George Washington owned people, but the revolution he led ultimately, years after his death, abolished the system that allowed ownership of other human beings. But greedy hustlers, foreign and domestic, have sought to own the discourse among the American people, the utilities created a US government expense, and everything else of value that they can grab. They try to own history, the arts, the sciences — all of the triumphs of human civilization. Here we have an image in the public domain, a print of a 1911 oil painting derived from a more than century-old at the time image. Washington at Valley Forge, by Edward Percy Moran.
These are the times that try men’s souls?
by Eric Jackson
Naaaah – gotta have a stronger indictment to bring THIS soul to trial.
So am I ready to bring charges against those making my life difficult? Perhaps it that extortionist comes around again. Perhaps if that little delinquent starts throwing rocks my way again. But you never know which maleantes might enjoy the representante’s protection.
But Internet connection problems? Clunky systems, local, national or global? Some jerk of a person or institution?
If you are really independent about what you publish, the “Who benefits?” question isn’t so useful. It might not be the person most openly and fervently making your life miserable at the moment. About 16 years ago a bot attack shut down The Panama News website for a bit and I suspected that this proto-MAGA wannabe competitor was behind it. Years later, however, more data came in and it seems that it was either the Chinese government or one of its supporters in China hitting back over an article about a Falun Gong gathering in Parque Omar.
The devastating 2013-2015 series of hacks the destroyed the old website and its email account? Judging from what was happening to other Panamanian media at the time and the way things unfolded, it looked and looks like Ricky Martinelli, his Israeli Pegasus software and his Italian consultants – but in a country where circumstantial evidence is ignored, I’d have no proof to take to court. But I wasn’t born yesterday, which would have to be the case to believe other than as I do. Still, misdirection plays do get made by people who are up to no good.
NOW – what? who? Better to just wait out the Internet outage and hope that there isn’t any lasting damage when it’s over.
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Are there REALLY copyright problems that lead Facebook to mute the viral ditty by South Africa’s The Kiffness about Trump lies about Springfield, Ohio’s immigrants in much of the world? Or is that yet one more instance of billionaire tech barons putting their fingers on the scales to favor Trump?
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Four in the morning and I can finally get back online now. Hmmmmm – this is nothing new, and may just have to do with Panamanian telecommunications and where I am at in semi-rural central Panama.
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Going over to the Democrats Abroad Global Seniors Caucus page, I mistakenly hit the “boost” button instead of the “share” button for a post – and get this message about a restriction imposed on advertising. HUH?
There might be some proper, legal and innocent reason for this. Maybe.
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On the MSN feed, there is something about this American doing derogatory deep fake videos of Kamala Harris working with the Russians. A new twist, but there are precedents for this sort of thing.
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The skin that’s in this game is not only about billionaire tax breaks, which Kamala and many other Democrats obliquely suggest get repealed in the name of tax fairness. It’s also about conflicting financial interests of the publishers of The Los Angeles Times, of The Washington Post, of men who have the ears of certain US Supreme Court justices, of Elon Musk, of Mark Zuckerberg, of the people who own and run Google. A president and congress who take things like antitrust laws, conflicts of interest and general fairness seriously is something they don’t want.
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AN INTERRUPTION HERE…
The lights go off, and the backup computer on which this is written has no functional battery.
So I wait for the electricity to come back, and when it does not do so after a few minutes, I alter my day’s plan. Plan B is to stuff a pillowcase full of laundry, stuff that in my big chacara, and head into Anton to do laundry.
As I approach the laundromat the businesses around the corner are running generators out on the sidewalk. At the laundromat the lady says ‘no ai lu.”
What’ this gringo doing denigrating how the china talks!?! That’s how you pronounce “No hay luz” in Panamanian Spanish, the woman and I understood one another, and she’s likely as Panamanian as I am. This country’s US and Chinese communities both established themselves on the isthmus at about the same time, in the middle of the 19th century, and we are woven into the fabric of contemporary Panamanian society. As a little Latin American nation, this, too, is who we are.
Anyway, back to the centro comercial / piquera de buses, where the adjacent senior-friendly fonda/refresqueria/panaderia Lissy’s is running on a generator. They have been without electricity for long enough that their hampao and hsiu mai warmer isn’t working, so it’s a baked chicken breast and wing, plus a couple of hojaldres and a little bottle of a local brand of soda for breakfast as I peruse the latest reports on depraved political scandals in La Prensa.
The regular lights come back on at Lissy’s, but I don’t feel like lugging that laundry back to the laundromat to see if their power is back on as well. I grab me a bottle of PowerAde at the farmacia and move over to the piquera bench to wait for a bus ride back home.
COME BACK, ANOTHER CYCLE
The lights are back on at my home in El Bajito, but the Internet outage persists. Theoretically I’ll get a discount on my next electric bill for the power outage, but that section doesn’t apply to what I pay for Internet service. With the intentional reduction in competition for online access, the remaining providers have fewer constraints and are taking advantage. Let me not in this column get into the details of a large billing for services for which I already paid by one of these companies.
My estimate is that the electrical outage prompted the telecommunications outage, so I set out for the “alternative” bus stop, with a couple of dogs whom I “share” with the neighbors. A puppy to which a shared dog gave birth at the other place sallies forth to remind whose turf this part of the street is. He stands in the middle of the street, barking and growling. I offer him the back of my hand to sniff and a few kind words, so he wags his tail and trots back into his house.
This set of errands involves a bit of photo taking and takes me to Penonome, then Anton, before coming back. Just in time to feed the livestock.
Lo and behold, both the power and the Internet are on! No new announcements from on high, nobody pointing a finger of blame at me. Well, except from the world of politics. The Donald has been into one of his rants again….
ENOUGH of this for a moment! I know all the drills, and wish for once they’d say something like “Sorry, our service is down at the moment.” I did the drills and got back online. Screenshot of the indirect, impersonal, kind of insulting notice I got. All in a day’s work.
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