All of a sudden, the Globe is the paper of peace!
"Boston Pride apologizes for Facebook post" by Mark Shanahan Globe Staff June 09, 2017
Boston Pride is apologizing for posting a link to an article that angered some in the transgender community and prompted calls for a boycott of two Pride events this weekend.
At issue is an article, posted by a Boston Pride volunteer on the group’s Facebook page, characterizing recent comments made by transgender activist/author Juno Dawson in an interview with Attitude magazine. Dawson — a successful young adult novelist who previously was James Dawson — had some provocative things to say in the interview. For example, she claimed some gay people may not actually be gay. “I think there are a lot of gay men out there who are gay men as a consolation prize because they couldn’t be women,” she said in the interview.
Dawson’s comments angered some people, as did the article that Boston Pride posted summarizing the interview. Boston Pride eventually removed the post from its Facebook page and apologized.
It was “transphobic,” a new word for the lexicon.
Can't judge a book by its cover no more.
Some in the city’s gay and transgender communities are still upset about the Boston Pride post. We were told that GLAD and the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition had said they might boycott Friday’s Boston Dyke March and Sunday’s Stronger Together Rally, but a GLAD spokesperson said the organization will be present at both events. The MTPC did not respond to a call or e-mail Friday.
Asked about the controversy, Arline Isaacson, a longtime gay activist and cochair of the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus, called it unfortunate. “Oppressed populations tend to form their firing squads in a circle,” Isaacson said in an e-mail. “We wouldn’t be the first community to do so.”
Except for whites, right?
You know, this willingness to be manipulated into the culture of victimhood that plays into certain agenda-pushing hands is my problem, not the sex preference stuff.
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They regret the whole thing, and are rather touchy about it. Whole thing stank from beginning to end.
"Rallies against Islamic law draw counterprotests across US" by Gene Johnson Associated Press June 10, 2017
SEATTLE — Demonstrations against Islamic law on Saturday in cities across the United States drew counterprotests by people who said the events stoked unfounded fears and presented a distorted view of the religion.
A phalanx of bicycle police officers kept the sides separated during the sanctioned events, but conflicts flared. In front of the Trump building in downtown Chicago, about 30 people demonstrated against Islamic law and in favor of President Trump, shouting slogans and holding signs calling for bans on Sharia. A similar scene played out in a park near a New York courthouse.
What are the anti-Sharia demonstrators worried about? No more Federal Reserve and bank usury? No gambling? No alcohol? As if this Zioni$t owned and operated society would allow it.
The rallies were held in more than two dozen US cities, including Boston.
‘‘I don’t believe Islam can peacefully coexist with the Constitution,’’ said Seattle anti-Sharia demonstrator Aaron Bassford, 29. ‘‘I’m not going to tell them they can come here and take away my Second Amendment right.’’
Confused kid. Your own government has been and is doing that.
Related:
"The son of a Chicago political activist who returned to the city after graduating college to work with disadvantaged youth has been shot and killed. Authorities said the body of Xavier Joy, 23, was found late Thursday outside an apartment building in the Woodlawn neighborhood. He had been shot several times. No arrests have been made (AP)."
That's crazy, and Kansas is no better.
But the overwhelming majority of Muslims don’t want to replace US law with Islamic law, known as Sharia, and only ‘‘radical extremist groups’’ would call for that, said Liyakat Takim, a professor of Islamic studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
Sharia, Takim said, refers to guidelines or principles — how Muslims should live. ‘‘Fiqh’’ refers to jurisprudence, or specific laws. The values embedded in Sharia do not change and are shared among Muslims, he said, while fiqh is open to interpretation and change, and in fact differs among Islamic sects and communities.
The marches come amid a rise in reports of anti-Muslim incidents in the United States, including arson attacks and vandalism at mosques, harassment of women wearing Muslim head coverings, and bullying of Muslim schoolchildren.....
Comes with the necessary propaganda to wage the GWOT, doncha know?
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No Common ground, huh?
"Protesters rallying against Sharia law met by counterprotesters on Boston Common" by Evan Allen Globe Staff June 10, 2017
A small group of “anti-Sharia law” protesters gathered on Boston Common on Saturday morning and argued for two hours with a group of counter-protesters carrying signs supporting Muslims and immigrants.
The protest was one of about 30 scheduled across the country. The rally drew about 75 protesters and an equal number of counter-protesters. For the two hours the groups stood on the Common as protesters and counter-protesters mingled with each other, shouting, swearing, laughing derisively, and filming each other.
The sad thing is, they are both funded by the same groups. These controlled opposition extremes benefit who? They need each other; otherwise, there is no reason for them to exist. They funnel opinion and perception into the necessary avenues to advance the agenda. How is that helping?
Though the protesters said they gathered to fight Sharia law, many of the insults they hurled at counter-protesters had to do with LGBTQ issues. The Boston Pride Parade was Saturday, and many supporters were in the area.
Cambridge City Councilor Nadeem Mazen, the first Muslim elected to a government post in the state, came to the event in hopes of enlightening people who believe Muslims are all violent.
“What my goal was, is to remind people who are out here saying ‘We are against violence and we think Islam is violent,’ is to give them the real story of what is going on in our mosques and our communities,” Mazen said in an interview.
Yeah, those are the same people who are rabidly pro-war, too.
He said he had invited several people to go to the mosque with him, and at least one accepted.
The event was largely nonviolent, though a shoving match broke out toward the end, and Boston Police moved in and stood between the two groups....
Thank God for Bo$ton's Fine$t:
"The Boston Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division is investigating a racially offensive video that appears to feature a police officer, according to a department spokesman. The video, first reported by Fox 25 News and the Boston Herald, was obtained by the Globe, and is shot like a fake movie trailer...."
Globe got scooped?
WTF am I reading the regional flag$hit for then?
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A woman who spoke for a long time into a bullhorn warned, “They’re taking over.” Globe thought she meant aliens from outer space, and God help you all.
The inspiration from this post came from this next item, and gives me the rare opportunity to give the Globe reporter credit and applause:
"In Western Mass., GE’s name is mud" by Yvonne Abraham Globe columnist June 10, 2017
This state laid down quite the red carpet for General Electric, which recently broke ground on its new Seaport headquarters, to great fanfare.
Of course, to some of us, it looked more like state and local officials lay down themselves, and let the company walk over them. Could any corporation be such a great catch that we’d give it $145 million in tax breaks and incentives to relocate here? Let alone a phenomenally successful company like GE, which has turned ducking its fair share of taxes into an art?
Not only ducking their fair share, but avoiding them altogether while at the same time stealing tax loot. But I'm quibbling.
But if some in the eastern part of the state were troubled, many in the Berkshires were appalled. There, GE isn’t the benevolent titan that has graced our state with its presence. In Western Massachusetts, where environmentalists and five towns have been battling GE for years over its pollution of the Housatonic River, the company’s name is mud.
For decades, a GE plant in Pittsfield befouled the Housatonic with toxic chemicals called PCBs, so harmful they were banned in 1979. Though GE has cleaned up the river closest to the plant, 10 miles of the Housatonic and its banks remain contaminated. In 2015, after years of disputes, the Environmental Protection Agency issued an order instructing GE on how to clean that part of the river.
Environmentalists say the EPA plan leaves too many toxins behind. GE says it’s too onerous and expensive — especially the requirement that it dump the toxins far from the river. GE wants to save $150 million by dumping the PCBs at one of three sites nearby — sites the towns, the EPA, and environmentalists agree would harm pristine forest, endanger humans, and even send chemicals back into the river.
In its continuing attempts to convince everyone it knows best how to protect the river, GE downplays the damage it has done, even suggesting that PCBs aren’t dangerous.
Imagine what it feels like to folks fighting for the river when they tune into the festivities surrounding GE’s grand Boston debut.
“It makes me feel like my government isn’t doing its job,” said Matt Pawa, the attorney representing Lenox, Lee, Stockbridge, Great Barrington, and Sheffield. “Here, we have a recalcitrant polluter that has befouled one of the most gorgeous parts of the state . . . and the state welcomes GE to Boston with open arms.”
But GE has long bent government to its will. The company’s accountants and lobbyists work every imaginable angle to minimize its taxes, and maximize its government subsidies.
So of course, when President Trump (who proclaimed climate change a hoax) appointed friend-to-polluters Scott Pruitt as head of the EPA, GE saw an opening. On May 22, Pruitt issued a directive that gives him or his deputy the final word on all cleanup plans over $50 million. Naturally, GE leaped at the chance to work something out on the cleanup.
She had to drag him into it, and rightly so in this case.
Days before the Housatonic appeal hearing, the EPA said it would postpone it and reopen negotiations, as GE had requested. Pawa and activists concluded the fix was in. But, after strenuous objections by GE’s opponents, the EPA backed off, and on Thursday, the hearing went ahead, with EPA attorneys standing by their order.
But Pawa and others are worried Pruitt could yet intervene. “We don’t know what is going on behind the scenes between GE and the highest levels of the EPA,” he said.
GE CEO Jeff Immelt took a firm stand against the Trump administration recently, lamenting its decision to pull out of the Paris Climate agreement. “Climate change is real,” Immelt tweeted. “Industry must now lead and not depend on government.” But GE isn’t leading on the environment in the Berkshires.
Thank you for pointing out the audacious hypocrisy.
In Western Mass., there’s a phrase to describe Boston’s certainty that GE will be a good corporate citizen. It’s the same as GE’s motto: Imagination at work.....
Yes, imagine....
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I will say this, she works hard for her money, so hard for it honey..... so you better treat her right.
"There’s certainly a place for government support for businesses. The state supports life-science companies and aids businesses through state economic development agencies. But most of those grants are awarded competitively and support some broader public good. As a general matter, state aid should be aimed at helping build businesses that can eventually stand on their own, rather than keeping dying ones on artificial life support indefinitely. When Massachusetts lured General Electric to Boston, for instance, it didn’t promise to cover its losses in perpetuity...."
Just wondering what "losses" the Globe is talking about.
FLASHBACK:
"Profitable companies, no taxes: Here’s how they did it" by Patricia Cohen New York Times March 10, 2017
NEW YORK — Complaining that the United States has one of the world’s
highest corporate tax levels, President Trump and congressional
Republicans have repeatedly vowed to shrink it.
Yet if the level is so high, why have so many companies’ income tax bills added up to zero?
That’s what a new analysis of 258 profitable Fortune 500 companies that earned more than $3.8 trillion in profits showed.
Although the top corporate rate is 35 percent, hardly any company
actually pays that. The report, by the Institute on Taxation and
Economic Policy, a left-leaning research group in Washington, found that
100 of them — nearly 40 percent — paid no taxes in at least one year
between 2008 and 2015. Eighteen, including General Electric,
International Paper, Priceline.com, and PG&E, incurred a total
federal income tax bill of less than zero over the entire eight-year period — meaning they received rebates. The institute used the companies’ own regulatory filings to compute their tax rates.
How does a billion-dollar company pay no taxes?
Companies take advantage of an array of tax loopholes and aggressive
strategies that enable them to legally avoid paying what they owe. The
institute’s report cites these examples:
Multinational corporations like Apple, Microsoft, Abbott Laboratories, and Coca-Cola have ways of booking profits overseas,
out of the reach of the IRS. (Those companies were not among the 258
whose rates were calculated by the institute, which said it could not
verify the breakdown of their profits between the United States and
other countries.)
Others, like American Electric Power, Con Ed, and Comcast, qualified for accelerated depreciation, enabling them to write off most of the cost of equipment and machinery before it wore out.
Facebook, Aetna, and Exxon Mobil, among others, saved billions in taxes by giving options to top executives to buy stock in the future at a discount. The companies then get to deduct their huge payouts as a loss. Facebook used excess tax benefits from stock options to reduce its federal and state taxes by $5.78 billion from 2010 to 2015, the institute found.
End of Zuckerberg for president.
Individual industries have successfully lobbied for specific tax breaks that function as subsidies: for instance, drilling for gas and oil, building NASCAR racetracks
or railroad tracks, roasting coffee, undertaking certain kinds of
research, producing ethanol, or making movies (which saved the Walt Disney Co. $1.48 billion over eight years, the report says).
Yeah, daily fantasy sports is big bu$ine$$.
Why do some industries make out better than others?
These industry-specific subsidies mean that the goodies were not evenly distributed.
Utilities logged an effective tax rate of just 3.1 percent over the
eight-year period. Industrial machinery, telecommunications and oil, gas
and pipeline companies paid roughly 11.5 percent. Internet services
paid 15.6 percent. In just two sectors — health care and retail — companies paid more than 30 percent of their profits in federal income tax.
“One of the things that jumps out pretty starkly is there’s a real gap
between the tax rates paid by different industries,” said Matthew
Gardner, a senior fellow at the institute and a co-author of the study.
“When the biggest companies aren’t paying their fair share, that means the rest of us are left to pick up the slack. It means small business and middle-income families are paying more.”
That's our $y$tem, and it is the greatest one ever invented in all hi$tory.
Tax reformers have long argued that the nominal 35 percent federal rate
on corporate profits more often than not functions like a strike-through
price — an artificially inflated number that sounds high but rarely
applies. Thanks to a variety of loopholes and tax-dodging methods, those
258 corporations paid an average rate of 21.2 percent. (Other studies,
including a new one by the Congressional Budget Office that compares
corporate income tax rates in various countries, have found that average
and effective US rates are lower than the nominal rate.)
Who are the biggest beneficiaries?
Companies with the biggest tax subsidies over the eight years, the institute’s report said, included:
■ AT&T ($38.1 billion)
■ Wells Fargo ($31.4 billion)
■ JPMorgan Chase ($22.2 billion)
■ Verizon ($21.1 billion)
■ IBM ($17.8 billion)
■ General Electric ($15.4 billion)
■ Exxon Mobil ($12.9 billion)
■ Boeing ($11.9 billion)
■ Procter & Gamble ($8.5 billion)
■ Twenty-First Century Fox ($7.6 billion)
■ Time Warner ($6.7 billion)
■ Goldman Sachs ($5.5 billion)
OMG, look at 'em all!
Republicans say their tax overhaul will eliminate some of the biggest
loopholes, although critics counter that the substitute will end up
further reducing companies’ tax bills.
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Kind of hardens your heart, doesn't it?
Now I'm ashamed. The Globe is nothing more than a propaganda sheet to meant to put a shine on that turd of a city known as Bo$ton. That's why John Henry bought it.
