Judith Armatta

On Monday, the United States Supreme Court shot down the Trump Administration's attempt to upend the midterm elections by interfering with mail-in voting. Only Justices Thomas and Alito dissented, though Justice Kavanaugh indicated the Postal Service might legally be able to do so under its rule-making authority. But allowing it so close to the election would be arbitrary and capricious because state officials lacked time to implement it, he wrote.

            Trump issued the executive order based on his conclusion, without evidence, that mail-in voting (which he uses) was rife with fraud. The Administration is running scared because Trump's approval ratings have tanked. They apparently have decided that creating chaos is their best shot at maintaining a Republican Congress.

            That Trump is not concerned about electoral fraud is shockingly apparent in a statement he made at his midterm "Convention," reported by columnist Jamelle Bouie:

"The single strangest moment in all of this was when Trump led the audience in a pledge to himself, which included a promise to cheat if necessary.

"Please raise your right hand. I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States. That loves us so much he can’t even breathe. That I will go out with my family, my friends, I’ll do it any way — I don’t care if I’m registered or not, I’m going to try to cheat like hell like they do. There’s never been bigger cheaters. They don’t care. I am going to go out and I’m going to get my friends, my family. And we are going to vote on Nov. 3, or we are going to vote before that."

            Despite the Supreme Court ruling prohibiting Administration and U.S. Postal Service interference in the midterm elections, it is unlikely to stop. Recently, F.B.I. Director Kash Patel indicated in a Congressional hearing that he's ready to send his agents to polling places. Fortunately, those who care about election integrity are also organized and will continue monitoring and doing what is necessary to assure the midterms are as fair as possible.

            In Oregon, where we all vote by mail, the Legislature recently appropriated money, some of which will be used to establish additional drop boxes so we can avoid use of the U.S. mail. If you can't and must use the U.S. Postal Service, please do so as early as possible. 

I've struggled with depression most of my adult life. I've taken nearly every anti-depressant available until they no longer worked for me. Then I tried transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a six week series of brain zaps five days a week. It worked! No more depression -- until the next major crisis. The other downside: rapid onset glaucoma, which may or may not have been stimulated by the TMS treatments. My last best hope (I thought) was psilocybin.

Oregon legalized psilocybin a few years back. I followed its adoption and legalization with interest since the medical community found it efficacious for treatment-resistant depression, major depressive disorder and substance use disorders. Several friends had tried it with positive results. Half a century ago, in my youth, I'd used it recreationally a few times with no ill effects. I contacted one of the newly established centers and signed up.

I met with the facilitator, an MSW, before our session, read, discussed and signed many forms. She said she would be there as a guide, a tether, assuring that I would not fall too far. Bodies know how to self-limit, she said. I wouldn't confront more than I could handle. That turned out to not be true for me.

On the morning of the session, I followed instructions and arrived on an empty stomach with pillows and blankets in arms. It was held in an old Portland house with large, high-ceilinged rooms and windows admitting the gray light of a rainy Portland day. In the room I chose, a mural of a rambling rose crawling along a white picket fence decorated one wall. Pillows, blankets, chairs, and couches invited rest. I brought a water bottle and snacks. Soft music played in the background.

I settled onto a couch, while my facilitator and another staff member mixed the powdered psilocybin mushroom with tea and honey. I took a few sips. Within 15 minutes, my world dissolved. But not into kaleidoscope skies or brilliant turquoise seas traversed by a yellow submarine. It dissolved into darkness. My facilitator encouraged me to move through it. I would gladly have done so, but it never wavered. The only vision I saw was of a hospital bed, which I desperately wanted to come for me. I wanted my spouse to return and take me away to safety. All was darkness, revealing only my greatest fears: of going blind and deaf and dying.

After four hours the material world reemerged. My facilitator comforted me, urging me to spend time in nature, to be gentle with myself. The scary part would pass. We would have two sessions to integrate the experience. My spouse arrived to return me to my ordinary world. She fed me. We binge watched BritComs. I was able to sleep.

That wasn't the end of it, unfortunately. I was left with the highest anxiety I'd ever experienced -- pretty much 24/7. My doctor prescribed medication but it was too much and just knocked me out. The next prescription did nothing. I contacted anxiety clinics. They were either too expensive and/or did not take my insurance. To manage the anxiety, I stayed busy, tried to divert myself, exercised.

I continued to search for resources and found Prism, an organization headquartered in Maryland that deals specifically with psychedelic experiences and integrating them. (www.prism-wellness.com) I spoke with the director, Erin Atkinson, who was compassionate and knowledgeable. I signed up for their first Thursday of the month free on-line facilitated peer support group. Unfortunately, I missed it because I ended up in a psychiatric hospital.

After nearly two months of mostly unremitting anxiety, when I thought it couldn't get worse, it did. I started calling around for help and fortuitously connected with Unity Behavioral Health Center. They suggested I come in. There, I met with a psychiatrist and a social worker. The doctor wanted to try a beta blocker to lower my anxiety. Because it also lowers heart rate and mine is already low, he wanted to admit me to their residential clinic. Me? In a psychiatric hospital? I'd only ever visited them as an attorney. After some very deep breaths and no little hesitation, I agreed. I was desperate.

It took a Unity psychiatrist sixteen days to find a medication and dosage that calmed my anxiety, allowing me to return to my ordinary life (with all its demands and tech problems, but that's another story). Overall it was one of the best experiences I've had in years. The staff -- psychiatrists, nurses, social workers, volunteers -- were compassionate and highly skilled. Ninety-eight percent of residents were some of the kindest, most caring people I've met. The facility was exceptionally clean. Food was good and plentiful. Group therapy, as well as creative activities and games, were offered. Friends and family could visit twice daily. Also twice daily we were allowed outside into a small garden for fresh air and exercise.

The psychiatrist I met with daily, Dr. W., told me he'd had other patients with negative experiences from psilocybin. One of the therapists also shared that he'd had a bad trip on psychedelics, a trip that sounded a lot like mine. And it lasted months as well.

Dr. W. advised that psychedelics affect older bodies and brains differently than younger ones. We have decades more experiences, some traumatic, which we may not have completely processed. That was true for me. Friends and relatives have died. One year I lost nine friends. During my early professional career I worked with survivors of domestic and sexual violence, as well as prisoners. For a change of scene, I took a position in the former Yugoslavia collaborating with people traumatized by war. When war broke out again, this time in Kosovo, I coordinated a war crimes documentation project gathering testimony from refugees. I followed that for over three years by reporting on Slobodan Milosevic's war crimes trial, then spent more years writing a book about it.

On returning home, I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and underwent several rounds of chemo and radiation treatment. I took in my grandnephew to keep him out of juvie jail, then again when he was released from prison at age 21. Only four years ago he was murdered, likely by one of the unsavory characters he met while locked up.

I've now been diagnosed with rapid onset glaucoma, cataracts, hearing loss, and two lung diseases. While my childhood was not trauma free, after more than a half century I've added enough tough experiences to turn my magical mystery tour into an unremitting nightmare.

I raise this as a warning for those contemplating use of magic mushrooms now that they're legal in Oregon. I continue to support legalization. But in the enthusiasm for what they can do (and the money they can generate), I believe the dark side gets short shrift. Potential trippers need to consider all possibilities, lest their anticipated yellow submarine lose its ballast and sink.

From 1997 to 2000, I lived and worked in the Balkans. I arrived in the interwar period--shortly after the Bosnian war ended and before the war in Kosovo. My assignment was to support local efforts to establish rule of law in these former Communist countries. Initially, I landed in Belgrade, Serbia, which was living under the "soft" dictatorship of Slobodan Milosevic. Despite his efforts to control civil society, the judiciary, and the press, people had organized in opposition. Just months before I arrived, tens of thousands of Belgrade citizens spent three months of a freezing winter in the streets protesting his theft of local elections won by his opposition. Five courageous judges validated their efforts by publishing a letter in the press, explaining that Milosevic's actions violated the law. These five judges formed an independent Judges' Association. My assignment was to support them by connecting them to international jurists.

After much work and many false starts, we organized a successful conference with judges from France, Italy, the United States, and other countries. I gave a speech at the end in which I congratulated them on their achievement under difficult circumstances, including an authoritarian government. Despite not having a crystal ball, I told the assembled judges that, while U.S. lawyers and judges had helped make the conference possible, someday we in the United States might need their help to maintain rule of law and an independent judiciary. While I was trying to equalize our relationship, my prediction has become all too true. Given the Trump Administration's contempt for the rule of law and political appointment of judges who support the unitary executive theory of government in which power lies with the president and not the people's representatives, those of us in the U.S. who support the rule of law and our constitution might well welcome assistance from abroad.

Unfortunately, Serbian progressives' efforts to establish an independent judiciary and rule of law have been thwarted under the presidency of Aleksandar Vucic. But citizens are still active. Students took to the streets over a year ago after a railway station awning collapsed, killing 16 people. The protesters charge the government with corruption in granting a contract for the awning which resulted in shoddy workmanship and hence the deadly collapse.

Serbia has been a candidate for accession to the European Union since 2012. Recently, the European Commission announced that it is considering suspending 1.5 billion euros of payment to Serbia during its accession due to rule of law problems and controversial judicial reforms. It appears we cannot look to Serbian reformists for help in maintaining U.S. rule of law and an independent judiciary at present. We might check out Hungary. Despite Orban's 16-year autocratic rule, he lost badly in recent elections.

Soldiers have a duty to follow legal orders and can be court martialed for failure to do so. They also have a duty to uphold the U.S. Constitution and International Law. When a commander, including the President of the United States, orders military personnel to target or intentionally harm civilians, soldiers and their commanders are required by law to disobey.* This principle was established in the Nuremberg trials, where obeying orders was not a defense to charges of war crimes. It was subsequently codified in international and U.S. law. It has been applied in international war crimes trials, such as those at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

* * *

I was working in the former Yugoslavia during the war in Kosovo/a. Serbia's war against the Kosovo Albanians was largely directed against the civilian population in an attempt to drive them out of the province. Homes were burned, crops destroyed, people raped, tortured, and massacred. Some young Serbs and Montenegrins refused to fight. One soldier got into his tank and drove it to Belgrade where he parked it on the Parliament steps. In another situation, a whole platoon refused to fight. They started walking home. Their commanding officer demanded that they leave their guns behind. The young soldiers went one better. They took off their uniforms and set out walking in their underwear.

Parents did not know if their soldier sons had been deployed. A mother stood up among them and said, "Go to the barracks and retrieve your sons. Take them home with you." Another woman protested: "But they'll go to jail." The first mother answered: "They'll get out of jail, but never from the grave."

One of the soldiers who testified during the trial of Slobodan Milosevic said that he was never told about the Geneva Conventions and his obligation to disobey illegal orders. He and others were ordered to destroy a village. They'd burned between ten and fifteen houses before they discovered people. Fifteen women, children, and elderly men were forced out of their house at gunpoint and made to sit on the ground. One woman held an infant who was crying. The sergeant ordered the soldiers to shoot them all. The young soldier, who had asked to testify as a way to ease his conscience), obeyed.

"The people shot at began falling down one over the other. What I remember most vividly is how -- I remember this very vividly -- there was a baby shot with three bullets, screaming unbelievably loud." The baby's scream haunted the conscript for three and a half years and ultimately brought him to confront Milosevic: "I came forward to give my evidence because I wanted in this way to express everything that is troubling me, that has been troubling me for the past three years since I completed my service. Never a night goes by without my dreaming of that child hit by the bullets and crying. I thought if I came forward and told the truth, that I will feel easier in my soul. It is the only reason I am here."

Milosevic asserted that not a single officer ordered the soldier to kill civilians. He responded: "That is not correct. I heard this [order to not leave anyone alive] and also ten soldiers from my company can confirm it and in no way can you deny that. I was there. I heard it and . . . you, as Supreme Commander, could have come down there and seen what it was like for us. You were issuing shameful orders to be carried out." pp 90-91, Twilight of Impunity: The War Crimes Trial of Slobodan Milosevic.

I joined other Portlanders this week at the ICE facility near the waterfront for a singing protest. It was powerful and moving. As I sang the songs I learned 60 years ago, I hid my face behind my song sheet to keep my tears from erupting into belly-wrenching sobs. One song was adapted from protests in Belgrade, when protesters invited police to join them. Though none of the Portland ICE agents accepted the invitation, in Belgrade the police did. They moved to join the protesters, refusing to protect Milosevic any longer. Shortly after, he was arrested, then sent to The Hague to stand trial before an international tribunal for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Though Milosevic died before a verdict could be rendered, he died ignominiously in a jail cell.

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*Ordering troops to engage in illegal conduct is a war crime.

NO GENOCIDE IN MY NAME

President Donald J. Trump announced to the world his intent to commit genocide in Iran: "A whole civilization will die tonight [April 7, 2026], never to be brought back again." Trump threatens to bomb civilian targets including power plants and bridges. This is a clear violation of international law. Indeed, stating his intent to commit genocide is itself a war crime.

Though Pakistan (supported by China) secured a cease fire for two weeks, Trump's threat remains. Admittedly, he is fast and loose with his pronouncements. That doesn't erase them.

The Genocide Convention, to which the United States is a signatory, states clearly: ". . . genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which [contracting parties] undertake to prevent and to punish." Article I.

". . . genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, i whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part. . . . Article II.

"The following acts shall be punishable: (a) Genocide; (b) Conspiracy to commit genocide; (c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide; (d) Attempt to commit genocide; (e) Complicity in genocide." Article III

"Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals." Article IV

Assuredly, Trump believes he will never face justice for ordering the destruction of a country and its people. Still, for many people throughout the world he will die in infamy. No bronze statue. No peace prize. No carved head on Mt. Rushmore. He will go down in history with other leaders responsible (not all convicted) for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity: Pol Pot, Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Augusto Pinochet, Josef Stalin, Slobodan Milosevic. . . .

A man knocks on your door. A woman is with him. She appears to be pregnant. The man says she is about to give birth, but they can find no place for her to rest. Because they are strangers they cannot find shelter. The local hotel will not admit them, nor any of your neighbors. What do you do?

All religions admonish their followers to admit the stranger. But we are afraid. International and U.S. law require us to provide asylum to those from other countries who are in danger because of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion when they have a well-founded fear of persecution. Those seeking asylum are not merely wanting to immigrate for economic reasons or because they want to live in a place different from their home country. They are in danger. They seek refuge. They are asking us to help them be safe.

President Trump closed the Southern border of the U.S. to all refugees and asylum seekers on January 20, 2025, in violation of U.S. and international law. His executive order states that people arriving at the border are an "invasion." The Southern border is closed until he declares the invasion over.

I remember reading about a man whose car had broken down on a country road at night. He went to a nearby house for help. The owner came to the door with a gun and shot him dead. Because he was black and the homeowner was white.

Thousands of strangers have knocked at our borders only to be turned away no matter the threats they face. Thousands of 'foreigners' living in the U.S., who are seeking asylum from danger in their home countries -- Iran, Israel, Sudan . . . have been deported. The hypocrisy is overwhelming as people in the U.S. celebrate the birth of Jesus, born in a barn because there was no other place that welcomed them. What if one of those desperate people we turned away at our Southern border is following in Jesus' footsteps? Like many of them, Jesus and his family were poor. If this is a test, we're failing miserably. The star of Bethlehem has gone out. The Wise men have nothing to follow. They will not be able to find the holy child.

So many state-inflicted atrocities, killings, torture, starvation, ethnic cleansing, genocide in the world. The death toll in Gaza (60,000) and Ukraine (up to 1 million civilians and military) obscures what is happening elsewhere. Starvation (25 million expected to go hungry this year), violence (150,000) and displacement in Sudan (14 million). Increasing numbers of executions in Iran. Hundreds of thousands deported from the U.S. More hundreds of thousands losing their livelihoods. How much empathy do we have? Can we care about the thousands of Iranians being executed for drug offenses, protesting government repression, torture, killing, for vague religious offenses, and fabricated charges?

In Iran, six hundred twelve (612) prisoners were executed through the first six months of 2025. An increase of 119% from the same period last year. In the last two weeks, 93 individuals went to the gallows. Iran, the religious state, executes more people than any other. It hardly makes the news.

I feel a special affinity with Iran. Nearly sixty years ago when I was in my twenties, I was a member of the Baha'i Faith which has its origins in Iran. Though theirs is the largest non-Muslim religious group, Baha'is face widespread repression and discrimination and are forced to practice their religion in private homes.

The United Nations has shown a spotlight on Iranian human rights violations, including executions. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, demanded an immediate halt to what he called a "disturbing escalation" in state killings. He also expressed concern over the lack of due process in death sentence proceedings and a proposed espionage bill that would expand capital punishment to include such acts as online communication with foreign media.

Iranians are not more criminal than other peoples. They are sentenced to death for opposing the government, involvement with drugs (knowing or unknowing), vague offenses such as "waging war against god" (Moharabeh) and "corruption on earth" (Fesad fel Arz). Trials, if they happen at all, can last five minutes before guilt and a death sentence are pronounced. Lawyers may or may not be present.

Iran has 253 penal institutions with a capacity of 150,000, though holding over 50,000 more. Children as young as 14 are sentenced to death, locked up until they reach 18 and can be executed. Women have been arrested immediately after giving birth, never to see their children and separated from children who rely on them for care and sustenance.

The increasing pace of executions reminds Iranians of 1988 when tens of thousands of political prisoners were killed. Fear of a repeat has generated organizing within the prisons and outside. On Tuesdays prisoners in 48 institutions and their supporters go on hunger strike in a movement known as "No to Executions Tuesdays." Over 90 Tuesdays, supporters and prisoners have made 48 podcasts to inform the world of the ongoing terror in Iran.

In 2022, thousands of women took to the streets after Mahsa (Jina) Hamini, arrested for improperly wearing a head scarf, died in police custody. The protest, called "Women, Life, Freedom," was brutally put down by the Regime.

When those who hold power feel threatened they increase oppression. That is what's happening in Iran after the fall of Assad in Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon and the 12-day war initiated by Israeli and U.S. bombing. Iran's rulers feel more vulnerable today than at nearly any time in the past and executions have increased significantly.

ACTIONS THAT NEED TO BE TAKEN TO END THESE ATROCITIES:

1. Integrate measurable and objective human rights benchmarks into all diplomatic and economic engagements with Iran, particularly including an immediate moratorium on executions and transparent reporting of death penalty cases.

2. Impose targeted sanctions on individuals with a documented record of issuing or carrying out death sentences. Publish and update regularly a list of serious human rights violators. Equally important is accountability for the main architects of the machinery of executions, led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

3. When Iranian nationals on the list of serious human rights violators are present in states that have adopted universal jurisdiction, those states should file cases against them in their domestic courts.*

4. States should file a case with the International Court of Justice for human rights violations in Iran.

5. Impose sanctions on human rights violators.

6. Support international initiatives for an independent truth commission on the 1988 massacre and 2022 protests.

7. Support and publicize the grassroots movements against Iran's use of capital punishment to silence opposition (No to Executions Tuesdays; National Council of Resistance of Iran (Maryam Rajavi, president elect), Iran Human Rights Monitor; People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK), Justice for the Victims of the 1988 Massacre in Iran. Other sources: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, The Atlantic (articles by Arash Azizi).

*Sweden prosecuted and convicted Hamid Noury in 2022 for his role in the 1988 massacre of Iranian prisoners. While he was sentenced to life in prison, he was released in 2024 in a prisoner exchange with Iran.

                  In all the (legitimate) bruhaha over the mishandling of military operations in Yemen by the top Trump Administration officials, few commentators asked, "WHERE WAS THE PRESIDENT?" Did he approve the attack or leave that to his underlings to decide.

*   *   *

            In March 2025, the United States bombed Yemen. Prior to the bombing, high administration officials planned the raid over an unsecure messaging app (Signal) which inadvertently included journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor in Chief of The Atlantic. Goldberg published an article about the discussions in his news magazine, taking care to not expose military and intelligence personnel involved.

            Other media picked up the story, which made front page news as it exposed a serious breach of national security. Those present included Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, Vice President J.D. Vance, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant.

            What did not make the front pages of U.S. newspapers is who was not present. Where, in fact, was Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, when a U.S. military attack was being planned and carried out? Did he approve it? Did he know about it? Was it enough for Stephen Miller to say, "I heard it . . . green light?"

            Heather Cox Richardson was practically alone in expressing concern about POTUS' absence: "The messages reveal that President Trump was not part of the discussion of whether to make the airstrikes, a deeply troubling revelation that raises the question of who is in charge at the White House."

            As Cox Richardson wrote, "The decision to make the strikes then appears to have been made by Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who ended the discussion simply by invoking the president: "As I heard it, the president was clear: green light."

            Vice President Vance also referenced the president's decision-making authority: "I think we should go, but POTUS still retains 24 hours of decision space."

            When interviewed by the press, Trump didn't seem to know much about the action. Cox Richardson quotes him: "I think it's a witch hunt. I wasn't involved with it, I wasn't there, but I can tell you the result is unbelievable."

            'When asked if he still believed there was no classified information shared on the public messaging app, he answered: "Well, that's what I've heard. I don't know, I'm not sure. You'll have to ask the various people involved. I really don't know."'

            Does that sound like a man in charge? A man who knows the details of a military attack? The man ultimately responsible? Who's running this country anyway? Or should I say, "ruining it?"

In 1997, I moved to Belgrade, Serbia to assist democratic efforts in establishing rule of law as they transitioned from Communism. Just months before I arrived, tens of thousands of Serbian citizens demonstrated in Belgrade and other cities to protest autocratic President Slobodan Milosevic's takeover of the opposition's local election victories. These intrepid citizens gathered every day for three months in the depths of winter until Milosevic finally backed down.

            That wasn't the end of his authoritarian rule, but within three years and more demonstrations he was toppled and sent to The Hague Tribunal to stand trial for war crimes committed during the wars in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Kosovo. He died in detention before the trial was completed.

            Serbs enjoyed a short time of a pro-democracy government before the new president, Zoran Djindjic, was assassinated by state security forces and organized crime. For the last 13 years, Serbia has been governed by the increasingly autocratic Aleksandar Vucic. Increasingly autocratic and increasingly corrupt.

            On November 1, 2024, the Novi Sad train station's new cement canopy collapsed and killed 15 people due to corruption and poor construction. Bribery and nepotism are common among Serbia's ruling class. At first, Vucic denied there had been any reconstruction. Citizens were not that stupid. They didn't buy it. Though demonstrations had been held throughout Vucic's tenure, this was too much. Students took to the streets, supported by 61% of Serbia's citizens, many who joined the protests, now ongoing for over 100 days. It led to the resignations of the prime minister and the mayor of Novi Sad. The latest demonstrations were the largest in Serbia's history with well-over 100,000 people.

            There are lessons here for those of us in the United States now facing our own autocrat who is implementing a coup.

1. The protests are student-led and embody direct democracy. They are nonpolitical. While civic and nongovernmental organizations are participating, they do not lead or tell the students what to do. Students gather in their faculties, discuss possible actions and implement what they agree on. This is direct democracy. And the youth are nothing if not creative. They don't just march.

• In Ivanjica, when high school students and their teachers organized a protest and stayed away from class, the principal brought lunch for anyone who remained in school. Those students fed the lunches to stray dogs.

• Recently, students aided by bikers and farmers, called a 24 hour blockage of the Autokomanda intersection in downtown Belgrade. Students played volleyball and board games and made barbeque. Early the next morning they cleaned it all up.

2. Serbs love and respect their youth. When Milosevic was president, our Serbian friends in Belgrade looked to the youth for change. Today, they've again followed their lead. 

• When Belgrade youth walked over 62 miles to Novi Sad to join an action blocking its three bridges, 673 taxi drivers drove them home for free. When the authorities refused to let them sleep in a government-owned structure, citizens opened their homes. To remain connected, the students chose to sleep in the open together.

• Nearly 500 police have supported the student demands.

• The Bar Association of Serbia announced a 30 day lawyers' strike.

• Lawyers called on the police and the Serbian armed forces to join the strikes.

• Actors went on strike for seven days.

• The Serbian Medical Association supports the student demands.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of groups and citizens who are actively supporting the youth. Protests have occurred throughout Serbia in 240 cities.

Students refuse to negotiate with Vucic because: 1) he does not have power to hold accountable those responsible for the roof collapse; prosecutors do, 2) they want institutional, not political change. Though some would be happy if Vucic resigned, they don't trust opposition politicians either.

            Now I'm back in the United States, though I feel like I'm in Serbia under Milosevic's "soft -dictatorship." I recall what I said after a well-received speech congratulating Serbian judges and lawyers for their efforts to achieve judicial independence in the face of government persecution: "Thank you for your appreciation for the work we've done together. I do it for my country, too, because some day I may need you to help the U.S. maintain judicial independence and rule of law." I had no idea how prescient that was.

PS: Serbian citizens are not the only ones standing up for democracy and rule of law. In Slovakia, between 42,000 and 45,000 citizens took to the streets to protest their Prime Minister Robert Fico's visit to Moscow, his ending military aid to Ukraine, promise to block NATO and EU accession for Ukraine, and general pro-Russia shift.

"Between 1980 and 2019, the share of the nation's total household income going to the richest 1 percent more than doubled, while the earnings of the bottom 90 percent barely rose (all adjusted for inflation). CEO pay increased 940 percent, but the typical worker's pay increased 12 percent. In the 1960s, the typical CEO of a large American company earned about twenty times as much as the typical worker; by 2019, the CEO earned three hundred times as much." [The System: Wo Rigged It, How We Fix It, Reich, Robert, p. 15. 2020.]

            This was systemic and incremental over 40 years, therefore, largely invisible. But it explains the different perceptions about the state of the U.S. economy. Until recently, the media largely seemed puzzled about the discrepancy between the general public's and Wall Street's responses. Wall Street and the top 10% applaud the current economy; the general public has registered disapproval. That might have something to do with the fact that the top 10% own 90% of the stock market. The rest of us are left with the higher price of food, gas, and housing. These have not decreased.

            Inflation has come down from its 40-year high of 9.1% in June 2022 to its current 3.4% annual rate. If you buy your own groceries, you've noticed that there was no reduction in price. You're still paying $4 to $6 for a loaf of bread. My weekly grocery bill has gone from $100 to $150. The reduction in the inflation rate only means that it isn't climbing as fast as it did when it reached 9.1%. The real inflation rate reached near 20% (19.32%) between January 2020 and April 2024 per the Consumer Price Index[i]. Once the price of a food item goes up it rarely comes down.

            So, is this Joe's fault? Nope. In fact, there has been a huge transfer of wealth beginning in 1980, as Robert Reich points out. The causes? 1. a shift in corporate governance from concern for all stakeholders (consumers, employees, community) to one focused solely on shareholders; 2. a shift in bargaining power from large unions to giant corporations; 3. deregulation of Wall Street, especially banks and financial institutions which profit from high interest rates. Banks also got a taxpayer bailout from their 2008 debacle, while homeowners did not (10 million families lost their homes).

            Still wonder why a large segment of Americans (including MAGAs) think the economy sucks? Trump has channeled resentment, anger, and alienation to the government and to the usual scapegoats (people of color, migrants) and those he believes have harmed him (opposition politicians, judges, prosecutors). This insulates corporations, the wealthy, and the Republican Party.

            Was the economy better under Trump? Well, it was if you were part of the top .01%, .10%, or 10% of the population or one of the large corporations. Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) PERMANENTLY reduced the corporate tax rate from a high of 35% to a flat 21% with the old saw that it would trickle down to workers through investments in business that would translate to higher wages and lower prices. It didn't. With minor exceptions, corporations transferred the money saved to shareholders through dividends and stock buybacks (which can avoid taxes).

            The TCJA also decreased personal income and estate taxes -- though TEMPORARILY until 2025. Again, the lion's share of the reductions went to the wealthy. As The Center for American Progress reported:

"The 2017 law changes disproportionately benefited the highest-income households. In 2025--the last year before the temporary changes to the personal income and estate tax provisions expire--households in the top 1 percent of the income distribution will receive an average tax cut of $61,090. In contrast, those in the middle quintile of the distribution will receive an average reduction of $910, while those in the lowest quintile will receive on average, just a $70 reduction." ["The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Failed To Deliver Promised Benefits," April 30, 2024. www.americanprogress.org, p. 3.]

As their chart shows, individuals in the top .01% will receive a tax cut of $252,300 in 2025.

            It's inflation more than jobs and unemployment and interest rates that drive Americans' view of the economy. While the rate of inflation is down considerably from its high of 9.1%, it's not going backwards. The economy in the U.S. doesn't work that way. Having raked in billions, corporations, whose sole goal is profit, will not reduce prices or return profit to anyone but their shareholders.

            Until the system changes, the wealth disparity will continue and those at the lowest end will continue to view the economy as not serving them -- because it doesn't. They appropriately feel discontent and rage, which from time immemorial has only needed a demagogue to channel it in whatever direction will give him power. Being part of a rageful movement (MAGA) overrides the feeling of individual powerlessness. Following someone who projects strength and gives voice to emotions of anger and frustration when a sea of others are doing it, too, makes the powerless feel they have some control over their lives, that they can accomplish something, that they can be powerful.

            Counteracting MAGA requires systemic change, including: 1. laws that require corporations to consider more than profit and shareholders in their operations, i.e. employees, consumers, the community, the public good; 2. campaign finance reform that removes the power of the wealthy class and corporations over politicians so the average person can influence those who are supposed to represent them; 3. laws that close (or at least lessen) the gap between the wealthy and everyone else, including tax law, labor law, price controls (for essentials like food, housing, and health care) if corporations can't or won't govern themselves.

            The current disparity in wealth is unconscionable -- as are the hundreds of thousands of unsheltered people living on our streets.[ii] Our cities more resemble the 1930s depression than how they looked when I was growing up in the 1950s. Only serious systemic change will correct this.           

[i] The Bureau of Labor Statistics has classified all expenditure items into more than 200 categories, arranged into eight major groups (food and beverages, housing, apparel, transportation, medical care, recreation, education and communication, and other goods and services). Bureau of Labor Statistics, Mar 15, 2024.

[ii] The U.S. Census Bureau found 653,100 homeless people in 2023, up 12% from 2022. "The US Interagency Council on Homelessness attributes the current rise to inadequate systems around affordable housing, wages, and equitable access to physical and mental health care and economic opportunity. According to the council, people who experience homelessness have a life expectancy of 50, compared to 77 for the average American."