Sunday, July 2, 2017

Sunday Globe Special: Who Do You Trust?

I know whom I do not:

"Trump’s wounded, distracted presidency has created a leadership void in Washington" by Matt Viser Globe Staff  July 01, 2017

WASHINGTON — As President Trump lurches from one crisis to the next, impulsively tweeting, lacking a coherent message, and warring with the media, he has shown limited ability to harness support for policy initiatives in Congress, even though it is controlled by his own party. He’s done little to provide the public with a vision for what he wants to do.

He’s given just one prime-time speech to the nation since his inauguration, a joint address to Congress back in February.

If he is ADD or worse..... you know. 

Neither is national leadership coming from outside the White House. Top Republicans in Congress have shown an inability to use the power of majority control to get big things done and an unwillingness to challenge a dysfunctional White House for control of the Washington agenda. And Democrats? Bless their bleeding hearts. They have almost as little influence at the moment as cable television hosts.

Even more unsettling: There is nothing on the horizon suggesting that this strange and unsettling Washington dynamic will change over the 3½ years that remain in Trump’s term.

That is making the assumption that he remains. If he does not, for whatever reason, that is even more unsettling. That would/could mean 11 YEARS of a Pence presidency.

“The American political system is based on the president taking the initiative and Congress responding. With President Trump, it’s been the opposite,” said H.W. Brands, a University of Texas professor and biographer of multiple presidents, from Andrew Jackson to Ronald Reagan.

“He doesn’t know the details of the policy, so he’s not a persuasive advocate one way or the other,” he added. “When a president doesn’t know the policy, it doesn’t make for a very effective leader.”

Multiple scholars and political experts contacted by the Globe could not recall a period in recent history when Washington was this rudderless.

“The president, to use a metaphor,” said David Gergen, who has served as a White House adviser to four presidents, both Democrats and Republicans, “has been running around like a headless horseman.”

There is, meanwhile, plenty to get done. Subway systems in major American cities are in disrepair, while roads and bridges are crumbling. Health insurers are pulling out of key marketplaces, spooked by uncertainty surrounding former president Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act and the failure of Republicans to pass their long-promised repeal-and-replace law. An opioid epidemic is sweeping large swaths of the country.

Who neglected the infrastructure, and where did all the money go?

Everyone agrees the tax code is too complicated, but prospects for an overhaul seem dim. There’s bipartisan agreement that immigration rules need reform, yet no one is wagering the GOP can use its control of Washington to pass anything or strike a compromise with Democrats.

John Weaver, a longtime Republican strategist, said, “The bulk of the blame has to be with the president.”

A White House spokesman defended Trump’s record.

Trump showed contempt for government when he ran for office, and White House press briefings are short and contentious. Trump’s Twitter comments are a constant distraction that takes the political focus away from health care and immigration and puts it on his treatment of women, his fights with the media, or almost anything but policy. He won’t even agree with the rest of his party and Democrats that Americans have a common enemy, refusing to publicly rebuke and investigate Russia for meddling in the 2016 election.

We are supposed to just accept that last lie, and the media stuff really sticks in their craw, huh? It's like the pre$$ does have a personal grudge against the guy after they fawned over Obama.

While Trump has held 11 press conferences, only one of those took place without a foreign leader also present. That lone solo press conference, which was nearly five months ago, puts him on pace for the fewest for a president in nearly a century, according to figures from the American Presidency Project. Obama had 11 solo press conferences during his first year in office; George W. Bush had five, while Bill Clinton had 12.

I wouldn't watch it anyway.

Trump has also given almost no major policy addresses, prime vehicles for a leader to advance his agenda or help the nation make sense of challenges, foreign or domestic.

Trump has even ceded the most crucial aspect of foreign policy — how many American lives to risk in overseas security operations. He has left the decision of how many additional ground troops to send to Afghanistan to Defense Secretary James Mattis. 

Zionist Israel is driving that boat.

Nor has there been a press conference on his plan to defeat the Islamic State — a public accounting that Trump said on May 21 would take place within two weeks.

And his agenda this week at the G-20 summit in Hamburg, for his first meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin?

Congress will be investigating.

“Well, there’s no specific agenda,” national security adviser H.R. McMaster told reporters last week. “It’s really going to be whatever the president wants to talk about.”

The lack of a concerted effort to rally Americans behind a rationale for governing, or a vision for the future, is having an impact, according to polls.

The same polls that said Hillary Clinton would now be president. Next.

Congress historically has stepped in at times and flexed leadership muscle. Lyndon Johnson as Senate majority leader was one of the most forceful and effective in history. And in the mid-1990s, then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich was so adroit at setting the agenda that President Bill Clinton, at a press conference carried by only one major news network, felt he had to declare, “I am relevant. The Constitution gives me relevance.”

I remember that!

House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell are not always adept at seizing the national spotlight, nor have they been able to unify the competing forces within their caucuses.

In some cases, congressional Republicans outperformed Trump in their home districts in the 2016 vote, so they don’t fear him politically or feel they risk repercussions if they ignore his policy desires. In other cases, Republicans have grown tired of his tweets and are willing to openly criticize the chief executive — as many did last week after his crude attacks on MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough.

And while one of Trump’s frequent campaign claims was that he could win people over and cut deals, his tactics so far have seemed to have the opposite effect. What may have worked in the world of New York real estate and tabloid media has not translated well to Washington.

“Since he changes his mind all the time, they don’t want to commit to anything because they don’t trust him,” said Linda Fowler, a professor at Dartmouth College. “And trust is probably the most important thing a leader has going for him or her in terms of getting people to do things.”

And once you have lost trust, as the pre$$ should know, you never get it back. There will always be some doubt. Doesn't help when the same behavior is repeated again and again even after being exposed, either.

--more--"

"Trump says Mika Brzezinski is ‘dumb as a rock,’ keeping up his feud" by Catherine Lucey Associated Press  July 01, 2017

BRIDGEWATER, N.J. — President Trump escalated an intensely personal feud with two high-profile talk show hosts Saturday, suggesting without evidence that their network is biased against him.

He is correct about that!

Trump lashed out at Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, cohosts of MSNBC’s ‘‘Morning Joe,’’ on Twitter on Saturday. From his New Jersey golf club, he said: ‘‘Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people, Greta Van Susteren lost her nightly show on MSNBC because she ‘‘refused to go along w/ ‘Trump hate!’ ’’

Like I said, this (what about Pike?) has gotten tiresome.

MSNBC confirmed this week that Van Susteren, previously a longtime anchor at Fox News, was being replaced.

“We have friends inside the White House that have told us over the past month they’re getting more concerned about his emotional state,” Joe Scarborough said Friday on the MSNBC morning show.

NBC declined comment on all the tweets Saturday.

Trump also tweeted angrily at CNN on Saturday.

Trump is heading to the annual Group of 20 meeting this week, where he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a high-stakes encounter that could put Trump’s ‘‘America First’’ policy to the test.

In a separate development, Trump said Saturday that he is upset that several states, including Massachusetts, are resisting a request from his voting commission for detailed information about every voter in the country.

‘‘Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished voter fraud panel. What are they trying to hide?’’ Trump said in a tweet.

Given the mix of information Trump’s commission will receive, it’s unclear how useful it will be or what the commission will do with it.....

I know what to do with this.

--more--" 

Quit watching the damn TV, DJT! I no longer do, and I used to see the chit-chat shows as better than the Super Bowl and every Sunday, too! How naive I was in the prior age of innocence. Now they are nothing but cartoons.

Just last week: A Day with the First Family

Related:

"Environmental advocates have watched in horror, but both sides agree: While much of President Trump’s policy agenda is mired in legal and legislative delays, hampered by poor execution and overshadowed by the Russia investigations, the EPA is acting. Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator Scott Pruitt has outsourced crucial work to a network of lawyers, lobbyists and other allies, especially Republican state attorneys general, a network he worked with closely as the head of the Republican Attorneys General Association. Since 2013, the group has collected $4.2 million from fossil fuel-related companies like Exxon Mobil, Koch Industries, Murray Energy, and Southern Co., businesses that also worked closely with Pruitt in many of the 14 lawsuits he filed against the EPA. Pruitt’s main source of counsel on industry regulations appears to be the industries he regulates....."

Like that is something shocking or new in government, and I gue$$ you could call him a clo$e friend of the family?

Also see:

Life-changing services at risk for millions if Medicaid is cut

Doctors worked furiously in bid to save victims of hospital rampage

Tufts Medical Center nurses set July 12 for one-day strike

“The result may be chaos, with angry patients waiting an hour or more and dispirited clinicians and staff trying to both appease and care for them.’’

And the ER is filling up:

"25 shot at concert in Little Rock; Police say patrons had been arguing just before gunfire" by Andrew DeMillo Associated Press  July 01, 2017

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Police say 25 people were shot after gunfire rang out Saturday at a rap show in a downtown Little Rock nightclub, prompting pleas from top leaders to curb the growing violence in Arkansas’ capital city.

Police said the shooting at Power Ultra Lounge was the result of a dispute among clubgoers and not an active shooter or terror-related attack. They said all the shooting victims were expected to survive.

Police early Saturday cordoned off the block as crime-scene technicians gathered evidence from inside and outside the club. Glass from the club’s second-story windows littered the ground, along with empty drink cups.

Police Chief Kenton Buckner told reporters that ‘‘some sort of dispute broke out between people inside’’ the club and that there are ‘‘probably multiple shooting suspects.’’

In a strange way, they are just reacting the way the U.S. government would.

A video posted online by a club patron, Darryl Rankin, showed a packed house for
Finese 2Tymes, a performer from Memphis. About a half-minute into a break in the raucous concert, several bursts of gunfire rang out — about 24 shots in an 11-second period.

Rankin said he was recording the show on Facebook Live when gunfire erupted and that one of his friends is now at a hospital with a bullet ‘‘stuck in his spine.’’

Courtney Swanigan said she was near the front of the club with her sister when gunfire erupted about an hour into the show. They were not injured. She didn’t know what led to the shooting, but she said she saw someone onstage with a handgun amid the melee.

‘‘I just closed my eyes, got down on the ground and put my hands on my head,’’ Swanigan said.

A posting on Finese 2Tymes’ Facebook page expressed thoughts and prayers for those injured and said: ‘‘The violence is not for the club people. we all come with one motive at the end of the day, and that’s to have fun.’’

The shooting follows a week in which there have been about a dozen drive-by shootings in Little Rock, though there’s no indication the events are linked.

WTF? 

It's Little Rock, not Chicago!

‘‘Little Rock’s crime problem appears to be intensifying,’’ Goernor Asa Hutchinson said. ‘‘Every few days it seems a high profile shooting dominates the news, culminating with this morning’s event.’’

Early Saturday, Raida Bunche waited outside the club after she had heard from a friend that her son had been at the club. Later Saturday morning, she said she found out her son ran out when the shooting began and was unharmed.

‘‘I’m sick of all the killing and I’m tired of all the shooting, the kids getting hurt,’’ Bunche said.

It's nice to see an antiwar voice in the paper from time to time.

Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Control officials suspended the club’s alcohol license hours after the shooting occurred and set a hearing for July 10.

--souce--"

Maybe they should move to Nevada and chill:

"Nevada on Saturday became the fifth state in the United States with stores selling marijuana for recreational purposes. It is eventually expected to outpace any other in the nation, thanks to the millions of tourists who flock to Las Vegas. People began purchasing marijuana just months after voters approved legalization in November. It marked the fastest turnaround from the ballot box to retail sales in the country (AP)."

And here Ma$$achu$etts Legislooture can't get its act together and is dragging its feet.

Just don't try to fly a plane to California after imbibing:

"The pilot of a small plane told air traffic controllers the aircraft lost an engine before crashing on a busy freeway near a Costa Mesa airport and exploding into flames Friday. The pilot and his fiancé were injured (AP)."

One if by land, two if by.....

"A commercial fisherman has been charged with killing his wife, who he said fell into Lake Erie. Christopher Leclair, 48, is jailed on a charge of criminal homicide in the presumed death of his wife, Karen, whose body has not been found. Leclair said his wife fell overboard during a trip June 11. Police said video showed he got on the boat with his wife the day before, and returning hours later without her (AP)."

Better get your boots on.

Time to start up the engine and move ahead:

After years of delay, Harvard’s Allston expansion gains ground

We will see what it looks like when they finish, and let's hope they don't have to redesign the place.

I was going to take a stab at the missing briefs, but..... kind of left you hanging there, huh?



*************************


  • Here are some selections from those I do trust:

    Deception Inside Deception: The Alleged Sarin Gas Attack - From Seymour Hersh’s latest investigative report, we learn that President Trump makes war decisions by watching staged propaganda on TV

    (Well, Sy Hersh is a limited hangout artist for the US intelligence community so you need to see his reports through a certain lens. Doesn't mean the stuff isn't true, but doesn't mean it is, either)

  • Trump Blasts "Fraudulent Media" For Trying To Silence Him, "But I Am President And They Are Not"- It was a Tantrump twofer. Twelve hours after the president unloaded on Twitter, again 

    (Globe didn't report that tweet)

     "Remember When a Dead Intern Was Found in Joe Scarborough's Office?".  Time for a revisit/reinvestigation? xymphora

    (Yeah, Joe better shut up)




    "July 1, 2017

    Gay Pride Parades Have Sucked the Life out of  Public "Activist" Demonstrations 


    ..... the Deep State is all about pedophilia and perversion.  

    Let's be clear, I am not against homosexuality...just against politicizing it at the expense of the family.  I have also concluded that open transgenderism is an attack on women.  When you think about it...If a woman decides to be a man...(s)he ends up being a weaker (physical) specimen of a man.  But if a man decides to become a woman...like a lot of sham athletes have proved, due to muscle mass, (s)he becomes a "super" woman, physically "stronger" than the average woman.  This eclipsing of women by male "superwomen" is, IMO, the beginning of the end for women.  When "scientific transhumanism" has perfected the transgenderfication of human males into females...complete with ability to become pregnant and give birth...WHO will then want to be "just" a woman?  Ordinary normal women will become to humanity like a third leg on a biped.

    But, I digress...       

    --read the REST--"

    Globe says its time for a truce, and you can trust in Katahdin.
  • Saturday, July 1, 2017

    Off to Summer Camp

    I need to “click-down so I can just relax and be myself.” 

    "Summer camp used to be a touchstone of homespun nostalgia and character-building sleeping accommodations. Remember that old musical parody about camp, “Hello Mudduh, Hello Fadduh”?"

    Summer camps can also be places where sexual abuse can occur (ask Scott Brown).

    Let's just wander around camp, shall we?

    "How fingerprints are unlocking the future" by Michael Andor Brodeur Globe Correspondent  June 30, 2017

    I admit, this is a weird place to be telling you this — but your touch? It’s like no one else’s.

    Wanting to get their hands all over you already.

    And I’m not just saying that. If there’s anything that makes each one of us a special snowflake, it’s our fingerprints. This most primary of all biometrics seems positively old-fashioned these days — conjuring inky-fingered bank robbers or scene-dusting detectives in black-and-white movies. But our fingerprints are actually more in touch with the times than ever.

    Around this time last year, I was experiencing a mini-freakout over the quite literally eye-opening rise of iris-scanning technology across the field of biometrics — appearing everywhere from smartphone prototypes to border crossings. Around the same time just one year prior, I was struggling to balance my trepidations over facial recognition technology against my desire “for my face to be as powerful as my phone.”

    Biometrics are tricky — they accommodate the demand for speed and efficiency stoked by on-demand culture, but they cross that line we imagine between our living, breathing bodies and, you know, The Matrix. There’s something about a computer reading your face that strikes many casual consumers as unsettling.

    Fingerprints are arguably just as personal a feature — their tiny systems of tactile ridges are technically more intimate and invasive than any touchless scan. But our long cultural history with and understanding of fingerprints as a form of identification, and the term’s metaphorical life as a synonym for the unique mark of an individual, have together contributed to our unconscious comfort with fingerprints as unwitting signatures, our most traceable traces.

    It also helps that they’re, well, at our fingertips. For feats where high dexterity and high security come together — e.g. unlocking one’s iPhone — the advent of fingerprint recognition had all the marks of the obvious and overdue. This comfort extended to using the increasingly standard sensors on our smartphones for any number of functions, from purchasing apps and products, to locking up diary entries and locking down camera rolls.

    And as phone manufacturers continue to refine smartphones, the role of the fingerprint will grow more common and more crucial.

    Both Apple and Samsung are reportedly working on advanced fingerprint recognition systems for as-yet unreleased (and button-free) models of their most popular devices — with Samsung struggling against its own schedule and plunking the sensor inexplicably on the back of its recent S8. Meanwhile, the Chinese company Vivo has already launched under-the-display technology that can read fingerprints through glass, aluminum, and OLED using ultrasonic sound waves. (No specific product featuring this tech has yet been announced.) 

    Oh, so the CIA and NSA will have your fingerprints on file, too.

    And fingerprints are making a mark well beyond the smartphone realm. A rudimentary scanner is one of many filthy things I must touch at my gym, for instance. And you may have already been enraged at the airport observing yet another line moving faster than yours.

    The biometrics firm Clear has arrived at 22 airports, and offers expedited security screening for $179 to passengers who submit to fingerprint and retina scans. “Our goal is to have it as a part of the customer’s check-in experience, from baggage check through the clubs and onto the gate,” a Delta official told Yahoo.

    As the total $urveillance $ociety is con$tructed around you.

    Fingerprints will also find liberation from the smartphone in the payment space. Mastercard is trying out credit cards with a fingerprint reader embedded in the corner of the card itself, allowing for a portable device-free mode of authentication. And the Singapore-based startup Touche just bankrolled $2 million toward its device, which allows retailers to link customers’ cards to their prints for far faster checkouts.

    No worry about the ransomware hackers or anything, huh?

    Certainly, all of this thumb-upping the fingerprint could just be temporary while the patents and prototypes for iris- and facial-recognition technologies work out their many kinks; but there’s something about the fingerprint that seems stubbornly set on sticking around.

    And as the technofuture pulls us further into virtual space, there’s something kind of comforting about having a human touch unlock its many passages — a skeleton key minus the key.

    Get your hands off me!

    --more--"

    Related:

    "STAY IN! I think there’s something you should know. I think it’s time I told you so. There’s something deep inside of me. There’s someone else I’ve got to be. And that person is the guy who does none of these things and instead watches 10 full episodes of “Gypsy,” the new Naomi Watts psychothriller on Netflix starting Friday because I love her. There, I feel better now....."

    I do not, and have no compulsion to watch, either! Tackling Eastern Promises, Valarie Plame, and The International must have hurt her career.

    So have you picked out a hat to wear?

    Slow Saturday Special: Unhappy Nazis

    Nazis never cry, right?

    Parliament in Germany approves same-sex marriage

    That would have made Roehm happy.

    "Austria’s top court upholds seizing of Hitler’s birthplace" by David Shimer New York Times  June 30, 2017

    BERLIN — The Austrian Constitutional Court said Friday that the government had acted legally when it seized the apartment complex in which Hitler was born, the latest and most likely last chapter in the long battle for ownership of the Nazi dictator’s birthplace.

    The court said in a statement that a law passed late last year allowing the expropriation of the three-story building was “in the public interest, commensurate and not without compensation, and therefore not unconstitutional.”

    Austrian law prohibits the promotion of Nazi ideology, including Holocaust denial or the display of swastikas.

    Seizing the building enables the government to prevent it from becoming a site for neo-Nazi activity, the court said, after hearing arguments following its decision to take ownership from Gerlinde Pommer, the longtime owner who had refused to sell the property.

    Wolfgang Sablatnig, a spokesman for the court, said, “representatives of Austria argued they do not want to let the house become a symbol for neo-Nazis, and the only way to make sure that there is no symbolic misuse is to seize it.”

    Sablatnig said Pommer could appeal to the European Court of Human Rights or to an Austrian court with the aim of increasing her compensation for the home.

    Hitler was born inside the complex, in Braunau am Inn, near the Austrian-German border — on April 20, 1889, in an apartment his parents had rented above a tavern on the first floor. Fearing that the structure would become a site for Nazi glorification, the Austrian government assumed its main lease in 1972.

    Officials have tried to buy the building from Pommer on numerous occasions since 1984, but she has refused to sell, even when her last tenants left in 2011 after she forbade renovations. After negotiations to purchase the building stalled last year, the government passed the law permitting it to be seized.

    Gerhard Lebitsch, the lawyer representing Pommer, argued that expropriation should not have been allowed for reasons of public interest, as the home’s appeal as a pilgrimage site would remain even if the property changed hands.

    “A concrete purpose of expropriation is missing,” Lebitsch said just before the hearing last week. “The Austrian legislature has no concrete plans for a use of this house. The Republic of Austria rents the building for 45 years now; it would have been easily possible for the renter to practice a reasonable use in the past years and decades.”

    But Austrian officials contended that a long-term rental agreement would be insufficient. “Far-reaching architectural transformations can only be made by the owner,” Hermann Feiner of the Interior Ministry said at the hearing, according to the Austria Press Agency.....

    I'm just not up to talking Hitler today, sorry.

    --more--"

    Keep your eye on Austria.

    She would have been part of a Vichy government:

    "Marine Le Pen charged with alleged EU funds misuse" Associated Press  June 30, 2017

    PARIS — French far-right leader Marine Le Pen was charged Friday with allegedly misusing European Parliament funds to pay two parliamentary aides who also work at her National Front headquarters. Her lawyer said she denies the charges and will fight to get the investigation suspended.

    Investigators suspect some National Front lawmakers used legislative aides for the party’s political activities while they were on the European Parliament payroll.

    Le Pen is president of the far-right National Front party.

    The prosecutor’s office said Le Pen was summoned and handed preliminary charges of breach of trust and complicity in breach of trust concerning two parliamentary aides when she served at the European Parliament.

    Le Pen is suspected of using parliamentary funds to pay Catherine Griset from 2009 to 2016 and bodyguard Thierry Legier from 2014 to 2016 for allegedly working as aides in Strasbourg, seat of the European Parliament, even though they also have roles in her far-right National Front party. Griset was charged in February with allegedly receiving money through a breach of trust.

    Le Pen is also charged with complicity in breach of trust in connection with her role as president of the National Front from 2014-2016. That charge could not immediately be clarified.

    Le Pen denies the charges.

    ‘‘It makes no sense,’’ National Front vice president Florian Philippot, Le Pen’s top lieutenant, said on the BFM-TV station.

    ‘‘She is obviously 24 hours out of 24 both the president of the National Front and a European deputy.’’

    --more--"

    You can pull the veil over her career.

    Then it is on to the battle of Britain:

    "3 officials resign amid outcry over Grenfell Tower fire" by Dan Bilefsky New York Times  June 30, 2017

    LONDON — The resignations occurred as new evidence emerged that the management company, which started the renovation in 2014, had chosen a less fire-resistant form of cladding to save about $390,000.

    The fire, which left hundreds of people homeless, has opened debates over inequality, deregulation, austerity, and governance. It is the subject of a public inquiry, led by a retired judge, as well as a criminal investigation.

    Nick Paget-Brown, a Conservative, stepped down as head of the council of Kensington and Chelsea, the wealthy London borough that owns the tower, [after he] faced numerous calls for his resignation after a council meeting he led Thursday ended in chaos and acrimony when he tried to exclude reporters, saying that their presence might “prejudice” the inquiry on the fire. The journalists had obtained a court order admitting them to the meeting.

    Paget-Brown’s effort to block the reporters drew a rebuke from Prime Minister Theresa May, who had already seized control of the emergency response from the council, which was faulted for a lackluster handling of the tragedy.

    Paget-Brown said he tried to block the journalists only because he had received advice from lawyers not to discuss the fire in public.

    The government is racing to test cladding on high-rise buildings across the country. As of Friday, 149 buildings in 45 areas had failed fire-safety tests, officials said.

    The Times of London, citing leaked documents, reported Friday that Artelia UK, the project management consultants overseeing the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower, had come under pressure to reduce costs.....

    --more--"


    ****************************

    "US actions risk unraveling gains with China" by Steven Lee Myers New York Times  June 30, 2017

    BEIJING — President Xi Jinping of China likes to call his core foreign policy strategy “win-win.” And President Trump likes to win.

    So at a steakhouse inside a sleek, new hotel in Beijing on Friday, there was a celebration of the most tangible result of the unexpected cooperation that emerged in the first months of Trump’s presidency: the lifting of a ban on US beef imports.

    The event, which included a ceremonial carving of a slab of bone-in rib-eye flown in for the occasion, might have symbolized the promise of a constructive era — except the Trump administration seemed to forget that the “win-win” part requires reciprocation.

    In twin announcements Thursday, the Trump administration said it was selling $1.4 billion of weapons to Taiwan and imposing sanctions on a Chinese company and a Chinese bank over illicit dealings with North Korea.

    Those actions overshadowed the Beijing ceremony and provoked a furious response from the government.

    A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Lu Kang, said those actions contradicted the agreements that emerged from Xi’s meetings with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in April, among them the decision to lift the beef ban, which had been in place since December 2003. If not reversed, they could have consequences, he said.

    “We hope the United States administration could correct its mistakes and bring China-US relations back to the right track of healthy, stable, and long-lasting development, so as not to affect bilateral cooperation in other important fields,” he said.

    The arms sale to Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of its territory, was a violation of international law that “hurt China’s sovereignty and security,” Lu said, adding that China resolutely opposed it.

    While administration officials said Trump had grown increasingly frustrated with China for not putting more pressure on North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs, the response showed that officials here, too, were frustrated by Trump’s lurching strategy and cavalier style of tweeting new policy.

    The latest steps, analysts said, felt retaliatory, and thus could prove counterproductive.

    “The United States has stabbed us in the back,” said Wang Dong, an assistant professor at the School of International Studies at Peking University.

    Yeah, the Chinese are seriously annoyed and that is saying a lot. You really have to step on the toes to get them pissed off.

    In a separate development Friday, Xi inspected troops based in Hong Kong as he asserted China’s authority over the former British colony, where anti-China sentiment has been on the rise since Beijing took control 20 years ago. 

    Is this a New York Times piece? 

    IT IS!

    Xi rode in an open-top jeep past rows of soldiers lined up on an airstrip on his visit to the People’s Liberation Army garrison, the Associated Press reported. He called out ‘‘Salute all the comrades’’ and ‘‘Salute to your dedication’’ as he passed 3,100 soldiers arranged in 20 formations.

    Armored personnel carriers, combat vehicles, helicopters, and other pieces of military hardware were arrayed behind the troops.

    Like they are getting ready for something, huh?

    It was a rare display of the Chinese military’s might in Hong Kong, where it normally maintains a low-key presence. China’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, is expected to make a port call next month.

    The troop review was part of a visit to mark the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover, when Britain gave up control of the Asian financial hub to China on July 1, 1997. Hong Kong was granted the freedom to run most of its affairs. However, Beijing is in charge of the city’s defense and foreign affairs. 

    Has it been 20 years already?

    China has repeatedly said it shares the US goal of halting North Korea’s nuclear program, or more broadly ensuring the entire Korean Peninsula is without nuclear weapons. It has also repeatedly maintained that it complies with trade sanctions that the UN Security Council imposed in an effort to isolate the North from resources to finance its nuclear and missile programs.

    The extent of its cooperation, however, is disputed in Washington, even within the new administration.

    “The Chinese tried to gauge what were the minimal steps they could take to comply with the resolutions and show they were serious about North Korea’s program,” said Bonnie S. Glaser, a senior adviser for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “And they miscalculated.”

    Officials in Beijing, however, have puzzled over what they view as conflicting signals from Trump, like his harsh words on the campaign trail and the personal bonhomie toward Xi to persuade him to apply a new round of pressure. Analysts have pointed to a widespread confusion over the United States approach to North Korea, climate change, and other issues.....

    They along with the rest of us.

    --more--"

    "Obama makes nostalgic trip to his Indonesia childhood home" Associated Press  June 30, 2017

    BOGOR, Indonesia — Former president Barack Obama and his family arrived Friday in his childhood home of Jakarta on the last leg of a 10-day vacation in Indonesia, where they visited ancient temples and went whitewater rafting.

    Local TV news channels broadcast live coverage of the family’s arrival in the capital.

    Indonesia’s president, Joko ‘‘Jokowi’’ Widodo, later met Obama at the Bogor Palace in West Java. The grand Dutch colonial building about 35 miles south of Jakarta is famous for its botanical gardens and a herd of spotted deer that roam the grounds.

    The two jumped into a golf cart with Jokowi at the wheel and headed off to a cafe nestled inside the lush gardens. Many Indonesians have drawn comparisons between Jokowi and Obama, who were both highly popular.

    After Obama became president, many in the country viewed him as a native son and saw him as a symbol of hope and religious tolerance because of his years living in the Muslim country. 

    I can't say I didn't when he rode into town and the back of the war-criminal Bush was out. After eight years, all I can say is extreme disappointment.

    Obama also retains a soft spot for Indonesia, where he lived from age 6 to 10. He moved to Jakarta in 1967 after his mother split up with his father and remarried an Indonesian man. They had his half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, who is traveling with the family.

    After her second marriage ended, Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, stayed on in Indonesia and Obama returned to Hawaii to live with his grandparents.

    Gee, she really got around.

    --more--"

    More nostalgia, sob:

    "The war that inspired a nationwide wave of protests and has since become synonymous with costly American entanglements was — and remains — more popular than the Senate health care bill. During 1965, Gallup found that the most unpopular the Vietnam War ever got was a 23 percent approval rating, which it earned in May 1971, among those over 49 years old. In 2000, Gallup again asked the American public how it felt about the Vietnam War, and 36 percent of respondents said it was “very favorable” or “mostly favorable.”

    (Blog editor finds it unfathomable that the war is viewed “more favorably” through the lens of time. Just shows how powerful is the ma$$ media narrative)


    ***************************


    "Hundreds flee Mosul as Iraqi forces squeeze extremists" by Felipe Dana Associated Press  June 30, 2017

    MOSUL, Iraq — Hundreds of civilians fled Mosul’s Old City on Friday as Iraqi forces slowly squeezed the last pockets of Islamic State resistance, and the United Nations warned that the ‘‘intense and concentrated’’ fighting put innocent lives in even greater danger.

    People climbed over mounds of rubble and through narrow alleys as gunshots and explosions rang out nearby.

    This is heartbreaking.

    The neighborhoods where government forces are fighting have been under siege for months as grueling urban warfare drew out the operation to retake Iraq’s second-largest city.

    For the civilians held as human shields by the extremists, supplies have run low and drinking water is scarce, according to residents interviewed at screening centers and clinics.

    Expect cholera cases to appear, if they haven't already.

    The battles came a day after Iraqi forces made significant gains against the militants and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared an end to the group’s self-proclaimed caliphate.

    After a dawn push Thursday, Iraqi forces retook the symbolic site where the al-Nuri Mosque once stood.

    It was from the pulpit of the 12th- century mosque, which the militants blew up last week along with its famous leaning minaret, that their leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had proclaimed the caliphate in 2014.

    During the evening, Abadi announced that the full liberation of Mosul was near.

    Lieutenant General Abdul Wahab al-Saadi said the special forces were within 770 yards of the Tigris River, which roughly divides Mosul into eastern and western halves.

    ISIS also is under increased pressure in Syria, where its self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa is encircled by an array of forces. Despite a series of recent losses in both Iraq and Syria, Baghdadi’s fate remains unknown.

    In a separate development, an investigation by the international chemical weapons watchdog confirmed that sarin nerve gas was used in a deadly April 4 attack on a Syrian town, but the report released Friday stopped short of saying who was responsible.

    Related: 

    Trump Has Been Continuing Obama’s Syria-Policy

    MSM Distorts OPCW Report

    Dubious OPCW Report on Syria 

    Distortions and lies. Used to 'em.

    The attack on Khan Sheikhoun in Syria’s Idlib province killed more than 90 people, including women and children. It sparked outrage around the world as photos and video of the aftermath, including quivering children dying on camera, were widely broadcast.

    ‘‘I strongly condemn this atrocity, which wholly contradicts the norms enshrined in the Chemical Weapons Convention,’’ said Ahmet Uzumcu, director-general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. ‘‘The perpetrators of this horrific attack must be held accountable for their crimes.’’

    The United States blamed the Syrian military for the attack and launched a punitive strike days later. Syria’s president Bashar Assad, has denied using chemical weapons.

    The findings of the investigation will be used by a joint team from the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which is working to assess who was responsible for the attack. The team is expected to issue its next report around October.

    Then they will blame Syria, as if we would believe them. 

    If so, then OPCW failed in its mission, didn't it? Gave Syria a clean bill of health and everything regarding weapons removal. It's like Iraq all over again; however, now they have a new generation of millennials who have no context of the past and whose minds they can mold.

    The operation to retake Mosul, backed closely by the US-led coalition, began in October, with the Iraqi government initially vowing the city would be liberated in 2016.

    ISIS now holds a small patch of territory in Mosul’s Old City along the Tigris that measures less than a square mile. The terrain is dense, and the UN estimates tens of thousands of civilians are trapped there.

    Nice to see my agenda-pushing war pre$$ take notice.

    Frederic Cussigh, a UN official in Irbil, said about 1,400 people fleeing the Old City have been registered at screening centers in the past two days.

    The high numbers of displaced civilians and the extensive destruction will mean more people will have to stay in camps for longer periods, requiring food, water, and other aid. Cussigh expects the humanitarian fallout from the fight for Mosul to last into 2018.

    You are now Palestinian.

    The clashes have displaced more than 850,000 people since the operation to retake Mosul was launched, according to the International Organization for Migration.

    That's almost a million.

    --more--"

    epa06058575 Iraqi displaced women and their children arrive to the positions of Iraqi forces in the old city area of western Mosul, Iraq, 30 June 2017. Iraqi forces recaptured the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul on 29 June 2017, the site where Islamic state (IS) chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made his only known public appearance in 2014. Iraqi prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced that 'the recapture of the mosque is a sign of IS's impending defeat'.  EPA/STR
    Iraqi displaced women and their children arrive to the positions of Iraqi forces in the old city area of western Mosul, Iraq, 30 June 2017.

    That was the photo that accompanied my print article.

    http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.3134658.1498502892!/image/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_685/image.jpg
    Iranian women take part in an Eid-al Fitr prayer ceremony, making the end of Ramadan, in Tehran, Iran.

    That was a photo from Tuesday last and it caught my eye.


    ***************************

    "Suspect arraigned in murder of 81-year-old Needham woman" by Jeremy C. Fox Globe Correspondent  June 30, 2017

    DEDHAM — The next-door neighbor of a Russian immigrant who lived in Needham has been charged with brutally killing Laura Shifrina, who was 81, and stealing her car.

    Shifrina was found dead May 31 by her daughter in her apartment in a Needham public housing development for senior citizens and people with disabilities.

    Shifrina’s 2011 Ford Fiesta, a car that she took pride in and drove regularly, was missing, as was a sum of cash that Shifrina had been saving for dental work, which her daughter said might have totaled as much as $3,000, according to court records.

    At the arraignment for the neighbor, Tammie Price Galloway, 47, in Dedham District Court Friday, Assistant Norfolk District Attorney Greg Connor said Shifrina had cuts to her neck, including one that severed her jugular vein, as well as broken ribs and cuts to her left arm.

    In an early interview with police, Galloway claimed she had a “good relationship” with Shifrina, Connor said, but the investigation found that after Shifrina was seen attending a funeral and then grocery shopping on the afternoon of May 28, Galloway viciously attacked Shifrina and stole her car, Connor said.

    Galloway spent the night of May 28 at a family friend’s home in Dorchester, where she was seen carrying a purple purse that later tested positive for blood that matched Shifrina’s DNA, Connor said.

    Security video shows a woman matching Galloway’s description leaving the Dorchester home on the morning of May 29 carrying a container of bleach and later wiping down the stolen car, including the door handles, Connor said.

    Shifrina’s car was found June 1, with a city parking ticket underneath a windshield wiper. The car smelled overwhelmingly of bleach and had “streak marks” that appeared to come from cleaning, according to an affidavit filed in court.

    A man who had a relationship with Galloway told investigators that on May 30, she gave him a gift of new sneakers and about $60 in cash and flashed a large wad of bills, which was unusual for her, according to Connor and the affidavit.

    Phone records also showed that two calls to that man were made from Shifrina’s missing cellphone on the evening of May 28, after Galloway had allegedly killed Shifrina, according to the affidavit.

    Investigators found surveillance video that showed a car that appeared to be Shifrina’s Ford Fiesta traveling north on Granite Avenue in Dorchester at the time of the second call. Call records also placed the cellphone in that area at that time, according to prosecutors.

    Investigators also found that on June 3, Galloway bought a new cellphone and accessories using $300 in cash and paid an outstanding phone bill using $60 in cash.

    The prosecutor said Galloway had a lengthy criminal record that included a drug offense and a violent crime in North Carolina in the 1990s. In a rare occurrence, officials had kept Galloway’s name secret until her arraignment. It wasn’t immediately clear why.

    Shifrina was a Jewish refugee who immigrated to the United States about 15 years ago with her daughter and her family. She worked for the Moscow Aviation Institute as a computer software engineer before coming to America, a friend, Aleksandr Yufa, told the Globe. She was an active member of the Massachusetts Club of Russian Speaking Scientists and edited a bulletin called “Intellect.”

    Yufa attended Friday’s arraignment and afterward told reporters, “It’s hard to believe that such people like the defendant exist in our country.”

    Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey acknowledged outside the courthouse that the killing had disturbed and frightened residents of the Needham housing complex where Shifrina lived.

    “We want the people, particularly the elderly residents in the complex . . . to feel, hopefully, some ease that we now have, at least, brought a person to the courthouse for arraignment to begin that long judicial process to conviction for murder,” he said.

    Brad Walker, who lives one building away from Shifrina’s apartment, said he was suspicious after a “strange” interaction with Galloway days before the death was discovered.

    “She knocked on my door late at night and asked if she could borrow some tools, a hammer, to hang some photos,” Walker said.

    “It was very odd; I had never talked to her before.”

    He said he thinks the fact that Galloway is being held without bail will comfort his quiet neighborhood, which had been left unnerved by the murder.

    “I certainly have a sense of relief, big time,” he said.

    Another neighbor, who asked that her name not be published, said Friday that Galloway had lived in the complex for less than a year. She did not know why Galloway, who is decades younger than most residents at the complex, was living there.

    The executive director of the Needham Housing Authority did not immediately respond Friday to an inquiry about Galloway.

    The woman said Galloway had seemed fine at first, but that neighbors had observed increasingly erratic behavior from her over time.

    “She pretty much kept to herself,” observed the neighbor, who said she has lived in that part of Needham for about a decade.

    She described the complex as “a very, very close-knit community” that had been shocked by Shifrina’s brutal killing.

    “That woman was so nice. Never said boo to anyone,” she said. “An elegant lady.”

    --more--"

    "Accused killer arraigned for murder of two Dorchester sisters" by Sara Salinas Globe Correspondent  June 30, 2017

    In a full courtroom Friday after a nearly six-year wait, a Dorchester family met the man accused of killing two sisters.

    Jean W. Janvier, 35, pleaded not guilty in the 2011 murder of Stephanie and Judith Emile in their apartment. Janvier fled to Haiti shortly after the deaths, landing him on the US Marshals’ 15 Most Wanted List and sparking a six-year manhunt. He was captured June 3 in his mother’s home in Santo, Haiti, and arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court on Friday.

    Janvier is accused of killing Stephanie, 21, and Judith, 23, on Nov. 14, 2011. Prosecutors said Janvier had been in a romantic relationship with Stephanie, but the couple had recently broken up when the sisters were shot.

    Upon entering the courtroom Friday, Janvier was met with expletive-ridden shouts from members of the victims’ family. Shouts turned to tearful whispers as prosecutors detailed the facts of the case and how the sisters were shot in the back and head.

    Investigators said one of the women was shot getting while out of the shower and the other was shot while laying in bed.

    The women shared an apartment with two more of their sisters and were watching a 2-year-old niece at the time of their deaths.

    The victims had 11 other siblings, many of whom attended the arraignment along with their mother and father. Mirelda Emile, another sister, said she was glad to see Janvier captured but that it was “heart wrenching” to see him across the courtroom.

    “I was just so emotional because I seen him and, you know, he looked like he didn’t give any care in the world, and he just acted like he was innocent,” Mirelda Emile said after the arraignment.

    “And I don’t want to talk too much about him because it’s not about him. It’s about them.”

    The two sisters had immigrated to the United States in 2002 and were pursuing careers in the medical field when they were shot to death in their Harlem Street apartment, according to authorities and relatives.

    Janvier’s next court appearance is scheduled for Aug. 1.....

    --more--"


    ***************************

    This last item will lift you up:

    "To Ride the Wind over the Blinding Dust Storm of Materialism.

    Saturday, July 01, 2017

    Dog Poet Transmitting.......

    I watched “Platoon” today and it really shook me up. I know I had seen it before but there were only a couple of themes that I remembered and some scenes I didn't remember ever having seen but which hit me hard. It wasn't just the film. It was my state of mind about life and the forces at work in it and the level of Evil. I had so many flashes of man being bestialized and the kinds of intelligence that were behind the conflict and what their goals and intentions were. It is so hard to grasp the degrees of man's inhumanity to man.

    Never before in my life have I seen things so clearly. Never before have I felt so liberated from the confinements of my own person, to where I can simply look and listen and really see and hear. Our lives are progressive. We move from one stage of being to the next and the pattern is determined by our intentions and objectives. There is little doubt that I have gone mad on occasion. The desperation of emptiness, one's life devoid of God in the fullness of his possibility within us. It is impossible for me to be unaware of the ineffable and the imaginary distance between us that is a construct of my mind but that is passing. The madness broke down the fence line of personal boundaries in my imagined, personal mind and was absolutely necessary for that to happen. As the ineffable seeps into us; as our resistance decreases, our awareness widens and widens to encompass understandings that were previously impossible but... now I see that nothing is impossible and... to the extent that we accept that as literal truth and one of the eternal realities of the divine, as the divine becomes more and more present in us, this truth and so many others become features of our own being.

    Watching that film today was such an experience. I thought about how pointless and unnecessary that was... all of the wars and conflicts really. I thought about the 50,000 dead over the years of its continuance and how 50,000 died in only 3 days at Gettysburg. Then I thought about the cultural war taking place now and conditions like this and how casual they are about it. I thought about the kind of minds that can think this way. I am astonished at things like this and then how the trend just gets worse and worse. I thought about the incredible hypocrisies that exist in certain people. How can such conflicting disparities reside in the same person?

    The most troubling consideration in life to me is how such a large number of people can be so accommodating to conditions that will most certainly destroy them. How can people allow particular ideas to curl up in their minds and become comfortable and familiar with them? The greatest dangers are not the mortality that attends these ideas but the spiritual cost further on. Some people believe you have only the one life, or that there is nothing beyond but... nothing, you are extinguished and that is all but this is not so. You do not have just the one life and there are most certainly states and environments beyond this one that you pass into upon passing. Observe the cyclicity of Nature. Because of our immersion through the senses in the blinding dust storm of Materialism we are losing our objective capacity. Subjectivity is now the order of the day and in response to this the twisted fiends who manipulate appearances are destroying human intelligence and the critical sense. We are told what to think and even a surface observation of this brings distressing news.

    Most distressing about people being told what to think is that it leads to their minds being hijacked and their humanity exiled from their consciousness for the purpose of the commission of acts of this nature. You might not want to read the article as it contains nothing but disturbing things that are now a daily event around the world. We only hear about a small amount of these events and like The Shadow is reported to have said; “who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?”

    Weather can come out of seemingly nowhere, although meteorologists can track the origins and even predict the occurrences with an increasing precision, as the technology to do so, continues to be refined. For those of us not so informed, tornadoes and the like can just appear. There are always reasons for it but we often don't know what they are; wildfires, floods, earthquakes and sundry are all expressions of Nature when certain conditions are right for the occasion. Civilization (if we can call it that) also has weather and for those paying no attention, events and conditions can seem to have come out of nowhere; how did that happen?

    These are times of great and tumultuous change and if you want to see where certain trends are headed then look critically and analytically at what is in front of you (and to the side) and behind you. Keep in mind that anytime the general perception of the family unit and the interpretations given to the expression of sexual practices become increasingly more confusing and perverse, that society, overall, is going to enter into periods of STRANGE and stranger, with more and more appearances by the Bad Stranger. When diversity and perversity are redefined as inclusiveness and freedom of expression you are looking at certain kinds of weather seeming to come out of nowhere. Freedom is not license. Now they have all this cleverly shaped language and an endless stream of newly coined terms, backed up by credentialed experts and people with an array of initials after their names. It is no accident that representatives of these origins of strange weather are employed in the educational and political arenas. It is no accident that the entertainment and media theaters highlight certain behaviors as perfectly normal and desirable. It is also no accident as to who controls the ingress and egress to and from these fields of endeavor.

    A spiritual war in in progress. It is a war for the harvesting of souls and this is something that takes place in an apocalypse. This is the essential motivation behind most of what is taking place all around us and is the source of strange weather that seems to come out of nowhere. The bottom line and unassailable truth, despite all appearances to the contrary is that the divine is completely in charge of everything and that things happen that are certainly not divine for... the purpose of demonstration. There is a reason that there are so many billions of people here. Their souls knew the reason before they arrived, even though nearly everyone forgot upon arrival.

    Those paying attention will know that the time is here, according to the usual timeline, for the appearance of the latest presentation of the Avatar, clothed in the appropriate garment for the times; whatever that may prove to be. Those paying attention are also aware of how many people are presently here. Those paying attention know about the huge disparities in the control and possession of the world's resources and assets. Those paying attention are aware of what has been happening in and to the organs (literally and metaphorically) of the world's major religions. Those paying attention are aware of the world wide expansion of Satanism, militant atheism and new phenomena like Scientology where the author of this piece is listed as a 'suppressive'. Those paying attention are aware of strange murmurs from the realm of Lady Nature. Those paying attention are most assuredly aware of the incredible force being brought to bear in the area of human sexual expression. The force is so great that it bends to its will nearly everyone in a position of power and influence around the world, with a few notable exceptions. Those paying attention are paying attention, everyone else is doing whatever it is that they do.

    You will notice the series of links earlier on, some of which refer to teachers engaged in certain forms of subversive, guerrilla activity of the sub rosa sort. You will notice how prominent this subject line is in the media each and every day and you will, of course, be aware of who owns the media. Though the centers for evil in this world are, obviously in an always uneasy alliance with one another toward the destruction of all that is good in this world, they are always at war with one another in some fashion and this is one of the primary reasons why evil destroys itself. I should point out at this moment, as has often been the case of late, that the ineffable is, REGARDLESS OF APPEARANCES, always in control; “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And one of them will not fall to the ground without the knowledge and consent of your Father.” Everything is under control. The question is, are we under control? Control is in the mind and... there is only one mind. Put yourself in the understanding that you are a center of that one mind and let guidance come to you at all times. Stand guard at the gateway of the mind and let no thoughts enter in that you know are not the thoughts of the ineffable.

    The trials and tests to this end; to the successful performance of this state of being can be grievous but though this is the case, not at all impossible. Certainly it is impossible to accomplish on your own but not impossible with the assistance of the one who has already accomplished it many times in the souls of the willing; those capable of the dedication, quite simply for those who want it more than anything else. That is the sole feature that is absolutely necessary. Everything else is personalized according to the nature and composition of the one involved.

    For some reason and though it may seem at odds with where we find ourselves in this instance, I am reminded of the words of St. Augustine, “Oh lord, grant me chastity and continence, but not yet.” Perhaps I mean to say, “Oh lord, grant me chastity and continence and do it now for I am in need of what it will make possible for me.” Maybe, here in the midst of all those conditions that we have mentioned today, I wish for that to be my answer to whatever the challenges of the times may bring my way and I wish this for all of you who share in this commitment. I can see no other direction that will make possible for me and anyone what it is that we most sincerely desire.

    --MORE--"

    Also see:

    “The Protocols of Zion – A Documentary” 

    There is also a book.

    Slow Saturday Reboot

    Perfunctory matter as this post will push all titles below under the heading of June.

    "South Station could get upgrade" by Tim Logan Globe Staff  June 30, 2017

    Ashkenazy Acquisition, a New York developer of retail properties, has agreed to buy a 98-year lease for the transit station’s concourse and upstairs office space for nearly $125 million, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The deal, which is set to be completed later this summer, is separate from a plan by another developer to build an office and condominium tower over South Station’s tracks.

    Boston’s train stations are fast becoming hubs for development.

    Ashkenazy owns several high-profile buildings in Manhattan, as well as busy urban marketplaces in Miami, Baltimore, and San Antonio. Since 2007, it has operated Washington’s Union Station — one of the nation’s busiest train stations — which doubles as a large shopping center. It has brought in national retailers, restored the station’s historic main hall, and is planning a boutique hotel.

    The company has had a presence in Boston since 2011, when it took over Faneuil Hall Marketplace. Plans for major renovations there stalled amid opposition from longtime merchants, but Ashkenazy has brought in new local management and has begun pushing ahead with more modest tweaks designed, in part to attract more local shoppers to the tourist destination.

    How shameful.

    While sources said Ashkenazy is just beginning to figure out what it might do at South Station, people who have spoken with company officials say they hope to bring in more retail and restaurants designed to serve nearby residents and office workers, not just people getting on or off trains and buses.

    Beyond the Ashkenazy deal, an even bigger transformation could be ahead for South Station. Houston-based developer Hines wants to build a 51-story office and condominium tower over the train tracks. The 677-foot skyscraper, which would rise above the train shed behind the historic station with an entrance along Atlantic Avenue, would be the biggest new office building in downtown Boston in decades.

    The complicated project has been in the works for more than a decade, but in the last year Hines has refined it, brought in new investors, and pushed the plans through the city permitting process. Now it’s negotiating details with MassDOT. Recently, the state extended Hines’s development rights through the end of this year, a company spokeswoman said.

    Meanwhile, state transportation officials are planning a rail expansion that would add seven more tracks, enabling more trains to stop, and commuters to pass through South Station.

    All of it, said David Begelfer, president of real estate trade group NAIOP Massachusetts, will make South Station an even busier place. If Ashkenazy is smart, he said, it will take advantage of the heightened level of activity.

    “I think they’re looking to transform the place, and good for them,” he said. “It’s a vibrant area, at the confluence of so many different parts of the city, and you have so many people going through. There’s a lot of room to invest.”

    --more--"

    All the properties are being bought up by the billionaires.

    Might want to slow down a little:

    "MBTA hits pause on commuter rail WiFi plan" by Adam Vaccaro Globe Staff  June 30, 2017

    The MBTA hit pause on a plan to improve wireless Internet service on Greater Boston’s commuter rail trains Friday amid opposition from several nearby communities.

    Gives you something to do when they are stalled or late. The system is bankrupt and falling apart and they are concerned about WiFi spying on you.

    The T announced it would step back and conduct a 30-day “assessment” of the project, which would involve installing more than 300 75-foot towers along the rail lines that would create better wireless and cellular connections, but leaders in some cities and towns have been protesting the plan, arguing the towers would disrupt historic and residential areas. Additionally, elected officials and members of the public were given little opportunity to weigh in on the proposal, critics said.

    Now they’ll have the opportunity, the T said Friday.

    Oh, how gracious of the self-anointed tyranny of the public service.

    The MBTA declined to make anyone available for an interview, and officials did not respond to e-mailed questions, but Alex Vispoli, a selectman in Andover, celebrated the T’s announcement Friday.

    One of the pre$$'s boasts over bloggers is that authority must answer them. HA! They will eagerly pick up the phone for their next handout, 'er, story, and if they cross the li9ne their source will dry up. They run cover for corporate and authority, folks. It's a rich man's mouthpiece.

    David Perry, an Ashland resident and activist for better commuter rail service, said he is looking forward to the wireless connectivity upgrade. Rail line abutters should understand that “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few,” Perry said.

    What country have you been living in? This isn't Star Trek!

    InMotion would install the system, shouldering the $140 million cost, and share 7.5 percent of revenue from sponsorships, infrastructure leasing, and a premium wireless service with the T. The system would include a free service for commuters.

    InMotion was acquired this year by another telecommunications firm, BAI Communications, which did not respond to a request for comment.

    When the T began notifying cities and towns of the upcoming project, some decried the project due to the size of the towers, while others criticized the T’s communication and outreach strategy.....

    Yeah, we are doing this. No thought or concern for how you would feel.

    That's government in AmeriKa these days.

    --more--"

    Stop your bickering!

    "City worker was put on leave after altercation outside his Dorchester home" by Meghan E. Irons Globe Staff  July 01, 2017

    A city employee was put on paid leave for five days in June, Boston officials confirmed, following allegations that he attacked a man outside his Dorchester home.

    Stephen Bickerton Jr., an assistant director in the Public Facilities Department, and his accuser, Christopher Dahl, appeared Friday in a closed-door hearing in Dorchester District Court.

    The hearing — in which both men presented their account of the altercation — was held to determine if there is probable cause for Dahl to proceed with his complaint. Dahl alleges that Bickerton attacked him and called him an offensive name, according to an incident report.

    Bickerton — through his attorney, James F. Kelley of Acucity Law LLC — has denied the allegations.

    The matter stems from a June 7 altercation that began around 1:30 a.m. outside Bickerton’s home. Dahl, in a report to police and an interview with the Globe, said he and his boyfriend were walking to the boyfriend’s home when Bickerton ran out of his house yelling and screaming. 

    Nothing good ever happens after midnight, have you noticed that?

    Two police officers who responded to the altercation reported that Bickerton told them that he and his girlfriend were awakened to the sound of two men screaming at each other outside Bickerton’s window, the police incident report said.

    Bickerton said “he asked them to move along, but they started threatening him,” the report said.

    He told police that he came outside to confront the two men, pushed one of them during an argument, and saw him slip on the sidewalk, the report said.

    Wrong move.

    Dahl said he told the officers at the scene that when Bickerton came out to confront them, Bickerton screamed and threatened the two men. Dahl said Bickerton punched him in the face before returning inside, according to the police report.

    Dahl told the Globe that Bickerton was holding a golf club, and “he smashed it on the left side of my face,’’ injuring his lip.

    In the police report, Bickerton stated “he did not threaten the men with a golf club,’’ and officers said they saw no visible injuries on any of the men. Bickerton’s lawyer said his client also did not use the club to attack Dahl.

    Police Lieutenant Detective Michael McCarthy said Boston detectives, the Civil Rights Unit, and the police’s anticorruption division, which probes criminal cases involving city employees, investigated the allegations.

    The hearing Friday was to determine if a charge of simple assault and battery, a misdemeanor, should be filed against Bickerton. The clerk magistrate continued the hearing until August “to allow more testimony,’’ Magistrate Anthony Owens said.

    Bickerton declined to comment to a reporter at court.

    --more--"

    Time for that guy to retire:

    "More than 1,500 Fidelity workers take buyouts" by Deirdre Fernandes Globe Staff  June 30, 2017

    More than 1,500 workers with Fidelity Investments, most of them long-time employees, have taken a voluntary buyout package, the first the company has offered in its history as it braces for dramatic shifts in money management.

    More than half of the 3,000 workers who were offered voluntary buyouts took them, surpassing the company’s expectations, said Vincent Loporchio, a Fidelity spokesman.

    Boston-based Fidelity targeted about 7 percent of its workforce, all of them employees who were age 55 or older and had been with the company for at least 10 years. The company employs 45,000 workers in all. 

    The higher-paying, benefit-accruing, expecting their labor rights crowd. Now they can fill them with millennials who are getting in on the ground floor and have no $en$e of hi$tory.

    In recent weeks, the company has held receptions for departing employees across the country, including one in Boston’s Seaport Hotel.

    Fidelity would not say whether the buyouts eliminate the need for future cuts.

    In 2016, Fidelity reported record revenue of $15.9 billion and profits topped $3.5 billion, helped by cuts to expenses, but the cornerstone of Fidelity’s investing model — actively managed mutual funds — has been waning in recent years. Fidelity built its reputation on the results of its legendary managers, such as Peter Lynch and Jeff Vinik, who handpicked stocks and outperformed market averages by wide margins.

    However, after the financial crisis, investors who were spooked by the losses experienced by many money managers fled to passively managed funds, which are lower cost and rely on computer algorithms.

    You getting the message?

    Last year, Fidelity’s actively managed mutual funds saw $57.7 billion in outflows, according to its annual report. The company’s stock funds performance also slid, beating only 36 percent of their peers. Longer term, they have outperformed 68 percent of peers over five years.

    Fidelity also launched several cheaper, exchange-traded funds in the past year and also reduced fees to undercut competitors.

    Those are steps in the right direction, said John Bonnanzio, editor of the independent Fidelity Monitor & Insight, a newsletter in Wellesley, but the company still needs to be more aggressive in selling its funds and services, be quicker in removing underperforming managers, and offer more diverse portfolios, Bonnanzio said.

    “In order for Fidelity to avoid another round of buyout offers, there’s a lot of things they need to get right,” he said.

    Fidelity offered an extensive buyout package to attract volunteers, including at least four weeks of severance pay for each year of service with more veteran employees qualifying for as much as five or six weeks. The company also allowed workers to remain on the company health care plan for 18 months at the cost they now pay as employees. They could remain on the health care plan after that until age 65, for a higher cost.

    The buyouts provide workers who want a career change with a buffer, Loporchio said.

    It also gives the company more options for promoting younger workers and for managing its costs, he said.....

    Who you looking at?

    --more--"

    Where's Abby?

    "SEC to let all companies file IPO documents secretly" by Chad Bray New York Times  June 30, 2017

    Hoping to encourage more companies to go public, the Securities and Exchange Commission is expanding a program that has allowed smaller businesses and technology startups to keep some details of their finances and business strategies under wraps early in the process of an initial public offering of stock.

    A number of companies were previously able to take advantage of confidential filing, including Snap Inc. and Twitter Inc. and the burger chain Shake Shack.

    Meaning they can conceal the pump and dump schemes that are pouring money into the markets! Snap and Twitter, after initial highs, crashed before bumping along the bottom.

    The companies would be required to file their paperwork publicly at least 15 days before any “road show” to meet with potential investors, the commission said.

    The expansion is one of the first major actions by the regulator since Walter J. Clayton, a former partner at the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, was confirmed as its new chairman.

    In more than 20 years at Sullivan & Cromwell, Clayton, who is known as Jay, represented corporate executives, prominent hedge funds and large banks, such as Barclays and Goldman Sachs.....

    Ticker tape kept going.

    --more--"


    ******************************


    That bring us to..... (puke)..... and yet there he is on my front page again.

    "The two hosts also injected an element of supermarket tabloid intrigue by asserting that top White House aides had contacted them to say that they could prevent The National Enquirer from publishing a negative article about them if they called the president, apologized for criticizing him on their show, and asked for his forgiveness. Trump soon fired back with a rejoinder, posting on Twitter that it was the other way around — that Scarborough had initiated an attempt to stop the Enquirer story — which the host then denied in a tweet of his own, saying he had records to prove he was right. The exchange kept the spotlight on the coarse and personal criticism Trump directed at the two hosts Thursday....."

    You know what is reading like a tabloid these days (as blog editor waggles head from side to side)? 

    Btw, Enquirer did get John Edwards love-child story right months before pre$$ acceptance after months of dismissals.

    I know, I know, lighten up.

    "Trump is very loyal to his friends.  Nobody wants to say it, but Mika was extremely close to Trump and Melania, and I believe Trump lashed out as he feared Mika was trying to talk Melania into leaving him.  Of course, Trump's big betrayal, in the world of entertainment, is publicly outing a face lift. I also think St. Clair should be more charitable to Trump, who actually seems to be the only thin reed holding his crazed staffers and cabinet and their Khazar masters back from starting WWIII." --xymphora

    Trump gave his blessing in a Twitter post

    It's on life support, and with little fanfare:

    "Democrats say the measure comes too close to mixing church and state. They say religious leaders already have First Amendment rights, just like anyone else. But if they want to get political, they don’t have a right not to pay taxes. Some also worry that the measure could upend the system of campaign financing by allowing churches to use their tax-free status to funnel money to political candidates. Representative Richard Neal, Democrat of Massachusetts who represents Springfield and the western part of the state, recalled a speech that President Kennedy gave to religious leaders when he was running for president. ‘‘He said the pope wouldn’t tell him what to do, and the people in that audience shouldn’t be telling people on Sunday morning who to vote for,’’ Neal said. ‘‘I don’t think churches should be endorsing.’’ Some nonprofit groups want to avoid politics....."

    That's a good idea!!! 

    Court fights on travel ban expected

    All of a sudden my Zioni$t war pre$$ has taken up the Iranian cause.

    Sessions hopes Russia inquiry ends soon

    The US-Russian relationship deteriorated during Barack Obama’s eight years in office when his administration slapped sanctions on Moscow over its annexation of Crimea.  Mueller was appointed FBI director by Republican President George W. Bush and held the position for 12 years.

    They didn't annex Crimea (sigh), and Mueller is involved in so much nefarious sh** it is obvious he is a tool of the establishment. Not feeling nostalgic for Obummer, either.

    Related: New York Times Forced To Retract Longstanding '17 Intel Agencies' Lie About Russian Hacking

    Also see: Galvin rejects White House request for voter data

    Here he is blowing his horn again:

    "Chicago police and federal agents to team up to battle gun violence" by Mitch Smith New York Times   June 30, 2017

    CHICAGO — Chicago, where more than 760 people were murdered last year, the most of any US city, has a tense relationship with Donald Trump.

    It's not so great in New York or Pennsylvania, either.

    Last year, a large protest scuttled Trump’s plans for a campaign rally there. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has frequently criticized the president’s policies, even while saying he would welcome more federal law enforcement.

    “Apparently this morning the president saw fit to take a brief break from attacking journalists on Twitter to attack one particular major U.S. city instead,” a spokesman for Emanuel, Adam Collins, said. “If the president was as interested in taking action on public safety as he is in tweeting about it, we would have seen these resources months ago.”

    In February, shortly after Trump’s inauguration, the ATF announced that it would send more agents to Chicago. And this week, police officials said the ATF was stationing a mobile ballistics lab in the city for part of the summer, the season when violence traditionally peaks. But the practical impact remains unclear.

    Through Friday, 1,360 shootings had been reported in the city, about 200 fewer than during the same period in 2016. The number of murders — 320 so far this year, compared with 322 at this point last year — has hardly changed.

    It is unclear how many officers, prosecutors and ATF agents will be involved in the new effort. The ATF and other federal law enforcement agencies already have large field offices in Chicago.....

    The first foray into full-blown martial law?

    --more--"

    I don't remember the last time I was in Chicago, and they can't even get a budget together.

    "The fire, which is about 100 miles north of Phoenix, triggered evacuations for thousands of residents in a half-dozen communities and came close to consuming the town of Mayer....." 

    Those fires not drawing nearly as much attention as the item at the top of the page.

    Speaking of fires:

    "St. Paul’s School investigating new allegations of ‘concerning’ behavior" by John R. Ellement Globe Staff  June 30, 2017

    Administrators at St. Paul’s School are once again turning to an outside investigator after students reported “concerning” behavior at the elite private boarding school, just weeks after the school admitted that 13 staffers engaged in sexual misconduct with students over four decades.

    In a statement provided Friday by the school’s public relations department, Rector Michael G. Hirschfeld said an outside investigator has been hired to “get to the bottom of what took place.’’

    The Concord Monitor reported Thursday that about eight boys in the same dormitory competed in a “game of sexual conquest” where the winners would get their names on a crown. The newspaper’s account broadly mirrors the “senior salute” sexual contest among St. Paul students that played a role in the sexual assault case against former student Owen Labrie.

    So the tradition continues, and Labrie has to wonder why he was singled out.

    Labrie was acquitted in 2015 of raping Chessy Prout — who was 15 years old at the time — but convicted of misdemeanor sexual assault and child endangerment and was sentenced to a year in prison. A conviction on a felony computer charge required him to register as a sex offender for life.

    Prout later spoke out publicly and is writing a book with Boston Globe reporter Jenn Abelson, a member of the newspaper’s Spotlight team, about her experiences.

    Cui bono, huh, and now we know who finked on him.

    In the wake of the Monitor report, the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence questioned why school administrators have not done more to try to change the culture at the school.

    “This school has more than a 60 year history of documented sexual assault on its campus,” coalition spokeswoman Amanda Grady Sexton said in a statement.....

    It's a different cla$$ of people, and don't you want them to be prepared for the world they will inherit?

    --more--"

    Time to mop this up.

    "They’ve tuned out the real news. They don’t have to verify.

    Gulf of Tonkin? Babies thrown out of Kuwaiti incubators? Iraq's WMD? Chemical weapons attacks in Syria?

    People vote irrationally, against their interests, time and again. Despite being an obvious demagogue and charlatan, in a democracy, people get what they deserve.

    Actually, the American people have been consistently voting for the -- what appeared to be anyway -- the more antiwar candidate. That's what brought Obama and Trump to power. So we are not getting what we deserve, we are getting hoodwinked my a massive propaganda operation with accompanying imagery and illusion from the pre$$.

    The Democratic Party used to fight for increases in the minimum wage. Hillary Clinton was raised as a Republican. She did not talk much about raising the minimum wage or raising the standard of living for the bottom rung of American workers. What does it mean to be a Democrat in America anymore? Who and what does the Democratic Party represent right now?

    They represent the party of identity politics, playing to $pecial intere$ts, and they are nothing more than Republican-lite. That's why it's the social issues that are the focus; they can't do anything about the corporate fa$ci$m (that provides the campaign loot) or ceaseless war machine grinding down the planet.

    Who and what does the Republican Party represent right now? Given the two choices, I’ll take the Dems every time. 

    The reason Republicans and conservatives are ascendent and the Democrats leaderless is because, as Harry Truman said, given the choice between a Republican and a real Republican, the American people will take the real Republican every time. They stab you in the heart from the front; the Democrats clap an arm around your shoulders and then shove the shiv between your shoulder blades. And no one stands up to Israel.

    So instead of featuring a serious and thoughtful rebuttal to all the anti-Trump and anti-Republican rants this paper usually publishes, it instead chooses to publish a snarky and satirical list of perceived qualities a “Trump voter” is assumed to value in this administration. What is the sense of having a coherent debate or conversation with people who may have other political leanings, right Boston Globe? I’m not a fan of President Trump, but I sure am sick of all these shallow and arrogant takes on people who may not hold liberal political views. 

    I couldn't have said it better myself, and I'm not even a Trump voter.

    Once again, Ralph Nader is the smartest guy in an empty room. The only thing funnier than his sarcastic column is the idea that a third-party candidate can win an election.....

    They gave him an op-ed after hating the man 15 years ago.

    --more--"

    Have a Good Life, readers.