Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Ladies Night at the DNC

I'm just going to let them have their say without interruption:

"You don’t have to be with Hillary Clinton to appreciate this moment" by Shirley Leung Globe Columnist  July 27, 2016

Lost in the sturm and drang over Clinton’s candidacy is just how extraordinary it is. She could be our next commander in chief, breaking up the all-male club that has lasted more than two centuries.

It’s a moment when many parents will insist their daughters tune in to the Democratic National Convention so they can witness what’s possible for women in this country. It’s a milestone, perhaps a turning point, worthy of us setting aside our politics to soak it all up. You don’t have to support her to appreciate how Clinton has taken a hammer to what she has famously called the “highest, hardest glass ceiling.”

Some millennial women have been quick to downplay Clinton’s achievements as a US senator, secretary of state, and first lady. But many are too young to have experienced the barriers that women face in life and at the office....

--more--" 

Since she brought up Michelle Obama first....

"First lady’s apolitical image big part of her political draw" by Nancy Benac Associated Press  July 26, 2016

PHILADELPHIA — Sorry, Democrats. #ElectMichelle will never be more than a wishful hashtag.

The same thing that made Michelle Obama such a powerful voice for Hillary Clinton at the Democratic convention makes it unlikely she’ll spend a huge amount of time on the campaign trail or, heaven forbid, run for president: She’s just not a political animal.

That’s sorry news to delegates who were moved to tears by the first lady’s nailed-it speech at the convention Monday night, where she delivered a compelling argument for Clinton’s election from the perspective of Sasha and Malia’s mom and also managed to skewer Donald Trump without uttering his name.

Democrats were still enthusing over Obama’s speech the next day — and hoping the first lady’s message would help win over those who have yet to commit to Clinton.

‘‘Imagine yourself being a Bernie-or-Bust person listening to that,’’ said Representative Keith Ellison, Democrat of Minnesota, a prominent Bernie Sanders supporter during the primaries. ‘‘You’ve gotta kind of say, ‘Well, I guess Michelle has an important point to make here.’ This is how we get to unity.’’

Aside from her convention appearance, Obama has barely engaged in the 2016 campaign and has resisted positioning herself as a distinct political figure. She was notably silent when Clinton clinched the nomination, letting the historic moment pass without comment. When her husband endorsed Clinton, the first lady’s office said the president’s words stood for her, too.

The two women share bonds forged in the elite membership of the first ladies’ club, and Obama made a number of appearances with Clinton during her time as secretary of state.

Tina Tchen, Obama’s chief of staff, said the two have a ‘‘very warm relationship.’’ But there is little evidence of a close friendship.

Even with a limited campaign schedule, the first lady can be a powerful political asset, her appeal enhanced by her largely apolitical image.

Democratic pollster Mark Mellman described the first lady as ‘‘the most popular person who will appear on that stage’’ in Philadelphia, ‘‘more popular, for better or worse, than President Obama or Hillary Clinton.’’

A Gallup survey this month found Michelle Obama favorably regarded by 58 percent of Americans, with especially high favorability numbers among younger voters, nonwhites, and women.

There are limits to her powers of persuasion, though.

Cleo Dioletis, a Sanders delegate from Colorado, called Mrs. Obama’s speech ‘‘beautiful’’ and said she’d love to see her run for president.

But the first lady’s appearance didn’t move Dioletis one inch closer to voting for Clinton, whom she loathes.

As for talk of political aspirations for the first lady herself, her husband has a big bucket of cold water at the ready.

The president told a town hall earlier this year: ‘‘There are three things that are certain in life: death, taxes, and Michelle is not running for president.’’

--more--"

She was a disappointing First Lady as far as I am concerned, and whatever "rebel" she had in her was quickly folded into the standard housewife stuff. She is remembered for the obesity crusade and perfunctory pro-war photo-ops with troops.

Related:

"For Obama, the speech came at a critical juncture. For the first time, the first lady took the stage to endorse another woman — a former first lady in her own right. In a June profile in the Washington Post, Sarah Hurwitz, the Wayland native behind Michelle Obama’s emotional Monday night speech at the Democratic National Convention, said, “I know that a lot of girls end up feeling like they’re not taken seriously, but I feel like I was always really encouraged by my teachers. They always took me seriously.”

What I can't take seriously, sorry. 

FBI had him on retainer, huh?

Good Lord, it's time to slip away from such nonsense. Globe just a mouthpiece for authority is all (maybe somebody can ask Bulger if he knows where the bodies are buried).

"As Hillary Clinton makes history, Bill reflects on their journey" by Annie Linskey Globe Staff  July 27, 2016

PHILADELPHIA — Hillary Clinton became the first woman to be nominated for president by a major political party on Tuesday, a historic moment marked by an emotional speech from Bill Clinton, who told an intimate story of how they fell in love and built a remarkable political partnership.

Print told me "that brought Democratic delegates in a packed stadium to their feet in a resounding show of unity."

So the whole show was scripted!

Gone was much of the acrimony from Monday evening, when the mere mention of her name elicited a chorus of heckling. Instead, when Senator Bernie Sanders took the microphone and requested that Clinton be nominated by acclamation, the crowd roared in a display of party strength.

‘‘I move that Hillary Clinton be selected as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States,’’ said Sanders, Clinton’s chief rival, after a representative from every state read out the delegate count from a lengthy season of primaries and caucuses.

And "His words prompted the crowd to unleash a scream of party strength designed to be heard at Trump Tower. They were followed by a parade of female speakers who reveled in the historic moment.

Then I verbatim the print as much as I can with the web alterations included

Please continue.

On a big night for women’s rights, however, the biggest draw was a keynote speech from a man: Bill Clinton.

Who decided that? 

(Oh, sorry to interrupt).

The 42nd president of the United State focused his remarks on his relationship with Hillary Clinton, essentially telling their love story to an audience of millions.

OMG!!!!!!!!!!

Bill Clinton’s moment on the stage at the Wells Fargo Center was also a reminder of the historic role he might yet play: America’s first first gentleman.

“I keep thinking about how satisfying this moment must be for the Clintons,” said Susan Swain, who recently published a book chronicling the lives and roles of the country’s first ladies.

“This is the culmination of a 42-year political partnership for them,” she said, noting that their shared political journey began when then-Hillary Rodham ditched her influential job as a Washington lawyer to follow her then boyfriend to Arkansas, where he wanted to run for Congress.

“The two of them have been each others’ closest political advisers ever since,” she said.

The night was about Hillary Clinton, and the former president chronicled his wife’s accomplishments from working to end housing discrimination to launching a children’s advocacy group in Arkansas to negotiating peace deals as secretary of state.

“She’s a good organizer, and she’s is best darn change-maker I’ve ever met in my life,” Bill Clinton said. “Some people say ‘Well, we need change. She’s been around a long time.’ She sure has, and she’s been worth every single year she’s put into making people’s lives better.”

Clinton started his speech with a simple narrative description — “I met a girl’’ — and described their courtship at Yale Law School in 1971. He said he asked her to walk to an art museum.

“In the spring of 1971 I met a girl,” Bill Clinton opened, after walking on stage to deafening cheers. “She had thick blond hair, glasses. No makeup.”

“I was so impressed,” he said. “Momentarily I was speechless. We’ve been walking and talking and laughing together ever since,’’ he said. 

Puh-sleeze!

Clinton walked the audience step-by-step through the course of their romance — including that he proposed to her three times before she finally agreed to marry him.

“I married my best friend,” Clinton said. He said that he hopes she made the right choice to follow him to Arkansas and put his career ahead of her’s.


He wove in some of the intimate details of their lives and personal anecdotes — the types that were missing from the speeches last week from Trump’s family members about the Republican nominee.

I'm sorry to interrupt the paragraph, but THAT is a LOW BLOW by the fawning reporter -- and a LIE!! I say one of his sons speak for about five minutes. 

Glad I missed this sack of sh**.

One family tale: Hillary Clinton’s disapproval that he watched all six “Police Academy” movies back-to-back with their daughter, Chelsea. 

PFFFFFFFT!

Clinton never once mentioned Republican standard-bearer Donald Trump by name, but made multiple references to him, including his comments mocking the disabled.

He also made a somewhat defensive pitch to progressives who’ve been slow to embrace his wife’s candidacy and were still protesting her nomination outside the arena.

“Real change is hard and a lot of people even think it’s boring,” Clinton said. “Speeches like this are fun. Actually doing the work is hard.”

The first spouse frequently fulfills what is often considered a frivolous role of selecting flatware, approving menus for state dinners and redecorating portions of the historic home the family occupies. It’s difficult to imagine Bill Clinton in that role, and Swain said there’s precedent for another family member to step in for ceremonial duties: cue Chelsea Clinton.

Maybe they can watch Police Academy together.

But before the Clinton clan can start divvying up White House responsibilities, there’s a general election for them to win.

It's what we used to call putting the cart before the horse, but what do they know about voting machine software that you don't?

Insiders say Bill Clinton, known as the Democratic Party’s best salesman, will be part of an effort to persuade Americans, who polls show are deeply distrustful of his wife, that they should vote for her.

What makes him think we trust him anymore than her? 

Like Hillary once said, you get a two-fer! 

But there I GO again!

“A spouse is just exceptionally credible and effective as a surrogate and can talk about the candidate in a way few can,” asked Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist who worked in the Clinton White House. “He can do that, plus he’s a former president. He brings a double credibility to it, which we’ve never seen before.’’

He also bears considerable political baggage. He has a history of affairs that humiliated his wife and his past behavior is already a topic Trump uses to taunt the Clintons.

Amazing how the women's rights and feminist folk look right past all that.

And there’s the now unpopular Bill Clinton-era policies of de-regulating large financial institutions and an anti-crime bill that liberal activists blame for causing millions of black men to spend time in prison on stiff penalties for drug charges.

Alex Castellanos, a Republican strategist, says the 69-year-old Bill Clinton reinforces the wrong themes for his wife’s campaign. “This is an election about change and Bill Clinton is the past,” Castellanos said. “Bill even looks old now.”

(Blog editor nods)

Republicans can easily paint the pair as the epitome of concentrated Washington power that has become the target of ire for many Americans.

“Bill and Hillary are the Democratic Party Establishment,” Castellanos said. “They are the one percent. They are more of the same. They are the Hollywood, New York and Washington elite. Which you see here in the convention.”

It’s a complaint that resonates beyond just Republican-leaning voters, and continued to fuel anger on the left in Philadelphia, despite the show of party unity inside the convention hall.

Globe didn't want to spoil the show, 'er, party, er....

Several hundred angry Sanders protesters came into a press tent set up outside the arena, chanting and then falling silent and sitting down with tape or “Bernie” stickers over their mouths, some holding signs saying they had been silenced.

Some blamed the Democratic National Committee. Others faulted the media, saying Sanders hadn’t got the press attention he deserved.

“The message is that the media has ignored Bernie Sanders the entire campaign,” said Stephanie Felten, a Sanders delegate from Texas. 

Not as much as others in the past, and I think he was intended to be a foil, token opposition -- but then the people spoke.

They rejected Sanders’ call to rally around Clinton.

One woman with a piece of white tape over her mouth bearing the words “no voice” refused to answer verbally when asked whether, by ignoring Sanders’ plea for unity, the diehard Sanders supporters might contribute to a Trump victory.

Instead, she held up one sign that said Clinton was the same as Trump, and a second that read: “On November 9, you can’t say we didn’t warn you.”

I've been warning you for 10 years, and I'm tired.

Hours before Bill Clinton spoke, the Democratic delegates gathered at the Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia officially voted to nominate Hillary Clinton as the party’s nominee for president.

Hillary Clinton unexpectedly spoke to the convention live via a video feed from New York, saying “We just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet.”

Addressing girls listening she said: “I may become the first woman president. But one of you is next.”

C'mon, get real!

--more--"

Maybe this person will be first should Hillary lose:

"Convention conflict puts Elizabeth Warren in a bind" by Victoria McGrane Globe Staff  July 27, 2016

PHILADELPHIA — Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has wholeheartedly endorsed Hillary Clinton but was passed over for vice president last week, settled back Tuesday into the realities of her role leading the party’s liberal wing from her Senate perch.

As “Bernie or Bust” demonstrators rallied in the streets of Philadelphia for a second day, Warren told reporters that if Bernie Sanders supporters continue to boo and heckle the proceedings inside the convention hall, “then it’s good for Donald Trump, just like Bernie said,” and pivoted to positive territory, gushing about first lady Michelle Obama’s speech Monday.

“We need to offer an alternative to the American people, an alternative to Donald Trump’s hate-filled message that turns people against people, and to say that we have a better vision,” she said, speaking to a handful of local media outlets.

Yeah, that's real positive.

There was a time not long ago when the left wing of the Democratic Party yearned for Warren to accept the party’s nomination here this week. She declined to be drafted. Then she was short-listed for vice president. That opportunity slipped away with Clinton’s selection of Tim Kaine.

See: Clinton Chooses Kaine 

The speaking slot was a further dis.

Then Monday night it felt as if some of the air had escaped from the Elizabeth Warren balloon.

She hit all the same notes against GOP nominee Trump that have thrilled Democrats for months, but her jabs landed with a little less oomph than when she appeared with Clinton at a Cincinnati rally in June.

On the floor, many delegates booed and clapped at all the right spots — but with less than full enthusiasm. To be sure, Warren turned out to have a tricky slot in the program, coming right after Michelle Obama’s powerful, emotional appeal and before Sanders’ closing remarks, with his thousand-plus delegates growing restive.

But there were signs Warren’s standing on the left has taken some hits during the bruising primary battle.

Warren remained on the sidelines during the contested portion of the primary race, and did not endorse Clinton until Sanders had been vanquished.

On Monday night, she was heckled by some Sanders supporters in the convention hall, who cried out during her keynote speech, “We trusted you!’’ 

She kind of deserves it. She is nothing party a party hack.

During Bill Clinton’s speech Tuesday night, Warren sat in the convention hall with Chelsea Clinton.

“I have such mixed feelings about Elizabeth Warren. She was the one that got my hopes up first when this nation was being drowned in garbage, you know. And I was so disappointed that she didn’t speak out for Bernie,” said Kathy Deer of New York City, wearing a well-worn “Bernie 2016” T-shirt, waiting for Warren to take the stage at a policy-focused talk Tuesday.

“I’m so torn with what’s going on right now, just torn in half,” said Deer, who traveled to Philadelphia to participate in pro-Sanders rallies. “I don’t know which way to turn. So I figure, she’s my old hero, I’ll come and see what she has to say, but I’m very much on the line.”

I say Stein for President.

The Clinton campaign is hoping that voters like Deer ultimately do come around.

Called taking you for granted, but I should just let her speak.

Warren said Tuesday that she hadn’t discussed specifics with the Clinton campaign about where she will be deployed on the campaign trail in the months ahead, but she has proven herself to be one of the most effective Trump opponents in the Democratic Party, both on the stump and on the social-media battlefield.

“They’ve asked if I will help, and I have said of course that I will help,” she said.

But Warren is also looking ahead to after the election, when greater attention will once again be paid to policy debates in Congress. She delivered a slick 40-minute PowerPoint presentation on how and why the US economy is failing American working families — and, of course, how to fix it.

She did not utter the name Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, or Bernie Sanders once.

Warren’s presentation was one part professor, one part folksy Oklahoma native, and she painted a picture of rich corporate interests dictating policies that leave 90 percent of Americans squeezed. She got personal, emotion threading her voice as she recalled the death of her father while a family photo lit up the screen. “It was really, really hard, and we came really, really close to disaster.”

She offered examples of how to chip away at such a complex problem as income inequality, describing one potential solution could lie with a “little” tax loophole that allows corporations to take tax write-offs on the bonuses they pay CEOs.

“We stitch up that one little loophole, and we would have $55 billion to spend over the next 10 years. Now what we could do with $55 billion,” she said to whoops and applause. She ticked off some options, offering clues to potential legislative priorities: allow almost every American with college loans to refinance at lower rates; replace the poisonous lead water pipes in Flint, Mich., and dozens of other cities; double federal spending for Alzheimer’s and cancer research.

It was the kind of pithy policy talk, breaking down wonky subjects to digestible, passion-filled, black-and-white bites that has made Warren the most feared, and hated, politician among financial companies.

She will never be president then. They won't allow it. They took off the head of the last guy who challenged the Fed.

“The reality is Senator Warren is the most powerful Democrat on financial services issues in D.C., and that reality hasn’t changed one bit, despite the presidential conjecture that has surrounded her the past year and a half,” said Isaac Boltansky, an analyst with Compass Point Research & Trading.

It may.

Warren’s presentation, which she has delivered a handful of times before in recent weeks, suggests that the first-term Massachusetts senator plans to broaden her portfolio to encompass a broader set of economic policy matters.

Asked if she has specific legislative ideas in mind, she responded: “Oh, I have many.”

Really? 

"She has nothing to show for her four years in the Senate, not one bill. She was considered for the job of Hillary Clinton’s vice president, but was passed over, and reports are circulating that Warren’s tired of the one she has and wants out of the Senate. On Monday, someone floated her name for chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Speculation also focuses on a cabinet position in a Clinton administration." 

Please don't tell me Liz lied.

--more--"

So which job is she taking should Hillary win?

"Liberals listing Cabinet options for Clinton" by Annie Linskey Globe Staff  July 01, 2016

WASHINGTON —Left-leaning Democrats, worried about being shut out of a centrist administration if Hillary Clinton wins in November, are furiously compiling what amount to binders full of liberal nominees for consideration. 

Why would they worry after the last few weeks?

At least superficially, Clinton and liberal allies like Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren are making a concerted show of unity now that the Democratic nomination process is effectively over. But the divides between the party’s progressive and centrist wings remain, and activists are preparing for a behind-the-scenes tussle over key economic appointments at the Treasury Department, White House, and elsewhere if Clinton wins in November.

Spearheading the effort is a New York-based liberal think tank called the Roosevelt Institute, whose top economists include a prominent Warren ally. 

Didn't she give some $peech there?

The Roosevelt Institute is a liberal counterweight to the more centrist power bases in Washington like the Center for American Progress and the Brookings Institution, which are loaded with Clinton loyalists.

???? 

Globe really makes you think with the "expert" advice!!!

The strategy is also a recognition that Washington is so gridlocked — and likely will remain so after the election even if Clinton wins — that power is shifting from Congress to the executive branch, where the president can act through executive orders and where Cabinet-level departments interpret laws.

So she will be a dictatress?

Others in the constellation of liberal organizations are putting together opposition-research-style dossiers that detail past positions taken by more centrist Democrats who might be in line for regulatory jobs in a Clinton administration.

That’s so liberal groups would be ready to pounce should a President Clinton try to fill out too many top positions in financial regulatory roles with staff connected to Wall Street.

Some of that work is being done by the Revolving Door Project, an initiative housed in the Center for Economic and Policy Research. It is part of a coalition of groups that is waging a more overt push to lobby around presidential appointments.

“In this environment, appointments really matter,” said Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project, who said he’s pushing for political appointees who focus on the public interest. 

On our way -- if not already there -- to a FULL-BLOWN DICTATORSHIP, aren't we?

Warren is a key advocate of this concept. Indeed, she has waged some of her most significant battles over presidential appointments, including blocking the appointment of Antonio Weiss to a top position in the Treasury Department and helping scuttle efforts by Lawrence Summers to win the chairmanship of the Federal Reserve. (Weiss is now an adviser at Treasury, a spot that didn’t require Senate confirmation.)

She won the battle, lost the war (they went around her).

Clinton, should she win, would be taking control of a federal bureaucracy that’s already staffed with Democrats in key positions. It would be the first time in more than half a century that has happened for Democrats.

“You’re not going through agencies that have been under hostile control,” said Matt Bennett, a spokesman for the centrist Third Way think tank....

So much for unity.

--more--"

“It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee.”

US income gap widened last year as top 1 percent gained most

HELLO, Liz!!

Also see: The Clinton Cabinet


Oh, yeah, outside the hall:

"‘Arrest Me,’ Convention Protesters Say, but Police Officers Show Restraint" by Colin Moynihan New York Times  July 27, 2016

PHILADELPHIA — Arrests and detentions during national political conventions have often spawned complaints that the police were too arbitrary in taking people into custody. But during this summer’s conventions, the police seem to be more restrained.

During the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, officers used tear gas so liberally that a local City Council member said it felt almost as if entire swaths of the city were under siege. Four years earlier, when the Republican gathering was in New York City, officers arrested more than 200 people walking on a sidewalk in lower Manhattan, later drawing criticism from a federal judge who said the police had lacked probable cause.

But the detentions Monday on the first day of the Democratic National Convention came under very different circumstances: Police officers appeared reluctant to take anyone into custody while protesters were clearly determined to be taken in. 

I hate to say it, but it looks like controlled-opposition to fulfill the illu$ion of democrappy. 

By the end of the day, the Philadelphia police said, 54 people had been cuffed, detained, then released with disorderly conduct citations after crossing over barricades near the convention center.

Shortly after a march of more than 1,000 people arrived at the convention center Monday afternoon, protesters lined the tall metal fences separating them from the Wells Fargo Center while they waved signs and implored passing delegates and others to support Senator Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton.

Soon, a group of protesters near the northern end of the perimeter, near a subway station, began pushing forward. Police officers used bikes to block the crowd, and a Secret Service agent strode into the throng, ordering them to halt. Some did, but others moved ahead, beckoned forward by fellow protesters, including one man who yelled, “Take the ground they cede.”

The protesters chanted “not for sale” and “shame on the DNC,” and shouted against the influence of money in politics. Among them was James Merritt, 66, from Marblehead, Mass., who said that he was willing to be arrested to make his point.

“We’re here to see Citizens United overturned,” he said, referring to a Supreme Court decision that removed limits on corporate spending in political campaigns. “We don’t want representatives financed by corporations.

Merritt said that he was connected with a group called Democracy Spring that had organized protests that resulted in arrests a few months ago in Washington.

As the protesters pushed forward, singing “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the police appeared unwilling to accommodate their wish to be arrested and officers replaced the line of bikes with metal barricades. One protester, Daisy Millard, 24, of Brooklyn, N.Y., called for calm.

“Single file,” she shouted. “Nonviolent, peaceful.”

That I agree with, as tough as it is.

Other protesters took up the call, repeating it as they inched forward. On the other side of the barricades the police officers facing the advancing protesters held their line.

“We have a democracy that only works for the 1 percent, and it incarcerates and murders black and brown people,” Millard said as she pushed into the crush....

Plenty of white people in prison, too.

--more--"

The fa$hion $how once again overshadowed Europe:

"ISIS claims ‘soldiers’ killed French priest" by Adam Nossiter and Benoît Morenne New York Times  July 26, 2016

ST.-ÉTIENNE-DU-ROUVRAY, France — The brutality in St.-Étienne-du-Rouvray, a suburb of Rouen in northern France, was the latest in a series of assaults that have left Europe stunned, fearful, and angry. President François Hollande raced to the town and blamed the Islamic State for the attack; soon after, the terrorist group claimed responsibility, calling the attackers its soldiers.

PFFFFFFFFT!

Whether it will be perceived by the French as a struggle between religions and cultures is less clear. 

All this Jew World Order, Clash of Civilizations sh**!

For now, some French politicians seemed willing to take the bait and use the language of sectarian and cultural division. But the Roman Catholic Church, the French government and several professors said churches were, above all, a symbol of France, much like other iconic French milieus attacked by the Islamic militants, who also reject secular life.

“The history of France is very associated with Catholics, and to strike a church is to strike one of those elements that constitutes the identity of France,” said Guillaume Goubert, the editor of La Croix, a Catholic daily newspaper.

Now the U.S.- and allied-created, directed, and funded ISIS is going after self-flaggelating Catholics full of guilt?

It was the fourth attack linked to the Islamic State in Western Europe in less than two weeks, after a Bastille Day rampage in Nice that killed 84 people; an ax and knife attack on a train in Wuerzburg, Germany, that injured five people; and a suicide bombing at a wine bar in Ansbach, Germany.

Yup, they just keep getting through the worthless high alert and all that -- unless these are all crisis drill frictions being thrown at you as fast as they can.

“We must realize that the terrorists will not give up until we stop them,” Hollande said after meeting with the priest’s family and the town’s mayor. “It is our will. The French must know that they are threatened, that we are not the only country — Germany is, as well as others — and that their strength lies in their unity.”

Look at that $ociali$t pos just oozing fear and fascism!! 

Thank God that is where the print ended!

By the evening, one man was in custody, and the police were conducting raids and homing in on the possibility that both attackers were from the area.

Redwan Chentouf, 18, said he went to secondary school with one of the men believed to have been involved in the attack, whom he identified as Adel Kermiche, 19. The newspaper Le Monde, which identified the teenager as Adel K., said he had tried twice last year to enter Syria, and was placed under electronic monitoring by the police in March. The Paris prosecutor, François Molins, confirmed the young man’s identity and said that he was monitored and that he had made two attempts to go to Syria but was stopped.

Chentouf recalled: “At the last Ramadan, he said we should all go to Syria. He tried to push propaganda on us.” 

Like what I'm reading!!

Chentouf said Kermiche had been a normal teenager, who drank alcohol and smoked cigarettes. He said he last saw Kermiche Saturday at a subway station in Rouen. He was wearing a long robe and had a beard. “He was perfectly calm,” Chentouf said. 

That was the FIRST RED FLAG!

The attack underscored the vulnerability of France, which has suffered three major terrorist attacks in 19 months: an assault on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and other locations around Paris in January 2015, which killed 17 people; coordinated attacks on a soccer stadium, the Bataclan concert hall, and cafes and restaurants in and around Paris on Nov. 13, which killed 130 people; and the Nice truck attack. 

They only cite false flag fakes and scripted and staged crisis drills, so there's that, and how can they be vulnerable under state of emergency for eight months and on high alert? And why didn't the terrorists attack the soccer matches just completed?

“I understand this feeling of helplessness, but if the French people absorb this truth that it is a long war which will require resilience and resistance, we need to form a block and stay united,” Prime Minister Manuel Valls told the French television channel TF1. 

This is disgusting, folks. 

This is war fever in France over piles of BS.

This was hardly the first time that the Islamic State and other Islamist extremists have singled out Christians. But in the past, the Christians were primarily in the Middle East, not Europe. Christians in Iraq were repeatedly targeted both in Baghdad and in the area around Mosul — and that was before the Islamic State expelled every Christian from Mosul and took it over in June 2014.

France has been concerned about the threat against churches for some time. In April 2015, authorities arrested Sid Ahmed Ghlam, a 24-year-old Algerian computer science student. He had amassed a trove of weapons in a Paris apartment and was thought to be planning an attack on at least one church. He was a suspect in the killing of a 32-year-old woman, Aurélie Châtelain, whose body was found in a parked car in Villejuif, a Paris suburb.

Ghlam had been ordered by Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian militant who went on to help organize the November attacks on Paris, to open fire on a church in Villejuif, according to a report by French anti-terrorism police, but the attack was never carried out.

Since the Villejuif plot was foiled, many houses of worship in France, including mosques and synagogues, have been on a heightened state of alert. The country has roughly 45,000 Catholic churches, so protecting them is a very difficult task.

Vincent Fauvel, a spokesman for the French bishops conference, said in a telephone interview that he was not aware of any specific threat against the Église St.-Étienne before the attack. 

It's the same old script, 'er, cover story every phoqueing time!

St.-Étienne-du-Rouvray has many retired chemical and metal workers and is a peaceful community, residents said, with a substantial immigrant population. The parish priest is of Congolese ancestry; the town’s mosque opened in 2000 on land donated by the Catholic parish.

Pascal Quilan, who works at a funeral home near the church, said that around 9:30 a.m.: “I heard several gunshots. Then, loads of police.” He added, referring to Hamel: “It’s a huge loss for the town. He was someone with lots of humility. It’s really unimaginable.”

At the Vatican, a spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said that Pope Francis was horrified at the “barbaric killing” of a priest and issued “the most severe condemnation of all forms of hatred.”

How many bombs France drop in the Middle East yesterday?

Hollande told the pope on Tuesday that “that when a priest is attacked, it is the whole of France that is hurt, and that all will be done to protect our churches and our places of worship,” the Élysée Palace said in a statement. 

And it STILL AIN'T ENOUGH! What a WA$TE!

Unless it's all psyops sh**; then it's a resounding success.

The attack drew condemnation from across French society. Dalil Boubakeur, president of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, called the attack “barbaric and criminal” and declared that “Muslims stand together behind the government to defend France and its institutions.” The Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions said that the attack “marks a new stage in the spread of terrorism in France” and that “the authorities and the population must now quickly adapt to this new emergency.” 

Coming out of NOWHERE really, but WHY?

But the attack also renewed criticism of Hollande and his Socialist government from his political rivals. “We must be merciless,” Nicolas Sarkozy, Hollande’s predecessor as president and the leader of the opposition Republicans, said in a statement to reporters. “The legal quibbling, precautions, and pretexts for insufficient action are not acceptable.”

Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Front and who is expected to run for the presidency, said that both major parties had failed the country. “All those who have governed us for 30 years bear an immense responsibility,” she wrote on Twitter. “It’s revolting to watch them bickering!”

--more--"

Attendance was sparse at the 9 a.m. Mass -- but my world lead today is the Pope is going to Poland next week (World Youth Day for pooper-pumpers)?

Now let me ask you, what event could possibly override the campaign for president, the rotting economy, the endless wars, and the oozing corruption of the elite class? 

Why, an ISIS ATTACK and possible ASSASSINATION of the POPE! 

Been done before! 

That would then have the added benefit of setting Christians calling for blood against innocent Muslims, and who benefits as the war agenda will be given a massive shove (followed by the appropriate ramping up of tyranny in the home countries of the West)?

Ironically, these next two nations that made my paper were fingered by the pre$$ for just such an attempt.

Russia

Nothing about Turkey today?

In honor of the ladies I'm going to end this post without anything from Pence or Trump.

NDUs: 

My bad, it is this week (eyes aren't what they used to be), and it in fact began yesterday:

"At the start of his first ever trip to Eastern Europe, Pope Francis is celebrating World Youth Day in Poland. The slaying of an 85-year-old French priest by two extremists in Normandy on Tuesday during Mass in a church in the French countryside compounded security fears surrounding Francis’ trip, which were already high due to a string of violent attacks in France and Germany. Polish officials say they have deployed tens of thousands of security officials to cover the event. Francis spoke to reporters as he flew from Rome to Krakow.

Thankfully, he also has the Swiss guard.

Asked about the slaying of the priest, Francis replied: ‘‘It’s war, we don’t have to be afraid to say this.’’ He then sought to avoid any misunderstanding of his definition of war. ‘‘I only want to clarify that, when I speak of war, I am really speaking of war,’’ he said. ‘‘A war of interests, for money, resources, dominion of peoples.’’ ‘‘I am not speaking of a war of religions. Religions don’t want war. The others want war,’’ he added. He also reiterated earlier remarks likening the current violence to a World War III in ‘‘segments.’’

He is so right on the state of the world with that last remark; however, he misses with the "religions don't want war" bit. Pick up a history book or look into your own over the centuries, Pope!

Related:

Man who killed priest in France tried to enter Syria

That all?

Germany: 15-year-old suspected of planning rampage arrested

The mind-bending, mental manipulation of psyop propaganda is reaching new heights. The teen terrorists are getting ever younger, and the inexperienced youth can somehow outwit the entire security apparatus that is on full alert for red flags. 

I expected better of the Germans.  Not the people falling for it, but the authorities to continue to participate in the ruse. I don't think the German people are buying this garbage at all. 

Oh, speaking of the stink of garbage:

U.S. Secures Vast New Trove of Intelligence on ISIS

Well, I suppose they would know where to go to get it since they and their pre$$ are generating most of it.

Defeat of ISIS Could Send ‘Terrorist Diaspora’ to West, FBI Chief Says

OMG, Comey says THEY ARE COMING while the administration is arguing for us to accept all the refugees with open arms, don't worry, these security systems that vet seem to fail over and over, but don't worry, blah, blah, blah. 

What this tells me is TWO THINGS: One, there very may well be a nuclear false flag attack soon, a mushroom cloud over Chicago say, allowing the president to suspend elections and social media like this. You can already see where the lying -- c'mon, folks! Gulf of Tonkin, babies tossed from Kuwait incubators, Iraq WMD -- war pre$$ will be affixing blame

Then it's off to the races with Russia and the recent facade of cooperation gone.

Btw, Turkey was back in the news today, with Juman Rights Watch and AI complaining. 

Noted. 

But back to the ladies:

"Political oratory takes center stage at conventions" by Matt Viser Globe Staff  July 28, 2016

WASHINGTON — Democrats, with a well-stocked bench of orators, including the current White House occupants, appear to enjoy an edge. High-wattage speakers Monday night, including Michelle Obama, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders, helped unify Democrats quickly, while discord marked the Republican National Convention all week.  

Is that the way it has happened?

Not even reading his own paper and reports. This must have been cleared through the Clinton campaign!

One of the more polished speeches in Cleveland was delivered by Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who drew boos in the arena when he pointedly refused to endorse the nominee.

OMG!

I've already cruzed out of there even if the Globe is still stuck there. 


Part of my wrapping things up within the next 96 hours.  

I've got four days to get four years worth of stuff up while staying current.

Democrats also have enjoyed better television ratings. On each of the first two nights, around 25 million tuned into the Democratic convention, millions more than Republicans attracted.

Better for Trump no one saw that spectacle, but I suspect the groundwork is being laid for a big Clinton bump after the convention even if those tuning in were just as revulsed.

These days, it can seem as if the Super Bowl is one of the only moments when we gather and pay attention to the same thing. The rest of the time, we retreat to our own corners of Fox and MSNBC.

Related:

Fox News goes silent after Ailes’ departure

Finally, somebody got them to shut up.

Wisconsin girls to be tried as adults in Slender Man attack

What could be at the bottom of that, huh?

I'm feeling the morning sickness now, and want to abort the rest of this.

In a nation divided, where our dialogue so often seems ripped out of the comment sections and online message boards, these past two weeks are showing the power of leaders sitting down and crafting their thoughts on a legal pad or computer screen.

We need le$$ leaders and need to be left alone.

When Michelle Obama took the stage Monday night, she offered a ray of optimism that countered Trump’s image of domestic chaos and terror in the world.

Has he even bothered reading the Globe's web or print coverage?

I mean, I'm supposed to be the one in the vacuum. 

She managed to be both political — touting her husband’s accomplishments and Clinton’s strengths — and apolitical, never mentioning Trump by name.

Given the undivided attention of multiple broadcast networks and a reasonable block of time, her more subtle jabs stood out.

(Click)

“Don’t let anyone ever tell you that this country isn’t great — that somehow we need to make it great again,” she said. “Because this right now is the greatest country on Earth.”

The political jingoism is distressing when it comes from Democrats. 

They are supposed to be above that, right? 

Hill gonna rise above the hall with that tonight? 

Is that our ending act of the script?

Her pedestal was so high that Trump, while using his Twitter account to criticize almost every other Democratic speaker Monday, refrained from knocking her.

Bill Clinton on Tuesday night had an opening like a romance novel.

HOW DISGUSTING and SICKENING!

Bill Clinton reveals details of courtship of his wife, Hillary Clinton

I don't want to see that stuff. 

I'm sorry, but he is an odious creature that fills my nose with stench when I see him.

Soon, the conventions will be over, and we’ll be back to obsessions with polls and Trump’s latest tweets. Debates will follow in the fall.

Not me.

As if to remind us how quickly the speeches will recede in memory, Trump held a rambling press conference Wednesday morning in which he issued a shocking invitation to the Russians to hack Clinton’s private e-mail account. It captured the day’s media attention....

I'm going to take a look at that in the platform.

--more--"

Also see:

Bill Clinton’s portrait of Hillary doesn’t ring true

Nothing he says does, and the nostalgia for a romance that never was is more than a little disturbing! He's acting like he still thinks he's still 20 years old or whatever.

Clinton still needs to make the human connection

Isn't it a little late for that?

A new low for Jill Stein

She's risen to new heights with me!! 

I may vote for a woman president after all!