"The Federal Reserve is signaling potentially vulnerable spots in the financial system, citing US businesses’ debt at the highest levels in more than two decades and risky debt growing. The Fed’s report issued Wednesday was its first assessing the stability of the US financial system. Ten years after the financial crisis, the new report points to excessive borrowing by households and businesses, banks’ elevated debt levels, and high prices for stocks and other assets exceeding their real value. Debt owed by businesses is at historically high levels, and growth in riskier forms of business debt has picked up recently, now at more than $2 trillion, the report says. Some banks’ level of debt over assets is near its highest mark in more than 20 years."
Then Dodd-Frank and Obama failed, didn't they?
"US stocks finished lower Thursday after an afternoon rally faded away. Banks and technology companies fell after the market pulled off a huge rally the day before. Financial stocks fell as interest rates again edged lower. Crude oil prices climbed after they briefly dipped under $50 a barrel overnight. The rebound helped energy stocks trade higher. Health care companies, which have climbed over the last month, continued to do better than the rest of the market. The Federal Reserve released minutes from its meeting in early November. Officials expressed concerns about a variety of threats to the economy....."
Somehow new jobless claims are at highest level since May, but spending increased at its fastest pace in seven months as the gross domestic product expanded at a solid 3.5 percent annual rate from July to September.
"Millennials spend similar to earlier generations, Fed says" by Jeremy Herron Bloomberg News November 30, 2018
Millennials, long presumed to have less interest in the nonstop consumption of goods that underpins the American economy, might not be that different after all, a new study from the Federal Reserve says.
Their spending habits are a lot like the generations that came before them, they just have less money at this point in their lives, the Fed study found. The group born between 1981 and 1997 has fallen behind because many of them came of age during the financial crisis.
Authors Christopher Kurz, Geng Li, and Daniel J. Vine findings are grounded in an analysis of spending, income, debt, net worth, and demographic factors among different generations. The conclusion that millennials aren’t all that different also holds for the researchers’ more granular examination of expenditures on cars, food, and housing.
“It primarily is the differences in average age and then differences in average income that explain a large and important portion of the consumption wedge between millennials and other cohorts,” they conclude.
What?
So much for the young folks favoring “experiences” over tangible goods.
Millennials aren’t unique when it comes to what they spend their money on, either. The report finds that shifts in expenditure shares between different goods and services have been broadly consistent regardless of age. Housing and food are two areas where millennials have spent less than previous generations, with the younger cohort paying more for education. As a caveat, spending on avocado toast wasn’t specifically tracked for this analysis.
What’s old is new again. The paper observes that some of the millennials’ parents were subject to similar baseless grumbles of “kids these days” from their elders.
“A similar question was posed 20 years ago when Baby Boomer profligacy was being compared to the Silent Generation’s penchant for saving,” they wrote. “Speaking to that debate, Sabelhaus and Manchester (1995) were able to separate fact from popular myth at the time and provided evidence that consumption had not increased as much as income, and that Baby Boomer asset accumulation had in fact outpaced that of the previous generation.”
--more--"
More bank$ter doublespeak from the pre$$ mouthpiece:
"Fed chairman’s comments send markets soaring" by Damian Paletta Washington Post November 28, 2018
WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday suggested the central bank could be close to slowing the pace of its recent interest rate increases, saying rates are now just slightly below what he considers a ‘‘neutral’’ level.
His comments marked a sharp change from his position last month, when he said the Fed still had a ‘‘long way’’ to go before it reached that equilibrium.
Stock markets soared on Powell’s comments, as he appeared to signal that the Fed would not move forward aggressively to raise rates much further than it already has. The Dow Jones industrial average pushed up 618 points, to 25,366, an increase of 2.5 percent, in a surge that erased its November losses and put it back in positive territory for 2018.
Though Powell’s comments were markedly different from his characterization of Fed policy last month, he left ample room for the Fed to continue raising rates, depending on the economy’s performance. Investors have overreacted to relatively nuanced comments from Powell in the past, and it is possible some misread his comments by believing he was telegraphing an end to interest rate increases. That is not what he said.
By saying rates were slightly lower than the level he perceives as ‘‘neutral,’’ Powell’s statement appears to be suggesting at least one more interest rate increase is coming in the near future.
Powell’s comments appear to implicitly reject arguments from President Trump that past interest rate increases have been a mistake. The chairman has repeatedly asserted the Fed’s independence, and there was no sign Wednesday’s suggestion the central bank may slow the pace of rate hikes is related to Trump’s criticisms.....
Well, ‘‘hip, hip, hooray,” then, Trump didn't win!
--more--"
Related:
"US stocks rocketed to their biggest gain in eight months Wednesday after Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell hinted that the Fed might not raise interest rates much further. The Dow Jones industrial average surged 617 points. Powell also appeared to suggest the Fed might pause its cycle of interest rate increases next year so the central bank can assess the effects of its actions......"
Looks like a controlled demolition of the economy, just like 10 years ago -- unless I misread that.
And cui bono?
"Deutsche Bank offices are searched in money laundering investigation" by Melissa Eddy November 30, 2018
One hundred seventy officers searched the headquarters of Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt and five other sites in the area early Thursday as part of a money-laundering investigation involving hundreds of millions of euros, prosecutors in Frankfurt said.
The article is, of course, located way back in B-section.
Two employees, who were not publicly identified but whose ages were given as 50 and 46, and other “unidentified people in positions of authority” are suspected of failing to report possible money laundering for transactions worth 311 million euros, or more than $350 million.
The money flowed to organizations in the British Virgin Islands before spring 2016, prosecutors said in an e-mailed statement.
The German bank confirmed in a statement that police were investigating several of its offices in Germany and said the investigation related to the Panama Papers, a trove of files that put a spotlight on global money laundering. “We are cooperating fully with the authorities,” Deutsche said in the statement.
Did it?
All I remember seeing in my pre$$ were some stories that were meant to embarrass Putin, get Cameron out of the way for allowing a Brexit vote, and the leader of Iceland needing to be removed for some reason (probably for jailing bankers).
“As far as we are concerned, we have already provided the authorities with all the relevant information regarding Panama Papers,” it added later in a statement posted on Twitter.
In April 2016, news organizations in cooperation with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists released the Panama Papers, which revealed how some of the world’s wealthiest individuals, including more than 900 customers of Deutsche Bank, dodged taxes in their home countries by transferring money to offshore accounts.
I hate to tell you this, but it's Deep $tate operation (Soros and the CIA) that is dying a slow and painful death.
Prosecutors said the documents indicated “that Deutsche Bank helped customers found offshore organizations in tax havens by transferring illegally acquired money without alerting authorities to suspected money laundering.”
Paper and electronic documents were gathered during Thursday’s raid, they said.
Took them two and half years to do it?
The prosecutor’s office said two bank employees were suspected of helping Deutsche Bank clients set up offshore accounts and the bank had failed to report the suspected money laundering.
Deutsche Bank, once known for its aggressive efforts to compete with Wall Street institutions, has shrunk after years of losses as a result of problems including a bloated investment bank and trading desk and costly legal settlements tied to the sale of toxic mortgage securities.
I love the terminology.
Toxic to who?
The bankers made out on both ends and were never charged with crimes, and the MBS bull$hit enabled the fraud$ters to seize homes as tangible assets to $ave their own a$$e$.
It's a richer's pre$$, right down to the $elf-internalized values of the propagandist, 'er, reporter.
Even as its competitors have recovered from the 2008 financial crisis, Deutsche Bank has struggled. This year, the bank’s arm in the United States failed a Federal Reserve stress test, which found that it had “material weaknesses” in its operations.
The bank has also suffered regular turnovers in top management: Christian Sewing, who became chief executive in April this year, was the bank’s fourth chief executive or co-chief executive in four years. The company is also in the middle of a restructuring plan that is expected to cut more than 7,000 jobs by the end of 2019.
Although an earnings preview suggested there would be some good news after years of restructuring, the report of the raid sent shares down more than 3 percent Thursday morning.
Oh, good!
--more--"
Nice to see them shine some light on that, huh?
Related:
"Bayer AG plans to cut 12,000 jobs and exit its animal health business in an effort to mollify Wall Street, which has punished the company over the tidal wave of lawsuits that came alongside the $63 billion takeover of Monsanto Co. The German company announced a rash of moves, including exiting the sun-care and foot-care segments, that it said would boost its core pharma and agricultural businesses. The cuts, including a significant number in Germany, are equal to about 10 percent of the workforce. The company has lost some $34.1 billion in market value since August, when a California jury ruled against its signature weedkiller Roundup, saying it may have caused a school groundskeeper’s cancer. At least another 9,000 other lawsuits are pending."
I read about that on the commute, and who signed off on those mergers?
"Online sex ads rebound, months after shutdown of Backpage" by Ryan Tarinelli Associated Press November 30, 2018
DALLAS — Smaller escort websites are vying for the lucrative online sex-for-hire market Backpage.com dominated before US authorities shut it down earlier this year, a move that fractured the industry and forced law enforcement to adapt its efforts combating sex trafficking.
Online sex ads plunged in April following Backpage’s seizure and President Trump’s signing of legislation aimed at websites that facilitate sex trafficking, but a new analysis finds the drop in the number of ads may have been short-lived.
Which kind of clues you in regarding who or what is truly behind such things.
They knock down bloggers while allowing filth to flourish. Got figure.
Instead of backing away amid the government crackdown on sex trafficking, some escort websites are doubling down on their business model and see the Backpage shutdown as an opportunity to expand, said Emily Kennedy, Pittsburgh-based software company Marinus Analytics’s president and cofounder.
I'm sure there is some sort of double entendre there.
Despite the increase, some experts caution against correlating a rise in sex ads with an increase in sex trafficking. They say sex ads can be fake or duplicates from other websites and interest from sex buyers remains low compared to the Backpage era — a conclusion one expert tied to the lower number of responses garnered by fake sex ads posted on escort websites.
You are best abstaining from it all.
Sex workers and their advocates have criticized the seizure of Backpage, saying the shutdown removed a tool that workers used to screen clients.
In Nevada, federal authorities have seen firsthand the impact of online sex ads in the post-Backpage market. When police found a 15-year-old girl at a Las Vegas motel in September, she was hundreds of miles from her Texas home and had been sold for sex in numerous online ads, according to federal court records.....
The old bump-and-grind:
"The Trump administration is preparing to officially ban bump stocks on guns, a move that would put an end to the sale of attachments that allow semiautomatic rifles to fire faster and that would follow through on an order President Trump made this year to the Justice Department to regulate the devices. An administration official said Wednesday evening that a formal ban would be rolled out in the coming days to weeks, a timeline first reported by CNN. Trump, who has in recent weeks hinted that the ban would be coming after a mass shooting in February at a Florida high school left 17 dead. The president’s declaration set into motion a chain of events that surprised officials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, which had already been tasked with reviewing whether the devices could be banned, a directive given after a massacre in Las Vegas in October 2017. In that mass shooting, the deadliest in modern history, a gunman using weapons outfitted with a bump stock device killed 58 people. The gunman fired off about 90 rounds in 10 seconds. As recently as last month, Trump said publicly that a ban would be coming. “So we’re knocking out bump stocks,” the president said during a news conference announcing a revamped trade agreement with Canada. “I’ve told the NRA. I’ve told them: Bump stocks are gone.” The National Rifle Association did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday evening, but the organization initially supported an ATF review of the devices after the Las Vegas shooting. Though he has worked to push through a ban on bump stocks, Trump remains a vocal supporter of gun rights and the Second Amendment, frequently invoking it as under assault by Democrats......"
That's odd because the Parkland thing had nothing to do with bump stocks, and the Vegas thing -- whatever it was, probably combined crisis drill gone live with false flag piggyback -- has been completely whitewashed by the pre$$ and any investigation dispatched down the memory hole, but the larger point is that Trump is firing blanks when it comes to gun rights.
Related(?):
"Investigators tracked a kidnapped girl across multiple states and found her safe in Oklahoma, 900 miles from her North Carolina home, the FBI said in a news release....."
They were headed west, readers.
--more--"
Also see:
"A Boston woman accused of running four massage parlors where customers received sexual favors in exchange for cash was arraigned in Cambridge District Court on Thursday afternoon. Dan Zheng, 47, was silent when she appeared in court for her arraignment on charges of trafficking of persons for sexual servitude, deriving support from prostitution, and procuring persons to practice prostitution. A plea of not guilty was entered on her behalf. Dressed in a sleek black winter jacket, Zheng was expressionless as she glanced around the courtroom and listened to the proceedings with the help of a Mandarin interpreter. Her court-appointed lawyer, Keith Durden, said Zheng had no knowledge of any illegal activity taking place at the massage parlors, but Assistant District Attorney Carrie Spiros told a different story. She said a lengthy undercover investigation revealed that Zheng had been running a large-scale human-trafficking operation to staff her four massage spas in Stoneham, Arlington, Dracut, and Boston. “These were essentially fronts for commercial sexual activity,” where customers would go to receive “sexual favors, and not just a massage,” Spiros said. Spiros said Chinese women from Flushing, N.Y., were brought in to work at the spas. At one of the locations, sleeping quarters were set up in the basement underneath the spa, she said. Investigators also found one worker who had not left the spa for 20 days. The spas did brisk business, and in some cases there were customers waiting to get inside, Spiros said. “These were busy spas,” she said. Bail for Zheng was set at $100,000 cash and on the condition that she wear a GPS, stay under 24/7 house arrest, surrender any passports, and have no contact with any witnesses or alleged victims involved in the case. A probable cause hearing is scheduled for Jan. 10. Zheng is expected to face similar charges in Suffolk County, according to Jake Wark, a spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney John Pappas’s office. Wark said Thursday in an e-mail that prosecutors expect Zheng’s Suffolk charges will be “similar to the ones in Middlesex County. Our end of the investigation suggests that clients at the Boston location were offered sexual services for a fee and that the defendant took all but a minimal amount of the workers’ earnings.”
So she was a pimp?
Related:
"Fidelity Investments has stepped up promotions of women in its stock-picking group, which was hit last year with allegations of sexual harassment....."
A trailblazing woman is also protecting them from the mad charge of men.
"An anonymous letter about a “toxic” workplace culture may have spurred the departure of a small-cap bank chief executive. Michael Daly, who led Berkshire Hills Bancorp Inc. in Pittsfield for 16 years, stepped down this week, taking analysts by surprise. Piper Jaffray analysts led by Matthew Breese said the resignation may have been precipitated by an anonymous letter last month describing the workplace as “toxic” and in dire need of change. The letter was purportedly written by employees and was sent to “analysts, several bank insiders and several prominent members of the community,” Piper Jaffray said. A spokeswoman for Berkshire Hills in a comment to Bloomberg News declined to elaborate on Daly’s departure, but said that workplace culture is one of the company’s top priorities, with employees as its “most valuable asset.” Citing employee reviews of the company and leadership on Glassdoor.com, Piper Jaffray’s Breese wrote that he thought it unlikely that Daly’s departure was a coincidence and said it was likely related to the culture. “Just 25 percent of employees” would recommend Berkshire to a friend, below the 62 percent median within Piper’s coverage universe, Breese said. CEO approval was around 35 percent, compared to Piper’s 84 percent median."
He is going to work at Harvard now after declining offers from Amazon and Nissan (that's the buzz, anyway):
"Condé Nast is combining its US and international units and will seek a new chief executive officer to run the global operation, replacing longtime chief Bob Sauerberg in a shake-up of one of the world’s biggest magazine publishers. The New York-based publisher of the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Vogue is increasingly branching into areas such as video, conferences, and consumer products, making this the right time to merge the units, according to an e-mailed statement Tuesday."
Just pitching you some leftovers.
"In the 1960s, Draper Laboratory in Cambridge helped the United States beat Russia to the moon. Now Draper is in a new, homegrown space race to deliver unmanned craft to the lunar surface. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced Thursday that Draper and eight other US companies, ranging from tiny startups to defense giant Lockheed Martin, will compete for $2.6 billion in NASA contracts. The mission: to deliver scientific instruments to the moon, as a prelude to setting up permanent bases for people....."
What utter lunacy, pun intended.
What this proves to me is the whole thing was indeed phony and NASA is nothing more than a pipeline for the MIC. Always has been, and they fly you and a cow over it with their grainy footage off a Hollywood set.
But, I saw it on TV!
Of course, unlike the atomic bomb, no one has bothered to duplicate the alleged feet while the more advanced space program at the time ended up building an orbiting space station instead. Hmmmm.
Of course, if it were true, I got a whole list of war criminals and other elite filth we can send there.
"The whistle-blower behind the Cambridge Analytica revelations said the now-defunct data research firm used the fashion preferences of Facebook Inc. users to help develop the algorithms needed to target them with political messaging. Sharing examples of the anonymized data for the first time, originally collected and used by Cambridge Analytica, Christopher Wylie said people who displayed an interest in Abercrombie & Fitch tended on average to be less cautious and more liberal, and individuals who liked Wrangler were usually more conservative and more keen on “orderliness.” In another set of data, Wylie said it showed that individuals seen to be engaged with Vogue magazine and Macy’s were on average more liberal and extroverted, which helped Cambridge Analytica focus its micro-targeting of political messaging."
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Why bother with that when there is a newspaper on the rack every morning?
You get the message, right?
It's enough to make me reach for a nip.
Buried below the fold is the fallen Army sergeant who was remembered as compassionate and dedicated, even as Liz Warren calls for an end to the war.
The spotlight literally then turns to Aaron Hernandez and his secret courts papers.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
"Authorities arrested a suspect in a Thanksgiving shooting that spread panic at Alabama’s largest shopping mall Thursday, but protesters said they would continue demonstrations over the police killing of another black man who was initially believed to be the shooter. Protesters said Erron Martez Dequan Brown’s arrest didn’t resolve what they referred to as the ‘‘murder’’ of Emantic ‘‘E.J.’’ Bradford Jr., 21, by police, and they vowed continuing demonstrations over his shooting death. Police have said a Hoover police officer who was working security at the mall during the start of Black Friday shopping heard shots and responded within seconds. The officer, who has yet to be publicly identified, saw Bradford with a gun and shot him, police said....."
EXCEPT.....
"Police acknowledge officer killed wrong man in wake of Alabama mall shooting" Associated Press November 24, 2018
HOOVER, Ala. (AP) —Protesterson Saturday marched through an Alabama shopping mall where police killed a black man they later acknowledged was not the triggerman in a Thanksgiving night shooting that wounded two people.
An officer shot and killed 21-year-old Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford, Jr. of Hueytown while responding to the Thursday mall shooting. Police said Bradford was fleeing the scene with a handgun.
Hoover police initially told reporters Bradford had shot a teen at the mall, but later retracted the statement.
‘‘We knew that was false,’’ said stepmother Cynthia Bradford when she heard police were blaming him for the shooting. She described her stepson, who went by E.J., as a respectful young man whose father worked at a jail for the Birmingham Police Department.
Hoover Police Captain Gregg Rector said investigators now believe that more than two people were involved in the initial fight ahead of the shooting, and that ‘‘at least one gunman’’ is still at large.....
Will the mind-bending psyop, Operation Gladio style events ever end?
--more--"
The me$$age there is stay out of the malls this Chri$tma$.
Related:
"The father of a black man killed by a police officer during a shooting at an Alabama mall said his son had a permit to carry a gun for self-defense, adding it was hurtful police initially portrayed his son as the shooter. Emantic ‘‘EJ’’ Bradford Jr., 21, was fatally shot by the officer responding to a Thanksgiving night shooting that wounded an 18-year-old man and a 12-year-old girl. Hoover police initially said they thought Bradford, who was carrying a handgun, was responsible but later retracted that statement. Bradford’s father, Emantic Bradford Sr., said the family wants to know if there is police body camera footage of the shooting. Police have not confirmed whether such footage exists. Police Captain Gregg Rector said investigators now believe more than two people were involved in a fight ahead of the shooting and that at least one gunman is still at large who could be responsible. Police said that while Bradford Jr. ‘‘may have been involved in some aspect of the altercation, he likely did not fire the rounds that wounded the 18-year-old victim.’’ Rector said police regret that their initial statement was not accurate.
How often do we NOT GET a LONE GUNMAN?
That was where the print copy ended.
About 200 demonstrators marched Saturday evening through the Riverchase Galleria mall in suburban Birmingham and held a moment of silence for Bradford at the spot where he was killed. The slain man’s stepmother, Cynthia Bradford, described her stepson, who went by E.J., as a respectful young man whose father worked at a jail for the Birmingham Police Department. She also said of the initial police account: ‘‘We knew that was false.’’ The unanswered questions have stirred emotions in the suburb of the majority-black city of Birmingham. Demonstrators on Saturday included several relatives, and they chanted ‘‘E.J’’ and ‘‘no justice, no peace’’ as they marched. Family members described their horror of finding out from social media that Bradford was dead. Video circulated of Bradford lying in a pool of blood on the mall floor. Bradford Sr. said his son had a permit to carry a weapon for self-defense. He said he doesn’t know exactly what happened at the mall but added: ‘‘They were so quick to rush to judgment. . . . I knew my son didn’t do that. People rushed to judgment. They shouldn’t have done that.’’ Carlos Chaverst, an activist in Birmingham who organized Saturday’s protest, said that when authorities acknowledged the person killed was not the actual shooter, ‘‘that sent us in an uproar.’’ He said more protests will be held to hold officials accountable. ‘‘When we found out about this incident, there were questions from the jump. People were upset because a man was shot and killed by police in our own backyard,’’ he said. The incident began Thanksgiving night with a fight and shooting at the Riverchase Galleria, a mall crowded with Black Friday bargain hunters, according to authorities. An 18-year-old man was shot twice and a 12-year-old female bystander was shot in the back. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is investigating the incident since it is an officer-involved shooting. The Hoover Police Department is conducting its own internal investigation. The officer who shot Bradford was placed on administrative leave. The officer’s name was not released. The officer was not hurt. Video posted on social media by shoppers showed a chaotic scene as shoppers fled. A witness, Lexi Joiner, told Al.com she was shopping with her mother when the gunfire started. Joiner said she heard six or seven shots and was ordered, along with some other shoppers, into a supply closet for cover. ‘‘It was terrifying,’’ Joiner said."
Maybe it is time to put an end to the promotions and pre$$ pu$h to con$ume, 'eh?
Could $ave $ome live$ that way.
Also see:
"In a third statement Monday, police raised doubts about whether Bradford even had his gun out when officers encountered him. The Hoover Police Department’s shifting explanations are likely to increase suspicions that the 21-year-old former Army recruit was considered a threat because he is black....."
They are killing themselves with the inconsistencies, contradictions, and lies.
And speak of the devil:
James Comey asks judge to stop congressional committees’ bid to compel his private testimony
Comey says acting Attorney General Whitaker ‘may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer’
So says the liar, leaker, Clinton obstructionist, and deep state operative!
Trump in no hurry to name a new attorney general
"The expected incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to top Trump administration officials Tuesday warning that when Democrats take over the chamber, they will investigate the rise in hate crimes — and how President Trump’s policies and rhetoric may be enabling it. ‘‘There appears to be a politically driven effort to diminish programs that empower communities to counter the influence of extremist ideology,’’ Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the panel’s ranking Democrat, wrote to Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, FBI Director Chris Wray, and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. ‘‘Reporting also suggests that the administration remains focused on targeting specific racial and ethnic minorities as the suspected main sources of domestic terrorism.’’ In the letter, Nadler pointed to Homeland Security’s plans to track Muslims and the FBI’s focus on ‘‘Black Identity Extremism,’’ calling them ‘‘concerning trends in law enforcement’’ — especially when held up against Trump’s own rhetoric praising nationalism, accusing foreigners of fomenting domestic terrorism, and refusing to condemn neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville, Va. Nadler demanded that Whitaker, Wray, and Nielsen respond by the end of the year to Democrats’ outstanding letters requesting information about the Trump administration’s decision to refocus the Countering Violent Extremism program predominantly on Muslims, and letters urging a greater focus on threats to Jewish organizations and on prosecuting perpetrators of hate crimes."
Do I even need to say it?
Scott announces he will oppose Farr nomination
"Democrats try to derail judicial nominee they call a vote suppressor" by Catie Edmondson New York Times November 27, 2018
WASHINGTON — A judicial nominee nearing a showdown vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee could be the test for Senator Jeff Flake’s vow to block judges until the Senate is allowed to vote on legislation to protect the special counsel, Robert Mueller.
Democrats have united behind a bid to derail the district court nomination of a judge who defended a racially gerrymandered House map in North Carolina and helped draft the state’s voter ID law, efforts that federal courts found were specifically designed to disenfranchise African-American voters, in one case, “with almost surgical precision.”
With Flake pledging to stay true to his word, opponents need to find one more Republican to block him, a victory that would momentarily pause the stream of conservative judges Senate Republicans are sending to the federal bench. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the lone black Republican in the Senate, helped sink a judicial nominee in July over his writings in college, which railed against “race-focused groups” on campus and “race-think.”
A vote is expected this week.
Senate Democrats are waging their campaign of opposition in the court of public opinion, rattling off talking points on social media every few hours.....
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At least no one accused him of rape.
"Trump judicial nominee Farr advances in Senate after racially charged row" by Sean Sullivan Washington Post November 28, 2018
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s nominee to be a federal judge in North Carolina cleared a key hurdle Wednesday when the Senate voted narrowly to advance him toward confirmation amid a racially charged controversy over his record as a lawyer, but it was unclear whether would have the necessary support to win confirmation. would not commit to supporting him, even as he voted to move the nomination forward.
Vice President Mike Pence cast a tie-breaking vote to help Senate Republicans move Thomas Farr, who defended voting laws that a court ruled were designed to disenfranchise minority voters, to a final roll call expected later this week. The vote was 51 to 50.
After a nearly hourlong wait Wednesday, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the chamber’s only African-American Republican, cast a procedural vote to move ahead with Farr’s nomination, dashing Democratic hopes that he would join them to defeat it. Scott did not reveal his intentions publicly until he cast his vote Wednesday afternoon.
So he sends it to the floor and then votes against it?
All 49 members of the Democratic Caucus opposed the nomination, as did Senator Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, who is opposing all judicial nominees until he gets a vote on legislation to protect the probe into Russian election interference by special counsel Robert Mueller III. All of the other Republican senators voted for Farr.
The tense vote came at a moment when racial tensions have risen to the forefront of the national political debate. Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi won a runoff Tuesday after a contentious campaign in which her comments about being willing to join a supporter in the front row of a public hanging stoked controversy. Her critics said the remark evoked Mississippi’s long history of lynching African-Americans.
The run-off was won by Hyde-Smith and it made some uncomfortable.
After the tally, Scott did not indicate how he would vote on final confirmation.....
He just did.
--more--"
Also see:
Paul Ryan lists immigration, debt as biggest regrets
Good bye and good riddance.
Gore takes on Trump’s response to climate science
With some fired-up spew.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
After wildfire destroys town, businessman donates $1,000 to everyone at high school
It's feel good fluff stuff that is really beginning to tick me off!
PG&E chose not to cut power as winds raged before fatal fire
That is the cover story crapola they are shoveling to explain away the anomalies in the fire patterns and the genocide of people who were in the way of the high-speed rail project that will benefit certain well-connected individuals.
Developers push for relief from the natural gas moratorium
How interesting when the Carlyle Group is to buy three natural gas power plants in New England.
"Patagonia, the outdoor gear company, is passing along the $10 million it saved from tax cuts to non-profit environmental groups. Corporations received a windfall from the GOP’s sweeping overhaul of the US tax code last year, which slashed corporate rates from 35 percent, to 21 percent. The California company said Wednesday that the donation is in addition to 1 percent of sales it gives to environmental groups every year. The donation is being made on the heels of the recent National Climate Assessment, which Patagonia cited in its announcement."
The first thing you need to do is accept that climate change is real.
Then comes what to do about it:
"Researchers say it would be cheap and doable to dim the sun to curb global warming" by Martin Finucane Globe Staff November 28, 2018
It would be doable, but would it be wise?
Researchers say they’ve looked into how hard it would be to spray chemicals into the atmosphere to block the sun and curb global warming — and it would be neither technically difficult nor too expensive.
I got bad news for you. They already been doing it for a number of years.
See: Chemtrails Causing Cooling?
It's no longer a conspiracy theory when it's being promoted by the agenda-pushing pre$$!
All of a sudden, the overcast skies look quite different.
The researchers, in a new study, did not make any judgments about whether it should be done, but they did “show that a hypothetical deployment program starting 15 years from now, while both highly uncertain and ambitious, would be technically possible strictly from an engineering perspective,” said Gernot Wagner, research associate at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and codirector of Harvard’s Solar Geoengineering Research Program.
Meaning they are already doing it and are preparing the public mind for admission.
The project would also be “remarkably inexpensive, at an average of around $2 [billion] to 2.5 billion per year over the first 15 years,” Wagner, one of the paper’s two authors, said in a statement. The research was published recently in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
Wagner’s coauthor was Wake Smith, former chief executive and president of Pemco World Air Services, a leading global aircraft modification company. Smith is a lecturer at Yale.
So what exactly do they want to dump up there, and is that why the planet has been cooling and we have been having record cold winters?
If so, it worked so you can stop doing it.
One solution that has been floated for solving global warming is the introduction of aerosols (small reflecting particles) into the stratosphere, increasing the amount of sunlight that is reflected back to space. The idea has been taken seriously enough to be considered by the National Research Council in a 2015 report, but the NRC said the “more speculative approach” would come with a “currently unknown environmental price.”
What about the crops?
“The committee is concerned that understanding of the ethical, political, and environmental consequences of [efforts to increase reflection of the sun into space] is relatively less advanced than the technical capacity to execute it,” the NRC report also said.
“There is no substitute for dramatic reductions in the emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases,” the report said. Still, it said, it might be “prudent” to look at a “broader portfolio of climate response.”
The new study by Wagner and Smith, who worked with a number of aerospace companies, found that existing aircraft are unlikely to be useful for such a project, but developing a new tanker with the ability to carry a large payload of sulfates for dispersal into the air would be feasible.
Is that really a good idea?
What kind of waste products and toxins will they dumping on us anyway?
The researchers envisioned a fleet of just under 100 tankers flying just over 60,000 missions a year by the 15th year of the project.
What's the energy footprint on that?
Not everyone thinks such “solar geoengineering” is a good idea.
David Archer of the Department of Geophysical Science at the University of Chicago told CNN, “The problem with engineering climate in this way is that it’s only a temporary Band-Aid covering a problem that will persist essentially forever, actually hundreds of thousands of years for fossil fuel CO2 to finally go away naturally.”
Phil Williamson at the University of East Anglia in England told Reuters, “Such scenarios are fraught with problems — and international agreement to go ahead with such action would seem near-impossible to achieve.”
They will worry about that later, after they have all lined their pockets.
Wagner himself in a February 2018 essay in the Wall Street Journal coauthored with a Harvard economics professor said, “Seriously addressing climate change means cutting carbon emissions and, ultimately, reducing the carbon already in the atmosphere. There’s no way around it.”
He said solar geoengineering is “not a permanent solution to climate change, and it carries worrisome environmental and political risks of its own,” but he also said, “It’s an idea worth exploring.”
At least someone will make some loot out of it.
--more--"
Still wouldn't have saved those stranded in Paradise:
"A township employee was shot and killed inside a Pennsylvania municipal building Tuesday, and a suspect was quickly taken into custody, officials said. The gunman walked inside the Paradise Township municipal building about 8:20 a.m. and opened fire, according to police and township officials. State and local police rushed to the municipal building in the Pocono Mountains, about 100 mile north of Philadelphia, arresting the suspect without incident. The victim was identified as Michael Tripus, 65, of Stroudsburg. The township’s website listed him as the sewage enforcement and building code officer. Police said David Green, 72, of Swiftwater, was taken into custody. State police haven’t said what motivated the shooting, and it wasn’t immediately clear how or whether Green and Tripus knew each other. ‘‘That is something we’re still working on right now,’’ Trooper David Peters told reporters at the scene. The victim was a longtime township employee, according to Gary Konrath, chairman of the township’s Board of Supervisors. The township is in a rural area and has a population of about 3,200. It employs three full-time workers and one part-time worker in the office, and six on the road crew. The township building has no security camera, but there is a panic button that links to 911, according to Konrath....."
Fire spread all the way to New Jersey:
"Before New Jersey murders, two brothers and troubled business ties" by Tyler Pager, Annie Correal and Ashley Southall November 29, 2018
The lives of the two brothers had always been intertwined. Paul and Keith Caneiro, born just a year apart, created businesses together, moved to the New Jersey suburbs to raise families, and bought fast cars, but Thursday, in a case that has shocked a quiet community with its grisly details, Paul J. Caneiro, the older of the two, was charged with killing his brother, his sister-in-law, and their two young children and setting fire to their $1.6 million home just days before Thanksgiving.
Caneiro, 51, went to his brother’s home in upscale Colts Neck, N.J., in the early hours of Nov. 20, armed with a gun and knife, a complaint charged. After the family was dead, he set fire to the house to try to conceal evidence, Christopher J. Gramiccioni, the Monmouth County prosecutor, said in announcing the charges.
He told police the solar panels caught fire.
“This one is the most brutal case that I’ve seen in my experience here,” Gramiccioni said.
Caneiro’s lawyer, Robert A. Honecker Jr., could not immediately be reached for comment.
Caneiro had previously been charged with dousing his own home with gasoline, about 12 miles away in Ocean Township, and setting it on fire the same day that his brother, 50-year-old Keith M. Caneiro, was found dead of multiple gunshot wounds outside his burning home. Officials said they believed the motive was “financial” and are probing the brothers’ business ventures and financial dealings as part of the investigation.
Unlike California!
The Caneiro brothers came from modest beginnings in New York City and together rode the Internet boom to affluence, but their entwined relationship had begun to unravel in recent years, friends said in interviews.....
Like I give a goddamn about elite family squabbles regarding a working-class family with immigrant roots.
--more--"
The brother simply used his company to exterminate a pest who provided services to clients such as Citibank, Prudential, and Ogilvy & Mather, according to a website that has been taken down.
I'm sure there is nothing but junk to be found if they investigate.
Related:
"The massive gridlock over four days and part of a fifth in September 2013 mushroomed into a scandal dubbed ‘‘Bridgegate’’ that dragged down former New Jersey governor Chris Christie’s presidential aspirations and, Christie later conceded, played a role in then-Republican nominee Donald Trump’s decision not to name him as his running mate......"
Yeah, right.
The real reason was because Christie prosecuted Kushner's father!
Then they used him up and tossed him aside like a piece of trash.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Three Philippine police officers convicted in a drug war killing
South Korean court orders Mitsubishi of Japan to pay for forced wartime labor
At least the Japanese Cabinet approved their climate-change plan.
Unlike the French:
"French President Emmanuel Macron is trying to defuse protests over rising fuel taxes by explaining his plans to wean the country off fossil fuels and promising to shift out of cheap nuclear energy more slowly. After days of sometimes violent protests over high energy prices, Macron stuck to the small tax increases on gasoline and fuel that had prompted the popular anger, but he proposed a mechanism to regularly review the tax when global oil prices are rising. Macron insisted he will show ‘‘no weakness’’ toward troublemakers who used the protests to damage businesses and clash with police — including in the heart of Paris, on the famous Champs-Elysees avenue.‘‘I don’t confuse thugs with fellow citizens who want to send out a message. I feel understanding for these fellow citizens but I will not indulge those who want destruction and disorder,’’ he said....."
Claims he is neutral, like in Sudan:
"A four-year field investigation by a Britain-based monitoring group has found that South Sudan’s neighbors, Uganda in particular, circumvented arms embargoes on the war-torn country, funneling European weaponry to armies on both sides of its civil war, which has displaced millions and resulted in an estimated 383,000 deaths....."
Reminds me of Yemen, and they got the weapons from European countries then sent them by boat from Somalia.
Greek high school unrest amid fears of far-right resurgence
You either participate in democracy the right way, or you don't at all:
"Public school students and parents are suing Rhode Island’s governor and education officials in federal court, saying the state fails to prepare young people to fully participate in civic life. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, asks the court to confirm the right of students to a civics education. Musah Mohammed Sesay, a plaintiff and senior in Providence, said he hasn’t been exposed to even the basics of how to participate in democratic institutions (AP)."
They took on the case just to please him in the wake of the clash between Russia and Ukraine.
Maybe a new trade relationship will be born, 'eh?
China halts work by team that claimed to have made the world’s first gene-edited babies
The work now poses risks, but not when it was we$tern $cientists doing it.
"A Chinese researcher claims that he helped make the world’s first genetically edited babies , twin girls whose DNA he said he altered with a powerful new tool capable of rewriting the very blueprint of life. If true, it would be a profound leap of science and ethics. A US scientist said he took part in the work in China, but this kind of gene editing is banned in the United States because the DNA changes can pass to future generations and it risks harming other genes. Many mainstream scientists think it’s too unsafe to try, and some denounced the Chinese report as human experimentation....."
Because they are outsiders who are going to the dogs and must be blocked.
"India will focus on boosting its exports to the United States and other global markets as Chinese shipments become unattractive amid a trade war between the world’s biggest economies, the country’s trade minister said. New Delhi is focusing on items like auto parts, chemicals, and electrical equipment after the United States and China slapped reciprocal duties on each other’s goods, minister Suresh Prabhu said. India’s share of global merchandise exports is 1.7 percent, compared with China’s 12.8 percent. “The ongoing trade tensions between the US and China may have positive impact,” Prabhu said. The long-term strategy is to focus on enhancing manufacturing capabilities, he said. With President Trump expected to go ahead with another round of tariffs on $200 billion of imports from China in January, India looks to gain. Southeast Asia is already seeing a boom in foreign direct investment as the trade war prompts companies to shift production to the region. The rising tensions could derail established trade orders like the World Trade Organization and will hurt smaller nations, Prabhu said. “This is not a welcome development for sustaining a free and fair trade,” he said."
Related: Black Saturday
Also see: India urged to abandon plans to recover body of American
He was an invader killed by his own arrogance, and he should have stayed on Sri Lanka.
Of course, when it comes to the southern US border it's a different story:
Tension at migrant caravan camp after Mexico border clash
The fact that Fox is flogging it is suspicious, and whether it be funded by the left or right it is still the same Zionist crew and interests funneling the debate.
As shutdown looms, Trump and GOP leaders discuss border wall
Border camp for migrant children has ‘dangerously low’ staffing
I'm sure they have a room for Jared:
"His father-in-law labeled Mexicans as rapists. But Jared Kushner just won Mexico’s highest honor" by Elisabeth Malkin New York Times November 29, 2018
MEXICO CITY — The outgoing president of Mexico had expected to end his troubled term on a positive note — signing a new free-trade deal with the United States and Canada on Friday. Now even that moment of triumph has gone awry.
An announcement that President Enrique Peña Nieto would bestow Mexico’s highest honor for foreigners to Jared Kushner, son-in-law of President Trump, for his role in pushing through the trade pact has incited fury in Mexico, where anger and resentment toward Trump are intense.
The Foreign Ministry announced the recipient of the award, the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle, on Tuesday. The incredulity and outrage began to spread almost immediately.
“In Enrique’s defense, the recognition of Kushner has succeeded in doing something we all thought impossible — THE UNION OF THIS COUNTRY against the contempt shown by this decision,” Javier Risco, a radio announcer, said on Twitter.
The Aztec Eagle honors non-Mexicans for their service to the country. Once Kushner is decorated, he will be in the company of Queen Elizabeth II, King Philip VI of Spain, Nelson Mandela, Bill and Melinda Gates, Gabriel García Márquez, historians, scientists, and a rock star philanthropist, Bono.
The president, who will present the award this week on the sidelines of the Group of 20 meeting in Buenos Aires, leaves office Saturday. His success in pushing through economic changes was overwhelmed by widespread corruption and a surge in violence.
In comments to reporters Tuesday, Peña Nieto called Kushner “a great ally” of Mexico who had “truly contributed to reaching this agreement.”
Practically nobody else appeared to see it that way.
Decorating Kushner was viewed as an endorsement of Trump, who began his presidential campaign by insulting Mexican immigrants and calling for the United States to build a wall along the 2,000-mile border — a demand he has been repeating this week during budget negotiations.
“Kushner is the son-in-law of someone who called Mexicans ‘murderers and rapists,’ ” Enrique Krauze, a historian, wrote on Twitter. “Giving him the Aztec Eagle is a supreme attitude of humiliation and cowardice.”
--more--"
Related:
"A Mexican restaurant in Rhode Island is getting backlash for its sale of T-shirts that it says advocated impeaching President Donald Trump. Wendy Carr, owner of Amigos in Westerly, says the business sold shirts with the logo, “86 45,” printed on the back to raise money for political candidates. The restaurant staff wore the shirts on Election Day. Carr says “86” means to get rid of or replace an order in restaurant lingo. Carr says the shirts won’t be sold or worn anymore....."
They should have come in through Vermont:
"Vermont delegation worried by Border Patrol checkpoint plans" by Wilson Ring Associated Press November 28, 2018
MONTPELIER — The three members of the Vermont congressional delegation said Tuesday that they were concerned by a US Border Patrol plan to set up immigration checkpoints in the interior of the state, far from the Canadian border.
In a statement, US Senators Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, and independent Bernie Sanders, and Democratic US Representative Peter Welch said that they appreciated the work the Border Patrol does to stop dangerous criminal behavior on the border, but that they don’t think checkpoints would make Vermont or the United States safer. Rather, they say, the checkpoints would cause needless delays for travelers and hinder commerce between Vermont and Canada.
The checkpoints are what bloggers like me and others warned about years ago, they were something that came out of the Patriot Act and renewal, and NOW it is a concern!
‘‘Moreover, we are concerned these interior checkpoints may result in warrantless searches that violate the constitutionally protected Fourth Amendment right to privacy for everyone in our country and will instill fear in our immigrant communities — regardless of an individual’s immigration status,’’ the statement said. ‘‘We believe that inside our country the phrase ‘show me your papers’ does not belong in the United States of America.’’
UNEFFING REAL!
I have to show ID all the time in this country!
What this tells you is the politicians are more concerned about giving illegal, undocumented, and unauthorized migrants rights than safeguarding those of its citizens. Wow!
The regional Border Patrol headquarters in Swanton occasionally sets up such checkpoints in New Hampshire and New York.
Michael McCarthy, a Customs and Border Protection spokesman, pointed out that the US Supreme Court has affirmed the authority for the Border Patrol to stop motorists at checkpoints away from the border.
A New Hampshire judge ruled in May that the checkpoints violated the state and federal constitutions. He suppressed evidence against more than a dozen people who were charged with drug possession after being stopped and searched by agents of Customs and Border Protection, which includes the Border Patrol, in 2017.
In an e-mail after the news release was issued, Leahy spokesman David Carle said the Border Patrol hadn’t announced its plans for the Vermont checkpoints, but delegation staff members had been briefed.
Federal law allows the Border Patrol to set up checkpoints within 100 miles of the international border. Leahy, Sanders, and Welch have introduced legislation in the two chambers that would reduce that zone to 25 miles.
OI love the vagaries. Federal law allows, huh?
When, and under who?
Also in May, American Civil Liberties Union affiliates in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont sued the federal government to get a clearer picture of immigration enforcement actions since the Trump administration took office.
‘‘Vermonters know that Border Patrol checkpoints offend everything it means to live a free society, where people going about their daily business shouldn’t have to answer to armed federal agents,’’ said James Lyall of the Vermont ACLU.....
--more--"
Good thing MS-13 doesn't exist.
Also see:
"The family of a 30-year-old Vermont mother whose death notice detailing her long struggle with opioid addiction gained national attention last month is suing Springfield police in an attempt to force the release of information about her final days. The notice gained traction online; it was shared on Twitter by both New Hampshire senators, the US Food and Drug Administration commissioner, and Ivanka Trump, the president’s adviser and daughter....."
Ivanka even sent an Email signed Lady Trumpington, but it was kept private.
The whole thing has ruffled the Great Trumpkin and his Potemkin presidency, but he is still the
front runner for 2020 (unless Jerry Springer runs).
"US Attorney Andrew E. Lelling has sent letters to “a number of medical professionals” alerting them that their opioid prescribing practices “have been identified as a source of concern.”
You can go on methadone, but wait until you get the bill.
Related:
Customers spent more than $2 million in first week of Mass. recreational marijuana sales
It's a sensation of smells coming out there.
For one Leicester farm, the pot shop is standing in the way of Christmas sales
Bah humbug!
"Lowell police have identified the woman who allegedly stole Christmas ornaments from a local residence Sunday, authorities said. In a statement, cops identified the suspect as Luz Matos-Centeno, 44, who they said also soured the holiday season last year with a similar theft. Sunday’s caper occurred at an Endicott Street residence, and video surveillance footage allegedly linked Matos-Centeno, of Lowell, to the crime. She “was identified by a home security video and her vehicle that was seen leaving Endicott Street,” the released said. “Both officers recalled a similar theft that occurred last year involving Luz Matos-Centeno stealing an ornament that was returned to the victim. The victim declined to press charges,” but after Sunday’s theft, police paid Matos-Centeno a visit. “The officers recovered the stolen items from Endicott Street as well as other items that appeared to be stolen,” the statement said. “Luz Matos-Centeno will be summonsed into Lowell District Court for Larceny of Property; Under $250 and Receiving Stolen Property; Under $250.” It wasn’t known whether Matos-Centeno had hired a lawyer. "
They got their Grinch, and you would think we were Mississippi!
Didn't even get you a card.
Boston school building plan raises questions, skepticism
The big changes in store are stirring debate.
"A 16-year-old boy who allegedly fired shots at multiple people in Roxbury Tuesday night was arrested with a loaded gun after he led police on a brief foot chase, officials said. The teenager, a Mattapan resident, was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, unlawful possession of a loaded firearm, discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling, and assault by means of a dangerous weapon, Boston police said in a statement Wednesday. Officers responded to the area of 15-39 Dabney St. in Roxbury around 11:15 p.m. after receiving a report of shots fired, police said. The victims, who did not report any injuries, met the officers and gave them a description of the shooter. Police did not say whether the victims and the suspect knew each other. Officers searched the surrounding area and found a teen who matched the given description. He was walking with his right arm pinned to his side, police said, suggesting that he may have been carrying a gun. When the officers approached him, the teen ran. The officers chased after him for about half a mile and arrested him after the brief pursuit in the area of 120 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. He was carrying a gun loaded with one round of live ammunition in one of his front pockets, police said. He was expected to be arraigned in Boston Juvenile Court, police said."
After the shootout, he fled in his New Balance sneakers before putting the brakes on in a McDonald’s.
"Police responded to the Harrington Elementary School in Chelmsford Wednesday morning after a first-grader brought a bullet to show to his classmates, officials said. A school resource officer met with the student and school administrators around 10:30 a.m. after students reported that one of their classmates had a bullet on him, Chelmsford police said in a press release. “I commend the students for reporting this incident quickly,” Chief James Spinney said, according to the release. “It’s important to emphasize that there was never any danger to students or staff today, and that school faculty and administrators have handled this effectively.” The student had brought the .45-caliber bullet from home after taking it from his parents, Deputy Police Chief Dan Ahern said. “The bullet was immediately confiscated from the student, and administrators are addressing the matter according to the district’s Code of Conduct,” according to the release. School officials were not immediately available for comment."
Also see:
State transit boss blasts commuter rail for recent ‘unacceptable issues’
The Orange Line is old and ridership is dropping . . . except on the Blue Line.
Walsh, firefighters reach agreement
That was after they had to be rescued, and it's all downhill after that:
"Former candidate for Boston City Council pleads guilty in real estate swindles" by Danny McDonald Globe Staff November 30, 2018
A city employee and former candidate for Boston City Council pleaded guilty this week in connection with posing as a real estate broker and swindling thousands of dollars from potential home buyers.
Cornell Mills, 44, of Roxbury, pleaded guilty to seven counts of larceny over $250, six counts of fiduciary embezzlement, one count of acting as a broker without a license, and one count of being a common and notorious thief, according to the attorney general’s office.
Is that actually a crime?
I mean, the acts themselves are but it looks like he was charged with being a bad person, too.
This society and its authorities have become completely unhinged and are now steeped in 1984-like totalitarianism.
He is expected to be sentenced in Suffolk Superior Court on Monday.
Mills, who doesn’t have a broker’s license, posed as a real estate broker and solicited potential home buyers in Boston to give him thousands of dollars. He claimed he would hold the money in escrow, pending the prospective purchases of homes, the authorities said.
In reality, according to the attorney general’s office, he had no escrow account. According to a court filing, Mills withdrew large amounts of cash and in a few instances used the funds “to pay for airline tickets and a vacation to the Caribbean.”
In 2011, Mills unsuccessfully ran for the City Council against Tito Jackson. At the time of his arraignment in April 2017, he was working as a project manager in the city’s Office of Workforce Development. A spokeswoman for the Boston Planning & Development Agency said in an e-mail on Thursday that “termination proceedings have begun” for Mills.
Mills is the son of a former state senator, Dianne Wilkerson, who was released from a federal prison in 2013 after serving a 3½-year sentence for taking bribes. She pleaded guilty in June 2010 to several counts of attempted extortion and was convicted of accepting $23,500 in bribes.....
Like mother, like son!
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The painful truth is, all politicians are bought and paid for scum.
Where were the state police anyway?
Former priest Ronald Paquin found guilty of sexually abusing boy in Maine
Related:
Pope charmed as boy climbs on stage to play
Is that ever creepy or what?
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
BREAKING OVERNIGHT:
George H. W. Bush dies at 94
Leaders react to the death of George H.W. Bush
I have a mixed reaction. I'm glad such evilness has expired from the earth; however, I'm not looking forward to the pomp and circumstance that the ma$$ media will now foist upon us regarding the great statesman from a bygone era of bipartisanship.
My printed front page gave me no clue as the earthquake in Alaska was the lead.
VA isn’t cutting checks quick enough for veterans-turned-students
What a $hock.
Companies tap into an underused but highly capable workforce
If you have an illness or handicap, you are now being called “neurodiverse,” and you can see at bottom jwho is pushing the agenda. Need to incorporate the increasingly vaccinated and addled population after all.
This #MeToo activist is focused on scientists
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Marathon bombing survivors dreaded testifying close to Tsarnaev at trial, documents say
That was a black day worth remembering.
Mount Auburn Cemetery and its chapel get a new look
How a new simulator helps scientists study whale entanglements
AG charges off-duty Springfield officer in attack on 4 black men
After ‘Whitey’ Bulger’s killing, prison warden faces removal
His last wish was not granted.
An obituary for the earth, and an opportunity to save her
He's and his indu$try are hypocritical accomplices, and the facade is literally collapsing.
Rare Great Black Hawk spotted in Maine once again
So two beavers walk into a convenience store.....
Man riding in back seat of car fatally shot in Dorchester
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Whitaker knew of fraud complaints, records show
Prosecutors say they are still weighing new charges against ex-Trump campaign chairman Manafort
"Manafort lawyer is said to have briefed Trump attorneys" by Michael S. Schmidt and Sharon LaFraniere New York Times November 27, 2018
WASHINGTON — A lawyer for Paul Manafort, the president’s onetime campaign chairman, repeatedly briefed President Trump’s lawyers on his client’s discussions with federal investigators after Manafort agreed to cooperate with the special counsel, according to one of Trump’s lawyers and two other people familiar with the conversations.
The arrangement was highly unusual and inflamed tensions with Mueller’s office when prosecutors discovered it after Manafort began cooperating two months ago, the people said. Some legal specialists speculated it was a bid by Manafort for a presidential pardon even as he worked with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, in hopes of a lighter sentence.
Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of the president’s personal lawyers, acknowledged the arrangement on Tuesday and defended it as a source of valuable insights into the special counsel’s inquiry and where it was headed. Such information could help shape a legal defense strategy, and it also appeared to give Trump and his legal advisers ammunition in their public relations effort against the special counsel’s office.....
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A second straight destructive Atlantic hurricane season wraps up
Bloomberg announces $50 million to fight opioid epidemic
White officer indicted for murder in killing of black man
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Mexico begins moving caravan migrants to new shelter
They are crossing the Vermont border in search of the good life.
London court sentences Japan Airlines copilot to 10 months in prison
FDA signs off on Editas CRISPR study on patients with a rare genetic disorder
It's not good if the Chinese do it, though.
"Australian students stage school strikes over climate change inaction" New York Times November 30, 2018
MELBOURNE — As wildfires raged across the country, a heat wave again threatened the Great Barrier Reef, and a mining giant announced it would push ahead with a huge coal project, thousands of students across Australia quit school for the day on Friday to protest government inaction on climate change.
Why is it so hard to quit coal?
The students, ranging in age from 5 to 18, came from more than 200 schools to demand that the federal government block construction of the Adani Carmichael coal mine, block any new coal or gas projects, and require 100 percent renewable energy use by 2030.
“I am here because I am terrified,” Harriet O’Shea Carre, 14, told a crowd of thousands of student marchers outside the Old Treasury Building in Melbourne. Protesters spilled out onto the road with signs saying “Civil disobedience requires no permission slip” and “Don’t be a fossil fool.”
O’Shea Carre, an organizer of the march and a student from Castlemaine Steiner School in Muckleford, about 70 miles northwest of Melbourne, predicted dire consequences if the government failed to act on climate change.
“I cannot bear the thought of losing the people that I love, when it could have been stopped,” she said of climate change. “And it can be stopped, but not for much longer.”
Why aren't you protesting a more immediate and contributing factor, the endless wars your government is enabling?
What the picking up of this article tells you is the kids are being manipulated by higher powers and forces, propagandized by the ejewkhazional $y$tem, and organized by those who set up controlled opposition forces to provide the illusion of grass roots activism and debate.
In Melbourne and Sydney, organizers estimated that about 8,000 students participated, and hundreds more joined the effort in other cities and towns, and earlier this week, an estimated 1,700 students protested in other parts of the country, including more than 200 who showed up at Parliament House in Canberra, the capital, to demand answers from Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
On Monday, Morrison told senators that he did not condone the strike, because students should focus on “more learning” and “less activism.” He said he did not support “schools being turned into parliaments.”
The resources minister, Matt Canavan, was more pointed, saying students “don’t learn anything” by marching.
Sure they do. They come into contact with tear-gassing security forces that shred the illusion of the Free West.
“I want kids to be at school to learn about how you build a mine, how you do geology, how you drill for oil and gas,” he told the local news media.
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The letters are pouring in as the climate klaxon sounds, and you know what i$ the $olution:
"A broad coalition of organized labor, environmental advocates, business groups, and private companies is launching a lobbying effort to introduce congestion tolls in Manhattan. The alliance, known as the Fix Our Transit coalition, was created to push state lawmakers to approve the tolls, which would be levied on vehicles entering the busiest parts of Manhattan, as a way to raise money for New York City’s deteriorating subways and transit system. The coalition announced its effort Wednesday. Groups signing on include several chambers of commerce, labor unions like the AFL-CIO, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the League of Conservation Voters, several members of the clergy, and companies including Uber, Lyft, and Brooklyn Brewery. The group says it will work in the coming months to ‘‘put lawmakers on notice’’ about the need to pass congestion tolling. The involvement of so many organizations — including some that regularly disagree on other issues — reflects the momentum behind congestion tolling, an idea that until recently was considered a legislative long shot. Congestion tolls are likely to be the topic of significant debate when lawmakers return to Albany for the 2019 session in January. Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo supports the idea."
Looks like extortion and price gouging to me, it won't help tourism in the city, and where has all the money gone all these years?
Speaking of congestion-inducing traffic:
Uber supports charging more tolls to reduce traffic in Boston
Andrew Salzberg, the head of transportation policy for Uber, says we need to put a price on road use and allow that new revenue to fund mass transit.
Readers, he is part of the problem!!!
Related:
Uber fined nearly $1.2m by Britain and Dutch authorities
The fines are reparations for WWII deportations.
That's the gamble they took.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
"House Democrats’ 1st bill aims for sweeping reforms" by Lisa Mascaro Associated Press December 01, 2018
WASHINGTON — House Democrats on Friday unveiled more details of their first bill for the new Congress, a good-government package that would limit big money in politics, make it easier for citizens to vote, and require presidents to disclose their tax returns.
PFFFFFT!
The legislation, called H.R. 1, sets the tone for Democrats as they take the majority in January, though prospects for passage are murky. Republicans will still be in charge of the Senate and the White House, and it’s unlikely they’ll sign off on some of the proposals, which are still in the works.
They really don't want to retain the majority in 2020, do they?
Still, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi voiced optimism about prospects for the legislation.
She is demented and nuts!
The bill would also would create a Supreme Court ethics code.
(Blog editor simply shakes head at their inability to get over losses and the vindictiveness that now drives Democrats)
Several incoming Democratic representatives joined Pelosi and the bill’s primary author, Representative John Sarbanes, Democrat of Maryland, in promoting the package. They said that tackling ethics and transparency out of the gate in 2019 could help with other priorities such as expanding access to affordable health care and immigration reform.
Thank God the Republicans increased their majority in the Senate and control the White House.
‘‘We have to have a government voters can trust, and this is the first step to building a government they can trust,’’ said Democrat Veronica Escobar, a representative-elect from Texas.
HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!
We lost that a long time ago, and the Obama corruption over at the DoJ and FBI sealed its fate. This government is never to be trusted again. The American people have been and are the most lied to people on the face of the planet, by far, no matter what letter is after the leader or party name!
Sarbanes hopes to have the legislation ready for the first day of the next Congress, Jan. 3. Much of it will be modeled on legislation that he and more than 160 House Democrats introduced in May.
That resolution called for all states to establish independent redistricting commissions to draw the boundaries for future congressional districts, a move designed to reduce partisan gerrymandering that would also take power away from dozens of legislatures around the country.
‘‘Whether that’s the path we will take, we’ll see,’’ Sarbanes said.
That doesn't look like a very good one if you are removing power from the hands of the locals with a federal power grab to rig votes with fraud.
With many of the details yet to be worked out, Democrats kept the focus Friday on telling Americans they heard their desire in the election for a federal government that is more open, transparent, and ethical.
‘‘What we heard from the American public is that they didn’t want to just send us here to resist and to only work on oversight,’’ said Representative-elect Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. ‘‘They wanted to make sure that we were insisting on furthering a set of values. For us, it is a priority to make sure we are restoring hope in our democracy.’’
WTF?
I was told it is still intact!
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