Translations 677
Opening for marijuana addicts in the US Army
RAZONES DE CUBA [clearH=10]
Opening for marijuana addicts in the US Army
“Did you smoke marijuana and want to go to war? The Army allows it .“ That is the call or promotional announcement that the Latino press recently began to reproduce in the US, as part of a broader recruitment effort for the military.
This was the title of a recent report by the Miami newspaper El Nuevo Herald, where it is announced that, given the order to increase the number of US military personnel. and the increase in the number of North American states that have legalized or decriminalized the use of the herb, the Army will grant exemptions to those who have consumed that substance and want to enlist in military adventures of the superpower.
According to the rep[ort, the number of exemptions granted by the army to marijuana smokers amounted to half a thousand this year compared to 191 in 2016. He adds that this type of flexibility was not granted for three years and it’s justified by the need to fulfill the order to increase the forces that the White House has given. The army added that almost 69 thousand recruits this year, some 6,000 more than in 2016.
The only requirement is that addicts have to commit not to use the drug while serving in the armed forces. “As long as they understand they can not do it while doing military service, I’ll give them all the exemptions they want,” said Maj. Gen. Jeff Snow, head of the army’s recruiting command.
He added that exemption figures will increase as the states where the drug is allowed increases. Currently, in eight, the possession of marijuana is legalized and in 13 other states, it has been decriminalized, which means that the possession of a small amount is the equivalent of a traffic infraction or another minor crime that is not punishable by jail. Another 29 together with the national capital and the territories of Puerto Rico and Guam allow consumption for therapeutic purposes.
According to the report, recently Congress and other areas have expressed concern about the drop in the quality of new recruits. Army data reveal that more than 8,000 recruits received exemptions in 2017, compared to 6700 last year, mostly for reasons of physical or mental health.
In this sense, it stands out that the exemptions for marijuana use represent 25% of the total of those granted for misconduct in the fiscal year that ended on September 30. They also represent 50% of the general increase in exemptions granted to those who needed it for some type of misconduct.
In addition to the poor quality of recruitment, it is suspicious that armed forces that have been accused in the past of having a “hallucinogenic arsenal” that they have used in recent wars to manipulate their own forces, the civilian population, and its adversaries, so it is betting on the massive use of addicts for future war adventures.
According to the book “Drugs in war”, by Polish author Lukasz Kamienski, the Vietnam war was “the first real pharmacological war” with consumption among US military personnel that reached levels never previously seen. The study points out that in 1973, the year of US withdrawal from the Asian country, 70% of the soldiers took some drug, be it marijuana, dexedrine, heroin, morphine, opium, sedatives or hallucinogens.
He points out that no less outlandish have been later US projects. like the one to bombard enemy forces with pheromones to sexually uncontrol the soldiers or the one to use viagra with the members of their own special forces to make them more aggressive. Pheromones are chemical substances that cause specific behaviors in other individuals.
The Polish scholar describes as hypocritical that there are “very restrictive anti-drug policies … and in other cases official policies of distribution of these substances to soldiers in war”.
The call for marijuana addicts to enter the US Army triggers alarms when military budgets increase to exorbitant levels, when Washington establishes a foreign policy of threats of extermination against its enemies, of sanctions against adversaries and superpowers, of revenge and reprisals, and the executive’s capacity for strategic leadership is questioned.
==============================
Unedited Google translation of comments:
While Cuba promotes a policy of zero tolerance for drugs at the level of the whole society, here we have a United States that so much cackles in the fight against drugs and human rights, institutionalizing drugs and addicts, nothing less than in the armed institutions, with the impact and harmful transcendence that this could have.
For a long time the US Army can only do and commit their excesses and abuses on a planetary scale, when their troops are drugged … remember South Vietnam! The demoralization and the loss of the most elemental human essences are attributes of the most corrupt and mercenary army of the planet: .Abu Garib Do you say something? And then they pretend to be the best defenders of DD.HH. Even with those who are part of their ranks, once the period is over, they are discarded as if they were garbage. Where are renowned marines of the elite troops heroes of the war of Afghanistan and Iraq, champions of freedom in any part of the world’s end ?: Without economic, psychological attention, to assume the lasyres of their consciences, disturbed, alienated, traumatized In short, very few are socially integrated. It hurts because so many young people get lost
No question, the United States is subtly introducing drugs and drug addicts as a weapon of war. Nothing strange about that country, its intelligence labs and media. For the empire to increase its power, respect for Human Rights does not matter, in fact, will there really be human rights in the United States?
There is for god, the government that most boasts in the world to fight against drug trafficking and ahota come with this … What will be the result of this new Trumpnada? more than clear: more deaths all over the world, more violation of human rights, more disasters worldwide and of course a new “feat” for the US government …
If we understand that they are addicts, how does the army of the United States expect to refrain from consumption during the time of service, or do they include psychological treatment in that period to counteract the addiction? It is clearly a blunder that is justified only by the desire for power and global domination, combined with the paranoia of seeing attacks in all parts of the world.
Something to me does not remain clear to me, if several countries have legalized the consumption of marijuana cigarettes, it will not be because it is not harmful enough like other drugs. It will not be that the marijuana will classify in the same link of other authorized drugs as the cigarette or the alcohol.
With this measure it seems to me that humanity is reviving what the worthy Romans felt about Neron’s follies, is putting people with vices that enagenan their act on weapons is the greatest responsibility of a president.
Reading about this topic, I found an article from Clarín newspaper, from the month of May of 2016, I quote some paragraphs that illustrate the negative effects of the legalization of marijuana in the State of Colorado:
“While it was expected that this activity, now legal, bring tax benefits to the state, in 2014 and the collection of the tax on marijuana fell 42%, since most are traded on the black market.
The crime in general rises month by month and especially, that of disorder in the public road, grew 45%.
Responding to Yuri’s comment:
I am not an expert in drug issues, not much less, but by common sense googlee “marijuana effects”, I invite you to do so that you understand the reactions well fucked this boil, and how the politicians and policies of some countries are well wrong, even influenced by drug cartels
Surprising the reason every time we approach that way of life and that imperial thought, that worldview capable of allowing all possible barbarities to commit their own in pursuit of achieving their hegemonic and domination objectives, at whatever cost, including psychosocial and degrading of the human race. Something is very clear in this recruitment hurdle, what matters least is the species, the same that will go to the conquest so that the loot is finally in a few that concentrate for themselves most of the riches that natural equity has ready for the humans of this planet.
what matters least is the human species
I am in agreement with what Yuri said above, that badly has the marijuana cigarette, it is not the same as the usual cigarette. There is a lot of information, scattered and confused, but who is right is good or not
Unusual can only be found in the US, there is MRS.CHAIN.! #Cuba Vs #Drogas
I must inform Yuri that a recent comparative analysis of marijuana regulation experiences in North American states and other countries, shows that as a consequence of legalization and decriminalization, the growing trend of consumption has continued, the number of adult consumers has increased, the perception of risk that triggered the diversification of supply and consumption decreased and there has been a significant increase in cases of hospital admissions related to presumed cannabis intoxications in the North American states studied.
keep going…
The increase in consumption especially affects occasional and habitual cannabis users 18 years of age and older. The evolution is especially pronounced among people older than 25 years, whose levels of consumption have increased rapidly.
Cases attended in hospital emergencies have accelerated, especially among tourists and, to a lesser extent, among the youngest (under 10 years old) and the oldest (surprised by new forms of cannabis, sometimes with very powerful doses). ).
continue
The new approaches increase the tragedy and the profits of the traffickers, they do not alleviate the evil. I reaffirm what the experts say: “marijuana is not an alternative, it is a proven evil”.
The fact that certain strategies have failed in the world fight against this drug, which is the most trafficked and consumed in the world, does not mean that to stop confronting it or legalizing it is the option. Its harmful effects for the physical and mental health of the individual, and for society are scientifically proven.
In addition, therapeutic use must invariably be governed by the intervention of specialist doctors. Improvising can be fatal.
I understand that marijuana can be harmful, but then why have so many governments decided to open doors and legalize it in their countries, what is behind it specifically. By legalizing it, they are transferring a message to the international community that it is less bad, that it is not so harmful. They are launching a message of openness and flexibility. Do you have the drug cartels to do with these government decisions?
I read the comments of Francisco and I infer that it is the author and if so, I would like to delve into what the medicinal utility of marijuana is really and in what branches of medicine it is used.
The United States government with this decision has been turning into a narco state, with a narco army
For some comments read and others that I hear on the street, including young people, I think it is still necessary to create more culture among our population on drugs, look for ways to explain and clear so many international media stereotypes that have been tried to impose in this field. Cuba, although surrounded by water, is not exempt from flagella of this type.
How harmful can it really be for a soldier, with a gun in his hand, to smoke marijuana cigarettes? Is it proven that it can make it more violent?
An army of drug addicts. What they do is legalize a problem they have always had, the high consumption of drugs in the armed forces.
Very clever the Chiefs in charge of that army, of course they have to have them set so that they do not see the savage crimes that many of them commit against their will, that is why there are so many that when they return to normal, that is to say when they comply with Their mission begins to remember the cruelty of the acts and they even have to be treated with psychiatrists or psychologists. In Cuba, of course, we are against anyone taking drugs, as this affects the normal development of social and family relationships. CubavsBlock
Yadira: I have read about it and I have interviewed experts. Currently its usefulness is being reviewed, and there are arguments both for and against its medicinal use. Among the detractors are the American Medical Association itself, the American Society of Addiction Medicine, which has presented arguments against its use for medical purposes. It is proposed that medicinal cannabis has been used to reduce the inappetence, nausea and vomiting produced by chemotherapy, as well as to treat pain and muscle spasticity in people with HIV / AIDS; its use for other medical applications has been studied, but there is still insufficient information to give conclusions about the safety and efficacy of its use.
A LOCO president, an armies of DRUGS, laws that violate all the rules … and in this way they want us to buy their model of government, state and society? Not that we were crazy
Cuba and “State Capitalism”
Those Who Look and Do Not See
Cuba and “State Capitalism”
By Nelson P Valdés, Professor Emeritus, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
November 20, 2016
A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann.
“…. At a certain time Lenin raised the idea of the construction of capitalism even under the leadership of the proletariat. For your peace of mind, of course, I tell you that we have no such thing in mind, and it is not because we disagree with Lenin, but because the circumstances are different, since our process, which could count on the assistance of the Socialist camp and the USSR, has made great progress, has very solid forces and does not have to raise the issue in those terms. “Fidel Castro, August 6, 1995.
“I remember reading how at one point Lenin conceived the construction of capitalism under the leadership of the workers, of a workers’ government. He said: ‘We must build capitalism, we must develop our productive forces’. But such was the harassment, the aggression, the isolation and the critical situation that he had no choice but to accept that challenge; Marx would have put his hands on his head, really.” Fidel Castro, August 24, 1998.
“Revolution is a sense of the historical moment; It means to change everything that must be changed …” Fidel Castro, May 1, 2000.
Those who are supposed to study Cuba do not pay sufficient attention to the institutions and practices that exist in the country.
Most scholars and reporters from the outside discuss, write and prescribe an imaginary or imagined Cuba. They write about the future and very little about the real present or the one that was. In other words, they do not ask the question –for example: Why are there CUPET and ORO NEGRO gas stations? Why are there two instead of one single company selling gasoline? They do not wonder why there are so many different types of taxis: HavanaTaxi, PanaTaxi, etc. Everything is seen as ONE State controlling them all… and everything else… because this is not analyzed. Actually, it is not even perceived.
It is obvious that in Cuba there is an almost completely monopolistic state capitalism that faces many difficulties imposed from abroad –particularly by the US government. This description is not meant to be pejorative, it is only descriptive. This state capitalism, however, focuses on the distribution of what it produces or generates from products and income. These aspects differentiate it from the typical state capitalism that distributes profits only among private investors.
With state capitalism, there are corporations which are independent of one another and can respond to different sectors within the state itself. For example, MINFAR [Ministry of the Armed Forces] has companies (including the Banco Financiero Internacional -International Financial Bank –which is different from Banco Popular de Ahorro – (National Savings Bank, which it does not control). Also, MINFAR also has a line of hotels (Gaviota) and its own farms. These farms show us that there is “vertical integration” in different productive chains on the island. And these state entities and chains –autonomous from one[] another –COMPETE with other state entities.
Are there possible contradictions –in Marxist terms– between Gaviota and Cubanacan, for example? And, since when have these institutions existed? They began in 1985. And who has studied the economic and political process of Cuba on the basis of these conditions? What exactly is a “business group” (e.g., AZCUBA [Cuban sugar company)?
Those who call for the introduction of capitalist measures on the island and dream of the market are out of tune and clueless. Some elements already exist, but that is not the whole reality. Everything is more complex and complicated.
Journalists and many academics from abroad confuse this with the capitalism of private corporations. They do not understand that the practice of capitalism by semi-state-owned or fully state-owned corporations is something totally different. One big difference, of course, is who appropriates the profits and how they do it. The profits in private capitalism go –eventually– to private hands. State capitalism usually appropriates profits and distributes some of those profits among the administrators and –individually or socially– among those working in or out of the company. Both types pay taxes.
Note: In Cuba, there were precedents of this situation – and they were established by the United States government. For example, the Nicaro Nickel Company was a US state corporation. Nicaro was an administrative subsidiary of the Freeport Sulphur Company which in turn “acted” on behalf of the Defense Plant Corporation and Metals Reserve Company owned by the United States.
NOTE: The use of the term “state capitalism” has no pejorative intent.
URL of the article: http://www.cubadebate.cu/opinion/2016/11/20/los-que-miran-y-no-ven-cuba-y-el-capitalismo-de-estado/
Cubadebate, Contra el Terrorismo Mediático http://www.cubadebate.cu
- English
- Español
The United Vote is a Way to Defend the Revolution
By Marlene Moya
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Santiago de Cuba, Feb. 21 (ACN) The united vote in the March 11 elections means giving the Yes for Cuba, for social justice and the conquests of the Revolution, said Elvira Orozco, delegate of the Popular Power of the 76th constituency, in this city.
If we read the biographies of the candidates for the Provincial Assembly of People’s Power and the Cuban Parliament, we see that they are compañeras and compañeros with plenty of merit and genuine representatives from all sectors,” this professional radio journalist in Santiago de Cuba pointed out.
She commented that, a few days ago, she saw in the National Television Newsletter a material about Commander in Chief Fidel Castro’s visit to the José Martí Urban Center, in one of the previous trips to a similar process, in an area where the leader of the Revolution was a candidate for the National Assembly.
I had the privilege of doing that coverage and I remember his dialogue with the people gathered there spontaneously, knowing of his presence, about who were the proposed [candidates], people of the people, not millionaires as happens in other countries, and the most recent example is the current president of the United States, she said.
Donald Trump, she said, ranks in that category and does not care about any program that benefits the most vulnerable.
He said that the conquests of today, for which so many Cubans fought, for centuries, must be defended and the united vote is a way to do it.
We are not going to vote for someone who will benefit us personally or [because] we like them, we will vote for dignified men and women with a rich and revolutionary career, said Elvira.
This professional with the pen has more than a thousand voters in her constituency and this is her second term.
It has in its area, the Historic Center, three blocks from the Corredor Patrimonial Las Enramadas and several units of services, among those of commerce and gastronomy, pharmacy, two bakeries, the central post office, gymnasium and self-employed workers, especially food processing.
mmm/cmb 18 16:16
El voto unido es una manera de defender la Revolución
Cuba-elecciones
El voto unido es una manera de defender la Revolución
Marlene Montoya
Santiago de Cuba, 21 feb (ACN) El voto unido en los comicios del 11 de marzo significa dar el Sí por Cuba, por la justicia social y las conquistas de la Revolución, destacó Elvira Orozco, delegada del Poder Popular de la circunscripción 76, en esta ciudad.
Si leemos las biografías de los candidatos a la Asamblea Provincial del Poder Popular y al Parlamento Cubano, vemos que son compañeras y compañeros con sobrados méritos y genuinos representantes de todos los sectores, puntualizó a la ACN esa profesional del periodismo radial en Santiago de Cuba.
Comentó que hace pocos días vio en el Noticiero Nacional de Televisión un material sobre la visita del Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro al Centro Urbano José Martí, en uno de los recorridos previos a similar proceso, en un área por donde el líder de la Revolución fue candidato a la Asamblea Nacional.
Tuve el privilegio de hacer esa cobertura y recuerdo su diálogo con personas congregadas allí de forma espontánea, al saber de su presencia, sobre quiénes eran los propuestos, gente del pueblo, no millonarios como ocurre en otros países, y el ejemplo más reciente es el actual mandatario de los EE.UU, acotó.
Donald Trump, señaló, clasifica en esa categoría y no se preocupa por ningún programa que beneficie a los más desprotegidos.
Manifestó que las conquistas de hoy por las cuales lucharon tantos cubanos durante siglos hay que defenderlas y el voto unido es una manera de hacerlo.
No vamos a votar por alguien que nos beneficiará en lo personal o nos cae bien, lo haremos por hombres y mujeres dignos y con una rica trayectoria laboral y revolucionaria, apuntó Elvira.
Esa profesional de la pluma cuenta en su circunscripción con más de mil electores y este es su segundo mandato.
Tiene en su área, del Centro Histórico, tres cuadras del Corredor Patrimonial Las Enramadas y varias unidades de servicios, entre esas de comercio y gastronomía, farmacia, dos panaderías, el correo central, gimnasio y trabajadores por cuenta propia, sobre todo de elaboración de alimentos.
mmm/cmb 18 16:16
False Pretexts to Stand Out
False Pretexts to Stand Out
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Exclusive for the daily POR ESTO! of Merida, Mexico.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann.
U.S. imperialism stands out for the fabrication of its pretexts for its wars. But this has been done so often that no one who is moderately intelligent or well-informed believes it.
It is not yet known whether the fantastic science fiction story about alleged “sonic attacks” against intelligence personnel accredited as diplomats at the U. S. Embassy in Havana had it has achieved more than one goal. First,: to terrorize the Americans into neutralizing the attraction that Cuba awakens as a result of more than half a century of media demonization and economic blockade, in contrast to a high level of security for population and its visitors.
The hypothesis of the commentator who wrote this article is that Florida’s Republican Senator Marco Rubio, found himself in a situation in which he thought it OK to fabricate a big lie, one that would benefit the image that needs to be built based on his plans to become president of the United States.
On September 15, 2017, the AP published a report datelined in Havana about the flooding caused by Hurricane Irma due to sea penetration that affected a part of the building housing the U. S. Embassy in Cuba, located on the Havana Malecón.
An official of the U. S. National Security Subcommittee (NSSC), who asked the AP not to be identified, told the agency that a lawsuit was being prepared against the American Technology Corporation (ATC), a manufacturer of LRAD-RX equipment used by the NSSC to communicate with its agents in Cuba.
The suit would be based on the auditory impairment that the equipment would have caused to several NSSC workers, their employees and family members. According to the plaintiff, the equipment in question was purchased less than a year earlier and the ATC experts who trained those who would use you at no time warned them against hearing problems.
According to the source, the suit to be filed by the NSSC included financial compensation for damages caused to operators of the equipment and their affected family members, as well as for operational damages suffered by the NSSC.
The NSSC immediately ordered the discontinuation of the use of the LRAD-RX but this implied an immediate change in the media with its agents, which led to higher expenses that exceeded the budgeted amount.
The penetration of the sea into the Embassy due to the hurricane complicated the investigation of the technological aspects of the case, because a part of the equipment was under the sea waters. Although a number of technicians and specialists had planned to travel to Cuba to verify the conditions of the equipment, this aspect of the investigation was already useless.
So far, the precedents that the United States omits in its history of the alleged sonic attacks.
Surprisingly, in May 2017, the U. S. State Department ordered the expulsion of two Cuban diplomats in response to “incidents” at their embassy in Cuba without specifying which ones, or whom they considered guilty.
According to Internet search engines, the ATC is a company with U. S. commercial registration, but it is also an entity created by the security forces of the state of Israel. From the same source it is known that LRAD is a weapon that emits a sound that makes the opponent temporarily deaf.
However, when suspicions seemed to concentrate on technological problems attributable to the supplier, scandalous statements by U. S. Senator Marco Rubio “asking for blood against Cuba”. This showed the Florida Republican to be an axis of manipulation that led to the withdrawal of 60% of the workers of the Embassy in Cuba and the expulsion of fifteen diplomats from the Cuban mission in Washington, claiming the “lack of adequate Cuban measures to protect the Cuban people”,
Observers of U. S. policy argue that Senator Marco Rubio, who is not Cuban and has never been on the island nation, has been determined for some time to become the first Hispanic president of the United States.
Hence, his obsession with excelling in the press, and his involvement with the controversial figure of Donald Trump, whose political premise is to allow only “people less intelligent than him”. And Rubio amply meets that requirement.
February 16, 2018
Shooting Survivors to March Against Violence.
Student Survivors of Shooting to March Against Armed Violence in U. S.
The promoters of the initiative announced that children and families will take to the streets of Washington on March 24 to demand’ that their lives and safety become priorities’.
——————————————————————————
Author:
WASHINGTON – Students who survived last week’s massive shooting in the U. S. state of Florida are preparing today for a national mobilization called “March for our lives” to demand action against armed violence.
Through a page already available on the Internet, the promoters of the initiative announced that children and families will take to the streets of this capital on March 24 to demand’ that their lives and safety become priorities’ and that the massive shootings in schools be stopped.
Sister marches are also expected in other cities, according to five students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 people were killed and 15 wounded on 14 February when an ex-student, Nikolas Cruz, opened fire with an AR-15 assault rifle.
People say this is not the time to talk about gun control and we can respect that. This is the moment: March 24, he told ABC Cameron Kasky, who is in his third year at the aforementioned educational institution.
In every city we will march together as students who plead for our lives. This isn’t about the Republican Party, it’s not about the Democrats, it’s about adults, we feel careless and, at this point, you’re with us or against us,” he told the network.
One of the students who told the U. S. media about the upcoming march was Emma Gonzalez, who made a big impact on social networks over the weekend by spreading her speech during a rally at the Federal Court in Fort Lauderdale.
“If the president wants to come to me and tell me that it was a terrible tragedy and that it should never have happened and continue to tell us that nothing will be done about it, I’m going to ask him how much money he received from the National Rifle Association,” she said.
According to the March rally call for mobilization, the action is “created, inspired and led by students across the country who will no longer risk their lives waiting for someone else to take action to stop the epidemic of mass shootings”.
In the tragic wake of the 17 lives brutally cut short in Florida, politicians tell us that this is not the time to talk about guns. The March for our lives believes that the time is now,’ the text said.
Following the events in high school, Gun Violence Archive noted that during the first six weeks of 2018, 1,816 people died from gun violence in the United States, equivalent to an average of 40 deaths per day.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
Superheroes, Super Powers, and Supermistakes
Superheroes, Super powers, and Supermistakes
Superheroes represent the dark force of a society, that which can be invoked at any time and is not only above all human beings, but also imparts justice beyond failed legal structures.
By Mauricio Escuela digital@juventudrebelde.cu
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
In the scenario of extreme inequality, the hero appears in Batman and Superman costume. Author: Juventud Rebelde Published: 02/10/2018 | 10:25 pm
An anonymous young weakling who works in a low-level position suddenly sees himself in the middle of an extreme situation, says the word Shazam!, and becomes the almighty Captain Marvel. The magical word brings together the initials of numerous mythological heroes and gods of the Western past: S for the wisdom of Solomon, H because of the strength of Hercules, A representing the Greek Atlas and its universal power, Z of Zeus, M of Mercury (Hermes), who symbolizes agility. Many children of several generations locked themselves in their rooms to say that Shazam!, without anything extraordinary happening since it is just another myth.
The superheroes represent that very thing, the hidden force of a society, that being that can be invoked at any moment, and that is not only above all human, but also imparts justice beyond the failed legal structures. Throughout the Batman saga, the almost null Inspector Gordon is limited to illuminating the sky with a reflector so that the man-bat appears to correct what gets away from politics, society, the rule of law. In this way a strong covert message is sent in adventures and empathy: there is no law, only the market, and the only thing that can save you is a mythological figure that comes out of nowhere, anonymously. That capitalist miracle in the midst of chaos responds to the climate of the decade in which comics emerge: that of the 1930s, that of the Great Depression in the United States. The hero appears in this scenario of extreme inequality, comes from the planet Krypton, fell from the sky and is made of steel.
If, in the Germany of the interwar crisis, a pessimistic expressionism flourished, full of unrecognizable figures and appealing to the Germanic mythological past (vampires, monsters, night shadows, sorcerers), in the United States the mythological universe had to be created from the ideario of a power librecambista and of recent creation, whose best writers perhaps were about to be born. In the era of demystification and the crisis of credulity, the new pulpit was appealed to: the media and the strength of the image. They also prefixed the most vulnerable targets, children and adolescents, men who, tomorrow, could make the dangerous revolution if they are not taught that Superman will sooner or later impart the justice that they do not see anywhere.
If the myth appeals to the collective subconscious, to that which is beyond the visible, it can be put on any suit and will preferably be uniformed according to the dominant ideological values. In the Batman saga, for example, on more than one occasion, the superhero talks with young Robin to explain why crime exists: “they hate the order in our city.” Therefore, the causes of the rupture of justice should not be sought in scientific estates, or studying the political economy of the moment, but should assume the same metaphysics: if the hero comes out of nothing, the villain too, and none of both need to be explained. Both myths are the owners of the duality that makes up the ethical concept (good and evil). They are beyond the measurable, not imprisoned or legitimized or the police, much less the vote of the elector. Both Gotham City and Metropolis are safe cities because they are Batman and Superman, not because the state elected by the people normatively exercises its functions. It happens that neither of the two are real.
Being above good and evil, superheroes can make mistakes, but that never happens, and that unlikely factor is the ideological support of the comic: laws can be a kitchen towel, the world will fall apart, this market devours and only produces unproductive tyrants, but the ideal is still perfect. The nullity of the state and the apology of the famous “invisible hand” of the liberal Adam Smith, both function as pillars of capitalist consciousness before and after Captain America, only that its update through super-powered media models comes to place us in front of an opium of the villages almost charming.
The dark of Tim Burton’s Batman Returns , sure bothered the ideologues of the comic because, how is it that our hero is allowed to hit by Catwoman or, even, takes off the mask, so that your girl loves her true self and not the myth? It was a very intellectual and human dark, something far from nationalist steel. Result: Tim Burton was fired and the saga continued with a Batman who even uses torture to obtain information (this in the Bush Jr. era and the use of illegal prisons and preventive invasion). Trashing the rule of law and the prevalence of free trade as a shield despite the evils that entails, that is what those who gave gourds to the genius of Tim Burton want.
Spiderman better supplied his mythological role, with that pure consecration to the cause of justice, that not even an American blonde and her charms can divert. So, the superhero barely gave his girl a little kiss, while holding her head and masked. The sneaking of something other than the fight against evil demonstrates the apolitical and virile of the ideal of justice embodied in that kind of omnipresent myth. The sexuality of superheroes is almost invisible, despite the fact that male marks are evident in tight suits and perfect bodies. The companies place brides next to these characters, but rarely do we see that these relationships are consumated, since it seems that the myth is there untouchable before the human and imperfect macula of sex. The superhero is made of the best, and this practically implies a celibacy before ordinary things. Let us not forget that it is aimed at young people and that libido is, according to Freud, the sine qua non mechanism of liberation of the true self trapped in Western conventions.
The mask of the superhero supplies the feeble face of the real man, because the idealistic condition seems given by a supra and unknown being, beyond the same protagonist, who does not choose to be as he is. Thus, the human doubles of Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel, etc., are perhaps even more unhappy than the rest of humanity. They show an obvious disability, as is the case of the surly character of the boy who becomes Spiderman, who I would suffer from agoraphobia. It is the invisible hand that draws them and places them in the middle of situations that they resolve and after which they must disappear behind anodyne human existence, to a normal life marked by the crisis of a system that, in the discourse of comics, is not perfect but has its own regulatory mechanisms of justice beyond legal justice.
The comic superhero emerges as the modern mythical expression of capital, coming to give security to the insecure in the middle of the voracious market. In the subtext is the call not to go to strengthen the eligible structures, such as the state or the laws. Instead it wants you to rely on an invisible and a much more powerful metaphysics that nobody knows, but that arises as soon as “Shazam!” is said. There is also there, among the ink of colors, the message that justice has a private owner, a millionaire conscious of his social role (Batman), capable of establishing it with the required perfection. Now, the role of those who look at the comics should not be to separate them, but to know well that we are not like Inspector Gordon, who leaves everything in the hands of a sign in heaven. Justice is a social good and is chosen in a democratic way, the ethics of a socio-political moment is knowable and can be studied through the existing structures. It is not about metaphysical heroes and villains flashing in the sky, but about elites of power and working peoples in the perpetual challenge of the history of the class struggle.
Something More Than a Publishing Hit
Something More Than a Publishing Hit
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Exclusive for the daily POR ESTO! of Merida, Mexico.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann.
The real revelation in Michael Wolff’s new and successful book, Fire and Fury, is not that President Donald Trump acts like a child, suffers from psychopathologies like delusions of grandeur and paranoia, is an ignoramus who neither reads nor listens and, in short, is totally incapable of fulfilling the duties of his office.
It is not necessary to be a mental health professional to realize that Trump is an extremely dangerous character, a psychologically-distorted personality, a man with cognitive impairment, in complete denial, and with the unilateral power to initiate a nuclear holocaust that could destroy civilization. The Republican, right-wing and conservative project tries to erase the traces of the mid-20th century American Enlightenment and aims to make the United States once again great for religious fanatics, racists, xenophobes, misogynists, homophobes, plutocrats and the wildest capitalists.
To complete this project, the Republicans, despite their hypocrisy, have shown themselves ready and eager to sign a pact with the devil. They have done so with a political leader who is not satanic, but only a demagogue, serial liar, swindler and manipulator of the ethnic and economic fear of Americans. His goal is to fuel anger and hatred. He is a man lacking empathy, a sense of impartiality, history, appreciation and understanding for science and knowledge, and a man lacking in temperament and judgment to rule the world’s most powerful country.
The preceding paragraphs are the first of a very popular article published by the Progreso Semanal website, published in Florida, USA, about Wolf’s well-documented book that has been, as expected, a great publishing success in that country.
Anthony Zurcher, Washington correspondent for the British Crown Media Complex, the BBC, sums up in ten points what the media has been doing for the past ten years.
(1). Steven Bannon, the former chief strategist of Trump and his former trusted man, describes the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr. as “traitor” and “unpatriotic.
(2). Trump expressed astonishment and consternation after his victory in the November 2016 presidential elections. Donald Trump, Jr. revealed to a friend that his father was perplexed, transformed himself into an incredulous Trump and then into a horrified Trump. Then came his final transformation into a man who believed he deserved everything, capable of being the president of the United States.
(3). Trump did not enjoy his inauguration because of the event’s non-attendance by top-level personalities. He was dissatisfied with the White House lodging, and was seen fighting with his wife -who seemed to be on the verge of tears- in anger, with bent shoulders, swinging arms, eyebrows and wrinkled lips.
(4). Trump found the White House to be creepy. He asked for a lock on the door, which led to a confrontation with the Secret Service, which insisted on having access to the room.
(5). Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, and her husband, Jared Kushner, allegedly reached an agreement for her to become the first woman president, Wolff said:
(6). Ivanka herself mocked her father’s so-called “scalp reduction surgery”, ironically, going as far as to mock her hair in front of others. She often described to her friends the mechanics of his hairstyle.
(7). Not even the most trusted White House staff are aware of management priorities.
(8). Trump’s admiration for media mogul Rupert Murdoch is evident in the book even though he had repeatedly spurned Murdoch as a charlatan and a fool.
(9). Murdoch thought that a liberal approach to granting H-1B visas to specialized foreign workers in desperate need would open the door to immigrants. And that it could be difficult to set up with the promise of building a wall with Mexico and closing the borders. Trump seemed indifferent, but immediately he said to Murdoch,”Let’s solve it! And soon after, Murdoch muttered: What a fucking idiot! and shrugging his shoulders, he hung up the phone.”
(10). Michael Flynn, the former National Security advisor had been warned by friends that it was not a good idea to accept $45,000 from the Russians for giving a speech. He later admitted that he had lied during the Justice Department’s investigation into alleged Russian interference in the presidential elections. According to the author of this selection of outstanding notes in the book, Anthony Zurcher: “Sometimes there has been a disconnect between Trump’s rhetoric and his actions. Maybe because the President reflects his sensitivity in business. Or simply because he was echoing the opinion of the last group of people he had met.
February 15,2018.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
A Unique and Special Experience in the World
A Unique and special experience in the world
“From the Cuban strategy on sexual diversity, unique in the world, many countries, even developed, could learn,” says Canadian researcher Emily Kirk, author of the first foreign book on the official approach to this issue in the country.
By Mileyda Menéndez Dávila sentido@juventudrebelde.cu
and Jorge Sánchez digital@juventudrebelde.cu
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann.
Cuba’s gay Revolution: normalizing sexual diversity through a health-based approach is the first overseas vision of the Cuban Program to normalize sexual diversity based on health. Author: Juventud Rebelde Published: 09/02/2018 | 09:00 pm
From the Cuban sexual diversity strategy, unique in the world, many countries, even developed ones, could learn from it,” says Canadian researcher Emily Kirk, author of the first foreign book on the official approach to sexual diversity in the country.
Cuba’s Gay Revolution: normalizing sexual diversity through a health-based approach is the first overseas vision of the Cuban Program to normalize sexual diversity based on health. Author: Youth Rebel Published: 09/02/2018 | 09:00 pm
Although it is not among the books presented these days in La Cabaña, the debut of a text on Cuban reality is news in the international media.
This is the first vision from abroad of the Cuban program to normalize sexual diversity based on health: Cuba’s gay Revolution: normalizing sexual diversity through a health-based approach was published by Lexington Books, from the United States, after two years of persistent effort by its author, Canadian Emily Kirk, Doctor of Science in Latin American Studies and expert on global development issues.
She decided to first publish the results of her field research in the world’s most difficult publishing market, not so much because of the controversy over the sexual issue, but because of the suspicion that any scientific defense of the social achievements of revolutionary Cuba raises in that country.
This year, the book will be printed in the UK and Canada and presented in Spain. It has already been translated into Turkish and a Cuban publisher offered to take it to Spanish. Meanwhile, a copy of the work will be available at the Cenesex documentation center, courtesy of Kirk.
Beyond its publicized novelty as a first approach to the Cuban official vision on this issue, the text is a working tool for the multidisciplinary team that examines the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals in Brazil, Fiji, Ecuador, India, South Africa and Cuba.
As an international expert in health programs, she emphasizes the virtues of a strategy that is almost invisible to our population because of its daily obviousness. Her opinion is conclusive: the Cuban treatment of sexual diversity is a unique and very special experience in the world. Many countries, even developed ones, could learn from it to advance in the solution of problems that accumulate centuries of inequality.
You don’t have it all figured out, there is much to gain even in terms of laws, conduct, sexist stereotypes…But it is impressive how they have managed to focus their actions on the unquestionable value of human health, their physical and emotional well-being, beyond the subjective interpretation of what is a sexual right or how they exercised, which is the most frequent approach that other countries work with,” explained Dr. Kirk in an exclusive interview for Sexo Sentido.
Palpable evolution
The choice of the title of her work certainly reflects an advertising strategy, Emily said, smiling. The Cuban Revolution is well-known and attracts a lot of interest. Part of that admiration is due to the government’s obsession with the health of the people and its sincere efforts to bring that care to other parts of the world, he said.
She began her research on the Cuban health system in 2008, and from 2011 she focused on the systematization of treatment of sexual diversity. She has known the island since she was a child because he used to accompany her father, Dr. John Kirk, whose love for the history of Cuba she honors with this book today.
In the last ten years, she has been able to observe the country’s evolution regarding these issues, and she admires very much what has been achieved by Cenesex, the Federation of Cuban Women and other Cuban institutions, but above all, the change of mentality that is already being felt in the street.
It also believes that we have great advantages over other countries in the area in terms of laws in favor of the family and individual rights. It states that our society is prepared to update its codes in terms of what is popularly incorporated as knowledge, feeling and social behavior.
He enthusiastically asserts that her studies of Creole reality do not end here. The book is a balance between 1959 and 2014, but Cuba continues to evolve and she is eager to observe this process and share her achievements with other nations where her academic tasks and her humanist vocation also take her.
In all countries, this is a problem to be addressed. In my city, diversity marches began 25 years ago and the first time around 100 people participated (including my family); however, in 2016,100,000 people marched, a quarter of the entire population “.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
Miami Cubans Important to Future
Padura: Miami Cubans Important to Cuba’s Future
By Redaccion OnCuba
January 27, 2018
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews
Cuban craftsmanship in the fair Cuba Nostalgia that every year takes place in Miami. Photo: Rui Ferreira.
Padura, who was in the Spanish city of Toledo to present his new novel La transparencia del tiempo, answered reporters’ questions, that although he can’t be sure, he believes Trump is president “because in ahead of him, there was a candidate who was a woman.
And, in the United States, it was easier to have a black president than a female president, it’s a very complicated society,” he added.
Cuban writer Leonardo Padura said that the president of the United States, Donald Trump,”is the sin that Americans themselves are paying for their way of thinking”.
In this regard, he recalled that the story he tells in his latest novel takes place fundamentally in 2014 and ends with the beginning of talks between Cuba and the United States to re-establish relations.
It was a very hopeful development for the vast majority of Cubans and a large majority of Americans. But unfortunately, one of President Trump’s fundamental policies has been to dismantle President Obama’s policies,” said Padura.
I don’t believe that he has had a definite policy, except in the dismantling of what Obama created, and that’s where Cuba also fell,” said the writer, for whom relations between Cuba and the United States were restored but not normalized,” because, with an economic and financial embargo there can’t be normal relations.
In this context, he stressed that the Cuban community in Miami “is really very important.
It is a community that has made great efforts, which has even been able to accumulate capital “and will be important in the future development of Cuba,” according to Padura. He added that although in his principles this community “was characterized by being totally hostile to the Cuban revolutionary system,” now other more open generations have arrived.
The new generation of Cubans from Miami is much more open, its members travel to Cuba very often ” and they feel Cuban,” said Padura. He added that he has personally perceived that “it is increasingly possible for a Cuban artist living in Cuba to present himself as something normal in Miami.
There is an atmosphere “in which you can find some sense of hostility,” although he pointed out that “this has remained for a political class for which the bad relationship with Cuba is part of their work and is also part of their business.
But, in general, I feel that it is a community that has changed a lot in recent times. The historical exile no longer exists,” said Padura, who, for this novel brings back the character of police officer Mario Conde, who has starred in half a dozen novels.
In the plot, Conde is going to turn 60 years old and age begins to worry him. Not because of vanity,”but because he wants to witness things that may happen in the future” even though he is a man obsessed with the past “and knows that this vital period is running out”.
What is DACA and Who Are the Dreamers
What is DACA and Who Are the Dreamers
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Exclusive for the daily POR ESTO! of Merida, Mexico.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann.
In the United States, approximately 2.1 million undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as children face a situation that is very different from the American dream.
For their benefit, in June 2012, the Barack Obama administration proposed an immigration policy known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). It allowed a number of people admitted to the United States as minors who had entered or remained in the country illegally to receive residence permits for renewable periods of two years, deferring the action. Every two years they should be able to reaffirm these data to retain the benefits of DACA.
Approximately 800,000 people who have taken refuge in five years with DACA’s deportation protection can apply for a 2-year work permit with a renewable option, ask for their Social Security registration number, and apply for driver’s license.
Although DACA has never been subject to specific legal approval, its visibility and that of the dreamers grew enormously in the American public. The dreamers, who have lived in a limbo of illegality for most or all of their lives, in an atmosphere of sympathy and sympathy, if not rejection, have become the subject of debate beyond the negotiations in Congress.
After several months of presidential silence on the matter, on September 5,2017, U. S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Trump regime had decided to end the DACA program. He said this was because nine general prosecutors, hard-line conservatives on immigration issues from as many states in the country, threatened to denounce the official policy implemented by their predecessor, Barack Obama, arguing that the policy was the responsibility of President Obama
Sessions called DACA an unconstitutional exercise by the Obama Administration. Trump only sent out one of his usual twitter sketches: “I am not in favor of punishing children, most of whom are now adults, for the actions of their parents. But we must recognize that if this is a nation of opportunity, it is because we are a nation of laws.
Since the beginning of his presidential campaign, Trump has issued dramatically opposed opinions about what he intends to do with the Dreamers. In a White House ceremony, he said they should be deported. But shortly afterwards, he said they should be protected from deportation “because they are great guys.”
On another occasion he said he will treat them with “big heart” but at the end of Obama’s term in office he has put an end to the program that protected them, USA Today points out.
Although members of the two parties that monopolize the U. S. electoral landscape complain that they can’t identify what the White House is looking for, Sarah Sanders, Trump’s press secretary, repeats over and over again: “The President has been clear about what his priorities are in that process.
At the height of the presidential campaign in 2016, Trump’s most significant political initiative was the promise to build and a “big and beautiful” wall that will separate the United States from Mexico, which will be paid for by the Mexican side.
Trump promised to speed up the deportation of the country’s eleven million undocumented immigrants, but when asked on Meet the Press if he would make an exception with the dreamers, he simply answered: “They have to go.”
Fifteen states and the District of Columbia have spoken out against the presidential decision to end .DACA. They will file a lawsuit against the federal government against such a decision by Trump. The original complaint was filed in New York, led by the Attorney General of that state and Massachusetts. He has been joined by North Carolina, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and the District of Columbia.
Chuck Schumer (D-NY), leader of the Democratic minority in the Senate, offered a very different definition of the image Trump wants to project as a white supremacist male, saying that arguing with Trump is like “negotiating with Jell-o.”
February 12, 2018.
The United States wants its drugged soldiers, alienated so that they increase the atrocious crimes, the genocide, the cruel wars against any country in the world. It is a malevolent, dehumanized strategy.