November 11, 2019, is Armistice Day 101 (or 102 if you want to be all mathematically accurate and elitist about it). Anyway, it’s been over a century now since World War I was ended at a scheduled moment (11 o’clock on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918).

For decades in the United States, as elsewhere, Armistice Day (in some countries it’s called Remembrance Day) was a holiday of peace, of sad remembrance and the joyful ending of war, and of a commitment to preventing war in the future. The holiday’s name was changed in the United States after the U.S. war on Korea to “Veterans Day,” a largely pro-war holiday on which some U.S. cities forbid Veterans For Peace groups from marching in their parades because only Veterans for war can be part of Veterans Day.

Last year we raised quite a fuss in opposition to a weapons parade through Washington, D.C. that Trump had proposed to hold in his own honor. It wasn’t held. Nor was it held on July 4th, as he later suggested. Nor is it being held now.

“Everyone wants to play with the big boys, and the only way to become one of the big boys is to have nuclear toys.”

Attention Planet Earth! Attention Planet Earth! It is time to grow up.

One year ago, I was the Libertarian candidate for governor of Ohio in a four-way race. The perfect outcome would have been for myself and the Green Party candidate, Constance Gadell-Newton, to both receive 3 percent of the vote so we could meet the arbitrary benchmark set by Ohio Republicans to maintain ballot access for our political parties the next four years. Another aspect of this perfect outcome would have been for our total amount of votes to cause Republican Mike DeWine to lose to Democrat Richard Cordray. The Ohio Republican Party has had a stranglehold on our state government for far too long, as evidenced by the aforementioned 3 percent benchmark being set for minor parties and signed into law at all. Unlike Republicans, Democrats have never made ballot access so difficult in Ohio, so a Cordray administration would have been a welcome change of pace, even for Libertarians.

Sat, Nov 9, 7-9:30pm
Just North United Church of Christ, 2040 W. Henderson Rd.
A concert to benefit a Honduran family of four living at Just North while they pursue asylum. The parents (“Juan” and “Maria”), with one small child at the time, walked for 15 months from Honduras to the US-Mexican border, where they were briefly “caged” with their toddler. Tickets: $20 general admission, $40 per family, online. Under 12 free. squareup.com/store/just-north-ucc.

The 11^th annual DTLA Film Festival took place Oct. 23-27. According to the Festival’s website: “Our programming reflects downtown L.A.’s vibrant new urbanism, the unique ethnic and cultural diversity of its neighborhoods, its burgeoning independent film community, its singular blend of late 19th and 20th century architecture, and the seminal role it played in the early days of American cinema (epitomized by the world’s largest group of vintage movie palaces located in the Broadway Theater District).”

DTLAFF screened features, shorts, documentaries etc., at two primary locations: Regal L.A. LIVE1000 West Olympic Blvd., L.A., CA 90015 while the Dome Series is at the Wisdome Immersive Art Park in DTLA’s Arts District, 1147 Palmetto St., L.A. or the Vortex Dome Theater at L.A. Center Studios.Panels, parties, etc., were presented at various Downtown L.A. locations. For info on the DTLA Film Festival see: https://www.dtlaff.com/.

KATHY GRIFFIN: A HELL OF A STORY

The Head of Her Comic Class: Doc Mocks Trump