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Former president George W. Bush criticize's Trump's America, without ever saying his name.Photo: YouTube screenshot

The political fallout continues from the insurrection that was the culmination of the Trump presidency. According to a report from Reuters, dozens of former Bush officials have fled the party in the wake of the deadly Capitol riot.

The flight from the GOP by the former officials echoes that of rank-and-file members. Thousands of voters in such pivotal states as Colorado, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, have decided that theyre fed up with the party and have switched their registration to independent or (gasp!) Democrat.

Related: Heres why were suing the federal government. This is what solidarity looks like.

While the exodus is a sign that at least some Republicans have had enough, the sad part is it took a lethal riot to convince them to go.

Moreover, Trump was not an aberration in the party. While he was different in degree, he was hardly different in kind. Thats especially true of the Bush administration. As much as Trump and his followers like to bury Bush, in several key respects, the Bush presidency was the harbinger of Trumps.

One aspect is Trumps embrace of the culture wars and the religious right. Bush courted some of the worst figures on the religious right, like Jerry Falwell and Lou Sheldon. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention boasted that the Bush administration actively reached out to conservative evangelicals to get their take on policy positions. As much as Trump empowered the religious right as his core base, he was only copying Bush,

In terms of dividing people through a culture war, Bush perfected that approach by using marriage equality as a cudgel in his 2004 re-election campaign. A slew of state ballot initiatives banning same-sex marriages was on the ballot that year, and they certainly boosted Bushs efforts in key states, like Ohio.

The Bush presidency also offered a template on how to politicize science. The Bush administration dragged its heels on approving an HPV vaccine, which prevents the leading cause of cervical cancer because conservatives were afraid it promoted premarital sex. The administration muzzled scientists working on climate change and explicitly worked to undermine the overwhelming evidence that fossil fuels contribute to climate change.

Finally, as much as people argue that cruelty was the point of the Trump presidency, Bush did a fine job of giving it the presidential seal. Nowhere was that truer than the Bush policy of torturing prisoners of war, a violation of the Geneva convention. The fact that it was ostensibly in service against terrorism didnt make the policy any less repugnant. It just made it clear that presidents can toss aside basic principles that the nation had considered sacred.

Trump was certainly more ham-fisted and more extreme in his tactics. Bush would know enough not to recommend mainlining bleach to cure COVID. But just because Bush acted the part of president doesnt mean he wasnt extreme in his own right.

Apparently, a deadly insurrection was the line in the sand that a lot of Republicans couldnt cross. But its not like they didnt cross a lot of other lines already. Donald Trump was not a symptom of sickness in the Republican party. Hes the apotheosis of sickness that the GOP has been cultivating for years.

More here:
Republicans are fleeing the GOP because of Trump but the rot started long before he was president - LGBTQ Nation

One afternoon last week, three things occurred that, to my mind, point the way forward for the church in the United States to begin recovering some semblance of its catholicity, a 21st-century incarnation of the famous James Joyce observation that being Catholic means "here comes everybody."

The first was our editor Heidi Schlumpf's column "Liberal Catholicism: We've been here all along." She is right to point out that while the public face of religion in this country may have become dominated by conservative Christians starting with the founding of the Moral Majority in 1979, liberal Christians did not disappear.

What is more, while John Fitzgerald Kennedy may have garnered a disproportionate share of the Catholic vote because of a kind of tribal pride, he did not garner all of it. Many of the Catholic votes he did get would have remembered Kennedy's unwillingness to vote to censure Sen. Joseph McCarthy as evidence he was not exactly a liberal. In any event, if your starting point for tracking Catholic political views is 1960, there was bound to be a drop-off in the percentage of Catholics voting for the Democratic Party. Then came Roe and the culture wars and all that.

Still, Catholics with a liberal disposition, a liberal heart and/or liberal politics remained active in the life of the church, even if the rise of conservative Catholics, aided by gobs of money, have increased their influence throughout the church's many institutions.

The second item was an email from a reader that captured a kind of propositional Catholicism that is uniquely conservative:

Why, when Catholic Teaching is so clear and so contraryto culture, do many remain Catholic? You know what I mean? So many Catholics flat out disagreewith the Church's positions on marriage, life, the devil, Purgatory, mercy, justice, the mass, the Eucharist, ordinations, rights of Catholics to practice their faith because of "discrimination", the death penalty, just warfare, reconciliation, the prioper [sic] role of laity, diaconate, priests in parish life, the role of women in the family, contraception, abortion, euthanasia, the importance of celibacy, religious vocations and orders, abortion, conformity to the world, the cross, natural law, moral theology, penance, abstinence, biological sex, purity, infertility, commandments, Dogmas, sovereignty, even Church history, the list is practically endless.

It amazes me that so many of these Catholics who admittedly differ from Magisterial teaching still call themselves Catholic. Why do they still call themselves Catholic? Why not be Protestant? Why not leave the faith?

To me, Catholicism is most definitely a set of beliefs to which we are called to give assent but it is so much more than that. It is the smudge of ash on the forehead in February and the roast lamb at Easter. It is the Advent wreath and the Christmas hymn. Catholicism is knowing when to stand and when to kneel when attending Mass in a language you do not understand. It is making the sign of the cross when you pass a cemetery and genuflecting before you enter the pew. It is my father standing over my mother in the hospital, praying the "Hail Mary." Being Catholic means not averting your eyes from suffering and never being afraid of knowledge. It is the grievous wrong forgiven and the beggar clothed and fed. It is being a part of a long, long history of sinners and saints. It is "here comes everybody."

My correspondent reduced the rich life of the Catholic faith to a set of propositions, as if Catholicism was an intellectual enterprise. It is such an enterprise, to be sure, but it is also so much more than that. And we are not Protestant, because we believe being Catholic is about belonging to a church, not because we were born in a time and place where the Bible was readily available. "What would I know of Him, but for her," wrote the great French theologian Henri DeLubac.

The final item was found on Twitter. University of Virginia theologian Nichole Flores posted a wonderful thread about hearing a sermon at Mass that made her want to walk out, but she didn't.

She explains her decision, noting, "The disagreement made me pause, listen, and pray instead of needing to assert, fight, and win. Maybe it was because I am so acutely aware of my need for Jesus right now, and how much it exceeds my need to be right."

Then Flores said something I hope all Catholics, left, right or center, will feel in their bones:

Also, I have decided that I am not ceding the Church to anyone. I am a devout, daily mass going, Rosary saying, Guadalupe devotee Catholic, whether secular (or Catholic!) media would recognize that about me or not. I am not giving up my pew or my place.

Amen, amen, I say. No priest, no bishop and no bishops' conference can force us out of this church.

We all need each other as Catholics because the teachings of the church are always developing. Catholics live in real time with real challenges. Liberals must challenge conservatives and vice-versa. Each generation brings with it a new set of questions to ask of the ancient verities. The verities remain, but if they are to remain alive, they will change and develop. Only dead things do not change.

Cue the famous Chesterton quote:

A century or two hence, Spiritualism may be a tradition and Socialism may be a tradition and Christian Science may be a tradition. But Catholicism will not be a tradition. It will still be a nuisance and a new and dangerous thing.

That is why we liberal Catholics never went away and never could go away. The Holy Spirit is at work in every human heart, liberal hearts and conservative hearts, among extroverts and introverts, beckoning the cautious and the carefree. As Massimo Faggioli observed in his latest book, "The challenge, both political and ecclesial, in the present emergency is to rebuild a sense of unity that marginalizes the extremes and treats the sectarian instinct as the epitome of non-Catholic spirit."

Just say no to sectarianism. If liberal Catholics did not exist, God would have to invent them. How do we know this? Because he already did.

More:
Column | Liberal Catholics and the temptation of sectarianism - National Catholic Reporter

Books for Black History Month on display at the Elmont Memorial Library in Elmont, New York.

Each February brings Black History Month, a time to recognize and celebrate the achievements of African-Americans, and their central role in shaping American society and history. It's also an opportunity to recommit to better understanding and combatting systemic racism and oppression.

The struggle for racial justice is far from over. After thekilling of George Floydby police in Minneapolis last year sparked protests around the world, manyshared resources to help others better understandlong-standing racial inequities and learn how to be better alliesto Black Americans. Dozens of books, novels, films and TV series addressing the discrimination that people of color face circulated online, some recommended by libraries like the Chicago Public Library and theOakland Public Library. One Twitter thread of antiracist children's books, shared by teacher Brittany Smith, wentviral. And a Google doc compiled by Sarah Sophie Flicker and Alyssa Klein also sharedrecommendations of what to watch and read. Netflix now showcases TV shows, movies and documentaries addressing racial injustice and the Black experience.

Get the latest tech stories with CNET Daily News every weekday.

For Black History Month, here are recommendations pulled from those lists and crowdsourced from CNET staff. If you can't get to your local library or bookstore, here's some information on e-readers. If you're struggling with how to stream, read more about the best streaming devices andstreaming services.

Jump to the recommendations:

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander: This book challenges the idea that President Barack Obama's election welcomed a new age of colorblindness.

Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminismby bell hooks: This work explores issues such as the impact of sexism on black women during slavery and racism among feminists.

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates: Framed as a letter to his son, Coates pursues the question of how to live free within a black body in a country built on the idea of race, a falsehood most damaging to the bodies of black women and men.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X: In this classic text, Muslim leader Malcolm X shares his life story and talks about the growth of the Black Muslim movement.

White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo: This book explores how white people uphold racial inequality when they react a certain way to their assumptions about race being challenged.

Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde: Black lesbian poet and feminist writer Lorde shares a collection of essays and speeches exploring sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia and class.

Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis: The activist and scholar shows the link between several movements fighting oppression and state violence.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou: The author's debut memoir explores themes like loneliness, bigotry and love.

Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans From the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon: This text explores the period following the Emancipation Proclamation in which convicts were brought back into involuntary servitude.

Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi: The historian chronicles how racist ideas have shaped US history and provides tools to expose them.

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson: This book tells the story of the migration of black Americans who left the South seeking better lives.

The Price for Their Pound of Flesh: The Value of the Enslaved, From Womb to Grave, in the Building of a Nation by Daina Ramey Berry: This text explores how in early America, slaves were commodities in every phase of life.

White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson: The historian addresses the forces opposing black progress in America throughout history.

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi: The founding director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center uses history, science, class, gender and his own journey to examine racism and what to do to fight it in all forms.

Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman Jr.: The author explores the war on crime starting in the 1970s and why it had the support of several African American leaders in urban areas.

Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Brittney Cooper: In a world where black women's anger is portrayed as negative and threatening, Cooper shares that anger can be a source of strength to keep fighting.

Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon: This memoir explores the impact that lies, secrets and deception have on a black body and family, as well as a nation.

Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad: This book asks readers to address their own biases, and helps white people tackle their privilege so they can stop harming people of color, even unconsciously.

The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit From Identity Politics by George Lipsitz: This text looks at white supremacy and explores how the concept of "whiteness" has been used to define, bludgeon and control the racialized "other."

Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty by Dorothy Roberts: This book illustrates how America systemically abuses Black women's bodies.

Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing by Dr. Joy DeGruy: This book explores the impact that repeated traumas endured across generations have on African Americans today.

The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois: In this influential collection of essays, Du Bois, who played a critical role in shaping early 20th-century black protest strategy, argues that begging for rights that belong to all people is beneath a human's dignity, and accommodating to white supremacy would only maintain black oppression.

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo: The author provides a blueprint for everyone on how to honestly and productively discuss race and shares ways to bring about change.

The Underground Railroadby Colson Whitehead: This novel follows a young slave's desperate journey toward freedom.

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead: Two boys are sentenced to reform school in Florida during the Jim Crow era.

Passing by Nella Larsen: This novel explores the fluidity of racial identity through the story of a light-skinned woman who's married to a racist white man who doesn't know about her African American heritage.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi: The book tells the story of two half-sisters born in different villages in 18th-century Ghana and their descendants, with one sister later living in comfort and the other sold into slavery.

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: A young couple leaves Nigeria for the West, each following a different path: She confronts what it means to be black in the US, while he lives undocumented in Britain. They reunite 15 years later in Nigeria.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston: The 1937 classic follows the journey of an independent black woman, Janie Mae Crawford, in her search for identity.

Roots: The Saga of an American Familyby Alex Haley: This novel is based on Haley's family history, and tells the story of Kunta Kinte, who is sold into slavery in the US.

On Beauty by Zadie Smith: This novel tells the story of an interracial family impacted by culture wars.

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison: A nameless narrator describes growing up in the south, going to and being expelled from a Negro college, moving to New York and, amid violence and confusion, ultimately going to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he sees as himself.

The Sellout by Paul Beatty: This satire follows a man who tries to reinstate slavery and segregate the local high school, leading to a Supreme Court case.

13th (Netflix): Filmmaker Ava DuVernay explores racial inequality in the US, with a focus on prisons.

When They See Us (Netflix): Ava DuVernay's gut-wrenching -- and essential -- miniseries is based on the true story of the falsely accused young teens known as the Central Park Five.

Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement (BET): This documentary explores the evolution of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Dear White People (Netflix): Based on a film of the same name, this series shows the biases and injustices that a group of students of color face at Winchester University, a predominantly white Ivy League college.

American Son (Netflix): An estranged couple meet at a police station in Florida to try to find their teenage son.

If Beale Street Could Talk (Hulu): Based on the James Baldwin novel, this Barry Jenkins film centers on the love between an African American couple whose lives are torn apart when the man is falsely accused of a crime.

Blindspotting (Hulu with Cinemax): Collin needs to make it through three more days of probation, and his relationship with his best friend is tested after he sees a cop shoot a suspect during a chase.

The Last Black Man in San Francisco (available to rent): A young black man dreams of reclaiming his childhood home in a now-gentrified neighborhood in San Francisco.

Fruitvale Station (available to rent): Written and directed by Ryan Coogler, the biographical film tells the story of Oscar Grant III, who was killed by a white police officer in 2009.

Selma (available to rent): Directed by Ava Duvernay, the historical drama follows civil rights demonstrators in 1965 as they marched from Selma to Montgomery.

The Hate U Give (Hulu with Cinemax) -- Based on the young adult novel by Angie Thomas: The story follows Starr Carter's struggle to balance the poor, mostly black neighborhood she lives in and the wealthy, mostly white school she attends. Things become more complicated after she witnesses a police officer killing her childhood best friend.

16 Shots (Showtime): This documentary investigates the 2014 shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in Chicago.

Rest In Power: The Trayvon Martin Story (Paramount): This six-episode series follows the life and legacy of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who was fatally shot in 2012 in Sanford, Florida.

America to Me (Starz): The documentary series provides a look into a year at Chicago's Oak Park and River Forest High School, one of the nation's top performing and diverse public schools.

Wyatt Cenac's Problem Areas (HBO): Comic and writer Wyatt Cenac explores the police's excessive use of force in black communities and discusses solutions with experts in this late-night talk/comedy series. The show is currentlyfree to watch on YouTube.

Do the Right Thing (available to rent): Salvatore "Sal" Fragione, an Italian owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn, and neighborhood local Buggin' Out butt heads after Buggin' Out becomes upset that the restaurant's Wall of Fame only shows Italian actors. Tensions flare up as the wall becomes a symbol of racism and hate to others in the neighborhood.

BlacKkKlansman (HBO Max): Ron Stallworth, the first African-American detective to work in the Colorado Springs Police Department, sets out to infiltrate and expose the Ku Klux Klan.

The Wire (HBO): This show explores Baltimore's narcotics scene from the perspectives of both law enforcement and drug dealers and users.

It's Okay to Be Different by Todd Parr: This book shares the importance of acceptance, understanding and confidence.

Malcolm Little: The Boy Who Grew Up to Become Malcolm X by Ilyasah Shabazz: Written by Malcolm X's daughter, this book tells the story of the boy who became one of the most influential leaders.

Let's Talk About Race by Julius Lester: Lester tells his story and discusses what makes us all special.

The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander: The award-winning picture book, based on a poem by Alexander and with illustrations by Kadir Nelson, chronicles the struggles and triumphs of black Americans.

Let it Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters by Andrea Davis Pinkney: This book tells the stories of courageous black women who fought against oppression, including Rosa Parks, Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman.

The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles: This tells the story of the first African American child to integrate a school in New Orleans.

Something Happened in Our Town: A Child's Story About Racial Injustice by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins and Ann Hazzard: The story follows a white family and a black family discussing a police shooting of a black man in their town, and aims to answer children's questions about these kinds of events and to inspire them to challenge racial injustice.

My Hair is a Garden by Cozbi A. Cabrera: When a girl named Mackenzie is taunted by classmates about her hair, a neighbor shows her the true beauty of natural black hair.

Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh: Nearly 10 years before Brown vs. Board of Education, an American citizen of Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage was denied entry into a "whites only" school, which led her parents to organize the Hispanic community and file a lawsuit. This ultimately ended segregated education in California.

Blended by Sharon Draper: This story about 11-year-old Isabella's blended family explores themes like divorce and racial identity.

Young Water Protectors: A Story About Standing Rock by Aslan Tudor, Kelly Tudor and Jason EagleSpeaker: A few months after 8-year-old Aslan came to North Dakota to try and stop a pipeline, he returned to find the world was now watching.

My Family Divided: One Girl's Journey of Home, Loss, and Hope by Diane Guerrero and Erica Moroz: Actress Diane Guerrero tells the story of her undocumented immigrant parents being taken from their home, detained and deported when she was a child in Boston.

The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson: Two girls form a friendship atop a fence that separates the segregated African American side of town from the white side. The book is illustrated by E.B. Lewis.

We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorell: A citizen of the Cherokee Nation tells the story of modern Native American life.

Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library by Carole Boston Weatherford: This book tells the story of Arturo Schomburg, who loved to collect books, letters, music and art from Africa and the African diaspora and to shed light on the achievements of people of African descent. His collection ultimately made it to the New York Public Library, and is now known as the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Lailah's Lunchbox: A Ramadan Story by Reem Faruqi: When Lailah is enrolled in a new school in a new country, she's worried her classmates won't understand why she isn't joining them in the lunchroom during Ramadan.

The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson: The book, with art by Rafael Lpez, is about how to be brave and find connection with others, even when you feel alone and scared.

Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis: This classic tells the story of a boy's journey to find his father.

IntersectionAllies: We Make Room for All by Chelsea Johnson, LaToya Council and Carolyn Choi: Nine characters share their stories and backgrounds in this book celebrating allyship and community.

Black Lives Matter. Visitblacklivesmatter.carrd.coto learn how to donate, sign petitions and protest safely.

CNET's Anne Dujmovic contributed to this report.

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Black History Month: Movies, TV shows and books on systemic racism - CNET

Womens rights advocates and allies in Poland vowed on Thursday to continue to fight a near-total ban on abortion, calling it a breach of human rights and a sign that the country is regressing.

The constitutional court ruling, which abruptly came into effect Wednesday night, tightened Polands already restrictive laws to further ban abortions in cases of fetal abnormalities. It immediately spurred thousands of outraged Poles to take to the streets to express their defiance, despite limits on public gatherings because of the coronavirus pandemic.

This decision is a declaration of war, Marta Lempart, a protest organizer, said in an phone interview on Thursday.

When the ruling was first announced in October, it set off a month of protests on a scale not seen since the 1989 collapse of communism.

It was unclear precisely why the government, after delaying implementation of the ruling for months in the face of the protests, moved suddenly to bring it into legal force on Wednesday. The move came as Poland is struggling through the economic repercussions of the pandemic, a partial lockdown and a sluggish vaccine rollout.

The action could pose political risks for the governing Law and Justice Party, judging by polls that have shown an overwhelming majority oppose the ban.

More protests are planned this week, and on Thursday night hundreds of people turned out in Warsaw under a heavy police presence. Among the protesters was Nadia Klos, a member of the Queer Tour, an L.G.B.T. group.

The way they are forcing through changes in the midst of the pandemic is unbelievable, Ms. Klos said. Its an attempt to take away the rights of half of the citizens by referring to religion, when its all about power.

Another protester, Iwonna Kowalska, with a group called the Polish Grandmas, said the ruling was a step backward.

This is what the communists would do, too, Ms. Kowalska said. They would wait for a time when everything is collapsing and then make changes.

The demonstration grew tense early Friday, when police officers told 100 or more protesters they had to show identification before they could leave the area, video from the scene showed. Officers appeared to block the protesters, television coverage showed, dragging many away. Local news outlets reported a number of arrests, although the precise number was not immediately clear.

The Constitutional Tribunal, the countrys top court, which issued the ruling, explained its decision by saying that human life has value in every phase of its evolution, and as a value, the source of which is in the constitutional laws, it should be protected by lawmakers.

Far-right lawmakers and supporters of the ban welcomed legal enforcement of the ruling.

Abortion from fetal abnormalities should be prohibited, said Beata Kempa, a Polish member of the European Parliament, adding that she had been upset by discussions in the European Parliament on the issue. Nobody at all mentioned the right of a child to live.

Anita Czerwinska, a spokeswoman for the Law and Justice party, described the protests as a cynical battle against the government.

Even before the tribunals decision, Polands abortion laws were among the most restrictive in Europe, allowing for termination of pregnancies only in cases of rape or incest, a threat to a womans life and fetal abnormalities. In practice, most legal abortions 1,074 of 1,100 performed in 2019 resulted from fetal abnormalities.

The right-wing Law and Justice party tried to implement a total abortion ban in 2016 and 2018, but backed off after mass demonstrations. This time, the government introduced the ban by using the tribunal, which it effectively took over in 2016 as part of a judiciary overhaul that has been criticized at home and abroad.

The decision by the tribunal cannot be appealed.

The only possible action is on the international level, through the European Court of Human Rights and the U.N. committees, said Adam Bodnar, the countrys human rights officer. On the national level, the only way this decision could be reversed is by changing the government.

The next elections are scheduled in 2023.

The ruling has a very personal dimension for millions of Polish women.

Women are really scared to get pregnant right now, said Dominika Sitnicka, a journalist at OKO.press, a news outlet that conducts research and analysis. Yesterday was not just a symbol of something. It was doomsday.

As a result of the ban, Polish women will be forced to travel abroad or have clandestine abortions for those who can afford it, said Dunja Mijatovic, the human rights commissioner for the Council of Europe.

Though doctors in Poland who perform the procedure in cases of fetal abnormalities now face up to three years in prison, advocates are calling on them to defy the ban.

Everyone has a choice, said Ms. Lempart, one of the protest organizers. Will you be an officer of the system, or will you be an honest citizen? We are speaking to every single doctor who will defy this decision: We are with you, and we will help you.

Abortion has long been a contentious issue in Poland, a staunchly Roman Catholic country, and the current debate has underlined a societal divide between traditional religious values and more secular ones.

The Polish word for apostasy, or the official procedure of leaving the church, has been trending on Google, while the level of support for the institution among young Poles has reached a historical low.

The government has tried to frame the abortion debate as an attack on the church and therefore an attack on the people, said Edit Zgut, a fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a move that could further polarize an already divided society.

Many Polish women say they are tired of being used as pawns in the culture wars.

Julka Tomiczek came out to protest in Warsaw on Thursday with her daughter and her partner. She wore a black face mask with a red thunderbolt, a symbol for some.

What brought me here is revolt, dissension, rage, she said. I dont agree to move back to the Middle Ages. I dont agree to sadistic rulings.

See the original post here:
Protesters in Poland Vow to Fight Abortion Ban - The New York Times

The renowned art dealer Richard L. Feigen has died at the age of 90. Feigen set up his first gallery in Chicago in 1957, later opening in New York where he forged a reputation as one of the worlds leading dealers of Old Master paintings. During his lifetime, Feigen assembled an extraordinary private collection, with particular strengths in Italian paintings, British landscapes and 20th-century German art holdings that he opened to Apollo in March 2014 when Susan Moore visited him at his apartment in Manhattan. That profile is reproduced in full below.

The veteran New York dealer Richard Feigen would probably claim, like many art dealers, that he is a collector manqu. What distinguishes him from most of his peers, however, is that he has in fact amassed a great private collection. While some dealers who collect have studiously focused on areas outside their commercial interests the Chicago contemporary art dealer and Old Master drawings collector Richard Gray is a case in point Feigen collects the types of pictures he deals in but, as he tells me, once they enter the apartment, they almost never leave.

There have always been several facets to the Feigen taste, which is at once catholic and specific, so it is hardly surprising to find a personal collection of paintings that form three distinct groups. The lions share is predominantly Italian or Italianate Old Masters, but even here the focus is particular: either baroque and mannerist painting, or early Sienese and Florentine gold-ground panels. Next comes a bravura group of British Romantic landscapes. A once larger holding of 20th-century German art is now confined to a small but visceral group of works by Max Beckmann, including the excoriating, anti-Nazi Birds Hell of 1938 [editors note: Feigen sold the paintingin 2017].

Birds Hell (1938), Max Beckmann

Richard Feigen has not changed much over the decades that I have known him. He is still lean, tanned, urbane, impeccably dressed and outspoken. After more than 50 years in the art world, he has assumed the role of elder statesman, and as such can be relied on to tell uncomfortable truths. Several of the targets in his sightlines are outlined in the opening paragraph of his memoirs, Tales from the Art Crypt (Alfred A. Knopf, 2000), which is worth quoting for its flavour: Arrows of barium nitrate pierce the black sky, tracings of invisible bullets aimed at the heart of what we have known as connoisseurship, the love and study of objects fashioned by men. Bit by bit, year by year, the ghostly missiles find their mark and the art crypt fills with casualties of the old order, museums, collectors, artists, those who already love art and those who could have. Anciens combattants, veterans of the culture wars, elitists who thus far dodged the bullets, still wander about in daylight hours as the legions of darkness sleep hack political opportunists, affirmative culture activists, guardians of family values, Bible-belting fundamentalists, strategic planners, management consultants, museum headhunters, box-office impresarios

Here is someone who evidently cares passionately about works of art, as well as his and our engagement with them, and who laments the corporate takeover of US museums as much as he abhors the diminished role of connoisseurship in current art history. Certainly his own eye the ability to determine a paintings authorship through a sensitivity to its aesthetic qualities, like the recognition of a persons handwriting, as he defines connoisseurship has played a critical role in his success as a dealer and as a collector. Unexpectedly, it was a fascination for the activity of art dealing that came first, as Feigen explains when we meet in his Manhattan apartment.

It began when I was about 11 or 12, when a neighbour of ours in Chicago who had an art collection I remember a major drip Pollock lent me a book about Duveen. Then when I was about 14, I bought a painting from an antique shop that I thought then and still think now was a Jan Brueghel the Elder. That was when I realised that things could be other than what they purported to be, and I began buying things that I thought had quality. Another early acquisition was a Ludovico Carracci drawing. He pauses before resuming: Frankly it was the commercial aspect that interested me when I was a youth, but later it developed into a passion where I bought things as a collector. You ask me now how I can do both? I am a collector in dealers clothes. Id rather collect. The only reason why I ultimately went into dealing was because I didnt have enough money to just buy and buy and keep everything. My gut is in the collecting.

It took a while to get round to the dealing. After Yale and Harvard Business School, his family encouraged him to go into the insurance business in California. My primary interest was in buying art, but while I was in Los Angeles I was far away from the art centre in New York so I started buying paintings for the chairman of the company and going back and forth, he explains. Eventually, in 1956, he bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, selling it after six months to set up a gallery back home in Chicago. His own collection of German Expressionists had to serve as the first show: Masterpieces of 20th Century German Art. The term masterpieces was no exaggeration, given that most of the paintings and the single sculpture ended up in museums. He staged the second show of Francis Bacon in the US, in 1959. In 1965, he opened the first art gallery in New Yorks SoHo, and moved to the city a year later.

Back then I even represented one or two artists something I gave up long ago, Feigen chuckles. In order to promote something you have to be totally committed to one period you cant be all over the place otherwise you have no credibility. I also remember trying to straddle the two worlds being downtown in my SoHo clothes and then rushing uptown [to a second gallery he had already opened in 1962, devoted to Impressionist and early modernist masters] and putting on a tie. Also, I just wasnt very good at it.

Revealingly, all of his contemporary artists from the Surrealists and Joseph Cornell to Claes Oldenburg and beyond were in revolt against the cult of abstraction preached and practiced in New York. Says Feigen: I represented artists who I felt were saying things that hadnt been said before. In fact, the only things that Im interested in whether they were painted 700800 years ago, or seven or eight years ago are by artists who are saying who are cutting edge. Its my theory that nothing great was ever painted that was not on the cutting edge when it was done, and that if it was on the cutting edge when it was done, its on the cutting edge today.

He draws no distinctions between buying works of art for his gallery, a museum or himself. I am not going to recommend something to a museum or a private client that I would not like to own myself, he exclaims, shocked by the suggestion, and explaining that he spends most of his time these days working with museums trying to fill what I perceive to be holes in [their] collections. Evidently, he is a frustrated would-be museum director too. Whatever I am doing, I am collecting.

Deciding whether to buy something for myself or for my gallery is often just governed by where I happen to have any money at the time, he continues. It is also governed by which areas are basically neglected by the market, and therefore afford me opportunities to get things of the first order and if there are areas here that I like a lot, I have an insatiable appetite. Look at all those Boningtons, he says, gesturing to the wall behind me. I love Bonington I tried to interest the Metropolitan Museum of Art in them but they werent interested. They were so Francophile at the time. My only competition then was Paul Mellon.

Richard L. Feigen photographed at his apartment in Manhattan in January 2013. Photo: Anna Schori for Apollo

The Boningtons flank an impressive Turner: Ancient Italy Ovid Banished from Rome of 1838. When I was lucky enough to get that Turner in 1974, would you believe that there were people who even questioned whether Turner was a great artist or not? His incredulity remains. I would have loved to have bought that great Constable that came up recently, The Lock [1824], he continues. If I had the kind of money that some of my friends have, I would have snapped that painting up and it would never have left my home. He shakes his head. I exhausted myself trying to persuade the Met to buy it because it was a transformational painting. That will be the last great Constable to come on to the market. He is particularly fond of one of the artists consummate sky paintings on the adjoining wall.

Feigen was able to form an impressive collection of baroque and mannerist pictures because, he explains, a lot of the directors of the great US museums were Calvinists who did not much like the Sturm und Drang of these paintings. New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago, Boston and Cleveland are weak in this field to this day. He adds: there were more people interested in baroque pictures 25 years ago than there are now. His group ranges from a small Domenichino landscape picked up for 160 [pounds sterling] at an antique shop in Stow-on-the-Wold in 1973, and jewel-like oils on copper, to Orazio Gentileschis monumental Dana and the Shower of Gold of 162122. This tour-de-force of surface and texture is currently on loan and filling a gap at the Met [editors note: the work was acquired at auction by the J. Paul Getty Museum in 2016].

As for the gold-ground paintings: I had never looked at them intensely enough when I started out, but Ive come to find them increasingly compelling. When he began acquiring these panels, there were just two Italian competitors who then passed away. Now two new dealers have entered the fray, as well as one collector, Alvaro Saieh, who has become the greatest of them all. If Alvaro wants something, I just cant compete with him. I can only get something now if he doesnt spot it.

14th-century Italian panel paintings displayed in Richard L. Feigens dining room in January 2013. Photo: Anna Schori for Apollo

Vision of Saint Lucy (c. 142729), Fra Angelico

Any sympathy one might have evaporates when Feigen opens the door to the climate-controlled dining room downstairs. Against dark mahogany panelled walls, gleaming trecento and early quattrocento panels hang in serried ranks on all four sides (four more panels are still in conservation). The breathtaking, magical effect is akin to being inside a jewelled casket, with the gems fixed to the wrong side. Here, for example, are no less than three panels by Fra Angelico, including an infinitely beguiling Vision of Saint Lucy of c. 142729. This had turned up unannounced at a secondary sale at auction in London. I had worked out where and when it was painted Florence, around 142530. Whoever the artist, he was fully aware of Brunelleschis perspectives, which were brand new at the time. How many artists could have absorbed this by then? He had owned it for a year before Laurence Kanter, now Chief Curator of Yale University Art Gallery, identified it as Fra Angelico and a missing panel from a famous predella. (Kanter, along with John Marciari, subsequently catalogued the Italian paintings from the Feigen collection when they were exhibited at Yale in 2010.)

Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints Peter and Paul, and Ten Angels (c. 133035), Lippo Memmi

Another favourite is the Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints Peter and Paul and Ten Angels of c. 133035 by the artist that Vasari called Barna da Siena but who is now generally agreed to be more correctly identified as Lippo Memmi, one of the most original and expressive artists of the period. These young girls are all gossiping and the artist is very explicit about his sexual preferences, so he is pretty far out. It is a remarkable painting in a remarkable condition by an extremely rare artist. Other powerful, emotive panels include Giovanni di Paolos Christ as the Man of Sorrows (146065) and the pair of panels by Orcagna, The Deposition (c. 136068) and The Entombment (c. 136065).

Above the chimneypiece is another highlight: Annibale Carraccis tender Virgin and Child with Saint Lucy and the Young Saint John the Baptist. Unusually, it is also on panel, executed c. 158788, after the artist had worked in Parma and come under the sway of Correggio. He had bought it catalogued as a work by Sisto Badalocchio. Im gratified if a discovery is endorsed by other specialists or scholars, says Feigen, noting that the jury is still out on the attribution of what he believes to be two early works by Poussin.

Virgin and Child with Saint Lucy and the Young Saint John the Baptist (c. 158788), Annibale Carracci

I like to see my taste vindicated, he goes on to admit. You know, I went out to Minneapolis recently and I see what is the pride of their contemporary collection, an outstanding Francis Bacon pope of 1953, one of the big ones and one of the best, which I sold to them from the show in 1959 for $3,500. Now someone might say you must be kicking yourself. No, Im very proud of the fact that the then curator [of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts] Sam Hunter listened to me. He continues: In Berlin recently I saw a magnificent red Rothko [Reds no. 5] juxtaposed very intelligently with two works by Giotto, an artist Rothko particularly admired. I looked back and found I had sold the Neue Nationalgalerie that Rothko in 1967 for $22,000 a painting I would estimate now at least at $50m-$60m. It was an important acquisition for the museum.

He is relaxed about the art he has failed to buy, but he deeply regrets the rare instances only around five when he has sold works of art from his own collection. My reasoning for selling more or less escapes me I didnt ever need the money but I sold things around the time I was divorcing or remarrying and I must have thought that I wanted some liquidity. Among them was the great Metropolis painted by his friend George Grosz in 191617, which he sold to the late Baron Thyssen in 1978; another was Turners Temple of Jupiter Panellenius Restored (exhibited 1816). The smart guy is the one who bought it, the idiot is the one who sold it. Every single time I sold something out of my collection it was a blunder. I couldnt possibly find anything comparable with the money. I had to pay almost 40 per cent of the money for the Turner in tax anyway.

Great objects have become scarcer and scarcer in the marketplace and it is not a question of money. If you asked me to buy a great Matisse for you, I couldnt produce one, no matter how much money you had. In every Old Master paintings sale in the past, there would have been one or two world-class paintings. Now there are none. Even so, he believes that the number of potential buyers will increase across all fields. He talks of the tremendous influx of liquidity in the art market, as people are assured that it is a good place to park money. Every time theres another contemporary auction, theres an escalation in price for Bacon, Warhol, Koons and people feel it will just keep on, and so they dump more money in it. People are buying with their ears. Even in the early 21st century, people are less discerning and seem prepared to put a great deal of money into a late Picasso or a late de Kooning, painted either when their imaginations had long since evaporated or they were gaga. It doesnt matter what the thing looks like. It becomes fashionable because its expensive.

Intelligent people see what else they can buy for their money, but they are rare. Most people have no knowledge of any other market, and even if they do, they dont know whom to ask although there is very good counsel to be found in the museums in New York. He adds: There are areas now that are still neglected, citing a recent multi-million dollar sale of a great medieval tapestry to a contemporary collector, and his own recent medieval art shows, organised in collaboration with London dealer Sam Fogg. A number of contemporary artists are stashing their loot in Old Masters or medieval, and I have been able to convert one or two contemporary collectors, but it is a slow process. There will, at least, be more opportunities for Richard Feigen to add to his inventory.

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Richard L. Feigen (19302021) a legendary art dealer whose own private collection was the toast of New York - Apollo Magazine