The night was vanguished for a moment

The night was vanquished for a moment.

A smile rose in his face and around his eyes.

It was like a clear day after a trail of rainy years.

It was like a spring day after a harsh and late winter.

 

He smiled and the smile creased his shriveled face.

It revealed him a handsome specimen of the human race.

He smiled for a moment in a kind of hope

that was the first time in years.

and then he shook your hand and gave himself away.

 

Do you wonder that the night was vanguished?

It was for him.

For it never again held such power

nor left him so impotent in it's face.

 

Christopher H. Holte, January 1983

Always Too Dark

Always the sky seemed too dark late at night for her,

when the moon glinted in her dark eyes,

She seemed to become a shadow in his mind,

unreal, like a vampire or a dream.

 

She smiled, but all he could see was his latest conquest,

images of a smile;

He took her hand and tried to lead her down a dead end road.

She took it back and they walked in silence.

 

He took her to his car and they got in

He took her home and she let him kiss her on the cheek

He went home dreaming of vampires and the goddess of snakes.

Always the sky seemed too dark in his dreams,

And he wondered at the delusion.

Written January 1983, CH Holte

Understanding Argentina; Article on Formosa local news

FORMOSA, UN FEUDO QUE DUELE

EL APOYO DE LA PRESIDENTA AL GOBERNADOR DE UNA PROVINCIA SUMIDA EN LA MISERIA, EL NARCOTRÁFICO Y LA CORRUPCIÓN RESULTA UN MONUMENTO AL CLIENTELISMO PREBENDARIO. INSFRÁN-KIRCHNER, UNA SOCIEDAD DE BENEFICIOS MUTUOS, EN LA QUE PIERDEN LOS FORMOSEÑOS.

Con el pretexto de inaugurar una estación transformadora, la visita que la presidenta Cristina Fernández de Kirchner efectuó a Formosa días atrás tuvo la intención de brindar un firme apoyo a su aliado, el gobernador Gildo Insfrán -en los hechos una suerte de señor feudal vitalicio-, ante el pésimo panorama que de su provincia había difundido el programa televisivo de Jorge Lanata.
La desmesura que volvieron a adoptar los elogios de la Presidenta a un gobernador cuya gestión mantiene a Formosa sumida en la postración, el atraso, la miseria, los negociados, la corrupción, el tráfico de drogas, el hambre y la perenne desigualdad pueden explicarse por una perversa lógica partidaria: votos a cambio de caja y obras.
Son demasiados los formoseños que padecen los dramas, entre muchos otros, de la falta de agua potable, de asistencia sanitaria y de educación. Y en el caso de los indígenas de la etnia qom, debemos agregar los asesinatos impunes que sufren.
Por desgracia, son varias las provincias que podrían usarse como ejemplo de las peores lacras que resultan del ejercicio feudal del gobierno en esos estados. Pero pocas, sin embargo, ofrecen un panorama tan nefasto como el que muestra Formosa. Ese lamentable panorama es el que su gobernador quiere esconder detrás de los falsos logros que enumeró en el discurso con el que recibió a la Presidenta.
Una realidad que pretende ocultar la mostró Periodismo para todos al reflejar los graves problemas que afronta la comunidad wichi. Una semana después de emitirse el programa, un equipo de éste sufrió presiones verbales por parte de varias decenas de personas identificadas con el kirchnerismo local que lo obligaron a retirarse del pueblo de El Potrillo, a más de 300 kilómetros de la capital provincial.
Esa clase de avasallamiento sólo es posible cuando una provincia deja de serlo para retroceder a la categoría de feudo. Y como tal la gobierna Insfrán, quien desde 1995 es su gobernador, para lo cual tuvo que impulsar una reforma constitucional para habilitar la reelección indefinida.
Tal es su grado de cercanía con la Presidenta y sus funcionarios que Formosa escribió un oscuro capítulo del ya grueso libro de los negociados por los que está siendo juzgado y procesado el vicepresidente de la Nación, Amado Boudou.
En efecto, en 2010, Formosa pagó 7,6 millones de pesos al fondo The Old Fund por un presunto asesoramiento brindado a los funcionarios provinciales que negociaron con el gobierno nacional el canje de deuda. Esa operación se completó cuando Boudou era ministro de Economía.
Sin antecedentes de ningún tipo, The Old Fund, del presunto testaferro de Boudou, Alejandro Vandenbroele, y vinculado con el caso Ciccone, fue contratado por Formosa sin licitación ni concurso, por 7,6 millones de pesos para ese sospechoso asesoramiento. De ese monto, un funcionario muy próximo a Insfrán retiró 2,2 millones. Se trata de Martín José Cortés, director y presidente del Banco de Formosa.
Tampoco es de extrañar que en el feudo formoseño la oposición sufra persecuciones, como ocurrió con una suerte de inspección realizada por 30 funcionarios que concurrieron con cámaras de televisión al establecimiento agropecuario que la familia del diputado nacional (UCR) Ricardo Buryaile posee desde hace años en la localidad de Patiño. "No pudieron darse el gusto de encontrar trabajadores en negro. Sería muy bueno -propuso Buryaile- que también revisen los campos de los funcionarios de Insfrán con el mismo rigor, sobre todo aquellos campos de concejales del Frente para la Victoria donde se encontraron más de 700 kilos de cocaína."
Agregó el legislador que se intentó armarle una causa para fusilarlo mediáticamente "por pensar distinto, mientras que en los campos de Formosa todos sabemos que siguen aterrizando todos los días aviones con droga".
En 2011, la Justicia procesó al entonces concejal formoseño Héctor Hugo Palma por haberse hallado en un campo de su propiedad 701 kilos de cocaína. Palma se había dado a la fuga tras el secuestro de la droga, pero fue capturado y detenido.
Un federalismo que se declama, pero que no se practica suele producir la involución que transforma a provincias en feudos manejados con mano férrea por caudillos que se eternizan en el cargo. El autoritarismo que los caracteriza dentro de la provincia suele trocarse en franco servilismo hacia la Casa Rosada, de la que dependen para recibir fondos y obra pública. El unitarismo fiscal, desde el retorno de la democracia hace ya 30 años, nunca ha sido tan despiadado como ahora en el ejercicio centralizado del poder, paradójicamente ejercido primero por un ex gobernador de Santa Cruz y luego por una Presidenta de origen bonaerense.
Los elogios de la Presidenta a Insfrán, por carecer de base fáctica, constituyen otra afrenta para todos los argentinos y muy especialmente para los propios formoseños..

LikeLike · 

• Friend writes:  a dime a dozen. I don't read Spanish.

  1 hr · Like
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  Christopher Hartly Holte SUPPORT FROM THE PRESIDENT TO THE GOVERNOR OF A PROVINCE destitute, DRUG TRAFFICKING AND CORRUPTION RESULTING A MONUMENT TO Prebendary CLIENTELISM. INSFRAN-KIRCHNER, MUTUAL BENEFIT SOCIETY, WHICH LOST Formosa. 
  
  Under the pretext of opening a new power transformer station, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner visited Formosa days ago in order to provide strong support to her ally, the governor Gildo Insfrán - in fact a sort of feudal lord - hiding the dismal picture that his province had through the Jorge Lanata television program. 
  The fawning excess of praise by the President of a governor whose managed of Formosa is mired in prostitution, backwardness, poverty, corrupt influence and bribery, drug trafficking, hunger and inequality can be explained by the perennial perverse party logic: votes in exchange for cash and works. 
  So much theater while formoseños suffering, among other things; from lack of potable water, health care and education. And in the case of the Qom indigenous ethnicity, we must add unpunished murders and oppression. 
  Sadly, several provinces could be used as examples of the worst evils that result from the exercise of feudal government in those states. But few, however, offer such a grim picture as Formosa presents. This unfortunate scenario is the governor hides behind false achievements listed in the speech that the President received. 
  A show that claims to practice Journalism and show the serious problems facing the community actually helps hide them. A week after the issuance of the program, a team suffered verbal pressure from several dozen people identified with the local kirchnerismo that forced him to withdraw from the town of El Foal, more than 300 kilometers from the provincial capital. 
  That kind of enslavement is possible only when a province cease to be self governing and goes back to the category of fief. As such governor Insfrán, who's been in his position since 1995, had to push a constitutional amendment to enable indefinite reelection.
  
  Such is the degree of closeness with the President and his staff that Formosa has written a dark chapter in the thick book [of dark deeds] and showed it's corruption trying and prosecuting National Vice President Amado Boudou. 
  
  In 2010, Formosa paid 7.6 million dollars to fund The Old Fund to allegedly provide advice to provincial officials who negotiated [kickbacks?] with the national government debt swaps. That operation was completed under Economy Minister Boudou. 
  
  The Old Fund, the alleged frontman of Boudou, Alejandro Vandenbroele, and linked with the Ciccone case, was hired by Formosa without bidding or competition, for 7.6 million pesos for that suspect advice. Of this amount, a retired official close to Insfrán received 2.2 million. This is José Martín Cortés, director and president of the Bank of Formosa. 
  
  Thus it's not surprising that the Formosa Govt. opposition suffer persecution, as with a kind of inspection by 30 staff who went with television cameras to the agricultural establishment that the family of local MP (UCR) Ricardo Buryaile has had for years in Patino location. "They could not have the pleasure of finding workers in black. It would be great" -proposed Buryaile [an opposition leader] - if they also visited the fields belonging to Insfrán officials, especially those fields belonging to the councilors of Front for Victory where more than 700 kilos of cocaine were found previously."
  
  Added the lawmaker who tried to aid [Buryaile] they got the media to try to "shoot him through the media" "for thinking differently, while in the fields of Formosa all know that every day are landing airplanes with drugs."
  
  Formosa is a major shipment point for drugs coming in from mountains on way to USA/North America and Europe through the Containership connection.
  
  In 2011, Justice indicted the then Councillor Hector Hugo Palma formoseño 701 kilos of cocaine that had been found in a field of their own. Palma absconded after the seizure, but was caught and arrested.
  
  Here the author is teaching:
  
  A federalism declaimed, but not practiced often produces involution which transforms into fief provinces handled with iron hand by warlords whose power is allied with those in office. Thus the Authoritarianism that characterizes power within the province is often bartered in ex subservience to the Casa Rosada, on which the Government depend for funding and public works. Paradoxically the prosecutorial Unitary governmental centralized exercise of power since the return of democracy 30 years ago, thus has never been as ruthless. This from a former governor of Santa Cruz and then a President of Buenos origin first. 
  Thus Praise of President Insfrán, for lack of factual basis, is another affront to all Argentines and especially to Formosa dwellers.

  12 mins · Edited · Like · 1
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  Christopher Hartly Holte Argentina has similar tensions between it's very powerful capital city, the province of Buenos Aires (which is as big as the country of Uruguay) and the rest of the country. Problems there reflect the things that scared our founders into creating the sort of Federation they did. At one time the provinces conquered the capital and at other times the reverse happened, and in both provinces and central government a corrupt dance occurs around power, taxes and banking. This article shows how corrupt power sharing and lack of local democratic republican forms, can corrupt an entire country and make life miserable for people.

  8 mins · Like
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  Christopher Hartly Holte You need not only the forms -- but the reality.

  7 mins · Like
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  Christopher Hartly Holte I like Kirchner. She seems very personable and has done some good things for Argentina. But she's also done some evil and this article is talking about some of the systemic evil that drives a corrupt system. The people in that system may be relatively good or very bad, but can never be virtuous because the virtues of their government are subverted by perverse incentives and power relationships.

  6 mins · Like
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  Christopher Hartly Holte formoseño means from Formoso. My wife was a Porteña because that is the popular term from someone from Buenos Aires city.

  2 mins · Edited · Like

Ebola -- Or why Medicaid Expansion matters.

Summary:

It seems obvious to me that the Hospital turned away on September 25 2014 Thomas Eric Duncan because of his insurance and because Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital is part of a medical system that refused the Medicaid expansion and doesn't make money from indigent patients. The medicaid expansion matters because it will make a dent in this inequitable and dangerous system. Because that is part of the purpose of medicaid and the medicaid expansion -- to ensure that doctors get paid for treating sick patients, including ones who might be infectious and otherwise make others sick.

Discussion

NBC article titled "Texas Hospital Makes Changes After Patient Turned Away" the Hospital admitted that the Nurse documented his disclosure he'd come from Liberia in the Electronic Medical Record at the Hospital. This puts the lie to the usual official first response of the Hospital that it was "The Nurses Fault" (anyone who knows Doctors, Nurses and Hospitals know that many Doctors always blame Nurses for their inattention, arrogance and mistakes). They admit:

"The nurse who took Thomas Eric Duncan’s medical history did the job correctly, the hospital said. “However, we have identified a flaw in the way the physician and nursing portions of our electronic health records (EHR) interacted in this specific case,” it added."

Thomas E Duncan didn't get treated until his relatives called the CDC and alerted them multiple times. Anyone ask why? Here's what his neighbor said:

"That was the day "I called CDC to get some actions taken, because I was concerned for his life and he wasn't getting the appropriate care," Duncan's nephew, Josephus Weeks, told NBC News on Wednesday night. "I feared other people might also get infected if he wasn't taken care of, and so I called them to ask them why is it a patient that might be suspected of this disease was not getting appropriate care?"

But you have to go outside the major news media to even get the "elephant in the Room" -- Insurance and the fact that Texas is refusing the medicaid expansion and that Hospitals around the country are either turning away patients or closing on account of that:

Charles D. Ellison rightly notes that:

"Did Duncan get initially turned away because he is black and, possibly, uninsured?"

Of course the Supreme Court says racism is dead in the USA and uses that to justify striking down laws intended to stop racist policies. So who wants to talk about this? He continues:

"We may never know for sure and it’s unclear if Duncan had insurance or not (it’s unlikely considering he’s a Liberian national on a U.S. visa)."

It's not hard to find out. A reporter should have asked him, or his relatives. Or the Hospital. But none of them seem to have asked this basic question.

“I was stunned,” Walks told The Root. “You could put [Duncan’s] picture in the dictionary under what you look for when responding to Ebola. How do you miss that guy?”

The Hospital had to notice. But I really don't think they missed this disclosure, what they missed was an even more important set of facts; the hospital wasn't focusing on where he was coming from. The Hospital was focusing on his insurance card and his ability to pay. Anyone who's been to a hospital recently with less than perfect insurance has found that out. In 2010 I went to a hospital after breaking my arm, spent 4 hours in the emergency room, only to be put in a cab to a clinic in Bethesda. Why? They said because they didn't have anyone on the staff who could set a broken arm. That wasn't true, the Hospital didn't have any doctors who would treat my broken arm under my insurance so I rode a cab. I suspect he was sent away because the Hospital didn't want to lose money on Thomas Eric Duncan by treating him under his substandard insurance if he had any. Texas has blocked the medicaid expansion. He likely didn't have insurance and the State wasn't going to reimburse him for the expense, they thought. I'm Sure the Federal Government is paying for his care now, but that is probably what really happened. Is anyone verifying this? I doubt it. Will it get investigated? Will the gross negligence of the hospital be punished? Will the Gross Negligence of Governors like Rick Perry who won't take the Medicaid expansion get punished? I doubt it. They'll prosecute Thomas instead. Ellison notes:

"That’s where factors such as Duncan’s race and level of insurance could have influenced the hospital’s first decision in either subtle or not-so-subtle ways. “There is a lot of research showing that different people get turned away in different places,” argues Walks. “So, if they turned him away at first because he’s an African with no insurance that would not be inconsistent with what we’ve seen over the years.”

Ellison also notes, quoting Walks:

"Walks draws on lessons from a similar event in October 2001 when the D.C. area was struck by multiple anthrax attacks which hit postal facilities particularly hard. When two black Brentwood facility postal workers – Thomas Morris, Jr. and Joseph Curseen - dropped by Maryland hospitals complaining of anthrax-triggered symptoms, the same time news of the attack and Brentwood as a focus of investigation was plastered on every cable channel, they were sent home and died soon after."

Our Hospital system has never been kind to minorities, but it has a duty to treat all people who show at the emergency room and it has an even more important duty to protect public health.

For further reading I suggest you read Ellison's report. He covers it pretty thoroughly in his article in the Root:

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/10/where_ebola_meets_concerns_over_race_class_and_the_uninsured.html

References:

NBC Report on Hospital "Texas Hospital Makes Changes After Patient Turned Away":

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/texas-hospital-makes-changes-after-ebola-patient-turned-away-n217296

Same Report from Dallas, with more detail: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/metro/20141004-dallas-hospital-under-fire-as-accounts-of-ebola-patients-initial-release-change.ece

Report on his Brother:

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/ebola-patient-thomas-eric-duncans-nephew-i-had-call-cdc-n216326

We know he lied on his entry papers. But he didn't lie the first time he showed up at the hospital

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/03/world/africa/dallas-ebola-patient-thomas-duncan-airport-screening.html?_r=0

Fact is our hospitals need to employ a virtuous and uniform (just) standard of care, and they don't.

The home left Behind

I was homesick for a home I left behind.

When I wandered over the horizon long ago.

I was homesick til I found a home in a dale,

where the babies cried and fat tongues wagged,

and I went out each day to make my way.

 

And then one day I sat and thought,

I'm surrounded by friends, I'm not alone.

I might be here. I might be there.

But my heart is still and I am home.

Christopher H. Holte

The Day the USA Marines invaded Savage, Md

I forget the exact date, but I lived in or near, Savage Maryland off and on from about 1971 to about 1988. And while I was in College at the University of Maryland in the late 70's I worked at the Savage IGA, which was where the WAWA is now off of Main Street. It was run by a nice man who's name I can't recall and I was there part time stocking his shelves, cleaning and sometimes helping the Butcher. I remember his wife, who filled in for him on weekends so he could go to Shul. And his daughter who he put through college so she wouldn't have to run a grocery store. I also remember his butcher, a man named Izzy who seemed old as sin to me and had numbers on his arm, at the time, but was probably actually younger than I am now. Anyway I still remember one weekend day working there as clear as a bell. It was the Weekend Savage got invaded by the Marines.

It was a beautiful day. Not super hot. The kind of day when people came to Savage to take advantage of the mild rapids in the town where the water moved fast enough to avoid leaches and bugs, but was safe enough so that people could swim with a relative lack of fear. People came from miles around to swim there and party. It was a hangout for redneck and hippy type alike. And also got some pretty wild people. But that day I wasn't enjoying the water, but a few local marines were. They went down to the Little Patuxent that we affectionately called "The Savage River" to swim. Parked their jeeps and went into the water.

Apparently a few of the local bullies harrassed and attacked them. I don't know which bullies they were but I can guess as I had a few run ins with them myself. The bullies beat up one of these three marines and they beat a retreat back to Fort Meade. We all knew that Fort Meade contained the National Security Agency and were proud of our non-existent agency and it's mission to keep us safe from the evil Communist menace, and I was too. So were the Marines who then provided the NSA security detail.

The three came back with a small army. I don't know how many jeeps, but they came in with a battallian strength hunting for the bullies who attacked that Marine. One Jeep pulled up to the Store and a few tough looking and angry looking guys asked me if I knew what was going on. I didn't, and they kept on going. I hear they caught the three guys who'd attacked one of their own a few minutes later. I don't recall how the administrative justice went. But I don't feel sorry for the guys who attacked the marines.

I actually thought the whole thing was funny. To me it will always be "the day the Marines invaded Savage."

The Marines eventually were replaced with Federal Protective Service officers. And eventually the existence of Fort Meade was hidden behind new roads, bypasses and the relocation of soldiers to other bases unless they were involved directly in NSA operations. But I was thinking of the story because today is a beautiful day like that, and I wanted to write the story down. Savage is normally a peaceful place, but there were a few wild people and most of them aren't around anymore or would like people to forget they once thought they were bad arses.

This is me around that time

The Fire

Forged in fire, bent and annealed

broken assunder, reforged and healed.

Heated and beaten, beaten and healed.

This is a good sword, created and forged.

 

The fire tests us, sometimes bests us,

as we struggle just to live,

The ineffable, Lord of the Firmament

Tests our metal,

Tests our willingness to forgive.

 

The Lord of Creation;

A word spreading over the ocean

born, reborn, winds and eternal waves

Is defined, redefined, we participate in creation

like a drop of water in the ocean

waves spreading from first contact.

We define the ineffable, we create our image;

In our hubris or blasphemy, we imagine what the divine is all about

and our delusions are crushed

and burned in fire.

 

And we can pray that waves will spread from each point of light,

that we can heal the world, and make it right.

For We either teach and learn,

Or we taste the fire, and are beaten and healed.

Or are broken and discarded.