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Trump to criminalize opposition to fascism

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asshole
‘As incoherent as it is dangerous’: Trump threatens to designate ANTIFA — which isn’t an actual group – as terrorist organization.

If more than just a Twitter scream
it means increased repression

by Jon Queally – Common Dreams

Civil liberties advocates and progressive voices threw up immediate flags of alarm on Sunday afternoon after President Donald Trump threatened to officially designate “ANTIFA” — a moniker that stands for anti-fascist but is not, as informed people were forced to point out, an actual organization — as a “terrorist organization.”

In recent years, the term ANTIFA has become a broad stand-in phrase used to describe certain left-wing activists — including some anarchist and anti-fascist groups or networks. As protests and uprisings have occurred in cities nationwide over recent days in the wake of last week’s killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis, Trump and other officials have blamed so-called “ANTIFA instigators” — mostly without providing any solid evidence — with stoking violence or carrying out property destruction.

After Trump tweeted Sunday that “The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization,” critics immediately saw it as a blatant effort to use the authority of such a designation as a way for Trump to target lawful and constitutionally-protected free speech and the right to assemble.

“Terrorism is an inherently political label, easily abused and misused,” ACLU declared in reaction to Trump’s tweet. “Let’s be clear: There is no legal authority for designating a domestic group. Any such designation would raise significant due process and First Amendment concerns.”

Progressive journalists like Ben Norton and Jeremy Scahill also sounded warnings, calling it a “terrifying” and worrying escalation against the right to dissent.

norton

While some critics smirked at the idiocy of the president’s initial threat on Twitter — “What an idiot,” said one — others warned that the implications of Trump following through on such a threat would be very serious.

“Trump,” warned Scahill, “is going to use this order against the label of ANTIFA to dramatically escalate the use of force and expand domestic spying against protesters and targeted communities inside the [United States].”

Glenn Greenwald, Schahill’s colleague at The Intercept, said Trump’s threat was “as incoherent as it is dangerous,” and warned that ‘the only possible outcome, if it is more than just a Twitter scream, is increased domestic repression, surveillance, and the quashing of dissent: the classic case of exploiting disorder for authoritarian ends.”

gg

Following Trump’s tweet, Attorney General William Barr issued a formal Justice Department statement that said “violence instigated and carried out by ANTIFA and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly,” and cited use of the FBI’s existing regional Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTF) had already been activated to “identify criminal organizers and instigators, and to coordinate federal resources” with local and state law enforcement agencies.

In response to Barr’s statement, Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, said: “Hey, AG Barr, where is your statement on what USDOJ will do to build community-police trust? That recognizes how racial injustice has corroded people’s faith in the legal system and its impact on public safety? How about opening a pattern and practice investigation [on that].”

 

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Foro Afropanameño, La brutalidad policial en el EEUU

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crime

Pronunciamiento del movimiento social afropanameño sobre brutalidad policial contra la poblacion negra en USA

por el Foro Afropanameño

Los Estados Unidos han dado una nueva muestra de que su identidad en el mundo como una nación democrática, unida y ejemplo de progreso, no se compagina con su realidad íntima.

En medio de la Pandemia del Coronavirus, los pueblos de las diferentes naciones del mundo están dando prueba de dignidad humana a través de actos de solidaridad y desprendimiento humano destinados a combatir y mitigar los devastadores efectos y consecuencias de esta inesperada epidemia. En cambio, en Los Estados Unidos, el mundo contempla con indignación y asombro los recientes casos de Brutalidad y Violencia Policial sobre la población negra de ese país, que además como indican las cifras, están poniendo las cuotas mas altas de victimas de Covid19.

Estos nuevos ejemplos de represión humana fueron harto conocidos por las primeras generaciones de negros esclavizados en ese país, a través de las amargas experiencias de linchamientos, hogueras, latigazos, y cepos. Una vez abolida la esclavitud, las generaciones posteriores continuaron sufriendo el dolor de la segregación, las penas y condenas de una justicia racista, y violencias permanentes en las comunidades, con un alto costos en vida de los líderes y miembros de la comunidad que se atrevieran a reclamar sus derechos y a detener estas acciones inhumanas. A pesar del tiempo…la historia del negro parece repetirse en espiral.

Para muchos ciudadanos del mundo, la elección del Primer Presidente Negro en la historia política de ese país, Su Excelencia Barack Obama, generó un sentido de esperanza, de que el país daría un salto cualitativo frente al racismo y la discriminación institucionalizados históricamente en la vida de esa nación. La imagen de una Casa Blanca con su primer inquilino negro, abría la esperanza que el país estaba dispuesto a reparar las injusticias ocasionada a la población negra como consecuencia del racismo y la opresión.

Sin embargo, ha ocurrido lo contrario, y las experiencias racistas y xenofóbicas actuales indican un retroceso serio, para hacer de ese país nuevamente: Una Gran Nación en Racismo, injusticias e intolerancia.

Para el Movimiento Social Afropanameño, los recientes hechos de brutalidad policial son INACEPTABLES; lo REPUDIAMOS ENERGICAMENTE, e instamos al pueblo de esa nación en donde existe un importante componente panameño de varias generaciones, que se unan a la lucha cívica que protagonizan actualmente los afroamericanos y otros sectores conscientes de ese país para detener las acciones de brutalidad y violencia policial. Así mismo, instamos a las autoridades norteamericanas correspondientes, a REPARAR como se merecen a las victimas mediante SANCIONES EJEMPLARES para los responsables de estos actos inhumanos y antidemocráticos.

AYUDEMOS A DETENER EL VIRUS DE LA BRUTALIDAD Y VIOLENCIA POLICIAL AHORA EN PANDEMIA Y PARA SIEMPRE.

 

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Lockdown news

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Panama trends
Notice how on Twitter’s Panama trends there is hardly anything about Panama lately. Most of the stuff from here is government announcements or repeats or commentary on it. I wonder why that is.
 

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Sharif & Bridle, What antibody tests might tell us

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USAF
Medical laboratory technicians sort human biological samples at the Epidemiology Lab at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. US Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Brian Ferguson.

Can antibody tests tell us who
is immune to COVID-19?

by Shayan Sharif, University of Guelph and Byram W. Bridle, University of Guelph

Widespread media coverage of antibody testing for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has generated high hopes that we will be able to readily identify individuals who are immune to this virus.

There has also been coverage about developing immunity passports, which employers can use to let people return to work. While these are all tantalizing thoughts, the idea of using antibody testing as a true measure of protection is something that requires much more research.

As immunologists, our interest is in understanding how the immune system responds to viruses, especially zoonotic viruses that can be transmitted from animals to humans, like SARS-CoV-2. Here, we share our insights into different aspects of antibody testing, including its promises as well as caveats.

Immune response to a new pathogen

Colorized scanning electron micrograph of a cell (red) from a patient sample, heavily infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus particles (yellow). Photo by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

An emerging zoonotic pathogen — such as SARS-CoV-2 — is unique in the sense that humans have never been exposed to it, so our immune system has never mounted a response to this specific virus. When we are exposed to an emerging pathogen, our immune system mounts different types of responses within seven to 14 days.

Antibodies are one type of response: they are secreted into the blood and, more importantly, are present at sites of infection. In the case of SARS-CoV-2, antiviral antibodies can be found in the blood after infection, but they are also presumably present in the respiratory system, where the virus resides and propagates.

Although the presence of antibodies in an individual confirms that an infection has occurred, antibodies alone cannot differentiate between a historical versus current infection.

Antibody tests

Several companies have begun producing antibody testing kits, some of which have received regulatory approval. Currently, Health Canada has approved only one antibody test. The US Food and Drug Administration has issued emergency use authorization for 12 tests, including a combination of lab-based and point-of-care tests, while 200 other devices are awaiting approval.

A registered nurse draws blood for a COVID-19 antibody test in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan on May 14, 2020. Testing drives through churches in low-income communities across New York are offering COVID-19 testing to residents. AP Photo/Mary Altaffer.

Large-scale antibody testing has already been performed in parts of the United States and Europe. For example, in Chelsea, Mass., 64 out of 200 people in the downtown area tested positive for COVID-19 exposure using antibody testing. Other areas have also reported high prevalence of antibody response to SARS-CoV-2, including 25 per cent in New York City, approximately 2.8 per cent in Santa Clara County, Calif., and 14 per cent in Gangelt, Germany.

While these data imply that significantly more people have been exposed to or infected with SARS-CoV-2 than have been diagnosed using nucleic acid-based tests, these antibody-positive people may not be immune to SARS-CoV-2.

Are people who have had COVID-19 immune?

Depending on the type of virus, antibodies in the blood may or may not confer protection against the virus. We can only hope that the antibodies circulating in the blood of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 are good indicators of protection.

However, there is a chance that there is only a weak connection, or no connection at all, between antibody presence in the blood and protection against SARS-CoV-2. This is because antibodies in the blood will have to find their way to the respiratory system — where the virus resides — to exert their protective functions. Sometimes they do not end up in the lungs where they are most needed for protection. Also, these antibodies may not be of the right type to protect against infection or there may not be enough of them present to establish protection.

A 3D print of a spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in front of a 3D print of a SARS-CoV-2 virus particle. The spike protein (foreground) enables the virus to enter and infect human cells. On the virus model, the virus surface (blue) is covered with spike proteins (red). NIH graphic.

It is speculated that protective antibodies bind to the molecular structures on the surface of SARS-CoV-2, especially its spike protein. The spike proteins are the points that cover the surface of the virus, forming the “crown” that gives coronaviruses their name. The virus uses these spikes to attach to cells of the respiratory system. The antibodies that bind to SARS-CoV-2’s spike protein may prevent the virus from attaching to cells. Viruses that are not able to attach and enter a cell cannot propagate and will eventually die out.

It is safe to say that antibody testing is an excellent way to determine whether there has been exposure to the virus, but not necessarily whether protection has been established. That presents a potential danger in rushing the concept of immunity passports into use: people with positive antibody tests may behave as though they are protected against COVID-19 when, in fact, they may not be.

How can we test for immunity?

Given what we now know, can we conceivably use antibody testing as a measure of immunity? The answer is maybe! If one looks at other more familiar respiratory viruses, like influenza viruses, there is usually good correlation between antibodies in the blood and protection against influenza virus.

A sign listing COVID-19 tests available, including an antibody test, on April 28, 2020, in Houston, Texas. AP photo by David J. Phillip.

What needs to happen now is a series of epidemiological studies looking at people with high and low concentrations of antibodies to determine whether the presence of antibodies is associated with protection against re-infection with SARS-CoV-2 and if so, what is the minimum quantity of antibodies for conferring protection.

This process will take some time, but it is very doable. One way to speed up the process is to develop tests to assess antibodies for their potential to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection. Using antibodies taken from the respiratory systems of individuals who have been infected, these tests would see if those antibodies could prevent the virus from infecting susceptible cells in a culture dish.

Simultaneously studying antibodies in the blood of these same individuals would then tell us how well the current “quick and easy” antibody tests correlate with the antiviral functions of the antibodies in the respiratory system.

On April 23, 2020, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the formation of the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force to “… oversee the co-ordination of a series of country-wide blood test surveys that will tell us how widely the virus has spread in Canada and provide reliable estimates of potential immunity and vulnerabilities in the Canadian population.”

What T cells can tell us

A scanning electron micrograph of a healthy human T-cell. NIAD photto.

If it turns out that antibody tests can confirm exposure but do not indicate immunity, there are alternative approaches to immunity testing. One of the main players in immunity against viruses is a subset of cells called T-cells. These cells have an enormous capacity to recognize and respond to viruses by killing the virus-infected cells.

We have limited understanding of the involvement of T-cells in immunity against SARS-CoV-2, but it is possible that these cells play a pivotal role in protection. The question is whether we can use T-cell responses as indicators of immunity. The answer is both yes and no.

While it is feasible to measure T-cell responses in laboratory settings, it is time-consuming and requires a level of technical sophistication that is not available in most diagnostic labs. Also, T-cell testing will have to be done as a high-throughput procedure, meaning that a large number of samples is tested at once. Although high-throughput testing has not been fully developed for diagnostic purposes, the technology is there, so T-cell testing may play a role in assessing immunity to SARS-CoV-2.

This pandemic has been a true test for science and scientists. Studying our immune response to SARS-CoV-2 may not only be the key to identifying who is protected from the virus, but also to developing potential vaccines and treatments.The Conversation

Shayan Sharif, Professor of Immunology and Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Studies, University of Guelph and Byram W. Bridle, Associate professor, Department of Pathobiology, University of Guelph

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

 

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¿Wappin? Dark times medicine

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fromEric's house

Medicina para los días oscuros

Cienfue – On the Back of Your Neck
https://youtu.be/opX0NZWgEkU

Chambers Brothers – Time Has Come Today
https://youtu.be/CsBwBct0_5U

Kany García & Nahuel Pennisi – Lo Que en Ti Veo
https://youtu.be/CrTGrpnlsFI

The Pretenders With Friends 2019
https://youtu.be/aBK8MD9vnb0

Peter Gabriel – No Way Out
https://youtu.be/vdqR2vDnnxo

Silvio Rodríguez en Panamá 2015
https://youtu.be/ev00vlBfpGc

Patricia Vlieg & Paquito D’Rivera – Brisas Mesanas
https://youtu.be/f3syIVe1mw4

The Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’ Band – Jazz San Javier 2017
https://youtu.be/NZuObLMyAZg

La Muchacha y La Otra – No Me Toques Mal
https://youtu.be/BHSY-7Rykl4

Robert Cray – Live in Concert 2008
https://youtu.be/pgMDJoTh-QM

 

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AMOACSS, El fracaso del Gobierno Nacional

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unions speak

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Editorial, Back to school — and back to work

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Froon and Kremers
A selfie of two young Dutchwomen who died in a national park a few years ago, one of the proximate causes being that there was no cell phone connection when they tried to call for help. It was a blow to national tourism and there was a tiny bit of improvement to bring telecommunications to some parts of Panama’s protected wilderness areas. And things slid along until another scandal, a weird cult torturing people to death in an indigenous village out of cell phone range. But all along our cell phone concessions called for full national coverage, which Panama has never received.

Stride forward, not backward, as schools reopen

The government is pondering sending the kids back to school in July, at first “a distancia,” which can mean many things but usually means online.

A cursory first glance, though, finds nearly one-third of Panama’s school kids without an Internet connection at their homes. There are those beyond any Internet signal. There are those living without electricity, some in places not served by power lines. There are those households without a suitable computer for the students to use, or more students than computers that would be needed. Many of our teachers are not properly trained or equipped to teach online, and may not have Internet connections themselves.

The people to whom the president is listening don’t personally know any of those kids and are advising the government to abandon the public schools in favor of the private schools where they send their kids. It’s a wonderful formula to provoke widespread social disturbances.

However, meeting the immense challenge of going back to school would allow us to address other urgent issues facing a country with a plague-shattered economy.

The most militantly selfish of the rich would object in principle, the hustlers would see opportunities and the “no se puede” bureaucrats would get their eternal pessimism fed. And then an administration that has flubbed many of the economic details would have its chance for long-lasting greatness.

We don’t have nationwide telecommunications? The companies have breached their contracts and should not be heard to object. Build those towers, install those electronics, put the potentially troublesome unemployed back to work doing that.

We have places with no electricity even if there is a signal, and students without computers? Provide those families with photovoltaic cells and batteries sufficient to run a laptop and a light bulb. Give those kids laptops.

We have teachers who don’t have the computer skills to teach, and students who don’t have the computer skills to learn? Sounds like we need to hire a bunch of tutors, and give them the protective clothing they will need to go out in an environment where the COVID-19 virus is unlikely to go away anytime soon.

And when the “mostly clear” signal comes and kids can go back in their masks to classrooms? It looks like we will have more than the usual number with health problems that should keep them at home. We have long had to make provisions for those receiving chemotherapy or with otherwise compromised immune systems. That part of public education would have to be expanded and enriched.

And when the pandemic is history? Then Panama will be a better connected, more modern, more highly developed, better educated and more prosperous country.

  

Sid keeps his cool

All that we are is the result of what we have thought.

Siddhartha Gautama, The Buddha

  

Bear in mind…

 

Like the mind-set that places men above women, whites above blacks, and rich above poor, the mentality that places humans above nature is a dysfunctional delusion.

Petra Kelly

 

Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true.

Demosthenes

 

Anybody can observe the Sabbath, but making it holy surely takes the rest of the week.

Alice Walker

 

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Vuelos de repatriación en Copa / COPA repatriation flights

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Miami

Vuelos de repatriación a Miami y México en Copa
COPA repatriation flights to Miami and Mexico City

Pending government approval, this flight from Panama to Miami leaves on Saturday, May 30 at 2 a.m. You need to have all of your immigration papers (passport, visa if applicable) in order. It’s a one-way flight.

For information and if necessary reservations, call COPA Airlines at 217-2672. You also may want to call the US Embassy / Consulate if you have to travel into the city from the Interior to ask for advice or help about that.

  

These flights leave Panama for Mexico City on Thursday, May 28 and Friday, May 29, at 5 a.m. You need all of the documents necessary for travel to Mexico.

For more information or reservations if needed, call 217-2672. It’s all subject to government approval. You may want to check with the Mexican Embassy or Consulate for help with any difficulties or advice about details.

 

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Kermit’s Birds / Las aves de Kermit

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choip
Plain Xenops ~ Xenops Bayo ~ Xenops minutus, también conocido en español como el Picolezna menudo.
©Kermit Nourse, encocontrado en Cerro Azul

Plain Xenops / Xenops Bayo

The Plain Xenops is a small 4.5 inch bird found in most of Panama except for the higher altitudes. Personally, I have not seen many of them even though they can readily be identified by its upturned lower bill and acrobatic behavior. – Kermit Nourse

El Picolezna menudo (Xemops Bayo) es un pequeño pájaro de 4.5 pulgadas que se encuentra en la mayor parte de Panamá, excepto en las altitudes más altas. Personalmente, no he visto muchos de ellos a pesar de que pueden identificarse fácilmente por su pico más bajo y su comportamiento acrobático. – Kermit Nourse

 



 

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US labor leaders: Save the US Postal Service

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APWU
American Postal Workers Union graphic.

Labor leaders’ letter to Congressional leaders

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