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US Social Security: Dems’ wealth tax proposal and the GOP alternative

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Dems say
The Republican plan as the Democrats on the House Budget Committee put it in this graphic. The conventional political wisdom is that with divided government any bold departure from what now prevails on taxation or on Social Security is unlikely to be swallowed whole. Parts may get negotiated into existence, but against strong resistance. The proposal in question here? Democrats would have to win big in next year’s elections and this plan is what many of them would be running on. “This bill shows that Social Security is fully affordable—as long as the wealthiest among us pay their fair share,” said one advocate.

Dems’ wealth tax bill would extend Social Security solvency by 75+ years: analysis

by Brett Wilkins — Common Dreams

Legislation recently introduced by a pair of Democratic US lawmakers to save Social Security for generations to come would extend the vital social program’s lifespan by at least 75 years, according to a federal analysis published Tuesday.

The Medicare and Social Security Fair Share Act—introduced in April by Senate Budget Committee Chair Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), with a companion bill put forth Tuesday by Representative Brendan Boyle (D-PA) in the House—”would extend Social Security solvency indefinitely by making the nation’s highest earners contribute their fair share,” Boyle’s office said in a statement Tuesday.

The bill would require taxpayers making more than $400,000 annually to contribute more to Medicare, while closing legal loopholes and also ensuring “that wealthy owners of pass-through businesses like hedge funds and private equity firms with more than $400,000 in annual income cannot avoid Medicare taxes.”

The Democrats say that, if passed, their bill would also “extend Medicare solvency by an estimated 20 years.”

According to an analysis by the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Chief Actuary, if enacted, the legislation’s provisions would be sufficient to “pay scheduled benefits in full and on time throughout the 75-year projection period.”

“This legislation saves Social Security and Medicare for generations to come,” Boyle said in a statement. “Social Security and Medicare represent a commitment made by this country decades ago to honor the dignity and independence of senior citizens and disabled citizens. Rather than tearing these programs down, as some in Congress want to do, we should be strengthening and securing them.”

Whitehouse, who is set to hold a Wednesday hearing examining ways to protect Social Security, said that “the megarich—taking advantage of our rigged tax code—have avoided paying Social Security taxes on most of their income, threatening the promise of Social Security for future generations.”

“But as the new analysis from the Social Security Administration shows, we can protect this bedrock program for all and improve our broken tax code—a win-win in my book,” Whitehouse continued.

“Republicans recently joined Democrats in promising not to cut Social Security, which leaves raising revenue as the only option to protect the program,” the senator added. “I invite my Republican colleagues to join me in shoring up this vital lifeline by leveling the playing field so that teachers, nurses, and firefighters aren’t paying more of their income in taxes than billionaires.”

In May, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced the launch of a fiscal commission tasked with finding ways to reduce the national debt. This, after the speaker struck a deal with President Joe Biden to suspend the nation’s borrowing limit until 2025.

McCarthy said he was “going to make some people uncomfortable” by looking at cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

“Republicans are openly admitting they want to steal your Social Security and Medicare and then force you to work until you drop dead,” Representative Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a bill introduced earlier this year by Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Representatives Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Val Hoyle (D-OR) would increase Social Security benefits by at least $200 per month and prolong the program’s solvency for decades by lifting the cap on the maximum income subject to Social Security payroll tax.

 

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Martinelli trolls: The numbers they’d have us believe

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RickyMath
From a Martinelli supporter’s Twitter feed, based on March and subsequent primary voting numbers published in one of Martinelli’s newspapers.

Yeah, right…

Eric Jackson’s take on the proffered numbers

They were at least honest enough to qualify their count as “possible RM supporters.” And to be honest rather than rhetorical about the rude question of “Whom do they try to deceive?” let’s not dismiss the possible phenomenon of self-deception. It has a long history in politics, in many places.

However, on cursory examination, let’s note that:

* 232,456 signed-up Realizando Metas party members as of last March? But how many of them were given something, or expect to be given something, in return for joining that party? Such political commerce is common enough in Panamanian history and political culture. There are always votes paid for but not actually cast.

* Ricardo supported Yanibel, but she lost her primary. She can’t legally be Martinelli’s running mate or a candidate for any other office unless Rómulo Roux, the leader of Cambio Democratico, gives his permission. To him, she’s been a pain, so maybe he might make such a magnanimous gesture to have her gravitate out of CD. To Ricardo Martinelli, she’s surely a loser and a liability, even if she could bring those 67,037 primary voters with her. She probably can’t bring all of them, for the reasons stated above about the RM membership, plus the factors of competing attractions and simple apathy born of despair. Is Yanibel and are her supporters about to become members without titles in RM? Even with uncertainty at this point whether he will actually be on next year’s ballot? Ábrego and most of her supporters in the National Assembly have been de facto allied with their PRD colleagues, voting for their leadership slate this past July 1 at the annual organizational meeting. The suggestions that she, and/or they, may now move into the PRD orbit aren’t totally ridiculous. The question that arises to my mind is whether they retreat as an organized force or flee as a disorderly rabble. No way should all of Yanibel Ábrego’s primary votes be counted as automatic Ricardo Martinelli general election votes.

* 230,000 CD members who did not vote, and these are presumed to be Martinelli supporters, or likely such? THAT’s a stretch. You have to wonder how many joined when it was Martinelli’s party because they got something in return or expected to, then became inactive but never actually quit, and might go anywhere or stay at home next May.

* 73,000 primary votes for Roux? That’s supposed to be some ceiling? That said, I doubt that we see a direct Roux versus Martinelli choice in May of next year. More likely Ricardo Martinelli is not on the ballot, some thought to be reliable proxy is the RM standard bearer while the main guy is in prison, and Roux is part of some grand coalition, perhaps but probably not the head of that coalition, that stands against RM and the PRD and its two likely offshoot candidates.

As the editor and otherwise I lack the gift and curse of prophecy, so take my expectations with hunks of salt. But certain things appear obvious at a glance.

 

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Ben-Meir, The Occupation and Jewish values

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Jenin
Jenin this Fourth of July. Photo from the B’Tselem Facebook page by Wahab Bani Moufleh.

The Occupation and Jewish values

by Alon Ben-Meir

Since 1967, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has largely been seen and discussed from the prism of the various conflicting issues over territory, security, Jerusalem, the Palestinian refugees, the settlements, and historic rights. On each of these issues, Israel’s actions have blatantly violated the Palestinians’ basic human rights, creating humanitarian crises on every level. Israel’s actions and their devastating impacts are completely inconsistent with Jewish values. Had these values been followed in every encounter and sincere efforts were made by both sides to reach a peace agreement, the conflict might have been resolved decades ago and the humanitarian disasters inflicted on the Palestinians could have been averted.

The intensifying violent encounters between the two sides since the beginning of the year have claimed the lives of 147 Palestinians and 23 Israelis. The vicious cycle of violence which has been escalating, as we have seen in recent days in Jenin in the West Bank, will continue to fester, especially because of the sense of entitlement which the current Israeli government in particular and the settlers have in spades.

The recent killing of four innocent Israeli settlers by a Palestinian terrorist cannot be justified under any circumstances. But for the perpetrators, this was an act of revenge that was taken as vengeance for the killing of several Palestinians in the days prior. The Palestinian attackers felt that they had no choice left but to fight for their freedom – for their dreams and aspirations – preferring to die as martyrs with honor rather than live in servitude for the rest of their lives.

Defying Jewish values

Although the pogroms committed by the settlers that followed were condemned by Netanyahu and the leaders of the opposition, the settlers have been listening all along to the likes of ministers Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, to whom the life of any Palestinian is dispensable and have said as much publicly time and again. In February, following the killing of two Israeli brothers and the settler-led pogrom that ensued against the village of Huwara, Israeli Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich stated, “I think the village of Huwara needs to be wiped out. I think the state of Israel should do it.”

Thus, dispossessing the Palestinians of everything they have, setting fire to scores of houses and cars, and wanton destruction of properties while Israeli soldiers watch with equanimity makes a mockery of these Jewish values that Israeli officials pretend to uphold so high.

The irony here is that while some officials condemned the pogroms because such horrendous acts defy Jewish values, they have conveniently forgotten that for decades Israel has regularly been violating these values by acting inhumanely against the Palestinians in the name of national security. Successive Israeli governments ignored the historical account of the Jews’ survival throughout the centuries, which was attributed to their collective adherence to these values and their commitment to never forsake them, as they constituted the religious and ethical foundation of the Jews’ continuing survival.

These Jewish values include caring for and being compassionate toward other human beings, not turning away from people in need, loving one’s neighbors, forgiving and having mercy, clothing the naked, upholding the right to justice and ownership of property, freeing the oppressed, sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the homeless, and respecting the right of every person to life. Finally, there is Tikkun Olam, which translates to ‘repairing the world,’ to restore it to how its creator made it, or make it better for all.

How do Israeli governments square these values to the uprooting of olive trees that deprive the owners of their main source of income and force them to live on handouts with humiliation; to the horrifying practice of incarcerating mostly young men often for months without being charged with any crimes; to the frequent night raids that terrify the young and kidnap fathers and eldest sons, not to be seen again sometimes for months?

And how do you square Jewish values to the routine forcible eviction of Palestinians from their homes and cruel acts of demolishing houses under the pretext of being built without a permit, or because the government decided to rezone the area for some obscure reason, leaving them homeless and despairing; or annexing more land for military training, leaving many families without the land which was the source of their livelihood?

Do these horrifying acts of cruelty that happen routinely and are hardly criticized pass the litmus test of Jewish values? Indeed, successive Israeli governments led by Netanyahu in particular have egregiously and shamelessly violated every single value the Jews have held for centuries. But then, leave it to the avid right-wing Israelis and officials to justify these punitive measures on the grounds of national security. In fact, these inhumane measures are designed not only to force Palestinians out of their land but to deliberately instigate Palestinian violent resistance, which in turn the government uses as a pretext to take retaliatory measures against the Palestinians and justify the continuing occupation.

Inviting violence

The Netanyahu government has continued its sinister scheme to make the Palestinians’ lives unbearable so that they leave their homes and communities out of despair and hopelessness—an effort to clear the land of all Palestinians for Israelis to move in. These officials and millions of staunch right-wing Israelis quietly condone these pogroms and gross violations of the Palestinians’ human rights simply because they serve their long-term goal of controlling all the land from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River.

Conversely, had Israeli successive governments truly applied Jewish values, they would have ended the ruthless measures they take that precipitate massive humanitarian crises. Every Palestinian, wherever they may live, feels each tragic event as if they have experienced it themselves, which only strengthens their resolve to counter the Israelis’ brutality and ruthlessness by taking revenge through acts of terror.

More than any previous government, this current shameless government particularly makes a mockery of Jewish values. But then Netanyahu and his charlatan ministers try to toe the line between what’s right and wrong by paying less than lip service to these violent pogroms. It is incomprehensible that we Jews, who have suffered from countless pogroms throughout the centuries, allow settlers who are living on land usurped from the Palestinians to commit such reprehensible acts with impunity.

The harshness of the occupation

Let me illustrate how deeply this Netanyahu government has degraded and tarnished Jewish values, which smacks in the face of those who speak of such values with pride but happily ignore them when it suits their needs.

In December, the son of a Palestinian mother and father was arrested and imprisoned after being accused of carrying out two bus attacks on settlers, killing two. Within days, Israeli security officials came to the family home, where he no longer lived, to map out the home for destruction. This is the standing Israeli policy, to demolish the home of a Palestinian terrorist who kills an Israeli to deter others from committing a similar crime.

The house was slated to be demolished in February; after failed appeals, and despite the fact that the son was still imprisoned with no sign of impending release, the Israeli army came to the home last month and leveled it to the ground. The suspect’s parents and four sisters, none of whom have been suspected or accused of any wrongdoing, now find themselves staring at a pile of rubble, which was only the day before a warm home that shielded them from all outside elements. While this inhumane practice continues with the current Netanyahu government and the vicious National Security Minister Ben-Gvir, the plight of the Palestinians is only worsening with no end in sight.

For the parents, their son was not a terrorist; he was a young man with dreams and aspirations, to make something of himself. I asked those Israelis who talk about Jewish values with pride, does the destruction of the home of a family and four children conform with Jewish values when the core of these values is rooted in compassion, in caring, in loving and healing another human being?

Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, who are proud of being devout Jews, maybe should take another look at what the Hebrew Bible teaches about crime and punishment. The book of Ezekiel (18:19 NIV) states: “The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them.” Why then does a government that claims to be guided by Jewish values and religious ethics commit such naked crimes that make a mockery of these values enshrined in the Tanakh? To be sure, every day of occupation diminishes and tarnishes Jewish values.

But leave it to the wicked Smotrich who shamelessly stated that “The attempt to create an equivalency between murderous Arab terror and [Israeli] civilian counteractions, however serious they may be, is morally wrong and dangerous on a practical level.” On a practical level? Let me tell you, Mr. Smotrich, what the practical level is.

The way the Israeli government is treating the Palestinians is doing nothing but sowing the seeds for the next terrorist attack against innocent Israelis, for the next pogrom against innocent Palestinians, for the coming massive conflagration between Israelis and Palestinians that will claim the lives of hundreds if not thousands of innocent men, women, and children on both sides. That is the practical level.

Israel is now on a collision course with history. The Israelis must make up their minds. Do they want to live in an occupying country, an apartheid state that routinely oppresses other people, stamps on their dignity, and denies them their basic human rights while provoking violence and spreading fear and uncertainty, not knowing what tomorrow might bring? Or do they want to live in the country for which they were yearning for centuries, where justice is pursued with vigor, where every Jew, regardless of their religious affiliation, color, or country of origin can find a home, a refuge, be free, independent, and safe while fully adhering to the values that the Jews have proudly espoused?

Successive Netanyahu governments have betrayed what the Jews stood and suffered for throughout the centuries. Now he is determined to subordinate the Supreme Court and the appointment of judges to the whims of politicians, which will destroy Israel’s democracy and render it a de facto dictatorship that will rain havoc on the Palestinians without any accountability. Sadly, and unconsolably, Israel will become, if it hasn’t already, a liability rather than a source of pride and security for all Jews, especially to diaspora Jewry which constitutes the majority of the global Jewish population.

As long as the occupation continues, no Israeli can tell with any certainty where Israel will be in 10-15 years. The Israeli extremists who believe that they can indefinitely sustain the occupation, confiscate more territories, build new and expand current settlements, force despairing Palestinians to leave, and uproot others are ominously misguided and render a horrifying disservice to the country and to world Jewry. Can they really be so oblivious to the continuing rise of Palestinian militancy which Israel is nurturing and will only intensify and exact heavy blood and treasure from Israel? Palestinian youth whose futures have been usurped are happily sacrificing themselves to be free rather than live hopelessly in bondage.

As long as Israel continues to be an occupying power, it cannot and will not ever be in a position to claim the moral high ground rooted in Jewish values. It is now up to the Israeli public to demand an end to the 56 years of occupation and live up to the premise behind Israel’s creation: to be free, secure, inventive, and a light onto other nations.

 

Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a retired professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU. He teaches courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies.

This article is the first in a series of three that examines the mistakes that both Israelis and Palestinians have made, creating a vicious cycle, and how to find a way out. This article focuses on the occupation which defies Jewish values and intensifies the gravity of the humanitarian crisis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.   The next article will argue that Palestinian leaders have missed many opportunities to make peace with Israel. Their resistance and unrealistic demands have played directly into Israel’s hand and severely sabotaged their national cause. They must come to terms with Israel’s existence in peace and security if they ever want to establish a state of their own. The third article will offer a way out of this continuing tragic conflict.

 

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Quarles, Why everybody doesn’t age the same way

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pindin
Partying in an old-fashioned way. Panamanian Ministry of Social Development photo.

Aging is complicated – no two people or cells age the same way, and what this means for anti-aging interventions

by Ellen Quarles, University of Michigan

You likely know someone who seems to age slowly, appearing years younger than their birth date suggests. And you likely have seen the opposite – someone whose body and mind seem much more ravaged by time than others. Why do some people seem to glide though their golden years and others physiologically struggle in midlife?

I have worked in the field of aging for all of my scientific career, and I teach the cellular and molecular biology of aging at the University of Michigan. Aging research doesn’t tend to be about finding the one cure that fixes all that may ail you in old age. Instead, the last decade or two of work points to aging as a multi-factoral process – and no single intervention can stop it all.

What is aging?

There are many different definitions of aging, but scientists generally agree upon some common features: Aging is a time-dependent process that results in increased vulnerability to disease, injury and death. This process is both intrinsic, when your own body causes new problems, and extrinsic, when environmental insults damage your tissues.

Your body is comprised of trillions of cells, and each one is not only responsible for one or more functions specific to the tissue it resides in, but must also do all the work of keeping itself alive. This includes metabolizing nutrients, getting rid of waste, exchanging signals with other cells and adapting to stress.

Aging results from a number of physiological factors.

The trouble is that every single process and component in each of your cells can be interrupted or damaged. So your cells spend a lot of energy each day preventing, recognizing and fixing those problems.

Aging can be thought of as a gradual loss of the ability to maintain homeostasis – a state of balance among body systems – either by not being able to prevent or recognize damage and poor function, or by not adequately or rapidly fixing problems as they occur. Aging results from a combination of these issues. Decades of research has shown that nearly every cellular process becomes more impaired with age.

Repairing DNA and recycling proteins

Most research on cellular aging focuses on studying how DNA and proteins change with age. Scientists are also beginning to address the potential roles many other important biomolecules in the cell play in aging as well.

One of the cell’s chief jobs is to maintain its DNA – the instruction manual a cell’s machinery reads to produce specific proteins. DNA maintenance involves protecting against, and accurately repairing, damage to genetic material and the molecules binding to it.

Proteins are the workers of the cell. They perform chemical reactions, provide structural support, send and receive messages, hold and release energy, and much more. If the protein is damaged, the cell uses mechanisms involving special proteins that either attempt to fix the broken protein or send it off for recycling. Similar mechanisms tuck proteins out of the way or destroy them when they are no longer needed. That way, its components can be used later to build a new protein.

Aging disrupts a delicate biological network

The cross-talk between the components inside cells, cells as a whole, organs and the environment is a complex and ever-changing network of information.

When all processes involved in creating and maintaining DNA and protein function are working normally, the different compartments within a cell serving specialized roles – called organelles – can maintain the cell’s health and function. For an organ to work well, the majority of the cells that make it up need to function well. And for a whole organism to survive and thrive, all of the organs in its body need to work well.

Illustration of cross-section of an animal cell and its organelles

Each organelle within a cell carries out specific functions. Jian Fan/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Aging can lead to dysfunction at any of these levels, from the sub-cellular to the organismal. Maybe a gene encoding an important protein for DNA repair has become damaged, and now all of the other genes in the cell are more likely to be repaired incorrectly. Or perhaps the cell’s recycling systems are unable to degrade dysfunctional components anymore. Even the communication systems between cells, tissues and organs can become compromised, leaving the organism less able to respond to changes within the body.

Random chance can lead to a growing burden of molecular and cellular damage that is progressively less well-repaired over time. As this damage accumulates, the systems that are meant to fix it are accruing damage as well. This leads to a cycle of increasing wear and tear as cells age.

Anti-aging interventions

The interdependence of life’s cellular processes is a double-edged sword: Sufficiently damage one process, and all the other processes that interact with or depend on it become impaired. However, this interconnection also means that bolstering one highly interconnected process could improve related functions as well. In fact, this is how the most successful anti-aging interventions work.

There is no silver bullet to stop aging, but certain interventions do seem to slow aging in the laboratory. While there are ongoing clinical trials investigating different approaches in people, most existing data comes from animals like nematodes, flies, mice and nonhuman primates.

One of the best studied interventions is caloric restriction, which involves reducing the amount of calories an animal would normally eat without depriving them of necessary nutrients. An FDA-approved drug used in organ transplantation and some cancer treatments called rapamycin seems to work by using at least a subset of the same pathways that calorie restriction activates in the cell. Both affect signaling hubs that direct the cell to preserve the biomolecules it has rather than growing and building new biomolecules. Over time, this cellular version of “reduce, reuse, recycle” removes damaged components and leaves behind a higher proportion of functional components.

The effects of calorie restriction on aging are still under study.

Other interventions include changing the levels of certain metabolites, selectively destroying senescent cells that have stopped dividing, changing the gut microbiome and behavioral modifications.

What all of these interventions have in common is that they affect core processes that are critical for cellular homeostasis, often become dysregulated or dysfunctional with age and are connected to other cellular maintenance systems. Often, these processes are the central drivers for mechanisms that protect DNA and proteins in the body.

There is no single cause of aging. No two people age the same way, and indeed, neither do any two cells. There are countless ways for your basic biology to go wrong over time, and these add up to create a unique network of aging-related factors for each person that make finding a one-size-fits-all anti-aging treatment extremely challenging.

However, researching interventions that target multiple important cellular processes simultaneously could help improve and maintain health for a greater portion of life. These advances could help people live longer lives in the process.The Conversation

Ellen Quarles, Assistant Professor in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Panama’s 2024 election season: what’s next?

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Ricky
Wags in the Twitterverse and serious observers elsewhere are fairly united in saying that THIS GUY got his ass kicked in yesterday’s primary for a Cambio Democratico party that he created, then left when he couldn’t control it, then tried to regain possession of it via the Yanibel Ábrego proxy campaign. It leaves him without an obvious running mate, although there would be no shortage of people whom he could hire to do that, or to run in his place in case he’s disqualified and seeks to run the presidency from a prison cell.

Elections 2024 – what has been settled and what remains to be seen

by Eric Jackson

* First of all, by losing the CD presidential primary, Yanibel Ábrego can’t run on any other party’s ticket or as an independent for any office next year. Theoretically she might get nominated for a spot on the Cambio Democratico ticket, but that’s very unlikely. Rómulo Roux would have the final word on that and there’s bad blood. She and her supporters might migrate to Ricardo Martinelli’s RM party, but first of all that’s a long shot bet given the chances of the former president being convicted of a crime and ruled off of the ballot. Her potential to remain a political player would be for him to escape disqualification, with the presidency, then appoint her to some executive branch post.

* Rómulo Roux says that he will talk to any party, perhaps all parties, with the exception of RM and the PRD in search of an alliance for next May’s vote. But is he a strong enough candidate for any other party or hopeful to want to sign on as a junior partner with him running for president? Those negotiations are happening and will happen, and must bear fruit or not by a September 30 deadline for alliances among parties to be formalized.

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WHICH good stuff might be coming back? If it’s an election in which voters are looking for change, perhaps that’s not a very effective campaign slogan.

* Alliances between independents and parties are not allowed, at least not formally so. The top three indies as measured by petition signatures gathered by the end of this month of their particular races get ballot spots. But those folks might resign their independent aspirations and sign on as a nominee of a party or alliance by the September 30 deadline.

* An independent who did very well last time, Ricardo Lombana, has a new party, the Movimiento Otro Camino. With some prodding and assistance from entertainer and former tourism minister Rubén Blades, Lombana has been in talks to put together a both formal and off-the-books de facto slate with a bunch of independents. The attorney and former diplomat has served in both PRD and Panameñista administrations and if voters are really looking to break with the traditional parties and all their games, he is well situated to take advantage. However, at the moment he is not at the head or the pack or very close to it.

* Blades as campaign consultant? As a party boss and campaign strategist the musician and actor has been profoundly inept over the years. Lombana would need to develop a new political operation in which heretofore unknown talent rise to the top in order to have much chance of winning.

* The independent presidential candidates on the right and left respectively, Zulay Rodríguez and Maribel Gordón, look at traditional bases in the low double digits. But in a seven-way race, were either to catch fire and double her support, that could be enough to win the presidency. Zulay is in the PRD as a legislator, but on the left side of the PRD there are folks saying good things about Maribel.

* The PRD, at the presidential level, is broken into three. Its de facto leader, Bocas del Toro legislator Benicio Robinson, did much to break it up and can’t be expected to do much to put it back together. Thus former PRD president Martín Torrijos is the center-right Partido Popular nominee, Zulay Rodríguez is now an independent neofascist and prospects for alliances there look dim.

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Architect Sandra Escorcia, a Civilista in Noriega times, has had friendlier relations with post-invasion PRD administrations and for 77 days served as Transito director at the start of the Martinelli regime, before being driven out over an argument about taxi permits. She’s running as an independent for mayor of Panama City and has nasty things to say about Roux sticking with Martinelli for a lot longer than she did.

* The Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) is, like the British and Australian Labour parties, Spain’s Socialist Workers Party and the Canadian New Democratic Party, a member of the Socialist International. Their social allegiances are mostly toward big business these days — that’s certainly the case with Gaby Carrizo — but the party does have its left wing that hold fast to certain socialist ideas. These folks, usually in the online magazine Bayano digital, sometimes have nice things to say about left-wing labor economist Maribel Gordón. The historical problem is that the 21-year dictatorship that gave rise to the PRD also killed or disappeared dozens of activists with the left factions to which Gordón is closest (or the precursors of those formations) and beat, jailed or exiled hundreds of others.

* So where does Yanibel Ábrego go now? Blades and some others predict to the PRD. Is Gaby Carrizo so oblivious to the way things look to allow her onto his bandwagon? Perhaps so.

 

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Editorials, A crowded 2024 field starts to shake out; and Elliott Abrams

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him
That was THEN. Ricardo Martinelli in a 2010 US Department of Defense photo. The US Embassy doesn’t want to be associated with the former president now.

Most important will be what PANAMANIANS think

With some definitions and eliminations, Panama gets closer to the time of negotiating 2024 election alliances.

The biggest decision still pending is the legal viability of Ricardo Martinelli, who my be disqualified from running by a criminal conviction. But then there would be the appeals, delays, motions for reconsideration and so on that could get him past the end of December without a confirmed conviction, which would leave him on the ballot. The defeat of his favored candidate in his old party – Yanibel Ábrego in Cambio Democratico – is a sign that whatever the would-be caudillo’s legal condition might be at the end of this year, his political condition is deteriorating.

Panamanians by and large don’t want the usual stuff, the usual politicians, the old parties. To Rubén Blades, that leaves the independents or the new party, Ricardo Lombana’s Movimiento Otro Camino. It’s interesting that the entertainer and former tourism minister’s take on the situation treats independent left candidate Maribel Gordón as a factor serious enough to mention but completely ignores independent neofascist candidate Zulay Rodríguez, who leads the race for signatures in support of an independent candidacy.

Are we about to see a race with five would-be establishment candidates fighting for the middle – and by and large avoiding being pinned down on any specific proposal of substance – with Zulay and Maribel and the right and left independent bookends? In a seven-way race with our first-past-the-post one-round system of picking presidents what MOST Panamanians do or do not want becomes ever less important. It becomes a matter of who can muster a plurality in a crowded field. Like the last time, really, but with the effect accentuated.

Then we get into whom Uncle Sam would accept. Too many commentators place too much emphasis on this, but we know from Fourth of July invitations by the US ambassador that Washington views neither Martinelli, Rodriguez, Gordón nor Ábrego as worthy. There is nothing too shocking about those rejections, and nothing too inspiring about most of those hopefuls who were invited. Some of the latter are downright ridiculous but perhaps our next president.

Let’s do something wildly radical instead – consider what WE want beyond the day after tomorrow, consider what PANAMA needs for the generations after today’s voters are all dead and buried. It’s a decision for Panamanians, not the US State Department, not hypothetical foreign investors, not the most fawning pundits of the rabiblanco media. It’s what WE want.

Set aside the mercenary traitors who would sell their country and only wish for a slightly bigger bag of groceries in exchange for their votes. Set aside the automatic partisans. Such folks are real and will be counted, but let the rest of us decide what WE want. An intolerant, authoritarian and corrupt regime on the right – one that brands the people of our sister Bolivarian republics as scum and a wide range of “others” as less than fully human – is a distinct possibility. So is a hard turn to the left, which if things are not clarified could have us wondering who is the “vanguard” and who is the “front.” So is some odd centrist coalition that might yet emerge.

What do WE want? There would seem to be a consensus for a new system that ends all the political patronage, ends the five-year peculation cycles. But which deceptive, demagogic facsimile of such might be sold to the voters, especially the less educated ones?

Gee – we have to think? We have to study the options? We may have to sacrifice present comfort for the future of this nation?

Welcome to the hard real world, and let those of us who wish Panama well inform ourselves and choose wisely.

 

A brief Pakistani take on what Elliott Abrams is, coming from an independent news organization that’s supported neither by governments nor corporations. Although Rashid News functions mostly in Urdu, they also do English and well understand US politics and history.

Say it ain’t so, Joe

Perhaps the way to go is to let the Republicans choose their representatives on bipartisan commissions, and perhaps this is exactly what Joe Biden did in his list of appointments.

However, from this latitude it looks awful. The guy who in the 80s never seemed to see a right-wing death squad that he didn’t like? The guy in the Trump administration who tightened the screws on Venezuela, sending tens of thousands fleeing to Colombia and then across our Darien border in hopes of reaching and getting into the United States?

Sure, imperial hubris is part of the US political mosaic and its inclusion in presidential appointments can be seen in positive terms as inclusion and representation. So could the appointment of racists or crooks.

The Elliott Abrams appointment doesn’t help Joe Biden in his efforts to unify Democrats ahead of next year’s elections. It also reinforces negative opinions about the United States all across Latin America. Plus, at a time of public revulsion about the dishonesty of Fox News and other MAGA media, a time when even a lot of Republicans are fed up with pathological lying as a political form, appointing a man who lied to Congress is an incongruous political message.

Wrong move, Joe.

 

Fielding
1743 etching from The Life and Death of Jonathan Wild, the Great.

            Make money your god and it will plague you like the devil.

Henry Fielding            

Bear in mind…

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

Fran Lebowitz

There is always more misery among the lower classes than there is humanity in the higher.

Victor Hugo

I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.

Catherine the Great

 

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Goldman, The LAW and the WISDOM of sending cluster munitions to Ukraine

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The remains of a cluster bomb is exploded as the US Air Force 4th Tactical Fighter Wing ordnance disposal team disposes of hazardous ordnance during Operation Desert Storm. From a US Department of Defense video made in Saudi Arabia by Phan Chad Vann.

There’s no legal reason why the United States can’t supply cluster bombs
to Ukraine – but that doesn’t justify Biden’s decision to do so

by Robert Goldman, American University

The Biden administration announced on July 7, 2023, that it would send cluster bombs to Ukraine – a deeply controversial move given the munition is prohibited by more than 120 countries because of risks to civilian populations.

The United States has been here before. It provided Saudi Arabia with cluster munitions – which contain bomblets that can scatter across a wide area, often not exploding until later – during the kingdom’s military intervention in Yemen.

Washington suspended sales of cluster bombs to the Saudis in 2016 following mounting concern over the toll they were taking on civilian lives. But the United States is still holding out from joining an international ban on cluster bombs.

As a scholar of the law of war, I know that cluster bombs highlight a reality about the use and regulation of weapons, even those that can cause widespread civilian suffering: These munitions are not in themselves illegal, but their usage can be. Furthermore, the US decision to provide Ukraine with cluster bombs could weaken the argument against others’ doing likewise. And that, in turn, could increase the chances of cluster bombs’ being deployed illegally.

Effective or indiscriminate?

Cluster munitions have been part of nations’ arsenals since World War II. Delivered by air or ground artillery, they have been used by the United States in Laos and Vietnam during the Vietnam War, Israel in southern Lebanon, the U.S. and U.K. in Iraq, Russia and Syria in the ongoing Syrian civil war, and the Saudis in Yemen. And now they are being deployed in Ukraine.

If deployed responsibly, they can be an effective military tool. Because they can spread hundreds of bomblets across a wide area, they can prove a potent weapon against concentrations of enemy troops and their weapons on a battlefield. In 2017, a US Department of Defense memo said cluster munitions provided a “necessary capability” when confronted with “massed formation of enemy forces, individual targets dispersed over a defined area, targets whose precise location are not known, and time-sensitive or moving targets.” And on June 22, 2023, it was reported that the Department of Defense has concluded that cluster bombs would be useful if deployed against “dug-in” Russian positions in Ukraine.

Indeed, the Department of Defense argued that in some limited circumstances cluster bombs can be less destructive to civilians. In Vietnam, the United States sanctioned the use of cluster bombs – over more powerful bombs – to disrupt transport links and enemy positions while minimizing the risk of destroying nearby dikes, which would have flooded rice fields and caused widespread suffering to villagers.

Still, their use has always been controversial. The problem is that not all the bomblets explode on impact. Many remain on the ground, unexploded until they are later disturbed – and that increases the chances of civilians’ being maimed or killed. Their use in urban settings is particularly problematic, as they cannot be directed at a specific military target and are just as likely to strike civilians and their homes.

Cluster bombs under international law

Concern over the risk to civilian harm led in 2008 to a Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans their use, production or sale by member states.

But as of 2023, the convention is legally binding for only the 123 states that are signatories – and Ukraine, Russia and the United States are not among them. Nor can they – or any of the other countries yet to sign up to the convention – be compelled to join the ban.

As such, there is no legal reason that Ukraine or Russia cannot deploy cluster bombs in the current conflict – as both have done since the invasion of February 2022. Nor is there any legal reason the Biden administration can’t sell the munitions to Ukraine.

But there are laws that set out how cluster bombs can be used, and how they must not.

The relevant part of international humanitarian law here is 1977’s Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, which both Ukraine and Russia have ratified. The additional protocol sets out rules the warring parties must observe to limit harm to civilians. Acknowledging that civilian deaths are an inevitable part of war, Article 51 of Additional Protocol I prohibits “indiscrimate” attacks. Such attacks include those employing a weapon that cannot be directed at a specific military target or of such a nature to strike military targets and civilians and civilian objects without distinction.

Meanwhile, Article 57 of the additional protocol stresses that attacking armies have a duty of care to spare civilian populations. This includes taking “all feasible precautions in the choice of means and method of attack.”

Neither article specifies any weapons deemed off-limits. Rather, it is how the weapons are used that determines whether the attack constitutes an indiscriminate one and hence a crime under international law.

More than an ‘optical’ risk?

Even if cluster bombs are not inherently indiscriminate – a claim that advocates of an international ban put forward – their use in urban settings greatly increases the chance of civilian harm. In 2021, 97% of cluster bomb casualties were civilians, two-thirds of whom were children. And the experience of cluster bomb use in Syria and Yemen shows that it can be difficult to hold governments to account.

Which is why Ukraine’s request for US cluster munitions has led to concerns. The Cluster Munitions Monitor, which logs international use of the bombs, found that as of August 2022, Ukraine was the only active conflict zone where cluster bombs were being deployed – with Russia using the weapon “extensively” since its invasion, and Ukraine also deploying cluster bombs on a handful of occasions.

Ukraine reportedly sought some of the US stockpile of Cold War-era MK-20 cluster bombs to drop on Russian positions via drones. The White House had previously aired “concern” over the transfer.

In announcing the decision to send US-made cluster bombs to Ukraine, Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, noted that “cluster munitions create a risk of civilian harm from unexploded ordnance,” adding: “This is why we’ve deferred the decision for as long as we could.”

The Biden administration’s earlier hesitancy was reportedly over the “optics” of selling cluster bombs and that it may introducing a wedge between the United States and other NATO countries over the weapon’s use.

Certainly, there would be very little legal risk under international law of providing cluster bombs to Ukraine – or any other nation – even if that country were to use the weapon illegally.

There is no case I know of in which a state has been found legally responsible for providing weapons to another that flagrantly misuses them – there is no equivalent to efforts in the USA  seeking to hold gun manufacturers legally responsible for mass shootings, or state “dram shop laws” that hold the suppliers of alcohol culpable for the actions of an inebriated driver.

Yet one of the things that worried people in Congress regarding the sale of cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia was that the Saudis’ consistently indiscriminate use of those weapons in Yemen could be seen at home and abroad as making the U.S. complicit in those violations.

I would argue that it became difficult for Washington to continue to supply the Saudis on moral ground. But still, there was and is presently no clear-cut legal obligation for the United States to stop supplying other nations with cluster bombs.

In my opinion, it is highly unlikely that Ukraine will deliberately use U.S.-supplied cluster munitions to target civilians and their environs.

And Ukraine provided “written assurances that it is going to use these in a very careful way,” Sullivan said in announcing the transfer.

Nonetheless, providing Ukraine with cluster weapons could serve to destigmatize them and runs counter to international efforts to end their use. And that, in turn, could encourage – or excuse – their use by other states that may be less responsible.

Editor’s note: This story was updated on July 7, 2023, in light of the Biden administration’s decision to supply Ukraine with cluster bombs.The Conversation

Robert Goldman, Professor of Law, American University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

 

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Schoenherr: China, Vietnam and Barbie

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her
Actor Margot Robbie blows out a candle on the cake to celebrate her birthday during the pink carpet event for the movie ‘Barbie’ in Seoul, South Korea, in July 2023. AP Photo by Ahn Young-joon.

What the Vietnamese Barbie movie ban tells us about China’s politics of persuasion

by Jordan Richard Schoenherr — Concordia University

Barbie has always had some degree of notoriety. She is at once a symbol of female empowerment, ridicule and consumerism. People might suspect that the recent ban of the Barbie movie by the Vietnamese government is motivated by these concerns. Instead, international political intrigue provides a better explanation.

Territorial disputes run deep in Southeast Asia, having both real and symbolic value. Claims by both Korea and Japan of the Dokdo (Takeshima) Islands are more than three centuries old, while Japan, Taiwan and China each claim ownership of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands.

Amid the frothy Barbie plot, the attentive viewer might notice a map depicting a broad area claimed by China in international waters that buffer the Philippines, Malaysia/Indonesia, Vietnam and China. The Chinese claim of the vast swath of territory, known as the “nine-dash line” because this symbol demarcates China’s claims in the region, ignores both international law and the counterclaims of other countries.

One map in one movie might seem innocuous. But the Chinese Communist Party revels in the persuasive power of pop culture, going so far as to purchase radio stations to broadcast its messages in other countries.

Appropriating culture

While critical viewers might discount the overt propaganda of many Chinese movies, they are likely less aware of the increasing influence China has in Hollywood.

Beyond movies, China has made more overt claims to the cultures of other countries. Korea is an example.

China has claimed traditional Korean songs (arirang), dress (hanbok) and the quintessential culinary staple, kimchi.

In the case of kimchi, Chinese state media claimed that the International Organization for Standardization’s recognition of pao kai, a Chinese fermented vegetable dish, extends to kimchi. Yet such assertions ignore international recognition of kimchi-making and kimchi as uniquely Korean.

Posts on Weibo, China’s popular social media platform, show the hashtag #小偷国# (thief country) when referring to Korean’s cultural products as China’s own.

Online debates over fermented cabbage, dresses and songs might seem trivial. But on a psychological level, culture and physical territory are central to group identities. The attempted slow erosion of independent cultural identities can pose future threats.

Vietnam’s concerns about a momentary glimpse of a map in a movie must be viewed in these terms.

People in scrubs wearing masks and gloves handle mounds of fermented cabbage with red chilis colouring them red.Employees of a South Korean financial institution make kimchi to donate to needy neighbours at the organization’s headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, in November 2022. Even kimchi has been subject to cultural appropriation. AP photo by Ahn Young-joon)

Cultures evolve

Imperial China’s former sphere of influence included countries like Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan. Known as the “Middle Kingdom,” it framed itself as a parent culture. But this is not how cultural evolution works.

People innovate, ideas are adopted within a group, they spread beyond the boundaries and borders of groups and are adapted by others. The Vietnamese, for example, developed their own folk medicine, often appropriated by the Chinese as “southern medicine (Thuốc Nam).”

By making claims on other cultures in the region, China is attempting to legitimize its influence as it seeks global superpower status.

Understandably, when China makes claims on regional cultural traditions — and territory — its neighbors fear for their autonomy.

A plane flies over a hilly island.A Japanese maritime defense plane flies over disputed islands, called the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, in the East China Sea. AP Photo — Kyodo News.

Eyeing territory

The Chinese Communist Party has set its sights on what it calls the South China Sea, ignoring a 2016 international ruling on the illegitimacy of its claims to the area.

A combo photo shows an artificial island with just a few structures on it, and the same island almost 25 years later with what appears to be a military base on it.
This combo photo shows the same Chinese structures on a man-made island in February 1999, top, and March 2022 in a disputed area of the South China Sea. AP photos by Aaron Favila.

The party has dedicated considerable effort to building up a powerful navy and constructing artificial islands atop coral reefs to place military bases.

If not in form, then in spirit, the Chinese government’s actions are similar to Imperial Japan’s notion of a “sphere of co-prosperity” in the Pacific from 1931 to 1945. During this time, parts of Korea, China, Taiwan, Vietnam and other countries were subjected to brutal colonial rule.

While an arms build-up is underway, China’s main weapon is its soft power, a persuasive approach to international relations that involves the use of economic or cultural influence.

The Belt and Road Initiative represents an explicit, direct means to influence countries with financial support. Shaping the content of movies presents a more implicit, indirect means that often goes unnoticed.

Persuasion through media, messages

A key strategy in persuasion is to flood information ecosystems with desired messages. If we fail to critically reflect on their content, our acceptance increases. This is the same rationale behind product placement.

When presented in ubiquitous media, such as memes or postage stamps, an audience can begin to lose track of the credibility of the source. While a map in a fluffy movie can be discounted, the repeated presentation of images, dialogue and values that support the goals of the Chinese regime is concerning.

Beyond film, history textbooks and classrooms are the latest battleground for wars that continue to live in collective memory. Studies of Japanese textbooks, for example, have noted shifts in how the horrific crimes of Imperial Japan, including the Nanjing massacre, are represented. Publishers appear to engage in self-censorship to ensure a favorable position within the market.

Hollywood also seems to have willingly adopted self-censorship, with some notable exceptions.

A 2020 PEN America report entitled “Made in Hollywood, Censored in Beijing,” details how Hollywood decision-makers are increasingly making decisions about their films “based on an effort to avoid antagonizing Chinese officials who control whether their films gain access to the booming Chinese market.”

The power of pink persuasion

Like many movies, Barbie is unlikely to have any lasting impact on society. Its brief moment in the spotlight will likely amuse audiences, but it also adds another small brick to the wall being built by China to expand its influence.

Once the context of cultural and territorial appropriation is appreciated, the action of Vietnam’s National Film Evaluation Council to ban the film shouldn’t be surprising. While a total ban might be excessive, the appearance of the map in the film disregards Vietnam’s autonomy and international agreements.

Hollywood — and other hubs of popular media and social media — are ultimately subject to the demands of viewers and users. Regulations aimed at preventing Chinese influence won’t be sufficient as they might replicate the kind of censorship seen in China.

Instead, education systems need to teach media literacy that will help consumers be more critical about the content they’re watching and reading, providing them with an understanding of history and the intellectual tools to challenge persuasion campaigns.The Conversation

Jordan Richard Schoenherr, Assistant Professor, Psychology, Concordia University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

 

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Blue Apple, the next major trial for Judge Marquínez, put off until August

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them
From the Presidencia’s archive, the Martinellis in more prosperous times when Ricardo Martinelli Berrocal, center, ran the Panamanian government. On the left side of the photo is Ricardo Martinelli Linares and on the right Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares. The Martinelli Linares brothers, trying to flee the United States in a plane, were arrested in Guatemala and after a fight, extradited to the USA. Eventually they pleaded guilty to laundering Odebrecht bribes and at their sentencings in a Brooklyn federal district court said that they did it at their father’s behest. Having served their US federal time, they were deported back here. Now the brothers — but not the father — face money laundering charges in the Blue Apple case, which did not include the Odebrecht transactions.

A slightly extended break for Baloisa Marquínez

by Eric Jackson

As expected in a case related to the Martinellis, two of the lawyers moved to delay. One submitted a doctor’s note, the other pleaded a pre-existing conflicting trial date. The Blue Apple trial will not start on Monday, but rather in late August. At that date no more delays will be granted.

This is another case in which the allegation is overpriced public works contracts being skimmed for the ultimate benefit of then-president Ricardo Martinelli Berrocal. It is said to have been set up by the former president’s personal secretary, Adolfo “Chichi” De Obarrio. The alleged mastermind operative, a dual Panamanian and Italian citizen, fled to Italy, from whence he can’t be legally extradited. In response Marquínez invoked the en rebeldía doctrine that excepts certain fugitives from the general ban on trials in absentia, tried Chichi in his absence and sentenced him to 10 years in prison last March. It’s time to be served if ever Panamanian justice is able to lay hands on the former gofer.

(A culturally fun comparison can be and has been made between De Obarrio and Smithers, Mr. Burns’s lackey in The Simpsons. However, as the former president is not particularly known to be a dog person, it is unlikely that he ever issued the command “Chichi — release the hounds!”)

The upcoming trial is of 27 individuals on various charges of corruption of public officials, money laundering and conspiracy to do these things. The three star defendants, on the politically connected side, are former minister of public works Federico Suárez and the Martinelli Linares brothers, sons of the ex-president. Prominent defendants from the private sector are former factoring company executive Joaquín Rodríguez and attorney Federico Barrios, the latter the legal representative of the Blue Apple factoring company..

Factoring is a financial service especially applicable to companies that do business with governments that are slow to pay, essentially lending money based on submitted and approved pending bills.

The prosecution alleges that Blue Apple was not an ordinary factoring company, but rather was created specifically for the purpose of laundering bribes and kickbacks. It is said that more than $78 million was illegally diverted from the public treasury to Ricardo Martinelli and his confederates through a variety of strategies using Blue Apple:

2

 

3

 

Graphics by the Public Ministry, several attorneys general ago. This case has been underway since 2017.

So, what of Judge Marquínez’s other two recently conclude high-profile trials with political connotations? The New Business courtroom drama ended on June 3, with the judge saying that she’s take the statutory 30 days to make a decision. That month has come and gone, but depending on the size of the file judges get an extension. It’s a huge file, and Marquínez could take nearly a year, but some commentators say that the decision has just been delayed a few days so as not to interfere with tomorrow’s Cambio Democratico primary. The month has yet to pass in the other complex trial, that of Mossack & Fonseca attorneys and alleged accomplices for setting up shell companies for the Brazilian-based Odebrecht construction company to launder bribes.

 

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Rudy Giuliani may be disbarred for his lies about the 2020 election

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Rudy
A disciplinary committee ruled that Giuliani “forfeited his right to practice law” by taking part in the effort to overturn the 2020 election. Archive photo of Rudy Giuliani railing against immigrants at a 2016 Trump rally in Phoenix. Wikimedia photo by Gage Skidmore.

DC panel recommends Giuliani be disbarred for leading Trump’s ‘big lie’ legal team

by Jake Johnson – Common Dreams

An attorney discipline panel ruled Friday that Rudy Giuliani has “forfeited his right to practice law” and should be disbarred in Washington, DC for leading former President Donald Trump’s legal team as it worked to overturn the results of the 2020 election on false pretenses.

The decision by the DC Court of Appeals Board on Professional Responsibility’s Ad Hoc Hearing Committee states that Giuliani’s failed effort to toss the presidential election results in the battleground state of Pennsylvania “had no factual basis, and consequently no legitimate legal grounds.”

Giuliani’s “frivolous lawsuit,” the decision continues, “attempted unjustifiably and without precedent to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania voters, and ultimately sought to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election.”

For that reason, the panel argued that Giuliani “should be disbarred from the practice of law in the District of Columbia.”

The committee’s recommendation must still be reviewed by the full Board on Professional Responsibility as well as the DC Court of Appeals, which will make the final ruling on any penalty for Giuliani.

Giuliani has already had his law license suspended in New York over his work to reverse Trump’s 2020 election loss.

Politico reported Friday that “Giuliani plans to challenge the panel’s findings and recommended sanction in front of a larger bar-discipline board.”

 

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