Democrats Slow Impeachment Timeline to Sharpen Their Public Case - The New York Times

Finally some common sense, public hearings.

"WASHINGTON — House Democrats have resigned themselves to the likelihood that impeachment proceedings against President Trump will extend into the Christmas season, as they plan a series of public hearings intended to make the simplest and most devastating possible public case in favor of removing Mr. Trump.

Democratic leaders had hoped to move as soon as Thanksgiving to wrap up a narrow inquiry focused around Mr. Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, buoyed by polling data that shows that the public supports the investigation, even if voters are not yet sold on impeaching the president.

But after a complicated web of damaging revelations about the president has emerged from private depositions unfolding behind closed doors, Democratic leaders have now begun plotting a full-scale — and probably more time-consuming — effort to lay out their case in a set of high-profile public hearings on Capitol Hill.

Their goal is to convince the public — and if they can, more Republicans — that the president committed an impeachable offense when he demanded that Ukraine investigate his political rivals.

“Just the facts baby,” said Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. “If we tell that story with simplicity and repetition, the American people will understand why the president must be held accountable. If we don’t, then there is great uncertainty, and in that vacuum Donald Trump may find himself escaping accountability again.”

Mr. Trump, increasingly embittered by the impeachment inquiry, complained on Monday that Republicans were not defending him aggressively enough.

“Republicans have to get tougher and fight,” Mr. Trump said during a rambling, hourlong question-and-answer session with reporters at a cabinet meeting. “We have some that are great fighters, but they have to get tougher and fight, because the Democrats are trying to hurt the Republican Party for the election, which is coming up, where we’re doing very well.”

The president belittled Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, one of the only members of his party who has signaled he may be open to impeaching Mr. Trump, underscoring how anxious the senator’s defection has made him about possible cracks in support from his own party.

Launching into a series of attacks on Democrats, Mr. Trump said approvingly that they were “vicious and they stick together. They don’t have Mitt Romney in their midst — they don’t have people like that.”

“They stick together,” Mr. Trump added. “You never see them break off.”

It was the second time in as many days that he has complained about a lack of support from Republicans.

“When do the Do Nothing Democrats pay a price for what they are doing to our Country, & when do the Republicans finally fight back?” Mr. Trump tweeted late Sunday night.

The president’s allies on Capitol Hill tried Monday to ramp up their defense of the president by forcing a vote in the House to censure Representative Adam B. Schiff, the California Democrat who is leading the impeachment inquiry as the chairman of the Intelligence Committee. The vote, which failed in the Democratic-led chamber, was a display of Republican solidarity for Mr. Trump.

There are risks for Democrats in the longer timeline, which could make it more difficult for lawmakers in politically competitive districts, who fear a backlash from constituents if they appear to be preoccupied with targeting Mr. Trump instead of addressing major issues such as gun safety or health care.

And Democrats are all too aware that Mr. Trump has succeeded in the past in steering the subject away from allegations of misconduct on his part, as he did with the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election conducted by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III.

This time, Democratic leaders hope to deny him the opportunity.

They have issued subpoenas to a growing cast of characters, including Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s private lawyer who is at the center of the Ukraine pressure campaign, and have demanded documents from Vice President Mike Pence. They have invited or compelled Trump administration officials past and present to appear at the Capitol before rolling television cameras, and cloistered them behind closed doors to extract a daily drip of testimony that backs up their case.

That effort continues Tuesday when William B. Taylor Jr., the top American diplomat in Ukraine, is scheduled to testify behind closed doors about text messages in which he wrote to other officials that it was “crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.” On Wednesday, investigators will question Laura Cooper, a Pentagon official, about decisions to hold up Ukraine’s military aid.

House Democrats privately admitted that the impeachment investigation was likely to now extend into the Christmas season, as they planned a series of high-profile public hearings designed to make the best possible case for removing President Trump.
Mr. Trump raged against Republican defections on impeachment, complaining that while Democrats had been “vicious” and united in attacking him, his own party had not been fighting hard enough on his behalf.
The president’s allies on Capitol Hill tried to ramp up their defense by forcing a vote in the House to censure Representative Adam Schiff, who is leading the impeachment inquiry as the chairman of the Intelligence Committee. The vote failed in the Democratic-led chamber.
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Several other depositions of administration officials have been delayed until next week because of events honoring Representative Elijah E. Cummings, the Maryland Democrat who died last week, Democratic officials said.

To keep Republicans on the defensive in the interim, Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a House vote last week on Mr. Trump’s decision to pull back American troops from Syria — which was widely panned by lawmakers in both parties — and will force a vote this week on measures to combat foreign election interference.

On Monday, Ms. Pelosi offered the latest bit of what has become a daily, sometimes hourly, stream of information to shape the Democrats’ argument, circulating a fact sheet for reporters entitled “Truth Exposed: The Shakedown, the Pressure Campaign and the Cover-up” to sum up what has been learned about the Ukraine affair so far, along with a 90-second video laying out the case for impeaching Mr. Trump.

Ms. Pelosi’s aides have advised lawmakers to avoid talking at length about bit players or subplots in the drama they are unspooling, emphasizing the need to return again and again to Mr. Trump’s own words from a July phone call with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. “Do Us a Favor,” a quote from a reconstructed transcript of that call, was the title of their video.

Democratic leaders have pushed lawmakers with backgrounds in law enforcement or national security to make television appearances to discuss the inquiry, including Representative Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, a former C.I.A. analyst; Representative Val Demings of Florida, a former police chief; and Representative Tom Malinowski of New Jersey, a former State Department official.

“If we get mired in esoteric process concerns, we will lose the ability to tell a powerful story to the American people about the abuse of power that is connected to the Trump-Ukraine scandal,” Mr. Jeffries said.

Some Republicans, already uneasy about the allegations at the heart of the Ukraine inquiry, have grown increasingly uncomfortable with Mr. Trump’s behavior, and unwilling to defend him on a range of topics, including the Syria decision and his plan — abruptly abandoned in the face of a bipartisan outcry — to hold the Group of 7 summit of world leaders at one of his resorts in Florida.

The admission — later recanted — by Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, of a quid pro quo linking foreign aid to Mr. Trump’s effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political rivals, was a worrying piece of evidence for nervous Republicans that the president and his team are woefully unprepared to confront the impeachment onslaught.

Mr. Romney, a frequent Trump critic, has called the president’s attempts to solicit dirt on a political rival “wrong and appalling.”

While there is no evidence that other Republicans are taking their cues from Mr. Romney, he is not the only member of the party to publicly express concern. Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, said last week that a president should never “hold up foreign aid that we had previously appropriated for a political initiative. Period.” Representative Francis Rooney, Republican of Florida who announced that he will not run for re-election, declined to rule out supporting impeachment. John Kasich, the former Republican governor of Ohio, said impeachment should move forward.

During his remarks at the White House, the president blasted House Democrats for pursuing impeachment, calling the effort to oust him “very bad for our country” and suggesting that dealing with the inquiry was getting in the way of more important issues.

“I have to fight off these lowlifes at the same time I’m negotiating these very important things,” Mr. Trump said."

Democrats Slow Impeachment Timeline to Sharpen Their Public Case - The New York Times

The lost river: Mexicans fight for mighty waterway taken by the US | Environment | The Guardian

"The temperature is rising toward 45C (113F) as young brothers Daniel and Dilan Rodríguez skip towards a bridge over the Colorado River in the Mexican border town of San Luis Río Colorado. But there is no water flowing through the channel of one of the world’s mightiest waterways. The pair run down the river bank and cheerfully splash through stagnant puddles dotted about the riverbed.



“We wish we had a river, so we could swim, and jump and sail my cousin’s boat,” said Daniel, 12. “At least we have puddles to make mud balls, that can be fun.”





Dilan Rodríguez, 8, fishing in the canal that runs adjacent to the dry Colorado River at the border of Mexico and the US on 6 September 2019.

 Dilan Rodríguez, eight, fishing in the canal that runs adjacent to the dry Colorado River at the border of Mexico and the US on 6 September 2019. Photograph: Meghan Dhaliwal/The Guardian

The Colorado originates in the Rocky mountains and traverses seven US states, watering cities and farmland, before reaching Mexico, where it is supposed to flow onwards to the Sea of Cortez.



Instead, the river is dammed at the US-Mexico border, and on the other side the river channel is empty. Locals are now battling to bring it back to life.



There are few more striking examples of what has come to be known as “environmental injustice” – the inequitable access to clean land, air and water, and disproportionate exposure to hazards and climate disasters. Water in particular has emerged as a flash point as global heating renders vast swaths of the planet ever drier.



Today the Guardian is launching a year-long series, Our Unequal Earth, to investigate environmental inequalities and discrimination in the US and beyond. It will also reveal how the climate crisis is making things worse for activists and scientists on the ground.



“We’ve heard stories from my mum about how she used to play and swim in the Colorado River when she was little, but we’ve never experienced it,” said Evelin Bautista, 14, who is a member of an indigenous tribe, the Cucapá, which means the River People. “I’ve heard that over the border, the water is so clear that they can even see the fish.”



Indeed, a mere 30 miles north, over the border at Gateway park in Yuma, Arizona, siblings Damien Navarro, 12, and Dariana, eight, spent the day fishing, diving and swimming in the free flowing river.



David Barraga plays ball with his daughter Dariana and his step-son Damien in the Colorado River in Gateway Park, Yuma, Arizona on 7 September 2019.

 David Barraga plays ball with his daughter Dariana and his stepson Damien in the Colorado River in Gateway park, Yuma, Arizona, on 7 September 2019. Photograph: Meghan Dhaliwal/The Guardian

“It’s so hot, we come here all the time, the kids love the water, and we often catch catfish, bass and bluegill,” said their father, David Barraga. “I didn’t know there’s no river in Mexico. Wow, that’s a shame.”



“At school in science we’ve been learning about drought, that the planet is getting hotter,” said his son, Damien. “But we’ve never been told about the dam or the river in Mexico, maybe when we’re older. It’s really too bad for those kids.”



The 1,450-mile Colorado is one of the world’s most developed and regulated river systems, and an essential water source in an arid region. The battle for its riches - and the story of its demise - goes way back. (Pictured: Yuma Gateway Park, Arizona)



In the 19th century, the river flow in Mexico was over 1,200 cubic metres per second. Then the US began taking control of the Colorado and turning a desert into an agricultural heartland.



In 1901, the US built the Alamo canal through Mexico, which diverted river water to farmland in California's Imperial Valley. Across the border, ambitious American businessmen, aided by corrupt Mexican officials, took control of most arable land and water.



Construction of the Hoover dam in 1936 reduced the river flow in Mexico to 164 cubic metres per second.



In 1942, the US constructed the All American canal, bypassing Mexico to directly supply the Imperial Valley and surrounding cities.



The Colorado's demise was sealed in 1944, when Mexico and the US signed an agreement to construct the Morelos Dam at the border and guarantee water to Mexico only for agriculture. After the Glen Canyon dam was built in Arizona in 1966, river flow in Mexico plunged to 8.3 cubic metres per second



By the 1980s, 80% of the delta’s forests and wetlands were lost and the estuary partially destroyed, with devastating results for marine life, migratory birds, mammals and indigenous communities.



The river has not flowed to the sea since 1998, apart from a few days in 2014 during an ecological experiment that simulated spring floods, aiding natural germination and increasing bird numbers by 43%.



Currently the river flow in Mexico is 0.5 cubic metres per second, a fraction of what it once was. Another pulse flow to help restore the river’s estuary and wetlands could happen in 2021/22.



‘It took away part of our identity’

Because the 1944 treaty did not allocate Mexico any water for the river itself, the channel is mostly dry. The loss of the river in Mexico has been devastating.



Nancy Saldano, 54, an architect and activist in the Sonoran town of San Luis Río Colorado, recalls boat rides and fishing with her family during the 1980s, when the US occasionally released “extra” water to deal with heavy snow and rain that risked overwhelming its dams. Her mother, an evangelical pastor, conducted baptisms in the river until it disappeared.



“Taking away the river had a huge impact on us, it took away part of our identity. I felt anger, sadness and grief. My children had never seen the river flow.”



The disparities on both sides of the border are stark.



In the US, the Colorado serves more than 35 million people, including several native tribes, seven national wildlife refuges and 11 national parks, and supports $26m tourism and recreational industries, as well as farming. California has rights to the largest quantity, with 4.4m acre-feet per year – or 29% of the total – while Utah is allocated 1.7m and Nevada 0.3m.



At the Morelos dam, located between Los Algodones, Baja California, and Yuma, Arizona, the river is diverted to a complex system of irrigation canals which nourish fields of cotton, wheat, alfalfa, asparagus, watermelons and date palms in the vast surrounding desert valley. This is good for farmers – and less so for ordinary Mexicans.



Following the dry riverbed south towards the Gulf of California evokes an eerie sadness. The sound of gunfire in one wide, dusty section led to a couple from San Diego hunting wild pigeons, and a bucketful of feathered corpses. A few miles west along dirt farm roads, dozens of herons, egrets and ducks were staking out a wonderfully lush wetland – though it is only an accidental byproduct created by agricultural runoff from surrounding wheat and alfalfa fields.



Prolonged drought and global heating

The Colorado basin is one of 276 watersheds that cross international borders and Mexican supporters of the binational treaty argue that it resolved longstanding diplomatic disputes and enabled the region’s economic development, even if there is mostly no longer a river in the channel.



“We’re the only place in Mexico with a secure water supply, that is a privilege,” said Francisco Bernal, the International Boundary and Water Commission (Cila) representative in Mexicali.



But the treaty didn’t foresee prolonged drought, global heating and mounting demands. Now, water is running out, and things must change.



The population of Baja California grew from 1.67 million in 1990 to 3.5 million in 2018. Most of the river water still goes to farmers. Groundwater reserves are dwindling, pollution goes unchecked, and urban neighborhoods face shortages.



“If agriculture was forced to be more efficient there would be enough for everyone else,” said Dr Jorge Ramírez, a leading water scientist at the Autonomous University of Baja California. “We have enough water, what we lack is planning. Water is the currency here and politics always wins.”





In recent years, protests have erupted in response to allegations of corruption and poorly policed pollution standards that favor big landowners and water guzzling industries, such as a controversial US brewery under construction in the Mexicali valley.



In 2020, both countries will for the first time implement rationing. Mexico must cut usage by 3%. The US must save 247m cubic metres. The plan would have been much stricter if not for record snowfall in parts of the Colorado basin last year. The reductions can only be accomplished if farmers waste less and participate in reforestation efforts.



Even so, scientists are optimistic that the delta can partially recover.



‘The Gabachos [Americans] should leave some water for us’

In the scorched and barren delta, visitors may encounter an incongruous sight: 700 acres of flourishing native trees and shrubs in three reforestation sites.



They are the product of what is called a “pulse flow”.



In 2014, an environmental experiment driven by not-for-profits on both sides of the border resulted in 105,392 acres-feet (130m cubic metres) of extra water being released into Mexico over two months, simulating the natural spring floods of yesteryear.



The pulse flow bolstered parched wetlands and reforestation zones where native cottonwood and willow trees naturally germinated. And for a few days, for the first time in years, the river reconnected to the Sea of Cortez: fish stocks increased, dolphins returned and the number of migratory birds rocketed by 43%.





But for some scientists, the community response was perhaps the most surprising and satisfying. Thousands flocked to the river as it returned, briefly, to its former glory.



“I grew up with my mum’s stories about the river in the old days, but couldn’t believe it until I saw it myself,” said Ulises Monroy Saldaña, 13. “I’ll never forget putting my hand in the water for the first time: it was cold, but it felt so nice because it was so hot here.”



Daniel Rodríguez was just seven years old, but still remembers the excitement of watching the river fill with water. “We’d come every day after school and keep jumping off the bridge until the police chased us away.”



His grandmother, Lupe Aderete, 53, set up portable toilets for the massive influx of visitors. “It was beautiful to see the river alive again, everyone was so happy, and I made some extra money.” She added: “It’s not fair, the Gabachos [Americans] should leave some water for us.



Lupe Aderete at home in the neighborhood of Miguel Aleman, Baja California on 6 September 2019.

 Lupe Aderete at home in the neighborhood of Miguel Alemán, Baja California, on 6 September 2019. Photograph: Meghan Dhaliwal/The Guardian

The restoration site at Laguna Grande is a shady oasis of gangly cottonwood and willow trees surrounded by desert and farmland, visited by over 2,000 people last year.



“For most children, it’s the first time they’ve seen a forest, and for the adults it brings back memories. Connecting to nature is emotional, and visitors cry all the time,” said Gabriela González, education coordinator at the Sonora Institute which runs Laguna Grande.



There’s little or no chance that the river will ever flow freely again, but plans are afoot to repeat the pulse flow, this time flooding only the spots which most benefited last time. And there is hope of expanding native forests to create a green corridor with wetlands and lagoons channelling into the sea.



An indigenous community, the Cucapá, has been involved in dredging efforts, paid to shovel out thick mud to create connectivity channels that are crucial to sustainable ecosystems. Patches of native salty grass and flocks of raucous brown and white pelicans at the lower part of the estuary indicate that plentiful fish were swept in by recent high tides.



The next pulse flow should take place in 2021 or 2022. Regardless, this region will remain more desert than delta.



At home in Miguel Alemán, a poor makeshift neighbourhood with little shade, the Rodríguez brothers ditch their school stuff, grab a plastic bucket and rush back across the parched terrain to the concrete drainage canal running parallel to the littered riverbed.



They fearlessly dive into the polluted waterway, which emerges under the metal border wall, to cool down and catch some fish for dinner."



The lost river: Mexicans fight for mighty waterway taken by the US | Environment | The Guardian

Turning point? Key Republicans open to impeaching Trump

Amidst Trump’s top Republican ally, Lindsay Graham, saying he would support impeachment if more evidence of a quid pro quo was revealed, President Trump is begging for his GOP allies to be ‘tougher’ and ‘fight’ against impeachment. Reason Magazine’s Matt Welch argues Graham’s ‘wobbling’ comments about impeachment are ‘significant’ and show signs of ‘possible weakness’ within the party’s stance on impeachment.

Turning point? Key Republicans open to impeaching Trump

'Phony emoluments clause': Trump belittles Article I, Section 9, Paragraph 8 of U.S. Constitution

'Phony emoluments clause': Trump belittles Article I, Section 9, Paragraph 8 of U.S. Constitution

Adam Schiff REVEALS shocking Evidence about Barr's treason acts to help ...

Impeachment Process, Lukewarm Coffee

I'll do everything I'm required to do by law': Pompeo on whether he will testify | ABC News This interview illustrates the central importance of the First Amendment to the US Constitution. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

‘Parasite’ and South Korea’s Income Gap: Call It Dirt Spoon Cinema - The New York Times

"The title of the scathing new South Korean film “Parasite” refers to the Kim family, destitute basement dwellers who try to climb the social ladder by leeching off the wealthy Park family. While the Kims worry about money, the extravagant Parks worry about poor people’s unpleasant smell.



The families’ lifestyles couldn’t be more different. The Kims’ tiny dining room window looks into a street that doubles as a urinal for drunks. The Parks’ giant panes have a view of their meticulously mowed lawn surrounded by manicured hedges. The Kims eat cheap pizza. The Parks’ favorite casual meal involves premium beef.



The movie is the latest South Korean film to pit the haves against the have-nots: see this year’s No. 1 movie there, “Extreme Job,” as well as recent titles like “Burning” and 2013’s “Snowpiercer.” It’s no coincidence that income inequality is a recurring theme in the nation’s cinema. Experts say the films, for the most part big hits at home, capture the essence of Korean sentiments at a time when the country’s income gap continues to widen.



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While such inequality afflicts the United States and many other countries, South Korea’s income distribution is remarkably lopsided. In 2015, the top 10 percent of South Koreans held 66 percent of the nation’s wealth, while the poorer half of the population held only 2 percent, according to figures cited by Kyung Hyun Kim, a professor of East Asian studies at the University of California, Irvine, and an author of several books on Korean cinema. In addition, large numbers of South Korea’s elite inherited their wealth.



That inequity, combined with scandals involving corruption among the privileged, have bred so much bitterness and frustration among Koreans that new slang phrases have emerged in recent years, like “gold spoons” and “dirt spoons.”



“People who are born with a gold spoon are the ones who have made it,” the professor said. “The have-nots are dirt spoons. They will always be given a dirt spoon, and it will always be a struggle.”



The lack of social mobility for dirt spoons is at the heart of “Parasite,” directed by Bong Joon Ho. The Kims are each smart and talented in their own ways. Yet they are so poor — they crouch next to a toilet just to steal a neighbor’s Wi-Fi — that there is no clear path for them to succeed.



Though economically disadvantaged Americans face a similar plight, in South Korea, job prospects can be tied to family background, as when employers ask about applicants’ parents, a practice that could favor the privileged, Kim, the professor, said. Furthermore, investigations have uncovered nepotistic practices, like private schools’ preference for installing family members in teaching positions.



So why not fake it till you make it? In “Parasite,” the Kims’ son, Ki-woo, fluent in English, uses a referral from a privileged friend and counterfeit college credentials to trick the Parks into giving him a job as a language tutor for their teenage daughter. Ki-woo’s sister, Ki-jung, pretends to be an art therapist and gets hired to work with the Parks’ disturbed little boy. Dad and Mom soon join the subterfuge by posing as a professional driver and a housemaid for the Parks, who are as gullible as they are neurotic about cleanliness.



“Burning,” starring, from left, Yoo Ah-in, Jeon Jong-seo and Steven Yeun, was also a tale of haves and have-nots.

“Burning,” starring, from left, Yoo Ah-in, Jeon Jong-seo and Steven Yeun, was also a tale of haves and have-nots.Well Go USA

Last year’s “Burning,” from the director Lee Chang-dong, also portrayed the social divide in a dark story, in that case an awkward love triangle. Jongsu, a farmer’s son who dreams of being a writer, and Ben, an inexplicably wealthy man who drives a Porsche, both lust after the quirky Haemi. Even though Jongsu has a fling with Haemi, it becomes clear that this dirt spoon is no match for Ben, who offers Haemi entry into the gold-spoon club.



In “Snowpiercer,” another Bong film, the gap between the privileged and the disadvantaged couldn’t be more apparent. The postapocalyptic thriller puts Earth’s only human survivors on a train in perpetual motion, with the haves occupying luxurious cars toward the front, where they enjoy sushi, and the have-nots living in the tail end, where they feed on gelatinous protein blocks composed of cockroaches. The only way for the dirt spoons to improve their situation is to fight and kill their way to the front of the train. (Spoiler: Nobody wins.)



Some Korean films give social inequality a lighter parody treatment. “Extreme Job,” from the director Lee Byeong-heon, centers on a team of broke police officers who open a fried chicken restaurant as part of a sting operation to catch drug dealers. The restaurant becomes a booming success, and the officers quickly become distracted by their lucrative side hustle.



Frustration over social injustice in South Korea spilled over in 2016 largely because of corruption. That year, the country’s president, Park Geun-hye, was impeached over accusations of bribery, extortion and abuse of power. Central to Park’s ouster was the revelation that she had worked closely with Choi Soon-sil, who was convicted of conspiring with university officials and professors to help her daughter, Chung Yoo-ra, a student getting high marks despite rarely attending lectures or completing assignments.



For many Koreans, the scandals epitomized the dirty behavior and unfair advantages of the rich and powerful.



“Snowpiercer,” featuring Tilda Swinton, center, set its tale of inequity in a postapocalyptic train.

“Snowpiercer,” featuring Tilda Swinton, center, set its tale of inequity in a postapocalyptic train.Radius-TWC

“Parasite” may resonate with South Koreans because it contains many references to current events there. One viewer, NaYeon Yang, a psychology student at the University of Maryland who moved to the United States from South Korea when she was a teenager, spotted several examples, like Ki-woo’s fake college credentials — an allusion to the Choi scandal. Chung, Choi’s daughter, used falsified records to graduate from high school.



More recently, crowds of protesters have called for the ouster of Cho Kuk, South Korea’s justice minister, who faces accusations of, among other things, pulling strings to help his daughter. Cho’s wife was indicted on a charge of forging a certificate to help their daughter get into medical school.



In another scene in “Parasite,” the wealthy father recoils from the stench of an impoverished man who is his loyal supporter. This may be a reference to the impeached president, who was seen on TV news hiding her hands behind her back when a supporter reached out to shake her hand. The incident went viral.



“I’m just fascinated by how he shrank all the things that recently happened in Korea and instilled that in his film,” Yang said about Bong.



“Snowpiercer,” “Burning” and “Parasite” all conclude on notes of nearly unbridled cynicism — doubt that things will get better for the disadvantaged. That may be a reflection of South Korea’s diminishing faith in its economy.



In his campaign pledge, Park’s successor, Moon Jae-in, promised to narrow the income gap by creating opportunities for the working class. As part of that effort, he raised taxes and increased the minimum wage. But the strategy isn’t working: The gap is continuing to widen, economic growth has slowed, and unemployment is on the rise. Moon’s approval rating plummeted from 84 percent in 2017 to 40 percent last month, according to a Gallup poll."



“They’re losing hope,” said Kim, the professor of East Asian studies.



‘Parasite’ and South Korea’s Income Gap: Call It Dirt Spoon Cinema - The New York Times

Situation in Syria: We have now abandoned an ally.

Trump Will Host Next G7 Summit at His Doral Resort - The New York Times

"The emoluments clause, also called the foreign emoluments clause, is a provision of the U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 9, Paragraph 8) that generally prohibits federal officeholders from receiving any gift, payment, or other thing of value from a foreign state or its rulers, officers, or representatives. The clause provides that:No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.

The Constitution also contains a “domestic emoluments clause” (Article II, Section 1, Paragraph 7), which prohibits the president from receiving any “Emolument” from the federal government or the states beyond “a Compensation” for his “Services” as chief executive."

"WASHINGTON — President Trump has decided to host the Group of 7 meeting next June at the Trump National Doral near Miami, Mick Mulvaney, the president’s acting chief of staff, said Thursday, a decision that prompted immediate questions about whether it was a conflict of interest for him to choose one of his own properties for a diplomatic event."

Trump Will Host Next G7 Summit at His Doral Resort - The New York Times

Mulvaney Says, Then Denies, That Trump Held Back Ukraine Aid as Quid Pro Quo. "“The acting White House chief of staff undercut the president’s denial of a quid pro quo by saying that military aid was held back in part to prod Ukraine to investigate Democrats.” - The New York Times

Mulvaney Says, Then Denies, That Trump Held Back Ukraine Aid as Quid Pro Quo - The New York Times

Rep. Elijah Cummings dies at the age of 68

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Trading Columbus Day for Indigenous Peoples' Day: For some, an overdue change

"When Grand Forks, North Dakota, replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day in July, Courtney Davis Souvannasacd brought her son, Benjamin, with her to the city council chambers to watch the vote.

“It’s not something you typically bring a 12 year-old kid to," Souvannasacd, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, told NBC News. “It’s kind of dry.”

The council voted in favor of the resolution unanimously, and the Grand Forks Herald said the switch happened “almost anticlimactically.” But for Souvannasacd, who was one of the many Native people in the city advocating for the change, it was an emotional day.

Benjamin had been born on Columbus Day 12 years earlier. Replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day, she said, felt like the start of a long overdue recognition of the indigenous people who lived in the U.S. for thousands of years before Europeans like Columbus sailed across the Atlantic.

“My son was so elated,” Souvannasacd said. “I will never forget the feeling.”

Around the country, cities and states have slowly been moving to declare the second Monday of October as Indigenous Peoples’ Day, meant to honor the people indigenous to the land that is now North America. And advocates for Indigenous Peoples' Day want to make clear that Christopher Columbus wasn’t just an “explorer” — he was the beginning of an era of decimation.

“Celebrating Columbus Day continues a dangerous narrative that erases Native American voices and minimizes the federal government’s attempt at genocide and forced assimilation,” Congresswoman Deb Haaland, D-N.M., one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress last fall, said in a statement to NBC News.

Haaland’s home state of New Mexico will be celebrating its inaugural statewide Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Monday, as will Vermont, Maine, Louisiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. Columbus Day remains a federal holiday, but over 100 cities, towns and college campuses have made the switch.

“Indigenous Peoples’ Day is about acknowledging indigenous peoples’ complex history in this country and celebrating the culture, heritage, and strength of native communities everywhere,” Haaland said.

Rich Holschuh, one of many people in Vermont who fought to get the day formally recognized, agrees. For Holschuh, who is of mixed Native ancestry, and the other Vermont organizers, formally recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day is one of many ways to grapple with the country’s past and present treatment of Native people

“Civic holidays are occasions for a society to come together, to recognize and observe our common values,” Holschuh said. “Columbus is not to be celebrated.”

Vermont only recognized the Abenaki people as the primary indigenous group of the state about a decade ago, Holschuh said, adding, “The conventional narrative here is that there have been no indigenous people.” The day, then, works to fight back against that dominant narrative, educating the public and working to tell a more accurate history of the state.

But the fight to get Indigenous Peoples Day on the calendar has not come without resistance.

Chief among the opposition to the switch have been certain Italian-American groups. Although Columbus sailed for the Spanish, his Italian heritage is a point of pride for some, and advocates for Columbus Day think Indigenous Peoples’ Day takes away a day to celebrate Italian culture.

In Maine, Native activists who have long wanted to make the switch seized on the election of a democratic governor in 2018 to push Indigenous Peoples’ Day forward.

“It was a top down leadership issue,” Maulian Dana, the tribal ambassador of the Penobscot Nation, told NBC News. Maine’s former governor, Paul LePage, a Republican with a contentious relationship with the state’s indigenous people, was not going to change the calendar, Dana and others believed. “It was tried before and the bill didn’t make it through the committee.”

Under Governor Janet Mills, Dana and other Native activists were able to propel legislation to the Governor’s desk, who signed the bill in April.

But just last week, Mayor Nicholas Isgro of Waterville, Maine, said his town would be celebrating Columbus Day instead. On Monday, despite her packed schedule of celebrations, Dana will be headed to Waterville for a rally against the mayor’s proclamation.

Dana said she’s seen a good deal of “ugliness” in Maine and “resistance to change.”

“I’ve been called some horrible things and had some racist threats hurled⁠ — a lot of the things we face are the rippling effects of colonization,” she said.

For Dana, the Waterville mayor’s resistance shows why recognizing the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples’ Day shouldn’t be thought of as a symbolic move.

“For tribal and indigenous people it’s harmful to have the state celebrating a day that celebrates our demise,” she said. “The bill sends a great message. Now it’s time to walk the walk and show indigenous people that we are all valued.”

“We are never asking for anything extra, just asserting our rights.”

Trading Columbus Day for Indigenous Peoples' Day: For some, an overdue change

Hugh Masekela - Colonial Man