Not a good way to begin the day, but at least the state is on the case.
Thankfully, Russia and Turkey aren't falling for the trap -- as the New York Times turns to WINEP for expert analysis (how about that board of advisors for the AIPAC in sheep's clothing?) -- but other pressures are being applied to goad Russia into war.
"French lawmakers vote to continue airstrikes in Syria; Brussels remains on high alert but schools reopen" by Elena Becatoros and Thomas Adamson Associated Press November 26, 2015
PARIS — French lawmakers voted Wednesday to continue airstrikes in Syria against the Islamic State group, which claimed responsibility for the Nov. 13 attacks that killed 130 people in Paris, while Germany’s chancellor said her country would do more in the international fight against the group.
Parliament’s upper house, the Senate, voted 325 to 0 with 21 abstentions to prolong France’s airstrikes in Syria beyond early January. The lower house had earlier voted 515 to 4 in favor.
French fighter jets joined the US-led coalition against Islamic State extremists in Iraq in 2014, and expanded their mission to Islamic State targets in Syria in September. President Francois Hollande cited threats against French interests stemming from Islamic State in Syria.
The vote came as Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed how to combat the group, which has spread its violence beyond Syria to Europe and North Africa.
Merkel indicated her country would do more in the international fight against Islamic State.
‘‘We know that this attack wasn’t just intended for the people of Paris, but for our whole way of life,’’ she said after laying a single white rose at the Place de la Republique, the Paris square that has become the focal point of tributes to victims.
Angeorge W. Merkel.
Germany, Merkel said, wasn’t just saddened by the attacks, ‘‘it also feels challenged to do everything to prevent such events from happening again.’’
See:
Saying Farewell to the French False Flag Coverage
Fearful Friday
That's tomorrow.
Hollande said it would ‘‘be a very good signal in the fight against terrorism’’ if Germany could do more against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Germany provides weapons and training for Kurds fighting against Islamic State in Iraq.
‘‘If the French president asks me to think about what more we can do, then it’s our task to think about that and we will act quickly,’’ Merkel said, adding that the Islamic State ‘‘can’t be convinced with words, it must be fought with military means.’’
***********
In the Belgian capital, schools reopened despite the city remaining on the highest possible alert level. Police armed with automatic weapons stood guard outside schools, while Brussels’ subway system partially reopened, bringing a sense of relative normalcy back to the city....
Yes, the night life has returned in France.
In France, UN climate talks open in Paris Monday, with about 140 world leaders expected, including President Obama. French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Wednesday that tight security would be imposed for the conference, with road traffic restrictions, border controls and additional police and troops deployed.
Cazeneuve said 120,000 police, gendarmes and soldiers were being deployed across France to ensure the country’s security.
Good Lord, it was all a crisis drill hoax leading up to this!
If not, why should anyone feel safe?
--more--"
Time to fly back for Thanksgiving:
"Logan Airport workers and their supporters are staging a 24-hour hunger strike to bring attention to the fight to raise wages and form a union at the airport, one of 14 airport-worker fasts taking place across the country this week. About 20 Boston airport workers and elected officials, including several state representatives and Boston District Councilor Timothy McCarthy of Hyde Park, will begin their strike, dubbed the “Fast for $15,” Tuesday afternoon at the Irish Famine Memorial near Downtown Crossing, according to 32BJ Service Employees International Union. Last week, airport workers around the country held a day of protests, and state Senator Sal DiDomenico filed a bill to raise the minimum wage for Logan aviation service workers to $15 an hour."
Must account for the delays, a "common scene across the country. According to an AP analysis, the creep in taxi times is attributed to a series of changes: Airlines say the longer taxi times are baked into schedules, so planes generally still arrive on time.‘‘It’s death by a thousand cuts, significant amounts of money,’’ that translates into hundreds of millions of dollars extra in operating costs so far this year, according to AP calculations."
They also lost your luggage?
Globe will drive you to where you need to be:
US highway traffic deaths on rise again
Just as millions of Americans prepare to hit the road for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Renault van pollution higher than stated
Volkswagen faces another emissions inquiry
Volkswagen chief says emissions inquiry may take months
VW pulls back on projects amid costly emissions scandal
Tesla is recalling its entire Model S fleet
Fiat Chrysler told to spend an extra $1b to qualify for tax credits
Looks like a bottleneck ahead, so I'll try and find a parking spot and look, one just opened up! Good thing the airbag didn't deploy.
As everyone begins to gather....
Fear of terrorists posing as migrants heightens urgency at border camps
‘‘There is a certain amount of bigotry and hatred associated with the message,’’ if you suggest such a thing here (trusting that man is a joke, and she said a bad word), and the whole thing is backfiring on them, Trumping them if you will, imho).
Besides, they are being welcomed to the table in more ways than one:
"This year, Thanksgiving arrives amid a national debate over refugees. During the 1930s and 1940s, large majorities of Americans were against letting refugees from the Nazi tyranny come to the United States.
And they wonder why I'm not in a good mood on the holiday?
When Gallup in 1939 asked whether 10,000 refugee children from Germany should be permitted to enter the country “to be taken care of in American homes,” two-thirds of the public said no. Some politicians, including FDR, warned that refugees from Germany might be Nazi agents in disguise. That wasn’t an anomaly. The current panic over Syrian refugees does not reflect our nation’s best instincts. Like earlier refugees stretching back to 1620, they are looking for peace, freedom, and a better life for their children. Our forebears found sanctuary here, and bequeathed to us so much for which we give thanks. Today’s vulnerable pilgrims — and tomorrow’s — offer us the chance to extend America’s humanitarian reputation, and thereby ensure that what is so admirable and humane in our tradition may be a source of blessings for many Thanksgivings to come."
Yeah, so how did that work out for the Native American population anyway -- in this age of politically-correct history and the whitewashing of the past, Globe?
I'll deal with the humanitarian reputation more below.
Refugees Who Fled ISIS Thankful on Most American of Holidays »
Who do you think stuffed 'em?
"Hundreds gather at Goodwill for Thanksgiving dinner" by Peter Schworm Globe Staff November 25, 2015
The festive get-together drew dozens of volunteers and a host of political leaders, including Governor Charlie Baker, Mayor Martin J. Walsh of Boston, and House Speaker Robert DeLeo. Over a turkey dinner with all the fixings, many guests said they had looked forward to the event for weeks.
“It’s nice to spend time with people,” said Lorenne Sirena, 22, who lives in Roslindale and works at Marshalls.
Her friend Radasia Thomas Williams, 21, agreed. Plus, there was the food, from the mashed potatoes to the pumpkin pie.
Asked about her favorite, Williams grinned and said, “Everything!” and drew a high-five from Sirena.
Sirena said that Goodwill’s programs helped prepare her for jobs in the community and that she enjoys her work at the store. She even hopes to look for a second job, she said.
She has a job yet is eating at Goodwill and needs more work?
She planned to spend Thanksgiving with her family and acknowledged that it was pretty great to have two holiday meals. As though on cue, a generous slice of pumpkin pie was set before her.
Wow, when some people are not even getting one. That's AmeriKa!
The Goodwill meal was one of many Thanksgiving events to be held in the Boston area.
Oh, so they are "events" now.
In other words, this article is a piece of propaganda feting the public relations photo-ops of leaders whose policies have contributed to the very problem they seek to salve.
On Thursday morning, the Pine Street Inn homeless shelter will prepare close to 2,500 holiday dinners, including 1,500 meals for Pine Street’s guests and tenants and another 1,000 for other Boston shelters and groups.
They are even passing out cookies!
The meals include 2,000 pounds of turkey, 1,100 pounds of mashed potatoes, 425 pounds of stuffing, and 70 gallons of gravy.
Pine Street’s outreach team will also deliver holiday meals to men and women on the streets. Pine Street serves more than 9,000 people each year, providing emergency shelter, permanent housing, and job training.
At Goodwill, the Rev. Gloria White-Hammond delivered a benediction, giving thanks for the love of family and friends and “the richness of this community.”
“We celebrate our differences here today,” she said.
Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries serves more than 8,000 adults in its job training and career services programs, many of whom have barriers to employment.
“It's about connecting people to jobs, connecting people to opportunities,” Walsh said. “Goodwill is such an important part of our city, and I want to thank them for their partnership.”
Yup, it's all good in the nation's 3rd-ranking city regarding wealth inequality! Now go cut some more tax subsidies for real estate agents so they can develop the $eaport.
After the speeches, the band kicked back into gear with Roy Orbison’s classic “Oh, Pretty Woman,” and the crowd flowed onto the dance floor....
Yup, everybody is dancing and having a great time!
--more--"
It really hits you in the heart, doesn't it?
Koch-backed Libre aims to boost GOP with Hispanics
Seated at the head table are the bankers, of course.
And look who gets to say grace.
"Survey shows many in US believe Islamic values at odds with their own" by Amber Phillips Washington Post November 26, 2015
WASHINGTON — Recent surveys show that Americans are more skeptical than ever of how Islam squares with their values and way of life — and yet very few Americans actually seem to interact with Muslims.
Those are findings from separate surveys from the Public Religion Research Institute and suggest that how Americans perceive Muslims is tied more to headlines than personal experiences.
In other words, it is the Jewi$h War Pre$$ that is polluting their minds!
The nonprofit released its annual American Values Survey, which found that Americans’ perceptions of Islam have turned ‘‘sharply negative over the past few years.’’
A majority of Americans (56 percent) surveyed say the values of Islam are at odds with American values and way of life -- an uptick in recent years.
What values and way of life are those?
Waging aggressive mass-murdering wars built upon lies from government and their mouthpiece media while supporting murderous Israel?
Creating, funding, and directing the very terror groups we are supposed to be fighting, guaranteeing endless wars for control and conquest?
The wealth inequality inherent in the economic $y$tem?
The tyranny of total surveillance and data collection of citizens?
The endless fear that bleeds forth from self-serving government and its propaganda pre$$?
Oh, yeah, I almost forgot:
"President Obama on Wednesday signed a $607 billion defense policy bill despite his opposition to restrictions in the legislation that ban him from moving Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United States and making good on a long unfulfilled campaign promise. The dispute has taken on added intensity this year because the White House has launched a final push to close the prison before Obama leaves office. In a statement, Obama said the bill ‘‘includes vital benefits for military personnel and their families, authorities to facilitate ongoing operations around the globe, and important reforms to the military retirement system’’ as well as other measures. He added, however, that he is ‘‘deeply disappointed that the Congress has again failed to take productive action toward closing the detention facility at Guantanamo.’’ Keeping the prison open, Obama said, ‘‘is not consistent with our interests as a nation and undermines our standing in the world.’’ Sizable opposition among Republicans and some Democrats has put the defense policy bill at the center of the debate over whether Obama would move some detainees from the detention center in Cuba to US facilities without congressional approval."
Did they mean torture?
As if this government had any standing with anybody in this world.
The institute's most recent survey was conducted in September and early October, before the Paris attacks and before GOP presidential candidates amped up their rhetoric when it comes to Islam and terrorism.
Ah! They can jigger the numbers some more and make us all bloodthirsty -- like right after 9/11!
(I claim exception; I was one of the 7% who did want to go into Afghanistan, not because I knew 9/11 was false flag, but because of the nonviolent principles of Gandhi and MLK)
Robert Jones, the institute’s founder and CEO, pointed out in an interview that aired Sunday with public radio news magazine Interfaith Voices that Americans are basing those opinions largely on people they don’t interact with.
It's done all the time and they are called celebrities; Americans like the media image of the people they claim to like. If they knew the truth about the $cum elite cla$$ they would be disgusted by them all.
‘‘Muslims make up only about 1 percent of the US population,’’ he told host Maureen Fiedler, ‘‘and they’re also heavily concentrated in just a few cities around the country.’’
Muslim ghettos?
The geography of where US Muslims live could help explain why, when asked in an August 2011 survey, seven in 10 Americans said they have seldom or even never had a conversation with anyone who is Muslim in the past year.
I haven't and don't think I know any. If so, they are keeping it a secret from me.
Before 9/11 in fact, Jones said, most Americans hadn’t really thought much about Islam.
Is that right?
A New Pearl Harbor, huh?
That’s changed, of course. At first Americans gave Muslims what Jones called a kind of ‘‘grace period,’’ largely thanks to President George W. Bush emphatically declaring that America is not at war with Islam (a point Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton likes to make but a few Republican candidates have disagreed with).
Was that the way it was, because I don't remember that being the climate at all.
But as the years in the war on terror dragged on, Americans’ perceptions have soured about a culture and religion from which they still remain largely separate.
It's all the 2% Zionist crap shoveled at us, and strangely, we are not too fond of that tribe, either.
--more--"
Well, I'm Catholic so....
"Africa is by far the world’s poorest continent, and many Kenyans are touched that Francis plans to spend Friday morning in the Kangemi slum, a huge informal settlement of flimsy metal shacks, broken dreams and open sewage trickling across the ground."
Thankful for not that if nothing else today.
Speaking of homelands:
"No credible terror plot against US, Obama says" Washington Post November 26, 2015
WASHINGTON — President Obama said Wednesday there is ‘‘no specific and credible intelligence’’ to suggest that terrorists have any plans to strike the United States over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
Of course, they "miss" it when they do and say they had no clue, so....
‘‘Americans should go about their usual Thanksgiving weekend activities, spending time with family and friends, and celebrating our blessings,’’ Obama said. ‘‘And while the threat of terrorism is a troubling reality of our age, we are both equipped to prevent attacks, and we are resilient in the face of those who would try to do us harm.’’
Translation: they don't want an event f***ing up the already dismal Chri$tma$ $ea$on.
Obama acknowledged the fear that the Paris attacks evoked in many Americans.
‘‘Given the shocking images, I know that Americans have been asking each other where — whether it’s safe here, whether it’s safe to fly or gather,’’ he said, referring to the series of strikes on Nov. 13 in Paris that killed 130 people. ‘‘I want the American people to know that we are taking every possible step to keep our homeland safe.
‘‘So as Americans travel this weekend to be with their loved ones, I want them to know that our counterterrorism, intelligence, homeland security, and law enforcement professionals at every level are working overtime. They are continually monitoring threats at home and abroad. Their work has prevented attacks. Their work has saved lives.’’
Yes, Chancellor Sutler!
--more--"
They have prevented attacks -- except in Paris before the climate change summit where they would have been protested.
"Obama sets climate agenda; Will meet with leaders of India, China at summit" by Steven Mufson Washington Post November 26, 2015
WASHINGTON — ‘‘This is a chance for the world to take a big step forward’’ toward a ‘‘global solution’’ to climate change and to limit the threat to economic and national security, Paul Bodnar, senior director for energy and climate change at the National Security Council, said in a conference call with reporters.
President Obama said that terrorist attacks in Paris on Nov. 13 would not alter his plans to attend the summit. ‘‘What a powerful rebuke to the terrorists it will be when the world stands as one and shows that we will not be deterred from building a better future for our children,’’ he said Tuesday in a news conference with French President François Hollande.
Hollande was smiling at the event. He knows its all a gag hoax for other purposes.
Unlike the last major climate summit, when the world’s leaders gathered in Copenhagen, the quest for an agreement has been ‘‘a hallmark of the president’s foreign policy and international engagement,’’ Ben Rhodes, deputy NSC adviser, said in the conference call Tuesday.
The last time they gathered in 2009 they froze their asses off, and now he is on another quest!
Obama will first meet Chinese President Xi Jinping. After addressing a plenum session and attending a luncheon held by Hollande, Obama will meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose government has been an obstacle to resolving issues in the final text.
On Tuesday, Obama will meet with the leaders of small island nations that are most in danger of being swept away by rising sea levels.
Told for years and they are still there.
After Obama returns to the United States, members of his administration, including Secretary of State John Kerry, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy — will continue to press for a final agreement....
How they getting home? Fly, fly, fly?
Thanks for pitching in, hypocrites!
--more--"
Appetite has now been ruined, ruined I tell you!! He does it to me every time!
What is on the Globe's table:
"At this holiday feast, turkeys make an entrance, not an entree; Vegetarian groups are serving dinner to the turkeys" by Susan Svrluga Washington Post November 26, 2015
ELLICOTT CITY, Md. — For vegetarians and vegans, he said, the beloved American tradition is a tough one.
‘‘Our goal is to encourage people to recognize we can celebrate a holiday without having a dead body in the middle of the table,’’ said Gene Baur, the president and cofounder of Farm Sanctuary, which does advocacy work and shelters farm animals.
Go tell it to Goodwill.
In their eyes, it’s like gathering with family to celebrate and give thanks — with a dead dog as a centerpiece, he said. ‘‘We want to encourage people to consider a different kind of Thanksgiving celebration, where the animals are our friends, not our food.’’
Globe has a bone to pick with you then; Duke needs for soup stock (want the recipe?).
And so in San Francisco, in upstate New York, in the mountains north of Los Angeles, and in suburban Maryland this month, people are inviting turkeys as honored guests, spreading a cloth over a low table and baking them pies and stuffing and other treats.
For those who may see this as an absurd parody of animal rights — who wonder, perhaps, if money might be spent to help hungry children instead, say, or other causes — Baur says: ‘‘We speak to people wherever they are on their journeys. We’re trying to redefine our relationship with farm animals. We can live well without harming them. But we recognize that for many people, us putting out this vegan message can be . . . sometimes people react to that in defensive ways, and emotional ways.’’
But keep an open mind, he urges. After all, turkeys are easy to befriend....
--more--"
Thankfully, no Palestinians were invited. See what happens when they are asked to carve a turkey. (Don't ask them to light a fire, either)
Related: Pigeons show promise
One bird is the same as the other, I guess.
"Officials to keep watch over stranding of turtles on Cape" by Sarah Roberts Globe Correspondent November 25, 2015
Cape Cod’s sea turtle stranding season was relatively quiet until Tuesday, when a wave of 28 turtles washed ashore on beaches across the Cape’s outer arm, officials said. Now, biologists and volunteers are preparing to comb the frigid shoreline in the event that the animals continue to wash up over the Thanksgiving holiday.
Each year at the beginning of November, dozens of juvenile sea turtles become trapped in the arm of the Cape while trying to swim to the Gulf of Mexico for the winter. The turtles come to New England waters during the summer months to feed on crabs, according to Tony LaCasse, a spokesman for the New England Aquarium.
Unable to withstand the cold, the turtles begin to wash up on beaches in a lethargic state in November, some covered in up to two inches of stringy algae, he said.
I've been led to believe the seas are boiling because that is where all the heat is hiding. WTF??
“Some of them appear almost dead,” LaCasse said, explaining that the resilient reptiles can be warmed back to life, even if their heart beats as slow at one beat per minute.
Since the beginning of the stranding season, 47 hypothermic turtles have been rescued from the chilly Cape beaches by volunteers with the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.
After a slow start to the stranding season brought in only 19 turtles in November, Tuesday was a surprising rush of the 28 animals in a single day, said LaCasse.
Just after noon on Wednesday, nine more turtles were taken to the sea turtle hospital in Quincy for treatment by aquarium biologists.
“We’re actually well prepared for it,” LaCasse said. “It is nature, it’s hard to predict.”
Except for the certainty regarding global warming.
--more--"
I suppose the turtle stew is better than this next item:
"Tufts scientists make worms’ heads turn" Washington Post November 26, 2015
You might think that it would take genetic engineering — or some Frankenstein-style cutting and pasting — to give a worm the head and brain of another species. You’d be wrong.
Scientists at Tufts tweaked the cellular signals of flatworms to accomplish just that, according to a study published Tuesday in International Journal of Molecular Sciences. The scientists, led by Tufts professor Michael Levin and student Maya Emmons-Bell, cut off the heads of some Girardia dorotocephala, worms known to regenerate with ease. Then they interrupted the electrical pathways that cells inside the worms use to communicate, enabling the new heads to grow into shapes sported by other worms. Brains followed, taking on the morphology of related worms instead of that seen in Girardia dorotocephala. It’s clear that genes aren’t everything. In humans, environmental factors can change the way the same genes are expressed. In flatworms, it seems, nongenomic changes can even be manipulated to change brain and body shape.
Related:
"Researchers are now experimenting with modifying the genes of chickens so they don’t transfer avian flu, for example. They also want to develop pigs and cattle that are resistant to foot and mouth disease, and goats that produce a higher level of a microbial protein that may help treat diarrhea in people. “We’re absolutely on the cusp of really making leaps and bounds,” said William Muir, a professor of genetics in the department of animal sciences at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. “There’s a whole floodgate of things waiting in the wings.”
Good thing it's not people.
The scientists hope the research can help them learn how to fix birth defects, or even how to make lost body tissues regenerate.
Need I type it?
--more--" No thanks.
The plate I'm looking at after going through the Globe's buffet line (love the file photo from 12 years ago meant to convince you). At least there is frozen yogurt for desert.
Time to sit back, grab a pillow (isn't that bullying and a hate crime?), and see how my team does this week (used to go to the movies after the meal, but, you know).
"A nurse from Beverly allegedly told authorities she had one glass of wine during the New England Patriots game Monday night, but her blood alcohol level was nearly twice the legal limit shortly after she hit a State Police trooper with her car, a prosecutor said Tuesday. Catherine E. Williams, 29, appeared before Wrentham District Court Judge Stephen Ostrach, who remarked she must have consumed a “large glass of wine” given that her blood alcohol level was .15. The legal limit for driving is .08. “Don’t drink,” Ostrach ordered Williams, after setting her bond at $1,000 surety. The Patriots played the Buffalo Bills at Gillette Monday night."
Easy to say in Hind's Sight, and soon Christmas and the New Year will be upon us.
Until then, readers....
Next Day Leftovers:
Haven't even started picking at them yet.
GLOBE SANTA
Oldest US park ranger to light White House Christmas tree
Man shot outside Brighton Avenue bar
Shots outside Fenway bar take a cherished son
Not exactly a Happy Thanksgiving there, but....
Security, storage concerns linger at closed nuclear sites
To follow up on that theme, there was a landslide in Myanmar (and I'm not talking the elections).
Other than that, the turkey didn't taste good (if it was turkey at all). I suppose it was better than Chinese. That always tastes a little bitter on Thanksgiving. At least the Belgians were able to take a breath -- as alert warnings began popping up in the United States! I suppose you can chew on this for a while before sitting down with a plate of leftovers. Certain guests destroyed the party for me. Scold me if you want, but may I be excused?
After dinner, both the Globe and the Secret Service fell asleep. Must have been the Tryptophan in the turkey. It's just an avalanche of bs these days so I'm walking away from it. I guess the joke is on me after all. The French (what's with the frown there, Francois?) are moving towards the Russians as Turkey gets split away (I was told yesterday war tensions were cooling) and the gas project collapses!
Hmmmmm!
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- 'Facebook Killer' Found Guilty of Wife's Murder
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- Obama: No Credible Plot Against Homeland
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- More News »
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I just wanted to take a moment to thank all of the readers who have come here for so long. Were it not for that, I wouldn't be doing this public service and duty.
