NAFTA has hollowed out the middle class

Thanks to your efforts we helped defeat the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Now we need your help again as the Trump administration seeks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

NAFTA and trade deals like it have been disastrous for workers and the environment. In the last several decades, American manufacturing has plummeted, and good paying jobs have been outsourced. Working families in our trading partners have similarly been displaced and disadvantaged by the same multi national corporations. We need fair trade that works for citizens and the environment!

This Tuesday, I will join other labor, environmental and trade activists as we rally in DC calling for fair renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Deal (NAFTA). Add your name to the petition we will deliver to the US Trade Representative calling for a transparent process that benefits workers, not corporations.

Rather than defending our manufacturing jobs and raising living standards for working families, NAFTA made it easier for large multinational corporations to move jobs out, and avoid regulations that protect workers and the environment.

Our trade deals have favored Wall Street and the largest corporations for far too long. We need a radical reimagining of what our trade policies are set to accomplish, and that begins with NAFTA. Please sign our petition calling for a renegotiation that benefits American workers, not Wall Street and multinational corporations.

Trade deals can be good for our economy, our workers, and the workers in our trading partners. Together, we can fight to make NAFTA the trade deal it should be: one where workers are treated fairly, the environment is treated with respect, and corporations play by our rules, not their own.

Thank you for taking this bold stand for workers everywhere.

In Solidarity,

Larry Cohen
Board Chair
Our Revolution

Eric Jackson for Chair

of Democrats Abroad Panama

you must be a US citizen living in Panama and at least 18 years old to join DA Panama

you must join Democrats Abroad to vote, but you can do so when you vote

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A point of personal privilege: the editor is campaigning this week

Eric Jackson for chair of Democrats Abroad Panama
vote Saturday, April 8 at 1 pm at the Balboa Union church
or send your proxy to thepanamanews@gmail.com

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IF you think that I am in rare stark raving mad form today, a bit of background.

I actually voted for Ricky Martinelli in 2009, given that Balbina Herrera was the alternative. Another long set of stories about Balbina if you want to hear any of that tangent. E.g., way back when and not at all the culmination of abuses:

But before any of that, when Martinelli was Mireya Moscoso’s minister of canal affairs and the ACP – of all institutions! – was running this land titling in the western canal watershed program, I noted Martinelli’s friends and reputedly family ties to land claims there, particularly the Petaquilla gold mine. Via a now deceased friend I got this warning that Martinelli would drag me into court and destroy me and The Panama News if I kept it up. Years later the gold mine swindle and his connections with it came to light via other media.

I expected Martinelli to be an ass, and that if it had been Balbina people would have started to disappear.

I definitively turned against Martinelli with the January 2011 televised burning to death of several boys at the juvenile prison in Tocumen. Only a few weeks before he had signed a law purporting to legalize any act of violence committed by an on-duty cop. As a matter of state policy, the prison was deprived of water for eight straight days, leading to a disturbance. And the boys in the cell set on fire – chosen for the TV cameras to record – had not even participated in the disturbance.

The wife of a friend was one of Martinelli’s vice ministers at the time, an occasional source of mine and one of the 150 people whose telecommunications were constantly monitored and put into a daily report that went on Martinelli’s desk. All emails between me and her thus got caught in that net.

But far more than that, and a far higher priority for Martinelli, was Miguel Antonio Bernal. I run his columns from time to time in The Panama News. He is my lawyer. He is a frequent source about legal questions in my journalism. I worked on his 2009 mayoral campaign. All of my phone calls and emails with him were in those reports that went onto Martinelli’s desk.

Did you remember a high court magistrate blubbering and the attorney general angrily accusing about fear, oppression and blackmail from the Martinelli camp a few weeks back, such that the Supreme Court would be forced to drop the charges? It was alleged that it’s not about just the files on 150 people found in a police laptop not long after Martinelli left office, but files on some 5,000 people. Northing totally clear, but see http://laestrella.com.pa/panama/nacional/querellantes-contra-martinelli-piden-juez-revele-chantaje-renuncie/24077874

That would square with Martinelli’s threat to what was left of the Cambio Democratico legislative caucus right after the 2014 election, when he said that they had better do what he told them because he had a file on every one of them. But only a few of those people were among the 150.

That also squares with the reputed Cambio Democratico “big data” strategy, in which by all appearances and non-denial denials (they would never directly answer the question but instead said that the data could be purchased anywhere) they took the files from government agencies and crossed indexed them into a political database. Familial ties and voting records from the Tribunal Electoral. Tax records from the DGI. Medical records and pension data from the Social Security Fund, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Social Development. And so on. Their party call centers and grocery bag delivery coordinators had access to this database.

Would they have a database with that information that was available to campaign workers, but apart from that also with eavesdropping data integrated into it? I wonder.

The Panama News website suffered a series of hack attacks beginning in 2013, getting particularly heavy in the week or so before the 2014 election – along with other attacks on every other electronic news medium in Panama that Martinenelli did not control. The difference for me was no computer nerd budget like La Prensa or TVN. From December 2014 to July 2015 our wounded website was shut down, and archives particularly about Martinelli stuff were deleted. Might have just been criminal spam gangsters stripping a clunking website for email addresses.

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February 15 Democrats Abroad Americas Region meeting notes

taken by Eric Jackson

– Was it the Claro.com connection, or Cisco’s WebX program? In any case it took 20 minutes or so to get connected so the meeting was underway when joined.

– See the attendance list screenshot and the running transcript of the chat box that went along with the meeting.

– Steve Nardi from Canada was speaking of a project to develop Google docs programs for free and easy click voting and other applications. It seems not to be quite there yet, and then Jody Quinnell (the regional vice chair and chair of this meeting) was talking about the need for training once the programs and forms are ready.

– Jody said that “the idea is out there” to change the Democrats Abroad Charter, perhaps before the Washington meetings in May. It would be by the current leadership, all but one of them Hillary people in the primary, and could perhaps affect who gets to be the next leadership.

– The passing of Joe Greene, a long-time stalward in DA Canada and at upper levels of the organization at times, was noted. He died after a long illness and people got their chances to pay their respects.

– The Democrats Abroad Wiki — which has a lot of rules information and the like and is open to different extents to people with varying privileges in the hierarchy — had been completely unavailable to those who did not know of a one-letter address change. It is now https://wiki.democratsabroad.org .

– “Don’t get lost in the shuffle,” Jody warns. There are election protocols to be followed, which apparently have been recently revised. She said that she would send them out again.

– There was discussion about the May 12-15 DA conference in Washington, hotel reservations, fees for coffee breaks and so on. The international leaders will be elected then, and the Americas region will also meet then and there to pick regional leaders. There was no mention of online participation.

– Various countries gave reports: Panama, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru

– Larry Pihl gave a report on the “Indivisible Guide” and mentioned that it was useful in mobilizing people to protest at GOP members of Congress town halls in their districts. He also mentioned that there is a by-election coming up in Georgia and lamented the fact that for many Democrats Abroad members there are no ZIP codes on file for the places where they vote in the USA. The international wants that and much more information about the members.

– Jody referred people to the Democrats Abroad website for information on the DNC chair race and opined that Tom Perez is leading.

– John Chudy (Guatemala) said that the DNC needs a “seasoned professional” (Tom Perez) rather than a “celebrity” (Keith Ellison) as chair. It’s a continuation of the use of these meetings by “in crowd” factionalists to berate progressives, Bernie Sanders, the entire millennial generation and anyone but themselves.

– Jody talked about “outreach” to re-create chapters that were eliminated over the past four years. Those include Brazil and Argentina. Overall, since 2013 Democrats Abroad has lost one-quarter of its country chapters, not because of lack of participation but because of rules changes. There is also an effort to establish chapters in El Salvador and Colombia, and to contact individuals listed in other countries without chapters to see if they are still around.

– In the most recent certification process no chapter in the Americas was disqualified, but nearly one-quarter of DA Panama’s members were discounted due to lack of all the information that the folks upstairs want.

– The next regional meeting will be on March 22.

Meeting chat log

from John Chudy, Guatemala to Everyone:
If Steve has some success exploring Google Docs that would be a cost-free alterntive for small CCs.

from Larry Pihl to Everyone:
Makes a lot of sense to be able to compare both.

from Jody Quinnell to Everyone:
https:// arlingtoncourthouseplaza. place.hyatt.com/en/hotel/home. html?corp_id=G-DPCA

from John Chudy, Guatemala to Everyone:
Odebrecht also has scandals tangles in Guatemala

from Steve Nardi (Canada) to Everyone:
Need to prep for my next call. Thanks Jody – I’ll have a review for you, Larry and John over the weekend.

from Jo Ellen Kuney to Everyone:
Interesting piece in The Nation about Ecuador’s elections vis a vis the US. https://www.thenation.com/article/ecuadors-left-wing-success-story/

from John Chudy, Guatemala to Everyone:
yes

from John Chudy, Guatemala to Everyone:
There are 447 members who will vote for DNC chair. DA DNC members have 1/2 vote each, i.e., 4 votes total. Tom Perez is the leading candidate so far. DA website has info on each.

from John Chudy, Guatemala to Everyone:
Where in southern Chile?

from John Chudy, Guatemala to Everyone:
Next stop the south pole

from Erin Becker_Chile to Everyone:
Puerto Varas, Chile 🙂

from Larry Pihl to Everyone:
We all may have to move to the South Pole….

from John Chudy, Guatemala to Everyone:
And use www.votefromabroad.org, which allows every member to update their DA record.

from John Chudy, Guatemala to Everyone:
Yes

from Larry Pihl to Everyone:
Need to encourage all members to update their voting address so we can direct things to them down to the District level. Completing an update in VFA is a great way to do that.

from John Chudy, Guatemala to Everyone:
@Larry, good point. Thanks.
@Mike Glover. Go to www.democratsabroad.org, and click on Volunteer. And Jody can directly link you to the FATCA committee.

from Jo Ellen Kuney to Everyone:
If there is a list of potential action groups that you are recruiting for…please let us know.

from Jo Ellen Kuney to Everyone:
Resist!

from John Chudy, Guatemala to Everyone:
at www.democratsabroad.org, click on “Take Action” and scroll down to volunteer.

from Larry Pihl to Everyone:
www.indivisibleguide.com

from Larry Pihl to Everyone:
larry.pihl@gmail.com

from John Chudy, Guatemala to Everyone:
@Larry, do share your docs etc. with DAGT. We have members here very interseted in every effort to resist.

from Larry Pihl to Everyone:
Will do John.

from Jo Ellen Kuney to Everyone:
Larry. Ecuador is interested as well.

from John Chudy, Guatemala to Everyone:
For info on DNC elections see: http://www.democratsabroad.org/dnc_chair_election

from John Chudy, Guatemala to Everyone:
Some candidates have responded to DA’s questionnaire.

from eric jackson to Everyone:
Which chapters have we lost, or gained, on the Jan 31 membership list process?

The sex stuff may sell, but we should look for a slavery case

estimates by Eric Jackson
chair of Democrats Abroad Panama and editor of The Panama News

The proper Democratic response to tales like this? At this point, to laugh and decline comment, or to tell “Is fake news planted by moose and squorrel” jokes.

https://www.spin.com/2018/01/stormy-daniels-trump-in-touch-interview-daughter/

http://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/stormy-daniels-affair-donald-trump-151571

http://worldnewsdailyreport.com/russian-hooker-who-had-sex-with-donald-trump-mocks-his-tiny-penis/

HOWEVER, the things we raise in public and the questions we raise in other contexts, for example with investigators for congressional Democrats who are looking into the whole Trump affair – if there are any investigators who are GOOD at it, hard workers, fair minded, cautious, patriotic – are a different matter. Asking rude questions in private is not the same thing as publishing lurid accusations for mass consumption. The difference is between asking a question and making a statement.

And the Trump prostitution, pornography (a subset of prostitution) and human trafficking (an ancillary business of prostitution and pornography) questions ought to be looked into. I say this as a man who lives in a country where prostitution is legal and who thinks that although it’s in many cases a form of slavery prostitution is better legal than illegal. (One big eye opener for me, years ago, was in court when a woman who had a good heart and a decent set of values as far as I could see when she was a city council constituent of mine a few years before, was pleading guilty to a solicitation charge. Crack addiction had brought hard times upon her, but count me out of any stone-throwing mob.)

But now that the sensationalists have prostitution front and center in the Trump story and it’s probably not libel, it really is time to start pressing the questions about that aspect of Donald Trump as the organized crime story. That is a compelling and better demonstrated than most Russian angle. And woe to the prosecutor who goes out on a limb with a fanciful or less than absolutely damning collusion with the Kremlin case, because about 30 percent of the national jury pool would be into nullification anyway. Making the case that associates Trump with sleazy Russian human traffickers and pimps, however, is a back door to the national security peril angle to the extent that it can be shown that these operators had significant Russian government ties. That’s because then the Kremlin would know, and could blackmail Trump about such matters.

In 2015 I wrote a story, mostly based on open sources but also by asking a few key people about the front man in the development of the Trump Ocean Club in Panama City, Roger Khafif. He is not who and what he claimed. It was said that he made his fortune in the Colon Free Zone, but prominent Free Zone merchants and execs who would have known him if that were so didn’t know of him in that context. It is said that he was a real estate developer in the upscale resort community of Coronado, but nobody in the real estate business there can verify that. It is said that he is the developer of this ultra-exclusive resort on the island of Saboga in Panama’s Perlas Archipelago, but not only does this development not exist, but a source in the Perlas – alas, unpublishable once or twice removed hearsay – told me that what was going on is that Khafif would send a work crew to the island on a boat with, say, six guys, and come back to Panama City with perhaps 15 people aboard. That is, that he is or was a human smuggler. But I have limited resources and I don’t have such a death wish as to go to Saboga and start asking strangers about smuggling activities.

In my story I identified two mob lawyers with Russian ties with the Trump circle: Alexander Altshoul, a Canadian of Belorussian origin and Juliette Passer, an American who was a consultant in the Yeltsin era privatizations in and around St. Petersburg and who does a lot of her business in Russia and in Russian satellites like Kazakhstan to this day.

Others have fleshed out some of this story. Some just tangentially touched on Panama in their own original investigations of Trump’s Russian mob ties. See, e.g., http://time.com/4433880/donald-trump-ties-to-russia/ .

Reuters and NBC recently ran a thing, and I had extensive discussions with the Reuters folks in the course of their doing that investigation. I am not claiming credit for their work, but the big media don’t station people in Panama and instead tend to pick the brains of us smaller media folks who cover the beat, so they asked me to meet with them and talk about the Trump situation here.

Reuters and NBC – https://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/panama-tower-carries-trump-s-name-ties-organized-crime-n821706 – went after Alex Ventura, the low-hanging piece of fruit. They didn’t get very deep into his political escapades in Panama, nor the even more remarkable ones of David Murcia Guzmán, nor Murcia Guzmán’s sudden Plan Colombia rise from a guy selling pirate CDs on the streets of Santa Marta to a fabulously wealthy racketeer in Putumayo province just when the Colombian Army and its tacit AUC paramilitary allies were conquering that area’s drug trade from the FARC guerrillas. (Later FARC mostly took it back, and by some accounts the Valle del Norte Cartel paid “taxes” first to FARC, then to the AUC, then to FARC again and through much of that process used Murcia Guzmán and his uncle as key money launderers.) More importantly, they didn’t get much into who and what Khafif really is. Maybe, like this reporter, they could find what he wasn’t but could not establish what he was with enough certainty to publish.

Also working closely with Reuters and NBC was Global Witness. I met with Ken Silverstein about the story while they were working on it. See https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/corruption-and-money-laundering/narco-a-lago-panama/ and hit your find feature to get to the snippet about Stanislav Kavalenka.

So what is proven? Except for one afflicted with paranoiac ideation, just a bunch of circumstances without any particular connecting causal relationships, just a bunch of ugly associations.

But consider some more circumstances:

– The president’s grandfather was among other ventures in the prostitution business.  See http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/trump-canada-yukon-1.3235254. The Donald is from a pimp lineage.

– When this reporter came back to Panama in 1994, the reputed rules and pecking orders were first, that Russians laundered money here like criminal organizations of many other nationalities but they didn’t get directly involved in the rackets here. But that changed, with Russian playing at least technical contractor roles in drug smuggling – http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/915059.stm – and gradually displacing the Spaniards as the dominant players in Panamanian prostitution – obliquely, see http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/tony-galeota-from-running-porkys-miamis-most-notorious-strip-joint-to-rotting-in-a-panamanian-jail-6389358 and know that the word on the street was that a rival Russian organization paid off Panamanian authorities to shut down Galiota’s organization.

A case to take into court this is not. Not yet, anyway. But there is enough there to did deeper. Donald Trump’s escapades with some hookers and porn stars may be lurid enough to damage him with many voters but they are not the stuff of dignified discussion by Democrats. Donald Trump’s business ties with mobsters in the human trafficking / prostitution / pornography industry IS something that respectable Democrats should look into, and about which a competent prosecutor may well build a money laundering case.