A Congressional Breath of Fresh from Detroit

From the Moscow Times on January 11: “The Associated Press on Friday cited activist Igor Kochetkov as saying Chechnya has seen a spike in detentions of women and men suspected of being gay since December. His comments came ... Show more

e on the back of an article by investigative outlet Novaya Gazeta — which first reported on a widespread crackdown on LGBT people in Chechnya in April 2017 — that gay women and men in the republic were once again facing persecution. The outlet said warnings were being posted on social media groups, citing one post which called on LGBT people to ‘flee the republic as soon as possible.’” The Moscow Times is the largest English-language newspaper in Russia, and they’re keeping up with this recently-renewed humanitarian crisis more quickly than any English-language newspaper in the United States. The New York Times got around to covering the story three days later. The AP story itself noted, ‘“Russian authorities kept denying that the killings and torture took place in the predominantly Muslim region where homosexuality is a taboo, even after one man came forward to talk about the time he spent in detention in Chechnya. Maxim Lapunov said he was detained by unidentified people on a str

Cuomo Lays Out His Pot Policy

Kudos to newly elected Detroit Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib for telling it like it is. Tlaib’s now famous “We’re gonna impeach the motherfucker!” induced Michael Moore to proclaim her a “breath of fresh air.” For the fi... Show more

� For the first time in American history we have elected a Muslim woman to Congress. In fact, we have two in the wake of the November election. What Tlaib said is simply what each and every one of us is thinking every day. Some members of Congress said they disapprove of her language. Perhaps they should stay home and listen to Mozart. Some of the people criticizing Tlaib also say we can’t have an intelligent discussion about impeachment until the Mueller report is concluded — a viewpoint that is as ridiculous as it is condescending. Sixty-six members of Congress voted to allow a vote for impeachment to move forward, including New York City’s Adriano Espaillat, Yvette Clark, Hakeem Jeffries, José Serrano, Eliot Engel, and Nydia Velázquez, as well as such progressive Congressional icons as Barbara Lee, John Lewis, Maxine Waters, Keith Ellison, and Al Green. These members of Congress had intelligent discussions and came to an intelligent conclusion. As a Michigan state senator, Tlaib

The Respite of Documentaries

Governor Andrew Cuomo released his plan to revamp New York State’s medical marijuana program and create a regulatory system for the legal sale of marijuana to adults over 21. His legalization program was spelled out in... Show more

in budget bills that accompanied his jubilant January 15 State of the State Address, where he spoke of being “liberated” because he will be working with a Legislature where Democrats control both houses. His proposal calls for hemp, medical marijuana, and recreational marijuana to be regulated by a new Office of Cannabis Management (OCM), which may be housed in the State Liquor Authority. Its actual spot in the bureaucratic chart will be decided between now and mid-March when the budget is nailed down. Medical marijuana is currently regulated by the State Health Department and those responsibilities would be transferred to OCM. West Side Assemblymember Richard Gottfried was pleased that reforms in the medical marijuana program would be part of the legislation, including giving OCM authority to expand the list of diseases that can treated with pharmaceutical grade marijuana. The current providers of medical marijuana — corporations that produce product and sell it in company-owned d

Love and Death Italian Style

As American films dumb down ever more, with mindless action and endless Marvel comic book heroes swamping the screen, anyone with intelligence needs to gratefully look at documentaries for substance, i.e., real stories abo... Show more

ut real people. One of the most important films of the year — a must-see for everyone — is “Crime + Punishment”, currently available on Hulu, directed, shot, and edited by Korean-American Stephen Maing. He focuses on the NYPD 12, a group of incredibly brave cops who spoke up about the pernicious and racist quota system of arrests, now supposedly illegal, which, however, is still being covertly enforced. The department’s demands for a certain number of collars each month — with minority neighborhoods being targeted — has led to false arrests, police brutality, and even death, as in the case of choking victim Eric Garner. The doc’s central figure, Manny Gomez, who left the force over his disagreement with this policy, made it his mission to try and end it, incurring the wrath of seemingly the entire NYPD. He did break through to a few who’d shared his negative experience, like Edwin Raymond, a young cop and true individualist, who told me that his waist-length dreads alone had been wr

Kevin Spacey and The Sugar Plum Fairy

Francesco Cilea’s “Adriana Lecouvreur” (1902) has always been an opera that critics love to hate while singers, especially veteran divas, covet the musical and dramatic opportunities offered by the juicy leading roles. ... Show more

oles. Like Puccini’s “Tosca”, Cilea’s opera allows a diva to play a diva. Here, the opera portrays the semi-historical life and death of an 18th century French tragic actress, Adrienne Lecouvreur, entangled in a doomed love triangle with a royal lover and deadly aristocratic rival. The opera is based on Scribe and Legouvé’s 1849 French boulevard melodrama “Adrienne Lecouvreur” fashioned as a vehicle for famed classical tragedienne Rachel Félix of the Comédie-Française. It offered Félix the opportunity to perform her favorite classical monologues by Corneille and Racine while essaying contemporary romantic melodrama. The confusing and highly artificial plot typifies the well-made play formula of Scribe — we have intercepted letters, disguises and mistaken identity, dropped bracelets, secret passageways, double deceptions, and Adriana’s nosegay of violets that change hands twice and are returned to her as a poisoned instrument of death. All these contrivances are preserved in the ope

Abel Cedeno’s Attorneys Call for Special Prosecutor

Doubtless you’ve been reading a lot about Kevin Spacey lately. The chickens — or in this case chickenhawks — have come home to roost for the two-time Academy Award-winning actor whose penchant for “barely legal” you... Show more

gal” youths has been well-known for decades and completely tolerated by an entertainment industry that will stand for anything insofar as the person responsible has “market value” — something that may have slipped away for Spacey once and for all. But Spacey’s modus operandi — slipping his hand down the pants of lads he’s taken a fancy to reminded me of a sexual importunist who crossed my path 55 years ago. One afternoon in 1964, I was sitting downstairs at the Museum of Modern Art waiting for the doors to open for a film I was seeing. I can’t recall the title of the film, but I well recall the afternoon’s most consequential event. I met The Sugar Plum Fairy. I was perusing the latest issue of Sight & Sound and wasn’t waiting for anyone to join me. Lost in my magazine, I was somewhat surprised when a dashingly good-looking and very well-dressed man in his late 20s or early 30s began to chat up my 17-year-old self. It was all casual and friendly at first, but in no time his tone cha