"6 arrested in scheme to kill David Ortiz" by Maria Cramer and Michael Levenson Globe Staff, June 12, 2019
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Six people, including the alleged gunman, have been arrested and accused of attempting to kill David Ortiz to collect an $8,000 bounty, authorities in the Dominican Republic said Wednesday, as the retired baseball star remained in intensive care in Boston from a single gunshot wound to the back.
At a press conference Wednesday, Ney Aldrin Bautista Almonte, director of the Dominican National Police, and Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez Sanchez said the hitmen had been offered 400,000 Dominican pesos, or roughly $7,800, to kill Ortiz, a native of the Caribbean nation.
Almonte said authorities are continuing to investigate and have not determined who ordered the shooting and what the motive was. All six suspects are being interrogated by police, he said.
As Ortiz continued his recovery from two surgeries to repair damage to his intestines and liver, new details of the brazen ambush, carried out Sunday night at a crowded nightclub in Santo Domingo, revealed an orchestrated hit against one of the country’s most beloved figures.
Investigators believe the attack involved multiple people who arrived in two cars and on a motorcycle and were seen by witnesses meeting earlier on Sunday.
Authorities identified a seventh man who was allegedly involved in the attack as Luis Alfredo Riva Clase, also known as “the Surgeon,” and urged him to turn himself in. They named the gunman as Rolfi Ferreras Cruz .
Another alleged conspirator, Oliver Moises Mirabal Acosta, was one of several men accused of participating in the execution of at least four people in January 2013 in “El Pentagono,” a drug-dealing area in the town of Las Palmas de Herrera, according to the Dominican newspaper Listin Diario.
Those 2013 killings were linked, the newspaper said, to a drug trafficking gang.
On Wednesday, Almonte held up the black handgun allegedly used to shoot Ortiz at close range and showed security camera footage of the shooting and its chaotic aftermath.
Documents filed by the prosecution and obtained by the Globe lay out a timeline that began late Sunday afternoon in the Las Caobas neighborhood of Santo Domingo, where a friend saw Eddy Vladimir Feliz Garcia, 23, talking to a group of people hanging out in two silver-gray cars in a parking lot. Behind the wheel of one of the cars was Acosta, known as “Papi,” the documents say.
Later that Sunday night, witnesses saw two similarly colored cars, a Kia and a Hyundai, parked on a street near the Dial Bar and Lounge, where Ortiz was sitting on the patio with friends. Garcia was on a motorcycle next to the cars, with a man riding on back.
Garcia and the man got off the motorcycle and drove around the block in the Kia. When they returned minutes later, the witnesses say, Garcia and the man got back on the motorcycle.
Moments later, witnesses near the Dial Bar saw a man jump off a motorcycle and walk up to Ortiz.
“Without saying a word, [the gunman] fired a gun,” the documents say.
Witnesses said the shooter tried to get back on the motorcycle, but fled when people surrounded the bike.
Garcia sped off, but lost control of the motorcycle. He fell, and was beaten and bloodied by a group of onlookers, prosecutors wrote, and was soon arrested. The gunman, meanwhile, kept running with the gun in his hand and “managed to escape,” the report states.
Afterward, police conducted “an exhaustive investigation” and examined video surveillance that revealed license plates that were linked back to the suspects believed to be involved in the shooting.
Garcia has been charged with being an accomplice to attempted murder and made an initial court appearance Tuesday night. His lawyer has asserted he was merely a motorcycle taxi driver who had no idea he was driving a gunman.
Garcia picked up the fare “in good faith,” his lawyer said, and grew up worshiping Ortiz.
Acosta was arrested Tuesday night in Mao, about three hours north of Santo Domingo. It wasn’t immediately clear what he’s being charged with.
Both the attorney general and the National Police director spoke of Ortiz as an important national figure, with Almonte asking for prayers for the health of “our Dominican Big Papi, our Big Papi of Boston, our Big Papi of the world.”
In Boston, Ortiz remained at Massachusetts General Hospital after undergoing surgery there and in the Dominican.
Yeah, “he’s fine.”
Dominican authorities are eager to conclude the investigation because of the impact the shooting may have on tourism, the source said.
Speak of the devil, and not a word in my Globe.
At Fenway Park, Ortiz’s former teammates were heartened to learn of his progress.....
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The concern is the “bad image [and] international shame,” and yet he is still front page news:
"The interrogation of the prisoners underscored the widening scope of the investigation — with more than 12 people now implicated — as Dominican police scramble to determine who ordered the killing of one of the country’s most revered sports figures, and why....."
I'm sorry he was shot, but I couldn't care less about the who and why, and in retrospect, they are singing the Blues in Bo$ton.
[flip to below fold]
No quick fix on Red Line
I'm told “safety is their first priority and it’s going to be like this for a while, so people are going to start to get angry and more annoyed and the silver lining is that it may be finally getting through that we need to get serious about improving and upgrading the system.”
I may be going a bit off track here, but I'm now $u$picious of these derailments.
"Baker says the T is heading in the ‘right direction.’ To critics, that’s ‘a little bit baffling’" by Matt Stout Globe Staff, June 12, 2019
The crippling derailment of a Red Line car this week has refueled the debate over how to best fund a transit agency hobbled by years of neglect and decay, but it’s also laid bare a key difference in how Governor Charlie Baker, Democrats, and some business leaders view a solution: As Baker defends his administration’s plans to funnel billions in borrowed money into the T in the coming years, others question the speed, and depth, of the investment as trains derail and a creaky system continues struggling to move people around.
House leaders said Wednesday they’re committed to taking up a tax package in the coming months to fund transportation projects — a need House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo said was “highlighted by recent and unacceptable failures of our transportation system.”
Meanwhile, other elected officials said the T is past the time of tipping points.
It is “time to act.”
You $ee why I now have $u$picion$?
In any event, they are using a tragedy to advance an agenda and after having seen this problem-reaction-solution situation time and again from government and the pre$$, yeah, this does stink.
After the winter of 2015 paralyzed the T, Baker all but assumed control of the quasi-public agency, creating a board of his own appointees to oversee and tighten its finances, but he’s rejected calls to raise taxes and inject the system with significant new revenue, saying the T has the money to remold the system.
Yeah, but we are f***ed either way. The choice is between raising taxes or borrowing more money.
The $875 million the T spent on capital projects last fiscal year was the most ever, and it’s set a goal of $1.4 billion in capital spending next year. The agency’s planned $8 billion, five-year capital program is, according to Baker, the T’s largest “by a mile,” all with an eye toward cutting down its backlog of repairs by 2032.
2032?!!!!!!
Hundreds of new Orange Line and Red Line cars are also in the queue, with the first of 152 new Orange Line cars expected to go into service this summer. The fleet is slated to be replaced by 2022, and Red Line vehicles will start being tested next year, with the goal of swapping out all of that line’s decades-old cars by 2023.
A new $218 million signal system is also slated to be installed on both lines by 2022.
Now wait for the delay.
There are also the logistical limitations to ramping up improvement projects. Beyond hiring enough people for the work, T officials have argued there are only so many hours available between when service ends one day and starts the next. To accelerate the work could mean committing to extended service shutdowns, further affecting the riding public.
“We can’t do everything at once,” MBTA general manager Steve Poftak said. “We are operating a system in a major metropolitan area that is very dependent on the system. We’re operating at all hours.
“I do think it’s important to emphasize that these are not conceptual plans,” he added of the T’s investments. “These are going to result in real tangible progress for the MBTA,” but even some of the planned improvements have run into problems. The debut of the new Orange Line cars has repeatedly been delayed, and a new automated fare collection system that promises to speed up service is also behind schedule. Last month, the T revised its price tag for fully upgrading the system — known as the state-of-good-repair backlog — from $7.3 billion up to $10 billion.
Just don't fall asleep on the Orange Line or the cops will give you a beating and then cover it up.
MBTA fares are also slated to rise by nearly 6 percent on July 1. Add in this week’s delay-inducing derailment, and the frustration among strap-hangers and politicians is palpable.
A change.org petition surfaced Wednesday, calling for a freeze on fare hikes and a federal probe into the T.
There is a “public distrust in the system.”
Legislators moved toward one potential solution Wednesday by overwhelmingly advancing a constitutional amendment, 147-48, that would impose an additional tax on people making $1 million or more. Revenue from the “millionaires tax” would go toward education and transportation improvements.
The vote, however, is only one step toward the amendment potentially appearing on the 2022 ballot, and if approved by voters, it wouldn’t take effect until 2023.
In a statement, DeLeo framed the plan to tackle “short-term funding” for transportation through a separate tax package this year as a way to buttress what the tax on high earners could ultimately provide.
“Clearly the last week has shown that some form of revenue for transportation projects is needed on a much earlier schedule,” said Representative William M. Straus, the House chairman of the transportation committee. “The seriousness of what we’ve seen . . . calls out for this.”
Senate President Karen E. Spilka said in a statement the Senate is trying to find a “consensus on what must be done and how we pay for it.”
Can you smell that exhaust?
There are many, including in the business community, who say investment in the T’s needs should be accelerated now.
Somerville Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone, a Democrat who this week said the “whole system’s been derailed,” said the T has made noticeable progress under Baker, including by putting transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack and Poftak at the top of the agency.
“We have smart people in place. We have people who get it. What’s bewildering to me is, where’s the sense of urgency?” he said. “I don’t disagree that we’re heading in the right direction. But it’s certainly not at the pace and speed that is needed.”
Time to hit the brakes on any money grab!
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They don't even have a plan:
"Beacon Hill leaders don’t have a plan yet to tackle transportation crisis" by Matt Stout Globe Staff, May 15, 2019
Expletive-inducing gridlock on I-93. Unreliable MBTA trains. Deteriorating bridges and roadways. The list of transportation problems in Massachusetts is longer than most commutes, but nearly five months into Beacon Hill’s legislative session, none of the state’s three budget proposals have included major transportation financing plans. House and Senate leaders have discussed — but have yet to offer — a legislative blueprin, and Governor Charlie Baker has signaled he’s unlikely to back raising taxes for transportation priorities.
Hmmmmmmmmm!
NOW they are con$idering it!
Not like the trains haven't been derailing for quite some time now!
What many consider a looming transportation crisis is lacking something crucial: a road map from state leaders to address it.
Looming?
According to the Globe reporting, it's here!
Asked Monday whether the state needed an omnibus transportation financing bill, Baker indicated his administration is focused on something else: a transportation bond bill, where projects are funded across several years by borrowing money. Such bond bills, however, often do not rely on generating new revenues, which lawmakers have signalled an interest in pursuing.
So we all have to pay debt $ervice intere$t payments to riches and banks, great!
The legislation’s details are unclear, and Baker said he plans to file it within one to two months to lay out “how we would deal with transportation spending over the course of the next five years.”
I gue$$ he will be filing a lot quicker now.
Taken together, their comments leave a lot of guesswork about what type of wider legislation will emerge and when. Congestion pricing and expanding what roadways are tolled have been floated as ideas to ease traffic. Some lawmakers have favored hiking fees on ride-hailing companies such as Uber or Lyft to generate funds.
Others, like Representative William M. Straus, House chairman of the Committee on Transportation, favor raising the gas tax, which lawmakers did in 2013 under their last major transportation financing bill. That legislation also tied future gas tax increases to inflation, but voters struck down that specific provision the next year.
Yeah, who cares what voters say -- especially when the bu$ine$$ community is weighing in!
“In order to get the roads and bridges and the transit system to a state of good repair . . . it’s very hard to build that kind of financing without looking at the gas tax,” Straus said last week, but in a sign of the lack of consensus about the issue, House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo said that Monday was “the first I’ve heard” of Straus’ comments on a gas tax.
Is it, Bob?
Braintree Mayor Joseph Sullivan, a member of the MassDOT board and a former state representative, said among the lawmakers he’s spoken to, there’s a “serious focus” on getting a plan in place by the fall.....
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"MBTA repair spending climbs, but things are moving slower than expected" by Adam Vaccaro Globe Staff, May 6, 2019
The MBTA’s quest to repair and replace its worn-out infrastructure will take longer than previously thought to kick into high gear, but officials still expect to meet a goal to fully fix the system by 2032.
Look at this, now it is a great big adventure, a QUEST that will take 12 years!!
The T is now projected to spend about $950 million this fiscal year on capital projects, like new vehicles, track work, and the Green Line extension — about $50 million less than its $1 billion goal. About $775 million of that total will go toward repair and modernization work.
Repair spending by the T is still up more than $50 million from the previous fiscal year, but officials acknowledged Monday that they’re still struggling to tackle all the projects they want to take on.
“We are obviously disappointed not to have reached the very ambitious goal we set, but we’re seeing a very significant increase here,” MBTA general manager Steve Poftak said.
In 2017, the MBTA pledged to eliminate its lengthy repair backlog within 15 years. The goal was to increase spending steadily but aggressively until the 2023 fiscal year, at which point the agency would begin spending about $1.4 billion a year until knocking out the to-do list in 2032.
Poftak said the T still expects to meet the 2032 goal, but the agency will take longer to reach the highest levels of spending, and when it does, in fiscal 2024, it will instead need to spend about $1.5 billion a year to stay on schedule.
Better pray there is no recession.
Years after Governor Charlie Baker said the T should make fixing the existing system a priority, Poftak said the agency is still lacking the “capacity” to do so quickly. He said the T must hire dozens of new employees to work on the myriad repair projects, as well as a new executive to keep an eye on the capital spending across 22 MBTA departments. Also, he said, the agency must develop strategies to perform repair work without overly inconveniencing riders.
Related: The MBTA is hiring for two social media jobs — and one pays $120,000
Pfffft!
They are more worried about their IMAGE and $taffing the place for with political patronage!
“We’ve identified staffing as one issue, and we’re working on that,” Poftak said. “Also, it’s a complicated piece of work to continue running the system as much as we can while fixing it. If we could do multi-year shutdowns of the system, it would make it a lot easier, but we have to fit in a lot of these repairs around a system that’s functioning.”
Although the T’s spending plans are fully funded for about five years, it’s not clear how the agency expects to increase its repair spending to $1.5 billion a year, a figure that doesn’t include any future expansion projects that would require even greater capital spending.
Some civic groups, such as the business organization A Better City, have said the T should receive more state funding to fix the system. In a recent report, the group argued that even reaching the prior goal of spending $1.4 billion a year may require the MBTA to borrow so much money that the debt payments would affect funding for daily transit operations, a separate budget from the capital projects that officials have sought to keep low.
It's another money grab for the u$ual rea$ons.
Baker on Monday declined to say how the T would afford such big payments in the future, and instead said the agency’s biggest challenge is coming up with a strategy to spend the money it has in place.
“The T’s current problem is not the availability of resources,” Baker said. “And I’ve said this many times. The T’s current problem is being able to actually organize and spend the money that’s been made available to them.”
Baker praised the T for its plan to hire the new capital workers to help improve the system.
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"Equipment problems hamper key commuter rail safety project" by Adam Vaccaro Globe Staff, April 29, 2019
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officials are worried the agency will miss a key deadline to install a federally required safety system on the commuter rail, with testing of the long-planned system delayed by an equipment issue.
By this point, I would think they would expect delays. It seems to SOP.
The new positive train control system, known as PTC, uses a high-tech network to ensure trains don’t collide. The $459 million project was supposed to be fully installed and operational by the end of next year, but hardware and software problems could threaten that timeline, officials told the MBTA’s governing board Monday.
The key problem is faulty equipment, built by the international conglomerate Siemens, a subcontractor on the project, that is designed to relay information about train locations and speeds.
I a$$ume they will be clawing back the tax breaks and $ub$idies?
“We are concerned it might impact the schedule,” MBTA general manager Steve Poftak said. “Right now we are still on schedule to complete PTC on time, but obviously we need to solve this problem.”
More than a decade ago, the Federal Railroad Administration required commuter rail systems across the country to install PTC systems to prevent railroad collisions. Most transit agencies, including the MBTA, have struggled to meet earlier deadlines and have received extensions, but further delay would be a setback for the MBTA, which has stressed that it needs to improve its record on completing major infrastructure projects. Hiccups with equipment installed by a subcontractor have also delayed the roll-out of new Orange Line trains, another highly anticipated project.
Other agencies have faced struggles with Siemens equipment. Board members at New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority have threatened to cut off business to the company because of similar problems, and Siemens has issued two nationwide recalls related to the hardware problem in recent months.
The FRA said federal officials have been in regular contact with Siemens about the problem, and will soon visit a Siemens factory “to help oversee the ongoing corrective actions.”
The southern side of the commuter rail seems to be less of an issue because it has different signaling equipment and requires less rigorous testing, the MBTA said, but even minor software updates could cause delays because Siemens is taking months to process them. The MBTA recently received Siemens equipment back from recall, and so far the results have not been promising.
Does anyone make $oftware that works for anything other than bank ATMs?
“We had hoped today to be able to stand in front of you and say, ‘after two recalls, we’ve put the equipment back on the vehicles and it appears the root cause has been found and fixed,’ ” said Karen Antion, the MBTA’s project manager. “But the data is not positive ... the performance is inconsistent and it’s not in compliance with the specifications.”
MBTA chairman Joseph Aiello said the news was very disappointing and warned Siemens that the MBTA will act if the problems are not fixed. “If anybody thinks we’re going to play second fiddle to New York . . . we will not be shy about exercising our rights,” he said.....
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Also see: Commuters in Mattapan welcome new Blue Hill Avenue rail station
Related: “Infrastructure Week,” an annual conference, of sorts, is sponsored by business and labor interests. Think Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, but for lobbyists and the people they court in the federal government. The conference now spans the country — yes, there are even events in Boston, but its focal point remains D.C., close to the people who control the purse strings....."
The media was shut out from the shark talk while back above the fold today to absolve the driver, and be prepared to be stuck in traffic today.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
The Globe is seeing conspiracies everywhere!
"Trump Asserts Executive Privilege on Census Documents Ahead of House Committee Contempt Vote" by Charlie Savage and Julie Hirschfeld Davis New York Times, June 12, 2019
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Wednesday invoked executive privilege to block Congress from obtaining documents about how a citizenship question was added to the 2020 census, ahead of a House committee vote to recommend that two Cabinet secretaries be held in contempt of Congress over the matter.
Later in the day, the Democratic-controlled House Oversight Committee voted, 24-15, to advance contempt measures against Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. The vote sends the measures to the full House.
They keep flipping and flopping with this guy.
In a letter to the chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Representative Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, the Justice Department said that Trump had decided to invoke his secrecy powers because Cummings had “chosen to go forward with an unnecessary and premature contempt vote.”
While Cummings put off the committee vote for several hours to allow lawmakers to review Trump’s privilege assertion, he made it clear that he did not intend to back down, escalating the latest battle between the House and the president over the Constitution’s separation of powers.
“We must protect the integrity of the census, and we will stand up for Congress’s authority under the Constitution to conduct meaningful oversight,” Cummings said, calling the privilege claim “another example of the administration’s blanket defiance of Congress’s constitutionally mandated responsibilities.”
“This begs the question,what is being hidden?” Cummings added.
Come on, Cummings! It's one question on a form!
This is about shelling out loot while counting illegals and generating vote fraud.
Related:
"Republican lawmakers are refusing to commit to the millions of dollars sought by Democratic Governor Tom Wolf to back up his demand that Pennsylvania’s counties buttress election security by replacing their voting machines before 2020’s presidential election. Republicans who control Pennsylvania’s Legislature say that a roughly $34 billion budget counterproposal they are finalizing does not include the $15 million Wolf requested, and that they want Wolf to back off his stated intention to decertify voting machines in use last year. Republicans never agreed to require counties to replace voting machines, and helping finance the purchases is Wolf’s problem, not theirs, said Senate majority leader Jake Corman. ‘‘This was a crisis that the governor created, and he needs to resolve it,’’ Corman said. ‘‘I feel bad for the counties, because he put a huge unfunded mandate on the counties, but that’s his responsibility.’’ Wolf last year began pressing counties to buy machines with a paper-based backup, following warnings by federal authorities that Russian hackers had targeted Pennsylvania and at least 20 other states during 2016’s election. Wolf’s administration has warned lawmakers that Pennsylvania could otherwise be left as the only state — and certainly the only presidential battleground state — without voter-verifiable paper systems that allow a voter to double-check how their vote was recorded. Wolf’s office said Wednesday that the integrity of Pennsylvania’s elections ‘‘is everyone’s responsibility’’ and that it would continue pushing for lawmakers to support aid to counties. Pennsylvania is one of about a dozen states where some or all voters, until recently, have used machines that store votes electronically without printed ballots or another paper-based backup."
The machines just make it easier to fraud.
In an Oversight Committee meeting on Capitol Hill, Democrats demanded to see the deliberations behind the question, and they pointed to Trump’s declaration months ago that he intended to defy all congressional subpoenas. In the census investigation, they said, the administration had provided little more than unresponsive documents and stonewalling of critical deposition requests.
That is Nixon-era talk. Stonewall has an entirely different meaning now.
“It is indeed laughable” to say that the administration had cooperated with the panel, said Representative Stephen F. Lynch, a Massachusetts Democrat, brandishing a blacked-out page with no text visible as an example of the heavily redacted material the Commerce Department had sent. “We’ve reached our limit.”
He's a flipper.
In separate letters from the Justice Department and the Department of Commerce, administration officials maintained they had already had turned over many materials in response to the subpoena, but that they had to keep certain information confidential to protect the candor of internal and attorney-client deliberations.
The standoff was the latest move in an intensifying confrontation between House Democrats and Trump.....
The fight will end up in a lengthy court battle.
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"Trump Jr. says he’s ‘not at all’ worried about perjury charges despite Democrats’ suspicions" by Karoun Demirjian Washington Post, June 12, 2019
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump Jr. spent about three hours with the Senate Intelligence Committee Wednesday as part of its ongoing probe into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election. The president’s eldest son has been a focus of several investigations — including Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s — over his involvement in a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer promising incriminating information about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
The more they flog Russia, the less likely I am to believe them.
Democrats believe Trump Jr.’s characterization of that meeting may have been misleading. He told congressional panels previously that he never informed his father about the audience with the Russian lawyer, but that account was challenged in Mueller’s report. The special counsel’s findings detailed the recollections of Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen.
Cohen, who also has spoken to several of the congressional panels investigating Russia’s election interference, is serving a three-year prison sentence for financial crimes and lying to Congress — a fact Trump Jr. noted Wednesday as he defended his prior testimony.
‘‘The reality is there was nothing to change. If there needed to be clarification because Michael Cohen, who let’s not forget is serving time right now for lying to these very investigative bodies, I’m happy to do that,’’ he told reporters following the interview. ‘‘I don’t think I changed anything of what I said, because there was nothing to change. I’m glad that this is finally over; we were able to put some final clarity on that, and I think the committee understands that.’’
The Senate Intelligence Committee has been calling several key witnesses back to the panel for second interviews so senators can have a chance to speak to them directly. To date, the investigation has been run by committee staffers, primarily. The specter of perjury implications complicated scheduling Trump Jr.’s testimony, even after the committee chairman, Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, a Republican, indicated that he was not inclined to pursue any charges that Mueller — who had access to the committee’s transcripts — had not.
I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop, and I have the feeling it never will.
Trump Jr. struck a deal with the panel last month, after months of wrangling and under subpoena, to appear for up to four hours and answer questions on six broad topics, including his interactions with Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign and what he told his father about them.
In addition to the 2016 Trump Tower meeting, senators were expected to ask him about his knowledge of Trump’s plans to build a skyscraper in Moscow, and whether his surrogates were encouraged to lie about how long into the campaign those plans continued.
Neither Burr nor the committee’s vice chairman, Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, would comment on the substance of Wednesday’s interview.....
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Related:
Trump Jr. to get involved in Michigan primary
He plans to campaign for a primary challenger to Justin Amash of Michigan, the sole Republican congressman who has called for the president’s impeachment while the Democrats redo Mueller:
Michael Flynn and Rick Gates Subpoenaed to Testify by House
Also see:
"Some Republicans also tried to turn the tables on the Democrats by pointing to their use of information gathered about Trump during the 2016 campaign by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer who produced a dossier of reports and rumors about Trump’s ties to Russia, but that is not a precise parallel. While many have criticized the veracity of Steele’s dossier and how it was used by Clinton’s campaign, he was not working for a hostile government and he turned over his findings to the FBI....."
That's about as close as they are going to get to the Clinton collusion with a foreign agent that subsequently ended up being a spying and infiltration effort of the Trump campaign. Steele is the one who compiled the pee dossier at the behest of a law firm and Fusion GPS, and which was then funneled up through Congre$$ to the law enforcement agencies.
"Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, is leaving the Trump administration after a turbulent tenure marked by attacks on the media, dissemination of false information, and the near-disappearance of the daily press briefing. Sanders disappeared largely from the public eye in recent months, holding only two of the once-daily White House press briefings since the beginning of 2019. Instead, Sanders would occasionally book appearances on Fox News and hold brief question-and-answer sessions with reporters on the driveway of the White House, but while the press secretary spent less and less time with reporters, her influence grew within the West Wing, where she was a trusted confidante of the president who was regularly consulted as Trump crafted messaging strategy. She’s also among the longest tenured of an inner circle that has experienced record turnover among senior staff....."
Yeah, and those agenda-pu$hing hacks always, always carry a grudge.
Here is Exhibit B:
Federal agency recommends Kellyanne Conway be fired
There is an interesting dynamic there, what with her husband hating the President (rumors of an affair have been circulated as the reason for her continued presence) while Kellyanne gives it to the pre$$.
The second thing is she is never given due credit for being the first woman campaign manager to lead a presidential campaign to victory. It's almost as if they are angry and jealous of her.
"Pelosi won’t budge on debt increase until Trump lifts spending caps" by Andrew Taylor Associated Press, June 13, 2019
WASHINGTON — Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that the Democratic-controlled House won’t pass must-do legislation to increase the government’s borrowing cap until the Trump administration agrees to boost spending limits on domestic programs.
That's called threat of extortion.
The California Democrat said she’ll agree to increase the so-called debt ceiling, which is needed to avoid a market-cratering default on US government obligations this fall, but she says she’ll do so only after President Trump agrees to lift tight ‘‘caps’’ that threaten both the Pentagon and domestic agencies with sweeping budget cuts.
‘‘When we lift the caps, then we can talk about lifting the debt ceiling — that would have to come second or simultaneous, but not before lifting the caps,’’ Pelosi told reporters.
At least she is agreeing to fund the war machine as well.
For the record, I don't want to raise the debt ceiling anymore. Let it default. I know it will "wreck the economy," but the economy is already wrecked. This is about a corrupt and wasteful government and empire continuing to spend into oblivion when it should be coming home and cutting costs. Borrowing more money is only going to benefit bankers.
What they should be talking about is getting rid of the Federal Reserve, a private banking con$ortium which prints and loans out the money to the government at interest, forcing taxpayers to pay through the nose while on a ham$ter wheel while they enrich themselves. We need to back to Congress and the Treasury printing and coining the money supply.
Of course, go down that road and bad things happen.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who is leading negotiations for the administration instead of hard-liners like acting White House budget chief Russell Vought, shares Pelosi’s sentiments, though his top priority is to increase the borrowing cap.
‘‘If we reach a caps deal, the debt ceiling has to be included,’’ Mnuchin said Wednesday.
Her remarks came as bipartisan negotiations to increase the spending limits have sputtered, though Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican of Kentucky, is eager for an agreement. A pair of negotiating sessions last month generated some initial optimism but there hasn’t been any visible progress since.
‘‘We were making some progress but then they kind of backed away from it,’’ Pelosi said.
At issue are two separate needs that are often linked together. Probably most important is to increase the government’s almost $22 trillion debt so that it can borrow money from investors and foreign countries such as China to redeem government bonds, pay benefits such as Social Security, and issue paychecks to federal workers. Treasury is using a familiar set of bookkeeping tricks to stay within the existing debt limit, but Congress has to act by mid-fall to avoid a first-ever default.
They are driving this country into the ground to just fund basic services.
The war budgets, national security state, aid to Israel, and the lavish taxpayer-funded political perks are, of cour$e, off limits.
Increasing the spending caps is required to set an overall limit for agency budgets appropriated by lawmakers every year to permit the annual round of appropriations bills.
In his March budget submission, Trump employed bookkeeping gimmicks to protect the defense budget and called for sweeping cuts to domestic programs.
So does every administration, what's your point?
The Democratic-controlled House started advancing the annual spending bills just this week with an almost $1 trillion measure that blends the defense budget with health, human services, and education programs favored by Democrats. The chamber debated amendments to the measure until 4 a.m. Thursday, restarting the debate just hours later. The measure is slated for a final vote next week, but the Senate, where the process has to be more bipartisan to succeed, has yet to get started.
Pelosi also offered assurances that Congress will act on Trump’s request for humanitarian aid to house and care for hundreds of thousands of migrant refugees seeking asylum in the United States after crossing the US border. Trump has asked for $4.5 billion to address the issue but it has become entangled in a fight with house Democrats seeking to put conditions on the aid.
So that is where the wall money is going, thanks to Kushner!
‘‘I have confidence that they will come to a conclusion on it,’’ Pelosi said. ‘‘We have to.’’
The Department of Health and Human Services will run out of money to care for the migrants within a few weeks.....
They are more concerned with them than American citizens.
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Let the party begin!
"With three weeks to go, exactly what’s going to happen in Washington on the Fourth of July remains a subject of intense confusion because of President Trump’s plans to reshape the nation’s premier celebration. Will Independence Day festivities be centered around the Washington Monument or shift to the Lincoln Memorial, as the White House has reportedly requested? Will Trump follow through on his plans to give a speech, and, if he does, will the speech be open to anyone, including protesters, or will the White House restrict his audience to supporters at the traditionally nonpolitical event? The White House hasn’t revealed its plans. The National Park Service, which is primarily responsible for the event, has also gone silent. That leaves the city government, which helps with security, in the dark. Independence Day normally draws tens of thousands of people to the National Mall for a celebration capped by fireworks. A major security overhaul was implemented following the Sept. 11 attacks, but the occasion has run smoothly for years. The first sign that 2019’s celebration may be different came in a February tweet from Trump announcing a special ‘‘Salute to America’’ on July 4 that would feature ‘‘an address by your favorite President, me!’’ Last week, a National Park Service official was quoted in The Washington Post saying the White House was planning a Trump speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the event, but since that report, the White House and the National Park Service have refused to comment......"
What incisive question from the Washington ComPost, even if they lied about the "traditionally nonpolitical event."
As for what is going to happen, my first reaction to their question was terror attack, what with the date and all, but here comes Air Force One so let the fireworks begin:
"Neither Ronald Reagan nor the two Bushes were crazy men. They damaged America, but they did not represent an existential threat to its survival as a democracy or to the survival of the postwar Western alliance. That is the level of danger that Trump represents, and the left, forever susceptible to the temptations of ideological purity, would be foolish not to welcome the alliance of anti-Trump conservatives....."
That is the campaign advice for Democrats coming from the Bo$ton Globe opinion page. Line up with the neo-con warmongers to stop Trump. Some choice.
In regards to Reagan and the Bushes, one was apparently a demented dotard (and was likely due for termination, cut bono? In any event, it looks like Bush assumed power anyway and it was covered up), while the others were/are blood-soaked war criminals of the highest order (like father, like son).
Related:
"For five decades, Bernie Sanders has embraced the label of democratic socialism. On Wednesday, he issued a robust defense of his core political beliefs, delivering a formal address on democratic socialism in what will amount to the most aggressive attempt yet to diffuse voter concerns about his electability. Sanders — an independent senator who has not joined the Democratic Party but is running for the Democratic nomination — presented his vision of democratic socialism not as a set of extreme principles but in terms of “economic rights,” invoking the accomplishments of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. And he argued that his ideology is embodied by longstanding popular programs, including Social Security and Medicare, that opponents often label as socialist. Saying that the United States must reject a path of hatred and divisiveness, he said the nation must “instead find the moral conviction to choose a different path, a higher path, a path of compassion, justice, and love, and that is the path that I call democratic socialism.” President Trump has repeatedly called Sanders “crazy” and extrapolated the senator’s brand of socialism to all Democrats, seizing on proposals such as “Medicare for All” to portray them as far out of the mainstream and signaling clearly that this will be a major line of attack in the general election. Sanders delivered his speech in a small theater at George Washington University, a dozen flags behind him."
They were American flags, right? Not Israeli?
You can flip the ticket, btw:
"Have Massachusetts Democrats lost faith in pitching their brand of politics to the rest of the country – or are they just afraid of choosing Senator Elizabeth Warren as their standard bearer? Probably both. Around the country, Warren’s presidential prospects are surging, but electability concerns undercut Warren. She even won praise from Fox News’ Tucker Carlson....."
I know she won't go on the network, but she looks damn electable to me!
Related:
House blocks move to end government fetal tissue research
The amendment passed 225-193, largely along party lines with all Republicans and three antiabortion Democrats voting against it. The president reportedly had his political base in mind when he made the decision, or so I am told.
Video shows Biden’s 2006 views on abortion
He's a “little bit of an odd man out in his party,” and church that demands obedience, so there must be reparations and sanctuary:
"When he was Florida’s governor, Rick Scott, a Republican, made the proclamation a year ago to mark the anniversary of the massacre at the Pulse nightclub two years before. A gunman killed 49 people in 2016 at the LGBTQ-oriented club in what was then the largest mass shooting in US history, and Scott, now a US senator, noted that the shooting would leave a lasting impact ‘‘on our state and communities, including Florida’s LGBTQ community,’’ but when Republican Governor Ron DeSantis issued his own proclamation on Tuesday, the eve of the June 12 anniversary, the document excluded any mention of the LGBTQ community. In its place was a reference to ‘‘Orlando and the Central Florida community,’’ whom the governor said he would stand with against terrorism. The exclusion in the otherwise word-for-word remembrance was quickly noted. ‘‘This is completely straight-washed and an insult,’’ said state Representative Anna Eskamani, a Democrat whose district includes the area where the Pulse nightclub was. DeSantis, who campaigned as a staunch ally of President Trump, previously drew the ire of the gay community in Florida when he signed an executive order about prohibiting employment discrimination; it didn’t mention sexual orientation or gender identity....."
DeSantis blamed his ‘‘staff,’’ because he happened to be out of the country, and they are a powerful lobby so just duck down and stay quiet about it (not every Jewish woman is Gal Gadot).
N Carolina man pleads guilty to killing 3 Muslim students
All over an argument regarding parking spaces at the condo complex.
May God help him:
Catholic bishops approve new sex-abuse reporting hotline
Southern Baptists combat sex abuse as critics rally
Conspiracies that were kept secret for centuries, and probably for centuries more.
"The House Foreign Affairs Committee split along partisan lines Wednesday over how sharply to criticize the State Department for finalizing 22 arms sales despite congressional objections, as Democrats accused the Trump administration of creating a ‘‘phony’’ emergency to funnel weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. R. Clarke Cooper, the assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs, told the panel, ‘‘It was a measured response which promotes regional stability and security,’’ but Democrats weren’t having it — and Republicans were clearly uncomfortable with having been circumvented, though their rebukes were more measured. Members of the House committee are preparing four disapproval resolutions to try to block the arms deals....."
It's impeachment, it's Mueller, it's all that phoniness above, but on an important Constitutional issue like War Powers, they abdicate.
We already have an imperial executive, but with the veneer of "democracy."
"Trump says he’s sending 1,000 more US troops to ally Poland" by Darlene Superville Associated Press, June 13, 2019
WASHINGTON — President Trump said Wednesday that he will send 1,000 more US service members to Poland as part of his broadening security and economic alliance.
The chess pieces are being moved, and war IS a'comin'!
Trump made the announcement during a White House news conference with Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda. Trump said the Polish government will pay for the infrastructure to support the additional troops, and he praised Poland for increased defense spending to meeting its NATO commitments.
Earlier in the Oval Office, Trump said that the United States has based tens of thousands of troops in Germany for a ‘‘long, long time,’’ and that he probably would move a ‘‘certain number’’ of those personnel to Poland, ‘‘if we agree to do it.’’
Trump also said Poland is buying more than 30 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets from the United States. In recognition of that purchase, a single F-35 flew over the White House on a sunny afternoon. Duda looked up and waved as the jet passed.
That's the only one they could find that works, and what was the carbon footprint on that display of militari$m?
‘‘They’re going to put on a very small show for us, and we’re doing that because Poland has ordered 32 or 35 brand new F-35s at the highest level,’’ Trump said.
US officials said earlier this week that Trump, in addition to the additional troops, would send a squadron of Reaper drones to Poland to aid its self-defense amid concerns about Russian military activity.
Polish leaders have lobbied for additional forces for months and had hoped for a permanent US base they said could be called ‘‘Fort Trump.’’
Following the Russian annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, the United States has again been increasing military activity in Europe in concert with NATO allies. That includes stationing four multinational battalion-size battlegroups in Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, led by the United States, Britain, Canada, and Germany.
All right, THAT DOES IT!!
The endless repetition of that LIE renders the rest of the propaganda moot. Russia didn't annex anything. After the Obama coup of 2014, the Crimeans voted to secede from the Ukraine (their right under U.N. law), and then petitioned the Russian Federation for membership. The Russians accepted.
The Eastern European nations have reached out to the United States and NATO for greater protection, worrying that they might be the next target of Russia’s military advance.
The increase in US forces in the region also reflects America’s new national defense strategy that declares great-power competition with China and Russia as a top priority.
Yeah, well, we are going to lose this one (I $uppo$e the raising of the debt ceiling to pay for services and salaries will all be diverted to the war machine -- like Hitler's Germany once long ago), and the sooner the better so GET ON WITH IT!
--more--"
Says he will take Russia just as Germany did France, and the air war in Poland has begun:
"Moscow police arrested about 400 people Wednesday, including the country’s main opposition leader, during a street protest against abusive police tactics. At an event where the outcome, mass arrests, seemed only to confirm the protesters’ complaints, riot police dragged demonstrators from the crowd seemingly at random and arrested news photographers and reporters. Organizers had called the protest to support a Russian journalist, Ivan Golunov, whom supporters say police had framed on drug charges last week. Pictures produced by police that seemed to show a drug lab in the reporter’s apartment had been faked. In a rare about-face, authorities released Golunov on Tuesday, acknowledged that there was no evidence to support the charges, and opened an investigation into the police who had detained him. That seemingly met the demands of the protest organizers, but several thousand people turned up anyway, saying the reporter’s release was just a ruse to defuse a protest or that police abuse was a problem wider than just his case. In the crowd, the perception that Russian police plant drugs on dissidents was widespread. It is a new form of political repression, participants said. Tatyana Malshava, 40, who works in sales in a public-relations company, said she had come to protest police abuse of power such as fabricating evidence, even if Golunov’s case had been dropped. “Just imagine how many people in Russia are in jail for nothing, for reasons invented by our government,” she said. “It’s a pity.”
What were they, T cops?
Looks like AmeriKa, doesn't it, and it smells of a CIA destabilization effort!
Time to wheel east towards England:
"May pledges to pass law to eliminate UK greenhouse gas emissions by 2050" by Karla Adam Washington Post, June 12, 2019
LONDON — In one of her final acts as British prime minister, Theresa May pledged Wednesday to pass legislation that will commit the United Kingdom to eliminating its contribution to climate change by 2050, the first country in the Group of Seven advanced economies to do so.
‘‘This country led the world in innovation during the Industrial Revolution, and now we must lead the world to a cleaner, greener form of growth,’’ May said.
The sun has set on your empire, sorry. Was the most benevolent that ever existed (unless you ask Africans, Indians, Irish, or Americans).
Environmental groups welcomed the announcement but raised concerns about how, exactly, Britain plans to meet these targets.
Major protests in the United Kingdom, including by children skipping school to march through cities, have helped push the issue of climate change to the top of the political agenda.
Look at them waving the kids in front of us!
A campaign group called Extinction Rebellion has also organized several high-profile protests, leading to more than 1,000 arrests. One of its demonstrations included a ‘‘die in’’ at the Natural History Museum, where hundreds of demonstrators lay down in a big hall below a skeleton of a blue whale to raise awareness of predicted mass-extinction events caused by humans.
So when are they going to protest all these insane wars that are wrecking the planet far more than humans?
May is keen to cement a legacy beyond Brexit in her final weeks as prime minister. She resigned as party leader Friday and will officially step down as head of government once her successor is found, mostly likely in late July.
The UK has demonstrated that it knows how to rapidly decarbonize its energy mix.
One of the main factors is the phasing out of coal. Last month, Britain went for two weeks without using coal to generate power, the first time it’s done so since the late 19th century, but achieving the new targets will require profound change. Philip Hammond, the finance secretary, said that meeting the change could cost 1 trillion pounds, leaving less money for public services such as schools and hospitals, according to a letter leaked to the Financial Times.
Is that a trade-off the British people are willing to make?
All so money-hungry governments and Wall Street can tax and underwrite carbon credit markets that will literally create money out of thin air (otherwise known as your wallet or pur$e).
Analysts said the legislation could go through within a week or so, since it can be done through an amendment to the 2008 Climate Change Act.
Bob Ward, policy director for the London-based Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said none of the candidates hoping to be the next prime minister are likely to speak out against the target, not least because it’s seen as an important issue for younger voters.
That's where the print version ran out of breath.
The new law highlights the stark contrast between the UK and the United States administrations over their approaches to climate change. Greenpeace UK said it was a ‘‘big moment’’ in the fight against climate change, but the group also raised concerns about loopholes that could mean Britain would achieve its goal partly through international carbon credits, which Greenpeace argued could shift the burden to developing nations.
Or your own citizens!
Doug Parr, chief scientist for Greenpeace UK, said in a statement: The decision ‘‘fires the starting gun for a fundamental transformation of our economy,’’ Parr said. ‘‘The government must immediately upgrade our electricity, construction, heating, agriculture and transport systems. They must cancel the Heathrow 3rd runway and road-building plans, and invest public money and provide significant policy support to protect communities, workers and the planet.’’
Why is it in such a neglected and decrepit, MBTA-like state?
Several of the politicians seeking to replace May as prime minister have come out with strong positions on tackling climate change. Boris Johnson, the current favorite, has written several newspaper articles in support of the environment.....
--more--"
Speaking of Boris, meet the new Prime Minister (he will be an ally in the fight).
There will be a coronation later for all those invited, and what do you mean he will be paid more than was May?
I hope it doesn't blow up in their faces.
"Powerful business group adds climate change to its priorities" by Jon Chesto Globe Staff,June 13, 2019
So what’s this low-profile but powerful business group doing now, taking on climate change as a priority? It may sound surprising — or ironic, but these chief executives now view the issue as a major potential threat to the state’s economic competitiveness, one that needs to be tackled head on.
I'm $ure that i$n't the only reason.
This is the same Massachusetts Competitive Partnership that once lobbied behind the scenes in Washington to kill Cape Wind, and helped pay for full-page newspaper ads to publicly lambaste it, but there’s a new wind industry in town now, and the Partnership is all for it. Partnership chief executive Jay Ash says his group supports the Baker administration’s effort to get large-scale wind farms built further offshore.
I'll bet the Globe mi$$es those days, and let the revolving door $pin:
Ash joined the Partnership in January from the Baker administration. As the new arrival, Ash is helping the members reassess the group’s priorities. It’s too early to say what this left turn into climate concerns will mean. Ash says the Partnership is still in its fact-finding stage, identifying ways to advance good policy on climate. Ash, for example, traveled to Norway last month for a conference on sustainable cities.
And what, exactly, was the hypocritical carbon footprint on that?
On Monday, Ash joins a contingent of Boston business and civic leaders headed to New York City for a daylong session on climate issues. First on the agenda: a walking tour of Lower Manhattan, to check out the area devastated by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The trip is being organized by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, another powerful business group that has recently added climate readiness to its list of policy priorities.
More spew, and maybe they could give Sal a job!
Several Partnership members were already engaged. State Street Corp. chief executive Ron O’Hanley cosigned a Boston Business Journal column in February, calling for “comprehensive climate action” in the state, for example, while Vertex Pharmaceuticals chief executive Jeff Leiden joined a coalition led by the Trustees of Reservations and chaired by O’Hanley to identify ways to make the Boston Harbor coastline more resilient to storms and rising seas, and Eversource, led by Partnership member Jim Judge, has teamed up with Danish energy giant Orsted to invest in offshore wind projects.
Oh, look, the bank, pharmaceutical, and power company are all on board.
I can't think of a better rea$on to get off!
Environmentalists say they welcome the Partnership to the party: better late than never.
You can $ure $ay that again!
Don’t get too excited yet, Environmental League of Massachusetts. The Partnership still supports expanding the natural gas capacity in New England, a position that has earned the ire of the greenies. Ash says the group views gas as a necessary “bridge fuel” until the region has enough clean energy sources to meet its needs. Gas is better for the environment, he says, than burning up coal and oil on cold winter days when there isn’t enough gas to go around.
First of all, clean energy can't power industry and technology. It can supplement it, and equipping houses with solar panels would help some but all that money seems to go for corporate welfare.
Secondly, what do you mean cold days, and lastly, he seems to be indicated rolling blackouts here as well.
These former foes won’t always agree, but the Partnership and other corporate lobbying groups realize that preparing for climate change is becoming a business imperative, to be embraced instead of opposed.....
It's a corporate pu$h for the good of the planet!
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{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Then it is on to the Middle East and beyond:
"Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, accepted a plea bargain Wednesday and will pay about $15,000 in fines and restitution to settle accusations that she misused about $100,000 in public funds in managing the couple’s official residence. Prosecutors said that Sara Netanyahu, whom they charged with fraud, had concealed that a cook was on the payroll so that she could order hundreds of catered meals from expensive restaurants and charge them to the state. Under the deal with the State Attorney’s Office, the amount of public money at issue was halved to about $50,000, and she agreed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of trickery, specifically that she deliberately exploited another person’s mistake. She is due to pay about $2,800 in fines and $12,500 in restitution. Sara Netanyahu, 60, was indicted on charges of fraud and breach of trust a year ago in the case, which covered the years 2010 to 2013. Prosecutors accused her of “exploiting her status as the wife of the prime minister” and colluding with a top aide in a “planned, ongoing and systematic” scheme to break government rules and conceal it from state accountants."
The crumbs of corruption.
Related: Indicted congressman’s wife pleads guilty to corruption
Hunter was indicted because he is soft on Russia.
"Japan premier warns US, Iran ‘accidental conflict’ possible" by Amir Vahdat, Aya Batrawy and Jon Gambrell Associated Press, June 12, 2019
TEHRAN — Middle East peace is a must for Japan. The looming threats to regional security could be seen just hours earlier as the Houthi rebel attack on Saudi Arabia’s Abha regional airport underscored.
The attack is just the latest in a wave of rebel drone and missile attacks targeting the kingdom, which has been mired in a yearslong war in Yemen that has killed an estimated 60,000 people and pushed the Arab world’s poorest nation to the brink of famine.
They were on the brink months ago.
Though there were no fatalities, it was the largest number of civilians to be wounded in Saudi Arabia as a result of an attack by the rebels since the start of the Saudi-led war in Yemen more than four years ago.
Iran is threatening......
Yeah, got it, and you can take this whole cloth war propaganda and stick it where the sun don't shine.
--more--"
Turns out the attack was on two “Japan-related” oil tankers, and I agree with Galloway: "So the Iranians attacked Japanese assets while the Prime Minister of Japan is in Tehran seeking to mediate. If you believe that I have a Bridge here in London I could sell you...."
The false flag couldn't be more obvious!
It's confirmed by the fact that the US is blaming Iran, and the fact that US stocks went up, cut bono?
There are no safe havens anymore, and once Iran is invaded they can push through to India and on in to China (looks like another destabilization effort a la Obama 5 years ago! War IS coming, folks):
"With six governments — those of China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Brunei — claiming overlapping parts of the South China Sea, the resource-rich waterway is a potential flash point for regional military conflict, but the sinking of the Filipino boat, FB Gimber1, which came after a swarm of hundreds of Chinese vessels blocked Filipino fishermen from reaching their traditional fishing grounds earlier this year, has thrown bilateral relations off balance. “Even if this is a Chinese fishing boat, I think this is just an incident among the people, not related to governments,” said Hu Bo, an associate researcher at the Institute of Ocean Research at Peking University in Beijing. In Beijing, a spokesman at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the incident “an ordinary maritime traffic accident.”
I'm glad to see cooler heads than those at the New York Times are prevailing:
"The move shows how the world’s largest retailer, which sells billions of dollars of goods made in China annually, is incorporating the reality of tariffs into its day-to-day operations....."
As long as the war stays cold, I'm fine with that as we move further south:
"Australian opposition calls for review of press freedom" by Rod McGuirk and Nick Perry Associated Press, June 12, 2019
CANBERRA, Australia — Australia’s opposition on Wednesday called for a parliamentary inquiry into press freedom after police raids on a media organization’s Sydney headquarters and a journalist’s Canberra home seeking to uncover the source of government leaks.
Trump must be jealous.
The government, meanwhile, was defending the nation’s potent array of security laws, which have come under criticism since the raids last week on Australian Broadcasting Corp. in Sydney and News Corp. Australia reporter Annika Smethurst’s home.
It's an unexpected government in what is the world's most secretive democracy.
Opposition home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally called for the bipartisan Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security to investigate whether the balance between press freedom and national security is right in legislation passed since the conservative government was first elected in 2013.
She wrote in The Australian newspaper that Australia was an outlier among its Five Eyes intelligence-sharing partners United States, Britain, Canada, and New Zealand in not having such oversight. There was also a ‘‘concern that only leaks embarrassing the government merit investigation while those that benefit the government do not,’’ Keneally wrote.
Rebecca Ananian-Welsh, a senior lecturer at the University of Queensland Law School, said Australia went from having no counterterrorism laws before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States to having more than any other country in the world, with more than 60 new pieces of legislation and amendments.
Are there talk buildings that need to be demolished in Australia?
There had been no counterbalancing laws to uphold human rights or press freedom, she said, and Australia didn’t have enshrined rights like the US First Amendment guarantee of free speech.
I'll come to that guarantee later, after the web version added this:
‘‘We just lack a rights culture,’’ Ananian-Welsh said. ‘‘It’s there, but it’s very weak and has no teeth.’’
She said taking hard stances on national security had been politically popular and the new laws gave certain government agencies broad powers to do everything from searching metadata without a warrant to coopting telecommunication workers to crack encryption technology.
So they can send all that to the U.S. and other Five Eyes, thereby allowing our governments to get around domestic laws.
She said the raids appeared designed to intimidate potential whistleblowers, sources, and journalists, but she was heartened by the call for an inquiry, she said, and thought that outcry over the raids may help swing the political pendulum back toward protecting press freedoms.
Or it may not!
Australia’s prime minister and communications minister have been meeting with editors and senior media executives to discuss concerns following raids, which police have said were based on concerns that secret information had been leaked.
Media organizations say the raids were aimed as much at intimidating the press. Keneally told ABC that the government’s ‘‘cavalier response’’ to the raids shows there is a ‘‘very real concern that freedom of the press is under attack in Australia.’’
Though Australia has no constitutional right to freedom of speech or a Bill of Rights, the High Court has ruled there is an implied freedom of political communication within the constitution limited to politics and government issues because a democracy requires such freedom, but critics argue that successive governments have become more secretive and intolerant of reporting that causes political embarrassment.....
They have always been that way.
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Now go tell it to Anglin and O'Keefe:
"US District Court Judge Edmund Sargus Jr. said he was convinced nothing in the Daily Stormer founder Andrew Anglin’s statements was protected speech under the First Amendment. He also issued an injunction ordering the materials about SiriusXM Radio show host Dean Obeidallah to be taken down from the website and forbidding Anglin from discussing them further. During the hearing, Obeidallah explained the shock he felt after Anglin published an article about him in June 2017, alleging that he was responsible for the May 2017 terrorist attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. Obeidallah alleged the site embedded fabricated messages in the post to make them seem like they had been sent from Obeidallah’s Twitter account, tricking readers into believing he took responsibility for the Manchester attack....."
Don't be tricked into thinking that was nothing more than a staged and scripted event.
Related:
Facebook bans Farrakhan, Jones for hate speech
Alex Jones is losing credibility more rapidly than ever, but Farrakhan does his homework.
"Pinterest is latest tech company drawn into US culture wars" by Margaret Newkirk and Kurt Wagner Bloomberg News, June 13, 2019
ATLANTA — An effort by the social media company Pinterest to limit the spread of medical conspiracy theories has blocked one of the most prominent antiabortion groups in the United States from sharing its content on the site, and it’s put the social media company squarely in the middle of today’s culture wars.
It also tells you how powerful is the pharmaceutical lobby.
The dust-up is the latest in a wave of conservative complaints of social media bias. Other big tech companies like Facebook and Twitter have also been accused by politicians and conservative media of stifling their viewpoints, something the companies have vehemently denied.
“This is censorship,” said conservative activist James O’Keefe, who is known for a series of sting operations against liberal groups. O’Keefe’s stings have also targeted the now-defunct ACORN — which had attracted Republican ire with its minority voter registration drives — and National Public Radio, as well as Planned Parenthood. The efforts have been criticized for selective and misleading editing of results.
Pinterest has had a policy of blocking content related to health conspiracies since 2017, according to the company.
In an e-mail to O’Keefe, Pinterest said the antiabortion organization Live Action site had been “actioned” for “misinformation related to conspiracies and anti-vaccination advice,” and not porn.
They tried to frame him with porn, huh?
Must be why my print version ended it there.
According to documents provided to O’Keefe, the porn list also includes the conservative Zero Hedge and PJMedia websites. Sites on the list can’t be shared on Pinterest. The company did not respond to a request to verify the leaked documents, including the portions of the list O’Keefe published on his website, Project Veritas.
The Zero Hedge must be doing something right!
Live Action is agnostic on vaccination, although it has published stories saying aborted fetuses have been used in making some vaccines, said Live Action president Lila Rose. The website includes a variety of posts calling abortion dangerous to women.
So they throw those in there, too, huh?
The Pinterest e-mail to O’Keefe also said the porn list was mislabeled.....
Yeah, sure!
--more--"
Soon, all the articles challenging vaccination safety will be deleted from history.
Related:
"Actress Jessica Biel says she’s not opposed to vaccinations, but she does not support a bill in California that would limit medical exemptions. The 37-year-old has drawn criticism after appearing this week in Sacramento with vaccination skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to voice concerns about the measure. Biel posted on Instagram Thursday morning that she supports children getting vaccinated and she also supports families having the ‘‘right to make educated medical decisions for their children alongside their physicians.’’ Biel, a Tufts graduate, wrote that she argued against the bill because her friends have a child with a medical condition warranting an exemption and the bill would ‘‘greatly affect their family’s ability to care for their child.’’ The bill follows a recent rise in cases of measles, mumps, and other infectious diseases nationwide."
The brave RFK Jr. is now the black sheep of the family for his stance, and now I love Jessica Beal although I suspect that her career will now be over!
Also see: 2 More Ebola Cases Diagnosed in Uganda as 1st Victim, 5, Dies
Coming soon to a community near you (those are the same people who said there was no migration crisis, grain of salt).
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
‘At some point, I got lost,’ says former Stanford sailing coach sentenced in college bribery scandal
He sat for an interview with the Globe in Boston before rowing away.
Related:
"A former Harvard University track coach who also coached at a suburban Boston high school has pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography. Walter Johnson, 71, of Framingham, pleaded guilty Tuesday, the US attorney’s office in Boston said. He faces up to 20 years in prison at sentencing scheduled for Sept. 10. Authorities said in January 2017, investigators began looking into child pornography being traded by a Craigslist user. The investigation led to Johnson, a track coach at Wellesley High School at the time. During a search of Johnson’s home, images and videos of child pornography were found on his computer and on a thumb drive hidden in his bedroom, authorities said. Johnson was coach of the Harvard men’s and women’s track teams from 1982 until 2006 (AP)."
Also see:
"The Boston Pearl Foundation and the Psi Omega chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority introduced 10 debutantes to society and awarded $45,000 in scholarships this month at an annual cotillion. The 10 young women from Greater Boston, who range in age from high school sophomores to seniors, were selected because they have “exemplified an impressive degree of academic excellence, high ethical standards, and have generously given their time and talents in service of their community,” Psi Omega said in a statement. The cotillion at Lombardo’s function facility marked the culmination of the debutantes’ participation in eight months of civic engagement, cultural awareness, etiquette, financial literacy, and social graces activities before they head to college, the organization said. The young women aspire to be doctors, lawyers, journalists, and other professionals, the statement said. Boston-based Psi Omega is the largest chapter in New England of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, the nation’s oldest sorority for African-American women. Psi Omega started the Boston Pearl Foundation in 2005 to bolster community enrichment and help in schooling."
"Museum of Fine Arts hires outside counsel to investigate racist incident" by Zoe Greenberg Globe Staff, June 12, 2019
The Museum of Fine Arts said Wednesday it has hired an outside firm to investigate allegations that middle school students were subjected to racism during a school field trip in mid-May and to reexamine the museum’s own weeklong review of the incident.
On the same day, Lawyers for Civil Rights Boston said they had been retained as pro bono counsel by three families and an educator from the Helen Y. Davis Leadership Academy and were pushing for a separate investigation by state Attorney General Maura Healey.
The developments suggest that the repercussions from allegations of racism at the city’s premier art institution are far from over.
The MFA has found itself under a harsh spotlight in recent weeks after students of color from the Helen Y. Davis Academy in Dorchester said they experienced racist insults and close scrutiny during a field trip to the museum in mid-May.
The museum publicly apologized and conducted its own review, piecing together footage from security cameras and interviewing staff. That investigation led the museum to ban two patrons permanently who made racist comments. The museum’s leaders also promised to change security training and procedures but have yet to offer more details.....
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Related: AG Healey investigating racist incident at the MFA
I don't want to get too far off the beaten path here, but the sickening way in which this has been exploited leads one to believe it never happened at all.
Related:
"Two swastikas were found scrawled in a boys bathroom at the town’s middle school, the latest example of anti-Semitic and racist incidents reported at the school, administrators said. “Our administration has been faced with cases where students are insensitive to issues related to race and anti-Semitic actions,” Wellesley Middle School Principal Mark Ito said in a letter to families. “Simply stated, there is no place for these behaviors in our school.” The swastikas, drawn in ballpoint pen, each measured three inches by three inches. The school is working with “community partners in making sure that coordinated, appropriate consequences and learning happens,” Ito said in the letter sent to parents on Tuesday. In an e-mail sent to families across the district, School Superintendent David Lussier condemned the behavior reported at the school. “Let me be very clear that language and actions grounded in hate are unacceptable and will not be tolerated in the Wellesley Public Schools,” he said."
They called police and shut closed the school, and I am so, so tired of the self-inflicted false flag fakes.
"Bond fund executive accused of sexual harassment leaves TCW" by Kate Kelly New York Times , June 13, 2019
NEW YORK — Jess Ravich, one of the most senior Wall Street executives to have been publicly accused of sexual harassment, has left TCW, the giant bond-fund manager where he was one of the top officials, a spokesman said.
Isn't that a Jewish name?
Ravich, as head of the firm’s alternative-products group, oversaw TCW’s investments in areas like lending to companies and commercial real estate. He also served briefly as a board member at the Los Angeles firm, which manages about $200 billion.
TCW and Ravich declined to comment on the reasons for his departure. A spokeswoman for his accuser, a former TCW employee named Sara Tirschwell, said her lawsuit spoke for itself.
They sure do like the shiksas, don't they?
Tirschwell sued TCW, Ravich, and the firm’s chief executive, David Lippman, in January 2018. A former fund manager, Tirschwell claimed that Ravich had pressured her into sex. After she stopped having sex with him, Tirschwell alleged, Ravich no longer supported the fund she had been hired to manage, making it impossible for her to succeed.
Tirschwell was hired at TCW through her connection to Ravich, whom she first met in the 1990s and briefly dated in the early 2010s. In 2016, TCW hired her to manage her own bond fund. That spring, Tirschwell claimed, Ravich summoned her to his New York City apartment for a series of breakfast meetings, during which they had sex. She believed that if she rebuffed her superior, Ravich would not help her fund get off the ground. Over the months that followed, the situation recurred, she said, with Ravich often answering the door to his apartment for planned business meetings in a white terry cloth bathrobe.
Oh, look, another Weinstein!!!
That's his move!
Eventually, Tirschwell alleged, she stopped having sex with Ravich. At that point, she said, he stopped supporting her fund, depriving her of resources and introductions to potential investors.
The lawsuit, filed in New York state court, represented perhaps the highest-profile allegation against a top finance executive since the #MeToo era got underway in 2017.
Which is being dialed back these days.
As part of her suit, Tirschwell alleged a textbook case of sexual harassment in which a powerful man coerced a woman to perform sexual favors in return for professional advancement. Ravich has denied having sex with Tirschwell or otherwise acting inappropriately.....
Gotta believe the woman, right?
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Related:
"In a night of commanding words from some of the most accomplished women in entertainment — the likes of Issa Rae, Viola Davis and producer Cathy Schulman — at the annual Women in Film Gala Wednesday in Beverly Hills, Amy Poehler put her own unconventional spin on the ‘‘empowerment speech.’’ Poehler, who was accepting the final honor of the evening, the Entrepreneur in Entertainment Award, simply read off a list of names: ‘‘A League of Their Own,’’ Patti Smith, ‘‘Fleabag,’’ “The Virgin Suicides,’’ Judge Judy, US Women’s Soccer, ‘‘American Psycho,’’ ‘’Russian Doll,’’ Dolly Parton. She continued listing off female creators and female-created shows and films for 2½ minutes. ‘‘Thank you, thank you,’’ Poehler said. ‘‘More, more, more.’’ It was simple and brief, and got the point across to the ballroom full of women working in the industry. She followed a riotously funny speech from ‘‘Insecure’’ creator Rae, who decided to take inspiration from her hip-hop idols and buck the social convention of women being humble. She said she was just going to say the opposite of ‘‘what I would normally say.’’ ‘‘You future hoes need to bow down,’’ Rae said as the inaugural recipient of the Emerging Entrepreneur Award. ‘‘Entrepreneur means I did that [expletive] by myself.’’ Schulman, a former Women in Film board president being recognized for her advocacy in entertainment, took a vastly different approach with a vulnerable and open story about the personal and financial trials she’s had to endure while trying to ‘‘make it.’’ Although she won an Oscar for producing the film ‘‘Crash,’’ she said she never made a dollar from the film, which earned almost $100 million at the box office, and even went into credit card debt trying to make sure the production had what was needed. She’s produced 30-something films and raised a daughter, but said she has — from pre-school through graduation — picked her up from school only four times. ‘‘I’ve paid a deep price for my advocacy,’’ Schulman said. She said there’s still ‘‘a long way to go’’ and hopes that the words ‘‘diversity’’ and ‘‘inclusion’’ are decoupled. ‘‘Diversity is a counting mechanism,’’ she said. ‘‘Inclusion is not something you can count, advertise, or market. Inclusion is what happens when diverse people are actually present in equal numbers in decision making positions.’’ Davis, who is working with Schulman on a project called ‘‘The Woman King,’’ which she described as ‘‘ ‘Braveheart,’ only with all black women and no Scottish brogues,’’ said, ‘‘In a world that has a bad habit of erasing us girls . . . we need champions like [Schulman].’’
I'm not even going to note it, but jyou know.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Better hurry or you will miss your flight:
"Airline food preparers ponder work stoppage amid fight for better wages, health insurance" by Katie Johnston Globe Staff, June 12, 2019
Margara Severino works 55 hours a week making salads and sandwiches for passengers flying out of Logan Airport, but she still sometimes has to use food stamps or drive for Uber to make ends meet. She can’t afford the health insurance offered by her employer, LSG Sky Chefs, and is periodically kicked off MassHealth, the state’s Medicaid program, when she works too many hours. She has back pain from standing for eight hours or more as she assembles 1,000 entrees a night.
After 11 years on the job, during which time her wages have crept up to just $12.43 an hour, Severino, 30, is ready to fight for more. On Thursday, Severino will be among 345 Sky Chefs workers in Boston voting on whether to authorize a strike, part of a national effort targeting Sky Chefs and Gate Gourmet, the largest airline catering subcontractors in the country. Roughly 350 Boston employees of Gate Gourmet will vote separately.
In all, more than 20,000 workers at airports in 21 cities are voting this month on approving a work stoppage if their unions can’t reach an agreement with the catering companies, which serve dozens of airlines.
At Logan, the two subcontractors serve 31 airlines, the biggest of which are American and United. It is thought to be the largest vote of its kind in the history of the US airline catering industry.
The unions are calling for a $15 an hour wage floor and more affordable health insurance. Negotiations began in October and are currently in federal mediation.
Several unions have won significant gains for their workers through recent work stoppages.....
They mention the Marriott hotel workers, who went on strike in eight cities last fall but not Stop and Shop.
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What do you mean your flight has been grounded?
Better go by boat then:
"Business is booming in Boston’s industrial port" by Jon Chesto Globe Staff, June 13, 2019
Land in the Seaport District is trading hands for sky-high prices, as swanky glass-paneled office and condo buildings spring up from old parking lots, but several blocks away, a less celebrated part of Boston is booming as well: the city’s working port.
The Massachusetts Port Authority on Thursday will release an analysis of the marine industrial economy that shows that from 2012 to 2018, the port’s annual impact nearly doubled to $8.2 billion from $4.6 billion. The number of jobs in the port’s three key areas of employment — cargo, cruise ships, and seafood processing — has grown more than 20 percent over that time, to roughly 9,000.
The numbers, in large part, reflect private-sector jobs, but Massport is the ringleader: The agency controls the Conley shipping terminal and the Flynn Cruiseport in South Boston, the Autoport in Charlestown, and South Boston properties that are home to seafood processors and other marine industrial operations.
Related: "At the Massachusetts Port Authority, one of the largest quasi-public agencies and best known for running Logan International Airport in Boston, about 600 workers made $100,000 or more last year, or 43 percent of its staff. That included 18 Massport employees who collected more than $200,000 and four whose pay topped $300,000....."
The report, prepared by consultant Martin Associates, shows direct employment has grown in cargo by 18 percent since 2012, to 5,400 jobs. Local employment in the seafood industry, meanwhile, rose 45 percent, to 2,100 jobs, and the cruise industry employs about 1,100 people here, up 13 percent. Another 400 work in harbor cruise and marina jobs.
Records were set at the Conley and Flynn terminals last year, in terms of freight shipped through the port and passengers served, respectively.
“Our investments in the port of Boston are paying off,” said John Pranckevicius, acting chief executive at Massport. “This is a diversification play for the state of Massachusetts, saying here’s a strong working port, here’s what makes a good economy even better.”
Massport had used the 2012 report to help bolster its case for major public investments in the port, most notably a $350 million dredging project — now underway — to allow larger cargo ships to navigate Boston Harbor. Lisa Wieland, Massport’s port director, said the dredging project is 40 percent complete. So far, about 4.6 million cubic yards have been removed from the harbor floor to deepen the main channel.
The dredging project won’t be done until 2021, but Wieland said major shipping companies have committed to sending the larger ships to Boston because they know Massport has committed to the harbor project. For now, the biggest ships can approach Conley only at high tide.
Shippers also need to rearrange how cargo is unloaded because of Conley’s current constraints, she said, but Massport has committed to installing three new cranes to handle the bigger ships.
Imagine if such effort had been put towards the MBTA, huh?
As with the earlier report, this one could come in handy when Massport tries to lobby for additional public funds. In particular, the agency is looking to upgrade the cruise terminal. The Legislature included $100 million last year in an economic development bill for the project, but the Baker administration still needs to release the money. Although Massport’s board is appointed by the governor, the agency is run separately from the administration.
That project, as well as a laundry list of others planned for Logan Airport, may end up being shepherded by a new Massport chief executive. Former CEO Thomas Glynn left in November, and a search committee is meeting in executive session on Thursday and Friday to interview finalists for his job.
The candidates are all white men.
The meetings are taking place at the local office of Isaacson Miller, the headhunting firm helping with the search.
Pranckevicius and Wieland have been mentioned as internal candidates, although the search committee has been reviewing outside candidates as well. A decision could happen as soon as this month.
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I wouldn't hold my breath:
"Gloucester-based seafood company closes abruptly, leaving 150 jobless" by John Hilliard Globe Correspondent, May 11, 2019
Gloucester city leaders and state officials are working to provide employment assistance to more than 150 people following the sudden closure Friday of a local seafood processing facility on the city’s waterfront.
National Fish & Seafood Inc., which processed and distributed seafood products under National Fish, Matlaw’s, and Schooner brands, shut down after about 40 years in the business, according to a company statement released Friday by its president, Todd Provost.
That closure means an uncertain future for 54 National Fish staffers, along with more than 100 seasonal contract employees.
Gloucester Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken said she is coordinating with other city leaders, state lawmakers, and state employment officials to help the affected workers.
I'll bet most of them are immigrants or undocumented.
In an interview Saturday, she expressed frustration with the company’s handling of the closure.
“My anger is with the company not showing a little bit more respect to their employees,” Romeo Theken said.
The company has stopped all processing activity at its main production facility inside a rented building at 159 East Main St. in East Gloucester, according to Provost’s statement.
Scott Memhard, a Ward 1 city councilor whose district includes the processing facility, said the closure of National Fish is “a big hit” to the city’s fishing industry.
“They are a major employer and a major linchpin... it’s going to cause quite a bit of disruption,” Memhard said.
A trade journal, Undercurrent News, reported in February that National Fish had struggled to achieve profitability while its parent company, Pacific Andes International Holdings Limited of Hong Kong, moves through bankruptcy proceedings in federal court in New York.
Theken had a message for workers Saturday.
“Just don’t give up hope,” she said.....
Can they eat that like the fish?
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Maybe they can eat this:
"Raytheon deal with UTC gets cold shoulder from investors" by Larry Edelman Globe Staff, June 12, 2019
Raytheon’s Tom Kennedy and his new merger partner, Greg Hayes of United Technologies, have a problem: Many investors aren’t convinced that the combination of the two companies is the win-win the chief executives say it is.
Since the surprise deal was unveiled Sunday, shares of Waltham-based Raytheon have fallen 4.8 percent. UTC, headquartered in Farmington, Conn., has lost 6.1 percent. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index, meanwhile, is little changed.
The flop is of major concern to the Globe.
The companies are billing the combo as a “merger of equals” that would create the second-largest US defense and aerospace company, after Boeing. United Technologies would benefit from access to Raytheon’s defense expertise, a real plus as commercial customers are seeking to incorporate more advanced military tech. Raytheon would become less dependent on Pentagon contracts as it gains access to commercial buyers.
“It’s strategically sound,” said Nick Heymann, an analyst at William Blair & Co. “But it’s not economically compelling.”
UTC would be effectively buying control of Raytheon.
Here are five questions being asked by investor.....
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Others with que$tions:
"From politicians to antiwar activists, Raytheon-United Technologies merger remains a hot topic" by Allison Hagan and Max Reyes Globe Correspondents, June 13, 2019
Days after the proposed merger between Waltham-based Raytheon Co. and United Technologies Corp. was announced, Massachusetts business leaders, lawmakers, and even antiwar activists are still weighing in on what the combined company might mean for Massachusetts.
With all due re$pect, thi$ is none of their bu$ine$$.
Christopher Anderson, president of the Massachusetts High Technology Council said the proposed merger shows that efforts to make the state more inviting to business are paying off — and should continue at full speed.
“It just means there’s an obligation for us to support and preserve the conditions for investment and job growth in Massachusetts,” Anderson said.
Thus we need to shovel them more tax loot -- as if we wanted an economy based on militari$m.
Part of the appeal of Massachusetts to a large company is its many colleges and universities, which produce a steady supply of talented STEM graduates each year, said Peter Abair, executive director of nonprofit MassEcon.
Yeah, “it’s a perfect storm, but in a good way, in terms of the workforce being able to meet the future needs of a combined Raytheon Technologies.”
State Senator Eric Lesser, an East Longmeadow Democrat, said he wonders how a Raytheon Technologies headquarters based in Greater Boston might affect his First Hampden and Hampshire District. Lesser said some of his constituents work for United Technologies in Connecticut. He worries the merger could move some jobs from Western New England to the Boston area.
“You could be robbing Peter to pay Paul,” he said.
Don't get all religiou$ about it.
Antiwar activists who oppose Raytheon’s controversial weapons sales to Saudi Arabia are wary of the merger, fearing the combined company will have even greater clout.
“This industry got started to defend our country,” said Cole Harrison, executive director of Massachusetts Peace Action. “But lately, our country has been shipping arms around the world without a lot of criteria.”
Groups who advocate for Massachusetts to divest its pension funds from Raytheon and other companies that sell weapons to Saudi Arabia said the merger would enable the defense giant to continue profiteering from war.
As long as it doesn't pertain to Israel.
Some Massachusetts lawmakers — including Democratic representatives Mike Connolly and Denise Provost — have backed legislation aimed at preventing the state from investing its pension funds in companies that sell weapons to Saudi Arabia.
In an earnings call last fall, Raytheon vice president Anthony F. O’Brien said business with Saudi Arabia accounted for about 5 percent of the company’s revenue in 2018 as of October of that year. The company has an office in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.
So far, shareholders in the two companies have not been excited about the deal, but that could change, said John Bach, Quaker chaplain at Harvard University and an opponent of weapons sales to Saudi Arabia.....
--more--"
Where are the voices of Peace?
"Somerville peacebuilder Jamil Simon to be honored in Luxembourg" by Ysabelle Kempe Globe Correspondent, June 13, 2019
Somerville resident Jamil Simon has been advocating for peace since he was an 18-year-old applying for conscientious objector status during the Vietnam War.
That is about as antiwar as you are allowed to get around here -- a war that has been over for almost 45 years now.
Yeah, I am nostalgic.
Today, Simon is 73 and about to win the Luxembourg Peace Prize. He will be honored Friday in the category of outstanding peace journalism at the European Parliament’s Robert Schuman Building.
How ironic.
He's getting a peace prize from Europe in a building named after a Jew!
“The reason I’m getting the award is because of my efforts to make peace visible to people around the world,” Simon said. “The classic mantra of many editors is if it bleeds, it reads. What we are trying to show with peace stories is that there are very compelling stories in peace efforts.”
Simon describes himself primarily as a documentary filmmaker. He founded a media production and consulting firm, Spectrum Media, more than 40 years ago and has since worked on projects in Africa, Europe, Asia, and Latin America to promote social and environmental reform. He consults in communication strategy with organizations like USAID and the World Bank. Simon’s work in peace journalism led to a symposium he organized in New York City in April of last year. “War Stories Peace Stories: Peace, Conflict, and the Media” brought together “peacebuilders” and journalists for a dialogue on covering war and violence more thoughtfully.
OMG, it's another $elf-$erving, $elf-adulating, $elf-aggrandizing award for a well connected Jew (Simon is a Jewish name) and CIA contractor (the whole world knows AID = CIA).
So when is being going to make a film about Gaza?
There were 29 speakers and panelists at the symposium, including Alexis Okeowo, a journalist at the New Yorker, and Melanie Cohen Greenberg, the president and CEO of the Alliance for Peacebuilding. About 400 people attended, more than half of whom were journalists.
This is sickening, and one could be excused for calling them jewrnalists.
Simon hopes the journalists who attended make an effort to cover solutions to violence, rather than just the violence itself.
“How can we expect the public to advocate for peace if we never see it in the news?” Simon said. ”I’m trying to make peace efforts more visible, to make the public advocate more vociferously.”
In advance of the symposium, event organizers collaborated with the Pulitzer Center on a competition, “Pitching for Peace.” Journalists were invited to pitch story ideas “focused on an underreported nonviolent response or peace effort in an international conflict area.”
Like the OPCW whistleblower regarding the alleged Syrian chemical attack?
The initial plan was for three projects to be funded and presented at the symposium. The competition attracted more than 200 applications from 60 countries, however, and the center ended up funding 10 projects. Winning topics ranged from community mediators in Africa’s Great Lakes region to rehabilitation facilities for the terrorist group al-Shabab in Somalia.
Much of the symposium revolved around the role of women in peacemaking. Simon explained that women living in countries torn by violence are not portrayed accurately in global media.
“The news media tends to see women as victims,” he said. “But that doesn’t do justice to the role women play in peace efforts.”
Yeah, that way they can wave them in front of you to promote more wars, and he doesn't mean people like your mother or Jane Addams (who was branded unpatriotic by the..... New York Times) or Alice Paul (who was jailed for speaking out).
What do you mean you never heard of them?
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Time to sell the building:
"Nonprofit could reap big profit in sale of its Back Bay building" by Tim Logan Globe Staff, June 12, 2019
It will be the end of an era for a building the YWCA built in the late 1920s to provide housing, classes, and social services to young women in Boston. The Clarendon Street building opened to great fanfare in 1929, its upper floors full of efficiency apartments — including a private club residence for women — and the lower ones filled with offices, classrooms, and the city’s first women’s swimming pool.
They say it’s too early to know what a new owner might want to do with the property. Selling the property should significantly boost the nonprofit’s finances. It’s the latest in a string of venerable Boston nonprofits that have sold their longtime homes in recent years. The deals are a reflection of the city’s real estate market, said Rob Griffin, head of capital markets at real estate firm Newmark Knight Frank, which is brokering the sale.
“The ground and the buildings have become so valuable, and a lot of these organizations are in need of capital,” he said. “A lot of it is being done to help them grow.”
As for potential buyers, Griffin said, he expects interest from the type of investors who might hold a building for decades: wealthy individuals or local real estate firms. In the short term, its potential for wholesale redevelopment is limited by the affordable apartments and long-term leases with some commercial tenants.
“What they’re looking for is very creative ideas,” Griffin said. “It’s a unique building and probably one of the best locations in the whole city.”
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Yeah, “thank God the real estate market went up!”
Meanwhile, just down the road:
" A week before ground was broken for the Providence Place mall in March 1997, Vincent A. “Buddy” Cianci Jr., the mayor, declared the sprawling shopping complex would be the “brightest jewel” in the city’s crown, a symbol of urban renaissance. The promise proved to be true. In the 20 years since Providence Place opened its doors, millions of people have walked through, shopping at Rhode Island’s only Apple store, catching a movie at the IMAX theater, or stopping to gaze at the luxury jewelry offered at Tiffany & Co. Those who know nothing else about Providence know about the mall, but Providence Place, in the heart of downtown, is facing an uncertain future. The loss earlier this year of an anchor tenant, Nordstrom, plus a seismic shift in the worldwide retail landscape and the expiration of a generous property tax deal in the coming years have the mall’s new owner and city leaders discussing what the next several decades will look like for the shopping center. Critics of the current governor, Gina Raimondo, and Mayor Jorge Elorza say the two Democrats should have done more to keep the company in town. “The demise of malls is definitely overstated,” said Rob Robledo, a senior vice president who specializes in retail for the commercial real estate firm CBRE New England. He said mall owners who “change with the times” will still find success, suggesting that offering more entertainment options — like sky-diving or go-carts — is one way to attract visitors.Still, all malls are facing the reality that online shopping continues to attract more customers..... "
Maybe you guys should consider moving north to Maine.
Also see:
Bain Capital raises $900 million for life sciences fund
Bain Capital Life Sciences’ managing directors are Adam Koppel and Jeffrey Schwartz, and aren't jyou $urpri$ed?
Ironwood moving headquarters from Cambridge to downtown Boston
N.Y. governor to OK deal to boost rent protections in NYC
N.Y. bill targets different prices for men’s and women’s products
Consumer prices up slightly in May
So says, the Labor Department.
Related:
"Filings for unemployment benefits unexpectedly increased, rising to a five-week high and adding to signs of potential cooling in the labor market, according to Labor Department figures released Thursday....."
That's funny.
Just three days ago they were saying this:
"US employers hired the most people on record in April, while the number of open jobs was largely unchanged, evidence that the job market remains solid, the Labor Department said Monday....."
Yeah, it's all $tarting to fi$$le out:
LaCroix loses its fizz
Once the toast of millennials, carbonated water is losing some sparkle for its billionaire owner. The stock tumbled 62 percent through Tuesday amid slumping sales, increased competition, and a whistle-blower lawsuit alleging its cans contain toxic chemicals.
You will need to wash this down:
Tim Hortons to sell faux-meat sandwiches in stores across Canada
The stock reversed earlier losses driven by Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.’s decision Wednesday to cut its rating. On Tuesday, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s similar move spurred a 25 percent decline, Beyond Meat’s worst day since the debut.
Related: Tyson enters the faux-meat market
Are you sure it isn't chicken?
Whatever it is, it $tinks:
Musk says Tesla sales could hit a record this quarter
Questions of demand have lingered after a disappointing first quarter that has helped depress shares about 35 percent so far this year.
Yet the $tock markets are doing great!
Volkswagen buys stake in electric battery producer
Ford recalling more than 1.3m vehicles over suspension, transmission problems
It's a (drum roll, please) ...... software problem -- after a previous software update didn’t work.
GM to improve Flint plant so it can make more heavy-duty pickups
No new jobs are tied to the Wednesday announcement, but GM announced earlier this year that it would add 1,000 workers at the plant.
Time to get outta here:
"Uber, Lyft Executives Urge California Compromise on Driver Pay" by Josh Eidelson Bloomberg News, June 12, 2019
Faced with legislation in California that endangers their business model, Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. are urging a compromise that would keep their drivers from being considered employees.
“We can make independent work better if we update century-old employment laws,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and Lyft cofounders Logan Green and John Zimmer wrote in a rare, joint opinion column published Wednesday in the San Francisco Chronicle. “Many drivers are offering ideas to improve their experience, and companies like ours have a responsibility to come to the table prepared to do our part.”
The executives’ public appeal follows months of private efforts by the ride-share giants and other companies to secure support from California’s governor, state lawmakers, and labor leaders for some deal to shield them from a sweeping 2018 state supreme court ruling that makes it difficult for firms to claim their workers aren’t employees.
Whether Uber and Lyft drivers remain independent contractors or must be treated as employees goes to the heart of the on-demand economy’s reliance on a casual labor force to keep costs down. For both companies, which just went public, the prospect of being compelled in their home state to completely overhaul how drivers are compensated is an existential threat.
Hey, that's the gig, and if you don't like it you can move along, and I love the term "casual labor" -- as if we had nothing better to do and it's a hobby!
That's how the elite think!
In their Wednesday op-ed column, Khosrowshahi, Green, and Zimmer say drivers value the flexibility that comes with being treated as contractors. “Very few jobs allow you to start or stop working whenever, wherever, as often as you want,” they wrote.
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Related: Uber testing restaurant deliveries by drone
Also see: Martin S. Feldstein, Harvard professor and economic adviser to presidents, dies at 79
The Globe Staff and News Services forgot to mention he was a board member at AIG!
Not only does he have company, they all have something else in common.
I wonder if jyou can guess what it is.
