Harvard fires fencing coach over Needham house sale
He made a fool of “Jack” Zhao, and the kid was a spy according to Trump.
"Developers pressed to fund extra T service" by Tim Logan Globe Staff, July 9, 2019
As debate roars over how to fund improvements to Greater Boston’s dysfunctional mass transit system, state officials are increasingly pressuring real estate developers to pitch in.
In recent months, they have reached agreements with developers of two big projects north of downtown to pay for extra service on the MBTA’s Orange Line.
The arrangements mark a new approach to subsidizing public transportation with developers’ money. Traditionally, builders have agreed to improve, or build, transit stations located near their projects, but they haven’t funded operations.
I'm no friend of the real estate developers, believe me, but this puts everything into perspective. It explains the Globe sudden airing of derailments when they are a common occurrence and the subsequent flood of articles regarding the T. It was to set up a money grab.
With more such deals likely on the way, transportation advocates say they could someday become standard practice — a way to meet the added demand on the system from new apartment and office buildings sprouting along T routes.
The deals are modeled on a $7.4 million agreement struck in 2015 between the MBTA and the Encore Casino to finance extra service, particularly on nights and weekends. They’re the first among more traditional developments, however — and the first to focus on rush hour service.
So that is where they got the idea.
Related:
"It’s long been a challenge for workers like Amanda Saladino, the manager and senior bartender at the Hawthorne. It’s often around 1 a.m. when she finishes crafting cocktails in Kenmore Square. For the next few hours, the 31-year-old oversees her team as they clean and restock the bar. It’s 2:30 to 4 a.m. by the time Saladino steps out onto the street to make her way home. Typically, Saladino takes the T to work, but since the MBTA shuts down at about 12:30 a.m., she often uses a ride-hailing service to get home. There aren’t usually many cars on the road in the wee hours, so a shortage of drivers might mean she’ll face surge pricing. So she’ll wait till prices come down. “I just want to go home at that point,” she said with a sigh....."
At least a Lyft is better than Uber, and the T used to have late night service but it lost too much money.
“We were intrigued by the idea,” said Mark Rosenshein, project manager for the redevelopment of Hood Park in Charlestown. “To the extent I’m relying on a public system, I don’t have any problem investing in that system to make sure it works.”
I never bothered to hop back on.
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Didn't quite know what was going on with the photograph until I flipped below the fold:
"The 11 states with legal recreational pot are grappling with how to handle public and social consumption. As in Massachusetts, people in Colorado are barred from smoking, vaping, or eating pot products anywhere besides private homes....."
It was the only hit I took, and the buses stink in Colorado so you will need to fly there:
"Why we turn into different people when we fly" by Beth Teitell Globe Staff, July 9, 2019
A growing body of scholarly research, studies commissioned by the flight industry, and observations from mental health professionals show that engine noise, cabin pressure, and, of course, stress can trigger physical and emotional changes that alter our behavior.
Fliers cry more at movies in the air. They confess secrets to strangers. They develop compulsive behaviors so intense they fear being seen by co-workers on a group business trip.
I'm glad I'm not flying with her.
The change in behavior starts in the airport, a place of both freedom and captivity, said Merry White, an anthropology professor at Boston University.
She calls it a “third space” where people who are free from usual constraints — but also anxious — buy food and duty-free items in an attempt to calm themselves.
“The anonymity is liberating,” she said, “but it can also make you feel lonely.”
What, no TSA anymore?
Onboard, things get even weirder, as demonstrated by the surprisingly common craving for tomato juice, a beverage not so popular on Earth. At cruising altitude, however, it’s so beloved that when United Airlines announced last year that it was pulling it from the menu, the backlash was so intense not only did the airline reverse its plans, but the episode made national news.....
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Just wondering what else is in her drink, and what meal she ordered.
"In Brookline, there’s a worry that kindergarten has lost its joy" by James Vaznis Globe Staff, July 9, 2019
Kindergarten has traditionally been a time for storybooks and building blocks, but in Brookline, teachers and parents are complaining that students spend far too much of their day at their desks like office workers — and not enough time learning through play.
Just preparing them for the future that is already here, because social media is evolving as the new form of play.
Amanda Livengood said she was floored by the pressure-cooker environment her 5-year-old daughter encountered in kindergarten this past school year in Brookline, one of the state’s highest-performing school systems.
“It totally knocked her self-esteem down,” she said. “She would come home and say she hates school or she hates reading. She didn’t want to go to school. She was calling herself stupid. If I tried to quiz her on things, she would shut down.”
For the past month, Brookline has been embroiled in an emotional debate over whether kindergarten has become too academically demanding, causing anxiety levels of 5- and 6-year-olds to climb.
More than two dozen kindergarten teachers signed a five-page letter imploring school officials to bring more joy and play back into the program and parents launched an online petition that garnered more than 500 signatures.....
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Okay, kids, time to go out to the playground and play “active shooter drill”:
"Residents interviewed on Thursday night were dismayed by the grisly discovery in their neighborhood, which some described as the kind of place where people feel comfortable leaving their doors unlocked. “It’s not something that happens around this neighborhood,” said Tiffany Sodabanh, 41, the owner of a nail salon. “It’s a very quiet, safe neighborhood. I’ve lived here since 2005, and never anything like that” has occurred. Frey Playground is one of the city’s busiest parks, with basketball and tennis courts and baseball diamonds used for Little League and softball games....."
The State Police combed the area and the body was eventually identified.
Related:
"From the science of climate change to trauma response to mental illness, lawmakers and advocates on Tuesday made their case for updating the Massachusetts public school curriculum to equip students for modern realities. Angela Wallace, a graduate of Sharon’s public schools, said she attended a school district that “fosters a high-achieving environment” that created “an unspoken pressure for us to succeed in a rigorous academic space.” “While sex education has been at the forefront of my health education for many years, there is also a dire need to allot time for curriculum regarding the symptoms and underlying factors that contribute to one’s mental health,” she said. “Numerous friends of mine have expressed to me their struggles with mental disorders that have lead to suicidal thoughts.”
It all started in Kindergarten.
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Trump can't block critics from his Twitter account, appeals court rules
The ruling could have broader implications for how the First Amendment applies to the social-media era.
Twitter to ban just speech insulting to religious groups
They chose one group in particular, so what else is there to talk about?
Robert Kraft joins President Trump for dinner in D.C.
Showed him his Jewish Nobel.
Charlie Baker among 23 governors to join Calif. in opposing Trump mileage freeze
He's worried about the soot while Trump has a fire to put out:
"Trump praises Acosta as he faces growing calls to resign over earlier Epstein case" by John Wagner Washington Post, July 9, 2019
It's already off the front page and relegated to a secondary lead on my A2 Nation page.
WaComPo's turn to scrub-a-dub-dub.
WASHINGTON — President Trump praised Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta and on Tuesday said he felt ‘‘very badly’’ for him, as calls mounted for his Cabinet member to resign over his handling, as a US attorney, of an earlier sex-crimes case involving the billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump also said the White House would look closely at the circumstances surrounding a 2007 plea deal overseen by Acosta that a growing number of Democrats argued Tuesday was far too lenient on Epstein.
‘‘I feel very badly, actually, for Secretary Acosta because I’ve known him as being somebody who works so hard and has done such a good job,’’ Trump said of Acosta’s tenure as labor secretary. ‘‘I feel very badly about that whole situation, but we’re going to be looking at that, and looking at it very closely.’’
Shortly beforehand, Acosta said in a tweet that he was pleased that federal prosecutors in New York are pursing a new sex-trafficking case against Epstein involving minors.
‘‘The crimes committed by Epstein are horrific, and I am pleased that NY prosecutors are moving forward with a case based on new evidence,’’ Acosta wrote on Twitter.
His tweet followed calls for him to resign by lawmakers including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, as well as several Democratic presidential candidates, all of whom argued that he mishandled the earlier case as a US attorney.
During a floor speech Tuesday morning, Schumer said Trump should fire Acosta if he does not voluntarily step down after Monday’s indictment of Epstein.
The indictment has renewed scrutiny of a plea deal that led to two felony solicitation charges and 13 months in county jail for Epstein at a time when he had been facing the possibility of life in prison.
‘‘It is now impossible for anyone to have confidence in Secretary Acosta’s ability to lead the Department of Labor,’’ Schumer said. ‘‘We cannot have as one of the leading appointed officials in America someone who has done this, plain and simple.’’
Schumer’s remarks echoed a tweet from Pelosi on Monday night in which she said Acosta needed to step down.
‘‘As US Attorney, he engaged in an unconscionable agreement w/ Jeffrey Epstein kept secret from courageous, young victims preventing them from seeking justice,’’ Pelosi said.
‘‘This was known by @POTUS when he appointed him to the cabinet,’’ she added, referring to Trump.
And all of you, too, and look at how the focus has spun away from Epstein and on to Acosta!
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Pelosi seemed to rule out launching impeachment proceedings against Acosta.
The earlier plea deal — about which Epstein’s victims were not informed — came while Acosta was a US attorney in Florida. At the time, he opted not to prosecute Epstein on federal sex trafficking charges but agreed to lesser counts.
Schumer also called on the Justice Department to make public its review of Acosta’s handling of the Epstein case and for Trump to explain his past statements about his relationship with Epstein.
In a 2002 magazine interview, Trump called Epstein a ‘‘terrific guy’’ and said he ‘‘likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.’’ Schumer noted that Epstein had appeared in the past at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach.
Trump told reporters that he knew Epstein from Palm Beach but that the two ‘‘had a falling out’’ about 15 years ago. Trump did not elaborate on what happened.
‘‘I was not a fan of his,’’ the president said of Epstein.
Once again, the pre$$ only tells half the story, and the falling out had to do with an alleged rape on the premises of the club, for which Epstein was allegedly banned.
Meanwhile, he lavished praise on Acosta and said that many people can second-guess decisions they made years ago.
‘‘I can tell you that for two and a half years, he’s been just an excellent secretary of labor,’’ Trump said.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, called the accusations against Epstein ‘‘horrendous’’ and said he was glad ‘‘they are being pursued further,’’ but he said it was up to Trump to decide whether to retain Acosta as labor secretary.
We kept waiting for Sessions to do it.
‘‘He serves at the pleasure of the president, and I defer to the president,’’ McConnell said.
Related:
"Amy McGrath, a retired Marine combat pilot whose star power in the Democratic Party in 2018 was not enough for her to capture her a House seat in Kentucky, announced Tuesday she would seek to take on Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader, for his seat in 2020. McConnell’s reelection team responded with a video that highlighted her support for abortion rights....."
On Tuesday morning, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway gave no indication to reporters that Acosta would be leaving the Cabinet.
‘‘He’s doing a great job. I mean, look at the economy,’’ she said.
Conway also chided Pelosi for calling on Acosta to step down.
‘‘It’s classic her and her Democratic Party to not focus on the perpetrator at hand and instead focus on a member of the Trump administration,’’ she said. ‘‘They’re so obsessed with this president that they immediately go to Acosta rather then Jeffrey Epstein.’’
It's also a way to deflect from Epstein and Clinton, and now the Democrats are calling for her to be fired!
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Related:
Epstein case highlights America’s two justice systems
So says Cohen.
Also see:
Acclaimed organist found responsible for sexual misconduct at College of the Holy Cross
The college has already cut ties with him.
Also see:
Attorney: Girl fell to death from open window on cruise ship
They are blaming that on Trump.
Census judge denies Trump administration’s bid for new team
The reality is his poll numbers are rising.
Made print but not web:
"President Trump will order a broad overhaul of the nation's organ transplant and kidney dialysis systems Wednesday in an executive order designed to prolong lives and save the government billions of dollars, according to people familiar with the plan...."
Do you think he knows about the organ-harvesting operations?
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The Page A4 World Lead (after full-page Total Wine ad page A3):
Hong Kong’s leader appeals to the public, saying extradition bill is dead
The public is with you but you have ‘no chance’ when the agenda is being advanced this hard (near daily coverage is the tell), and if you had any doubts, this next article was just below:
"Taiwan set to receive $2 billion in US arms, drawing ire from China" by Chris Horton New York Times, July 9, 2019
TAIPEI — The United States has tentatively approved the sale of $2 billion in military hardware to Taiwan, demonstrating support for its unofficial ally in a move likely to exacerbate deteriorating ties between Washington and Beijing.
Why would we ever want the wars or tensions to end?
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, part of the US Defense Department, notified Congress of two proposed arms sales Monday. The first notification included 108 M1A2T Abrams tanks, as well as Hercules armored vehicles and heavy equipment transporters. The second included more than $220 million in Stinger antiaircraft missiles.
The tentative approvals come as relations between the United States and China are already being tested by a trade war and the decoupling of technology supply chains. The armaments would provide Taiwan with greater deterrence capabilities against the growing military threat from China, specialists said.
According to two global polls, NYT, it is the United States that is seen as the greatest threat to world peace.
So that is the way you are going to pimp it, 'er, play it, huh?
“These tanks and missiles will provide the Taiwan army with a modern capability to deter and complicate the operational planning of the People’s Liberation Army forces that coerce and threaten Taiwan,” Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the US-Taiwan Business Council, said in a statement Monday. “They will also offer new opportunities to engage in cooperation with the United States in both the deployment and operations phases.”
That seems to be more AmeriKa's shtick. Just as Iran.
US lawmakers have 30 days to object to the sale, but they are considered unlikely to do so. The approvals come as Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, prepares for a trip this week to North America, a visit that could further anger Beijing. The Taiwanese government said her first stop would be New York.
The United States broke formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan’s government in 1979 to establish relations with China’s Communist government, which claims the self-governing island as its territory and has threatened to unify it with the mainland by force. Shortly after the end of the formal alliance, along with the US military presence there, Congress passed the Taiwan Relations Act, which requires that the United States provide Taiwan with weapons of a defensive nature to deter an attack from China.
It could also be seen as a way to block rapprochement and unification, for if that were to happen then the U.S. would lose a vital toehold near a key shipping route.
In 1982, the United States broadened its support with a document known as the Six Assurances, the first of which stated that Washington would not set a date for ending arms sales to Taiwan.
Chang Tun-han, a spokesman for Tsai, welcomed the news of the tentative arms sales approvals Tuesday.
“The American government continues to take concrete actions to fulfill its commitments under the Taiwan Relations Act and the Six Assurances, assisting Taiwan in strengthening its defensive capabilities,” Chang said in a statement. “We express our deepest gratitude.”
That's a switch.
At a regularly scheduled news briefing in Beijing on Tuesday, Geng Shuang, spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, expressed opposition to the sales, saying they could harm relations between China and the United States.
Did he bring up Iran?
China has already expressed displeasure with Tsai’s plans to spend a total of four days in the United States, part of a trip in which she will also visit diplomatic allies in the Caribbean.
An official with Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that he expected the F-16 sales to go forward, saying that ties with Washington under the Trump administration were the strongest since official diplomatic relations ended 40 years ago.....
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I flip below the fold for the Daily Briefing and am greeted with these:
Olympic swimmer Magnini saves tourist in Italy
How many migrants died in the Mediterranean yesterday (that coverage was sure sunk quick)?
Electric scooters have arrived in Europe
A lot of people are not happy because they are being used by Nazis who have provoked visceral hatred (I only saw about nine of them).
"All-Afghan talks that brought together Afghanistan’s warring sides ended Tuesday with a statement that appeared to push the country a step closer to peace, by laying down the outlines of a road map for the country’s future and ending nearly 18 years of war. Washington’s peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has said he is hoping for a final agreement by Sept. 1, which would allow the withdrawal of US and NATO troops. He will begin an eighth round of peace talks with the Taliban later on Tuesday in Qatar’s capital, Doha, where the two-day conference was held. Tuesday’s statement said that a post-war Afghanistan would have an Islamic legal system, protect women’s rights ‘‘within the Islamic framework of Islamic values,’’ and ensure equality for all ethnic groups. The much-touted conference was attended by Taliban, Afghan government representatives, women, and members of the country’s nascent civil society. It aimed to produce a new level of consensus among Afghanistan’s divisive society. No date was given for the tougher negotiations to follow, when the many sides in Afghanistan’s protracted conflict will sit down to hammer out the details of what an Islamic system will look like, how constitutional reform will come about, and what will become of the many local militias affiliated with the country’s powerful warlords, who are affiliated with Kabul. They will also have to tackle how women’s rights fit into the definition of the ‘‘Islamic values,’’ as well as whether to set up an interim administration and when elections should be held. The conference agreed to keep the momentum going with confidence building measures. These included the unconditional release of old, disabled, and sick prisoners — though there was no mention of the affiliation of the prisoners or whether it included those captured in the war. The warring sides also agreed not to attack institutions such as hospitals and schools, as well as national infrastructure such as hydroelectric dams. They also agreed to be more diplomatic in their references to each other. There was no mention of a cease-fire, which Khalilzad has said the negotiations on the final deal would address.
That encompasses all my print with web additions up to that point, and I'll bet the new government will look something like this:
"The U.S. government was well aware of the Taliban's reactionary program, yet it chose to back their rise to power in the mid-1990s. The creation of the Taliban was "actively encouraged by the ISI and the CIA," according to Selig Harrison, an expert on U.S. relations with Asia. "The United States encouraged Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to support the Taliban, certainly right up to their advance on Kabul," adds respected journalist Ahmed Rashid. When the Taliban took power, State Department spokesperson Glyn Davies said that he saw "nothing objectionable" in the Taliban's plans to impose strict Islamic law, and Senator Hank Brown, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Near East and South Asia, welcomed the new regime: "The good part of what has happened is that one of the factions at last seems capable of developing a new government in Afghanistan." "The Taliban will probably develop like the Saudis. There will be Aramco [the consortium of oil companies that controlled Saudi oil], pipelines, an emir, no parliament and lots of Sharia law. We can live with that," said another U.S. diplomat in 1997."
Sort of makes you wonder what the last 18 years were for, doesn't it?
As we return to today's web version additions, I would just like to remind you that the glowing print version of the peace talks comes in the wake of what we were told were sabotage attacks by the Taliban against schoolchildren and feel like nothing more than an attempt to buy time.
Both sides did agree, however, to do more to protect civilians. The United Nations has expressed growing concern over civilian deaths in the conflict, and has criticized all sides for rising casualty rates, including from stepped up US airstrikes.
Yeah, it is time to leave.
In fact, it was time to leave eight years ago.
Even as the conference was ending, an airstrike in Afghanistan’s northern Baghlan province killed seven people, six of them children.
Funny how that doesn't make my print; only alleged Taliban atrocities do, and honestly, after 13 years of this slop it is so old and so played!
Early on Tuesday, a strike hit Kotuk Khiel village. The residents carried the bodies of the dead to the provincial capital of Pul-e-Kumri, where Afghanistan National Defense Forces had blocked the road.
Safdar Mohesni, the provincial council chief, said the airstrike was carried out by ‘‘foreigners,’’ a reference to the United States. There was no immediate comment from the US military to a request from the Associated Press.
I'm sure they will investigate, right?
The Taliban have also been deeply criticized for their many attacks that have killed or wounded civilians, including a devastating suicide car bombing on Sunday in Ghazni province that killed 12 people and wounded more than 150 others, including many students at a nearby school.
Yeah, turn the attention back to them with that false flag or fiction.
Tuesday’s statement also said all sides in the conflict would want international guarantors of any final agreement.
Participants attending the all-Afghan conference, which Germany and Qatar jointly sponsored, attended as ordinary Afghans and meanwhile Khalilzad’s talks with the Taliban will continue on the time frame for US and NATO troop withdrawal....."
I'll believe it after it happens, and I have such confidence in Trump's choice of Khalilzad, a protégé of Cheney and Wolfowitz, an original member of the Project for the New American Century, one of the signers of the PNAC letter to Clinton calling for the invasion of Iraq, and who has previously interfered in Afghan elections(!!), as he battles the Never-Trumpers and the Deep State to which Khalilzad belongs.
Maybe he can get Unocal another contract under the Taliban like before (he even worked from Cambridge), and Trump has said he wants to leave a strong intelligence gathering force behind as he privatizes American involvement with the use of mercenaries (it has already been agreed to).
That was war begun by Bush.
Now the Globe briefly turns to a war begun by Obama:
"The battle between rival militias for the Libyan capital has killed more than 1,000 people since it began in April, the United Nations said Tuesday, a grim milestone in a stalemated conflict partly fueled by regional powers. Forces loyal to Khalifa Hifter, a veteran army officer, opened an offensive on Tripoli in early April, advancing on the city’s southern outskirts and clashing with an array of militias loosely affiliated with the UN-recognized government. Hifter’s self-styled Libyan National Army is the largest and best organized of the country’s many militias, and enjoys the support of Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Russia, but it has faced stiff resistance from fighters aligned with the UN-recognized government, which is aided by Turkey and Qatar. The World Health Organization said in a brief statement that 1,048 people have been killed since the offensive began, including 106 civilians. It says 5,558 have been wounded, including 289 civilians. Battle lines have changed little since the offensive began, with both sides dug in and shelling one another in the southern reaches of the capital. Militias aligned with the government recently recaptured Gharyan, a town some 60 miles west of the city that is on a major supply route. The fighting has emptied entire neighborhoods of civilians.
That is what my print copy gave me, and the key omission is that Hifter is also the CIA's man, meaning there is a foreign power are playing both sides. That explains the sheer chaos in the wake of Obama's regime change, with all that Libyan weaponry freed up for terrorists.
Thousands of African migrants captured by Libyan forces supported by the European Union are trapped in detention centers near the front lines. An airstrike on one facility last week killed more than 50 people, mainly migrants held in a hangar that collapsed on top of them. Libya slid into chaos after the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed long-ruling dictator Moammar Khadafy. Armed groups have proliferated, and the country has emerged as a major transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty for a better life in Europe. Hifter’s supporters say he is the only leader who can end militia rule, reunite the country and keep it from being a safe haven for terrorists. They point to his success in defeating Islamic militants and other rival factions in eastern Libya over the past few years. Egypt and the UAE see him as a bulwark against the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists, but his critics view him as an aspiring strongman, and his offensive appears to have at least temporarily united western Libya’s fractious militias in opposition to a return to one-man rule. Many experts predicted at the start of the offensive that it was unlikely to succeed, noting widespread resistance to Hifter in the west and fractures within his own forces, which include Khadafy-era army units, ultraconservative Islamists, and tribal fighters. Mohamed Eljareh, an analyst and the cofounder of Libya Outlook Research and Consultancy, said it was too soon to fully assess Hifter’s campaign. ‘‘It depends on how we measure progress. Some say that the LNA’s ability to launch an offensive on the capital, Tripoli, is progress in itself,’’ he said. ‘‘Of course there has been miscalculation by the LNA in regards to how easy the operation will be.’’ He added, however, that the LNA appeared to be better equipped for a prolonged conflict, citing its campaigns in the east. ‘‘When they are unable to achieve a quick victory they are able to continue with the war for a long time in a war of attrition,’’ he said."
Well, at least progress is being made towards the stability they once had as the war of attrition reaches the seven-year mark.
"UK’s Labour shifts policy, now backs new Brexit referendum" by Jill Lawless Associated Press, July 9, 2019
LONDON — Britain’s main opposition Labour Party said Tuesday that the country’s soon-to-be chosen new leader should hold a second referendum on whether to leave the European Union or remain in the bloc, as the two contenders for the job prepared to face a grilling in a TV debate over their plans to break Britain’s Brexit gridlock.
In a significant shift, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the party would campaign to stay in the EU if a referendum were called by whoever succeeds Prime Minister Theresa May. She announced her resignation last month after failing to get Parliament to back her divorce deal with the EU.
Corbyn just caved!
Lawmakers Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt are competing to replace May as Conservative Party leader and prime minister. The winner of the contest is due to take office later this month and will have barely more than three months to win support for a Brexit deal before Britain’s scheduled Oct. 31 departure date.
Labour’s opponents — and many supporters — have accused the party of dithering over Brexit for fear of alienating voters on either side of the national divide over Europe. Corbyn, a longtime critic of the EU, has resisted calls for a second referendum, saying Labour must respect voters’ 2016 decision to leave.
What made him change his mind?
The left-of-center party has previously rejected May’s deal but also ruled out leaving the EU without an agreement and called for an election that the party hopes will bring a Labour government to power, but the party’s poor showing in recent local and European elections suggests Labour is losing support to parties including the Liberal Democrats and the Greens that advocate remaining in the EU.
I sense the hand of Israel and its lackeys behind the rigged results, for Corbyn is a longtime supporter of the Palestinians and thus must be consigned to the dustbin of history.
What we have seen since Brexit and Trump is rigged election after rigged election, from Macron coming out of nowhere to Greece just the other day, and what it tells you is the string-pullers are no longer leaving anything to the chance of elections.
Corbyn’s letter clarifies the party’s position — up to a point. It’s still unclear what Labour would do about Brexit if it formed a government.
Most businesses and economists think a no-deal Brexit would plunge Britain into recession as customs checks take effect at UK ports and tariffs are imposed on trade between the UK and the EU, but many Conservatives think embracing a no-deal Brexit may be the only way to win back voters from the upstart Brexit Party led by Nigel Farage.
Growing concern about the chance of a no-deal Brexit and signs that the British economy could be heading toward recession have weakened the pound, which fell Tuesday to $1.2440, near a two-year low.
That is how they subtly apply pressure to get the outcome they want.
Bookies and pollsters make Johnson, a populist former mayor of London, the strong favorite over the stolid Hunt.
You will have to go to Rhode Island to place a bet on it.
Hunt has expressed frustration at the reluctance of Johnson to take part in debates. He hopes Tuesday’s showdown offers a chance to turn the contest around, though it may be too late. Ballot papers have already gone out to the party’s estimated 160,000 voting members, many of whom have already made their choice.
What you don't see anywhere in the article were the charges of anti-semitism that were leveled at Labor not long ago.
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Related: Trump calls British ambassador a ‘very stupid guy’ and Theresa May ‘foolish’
It's taken on a life of its own.
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Not healthy for Trump:
"Judge: Trump administration cannot require drug companies to disclose prices in TV ads" by Katie Thomas and Katie Rogers New York Times News Service, July 9, 2019
A federal judge ruled Monday that the Trump administration cannot force pharmaceutical companies to disclose the list price of their drugs in television ads, dealing a blow to one of the president’s most visible efforts to pressure drug companies to lower their prices.
Judge Amit P. Mehta, of US District Court in the District of Columbia, ruled that the Department of Health and Human Services exceeded its regulatory authority by seeking to require all drugmakers to include in their television commercials the list price of any drug that costs more than $35 a month. The rule was to take effect this week.
What it tells me is the absolute and raw power the pharmaceutical indu$try has when a judge can be influenced.
With the 2020 presidential election race underway, the Trump administration has searched for ways to appeal to Americans burdened by the high cost of health care and prescription drugs.
The Affordable Care Act was once a reliable campaign trail villain for President Trump, but leading Republicans in Congress have become reluctant to revisit repealing the federal health care law. An appeals court in New Orleans on Tuesday heard oral arguments on the constitutionality of Obamacare.
In some ways, rising drug prices have provided a more populist issue for the president and members of Congress. Politicians in both parties have clamored to show they are doing something, but little has changed and many companies have continued to raise their prices.
And you wonder why I am tired of reading the agenda-pushing, mind-manipulating, filler and slop?
The administration’s effort to provide transparency in drug pricing was seen as largely symbolic.....
Meaning it will remain and endle$$ political issue, and maybe Sanders is on to something with his single payer plan.
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Related: Obamacare court fight pits blue states against red ones
The Trump administration shifted again slightly last week, and why is the Affordable Care Act so unaffordable?
That got me to page A7, and by that time I was tired of reading today's Globe.
None of the following articles made print:
GOP-led Virginia Legislature abruptly adjourns gun session
2 city leaders quit after Alabama mayor’s homophobic post
Chicago police confirm an alligator is living in a city park
Somebody shoot it.
After all, it is Chicago.
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Editorial
Rachael Rollins delivers on a campaign promise
You can weigh the scales as to whether she is doing the right thing.
Bay State lawmakers blow off their deadline
The embarrassment is nothing new.
Who gets abortions in Massachusetts? Here’s what the data show
The legislature wants to let anyone get them, and the pushback was fierce.
"Stop sending men to prison for addiction treatment, group recommends" by Felice J. Freyer Globe Staff, July 9, 2019
A state advisory commission has recommended that the Legislature put an end to the practice of incarcerating men who are civilly committed for addiction treatment.
The nonbinding recommendation by the Section 35 Commission, released this week, may bolster proposed legislation requiring that those ordered into treatment receive care at a licensed facility. Meanwhile, the state is facing a lawsuit with the same goal.
The moves reflect the trend toward regarding addiction as a health problem rather than criminal or immoral behavior. Commission members heard from former patients who described the trauma of being locked up even though they had committed no crime.
Yeah, and come to find out Ma$$achu$etts is the last of trend!
“I want anyone with addiction to be treated in a health care facility, not a criminal justice facility,” said state Representative Ruth B. Balser, a Newton Democrat who served on the commission and also sponsored one of two bills that would carry out the recommendation.
If the Legislature takes the recommended action, it would effectively close down a decades-old and much-maligned program run by the Massachusetts Department of Correction, now located at a Plymouth prison.
Baker wanted to give them the power to involuntarily hold you for 72 hours.
It could also shutter a year-old program run by Hampden County Sheriff Nicholas Cocchi, which takes a different approach and has been widely praised. That prompted the lone negative vote, from state Representative Michael J. Finn, a West Springfield Democrat.
Finn said he didn’t object to closing the Plymouth prison facility, but considered it a wasteful mistake to shut down Cocchi’s well regarded program, which the state has already invested in building. “Correctional settings can be a part of the solution,” he said.....
It's all about the $$$, isn't it?
So tell me again the difference between Democrats and Republicans.
--more--"
Related:
"A 31-year-old man named Jonathan stood up before a crowd in a State House lounge Wednesday and spoke about a horrific experience. In April, he said, his family abruptly decided that he needed treatment for his drinking. So they took advantage of a state law called Section 35 to have him civilly committed — ordered into treatment by a judge. Soon he was shackled in a police van and taken to the Massachusetts Alcohol and Substance Abuse Center, or MASAC, a Plymouth treatment program run by the state Department of Correction. It was surrounded by tall fences topped with razor wire. Jonathan said he’d never been to prison, but this sure looked like one, and he hadn’t committed a crime. He was forbidden to leave for weeks. This happens only in Massachusetts, to about 3,000 men a year. While most states have laws allowing civil commitment for addiction treatment, only Massachusetts turns the majority of civilly committed patients over to the care of the Department of Correction. Five years ago, the state outlawed jailing women for addiction treatment, but still allows it for men...."
Sure seems biased, and this state is so f***ing backwards in the face of its liberal, deep-blue reputation and image.
Just waiting the drug lab results:
"Three former prosecutors accused of misconduct in Amherst drug-lab scandal" by Shawn Musgrave Globe Correspondent, July 9, 2019
Allegations of official misconduct have been filed against three former state prosecutors related to the Amherst drug-lab scandal. The state body that investigates lawyers alleges the attorneys, two of whom currently work for government agencies, withheld evidence from defendants, district attorneys, and a judge.
And you wonder why we no longer believe in the JU$TU$ $y$tem!
Between this, the wrongly-jailed DNA cases, and the police proclivity to ignore exculpatory evidence as well as lie on the stand, it looks like acquittal accept in cases like these!
A former state chemist, Sonja Farak, who worked at the state drug lab in Amherst, was arrested in 2013 for tampering with narcotics samples to feed her own addictions. Defense attorneys challenging convictions based on her lab tests found evidence of her longstanding drug use, evidence that prosecutors working under the attorney general at the time, Martha Coakley, withheld despite numerous requests and court orders.
Farak was a wolf in the fold, thank God Coakley didn't win the governor's office, and I wonder what both of them are doing now (she should be ashamed of herself).
In October, after years of litigation, the state’s top court ordered tens of thousands of convictions thrown out because of Farak’s tampering and the “deceptive withholding of exculpatory evidence by members of the attorney general’s office.”
The office of the current attorney general, Maura Healey, declined to comment on the allegations, which were filed June 28 by the Office of the Bar Counsel.
She didn't call 'em out?
The first attorney facing potential discipline, Anne Kaczmarek, spearheaded the prosecution of Farak. Kaczmarek left the attorney general’s office in 2014 and was employed as an assistant clerk magistrate in Suffolk County until November 2018. The Office of the Bar Counsel claims that Kaczmarek knew about evidence documenting Farak’s therapy for substance abuse and made “materially misleading” statements about this evidence to district attorneys.
They mean SHE LIED!
The second former prosecutor, Kris Foster, was tasked with responding to subpoenas for evidence regarding the state’s criminal investigation of Farak. Foster is currently general counsel at the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission.
The last former prosecutor facing potential discipline, John Verner, supervised both Kaczmarek and Foster as chief of the attorney general’s Criminal Bureau. Verner joined the Suffolk County district attorney’s office in 2016.....
That's Rollins's domain now, and he's gotta go!
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I flipped below the B1 fold and found these:
Crime bill would redefine juveniles as up to age 21
With research showing that 18- to 25-year-olds are still developing, lawmakers in Massachusetts and other New England states are looking to increase the age of criminal responsibility to 21.
Right next to it and below was this:
Lawrence teenager sentenced to life in prison in classmate’s murder
Mathew Borges was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday after being convicted of killing and beheading Lawrence High School classmate Lee Manuel Viloria-Paulino.
The jusxtaposition and contrast couldn't send a more muddled or mixed message, could it?
After a while you just get tired of running:
Perot’s visits to Massachusetts
They pulled out his old stump speeches from when he ran for president and I give him credit for taking on Bush in what was a losing strategy and simple cover for one Iran-Contra criminal handing power to another, thereby assuring the secrets would be kept safe and not on a police blotter (as Boston’s recent spate of gun violence continued early Tuesday).
Liss-Riordan loans campaign $1 million for Markey challenge
One can't help but not the irony that Brookline labor attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan loaned her campaign $1 million, but she is still a hero to the Globe despite the Uber case.
Police investigating whether alt-right group is linked to fireworks incident near Bunker Hill Monument
Demonstrators who set off flares near the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown late Saturday had their faces covered, and law enforcement officials are trying to determine whether they are linked to an alt-right group, authorities say. Boston police were called to the monument area around 11:45 p.m. and were met by a park ranger, who told them he’d been informed by witnesses that up to 20 people with “cloths covering their faces” had lit off flares and paint canisters placed at the base of the William Prescott statue, a department incident report said.
Pfft!
The flares covered them in soot even if there is no motive.
If anything, they look like antifa as the cops jump to conclusions.
Related:
"They covered their faces during the hate crime, but didn’t realize their cellphones automatically connected to Glenelg High School’s Wi-Fi under their individual student IDs....."
The arrested teens who drew racist, anti-Semitic graffiti on Maryland school were identified as Seth Taylor, Tyler Curtiss, Joshua Shaffer and Matthew Lipp -- in what looks another Jewish false flag to keep the narrative going!
FBI offering reward for identifying dangerous ‘Inconvenient Crook’ in robbery spree
The FBI is seeking information about an armed robber, nicknamed the “Inconvenient Crook,” who allegedly robbed at several gas stations in the Boston area between August 2018 and March 2019, and the FBI is running the DLs as I type.
He will be history when they catch him.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Marketing campaign aids Merrimack Valley businesses still recovering from gas incident
The outrage has dissipated, leaving the Bo$ton Globe bitter because there is nothing left to see except the mask.
Money from sale of GE complex to fund new housing projects
Cisco to buy Maynard firm for $2.6 billion
S&P 500 narrowly avoids a three-day losing streak
Then Powell’s job as Fed chairman is safe for now.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
I'm sure you will recognize these NAMES:
Matt Damon
Tracy Morgan
John Cena
Mindy Kaling
Geena Davis, Meryl Streep, and Anita Hill
Also see:
Netflix drama filmed in Mass. just got renewed for season 2
I wonder how much tax loot they are going to conjure out of taxpayers.
Civil rights leader’s Western Mass. writing cabin eyed for preservation
It's a hilltop cabin in Western Massachusetts where the civil rights leader James Weldon Johnson wrote one of his most famous works, and current owners Rufus Jones and Jill Rosenberg-Jones are turning their attention to saving the cabin (yes, cherish the cabin).
