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Editorials: Run Panama like a business? and Kamala, of course

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who we are
There are mining companies, banks and other private parties who would be glad to step in and assume sovereign governmental roles. President Mulino seems not to be the sort of chump to go along with that. Panama’s businesses are in their great majority tiny and informal, but those aren’t the folks to whom the men in suits want to hand control of public affairs. Photo by Eric Jackson.

Why Panama has no 2025 national budget

President Mulino, recognizing a debt squeeze, tells us that it’s time for some government belt-tightening. Most members of the National Assembly, starting with deputies of the president’s coalition and including especially those of the defeated PRD and their allies, have other ideas. They want to continue the spending binge of the previous five years – family, friends and mistresses on the payroll, sticky fingers in the cash boxes, no-show “employees” whose pay goes to their sponsors and all of that. Panama can’t afford it.

It would help if Mulino had a minister of economy and finance who knows and respects the legal constraints and imperatives of a national budget, but he didn’t give us one of those, either.

What to do? President Mulino should call a special legislative session to do what the deputies and the administration’s budget people usually get done in October, so that we have a sound and well-considered national budget, hammered out in a process that allows line-item vetoes of any of the usual wise guy stuff, without time pressures to go along.

There just isn’t any good reason why the Panamanian government should start 2025 without an adequate – if modest – and well-considered national budget in place. Let’s take the time, do the work and get it right.

HER

Harris, obviously

Were we to have nothing positive to say about Kamala Harris, she would be a clearly superior choice for US president just because Donald Trump is so deficient. Dishonest, cruel, boastful,racist, annoying to the leader of traditional US allies, but above all proven to be incompetent at the job he once had, the choice is whether to vote for someone who can actually defeat him of cast a protest vote for somebody who will not be the next president.

Kamala Harris is circumspect and on some important issues it would be nice if she were more outspoken and commital. But then again, she is vice president of the United States. She does not live in the White House or work in the Oval Office, has no power to sign or veto laws, can’t issue executive orders. She is the nation’s number two public official, no matter all the MAGA lies. Her job is to preside over the US Senate, be ready to assume the presidency if need be, and carry out various of the assignments Joe Biden might give her.

At the president’s direction, did she work with Republicans willing and able to lend a hand, and leaders and experts from the various relevant agencies to craft a border bill that would strengthen enforcement and correct flaws in current laws and policies? That she did, and sight unseen, Donald Trump ordered its defeat by House Republicans. ‘See – she didn’t get anything done,’ they whine. Let’s not be taken for fools.

A senator, the attorney general of California and a county prosecutor, on her way up to her current office the vice president has shown herself to be an intellectually and morally serious person, capable of making the hard decisions. On a number of international assignments. Harris has come to know the lay of the diplomatic world and many of its key players. She’s ready to be president and she should be elected to that office.

Voters need to deploy all their honesty to resist the onslaught of the parties and should never adopt any other guide than their conviction of the merits of the citizens they have decided to elect.

Justo Arosemena                  

Bear in mind…

After all it is those who have a deep and real inner life who are best able to deal with the irritating details of outer life.

Evelyn Underhill

Humor is also a way of saying something serious.

T. S. Eliot

Even though many Mexicans do not fully agree with our project, we will have to walk in peace and harmony to continue building a fair and more prosperous Mexico.

Claudia Sheinbaum

 

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Jackson, Logging on with ten days to go

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History misappropriated
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.

~~

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?

~~

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.

~~

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.

~~

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.

~~

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.

~~

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….

notice
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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¿Wappin? GOTV

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The man had a strange mix of ideas, and one of them was a lament about the decline of civics teaching in the USA. / El hombre tenía una extraña mezcla de ideas, y una de ellas era un lamento por el declive de la enseñanza de la educación cívica en lel EEUU.

US citizens living abroad – there are more than 9 million of us – generally have the right to vote in US elections. But time is short to send your ballots in time to be counted.

Los ciudadanos estadounidenses que viven en el extranjero (somos más de 9 millones) tienen derecho a votar en las elecciones del EEUU, pero el tiempo se acaba para enviar sus boletas a tiempo para que sean contabilizadas.

Rubén Blades – Pais Portatil
https://youtu.be/FkxguHYAB0M?si=wvygAD9ZxPFsb5mi

Shakira — Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran
https://youtu.be/Xq64_I0wlH4?si=yK_EukBjw9Ob2EQv

Alice Cooper – Elected
https://youtu.be/ZQAkjdrgo7M?si=juQV_0qFeKct7GtW

Sineád Oconnor & The Chieftains – Foggy Dew
https://youtu.be/yaS3vaNUYgs?si=iOl0dhDI4gL935gJ

Zahara – Nelson Mandela
https://youtu.be/bUDJEckz6jM?si=561rSUVv2EFEKz1a

Martha Reeves Medley
https://youtu.be/i3spUP5jmvA?si=0cN0109MuyhH8Sg3

Midnight Oil – Blue Sky Mine
https://youtu.be/Ofrqm6-LCqs?si=MO1MCJxM2BLhvPto

Kinky Friedman — Sold American
https://youtu.be/3JnWOon_8JQ?si=8ZVU2xdNaLFaoTKG

Mon LaFerte – Viña del Mar 2017
https://youtu.be/OSoCF1lud0E?si=vyY3xaJdMQ1ZGEht

Barbra Streisand – Higher Ground
https://youtu.be/I6bzOPJ4eGY?si=vWrK5aXTmy1onr9J

 

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Polo Ciudadano: First Quantum Minerals sigue burlándose del pueblo panameño

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Panama Profundo
Tuvimos nuestras razones. Gráfico de archivo por Panamá Profundo.

A un año de la gran gesta popular contra la minería, en defensa de la soberanía y el ambiente, First Quantum Minerals sigue burlándose del pueblo panameño

por Polo Ciudadana

Se cumple un año desde que el gobierno corrupto de Laurentino Cortizo, con el apoyo cómplice de todos los partidos políticos proempresariales, trató de imponer el nefasto contrato minero con First Quantum Minerals (FQM) para continuar explotando la mina de Donoso a cambio de unas monedas y a costa de la devastación de las riquezas naturales de Panamá.

Se cumple un año desde que el pueblo panameño, masivamente, salió a las calles a defender los derechos soberanos del país, burlados por un contrato que creaba un enclave semejante a la extinta Zona del Canal. Se cumple un año desde que la vanguardia popular, nucleada en la Alianza por la Vida y ANADEPO, convocaran a la lucha contra ese contrato minero.

Un año de los crímenes que le costaron la vida a los mártires Tomás Cedeño, Agustín Morales, Iván Mendoza y Abdiel Díaz. Y la represión policial que dejó con la pérdida de la visión de su ojo derecho al foto periodista ambiental Audrey Baxter, cuya denuncia presentada en la Dirección de Responsabilidad Policial (DRP) del Ministerio Público, fue archivada.

Los educadores, obreros de la construcción y otras industrias, indígenas, ambientalistas y jóvenes, obligaron al gobierno y a la Asamblea Nacional a derogar el contrato minero, que aprobaron 47 diputados/as vendepatria de todos los partidos políticos del poder económico. El pueblo cerró calles, carreteras, protestó en alta mar y obligó a la Corte Suprema de Justicia a que, en tiempo récord, declarara inconstitucional este segundo contrato (el primero le demoró 20 años en tomar la misma decisión).

Pese a la gran victoria popular alcanzada por la movilización del pueblo en todo el país, la empresa canadiense F.Q.M. sigue ahí, un año después, burlándose de la decisión judicial y de la voluntad popular. Aunque todos “sus términos” sobre la explotación minera han sido declarados ilegales e inconstitucionales, F.Q.M. sigue controlando la mina, administrando las instalaciones y haciendo publicidad para torcer la conciencia de quienes se dejen engañar.

Esa burla de la minera canadiense sigue porque lo permiten tanto el gobierno corrupto de Laurentino Cortizo, como ahora el gobierno “empresarial” de José Raúl Mulino, quienes se mueven en complicidad con los gerentes de la empresa, porque siguen estando penetrados por altos funcionarios que son abogados de esos capitalistas extranjeros.

El Polo Ciudadano lo viene diciendo desde 2022, la única manera de poner fin definitivo a las maquinaciones de F.Q.M. es que el gobierno nacionalice las instalaciones de la mina y expulse del país a los gerentes de esa empresa.

Sólo cuando el Estado panameño haya tomado posesión definitiva de la mina de Donoso el país podrá decidir soberana y democráticamente qué pasos seguir. Mientras esa empresa, con la complicidad del gobierno de Mulino, siga en posesión de las instalaciones, continuarán las maquinaciones para burlar la decisión tomada por el pueblo en las calles y ratificada por la Corte Suprema de Justicia.

Panamá, 23 de octubre de 2024.

 

 

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To fend off hackers, organized trolls and other online vandalism, our website comments feature is switched off. Instead, come to our Facebook page to join in the discussion.

Para defendernos de los piratas informáticos, los trolls organizados y otros actos de vandalismo en línea, la función de comentarios de nuestro sitio web está desactivada. En cambio, ven a nuestra página de Facebook para unirte a la discusión.
 

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These announcements are interactive. Click on them for more information.
Estos anuncios son interactivos. Toque en ellos para seguir a las páginas de web.

 

Editorials: Panama’s albatross; and VOTE!

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Danny O
There would be the usual trite explanations, one of which might be true. It is, however, puzzling that Nicaragua’s leftist strongman Daniel Ortega took in a capitalist sticky-fingers like Ricardo Martinelli. Photo by Ismael Francisco/ Cubadebate.

The diplomatic albatross around Panama’s neck

President Mulino has flown away to France to meet President Macron and convince him that European financial sanctions against Panama on “soft on money laudering” allegations are unjustified.

The thing is, the leader of Mulino’s party stole more than $70 million from the Panamanian people, laundered it by purchasing a newspaper chain, was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison and the surrender of what he stole. The appeals process has been exhausted and the verdict and sentence have been upheld. Yet here is Ricky Martinelli holed up in the Nicaraguan Consulate and so far he has been able to keep what he stole.

Mulino is thus in a terrible position to argue the point that he’s trying to make. Threats of retaliatory sanctions by little Panama would not make much of an impression.

Perhaps the easy way, the path of least resistance, is to accede to Nicaragua’s request to give Martinelli safe passage to Managua and thereafter say that all things Martinelli are Danny Ortega’s problem.

VOTE!

US citizens living in Panama have the right, but time is short.

  

Robert Nesta
Bob Marley in 1978. Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

             They would do anything
             To materialize their every wish.
             But woe to the downpressors
            They’ll eat the bread of sorrow!

Bob Marley              

Bear in mind…

Every human being on this earth is born with a tragedy, and it isn’t original sin. He’s born with the tragedy that he has to grow up. That he has to leave the nest, the security, and go out to do battle. He has to lose everything that is lovely and fight for a new loveliness of his own making, and it’s a tragedy. A lot of people don’t have the courage to do it.

Helen Hayes

Life is a foreign language; all men mispronounce it.

Christopher Morley

I got kicked out of ballet class because I pulled a groin muscle. It wasn’t mine.

Rita Rudner

 

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¿Wappin? Music so greasy that you should put it in your hair

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Landon
That werewolf formula will give you a bad hair day. Michael Landon as the Teenage Werewolf, 1957.

 

Who’s this JD guy? HE ain’t no JD!

Gene Chandler – Duke of Earl
https://youtu.be/h6Uht69h8Is?si=Pq_yRg8tKPDoQit2

Niagara Detroit – I Died 1000 Times
https://youtu.be/jVHiR93bbvA?si=qvHIj44yWohfs17m

Frankie Avalon – Beauty School Drop Out
https://youtu.be/FrqioiAcyiY?si=tEQkwy7OYsHyGDKl

The Chiffons – My Boyfriend’s Back
https://youtu.be/Sgf2XghdSF4?si=MzWN7jkngiRZUeqM

The Shangri-Las – Ten Songs For You
https://youtu.be/e4s1o62ebE0?si=eJAZ2p30LEd0V-qO

Mark Dinning – Teen Angel
https://youtu.be/KG_VIcoiCFA?si=vROawrhVWOHQmmdK

Cannibal & The Headhunters – Land of 1000 Dances
https://youtu.be/VZFzKZyyQK0?si=WSgWZ6-1PbiXxc82

Frank Zappa – Later That Night
https://youtu.be/xlbz1IB4-lU?si=n9GdBjRSA8QZqI-X

Wendy O. Williams – Reform School Girls
https://youtu.be/E9UHpgWYH3I?si=ZfY616xTEmYHrxrk

 

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Vote en español

Paying the price; and VOTE!

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Former officials who owe prison time rounded up

Forget the tales of police brilliance or daring. There was a nationwide warrant sweep and the former mayors of Panama City and Arraijan, the former Minister of Social Development, the former director of the now defunct National Assistance Program and the former representante of the Panama City corregimiento of Calidonia were swept up with the more numerous drug runners and garden variety thugs. Should we put the word “alleged” in there? Maybe for some of the ordinary detainees. The former officials all had their days in court and were found guilty and sentenced to prison. They may have been keeping low profiles, but they were not deep underground. The police found them more or less where expected.

Under our present constitution the president has to power to pardon people for “political crimes” and to commute sentences for ordinary crimes. If President Mulino invokes his powers to let these men avoid prison, he would be within his commutation for ordinary sticky fingers crimes powers, but it would be unpopular. And then there’s the big fish, rotting in the Nicaraguan consulate, former president Martinelli.

Longer incarceration under harsher conditions is an ugly political platform. Let’s avoid that demagoguery. But upholding the decisions of the judiciary is a prudent use of executive power. Letting the bad guys off from years in prison would not be well received, but perhaps the red line that the president most needs to avoid crossing is letting them keep what they stole.

 

US citizens in Panama: vote if you have not already done so

Can you believe it? Civilian American citizens who cast absentee ballots in US historically trend a bit Democratic, so one might not be surprised that Republicans in the US House of Representatives want to block those votes. But the military voters, like the marines who guard the US embassies? The GOP Caucus in the US House wants to block military voters too.

The troops tend to be a bit more conservative than the US electorate as a whole, but also tend to vote for the party of their commander-in-chief. Is that why House Republicans are trying to disenfranchise military voters?

On the federal level, the Republicans don’t have the votes. Maybe a federal judge here or there, maybe a state government here or there, but any new federal vote suppression law is dead on arrival.

American citizens living abroad have the right to vote in this November’s elections. If you are one of those, use that power, with the best wisdom that you can muster.

 

Mr. Cooper said to me that he had an idea for a film in mind. The only thing he’d tell me was that I was going to have the tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood. Naturally, I thought of Clark Gable.

Fay Wray

Bear in mind…

Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.

Kurt Vonnegut Jr.


Nothing amuses me more than the easy manner with which everybody settles the abundance of those who have a great deal less than themselves.

Jane Austen


The best way to keep one’s word is not to give it.

Napoleon Bonaparte

 

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Shah, Kamala’s Medicare senior home visits plan

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visiting nurse
Kamala Harris has lent a hand in raising stepchildren, and despite the pressures of her professional career, cared for an elderly parent. To the MAGA “Christian” ultra-right, that’s shirking her responsibilities as a woman, which they center on bearing children. Family values mean something much different to the Democratic nominee for president. Ubiquitous uncredited online photo, said to be a nurse making a home visit.

Harris’s Medicare at home plan: a step forward, but we need a care revolution

by Neal K. Shah – Common Dreams

Vice President Kamala Harris’s recently announced “Medicare at Home” plan represents a crucial acknowledgment of America’s caregiving crisis. However, it’s a band-aid on a gaping wound—a wound that exposes the deep-seated inequities and systemic failures in our approach to elder care and support for family caregivers. I believe with some thoughtful adjustments, the proposal can lead to a more equitable elder care system in America.

The numbers are staggering: 53 million Americans provide unpaid care for aging or disabled loved ones, sacrificing their own financial security and well-being. By 2030, all Baby Boomers will be over 65, comprising 21% of our population. This demographic shift demands not just incremental change, but a radical reimagining of how we value and support care work in our society.

Harris’ plan, while well-intentioned, risks perpetuating a broken care system that exploits caregivers—predominantly women and people of color—while failing to meet the diverse needs of families. By focusing on paying for “designated” Medicare aides, the current proposal supports only the high-cost portion of the market: the traditional for-profit home care agencies.

The Democratic presidential candidate’s new proposal highlights urgent needs, but true reform requires addressing systemic inequities and empowering diverse caregivers. The current system is a microcosm of larger societal inequities.

That leaves behind many other care options that are vital to addressing our urgent care crisis. It ignores the reality that 78% of adults requiring long-term care solely rely on family and friends for support. And of those who can afford to pay for help, nearly a third rely on the “gray market” of informal caregivers. These groups—family caregivers and informal non-professional caregivers – should also be covered if Medicare were to pay for home-based care. Otherwise, the Harris proposal is favoring a for-profit home care agency system, at the expense of more affordable options, that the majority of people rely on.

Beyond affordability, many people actually prefer to not deal with the for-profit care market. One NIH-funded study on home care needs revealed a stark truth: patients value vouchers to pay for family and informal caregivers 50% more than agency-provided aides. This preference isn’t just about familiarity. It’s about dignity, cultural competence, and the recognition that care is deeply personal.

The current system is a microcosm of larger societal inequities. Unpaid family caregivers—mostly women, and disproportionately women of color—lose an average of $304,000 in wages and benefits over their lifetime. This is a form of structural inequality that perpetuates gender and racial wealth gaps.

To truly revolutionize home care, we must embrace a progressive vision that centers on equity, worker empowerment, and community-based solutions. Here’s what that could look like:

1. A Universal Caregiver Benefit: Instead of means-tested programs, we need a universal benefit that recognizes caregiving as valuable work, regardless of who performs it. This would include payment to family members, friends, and community members, not just professional Medicare-designated aides. Such an approach would bring this existing “gray market” of family and informal caregivers into a more regulated and supported economy.

2. Technology for Social Impact: To truly transform home care, we must embrace innovation and flexibility. We can leverage technology platforms to create a more dynamic, responsive caregiver workforce. This can create flexible, well-compensated opportunities that benefit both caregivers and lower the costs for care recipients.

3. Community Care Cooperatives: Encourage the formation of worker-owned care cooperatives, empowering caregivers and ensuring that the benefits of their labor stay within their communities.

4. Comprehensive Training and Support: Provide accessible, culturally competent training for all types of caregivers, recognizing the diverse needs of care recipients and the varied skills of potential caregivers.

5. Intersectional Policy Approach: Recognize that caregiving intersects with issues of gender equality, racial justice, immigrant rights, and economic justice. Our solutions must address all these facets.

Critics may argue that this approach could compromise care quality. However, with proper oversight and community-based accountability mechanisms, we can create a system that’s more responsive, more equitable, and more aligned with the values of dignity and self-determination.

The economic impact of this revolution would be profound. By recognizing and compensating currently unpaid care work, we could stimulate local economies, reduce gender and racial wealth gaps, and create a more robust social safety net for all.

We can create a level playing field where all care providers—from traditional care agencies to tech platforms to family caregivers and informal caregivers—can thrive while prioritizing the needs of care recipients and care workers.

Harris’s Medicare at Home plan opens the door to a necessary conversation. Now, we must push it wide open and envision a care system that truly serves all Americans.

Harris’s Medicare at Home plan opens the door to a necessary conversation. Now, we must push it wide open and envision a care system that truly serves all Americans. We can build a society that recognizes the value of care work in all its forms.

As we debate this plan, let’s not lose sight of the broader struggle for social and economic justice. Reimagining home care for the 21st century is part of a larger project of creating an economy that works for all, not just the privileged few.

It’s time for a care revolution that puts people over profit, community over corporations, and equity at the center of our policies. Harris has taken the first step—now let’s march forward towards a truly just and compassionate care system for all Americans.

 

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¿Wappin? Rama Lama

0
Intro by JC Crawford — Detroit, way back when.

Time to get all fired up
Es hora de entusiasmarse

The Edsels – Rama Lama Ding Dong
https://youtu.be/f3gIid5pHlc?si=UeAkwVUf_vUmbRvP

The Who — Shakin’ All Over
https://youtu.be/bFKHO3P_DaY?si=JuCN_O603QXgaJOu

Santana – Soul Sacrifice
https://youtu.be/sSp05euvRNU?si=NAts8jcNVkD92TZT

Aurora – Starvation
https://youtu.be/4y238kmIxjA?si=Ful2LRPLDsgYMYQ6

Avril Lavigne – I’m With You
https://youtu.be/eE-mcJAdCLw?si=rcTSMCriZIQaWO3I

Andrea Bocelli – Presentación Completa en Festival de Viña del Mar 2024
https://youtu.be/5iLezxNuCqY?si=de64taxMeGN8b9ou

Taylor Swift – You Belong With Me
https://youtu.be/VuNIsY6JdUw?si=V0XX1N5RIsR_EBrT

Alanis Morissette – Live in Milwaukee 2024
https://youtu.be/DuqeP8NejMc?si=_pdPc5pXDlMckGeY

Jimii Hendrix – Voodoo Chile
https://youtu.be/yNC0sF9KgM4?si=H1vHnjf4o7cn9BHn

Cultura Profética – Concierto en Luna Park
https://youtu.be/eGYiTRmFXkY?si=z4BROF3byO8nCIim

Kevin Johansen & Natalia Lafourcade – Tú Ve
https://youtu.be/6EBm80bvpXk?si=mLUf9t729jzWWsIM

Jefferson Starship – Stairway to Cleveland
https://youtu.be/kHDmsHKHd9w?si=EUB3-7U6iIaaE72m

Mark Knopfler — Brothers In Arms
https://youtu.be/EMRJT2ebvAk?si=VYWVwOW14g6h2jk5

Willie Nelson — Last Leaf On The Tree
https://youtu.be/IJXvwEyNY2k?si=qlyHIYMix2ULRPkf

Chrissie Hynde — I’ll Stand By You
https://youtu.be/vKl7DrQj9ig?si=cIttsrrPHyxhgxv6

 

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Editorials: PRD looting; and Long-running war

0
IFARHU
One of the national scholarship fund’s offices. IFARHU photo.

…as if there would be no tomorrow

The new director of the IFARHU national scholarship fund says that upon the change of administration, the fund was found to be insolvent. This follows months of revelations about abuses there, wherein needy and excellent students were denied, but kids of politically connected parents, and a lot of connected people who aren’t kids, got large grants out of the fund.

With a ridiculous candidate like Gaby Carrizo, it’s easy to see where some of the more predatory party members figured that it would be more than five years in the political wilderness for the PRD so they needed to take what and when they could or forget it.

Now it’s up to the Mulino administration to see to it that those who improperly received don’t get to keep what was taken, and those who wilfully and knowingly stole are punished for that.

Beirut
Beirut under Israeli bombardment.

The Middle East War did not begin a year ago today

Read the Old testament. Read the inscripted words of ancient Mesopotamian kings. Read the complete histories – not just one side’s perspective – of all of modern Israels’s wars. Then considered what Mr. Netanyahu meant by promising “unprecedented” retaliation for the Hamas offensive.

It’s time to cut off weapons and money for more of this, and to bring war criminals to justice.

The Middle East War did not begin a year ago today

Read the Old Testament. Read the inscripted words of ancient Mesopotamian kings. Read the complete histories – not just one side’s perspective – of all of modern Israels’s wars. Then consider what Mr. Netanyahu meant by promising “unprecedented” retaliation for the Hamas offensive. It’s an announcement of criminal intent.

It’s time to cut off weapons and money for more of this, and to bring war criminals to justice.

Cuban independence activist José Martí, a Wikimedia photo of an 1891 oil painting by Hermann Norman.

Gratitude, like certain flowers, does not grow in the heights and flourishes best in the good soil of the humble.

José Martí

Bear in mind…

I was elected by the women of Ireland, who instead of rocking the cradle, rocked the system.

Mary Robinson

The chief weapon of sea pirates, however, was their capacity to astonish. Nobody else could believe, until it was too late, how heartless and greedy they were.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

If you are a dog and your owner suggests that you wear a sweater, suggest that he wear a tail.

Fran Lebowitz

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