Translations 243
Big Fires in Los Angeles
Big Fires in Los Angeles Force Hundreds to Evacuate
For his part, U.S. President Donald Trump has reacted by blaming Forest Services for not managing the fire well and threatened to withdraw funds for this type of services in his country.
Posted: Saturday 10 November 2018 | 09:57:08 am. Updated: Saturday 10 November 2018 | 09:41:33 am.
By Juventud Rebelde
digital@juventudrebelde.cu
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Two major fires, one at the gates of Los Angeles and another in the Malibu area, have forced the evacuation of hundreds of people in the area, international media report.
In the north, at least nine people have died in a fire that has destroyed 36,000 hectares in the town of Paradise. Five of the victims were surprised by the flames inside their vehicles as they tried to flee the lit area.
More than 6,400 houses had been destroyed as of Friday night, more than 50,000 people had been evacuated, according to the Spanish daily El País.
On the coast of Los Angeles, a fire that began Thursday morning has forced the evacuation of the entire population of Malibu.
US President Donald Trump, for his part, has reacted by blaming Forest Services for not managing the fire well and threatened to withdraw funds for this type of service in his country, reports PL.
Welcome, war criminals!
Welcome, war criminals!
Activists welcome with protests world leaders who will celebrate in Paris the centenary of the end of World War I.
By Juventud Rebelde
digital@juventudrebelde.cu
Posted: Saturday 10 November 2018 | 11:05:19 pm.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
FEMEN protests against the war in Paris. Author: AFP Published: 10/11/2018 | 11:02 pm
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
PARIS, November 10. – Three activists from the radical feminist organization FEMEN were arrested in this capital last Saturday after an action under the Arc de Triomphe in which they accused the world leaders gathered in France to commemorate the end of the First World War of “hypocrisy” and “war criminals,” including U.S. President Donald Trump.
The women, with their breasts in the air -characteristic of the demonstrations of this group that was born in Ukraine-, jumped from a car in the Place de l’Etoile and climbed the barriers of the platform where 70 high international guests are expected to attend the ceremony this Sunday, November 11, which marks the centennial of the armistice.
Beneath this famous Arc de Triumph lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier – an anonymous human being among the ten to 31 million people who died in that global conflict. The signing of the armistice between Germany and the Entente countries that took part in that holocaust is commemorated there every year, and this year 2018 acquires a special connotation.
With flowers in their hair and the accusatory phrase “False pacifists, royal dictators” painted on their torsos, the women raised posters with the legend in red blood: “Welcome war criminals”.
Another sign cited the famous mantra in George Orwell’s 1984 novel: “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
President Donald Trump, who has already met at the Elysée Palace with French host Emmanuel Macron, and the media say differences arose, also received a response on Twitter this Saturday from British politician and Winston Churchill’s grandson, Nicholas Soames, because the American president canceled his scheduled visit to the American cemetery and memorial of Aisne-Marne, in northern France, under the excuse of “logistical difficulties caused by the climate,” according to a White House statement cited by The Hill.
@NSoames was categorical in his tweet: “They died in the face of the enemy and this pathetic and inadequate @realDonaldTrump cannot even defy the climate and pay his respect to the fallen,” to which he added this hashtag on Trump: #hesnotfittorepresenthisgreatcountry.
Apparently, instead of Trump and his wife Melania, the White House Chief of Staff, John Kelly, and the Joint Chief of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, will attend the Aisne-Marne memorial. This cemetery is at the foot of the hill where the Battle of Belleau Forest was fought, in which some 2,000 U.S. Marines died in June 2018.
According to The Guardian, among veterans groups, a progressive organization, VoteVets, responded angrily in a tweet: “Donald Trump complained that he had to stand in the rain to talk about the Pittsburgh massacre, because he ruined his (more) hair,” referring to Trump’s comments after a massive shooting in a synagogue two weeks ago in which 11 people died. “Today, he will fail to honor the fallen American heroes of World War I and stay in his hotel room because of some rain.
When French President Macron visited the White House in April of this year, he brought Trump a tree from the Belleau Forest as a gift, but the shoot was briefly an object of intrigue when it disappeared from the White House lawn where Trump and Macron had planted it, The Guardian reported, but it was later revealed that they had been temporarily removed for quarantine.
As for the differences demonstrated in the meeting now in Paris, the Spanish daily El País quoted Trump on his arrival at the Elysée: “We want to help Europe, but it has to be fair. We have to share the burden. Today it’s the US that pays to protect Europe, and it’s not fair. There are limits.
A few hours earlier, he had heavily charged his host via his favorite, Twitter: “Macron has just suggested that Europe create its own army to protect itself from the US, China and Russia,” Trump wrote as soon as he landed in Paris on Friday night. “Very insulting, but perhaps Europe should first pay its share to NATO, which the United States largely subsidizes!
Trotsky Conference set for March 2019 in Cuba
- English
- Español
Trotsky Conference set for March 2019 in Cuba
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Information taken from the two linked FB pages.
https://walterlippmann.com/trotsky-conference-set-for-havana-2019/
BARRY CARR SHARED A POST.
Now, this is something big: the first conference to be held in Cuba on the life, career, thought and politics of Leon Trotsky- and this includes the history of Trotskyism in Latin America. A landmark event, I think.
First International Theoretical Encounter in Havana “Leon Trotsky: the revolutionary and the intellectual.” A theoretical approach. A tribute to the Centenary of the Communist International.
Between March 4 and 6, 2019, the first event dedicated to the work of Leon Trotsky in Cuba will be held at the Cuban Institute of Cultural Research -La Habana-. It will be, therefore, a before and after in Cuban social and historical research. As it has an international character, we invite you to participate and be the protagonists of this event -no matter your trend or political affiliation-, either as speakers or public. You can send your papers to frankcuba1959@gmail.com and frank@icic.cult.cu
Objectives of the event:
● Analyze and study the work of Leon Trotsky from an academic perspective
● Help to know the work and life of Leon Trotsky in Cuba from a critical analysis
● To promote an academic exchange between scholars on the subject, from Cuba and from around the world.
Themes to be addressed:
Life and work of León Trotsky.
Childhood and early youth of Leon Trotsky.
Leon Trotsky and Judaism.
Trotsky in the revolution of 1905.
Trotsky and Lenin.
Trotsky and the Bolsheviks.
Trotsky and the 1917 revolutions.
Trotsky and Soviet power.
Trotsky, the German Revolution of 1918, and its relationship with Karl Liebnecht and Rosa Luxemburg.
Trotsky and the Communist International.
Trotsky and the Civil War.
Trotsky and oppositions in the PC(b) until 1923.
Trotsky and the Left Opposition.
Trotsky and the United Opposition. Trotsky and Stalin.
Trotsky, exile and exile.
Trotsky, the Communist International and the Soviet Union after 1924.
Trotsky in Mexico.
Trotsky and the IV International.
Trotsky, art and literature.
The essayistic and literary work of Trotsky.
Trotsky and Marxism.
2. About Leon Trotsky, the history of the IV International(s) and Trotskyisms.
The narrative, dramaturgical, poetic and cinematographic work developed on Leon Trotsky.
Historiography of Leon Trotsky.
Critical and divergent visions about Leon Trotsky and Trotskyisms.
History of Trotskyism and the IV (s) Internationals.
Trotskyism in Latin America.
Trotskyism, Cuba and the Cuban Revolution.
Trotskyism and Communist Parties.
The reception of Trotsky and Trotskyism in the Soviet Union and in Russia.
Trotsky today in social sciences and historical research.
The event is free.
Conferencia de Trotsky en Cuba en marzo de 2019
Barry Carr shared a post.
October 10 at 10:43 PM ·
Now, this is something big: the first conference to be held in Cuba on the life, career, thought and politics of Leon Trotsky- and this includes the history of Trotskyism in Latin America. A landmark event, I think.
Matías Salvador Villa Juica
October 10 at 5:01 PM
I Encuentro Teórico Internacional de La Habana “León Trotsky: el revolucionario y el intelectual. Un abordaje teórico.” Un homenaje al Centenario de la Internacional Comunista.
Entre el 4 y el 6 de marzo del 2019 se celebrará en el Instituto Cubano de Investigación Cultural –La Habana– el primer evento dedicado a la obra de León Trotsky en Cuba. Será, por tanto, un antes y un después en las investigaciones sociales e históricas cubanas. Al tener carácter internacional, los invitamos a que participen y sean protagonistas de este suceso –sin importar tendencia ni filiación política–, ya sea como ponentes o público. Pueden enviar sus ponencias a frankcuba1959@gmail.com y frank@icic.cult.cu
Objetivos del evento:
● Analizar y estudiar la obra de León Trotsky desde una perspectiva académica
● Ayudar a conocer la obra y vida de León Trotsky en Cuba desde un análisis crítico
● Propiciar un intercambio académico entre los estudiosos del tema, de Cuba y del mundo
Temáticas a abordar:
1. Vida y obra de León Trotsky. Infancia y primera juventud de León Trotsky. León Trotsky y el judaísmo. Trotsky en la revolución de 1905. Trotsky y Lenin. Trotsky y los bolcheviques. Trotsky y las revoluciones de 1917. Trotsky y el poder soviético. Trotsky, la Revolución alemana de 1918, y su relación con Karl Liebnecht y Rosa Luxemburgo. Trotsky y la Internacional Comunista. Trotsky y la Guerra Civil. Trotsky y las oposiciones en el PC(b) hasta 1923. Trotsky y la Oposición de Izquierda. Trotsky y la Oposición Unida. Trotsky y Stalin. Trotsky, destierro y exilio. Trotsky, la Internacional Comunista y la Unión Soviética después de 1924. Trotsky en México. Trotsky y la IV Internacional. Trotsky, el arte y la literatura. La obra ensayística y literaria de Trotsky. Trotsky y el marxismo.
2. Sobre León Trotsky, la historia de la(s) IV Internacional(es) y los trotskismos. La obra narrativa, dramatúrgica, poética y cinematográfica desarrollada sobre León Trotsky. Historiografía sobre León Trotsky. Visiones críticas y divergentes sobre León Trotsky y los trotskismos. Historia de los trotskismos y las IV (s) Internacionales. El trotskismo en América Latina. Trotskismo, Cuba y la revolución cubana. Los trotskismos y los Partidos Comunistas. La recepción de Trotsky y el trotskismo en la Unión Soviética y en Rusia. Trotsky hoy en las ciencias sociales y la investigación histórica.
El evento es de carácter gratuito.
White House Terrified by Socialism’s Growth
White House Terrified by Socialism’s Growth
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Exclusive for the daily POR ESTO! of Merida, Mexico.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann.
Trump and Bolton’s regime has added a new front of war to its theater of operations against the Third World. They’ve targeted the “troika” of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, charging them with nothing less than the crime of being “socialist,”. The White House Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) has released a study titled The Opportunity Costs of Socialism that warns of the “return” of socialism to U.S. political discourse.
The U.S. government feels threatened by a new rise in socialist ideas in the United States on the eve of the November 6 legislative elections, the report notes.
“Coinciding with the bicentennial of Karl Marx’s birth, socialism is experiencing a return to the country’s political discourse. Self-styled socialist political proposals are gaining support in Congress and a good part of the electorate,” says the White House in the report.
Some think the CEA has reacted like this after recent polls showed Republicans overwhelmingly support the Medicare for All program that the White House has worked so hard to discredit.
The 72-page report used texts from “white papers” by the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute.
The authors of the report argue that socialism is reappearing in American political discourse. And that seriously concerns at least a subset of the Executive Branch, to the point of devoting entire pages to such “pressing” issues as the socialist debates of a century ago and such significant quotations as “to each according to their ability.
The Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) also compares vaguely social democratic policies -such as the exclusion of private interests from health care- with Mao Tse Tung’s Great Leap Forward. “There are journalists and analysts who openly assert that single-payer programs are more efficient and their objectives are similar in spirit to those of Lenin and Mao,” according to the CEA.
Among the proposals analyzed is universal public health care. Although it’s far from being part of the public opinion debate has begun to gain followers after the momentum given to this by progressive Democrats such as Senator Bernie Sanders, the former Democratic presidential candidate in the 2016 elections.
“Initiatives such as universal public healthcare are very much in line with socialist approaches,” CEA Director Kevin Hassett said at a news conference.
If public health were to be funded by higher taxes, Hassett said, it would lead to “a 9% drop in GDP.”
The document is unusual because the CEA’s job is to offer opinions from an academic and non-partisan point of view.
Hasset links politicians from the most progressive wing of the Democratic Party, such as Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren, who defend a social-democratic model within a market economy, with icons of socialist historical thought such as Karl Marx and Vladimir I. Lenin.
In several campaign events prior to the mid-term elections of November 6, U.S. President Donald Trump has rampaged against Venezuela and its Bolivarian revolution, warning that “if Democratic candidates like Florida’s gubernatorial hopeful Andrew Gillum and Texas Senator Beto O’Rourke were elected, the United States would run the risk of becoming another Venezuela.”
“Democrats want to raise taxes massively and impose socialism in our country. We will be another Venezuela,” Trump said recently at a rally in Nevada.
The conclusions reached by the CEA report are what one would expect: Venezuela is doing badly and free markets are doing well.
But what the report really shows is that the White House feels threatened by a rise in socialist ideas when its witch-hunt is most intense.
The CEA’s attitude toward Medicare for All shows that what worries them is the idea of a specifically American democratic socialism emerging.
“Coinciding with the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx, socialism is reborn in political discourse. The political proposals of socialists gain support in Congress and in a good part of the electorate,” the White House laments in its report.
November 5, 2018.
This article may be reproduced by citing the newspaper POR ESTO as the source.
The Nature of Chinese Society Today
The Nature of Chinese Society Today
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Exclusive for the daily POR ESTO! of Merida, Mexico.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann.
One of the most lying and repeated resources of U.S. anti-communist propaganda is the assertion that China’s current enviable pace and level of development are the result of its renunciation of the objectives of socialism and the adoption by the great Asian country of capitalist projections.
With this misleading propaganda, the promoters of capitalism have made no little progress in sowing confusion among the ranks of the left and among progressive people throughout the world.
An essay by Andre Vltchek, philosopher, novelist, filmmaker, polemicist, author and Russian-American investigative journalist-specializing in Asian issues, published on October 27 in New Eastern Outlook (NEO), comments that:
“The madness and vileness of what Western propaganda spreads about China in the United States and Europe used to make some of my Chinese friends cry in shame. But things are changing as a result of the frustration and bad manners of the losers. The Propagandists of the Empire, their experts and journalists, do not end up agreeing about what is really wrong in China. But since they are well-paid to find new reasons for scorn, they constantly compete with each other in search of the juiciest and most scandalous stories. It often seems that they find something bad in absolutely everything they see in this country, the most populous in the world and also communist.
China will end extreme poverty by 2020, but it doesn’t find applause in Berlin, Paris, London and Washington. China is far ahead of all the great countries of the world in the construction of the “ecological civilization,” but they don’t notice it. And neither do they warn that the Chinese government is introducing broad educational reforms, while filling the country with large concert halls, museums and theaters of their own for limitless cultural advancement.
Western propaganda is literally trying to discredit China from both the left and the right. The New York Times published a front-page story on October 5, 2018, noting that one of its reporters visited the Chinese city of Huizhou, where he “discovered” a group of Marxist youth who protested and demanded that things be done as in Mao’s time. From this, the newspaper drew the dignified conclusion that China is facing a very serious threat from the left.
See that ignorance, China continues to advance toward the same goal, a democratic and socially-oriented communism, under the same communist political direction of the time. The NYT is definitely not a pro-communist publication, but in order to attack China it appeared sympathetic (to the point of highlighting it as a cover story!) to a small group of young Marxists jealous of its ideas, in order to dispel doubts among readers, and suggest that the Yano Chinese government isn’t as red as before.
The next day (Saturday and Sunday edition, October 6 and 7, 2018), the same NYT contradicted itself on two front pages about China by stating that “China will cut the wings of U.S. private companies” and that “Beijing is returning to business.”
The doctrine of thousands of U.S. and European newspapers that Washington manipulates is to publish anything that could disadvantage China. “The worse, the gloomier and the more negative the news about China, the better. Anything goes.
You are accused of having too much communism or too little. But what is China really? How to classify it in the face of such a dichotomy? Vltchek gives his opinion:
“China is a communist (or socialist) country with thousands of years of long and relatively egalitarian history. It has a mixed economy, but with central planning (the government tells companies what to do, not the other way around). It is clearly the most important nation on earth when it comes to working on behalf of and for the benefit of its citizens. It is also the largest and most peaceful nation on earth. And here are two more essential points: China is at the forefront in saving the world from imminent ecological disaster. It has no colonies or neo-colonies, it is an essentially internationalist state. Its political system, economy and culture are diametrically different from those of the West.
That is why it is elementary that those charged with the task of defining what China is or is not, and what the nations of the entire world are or are not should be, first and foremost, the rulers themselves, the intellectuals and the people of each country as a whole.
And if China declares itself a socialist country with Chinese characteristics, that is the criterion that should prevail, without the arrogance of trying to impose on the greatest civilization on earth the adjective that suits imperialist interests or those of other political forces alien to the best interests of the Chinese people.
November 1, 2018
Terror in the United States
Terror in the United States:
72 Hours Filled with Hate
By José R. Oro, A Cuban engineer who lives in the United States.
October 31, 2018
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
The three terrorists, from left to right: G. Bush, R. Bowers and C. Sayoc. Photos from RT.
On Wednesday, October 24, a white man with a history of violence shot and killed two African Americans, apparently at random, in a store in Kroger, Kentucky, after a failed attempt to break into a church.
After “mail bombs” were sent to people who are President Donald Trump’s main political critics and enemies, authorities arrested a suspect, a man who had vilified and stigmatized Democratic supporters and minorities with hateful messages on social networks.
And on Saturday morning, 27, a man shouting anti-Semitic insults in the best style of Nazi Germany’s brown shirts opened fire on a Pittsburgh synagogue, killing 11 people attending religious services.
Those three criminal incidents that occurred in just 72 hours had only one thing in common: hatred.
Death in the grocery store
Gregory Bush, a 51-year-old white man, first attempted to enter a church in Jeffersontown, Kentucky, just outside Louisville. It was the first predominantly black Baptist church, and Bush supposedly knocked on the door and tried to open it, but failed to get in. The doors were closed.
He then went to a Kroger chain store, where he shot two people, both African Americans. The first victim was Maurice Stallard, 69, who was with his 12-year-old grandson. The second was Vickie Jones (67) who was killed in the parking lot while the attacker fled.
Gregory Bush has a long history of mental disorders, of making racist threats, and repeatedly called his ex-wife the N-word (nigger), as part of a long criminal history that includes domestic violence, and other disturbances of order.
Terror by Mail
As the shooting in Kentucky took place, the number of suspicious packages in the mail grew.
The first was discovered Monday afternoon at the home of Democratic (and multimillionaire) donor George Soros. On Wednesday morning, two more, one addressed to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and another to former President Barack Obama. Four more were to be found before the end of the day, including a bomb-package sent to CNN’s New York offices, which led to the evacuation of the entire Time Warner Center complex. Another package was addressed to former CIA director John Brennan.
On Friday, news of more packages arrived and then the arrest of a 56-year-old man named Cesar Sayoc, a Florida resident. Federal authorities said they sent a total of 14 bomb-packages (the kind we know in Cuba as “nipples”), none fortunately detonated, but they were all very real.
Sayoc’s political inclinations were passionately exhibited. On his van, he had a tag that said “CNN sucks. Through two Facebook accounts and three Twitter accounts, Sayoc often posted provocative photos and comments attacking liberals, along with crude conspiracy theories against the United States.
Massacre in the Synagogue
Trio sings a song of mourning in Hebrew. Pastor Steven Cousins of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, and Rabbi Giora Lilienthal, both from Connecticut, use the word. Photo: José R. Oro.
On Saturday morning there was a massive shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue, where hundreds of worshippers had gathered at 9:45 am. Suddenly, a man came in screaming anti-Semitic insults with two guns and an AR-15 rifle and opened fire. He killed 11 people. Six more were injured.
Robert Bowers, 46, was identified as the gunman and arrested. He had frequently expressed his disdain for Jews in social media and also published xenophobic comments alleging that Jews were helping to transport members of migratory caravans in Latin America.
Rejected by the People of the United States
Hundreds of people, both in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood and throughout Pittsburgh, gathered hours after the attack for an interfaith vigil on behalf of the victims. Photo: Getty Images.
Hundreds gathered for a Saturday night vigil in Squirrel Hill to mourn the victims of the synagogue and show support for the Jewish community.
An interfaith service also took place at the sixth Presbyterian Church in Squirrel Hill on Saturday night.
At 5 p.m. a vigil at the Jewish Community Center (what we know in Havana as the Hebrew Community) in Woodbridge, Connecticut, brought together more than two thousand people from New Haven County.
The attendees were Christians, Jews, Muslims (2 families, one Turkish and one Bangladeshi), whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, children, adults and the elderly. All the best of the American people were present.
I asked several people what they thought about the cause of this unprecedented terror. All the presenters agreed that President Donald Trump’s policy of hate and threats (both nationally and internationally), the irresponsibility of his comments in the media, and his unrestricted support for the NRA (National Rifle Association) contributed to and motivated these crimes.
Was one of the three terrorists an Islamic fundamentalist? Or a radical leftist fanatic? A Russian, Chinese or Venezuelan agent? None of the above, all supporters of Donald Trump, all with a history of violence, which one imagines would give him no chance to buy arms or ammunition. Everyone in the vigil comments with anger.
Donald Trump, with his irresponsible tweets and media shows insulting minorities and anti-immigrant attitudes, has been the catalyst that the sewage of American society has overflowed and is flooding the country.
With great prudence, I asked some attendees what they knew about the “embargo against Cuba” and about the upcoming U.N. vote. Two people told me that they knew absolutely nothing about the blockade and assured me that they would be informed about it. Two others told me that they knew about the blockade and that they were vertically against it. And one of them, Eliot Meyers, looked at me in astonishment and asked me, “But didn’t Obama remove the embargo against Cuba? I explained to him that the “embargo” is in force and being applied with a maximum of inclement and cruelty by President Trump. Elliot lowered his head and said to me: “These are the same criminals, those who kill in the synagogues or send bombs and those who want to destroy the Cuban people. Elliot is an appliance dealer from Orange, Connecticut.
What’s next?
Democrat Congresswoman Rosa de Lauro, a great friend of Cuba, rejected violence. Photo: Bill Clark/ CQ Roll Call.
The pain and bitterness continue throughout the U.S., on a Sunday when people would normally talk about American football games (the Pittsburgh Steelers play at home) and the crucial fifth game of the World Series between Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers. But on this occasion, thousands and thousands are on the street protesting the terror of the fascists and supremacists, and more importantly, their causes, which now have a consensus in the understanding of the people.
The victims will remember the tragedies of those 72 hours filled with hatred, for a long, long time. As early as November 6, in the midterm elections, these savage crimes will motivate hundreds of thousands to go to the polls that day and vote against those who are trying to lead the U.S. to unbridled, uncontrolled fascism and humanity to its certain destruction. Of the many phrases and posters I saw and heard, there were some that impressed me in a special way. One sign read: “We cannot cure a fool, but we can vote against him.
Pittsburgh Protests Trump Pittsburgh Visit
Pittsburgh Protests Trump Visit to Attacked Synagogue
October 30, 2018
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Hundreds of demonstrators protested Tuesday in Pittsburgh against U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to the synagogue where 11 people died in an antisemitic attack this weekend.
Demonstrators gathered near the Tree of Life synagogue, where the shooting took place, with banners bearing legends such as “President Hate Out of Our State” and “Trump, Renounce White Nationalism Now,” referring to criticisms that the president has not done enough to stop hate speeches.
Trump arrived at the synagogue on Tuesday accompanied by his wife Melania, his daughter Ivanka and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. The president plans to light a candle for each of the victims of the shooting that shocked the United States.
But for some local personalities, Trump’s visit was not welcome.
A group of Pittsburgh Jewish leaders published an open letter in which they blamed Trump for encouraging the nationalist sentiments that generated the attack and said that until he strongly denounces this and stops attacking “immigrants and refugees,” he will not be welcome in the city.
Former synagogue president Lynette Lederman told the president on Monday to stay away from Pittsburgh, describing him as a “provider of hate speech.
The town of Pittsburgh, still in shock after suffering the worst antisemitic attack in recent U.S. history, buried on Tuesday two of the victims of the tragedy, brothers Cecil and David Rosenthal, 59 and 54 years old.
(With information from AFP)
Vigil Continues In U.S.
Vigil Continues In U.S. In Honor Of Synagogue Massacre Victims
October 29, 2018.
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Several U.S. cities were the scene yesterday of vigils in honor of the victims of last Saturday’s mass shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where 11 people died and six were injured. Several Jewish organizations and interfaith groups held a service at the Adas Israel synagogue on Monday afternoon with the participation of the mayor of Washington, Muriel Bowser; and the governors of the neighboring states of Virginia, Ralph Northam; and Maryland, Larry Hogan. Other religious congregations, such as Temple De Hirsch Sinai and the Jewish Family Service, also organized a prayer service at their Capitol Hill shrine. (PL)
Trump Goes to Pittsburgh After Massacre
Trump Goes to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Give Support After Fatal Shooting
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Washington, Oct 30 (PL) U.S. President Donald Trump will travel today to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to show support for the community and families of the 11 killed in a gunfight there three days ago.
The visit of the president will take place despite the request of various voices not to make that trip until the president rejects hate crimes.
According to Marianne Novy, a retired teacher and resident of the neighborhood where the synagogue of the Congregation of the Tree of Life, the site of the massacre, is located, Trump’s language has encouraged hatred and fear of immigrants.
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, a Democrat, said the White House should have asked the victims’ families if they wanted the head of state to accompany them.
If the president wants to come to Pittsburgh, he would ask him not to do so while we are burying the dead, Peduto said, referring to the funerals scheduled for Tuesday.
Rob Bowers, now in prison without bail while analyzing the case, also left six people injured, including four police officers, when he shot at the aforementioned place, where he said all Jews had to be killed.
Sarah Sanders, spokeswoman for the White House, said yesterday in a press conference that the first lady, Melania, will accompany her husband on the trip.
This atrocity was a chilling act of mass murder, an act of hatred and, above all, an act of evil,’ the spokeswoman said.
She also said that anti-Semitism represents a plague to humanity and is responsible for many of the worst horrors in history, for which, she added, we all have a duty to face it.
According to Sanders, Americans of all faiths are ‘in mourning’ for the ‘precious lives that were stolen.
The American people reject hatred, intolerance, prejudice and violence. We are a nation that believes in religious freedom, tolerance and respect,’ she said.
Bowers, 46, had his first appearance in court yesterday and will return the day after tomorrow for a preliminary hearing.
He waived a reading of the 29 charges he faces for the act, which the Anti-Defamation League described as the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the United States.
According to a description in The New York Times, the defendant appeared before Judge Robert C. Mitchell at the federal courthouse in downtown Pittsburgh in a wheelchair as a result of injuries sustained in the confrontation with the police.
Charges include obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs, a hate crime that can lead to the death penalty, press reports said.
agp/dsa/cvl
Pittsburgh synagogue shooter’s racist messages
Pittsburgh synagogue shooter posted racist messages on social networks
October 28, 2018
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
“HIAS liked to bring invaders who kill our people. I can’t sit back and watch my people get killed. Screw your views, I’m going in,” Robert D. Bowers posted on the Internet Saturday, shortly before breaking into a Pittsburgh synagogue and shooting 11 people in an action that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said is “a painful reminder of the persistence of anti-Semitism.
HIAS is a nonprofit Jewish refugee support organization, which after the massacre recalled that it is dedicated to the “rescue of people whose lives are in danger because of who they are.
Bowers almost announced his intentions days in advance, if you look at many of his social networking publications, in which he called immigrants “invaders,” distributed racist memes and claimed that Jews were the “enemy of whites.”
Bowers used Gab, an ultra-right social network taken as an alternative to Twitter that is heavily funded and favored by white supremacists, presented as “the free speech social network.” and riddled with neo-Nazi messages.
The attack left 11 dead in the Tree of Life synagogue, known for keeping a copy of the Torah rescued from the Holocaust.
The Sabbath ran and in the synagogue, located in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood, several religious ceremonies were held in different rooms, including a baptismal hall. In that context, Bowers perpetrated one of the worst attacks against the Jewish community in U.S. history, firing and shouting “All Jews must die!”
In a message condemning Saturday night’s crime in Pittsburgh, [UN Secretary General António] Guterres called on the authorities, civil society, religious and community leaders, and the general public to form a “common front” that would reverse the racist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, or other forms of hate such as intolerance, discrimination, and xenophobia that are gaining strength in many parts of the world.
This is in a country where immigration has become the subject of election campaigns and a way of instilling fear in voters. According to a Reuters analysis of the propaganda broadcast through October 15, 20% of the Republican Party’s ads in the congressional elections have mentioned immigration.
“All of us, in fact, are wounded by this inhuman act of violence,” said [Pope ]Francisco, who expressed his closeness to all the people of Pittsburgh “and in particular to the Jewish community, affected by a terrible attack on the synagogue.
Robert Bowers, 46, of Pittsburgh, was arrested after exchanging fire with a SWAT team. The prosecutor’s office charges him with 29 criminal charges, including crimes of violence and firearms, and violating U.S. civil rights laws.
Bowers had 21 guns registered in his name, according to authorities. Police reported that he only had one traffic violation on his record in 2015.
A few days ago, Cesar Sayoc was arrested in Florida, accused of sending parcel bombs to prominent Democratic personalities and politicians. Sayoc also posted hate messages on social networks.
(Information from agencies.)