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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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News

Trump Doubles Down Calling Egg Prices ‘Too Low’ as Costs Soar to Record Highs

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April 18, 2025

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In the days leading up to Easter, President Donald Trump has repeatedly—and falsely—claimed that egg prices have plummeted to the point of being “too low,” baselessly citing steep double-digit declines—even as Americans face record-high prices at the grocery store.

“The egg prices are down 87 percent, but nobody talks about that,” the President said on Friday. “You can have all the eggs you want, we have too many eggs, in fact, if anything the prices are getting too low.”

Trump campaigned on the promise he would lower the price of groceries “on day one,” a promise that three months later is not only unfulfilled, but in some cases reversed: overall grocery prices have risen.

READ MORE: ‘Taunting SCOTUS’: Concerns Mount Over ‘Openly Contemptuous’ White House

On Thursday, Trump claimed the price of eggs had dropped 92%, while berating a reporter and his Federal Reserve Chairman.

“The price of groceries are substantially down,” the president falsely claimed.

The price of eggs, you know, when I came in, they hit me with eggs. I just got there, I was here for one week, and they started screaming, ‘Eggs have gone through the roof.’ I said, ‘I just got here.’

“They went up 87%, and you couldn’t get them,” Trump told reporters. “They said, ‘You won’t have eggs for Easter,’ which is coming up. Happy Easter, everybody.You won’t have eggs for Easter.”

“And we did an unbelievable job, and now eggs are all over the place and the price went down 92 percent,” he claimed.

READ MORE: Trump’s Latest Target: The Watchdog That Keeps Suing Him

Last week on Monday, Trump had claimed, falsely, that egg prices had dropped 79%.

Egg prices, Newsweek reported on Wednesday, “continued to climb despite recent efforts by the Trump administration to combat the shortage brought about by the ongoing bird flu with imports of Turkish eggs. The CPI egg index jumped by 5.9 percent from February and was up 60.4 percent compared to March 2024, and the average price for a dozen grade A large eggs climbed 5.6 percent to a record $6.23.”

Moe Davis, the well-known retired U.S. Air Force colonel, attorney, and former administrative law judge, posted to social media a federal government chart of egg prices.

“According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,” Davis wrote, “the price of a dozen eggs in March was $6.23, the highest price ever recorded and 26% higher than in January when Trump took office. Of course if Trump says egg prices are down then the MAGA cult is obliged to say egg prices are down.”

Watch the video above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Things Like This Take Place’: Trump Shrugs Off Mass Shooting Despite Once Being a Target

 

Image via Reuters

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‘Taunting SCOTUS’: Concerns Mount Over ‘Openly Contemptuous’ White House

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14 hours ago

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April 18, 2025

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The Trump White House is coming under fire for what appears to be an attempt to mock the U.S. Supreme Court, the facts in the case of a Maryland man wrongly deported to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, and The New York Times.

The White House’s official account on the social media platform X posted a “corrected” version of a New York Times story—corrections that have drawn concern and scorn from the legal community and political commentators.

“Senator Meets With Wrongly Deported Maryland Man in El Salvador,” read a screenshot of the Times’ headline.

But the White House’s version (below), complete with red ink and cross outs, reads: “Senator Meets With MS-13 Illegal Alien in El Salvador Who Is Never Coming Back.”

The White House added remarks saying, “Fixed it for you, @NYTimes. Oh, and by the way, @ChrisVanHollen — he’s NOT coming back.”

Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) traveled to El Salvador this week and, after several days, was finally permitted to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia—the legal U.S. resident whom the Trump administration has admitted in court it wrongly deported. Multiple courts, including the Supreme Court, have ordered the administration to “facilitate” his return. Yet the Trump administration appears to be refusing.

Friday’s claim that Abrego Garcia is “never coming back” was taken as a serious statement of intent by some.

Attorney Aaron Regunberg wrote: “The White House is saying he’s ‘never coming back’ — they are explicitly declaring they will violate a unanimous Supreme Court order.” Calling out Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Regunberg wrote: “you said this was your red line that would trigger ‘extraordinary action.’ So…where the f— are you?”

“2 telling things here,” offered The Washington Post’s senior political reporter Aaron Blake. “1) White House crosses out ‘wrongly,’ despite repeatedly acknowledging its error in court. 2) ‘who’s never coming back’ is basically taunting SCOTUS. Signals the opposite of any intent to ‘facilitate’ his return.”

“The White House press shop lies and claims Mr. Abrego was not wrongfully deported, despite having acknowledged that fact at every single stage of the court process; at the district court, the circuit court, and the Supreme Court,” noted attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick. “They are openly contemptuous of the truth.”

Civil rights attorney Patrick Jaicomo, replying to the White House, wrote: “There is a mistake in the headline. You didn’t wrongly deport Garcia. You wrongly imprisoned him without due process. So, fix your mistake, as the courts have ordered. You don’t have to keep doubling down on bad decisions.”

Attorney Dilan Esper added, “I’ll remind you that the federal judges issuing orders see this.”

Veteran journalist John Harwoood called it, “disgusting fascism,” and wrote that “the Trump WH is garbage from top to bottom.”

Opinion writer Magdi Jacobs noted, “They’re moving from evading the judiciary to openly mocking it. This is very dangerous territory.”

Some others addressed what they appeared to suggest was the juvenile nature of the White House’s post.

“When you graduate from 4chan and land your first job at the White House,” wrote Talking Points Memo publisher Josh Marshall.

“The Trump admin really wants to distract people from the fact that it illegally sent someone to El Salvador in violation of a court order & binding law, either out of malice or sheer incompetence. No amount of s—posting will change that,” said Reason magazine’s Billy Binion.

“This is the evil of the Trump White House,” remarked Fred Wellman, an Army veteran, political consultant, and the host of the podcast “On Democracy.”

Journalist and author Robert Lusetich observed: “The White House, an ever-lasting symbol of the power, dignity and greatness of the United States. Now, a trolling meme account.”

Anti-gun-violence activist Fred Guttenberg declared the White House is “staffed by pathetic punk 2nd grade pre pubescent children.”

Journalist James Surowiecki commented, “Your tax dollars are paying for this childish cr–.”

See the White House’s social media post above or at this link.

 

Image via Reuters

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Trump’s Latest Target: The Watchdog That Keeps Suing Him

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16 hours ago

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April 18, 2025

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From the outset of his 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump signaled that a central focus of his presidency would be targeting and exacting retribution against his critics.

“In 2016, I declared, ‘I am your voice,’” Trump told attendees at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference in March 2023. “Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”

In keeping his retribution vow, Trump in just three months—often with the use of the power of his executive orders—has targeted for retribution numerous top law firms, revoked the security clearances of dozens of top national security experts, former government officials, and former political opponents. He has targeted top universities, threaten to defund millions of dollars or more in critical research grants, and declared top news outlets CNN and MSNBC “corrupt” and “illegal.”

Just days after the 2024 election, NPR reported that during the campaign, “Trump made more than 100 threats to investigate, prosecute, imprison or otherwise punish his perceived enemies, including political opponents and private citizens.”

READ MORE: ‘Things Like This Take Place’: Trump Shrugs Off Mass Shooting Despite Once Being a Target

On Thursday, Trump threatened to go after one of his top legal critics: CREW, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit legal and ethics watchdog that has been working for years to hold him (and others) to account, often by suing.

Asked by a reporter what group he would like to see have their tax exempt status removed, Trump replied, “Well, we’ll be making some statements, but it’s a big deal.”

“They’re so rich and so strong, and then they go so bad, they’ve earned so much by being a member of this country, you know, a member of this group, this beautiful group of people in this country, and then they go and they abuse their power like that,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Thursday afternoon. “I think it’s, you know, I think it’s very sad.”

“I have a group named CREW,” he continued. “CREW. You ever hear of it? I think it’s CREW, and they have a guy that heads CREW. It’s supposed to be a charitable organization. The only charity they had is going after Donald Trump. So we’re looking at that.”

“We’re looking at a lot of things, but if you take a look at CREW, what they’ve done, and I think it was a very big abuse, but we’re going to be finding out pretty soon.”

During Trump’s first and second terms, CREW sued Trump or his administration for alleged emoluments clause violations, alleged Presidential Records Act noncompliance, and challenged some of his executive orders. It also represented voters in a lawsuit attempting to use the 14th Amendment to remove him from the ballot, claiming his role in the January 6, 2021 insurrection was constitutionally disqualifying.

READ MORE: ‘Full Time Babysitter’: Treasury Secretary Urges Caution After Trump Fed Chair Threat

In January, CREW was part of a lawsuit suing to “block Trump’s illegal plan to fire government workers,” and in February, CREW sued the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) “to compel transparency.”

CREW, in a statement to NCRM, vowed to continue its work.

“For more than 20 years, CREW has exposed government corruption from politicians of both parties who violate the public trust and has worked to promote an ethical, transparent government,” CREW Vice President of Communications Jordan Libowitz said. “Good governance groups are the heart of a healthy democracy. We will continue to do our work to ensure Americans have an ethical and accountable government.”

Legal experts are blasting Trump’s threat.

“It is literally a federal crime punishable by up to five years in prison for the President, VP, or any senior White House employee, to ‘request, directly or indirectly, any officer or employee of the IRS to conduct … an audit or other investigation of any particular taxpayer,'” wrote attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.

“The Trump administration has gone after law firms, they’ve gone after universities, and they’re now going after civil society, including groups like @CREWcrew. They want to silence any opposition to their extreme agenda,” added the National Women’s Law Center.

“President Trump is now threatening to weaponize the IRS against nonprofit organizations like @CREWcrew,” wrote Public Citizen. “He is attacking our most basic right: to say what we believe without fear of government prosecution. We proudly stand in solidarity with our friends at CREW.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

Watch the video above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Stunning Admission’: GOP Senator Says Colleagues ‘Are All Afraid’ of ‘Retaliation’

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