From up there to down here, and I don't really to get into them:
"Obama denounces Trump-style politics, urges voters to turn out at the polls" by Michael Scherer Washington Post September 08, 2018
Ending months of self-imposed restraint, former president Barack Obama delivered a blistering critique of President Trump and Republican politics Friday, one that prompted a backhanded dismissal by the man who now occupies the Oval Office.
Over the course of an hourlong address, Obama left little doubt about the severity of his concerns over Trump’s approach, which he referred to obliquely as ‘‘this political darkness.’’ He compared Trump to foreign demagogues who exploit ‘‘a politics of fear and resentment and retrenchment,’’ appeal to racial nationalism, and then plunder their countries while promising to fight corruption.
‘‘This is not normal. These are extraordinary times, and they are dangerous times,’’ Obama said during the speech at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. ‘‘But here is the good news: In two months we have the chance — not the certainty, but the chance — to restore some semblance of sanity to our politics.’’
He also criticized Trump’s response to the violence last year at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., that resulted in the death of a counterprotester. ‘‘We’re supposed to stand up to discrimination,’’ Obama said. ‘‘And we’re sure as heck supposed to stand up clearly and unequivocally to Nazi sympathizers. How hard can that be, saying that Nazis are bad?’’
Talk about dog whistles. He comes out and starts waving the race card. This from a guy who stoked the very same divisions through his politically weaponized Justice department, FBI heads, and top underlings, and was as negligent and corrupt as any administration in history -- and yet it is all down the ma$$ media memory hole.
Minutes after his predecessor unleashed his strongest repudiation yet, Trump responded jocularly.
‘‘I’m sorry I watched it, but I fell asleep,’’ he said. ‘‘I found he’s very good. Very good for sleeping.’’
Trump returned to the sentiment during an event in Fargo, N.D. ‘‘Isn’t this much more exciting than listening to President Obama speak?’’ he said.
The back and forth between the two titular figures of American politics — each with an unparalleled capacity to both attract his party’s voters and energize the opposition — signaled a dramatic escalation ahead of November’s elections.
Obama, kicking off weeks of voter turnout efforts, argued that his aim was not to get into a presidential spitting match but to convince voters across the ideological spectrum that the conditions that gave rise to Trump’s election were a pressing threat and must be battled directly with increased citizen participation in politics. ‘‘It did not start with Donald Trump,’’ Obama said. ‘‘He is a symptom, not the cause.’’
Yeah, he's like a virus. That is so insulting on so many levels, and this guy talks civility.
Beyond that, every two years it's the same recording regarding the great peril of politics, blah, blah, blah. Somehow the $ame intere$ts are $till $erved, though.
That did not stop him from denouncing actions that Trump has taken that Obama said undermine American progress, from the ban on travelers from certain Muslim countries to the failure to take action beyond sending ‘‘thoughts and prayers’’ after school mass shootings. He criticized Trump’s attacks on the media, his decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accords, and his government’s response to the 2017 hurricane in Puerto Rico.
Oh, that's so unbelievably ironic and rich!
All I will say is Trump hasn't jailed any reporters like Obama did. The ma$$ media seems to forget the spying on them under Obummer's AG Eric Holder. Another forgotten man is Edward Snowden. He exposed the massive surveillance network that was set up under the transparent president who prosecuted more whistle blowers than all the other administrations in the history of this country. That's how open he was (btw, Obama prosecuted staff leakers, gave lie-detector tests, and was ‘paranoid’).
Haven't seen much on Puerto Rico since last month, either.
Republicans reacted sharply to the speech, arguing that Obama’s decision to return to the political arena could work in their favor. The speech was the first indication of the reentry the Obamas have planned ahead of the midterm elections, a move filled with peril and opportunity as the most powerful duo in Democratic politics test whether they can help weaken Trump’s presidency without also motivating his supporters to go to the polls.
What do they need them for?
They already have legions of resisters inside the administration and a mouthpiece to promote it.
Besides, Trump has seen the light.
Obama in his post-presidency has previously chosen his spots carefully. For instance, he opted to do targeted robo-calls last year to support Democratic Senator Doug Jones’s upset victory in Alabama instead of more high-profile public appearances.
Obama also has hewed, until now, to high-minded rhetoric that contrasts starkly with Trump’s brawling approach. In a recent eulogy for Senator John McCain Obama seemed to take a swipe at Trump, without naming him.
Then he went on the warpath.
That's why Trump won, btw. Americans were sick of high-minded rhetoric while they were getting $crewed.
Over the coming weeks, Obama plans a strategy of big events in blue corners of the country, quiet fund-raisers, and a series of digital videos or robo-calls meant to drive Democratic attention and turnout in a targeted way. A top focus of his efforts will be helping Democrats retake the House.
No Netflix show?
Related: Obama Destroyed Democratic Party
That's how he helped them his eight years, culminating in the election of Trump. It was always all about him and his narcissism, folks. The media did a great job of covering that up and polishing his image. They spit on the current occupant.
He has also made a priority of helping individual candidates in governors’ and state legislative races by working closely with former attorney general Eric Holder Jr., who has founded a group, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, that is focused on expanding Democratic state power in advance of the next round of congressional-district mapping.
I can't think of a better reason to vote Republican at the state level then, and at a fast and furious pace!!
Michelle Obama has opted to avoid, for now at least, any explicit candidate advocacy, choosing to throw her lot in with another new group, When We All Vote, that has been gathering celebrity endorsers in an effort to launch a major voter registration drive this month.
Setting up the underlying narrative for the massive vote fraud that must accompany a blue wave.
Otherwise, it wouldn't happen.
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How odd is it that I started this blog worried about Republicans ripping off Democrats in 2006, only to get a surge in Iraq, Obama, a lousy health plane, and now find myself here in 2018 arguing the exact opposite?
"No, you can’t bet on the Patriots in New England yet" by Andy Rosen Globe Staff September 07, 2018
Many states, hungry for a new source of tax revenue, are eager to get in on a market that has long been dominated by illegal bookmakers and offshore websites. More than $100 billion per year is wagered illegally on sports in the United States, according to some estimates, but it may take several years for sports gaming to become widespread across the country. Lawmakers in Massachusetts and nationally are considering a host of policy questions, such as how to prevent problem gambling and whether the hasty implementation of betting could lead to corruption in sports.
If the recreational marijuana legislation is any guide, it may be a few years, but I expect this effort to go quicker, more along the line of the rush job the casinos got.
“I think once they sat down and started to think about writing a bill, they ran into some of the same thorny issues that you run into any time you talk about expanded gambling,” said Clyde W. Barrow, a professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley who has followed gambling policy closely.
If there is a pile of money in there, they will get through it.
A key question for states, especially those with casinos, has been whether to allow people to bet on sports online. The explosion in mobile phone use, combined with the increased availability of detailed, in-game data, has raised the possibility that customers might be able to wager from their living rooms not just on games, but on specific plays.
Yeah?
Some policy makers worry that minors would play illegally and that the exponential increases in betting opportunities could feed gambling addiction.
Too late now because everyone "wants a piece of the action."
MGM Resorts, which just opened the state’s first full-service casino in Springfield, is a major presence in sports betting in Las Vegas, and it also recently launched online sports betting in New Jersey. The company also has key relationships in professional sports: The National Basketball Association has made MGM its “official gaming partner,” a designation that gives the casino company access to league data and branding.
In a recent interview, MGM Resorts chief executive James J. Murren said he believes land-based casinos should play a key role in sports betting if it comes to Massachusetts. “We are here. We know what we’re doing. We’ve been doing this for decades,” he said.
See: Springfield All In
Globe hasn't been back since.
Sports organizations have been of two minds about the issue of gambling. The major athletic leagues long fought against legalization, worried that widespread wagering could raise the specter of match fixing, but sports betting also offers the prospect of increased revenue and fan interest.
The NBA and Major League Baseball have held out the possibility of compromise if they are given the ability to monitor for corruption. Leagues have also asked lawmakers for a cut of the proceeds.
The NFL is less comfortable with sports betting, although football remains the biggest draw for gamblers in Nevada.
The Patriots and other individual teams have generally kept quiet on the issue, referring questions to the league. A recent report by ESPN, however, noted that Patriots owner Robert Kraft retains a small stake in DraftKings.
Oh, so there is a $elf-$erving intere$t involved.
The NFL and the National Collegiate Athletic Association have been the most vocal advocates among the major sports leagues for strong federal laws to control sports betting — though Congress has not yet moved on the issue.
“Protecting the integrity of our sports is of paramount importance to the NFL and NCAA,” the groups said in a recent statement. “Core federal standards are critical to safeguarding the sports we love, the millions of athletes across the country who play these games at all levels, and our fans.”
When all the maneuvering is done, though, industry observers have little doubt that there will be some form of sports betting in Massachusetts, and soon.
Massachusetts officials have been studying sports betting for some time. The state gaming commission issued a lengthy report in February that estimated expanded gambling could bring in $61.3 million annually if it were made widely available. The Legislature is expected to begin holding hearings on sports betting this fall.
“Any time you combine sports and politics, especially in a sports-obsessed town like Boston, you’re going to get quite a lot of interest,” said Senator Eric P. Lesser, a Longmeadow Democrat who is a cochairman of the committee that generally oversees gambling bills, but he said lawmakers still have to address major questions, including how to protect the integrity of sports with new money on the line. “We’re talking about an entirely new phenomenon in the state,” Lesser said.
Are we?
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Related: Mashpee Wampanoag’s Taunton casino plans dealt another blow
They should holler racism!
[flip to below fold]
I suppose it is no coincidence that this next item was below the sports bet:
"In Portland, panhandlers hired for public work" by Brian MacQuarrie Globe Staff September 07, 2018
PORTLAND, Maine —It’s dirty work for $10.90 an hour, but there’s not a complaint to be heard.
Portland officials are inviting panhandlers to put away their signs and put on a pair of work gloves. They clean parks, beautify public gardens, and even place flags at the graves of veterans in exchange for a small paycheck and a possible path to better, lasting employment.
“It makes you feel good about yourself, makes you feel that you’ve still got it,” Frank Mello, 49, says of the job. “It shows I’m not the homeless bum that people think I am.”
Portland’s program, nearing the end of its second year, is not intended to erase panhandling, city officials say. Some men and women who “fly their signs” at Portland intersections, most of them homeless and desperate for money, will never be persuaded to put them away, but it’s an effort that passes legal muster. Both Portland and Worcester, Mass., for example, had banned panhandling with ordinances that were overturned by federal courts, which ruled that they infringed on free speech.
Portland’s new approach is all carrot and no stick.
Panhandlers are pitched on the program as a way to leave the streets, connect with benefits such as housing vouchers and food stamps, and find work in the future through a day-labor agency that partners with the city.
The program sounds good, doesn't it?
One only wonders when the robot is going to take over, but.....
Participation is voluntary — workers can drop out of the Opportunity Crew program at any time, but so far, no one has been asked to leave for failing to do the job or follow the rules.
“I’ve always kind of believed that if you give someone a hand up, and if they’re so inclined, that’s all they’re asking for,” City Manager Jon Jennings said in an interview. “I just don’t see as many people panhandling now.”
Some just want a handout, and that ruins it for the rest of us.
The Opportunity Crew has a budget of only $40,000 per year, but the benefits go far beyond dollars and cents, city officials said.
Through last week, 281 bags of trash had been collected this year and 121 syringes removed from public spaces, said Aaron Geyer, who supervises the program. A total of 936 hours had been logged by crews of 6 to 10 people who work Wednesdays and Thursdays from April until October.
“They show up on time in the morning, and they’re ready to work,” Geyer said.
The cost of a crew is pegged at $1,300 per week, and business sponsors that help pay for the program are promoted on city signs at the cleanup sites.
That's good, but what if hard times hit and that money goes away?
“I think this is government at its finest. We can make an impact on someone’s life today,” Jennings said. “They’re doing real work. It’s not ‘make-work.’ And it gives us, selfishly, a chance to work with these people as potential employees of the city.”
And there you go. The program just collapsed. Government work requires the need for taxes. That -- and this -- isn't the way to prosperity. What it is looking like is socialism. All dependent on government.
Eric Tars, senior attorney for the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, called the program a “win-win.”
“It’s a really constructive approach to the issue of homelessness, which at its core is the underlying issue of panhandling,” Tars said.
The Opportunity Crew attracted Richard Cox, a 54-year-old former fisherman who said the program gives him dignity as well as a few dollars, which the crew receives by check after each shift.
“I know everybody in Portland,” Cox said as he pulled weeds along the Back Cove Trail. “When people drove by, I’d feel like a bum. I just couldn’t do it to myself anymore. It’s humiliating.”
Matt Pryor, the program’s day-to-day manager, experienced the backlash firsthand when he approached panhandlers on the streets to pitch the Opportunity Crew.
“I had people rolling down the window and yelling, ‘Get a job,’ ” Pryor said.
Cox, a Cambridge native, said his problems began after he broke his back in 1994, when he still fished for a living. Opiate painkillers helped his mobility, but they also led to dependence that Cox said he didn’t leave behind until four years ago.
He continues to live at a homeless shelter while he works with the Opportunity Crew, but Cox now has structure and purpose, at least twice a week, and he has a little more money coming in.
“I put it away, or I spend it on my grandkids,” Cox said.
Yeah, that's what us old folks do even when we can't afford it.
And why not?
They will enjoy it more than I.
That’s a sentiment shared by Frank Mello, who gives each of his teenage daughters $40 a week from his Opportunity Crew earnings. The children’s mother died three months ago from a heroin overdose, he said.
WTF is going on up there?
“Basically, I’m working for my children. They need me right now,” Mello said in a gravelly voice, straightening up as sweat poured from his face.
He looked around, glancing at the others as they weeded and raked in near-silence, stopping only occasionally for brief breaks.
“We all know each other, you know,” Mello said, smiling and nodding toward his fellow panhandlers. “Now, we want to work.”
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Don't go in the road:
"Driver who allegedly ran over Cambridge woman called 911, drove away, prosecutors say" by Travis Andersen Globe Staff September 07, 2018
CAMBRIDGE — Eighty-year-old Romelia Gallardo was a sunny presence in her Cambridge apartment building, known for an active lifestyle of neighborhood walks, shopping trips, and daily coffee runs to Dunkin’ Donuts.
On Friday, her grieving family watched in Cambridge District Court as Ashley A. Monturio, 41, was arraigned for allegedly driving over Gallardo in the parking lot of Gallardo’s building and fleeing the scene of the deadly crash.
Assistant Middlesex District Attorney Maren Schrader said Monturio, of Pembroke, accelerated over Gallardo “as if going up over a speed bump.” She drove around the corner, and then returned to the scene. After calling 911, she allegedly then drove away.
Left her lying in the road like a beached whale.
Monturio told the dispatcher that a woman was on the ground and that she couldn’t remain at the scene because she had a job interview, Schrader said. Video surveillance captured Monturio’s license plate. She turned herself in Thursday night, prosecutors say.
How did she handle that after running someone over?
On Friday, a not-guilty plea was entered on Monturio’s behalf to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident causing the death of Gallardo. She was released without bail.
Prosecutors said she had no prior criminal record, but that was small comfort to Gallardo’s grandson, Jose Mazariegos, who insisted that a cash bail should have been set.
“I don’t know why she’s just been released, just like that,” Mazariegos said. “How are you just going to leave somebody in the [expletive] floor dead?” Telling reporters that “there’s no justice,” he said, “So I can just run over somebody right now, call the police, and just leave.”
Monturio left court without commenting.
Her lawyer, Patrick Reddington, said, “We are deeply saddened and very apologetic for the loss of the family. Other than that, we have to let justice play out. . . . It’s a very upsetting situation, and we have to let justice play its course.”
During the brief arraignment, Schrader said the crash occurred in the parking lot of the L.B. Johnson Apartments complex at 150 Erie St., a residence for elderly tenants in Cambridgeport.
Monturio was arrested at the station after an interview with investigators.
She works for a pharmaceutical company, according to her booking sheet.
So she was looking to change jobs?
Her cellphone wasn’t accepting messages Friday afternoon.
Prosecutors didn’t say why Monturio was parked at the apartment complex before the crash Thursday.
Michael J. Johnston, executive director of the Cambridge Housing Authority, which operates the apartment complex, said in an e-mail, “We have no idea why the defendant was in our lot yesterday. We do not have a manned desk where visitors sign in and any one of the residents could have buzzed her into the building. That is not something that we monitor.”
An employee in the lobby declined to comment Friday. A memorial of candles, flowers, and a crucifix was visible at the crash site in the lot.
Neighbors in the building described Gallardo as a kind woman always on the go in her wheeled walker, despite her advanced age. Her grandson said earlier outside court that she had immigrated to the United States from Guatemala and lived in New York before moving to Massachusetts several years ago.
One tenant in Gallardo’s building, Zuni Garcia, said Gallardo regularly played dominoes with another woman and may have been coming from or going to Dunkin’ Donuts when she was struck.
“Every day, she had to have that coffee,” Garcia said. She also rebuked Monturio for allegedly fleeing the scene.
“You don’t leave anybody by [themselves],” she said. “You should stay there and call 911. You have to have some dignity for the person.”
Monturio is due back in court Nov. 27. Her driving history shows that she has three speeding tickets and three prior accidents on her record, and her license was suspended as an “immediate threat” after Thursday’s crash.....
Were any drugs involved?
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"She is 53, 6 feet tall, and weighs 340 pounds. And she is a world champion arm wrestler in her weight class — a title she will seek to renew next month in Antalya, Turkey. She’s the mother of three, the grandmother of five. She drives a school bus for the local school district. And in this little corner of the world where she grew up and has raised her family, she is a beloved celebrity. She was born in New London, N.H., where her father was a truck driver and her family life was not the gauzy stuff of black-and-white TV situation comedies. Her home was a place of abuse and divorce and alcoholism. She played basketball and softball in nearby Newport, walking 10 miles home after practice if she couldn’t hitch a ride. She worked blue-collar jobs and once owned her own landscaping company....."
I wouldn't blame her because “she’s a go-getter,’’ and I'm not going to strong-arm you to read it.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
"Federal officials investigating alleged marijuana delivery service in Hyde Park" by Dan Adams Globe Staff September 07, 2018
Federal agents investigating an alleged unlicensed marijuana delivery business found “substantial” quantities of the drug and cash last month when they raided a residence in Milton and a warehouse in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston, according to recent court filings.
The investigation of the now-defunct “Northern Herb” delivery service was disclosed in a request by federal prosecutors for Google to turn over data related to a Gmail e-mail account and Google Docs account the service allegedly used to accept orders and track payments for marijuana.
So despite the legalizations and assurances the feds aren't going to bother, nothing has changed. Sessions hates the smell of weed, and once Trump is gone it will we prohibitionist Pence. Which is fine. My vote to legalize for recreation was the most regrettable of my life.
The prosecutors, working in the office of US Attorney for Massachusetts Andrew Lelling, wrote in the filing that Northern Herb was owned and managed by Deana Caira Martin of Milton. They said agents executed search warrants on the two properties on Aug. 2, uncovering “significant evidence that Northern Herb received packages containing controlled substances that have been shipped interstate, offers controlled substances for sale on its website, and employed numerous drivers to deliver controlled substances to customers.”
Lelling’s office said in the filing it was aware of more than $2 million in credit card transactions associated with Northern Herb, but that the service conducted most of its business in cash. The documents seized from the Hyde Park warehouse include a spreadsheet listing sales, according to the filing. If the average sales shown on the spreadsheet “were to be annualized, it would suggest that Northern Herb would sell more than” $13 million of controlled substances per year, the filing states.
Big bu$ine$$. That's why the feds got involved.
A spokeswoman for Lelling did not return a request for comment.
No charges have been filed against Martin in connection with the Northern Herb raid, but prosecutors said they were pursuing potential money laundering and conspiracy charges against the service and its owners, plus possible drug-related offenses.
In a brief Facebook message, Martin told a reporter that her side of the story “is more compelling than you know,” but cited the pending case and declined to comment further. Her attorney, Brad Bailey, also declined to comment.
Martin has had financial and legal troubles in the past. Wild Flour, a bakery she once owned in Milton, was seized by the state in 2013 for nonpayment of taxes.
I thought Shay's did away with that.
Oh, right, they can take your stuff, just can't throw you in jail for debt.
And in 2017, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination ordered Martin and her husband to pay $173,000 to a former employee of their catering business in Charlestown, who alleged they failed to act when she complained about sexual harassment by another employee.
Prosecutors are not seeking the contents or subject lines of any e-mails in the Google account allegedly used by Northern Herb. However, the court filing indicates they have asked for information about the identity of the account’s owners, when they logged in, and the identities of other users who sent messages to, or received messages from, the suspected Northern Herb account. Google did not respond to a request for comment.
And I thought this sh!t went out with Bush and Obama.
The federal government in recent years has rarely prosecuted those who buy and consume modest amounts of marijuana, focusing its enforcement efforts on those who grow, sell, or traffic the drug in large quantities.
While marijuana is legal in Massachusetts, state law still prohibits selling it without a license. Under federal law, marijuana remains illegal, and is categorized alongside heroin as among the most dangerous drugs — those with no accepted medical use and a “high potential for abuse.”
That categorization, made in 1970 and intended to be temporary, is widely derided by medical experts (and cannabis consumers) as inaccurate. Northern Herb’s website is no longer available, but an archived snapshot of the page captured in January includes a menu of various cannabis strains and oils, and indicates the service imposed a $100 minimum for delivery orders near Boston, plus a $20 fee.
Hey, they just made abortion legal in Massachusetts so you got a long wait (especially considering the substance) for them to change the classification (if ever).
Similar delivery services continue to operate today, often openly. Some claim to be legal under the “caregiver” provision of the state’s medical marijuana law, while others claim to be legally giving away marijuana for free alongside other products or services that cost money. State authorities have rejected those interpretations of the law, saying caregivers can only work with one registered medical marijuana patient at a time and that sham “gift” transactions remain illegal, but little enforcement has followed those warnings.
Expect that to change.
Proponents of marijuana are divided over whether the government should crack down on illicit services.
Owners of regulated marijuana businesses have complained they’re being unfairly undercut by illegal delivery operations that don’t pay fees and taxes.
Activists, however, remain concerned about racial disparities in the enforcement of drug laws, and contend that unregulated marijuana sellers shouldn’t be sent to jail now that the drug is legal. They also say unregulated sellers are satisfying demand in the absence of licensed pot stores, which were scheduled to debut in July but have yet to open amid delays in the approval process.....
Yeah, the state dragging its heels despite the pot of loot (pun intended) waiting for them.
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Should have opened a casino or sports betting parlor. Then you would still be open for bu$ine$$.
Koh, Trahan make it official
Globe gives them salutations.
"Beverly man who allegedly threatened Trump Jr. agrees to plead guilty to sending hoax letters" by Jackson Cote Globe Correspondent September 08, 2018
A Beverly man who was arrested in March for sending Donald Trump Jr. and other prominent figures threatening hoax letters with suspicious white powder has agreed to plead guilty to several charges, officials said.
Daniel Frisiello, 25, will plead guilty to 13 counts of mailing a threat to injure the person of another and six counts of false information and hoaxes, said the US attorney’s office in a statement on Friday.
On Feb. 7, Frisiello sent a letter with a Boston postmark to Trump Jr., President Trump’s oldest son, according to an affidavit in the case. Trump Jr.’s wife later opened the envelope at their New York home, and was taken to an area hospital after being exposed to white powder, which investigators determined to be nontoxic.
In the letter, which made national headlines, Frisiello allegedly wrote, “You are an awful, awful person, I am surprised that your father lets you speak on TV. You make the family idiot, Eric, look smart. This is the reason why people hate you, so you are getting what you deserve.”
It wasn't in the New York Times, was it?
I have to tell you, I am so sick of these false-flag mind f***s and all the other wonderful concoctions of propaganda that are incessantly served up to us.
Frisiello also allegedly sent threatening notes containing white powder to the offices of US Senator Deborah Stabenow of Michigan; US Attorney Nicola T. Hanna of the central district of California; and Stanford law professor Michele Dauber, according to the affidavit.
That is where the print copy ended.
Frisiello sent more white-powder letters to members of the president’s family during the 2016 presidential campaign, as well as two letters in 2015 to the manager of a Massachusetts company that had recently terminated one of Frisiello’s family members, and five letters in 2016 and 2017 to members of law enforcement across New England, prosecutors said.
All this time without return addresses on them, etc?
That why they couldn't find him?
In one of Frisiello’s letters, the recipient received a “glitter bomb” that authorities traced back to Frisiello through financial records, authorities said. Trash from Frisiello’s home also showed “remnants of the cut-out messages that Frisiello sent to some victims.”
Oh, the FBI went through his trash like COINTELPRO!
Frisiello’s Facebook page suggested he was a Catholic Charities worker, a self-identified Democrat, and a fervent critic of President Trump, the Boston Globe reported in March.
I'm sorry, I had forgotten all about that.
He's also "an ardent supporter of gun control who crossed the line and lived at home with his parents."
Frisiello has remained in home detention since his arrest on March 1, officials said.
WHAT?
The charge of mailing a threat to injure the person carries a sentence of up to five years in prison, or 10 years in prison for threats addressed to a federal official, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000. The charge of false information and hoaxes provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge.
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Maybe he can argue that it was the sexual abuse that made him do it.
Looks like the feds are going after everyone in Bo$ton:
"US prosecutors look to resurrect City Hall indictment in Boston Calling case" by Milton J. Valencia Globe Staff September 07, 2018
Prosecutors have appealed a federal court ruling that led to the dismissal of extortion charges against two City Hall aides, an attempt to breathe new life into the controversial case.
The appeal, filed in court Friday, argues that US District Judge Leo T. Sorokin misinterpreted federal extortion laws, creating a legal framework that would have made it impossible for prosecutors to prove their case against Kenneth Brissette, the city’s tourism chief, and Timothy Sullivan, head of intergovernmental affairs.
Not that I want to take the side of two union thugs, but this looks like an attempt to get around the Constitution's double jeopardy clause. They want to overrule the judge so the law can be tailored to like their liking in front of a more politically sympathetic judge.
If allowed to succeed, it will mean the JU$TU$ $y$tem is even more arbitrary than it is now and will have nothing to do with actual justice.
Both men were charged in 2016 with extortion for allegedly forcing organizers of the popular Boston Calling music festival into hiring union members, under the threat they would lose their permits — and millions of dollars in revenue from the show.
On the eve of the trial in March, Sorokin said he would instruct jurors that they would need to find that Brissette and Sullivan personally benefited from the threat — a standard that prosecutors said they could not meet, and also said they did not have to.
Prosecutors argued that it is still a crime for a third party to make threats, and they alleged that the aides were acting in the interests of Mayor Martin J. Walsh, a former union leader. Walsh has said he had no connection to the case.
Well then try them on that then!
Sorokin dismissed the case once prosecutors declared that they could not meet the judge’s standard. Prosecutors had argued that the standard Sorokin set would jeopardize future cases brought under the Hobbs Act, the federal law that forbids extortion.
Well, you can blame the $upreme Court for that.
Turns out Sal DiMasi should never have been sent to prison.
He needed to be removed because he was blocking casinos, btw.
“The district court erred in dismissing the indictment based on its erroneous view that the Hobbs Act required proof of a personal benefit to the defendants,” the prosecutors wrote in the appeal.
Sorokin argued at the time that prosecutors were relying on a decades-old court decision to interpret the law, and he pointed out that the US Supreme Court has repeatedly warned against taking too broad a view of the Hobbs Act.
Thomas Kiley, one of the lead lawyers in the case, said Friday that he had not yet read the appeal, so he could not comment.
Kiley has argued in recent filings before the appeals court, however, that Sorokin ruled correctly, and that prosecutors have taken too long to appeal.
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So how was the cruise?
What do you mean it will be your final one?
Two ferries out of service on Martha’s Vineyard route
At least it wasn't tourist season.
HUBweek to highlight transparency, knowledge sharing
HUBweek, founded by The Boston Globe, Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and I am so sick of self-serving slop passing itself off as news.
Two Mass. women sue N.H. hotel after contracting Legionnaires’ disease
At least they weren't shot.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
"Former Trump adviser Papadopoulos sentenced to 14 days in plea deal" Washington Post September 07, 2018
WASHINGTON — A once-low-profile foreign-policy campaign adviser whose offhand remark in a London bar in May 2016 helped trigger an FBI counterintelligence investigation into President Trump’s campaign was sentenced to 14 days’ incarceration Friday by a federal judge in Washington.
That's it?
George Papadopoulos, 31, pleaded guilty in October to lying to the FBI about key details of his conversations with a London-based professor who had told him the Russians held dirt, in the form of thousands of e-mails, on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Papadopoulos tried futilely for months to arrange a meeting between top campaign aides and Russian officials.
In asking the court for leniency, Papadopoulos said he made ‘‘a terrible mistake, for which I have paid a terrible price, and am deeply ashamed,’’ and that he was motivated to lie to the FBI try to ‘‘create distance between the issue, myself, and the president.’’
In hindsight, he said in court, he recognizes that was wrong and ‘‘might have harmed the investigation.’’
Papadopoulos’s attorney, Thomas Breen, went further, saying ‘‘the President of the United States hindered this investigation more than George Papadopoulos ever could,’’ by calling the investigation fake news and a witch hunt.
After an Australian diplomat reported to American counterparts that Papadopoulos had told him over drinks about the ‘‘dirt’’ approach, the FBI opened its investigation. That also was around the time WikiLeaks posted thousands of internal Democratic National Committee e-mails online.
His sentencing came as part of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe that has led to the indictments or convictions of 32 people.
None of which has had anything to do with Russian collusion or interference in the election.
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So who was the professor he allegedly met, and why didn't the article tell us?
Related: Trump says Justice Department should investigate anonymous op-ed
He's talking military tribunals on the off-the-record interview on the plane (before he said they could go on the record), and "asked if he trusts his White House staffers, Trump said, 'I do, but what I do now is I look around the room.'"
I'm starting to wonder if it wasn't Tom Freidman who wrote the ghost resistance piece, if for no other reason than to drive Trump crazy and make him appear like Nixon.
"Dallas officer in shooting to be charged with manslaughter" Associated Press September 07, 2018
DALLAS — A white Dallas police officer who said she mistook a black neighbor’s apartment for her own fatally shot him and will be charged with manslaughter, police said Friday.
It was not clear what the officer may have said to 26-year-old Botham Jean after entering his home late Thursday, but it was also unclear whether the officer was in custody, though Hall said she did not know the whereabouts of the officer, whose name has not been released.
According to police, the officer returned home in her uniform after her shift. She called dispatch to report that she had shot a man, and she later told the officers who responded that she believed the victim’s apartment was her own when she entered it.
The responding officers administered first aid to Jean, a native of the Caribbean island country of St. Lucia who attended college in Arkansas and worked for accounting and consulting firm PwC. Jean was taken to a hospital, where he died.
Hall said the officer’s blood was drawn to be tested for drugs and alcohol. She declined to speculate as to whether fatigue or other factors, including race, may have factored into the shooting. She also said the Texas Rangers will conduct an independent investigation.
Authorities have not said how the officer got into Jean’s home, or whether his door was open or unlocked. The apartment complex is just a few blocks from Dallas police headquarters.
Residents of the apartment complex said they can access their units with a key or through a keypad code.....
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Is it possible this guy was assassinated because of what he knew at his job?
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
To war!
"Vladimir Putin rejects calls for truce in Idlib as Syria readies assault on rebel stronghold" by Erin Cunningham Washington Post September 07, 2018
ISTANBUL — The three foreign powers negotiating an end to Syria’s conflict failed Friday to agree to a cease-fire that would have halted a decisive but potentially devastating battle for the country’s last rebel stronghold.
The Russian, Turkish, and Iranian presidents convened in Tehran for a high-stakes and ultimately tense summit to discuss a deal for Idlib province, where Syrian government forces are threatening an all-out assault on a region housing some 3 million civilians.
The trilateral meeting was seen as a last attempt to prevent a bloody military campaign and underscored the deep divisions between the key foreign players in Syria, where Turkey has largely backed the opposition and Russia and Iran support the Syrian government.
In a discussion that was broadcast live, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged his counterparts to declare a truce and avoid a bloodbath. Russian leader Vladimir Putin rejected the cease-fire, however, calling it ‘‘pointless’’ and declaring Syrian forces had a right to regain control of the country’s territory.
‘‘We consider it unacceptable when the protection of the civilian population is used as a pretext for letting terrorists avoid a strike,’’ Putin said at a news conference Friday.
Russia has committed military personnel and assets to help Syrian forces quash the rebellion, and a victory in Idlib would seal the government’s triumph over the years-long uprising. The area, in Syria’s northwest, is controlled by a coalition of Islamist groups, including a former Al Qaeda affiliate, but a battle would also be costly and could damage the Russia-Turkey relationship, analysts say.
It was unclear Friday whether the three leaders had agreed to tamp down the violence or whether a military assault was imminent.
See: Bombings and air raids kill 4 in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib
It's begun.
The leaders at the summit ‘‘will not have the same vision for Syria nor will they be on the same page regarding Idlib,’’ Asli Aydintasbas, a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, wrote ahead of the meeting Friday.
The negotiations marked the third time the three leaders have come together to negotiate the Syrian conflict, but they also follow weeks of tough rhetoric over the fate of Idlib and peace talks in general.
Idlib was designated a ‘‘de-escalation zone’’ to be monitored by Turkish troops in 2016.
Since then, Russia has urged Turkey to rid Idlib of the jihadists, which it says have launched attacks on a nearby Russian air base.
‘‘There are many civilians in Idlib. We must be careful,’’ Erdogan said. ‘‘If we can make a cease-fire here today, I believe that this will be one of the most important steps of the summit.’’
In a statement Friday, UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, said a further escalation of fighting in Idlib would ‘‘put the lives of more than 1 million children at imminent risk.’’
Then let them walk out of the human corridors Russia and Syria have set up.
I mean, this waving the kids at us every time they want to start a war so they can kill kids is disgusting and no longer has an effect, sorry.
‘‘Thousands of children in Idlib have been forced to leave their homes multiple times and are now living in overcrowded makeshift shelters, with food, water, and medicine in dangerously short supply,’’ said the Fund’s executive director, Henrietta Fore. ‘‘A fresh wave of violence could leave them trapped between fighting lines or caught in the crossfire, with potentially fatal consequences.’’
So they have joined Palestinians, is that what you are telling me?
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Related:
Russia confirms spike in radioactivity in the Urals
Then they denied it, like they will the upcoming false flag chemical attack.
"Progovernment forces defeated the Islamic State in its last major stronghold in Syria, state media and a monitoring group reported on Sunday, leaving the militants to defend just strips of desert territory in the country and a besieged pocket outside the capital, Damascus. Also Sunday, more than two dozen civilians were killed as government forces and rebels traded fire across fronts in Damascus and Homs, Syria’s third largest city. The intensified violence is testing an accord by Russia, Turkey, and Iran to suppress fighting in Syria ahead of the resumption of political talks in Geneva between the government and opposition, set for Nov. 28....."
Thus there should be no surprise at recent events, and if Trump wants to take credit, that would be fine:
"The Syrian government delegation had said in the past that the fate of Assad is not up for negotiation, vowing not to give the opposition through peace talks what they failed to achieve through war. In a separate development, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned in a new report to the Security Council that unauthorized weapons in the hands of Hezbollah and threatening rhetoric from the Lebanese militant group and Israeli officials ‘‘heightens risk of miscalculation and escalation into conflict.’’ He called on both sides to show restraint....."
That will be part of the Syrian conflagration, Israel going into Lebanon to seize the Litani River.
"Israel fired several surface-to-surface missiles at a military post near the Syrian capital early Saturday, causing material damage but no casualties, Syria’s state-run news agency reported. The Israeli military did not comment. Previous strikes have targeted arms shipments to the Hezbollah militant group (AP)."
"Government airstrikes and shelling outside Syria’s capital killed at least 23 civilians, activists reported Sunday, as the fighting showed no signs of letting up ahead of the resumption of UN peace talks in Geneva....."
All the Syrian government's fault.
Syrian government declares capital fully under its control
They have just begun to dig out the dead and disappeared.
At Least 4 Russians Killed in Syria in Firefight With ISIS
The U.S. blamed Russia for the breakdown of a cease-fire agreement reached last year for the region, which borders Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Who didn't see that coming?
Mattis visits Afghanistan amid push for peace talks
We aren't leaving, though. Just going to retreat to the five military bases in the country as peace talk is breaking out everywhere.
Well, almost:
Pompeo's N. Korea visit shaded by futility
Related:
"The United States and South Korea held a ceremony on Friday to return to their home the remains of two service members killed during the 1950-53 Korean War. Seoul’s Defense Ministry said the remains of an unidentified allied soldier, presumably American, found in South Korea in 2016, will be sent to the United States. Meanwhile, the US military has brought to Seoul the remains of a South Korean soldier found in North Korea in 2001 during a joint US-North Korea search....."
That's futility, huh?
Then let's have more of it.
"North Korea’s predictable bait-and-switch" July 14, 2018
That Nobel Peace Prize that Donald Trump thinks he deserves for his efforts to strike a denuclearization agreement with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un? Alas for the president’s ego, it is receding like a mirage into a distance defined by diplomatic difficulties. Which is to say, it is increasingly apparent that the vague “agreement” Trump and Kim signed amidst huge pageantry, pomp, and propaganda may not be worth the paper it was written on.
They sure are nostalgic for the Obummer times, huh?
That’s not to say that Trump doesn’t deserve some credit for ratcheting down the belligerent rhetoric with Kim and embracing negotiations. He does, but as it turns out, though, that the North Korean strong boy wasn’t as susceptible to Trump’s deal-making process as the latter thought. He wants early concessions from the United States. Like, say, an early lifting of sanctions and a declaration that the Korean War, which ended with an armistice, is officially over.
All this comes as some evidence has emerged that North Korea is actually trying to expand its nuclear capabilities.
Remember, these are the same guys who gave you the Gulf of Tonkin, babies thrown out of Kuwaiti incubators, non-existent WMD in Iraq, and false flag fakery when it comes to Syrian gas attacks.
So just to review: Not to fault Trump for trying, but notwithstanding the misleading happy talk from North Korea — and indeed, from Trump himself — the road to a denuclearized North Korea will be a long and arduous one.....
Well, JFK quoted the Chinese proverb about a 1,000 mile journey begins with a single step, but the Globe doesn't even want to flinch towards peace.
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Least we got allies, right?
"President Rodrigo Duterte has backed down from his order to arrest a senator who is a leading critic of his war on drugs, his spokesman said Friday, just as the lawmaker was poised to be arrested in his Senate office. Duterte, who was traveling in the Middle East, made the decision after meeting with Cabinet officials, who advised him to wait for the courts to decide the fate of Senator Antonio Trillanes, the spokesman said. The senator had been holding out at his office since Tuesday, when it was announced that the president had revoked an amnesty he received years ago for his involvement in two military rebellions. “He will allow the judicial process to proceed and he will wait for the issuance of appropriate warrant of arrest before Senator Trillanes is arrested,” Harry Roque, the presidential spokesman, said in a news conference in Jordan. Duterte, he said, “will abide by the rule of law.”
"Myanmar’s government on Friday rejected an International Criminal Court ruling that it has jurisdiction to investigate allegations that Myanmar security forces violated international law by driving hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims from their homes. The office of Myanmar President Win Myint said Thursday’s decision by The Hague-based court was ‘‘the result of faulty procedure and is of dubious legal merit.’’ It reiterated the government’s position that it has no obligation to respect the court’s ruling because it is not a party to the treaty that established the institution. A special UN commission recommended prosecuting senior Myanmar military officers for suspected genocide. Some 700,000 Rohingya crossed into Bangladesh after a brutal counterinsurgency campaign by Myanmar security forces."
Think of it as the Israel defense, even as the UN chief complains about them blocking aid (when is he going to Gaza?)
That reminds me, no Gaza in my Globe today.
Related:
"The Trump administration has put the Palestinians on notice that it will close their office in Washington unless they enter serious peace talks with Israel within 90 days. The Palestinian foreign minister, Riad Malki, denounced the move as an attempt at ‘‘extortion’’ as President Trump pushes for a Mideast deal (AP)."
It is, and it's a Zettler government.
"The Trump administration backtracked Friday on its decision to order the Palestinians’ office in Washington to close, instead saying it would merely impose limitations on the office that it expected would be lifted after 90 days. Last week, US officials said the Palestine Liberation Organization mission couldn’t stay open because the Palestinians had violated a provision in US law requiring the office to close if the Palestinians try to get the International Criminal Court to prosecute Israelis. The United States delayed shuttering the office while saying it was working out the details with the Palestinians, before abruptly reversing course late Friday."
Instead he cut off the money, and God help those people.
"A 2006 letter from a top Vatican official confirms that the Holy See received information in 2000 about the sexual misconduct of a now-resigned US cardinal, lending credibility to bombshell accusations of a coverup at the highest echelons of the Roman Catholic Church. Catholic News Service, the news agency of the US bishops’ conference, published the letter Friday from then-Archbishop Leonardo Sandri to the Rev. Boniface Ramsay, a New York priest who made the initial allegation. Ramsay informed the Vatican in a November 2000 letter about then Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s misconduct with seminarians from Seton Hall University’s Immaculate Conception Seminary."
I don't think God is on his side, either.
"Architect Renzo Piano has offered a new bridge design for his beloved hometown of Genoa to replace the one that collapsed last month, killing 43 people, saying it must be built to last 1,000 years and be ‘‘simple, solid . . . but not banal.’’ Piano joined city and regional officials on Friday to present the plans for the new bridge, which officials hope to have operational by November 2019. Piano said it would likely be built in steel and recall the shape of a ship in a nod to Genoa’s maritime tradition. ‘‘A bridge that falls is terrible, because a bridge is a symbol,’’ Piano told a press conference in Genoa. ‘‘Bridges shouldn’t fall. They can’t fall. They’re a symbol that unifies, that brings things together.’’
Makes you wonder how it really came down.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
"US hiring picked up in August as pay surged most in 9 years" by Christopher Rugaber Associated Press September 07, 2018
WASHINGTON — The pace of hiring in the United States quickened in August, and wages grew at their fastest pace in nine years — evidence that employers remain confident despite the Trump administration’s ongoing conflicts with its trading partners.
In your face, Obama.
The economy added a strong 201,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate stayed at 3.9 percent, near an 18-year low, the government said Friday in its monthly jobs report.
A lot of people are saying that's bull.
Taken as a whole, the data pointed to a job market that remains resilient even after nearly a decade of economic growth — the second-longest such stretch in US history — and even with tariffs and counter-tariffs on imports and exports looming over US employers that rely on global trade.
The economy is expanding at a healthy pace, fueled by tax cuts, confident consumers, greater business investment in equipment, and more government spending. Growth reached 4.2 percent at an annual rate in the April-June quarter, the fastest pace in four years. The August gains were on par with the average of 196,000 new jobs over the prior 12 months, evidence of how consistent job growth remains
‘‘I view this as the strongest job market in a generation,’’ Andrew Chamberlain, chief economist at Glassdoor, a career website.
That's $ad.
Now fly away, little birdie, fly, fly, fly.
The stock market, however, was more concerned with another business development: President Trump’s statement later Friday that he is ready to impose tariffs on nearly every product imported from China pushed stocks into losing territory, with each of the major indexes reporting slight declines.
And there are more behind those.
Yet most economists said they saw the pay increase as an encouraging sign that the low unemployment rate is compelling more employers to raise pay in order to compete successfully for workers.
‘‘It looks like we’re finally seeing that acceleration in wage growth that we’ve been waiting for,’’ said Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC Financial Services. ‘‘It’s good news for workers’ paychecks, it’s good news for consumers and it’s good news for the overall economy.’’
Yeah, just before the bubble pops and the recession hits.
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About those tax cuts, btw:
"Governor Baker proposes using state cash bonanza for school safety measures" by Joshua Miller Globe Staff July 13, 2018
Governor Charlie Baker proposed Friday plowing $72 million into school safety, harnessing a surge in tax revenue to hand local districts an election-year cash infusion for hiring more mental health specialists and upgrading security at educational facilities.
The plan comes in the wake of several high-profile mass shootings at schools across the United States, and is part of a national trend of government leaders trying to reduce the risk of such tragedies.
“This is something that we have been discussing with colleagues at the local level for the past several months, especially after Parkland,” Baker said at a news conference, referring to the February shooting at a Florida high school that killed 17 people and wounded 17 others.
Experts and politicos on and off Beacon Hill attribute at least part of the windfall, and maybe most of it, to the federal tax overhaul that President Trump pushed through at the end of last year.
Related:
"We’re in the money. Massachusetts tax revenues for the fiscal year that ended last week are likely $1.2 billion over estimates, a whopping windfall that will leave policymakers licking their chops as they eye lots more cash to spend. Experts on and off Beacon Hill attribute at least part of the windfall, and maybe most of it, to the federal tax overhaul that President Trump pushed through last year....."
Never even thanked him for it.
“We believe tax reform had a big impact on a whole series of decisions that people made with respect to estate tax revenue, with respect to corporate tax revenue, the repatriation of funds from overseas, and the capital gains numbers,” the governor said, referring to levies paid on investment profits. “We believe all of those things were related to tax reform and turned into very big [tax revenue] numbers” for the state.....
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How about getting the buses to run on time (short trip)? How much would that cost?
Maybe Chuck can take on MIT next (was McCallop and they did arrest him).
Auditor says RMV licensed dead people. RMV says all the people are alive
Baker says RMV can handle automatic voter registration
Well, they are going to have to now and you can just smell the electoral fraud.
"Democrats worry their voters are more exhausted than outraged by Trump" by Annie Linskey Globe Staff July 12, 2018
WASHINGTON — Democrats have enjoyed a string of wins in special elections. They’re seeing surges of voting in primary elections. They’re disgusted by President Trump and appear ready to send him a harsh message in November’s midterm elections, but the party has a history of reading tea leaves inaccurately and blowing elections that they think they can’t lose.
That’s left some Democratic leaders with a nagging concern: Is there a danger that their supporters might just get exhausted by the constant drumbeat of chaotic news from Washington? Are they tuning out politics? And — the nightmare question — would that prevent them from voting?
I know I am.
“There are a lot of people who are tired of talking about and tired of hearing about Donald Trump nonstop,” said Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster whose clients have included former Senate majority leader Harry Reid. “I do find people saying they’re more likely to avoid discussion of politics than they were in the past.”
I'm tired of reading the pre$$ accounts of him.
There have been nationwide protests on a slew of topics: marches to oppose Trump’s inauguration and to support women’s rights, marches to oppose the Muslim ban, marches to support gun control amid a spate of mass killings, and marches to oppose Trump’s now recanted policy of separating immigrant families arriving at the southern border. It’s a lot of outrage and an awful lot of protesting, but while party activists — the types who participate in primary campaigns — may be energized, the worry is that the rank-and-file and average voters who may decide a general election could be exhausted.
Where are the antiwar protests?
Party leaders who have begun to dig into the phenomena of voter fatigue have found that Democrats are twice as likely as Republicans to tell pollsters they’re “exhausted” by Trump’s antics and policies. And Democrats are also less likely than their GOP counterparts to be “engaged” and “interested in taking action,” according to a recent survey done by Navigator Research.
Voters on the left report that they’re particularly exhausted by Trump’s use of Twitter, the news of White House palace intrigue, and, surprisingly, the debate over professional football players protesting the national anthem, according to the poll.
Related:
"Nike’s Kaepernick ad debuted Monday afternoon, a US holiday, drawing immediate praise and ire from celebrities and customers alike. It’s an early, if incomplete, look at how the world’s largest sportswear company may fare after deliberately wading into a hot political topic. The decision to feature the former NFL player — he claims he’s been illegally barred from the league for kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial inequality — has already drawn multiple criticisms from President Trump. On Friday morning Trump tweeted: ‘‘What was Nike thinking?’’ It’s not a big mystery. Nike believes that the campaign will create more business than it loses....."
Yeah, Kaepernick made a name for himself with his protests of police brutality and racial injustice and Nike just did it, handing the president a winning issue heading into football season.
Some Republicans are also worn out by these story lines, but GOP voters are more likely than Democrats to find these topics exciting to hear about, the survey showed.
Democratic strategists say that the anti-Trump fervor makes it more important for candidates to talk about ideas that are separate from Trump.
“It’s not a profile in courage to slam Trump, because everyone is there,” said Alex Goldstein, whose consulting company, 90 West, is working on several Democratic primary elections in New England. “Everyone is rightfully outraged. So OK, you’re outraged at the president, but what is your solution?”
Pollsters typically contend with voter exhaustion only in scenarios where there have been a series of local or state elections in a row, and voters are just tired of casting ballots, according to several top strategists.
Especially when it doesn't seem to do anything and you have a Deep State frustrating the will of the people.
So party leaders aren’t entirely sure what to make of this new manifestation of voter exhaustion, or what impact it could have over the next few months.
“It’s something we want to be thoughtful and aware of as we talk to Democratic voters,” said Margie Omero, a Democratic pollster who helped conduct the Navigator poll.
“It means there is so much news — there is so much news that sounds very worrying and very troubling,” Omero said. “And it is overwhelming to hear about it.”
In a report accompanying her research, Omero warned that there’s a “delicate balance” between motivating the Democratic base to be active in November and just wearing them down with an overwhelming amount of anti-Trump information.
When I'm not blogging, I've been worn down. When I am, I've been motivated.
Democrats become more energized and less exhausted by issues they feel they can directly affect, the research found. High on this list are the gun control debate, which has been fueled in recent months by a spate of mass shootings; news about how the Trump administration is treating immigrants; and the health care debate, on which Democrats were able to successfully push back a GOP attempt to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
I guess they feel they can't bring about peace.
Omero and others said they don’t believe Democrats will sit out the election, but she said the research can guide candidates about which topics to talk about with voters and which ones to avoid.
Yes, make sure you censor your political thought!
Democrats are hoping the upcoming fight over a Supreme Court nominee will be a way to push the national debate toward the issues that keep their voters engaged, but they need to find voters who are willing to talk politics, which isn’t an easy feat.
I that why we had more manufactured theater than normal?
They need to find a way to inspire voters like Tracy Ware, a 47-year-old who was shopping at a Wegman’s on a recent weekday in Leesburg, Va., home of one of the most competitive congressional races in the country. Ware is a Republican, but she says she can’t stand Trump — and could be open to voting against Republican incumbent Representative Barbara Comstock.
“I’m worn out already,” Ware said.
He's not on the ballot.
Others pointed out that talking about politics has become impossible.
“You can’t have a conversation,” said Mike O’Hara, 52, who described himself as a moderate Democrat.
He’s exactly the kind of voter that Democrats, who typically have less luck turning out their voters in midterm elections, are hoping will be mad enough at Trump and come out to vote, but O’Hara said he hasn’t begun seriously thinking about who he would vote for in the midterm elections — but when asked if he would cast a Democratic vote as a way of stopping Trump, he sounded intrigued. “I might, now that I think about it,” he said.
I thought he was a Democrat, Globe.
I know you are down there in smelly deplorable Walmart country, but c'mon!
Every voter interviewed on a recent afternoon said he or she was tired of discussing Trump.
“I’m so sick of him,” said Tammy Tayman, 57, of Fairfax, Va. “Is it over yet?”
She said that she also disliked George W. Bush, but before that, her feeling toward most presidents was, as she put it: “meh.”
She said she definitely plans to vote in November, but between now and then, she is going to tune out the news — and the endless stories about Trump — as best she can.
This strategy does present a conundrum: How will she figure out who to support in the midterm elections if she’s not listening to any news?
OMG, these reporters are so conceited!!!
Many voters are in this position, said Celinda Lake, a Democratic strategist and president of Lake Research Partners. She said voters will instead rely on information they find online or, more importantly, glean from friends and family. That works for Democrats, she said, “as long as someone in the family is still watching the news.”
OMFG!
Lake said the last time she recalled such disgust from Democrats was during the first two years of Ronald Reagan’s presidential administration. “It’s the closest I remember,” said Lake, “mainly in the sense of the relentless agenda.”
Not W. Bush, huh?
The Republican Party lost more than two dozen House seats in 1982, Reagan’s first midterm election, and cemented a Democratic majority in that chamber, but the Republican president learned something from the contest and changed his tune. “They came back with a much less chaotic and aggressive style,” Lake said.
Good thing Trump won't, and what I suspect here is Democrats will takeover the House but by a far lesser margin than they are anticipating, while losing a couple of Senate seats.
And after that, Republicans went on to hold the White House for the next decade.
I don't want to say I'll never vote for a Democrat for president, but after the Obama spying on the opposition's presidential campaign it will take a very special candidate for me to trust their party with the presidency again.
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They are like a couple of $iblings fighting, aren't they?
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
What's that smell?
"Tesla stock falls as CEO appears to smoke marijuana on video" by Tom Krisher Associated Press September 07, 2018
Shares of electric car maker Tesla Inc. fell more than 6 percent Friday after CEO Elon Musk appeared to smoke marijuana during an interview and the company’s accounting chief left after a month on the job.
Related: Musky $mell
He is acting like he wants to be removed.
Musk appeared on ‘‘The Joe Rogan Experience’’ overnight. About two hours into the podcast, which can be seen on YouTube, Musk inhales from what the host says is a combined marijuana-tobacco joint, which Rogan notes is legal. Rogan passes the joint to Musk, who also takes a sip of whiskey.
Shortly after smoking, Musk looks at his phone and laughs, telling Rogan he was getting texts from friends asking why he was smoking weed during the interview. Later Musk says he doesn’t notice any effect from the joint, which he claims he rarely smokes.
As the video gained traction, more news hit: Early Friday, the Palo Alto, Calif., company announced that chief accounting officer Dave Morton resigned after a month on the job, citing public attention and the fast pace of the post.
The company disclosed the departure in a regulatory filing.
‘‘Since I joined Tesla on August 6th, the level of public attention placed on the company, as well as the pace within the company, have exceeded my expectations,’’ the company quoted Morton as saying in the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. ‘‘As a result, this caused me to reconsider my future. I want to be clear that I believe strongly in Tesla, its mission, and its future prospects, and I have no disagreements with Tesla’s leadership or its financial reporting.”
Rat. Ship.
Tesla is under extreme pressure to turn a sustained net profit starting this quarter, as promised by Musk, but in the second quarter it spent $739.5 million in cash and lost a quarterly record $717.5 million.
Musk has said the company is producing more than 5,000 Model 3 electric cars per week, and cash generated from the sales will bring sustained quarterly profits. The Model 3 starts at $35,000, although the cheapest one that can be purchased at present costs $49,000.
Moody’s Investor Service downgraded Tesla’s debt into junk territory back in March, warning that Tesla won’t have cash to cover $3.7 billion for normal operations, capital expenses and debt that comes due early next year.
The company said its accounting functions will be overseen by the chief financial officer and corporate controller. Morton’s resignation is effective immediately.
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Does Tesla make an Edsel?
Time to Play Ball!
"Worcester’s PawSox deal includes unusual corporate backstop" by Jon Chesto Globe Staff September 06, 2018
As PawSox chairman Larry Lucchino began to seriously consider moving the team to Worcester, he worried about whether corporate sponsorships would take a hit.
In response, city and business leaders didn’t just offer assurances that the money would be there if the team relocated from Pawtucket. They put those assurances in writing.
An unusual provision in the deal between the team and the city guarantees at least $3.1 million a year in sponsorships during the team’s first five years in its new home. The city-team agreement, expected to be approved by Worcester’s city council on Wednesday, requires an unspecified third party to buy enough game tickets to make up the difference if the sponsorships fall short.
City Manager Ed Augustus says he doubts that will be necessary. A group of business leaders quickly assembled sponsorship commitments from local companies a few months ago to help persuade Lucchino to move. The PawSox wanted eight or nine founding level sponsors, willing to pay at least $100,000 a year, Augustus says. The last he heard, Augustus says, the team was up to 17.
The most prominent of those will be Polar Beverages: The soda company is paying for naming rights at the 10,000-person capacity ballpark that will be built for the city and the team.
The ticket-buying provision allows Worcester’s foundations to play a role. They wouldn’t normally sponsor a for-profit ball club, but could buy up tickets to be distributed to local students. Augustus says he expects the team’s future sponsors may simply kick in more money as well, in the event of a shortfall.
Oh. It's all about promoting the sport in impressionable young minds and breeding another generation of customers (where do all those wooden bats come from, anyway, and can that be good for the environment?)
Then there are the existing sponsors. Dan Rea, the team’s general manager, says he hopes to keep as many on board as possible. This list includes the likes of Dunkin’ Donuts and CVS Health, big regional players that could benefit from exposure in Massachusetts, but Rea says team leaders knew moving into a new territory meant forging new corporate relationships. The unusual backstop, he says, provided more peace of mind as the team builds its reputation in its new home.
That's why $ports are so widely promoted in the ma$$ media. Bread and Circuses for the masses and a money-going concern to boot.
Of course, the city of Worcester is offering the more important guarantee -- by agreeing to borrow $101 million for the new ballpark, with the hope of paying off much of the bonds from new tax revenue. (The team will kick in $30 million in rent to the city over time, and another $6 million upfront.) The corporate backstop? That just helped ensure the deal would be seen as a home run by Lucchino and his team.
Yeah, you taxpayers are on the hook for the lo$$!
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Related: Best Friends Forever
Sorry, wrong sport for today.
