre – Spain — the ultimate homeland for all Latino people. Of his painting Energìa Sexual (image, below) – Sexual Energy – he says “This communicates my steadily growing acceptance of and excitement over the Pandora’s box of my sexuality – as full of surprises, colors and vibrancy as life itself.”

Cabrera has strong feelings about the gay community’s, as well as the wider society’s failure to impose strong deterrent penalties on domestic violence offenders. “More, much more needs to be done to get victims the escape from torture and the humane treatment they deserve. I know from my experiences that you become trapped, not just in the psychology of it but literally trapped into a corner with an abuser lording his power over you and making you fearful that he will kill you if you tell the outside world what is happening. It’s a nightmare, a total nightmare. And did you know that in all of New York City, there isn’t one dedicated refuge for gay victims of domestic violence?” Now there’s an idea for the philanthropically inclined.

Fuerza y Coraje

Cabrera’s first-ever painting, Amoris, was a phallic image that he created staying up until dawn in a white heat of inspiration. While making touch-ups to it later, he accidently ripped the canvass a bit and then, for reasons not yet fully clarified, destroyed the work. Missing it later on, he created a pride rainbow overlaid with kissing doves that he calls Amoris, la Resurrección. “Each of my paintings has a very individual energy,” he says, “even the ones that deal with heavy subjects, and pain and sorrow, give me more and more strength as I look at, study and live with them.” Fuerza y Coraje, Strength and Courage, shows a wounded bird, summoning all his inner resources to escape from a perilous situation out to safety.

Another work that didn’t survive reworking was El Ojo de Jesús, inspired by Cabrera’s recollections of his mother singing him a Spanish-language children’s song, Palomita Blanca, Palomita Azul. The little blue dove of that painting, though, was reborn as the more forceful adult bird depicted in Melancolia. Esperanza, Hope, (image, top,) depicts Cabrera’s present goals with his art. “Painting is more than just making beautiful things,” he says. “Painting is the reflection of my soul. With my art, I would like to convey a message of hope for a better world, filled with harmony, respect, tolerance and solidarity.”

 

Energìa Sexual

Energìa Sexual

New York City-​based novelist and freelance writer Scott Rose’s LGBT-​interest by-​line has appeared on Advocate​.com, PoliticusUSA​.com, The New York Blade, Queerty​.com, Girlfriends and in numerous additional venues. Among his other interests are the arts, boating and yachting, wine and food, travel, poker and dogs. His “Mr. David Cooper’s Happy Suicide” is about a New York City advertising executive assigned to a condom account.

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‘Assassination of Political Rivals as an Official Act’: AOC Warns Take Trump ‘Seriously’

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April 25, 2024

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Democratic U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is responding to Thursday’s U.S. Supreme Court hearing on Donald Trump’s claim he has “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution because he was a U.S. president, and she delivered a strong warning in response.

Trump’s attorney argued before the nation’s highest court that the ex-president could have ordered the assassination of a political rival and not face criminal prosecution unless he was first impeached by the House of Representatives and then convicted by the Senate.

But even then, Trump attorney John Sauer argued, if assassinating his political rival were done as an “official act,” he would be automatically immune from all prosecution.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, presenting the hypothetical, expressed, “there are some things that are so fundamentally evil that they have to be protected against.”

RELATED: Justices’ Views on Trump Immunity Stun Experts: ‘Watching the Constitution Be Rewritten’

“If the president decides that his rival is a corrupt person, and he orders the military, or orders someone to assassinate him, is that within his official acts for which he can get immunity?” she asked.

“It would depend on the hypothetical, but we can see that could well be an official act,” Trump attorney Sauer quickly replied.

Sauer later claimed that if a president ordered the U.S. military to wage a coup, he could also be immune from prosecution, again, if it were an “official act.”

The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols, a retired U.S. Naval War College professor and an expert on Russia, nuclear weapons, and national security affairs, was quick to poke a large hole in that hypothetical.

“If the president suspends the Senate, you can’t prosecute him because it’s not an official act until the Senate impeaches …. Uh oh,” he declared.

RELATED: Justices Slam Trump Lawyer: ‘Why Is It the President Would Not Be Required to Follow the Law?’

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blasted the Trump team.

“The assassination of political rivals as an official act,” the New York Democrat wrote.

“Understand what the Trump team is arguing for here. Take it seriously and at face value,” she said, issuing a warning: “This is not a game.”

Marc Elias, who has been an attorney to top Democrats and the Democratic National Committee, remarked, “I am in shock that a lawyer stood in the U.S Supreme Court and said that a president could assassinate his political opponent and it would be immune as ‘an official act.’ I am in despair that several Justices seemed to think this answer made perfect sense.”

CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen, a former U.S. Ambassador and White House Special Counsel for Ethics and Government Reform under President Barack Obama, boiled it down: “Trump is seeking dictatorial powers.”

Watch the video above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘They Will Have Thugs?’: Lara Trump’s Claim RNC Will ‘Physically Handle the Ballots’ Stuns

 

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Justices’ Views on Trump Immunity Stun Experts: ‘Watching the Constitution Be Rewritten’

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April 25, 2024

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Legal experts appeared somewhat pleased during the first half of the Supreme Court’s historic hearing on Donald Trump’s claim he has “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution because he was the President of the United States, as the justice appeared unwilling to accept that claim, but were stunned later when the right-wing justices questioned the U.S. Dept. of Justice’s attorney. Many experts are suggesting the ex-president may have won at least a part of the day, and some are expressing concern about the future of American democracy.

“Former President Trump seems likely to win at least a partial victory from the Supreme Court in his effort to avoid prosecution for his role in Jan. 6,” Axios reports. “A definitive ruling against Trump — a clear rejection of his theory of immunity that would allow his Jan. 6 trial to promptly resume — seemed to be the least likely outcome.”

The most likely outcome “might be for the high court to punt, perhaps kicking the case back to lower courts for more nuanced hearings. That would still be a victory for Trump, who has sought first and foremost to delay a trial in the Jan. 6 case until after Inauguration Day in 2025.”

Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern, who covers the courts and the law, noted: “This did NOT go very well [for Special Counsel] Jack Smith’s team. Thomas, Alito, and Kavanaugh think Trump’s Jan. 6 prosecution is unconstitutional. Maybe Gorsuch too. Roberts is skeptical of the charges. Barrett is more amenable to Smith but still wants some immunity.”

READ MORE: ‘To Do God Knows What’: Local Elections Official Reads Lara Trump the Riot Act

Civil rights attorney and Tufts University professor Matthew Segal, responding to Stern’s remarks, commented: “If this is true, and if Trump becomes president again, there is likely no limit to the harm he’d be willing to cause — to the country, and to specific individuals — under the aegis of this immunity.”

Noted foreign policy, national security and political affairs analyst and commentator David Rothkopf observed: “Feels like the court is leaning toward creating new immunity protections for a president. It’s amazing. We’re watching the Constitution be rewritten in front of our eyes in real time.”

“Frog in boiling water alert,” warned Ian Bassin, a former Associate White House Counsel under President Barack Obama. “Who could have imagined 8 years ago that in the Trump era the Supreme Court would be considering whether a president should be above the law for assassinating opponents or ordering a military coup and that *at least* four justices might agree.”

NYU professor of law Melissa Murray responded to Bassin: “We are normalizing authoritarianism.”

Trump’s attorney, John Sauer, argued before the Supreme Court justices that if Trump had a political rival assassinated, he could only be prosecuted if he had first been impeach by the U.S. House of Representatives then convicted by the U.S. Senate.

During oral arguments Thursday, MSNBC host Chris Hayes commented on social media, “Something that drives me a little insane, I’ll admit, is that Trump’s OWN LAWYERS at his impeachment told the Senators to vote not to convict him BECAUSE he could be prosecuted if it came to that. Now they’re arguing that the only way he could be prosecuted is if they convicted.”

READ MORE: Biden Campaign Hammers Trump Over Infamous COVID Comment

Attorney and former FBI agent Asha Rangappa warned, “It’s worth highlighting that Trump’s lawyers are setting up another argument for a second Trump presidency: Criminal laws don’t apply to the President unless they specifically say so…this lays the groundwork for saying (in the future) he can’t be impeached for conduct he can’t be prosecuted for.”

But NYU and Harvard professor of law Ryan Goodman shared a different perspective.

“Due to Trump attorney’s concessions in Supreme Court oral argument, there’s now a very clear path for DOJ’s case to go forward. It’d be a travesty for Justices to delay matters further. Justice Amy Coney Barrett got Trump attorney to concede core allegations are private acts.”

NYU professor of history Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an expert scholar on authoritarians, fascism, and democracy concluded, “Folks, whatever the Court does, having this case heard and the idea of having immunity for a military coup taken seriously by being debated is a big victory in the information war that MAGA and allies wage alongside legal battles. Authoritarians specialize in normalizing extreme ideas and and involves giving them a respected platform.”

The Nation’s justice correspondent Elie Mystal offered up a prediction: “Court doesn’t come back till May 9th which will be a decision day. But I think they won’t decide *this* case until July 3rd for max delay. And that decision will be 5-4 to remand the case back to DC, for additional delay.”

Watch the video above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Doesn’t Care if Pregnant Women Live or Die’: Alito Slammed Over Emergency Abortion Remarks

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Justices Slam Trump Lawyer: ‘Why Is It the President Would Not Be Required to Follow the Law?’

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7 hours ago

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April 25, 2024

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Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court hearing Donald Trump’s claim of absolute immunity early on appeared at best skeptical, were able to get his attorney to admit personal criminal acts can be prosecuted, appeared to skewer his argument a president must be impeached and convicted before he can be criminally prosecuted, and peppered him with questions exposing what some experts see is the apparent weakness of his case.

Legal experts appeared to believe, based on the Justices’ questions and statements, Trump will lose his claim of absolute presidential immunity, and may remand the case back to the lower court that already ruled against him, but these observations came during Justices’ questioning of Trump attorney John Sauer, and before they questioned the U.S. Dept. of Justice’s Michael Dreeben.

“I can say with reasonable confidence that if you’re arguing a case in the Supreme Court of the United States and Justices Alito and Sotomayor are tag-teaming you, you are going to lose,” noted attorney George Conway, who has argued a case before the nation’s highest court and obtained a unanimous decision.

But some are also warning that the justices will delay so Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of Trump will not take place before the November election.

READ MORE: ‘To Do God Knows What’: Local Elections Official Reads Lara Trump the Riot Act

“This argument still has a ways to go,” observed UCLA professor of law Rick Hasen, one of the top election law scholars in the county. “But it is easy to see the Court (1) siding against Trump on the merits but (2) in a way that requires further proceedings that easily push this case past the election (to a point where Trump could end this prosecution if elected).”

The Economist’s Supreme Court reporter Steven Mazie appeared to agree: “So, big picture: the (already slim) chances of Jack Smith actually getting his 2020 election-subversion case in front of a jury before the 2024 election are dwindling before our eyes.”

One of the most stunning lines of questioning came from Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who said, “If someone with those kinds of powers, the most powerful person in the world with the greatest amount of authority, could go into Office knowing that there would be no potential penalty for committing crimes. I’m trying to understand what the disincentive is, from turning the Oval Office into, you know, the seat of criminal activity in this country.”

READ MORE: ‘Doesn’t Care if Pregnant Women Live or Die’: Alito Slammed Over Emergency Abortion Remarks

She also warned, “If the potential for criminal liability is taken off the table, wouldn’t there be a significant risk that future presidents would be emboldened to commit crimes with abandon while they’re in office? It’s right now the fact that we’re having this debate because, OLC [Office of Legal Counsel] has said that presidents might be prosecuted. Presidents, from the beginning of time have understood that that’s a possibility. That might be what has kept this office from turning into the kind of crime center that I’m envisioning, but once we say, ‘no criminal liability, Mr. President, you can do whatever you want,’ I’m worried that we would have a worse problem than the problem of the president feeling constrained to follow the law while he’s in office.”

“Why is it as a matter of theory,” Justice Jackson said, “and I’m hoping you can sort of zoom way out here, that the president would not be required to follow the law when he is performing his official acts?”

“So,” she added later, “I guess I don’t understand why Congress in every criminal statute would have to say and the President is included. I thought that was the sort of background understanding that if they’re enacting a generally applicable criminal statute, it applies to the President just like everyone else.”

Another critical moment came when Justice Elena Kagan asked, “If a president sells nuclear secrets to a foreign adversary, is that immune?”

Professor of law Jennifer Taub observed, “This is truly a remarkable moment. A former U.S. president is at his criminal trial in New York, while at the same time the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing his lawyer’s argument that he should be immune from prosecution in an entirely different federal criminal case.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Blood on Your Hands’: Tennessee Republicans OK Arming Teachers After Deadly School Shooting

 

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