Above the fold (? It's been rearranged again! ?):
Blackwater founder held secret meeting to establish Trump-Putin back channel
Ah, the CIA's paper!
‘‘Erik had no role on the transition team. This is a complete fabrication,’’ said a spokesman for Prince in a statement. ‘‘The meeting had nothing to do with President Trump. Why is the so-called under-resourced intelligence community messing around with surveillance of American citizens when they should be hunting terrorists?’’
Prince is best known as the founder of Blackwater, a security firm that became a symbol of US abuses in Iraq after a series of incidents including one in 2007 in which the company’s guards were accused — and later criminally convicted — of killing civilians in a crowded Iraqi square. Prince sold the firm, which was subsequently rebranded, but has continued building a private paramilitary empire with contracts across the Middle East and Asia.
Prince would probably have been seen as too controversial to serve in any official capacity in the Trump transition or administration. But his ties to Trump advisers, experience with clandestine work and relationship with the royal leaders of the Emirates — where he moved in 2010 amid mounting legal problems for his American business — would have positioned him as an ideal go-between....
Along with his sister Betsy DeVos.
The feature drew my attention before the lead, and forget about the bulls*t charges and innuendo, it reminds you of how little the private contractors and military mercenaries appear in the paper these days. It's all superficial and shallow propaganda now. Nothing about DynCorp, Halliburton, Bechtel, nothing about the $$ being paid to firms. The only time you see anything is when some "contractor" is killed in Afghanistan or somewhere.
Another backfire from the printed war pre$$, which curiously missed Trump's arms shipments to Bahrain.
Right-hand corner lead:
Lawmakers may strip treasurer of pot authority
Another delay to make sure you stay on those opioids instead (and no full page liquor ad in my Globe today)!
Senate continues descent into partisan warfare over Gorsuch
I want the Dems to filibuster and McConnell to change the rules. Then, after 2018 -- with 25 Democrats in the Senate up for reelection against only 8 Republicans -- there will be a near Republican supermajority to pass through even more rabid and radical right-wingers once Ginsburg and Kennedy collapse. I'd say Democrats shot themselves in the foot again, but they do it so often you begin to believe it's the role they are meant to play.
Unless, of course, they crash the economy on Trump and we get another "change" election, complete with fraudulent narrative and vote rigging.
Full of promise, Opening Day and Red Sox delivered
Did not see one pitch.
Below the fold:
Some faculty fear that UMass Boston chancellor is being scapegoated
When the going gets tough, the tough play the race card.
Questions remain after a boy is shot in Roxbury
I don't have any.
A2:
Trump renew attacks on Clinton, Obama on Twitter
I scanned it and the NYT didn't unmask Susan Rice in that pathetic and incoherent piece of slop. The scandal is the Obama administration spying on the Trump campaign, and it tells you two things. They found nothing they could use against Trump. That's why we got the Billy Bush tape; everything else ties into the Jewish mafia and that is useless in an AmeriKan campaign. Trying to put a Russian face on it, and that is failing.
Scientists document melting of glaciers around the world
Which $cienti$ts?
Woman dies in Mississippi storm during 911 call
3 die, 4 hurt when boiler explodes in St. Louis
Mass transit use jumps in Atlanta after bridge collapse
The silver lining in the collapse cloud.
911 call led D.C officers to kidnapped girl
They found one, huh?
A3:
14 killed in Russian subway blast; a second bomb is disarmed
Like I would believe anything the Washington Post said regarding Russia (no front page, Globe?).
What's interesting was Putin was in town, and in light of the cryptic comment by Joe Biden on alleged Russian hacking of the election on October 15th, that “we’re sending a message.... and it will be at the time of our choosing,” one wonders if it was an assassination attempt. Message received, I guess.
Related(??)
Russian ambassador to Turkey is assassinated in Ankara
Investigators seek answers in Russian ambassador’s assassination
It was suggested at the time that the whole event was a staged and scripted fake -- and the lack of blood seems to prove it.
Turkey links Russian envoy’s killer to US-based cleric Gulen
US-based cleric rejects links to Russian envoy’s killing
The coverage was dropped after that.
92 feared dead after Russian plane plunges into Black Sea
Doctor killed in Russian military plane crash had Vermont ties
Russia discounts likelihood of terrorism in Black Sea plane crash
As any government would, lest they admit they are insecure and wide open for CIA terror and sabotage.
Rescuers find flight recorder from doomed Russian plane
US prepares to retaliate for Russian hacking
Looks like they already have, WaPo!
"Investigators were looking into whether the crash might have been caused by bad fuel, pilot error, equipment failure, or objects stuck in the engines.... Russian investigators said they had not ruled out the possibility of a terrorist attack, and it would take at least a month to draw final conclusions about what caused the crash."
If I find anything I will insert it here.
Oddly, on the very same day it was reported that Vice President Joe Biden suggested that there might also be a covert response, one that would be obvious to Putin but not to the public.
Then it is Turkey's turn:
New Year's attack on packed Istanbul club leaves at least 39 dead
He was dressed as Santa!
IS claims responsibility for New Year’s attack on Istanbul nightclub
Says who?
Selfie video shows man believed to be Istanbul nightclub shooter
Story starting to stink like crap!
In Turkey, US is seen as provoking nearly every crisis
If the shoe fits....
Turkey closing in on nightclub gunman, official says
Got a confession!
Turkey’s tourism takes big hit after extremist attacks
Anxiety in Istanbul after series of extremist attacks
With good reason.
That's what happens when you work together.
Cargo plane crash kills 37, destroys much of Kyrgyzstan village
Just before the Russia and Turkey-backed peace talks there?
And speaking of diplomacy:
Vitaly I. Churkin, 64, Russia’s UN ambassador
More tests needed on Russian UN ambassador’s cause of death
Cause of Russian UN ambassador’s death won’t be released
It's called a cover up, and that's all the coverage my pre$$ gave such a tragedy?
The guy was a giant in the diplomatic field, put Power and Haley to shame, and all he gets is a page B8 obit and page A2 brief?
Russia: Friend or foe?
I think the question has been answered (a picture is worth a thousand words).
Syrian government forces besiege rebel-held area
Rights group says Israel blocking access to Gaza
Interesting contrast in coverage from my Jewi$h War Pre$$, 'eh?
Syria is besieging people while Zionist Israel is simply blocking access.
German court sentences four over terrorist plots
7 charged in London mob beating of teen asylum-seeker
If it had been the other way around the Globe would have ignored it.
Mexican newspaper closes, citing insecurity for journalists
They must have been telling truths instead of shoveling government propaganda like the Globe.
A4:
Judge expects 2-week Cosby trial; jury to be sequestered
My lack of interest in that can't be measured.
A5:
Supreme Court rejects bid to revive N.H. ban on voter selfies
A6:
In Colombia, a frantic search for children
Trump shifts US stance on Egypt, praising its authoritarian leader
What didn't make print in the first section:
Sessions orders Justice Dept. to review police reform agreements
A8:
After Russia subway blasts, will US defend values?
????? Seems like a non sequitur.
Adrian Peterson abused his son. Why would the Patriots want to sign him?
Why is this my lead opinion piece?
A9:
The Kennedys are still big — in Massachusetts
Hungary’s attack on academic freedom
Didn't make print:
Mike Pence and the rise of mediocrity
Brexit isn’t a divorce, it’s a schism
Here are some letters addressed to you.
When I was reading the paper I placed the business section before the metro so....
C1:
Above:
H-1B visas targeted by Trump administration
Neighborhood Health to shrink MassHealth business
The future of Obummercare.
City says no to app designed to help cabbies compete
Better go the other way.
Below:
How a $37,000-a-year medicine sets a good model for drug pricing
Consider it "good" gouging.
C2:
Spaulding Rehabilitation Network gets $10 million to create research institute
Fox News and Ailes hit with new sexual harassment suit
It's part of the culture.
Tumbling car sales drag down US auto market in March
And a sign that the Trump economy is about to go downhill fast.
C3:
TALKING POINTS
Shhhhhh!
C4:
Vecna aims new wave of robots for warehouses
No need for forklift operators anymore?
Black Falcon warehouse up next in Seaport industrial makeover
Did you see the new workers?
Sorry, drivers: Your free ride through Connecticut might be over
And Mass!
He always judges a book by its binding
How bold!
As you can see, I have been judging a paper on its cover.
C5:
Panera may explore possible sale after takeover interest
The way food should be!
C7:
US stocks fall as weak auto sales trouble investors
Trump better apply the brakes.
B1:
Above:
Walsh ramps up his campaign by hiring key Democratic strategists
The other Opening Day: the sound of violence
State’s top court to weigh whether local authorities must detain immigrants for ICE
Robert Megerdichian is the baseball glove whisperer
Below:
Felix D. Arroyo vows to fight ‘unjust’ suspension
After sending Lord Jeff packing, Amherst College picks mammoth as mascot
B2:
Elizabeth Warren to speak at UMass Amherst commencement
Northeastern University formally opens $225 million science, engineering facility
Blotter tales
B3:
Defense calls witnesses in Aaron Hernandez trial after prosecution rests
Audit says MassHealth made $193m in improper, questionable payments
(Blog editor just shakes head)
B4:
MBTA’s newest commuter rail locomotives have defect
Is there any company out there that doesn't build an overpriced piece of crap?
B9:
"In 1991, Senator John Heinz, Republican of Pennsylvania, and six other people were killed when a helicopter collided with Heinz’s plane over a schoolyard in Merion, Pa....
Related:
"Senator John Heinz and former Senator John Tower had served on powerful Senate banking and finance committees and were outspoken critics of the Federal Reserve and the Eastern Establishment. On April 4, 1991, Senator John Heinz was killed in a plane crash near Philadelphia. On the next day, April 5, 1991, former Senator John Tower was also killed in a plane crash. The coincidences seem to mount...."
His wife would then marry John Kerry!
And then, a shot rings out in the Memphis sky....
In 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., 39, was shot and killed on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis...."
Related:
"As I have walked among the desperate, rejected, and angry young men, I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they ask -- and rightly so -- what about Vietnam? They ask if our own nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent." -- Martin Luther King, Jr., 4 April 1967, at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City
I think that was what got him killed. As we see today, race agitation is allowed. Wars and foreign policy are taken much more seriously.
Then one month and one day later, any hopes for peace and against war lay splayed out on the kitchen floor of a hotel ballroom in Los Angeles and I can't type anymore about that because here come the tears.
UPDATE:
They say there is no fool like an old fool.... except I have not only not gone and purchased a Globe the last two mornings, I have not even looked at the web site.
I gue$$ I'm just tired of all the lies, distortions, one-sided agenda-pushing, and offensive elitist insult. The latest coming from the crap media is the alleged Syrian chemical weapons attack -- after they HAD THEIR CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONFISCATED and REMOVED WAY BACK IN 2013! The Russians are rightly asking why women and children were so close to an Islamist weapons depot and storage facility that contained chemical weapons -- as well as question the very veracity of the video. We've seen fakes from Syria before, and its a safe conclusion to disbelieve any video claim coming from the ma$$ media.
It's not like the ma$$ media had any credibility left after the election, but this latest lie on top of the Russian influence in the election (even though there is no evidence of hacking and it wouldn't have changed the outcome, we are told, while they ignore the colossal scandal of Obama administration spying on the opponents political campaign) means its been totally exposed as nothing but a propaganda outfit. Always was, but they have never been this bad and its getting worse by the day.
Related: The US military is using controversial white phosphorous in Iraq — again
That was last September, and as you see it's a one-day wonder of a report and NO BIG DEAL when AmeriKa (or its controller Israel) uses chemical weapons.
What was it the Who said?
