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Editorials: Mulino and Panama’s image problem; and An imploding GOP

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José raúl Mulino
President Mulino at the United Nations. Photo from his Twitter / X feed.

It’s not as if…

President Mulino isn’t on a mission to the UN like General Torrijos undertook. He’s not rallying the non-aligned nations behind the cause of Panama’s decolonization. Unlike Che Guevara, he’s not at the UN imparting a photogenic young badass image on the cause of Latin American revolution. Instead, President Mulino is at the UN to threaten sanctions against countries that take Panama to task for laundering the funds of their tax evaders and gangsters.

They don’t even live in Panama, Mulino pleads. Is that his excuse about convicted money launderer Ricardo Martinelli, the leader of his party, who’s holed up in the Nicaraguan Consulate — technically a spot of Nicaraguan territory — and issuing political pronouncements from there instead of serving his long prison term for stealing more than $70 million from the Panamanian people and laundering the proceeds through several other countries as well as this one?

Will the Third World line up behind Panama as it resists European and OECD gray lists? Instead of hassling Venezuelans, will the police go out of their way to be discourteous to US or French citizens found on the isthmus? Will Russian or Chinese ships get better spots in the lines to transit the Panama Canal than Spanish or Swiss vessels?

Our president is making us look ridiculous at the United Nations. That image will cost ordinary Panamanians in the long run.

plastic lady
THIS Republican lady, Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobson, sent out absentee ballots to overseas and military voters with Kamala Harris not listed. She blamed it on a contractor, of course.

Implosion talk

So the Republican nominee for vice president of the United States says that Democrats intend to fly black women into the United States to have abortions.Is Part B of the hallucination that he’s going to turn in as many Democrats as possible to The Bogeyman?

Near the top of the North Carolina ballot, Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson was outed in an online Mediaite column for some outrageous posts he made on a disgusting social mediium page, CNN picked up on it, checked it out and ran with it, the guy’s top campaign staffers quit, and now North Carolina becomes a major presidential battleground state with the GOP in retreat. So Robinson is threatening to sue CNN.

Meanwhile in Montana, the GOP secretary of state brazenly sent out absentee ballots to overseas voters without Kamala Harris listed as a candidate. In many a red state, with fewer than 90 day to go before Election Day, Republican elected officials have shut down thousands of voting site in African-American or Hispanic neighborhoods. It’s a great set of opportunities for the judiciary to define what is and isn’t a free and fair election, but we all ought to know better than to rely on the current US Supreme Court to do the right things.

For ordinary citizens, the thing to do is register, vote, swamp the desperate Republicans in a tidal wave of votes, and afterward insist on full civil and criminal accounting for the liars and cheaters.

Roger Bacon
Sir Francis Bacon, Lord High Chancellor of England, from a 1617 portrait by Paul van Somer.

                  A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

Francis Bacon                   

Bear in mind…

 

I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions.

Dorothy Day

 

I say that good painters imitated nature; but that bad ones vomited it.

Miguel de Cervantes

 

Arbitrary power is like most other things which are very hard, very liable to be broken.

Abigail Adams

 

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STRI, ¡Que viva la rana! – XIII festival de la Rana Dorada 2024

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El Valle's honored locals
Atelopus zeteki: La rana dorada es el anfibio nacional de Panamá y su día se celebra hoy, 14 de agosto. Fue venerada por los pueblos indígenas precolombinos y sus imágenes fueron plasmadas en talismanes de oro y arcilla llamados huacas. La última observación confirmada de la rana dorada panameña en la naturaleza fue en 2009. Foto por Brian Gratwicke, Zoológico Nacional de los Estados Unidos.

Smithsonian celebra el XIII Festival de la Rana Dorada

por el Instituto Smithsonian de Investigaciones Tropicales – STRI

El décimo tercer festival de la rana dorada, con distintos eventos a lo largo de Panamá, unirá a locales y visitantes de todo el mundo en la misión de celebrar y conservar los tesoros vivientes de Panamá: los anfibios.

La rana dorada de Panamá es endémica de Panamá central, donde fue descubierta en El Valle de Antón y sus alrededores. Esta preciosa rana, amarilla y negra, es un símbolo medioambiental y cultural en Panamá. Solía ser abundante desde El Valle de Antón hasta el Parque Nacional y Reserva Biológica Altos de Campana, pero debido a la enfermedad fúngica llamada quitridiomicosis, ha experimentado un gran declive en toda su área de distribución.

La rana dorada panameña fue observada en estado salvaje por última vez en el 2009. Anterior al declive causado por la epidemia de quitridiomicosis, el hábitat de esta especie fue degradándose debido a las actividades humanas, además que esta especie era capturada para el mercado de mascotas.

Este festival nació como un llamado de atención sobre la pérdida de ranas panameñas debido a esta enfermedad fúngica y el deterioro de sus hábitats. No obstante, poblaciones de ranas doradas se mantienen vivas en programas de cría en cautiverio en Panamá y los Estados Unidos. El Proyecto de Rescate y Conservación de Anfibios de Panamá (PARC por sus siglas en inglés), fue creado en el 2009 como una asociación entre los zoológicos New England Zoo, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, Houston Zoo y Smithsonian National Zoo, junto al Instituto Smithsonian de Investigaciones Tropicales (STRI), para rescatar y establecer poblaciones sostenibles de ésta y otras especies de anfibios que se encuentran en peligro de extinción en todo Panamá. También se centran los esfuerzos y experiencia en el desarrollo de metodologías para reducir el impacto del hongo quítrido, además de realizar ensayos de reintroducción a la naturaleza.

No existe por el momento un tratamiento eficaz para combatir la enfermedad, pero se mantiene el optimismo de poder devolver algún día la rana dorada a su hábitat natural.

El Q?bus, el Busito de la Ciencia visitará junto a científicos del PARC escuelas en Chicá, Panamá Oeste el 14 de agosto, Día de la Rana Dorada y El Centro Natural Punta Culebra en la Calzada de Amador organizará un día de actividades durante programa escolar y público en la Semana de los Anfibios, destacando la conservación a través de lecciones enfocadas donde los visitantes podrán ver las ranas (incluyendo ranas doradas nacidas en cautiverio), aprender sobre las valiosas contribuciones que los anfibios hacen a los ecosistemas panameños y descubrir cómo ayudar a conservarlos.

Durante este festival también recordamos a Lucrecia Arosemena (QEPD), cuya incansable labor ayudó a que la legislación panameña reconociera el 14 de agosto de 2010 como el primer día nacional de la rana dorada.

Lucrecia
Ana Lucrecia Arosemena (q.e.p.d.) Gracias a su liderazgo, el 14 de agosto de cada año celebramos el Día Nacional de la Rana Dorada.

 

tiny
Andinobates geminisae adulta. Descubierta en Donoso, Panamá, esta rana de dardo venenosa, color rojo naranja, fue descrita en 2014 por científicos del Instituto Smithsonian de Investigaciones Tropicales, la Universidad Autónoma de Chiriquí en Panamá y la Universidad de los Andes en Colombia. Fue bautizada Andinobates geminisae en honor a Geminis Vargas, la esposa de uno de los investigadores. Foto por Brian Gratwicke, Zoológico Nacional de los Estados Unidos.

 

certus
EAtelopus certus. Este sapo de color rojo o naranja, con manchas negras, se encuentra en áreas montañosas de la serranía del Sapo en Darién, Panamá. Los renacuajos tienen un gran disco de succión en el vientre, que les sirve para aferrarse a rocas y guijarros en los arroyos. Foto por Brian Gratwicke, Zoológico Nacional de los Estados Unidos.

 

glyphus
Atelopus glyphus. Esta especie se encuentra en el este de Panamá, en la Serranía de Pirre, y en Colombia, en el Chocó. Las ranas adultas son marrones con pequeñas marcas amarillas. Gran parte del hábitat de esta especie se encuentra protegida por el Parque Nacional Darién, un sitio del Patrimonio Mundial, pero esto realmente no ayuda a mitigar el hongo que es su principal amenaza. Foto por Brian Gratwicke, Zoológico Nacional de los Estados Unidos.

 

Atelopus limosus. Esta especie es endémica de los bosques de tierras bajas en Panamá central y se encuentra típicamente en las laderas de arroyos rocosos. En algunas zonas, el patrón de color de esta rana se parece al limo de los riachuelos, por lo que puede pasar desapercibida. Además del hongo quítrido, otra amenaza es la disminución en la extensión y calidad de su hábitat, debido a la agricultura, contaminación y los proyectos de infraestructura. Foto por Brian Gratwicke, Zoológico Nacional de los Estados Unidos.

 

lemur
Agalychnis lémur. Esta especie vive en Panamá, Costa Rica y Colombia. Algunos componentes en la piel de las ranas adultas tienen propiedades antibacterianas y antifúngicas. El ‘lemur’ en su nombre científico se refiere a la forma en que camina esta rana, que es similar a la de los lémures. Foto por Brian Gratwicke, Zoológico Nacional de los Estados Unidos.

 

varius
Atelopus varius. Vive en Panamá y en Costa Rica, donde está casi extinta. Uno de sus alimentos predilectos son las hormigas. Generalmente su piel tiene marcas negras y de otro color, como verde brillante, amarillo, amarillo-naranja o rojo. Se mueve muy lentamente y posiblemente las toxinas en su piel lo protegen de los depredadores. Foto por Brian Gratwicke, Zoológico Nacional de los Estados Unidos.

 

 

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Salud: Anticonceptivos masculinos

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shutterstock
Foto Shutterstock por TanyaJoy.

Anticonceptivos hormonales masculinos: una cuestión de equidad

por Piedad Gómez Torres, Universidad de Granada

Todas las personas tienen el derecho a decidir sobre su propia reproducción. Esto incluye elegir si tener hijos, cuándo y cuántos. También implica poder decidir con conocimiento y tener acceso a métodos anticonceptivos seguros y efectivos. Este último punto presenta una brecha entre hombres y mujeres: ¿por qué ellos no tienen anticonceptivos hormonales?

A nivel mundial, el 9 % de las mujeres no satisface sus necesidades anticonceptivas y casi la mitad de los embarazos no son planeados.

Enfocándonos en los anticonceptivos para los hombres, estos tienen menos opciones que las mujeres: el condón y la vasectomía. El primero presenta una eficacia del 87 % y la vasectomía es un método quirúrgico.

La falta de anticonceptivos hormonales para hombres impide un cuidado reproductivo completo. Además, deja insatisfechas las necesidades de salud de ambos.

Hasta ahora las mujeres han cargado con la mayor parte de la responsabilidad para prevenir embarazos.

Para lograr equidad, los hombres tienen que involucrarse más en el uso de anticonceptivos. Deben asumir esta responsabilidad junto a sus parejas.

Para ello es necesario que los servicios de planificación familiar cuenten con una amplia gama de anticonceptivos de calidad. Los anticonceptivos hormonales para hombres podrían conseguir que la responsabilidad anticonceptiva sea realmente compartida entre hombres y mujeres.

Desarrollo de anticonceptivos hormonales masculinos

Aunque los científicos empezaron a investigar los anticonceptivos hormonales masculinos en la década de 1970, aún no se ha logrado comercializar ninguno.

El desarrollo de estos nuevos métodos está avanzando lentamente debido, en gran medida, a la falta de apoyo financiero. La mayoría de los fondos para estas investigaciones provienen de instituciones como el Instituto Nacional de Salud Infantil y Desarrollo Humano Eunice Kennedy Shriver y centros académicos. Los gobiernos y la industria farmacéutica han contribuido muy poco. Esto se debe a que no existen reglas claras de las autoridades regulatorias de salud, como la FDA (Administración de Alimentos y Medicamentos de Estados Unidos) y la EMA (Agencia Europea de Medicamentos), para aprobar la comercialización de anticonceptivos hormonales para hombres.

Con el fin de avanzar en el desarrollo de estos métodos y hacerlos disponibles es esencial que los responsables políticos, los financiadores y la industria impulsen la inversión.

Métodos efectivos, seguros y reversibles

Los anticonceptivos hormonales masculinos han demostrado ser eficaces y reversibles. En diversos ensayos clínicos, estos métodos resultaron tan efectivos como las pastillas anticonceptivas que usan las mujeres.

En el mundo de la investigación ya se tiene mucha experiencia con el uso de hormonas y se conocen bien los posibles efectos secundarios. Se puede garantizar que estos métodos son seguros para la salud de los varones a largo plazo.

Además, los anticonceptivos hormonales han probado ser aceptables –para hombres y mujeres–, tanto en encuestas sobre métodos teóricos como en ensayos clínicos en los que se han probado. De hecho, la aceptabilidad ha sido incluso mayor en dichos ensayos.

La demanda de los anticonceptivos hormonales para hombres podría ser igual a la de métodos para mujeres ya comercializados. En España, por ejemplo, solo un 10 % de encuestados indicó que no usaría nunca una píldora anticonceptiva.

Los efectos secundarios son similares

En trabajos con diferentes grupos de personas los efectos secundarios fueron clave para determinar si estos métodos serán utilizados.

Los anticonceptivos hormonales para hombres pueden causar efectos no deseados, pero suelen ser pocos y similares a los de las mujeres.

En las primeras investigaciones se usaron dosis muy altas de testosterona. Esto provocó consecuencias como cambios en algunos valores sanguíneos. En estudios recientes, al emplear otras sustancias (progestinas) y ajustar las dosis de testosterona, los efectos secundarios fueron mucho menores.

Los efectos más comunes expresados en los ensayos clínicos son cambios de humor y acné.

¿Qué tipo de método llegará antes al mercado?

Durante años, los anticonceptivos hormonales estudiados fueron inyecciones o implantes. Ahora se está probando un gel para usar en casa llamado NES/T que ayuda a detener la producción de esperma. Combina dos sustancias, testosterona y acetato de segesterona, y se pone en la piel todos los días. Es fácil de usar y casi no tiene efectos secundarios.

También se han intentado desarrollar píldoras anticonceptivas para hombres, ya que muchos preferirían tomar una pastilla. Recientemente se aprobó una, pero hay que ingerirla dos veces al día, con comida. No es muy práctico, y por eso se está trabajando para crear una píldora masculina más amigable.

Sin embargo, lo más probable es que el gel NES/T llegue antes al mercado. Ya está en etapas avanzadas, ha tenido buenos resultados y es fácil de usar. La mayoría de los hombres lo incluyó sin problemas en su rutina.

Los resultados muestran que funciona muy bien y que hombres y mujeres están contentos con él. Sin embargo, todavía se necesitan estudios con mayor población para que se comercialice.

¿Se estudian métodos no hormonales?

Los investigadores han planteado así mismo numerosas líneas de investigación de métodos anticonceptivos no hormonales para hombres, pero se encuentran mucho menos avanzadas.

Algunos funcionan bloqueando el paso de los espermatozoides al aplicar inyecciones de un gel especial en los conductos por donde pasan, como Vasalgel. Otros emplean medicamentos que detienen la producción o el movimiento de los espermatozoides.

Mientras que las líneas hormonales llevan años probándose en humanos, las no hormonales se encuentran todavía en fase de ensayos de laboratorio. Por ello, se espera que los primeros se comercialicen antes.

Revolución en los derechos reproductivos

La equidad en los derechos reproductivos significa que hombres y mujeres tienen las mismas opciones y oportunidades. Así se promueve una sociedad más justa. El desarrollo de métodos anticonceptivos para hombres es, después de todo, también una cuestión de salud de la mujer.

Incluir el acceso a los anticonceptivos hormonales ayudaría a equilibrar la responsabilidad anticonceptiva. Además, fortalecería los programas de planificación familiar al ofrecer opciones más variadas y equilibradas.

Por otro lado, la anticoncepción eficaz y reversible para hombres reducirá los embarazos no planificados, especialmente en países donde se usan pocos anticonceptivos.

Si los hombres asumen un papel más activo será un avance hacia la equidad en los derechos reproductivos.The Conversation

Piedad Gómez Torres, Profesora Ayudante Doctora, Universidad de Granada

Este artículo fue publicado originalmente en The Conversation. Lea el original.

 

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Early & Gordon: Hegseth is bad news for military families and veterans

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Hegseth
Hegseth in a 2018 photo by Gage Skidmore.

Hegseth was a leading advocate for turning veterans’
health care over to private doctors and hospitals

by Stever early & Suzanne Gordon — Common Dreams

Much media coverage of Pete Hegseth’s nomination as Secretary of Defense has focused, understandably, on controversial things he has said or done, along with his complete lack of administrative experience relevant to running a federal government department with a $920 billion budget and a workforce of three million.

But anyone in charge of the Pentagon also gets to oversee the Military Health System (MHS), which provides either private health insurance coverage or direct care for over 9.5 million service members, military retirees, and their families. As Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin noted in a recent DOD National Defense Strategy report, the MHS mission is to ensure that active duty personnel and their dependents are well-served by a skilled cadre of “medical personnel in uniform,” who number nearly 170,000.

Hegseth served as an ROTC-trained Army officer deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay and is a longtime critic of “government healthcare,” claiming that it “doesn’t work.” So if Hegseth succeeds Austin, Pentagon officials trying to end a failed experiment with MHA privatization may find themselves ordered to march backward.

Rather than being upgraded and improved, the DOD’s network of military hospitals and clinics would remain under-resourced. And more of the MHA’s $61 billion annual budget would be spent on private insurance coverage that has failed to meet the needs of many service members and their dependents, particularly in rural areas.

A White House Advisor

During the first Trump Administration, Hegseth was a White House advisor who pushed the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to expand care outsourcing for nine million former service members. Trump’s first VA Secretary, a hold-over from Barack Obama’s administration, dragged his feet on implementing this ill-advised policy.

As a result, Dr. David Shulkin, an experienced hospital system administrator in the private and public sectors, was fired by Trump in 2018 after keeping him around for over a year. In his memoir, It Shouldn’t Be This Hard to Serve Your Country, Shulkin blames his downfall on Hegseth, who “never worked at the VA, knew nothing about managing a healthcare system, and had little understanding of the clinical and financial impact of the policies he was advocating.”

Hegseth does have a background as “a capable midgrade officer” who earned two Ivy League degrees and Bronze Stars, plus media experience ranging from writing for the Princeton Tory, a conservative undergraduate publication, to opining about military and veterans’ affairs on Fox & Friends Weekend where he’s a host. In any other Republican administration, this resume would qualify him as a Pentagon press secretary.

That Hegseth has instead risen to a cabinet pick is a testament to the continuing impact of the Koch Brothers-backed Concerned Veterans for America (CVA). After a failed bid to become the GOP nominee in a 2002 Republican primary race for a U.S. Senate seat in his native Minnesota, Hegseth became CVA’s first CEO and a leading advocate for turning veterans care over to private doctors and hospitals.

CVA was an astroturf upstart in veterans’ affairs and an outlier in pushing VA privatization. Traditional Veterans Services Organizations (VSOs)—like Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, or Vietnam Veterans of America—represent millions of veterans. Their members pay dues and elect their leaders. They have local chapters and national conventions. They have roots in the community and provide valuable services to individual veterans who need help filing disability claims for service-related conditions, which qualifies them for VA care.

VSO lobbying victories include the passage of the PACT Act of 2022. This legislation made VA benefits and related medical coverage easier to obtain for nearly a million veterans, including many whose health was damaged due to burn pit exposure during post-9/11 wars in the Middle East. (Hegseth initially applauded and then criticized the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a flip-flop characteristic of his career. As Iraq war veteran and VoteVets co-founder Jon Soltz says about him, “I have been debating Pete Hegseth for years, and I can’t tell you what he stands for other than himself and his own ambition.”

An Astro-Turf Group

With few actual dues-payers, no VSO-style membership service programs, and a political agenda bankrolled by libertarian billionaires, CVA helped pass few bills that benefited the nation’s 19 million veterans. Instead, during the Obama era, the media-savvy group became a battering ram against tax-payer-funded healthcare in any form, a longtime bête noir of the Kochs.

Hegseth became their most visible and effective mouthpiece in a wide-ranging campaign to discredit VA care and the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In 2013, CVA ran video ads warning, in Hegseth’s words, that all Americans would soon “face long wait times, endless bureaucracy, and poor service” if Congress expanded health care access by subsidizing private insurance coverage. The result, he claimed, would be billions of dollars wasted on “a nationalized health care plan that will bring the same bureaucratic dysfunction to the larger U.S. healthcare market”–as if the VA were a model for “Obamacare,” which it certainly wasn’t.

A year later, this propaganda offensive, closely coordinated with right-wing Republicans on Capitol Hill, claimed the scalp of retired four-star General Eric Shinseki, the Vietnam veteran who was Barack Obama’s first VA Secretary. Shinseki became the fall guy for a localized scandal involving misconduct by a few VA hospital managers in Phoenix. Their doctoring of data on medical appointment wait times—to earn bonus payments—led to CVA-amplified false claims that 40 Phoenix area vets had died due to delayed care. The result was that mainstream media packed journalism at its worst, and there was growing pressure for more out-sourcing of VA care despite its higher quality, lower cost, and greater accessibility than private alternatives.

On Capitol Hill, bi-partisan majorities passed the VA Choice Act of 2014 and, four years later, the VA MISSION Act. Both opened the floodgates for increasingly costly and disastrous privatization of the nation’s most extensive public healthcare system. CVA helped engineer the passage of each measure. After stepping down as CEO of Concerned Veterans of America ten years ago and becoming a Fox News commentator, Hegseth continued to advise President Trump on veterans’ affairs; other CVA alums served in official positions at the White House or VA headquarters in Washington.

Hegseth’s return to the conservative media eco-system of his college years has paid handsome rewards; he has become a multi-millionaire (despite two divorces) as a Fox & Friends talking head, paid speaker, and bestselling author of The War on Warriors, a critique of what he calls a “woke military.” Like other high-paid former military officers, his benefit package in the private sector leaves Hegseth unlikely ever to need the VA, federally subsidized insurance coverage obtained through the ACA, or, when he retires, Medicare coverage. If confirmed, his pay as DOD Secretary will be a mere $246,000 per year, but with lucrative “revolving door” opportunities in the future, when and if he transitions back to the private sector from the Pentagon.

Pentagon Cost Savings?

Meanwhile, enlisted personnel and veterans from poor and working-class backgrounds bear the brunt of failed CVA-backed experiments with the privatization of the Military Health System and the VA. Under Trump and Biden, the DOD was flush with money for military aid, expensive new weapons systems, and base maintenance worldwide. Nevertheless, the Pentagon cut healthcare delivery costs for its workforce, retirees, and dependents.

Military hospitals were closed, staff positions cut, and several hundred thousand more patients were shifted to TRICARE, a federally funded form of private insurance. Newcomers to the private sector soon reported having greater difficulty getting timely medical appointments or accessing care in areas of the country with a shortage of primary care providers and specialists.

The Pentagon found that contracting out left its hospitals and clinics “chronically understaffed” and less able to “deliver timely care to beneficiaries or ensure sufficient workload to maintain and sustain critical skills. After reassessing the situation, the DOD launched an effort to “re-attract” patients back to the MHS. As studies have shown, in-house care produces better outcomes at lower cost, with fewer racial disparities—an essential advantage for a patient population of nearly 40 percent non-white.

If Hegseth becomes DOD Secretary by recess appointment or Senate confirmation, he will undoubtedly stop bringing TRICARE beneficiaries back into the MHS. He will also halt efforts to rebuild the DOD’s in-house healthcare delivery capacity.

And Hegseth will not be the only ideological foe of “government healthcare” in a high-level Trump Administration position. His fellow cabinet nominee, former Congressman Doug Collins, an Iraq War veteran from Georgia, will be eager to pick up where Robert Wilkie, Trump’s second VA secretary, left off with his privatization efforts in 2021. And, with the biggest impact, Dr. Mehmet Oz, the TV celebrity picked by Trump to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, will further undermine traditional Medicare by replacing it with for-profit Medicare Advantage plans, on a more universal basis.

On all three fronts, these Trump appointees will weaken the public provision of healthcare that currently benefits more than 80 million people, making expanding such programs even more difficult.

 

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Editorials: The Pardon, and Counterfeit Martinellis

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Bolton
John Bolton, a troglodyte retro-Republican former diplomat and operative, has compared Trump’s nominee for FBI director to Josef Stalin’s last secret police chief Lavrenty Beria. Many historians now believe that Beria killed Stalin by dosing him with the anti-coagulant warfarin, which prompted the Soviet strongman’s fatal stroke. One of the first moves in the Krushchev era’s destalinization was that Beria was taken away and summarily shot. Boton’s unflattering comparison points to the Republicans’ big problams with getting Trump’s nominees ratified and legislative agenda approved. Cropped from a Wikimedia photo by Gage Skidmore.

Joe pardons his son

One of the banes of Panamanian politics is that sort of “family values” in which public offices are used to benefit their holders’ families.  Who gets charged with crimes and who doesn’t, who gets a well-paid sinecure with the government, who gets lucrative contracts steered his or her way — all these games and more have come to exasperate and deeply offend a large segment of the Panamanian people.

Is it “blowback” when banana republic ethics get a grip on US politic? Only partially. The USA had La Cosa Nostra, Latin America has its crime cartels. Pretenses of innate moral superiority offend, Even when thuggery actually is an import. npeople of all nations have feet of clay. Hunter Biden was a drug addict whose financial affairs were not kept tidy, and worse yet was a drug addict who had a gun.

The tax offenses were trivial and would not have been prosecuted were he some obscure guy with no political connections. The weapons charge was more serious, but he did eventually get off of the drugs without shooting anybody.

But meanwhile Trump’s crowds chant “Lock him up!” and his FBI director nominee actually has an extensive political enemies list of people he wants to pursue. It’s a conflict of interest, but it’s also quire reasonable for the president to want to protect his son from that. He ought to issue pre-emptive pardons to a lot of other people on Patel’s list, too.

 

This one happens to be fake. It’s hard to tell here, but look at there it says “República de Panamá” and if there is no accent over the “u” or the last “a” it’s counterfeit.

A crime has been committed and blame will attach to
some individuals but that still leaves a problem 

In two batches under the Martinelli and Varela administrations 80 million of the “Martinelli” $1 coins were minted in Canada. Now there are an awful lot of counterfeits, many made in Chia, some apparently made here, in circulation. The plan seems to be to get rid of the fakes and put the genuine coins in a vault somewhere, retired from circulation.

It seems likely that some counterfeiters in China will be tried and executed. But Panama has no death penalty — certainly not for economic crimes — and it would be against our national sense of propriety and common sense for us to demand or applaud the shooting of a few criminals by anyone.

It would also offend Panamanian and universal norms to make a racial issue out of this. CHINA did not create this problem, nor did Panamanians of Chinese ancestry. Maybe a few Chinese citizens, or Chinese Panamanians, did it.

China is a great industrial and technological power with which Panama maintains economic and diplomatic ties. Perhaps they can lend us a hand in scanning and sorting out the false coins and replacing those. Instead of extreme posturing and broad assignments of blame, let’s have some friendly cooperation to address a problem that affects both of our countries.

 

Hellman
Hellman in her New York apartment, 1977. Photo by Lynn Gilbert.

I like people who refuse to speak until they are ready to speak

Lillian Hellman

Bear in mind…

There is no stigma attached to recognizing a bad decision in time to install a better one.

Laurence J. Peter

The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

Thomas Jefferson

Egotism — usually just a case of mistaken nonentity.

Barbara Stanwyck

 

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As the editor is locked out of the Facebook page, a links and graphics post

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FB runaround

For the first time in a long time, a blog links page
Por primera vez en mucho tiempo, una página de enlaces

Maersk pens deal for 20 dual fuel vessels

APUDEP insta al rector de la Universidad de Panamá a detener plan de desalojo del campus

¿Cómo impactarían los aranceles de Donald Trump a Centroamérica?

Trump taps his Jewish and Arab in-laws for diplomatic roles

Sister Joan Chittester: To hope in the promise

Panamas Venezuelans demand International Criminal Court action

Does this mean Young Beria Followers chapters at US universities?

Elon Musk admits X is making it harder for people to read news

Panama de-registers ships over UK sanctions

The plan is to open gates at the Gatun Spillway

Comunidad china dice que está afectada por la falsificación de monedas y pide sanciones

A frontrunner to lead the DNC — but big names have yet to enter the race

Biden pardons son Hunter in reversal with weeks left in term

Norway stops deep-sea mining, for now

Israeli settlers specializing in West Bank outposts now at work in northern Gaza

 

 

tariffs --really?

 

gala

 

Japanese art

 

SUNTRACS

 

conversatorio

 

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‘Tis the season…

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¿Wappin? It’s a holiday weekend! / ¡Es un fin de semana festivo!

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ritmo congo
Ritmo Congo. MiCultura photo / Foto por MiCultura.

Listening in at The Crossroads of The World
Escuchando en El Puente del Mundo

Silvio Rodríguez – El Mayor
https://youtu.be/3RHnS6J5y8Q?si=N9OwfjSj7qWJ-o1H

Of Monsters and Men – Wars
https://youtu.be/6hrzpMSz4i4?si=nvYgRBLmepWslI_P

Alanis Morisette – Live at The Woodlands
https://youtu.be/S2Qr_r1pO3E?si=eVJ3YrdJlkYua_zY

Erika Ender – Despacito
https://youtu.be/HnYf6mSx7xo?si=WAB7RSCP2kJKf_u6

Lou Reed – Capitol Theatre concert 1984
https://youtu.be/yOoXjYppyMM?si=2PzqPeP3DHSFoetZ

Sam Cooke – Bring It On Home To Me
https://youtu.be/CYdX4_9VbBA?si=MzrDnAdpzK9DxOUK

Cultura Profética – Festival Frontera 2023
https://youtu.be/JYlJnhgPm7s?si=h82L8yAai5tzKu0W

Sui Generis – Deambulando
https://youtu.be/MAEmPPn0Oro?si=wehjvfIukCrlucnI

Fiona Apple – Across the Universe
https://youtu.be/CmlnO1EwCT4?si=i2YnNC750tBkBvp_

Yomira John – Mama Congo
https://youtu.be/C48fi2qtKn8?si=CsUHyGTnRd26pkat

 

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The search for Thanksgiving stuff in post-Gringo Coronado

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Small biz...
One of the great disconnects between many of the American expats of the gated communities is this compulsion about how food comes from a supermarket or a restaurant, not from the micro-businesses of that half of the Panamanian work force who make their livings in the informal economy. It’s not only a matter of missing out on bits of Panamanian culture like piva nuts, but also a big distortion in what they hear about Panama by way of over-reliance on an upscale sliver of local society with which they do interact. Archive photo by Eric Jackson.

Post-Gringo Coronado wasn’t different than elsewhere in the Interior this time…

In search of traditional
US Thanksgiving stuff…

article and photos by Eric Jackson

This is Panama. This is 2024. The country is no longer split in two by a “perpetual” strip of land and water presided over by a US Army Corps of Engineers major general appointed by the president of the United States as governor. THAT arrangement lasted for 75 years but ended 45 years ago. But even before Canal Zone times, and well after, the Republic of Panama and the United States of America are heavily intermarried societies, with plenty of citizens of each in the other country, with many a strange cultural fusion.

The American soldier, sailor, airman or marine who was stationed here, met and married a Panamanian, then sometime after mustering out of the military came back to live here? I suppose that over at the embassy, among the marine guards and the various military attaches, that cycle of relationship still continues with each new shift of US Armed Forces personnel. But it’s way diminished.

Along the way there have been people with birthright citizenship in one or the countries but citizenship by parentage in the other, and these people sometimes come and go between the isthmus and the states.

And are there also “illegals?” Sure, and occasionally Panama deports some American who has family or friendship ties and tries to stretch that without proper documentation by working here without a permit. The United States deports the occasional Panamanian university student who overstays his or her visa, and both countries will send criminals or crazy people back.

And then there are the “expats,” so often attracted here by an industry of glowing and sometimes down right false published reports. Live down here and pay no taxes, don’t worry about crime, park the money you made in the rackets up there in a numbered bank account here. Live in English-only insularity in an upscale gated community. Bring all your customs and tasted with you, and find establishments to keep you supplied for those.

But then came the epidemic. A few Americans were among the nearly 9,000 people who died of COVID here and a lot of Americans boarded the evacuation flights. Some of these latter returned, many did not.

How many gringos left for good? Where are the remaining concentrations? Perhaps someone in the Panamanian governments more or less knows, but I have not seen those data published.

MOREOVER, there is this common imprecision,. “norteamericanos.” I have noted US and Panamanian, or US and other Latin American, dual citizens referred to that way. Also Canadians.

But see, Canadians are not gingos who have difficulty pronouncing words like “about” and “schedule” in proper American Standard English. Many of them get downright annoyed abouit being confused with Americans, even if it has been more than 200 years since the United States and those British provinces that were to become the Dominion of Canada went to war with each other. Canadian and American football have different rules, with the sniper picking off fans at the Super Bowl a peculiarly Canadian figment of the imagination. Plus, Canadian Thanksgiving has its own traditional origins and happens in October.

Canadians have their own specific community presence in and around Coronado. The place was promoted early on by hosting golf tournaments of the Canadian PGA.

Politically, there is the impression that Coronado’s Canadian community is largely Tory, but Canada isn’t quite so whacko about its political divisions as is today’s United States. There may be a few Quebec separatists in the mix, but THIS Panagringo wonders if there are now more Canadian New Democrats in Coronado than there are US Democrats.

In years past, American Thanksgiving shopping was catered to in Coronado. It SORT OF still is – there were frozen turkeys to be had. But the boxes of stuffing mix, and the smoked turkey legs or wings? I went to El Rey, and Super 99. and the Machetazo, but those things I did not find in Coronado as American Thanksgiving Day approached. What’s a single downscale rustic old hippie who cooks on a hotplate instead of a stove with an oven to do?

I had tried Penonome and Anton on previous days, without finding the ingredients I sought. Nor even the canned loose-berry cranberry sauce, which I really ought to avoid anyway because of the sugar.

Yeah, I know how to make stuffing from scratch with the croutons or bread crumbs, spice and maybe et cetera. Plus, I have done non-traditional Thanksgiving dinners in years past. Not a problem here. No cause for the onset of tropical cabin fever depression. I could substitute and make do, and I did.

Don Ricky's food court
The Martinelli business empire has been and is in hart times mode, as seen at its main outpost in Coronado. But we are recovering from the depths of the epidemic, which hit Panama when the national economy was already in a bad way. Across the street at the entrance to Coronado El Rey has remodeled and expanded. The Riba Smith that used to be across the Pan-American Highway has moved to move spacious digs a mile or to to the east. A lot of little businesses failed but a lot of other ones have started up. Outdoor advertising is still in the doldrums and one of the notable changes is that hardly any of it is in English anymore. Judgments have been made about which market niches aren’t much worth it anymore and they probably do affect who has been moving into the beach communities. Photo by Eric Jackson.
 

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Editorials: Black Friday in Panama? and Our patriotic holidays

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raaaawk
The monsters we sometimes create out of other symbols. Archive photo by
Eric Jackson, of a display once upon a time at the Albrook Mall.

Black Friday as a national holiday?

ACODECO, the nation’s consumer protection and business ethics people, takes it seriously enough. They’re out there looking for specious “discounts” and other deceptive practices the “Black Friday” sales, as they were earlier this year for the derivative “Black Week” promotions. Never mind all the ads in which black people are conspicuously absent.

Black Friday derives from a US holiday not officially observed in Panama, which this year happened to fall on a patriotic day off – Independence from Spain here, Thanksgiving up there.
In the USA it’s this step into Christmas season, with customs with respect to a Western Christian holiday we have in common with Panamanians. Yes, people give Christmas presents in many places and the main martyred prophet of Christianity – some say the son of God, who lives today and eternally – DID multiply some grocery items of his time, bread and wine.

That, however, was not to flaunt his wealth but to share among a crowd that had gathered to hear him speak.

Leave it to a US consumer culture that considers a man’s worth to be the net value of his assets to turn the celebration of Jesus Christ’s birthday into a spending binge and time to display conspicuous wealth, and the day after Thanksgiving when a lot of Christmas shopping is done into a celebration of material consumption with a name of its own.

Panama should be more careful about what we import. We MIGHT, for example, import an old and now discredited Chinese custom and celebrate May 7 as a day to send people with deviant ideas off to labor camps for re-indoctrination.

Can’t we just get back to celebrating what Jesus Christ said, did and stood for?

people died
November is a month of patriotic parades, mostly celebrating our independence first from Spain, then from Colombia. November 28 in addition to independence from Spain is also the anniversary of a day in 1885 when the citizens of Panama City, occasionally devastated by fires that swept through neighborhood, organized the Cuerpo de Bomberos, our fire department that survives today.
Let’s recognize the other patriotic holiday to come in January, The Day of the Martyrs, and add a note about November 28 of last year, when a court decision to the effect of what January 9, 1964 was all about. Panama is a sovereign republic whose people will not accept the country being colonized, either by another country or by some foreign company carving out dibs on part of our territory.
One of the November holidays, the first call for independence from Spain or the Grito de La Villa de Los Santos, involved a legendary, perhaps mythical, young woman who was said to be a revolutionary instigator, Rufina Alfaro. The leading lady on November 28 of last year, attorney Martita Cornejo, is anything but a myth. She went to the Supreme Court and won a decision that stopped a foreign company’s mining colony project dead in its tracks. The company is still maneuvering to reverse that verdict. We will avoid being recolonized if the Panamanian people stand together and insist. People died for this.
 

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Sheinbaum, Carta abierta a Trump

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Claudia
La presidenta de México, Claudia Sheinbaum. Foto del gobierno mexicano.
c2

 

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SERIOUSLY, some of Trump’s tariffs?

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SOME of us remember that wall and who was supposed to pay for it…

 

 

Yeah, well.  Some interesting times are ahead but we all ought to know by now that Donald Trump’s word is worthless.

 

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