Friday, July 7, 2017

After Careful Consideration.....

Perhaps you can find use for these things:

United apologizes for latest incident on flight into Boston

That's the turbulence from the top.

Related: 

"Hanscom Air Force Base returned to normal Thursday afternoon after a moving truck that had tested positive for possible explosives was inspected and deemed safe. “No one is under arrest. No one is suspected of a crime. What we’re trying to figure out is how some explosive material ended up on this package,” Major Fran Leahy of the Massachusetts State Police told reporters outside the base’s gate in Lincoln. The announcement ended a heavy security response that involved numerous agencies, including the FBI, the National Guard, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. While the State Police bomb squad inspected the truck, officials closed a gate onto the base, shut down the exit from Route 2A to Hanscom, and evacuated several buildings. Television news helicopters circled overhead...."

Looks to me like total crisis drill, and at least a riot didn't break out.


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

"Trump, in Poland, asks if West has the ‘Will to Survive’" by Glenn Thrush and Julie Hirschfeld Davis New York Times   July 07, 2017

WARSAW — Asked by a reporter whether he had given up on President Xi Jinping of China, whom President Trump has repeatedly criticized for failing to pressure North Korea to deescalate, the president said, “Never give up.” The two are to meet separately in Hamburg on Friday or Saturday.

What the hell kind of question is that?

Unlike in Hamburg, there were no major protests in Warsaw, although there were signs of dissent.

Michael Schudrich, Poland’s chief rabbi, and other Jewish leaders criticized Trump’s decision not to visit a monument to the 1943 ghetto uprising.

Every US president and vice president who has visited Warsaw since the fall of communism in 1989 has visited the monument.

He didn't pay proper homage.

Hours after the Jewish leaders issued their rebuke, the White House sent word that Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and senior adviser, who is an observant Jew, had visited the ghetto site and laid a wreath at the monument there, visiting the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews.

In a statement distributed to reporters, Ivanka Trump said her visit was “a deeply moving experience.”

Things are all quiet on the Kushner front, and that's where orders are coming from.

"The pro-President Andrzej Duda crowd at Krasinski Square, where many waved American and Polish flags, serenaded reporters from both countries with periodic chants of “fake news.”

That came about an hour after Mr. Trump tag-teamed with Mr. Duda in a transnational denunciation of journalists who write negative stories about them.

The American president criticized CNN and defended what he suggested was a lighthearted tweet of a video depicting him body-slamming a figure whose head had been replaced by the CNN logo. 

You know.....

What made Mr. Trump’s sermon against the mainstream news media different this time was that Mr. Duda’s center-right party, Law and Justice, proposed restricting the news media’s access to Parliament last year. The government backed down after street protests. Duda, responding to an American reporter’s question about his own actions toward the news media, accused Polish journalists of intentionally distorting his record and failing to include his positions in articles critical of his government.

After chastising CNN — a go-to move on both sides of the Atlantic — Mr. Trump went after NBC, his former employer. “NBC is nearly as bad, despite the fact that I made them a lot of money on ‘The Apprentice,’ ” he said."

The ma$$ media whining is almost as bad as the bullying from those other guys.

--more--" 

Times gives me a foretaste of the scene protesters are vowing to disrupt.

German police use water cannons and pepper spray to disperse G-20 protest

Protests keep Melania Trump from G-20 

She won't be returning to Washington, either.

Poll shows nearly one-third of Washington D.C. residents have protested Trump

Look on the bright side, ladies:

"In 1948, six female US Navy reservists became the first women to be sworn in to the regular Navy, in 1976, The United States Military Academy at West Point included female cadets for the first time as 119 women joined the Class of 1980, and in 1981, President Ronald Reagan announced he was nominating Arizona Judge Sandra Day O’Connor to become the first female justice on the US Supreme Court."

You've come a long way, baby!

U.S. Government Ethics Chief Will Resign, Casting Uncertainty Over Agency

Steve Scalise in serious condition after surgery for infection

Still trying to kill him for leading the charge against elite pedophile rings.

Sigh.

"Japan and Europe counter Trump with colossal trade deal" by Ana Swanson Washington Post  July 06, 2017

On Thursday, Shinzo Abe, the prime minister of Japan, said that he would continue to push ahead with Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations without the United States, and that he would continue to try to persuade President Donald Trump of the TPP’s importance.

RelatedFloods in southern Japan force hundreds to flee; 2 dead

Maybe he needs to catch a flight home.

Trump has accused China, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and other countries of cheating on agreements with Washington and exporting more to the United States than they import from it. ‘‘The United States made some of the worst Trade Deals in world history. Why should we continue these deals with countries that do not help us?’’ Trump tweeted Wednesday.

The deal suggests that other countries are responding to the Trump administration’s protectionist rhetoric not by following suit, but by seeking other efforts at globalization and cooperation, said Chad Bown, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

‘‘These countries are now looking for an alternative path, given what’s happened with the Trump administration,’’ said Bown.

Europe and Japan have agreed to their trade deal only ‘‘in principle,’’ meaning they concur on its broad outlines. As such, the deal could still founder because of internal political opposition.....

Was my page A3, above the fold World lead.

--more--"

Wondering why you would care what more there is, but that is your choice. I leave the path open to you.

"Trump warns of ‘severe’ consequences for North Korea as Russia, China balk at tough US talk" by Emily Rauhala The Washington Post  July 07, 2017

BEIJING — President Trump warned Thursday that North Korea could face ‘‘some pretty severe’’ consequences after its defiant test of an intercontinental ballistic missile, but Washington also confronted firm opposition from Russia and China over any possible response. 

The claim is crap.

Trump did not specify potential US-directed punishment for North Korea, yet efforts to find consensus among world powers appeared to hit a wall — sharply limiting Trump’s options.

New sanctions would have little effect unless backed by China, which is the North’s financial lifeline. Russia also has rejected further economic pressures on the regime of Kim Jung Un.

With key players at odds, Trump must now find a way forward. In Germany at the G20 summit, Trump is expected to have his second meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and his first with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.

See: Trump-Putin handshake caught on camera

He shouldn't have.

RelatedRussians said to be suspects in U.S. power plant hackings

That's what Putin was doing with the other hand behind his back, and the propaganda machine will then be used to blame Russia for the neglect of all the infrastructure in favor of the wars for Zion.

In Warsaw, Trump said the United States was considering ‘‘some pretty severe things’’ in response to what he called ‘‘very, very bad behavior’’ from the North, though he did not mention any specific plans.

Speaking of bad behavior:

"In 1846, US annexation of California was proclaimed at Monterey after the surrender of a Mexican garrison, in 1865, four people were hanged in Washington, D.C. for conspiring with John Wilkes Booth to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln and Mary Surratt [became] the first woman to be executed by the federal government, and in 1898, the United States annexed Hawaii."

At an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Wednesday, US Ambassador Nikki Haley accused China and Russia of ‘‘holding the hands’’ of the North Korean leader Kim.

Haley chided Beijing and Moscow for not supporting a resolution that would tighten sanctions and hinted that the United States would consider the use of force.

That isn't help to deescalate matters, and this is happening while Rex Tillerson is now focused on other things. Gotta rein her in again, Rex (or Trump needs to fire her.)

Her words were met with criticism from Vladimir Safronkov, Russia’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, who called stricter sanctions ‘‘not acceptable’’ and military action ‘‘inadmissible.’’

At a daily briefing in Beijing on Thursday, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry backed him up, calling for calm in response to US remarks.

I don't like the lineups, I don't care if we have India.

Meanwhile, North Korea’s launch of a missile capable of reaching the US doesn’t necessarily bring the two nations closer to war, Defense Secretary James Mattis said. “I don’t believe this capability in itself brings us closer to war,” Mattis told reporters Thursday at the Pentagon. “Diplomacy has not failed.”

WOW!! 

The TOP U.S. DIPLOMAT is MATTIS!

The GENERAL is the ANTIWAR BLOC!

--more--"

China makes a peace offering, but that only made things worse.

Related:

Second Amnesty International leader detained in Turkey

France wants to phase out gasoline and diesel cars by 2040

What are they going to do, stop fighting wars in Africa?

UK police: Others may be at large in Manchester attack

Popular undocumented immigrant deported

He's a prominent Irishman.

US hospital offers to admit British baby at the center of life support controversy

Looks like Trump against the world, huh?

(Trump will melt; he has feet of wax)

"Iraqi commanders say female Islamic State militants are firing on their forces and using children as human shields....."

http://mm.servidornoticias.com/photos/w_864/b9d/13161182w.jpg"
Iraqi displaced people flee their houses due to the fighting between Iraqi forces and Islamic state group (IS) at an old city area, western Mosul, Iraq (EPA/OMAR ALHAYALI).

Not even a horse to ride out on.

Related6-year-old girl falls from window in Dorchester

Lot of that this summer.

You know, some kids.

At least the school is not on fire.

"Hobby Lobby fined $3m for smuggling Iraq religious artifacts" Associated Press  July 06, 2017

OKLAHOMA CITY — Hobby Lobby Stores has agreed to pay a $3 million federal fine and forfeit thousands of ancient Iraqi religious artifacts smuggled from the Middle East that the government alleges were intentionally mislabeled for import, federal prosecutors said.

The Oklahoma City-based craft store chain’s devout Christian owners have long shown an interest in the biblical Middle East and started to collect artifacts from the region in 2009, according to a civil complaint filed in New York on Wednesday. Hobby Lobby president Steve Green is the owner of one of the largest collections of religious artifacts in the world and is building a Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., due to open in the fall.

Prosecutors said acquisition of the artifacts ‘‘was fraught with red flags’’ and that packages bore shipping labels that described their contents as ‘‘ceramic tiles.’’

Importing Iraqi cultural property into the United States has been restricted since 1990 and banned outright since 2004, according to the complaint. Under Iraqi law, all antiquities found in Iraq are considered property of the state and private people cannot generally possess them without authorization of the Iraqi government, the complaint says.

A dealer based in the United Arab Emirates shipped packages containing the artifacts to three different corporate addresses in Oklahoma City. Five shipments that were intercepted by US customs officials bore shipping labels that falsely declared that the artifacts’ country of origin was Turkey.

In September 2011, a package containing about 1,000 clay bullae, an ancient form of inscribed identification, was received by Hobby Lobby from an Israeli dealer and accompanied by a false declaration stating that its country of origin was Israel....

Where it all comes from!

--more--"

It's the looting of Iraq, and it was predicted.

Isn't that some kind of war crime?

"Judges at the International Criminal Court strongly criticized South Africa for failing to arrest Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, when he visited Johannesburg for an African Union meeting in 2015. Al-Bashir has evaded the reach of international law since the court first issued a warrant for his arrest in 2009. Just this week, it was announced that he had accepted an invitation to visit Moscow. Watching who shuns and who invites al-Bashir has become something of an international parlor game. But the underlying question could not be more grave: Will a sitting head of government, wanted for crimes against humanity over his government’s violence against civilians in the Darfur conflict, be held accountable under international law?"

One judge arguing genocide was a noteworthy move, but that's a slippery slope. All of a sudden you have Bush, Bliar, Obama, Trump, and the whole coterie of Israel leaders past and present that should be in the dock. 

Btw, isn't Sudan suffering from cholera and famine? I saw no mention of it in the charges.

RelatedEssence Festival eyes return to South Africa

No boycott?

Also see:

"Authorities say a professional runner from Kenya outran two charging bears while he was training in the woods in Maine....."

He ran on water?

"Stadium stampede in Malawi kills eight" Associated Press  July 07, 2017

JOHANNESBURG — A crowd stampeded at a stadium in Malawi’s capital during independence day celebrations on Thursday, killing eight people and injuring more than 40 others, most of them children.

The disaster happened at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe ahead of a soccer match.

The dead include children between five and 12 years old, reported The Daily Times, a newspaper in the southern African country. It said the stampede occurred when police used tear gas to disperse a crowd pushing into the stadium during commemorations of independence from Britain on July 6, 1964.

Oh, no, not again!

Ambulances, police cars, and other vehicles rushed the injured to a hospital, where friends and family members gathered to check on the victims.

The stampede occurred around 10 a.m. when a stadium gate was being opened. Media reports described a chaotic scene at Kamuzu Central Hospital, where some victims were lying on the floor because all the beds were occupied.

Most of the injured were under 10, according to The Nation. A photograph on the newspaper’s website showed a medic rushing across the grounds of a hospital with a small child in his arms.

--more--"

It's Malawi's Hillsborough!


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


Despite drop in crime, some neighborhoods still feel besieged

The overnight stabbing at the train station didn't help, even if the root of it is income inequality (where have I typed that before?).

Police seek four suspects after Hyde Park home invasion

"Boston police said two men wanted for separate murders in the city were arrested by Ohio law enforcement officials on Wednesday. Greg Wright, 21, and Danilo Depina, 31, were found and arrested Wednesday in Columbus, Ohio, by the Southern Ohio Fugitive Strike Force, Boston police said in a statement. The two were located following an investigation by the Boston Police Department Fugitive Unit and the US Marshals. Wright had been on the run since the May 27 murder of Kevin Reyes on Hudson Street in Chinatown, police said. Wright is one of two suspects in the murder, police said. On June 4, police said they arrested Ricardo Edwards Jr. on a murder charge, and said at the time they were searching for Wright. Depina was wanted in connection to the August 20, 2016, murder of Ailton Goncalvez on Dudley Terrace in Roxbury. Wright and Depina were found together at the time of their arrests, police said, and were in custody in Ohio on Wednesday while they waited for their extradition back to Massachusetts."

Man arrested in fatal stabbing in Dorchester

Declaring ignorance on Independence Day

I ignored it.

Woman falls onto Red Line track, injures leg

Boston Uber riders can now tip their drivers in the app

Mass. Pike lane reductions begin Friday ahead of bridge rebuild

Chinatown tenants in legal battle for Mass Pike Towers ownership

I'm sure she will have something to say.

What’s dividing Tufts, nurses union?

Give 'em what they want!

Blue Man Group is bought by Cirque du Soleil, with plans to expand

Kevin Hart Day at Foxwoods

Was at the table with Ke$haMadonnaAndrew Garfield (Spiderman is gay?), and Tom Brady.

That should take some of the sting out of the losses.


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

Spiking temperatures, fire danger in Southwest US heat wave

As long as the bears are cool.

"CDC: Deaths from cancer higher in rural America" by Lena H. Sun Washington Post  July 06, 2017

WASHINGTON — Despite decreases in cancer death rates nationwide, they are higher in rural America than in urban areas of the United States.

A report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said rural areas had higher rates of new cases as well as deaths from several cancers related to tobacco use, such as lung cancer, and cancers that can be prevented by screening, such as colorectal and cervical.

Differences in the rates of new cases may be affected by risk factors like smoking, obesity, and a lack of physical activity, the report said. But the differences in actual death rates could be a result of disparities in access to health care and timely diagnosis and treatment, the researchers concluded. A higher percentage of rural Americans are uninsured, limiting their access to preventive services.

The report is the CDC’s first complete description of cancer incidence and mortality in rural and urban America. It adds to the troubling picture of poor health in rural parts of the country, where people are older, poorer, and sicker than in other populations.

A CDC report earlier this year said life expectancy for rural Americans had declined, and they were more likely to die from the top five causes of death, including cancer, than their urban counterparts.....

What are they dumping on us out here, and why are tanker trucks heading up to Leyden Glen at 3 a.m. (for years now)? Larry Summers idea?

--more--"

I guess the pollution of cities no longer matters.

Related:

"The Trump administration plans to appoint Georgia Public Health Commissioner Brenda Fitzgerald to become the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one of the most crucial public health positions in the US government given the agency’s role in tracking and stopping infectious disease outbreaks nationally and globally. The administration is proposing a $1.2 billion cut — 17 percent — for the agency in fiscal 2018. If implemented, it would result in the lowest CDC budget in more than 20 years....."

Might explain this:

4 kids, father found slain; mother charged in deaths Georgia

Also see:

Pregnant teen charged with rape seeks youthful status

That item from Alabama leaves me confused, and I want it to stay that way. 

WTF?


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

Time for an economics lesson:

"US Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Thursday that coal-fired power plants are important for the country’s future, and he suggested that energy supply will spark demand. After touring a coal-fired power plant in Maidsville, W.Va., Perry was asked about the economics of coal when natural gas is far cheaper. West Virginia currently has a boom in gas production but needs more shipping capacity. Several pipeline projects are underway. ‘‘Here’s a little economics lesson, supply and demand: You put the supply out there and the demand will follow that,’’ Perry said. ‘‘The market will decide which of these they’re going to pick and choose.’’ That’s not typically how economists would describe the way supply and demand works. In general, higher demand for any good or service — such as coal — drives the supply. That’s because more customer demand typically drives up the price, which then encourages businesses to provide more of the good or service to make more money. The rise in supply then acts to bring down the price."

If you build it, they will come.

Related:

"US stocks took their biggest loss in more than six weeks Thursday as investors reacted to mounting evidence that hiring has slowed. Energy and health care companies fell sharply, as did retailers. Stocks slumped after ADP, a payroll processing company, said private businesses added fewer jobs in June than investors had expected. Retailers sank after L Brands, the parent company of Victoria’s Secret, reported weak sales for June. The ADP survey was the latest evidence that hiring has slowed in recent months. That has investors worried...."

Also see:

"Slightly more Americans applied for jobless aid last week, but the number of people seeking benefits has stayed near historic lows that point to a robust job market, the Labor Department said Thursday....."

Now it's a ROBUST job market! 

Talk about mixed messages!

I'm sorry, readers, but this is no longer working.

Trump’s job growth nightmare: His first year could be slower than Obama’s last

Remember his economy?

Tesla loses No. 1 spot in market value among US automakers

They say GM is back on top, but it is more like they are out in front.

"Boston biotech Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. has boosted the list price of its best-selling cystic fibrosis treatment, called Orkambi, by 5 percent to $272,697 a year per patient. The price doesn’t include discounts or rebates commonly negotiated with health insurers and pharmacy benefit managers....."

It's not like an addiction, unless we are talking money. 

Now I'm considering what to have for lunch:

Campbell buys organic soup company

Soup IS good food.

Now for desert:

"It sounds messy, but Baskin-Robbins says it can do it: deliver ice cream in the heat of summer to customers’ front doors....."

I'm sure the driverless car and delivery robot can figure it out.

And now, after careful consideration.....