"Boston submits its bid for Amazon, aiming for 50,000 jobs and a transformation" by Tim Logan and Jon Chesto Globe Staff October 20, 2017
Boston on Thursday submitted its bid in the heated competition for Amazon’s new $5 billion “second headquarters,” a 218-page pitch that leans hard on the region’s intellectual firepower and offers up Suffolk Downs as a site whose ease of development outweighs its distance from the heart of the city.
The detailed proposal, complete with two slick videos, outlines the region’s world-class universities and skilled workforce, and casts Boston as a place where the world comes to think through its toughest problems.
The bid leads with intellectual Boston’s strengths, city officials said, in the hope that brainpower will carry Boston to the top of an estimated 150 proposals that have poured into the tech giant’s Seattle headquarters this week. While other cities have tried gimmicks to get the company’s attention, Boston’s appeal is its fundamentals, said Mayor Martin J. Walsh.
“Boston sells itself,” Walsh said Thursday. “The fact that we have had so much growth in the last few years here . . . is important. We have world-class colleges and universities. We’re the youngest city per capita in America.”
And while some cities have dangled big tax breaks — $500 million from Worcester, $7 billion from New Jersey and the city of Newark — Boston barely mentions them, for now at least.
Worcester is now out of the running.
The bid, filed in partnership in time for Thursday’s deadline with the city of Revere, offers Amazon a spot many Bostonians might consider off the beaten path. The city focuses heavily on Suffolk Downs, the soon-to-be-closed horse track in East Boston and Revere, devoting 17 pages to detail a vast campus Amazon could build there over the next decade or beyond. Other potential sites around the city receive brief roundups.
The focus on one site is a bit of a gamble. Other contenders, such as Chicago and Washington, D.C., have pitched a menu of options, and a wide range of Boston developers pushed sites in recent weeks, hoping to get included in the bid. But city officials say they read Amazon’s request as highly specific — it asked for 100 acres, on transit, ready-to-build — and offered the one site in Boston that clearly fits the bill.
“I’d put Suffolk Downs up against any site in the country,” said John Barros, the city’s director of economic development.
Some critics have warned that Suffolk Downs is too generic a site for a city as distinctive as Boston to pitch Amazon, and that its location is too far from downtown, the Seaport, and Kendall Square, where the company already has about 1,000 employees. But supporters note the land has a single owner who has already launched permitting for a large mixed-use campus, and it has lots of room for Amazon to grow.....
Yeah, "Boston loaded its pitch with data."
--more--"
You flip over the front page and the Globe is still pitching.
Related:
"The city’s pitch to bring Amazon’s second headquarters to Suffolk Downs paints a picture of an idyllic commute that few in Boston likely experience, relying in part on transit options that don’t exist. In its checklist for a new headquarters, Amazon has said the winning location should have easy access to highways, be near an international airport, and be directly served by public transit. Suffolk Downs would appear to check most of those boxes. But many of the boasts Boston officials made about getting around Massachusetts appear to be doable only in the best of driving conditions....."
They fudged the data to fulfill "various wish lists?"
What is with the unrealistic sales job akin to spit-shining a turd anyway? Is that how you win someone over, with empty promises and false scenarios, and if so don't they get angry later when it is not what you said it was?
Maybe if they had a different mayor.....
Also see:
Wooing Amazon with sun, fun . . . and giant buttons
In East Boston, Amazon bid stirs anxiety as well as excitement
They are worried about the tax subsidy.
********
State Health Connector, reacting to Trump’s move to cut subsidies, sharply raises 2018 rates
It's a whopping 24% increase, and forget the deal that was struck and is advancing.
I don't know how healthy an iPad is for a two-year-old; however, the road to indoctrination can be addicting as they track you. Better see a doctor.
(FLIP)
***********
"Gold Star families say they want to move past politics" by Astead W. Herndon Globe Staff October 19, 2017
WASHINGTON — Gold Star families, disturbed by the controversies over how President Trump relayed condolences to the families of fallen soldiers, are asking America’s politicians on both sides of the aisle to stand down.
Being amplified and pushed by who?
Their pleas follow statements this week from Trump and White House aides that created a storm for the president reminiscent of August 2016, when then-candidate Trump leveled criticism at the parents of a slain soldier and suffered a severe backlash. Now, again, families of military personnel killed in combat have increasingly found themselves swept up in the political fray.
“This is not what we want the story to be about. We want the story to be about our loved ones and what they represented to this country,” said Ryan Manion. Manion’s brother, First Lieutenant Travis Manion, was killed in Iraq in April 2007.
“Sometimes the president says things that are out of line, and I don’t know that he recognizes that the things he says can be hurtful,” said Manion, who runs a foundation to support military families that is named for his brother.
The collision of politics and personal tragedy continued from the White House podium Thursday. White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, a retired Marine general, read an emotional statement to reporters, detailing what happened when his son was killed in Afghanistan in 2010. Kelly, who has emerged as the White House’s go-to person in especially damaging press cycles, defended Trump’s outreach to Gold Star families.
“There’s no perfect way to make that phone call,” Kelly said, adding that Trump had “bravely’’ decided to console the families.
He's the 21st-Century John Wayne.
However, Kelly also lamented a changing culture, one in which the politicization of Gold Star families has become commonplace.
They have always been politicized, but at least the lying, war-promoting pre$$ has finally noticed U.S. war dead, 'eh?
“When I was a kid growing up, a lot of things were sacred in our country,” Kelly said. “The dignity of life was sacred, that’s gone. Religion, that seems to be gone as well. Gold Star families, I think that left during the conventions over the summer.”
Tell that to the Native Americans, the Africans brought here as slaves, etc, etc, etc.
But Kelly’s statement itself had a political impact. It was made in a bid to quell a controversy that began Monday when Trump questioned how often Barack Obama made personal phone calls to the survivors of slain military personnel while he was president. The next day, after being criticized, Trump escalated the incident by defending his anti-Obama statements with a reference to Kelly’s slain son, First Lieutenant Robert Michael Kelly.
“You could ask General Kelly, did he get a call from Obama?” Trump said Tuesday morning in a radio interview with Fox News.
Trump’s statements invited scrutiny of his own performance in next-of-kin notifications, igniting another conflagration almost immediately. On Tuesday evening, reports emerged that Trump had told the widow of Sergeant La David Johnson, a combatant killed this month in Niger, that her husband “knew what he signed up for,” which the family felt was disrespectful.
A Florida congresswoman, Frederica Wilson, heard Trump’s conversation with Myeshia Johnson and went public with her criticism of Trump’s tone. Trump responded by saying Wilson’s account, which was supported by the Johnson family, was “totally fabricated.”
“It is appalling what the congresswoman has done, and the way that she has politicized this issue,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at Wednesday’s press briefing.
Kelly also criticized Wilson for listening in on the president’s phone call — though Kelly was listening in on the president’s end. Kelly also said he did not fault Obama for not calling him after Michael Kelly was killed.
(Blog editor shakes his head; just another daily hatchet blow to Trump by the Globe)
Some Gold Star families, even while criticizing Trump’s clumsiness, wanted to move past the public debates.
I want the wars based on lies and distortions to end.
The outcry comes after an election cycle in which military families made political points on behalf of both parties. The mother of a soldier killed in Benghazi spoke at the Republican National Convention. Then a speech by a Gold Star family at the Democratic National Convention set off a national firestorm when Trump lashed out at the husband and wife, Khizr and Ghazala Khan.
That's what this is: Trump's Benghazi!!
Other presidents have gone to great lengths to avoid criticizing military families — even when they are critical of the commander in chief — but Trump stood out in that moment for his propensity to strike back.
Do they mean Cindy Sheehan?
Manion said the spotlight on Trump’s actions overshadows the more important story — the lives of the soldiers and the cause they died to protect.
“What Gold Star families represent to this country should transcend politics,” Manion said. Fallen soldiers “represent the men and women that are still here after their loved ones gave their lives in sacrifice to all of us.”
The sacrificed their lives in service of the Empire and its war machine; that's why more than 20 vets commit suicide each day. No discussion of that in my pre$$ in some time now, either.
Some of Trump’s harsher critics say this is more evidence he holds little respect for America’s military branches.
“Mr. Trump, stop. Please, just stop. Your actions and words on this entire matter of the fallen in Niger is disgraceful, and unbecoming of a President of the United States and Commander in Chief,” said a statement from Karen Meredith, the Gold Star and Military Families coordinator for the liberal organization VoteVets.
Meredith’s son, First Lieutenant Ken Ballard, was killed in Iraq in 2004.
“This is not about [Trump]. . . . It is about all of us who lost our loved ones in war,” Meredith said. “For once in your life, at least pretend to know what empathy is. For once in your life, at least try to care about other people and their feelings.”
Other Gold Star families said Trump is being unfairly criticized. Arnold Wright, whose son Dustin Wright was killed in the same recent raid in Niger, told reporters Wednesday that Trump’s phone conversation with him was respectful.
In a CNN interview this week, a Gold Star father named Craig Gross said Trump’s words are “basically being taken and misconstrued.” Gross’s son, Corporal Frank Robert Gross, was killed in 2011 in Afghanistan.
“I believe that if you interviewed him personally, one on one, you would find that he is very, very empathetic and very compassionate,” Gross said on CNN. “Not only toward Gold Star families but also in regards to our active duty.”
Though Johnson’s mother and widow both characterized the president’s phone call as “disrespectful,” they have also asked for privacy.
In her only public appearance, Myeshia Johnson, Sergeant Johnson’s pregnant wife, was seen hugging her slain husband’s casket in tears.....
--more--"
What is odd is not much was reported at the time. It's only an issue now.
"Jihadist ambush on US forces shows new danger in Sahel" by Baba Ahmed and Krista Larson Associated Press October 19, 2017
BAMAKO, Mali — The Islamic militants came on motorcycles toting rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns, killing four American service members after shattering the windows of the unarmored US trucks.
In this remote corner of Niger where the Americans and their local counterparts had been meeting with community leaders, residents say the men who came to kill that day had never been seen there before.
‘‘The attackers spoke Arabic and Tamashek, and were light-skinned,’’ Baringay Aghali said by phone from the remote village of Tongo-Tongo.
Oh, no!
Who were these men and how did they know the Americans would be there that day?
Looks like an inside job to me!
No extremist group has claimed responsibility for the deadly ambush on Oct. 4 and the languages reportedly spoken by the jihadists are used throughout the Sahel including Tamashek, spoken by ethnic Tuaregs.
The ambush has been the center of controversy in Washington because President Trump has been criticized in some quarters for not acknowledging the attack for more than a week and not calling the families of the dead soldiers until Tuesday.
Among the unresolved inquiries: Why were the Americans apparently caught by surprise? Why did it take two additional days to recover one of the four bodies after the shooting stopped?
The attack is under military investigation, as is normal for a deadly incident.
Yup, Trump's Benghazi as the media that dismissed inquiries into that even asks questions!
The question is, why Niger and not Yemen?
What is abnormal, according to John McCain, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is the Trump administration’s slow response to requests for information. He said Thursday it may take a subpoena to shake loose more information.
Senator Bob Corker, the Tennessee Republican who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said members of Congress have been provided with some information about the attack, ‘‘but not what we should.’’
At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis pushed back, saying it naturally takes time to verify information about a combat engagement. He promised to provide accurate information as soon as it’s available, but offered no timetable. ‘‘We in the Department of Defense like to know what we’re talking about before we talk,’’ he said.
Mattis did not offer details about the circumstances under which the Americans were traveling but said contact with hostile forces had been ‘‘considered unlikely.’’
The Niger attack appears to be the work of the Islamic State of the Sahel, a splinter group of extremists loyal to the Islamic State group who are based just across the border in Mali, according to interviews with US officials and authorities here in the vast Sahel region bordering the Sahara Desert. It is led by Adnan Abu Walid who built ties with various extremists before forming his own group.
Is he the CIA case officer handling them or just the asset contact?
Some officials believe Walid’s militants are also holding an American, Jeffery Woodke, who was abducted in Niger a year ago. A rebel leader approached by Niger authorities to conduct negotiations for his release confirmed that Walid’s group is holding Woodke, who had spent 25 years as an aid worker in Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world.
Now Walid’s group is suspected of the attack that killed four American soldiers this month.
That is where the print copy ended.
The ambush in Niger highlights how extremist groups have shifted and rebranded since the 2013 French-led military operation ousted them from power in northern Mali. Those extremists lost Mali’s northern cities but regrouped in the desert, including the man suspected of ordering the attack on the Americans.
Walid, 38, also known in some circles as Adnan al-Sahrawi, descends from the Sahrawi people, who are found across southern Morocco, Mauritania, and parts of Algeria. He has long been active with Islamic extremists in Mali, at one time serving as the spokesman of the Mali-based group known as MUJAO that controlled the major northern town of Gao during the jihadist occupation in 2012.
That group was loyal to the regional Al Qaeda affiliate. But Walid parted ways and in October 2016 a video circulated on the Internet in which he pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.
In the year since then he has called for attacks on foreign tourists in Morocco and the United Nations mission in Western Sahara, according to audio messages released in his name. It is not clear if Walid is receiving financial help from the Islamic State group or if the links are purely ideological.
This looks and smells like another in a long line of BS propaganda campaigns that support the underlying narrative.
Walid’s following now includes numerous members of the Peul ethnic group in the Mali-Niger border areas, who are active in the area near where the attack on the US soldiers took place. Before the attack on the US troops in Niger, Walid’s followers are believed to have staged a series of bloody attacks on military installations in Niger. In February, they were blamed for an assault in Tliwa where a dozen Niger soldiers were slain.
Walid’s Islamic State in the Sahel does not yet pose a threat as great as the Al Qaeda militants in the region though that could shift with time, said Ibrahim Maiga with the Institute for Security Studies in Bamako. Walid clearly appears to have learned from his former colleagues on how to infiltrate and influence locals, he said.
‘‘He has succeeded . . . in creating links with local people despite the fact that he is a stranger to the area,’’ he said.
The growing threat posed by Walid’s group comes as the international community is already facing an escalation in violence across the Sahel. A report by the UN chief obtained this week by the Associated Press warned that the security situation in the Sahel is in ‘‘a continuous downward spiral.’’
For several years American and French forces have provided training and support to the militaries of Mali, Niger, and other vulnerable countries in this corner of Africa where Islamic extremism has become increasingly entrenched during the past decade. Now the United Nations is urging the international community to finance a 5,000-strong regional force, saying ‘‘the stability of the entire region, and beyond, is in jeopardy.’’
Oh, this is all about getting MORE TROOPS SENT to the REGION!
What, China making inroads?
The 12,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission in Mali has become the most dangerous in the world as Islamic militants routinely attack UN convoys across the north.
And the future of the regional security force known as the G5 Sahel Multinational Force — made up of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger — appears to be in jeopardy.
France, the former colonizer, which has a 5,000-strong military operation to help stabilize the region, has been a major financial backer. Funding, though, has come up short.
This as Macron rolls back the social safety net and workers rights!
The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution in June welcoming the deployment, but at US insistence it did not include any possibility of UN financing for the force. So far only one-quarter of the needed funds have been raised, throwing into doubt whether the regional forces will begin operations this month as scheduled.
Maiga, the Malian security expert, said winning the battle against extremism will not be only a question of firepower. If it were a conventional conflict with two armies respecting roughly the same rules, the G5 would come out stronger.
Jihadist groups, though, are infiltrating the population, exploiting the absence of government in some of these remote areas. That is how Walid’s group may have learned about the visit of the US troops to local communities. Within the communities where troops are attacked, someone is tipping off the extremists.
‘‘The outcome of this battle will not depend solely on the size of the troops,’’ he said, ‘‘but also on the ability of states to regain the confidence of the population.’’
Then the WAR has already been LOST!!
--more--"
And regarding the last two war criminal liars with far higher death tolls?
"Former President Barack Obama did not mention President Donald Trump in his speech, but he told the crowd at a Newark hotel that ‘‘you can send a message to the country and you will send a message to the world that we are rejecting a politics of division. We are rejecting a politics of fear. Some of the politics we see now we thought we put that to bed. That’s folks looking 50 years back. It’s the 21st century, not the 19th century.’’ The event marked the first time the former president stepped back into the political spotlight since leaving the White House in January. He was scheduled to appear in Virginia later Thursday to rally support for Democrat Ralph Northam in his gubernatorial campaign against Republican Ed Gillespie. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, are term-limited. Those Nov. 7 races will be considered a bellwether of Democrats’ strength in the face of Trump’s victory last year. Obama’s appearance should serve to unify Democrats, who are out of power in the federal government and in most statehouses across the country, experts say....."
They are out of power because of him, and how does the governor's race in New Jersey send such a message to the world when they have lost every special election since Trump was inaugurated?
"George W. Bush delivers an implicit rebuke of Trump’s rhetoric" by Peter Baker New York Times October 19, 2017
Neither of them mentioned President Trump by name, but two of his predecessors emerged from political seclusion on Thursday to deliver what sounded like pointed rebukes of the current occupant of the Oval Office and the politics of division.
It's the first paragraph and I already not that the article has been rewritten. WTF?
In separate and unrelated appearances, former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama both warned that the United States was being torn apart by ancient hatreds that should have been consigned to history long ago and called for addressing economic anxiety through common purpose. While not directly addressing Trump, neither left much doubt whom and what they had in mind.
Bush, the last Republican to hold the White House, spoke out at a conference he convened in New York to support democracy, noting that America first had to “recover our own identity” in the face of challenges to its most basic ideals.
Related:
“We’ve seen nationalism distorted into nativism, forgotten the dynamism that immigration has always brought to America,” Mr. Bush said. “We see a fading confidence in the value of free markets and international trade, forgetting that conflict, instability and poverty follow in the wake of protectionism. We’ve seen the return of isolationist sentiments, forgetting that American security is directly threatened by the chaos and despair of distant places.” The bipartisan apprehension was illustrated by Mr. Antony J. Blinken’s presence. As managing director of the newly formed Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement led by Mr. Obama’s vice president, Joseph R. Biden Jr., Mr. Blinken attended to kick off a joint project with the George W. Bush Institute and Freedom House to counter the erosion of support for democratic principles and institutions at home and abroad. Similarly, former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, who served under President Bill Clinton, joined former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who served under Mr. Bush, for a panel discussion with Nikki R. Haley, the ambassador to the United Nations.
Did you see what she said at the U.N. the other day?
Afterward, Mr. Bush and Ms. Albright hugged and sat together, with the former president draping his arm over her shoulders.
Isn't that sexual harassment?
Remember when he put his hands on Merkel, NYT?
Mr. Bush also released a “call to action” report examining threats to the liberal democratic order and making recommendations for protecting American institutions. For Mr. Bush, democracy and free trade are longtime themes, but there was an edge in his address that went beyond the usual nostrums. In his speech, the former president lamented that “bigotry seems emboldened” and “our politics seems more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and outright fabrication.”
He is a fine one to talk after all the Iraq lies -- by him and his putrid papa!
Pointing a finger at the nation’s leaders, he said, “We know that when we lose sight of our ideals, it is not democracy that has failed; it the failure of those charged with preserving and protecting democracy. Americans have great advantage. To renew our country we need only remember our values. The only way to pass along civic values is to first live up to them.”
Like the TORTURE you signed off on, you blood-soaked piece of excrement?
Back to the web rewrite:
While Trump seeks to raise barriers to trade and newcomers and lashes out at targets with relish, Bush defended immigration and free trade, denounced nationalism and bigotry, and bemoaned what he called the “casual cruelty” of current public discourse.
“We’ve seen nationalism distorted into nativism, forgotten the dynamism that immigration has always brought to America,” Bush said.
Asked by a reporter as he left the hall whether his message would be heard in the White House, Bush smiled, nodded slightly, and said, “I think it will.”
Just because they heard it doesn't mean they listened.
Obama returned to the campaign trail for the first time since leaving office to support Democrats running for governor in New Jersey and Virginia.
“What we can’t have is the same old politics of division that we have seen so many times before that dates back centuries,” Obama told a campaign rally.
“Some of the politics we see now, we thought we put that to bed. That has folks looking 50 years back. It’s the 21st century, not the 19th century. Come on!”
In appearing for Philip D. Murphy in Newark and Ralph S. Northam in Richmond, Va., Obama said the off-year elections next month would be a chance to cast a verdict on current politics.
“The world counts on America having its act together,” he told supporters in Newark.
“The world asks what our values and ideals are and are we living up to our creed.”
By bombing the sh!t out of them!
In his speech, meanwhile, Bush offered what seemed like a rejoinder to a president who uses Twitter as a weapon in a perpetual political war.
“Bullying and prejudice in our public life sets a national tone, provides permission for cruelty and bigotry, and compromises the moral education of children,” Bush said.
This from a guy who had "pet" nicknames for everyone, remember?
Of course, his treatment of animals when he was a young man (yeah, it's all funny) was the frog in the pond.
Neither the former president nor his father, former President George H.W. Bush, voted for Trump.
Trump can wear that as a badge of honor.
The two issued a joint statement in August denouncing white supremacists who clashed with counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Va., which Trump blamed on “both sides.”
The younger Bush seemed to return to that on Thursday. “Bigotry or white supremacy in any form is blasphemy against the American creed,” he said.
This comes from a guy whose grandfather supported Hitler and the Nazis.
--more--"
Bush has gone from hawk to dove according to the NYT, and now Governor Baker is getting in on the act.
So how is cousin Jonathan doing anyway?
"When they talk about flying, their clear eyes sparkle at vivid memories of an exhilarating time....."
Ain't war grand!?
Let's not forget the heroes at home.
"In the military, trusted officers became alleged assailants in sex crimes" by Craig Whitlock Washington Post October 19, 2017
WASHINGTON — The Army is grappling with a resurgence of cases in which troops responsible for preventing sexual assault have been accused of rape and related crimes, undercutting the Pentagon’s claims that it is making progress against sexual violence in the ranks.
How ironic.
Like a wolf in the fold, 'eh?
In the most recent case, an Army prosecutor in charge of sexual assault investigations in the Southwest was charged by the military last month with putting a knife to the throat of a lawyer he had been dating and raping her on two occasions, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.
Additionally, a soldier at Fort Sill, Okla., who was certified as a sexual-assault-prevention officer was convicted at a court-martial in May of five counts of raping a preteen girl.
Army officials confirmed that eight other soldiers and civilians trained to deter sex offenses or help victims have been investigated over the past year in connection with sexual assault. The Army would not provide details, saying that many of the investigations are pending.
Other branches of the armed forces have faced their own embarrassments. The deputy director of the Air Force’s office of sexual assault prevention at the Pentagon resigned last year after the Air Force inspector general rebuked him for making sexually inappropriate comments and creating ‘‘an intimidating and offensive working environment,’’ according to a confidential report obtained by the Post under the Freedom of Information Act.
How do you fight a war with snowflakes?
Air Force staff members complained that the senior executive, Jay Aanrud, made sexist remarks about tight pants and Hooters models, and said it is women’s work to shop and eat bonbons, according to the report. Aanrud, a former pilot whose call sign was ‘‘Hoser,’’ told investigators that he was joking and that his remarks were misconstrued.
Despite the investigation, the Air Force rehired Aanrud last month to work at the Pentagon as a technical specialist on aviation issues. An Air Force spokeswoman said he doesn’t supervise anyone in his new job. Aanrud declined to comment.
For the armed forces, the cases are a painful reminder of similar scandals that erupted in 2013.
Oh, the poor services.
For a minute there I was worried about the victims, not the image of the military.
That year, the Air Force’s chief sexual-assault-prevention officer at the Pentagon was accused of groping a woman outside a bar; he was later acquitted by a civilian jury but reprimanded by the military. An Army sergeant in charge of helping sexual assault victims at Fort Hood, Tex., was convicted of pandering for pimping female soldiers.
In addition, each military service was tainted by reports of young women being assaulted by uniformed recruiters.
With angry lawmakers in Congress demanding a crackdown, then-Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered the armed forces in May 2013 to retrain and rescreen tens of thousands of military recruiters and sexual-assault-prevention officers.
Despite the new measures, incidents kept happening. Five months after Hagel’s order, a soldier attending a sexual-assault-prevention conference in Orlando was accused of getting drunk and raping a woman he met at his hotel. The Army investigated but did not file charges because the woman declined to cooperate.
Since then, the military has invested millions of additional dollars in sexual-assault-awareness programs. Training is mandatory for everyone in uniform. Top brass have promised to redouble their efforts to punish offenders and protect victims.
‘‘We’ve been putting extraordinary resources into this area,’’ said Representative Mike Coffman, Republican of Colorado and chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee for military personnel. ‘‘Of all the issues we have on my committee, we have spent more time on sexual assault than any other issue.’’
Coffman said military leaders have come a long way in addressing the problem but added that more needs to be done. He said Army leaders have briefed him about the sexual-assault-prevention officers who have gotten in trouble and said they are reviewing how people are selected for those posts.
‘‘We always need to look at the screening and look where the screening failed,’’ he said in an interview. But in comparison to past scandals, he said, ‘‘the Army has gotten the message an awful lot quicker.’’
Last year, the Defense Department received 6,172 reports of sexual assault in the ranks — a new high and almost twice as many as were reported in 2010. Pentagon officials have called the increase an encouraging sign that more victims are willing to come forward and trust the military to help them.
No longer covering them up, huh?
Yeah, just trust your chain of command that wouldn't want any blemishes on the unit.
That was where my print ended; web version kept coming:
To tackle the problem, the Army employs 650 full-time sexual assault response coordinators and victim advocates, plus 2,200 others who work part time.
In the past year, eight of them have been accused of sexual assault, triggering criminal investigations by a combination of military and civilian authorities, said William J. Sharp, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon.
Officials from the Navy, the Marine Corps, and the Air Force told the Post that none of their personnel involved in sexual assault prevention have been investigated for sex crimes over the past year.
Lieutenant Colonel Jennifer R. Johnson, an Army spokeswoman, said the service adopted new standards in 2013 for screening sexual-assault-prevention personnel, drill instructors, recruiters, and others who hold positions of ‘‘significant trust.’’
She said that the standards are more stringent than what the Defense Department requires, but that the Army has decided to review them again ‘‘to determine if any changes are required.’’
‘‘As Army professionals, we expect everyone on our team to live and demonstrate the Army values every day,’’ she said in an e-mail. ‘‘Every allegation of sexual assault, from an unwanted touch over the clothing to a forcible rape, is investigated. . . . The Army strives to hold all offenders accountable for their actions no matter their position or rank.’’
Few personnel get more screening than the Army’s special-victim prosecutors, a team of 23 lawyers who oversee sex crime and domestic violence cases across the country. The job is considered an elite position within the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, and those who hold it are handpicked by the Army’s top uniformed lawyer.
The program was thrown into turmoil in 2014 when its supervisor was placed under investigation for allegedly groping a female lawyer — at a sexual-assault-prevention conference.
The irony!
The supervisor, Lieutenant Colonel Jay Morse, acknowledged having an intimate encounter with the woman but denied touching her without consent. Army officials ultimately decided that they lacked evidence to press criminal charges, but reprimanded Morse for misconduct. He retired soon after.
I keep my hands to myself to avoid any problems.
The Army has since been rattled by another case involving a special-victim prosecutor.
In August 2016, a lawyer who worked for the Army walked into the Comanche County Courthouse in Lawton, Okla., to seek a protective order against a man she had been dating: Captain Scott Hockenberry, who handled cases at Fort Sill and other posts in the region.
The woman alleged in court papers that their relationship had turned violent and that Hockenberry had raped her three times over the previous month. She also alleged that he had placed a knife against her throat during one of the assaults and injured her jaw on another occasion, according to her protective-order application.
‘‘They started dating but it got out of control,’’ said Robert Don Gifford, an attorney for the woman.
Hockenberry disputed the allegations and has filed a defamation claim against the woman in state court in Oklahoma, documents show.
The Army reassigned him to the Military District of Washington and conducted a lengthy criminal investigation.
Last month, it charged Hockenberry with sexually assaulting the woman on two occasions, placing a knife against her throat, and striking her in the face, according to military charging documents obtained by the Post. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for later this month.
‘‘We categorically deny all of the allegations made by this accuser. Period. Full stop,’’ said Will Helixon, an attorney representing Hockenberry.
The Washington Post’s policy is not to identify victims of sexual assault or abuse in most cases.
It is unclear why the Army waited a year to file charges. Lawyers for both sides say the case has attracted notice at the Pentagon, given the nature of Hockenberry’s job. ‘‘This has received extra scrutiny,’’ Gifford said.
Another recent case that has received high-level attention surfaced in August at Fort Benning, Ga., a boot-camp hub for the Army.
The Army suspended several drill instructors after female recruits reported being sexually assaulted. A criminal investigation is pending. The Army has released few details, although it has since relieved a Fort Benning battalion commander for ‘‘a loss of confidence in his ability’’ to lead.
Looks like a CULTURAL PROBLEM that needs to be CHANGED, huh?
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I salute you, ladies.
"Kurdish female militia vows to keep fighting ISIS, liberate women" by Bassem Mroue Associated Press October 19, 2017
BEIRUT — In a highly symbolic gesture, the all-women force, part of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces battling the Islamic State, lost 30 fighters in the four-month battle to liberate Raqqa.
Under ISIS rule, women were forced to wear all-encompassing veils and could be stoned to death for adultery. Hundreds of women and girls from Iraq’s Yazidi minority were captured and forced into sexual slavery.
Raqqa was center stage of this brutality, the de facto capital of the militants’ self-proclaimed caliphate.
‘‘We have achieved our goal, which was to pound the strongholds of terrorism in its capital, liberate women, and restore honor to Yazidi women by liberating dozens of slaves,’’ said Nisreen Abdullah of the Women’s Protection Units, or YPJ.
Where are they anyway?
Please don't tell me the Yazidi crisis was another lie for ulterior motives.
Soon after the article turned away from the ladies.
Even as the guns went quiet, preparations for a reconstruction were underway.
Which tells you who is responsible for the destruction.
In Saudi Arabia, a state-linked news websitem Okaz, said a high-level Saudi official was in Raqqa to discuss the kingdom’s ‘‘prominent role in reconstruction’’ efforts. The website said the United Arab Emirates will also play a role in rebuilding.
Of course, they haven't rebuilt Iraq yet so you may have to wait a while.
The report included a photo of the Saudi official, Thamer al-Sabhan, apparently in Raqqa with Brett McGurk, the top US envoy for the coalition. Saudi Arabia is a member of the coalition. Sabhan was previously ambassador to Iraq, but left amid threats from Iranian-backed militias.
The SDF is expected to hold a news conference in Raqqa on Friday, during which the city will be declared free of extremists for the first time in nearly four years.
The fall of Raqqa marked a major defeat for the Islamic State, which has seen its territories steadily shrink since last year.
Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar Assad met with a visiting Iranian army commander on Thursday to discuss bilateral relations, the state news agency SANA said. The Iranian general also conveyed a message from Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
SANA said Assad and Major General Mohammad Bagheri focused on military cooperation, ‘‘which has witnessed a qualitative development during the war that Syria and its allies, mainly Iran, are waging against terrorism’’ in Syria.
Iran has been one of Assad’s strongest supporters and has sent thousands of Iranian-backed militiamen to boost his troops against opponents.
Also Thursday, the Israeli military reported it struck Syria in response to a mortar fired from the territory.
The military said it ‘‘targeted the source of the fire’’ on Thursday but declined to say what it hit. Earlier in the day, the military said a mortar fell in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, believed to be errant fire from the civil war.
No injuries were reported on either side.....
I'm waiting for world condemnation regarding Israel's aggression.
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Meanwhile, in Iraq..... things are catatonic.
Apparently, the government gestapos at Facebook are not enough; the Senate wants them codified in law so it will all be legal (everything Hitler did was legal, too, you know?). All over a few thousand dollars worth of ads that didn't influence anyone in a campaign where billions were spent. Trump is still a tool (President Trump’s Mideast envoy echoed Israeli demands), but not of Putin. Maybe they will next investigate the impact of AIPAC. That would be biting the hand that feeds them, of course.
At least Pakistan is back in line -- even if the war in Afghanistan is being lost.
And the winner is..... China!
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I'm going to skip over the contrived provocation, sorry. That looks like a staged event to set up the stink bomb in the Globe. Standard tactic by the PtB. They create a provocation by doing something outrageous to elicit a reaction that then takes the attention away from more serious issues:
Mass. sees increase in educator misconduct investigations
I'm sure you can always get an abortion before the lawsuit.
"An elementary school in Walpole is cancelling its traditional Halloween parade this year, and instead will celebrate “Black and Orange Spirit Day.” Brendan Dearborn, principal of Boyden Elementary School, sent an e-mail to parents alerting them to the change. The e-mail, provided to the Globe by a Boyden parent, explained that staff decided to nix the parade in order to foster a more inclusive community. “During our conversations, we discussed how the costume parade is out of our ordinary routine and can be difficult for many students,” Dearborn wrote. “Also, the parade is not inclusive of all the students and it is our goal each and every day to ensure all student’s individual differences are respected.” When reached by e-mail Thursday afternoon, Dearborn declined to elaborate on why students might find the costume parade to be difficult. The new celebration, “Black and Orange Spirit Day,” will be optional for all students, as the costume parade was, Dearborn said."
Talk about political correctness run amok!
I was going to go as Anne Frank, but..... you know.
Did you see what the kids drew on the walls of the hall?
Makes you wonder what they were smoking, doesn't it?
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Puerto Rico was down to a political note in my printed pos -- other than the Globe throwing out the baby with the bath powder. -- as they cleared the dead wood in California. Looks like the chickens have come home to roost before the cold winter ahead.
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"A last-minute surge nudged US stock indexes mostly higher Thursday, extending the market’s milestone-setting run. The Standard & Poor’s 500 and Dow Jones industrial average advanced for a fifth straight day, each posting new highs....."
At least Lyft got a Google, and what the FERC is this?
Really nothing more to talk about, readers.
Unbelievably, the word Weinstein never appeared in my print today.
