Putin orders cut of 755 personnel at US missions in Russia by Neil MacFarquhar New York Times
I think you know why I immediately dismissed an interest in that story.
"The United States flew two supersonic bombers over the Korean Peninsula on Sunday in a show of force against North Korea following the country’s latest intercontinental ballistic missile test. The United States also said it conducted a successful test of a missile defense system located in Alaska. The B-1 bombers were escorted by South Korean fighter jets as they performed a low pass over an air base near the South Korean capital of Seoul before returning to Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, the US Pacific Air Forces said. The US Missile Defense Agency said a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, system located in Kodiak, Alaska, was successfully tested Saturday night. It said that a medium-range ballistic missile was launched over the Pacific, and that the THAAD system detected, tracked, and intercepted the target....."
As usual, the U.S. government looking to provoke a fight. It's on a daily basis right now, and thankfully no one has taken the bait. As for the missile intercepts, we have been lied to before regarding such things so take the safety reassurance with a grain of salt.
Looks like a storm coming to China:
"In China, President Xi Jinping has opened a public campaign to deepen his grip on power in a coming leadership shake-up, using a huge military parade on Sunday, speeches and propaganda, along with a purge in the past week, to warn officials to back him as the nation’s most powerful leader in two decades. Wearing his mottled green uniform as commander in chief of the People’s Liberation Army, Xi watched as 12,000 troops marched and tanks, long-range missile launchers, jet fighters, and other new weapons drove or flew past. Mao famously said political power comes from the barrel of a gun; Xi signaled that he, too, counts on the military to stay ramrod loyal while he chooses a new leading lineup to be unveiled at a Communist Party congress in the autumn [Meanwhile], Russia’s global military ambition was on display Sunday at Russian naval bases in Sevastopol, which was annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014, and at Tartus in Syria, where Russia is expanding its military presence....."
Another New York Times war-mongering pos, complete with lie regarding Crimea and anti-China narrative, and the Globe loves a parade (as long as you don't bring up the island's dire fiscal condition).
At least there is always the Associated Press:
"A Pennsylvania-based coal company has won a contract to supply coal to Ukraine’s state-owned power company in preparation for that country’s winter heating needs. Officials said the deal would bolster a key US ally often threatened by Russia. The deal, potentially worth about $79 million, calls for Xcoal Energy and Resources to ship 700,000 tons of thermal coal to the Ukraine to heat homes and businesses. The first shipment is expected to leave the Port of Baltimore next month at a cost of $113 per metric ton. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said US coal ‘‘will be a secure and reliable energy source’’ for Ukraine, which he said has been ‘‘reliant on and beholden to Russia to keep the heat on. That changes now.’’ The United States ‘‘can offer Ukraine an alternative, and today we are pleased to announce that we will,’’ Perry said, calling such deals ‘‘crucial to the path forward to achieve energy dominance’’ for the United States. President Trump has vowed to revive the struggling coal industry and has cited increases in US coal exports as evidence the strategy is working. The Energy Department said in July that coal exports have risen sharply in 2017 amid increased demand in Asia and Europe, but are still below capacity. The deal comes amid increased tensions in US-Russia relations. Russian President Vladimir Putin says the United States will have to cut its diplomatic staff in Russia in response to new sanctions against Russia. Congress approved those because of Russian interference in the 2016 US election and its military aggression in Ukraine and Syria. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the coal deal will allow Ukraine to diversify its energy sources ahead of the coming winter, noting that Russia has restricted some natural gas deliveries to Ukraine and other neighbors in a bid to ‘‘choke off opposition to its ambitions.’’ Perry was recently fooled by a pair of Russian pranksters impersonating the prime minister of Ukraine. Topics on the mid-July call included coal exports. Perry met with Ukraine’s president, Petro Poroshenko, in June."
You would have thought AP would be better than the New York Times or Washington Post, but nope. It's the same slop. I don't even know where to begin with the agenda-pushing narrative and mixed messages. Apparently it is okay to dump coal and its dirty pollution on Eastern Europe and Asia. So much for climate change or whatever.
Related:
"President Vladimir Putin warned that he has more tricks up his sleeve to hurt the United States....."
Another AP pos, and that's all you really need to see of it. The war-promoting propaganda that is spewing forth from the pos AmeriKan pre$$ has become so offensive it is no longer worth reading.
THIS IS WORTH IT:
"..... Everywhere in the Western World, and this includes the Asian provinces of the American Empire, it is close to impossible to acquire accurate information. The only purpose of information from Washington and from the print and TV media and NPR is to get the captive populations to accept the official explanation that serves the ruling agenda. Those who provide real news, such as RT, are attacked as fonts of “fake news.” In other words, for Washington truth is an enemy. As George Orwell said, “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
The Saker says that the agenda most in need of our attention is the “anglo-zionist agenda” of US/Israeli domination. The overriding fact of our time is that any country or person in the way of US/Israeli domination is destined for destruction.
That is our reality.
Russia and China have finally caught on that the democratic rhetoric issuing from Washington is a cloak for the evil that is the operating force of the US government.
Will Russia and China accept the hegemony of this evil or will they not? It is a very serious matter that Washington has convinced the Russian and Chinese governments that Washington is preparing a preemptive nuclear strike against them. This is extremely serious, not something for narcissists and trolls to play with.
For all who ask what to do, the answer is to speak out strongly against Washington for risking all life by convincing Russia and China that Washington is preparing to nuke them. To understand how dire the situation is, ask yourself why you hear no protests against such provocation of Russia and China from the West’s print and TV media, from the US Senate, from the House of Representatives, from European political leaders, from hardly anyone.
The absence of protest tells the Russians and Chinese that the American Empire is OK with the preemptive attack. Where is Merkel’s voice? Where is May’s? Where is any leader’s voice?
The absence of protest voices tells Russia and China that the die is cast.
--MORE--"
Are you ready for another World War?
So which side will you be lining up on when Trump drops the bomb?
And you can forget about war crimes charges after the deal is done:
"Britain’s High Court on Monday blocked a bid by Saddam Hussein’s former chief-of-staff to prosecute former prime minister Tony Blair for invading Iraq in 2003. Former General Abdulwaheed Shannan Al Rabbat also sought to prosecute Blair’s foreign secretary, Jack Straw, and attorney general, Peter Goldsmith, because of their involvement in the decision. The case centered on the concept that a ‘‘crime of aggression’’ would be recognized under English law, as it is under international law. Rabbat’s lawyers argued that this would have made it possible for the British leaders to be held personally accountable — and subject to criminal trials and even prison — if convicted for their actions. It is not the first time the British leadership has been called to account for the war in which the United States and Britain led a coalition to oust Saddam on the grounds that he held weapons of mass destruction. Other court action failed. However, an inquiry into the Iraq war, led by John Chilcot, concluded that ‘‘the invasion was not prompted by the aggression of another country.’’ The inquiry’s conclusion prompted Rabbat’s lawyers to question earlier court decisions and to ask the Supreme Court to review the matter. But the judges rejected that bid, saying it was ‘‘for Parliament and Parliament alone’’ to decide whether ‘‘to make such conduct criminal under domestic law.’’ Rabbat’s lawyer, Imran Khan, said Monday that the judgment ‘‘sets a dangerous precedent in times of global insecurity’’ adding that ‘‘any leader can act as he/she chooses knowing that whatever action they take, it can be taken with complete impunity.’’ Khan called on Parliament to enact a law making accountability clear in the future."
There has never been a clearer case of naked aggression based on lies, and yet western governments consistently absolve their own. No wonder the Africans are gambling on quitting the ICC.
Related:
Tony Blair an Unindicted War Criminal
“Your Lies Killed My Son’’
Also see: UK broadcaster defends plan to air Princess Diana recordings
Some see a royal conspiracy regarding her death.
*********************
"Others said they were there out of conviction that the constitutional assembly would help the government fend off what they called an international capitalist conspiracy to undermine Venezuela’s socialist system with the help of the domestic opposition. ‘‘The crisis, the shortages of food and medicine, that isn’t the government’s fault,’’ said Luis Osuna, a 42-year-old private bodyguard. ‘‘Those who are attacking us to kill us with hunger and blame the government are the same enemies the government’s always had.’’ Once one of Latin America’s wealthiest nations, Venezuela has spiraled into a devastating crisis during Maduro’s four years in power, thanks to plunging oil prices and widespread corruption and mismanagement. Inflation and homicide rates are among the world’s highest and widespread shortages of food and medicine have citizens dying of preventable illnesses and rooting through trash to feed themselves. Although opinion polls say a vast majority oppose him, Maduro made clear in a televised address Saturday evening that he intends to use the assembly to govern without limitation....."
That's the only three paragraphs worth reading in that New York Times pos, and everyone can see what Mr. Osuna says. I don't know who the New York Times thinks its fooling with the crocodile tear concern over Venezuela's poor (like they ever cared). This is a repeat of what was done to Chile in the early 1970s.
‘‘I feel depressed because today everything looks normal, as if nothing had happened. The streets are empty and people went to work as if nothing ever happened. I personally expected more forceful actions from opposition leaders.’’ In recent days the opposition has seemed disorganized, caught flat-footed by a government announcement banning protests through Tuesday....."
That's exactly the way this American citizen feels about his government and the opposition Democrats!
Meanwhile, the defiant Venezuelans establishing a police state is now the propaganda pre$$ narrative.
Related: CIA Working to Replace Venezuelan Democracy with Fascist Tyranny
Here is another guy they are trying to replace:
"A mayor who had been accused by President Rodrigo Duterte of involvement in drug trafficking was killed along with his wife and 10 other people in coordinated police raids early Sunday, authorities said. Reynaldo Parojinog, mayor of the city of Ozamiz in the southern Philippines, died in a firefight at his home after his security personnel shot at drug enforcement officers, who had come to arrest him and three members of his family, according to the Philippine National Police. His wife, Susan, and five other people were also killed, and a second raid at another house owned by the family left five more people dead, police said. Police said they confiscated high-powered rifles, bundles of cash, and an unspecified amount of methamphetamines at Reynaldo Parojinog’s home....."
More New York Times garbage, and actually waging a real war against CIA smuggling rings is what has Duterte in trouble.
Related: Philippine mayor, 13 others killed in raids linked to drugs
As for the money laundering:
"HSBC said Monday it would buy back up to an additional $2 billion in shares as it reported better-than-expected earnings in the second quarter. The bank, which is based in London but generates much of its profit in Asia, has announced $5.5 billion in share repurchases since the second half of last year as its prospects have improved. Since 2015, HSBC has significantly reshaped its operations by shedding tens of thousands of jobs, selling underperforming businesses, and shrinking its global investment banking business. The bank reported a profit of $3.9 billion in the second quarter, compared with $2.5 billion in the second quarter of 2016. It said profit before taxes was $6 billion when adjusted to remove the impact of changes in currency and significant items. That was ahead of analysts’ expectations."
Yeah, forget the money laundering for drug gangs, their participation in the MBS and CDO swindles, all the fraud has been forgotten and things are going great! As for the buybacks, that's a false way of keeping the stock price high in the false economy.
Related: "Stocks finished mostly higher Monday as banks and media and energy companies climbed just enough to cancel out losses for Facebook, Amazon, and other technology companies....."
Trump hasn't changed a thing.
*********************
"Fighters with the al-Shabab extremist group ambushed an African Union convoy in southern Somalia and killed at least eight soldiers on Sunday, a Somali military officer said. The attack came hours after a car bomb in the capital killed at least five people, most of them civilians, shattering a month of relative calm in Mogadishu. Al-Shabab has become the deadliest Islamic extremist group in Africa. Despite being forced out of many cities and towns across Somalia, it continues to launch lethal attacks in Mogadishu and elsewhere. It wants to oust the central government and install a strict version of Shariah law. The extremist group maintains a presence largely in rural areas and continues to pose challenges to the allied Somali and African Union forces as they travel between remote towns, even as the AU force plans to pull out of Somalia in the coming years and leave security to national troops. Hundreds of African Union soldiers have been killed in recent years as al-Shabab targeted their military bases as well. The extremist group has also carried out deadly attacks in neighboring countries, notably Kenya, that have sent troops to support Somalia’s fragile central government. That threat has been a factor in rising security concerns around Kenya’s presidential election next month....."
Yeah, somehow we are winning against the terrorists but they never go away. In this case it is Al-CIA-Bob.
Related:
Car bomb blast in Somalia’s capital kills at least 5
Also see:
Kenya election official tortured, killed days before vote
ISIS targets Iraq Embassy in Kabul; all 4 attackers killed
So that is where the CIA sent the Syrian mercenaries. It's an AP piece with conflicting reports, you know, ISIS said this, ISIS said that, all in a statement carried by the ISIS-linked Aamaq news agency -- meaning the whole operation and article is nothing but CIA propaganda.
As for the migrants:
"France’s highest administrative court ordered the government to provide humanitarian aid to the hundreds of migrants who have continued arriving in the northern port city of Calais even after authorities destroyed the infamous ‘‘Jungle’’ camp. In blistering language, the court decried the squalid conditions facing migrants in Calais, long a dramatic focal point in French politics and in Europe’s ongoing migration crisis. It also rejected appeals by state and local authorities, both of which had resisted an earlier order to improve the situation on the ground. ‘‘The living conditions of migrants reveal a failure of public authority, which is liable to expose the persons concerned to inhuman or degrading treatment and thus constitutes a serious and manifestly unlawful interference with a fundamental freedom,’’ read the opinion of the court, known as the Conseil d’Etat. The ruling came less than a week after the publication of a sharply critical report from Human Rights Watch. Migrants in Calais interviewed by The Washington Post earlier in the summer voiced the same complaints, but perhaps the most shocking allegation in the Human Rights Watch report — widely discussed in French media — was that riot police regularly use pepper spray on child migrants, even when they pose no conceivable threat. Interior Minister Gérard Collomb said in response to the court’s ruling on Monday that France would open two facilities in the Calais region to house and better inform incoming migrants about the asylum process....."
This as the social safety net for citizens is being dismantled and Macron expands the wars, with the agenda here being pushed by WaPo and Juman Rights Watch.
As for the behavior of police, they must have been trained in Israel -- same as the flight attendants:
Video shows airport attendant punching passenger holding a child
That top of the world piece was the last article at the bottom of page B4.
Also see:
Exhumation of Dali’s remains finds his mustache still intact
He started growing it in 1936.
20,000 flee spectacular fire at music festival in Barcelona
Did you know the fires were still burning in Portugal?
********************************
That gets us to the front page fire in Washington:
"Anthony Scaramucci is out at the White House" by Michael D. Shear, Glenn Thrush and Maggie Haberman New York Times"
My printed pos was by by the WaPo, as if it makes a difference. The important takeaway from it all is this:
"John F. Kelly, the retired Marine general, who was sworn in Monday morning, was brought into the White House in the hope that he will bring military-style discipline to Trump's staff."
The move is in preparation for the military actions planned above so there is a clear chain of command at the White House. Trump will be handing out more medals, too.
Trump’s travel bans keep orphans from US foster families
A national monument in peril
An icon for a love that has blossomed over 55 years
"The Affordable Care Act required members of Congress, along with their staff, to buy health care insurance through the online markets created under the law. But the lawmakers and their staff members generally make too much to qualify for subsidies under the law meant for low-income Americans. So Obama decided to let individual congressional offices be counted as small businesses, thereby allowing members and their staff to qualify for the subsidies. On Saturday, Trump threatened to undo that Obama administration decision, effectively yanking away the federal government’s contribution to the insurance plans of members of Congress and their staff. Currently, their employer (i.e., taxpayers) pays 72 percent of their premiums. The subsidies, totaling about $7 billion a year, help reduce deductibles and copayments for consumers with modest incomes. The Obama administration used its rule-making authority to set direct payments to insurers to help offset these costs. Trump inherited the payment structure, but he also has the power to end them...... "
OMG, that is how Obama bribed them to pass the bill and this was as your premiums soared and coverage declined or disappeared!!
Now look at the pre$$ close ranks around the politicians:
"Republican, Democratic, and even bipartisan plans for reshaping parts of the Obama health care law are proliferating in Congress. But they have iffy prospects at best, and there were no signs Monday that GOP leaders have chosen a fresh pathway after last week’s collapse of their struggle to repeal and rewrite the statute. Despite a weekend of tweets from President Trump insisting that the Senate revisit the issue, Republican prospects for garnering 50 votes to push something through the chamber seemed to worsen after Senator John McCain returned to Arizona for brain cancer treatments. He was among three GOP senators who joined Democrats in opposing a bare-bones bill rolling back a few pieces of President Barack Obama’s statute, dealing it a 51-49 defeat, and his absence probably denies leaders their best chance of turning that vote around. Trump has threatened anew in recent days to cut off the payments to insurers, which total $7 billion this year and are helping trim out-of-pocket costs for 7 million people. Hoping to find some way forward, health secretary Tom Price was meeting with some governors and at least one senator, Louisiana Republican Bill Cassidy, congressional and state house aides said. Cassidy and Republican Senators Lindsey Grahamof South Carolina and Dean Heller of Nevada have proposed converting the $110 billion they estimate Obama’s law spends yearly for health insurance into grants states could use for health programs as they see fit. Besides continuing federal payments to insurers, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, has pushed two other Democratic proposals. Under one by Senators Tim Kaine of Virginia and Tom Carper of Delaware, the federal government would help pay larger-than-expected claims for insurers providing coverage on the federal and state online marketplaces established by Obama’s law. Another by Senator Clare McCaskill of Missouri would let people in counties where no insurers offer policies on exchanges buy the same coverage that members of Congress purchase......"
Oh, I like that last idea!! Maybe I can be declared a small business and get a 72% subsidy and great choices of plans.
Now they are all focused on finding common ground, meaning a bailout for the insurance companies. Good thing they wrote that into the bill.
"President Trump’s drug commission has called on him to declare a national emergency to deal with the country’s opioid drug epidemic, saying the approximately 142 deaths each day from drug overdoses mean the death toll is ‘‘equal to September 11th every three weeks.’’ The report is ‘‘meant to give the president some immediate steps that he can take to try to make sure that we stop the death that is happening across the country,’’ said Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who was appointed by Trump to lead the group. Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker is also a member of the commission. The White House said it will ‘‘immediately begin reviewing its recommendations.’’ Christie made fighting drug addiction a cornerstone of his failed 2016 presidential campaign and has dedicated his last year in office to the issue. Monday’s report came a couple of weeks after a group of US Senate Democrats wrote to the acting director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy urging him to ‘‘consider important initiatives that could help deliver faster relief to millions of Americans.’’ “As the commission is taking steps to address drug addiction, we are concerned that essential components, such as action on already existing recommendations, are being delayed,” they wrote. The signees urged the Trump administration to do more to combat the opioid epidemic, including implementing recommendations put forward by former surgeon general Vivek Murthy in a November 2016 report. The group criticized an administration budget proposal that would cut nearly $400 million for drug and mental health programs and the Department of Justice’s escalating focus on treating drug addiction as a criminal justice issue....."
It's no day at the beach for Christie, governor of the home of the Jewish Mafia in AmeriKa, because this is all spin your wheels crap. Until the pre$$ and government acknowledge that the biggest drug smugglers are government intelligence agencies, that laundered drug money is crucial to the bottom lines of banks, and that the root of the problem is pre$cription pharmaceuticals, we will get nowhere. It will be the show of compassion toward the addicts, a far contrast with the vitriol directed at marijuana, and that's all. A never-ending drug war, and who benefits?
"Mayor Megan Barry of Nashville said Sunday that her only child has died of an apparent drug overdose. A statement released from Barry and her husband, Bruce, says 22-year-old Max Barry died Saturday night in Denver. ‘‘Early this morning, we received news that no parents should ever have to hear,’’ the statement said. ‘‘We cannot begin to describe the pain and heartbreak that comes with losing our only child. Our son was a kind soul full of life and love for his family and friends. ‘‘Our family would greatly appreciate your thoughts and prayers, and would respectfully ask for privacy as we mourn the loss of our child and begin to understand a world without his laughter and love in our lives,’’ the statement said....."
Yup, grieve for the fooli$h victim and focus on nothing else.
"A Pennsylvania man arrested last year outside New York with a vehicle full of weapons on a self-described mission to rescue a teenager from a drug den pleaded guilty Monday to weapons charges, but he said he would continue his battle against the scourge of drug addiction....."
They jail those actually fighting it!
"Fifty years after actress Jayne Mansfield died in a Buick that slammed underneath a tractor-trailer, auto safety advocates say regulations inspired by that gruesome crash need updating to prevent hundreds of similar deaths annually....."
It's better than being stuck at Penn Station.
Tropical Storm Emily: Power outages, rain, fishermen rescued
Time to abort.
******************************
I ignore the op-ed page now because it would be crazy to read it.
***********************
Arlington church protests ouster of beloved priest
It's politics.
"The federal trial of four Teamsters accused of using strong-arm tactics against a “Top Chef” production team is expected to underscore the close relationship between the Teamsters and Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, a former union leader....."
The other $ide of it:
Fund-raiser for Charlie Baker draws a crowd in Mashpee
Boston’s human services chief Felix G. Arroyo placed on paid leave
Think of it as being on probation.
"Westwood Lodge children’s unit is part of Arbour Health System, which is owned by Universal Health Services Inc., the largest psychiatric hospital company in the country — and one of the most profitable....."
See: Arbour Day
Just wait until you get to prep school:
"Phillips Academy in Andover announced Monday that two former faculty members allegedly harmed students during the 1970s, including a teacher also accused of sexually abusing students at Choate Rosemary Hall in the early 1980s....."
Story was on page B4, and we will have to wait 40 years for the current crop of pedophiles to be identified?
Harvard looks to Bowdoin as model in eradicating frats, but its decision had mixed results
Foxborough commuter rail service worries Fairmount Line advocates
MBTA may test overnight buses, Foxborough commuter rail
Comm. Ave. construction spurs weekend slowdowns, is on schedule for Monday commute
Day 1 of Pikeocalypse wasn’t as bad as expected. What does today hold?
For cyclists, BU Bridge closure is like ‘heaven’
Southie Edison plant project underscores region’s transit woes
Like I give a goddamn about the traffic problems in Bo$ton.
That’s one big (and expensive) yacht: Vava II visits Boston
In brief, it looks like a paper for $upremaci$t elites.
No wonder they are dying.
**************************
Facing sex-bias investigations, country club digs in with denials
(Blog editor shakes head; they prove my point with every piece)
Ever notice how golf is worshipped on television, with nary a thought towards its racist and sexist past? All those guys are heroes.
Funding for women entrepreneurs slackens, despite concerns about bias
They pulled $71.7 billion out of college endowments and your pensions to gamble it away on new ideas to further their own $elf-$erving intere$ts -- and if it doesn't work out, well, at least they burned through some $alary.
Don't worry, I'm sure some men were fleeced in there.
"How did biotech become a Hollywood supervillain?" by Damian Garde, STAT | July 26, 2017
Family movie night can be fraught in biotech households.
Earlier this month, John Crowley, CEO of Amicus Therapeutics, cued up “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” as a refresher before the debut of its blockbuster sequel. Soon his living room played host to a man with roughly his job, working at a firm not unlike his, but whose greed and moral depravity made him the movie’s villain.
“Here we go, dad,” Crowley recalled the teenage John Jr. saying. “Another evil biotech company ruining the world.”
“Apes” is the latest in a long line of movies to find a ready-made baddie in biopharma’s push-the-envelope labs and bounteous balance sheets. It’s a cinematic tradition that’s often frustrating to the industry’s thousands of employees, who view themselves not as faceless profiteers, but as bravehearted scientists questing to outflank human suffering.
It also makes the industry’s multimillion-dollar campaign to polish its public reputation all that much more difficult.
The price-gouging bastards think money, imagery, and illusion solves all problems.
Drug industry groups step up government lobbying efforts
$14m so far his year. That's $ick.
After all, you can blame ill-advised biotech scientists for the global pestilences in “Mission: Impossible 2” and “I Am Legend,” plus the murderous uber-sharks that memorably bisected Samuel L. Jackson in “Deep Blue Sea.” And it was the bean counters of Big Pharma who sent the one-armed man after Richard Kimble in 1993’s “The Fugitive,” who bumped off a do-gooder in the 2005 adaptation of John le Carré’s “The Constant Gardener,” and who engineered a crass insider trading scheme in Steven Soderbergh’s “Side Effects.”
“Big Pharma is a perfect movie villain because it’s combining the mad scientist of science fiction with the big banks, the big-money villains of dramas and thrillers,” said Miranda Banks, an associate professor of cinema studies at Emerson College.
Maybe if gene-editing wasn't all the rage right now.
Related:
Boston school’s nursing program gets warning from state
Got snared.
5 unsettling facts about scabies in light of the recent Winchester Hospital alert
It's enough to give you a heart attack.
And the drug industry, witting or not, isn’t helping its cause with all those TV drug ads.
I feel so, so sorry for them!!
“Think about what the American public sees,” said Jeanine Basinger, a movie historian and professor of film studies at Wesleyan University. “Let’s say you’re watching TV and on comes an ad for Vicatacapoo. ‘It’ll make you well! It’s wonderful! And let me just mention the side effects: You will turn into a kangaroo, your ears will fall off, and you won’t be able to have sex.’”
Each 30-second spot serves as a reminder of an age-old theme: Miracle cures are rarely what they seem. “It goes back to the very beginning,” Basinger said. “It’s Adam and Eve — ‘you ate the apple,’ which is a form of ‘you took the pill.’”
Yeah, I purcha$ed a Globe again today.
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, an influential lobbying group, is fighting to bend public perception toward respect and even admiration. In PhRMA’s TV ads, molecules dance and cancer cells explode as stern-faced scientists peer into microscopes on the hunt for new drugs.
Despite the rolling eyes of his son, Crowley himself doesn’t see much of a crisis. Instead, he points to two time-honored film modalities at work: the Pandora’s box model, focused on what science has done to man; and the Prometheus motif, in which we see what man does with science.
Through that lens, Hollywood’s fascination with the drug industry looks less like prejudice than a simple reflection of biotech being today’s manifestation of big science. Were Mary Shelley writing today, Dr. Victor Frankenstein might work at Amgen.
If Crowley’s take seems a bit more sanguine than that of his colleagues, it is perhaps because he is part of a very exclusive club: Hollywood made a movie about him. And he’s not the bad guy.
“Extraordinary Measures,” released in 2010, tells the story of Crowley’s quest to find a new treatment for two of his children, Megan and Patrick, who have the rare and life-shortening Pompe disease. Brendan Fraser stars as Crowley, joined by Harrison Ford as a crotchety composite character with the right scientific know-how but none of the corporate refinement necessary for success in biotech. Together, the entrepreneurial odd couple overcomes problems scientific, emotional, and bureaucratic, all in a tidy hour-forty-five.
As a cinematic experience, “Extraordinary Measures” is more indebted to Hallmark than Hal Ashby; the New York Times deemed it “a movie about a medical breakthrough [that] is not especially eager to break new ground of its own.”
But in thematic terms, it’s unique in biotech’s film canon. The villain is neither a mad scientist nor a money-hungry one-percenter but Pompe disease itself. Our heroes’ armaments are assays, enzymes, and venture capital.
To Crowley, there’s a place for all the “Apes” and “Fugitives” of the world, movies that “force us to think about the moral questions and ethical boundaries we need to work within in our industry.” But “Extraordinary Measures,” he said, could point to a third path for filmmakers with eyes on the drug industry.
“Take it back to Pandora’s box,” Crowley said. “When all the little secrets were let out, by the time they closed the box, there was only one thing left. That was hope. Maybe, somehow, Hollywood needs to tell that story, too.”
Even if that more positive spin doesn’t often make it into America’s multiplexes, Maraganore sees at least some benefit to biopharma being portrayed as an all-powerful (if regularly sinister) force.....
--more--"
Nothing like movie night at a richer's house.
As for ‘Dunkirk’ and the ‘War for the Planet of the Apes’:
"Monkey business still pays. ‘‘War for the Planet of the Apes’’ took down ‘‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’’ at the North American box office, opening with an estimated $56.5 million in ticket sales. Though some initially expected a closer race, ‘‘Spider-Man’’ dropped to second with $45.2 million after its $117 million debut last weekend. But director Matt Reeves’s ‘‘War for the Planet of the Apes’’ pulled away thanks to strong reviews for the third installment of the rebooted ‘‘Apes’’ franchise. Led by Andy Serkis’s celebrated motion-capture performance as the ape leader Caesar, ‘‘War for the Planet of the Apes’’ won a 94 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Fox’s ‘‘Apes’’ led something of a summer anomaly: There is an unusual confluence of acclaimed films in release. Five of the top six at the box office (”Apes,’’ ‘’Homecoming,’’ ‘’Baby Driver,’’ ‘’The Big Sick’’ and ‘‘Wonder Woman”) boast Rotten Tomatoes rankings of 92 or better, and the sixth (”Despicable Me 3”) was largely received as a solid enough family release. Summer, rarely a critics’ paradise, is suddenly flush with good movies, but there were also hints of franchise fatigue for the ‘‘Planet of the Apes’’ series. Reeves’s latest edition came in closer to 2012’s ‘‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes,’’ and well below the $72.6 million debut of 2014’s ‘‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.’’ The film, which cost about $150 million to produce, added $46 million from overseas. (“Spider-Man: Homecoming’’ was still king overseas, where it added $72.3 million to bring its global haul to nearly $500 million.) Aronson believes the good word-of-mouth will carry ‘‘War for the Planet of the Apes.’’
Keep that in mind for later showings.
"It's victory for "Dunkirk" and "Girls Trip" at the box office this weekend with both films smashing expectations. Christopher Nolan's World War II epic brought in an estimated $50.5 million to easily top the charts, according to Warner Bros., while the raucous comedy "Girls Trip" broke the R-rated comedy slump of 2017 with $30.4 million to take second place. "Dunkirk" was far from an inevitable summer success. But stellar reviews, awards buzz and hype around the film's large-scale production helped drive people to the theater. "It became a must-see event," said Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst for comScore. Not so successful was Luc Besson's nearly $180 million sci-fi epic "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets," which earned $17 million from North American theaters over the weekend for a fifth-place start. It came in behind "Spider-Man: Homecoming," in third in its third weekend with $22 million and "War for the Planet of the Apes" in fourth place in its second weekend with $20.4 million....."
Why did Apes drop more than 50% after all the talk?
‘‘The Emoji Movie’’ survived negative reviews but couldn’t conquer ‘‘Dunkirk,’’ which had enough fight left to conquer the box office for a second weekend in a row. Down only 44 percent from its first weekend, director Christopher Nolan’s World War II film earned $28.1 million to take first place, according to studio estimates Sunday. ‘‘Dunkirk’’ has grossed $102.8 million domestically to date. Sony Pictures Animation’s ‘‘The Emoji Movie’’ finished second with $25.7 million. The film featuring the voices of T.J. Miller and Anna Faris as anthropomorphized emojis got pummeled by critics but Sony is expecting it to play well the rest of the summer. Also holding on quite well is Universal Pictures’ R-rated comedy ‘‘Girls Trip,’’ which fell a miniscule 36 percent from its debut weekend to take third place with $20.1 million. Even in weekend two, ‘‘Girls Trip’’ beat out the splashy new Charlize Theron spy movie ‘‘Atomic Blonde,’’ which opened in fourth with $18.6 million. In fifth place was ‘‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’’ now in its fourth weekend in theaters. The new web-slinger added $13.5 million, which bumped its domestic total to $278.4 million."
Okay, the comment I want to make here is how upside down the narrative is regarding the slop that Hollywood is throwing at the screens. Now a 36% drop is considered minuscule and po$itive. It used to be -- like in the days of "Titanic" and long before -- that word-of-mouth built sales and if it was good the movie stayed in the theater for weeks. Now, after two months of promotional ads before the movie debuts (by the time it arrives I feel like it has already played and gone), it's get all you can the first week before the the bottom falls out on the trash they produce.
Time to sound the alarm:
"The chief executive for PBS is sounding the alarm about public broadcasting’s future if federal funding is axed as called for by President Trump. ‘‘PBS will not go away, but a number of our stations will,’’ CEO Paula Kerger said. ‘‘There is no Plan B for that.’’ PBS’s share of the roughly $450 million in federal funds allocated for public TV and radio goes largely to support public TV stations nationwide, a number of which rely on it for up to 50 percent of their budgets, Kerger told a TV critics’ meeting Saturday. Many of those stations are in rural and underserved areas, she said. Kerger said she’s forced to assume that anything can happen in what has been ‘‘an extraordinary year on so many levels.’’ There’s irony that this potential crisis comes as the 50th anniversary of the Public Broadcasting Act approaches in November, Kerger said. A 1967 act created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides grants to about 1,500 locally owned-and-operated public TV and radio stations."
I find it hard to believe that PBS is hurting for money after seeing all the corporate and foundation funders. Nothing but official regurgitation on there anyway.
"The world’s biggest corn exporters are preparing for a showdown. Brazilian farmers are collecting their biggest corn harvest ever, and US supplies are plentiful — setting the stage for a battle for buyers. Just a year ago, US exporters’ sales were booming as a drought plagued Brazil. This year, the South American growers’ crops have gotten so big that farmers are already short on storage. That’s giving exporters an incentive to push corn shipments out quickly and could mean a squeeze for hedge funds that are betting on a price rally. December corn futures on the Chicago Board of Trade dropped 1 percent in July to $3.88 a bushel."
Is it skill or luck, and how would you classify it?
Immelt wraps up 16 years as General Electric’s CEO
Bank chief says ‘Fearless’ is more than a statue
Fidelity tries to out-Vanguard Vanguard with latest fee cuts
Another big apartment complex planned for Eastie, in Orient Heights
After years of delays, Scientologists agree to sell historic Hotel Alexandra
Discovery to buy Scripps, owner of Food Network, in $11.9 billion deal
Court directs FAA to revisit issue of ‘shrinking’ airline seat space
By now there is no question about the Globe being a rich man's paper.
LAST CALL!!
"Mass. restaurants want OUI serving data eliminated" by Dan Adams Globe Staff July 30, 2017
Prompted by a story in The Boston Globe in December naming the establishments that have accumulated the most last-drink reports, the restaurant association has asked a state task force considering an overhaul of alcohol laws to recommend that the Legislature eliminate the program. Convened by Treasurer Deborah Goldberg, whose office oversees statewide alcohol enforcement, the task force is expected to unveil suggested policy changes in August.
The industry’s stance has alarmed state regulators, local licensing officials, and public health advocates, who argue the last-drink reports deter bars from serving intoxicated customers and help enforcement officers focus their limited resources on those that do.
“We have a very effective program that’s been cited as a national model for preventing impaired driving,” said Ted Mahony, the top investigator at the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, or ABCC. “Why would you get rid of that?”
Under the program, last-drink reports are sent from state courts to the ABCC and municipalities. State and local officers can’t use the reports to immediately sanction the named bars and restaurants, but they target repeatedly cited establishments with enforcement stings, which can lead to license suspensions if investigators observe employees pouring drinks for drunk patrons or other violations. Other times, officials simply pressure such bars to retrain their staff on how to serve alcohol responsibly.
But restaurants say people convicted of drunken driving frequently misremember or lie in court about where they had their last drink. And even though the reports don’t lead directly to punishment, operators said, municipal licensing boards nonetheless see them as black marks and give bars named by drunk drivers harsher punishments for other, unrelated violations.....
The AmeriKan pre$$ is like a drunk driver in that “I don’t believe for a second that they tell the truth.”
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You know what the answer is, right?
PROHIBITION!
Sorry, bar is closed now.
Sam Shepard, Pulitzer-winning playwright, is dead at 73
Did they mention his role in Snow Falling on Cedars?
That was good filmmaking.
Fans gather at Boston Common to remember Linkin Park singer
He fell into the trap, and on this day in history this blog died.
"Slicker and Quicker than any Metaphorical Liquor at The Chimera Cafe.
Dog Poet Transmitting.......
Thursday, July 27, 2017
They're coming out of the woodwork with power and force and a whole lot of subtlety. They closed down one Dark Web market, then they closed another and before they did that they took over the logical next location that the vendors and buyer were most likely to migrate to and then they ran the show as buyers and seller went about their business. I picked the right time to stop sniffing glue.
Something about the Fentanyl epidemic smells bad. I had some of the patches once and recently I had a bad experience, health wise and the doctor slapped one of the 3 day patches on my arm. I tore it off after I left the clinic. I really don't like that stuff. I had revelation concerning it about five years ago. It struck me as a 'prepare for death' easement chemical. I think this Fentanyl crisis is like the CIA engineered crack plague in South Central LA back in the day. Of course the black ops side of government is involved at some level in the proliferation. Someone once said something to the effect that, “every ship of state sails on a river of darkness.”
They really don't want people to get high on anything, which is obvious, given how they fight tooth and nail about marijuana. In part it's the liquor and tobacco industry lobbies. In part it is that when people get high; not stoned stupid or wasted, but high, they see through things and become a problem for the Slave Master Overlords. It's the same thing with crypto currencies and vaping. It's the same thing with holding a valid opinion on cultural memes being shoved down our throats. Control is what they are all about. Power is one of the ultimate highs. Didn't someone once say something about Power being the ultimate aphrodisiac? This is how it is. They are the most real, chronic and dangerous junkies ever to lurch and stumble up and down the sidewalks of life; nodding out on overdoses of blood, destruction and greed in various stalls in the corporate bathrooms.
And Oh My! are the going after Trump. I have never seen the like before and I think we can be pretty sure that come the fall the Deep State will pull one of their programmed, deranged assassins from the rotating automated dry cleaner hanger apparatus, where they are hanging on hooks in an environmentally controlled humidor-type room and they will send their Manchurian Candidate out to do his business. It could be a tranny in wolfs clothing. It could be a documented radical who hangs out at the Virginia gun shows. It could be anyone with the right labels sewn into their clothes and all the necessary evidence in their pockets and apartment, with diagrams and raving polemics written in small print on the walls of every room in their living space. They got plenty of them. Now that Jeff Bezos is the richest man on the planet you can be sure you will be able to order your own assassin and get free shipping if you have a Prime account. Ain't life grand?
Given that the American public has a problem making their way from Point A to Point C, it is an unfortunate truth that most of them do not look at who owns the media and then conclude that the Fake News Masters of the Universe are the ones going Gotterdammerung on Trumpledee and Trumpledumb. Maybe he's slicker and quicker than any metaphorical liquor and I don't see it. I'm guessing it's the White House Tweet's for Twits program that makes me think he's dumber than a bag of prophylactic socks, which we know would not be effective birth control tech., but that's how government works, especially when it is no longer a government but simply a business arm of Zio-Globoctopus Corp. As smart as these demons think they are there is a reason that military intelligence is an oxymoron.
There are some, literally 'ungodly' forces at work these days. We've got high ranking military officers coming out in support of transgender rights, as well as Republicans who don't want to lose their jobs, since Israel controls the purse strings and media perception of them and they are the ones behind this agenda, same as the migrant agenda and so much more. We're hearing ludicrous statements like, there are 15,000 transgender benders presently serving in the American military. WHY IS ALL THIS SEXUAL NONSENSE the primary obsession in all the corridors of power? It is because when you can mutate the general sexual mores of the public you can control the level of dysfunction necessary to manipulate it. It's something like 'grab them by the balls and the rest of the body will follow.' Sexual energy is the basic ubiquitous force that exists and expresses everywhere. Sexual force is the medium that when properly transformed and channeled leads to spiritual enlightenment. When you consider the archetypal bull that when harnessed pulls the plow that furrows the world and that it is an icon of sexual power translated into all the forms of industry and enterprise that exist, you can get an idea of what it means to force deviation upon the general public. By the way, everything is generated by the sun and the sun is generated by the spiritual sun and that is generated by the ineffable who powers everything under the sun. All force is borrowed force.
Let me be very clear about something. Guilt is the most powerful prison app for the control of humanity that exists on this planet. It is why alcohol is the drug of choice around the world and has been since whenever. People do things when they are drinking that they regret later on and the guilt that generates is a control panel for everything you see around you. It is the singular daily depravity that whips and drives the populations toward enslavement and it all takes place in the mind.
Yes, we have been talking about Sex and its applications on a regular basis around here and that is because, ONCE AGAIN, sex is the primal force. The various permutations of it account for everything that takes place here and most especially within the bandwidth of the senses that the majority of people believe are the actual parameters of existence which it is not. The sex force operates well outside of that bandwidth. It is what drives one into perdition and which also leads to liberation. It's what gets used by Lord Ganesh with the snare in one hand and the ax in the other. It is what confines us and what also sets us free. Once again I speak from personal experience and had not my sexual force, under the aegis of my master/teacher, led to my Kundalini awakening, it wouldn't have happened. I saw the results first hand. My getting dumped back into the cauldron of fire has nothing to do with it. That was simply rubbing my nose in certain things so that I would never forget the cost of them.
We are about to see lightning quick changes go down so fast it could well take your breath away. What I am hearing is that come the fall the economy is going to do just that. I could be wrong. It wouldn't be the first time but all of the trends that I observe in the day to day speak to this. It has something to do with the attempt that is going to be made on Trump's existence and a lot to do with banker mechanics toward that end. Savvy individuals will clearly see what this means for the value of crypto currencies. I must add into the general ingredients of this shit souffle, the possibilities of action from Lady Nature and especially the ineffable as he turns everything to the ends that his will has determined they shall go. Everything is under control and always will be. Do not let the chaos of the carnival be the determinant of your destiny. Sound and fury is as Shakespeare said, something that is signifying nothing.
I am no prophet, as T.S, Eliot once said in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock;
“But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter,
I am no prophet — and here’s no great matter;
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.”
Well... I'm not afraid and you shouldn't be either; rely on the ineffable. Take the reins! Everything is under control. Think on this... if... and physicists have already presented this as a mathematical fact, the universe is created by and composed of the ineffable and everything is made by him and without him nothing is made and he permeates every particle of existence with his consciousness and he rules it absolutely then... the only problem is us. Our faith falls short of what is necessary to be made immune to appearances. We shudder and shake at apparitions. We tremble at the invisible presence of ghosts. We let chimera dictate our movements and lack of movement. Here is one of the definitions of chimera, “a horrible or unreal creature of the imagination; a vain or idle fancy.” Uh huh.
The things is that it is routine that makes us routine victims. We have made certain things so familiar that we do not question them. Our subconsciousness is programmed and one really needs to study what the subconscious is and what it does. The dark side knows all about it and has an army at work on the collective and individual unconscious. Meanwhile the dark side works for the light. It has no choice. So... though on one hand it looks like we are up against one force on one side and deaf Heaven on the other. It's really only a performance stage with two masks above the door. One is smiling and one is sad. That is the dual persona of life, going from one to the other, as satisfaction comes in through one door and disappointment enters through the other. There is a place where one does not have to live in the hope of the one and the fear of the other. One can transcend duality by making themselves whole, or rather permitting it to be done by... wait for it (drum roll)... relying on the ineffable.
Rely on the ineffable.
End Transmission.......
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"Sunday, July 30, 2017
In a Time of Universal Deceit, People Too Often can no Longer Tell if they are Lying or Not.
Dog Poet Transmitting.......
In these times of material darkness, on the lip of the fall into a nova force transitioning of The Apocalypse, I'd like to do a reversal on that singular quote by the inimitable George Orwell; “in a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” Let us say also, “in a time of universal deceit, people can often no longer tell if they are lying or not.”
There is a reason why so many people live in deceiving mindsets and and on deceptive terms. I could link together trends of generational change from one to the next but... one example should serve and if it doesn't then we will add more. Let's look at the 80's when the 'me factor' came into full bloom. This was the age of Wall Street excess. This was the time when traders went to the Four Seasons and other places and snorted coke off their table and ordered $2000.00 bottles of wine for lunch, just because they could. Conspicuous Excess was the name of the game. That is where it began to surface in visible form. Sure, the bankers and their parasite associates have been at it for a long while; the Federal Reserve act of 1913 comes to mind. Then there was the banker orchestrated Great Depression of 1929. These two events are directly linked.
Mark Taibbi who is one of the better writers on the subject has had a lot to say. This is a more recent example of the continuing and ongoing corruptions of the type.
But I digress... it was during the aforementioned time of the 80's. The ensuing generations became indoctrinated into the 'me first, you later maybe' mindset. In a way you could say that the size of the population has a lot to do with it. The more people there are the harder it is to know who you are and to stand out as an individual in any significant way. It accounts for the billions of tattoos that turn people into graffiti billboards so they look like the other millions of human billboards. I know it is subjective but these tattoos look terrible and now they are tattooing their faces. It accounts for the millions of piercings and ever and ever more bizarre sexual expressions because the undeveloped human ego has no way to present itself as itself, never even bothering to look inward and find itself where it actually is. It accounts for all the angry people waving signs under the direction of their paymaster George Soros and his demonic kin. The future does not look good for a large number of people. The fierce magnetism of material attraction is like moths to a candle flame. It is a suicidal insanity. It is prima facie evident. The first impression is right. It may lack in details but those come upon reflection.
******************
Here is the whole problem with the new age. They remove God from the equation and replace God with themselves. This has never worked and it never will work and it brings me full circle to the 80's and the viral madness of the time and how it has continued to go on and on and there can be no good end to all of this. It can make one despair for what seems to lie ahead. Today I saw a fake news poll by the Zionist owned and run Reuters news service. That's absurd, especially because one of the reasons that Trump did what he did in the first place is because in the military services and in the general public, there is an overwhelming support for taking the tranny-thing out of the military.
Personally I am not selling some latest version of New Age Coca Cola. I'm not selling anything. I'm giving it away like I always do, except for novels (new one due this fall) and music and I give those away too, to anyone who can't afford them through PDF's and thumbdrives, which I either have to take the time for or pay for and put in the mail. I don't mind and I hope I will always have the means to continue in this regard. I've got my flaws and I'm working on them. One of the reasons I publicize things that happen like this latest, is in the hope that some clarity will evolve and maybe people will get a clue about what they are really up to. The chances are slim because people have become so programmed in defense of their self interest that anything which throws a light on their enterprises pushes them into full false self defense mode. It is becoming increasingly clear to me that it is pointless to reason with certain people and even more pointless to argue with them. No matter how precisely you delineate to people the fallacies in their position and their lack of facts, they just weasel off in another direction and never address the actual issue that is under discussion. How do you make sense to someone who claims to channel one of the hardest working men in invisible show bidness, The Count De St. Germain?
To get someone to see what they are up to you have to be able to bypass their investment in the false self they have constructed to give themselves validity. The problem is that the majority of their investment is in this segment of fabricated self. If it gets removed they don't know who they are and if it gets bypassed they think you are talking to someone else. I went looking for channeling St Germain for a fee. Man! Where does he find the time? Here is a problem I have and it is a real problem. I haven't been able to find or fake the patience and tolerance necessary for me to be understanding of these people. I have a real problem with defrauding people for money under spiritual pretenses. I wish I were wiser or more evolved and the fact is that I am not.
I'm thinking maybe I should stop writing these blog entries for awhile. I've been putting up one a day now for awhile, with the occasional lapse and I'm thinking they are less appreciated in volume. It looks that way anyway. If I just put up something every couple of weeks or once a month, maybe that is better all around. This way I can finish my other project a great deal quicker too. I'm mentioning this in case you don't see me for awhile.
May good fortune attend you all on your way......
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