A truly awful year, and it is all the fault of Trump despite some wins for consumers and refunds for canceled school trips. That's what was great about 2020 as the dominoes fall on this final day of 2020 -- a fitting end to 2020 as the Globe looks ahead to the Boston they miss.
Below the fold and behind the shield:
His family has ties to the department’s upper ranks and his body camera videos show him and others shoving and pepper-spraying protesters.
He shoots and he scores:
Bruins fans are already singing songs about him.
That will keep the saga going as they $crew you some more.
Better keep your head on a swivel and sleep lightly, sir.
"Jonathan Pollard, who spent 30 years in US prison for spying for Israel, arrived in Israel early Wednesday with his wife, triumphantly kissing the ground as he disembarked from the aircraft in the culmination of a decades-long affair that had long strained relations between the two close allies. “We are ecstatic to be home at last after 35 years,” Pollard said as he was greeted at Israel's international airport by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israeli leader jubilantly presented Pollard and his wife Esther with Israeli ID cards, granting them citizenship. “You're home,” Netanyahu said, reciting a Hebrew blessing of thanks. “What a moment. What a moment.” Pollard arrived on a private plane provided by American casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, a billionaire supporter of both Netanyahu and President Donald Trump. Pollard thanked Netanyahu and the Jewish people for supporting him. “We hope to become productive citizens as soon and as quickly as possible and to get on with our lives here,” he said."
Did you see where Adelson is going to billet him?
The vise grip the tribe has on the American government is astonishing, and that's our best friend in the Middle East? Guys who hail a traitorous spy who hurt our country as a hero while shitting in our face?
"Pollard, 66, and his wife walked slowly down the steps as they exited from the aircraft. Pollard got on his knees and kissed the ground as his wife put her hand on his back with Netanyahu standing by in the darkness. Esther Pollard, who is battling cancer, then kissed the ground and was helped up by her husband. After landing, Israel's president, Reuven Rivlin, and several lawmakers tweeted congratulations and greetings to the Pollards, who left from the airport for an undisclosed location. Pollard, a civilian intelligence analyst for the U.S. Navy, sold military secrets to Israel while working at the Pentagon in the 1980s. He was arrested in 1985 after trying unsuccessfully to gain asylum at the Israeli Embassy in Washington and pleaded guilty. The espionage affair embarrassed Israel and tarnished its relations with the United States for years. Pollard was given a life sentence and U.S. defense and intelligence officials consistently argued against his release, but after serving 30 years in federal prison, he was released on Nov. 20, 2015, and placed on a five-year parole period that ended in November. That cleared the way for him to leave the U.S. Pollard’s arrival was first reported by Israel Hayom, a newspaper owned by Adelson. The newspaper published photos of Pollard and his wife, both wearing masks, on what it said was a private plane that arrived early Wednesday from Newark, New Jersey. It said the private flight was necessary due to the medical needs of Esther Pollard. The newspaper’s editor, Boaz Bismuth, called it “the most exciting day” of his four-decade journalism career. Photographs of the plane with the Pollards matched the color scheme of aircraft owned by the Las Vegas Sands Corp., the hotel and casino company owned by Adelson. Flight-tracking data showed a Boeing 737 owned by the company, tail number N108MS, left Newark for Ben-Gurion International Airport outside of Tel Aviv. Effi Lahav, head of an activist group that had campaigned for Pollard's release from prison, said Pollard's “arrival was (kept) secret since we realized it’s better to be discreet regarding his arrival.” “We have no interest in defying anyone, for sure not ... the United States,” Lahav told The Associated Press. He called Pollard's arrival “very moving and very historic” and a moment that his organization “waited for, wished for and prayed for and acted for throughout all these years.” The Ynet website said the couple was in quarantine, which is mandatory for all returning Israelis as a measure to guard against the spread of the coronavirus. The country has barred the arrival of all tourists, but appeared to be welcoming the couple as Israelis. Pollard's release was the latest in a long line of diplomatic gifts given to Netanyahu by President Donald Trump. His arrival in Israel gives the embattled Netanyahu a welcome boost as he fights for reelection in March 23 parliamentary elections. Netanyahu has been one of Trump’s closest allies on the international stage. Over the past four years, Trump has recognized contested Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the U.S. Embassy to the holy city. In other departures from traditional U.S. positions, Trump has also recognized Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights, said that Israeli West Bank settlements are not illegal and brokered a series of diplomatic agreements between Israel and Arab nations."
No only is Trump a Zioni$t butt kisser, Pollard was released from jail by Obama and I wonder if that latest Israel election will be rigged like all the rest.
Related(?):
"The family real estate company of White House senior advisor Jared Kushner plans to raise funds on Israel’s debt market. Kushner Cos. made an official filing to sell bonds via the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and a deal could come in the next few months, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to discuss it publicly. The company wants to raise at least $100 million from the debt sale, its first in Israel, according to The Wall Street Journal, which reported the news earlier. The announcement comes a week after Kushner — who handles Mideast policy for his father-in-law, President Trump — was in Israel on a diplomatic mission."
I'm sorry, but pardon me?
He is going to spend his last months in office pardoning turkeys like Kushner's father and war-criminal security contractors who left more a dozen Iraqi civilians dead in Baghdad?
I guess the pardons in waning weeks of his tenure say something about his views on criminal justice, and the decision to drop the cases have nothing to do with them being white.
Also related(?):
The large explosion struck the airport in the southern Yemeni city of Aden on Wednesday, shortly after a plane carrying the newly formed Cabinet landed there, and the source of the blast was not immediately clear and no group claimed responsibility for attacking the airport.
Sure looks like someone is trying to gum up the Gulf, cui bono?
"US officials warn of potential Iran-linked attack" by Dan Lamothe Washington Post, December 30, 2020
The US military is bracing for a possible attack on American personnel and interests in Iraq, US defense officials said, days before the first anniversary of an American drone strike that killed an Iranian general in Baghdad.
The officials spoke as two B-52 bombers carried out a round-trip, 30-hour mission from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to the Middle East ending on Wednesday, in an effort to show American presence and military might in the region to deter Iran. The Air Force carried out similar missions twice in the last 45 days.
Those were to deter Iranian attacks on U.S. troops and should not be seen as a threat or sign of aggression.
The latest bomber deployment, disclosed after the aircraft left the Middle East, was carried out as supporters of the Iranian regime continue to mourn for Qasem Soleimani, the influential leader of Iran’s Quds Force, the elite special operations wing of the Revolutionary Guard Corps. He was killed Jan. 3 in a drone strike along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the leader of Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militia that US officials have said was responsible for numerous attacks on US facilities in Iraq.
Trump struck him down with a bolt of lightning.
President Trump approved the operation amid escalating violence in the region, eliminating a longtime nemesis, Soleimani, who had coordinated attacks against US troops and interests for years, according to US officials and reports. Iran, expressing outrage, responded five days later by launching a ballistic missile attack that injured more than 100 US troops and damaged several facilities.
When no Americans were killed in that attack, senior US and Iranian officials both seemed to temporarily take pause, but tensions have escalated again in recent weeks, as Washington prepares for a presidential transition following President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over Trump.
On Nov. 17, rockets were launched at the US Embassy in Baghdad. Another armed group in Iraq, Ashab al-Kahf, said it was responsible.
That is why they withdrew some staff, but.....
On Nov. 27, a senior official in Iran’s nuclear program, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was assassinated near Tehran. US officials denied knowing of the attack, and Iran blamed it on Israel, but given the close relationship between Israel and the United States, US officials have assumed that Iran also might hold the United States responsible.....
I get the feeling that the Iranians are being set up to be scapegoat for some sort of false flag plot, and even the New York Times says Israel was behind the attack (they want you to know they can strike anytime, anywhere) and their analysis is that the assassination of the scientist who led Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon for the past two decades threatens to cripple President-elect Joe Biden’s effort to revive the Iran nuclear deal before he can even begin his diplomacy with Iran, and that may well have been a main goal of the operation, but whatever the mix of motives, Biden must pick up the pieces as Iran threatens payback by passing a law to immediately begin enriching uranium to a level closer to weapons grade and to suspend the access of international inspectors to its nuclear facilities if sanctions are not lifted by early February, shortly after President-elect Joe Biden takes office, creating a potential crisis for the early days of the Biden administration as they try to revive the Iran nuclear deal when the Iranians feel vulnerable as they struggle to bury virus victims while executing journalists.
The Iranians, of course, are too shrewd to take the bait, but it doesn't preclude my Jewi$h War Pre$$ from blaming them for a nuclear attack, a cyber attack that knocks out the power grid just as the WEF has warned, an assassination of Trump were he to miraculously retain office, or a top US scientists who needs to be watching his travel during the holidays.
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I would expect an uneasy detente as tensions remain high between Washington and Tehran over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program (what nuclear program?) as the Biden regime begins with more sanctions.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
At least he scored a big policy win after they ate his lunch.
"Britain on Wednesday became the first country to give emergency authorization to the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, clearing the path for a cheap and easy-to-store shot that much of the world will rely on to help end the pandemic. In a bold departure from prevailing strategies around the world, the British government also decided to begin giving as many people as possible a first dose of coronavirus vaccines, rather than holding back supplies for quick second shots, greatly expanding the number of people who will be inoculated. That decision put Britain at the vanguard of a far-reaching and uncertain experiment in speeding up vaccinations, one that some scientists believe will curb the suffering wrought by a pandemic that has been killing hundreds of people each day in Britain and thousands more around the world. Some participants in the clinical trial of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine were given the two doses several months apart. British regulators said on Wednesday that the first dose of the vaccine had 70 percent efficacy in protecting against COVID-19 in the period between that shot taking effect and a second shot being administered, though those figures held for a limited subset of trial participants and have not been published. Together, the two moves by Britain — authorizing the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and lengthening the gap between doses — offered the clearest signal yet of how countries still in the grip of the virus might hasten the pace of vaccination programs. Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has imposed tighter restrictions on most of England, warning of “extremely tough” months ahead as his government races to roll out vaccines that can bring coronavirus under control. Beginning Thursday, three-quarters of the population of England — 44.1 million people — will be in the top tier of lockdown measures as the new strain of the virus piles pressure on hospitals already stretched to capacity by the pandemic. The measures come amid growing fears the National Health Service is at risk of being overwhelmed after the UK reported more than 50,000 new cases on Wednesday, with 981 daily deaths. The number of people hospitalized with coronavirus already exceeds the peak recorded during the first wave in the spring....."
Turns out Sweden is just the same as everyone else (thus the rise in infections and calls for lockdown) as Germany suffers over 1,000 virus deaths in a day for first time and Argentina legalizes abortion as a rebuke to Pope Francis.
You will have to follow the Globe roadmap if you want to get fed as the Ronald Mariano era begins (meet the new boss, same as the old boss).
Now sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip....
"Bill Gross’s enthusiasm for playing the theme to “Gilligan’s Island” loudly outside his Southern California oceanfront home was muted by a judge who agreed with the Bond King’s neighbor that it amounted to harassment and imposed strict limits on the billionaire. Orange County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Knill on Wednesday ordered Gross to stop playing sitcom theme songs and other loud music when they aren’t outdoors for three years and to stay at least five yards away from their next-door neighbors in Laguna Beach. Tech entrepreneur Mark Towfiq sought the restraining order to stop what he alleged was “a targeted campaign of harassment” that began after he complained to city officials that Gross installed unsightly netting over a million-dollar sculpture in his yard without proper permits. “The court finds the evidence demonstrates Gross and Schwartz willfully playing music to annoy or harass their neighbors,” Knill said. “The evidence demonstrates on Aug. 23, 2020, Gross and Schwartz manually started the playlist over and over again,” the judge said, pointing out that one 17-minute video from a camera in Towfiq’s property showed that “Gilligan’s Island” played eight times, as did “Green Acres.”
I wanted to end this post on a high note so.....
"City Strings seeks to end 2020 on a high note" by Andrew Stanton Globe Correspondent,Updated December 11, 2020
After the pandemic forced City Strings United to cancel its spring recitals, including one at Symphony Hall, the Roxbury-based children’s cello program hopes to end 2020 on a high note.
The nonprofit is recruiting new volunteers and is aiming to raise $10,000 in December. “We’d love to start with strength,” said Bithyah Israel, a professional cellist who founded the group eight years ago
City Strings, based at the historic Twelfth Baptist Church, offers free cello lessons to kids ages 5 to 18, most of whom are from Dorchester, Mattapan, and Roxbury. The group relies on charitable donations and grant funds to pay for music and instruments.
The cancellation of five spring concerts wiped out another key source of money.
Israel hopes a new crop of volunteers and donors step up to help City Strings weather the pandemic.
Volunteers can help with networking and marketing opportunities. They can also attend concerts, or help provide refreshments, once in-person performances return. “There’s just a ton of ways that people can bring their expertise to help us fill in the gaps,” she said.
College and high school students have a special role to play, Israel noted. College students have helped to teach kids. High schoolers can create music worksheets or promote City Strings on social media, she said.
Israel said she hopes the support will enable the program to open a second site in Boston and begin recruiting students during the spring semester.....
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