Notorious Right-Wing Judge Will Decide Fate of 'Sham' Lawsuit That Could Bankrupt Planned Parenthood

Susan Rinkunas

JEZEBEL
Wed, August 16, 2023 

Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk


The federal judge who tried to ban the abortion pill will decide the fate of an absurd lawsuit against Planned Parenthood that could end up with the organization having to pay billions, bankrupting its Texas affiliates and possibly the entire organization.

The state of Texas and an anonymous plaintiff that goes by Alex Doe are suing the national Planned Parenthood and three affiliates in Texas and Louisiana, demanding that they repay at least $17 million in Medicaid funds. The case could also result in more than $1.8 billion in fines and penalties. They filed their lawsuit in Amarillo, Texas, where Planned Parenthood doesn’t have any clinics, but is where Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an anti-abortion who judge previously worked as a lawyer at a right-wing Christian legal organization, presides. Kacsmaryk held a hearing for the case on Tuesday.

The CEOs of the three affiliates said in a statement that more than 100,000 Texans rely on their clinics every year for affordable health care—an option that would disappear if they are forced to close: “It is critical that we not lose sight of who will be harmed if Planned Parenthood is ordered to pay the outrageous penalties...: our communities and our patients, especially people with low incomes.” Manning added in a press call on Tuesday that, for many patients of reproductive age in Texas, Planned Parenthood providers are their only source of health care.

“State and federal courts explicitly permitted Planned Parenthood health centers to provide care through the Medicaid program during the period in question, as well as a grace period provided to Planned Parenthood so that we could continue to care for our patients,” Manning said on the call. “Planned Parenthood was paid for providing those services to patients with Medicaid coverage, just like any other health care provider, and just as the courts required. That is not fraud—it is providing healthcare and it’s following the law.”

Jacob Elberg, a former federal prosecutor who specialized in healthcare fraud, told the Associated Press that Texas’ argument is weak. Elberg, who is now faculty director at Seton Hall Law School’s Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law, said it was “hard to understand” how Planned Parenthood could have been knowingly filing false claims when when it was actively suing to stay in the Medicaid program, and Texas was still reimbursing the organization.

Kacsmaryk will decide if the case will go to trial or get dismissed; Manning told reporters he didn’t give a timeline for his decision but she said it was a “meritless case” that the judge shouldn’t let proceed any further. Like the abortion pill case, any appeals will go first to the extremely conservative Fifth Circuit, then on to the Supreme Court. (Yes, we are still waiting for the Fifth Circuit to issue its decision in response to the Food and Drug Administration’s appeal of the mifepristone case.)

Similar to the abortion pill case, this lawsuit is entirely without merit and seems designed waste the time and money of those that support abortion access, and to test the fences of the federal court system that is now littered with Trump-appointed judges. It seems unlikely that the Supreme Court would go for Paxton and Doe’s argument, but the problem with this court is that you can never be too sure.

Inmates at California women's prison sue federal government over sexual abuse

OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ
Wed, August 16, 2023 

The Federal Correctional Institution stands in Dublin, Calif., on Dec. 5, 2022. Eight inmates of the abuse-plagued federal women's prison filed a lawsuit Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023, against the Bureau of Prisons, saying sexual abuse and exploitation continue at the San Francisco Bay Area lockup despite the prosecution of the former warden and several former prison officers. 

(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File) 


OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Eight inmates at a San Francisco Bay Area lockup — dubbed the “rape club” by prisoners and workers alike — filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the federal Bureau of Prisons, saying sexual abuse and exploitation has not stopped despite the prosecution of the former warden and several former officers.

The lawsuit filed in Oakland by attorneys representing the inmates and the advocacy group California Coalition for Women Prisoners also names the current warden and 12 former and current guards. It alleges the Bureau of Prisons and staff at the Dublin facility didn’t do enough to prevent sexual abuse going back to the 1990s.

An Associated Press investigation last year found a culture of abuse and cover-ups that had persisted for years at the prison, about 21 miles (34 kilometers) east of Oakland. That reporting led to increased scrutiny from Congress and pledges from the federal Bureau of Prisons that it would fix problems and change the culture at the prison.

The Bureau of Prisons has failed to address rampant misconduct in its ranks and protect the safety of those in its care, said Amaris Montes, an attorney at Rights Behind Bars representing the plaintiffs.

“Individual prisoners have had to endure rape, groping, voyeurism, forced stripping, sexually explicit comments on an everyday basis and so much more,” she said.

The lawsuit seeks a third party to oversee the prison to ensure inmates have access to a confidential place to report abuse. It also asks that all victims be given access to medical and mental health care and legal counsel.

The plaintiffs, which are asking the court to certify the case as a class action, also want compassionate release for victims and for those who are living in the country illegally to be issued a “U visa,” a special visa program for victims of crime.

Bureau of Prisons spokesperson Donald Murphy said that the bureau does not comment on pending litigation or ongoing investigations.

In March, a judge sentenced former warden Ray J. Garcia to 70 months in prison for sexually abusing three female inmates and forcing them to pose naked for photos in their cells. Garcia was among eight prison workers, including a chaplain, charged with abusing inmates and the first to go to trial.

Montes said a sexual abuse culture persists at the low-security facility and inmates who report violations continue to face retaliation, including being put in solitary confinement and having all their belongings confiscated.

“We went to visit the prison yesterday and we heard additional stories of recent sexual abuse within this last week,” Montes said. “The BOP has tried to address individual officers and is trying to make it seem like it's an issue of bad actors or bad apples, but it’s really a systemic issue.”

A former inmate at the federal facility said she was sexually abused by an officer who manipulated her with promises that he could get her compassionate release. The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually abused unless they agree to be named.

She said she also witnessed the sexual abuse of fellow inmates and the retaliation against those who reported the officers' misconduct.

She said she was incarcerated at the prison from 2019-2022 on a drug trafficking conviction. She said she was put in solitary confinement and lost all her belongings after her cellmate reported being abused.

"They were supposed to protect us because we were in their custody, but personally, I was abused and I saw officers abuse women, especially those who had been there longer. I saw them harassing them, grabbing, groping them," she said in Spanish, her voice breaking.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Judge Rules HP Must Face Class Action Lawsuit Over Disabled Printers

Kevin Hurler
Wed, August 16, 2023 

Image: Dmitry S. Gordienko (Shutterstock)


Printers are one of the great necessary evils in our modern world, much to the chagrin of consumers. Now a federal judge has ruled that HP must face a class action lawsuit, in which the plaintiffs argue that the company’s all-in-one printers brick themselves when the ink runs low.

The lawsuit was filed in June in the Northern District of California federal court, but the Associated Press reports that yesterday, U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman tossed out the company’s attempt to dismiss the suit. The lawsuit argues that HP’s all-in-one printers cease to function once any of its ink cartridges run dry—including all non-printing functions. In other words, if ink levels in one of the four cartridges (black, cyan, yellow, magenta) are deemed too low by the printer, users have found they are unable to scan or fax an item.
ervices

“What HP fails to disclose is that, if even one of the ink cartridges is too low, empty, or damaged, the scanning function on the ‘all-in-one’ printer will be disabled and will not work as advertised,” the complaint reads. “None of HP’s advertising or marketing materials disclose the basic fact that its All-in-One Printers do not scan documents when the devices have low or empty ink cartridges.”

HP did not immediately return Gizmodo’s request for comment on the pending case.

The plaintiffs initially filed the lawsuit last year. Judge Freeman dismissed that lawsuit, but allowed them to refile, with the updated complaint submitted earlier this summer.

This is not the first time HP has landed in hot water over shady practices concerning its printers. Gizmodo previously reported that HP printers were rejecting third-party ink, forcing consumers to buy the company’s own overpriced ink cartridges. HP is not alone, however, in allegedly bricking its printers when the ink runs dry—Canon faced a similar lawsuit back in 2021. Likewise, Epson was accused of having printers shut down after some arbitrary amount of use.

Gizmodo

HP fails to derail claims that it bricks scanners on multifunction printers when ink runs low

DAVID HAMILTON
Updated Tue, August 15, 2023

  

This Aug. 15, 2019, photo shows the HP logo on Hewlett-Packard printer ink cartridges at a store in Manchester, N.H. HP Inc. has failed to shunt aside claims in a lawsuit that it disables scanners and other functions on its multifunction printers whenever the ink runs low. The suit claims that HP's so-called “all-in-one” printers provide consumers no indication the devices require printer ink to scan documents or send faxes. 

(AP Photo/Charles Krupa, file) 

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — HP has failed to shunt aside class-action legal claims that it disables the scanners on its multifunction printers when their ink runs low. Though not for lack of trying.

On Aug. 10, a federal judge ruled that HP Inc. must face a class-action lawsuit claiming that the company designs its “all-in-one” inkjet printers to disable scanning and faxing functions whenever a single printer ink cartridge runs low. The company had sought — for the second time — to dismiss the lawsuit on technical legal grounds.

“It is well-documented that ink is not required in order to scan or to fax a document, and it is certainly possible to manufacture an all-in-one printer that scans or faxes when the device is out of ink,” the plaintiffs wrote in their complaint. “Indeed, HP designs its all-in-one printer products so they will not work without ink. Yet HP does not disclose this fact to consumers.”

The lawsuit charges that HP deliberately withholds this information from consumers to boost profits from the sale of expensive ink cartridges.

Color printers require four ink cartridges -- one black and a set of three cartridges in cyan, magenta and yellow for producing colors. Some will also refuse to print if one of the color cartridges is low, even in black-and-white mode.

HP declined to comment on the issue, citing the pending litigation. The company’s court filings in the case have generally not addressed the substance of the plaintiff’s allegations.

In early 2022, U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman dismissed the complaint on legal grounds but did not address the lawsuit's claims. The judge allowed the plaintiffs to amend their claim and resubmit it. On Aug. 10, the judge largely rejected HP's request to dismiss the revised complaint, allowing the case to proceed.

All-in-one inkjet printers generally seem like a bargain compared to the cost of separate devices with scanning, copying and fax functions. For instance, HP currently sells its all-in-one OfficeJet Pro 8034e online for just $159. But its least expensive standalone scanner, the ScanJet Pro s2, lists for $369 — more than twice the cost of the multifunction printer.

Of course, only one of these devices requires printer ink. “Printer ink is wildly expensive,” Consumer Reports states in its current printer buying guide, noting that consumer ink costs can easily run more than $70 a year.

Worse, a significant amount of ink is never actually used to print documents because it's consumed by printer maintenance cycles. In 2018, Consumer Reports tested hundreds of all-in-one inkjet printers and found that, when used intermittently, many models delivered less than half of their ink to printed documents. A few managed no more than 20% to 30%.

HP isn't alone in facing such legal complaints. A different set of plaintiffs sued the U.S. unit of printer and camera maker Canon Inc. in 2021 for similarly handicapping its all-in-one printers without disclosure. The parties settled that case in late 2022. Terms were not disclosed.

Doug Ford's Greenbelt scandal: The beginning of the end of his years in power?

Story by Mark Winfield, Professor, Environmental and Urban Change, York University, Canada

 •4h
THE CONVERSATION

Ontario Premier Doug Ford speaks during a news conference in Mississauga, Ont., on Aug. 11, 2023, two days after a scathing auditor general report into the Greenbelt.

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston

The findings of Ontario’s auditor general on the provincial government’s decision to remove 7,400 acres from the Greater Toronto Area Greenbelt came as no surprise to those who have been closely following Premier Doug Ford’s approach to planning and development.

Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk determined:

— Well-connected developers were given direct access to ministerial staff and the opportunity to rewrite planning rules to suit their own interests;

— Normal decision-making processes and planning rules were bypassed;

— Overwhelming evidence that indicated there was no need to remove land from the Greenbelt to meet the region’s housing needs was ignored;

— Decisions were made to provide billions of dollars in benefits to private interests that won’t enhance housing affordability in any way.

All of this is part of a wider pattern of behaviour for the Ford government over the past five years.


Ontario Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk speaks to the media during a news conference regarding her report on the Greenbelt on Aug. 9, 2023.© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Arlyn McAdorey
Par for the course

The Greenbelt controversy is the culmination of a series of troubling government decisions and legislative changes since Ford was first elected in 2018.

These have included the widespread use of ministerial zoning orders, known as MZOs, to override local plans and city council decisions in favour of development interests.

In addition, developers have been invited to rewrite the planning rules — all mandated by municipalities and communities to facilitate and manage urban growth via existing provincial policies — to suit their own interests.

There are examples throughout Toronto and its bedroom communities — including in midtown and downtown Toronto, Richmond Hill, Markham and Mississauga.

The roles of conservation authorities and local governments in decision-making have been systemically marginalized, and planning rules related to both built and natural heritage conservation sites have been shredded.

Meantime, the costs of the infrastructure needed to support private, for-profit development have been transferred to local and provincial taxpayers.

The province’s land-use planning system — including the Greenbelt and growth plans for the Greater Toronto Area — were once the subject of international acclaim for their management of intense growth while farmland, housing affordability and natural heritage areas were protected.

Now that system has been transformed into an instrument wielded by the province to overcome any objections to the wishes of developers.
Policy failure

The result has been a predictable picture of policy failure — a development boom defined by the construction of single-use high-rises, mostly condominiums, in urban areas and sprawling low-density housing in the suburbs.

That trend has been escalated by the removal of the 7,400 acres from the Greenbelt.

This model of “tall and sprawl” development has done next to nothing to improve housing affordability, particularly for those at the lower end of the income scale.

In fact, in some areas, this industry-driven model is leading to significant losses of existing affordable rental housing as they’re displaced by investor-owned condominium developments.

The same basic principles evident in the government’s handling of the Greenbelt and housing files can be seen across a range of files, from energy to health care.

The Ford government engages in a casual approach to decision-making that regards normal governance processes as delay-inducing red tape. It tends to respond uncritically to whatever its favoured economic interests tell it to do.

That tendency was highlighted in Ford’s recent Greenbelt news conference, when he seemed to define good governance as saying “yes” to whatever business lobbyists ask for.



Perhaps even more disturbing is his apparent blindness to the meaning of ministerial responsibility or accountability in a system of democratic governance. Both Ford and Housing Minister Steve Clark claim they didn’t know what the minister’s chief of staff was doing on the Greenbelt file.

Those claims are either admissions of catastrophic failures in management and oversight or an attempt to mislead the legislature, the auditor general and the public.
Stonewalling

So far, the government has stonewalled on the auditor general’s key recommendation — that the removal of lands from the Greenbelt must be re-evaluated in light of what the government itself admits was a flawed decision-making process.

But the political and legal fallout from the auditor general’s report seems destined to continue for some time.

A further report into the controversy from the Ontario legislature’s Integrity Commissioner is on the horizon.

Lysyk has already committed to a followup audit. There are also calls for an Ontario Provincial Police investigation into the Greenbelt decisions. A variety of potential procedural and legal challenges are under consideration.

Whether the entire episode will prompt the government to reconsider its evidence-free, friends-with-benefits approach to governing remains an open question. So does the question of whether the political and legal fallout will be substantial enough to mark the beginning of the end for Ford’s government.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

Read more:
How Airbnb may be fuelling gentrification: A case study in Toronto

Housing is a direct federal responsibility, contrary to what Trudeau said. Here’s how his government can do better.

Mark Winfield receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. He was involved in the development of the original GTA Greenbelt and Growth Plans, including serving on the Ministerial Advisory Committee on the Implementation of the Growth Plan.

Opinion: 'Doug Ford is corrupt AF, and now we have the receipts'

Wed, August 16, 2023 

This was no accident

Ford claims he needs to decimate the protected Greenbelt in Ontario to address the housing crisis, but both experts and the Auditor General says that's B.S.

On Canada Project is a social advocacy group made up of neighbourhood nerds who are here to dismantle the status quo and champion change in our lives.

—

The Greenbelt is a protected area of Ontario that serves a critical purpose in protecting our planet.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford claims he needs to decimate the Greenbelt to address the housing crisis, however both experts and the Auditor General says that's not true.

Earlier this year, Ford came under fire for having developers at his daughter's wedding festivities - and those same developers are the ones making money off of the destruction of the Greenbelt.

He made this video because during his 2018 campaign, it leaked that Ford had told developers 'he has their back' regarding Greenbelt.

$8.3 billion dollars of taxpayer money is not only going towards the destruction of something that helps us combat the climate emergency, but it's public dollars going to Ford's friends.

That's corruption – we have the receipts and explain why.

MONOPOLY CAPITALI$M
Texas approves plan to mandate Tesla tech for EV chargers despite opposition

Abhirup Roy
Wed, August 16, 2023 



SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -Texas on Wednesday approved its plan to require companies to include Tesla's technology in electric vehicle (EV) charging stations to be eligible for federal funds, despite calls for more time to re-engineer and test the connectors.

The decision by Texas - the biggest recipient of a $5 billion program meant to electrify U.S. highways - is being closely watched by other states and is a step forward for Tesla CEO Elon Musk's plans to make its technology the U.S. charging standard.

Tesla's efforts are facing early tests as some states start rolling out the funds. The company won a slew of projects in Pennsylvania's first round of funding announced on Monday but none last month in Ohio.

Federal rules require companies to offer the rival Combined Charging System (CCS) - a U.S. standard that has been preferred by the Biden administration - as a minimum to be eligible for the funds.

But individual states can add their own requirements on top of CCS before distributing the federal funds at a local level.

Ford Motor and General Motors' announcement just over two months ago that they planned to adopt Tesla's North American Charging Standard (NACS) sent shockwaves through the industry and prompted a number of automakers and charging companies to embrace the technology.

In June, Reuters reported that Texas - which will receive and deploy $407.8 million over five years - planned to mandate companies to include Tesla's plugs. Washington state has talked about similar plans and Kentucky has already mandated it.

Florida, another major recipient of funds, recently revised it plans, saying it would mandate NACS one year after standards body SAE International, which is reviewing the technology, formally recognizes it.

Some charging companies wrote to the Texas Transportation Commission, opposing the requirement in the first round of funds and citing concerns about the supply chain and certification of Tesla's connectors, saying it would put the successful deployment of EV chargers at risk.

That forced Texas to defer a vote on the plan twice as it sought to understand NACS and its implications, before the commission voted unanimously to approve the plan on Wednesday.

"The two-connector approach being proposed will help assure coverage of a minimum of 97% of the current, over 168,000 electric vehicles with fast charge ports in the state," Humberto Gonzalez, a director at Texas' department of transportation said while presenting the state's plan to the commissioners.

(Reporting by Abhirup Roy in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

Canada mulling 'game plan' if U.S. takes far-right, authoritarian shift: Joly



OTTAWA — Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says Canada has been considering a "game plan" for how it would respond if the United States takes a far-right, authoritarian shift after next year's presidential elections.

Joly said in French during an interview with a Montreal radio station Wednesday that Canada must "prepare several scenarios" because of Ottawa's close ties to the U.S.

She says Canada has a game plan in mind but wouldn't get into details, other than saying she'd work with multiple levels of Canadian government, the business community and labour unions.

Joly drew an analogy to her government's experience working with the administration of former U.S. president Donald Trump, which sought to limit decades of trade in crucial sectors.

Trump is again running for the Republican nomination in next November's election, and has promised "retribution" against his opponents and civil servants.

University of Ottawa national-security professor Thomas Juneau says many Canadians might find it far-fetched to talk about Washington falling drastically out of step with Canada, but he says there has been an extreme rise in global volatility in recent years.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 17, 2023.

WORKERS CAPITAL
Australian $100 billion pension fund targets private assets with London launch

Story by By Lewis Jackson and Praveen Menon


SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's third-largest pension fund will officially open its first overseas outpost in London in November, a senior company official said, pushing for more private market investments as the sector outgrows the confines of home.

Aware Super, with A$160 billion ($102 billion) in assets, will set up in the district of St. James, popular with hedge funds and private equity firms, and plans to have a team of 14 by year end, according to Deputy Chief Investment Officer and Head of International Damien Webb, who will relocate to London in October.

Forecast to hit A$250 billion in assets by 2026, the fund plans to funnel "substantial" billions through the new office, which will initially focus on private equity, property and infrastructure in the UK, Europe and North America, Webb told Reuters.

"At 250 billion dollars and beyond I think we would start to challenge our (real asset) pipeline if we thought we could only do direct investments in Australia," said Webb. Real assets include property and infrastructure.

Related video: Wall Street's Next Prize Is a $2 Trillion Australia Pension Pot (Bloomberg)

Duration 3:31  View on Watch

"To originate and govern our own investments, we will need a presence overseas at that level of scale to source and manage...those investments."

Aware plans to roughly double offshore real asset exposure to 40% over the next three to five years.

International deals and offices in London or New York are becoming rites of passage for big players in Australia's A$2.4 trillion pension sector, which is swelling rapidly thanks to laws which set aside 11% of worker pay packets.

The country's biggest fund, AustralianSuper, recently poached senior executives from J.P. Morgan and BNP Paribas for its London office. In May, UniSuper paid A$1 billion for a stake in European telecom masts business Vantage Towers (VTWRn.DE).

Aware is "more than likely" to open a second office in North America in the next three to four years, Webb said.

($1 = 1.5676 Australian dollars)

ANARCHO-CAPITALISTS ARE FASCISTS

Argentina’s Milei Says He’d Reject ‘Assassin’ China, Leave Mercosur


(Bloomberg) -- Argentina’s presidential frontrunner Javier Milei would freeze relations with China and pull South America’s second-biggest economy out of the Mercosur trade bloc with Brazil, foreign policy proposals that are as radical as his economics.

In an interview following his unexpected primary victory on Aug. 13, the outsider candidate has given international policymakers the biggest insight yet in how he would conduct Argentina’s affairs on the world stage.

“People are not free in China, they can’t do what they want and when they do it, they get killed,” he told Bloomberg News on Wednesday, referring to Beijing’s government. “Would you trade with an assassin?”

President Xi Jinping’s ruling Communist Party typically silences dissidents with lengthy prison sentences and has been accused of detaining more than 1 million mostly Uyghurs in camps in its Xinjiang region. The US has dubbed that campaign a genocide, while Beijing calls the facilities vocational training centers.

China has also been accused of kidnapping a handful of people from overseas territories including Thailand, but unlike Russia has not faced credible accusations of assassinations.

Milei shook Argentina’s political establishment last weekend after receiving more votes than a pro-business opposition bloc and the ruling Peronist coalition, putting him in the lead to be the country’s next president. His election in October would generate shock waves across a region largely ruled by leftist leaders.

In his blanket refusal to do any kind of business with “socialists,” he lumped Communist China in the same category as Argentina’s biggest trade partner, Brazil, led by leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. China is the second-largest buyer of Argentine exports and provides a crucial $18 billion swap line with the central bank that’s being used to pay the International Monetary Fund.

Brazil’s foreign affairs ministry didn’t immediately comment on Milei’s remarks and calls put to China’s Embassy in Buenos Aires went unanswered. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a press briefing in Beijing on Thursday that if the candidate visited “he would have a completely different conclusion as to the freedom and security in China.”


A breakdown in relations with China could be damaging for Argentina — the central bank in Buenos Aires has been increasingly reliant on the currency swap to support the peso, with the government last month using yuan to repay some of the money it owes the IMF, amid a dwindling greenback supply.

Argentina could also see its existing trade deficit with China widen if Beijing decided to treat the South American nation like Australia, and stop buying its meat and other food products amid souring relations.

Milei described his foreign policy proposals as a global “fight against socialists and statists,” and revealed that he would appoint Diana Mondino, a trusted economic adviser, to be his top diplomat. She’s a former Standard & Poor’s director for Argentina and is running for Congress.

Not Involved

It’s not the first time a prominent Argentine politician has insulted China: In 2015, then-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner caused a furor by mocking the Chinese accent in a tweet. Her comments came while she was on a state visit to China seeking investment.


Milei later appeared to at least partly soften his outspoken comments, clarifying he’d deem it up to the private sector to decide whether to maintain commercial ties with China, and other countries with leaders that he dislikes.

“I don’t have to get involved, but I won’t promote ties with those who don’t respect freedom,” he said, adding that he’d respect deals already signed in Argentina by Chinese companies, which include a contract to build twin dams in Patagonia and an agreement to set up a nuclear plant.

The biggest geopolitical beneficiary of Milei’s ideology would clearly be the US. He was adamant he would work with any president elected in 2024, regardless of their political stripes, though he has a preference for a conservative.

Donald Trump is now ahead in the polls to secure the Republican nomination but Milei isn’t especially keen on being oft-compared to the former American president. Asked if he would like Trump to return to the White House, he said cautiously: “That’s up for Americans to decide.”

“I may like the profile of Republicans better than that of Democrats, but that doesn’t mean I don’t consider the US as our big strategic partner,” he said.

At the same time, he’s put Lula, Mexico’s Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Chile’s Gabriel Boric and Colombia’s Gustavo Petro, the leftists who run Latin America’s top economies, on guard. Asked about how his relations with them would be, he said: “I don’t have socialist partners.” He described his relationship with Lula’s predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, as “excellent.”

Milei was disparaging of the trade alliance that Argentina founded with Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay more than three decades ago. The group, beset by internal divisions, has struggled to implement a free-trade deal with the European Union agreed four years ago.

“Mercosur is a customs union of poor quality that creates trade distortions and hurts its members,” he said.

Unsurprisingly, Milei was equally critical of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, who he called a “dictator,” as well as the governments of Nicaragua, Cuba, North Korea and Russia. Argentina would again condemn Venezuela for its violation of human rights if he is picked president, Milei said, returning to the hard-line policy the country had until 2019 with President Mauricio Macri.

--With assistance from Simone Iglesias, Patrick Gillespie, Jonathan Gilbert, Philip Glamann and Colum Murphy.

(Updates with Chinese Foreign Ministry comment.)

Milei promises to pay Argentina’s debt and close the central bank

Thursday 17th August 2023

(Bloomberg Opinion) — Argentina’s leading presidential candidate Javier Milei has vowed to shut down the nation’s central bank and said he would do everything possible to prevent a default on the country’s sovereign debt if he wins the October vote.

Milei, a radical libertarian whose upset victory in Sunday’s primaries rattled markets, told Bloomberg News that his bold fiscal adjustment will boost Argentina’s reputation and credit profile, so default will not be necessary.

His plan includes cutting spending by at least 13% of gross domestic product by mid-2025 by drastically cutting public works, reducing the number of ministries, removing subsidies and capital restrictions, thereby that would allow companies to transact in US dollars. And even more drastic, he also plans to shut down the central bank, which he believes has no reason to exist, and dollarize the $640 billion economy.

“I’m going to do everything possible to avoid a default, obviously,” Milei said in a two-hour interview in Buenos Aires on Wednesday. “If the necessary fiscal adjustment is made, the financing will be there.”

Argentine assets fell after Milei — an outsider who, until now, few investors saw as a serious contender — took the lead in the primaries, which are seen as a barometer for presidential elections in a country where polls are notoriously unreliable. . The drop forced the government to devalue its official exchange rate by 18% when markets opened on Monday.

In her first interview with foreign media after her unexpected victory, Milei detailed her plan to exchange the Argentine peso for the US dollar as a way to reduce inflation, which is running at 113%, and intensified her criticism of the central bank, calling it ” The worst garbage that exists on Earth.”

Continue reading the story

“Central banks fall into four categories: the bad guys, like the Federal Reserve; the very bad ones, like those of Latin America; the terrifyingly bad; and the central bank of Argentina,” he said.

If Milei wins the presidency, he plans to hand over the keys to the central bank to economist Emilio Ocampo, his informal adviser on the dollarization program, to shut it down. Ocampo will also help in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, which has a $44 billion program with the South American nation. The candidate says that he has no plans to ask for more money from the IMF.

“A fiscal deficit is immoral,” said Milei. “If you continually live with a fiscal deficit, you’re going to be insolvent.”-

Milei said she has already developed a plan to dollarize the economy, a move she promises will be one of the first if she wins the Oct. 22 election. Argentina would follow the model of El Salvador and allow people to voluntarily choose between currencies. Once two-thirds of the monetary base is converted, the economy would be fully dollarized, she explained.

Translated by Pauline Steffens.

“If nobody wants to have pesos in Argentina, the question is how much are the pesos worth in real terms? Nobody wants them, we are not talking about water in the middle of the desert. We are talking about something that nobody wants,” Milei said.

The former congressman won more votes than the pro-business coalition led by Patricia Bullrich and the ruling Peronist bloc of Economy Minister Sergio Massa, surprising pollsters who expected him to take third place. Investors are concerned that the country is headed for its fourth debt renegotiation in the past two decades.

One of the main concerns of the markets is that Milei, a political outsider, would not be able to get support for his plans. The 52-year-old, who does not shy away from criticizing politicians he says have been robbing Argentines for decades, said he would call referendums if he cannot reach a legislative consensus to pass his measures.

“If I lower the currency risk, and I lower the credit risk, that means that the country risk will plummet. It means the bonds are going to literally fly,” he said. “The truth is that it is a fairly simple operation. And if you buy and hold these bonds, for example, the returns in one year would be over 200%.”

In the wide-ranging interview, Milei also criticized leftist leaders in China and Latin America, calling them “socialists,” saying he would seek to leave the Mercosur trading bloc and would quickly move to deregulate commodity markets.

Original Note: Milei Vows to Pay Argentina’s Debt While Shuttering Central Bank

–With contributions from Patrick Gillespie and Sydney Maki.

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.

Chinese American physicist, WWII pilot 

Maggie Gee to be inducted into California's

Hall of Fame

Ryan General
Wed, August 16, 2023 


A trailblazing World War II veteran, renowned for her feats as both a physicist and pilot,

 is set to be inducted into California's Hall of Fame this month.

Asian American luminary: Margaret “Maggie” Gee, whose remarkable life saw her breaking barriers and shattering glass ceilings, joins a distinguished roster of luminaries who have left an indelible mark on California.

On Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled the names of seven distinguished individuals who will be inducted into the 16th Class of the California Hall of Fame. In addition to Gee, other celebrated figures include actor and screenwriter Carrie Fisher, singer Etta James, Olympic gold medalist and educator Archie Williams, L.A. Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully, actor and public servant Shirley Temple Black and LGBTQ rights activist and pioneer Jose Julio Sarria.

Born to fly: Born as Gee Mei Gue on Aug. 5, 1923, in Berkeley, Gee was a passionate aviation enthusiast, captivated by trailblazers like Amelia Earhart. Her family’s Sunday trips to Oakland Airport further solidified her aspirations.

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Path to greatness: When the U.S. joined World War II in 1941, Gee's academic pursuits were momentarily sidelined. She contributed to the war effort by working in naval ship production at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. She then used her earnings to finance her dream of becoming a pilot.

Gee earned her pilot’s license within six months after moving to Minden, Nevada, to learn how to fly. She would eventually make history as one of the select few female pilots enrolled in the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) training program and became one of only two Chinese American women who broke into the WASP ranks.

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Gee’s legacy: After the war, Gee returned to the University of California, Berkeley, to earn a bachelor's degree in science and a master's degree in physics. She later used her knowledge to contribute to pivotal research at Berkeley’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. While there, she also engaged in groundbreaking work in weapons systems, leaving an indelible mark on the scientific community.

Gee received a Congressional Gold Medal in 2010, three years before she passed away at the age of 89.

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Her extraordinary achievements and contributions will be highlighted during the grand induction ceremony for the 16th Class of the California Hall of Fame, which will be held virtually on Aug. 22 at 6:00 p.m. PDT.

Oppenheimer often used Sanskrit verses, and the Bhagavad Gita was special for him − but not in the way Christopher Nolan's film depicts it

Vasudha Narayanan, Distinguished Professor of Religion, University of Florida
Wed, August 16, 2023 

The words Robert Oppenheimer quoted from the Gita, seen written in dust on part of a deactivated nuclear missile at the Pima Air & Space Museum. 

Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images


A scene in the film “Oppenheimer,” in which the physicist is quoting a Bhagavad Gita verse while making love, has upset some Hindus. The information commissioner of the Indian government, Uday Mahurkar, said in an open letter the scene was a “direct assault on religious beliefs of a billion tolerant Hindus” and alleged that it amounted to “waging a war on the Hindu community.” He also said that it almost appeared to be “part of a larger conspiracy by anti-Hindu forces.”

It is hard to say how many Hindus were offended by the Gita quote in a sexually charged scene, but there were those who disagreed with the views expressed in the tweet. Pavan K. Varma, a former diplomat, wrote that the controversy was a “misplaced outrage.”

Some others were not offended, just disappointed that the context of the lines quoted from the Bhagavad Gita was not brought out well. I should also add that Hindu texts composed over 1,000 years, starting around the sixth century B.C.E., have Sanskrit mantras for every occasion, including reciting some ritually before having sex. But they are context-specific, and certainly the Bhagavad Gita would not be used.

Overall, the controversy brought attention to the words quoted by J. Robert Oppenheimer while looking at the erupting fireball from the atomic bomb explosion in Los Alamos, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945: “Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” These words are a a paraphrase of Bhagavad Gita 11:32 where Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu – whom many Hindus think of as the supreme being – says that he is kala, or time.

Kala also means “death.” Oppenheimer’s teacher, Arthur Ryder, a professor of Sanskrit at the University of California, Berkeley, had translated the verse as “Death am I, and my present task Destruction.”

Beyond the sex squabble, the biopic can be a good starting point to understand how Oppenheimer’s deep knowledge of the Bhagavad Gita and other Sanskrit texts helped him with his assignment in New Mexico. It can also be a catalyst for the public to have some hard conversations about weapons of mass destruction.
Wisdom of the Gita and the Panchatantra

As an undergraduate at Harvard University, Oppenheimer read Hindu texts in translation, but at Berkeley, he learned Sanskrit from Ryder, meeting in his teacher’s home on long winter evenings. On Oct. 7, 1933, he wrote to his brother Frank that he had been reading the Gita with two other Sanskritists.

This text was special to Oppenheimer, more than other books. He called it “the most beautiful philosophical song existing in any known tongue,” and he gave copies to friends. When talking at a memorial service for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he quoted his own translation of Bhagavad Gita 17:3, “Man is a creature whose substance is faith. What his faith is, he is.”

Oppenheimer’s reaction, when he looked at the mighty explosion, seems to be close to what the German theologian Rudolf Otto called “numinous” – a combination of awe and fascination at this majesty. His reaction was to think of the Bhagavad Gita’s verse 11:12: “If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one.”

Oppenheimer also read many other Sanskrit texts, including the fifth-century Sanskrit poet Kalidasa’s “Cloud Messenger,” or “Meghaduta,” and his letters show familiarity with “The Three Hundred Poems of Moral Values,” or the “Satakatrayam,” a work from the sixth century C.E. From his quoting the text in many contexts, he seems to have been fond of the Panchatantra,“ a text of animal fables with pragmatic morals. Ryder, Oppenheimer’s Sanskrit mentor, had also translated this book of charming stories with sometimes cynical messages.

Oppenheimer’s familiarity with the Panchatantra is also evident in the naming of his new car Garuda, after the eagle-vehicle of Lord Vishnu. He explained the name to his brother, not with the bird’s well-known connection with Vishnu, but by alluding to a lesser-known story from the Panchatantra, in which a carpenter makes a wooden flying vehicle shaped like the mythical Garuda for his friend.

J. Robert Oppenheimer testifying before the U.S. Senate’s Special Committee on Atomic Energy. 

Keystone/Hulton Archives via Getty Images

Oppenheimer loved a Sanskrit epigram from the Panchatantra: "Scholarship is less than sense, therefore seek intelligence.” The line is a rueful reflection at the end of a story in which four men go to seek their fortune.

Three of them were learned scholars who held the fourth in low esteem. On their path, they came across some bones. On seeing those, the first, believing the bones to be of a lion, said that he could put the skeleton together. The second said he would the graft skin and flesh on it, and the third said he would make it come to life. The fourth – believed to be the less learned person – warned them against it. However, when they insisted on going ahead, he asked them to wait until he could climb a tree for safety. The lion came to life and devoured the three scholars.

Oppenheimer used the Sanskrit verse that followed this story often. From the Gita, he learned and rationalized that it was his duty to build the bomb, and it was the leaders’ duty to use it wisely. In other words, Oppenheimer went along with government decisions not because they were government decisions but because he thought political decision-making was the duty of government leaders, not scientists.

A missing discussion

It is hard to know director Christopher Nolan’s motivation for juxtaposing the Gita verse with an intimate scene – it could be creative license or simply Orientalism, or the West’s stereotypical description of the East. Given Oppenheimer’s deep love for the Bhagavad Gita, he would not have, I believe, quoted the text with disrespect.

As for the Hindus who are offended, there could be multiple reasons: It could be the centuries of a colonial gaze that was fascinated with and horrified by the erotic in Indian spirituality.

For example, the 10th-century temples of Khajuraho – where only about 10% of the sculptures are erotic – and texts like the Kamasutra informed early missionary views on Hinduism. It could also be that some Hindus valorize the spirit of renunciation and the ascetic impulse of some Hindu texts.

An aerial view after the first atomic explosion at the Trinity test site in New Mexico on July 16, 1945. 

AP Photo, File

But beyond this controversy, this film offers an opportunity to reflect on more profound issues. The detonation of atomic bombs led to the death of possibly 200,000 people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and horrific effects on survivors. Kai Bird, coauthor of the book on which the biopic Oppenheimer is based, said that he hopes the film “will initiate a national conversation not only about our existential relationship to weapons of mass destruction but also the need in our society for scientists as public intellectuals.”

While that would be valuable, an important discussion, left out from the narrative, is about the ethics of American leaders who knowingly caused harm at the time. The atomic test explosion led to devastating health consequences for abo 13,000 New Mexicans who lived within a 50-mile radius and were not warned beforehand or afterward. This exposure to radioactive material took a toll over several generations.

In the end, the lesson is that the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita have to be balanced with the pragmatic lessons of the Panchatantra. Despite Oppenheimer’s quoting the Panchatantra about common sense being more important than intellectual scholarship, his own interpretation of duty gave undue credit and power to political leaders.

With the atomic explosion in New Mexico, the lion from the Panchatantra story that Oppenheimer cautioned about did come to life, and some may say it lives in a straw cage.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. 

It was written by: Vasudha Narayanan, University of Florida.

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