“Donald Trump has made it clear that a second Trump term would look worse than his first—with broader attacks on science and the environment driving the day.” Cartoon, translated from the German original, byLommes.
EPA workers union slams Trump pledge to gut climate agencies
A union representing thousands of Environmental Protection Agency workers raised alarm Tuesday over former President Donald Trump’s pledge to slash key federal climate departments if he’s reelected in November and condemned his attempt to downplay concerns about the planetary emergency, which is fueling destructive extreme weather and pushing global temperatures to record highs.
“Donald Trump has made it clear that a second Trump term would look worse than his first—with broader attacks on science and the environment driving the day,” Marie Owens Powell, president of American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Council 238, said in a statement.
“His first four years were a fiasco for the agency bargaining unit workers whose mission it is to protect human health and the environment during this climate emergency, with cuts to the workforce, rollbacks of regulations, and more,” Powell added. “Trump has made it clear that a second term would be catastrophic for the environment and reverse the progress made against climate change.”
The union’s statement came in response to a Sunday Fox News interview in which Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, said that federal environmental agencies have been “so bad for us,” claiming they’ve “stopped you from doing business in this country.”
“We’re going to do, like, Department of Interior,” Trump said, naming one of the agencies he plans to target. “There’s so many things you can do.”
The former president, whose administration dismantled more than 100 federal environmental rules during its four years in power, also mocked President Joe Biden’s description of the climate crisis as an existential threat and ridiculed fears about rising sea levels.
Trump falsely claimed that rising sea levels mean “you have a little more beachfront property,” ignoring catastrophic flooding and other disastrous impacts of ever-rising seas. The United States experienced a record number of billion-dollar extreme weather events last year, including destructive flooding.
Trump says he supports climate change and rising sea levels because it “means basically you have a little more beachfront property” pic.twitter.com/qLh0Y1yu6Q
Powell said Tuesday that Trump’s “all-out assault on science and our employees” during his first four years in the White House “led us to issue an EPA Workers’ Bill of Rights, which had over 10,000 signatures, many of which were agency employees, and was endorsed by nearly fifty members of Congress and partners in the science community.”
“And the prospect of a second Trump term is why we fought so hard to win a first-of-its-kind Scientific Integrity Article in our new contract that will help protect our work from political interference,” Powell continued. “Our contract win means workers can stand up for scientific integrity without fear of retaliation, and sends any disputes related to scientific integrity to an independent arbitrator instead of a political appointee.”
“The climate emergency we are facing hurts everyone, regardless of political party,” the union leader added, “and the EPA and its employees protect everyone’s health and the environment, regardless of their political agenda.”
Trump and his right-wing allies have repeatedly expressed their intention to aggressively target federal environmental agencies and rules if the former president wins the November election against Biden.
During an April fundraiser attended by major fossil fuel executions, Trump—who was convicted last week on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records—pledged to swiftly roll back climate regulations if the industry most responsible for the climate emergency forks over $1 billion to support his presidential bid.
He will sacrifice our planet for the profits of fossil fuel executives. We cannot let that happen.
Politico reported last month that oil and gas industry lobbyists and lawyers are already in the process of “drawing up ready-to-sign executive orders for Donald Trump aimed at pushing natural gas exports, cutting drilling costs, and increasing offshore oil leases in case he wins a second term.”
Meanwhile, the right-wing Project 2025 initiative spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation is pushing “a sweeping battle plan to dismantle federal agencies and public health standards, including vital environmental protections,” freelance climate journalist Dana Drugmand wrote last week.
A recent study by Carbon Brief estimated that a second Trump term would unleash an extra 4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent into the atmosphere, imperiling global efforts to rein in planet-warming emissions.
“He will sacrifice our planet for the profits of fossil fuel executives,” Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) warned Tuesday. “We cannot let that happen.”
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A frame from a comic book by Gilbert Shelton, who owns all of the rights.
THIS STUFF again…
It’s fitting that during Pride Month the editor would see a redux of something that happened a decade ago, when a disgraced former cop was trying to take his house in El Bajito. Then, it was a adolescent male just coming into the house and asking to sleep here. The day before yesterday, it was an adolescent male asking the editor if he wants a compañero.
OBVIOUSLY a single male living alone MUST be queer, or can in any case be set up to be framed as a gay pedophile. There are adults with economic motives, or with hate motives, who use kids in this way.
Ugly stuff, even if this weird old hippie chuckles as he’s reminded of the antics of Gilbert Shelton’s comic book character Norbert the Nark.
With this kid of the other day, there is more to the story about which I will not get into at this time. But what appears to be the case is that once again minors are being recruited by adults for criminal purposes. It’s a common enough problem here in Panama, but it seems that authorities only take notice if it’s about drugs.
BEFORE. If also after, Mulino may not last his term in office.
If Mulino proceeds to be Martinelli’s front man…
Since the US State Department has called Martinelli corrupt and the American Embassy here has repeatedly snubbed the man, his followers and his family, it would seem that for President-elect Mulino to take office, pardon Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Berrocal and take him into his government would sour US-Panamanian relations. Or one might think.
However, there are both Panamanian and international obstacles to that.
First of all, a president’s power to pardon here is limited to “political” crimes. For other crimes the president may only commute sentences. Martinelli himself violated that constitutional provision when some supposedly off-duty cops intercepted a fishing boat at sea, opened fire and people were killed and wounded. Then, to cover their crime, they planted a weapon in the fishing boat. Martinelli issued pardons to the cops BOTH for the shooting and for planting the assault rifle – which effectively swept away questions about whether these officers were working for a drug gang that mistook these fishers for underworld rivals. Some noises were made but this exceeding of his constitutional powers never prospered as a court case against Martinelli.
Then there are the other cases pending against Martinelli, his sons and members of his political circles, and standing convictions against a number of members of Ricky Martinelli’s inner circle.
Might Mulino just take care of all of those by issuing pardons or commutations?
Well, not ALL of those. Spain has this criminal investigation, touching several members of the Spanish Guardia Civil and the Israeli spy tech company NSO and naming the former Panamanian president as a principal and instigator, for the electronic and physical stalking of one of Don Ricky’s former mistresses on Mallorca. Are people in this country’s business and financial circles complaining NOW that the European Union imposes restrictions on Panama and generally treats us as some sort of thug haven? Let it be perceived that through Mulino, Martinelli is running Panama and see how bad THAT gets.
But will Washington change its tune? Maybe Trump will get back in? Recall that Martinelli and Trump had an infamous falling-out, when a knockoff of Dubai’s Burj al-Arab with Trump’s name affixed was built in a notorious flood zone and Ricky blamed The Donald for Ricky’s negligence.
However, the United States has a long history. Manuel Antonio Noriega was once a CIA asset. In the 1989 US invasion, now imprisoned between then and now briefly mayor of Panama City Bosco Vallarino rode around triumphantly atop of a US Army armored personnel carrier and boasted about his work for the CIA. Will the wise guys at Foggy Bottom, Langley and the Pentagon ever understand that the person who sells his or her own country, whether by taking bribes for personal profit or as a favor to a foreign power, is nobody to be trusted? Is it Panama’s fate to be ruled via remote control by yet another disposable US cut-out front man?
It mostly depends on which decisions Mulino makes now.
Statue of the Roman poet, soldier and civil servant Horace. Photo by Mark Cartwright.
Life is largely a matter of expectation.
Horace
Bear in mind…
True friends are those who really know you but love you anyway.
Edna Buchanan
A desk is a dangerous place from which to watch the world.
John le Carre
I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves.
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Los Muchachos del Barrio – El Bajito boys, one of whom lives with a guy who once assaulted me. These are more peaceful times in the neighborhood. This and the rest of the photos and captions on this page by Eric Jackson.
Just because they owe you no special duty of loyalty doesn’t mean that you can’t be their friends
James Thurber, in his classic illustrated antiwar story The Last Flower, tells of a time when humanity got so despicable that all the dogs left. Things got better and they came back.
El Bajito has too many dogs. The editor’s household has too many dogs. Some things need to be done, but short of breaking an ancient alliance of species that was there before people took shelter in caves.
The Brown Dog — this guy often dines at the editor’s house, but he’s so feral that he’s prone to marking the door sills as his turf. There are nice things about him to balance such faults.
The Highlander — strictly speaking, he’s not an El Bajito dog. He lives just across the street from the steep entrance to El Bajito, but knows all the gang from down in the hollow and will sometimes cross the street to check out the editor of other El Bajito people in the little caseta where we wait for the buses.
Of canine bondage – there are gradations ranging from kind protection to awful cruelty. Usually in Anton people who leave their dogs to wander outside the home while they work or shop don’t chain them up. But what if it’s only for a few minutes, it’s next to the Pan-American Highway and this dog hasn’t learned not to chase motorcycles, cars and trucks? Whatever it is, this dog was chained to a bench at a bus piquera in Anton and seemed to be pretty calm about it.
On guard — waiting where the Anton to Juan Diaz bus comes in.
¡Fido Feroz! The name Fido derives from Latin for “the loyal one.” This puppy puts on a good act. He’s not really mean, but he stands ready to perform his ancestral fiduciary duty to anybody with who he bonds.
The Gimpy Dog. This female often dines at the editor’s house, but even if there is heavy rain outside will sleep elsewhere. A while back, when she first went into heat and attracted a crowd of males, the way that she walked and ran – kind of like a car whose wheels are out of alignment – indicated that she has hip displasia. Not necessarily a death sentence, but a genetic condition not to be passed onto another generation. So with some help from Animal Rescue of Anton, the editor reached out and got her spayed.
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A new conceptual tool is required to fully understand the most recent rhetorical strategies of far-right activists and politicians, including former US President Donald Trump. This is precisely what the concept of “intersectionality of hate” aims to do.
Analysts and academics have been talking about the intersectionality of hate for several years now. In doing so, they draw on the notion of intersectionality developed by African-American law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw to designate a reality shaped by sexism, racism, classism and other categories (there are some 30 in all).
Crenshaw points out that African-American women have always been aware of this complex reality. Mary Church Terrell, a Black suffragist, declared around 1920 that “a white woman has only one handicap to overcome, that of sex. I have two: sex and race.”
While researching anti-feminism and discourses of men’s victimhood related to a so-called crisis of masculinity, I became aware of how the new concept of intersectionality of hate makes it possible to understand the interweaving of hateful discourses. The French historian Christine Bard, with whom I have the good fortune to collaborate, rightly points out that “anti-feminism practises intersectionality, but it’s the intersectionality of hate,” which brings together sexism, racism, antisemitism, xenophobia and homophobia.
This interweaving of hate speech can also be viewed from different points of view, for example, from the racist and xenophobic or “anti-gender” and transphobic movements.
Conceptual innovation
The popularity of the concept of intersectionality no doubt explains the synchronous appearance of the intersectionality of hate on both sides of the Atlantic.
The article “How Trump Made Hate Intersectional” appeared in New York magazine on November 9, 2016, the day after Trump’s election. It was signed by the African-American intellectual Rembert Browne, who explained how the Republican candidate federated voters. “Trump won the presidency by making hate intersectional. He encouraged sexists to also be racists and homophobes, while saying disgusting things about immigrants in public and Jews online.”
Hatred is mixed here with the fear of being robbed of one’s country, institutions and personal achievements, and with anger at not having what one thinks one is entitled to simply by virtue of being a heterosexual white male. This attitude is reminiscent of that of the “Angry White Men” that was much talked about just a few years ago: it is no longer limited to blaming a single group for real or imagined personal problems but blames all minority groups. That means there is no longer a single scapegoat, but a whole herd.
At the same time, in France, Bard, who has shown that anti-feminism and lesbophobia are intertwined and mutually reinforcing, analyzed 1,367 articles dealing with women, gender and sexuality published in the far-right weekly Minute.
She found that “the intersectionality of hate is practised, associating feminism, homosexualism, Islamism and immigrationism.” She notes that political and media figures are targeted with particular intensity if they are women, and also if they are Jewish, Muslim or of African origin. The historian concludes that this intersectionality of hate runs counter to any egalitarian or inclusive perspective.
Attacks on progressives
Shortly afterwards, the journal Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture, and Social Justicedevoted a short special report to the intersectionality of hate, associating it with the far right, which attacks progressives and accuses them of imposing their values and defending “minorities.”
In addition to racist and sexist attacks, there are also virulent accusations against “cultural Marxists” (or “wokes”) who allegedly control the State in order to develop “positive discrimination” programs and influence the education system to be able to indoctrinate young people with “political correctness.”
Each attack is an opportunity to point out that the essence of the United States is European, Anglo-Saxon, Christian, heterosexual, capitalist and meritocratic. The attacks also serve to distract attention from the elite that really dominates the country, which is made up of multi-billionaires in the White House, as well as heads of big business and media.
The intersectionality of hate is disseminated by influential traditional (Fox News) and web (Daily Stormer and Daily Wire) media, think tanks like the National Policy Institute and polemicists like Christopher Rufo and Ben Shapiro.
Terrorism
The notion of intersectionality of hate is taken up again in the analysis of hate speech and those associated with terrorist attacks. For example, a study in Europe, Intersectional Hate Speech Online, concludes that “Women remain the group of people most often targeted by intersectional hate speech […], for example Muslim women, Roma women or Women of Color. […] Another target group for intersectional hate speech is women in public positions.”
Europol also mentions the intersectionality of hate in its 2020 Terrorism Situation and Trend Report. The agency presents a list of attacks motivated by anti-feminism, racism and xenophobia. It gives the example of the one perpetrated in 2011 in Norway by the Nazi Anders Breivik, who claimed in his manifesto to be defending Christian European civilization, and who massacred 76 young socialists.
Brevik, taken from a forged ID found during the investigation of his crime.
Europol also mentions Elliot Rodger, who committed one of the first mass murders associated with involuntary celibates in California in 2014, and who also expressed sexist and racist hatred in his manifesto.
“I was anti-everything,” answered a former French gendarme when the court asked him if he was homophobic, during a trial for having planned attacks on several targets. The defendant had also written a neo-Nazi manifesto celebrating Breivik.
Finally, British journalist Helen Lewis points out in her article “The Intersectionality of Hate,” published in The Atlantic, on a mass killer who targeted Buffalo’s African-American community in 2022, that his manifesto included antisemitic cartoons.
Victim rhetoric
So, the intersectionality of hate works by superimposing similar analytical frameworks that systematically deduce the same dynamics from reality, and always lead to the same conclusion: the white heterosexual male is a victim of “minorities” he must resist.
This rhetoric helps to legitimize even the most obvious abuses, such as voting for the would-be dictator for a day Trump, or imposing one’s vision of things through terrorist violence.
The intersectionality of hate also targets progressives and reflects the refusal to recognize that the “majority” of white heterosexual men is, in reality, a minority whose claim to superiority, or even supremacy, is well and truly contested in the name of social justice.
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On a good day in December 1983, I cooked Vienna sausages and grits on a borrowed kerosene heater that — in my poverty-stricken state — felt like another mouth to feed. Every day I had to buy fuel for it.
I’d vowed to lift myself and two boys out of destitution as soon as I could, either by getting a job or returning to school. But a severe lack of resources, primarily child care for my toddler, made it nearly impossible to envision either.
Our financial situation was far from secure compared to what it had been the year before. My partner and I both worked, and we enjoyed a comfortable life in a lovely neighborhood. However, his struggles with PTSD from his time in Vietnam led to unpredictable violent outbursts, prompting me to flee with the children for our safety.
With no concrete plan, we ended up briefly homeless, relying on a moving truck and strangers for shelter before ending up in a tiny, unequipped unit in a dilapidated cement tenement.
Sylvia, a friend at church, taught me about Pell Grants, Supplement Education Opportunity Grants (SEOG), and other tools to help me afford an education. Thanks to her, I decided to attend community college.
Sylvia also had the answer to my biggest looming concern — the availability of child care for my toddler. She said the cost could be covered by a government-subsidized program. And she was right.
Without that support, I couldn’t have taken advantage of any of the other aid. Knowing my two-year-old would be properly looked after enabled me to not only attend my classes, but focus on my studies with peace of mind.
During my second year of college, I completed two unpaid internships: one in a television newsroom, and another at a city lifestyle magazine. That experience helped me get a piece published in a major newspaper, which led to opportunities with local publications. My income increased and stabilized when I became a newspaper staff writer.
Affordable child care was the key. To this day, nearly 40 years later, I’m still grateful for having received that support and the opportunities for professional growth that came my way. Affordable child care is bound to be the answer to others’ success, as well.
Accessible child care offers long-term benefits for children, families, and society, including improved educational outcomes, greater workforce participation, and reduced dependence on the social safety net. But unfortunately, the cost of child care has skyrocketed since I had young kids. Some families pay up to 30 percent of their income towards child care, making it unaffordable almost everywhere in the United States.
I urge members of Congress to fund, support, and expand child care initiatives. The pandemic-era stabilization funds that saved up to 10 million child care slots ended last fall, threatening the child care sector as well as the families, children, and businesses that depend on it. And we’re facing another cliff this fall.
This spring, Community Change Action organized the third Annual National Day Without Child Care, which gave a glimpse of what would happen if providers were all forced to close their doors for good. As a parent and grandparent, I stand in solidarity with them.
If we don’t make a change, all of us will pay the price.
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Raiza Erlenbaugh, técnica de laboratorio de arqueología de STRI, utiliza arena y palillos para equilibrar los tiestos mientras se seca el pegamento. Durante seis días, el técnico en arqueología Aureliano Valencia dictó un taller sobre cómo reconstruir cerámicas precolombinas. Foto por Jorge Alemán — STRI.
Arqueólogos aprenden a reconstruir el pasado
por STRI
Con la barbilla apoyada sobre sus manos, Alexandra Lara, técnica de investigación arqueológica del Instituto Smithsonian de Investigaciones Tropicales (STRI, por sus siglas en inglés), observa fijamente un par de docenas de piezas de cerámica color arena. “Cuando no tienes patrones, es mucho más difícil”, dijo, señalando los diseños decorativos en un lado y los signos de uso en el otro. Lara ya había agrupado en pilas los tiestos —el término técnico para las piezas de cerámica rotas, — pero aún le faltaba una pieza clave para mantener unida la estructura.
Junto a otras nueve personas, Lara estaba aprendiendo de Aureliano “Yeyo” Valencia, un técnico de investigación arqueológica que ha trabajado en STRI durante 40 años, a reconstruir cerámica precolombina. “Todo lo que encontramos, todo lo que es arqueología, es parte de nuestra cultura”, dijo. Valencia estaba ansioso por compartir lo que sabía sobre la conservación y restauración de cerámica con un público más joven con la esperanza de que algunos continúen con el trabajo; la mayoría de los participantes del taller provenían de universidades panameñas. También quiso compartir otro mensaje: “solo estamos de paso [en la historia]”.
Valencia pasó la mayor parte de su larga carrera trabajando junto al científico y arqueólogo de STRI Richard Cooke (1946-2023). Los dos se conocieron en 1979 mientras trabajaban en el Casco Antiguo, la antigua ciudad amurallada de Panamá construida en el siglo XVII. Cooke estaba examinando una de las estructuras históricas del distrito mientras Valencia trabajaba en una obra de construcción. Cooke le ofreció a Valencia y a algunos de sus compañeros de trabajo la oportunidad de trabajar con él en arqueología: “Bueno, cambiamos de trabajo. En lugar de subir y bajar ladrillos, trabajábamos con cepillos y palustres”, recuerda Valencia entre risas.
Valencia aprendió a reconstruir cerámica en la década de 1990 durante un curso impartido por el restaurador panameño Jacinto Almendra. Perfeccionó sus habilidades durante un año en el Museo Antropológico Reina Torres de Arauz en la ciudad de Panamá antes de trabajar con piezas recuperadas de las excavaciones de Cooke en el Cerro Juan Díaz en la provincia panameña de Los Santos.
Todas las piezas de este taller proceden del Proyecto Arqueológico Sitio Drago, en Isla Colón de Bocas del Toro (Panamá), un yacimiento que data de entre los años 700 y 1450 d.C. Carly Pope, estudiante de doctorado del Programa Interdepartamental de Arqueología de la Universidad de California en Los Ángeles y becaria de corto plazo en STRI, organizó el taller y seleccionó las cerámicas para la reconstrucción. El Dr. Thomas Wake, asesor de Pope e investigador asociado en STRI, excavó inicialmente estos materiales en Sitio Drago en la década del 2000 y principios del 2010. Desde esa excavación, Pope examinó 785 bolsas — más de 28,000 fragmentos — para estudiar el oficio de la cerámica precolombina en Bocas del Toro.
Aunque Pope puede descubrir el probable origen geográfico y la composición mineral de un solo tiesto, una bolsa de cerámica rota no le dice necesariamente mucho sobre sus orígenes culturales, su contexto o su uso. Pope le pidió a Valencia que le enseñara a reconstruir las piezas de su yacimiento, y él accedió. “La arqueología, como cualquier ciencia, es muy colaborativa. Tenemos que ser capaces de compartir nuestras ideas y mantener estas conversaciones de colaboración para poder crear un entorno académico más dinámico”, dijo. El espacio del taller también fue producto de otra colaboración; se llevó a cabo en el laboratorio de la científica Ashley Sharpe en el Centro de Paleontología y Arqueología Tropical (CTPA) de STRI en la Ciudad de Panamá.
Aunque es un proceso bastante sencillo, la reconstrucción no es fácil. Los estudiantes trabajan desde el fondo de la vasija hacia arriba, usando la gravedad a su favor cuando es posible, y utilizando abrazaderas cuando no lo es. Crean un pegamento mezclando perlas de resina con acetona, lo suficientemente fuerte como para mantener unida la cerámica, pero que también se puede disolver fácilmente si otro arqueólogo quiere analizarla de otra manera. A diferencia de otros campos de la ciencia, en los que se pueden recolectar múltiples muestras para experimentos y ensayos, los arqueólogos tienen un número finito de especímenes que deben preservarse para su estudio a perpetuidad.
Nicole Smith-Guzmán, curadora de arqueología de STRI, piensa constantemente en el futuro de estas piezas. “En arqueología, hay mucho énfasis, no solo aquí en Panamá, sino en todo el mundo, en las excavaciones. No hay mucho énfasis en lo que se puede hacer a continuación con las colecciones”. Como curadora, trabaja para garantizar que el patrimonio cultural almacenado en las colecciones esté bien cuidado y perdure en el futuro, al tiempo que sea accesible para la investigación y la exhibición. “Yeyo es la única persona en STRI con la experiencia técnica para dirigir este taller. Somos muy afortunados de tenerlo aquí para enseñarnos”, dijo. Pope agregó: “Es importante capacitar a todos los arqueólogos en cómo analizar la cerámica, pero es particularmente crucial tener estudiantes y técnicos capaces de llevar a cabo este importante trabajo si Yeyo se jubila”.
Ana Ureña, estudiante de antropología en la Universidad de Panamá y pasante de STRI, trabajaba arduamente pegando piezas de una vasija, probablemente hecha en la provincia de Bocas del Toro. “La reconstrucción es como un rompecabezas”, dijo riendo. Si bien Ureña se enfoca en el uso de recursos vegetales en el Panamá precolombino, estaba entusiasmada con la idea de desarrollar una nueva habilidad y ampliar su conocimiento del campo. “En el campo de la antropología [de la que forma parte la arqueología], todo es muy amplio. Dondequiera que estudie, habrá cerámica, y esta experiencia de laboratorio me ayudará en el futuro”, explicó.
James Chaves, pasante panameño de STRI, interesado en la cerámica quien iniciará en agosto un programa de maestría en arqueología en los Estados Unidos, reflexionó sobre la importancia de la arqueología panameña mientras aplicaba pegamento a lo largo de los bordes irregulares de un fragmento de cerámica: “En Panamá, el tema de la identidad nacional es muy importante. Como arqueólogos, estamos reconstruyendo la identidad de los antiguos panameños y, por lo tanto, la de los panameños de hoy”. En su opinión, reconstruir la historia precolombina de Panamá permitirá a Panamá “seguir creciendo como nación”.
Con una rebanada de pastel para celebrar el final del taller, Valencia pronunció un discurso improvisado a sus alumnos. Él también estaba agradecido por la comunidad de aprendizaje que experimentó a través del taller. “La verdad es que me siento muy feliz. Creo que este taller me ha motivado a revivir la pasión por la restauración que tuve durante muchos años con el Dr. Cooke en el laboratorio de arqueología.”
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Many people might associate conspiracy theories with certain demographics or political leanings. But the reality is far more nuanced, with emerging research finding that there is far more diversity among conspiracists than scholars previously thought.
Conspiracy theories are just as likely to be held by your MAGA-hat wearing uncle as they are your best friend who’s a fan of the band Phishand goes to CrossFit three times a week.
Entering the margins
For the past four and a half years, I’ve immersed myself in spaces occupied by conspiracy theorists.
These include, but are not limited to, discredited intellectuals who promote race science; butthole sunners who believe that by harnessing the sun’s rays, they live longer; and semen retention enthusiasts, which is a practice that discourages ejaculation as a way to boost testosterone levels.
While some many say that believing in UFOs or Bigfoot may not be that big of a problem, these ideas can lead to real-world harms. Butthole sunning, for example, has been linked with cancer.
By understanding how conspiracy theories and alternative belief systems intersect and evolve over time, you can see how anyone – no matter their political leanings – can become subsumed by them.
They are part of a collective waste bin of discarded ideas, a phenomenon that political scientist Michale Barkun characterizes as “stigmatized knowledge.” Because they’ve been discredited by mainstream institutions, they often only emerge on the fringes of society.
Certain stigmatized narratives can also become tools wielded by politicians and media influencers who will say or do anything to make money and gain power.
Even though it’s been linked to cancer, butthole sunning is an alternative wellness practice that has become popularized. Nick Lehr, CC BY-SA
For example, in their book “Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat,” Derek Berry, Matthew Remski and Julien Walker document the ways in which contemporary New Age spiritualism has been hijacked by social media influencers, who have then gone on to promote vaccine misinformation and foment government mistrust.
Social media platforms provide financial incentives for individuals creating the most engaging content. Of course, what’s engaging is not necessarily what’s accurate or truthful. Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of these influencers became popular by suggesting that they had “sacred” or “secret” knowledge on how to defeat the virus.
It’s one way people can go from embracing seemingly harmless ideas, like Bigfoot, to becoming open to more radical beliefs like the Great Replacement Theory, which is the conspiracy theory that illegal immigrants are colluding with Democrats to change the racial demographics of America and, in doing so, shape future elections.
The intersection of politics and alternative beliefs is not a recent phenomenon.
Some of these beliefs, like the imaginary continent of Atlantis, were used by the Nazi party to create a link to a mythical pure race. Indeed, a key component of the Nazi’s rise to power was the promotion of ideas that today would be described as New Age mysticism – a spiritual movement that emphasizes magical experiences and the notion that spiritual forces connect everything in the universe.
The complexity of conspiracists
While many pundits point to white Christian nationalists as the group most susceptible to conspiracies – and there is some truth to this claim – it’s important to pay attention to others who possess conspiratorial ideas.
The anti-vaccine movement is now a pet issue for many on the right, but it first gained notoriety among wealthy liberals. One of the most visible promoters of the movement is current presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Jacob Chansley, also known as the “QAnon Shaman,” is another well-known example of this juxtaposition: He’s been seen protesting on behalf of both right- and left-wing causes and was at the January, 2021, storming of the US Capitol.
A 2021 survey by the Public Religion Research Institute found that 23% of Republicans believe that “the government, media and financial worlds in the US are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles.”
The number might seem high, but probably isn’t all that surprising: It’s one of the core tenants of the right-wing QAnon conspiracy theory. But I found the survey’s other findings somewhat startling – that 8% of self-identified Democrats and 14% of independents also agreed with that statement.
Where do we go from here?
While seemingly unrelated at first glance, conspiracy theories such as QAnon and alternative wellness practices such as drinking urine share common themes. Namely, they’re united by distrust in mainstream institutions. They long for alternative belief systems that confirm their existing beliefs and ignore contradicting evidence.
Being critical of those in positions of power is a healthy thing, but there are times in which trust in leadership makes sense – like listening to firefighters evacuating a building or public health officials during a global pandemic.
In fairness, the number of Americans who believe in conspiracy theories does not seem to be rising. At the same time, conspiracies were a core motivator for many of the Jan 6 protesters who attempted to interrupt the peaceful transfer of power.
As the contributors to my forthcoming edited essay collection argue, conspiracy-laden narratives not only undermine societal institutions, but they also strain relationships with fellow citizens. They train people to be suspicious of trusted sources of information – and suspicious of one another.
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A weak President Cortizo, right, prepares the transition to President-elect Mulino. Cortizo has been sick for most of his term and in any case had to defer in many cases to entrenched deputies, mayors and representantes who actually ran the political patronage machine that’s the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD). Mulino starts out weak, another president who got just a plurality of the vote and beholden to a fugitive Accomplishing Goals (RM) party boss who stole and laundered tens of millions of dollars. “He stole, but he got things done” was a theme as he just-concluded campaign began. Without control of the legislature or many local governments., he faces a probable majority of Panamanians whose attitude is something like ‘HE STOLE? Full stop. We don’t want any of that.’ There are things that Cortizo should have done but did not do, and now what’s left of his presidency is in caretaker mode. The appearance at the moment is that both men intend a smooth transition without chaos and acrimony.
Imagine that…
The new government gets sworn in on July 1, perhaps minus 16 deputies whose credentials as duly elected having been challenged. MAYBE the Electoral Tribunal would have made good on their promises and ruled on all of those cases beforehand. However, such decisions could be delayed by interposing appeals or motions to reconsider. Perhaps in some resolved cases new elections would have to be organized. We should not be surprised, given the reigning amorality in the lame duck National Assembly, if at least one deputy who was not re-elected but claims the right to stay on until a replacement is seated. If that notion — with its extra paycheck or two — gets slapped down there might be a round or two of litigation about that.
Minus 16, a majority of the legislature would be 28 instead of 36? If the rump of the National Assembly goes ahead with only 55 deputies, could they pick the body’s leaders, and chairs of important committees like budget and credentials, and make that stick after the disputed seats are filled?
Mulino will take office under international suspicion, as he was the nominee and proxy of a notorious money launderer, who stole tens of millions of dollars from the Republic of Panama and spent it on things like buying himself a newspaper chain. The courts have ordered that publishing house to be seized by the state, but Nito’s government has never seen fit to enforce that order. So we’re going to tell the European Union, the OECD, Washington and others that Panama has the rule of law and is committed to the banishment of money laundering from these shores?
Mulino will take office with a brawl against organized labor and retirees a split-second away, as he is committed both to make the Social Security Fund “solvent” and to carry out the agenda of business groups – including powerful individuals, companies and families who have egregiously cheated or looted the fund for years. The intended effect is that working people won’t get what they worked for over so many years. Honest and serious business owners would realize that this deduction from the public’s buying power will ripple through the economy with reduced sales. They would, however, likely be shouted down by “winners” who would proclaim positive proof of their families’ inherent superiority.
There are reasonable and pragmatic exit ramps from the road to disaster that’s opening up before us. The new president could, for example, insist that he won’t treat a legislative leadership chosen by only 55 deputies as anything lasting or legitimate. Various compromises might by fashioned by the various factions, none of which come close to making up a majority. Rules of procedure could be bent or modified for the duration of the irregular situation. Mulino won only a little more than one-third of the vote and should have the sense to recognize the widespread public rejection of the ways that we have been governed since the 1989 invasion. He has to come up with some new and palatable things to do in the face of a new set of challenges.
Back to Trump and Varela times – the former Howard Air Force Base was used as a staging area for a foolhardy coup attempt that unfolded on a major bridge between Colombia and Venezuela. The American Embassy let the leaders of Panama’s Democrats Abroad chapter know that it considered that the editor of The Panama News – which published this anonymous drone photo – did not have the same interests as the Embassy and was thus cut off from communications from the diplomatic outpost. The US policy of economic strangulation of Venezuela persists, and drives most of the unauthorized migration across our border with Colombia.
Can US foreign relations – and Panama’s – adapt to the present realities?
Bibi Netanyahu has done it again. Joe Biden has told him to stop. The World Court has told him to stop. Huge protests in Tel Aviv have told him to stop. But not only does he press his offensive against mostly noncombatant Palestinian civilians in Rafah, now he’s taken a step beyond and expanded his war to yet another country by having his troops attack their Egyptian counterparts at the Rafah Crossing.
Will Biden continue to run scared of the “Israel lobby?” That force in US politics by no means represents all American Jews, but more faithfully represents US arms merchants. There is a weird side of the Evangelical Christian right in the coalition as well. Most Democrats find this collection of people and groups – not just AIPAC – rather annoying. Billionaire former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg ran for president, used the Star of David on his campaign logo and “Democratic Majority for Israel” as the name of his Super PAC, spent more than half a billion dollars mostly to taunt Bernie Sanders for having had a heart attack and you know what? He rather conclusively proved that the range of Democrats’ opinions about Israel is far more nuanced, that there actually is no Democratic majority that supports the Netanyahu regime.
We know from the WikiLeaks cables that the US Embassy here turned down Ricky Martinelli’s requests for US assistance for electronic spying on his political adversaries and was annoyed when Martinelli went to the Israelis for such help. Now in Joe Biden times and for many reasons the US government is acting against NOS, the Israeli military company that makes the Pegasus spy programs and hardware that Martinelli bought and which went missing at the end of his term of office in 2014.
Perhaps NOS has more to fear from a private lawsuit brought by Meta, whose WhatApp platform the company hacked. Perhaps Meta treads more cautiously now because there are Democrats calling for the application of antitrust law against its Facebook platform, because in 2016 the Russian orchestrated heavy trolling tactics on Facebook with the aim of getting Donald Trump elected. Since that scandal Facebook has often gone overboard to shadow ban or outright expel people and publications expressing leftist or rightist views.
A Shin Bet guy, in the headphones and with the Israeli flag patch on his sleeve, instructs Panamanian law enforcement in racism. This started out under the Martinelli administration but finally Presidene Laurentino Cortizo Cohen put a stop to it. There are various pressures from different political angles, but for protection of the Panama Canal we’re officially neutral about Arab – Israeli disputes and people of just about all faiths in mostly-Catholic Panama tend not to embrace such anti-Arab vitriol. Panamanian government photo.
In case nobody has noticed, Canal Zone times ended officially in 1979 and more definitively with the withdrawal from US military bases here and the transfer of Panama Canal administration culminating in 1999. The once rather unchecked power of US officials to blacklist people from practicing journalism in Panama is much diminished. But the DEA, the CIA, the Southern Command’s mercenary forces and various American governmental and non-governmental political operatives continue their work. Sometimes its the legitimate stuff of a democracy. Sometimes it’s imperial hubris, occasionally working through the most sordid cut-out characters.
In Panama’s gringo community, the Democrats are here and long have been – in their various factions – and so too have the MAGAs. Might President-elect José Raúl Mulino, sensing a regional and global shift to the right, bet on Donald Trump? Ricardo Martinelli played that card and it turned out to be a dud.
Trump, Martinelli and Colombian developer Roger Khafif at the ribbon-cutting for what used to be called the Trump Ocean Club, a knock-off of Dubai’s Burj al-Arab built on a flood plain in Punta Pacifica. It soon became a US intelligence concern because of the Russian oligarchs and Latin American thugs to which its condo units were marketed. The thing went into bankruptcy and the condo owners turned against the Trump management. Photo by the Martinelli-era Presidencia.
So, what should the USA do about its “Netanyahu problem,” and any potential “Mulino problem?” And what can Mulino do about relations with the United States?
Any attempt by Mulino or any Panamanian faction to got Internet trolling to affect the US election this year would be foolish and counter-productive. There is no Panama lobby that in any way can compare to the Israel lobby. We have wise guys with computers but nothing like the resources that the Russians deployed in the 2016 US elections.
On the other hand, US punishment of Panama for electing the proxy presidential candidate of a guy whom US Justice deported and the Biden administration calls a crook? Some limits are that Panama is a sovereign country, not a US colony, and it was Mulino, not Martinelli, who got elected. And does the United States exert economic pressure on Panama, with China ready to step into abandoned US economic spaces? For many reasons, for the Biden administration now or a possible Trump administration starting next year, it’s better to wait and see what Mulino does.
Panama’s president-elect promises a new, less tolerant approach to migration into and through Panama. Let’s hope that he doesn’t try to abrogate Panama’s treaty obligation to allow people who are persecuted for their politics, beliefs or ethnicity to request asylum. Mulino’s intention to close the Colombian border is probably unwise and expensive, but it’s Panama’s right to make such a decision. It’s not an obligation of the United States to pay for any of this. If the aim is to reduce migration through the Darien Gap, the best way that the United States can help Panama is to stop its economic warfare against Venezuela, which drives most of this migration.
How does the United States adjust its foreign policy to present realities? Its failure to act in the face of Netanyahu’s taunts, the ongoing massacre in Gaza, the spreading regional war in the Middle East, ethnic cleansing on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem and impunity for the Israeli assassination of an American citizen journalist and subsequent harassment of her family add up to an existential threat to Joe Biden’s re-election hopes.
Israel is a sovereign state, but it’s also an international pariah that’s committing war crimes. The best thing for Joe Biden to do about it, even if it would alienate some of his wealthy donors and a segment of Democratic voters, would be to tell Israel “Not on our dime.” And if that inflames the far-right elements among American citizens here, it just means that local Democrats have the task of out-organizing them.
Alleged Christians walking among the poor in hardscrabble Coronado and funding neofascist militia politics in the USA through Panamanian bank accounts? Those things we have seen. “Rex Freeman,” whose given name is Mark Emery Boswell and goes by various monikers of convenience, is a guy who did felony time for fraud in Colorado before he came here and set up this outfit. This Facebook screenshot is from Trump times, in 2018. Earlier Boswell hired close Martinelli collaborator and former Noriega guy for shutting down the opposition press Alejandro Moncada Luna as a private prosecutor to charge The Panama News editor Eric Jackson with criminal defamation. Jackson won that case, Moncada Luna went on to be Martinelli’s presiding magistrate of the Supreme Court, and then went on to be impeached and imprisoned. Last we heard, Boswell is back in the USA and Moncada Luna has served his prison time and is now practicing law again. We should hope that Mulino has learned something and will steer the Panamanian ship of state clear of both the MAGAs here and their home-grown mouthpieces like Moncada Luna.
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With the announcement by Norway and Ireland that they have recognized Palestine as an independent state, and Spain expected to follow suit by the end of May, it appears that international momentum for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is growing.
The concept has long been supported by the United States and its allies, as well as most Arab states and the United Nations. In 2017, Hamas amended its charter to accept the existence of Israel based on borders established after the six-day war in 1967. It reportedly indicated recently a willingness to disarm if a Palestinian state were established. But the present Israeli government led by Prime Mister Benjamin Netanyahu remains implacably opposed to a two-state solution.
Could things be different under different leadership? To answer this, we need to know whether the Israeli and Palestinian people could be persuaded to accept such a plan. Here it’s worth taking a look at what polling tells us.
Politicians all too often find it convenient to blame the public for their failures. This is particularly true of failed peacemaking. The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) has tracked the ups and downs of support for the two-state solution from a high of 51% and 53% for Palestinians and Israeli Jews in polls taken in 2016 to a low of 33% and 34% respectively in 2022.
But pollsters in both Israel and Palestine, who do excellent work to the highest technical standards, sadly have had little or no opportunity to measure public opinion in support of a successful peace process. They measure the situation as it is – in the context of failure. Instead they need to measure what could be, how attitudes could change given proactive political leadership determined to get to peace. With such leadership the numbers change significantly.
Most recently, on the Palestinian side the Institute for Social and Economic Progress asked the two-state solution question in March 2024 in the context of “serious negotiations” and got a 72.5% positive response. This contrasted with PCPSR results a few months earlier in December 2023 which registered support for the two-state solution at only 34% among Palestinians when framed without the context of serious negotiations. Clearly “serious negotiations” are the key.
On the Israeli side, a poll run for the Geneva Initiative in January 2024 got a result of 51.3% support for the two-state solution. Specifically, this was framed in the context of a “return of the hostages agreement, to establish in the future a non-militarized Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, and total normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia.” This was only two percentage points below the high point of support at 53% recorded by the PCPSR in 2016.
Security has always been the top priority for Israelis and when that is factored in, success in negotiations can be assured. And significantly demilitarizing a future Palestine is not a deal-breaker for the Palestinians, according to the Institute for Social and Economic Progress March 2024 poll.
A PCPSR poll completed for the Palestine Peace Initiative also in March 2024 found that 50.4% of respondents said the two-state solution would be acceptable to Palestinians providing they also get security and an independent state free from occupation.
The solution then to the implementation of the two-state solution appears to be to combine all the elements that can make it a success.
Additionally the scale that is used is also important. In real negotiations it is important to know where the “red lines” are and what the people can be persuaded to accept given positive political leadership.
In Northern Ireland, where public opinion polls were used to detail every element of a peace agreement, the people were asked what was: “essential” (a red line), what was “desirable” or “acceptable,” what was “tolerable” (not wanted but with political leadership could be made into a “yes”), and what was “unacceptable” under any circumstances (another red line).
When we used this scale to gauge support for a two-state solution in 2009, only 21% of Israelis and 24% of Palestinians considered it “unacceptable.” This compares very favorably with equivalent results for views of power sharing in Northern Ireland in polls I conducted in January 1998 that found it was “unacceptable” for 52% of Protestants and 27% of Catholics. Despite this, with political leadership from the UK, Ireland, the US and EU working together, peace was made.
Clearly the same can be done for Israel and Palestine with the full support of the international community.
Positive polling
Just to make sure, Mina Zemach – the pollster I work with in Israel – ran the 2009 two-state solution (TSS) question for me again in May 2024. The findings are published here for the first time. The result among Israeli respondents was 43% “unacceptable.” It was not as good as the 2009 result – but still better than the result for Northern Ireland where peace was achieved.
Critically then, the two-state solution needs to be tested along with all the positive elements of incentives and process, both international and domestic, that can be deployed to maximize the potential for getting to peace. And when we know what that magic formula is – do it. Turn fiction into fact and end this forever war.
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