Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Remembering Rwanda

"Anyone who thinks that the crimes of Satanic bankers and their dark acolytes are not past worthy of capital punishment needs to read this." (H/T)

I'm seeing guilt all over my Globe:

"Rwanda marks genocide history; Thousands attend emotional event" by Katherine Sullivan | Associated Press   April 08, 2014

KIGALI, Rwanda — Displaying pride and pain, Rwandans on Monday marked the 20th anniversary of a devastating 100-day genocide that saw packed churches set on fire and machete-wielding attackers chop down whole families from a demonized minority.

Bloodcurdling screams and sorrowful wails resounded throughout a packed sports stadium as world leaders and thousands of Rwandans gathered to hear of healing and hope.

*************

President Paul Kagame and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon together lit a flame at the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre, which estimates that more than 1 million Rwandans perished in three months of machete and gunfire attacks mostly aimed at the country’s minority Tutsi population by extremist Hutus.

Missing from the stadium was the French government, which Rwanda banned. In an interview published in France on Monday, Kagame accused the former African colonial power of participating in some of the genocide violence.

Well, when you cut through the bush....

Related: Rwanda Stories Stink 

It was a brief stench.

The ceremony and Uganda’s president highlighted the influence that white colonial masters had in setting the stage for the violence that erupted on April 7, 1994. Stadium-goers watched as white people in colonial outfits jumped out of a safari car and stormed the main stage.

The wide-brim hats then changed to blue berets, the headgear worn by UN troops who did nothing to stop the carnage. President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda in his speech blamed colonization for many of Africa’s violent troubles.

‘‘The people who planned and carried out genocide were Rwandans, but the history and root causes go beyond this beautiful country. This is why Rwandans continue to seek the most complete explanation possible. We do so with humility as a nation that nearly destroyed itself,’’ Kagame said.

At a later news conference, Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said many books, movies, and documentaries provide evidence of France’s genocide role.

And now France is injecting itself into Central Africa.

During an intense scene on the sports field, a young girl of perhaps 10 recounted the torture of a young boy. Spectators screamed and the severely traumatized were carried off.

The blue beret actors evacuated and Rwandan troops — symbolizing the Tutsi military force Kagame led back then — stormed the field.

Rwandans in white and grey lay scattered throughout the field, representing the dead.

Ever since the killing spree, the world community has been forced to acknowledge it did nothing. The UN chief said he hopes to reaffirm the international community’s commitment to the idea of ‘‘never again,’’ though he said genocide is still possible. He mentioned violence in the Central African Republic and Syria.

The US ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said the genocide was a ‘‘devastating reminder that nightmares seemingly beyond imagination can in fact take place.’’

*****************

The genocide required hundreds of mass graves to bury the victims of what the government says was a long-planned killing spree that ignited after the plane of then-President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down. Kagame has won praise for pulling his country out of the violence. His government has advanced women’s rights, economic development, and health care. But critics say that progress has been marred by an authoritarian approach that has seen government critics and opposition members killed.

But he's an AmeriKan ally so that's cool.

‘‘We ask the government to open up more space, allow more opinion, allow more political parties, but also enforce the rule of law,’’ Frank Habineza, the leader of Rwanda’s only opposition political party, said in an interview.

A genocide survivor recounted his tale....

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Also see:

Rwandans can’t remain silent on human rights abuses
In Rwanda, women paved the way to reconciliation
The case for moderates
Marching for Rwandan genocide victims

Time for me to end this months posts and march into May.

Globe Takes Trip to Tanzania

"Watertown safari company accused of exploitation; Tour operator says lies being spread by another company that wants the land" by Katie Johnston | Globe Staff   April 24, 2014

An unusual lawsuit accuses a well-known Watertown safari company of illegally obtaining a large tract of land in Tanzania, beating villagers, and burning down their homes — all charges the tour operator maintains are outrageous lies by three Maasai village councils that are being manipulated by another party that wanted the land.

The case, pending in the High Court of Tanzania in Arusha, took its turn in Boston late last week when the US District Court ordered the local company, Thomson Safaris, to turn over testimony and documents related to the disputed land and alleged violence.

“Allegations of land grabbing and violent conflict over land ownership is on the rise in Tanzania,” Rashid Salim Rashid, one of the lawyers representing the village councils, said in an e-mail. “This suit speaks to the marginalization of the Maasai people and other disenfranchised rural communities who are vulnerable to land alienation.”

Rick Thomson and Judi Wineland, the Watertown couple who own 33-year-old Thomson Safaris, vehemently deny the charges. An affiliated company owned by the couple, Tanzania Conservation Ltd., legally bought the 12,617 acres in northern Tanzania in a public auction to create the Enashiva Nature Refuge, where Thomson operates wildlife tours, they say.

“If we were to have done any of these things, you’d think that Rick and I would be in jail by now,” Wineland said. “Rick and I invested our lives in Tanzania and its people, and it’s just disheartening to be accused of these terrible things.”

They say the allegations of abuse started with an organization supporting Maasai women that wanted the land for itself and kept the conflict going to attract more donations.

The allegations have spread quickly on the Internet and become something of a cause celebre among human rights groups, making Thomson Safaris the target of harsh criticism. One group, EarthRights International, helped the village councils bring their case to US courts. Marissa Vahlsing, a staff lawyer at EarthRights, said the group is concerned that initiatives like Thomson’s Enashiva refuge, aimed at well-heeled eco-tourists, drive indigenous peoples from traditional lands and make them “conservation refugees.”

Related: On Top of the World

The safari operator found the assertions of one website, stopthomsonsafaris.weebly.com, so egregious it is suing the group behind it.

Thomson Safaris organizes a few hundred trips a year to Tanzania, with groups ranging from two to 15 people. Some of the tours include a few nights’ stay in tents at the disputed nature reserve to observe giraffes, gazelles, and other wildlife — as well as let tourists interact with Maasai warriors, jewelry makers, and schoolchildren. A two-week “rustic luxury” safari with solar lighting and hot showers, but no electricity or fixed plumbing, includes meals, lodging, guides, and domestic airfare for around $7,000.

The Tanzanian court recently ruled that Thomson had the right to remain on the land during the case. The next tour is scheduled for the end of May, after the rainy season ends.

The safari company is well known, in part, because it is a WBUR-FM underwriter and has donated trips for the public radio station’s pledge drives. It has 20 employees in Watertown and about 100 in Tanzania.

The owners, along with several safari clients, started a nonprofit called Focus on Tanzanian Communities, which has raised more than $1 million from Thomson guests to build schools, boreholes to access ground water, and a mill to grind maize.

“We’re the stewards of this land,” said Wineland, noting that the refuge was meant to promote a symbiotic relationship between tourists, wildlife, and the Maasai people. “Our goal is for us to give back to the community.”

Thomson Safaris has won several awards from the Tanzanian Tourist Board , including one for conservation in 2009 and another for humanitarian work in 2005.

The Maasai are a nomadic people, traveling with herds of cattle, goats, and sheep that they graze on lands straddling Tanzania and Kenya in East Africa. Within the traditional Maasai territory are several popular wildlife refuges such as Serengeti National Park that restrict the Maasai’s access to water and pastures.

The lawsuit asserts that in 2006 the government-owned Tanzania Breweries illegally sold a piece of land to Tanzania Conservation. The land, originally given to the brewing company to grow barley and other crops, was abandoned in 1987 by the brewery, which never honored its agreement to compensate and relocate the Maasai clans living there, according to court documents.

After Tanzania Conservation took possession of the property, the suit alleges, the conservation group “forcefully evicted” villagers and burned down their homes. Villagers say that they were beaten by the company’s security guards, arrested for trespassing when they crossed the property, and denied access to grazing land and water for their cattle.

“The Maasai of Loliondo believe that their culture is under threat and without the land they will not be able to survive,” said Rashid, their lawyer. “They want to get back the ownership of the land for the benefit of the communities.”

Thomson and Wineland said brewery employees were the only occupants of the land when they bought it, and the structures that were burned were unused cattle enclosures made of thorn brush.

“It’s just cooked-up stories,” Thomson said.

A Tanzanian government official who works for the Ngorongoro District Council, representing the area east of Serengeti National Park where the refuge is located, rebutted the charges by the Maasai villagers. The district council is named in the lawsuit, along with the Tanzanian land commissioner and attorney general, and the brewery company.

“Said allegations about Thomson Co. are not true and nobody would have tolerated them in the Maasai land,” legal officer Magdalena Oleseiyai John wrote in a series of text messages. “It could have gone contrary to the laws and that could have necessitated a legal action against it.”

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Roche's Resignation

I agree it is not going to fix anything because the problems are institutional and bureaucratic and the neglect and wealthy inequality encouraged by government policies is doing nothing but exacerbating the problem.

"Patrick’s office seeks potential child welfare chief successor; Move comes amid uproar over deaths; speaker calls for commissioner’s resignation" by Michael Levenson and Patricia Wen | Globe staff   April 28, 2014

Governor Deval Patrick’s office began seeking potential replacements Monday for the state’s child welfare commissioner, say two people with direct knowledge of the effort, a sign the governor may be heeding calls for the resignation of Olga I. Roche after months of defending her....

The behind-the-scenes search comes after the recent death of two infants and the earlier disappearance of a 4-year-old boy whose body was found April 18. During the escalating controversy, Patrick had supported Roche but abruptly shifted course on Monday, saying that he had lost faith in the Department of Children and Families.

Roche, he said, needs to answer for the agency’s missteps, including how DCF workers misplaced a fax sent to them April 3 by the Grafton Police Department warning of possible harm to a 1-month-old. The fax was not discovered until April 9. Two days later, the newborn died.

Articles regarding that to be found further below in this post.

On Saturday, a Fitchburg newborn died after her family missed a scheduled home visit from DCF.

See: Infant dies; family had missed DCF visit

It was rescheduled.

Those deaths followed the discovery earlier this month of the body of Jeremiah Oliver, a Fitchburg 4-year-old who was under DCF monitoring but was not seen by his social worker since last April, despite requirements of monthly visits.

RelatedState Finds Missing Fitchburg Boy

Also seeJeremiah Oliver’s mother unable to aid defense, lawyer says

Sorry I'm abandoning the story, folks.

“I don’t have confidence at this point in the agency,” Patrick told reporters several hours before he met privately with Roche. “And I’m very worried about the agency.”

He also declined to voice any support for Roche specifically. “I’ve posed some questions,” the governor said, when pressed to say if he had confidence in the commissioner. “They have not been answered adequately. When they are, I will come back to you.”

Still, he said, he did not want to fire Roche simply to appease critics.

“It’ll take the view that it actually does something, other than throwing another scalp to the public,” Patrick said. “We’ve got to solve problems, not just paper them over, not just make a dramatic gesture.”

You have had eight years, and this is the shape the DCF is being left?

The governor spoke minutes after House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo became the latest and highest-ranking lawmaker to call for Roche to resign, citing the two infants who died this month and the discovery of Jeremiah’s body by the side of a highway in Sterling.

SeeDeLeo calls on DCF Commissioner Olga Roche to resign

“Quite frankly, I’m angered, I’m very much angered to see this continuing to happen,” DeLeo said at the State House, his voice rising. “It shows to me complete mismanagement on behalf of DCF. We have to take strong action. We can’t wait until the end of the year. We can’t wait for a new governor.”

We must throw a scalp to the public after these latest deaths of kids in our collective care.

DeLeo was joined hours later by Senate President Therese Murray and then by Attorney General Martha Coakley, who said they, too, believe that DCF needs a new leader.

“We are experiencing a serious crisis regarding the safety of our children, and we need real leadership now,” Murray said in a statement.

Coakley, who is running for governor, issued her own statement, saying “the time has come for Commissioner Roche to step down.”

When confronted in the past with similar calls for Roche to resign, Patrick has dismissed them, arguing that, as a 30-year veteran of the state social services system, she is well positioned to lead DCF out of scandal.

As recently as Friday, he defended DCF, saying the agency is doing “an impossibly difficult job,” despite being second-guessed by critics. 

(All you can do is shake your head at the rote reaction regarding problems or anything else. Government can't admit s***! And now, more kids are dead!)

Asked for Roche’s response to the new concerns voiced Monday, DCF officials issued a statement from Jesse Mermell, a Patrick spokeswoman.

“As the governor said earlier today, it is intolerable and upsetting that the lives of children are being lost,” Mermell’s statement said. “The governor is reviewing the information provided to him in that conversation in order to assess the appropriate next steps for the department and the families it serves.”

You forgot outrageous.

Child welfare advocates said it would not be easy to recruit a new commissioner to take over DCF in the midst of so much turmoil.

Who would want the job, other than the u$ual rea$ons?

The agency is facing several investigations by legislative committees and an outside review by the Child Welfare League of America. The social workers’ union has been picketing outside DCF offices to denounce what it describes as a worsening caseload crisis at the agency. In addition, an interim commissioner would presumably serve for only eight months, until Patrick’s term ends.

“We are concerned about who could be identified that has the range of experience at all levels of DCF and experience in state administration to come in and do a better job,” said Maria Z. Mossaides, chairwoman of the Children’s League of Massachusetts and executive director of Cambridge Family and Children’s Service, a private agency that has contracts with DCF. “He needs to make a decision about whether there’s going to be a great advantage to having the commissioner stay, versus bringing in a whole new team of people at this 11th hour.”

DCF is not the only agency under scrutiny for mishandling suspected cases of child abuse. In Grafton Monday, Police Chief Normand A. Crepeau Jr. defended an officer’s decision to fax a report to DCF warning of possible abuse of 1-month-old Aliana Lavigne, but acknowledged that his officer should have followed up with a phone call to the child protection agency.

Crepeau also said he was frustrated by comments from DCF officials who said that his department failed to follow proper procedure in the case, which is under investigation by Worcester County prosecutors.

“Police did their job,” the chief said.

Still, Crepeau acknowledged that his officer should have notified DCF by phone and said the lapse will be reviewed.

But he said the faxed report, known as a 51A, should have been sufficient for DCF to react.

“They had the 51A,” he said, “or they should have.”

Patrick faulted the police for not following up with a phone call, but said that was no excuse for DCF workers losing track of the fax.

“There’s a lot of good work, as I’ve said over and over again, being done by good people over at DCF,” Patrick said. “But we can’t keep having these kinds of losses.”

Well, seeing as they are miracle workers over there (his hyperbole, not mine) then they should be able to resurrect the dead kids, right?  

I hope the bitterness isn't tarnishing his increasingly tainted legacy because that is what he is really worried about. Doesn't look good if you leave the next guy a real mess.

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So who did he find to take over?

"Veteran manager Erin Deveney takes over as child welfare chief; Roche resigns under fire" by Michael Levenson and Patricia Wen | Globe staff   April 29, 2014

Governor Deval Patrick appointed a longtime state transportation official Tuesday to replace the commissioner of the state Department of Children and Families, which has been in turmoil following the recent deaths of three children.

I guess he is moving on in more ways than one! 

Erin Deveney, a lawyer who has spent most of the last decade at the Registry of Motor Vehicles, will take over DCF following the resignation Tuesday of Olga I. Roche, who had been facing calls to step down from the House speaker, the Senate president, and the attorney general.

Given their track record, that can only mean it is going to take DCF even longer to do things!

Deveney, 41, has no experience in child welfare issues, but developed a reputation as a hard-working manager who helped modernize the Registry’s computer system, allowing drivers to renew licenses and registrations online.

Isn't that the same one that was riddled with problems and got Deloitte fired after $54 million was paid?

She said she was humbled by the challenge she faces as interim commissioner. Deveney came to DCF less than a month ago to fill a newly created position, deputy commissioner of operations.

“In the brief time I’ve been at DCF, I’ve learned to appreciate the magnitude and complexity of the work that is done in serving these children and families on a daily basis,” she said, reading from a prepared statement. “In the period of transition that will follow at DCF, I will ensure the agency’s top priority continues to be ensuring and protecting the children of the Commonwealth. We must not waver in that obligation.”

The agency is facing its own problems with technology, but also more basic questions about its competence following a case in which staff failed to perform required monthly visits to a child under its watch, and a case in which the agency misplaced a faxed report of possible harm to an infant. DCF, which is responsible for the protection of 36,000 children, has also been hampered by low morale, crushing caseloads, and a loss of public confidence.

“It is a very, very high-risk move changing out leadership in this circumstance,” Patrick said at a press conference with Deveney.

Especially with some transportation bureaucrat with no experience!

He indicated he was making the decision reluctantly, after months of defending Roche against mounting criticism. Patrick had appointed Roche interim DCF commissioner in April 2013 and permanent commissioner in October. She made $138,000 a year.

That is not in the top 1%.

“With some 33 years of experience in social services, Commissioner Roche has the expertise to lead this agency,” the governor said. “But it is clear . . . that she can no longer command the trust of the public or the confidence of her line staff.”

Patrick said he would look for a permanent commissioner, which could be Deveney if she proves effective in helping to stabilize DCF. Roche, who did not release any statement Tuesday, is expected to remain at the department for several weeks, helping with the transition. 

So it wasn't really a real resignation, right?

Child welfare specialists said it would be very difficult to find a seasoned professional to take the role of permanent commissioner, since Patrick’s term ends in January and the next governor is expected to name his or her own agency heads.

“It’s an eight-month job at best,” said Randall Whittle, a retired longtime administrator for the Brockton-based regional office of DCF. “Who would want to run the agency?”

Unemployed people?

DCF has been under intense criticism since acknowledging in December that it had lost track of a Fitchburg preschooler who was under DCF watch but had not been visited since April 2013. His body was found April 18 by the side of a highway in Sterling.

On Saturday, the agency acknowledged it misplaced a fax sent April 3 from the Grafton police warning of possible harm to a 1-month-old infant. The fax was not discovered until April 9. Two days later, the infant died. Also Saturday, a Fitchburg newborn died after her family missed a scheduled visit from DCF.

Into this tumultuous situation comes Deveney, a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross and Suffolk Law School who worked at the Registry from 2000 to 2005, and then again from 2009 until last month, most recently serving as chief of staff.

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Secretary of Transportation Richard A. Davey said one of Deveney’s chief functions at the Registry was helping to modernize computer systems to assist drivers with online registrations and other services.

And NO MENTION of the PROBLEMS!

******************

Even with her managerial skills, some longtime child advocates say, she faces a major challenge to learn the regulations and laws related to child-protection systems, as well as gaining the trust of social workers and clinicians who realize she has little background in protecting abused and neglected children.

That is the problem with leadership in this state and country: they think everything is a managerial and public relations problem, not a structural one. 

Of course, dismantling the structure would necessitate putting themselves and the interests they front for behind the general welfare, and that is not happening in corporately-owned and governed AmeriKa.

On Tuesday, the Children’s League of Massachusetts sent a letter to the governor urging him to appoint a permanent commissioner with an advanced degree in social work and at least 10 years’ experience in senior leadership at a public child welfare or private nonprofit agency. 

He appointed a career bureaucrat instead.

“I personally do not know this interim commissioner because she has no background in human services,” said Erin G. Bradley, the league’s executive director. “So I think that’s going to be interesting to see how this all plays out and how she relates to the human services sector.”

I sure hope no more kids are found missing or dead in the next eight months or so.

Gail Garinger, head of the Office of the Child Advocate, an independent office charged with overseeing state agencies that work with children, said she was saddened to see Roche leave because she was a “clinician at heart” and wanted the best for the children.

Now that Roche is gone, Garinger said, she believes the new interim commissioner must work closely with the management team to “stabilize the agency” that has been rocked with so much tragedy and criticism....

Maureen Flatley, a consultant in child welfare issues and a board member of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, said she was disappointed that Roche resigned but felt there was no other option “when you get to the point where everybody is storming the castle with pitchforks.”

RelatedActivists plead for legislators to create jobs, not prisons

“I understand it, and I certainly don’t blame the governor for the decision,” Flatley said. “But the political reality here is it can’t be about one person. I can’t emphasize that enough. At some point, we all have to stop personalizing this and pointing fingers.”

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Related:

Lost fax a symbol of DCF’s need to revamp procedures
Roche’s resignation opens way to revamp child welfare agency

At least someone is optimistic about the status quo system, 'eh?

"Police fax on Grafton infant was lost; DCF says crucial data misplaced" by Travis Andersen and Patricia Wen | Globe Staff   April 28, 2014

A Department of Children and Families official said this weekend that a fax warning of possible harm to a Grafton infant was missed by state officials for six days not because the department left the fax machine unattended, but because the report was accidentally misplaced.

Initial reports last week suggested that the DCF office had missed the April 3 fax from Grafton police because the person who usually checks the DCF fax machine was off, and no one had been assigned to take over that duty.

That is so lame.

But in a followup this weekend, the agency said that a designated supervisor completed assigned checks of incoming faxes during the week police sent the April 3 report, known as a 51A, on Aliana Lavigne. The fax from police concerning the infant was temporarily misplaced, the agency said, and added it is investigating why this happened and that the misplacement was an “unacceptable error.”

The fax was discovered April 9, two days before Aliana died. Initial reports on how it was missed were based on reports from DCF staff who told the Globe about the missed faxes.

The month-old newborn who was found dead in a Grafton apartment April 11. She lived in the unit with her mother, Andrea Lavigne.

A new DCF memo indicates the agency is working to improve its system for reviewing incoming alerts on potential dangers to children within its care....

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"Warning missed before Grafton baby’s death" by Patricia Wen and Travis Andersen | Globe staff   April 26, 2014

GRAFTON — State social workers overlooked for six days a police officer’s faxed complaint about potential danger to a Grafton newborn, and when a social worker finally investigated, she learned that the baby had died, say three people familiar with the case.

A Grafton police officer raised concerns to the Department of Children and Families April 3 about the safety of the daughter of Andrea Lavigne, who had lost custody of one child and had a history of mental health issues and psychotropic drug use, said an investigator with knowledge of the case.

But the supervisor in charge of monitoring faxed reports was off that week, and nobody was asked to perform those duties, said the people familiar with the case.

Four-week-old Aliana Lavigne died April 11 just as the state investigation began. Though the cause of death has not yet been determined, the mother, in an interview with WCVB-TV news earlier this week, said that the baby inexplicably stopped breathing while they slept together and that when emergency personnel arrived, her daughter was dead.

Officials at DCF, already under intense criticism for failing to protect a Fitchburg toddler who was found dead near a highway last week, have maintained that the department did nothing wrong in its handling of the Lavigne case.

In Lowell Friday, Governor Deval Patrick defended DCF’s role, saying the department was in “the middle of investigating” the Lavigne case when the death occurred. He said DCF has an “impossibly difficult job” with so much second-guessing of what they do.

The details of Aliana Lavigne’s case unfolded as state lawmakers said they hoped to add millions to the department’s budget to alleviate heavy caseloads faced by social services workers.

After these tragedies have occurred, yeah. Before all this they were doling it out on debt interest payments to the tune of tens of millions of dollars a month as well as to well-connected corporate interests and concerns while cutting budgets for kids and families. 

But hey, Boston has a lovely elite section and that is really all that is important. If richers are happy all is right with the world.

*******************

The Globe’s attempts to reach the mother Friday at her Grafton apartment were unsuccessful. A man who answered Lavigne’s door said she had retained a lawyer and would not be speaking to the press.

In the mother’s interview with WCVB, she said her child suffered from baby colic and was prone to fits of crying. She said that she herself was on “certain medications through the pregnancy” that the baby was withdrawing from. The mother told the television station that she has seizures and was on Klonopin, a drug often used to treat anxiety, while pregnant.

The newborn’s death comes after the agency has been under scrutiny for a number of other cases, including the death of Jeremiah Oliver, a 5-year-old whose body was found at the side of a highway in Sterling last week....

DCF staff members have complained that crushing caseloads, among other things, have hampered their ability to do their job overseeing some 34,000 children in their caseloads.

Thirty-six thousand, thirty-four thousand, what's the difference? They just lose (or gain) 2,000 kids like that?

In response, state Representative David P. Linsky, the Natick Democrat who chairs the House Committee on Post Audit and Oversight, said the House budget calls for funding that would drastically reduce the ratio of families to assigned social workers and allow more extensive background checks of foster families, among other steps.

Isn't it a shame that government is so reactive here? Only after tragedy strikes do they do something, while in the meantime advancing the agenda that serves only themselves and the interests that control them.

He said the House Budget would tie the DCF reforms to a $32.6 million increase in state funding and insist on more frequent reports to the Legislature.

“We really did put in a lot more oversight for DCF than I’ve ever seen us do for any other state agency,” Linsky said.

DCF officials say the department is continuing its investigation of the death of Aliana. A longtime DCF staff member said that, though police should have also called DCF in the baby’s case, all staff members recognize that the fax machine is the source of many abuse and neglect reports.

“I can’t fathom an excuse,” the staff member said. “It was an error. How can you miss something like this for multiple days?”

This staff member said the supervisors clearly feel some responsibility, noting that all workers in the Worcester office of DCF, which oversaw the Lavigne case, received an e-mail this week emphasizing the critical importance of checking reports on fax machines, at least hourly.

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NEXT DAY UPDATES:

Report alleges abuse, neglect of Yarmouth toddler who died
Mother says baby not abused
DCF an agency of awful realities

Sorry I'm abandoning you kids.

Hackers Hate Children

And they are trying to taint the rest of us:

"Hacker group Anonymous targets Children’s Hospital" by Michael B. Farrell and Patricia Wen | Globe Staff   April 24, 2014

The infamous computer hacker network known as Anonymous threatened to attack Boston Children’s Hospital over the child custody case involving Justina Pelletier last month, just a few weeks before the medical center’s website was subjected to numerous cyberassaults.

Although there is no direct evidence linking Anonymous to the attacks this week against Children’s, cybersecurity specialists said the incident bore the hallmarks of the mysterious network of Internet agitators who cripple a target’s Internet operations with a barrage of traffic.

Based on who the mouthpiece media repre$ents and the vagueness of the report, one can only conclude that Anonymous is a government operation.

Anonymous has made its interest in the case clear. Several weeks ago, the group claimed responsibility for an attack on the website of Wayside Youth and Family Support Network, the Framingham residential facility where 15-year old Justina has been living since January under state custody.

Before that she had been locked in a psychiatric ward for a year (eyes turn to tears when I think of the poor kid, alone, in a strange and unknown place, no loved ones near, afraid....).

After the more recent attack on Children’s, some patients and medical personnel could not use their online accounts to check appointments, test results, and other case information after the hospital shut down those Web pages.

The threats from Anonymous are the latest to emerge against Children’s Hospital and Wayside in the emotional child custody case that began more than a year ago in Massachusetts and has since become a national controversy involving conservative Christian activists and civil libertarians.

Thanks, but no thanks for the helpful association, Anonymous.

They also have a video on YouTube and a separate manifesto.

*******************

Massachusetts State Police are also investigating threats made toward staff members at the state Department of Children and Families who were involved in Justina’s case.

I'm sorry, folks, but I only see agent provocateurs. Who benefits? Whose reputations and thus views are besmirched?

*******************

Anonymous is best known for taking on big corporations such as Mastercard and Visa and pursuing politically motivated attacks by successfully striking against the FBI or CIA. It often intervenes in high-publicity cases when it feels an individual is being persecuted by an institution.

That's who they Target, huh?

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was attacked by a group claiming to be Anonymous that was protesting the case of Aaron Swartz, the online activist who committed suicide while being prosecuted on charges he allegedly downloaded millions of archived documents illegally.

RelatedSpeaking Up For Swartz

Also seeThe inside story of MIT and Aaron Swartz 

Looks like the official cover story to me, and it was slated as a Sunday Globe Special. We'll see if I want to keep the clipping into next month and post it at all. I'm getting kind of tired of the self-centered supremacism, reinforced narratives, and shallow psyop manipulation I'm exposed to on a daily basis, and am in the midst of planning my $obriety as I type.

Though flooding sites with traffic is a relatively simple task for skilled technicians, Anonymous conducts its attacks with theatrical flourish. The video launching the campaign for Justina, for example, features scenes from a street protest with an unidentified man who wears the Guy Fawkes mask made famous by the 2005 movie “V for Vendetta.” 

I guess I will have to take that off my list of favorites seeing as it has now been cooped and its female star is a Zionist.

Gabriella Coleman, a McGill University professor who has studied Anonymous, describes it as a “protest ensemble” that uses the Guy Fawkes mask as a symbol of its members’ anti-authority or populist tenets.

No thanks for the help because all you guys do is give the government an excuse for additional crackdowns on the web with $ecurity mea$ures and $uch, the same for companies and individuals (hmmmm). 

As I somewhat noted with the Sterling bit, I think all opinion and information should be out there. You are only for free speech if you are for speech you oppose. I would love to see the Zionist propaganda machine go away and the Boston Globe replaced by something better; however, it is the job of the listener to discern the truth as they see it.

The mask also symbolizes the group’s shadowy identity.

How can that be with the NSA collecting every scrap of electronic communication over the entire planet? How can they really remain anonymous (blogger, and thus the government know the name)? Why do they never disable porn sites?

Individual members rarely speak to the news media or discuss the group’s actions or targets. Over the past few years, however, the group has been hit by the arrest of about 100 members around the world, Coleman said. As a result, she said, Anonymous has become quieter about its activities.

I think it is quieter because much like Wikileaks and Snowden, the whole operation has been outed. The largest employer of hackers on the face of the planet is not the Chinese; it's the USraeli empire.

While Anonymous has not taken responsibility for the Children’s cyberattack, Coleman said it does appear to be their handiwork....

They sound like Al-CIA-Duh.

--more--"

RelatedAnonymous attack on Children’s Hospital continues

Sick of Sterling Story

On the front page of my paper for three days in a row now, and it even gets an accompanying piece from a sportswriter. There is something more at work here than a bigoted owner speaking out of the box while his private conversations are recorded.

"NBA delivers historic ban to Donald Sterling" by Gary Washburn | Globe Staff   April 29, 2014

NEW YORK — NBA commissioner Adam Silver, taking a bold and unprecedented step in a controversy that sent shock waves throughout the sports world, on Tuesday suspended Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling from the league for life, imposed a $2.5 million fine, and said the team must be sold because of Sterling’s recorded racist comments.

Related:

"Of course any decent person should be disgusted by the gross things Sterling allegedly said to the girlfriend. But as former NBA star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote on Monday: “Shouldn’t we be equally angered by the fact that his private, intimate conversation was taped and then leaked to the media? Didn’t we just call to task the NSA for intruding into American citizens’ privacy in such an un-American way?

Skyhook for two, Kareem! 

Silver’s decision, widely praised by NBA players and owners, came just three days after TMZ released a tape of Sterling admonishing his girlfriend for posing for pictures with African-Americans, and telling her not to bring African-Americans to Clippers games.

“Sentiments of this kind are contrary to the principles of inclusion and respect that form the foundation of our diverse, multicultural, and multiethnic league,” Silver said during a news conference Tuesday at the New York Hilton. “I am personally distraught that the views expressed by Mr. Sterling came from within an institution that historically has taken such a leadership role in matters of race relations.”

Silver, who took over for longtime NBA commissioner David Stern in February, appears to have imposed the stiffest possible penalty available to him, and one of the harshest sanctions ever in pro sports.

Just an observation, but they all have something in common. Might as well be the halls of U.S. government, 'eh?

The taped remarks shocked the NBA community and made national headlines, with several former and current NBA players and current owners calling for strong action against Sterling, who has owned the Clippers franchise since 1981. Several sponsors pulled their support from the team.

Silver said the league will attempt to force Sterling to sell the Clippers, a move that is almost certain to be challenged in court by Sterling, according to NBA sources.

Maybe they can get a good owner now.

Sterling, the league’s longest-tenured owner, did not offer an immediate response. A Fox News contributor who interviewed Sterling before Silver’s announcement in New York said the owner stated the team was not for sale.

The team was based in San Diego when Sterling bought it for about $12.5 million, and he moved it to Los Angeles in 1984. Forbes recently assessed its value at $575 million.

In the past, Sterling has been hit with discrimination lawsuits deriving from his rental properties, and with an age- and race-discrimination lawsuit brought by former Clippers general manager Elgin Baylor, who alleged the owner had a “plantation mentality.’’ A jury ruled in Sterling’s favor.

How interesting it is that we are now living in a plantation $ociety in $o many ways. 

And think about this: the poor, psychologically-distressed players are part of the 1%, same as Sterling. $tatu$ quo wealth inequality is only accelerating, thus we must see everything but cla$$ in my propaganda pre$$ (owned and operated by the same 1%, wow). It's diversions, it's distractions, it's distortions, and far past old these days. 

Oh, right, this paper and others like it are being written of and for them. In that case, I'm loving' this!

Despite his history, the NBA had never disciplined Sterling until Tuesday. This episode, though, was different....

Why now?

--more--" 

Okay, everyone is happy now even though it will never be over.

I obviously find the self-censorship interesting regarding Tokowitz, 'er, Sterling, and it is only an observation. No criticism, no complaint, just recognizing what I'm seeing for what it is. Nothing about all the humanitarian awards he received over the years, either. This guy was cut loose and hung out to dry for bigger purposes. 

Jewish racism is submerged and woe to anyone who even mention it, including the US Secretary of State. Once again Israel's Zionist extremists and madmen make me defend those I find loathsome. I have no love for Sterling or Kerry, but this attack on Free Speech by Israel and the AmeriKan ma$$ media to which she kicks back millions in US aid is worse. The furor over Sterling is designed to do something else.

One last note: On ESPN's Mike and Mike they were noting that UCLA is turning down his dough and said they would take it for their own charity, that it really doesn't matter where the money was coming from if you could do good with it. I found that to be a very interesting take. I was wondering if they would feel that way if it was from the leader of a Mexican drug cartel (although I'm sure they would take it from a bank that laundered the money; you know, the banks that are funding the sports yak-yak programs all day long).

Energized For the End of April

This gives you a clue as to how much, sorry.

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Ending April in Apathy

Knowing the headlines will soon be submerged under the month I usually am very motivated and have what I call clearing out posts and many of them; however, I hardly read the Globe today. Got through the turn-ins as a perfunctory measure but after that even the notepad turned into scribbles. If you scroll and read the front page and few older posts you can see that. I think you can $ee why I'm tired of propaganda, public  relations, agenda-pushing, call it what you will. Maybe you even like it, but I think the offensive overdose has taken its toll. Been reading the papers for a lot of years and I can never remember them being so bad. Lies, distortions, omissions, obfuscations, divisions, diversions, but then again, I need to keep in mind who it is being written of and for -- and it isn't me.

It is important simply because it lets you know where the rulers are leading us and what lies they are telling today. This blog is going to be like a box of chocolates over the next two days: you never know what you are going to get (unless you look at the inside cover).

Monday, April 28, 2014

Wyly Sterling

Think about it; what is everyone talking about during this evenly-matched playoff $ea$on?

"Businessman fights to save name, cash at trial" by Larry Neumeister | Associated Press   April 28, 2014

NEW YORK — For decades, Sam and Charles Wyly won admiration as Texas entrepreneurs skilled at building businesses worth billions of dollars. But a regulatory agency is casting them in a new light at a civil trial, saying the brothers earned more than $500 million through fraud and deception by secretly trading the securities of public companies they controlled.

The wily Wyly's!

The onetime IBM Corp. employees have a long string of business successes. They took a small chain of Bonanza Steakhouses nationwide before successfully marketing an arts and crafts retail chain, Michaels Stores Inc. — which sold for $6 billion — and then rode the technology boom of the 1990s with their company Sterling Software, which Computer Associates bought for $4 billion.

You were possibly expecting another Sterling leading this post?

Their success for a time put Sam Wyly on the Forbes list of billionaires and elevated the brothers’ status in Dallas, where they have donated millions of dollars to mostly conservative Republican candidates and causes and $20 million to help build the city’s performing arts center.

Arts are the playground of the elite, and all are invited to the party.

The Securities and Exchange Commission says they ran afoul of securities laws in the early 1990s when they embraced the teachings of a speaker at an asset and wealth preservation seminar. The SEC said they set up secret offshore trusts in the Isle of Man to make millions of dollars in trades on the securities of four public companies they controlled. And they are accused of doing all this while hiding the activity from regulatory agencies and investors entitled to know the true extent of their ownership.

‘‘This is a case about lies, deception, and fraud,’’ SEC lawyer Bridget Fitzpatrick told a Manhattan jury in opening statements at the trial for Samuel Wyly, 79, and the estate of his brother, who died in a 2011 car accident in Aspen, Colo., at 77.

Took you guys long enough to file the CIVIL charges!

She said the men used money they earned through the trusts to build businesses and homes and to fund an Aspen art gallery and a Dallas horse farm.

*************

Wyly, who is testifying in two-hour increments each day because of a health issue [is] a colorful character, he put a black hat over his long gray hair while jurors were out of the courtroom. 

The Sterling you thought you would see!

Wyly’s lawyer, Stephen D. Susman, told jurors his client wants to ‘‘defend his reputation’’ after selling his businesses and retiring about a decade ago to be an author. He said Wyly is writing a book about the value of immigration to America.

While Susman noted the SEC is seeking to force Wyly to disgorge part of his fortune as a penalty, he said what really is at stake is the brothers’ legacy.

‘‘Are they going to be known, as the SEC would have it, as liars and fraudsters?’’ Susman asked jurors. ‘‘Or are they going to be known as good businessmen who tried to follow the law?’’

Tried? There is no try, as a small green Jedi master once said. You either do or you do not!

--more--"

Getting much more attention from the ma$$ media:

"Welcome to Red Hot Smoking Mirrors. We've got a bit of a rogues gallery lineup for you today. Let's start off with Mr. Apocalypse's latest target, the loathsome Mr. Toad; Donald Sterling. Here is an in depth account of the man. On page 3 you will find... can it be? Can it be that he is a member of that select chosen groups of special individuals? Why... what do you know? Yes he is. It couldn't be worse for him; to be the owner of a professional basketball team, which, of all professional sports is most dominated by people of a certain physical colouration. As you read about him you will see his character unfold. It's not a pretty picture and... if “character is fate”, he's in a world of hurt. The interesting irony here is that his much, much younger girlfriend is a member of mixed race.... 

Yeah, I was kind of wondering about that after I saw the photo of her.

--MORE--"

RelatedNAACP To Honor Noted Racist Donald Sterling (Again) 

And Al was going to be there, too? 

All of a sudden the NAACP looks like nothing more than a government-infiltrated, controlled-opposition agitator for racial division in order to divert the masses from the wealth concentration of Sterling's cla$$! 

Also see: NBA owner Sterling reportedly sought to justify his racism by citing Israeli racism 

Is that why he is in trouble? Because he pointed that out? It wouldn't be beyond Zionist Jews to turn on their own. 

And all the controversy? Obviously and contrived, agenda-pushing effort aimed and diversion and division for public consumption while much more important events transpire in far-away lands.

"Words linked to Clippers’ Donald Sterling drawing outcry; Obama, teams deplore racist views" by Gary Washburn | Globe Staff   April 28, 2014

The NBA world Sunday decried racially charged remarks allegedly made by Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, with President Obama weighing in on what he called the “incredibly offensive racist statements.” 

(Blog editor throws his head back and inhales. Doesn't he have enough self-inflicted messes without interjecting himself into this? I feel like it confirms my analysis)

***********

Sterling made national headlines Saturday when an audio tape of an argument between a man believed to be Sterling and his girlfriend included several racist statements by the man after the woman had posted a picture of her and Magic Johnson on her Instagram account.

On the tape, obtained by TMZ, the voice believed to be that of Sterling admonishes his girlfriend for being seen with African-Americans and says he does not want African-Americans attending Clippers games.

The Globe is taking news tips from TMZ now?

“Yeah, it bothers me a lot that you want to promo . . . broadcast that you’re associating with black people. Do you have to?” the voice said to V. Stiviano. “You can sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it on that . . . and not to bring them to my games.”

I didn't know it was a pornographic tape.

The statements have caused a firestorm throughout the NBA, and Silver said Saturday night from Memphis that the league is investigating and will have a decision soon.

Sterling did not attend Game 4 of the Western Conference first-round series between the Clippers and Warriors in Oakland, Calif. Before that game, the Clippers players staged a silent protest by conducting their pregame routine with their red Clippers shirts on inside-out to hide the team’s logo. The Warriors routed the Clippers, 118-97, tying their series at two games apiece.

I'm not going to watch any NBA playoffs in protest.

Obama cast the comments allegedly made by Sterling as part of a continuing legacy of slavery and segregation that Americans must confront. “When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don’t really have to do anything, you just let them talk,” Obama said. 

I find it amazing after the crap that came out of his mouth while in Asia and after some of the comments that come from his Secretary of State, John Kerry.

Former NBA superstar Michael Jordan, now the owner of the Charlotte Bobcats, said he was “completely disgusted that a fellow team owner could hold such sickening and offensive views.”

Heat owner Mickey Arison said, “The comments reported by TMZ were offensive, appalling, and very sad,” and Johnson said Sterling “shouldn’t own a team anymore.”

And Bundy shouldn't own a ranch anymore, either(?).

The Clippers and Celtics are linked by the June 2013 deal that sent coach Doc Rivers to Los Angeles for a first-round pick. Rivers addressed reporters following the Clippers’ practice in San Francisco Saturday and appeared upset. Clippers players did not address the media. Rivers said a potential boycott of Game 4 was discussed but never seriously considered.

Former Celtics star Cedric Maxwell, who played 1½ seasons for the Sterling-owned Clippers in the mid-1980s, said if it is indeed Sterling’s voice on the tape, strong action should be taken.

“I never got any vibe like that from Donald Sterling [when I played there], but after listening to this taped conversation, there is no doubt what the new commissioner has to do,” Maxwell said. “And if you look at it realistically, this is [Silver’s] first real test and his first true statement. That team has to be sold. You have to put Donald Sterling in check and that team has to be sold.”

Yeah, Sterling has sent out some strange vibes and gotten some strange awards. 

Is there any possibly the tape has been forged, altered, or created out of whole cloth?

Maxwell said Rivers has a challenge in keeping the players’ attention on basketball.

Mine is. I've got a game tonight  after an unexpectedly good performance yesterday, so this will likely be my last post of the day.

“If you are Doc Rivers, this is going to be his ultimate test,” Maxwell said. “What he has to do is focus on the games and somehow put a screen between his players and what is going on with the owner of this team because it is obvious right now, from what I heard Doc say, that his players were disgusted and [ticked] off. So there is a direction already with [the Clippers] in a very, very tough playoff series.”

Said Maxwell about Sterling: “He’s always been a rebel. He’s always been kind of out there as an owner. I think the [other owners] always wanted to reel him in as being a maverick but he set himself in a position right now, what recourse do the other owners have when it comes to another owner talking this way publicly? As an owner, how do you stand behind him?”

I thought they already had an owner and team?

Free agent guard Jerryd Bayless, who spent the past four months with the Celtics, sent out nine tweets on the topic....

And it was all the talk at basketball yesterday. I condemned it, but also pointed out there is nothing illegal about opinions no matter how offensive.  Said the just punishment would be to ban him from the games for two years. Maybe he will die by then.

--more--"

The  died, and what is amazing is how much coverage this is getting from the pre$$ when the Pat Tillman story received nothing. In fact, the sports channels did a better job of covering it than the war-promoting paper even if they were promoting the limited hangout myth.

Time for the celebrity stars to have their say:

"Celebs used social media over the weekend to speak out about the racist statements allegedly made by Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling. Lil Wayne tweeted, “If I played for the Clippers, the last game would have been my last game.” Demi Lovato tweeted, “I wish the clippers would’ve made a bigger statement while still keeping it classy. African-American/Latino voices need to be heard. #ENDracism.” “Dirty Dancing” star Jennifer Grey tweeted, “heartbreaking for my team. #clippers #noroom4racism #SterlingMustGo.” Meanwhile, Rihanna used Instagram to share her opinions about Sterling’s alleged comments, and Snoop Dogg posted an Instagram video calling Sterling some names not fit for print. On Saturday, TMZ released a recording of an alleged back-and-forth between Sterling and his girlfriend in which he tells her not to bring black people to Clippers games."

They can come play with us anytime, and some do.


NEXT DAY UPDATE: 

No black players showed last night, and while I got off to a good start (scored 3 of the team's first 8 baskets), our squad lost 3 of 4. Had our chances. I scored a couple of hoops in  the other games, but fell out of the flow because I didn't get the ball much and didn't look to shoot much when I did. Got hurt finger toward the end of the second game and team pulled out win. All in all I was happy with my performance, though. Did all I could. 

Anyhow, this subject was again raised and I'm finding it such an orchestrated agenda to divert and distract from the real problems of this nation and the growing cla$$ divide. When I heard on the radio show this morning (I now listen to sports stations; I can'tt take news or music anymore. It's all shallow and superficial shit) that Al Sharpton of all people was leading a march before the game tonight I knew we had another agenda-pushing, media-driven distraction as he is being deployed by the obvious forces (anywhere Al shows up is called into question now, as is his TV show and the network it is on).

"NBA may act on Clippers owner today; Rivers assails remarks; team loses sponsors" by Gary Washburn | Globe Staff   April 28, 2014

Former Celtics coach Doc Rivers declined on Monday to commit to returning to the Los Angeles Clippers next year, and eight companies suspended their sponsorships with the NBA team, amid mounting pressure on team owners and the league’s commissioner to take action over racist comments attributed to Clippers owner Donald Sterling.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver scheduled a 2 p.m. press conference in New York on Tuesday, a sign that the league has reached a decision following several days of controversy stemming from the release of an audio tape of Sterling apparently telling his girlfriend that he does not want African-Americans attending Clippers games.

As outrage over the comments grew, several companies publicly announced they were ceasing business with the Clippers. Sprint, Kia Motors, State Farm, Virgin America airlines, Red Bull, Yokohama Tires, Mercedes Benz, and CarMax all suspended sponsorship with the club.

Meanwhile, in a conference call with reporters Monday afternoon, Rivers, who coached the Celtics for nine seasons, denounced Sterling’s apparent statements and said he rejected an opportunity to speak with the embattled owner.

“I don’t think right now is the time or the place for me, at least, so I took a pass,’’ Rivers said of the offer to speak with the owner.

He said he believed the voice on the tape belonged to Sterling.

‘‘These last 48 hours or so have been really hard for our players and everyone,’’ Rivers told reporters. ‘‘I'd just like to reiterate how disappointed I am in the comments attributed to our owner. I can’t tell you how upset I am, our players are.’’

“I think this is a very important decision,” Rivers said of Tuesday’s NBA ruling. “I hope it’s a very strong message and I believe that it will be.’’

Rivers left the Celtics last June to accept a lucrative three-year, $21 million offer to coach the Clippers with Sterling as owner. Hired to carry a historically downtrodden Clippers organization to new heights, he would not address the question of his future in Los Angeles.

“This just happened; my focus right now is on everything else and so little on me right now,” he said. “I don’t want to be part of this story. I don’t have an answer one way or the other [on my future]. We’ll wait and see.”

Now he has to continue to coach his team throughout the playoffs. The Clippers host the Golden State Warriors Tuesday night in the first game at home since the statements became public.

In Sunday’s Game 4 of the Western Conference first-round series against the Warriors, the Clippers players wore their practiceT-shirts inside out to hide the Clippers logo and wore black socks and armbands in protest of the racist sentiments.

Meanwhile, the Staples Center released a statement denouncing Sterling and hoping for a safe playing environment Tuesday: “We are deeply troubled by these disturbing remarks which go against everything we believe in as an organization. We support the players, the coaches, the rest of the team and their fans and we are committed to providing a safe, secure, and welcoming environment for everyone at tomorrow night’s NBA playoff game.”

CarMax, the nation’s largest retailer of used vehicles, said it was ending its sponsorship of the team and called the statements attributed to Sterling ‘‘completely unacceptable.’’

‘‘While we have been a proud Clippers sponsor for nine years and support the team, fans and community, these statements necessitate that CarMax end its sponsorship,’’ it said.

Portions of the recordings were released over the weekend by TMZ and Deadspin. Silver’s first step in the process was to authenticate that it is Sterling’s voice on the tape.

The NBA has not confirmed that it is Sterling’s voice, but his wife attributed the comments to him.

‘‘Our family is devastated by the racist comments made by my estranged husband,’’ Rochelle Sterling said in a statement sent to KABC-TV in Los Angeles. ‘‘My children and I do not share these despicable views or prejudices. We will not let one man’s small-mindedness poison the spirit of the fans and accomplishments of the team in the city we love. We are doing everything in our power to stand by and support our Clippers team.’’

Lakers star Kobe Bryant wrote on his Twitter account, ‘‘He should not continue owning the Clippers.”

He should retire to the ranch, huh? 

Related: Full Clip Of Cliven Bundy’s Non-Racist, Pro-Black, Pro-Mexican, Anti-Government Remarks Vs. NYTimes’ Deceptively Edited Version

Can you really believe anything you see in the jew$paper anymore (interesting omission regarding Tokowitz -- wow, stumbled on supremacism there -- 'er, Sterling, 'eh)?

Also, the Los Angeles branch of the NAACP announced in a news conference that it would not honor Sterling with a second Lifetime Achievement Award, as it planned to do before the tapes were released. 

I suppose there is no raci$m when it comes to the color GREEN!

Rivers was visibly disappointed by the developments....

It's a ‘‘defining moment for the league.’’

--more--" 

Yeah, it is not a pretty profile but it sure is filled with contradictions.

Also see: 

Hall of Fame NBA coach Jack Ramsay dies at 89
Jack Ramsay, 89; college and NBA coach who led Blazers to 1977 title

I have some Docs I need to see this morning so I don't know when I will be back. 

UPDATE: Clippers’ Donald Sterling banned for life from NBA

Looks like there is no more free speech in AmeriKa (far be it from me to defend Sterling, but he is entitled to his opinion. It's the main tenet of this country). Thankfully, there is still freedom of $peech (in politics at lea$t).

Obama Forces Philippines to Reopen Subic Bay

So much for the consoling because of the typhoon.... 

"Military pact gives US more access to bases in Philippines" by Jim Gomez | Associated Press   April 28, 2014

MANILA — The US military will have greater access to bases across the Philippines under a new 10-year agreement to be signed Monday in conjunction with President Obama’s visit and viewed as an effort by Washington to counter Chinese aggression in the region.

The whole premise of that first paragraph is nothing but pure war-promoting propaganda. US is sending forces all over the world right now (Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa) and it's the Chinese who are being aggressive. So who have they invaded since 1959, huh? 

And this choreographed signing full of imagery and narrative? Sick of the propaganda pre$$ version, sorry.

US and Philippine officials confirmed the deal ahead of Obama’s stop and portrayed it is as a central part of his weeklong Asia swing.

That's odd because I was told it was going to be a consoler-in-chief and trade tour and it turned into something completely different.

The Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement would give American forces temporary access to selected military camps and allow them to pre-position fighter jets and ships.

Well, it SURE LOOKS LIKE the UNITED STATES is PREPARING for WAR!

It is to be signed Monday at the main military camp in the Philippine capital, Manila, before Obama arrives on the last leg of a four-country Asian tour, following stops in Japan, South Korea, and Malaysia.

How appropriate. 

Now about the ongoing disaster at Fukushima, the South Korean ferry crisis, and the missing airliner (still missing today)....

A Philippine government primer on the defense accord that was seen by the Associated Press did not indicate how many additional US troops would be deployed ‘‘on temporary and rotational basis.’’ It said that the number would depend on the scale of joint military activities to be held in the camps.

The size and duration of that presence has to be worked out with the Philippine government, said Evan Medeiros, senior director for Asian affairs at the White House’s National Security Council.

Medeiros declined to say which specific areas in the Philippines are being considered under the agreement, but said the long-shuttered US facility at Subic Bay could be one of the locations. 

So SUBIC BAY is to be reopened!!? After such a tussle it was with the public which WANTED IT CLOSED?? Think Japanese citizens and Okinawa, folks; they don';t want the foot print of empire there, either.

Two Philippine officials confirmed the accord to the AP before the White House announcement. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of the pact before it was signed.

In Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, Obama pressed the Malaysian government to improve its human rights record and appealed to Southeast Asia’s youth to stand up for the rights of minorities and the rule of law.

Un-flipping-real! 

He's a real piece of work. The hypocritical denial is delusionary.

Yet Obama skipped a golden chance to promote that human rights agenda, declining to meet with opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim. Instead, he directed national security adviser Susan Rice to see Anwar on Monday.

I'm wondering how many drone strikes Malaysia has signed off on, although I saw that they do torture. Human rights coming from him.

Obama said his decision was ‘‘not indicative of our lack of concern’’ about the former deputy prime minister who recently was convicted for the second time on sodomy charges, which the US and international human rights groups contend are politically motivated.

Obama said he had raised his concerns about Malaysia’s restrictions on political freedoms in meetings with Prime Minister Najib Razak. He called the prime minister a ‘‘reformer’’ committed to addressing human rights issues.

To his critics, Najib said: ‘‘Don’t underestimate or diminish whatever we have done.’’

Any mention of the MISSING JET PLANE?

The defense accord between the United States and the Philippines would help the allies achieve different goals.

With its anemic military, the Philippines has struggled to bolster its territorial defense amid China’s increasingly assertive behavior in the disputed South China Sea.

Manila’s effort has dovetailed with Washington’s intention to pivot away from years of heavy military engagement in the Middle East to Asia, partly as a counterweight to China’s rising clout.

--more--"

NEXT DAY UPDATES:

"Obama vigorously defends foreign policy record" by Julie Pace | Associated Press   April 29, 2014

MANILA — President Obama vigorously defended his foreign policy record Monday, arguing that his cautious approach to global problems has avoided the type of missteps that contributed to a ‘‘disastrous’’ decade of war for the United States.

Obama’s expansive comments came at the end of a weeklong Asia trip that exposed growing White House frustration with critics who cast the president as weak and ineffectual on the world stage.

Look at where the debate is. It's between his covert approach to empire-building versus the overt method of mass-murdering assaults and invasions. The retraction of empire or a reversing of the course of war is not even a thought, and peace is out of the equation entirely.

The president and his advisers get particularly irked by those who seize on Obama’s decision to pull back from a military strike in Syria and link it with virtually every other foreign policy challenge, from Russia’s threatening moves in Ukraine to China’s increasing assertiveness in Asia’s territorial disputes.

He had to be pulled back from airstrikes by a public calling Congre$$, and was saved by an unscripted Kerry comment upon which the Russians seized. 

‘‘Why is it that everybody is so eager to use military force after we’ve just gone through a decade of war at enormous costs to our troops and to our budget?’’ Obama said during a news conference in the Philippines.

We know why, don't you?

*********************

White House advisers argue in part that Obama’s approach puts him on the side of a conflict-weary American public, some of whom voted for him in the 2008 election because of his early opposition to the Iraq war. Yet the president’s foreign policy record of late has provided plenty of fodder for his critics.

I'm not going to rehash the past; however, I find Obama far from being on the public's side here. He's Johnny-come-lately to it (everyone forget Libya?), and the truth of the statement is the "war-weary" -- means war-hating -- public is the one forestalling additional moves by the empire. 

That's why the risk of a false flag is so high.

It was Obama’s own declaration that Syria’s chemical weapons use would cross his ‘‘red line’’ that raised the stakes for a US response when Syrian leader Bashar Assad launched an attack last summer.

First of all, of the several reported attacks that one was a hoax; as for the others, they appear to have been U.S-supported insurgents that initiated the attacks -- if they occurred at all. The Assad government is least likely to have used them, if for no other reason than the lying, war-promoting, propaganda pre$$ assigning of blame. 

The Obama administration’s own drumbeat toward a US strike only fueled the narrative that the president was indecisive or did not have the stomach for an attack when he abruptly pulled back, first in favor of a vote in Congress, then to strike a deal with Syria and Russia that aimed to rid the Assad regime of its chemical weapons stockpiles.

I already discussed that.

The Syria scenario has trickled into Obama’s relationship with Asia, where anxious allies spent much of the last week seeking assurances from the president that he would have their back if China used military force to take the advantage in the region’s numerous territorial disputes.

Narratives and scenarios.... sigh.

And Russian President Vladimir Putin’s flouting of Western sanctions in response to his alleged provocations in Ukraine has stirred fresh criticism that the president’s strategy lacks teeth.

That line of thinking was evident Monday after the Obama administration announced new sanctions on seven Russian officials, as well 17 companies with ties to Putin.

Senator Kelly Ayotte, a New Hampshire Republican who has been a frequent Obama foreign policy critic, called the measures “tepid,” “incremental,” and “insufficient.” Other GOP lawmakers have called on Obama to provide lethal assistance to the Ukrainian military, a prospect he roundly rejected once again Monday.

‘‘Do people actually think that somehow us sending some additional arms into Ukraine could potentially deter the Russian army?’’ Obama said....

Yeah, let's just do it on the sly with covert actions and keep Russia's immediate frontier destabilized. All part of the plan.

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And look what the Globe saw out the window of Air Force One upon its return:

"The sputtering search for a missing Malaysian airliner will be expanded to include a much larger swath of the Indian Ocean floor, Australia’s prime minister said Monday, signaling a daunting new phase in the bid to find the aircraft’s wreckage. The next stage in the hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 -- a broader underwater search requiring robotic miniature submarines trawling the depths at walking speed — casts doubt about the chances of ever unraveling a confounding aviation mystery. It also drastically increases the cost and expands the timetable. Hopes for finding the plane picked up earlier this month, but the search hit a wall. The process of organizing contracts with private companies could take several weeks in the next phase of the search." 

Increases the costs for already impoverished and austerity-laden citizens in so many countries so $earch contracts can be issued to private companies? 

Could this whole thing -- hoax or hijacking -- all be ANOTHER GOVERNMENTAL CASH GRAB for well-connected concerns? 

One thing is clear from the article: it assures that the story will continue to intermittently appear in my printed paper.

Korean Ferry Staying Afloat

Related: Korean Ferry Resurfaces

"S. Korean ferry sinking prompts official to quit" by Choe Sang-Hun | New York Times   April 28, 2014

SEOUL — Prime Minister Chung Hong Won, the number two official in the South Korean government, apologized and offered his resignation on Sunday, as the country remained angry and saddened over the sinking of a ferry that left 302 people, the vast majority of them high school students, dead or missing.

President Park Geun Hye quickly accepted his resignation but asked Chung to stay in his post until the government completes its rescue operations, said Min Kyung Wook, a presidential spokesman.

The government has come under fire as early investigations revealed loopholes in safety measures and lax regulatory enforcement that investigators said contributed to the sinking of the 6,825-ton ferry, the Sewol, on April 16.

In a thriving economy, too.

It was also criticized for failing to respond quickly and efficiently to the crisis and for fumbling during the early stages of rescue operations.

As of Sunday morning, 115 ferry passengers remained missing. The number of the survivors, 174, has not changed for the past 11 days. The official death toll was at 187.

Public anger spilled onto the official website of Park’s office, where someone posted a message on Sunday to say “why you should not be the president.” The posting, which accused Park of failing to show leadership in the handling of the ferry disaster, attracted 200,000 views within 12 hours, as well as hundreds of supportive comments.

somber-looking Chung accepted the criticism on Sunday when he offered “an apology to the people” during a nationally televised news conference. “When I saw the people’s sadness and fury, I thought it was natural for me to step down with an apology,” he said.

Chung is the highest-ranking government official to lose his job over the sinking, South Korea’s worst disaster since 1995, when a department store collapsed in Seoul, killing 501 people.

South Koreans were especially traumatized by the fact that most of the dead and missing were students on a class trip.

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The prime minister is a largely ceremonial post in South Korea, with the executive power concentrated in the president, and is sometimes fired when the government needs to soothe public anger after a major scandal or policy failure.

Korean scapegoat and raw meat for the crowd.

Park’s tumultuous first year in office has been rocked by scandals in domestic politics, as well as unusually high tensions with North Korea....

RelatedKorean Coverage No Ferry

Just ratcheting them up even more on his way though.

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"South Korean ferry disaster and us" by James Carroll | Globe Columnist   April 28, 2014

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The sad story of the Korean ferry, with a captain who thought only of himself, suggests a far more disturbing image: that of a shipwrecked commonwealth in which positions of ostensible leadership have been cut off from any sense of common good. The obligation of a ship’s captain to be the last to leave a stricken vessel epitomizes the positive virtue of noblesse oblige — the idea that power and privilege come with responsibility toward those who have neither.

Yet the ferry disaster, with its rogue captain on the run, offers a parallel to what Americans now see throughout our society: the detachment of a rich and powerful elite that looks out for its own advantage, with no regard for the welfare of the rest of those aboard.

recent social science study (by Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page) concludes that a very small clique of economically privileged Americans regularly overwhelm the will of the general public, and a much discussed recent book (“Capital in the 21st Century” by Thomas Piketty) argues that, as a result of multigenerational patterns of savage income inequality, a social mutation has occurred, wholly severing the tie between the extremely wealthy and the vast population.

Tell us something we don't already know, and help us do something about it! 

Of course, his paper is a reflection of that group and is written of and for them. I'm not complaining, I'm just finally seeing the behind the mask of well-meaning corporate liberalism that supports the $tatu$ quo behind the divisive agenda-pu$hing.

But the metaphor is wrong. The elite are not the captain; they are the high end of first class, with more and more of the passengers consigned to steerage.

Yes, the captains and crew are the political $ervants and $laves of that cla$$.

Related:

"A letter written by a passenger on the Titanic describing the ‘‘wonderful passage’’ — hours before the ship hit an iceberg and eventually sank — sold at auction Saturday for $200,000. Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said the handwritten note was bought by an anonymous overseas telephone bidder during a sale in Devizes. It was written by English passenger Esther Hart, who survived, along with her daughter (AP)."

April a bad month for boats.

And they have not so much abandoned the ship as they have hijacked it....

What charged language, as well as instantly making on think of the missing Malaysian Flight 370.

By analogy, all Americans are urged (by Republican party orthodoxy, for example) to ignore their own peril and advance the interests of the elite, approving policies (on taxation, say) that destroy the broader common good.

I'm tired of that $hit-fooley $how when both parties are bought off by the $ame intere$ts and everyone sees it.

Regularly voting against their economic interest, a huge percentage of Americans cooperate in their own disempowerment — and relative impoverishment. 

If you believe AmeriKan election results from rigged machines.

Meanwhile, so vast has grown the civic gulf between the very rich and the rest that the privileged are blind to the consequences of the social organization on which they depend.

Blinded by GREED!

Let’s not push the comparison too far. The Korean ferry was no ship of state, nor were its passengers symbols of any kind; they were living persons who are now dead.

Yeah, I kinda wanted to get around to that part, you know, the dead people.

Yet....

Sigh. 

Yet we have a self-absorbed AmeriKan opinion.

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NEXT DAY UPDATE:

Looks like readers interest is sinking judging by the hits.

"Divers renew search for South Korea ferry dead" by Hyung-Jin Kim | Associated Press   April 29, 2014

JINDO, South Korea — An impromptu city has sprung up at this normally sleepy port to help the families of those lost in the disaster.

A sense of national mourning over a tragedy that will probably result in more than 300 deaths, most of them high school students, has prompted an outpouring of volunteers. More than 16,000 people have come to help.

The volunteers handle much of the care that relatives of the missing receive in Jindo as they wait for divers to retrieve the bodies of their loved ones from the wreckage of the ferry Sewol.

People from aid groups, private companies, churches, and other organizations pack a gym and roads lined with white tents, offering soup, kimchi, rice, hamburgers, taxi services, cellphone battery charging, laundry services, medicine, energy drinks, psychiatric help, and necessities like underwear, socks, and toothbrushes.

**********

Some scrub toilets and bathroom floors at the gym where families sleep, keeping the amenities practically spotless. A man walks with a huge sign that says ‘‘I will wash clothes for you.’’

They cook huge pots of hot kimchi soup, distribute blankets, towels and toiletries, pick up trash, and sweep the grounds. Turkish volunteers offer kebabs, turning on spits. One truck distributes homemade tofu, another pizza....

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