Las máscarillas tiradas al suelo son fuentes peligrosas de infección.
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Following the resignation Thursday of State Department Iran envoy Brian Hook, President Donald Trump named as his replacement current special representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams, a notorious warmonger and supporter of Latin American death squads who was convicted in 1991 of withholding information from Congress during the Iran-Contra scandal.
Abrams will now serve in both roles simultaneously, alarming anti-war groups who say someone with a record as blood-stained as his “should be barred for life from government positions and recognized as the war criminal that he is.”
“From El Salvador to Guatemala, Nicaragua to Panama, Elliott Abrams’s life’s work has been defined by the worst impulses of US foreign policy: embracing war, ignoring gross human rights abuses, and supporting horrific authoritarian regimes,” said Stephen Miles, executive director of Win Without War.
Abrams’s appointment as special envoy to Iran comes days after he confirmed during a Senate hearing that he is still “working hard” to topple Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Sina Toossi, senior research analyst at the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), warned that the Trump administration’s installation of Abrams as the top US diplomat to Iran shows the president and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are “doubling down” on their push for regime change in Iran as well.
“Like most Trump appointees,” said Toossi, “he is not fit for the position, and will continue to hurt US interests by enacting a failing strategy that will only succeed in spreading chaos and misery.”
-Trump greenlit CIA ops to destabilize #Iran
-Quit nuclear deal
-Appointed Iran hawks as advisors
-Sanctioned #Iranians into poverty
-Assassinated Soleimani
Now wants guy who lied about Iran-Contra as envoy to Iran. Goal is collapse at *any* cost. Just look at Abrams record pic.twitter.com/5c4hwMf2IC
— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) August 6, 2020
In a statement late Thursday, anti-war group CodePink provided a snapshot of Abrams’ views and record dating back to his time in the Reagan administration:
“The dangerous conflict resulting from Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear agreement will be exacerbated by a man committed to Washington’s failed policies of regime change,” CodePink said. “Elliott Abrams has made a career of lying and committing criminal acts that have led to the death and suffering of innocent people from Guatemala to Iraq. He embraces militarism, covers up for gross human rights abuses, and has a history of supporting authoritarian regimes.”
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Panama City’s mayor messed up really badly. On the beach without a mask, in some other mayor’s bailiwick. (It was in Coronado, which is in the municipal district of Chame.) He may have had a pass to ignore quarantine restrictions, but he may have exceeded the scope of that pass. He may have gone to the beach in a city vehicle, which is pretty clearly prohibited even without a pandemic and attendant restrictions. So it might cost “Tanque de Gas” his job. Or it might not
This reporter sees five threats at the moment:
1. Panama provincial governor Judy Meana could suspend the mayor and, in the meantime, other processes might intervene. But the problems are that her powers are temporary, – a 30-day maximum suspension — and as she is also the capital’s vice mayor who would step in for Fábrega, she’s have a huge conflict of interest. The conflict would be nothing too weird for the ways that this country’s political system operates, but it could look bad for her if she has further political ambitions. Every step of the way She would need Nito’s support.
2. Health Minister Luis Francisco Sucre could impose heavy fines. We should expect him to do so. But time in prison? Or order Fábrega to withdraw? Those would likely be in excess of his powers. Or would he have just one more vote in a Cabinet that uses some other route to remove the mayor, given the decentralization law? He would surely need presidential support. Anyone else mentioned here looking to remove the mayor probably as a matter of practical politics need some expression of approval from the Minister of Health.
3. If the Transparency Authority’s director Elsa Fernández, who has already announced an investigation, finds that the mayor has violated various ethical rules, what can she do about it? ANTAI is a relatively new institution and the case gets into ground that has not been traveled before.
4. Attorney Rosendo Rivera’s denuncia makes some serious criminal charges – get a conviction and that could lead to years behind bars and would lead to the mayor’s definitive removal. But it would be easy to see a four-year series of delays by which the mayor beats that.
5. There is Raúl Ricardo Rodríguez, the young man who would move for a recall election. However, it is difficult to imagine collecting hundreds of thousands of signatures during a pandemic.
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The Palm Tanager is one species of about 44 tanagers found in Panama. It measures about 6.5 inches and is usually found with other tanagers. This species, which ranges from southern Honduras to southern Brazil, is generally not found in the Dry Arc along the western side of the Gulf of Panama nor higher than 4,000 feet. It’s more common on the Atlantic Side. It likes to live around people and graze their farms and gardens. It especially inhabits lowland rainforests and their edges, scrubland and pastures, and around human habitations.
La Tangara Palmera es una especie de aproximadamente 44 tangaras encontradas en Panamá. Mide alrededor de 6.5 pulgadas y generalmente se encuentra con otras tangaras. Esta especie, que se extiende desde el sur de Honduras hasta el sur de Brasil, generalmente no se encuentra en el Arco Seco a lo largo del lado occidental del Golfo de Panamá ni a más de 4,000 pies. Es más común en la vertiente caribe. Le gusta vivir cerca de las personas y pastar sus granjas y jardines. Habita especialmente en los bosques de tierras bajas y sus bordes, matorrales y pastizales, y alrededor de las viviendas humanas.
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In his capacity as head of Panama’s executive branch, President Laurentino Cortizo Cohen has been accumulating throughout his short term a series of statements that produce more disapproval than applause.
The arrival of COVID-19, far from giving the members of his admionistration the diligence, good sense, humility, tolerance, will, prudence and responsibility befitting their functions, seems to have opened the doors of political power for a Dionysian marathon drinking binge, as if they owned the rod of Moses.
Throughout all this time, Cortizo and what he calls his “good team” have amply demonstrated to us how much they are seduced by the exercise, without citizen control, of political power, as well as the enjoyment of advantages, glorification, privileges and perks that give them access to the immense resources of the treasury.
The wear and tear of state structures and institutions, which have been dragging our country, have accelerated enormously in this year of government. Ultra-presidentialism has sought to establish itself by relying on rhetoric, nationalist and populist symbolism, charismatic techniques and media, authoritarianism and political patronage manipulation.
The speeches, press conferences, declarations, decrees and resolutions are living witnesses to the incoherence, inconsistency, intolerance and inconsistency that predominate in the mind of the tenant at the Palacio de las Garzas. Let us remember that he promised – before the entire country – that in his administration it would be “forbidden to lie, forbidden to steal, forbidden to betray the Panamanian people” and, in the same way, he assured us all that “there will be no untouchables” and that “no one would be above of the law”
The entire population is witness. What we have become and how we continue to live is the opposite. The daily efforts of citizens to achieve better days collide more than ever, with the rapacity, greed, greed and usury of the “good team” — untouchables who practice, and simultaneously protect, unstoppable corruption with impunity.
In an open threat, the President said in his July 31 speech that those who criticize his government “have hidden agendas.” It’s a confession, a lumpen-presidential rant.
But it also obliges those of us citizens who fight for democratic freedoms and human, economic and social rights, to bear in mind that the difference between a simply authoritarian and a totalitarian regime is that the former wants to not be attacked and the latter considers everything that is not a compliment an attack. To the first it is enough that he is not disadvantaged. The second tries to ensure that nothing is done that does not favor him.
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“Unprecedented” might be the word of the COVID-19 pandemic. But for many, especially older adults, life has taken many abrupt turns. Maybe it’s their first pandemic, but it’s not the first time they’ve pivoted without calling it that and created a new normal.
Yet, we persist in treating people over 70 as an undifferentiated blob of neediness and vulnerability. When we do, we once again miss what older adults contribute.
As an aging studies scholar, my focus is on the portrayal and treatment of older adults in literature, film and popular culture. During COVID-19, dire fictional portraits of nursing homes as places to avoid and escape appear to be coming alive. We hear a lot about them, but less attention lands on older adults living and making do at home. Public health issues reminders to check on what they call “elderly neighbors.” Those reminders ignore what older people in and out of nursing homes offer to the rest of us.
We’ve heard this before. During the 1998 ice storm that cut power throughout much of Eastern Canada and the northeastern United States, radio commentators urged listeners to check on older adults who were more at risk from adverse effects of unheated homes indoors and falling on the ice outside. Like now, they treated older adults as helpless, vulnerable and past contributing.
Back then, I was trapped in my third floor walk-up Montréal apartment, with a two-metre-long icicle, as wide as a dinner plate, teetering precipitously above my shared second floor entrance. My neighbors, two retired men, checked on me. They brought me coffee. They fed me tourtière. They taught me about times before they’d had electricity in their homes. They reminded me about postwar austerity and other hard times.
Reporters then repeated that older adults were more vulnerable to the effects of the ice storm than others. Check on your “elderly neighbors,” we were told again and again. These older adults were never directly addressed though they likely made up a large portion of the broadcast audience. There was no airtime for the knowledge, skill and expertise they had from surviving through past wars and depression eras. No one else seemed to be getting their espresso from their retired neighbors.
More than 20 years after that ice storm, I find myself yet again essentially trapped in my home. The conditions are significantly different, not only because they are so widespread. But the disproportionate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic resemble the difficulties revealed during the ice storm, when the need for adequate long-term care spaces similarly revealed the problems that arise when we treat people like products, and care like a business.
Media venues have shifted dramatically, but the portrayal of older adults hasn’t kept up. Calls to check on our “elderly neighbors” still refuse to acknowledge that the people receiving those instructions might themselves be old. This harnesses ageist language to make it seem as though people between 70 and 100 are all from the same generation, with the same needs and desires.
This approach ignores how older adults collectively and individually possess considerable expertise. It misses their potential to offer at least mutual support for younger people who are no longer able to do whatever we want. Studies are already showing that older adults are better equipped to manage the stress brought on by continued isolation.
I’m not the only one whose hand-sewn mask was made by someone over 70, who got my bread recipe from a senior, who sung in a choir led by a guy in his 60s who learned how to Zoom in a heartbeat and who follows streamed exercise classes led by a woman in her 70s.
Besides ignoring their many contributions, this belittling of older Canadians clashes with how some are coming out of retirement to help combat COVID-19. What a contradiction to be viewed as only in need of help, instead of part of a reciprocal system, and to be perceived as needing to sacrifice themselves.
Strangest of all, the residents of long-term care are somehow, oddly, not considered our “elderly neighbors.” We’re barely even allowed to check on them.
So, go ahead and pick up groceries for your neighbor. Drop them off safely. But also check in by phone or from a distance to see what you might learn!
Sally Chivers, Professor of English and Gender & Women’s Studies, Trent University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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The most basic reason is that President Cortizo will not say no to his wealthy donor base, nor to the thugs in his own party, who insist on privileges even when that upon which they insist is, in their own self-centered terms, short-sighted and self-destructive.
So heiress Ursula Kiener Ford, who was on the legislature’s payroll, shows her Norieguista bona fides – just like the former strong man abandoned his command when the shooting war came, she heads out for Europe, with insults for a whole nation, as the epidemic spikes here. Perhaps she will be quarantined on the other side of the pond. Perhaps EU authorities will want her explanation of the death of Jacob Ehrler. But maybe over there they will see a young woman’s face and lots of money and embrace her as an “influencer” to bring banana republic values to their shores. Here, PRD legislator Raúl Pineda owes his party and his constituents an explanation of why he put her on the public payroll.
So Panama City mayor Tank of Gas Fabrega got caught violating quarantine, and to add to the insult in someone else’s municipality. He may yet be held to account in some fashion, but what about the tens of thousands of other with dubious, purchased, fraudulent or unnecessary passes who bring COVID-19 from the metro area to the Interior every weekend? Are we going to punish individuals, how many thousand times? Or shall we demand an accounting from a very few people who let it get this way?
Labor doesn’t get to talk to the legislature about labor legislation. Nito’s thug deputy from Colon, Bolota, saw to that. So of course labor is going to resist Nito wherever, whenever and however it can. Bolota is what he is, but it’s Nito’s fault for losing control of his party, which has turned into a grasping clutch of gangsters, very much like it did in Noriega times.
The Catholic archbishop calls for talks among many sectors of society. It’s a good idea but Nito and Bolota have made it abundantly clear that some holy men, Tank of Gas, Bolota, Pineda, Ursual Kiener’s social circle and a few business and civic organizations will be welcome but the vast majority of Panamanians will not be.
Your move, President Cortizo.
Send in a squad of lawyers to run a scorched earth strategy on the court? The person who sent them should be penalized, but what should be definitively burned is those lawyers’ licenses to practice law.
Ricky Martinelli gets excused from defending criminal charges against himself until a time more convenient for himself on account of mental illness? Then when bringing a case to harass someone else he should be held mentally incompetent to bring his insane penchant for revenge into another court.
A rich fugitive sends a legal team before a judge to get a writ of habeas corpus? The judge ought to have every right and duty to refuse to hear a motion on behalf of a fugitive.
There is plenty of ugliness to go around in Panama’s legal system, but to mount a media defense of dishonest vilification or threats against the judge ought to get the person doing it held in contempt.
Maybe the Supreme Court magistrates will get that radical in response to Judge Rowe’s petition for protection of her judicial independence, maybe they won’t. But let’s bear in mind that rules like these are the norm in most of the world. It would not be an inferiority complex for Panama to adopt them, but rather an assertion of self-respect.
Free speech carries with it some freedom to listen.
Bob Marley
Language is the laughter of the soul.
Pablo Neruda
Mitch McConnell is privately telling GOP candidates to distance themselves from Trump if they need to. Welp, they can stand 6,000 feet away & wear 10 masks. It’s too late. They’re all infected with #Moronavirus.
Bette Midler
When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.
Malala Yousafzai
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