This: Contestants say essay contest for Maine inn was unfair
"In a head-scratching reversal of human migratory patterns, the Adams family will pack up and leave the US Virgin Islands for their first-ever trip to Maine."
Related: Winner essay contest awarded country inn
Sorry I didn't read it.
"Paul LePage, Maine’s intemperate governor" by The Editorial Board June 05, 2015
Running for reelection last fall, Maine Governor Paul LePage appeared to regret some of the insulting, pugnacious, and sometimes vulgar remarks that had marred his first term and embarrassed Maine, where state politics tend toward the collegial. Remarking on an ad highlighting some of those gaffes, LePage noted that “not one of those things, I said in the last two years. It was all said in the first two years. So even a Frenchman can be taught to cool down.”
That line seemed to signal a rueful governor intent on political self-improvement.
But last week, LePage was up to his old tricks again. Upset at legislative Democrats for resisting his proposed constitutional amendment to eliminate Maine’s income tax, LePage vowed he would veto every single Democratic bill until the Legislature approved his amendment and sent it to voters for their judgment.
In a long, rant-filled press conference in which he also touched on other frustrations, LePage labeled the Democrats’ behavior “despicable” and said to one Democrat present “shame on you.” He said that the Democratic House speaker “should go back home to where he was born” — California — and that the Senate Democratic leader “should be put in a playpen.”
It’s actually LePage who should be chagrined about his rant. Eliminating the income tax in pursuit of a supply-side will-o’-the-wisp is unwise. LePage should look to Kansas, where supply-side Republican Sam Brownback pushed deep income tax cuts in the hope of triggering a big burst of economic activity and a surge in revenues.
Instead, the result has been a large budget deficit. Kansas lawmakers are now debating how to plug that gap, with the governor himself calling for a sales tax increase. Thus a more progressive tax has been cut, while a more regressive one may increase. If LePage gets his way, Maine would face the same dilemma.
Of course, higher regressive taxes are fine with the Tea Party Republican if they pave the way for income tax cuts. But they would be bad for Maine, a state with the nation’s oldest median age, where many citizens are on fixed or modest incomes. LePage needs to rethink both his policy and his political approach. Sadly for Maine, despite last year’s campaign contrition, the pugnacious Tea Party Republican seems disinclined to do either.
--more--"
Looks like Maine is going brown.
Related: In Maine, it’s Paul LePage against the Legislature
Also see:
Police seek ex-boyfriend of dead woman
Budget advances in Legislature
Sea Dogs dedicate seat to POWs
Thousands spent to jail offenders who fail to pay fines, Maine study finds
If I find anything else I'll be sure to link it.
NDUs:
‘Win an Inn’ essay contest did not violate law, officials say
Residents oppose national park plan in vote
FURTHER UPDATES:
Three bodies found in Boothbay Harbor, Maine
Three bodies found in two homes in Boothbay Harbor, Maine
I didn't need to be told twice.
Maine town grieves after 3 in popular family found dead
Maine man killed wife and son then himself, police say
Maine man dies after setting off firework on his head
Dirt bike operator critically injured in collision with car in Maine
Also see:
Maine Governor Paul LePage: The (unlikely) uniter
In Maine, a long history of centrist politicians
Democratic challengers for US House seat from Maine will meet at lobster bake
Who cut the cheese?
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Unhappy Father's Day in Utah
"A Utah man apparently shot and killed his wife and two young children before turning the gun on himself on Father’s Day, stunning neighbors on their quiet, suburban street who described the man Monday as a happy, doting father....
--more--"
Related: Happy Father's Day
That's better.
--more--"
Related: Happy Father's Day
That's better.
Conservative Media Comes to Massachusetts
I don't even really know what that means, other than a false dichotomy meant to divide. The choice is either freedom or fa$ci$M now, not conservative-liberal or Democrat-Republican sides of the same corporate coin.
"Conservative media outlets see a market in Mass." by Callum Borchers Globe Staff June 22, 2015
Massachusetts is known as a liberal haven — home of the Kennedys and birthplace of same-sex marriage. But it’s also become a new frontier for conservative media.
At least three right-leaning outlets — two talk-radio stations and an online newspaper — are setting up shop in this bluest of blue states, knowing not everyone will listen or read but betting that the overlooked, red-tinged minority will form a loyal following.
The sudden sprouting of conservative news and commentary in Massachusetts fits a national trend toward media fragmentation, with Republican-friendly content among the most common splinters, industry specialists say. From the Fox News Channel to “The Rush Limbaugh Show,” many stations and publications are deciding to target particular audiences and not even attempt to win broad appeal.
The strategy is not confined to conservative or even partisan media.
Related: Sour Grapes
What more need be said?
************
Massachusetts isn’t bereft of conservative voices, with popular talk-radio personalities such as Dan Rea and Howie Carr, plus the opinion pages of the Boston Herald.
But in a state that has backed a Democrat in 18 of the last 22 presidential elections, it makes sense that new enterprises looking for a piece of untrampled territory would see opportunity on the right side of the media landscape, said Matthew A. Baum, a communications professor at Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy.
“This is a niche-marketing strategy, but there certainly are conservatives in Massachusetts,” Baum said. “You don’t have to be all things to all people to run a profitable media enterprise.”
Still, the conservative push seems to be coming all at once....
The Globe will tell you where to tune in.
I'm going to tune out the rest, but you can still listen if you want.
--more--"
The Globe seems to still be living in the 50s. You can go get any news you want, and I would like to thank you, dear reader, for spending the time to come here and get this far. Decide for yourself what you think I am.
"Conservative media outlets see a market in Mass." by Callum Borchers Globe Staff June 22, 2015
Massachusetts is known as a liberal haven — home of the Kennedys and birthplace of same-sex marriage. But it’s also become a new frontier for conservative media.
At least three right-leaning outlets — two talk-radio stations and an online newspaper — are setting up shop in this bluest of blue states, knowing not everyone will listen or read but betting that the overlooked, red-tinged minority will form a loyal following.
The sudden sprouting of conservative news and commentary in Massachusetts fits a national trend toward media fragmentation, with Republican-friendly content among the most common splinters, industry specialists say. From the Fox News Channel to “The Rush Limbaugh Show,” many stations and publications are deciding to target particular audiences and not even attempt to win broad appeal.
The strategy is not confined to conservative or even partisan media.
Related: Sour Grapes
What more need be said?
************
Massachusetts isn’t bereft of conservative voices, with popular talk-radio personalities such as Dan Rea and Howie Carr, plus the opinion pages of the Boston Herald.
But in a state that has backed a Democrat in 18 of the last 22 presidential elections, it makes sense that new enterprises looking for a piece of untrampled territory would see opportunity on the right side of the media landscape, said Matthew A. Baum, a communications professor at Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy.
“This is a niche-marketing strategy, but there certainly are conservatives in Massachusetts,” Baum said. “You don’t have to be all things to all people to run a profitable media enterprise.”
Still, the conservative push seems to be coming all at once....
The Globe will tell you where to tune in.
I'm going to tune out the rest, but you can still listen if you want.
--more--"
The Globe seems to still be living in the 50s. You can go get any news you want, and I would like to thank you, dear reader, for spending the time to come here and get this far. Decide for yourself what you think I am.
Tower Sunk by Aquarium
"Aquarium firmly against waterfront tower plan; Officials say construction could pose a threat to sea animals, finances" by Jon Chesto and Dan Adams Globe Staff | Globe Correspondent June 23, 2015
The New England Aquarium on Monday came out in opposition to developer Don Chiofaro’s plan to build a 600-foot tower on its doorstep, declaring that the aquarium would face “substantial financial risks” if the massive project goes forward.
Aquarium officials said the vibrations and noise from construction of a tower on the Boston Harbor Garage site next door could threaten the health of its marine animals and that the towers would worsen existing traffic and parking problems in the neighborhood, scaring away the visitors it depends on for revenue.
The opposition threatens to escalate a neighborhood scrap over traffic, parking, and shadows that would be created by the towers into an ugly brawl involving an institution known to generations of New Englanders.
“We don’t have a significant endowment or financial reserves. We need people walking through the door,” said Bill Burgess, chairman of the aquarium’s committee on the garage redevelopment. “To the extent that people can’t get here or are dissuaded from coming here because of construction, that poses a significant financial risk to the aquarium.”
The aquarium’s concerns came in response to draft recommendations recently released by the Boston Redevelopment Authority that would allow the proposed development on the Harbor Garage site to reach 600 feet. Aquarium officials said they are open to a smaller building, however.
Because the garage stands on state-regulated tidelands, Governor Charlie Baker’s environmental affairs office will have the final say on any development....
--more--"
UPDATE: Don Chiofaro should take city’s advice on Harbor Garage
Out of this world, isn't it?
The New England Aquarium on Monday came out in opposition to developer Don Chiofaro’s plan to build a 600-foot tower on its doorstep, declaring that the aquarium would face “substantial financial risks” if the massive project goes forward.
Aquarium officials said the vibrations and noise from construction of a tower on the Boston Harbor Garage site next door could threaten the health of its marine animals and that the towers would worsen existing traffic and parking problems in the neighborhood, scaring away the visitors it depends on for revenue.
The opposition threatens to escalate a neighborhood scrap over traffic, parking, and shadows that would be created by the towers into an ugly brawl involving an institution known to generations of New Englanders.
“We don’t have a significant endowment or financial reserves. We need people walking through the door,” said Bill Burgess, chairman of the aquarium’s committee on the garage redevelopment. “To the extent that people can’t get here or are dissuaded from coming here because of construction, that poses a significant financial risk to the aquarium.”
The aquarium’s concerns came in response to draft recommendations recently released by the Boston Redevelopment Authority that would allow the proposed development on the Harbor Garage site to reach 600 feet. Aquarium officials said they are open to a smaller building, however.
Because the garage stands on state-regulated tidelands, Governor Charlie Baker’s environmental affairs office will have the final say on any development....
--more--"
UPDATE: Don Chiofaro should take city’s advice on Harbor Garage
Out of this world, isn't it?
California's Prison Drug Crisis
"Drug use ‘rampant’ in Calif. prisons" by Don Thompson Associated Press June 22, 2015
VACAVILLE, Calif. — California inmates are dying of drug overdoses at nearly triple the national rate and it’s unclear whether the tough steps state officials took this year to stop illicit drugs from getting into prisons are having any effect, though they are prompting criticism from civil rights advocates.
The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is spending $8 million this year on drug-detecting scanners and a new breed of drug-sniffing dogs while also employing strip searches on visitors suspected of carrying drugs.
That might anger some people.
Corrections officials believe the stepped-up efforts are discouraging smuggling, but the data that’s available so far doesn[o]t support that — more than 6,000 scans have been done on visitors and employees at 11 prisons since December without finding anyone with drugs.
Yes, readers, AmeriKan officials are full of sh** or delusional.
The state doesn’t track if anyone has been arrested because of the dog searches and waited until mid-May to begin tracking the number of arrests made using any of the new procedures.
Meantime, criticism is mounting about false-positive results by the scanners and dogs that can lead to strip searches.
Did I mention perverts populate the ranks of public service?
Concerned lawmakers who oversee state prisons included language in the California budget plan passed this week that would end the searches and require an evaluation of the department’s other efforts.
I'll explain later if you don't understand this pattern.
‘‘It’s a humiliating process, can be easily used to humiliate and demean people, and was only for visitors, often women,’’ state Senator Loni Hancock, a Democrat, said of the strip searches. ‘‘There are many concerns about the dogs, which have historically been emblematic of intimidation of many communities of color, most notably during the civil rights movement.’’
And the U.S. military used them at Abu Ghraib and other places.
What did I tell you about the searches, 'eh? I'm reading this for the first time, folks.
But no one wants to see drug deaths, and she said the evaluation will show which of the new programs are effective.
More than 150 California inmates have died of drug overdoses since 2006, with a high of 24 in 2013. Moreover, the sharing of intravenous needles often spreads hepatitis C infections, which killed 69 inmates in 2013 alone.
Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard recently told lawmakers that drugs are ‘‘rampant in the prisons.’’
That was the end of my print copy.
‘‘What we are trying to do is send a message to people to not try to smuggle drugs in to the institution,’’ he said in an interview. ‘‘If we don’t do this, we’re going to have people keep dying, we’re going to have continued violence in the prisons.’’
That's if they have the stomach for it.
Beard is modeling California’s new procedures on those used successfully in the Pennsylvania corrections department he led for a decade. While California has a long-term annual rate of eight drug- or alcohol-related deaths per 100,000 inmates, Pennsylvania’s is one.
Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Ohio and Texas also each averaged one death a year per 100,000 inmates from 2001-2012, according to the most recent national figures. Maryland had the nation’s worst rate, at 17 deaths per 100,000 inmates.
Regardless of what you think of them, the state broke the contract. These guys are supposed to be wards of the state, and the state is failing as a guardian.
Beard said California’s program would have more rapid success if lawmakers had given him more money, and he may seek funds to expand the program as early as this fall.
That's always the an$wer, and I think he needs a $have!
He believes the ion scanners — similar to those used to screen airport travelers — are deterring smugglers.
OMG, they are using CANCER CAUSING SCANNERS if you want to visit a loved one in prison.
The lack of results may be because only about 5 percent of visitors and employees are being scanned, he said, though the eventual goal is 30 percent. By contrast, Pennsylvania scanned 68 percent of visitors last year and at least 20 percent of employees.
Pennsylvania officials could not say how much contraband was found by using the scanners.
So what company makes the $canners?
This is nothing but an extension of tyranny so someone can get rich!
Records show the German shepherd and similar looking dogs long used in California prisons have been effective at rooting out hidden drugs. But to search visitors, employees and inmates the department is turning to less aggressive dogs including Labrador retrievers — ‘‘fluffy, friendly dogs,’’ Northern California canine program coordinator Sgt. Brian Pyle said.
Sigh.
The decision to use dogs to search humans, instead of unoccupied spaces as was previously the policy, prompted the resignation last fall of Wayne Conrad, the department’s statewide canine program coordinator. He criticized the expense of sending California dog handlers to Pennsylvania for training, the use of breeds that he said are less reliable, and what he said was a supervisor’s effort to stifle concerns about the program because it was championed by Beard.
‘‘The dogs are going to start alerting on people whose kids are smoking dope or something,’’ and that false positive could prompt an unnecessary strip search, Conrad said. ‘‘The next thing that’s going to come is the lawsuits.’’
Beard said he is seeking alternatives to strip searches, and downplayed the possibility that false-positive alerts unfairly implicate innocent visitors and employees. But that’s what happened to Tania Gamboa of Riverside when she went to see her brother at Kern Valley State Prison.
Do these public officials smell their doublespeak, or is their head so far up their delusion, self-adulating anus they can't hear themselves?
She initially laughed when the ion machine tested positive for exposure to heroin, saying she doesn’t even drink alcohol. But she was crying after she was required to strip naked in front of two female correctional officers and squat to demonstrate that she was not concealing drugs.
And spread.
‘‘It doesn’t make sense for me, knowing that I don’t do all that and I got detected for it,’’ she said.
Mohamed Shehk, an Oakland-based spokesman for Critical Resistance, which advocates for better conditions for inmates, said the policies are turning visitors into suspects.
Hey, this government views all of us that way.
‘‘The statistics — $8 million, 6,000 scans and nothing to show for it — show that these are intended to intimidate and criminalize people who are going to see their loved ones inside,’’ he said.
Yup, but it did fatten some wallets along the way.
--more--"
You understand now?
VACAVILLE, Calif. — California inmates are dying of drug overdoses at nearly triple the national rate and it’s unclear whether the tough steps state officials took this year to stop illicit drugs from getting into prisons are having any effect, though they are prompting criticism from civil rights advocates.
The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is spending $8 million this year on drug-detecting scanners and a new breed of drug-sniffing dogs while also employing strip searches on visitors suspected of carrying drugs.
That might anger some people.
Corrections officials believe the stepped-up efforts are discouraging smuggling, but the data that’s available so far doesn[o]t support that — more than 6,000 scans have been done on visitors and employees at 11 prisons since December without finding anyone with drugs.
Yes, readers, AmeriKan officials are full of sh** or delusional.
The state doesn’t track if anyone has been arrested because of the dog searches and waited until mid-May to begin tracking the number of arrests made using any of the new procedures.
Meantime, criticism is mounting about false-positive results by the scanners and dogs that can lead to strip searches.
Did I mention perverts populate the ranks of public service?
Concerned lawmakers who oversee state prisons included language in the California budget plan passed this week that would end the searches and require an evaluation of the department’s other efforts.
I'll explain later if you don't understand this pattern.
‘‘It’s a humiliating process, can be easily used to humiliate and demean people, and was only for visitors, often women,’’ state Senator Loni Hancock, a Democrat, said of the strip searches. ‘‘There are many concerns about the dogs, which have historically been emblematic of intimidation of many communities of color, most notably during the civil rights movement.’’
And the U.S. military used them at Abu Ghraib and other places.
What did I tell you about the searches, 'eh? I'm reading this for the first time, folks.
But no one wants to see drug deaths, and she said the evaluation will show which of the new programs are effective.
More than 150 California inmates have died of drug overdoses since 2006, with a high of 24 in 2013. Moreover, the sharing of intravenous needles often spreads hepatitis C infections, which killed 69 inmates in 2013 alone.
Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard recently told lawmakers that drugs are ‘‘rampant in the prisons.’’
That was the end of my print copy.
‘‘What we are trying to do is send a message to people to not try to smuggle drugs in to the institution,’’ he said in an interview. ‘‘If we don’t do this, we’re going to have people keep dying, we’re going to have continued violence in the prisons.’’
That's if they have the stomach for it.
Beard is modeling California’s new procedures on those used successfully in the Pennsylvania corrections department he led for a decade. While California has a long-term annual rate of eight drug- or alcohol-related deaths per 100,000 inmates, Pennsylvania’s is one.
Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Ohio and Texas also each averaged one death a year per 100,000 inmates from 2001-2012, according to the most recent national figures. Maryland had the nation’s worst rate, at 17 deaths per 100,000 inmates.
Regardless of what you think of them, the state broke the contract. These guys are supposed to be wards of the state, and the state is failing as a guardian.
Beard said California’s program would have more rapid success if lawmakers had given him more money, and he may seek funds to expand the program as early as this fall.
That's always the an$wer, and I think he needs a $have!
He believes the ion scanners — similar to those used to screen airport travelers — are deterring smugglers.
OMG, they are using CANCER CAUSING SCANNERS if you want to visit a loved one in prison.
The lack of results may be because only about 5 percent of visitors and employees are being scanned, he said, though the eventual goal is 30 percent. By contrast, Pennsylvania scanned 68 percent of visitors last year and at least 20 percent of employees.
Pennsylvania officials could not say how much contraband was found by using the scanners.
So what company makes the $canners?
This is nothing but an extension of tyranny so someone can get rich!
Records show the German shepherd and similar looking dogs long used in California prisons have been effective at rooting out hidden drugs. But to search visitors, employees and inmates the department is turning to less aggressive dogs including Labrador retrievers — ‘‘fluffy, friendly dogs,’’ Northern California canine program coordinator Sgt. Brian Pyle said.
Sigh.
The decision to use dogs to search humans, instead of unoccupied spaces as was previously the policy, prompted the resignation last fall of Wayne Conrad, the department’s statewide canine program coordinator. He criticized the expense of sending California dog handlers to Pennsylvania for training, the use of breeds that he said are less reliable, and what he said was a supervisor’s effort to stifle concerns about the program because it was championed by Beard.
‘‘The dogs are going to start alerting on people whose kids are smoking dope or something,’’ and that false positive could prompt an unnecessary strip search, Conrad said. ‘‘The next thing that’s going to come is the lawsuits.’’
Beard said he is seeking alternatives to strip searches, and downplayed the possibility that false-positive alerts unfairly implicate innocent visitors and employees. But that’s what happened to Tania Gamboa of Riverside when she went to see her brother at Kern Valley State Prison.
Do these public officials smell their doublespeak, or is their head so far up their delusion, self-adulating anus they can't hear themselves?
She initially laughed when the ion machine tested positive for exposure to heroin, saying she doesn’t even drink alcohol. But she was crying after she was required to strip naked in front of two female correctional officers and squat to demonstrate that she was not concealing drugs.
And spread.
‘‘It doesn’t make sense for me, knowing that I don’t do all that and I got detected for it,’’ she said.
Mohamed Shehk, an Oakland-based spokesman for Critical Resistance, which advocates for better conditions for inmates, said the policies are turning visitors into suspects.
Hey, this government views all of us that way.
‘‘The statistics — $8 million, 6,000 scans and nothing to show for it — show that these are intended to intimidate and criminalize people who are going to see their loved ones inside,’’ he said.
Yup, but it did fatten some wallets along the way.
--more--"
You understand now?
Florida Zoo
"Florida zoo owners charged with mistreating animals" Associated Press June 22, 2015
GULF BREEZE, Fla. — Federal officials filed a complaint accusing the owners of a Florida zoo of failing to properly care for the animals, including euthanizing them by shooting and drowning them.
The charges by the US Department of Agriculture say the 50-acre Gulf Breeze Zoo wasn’t properly supervised when a child was bitten by a camel. Rabbits weren’t separated, so their babies were eaten, injured, or had to be euthanized. The tiger enclosure didn’t have proper ventilation and other animal enclosures had rusted fences and exposed nails, according to the complaint.
The charges also allege the zoo, which houses hundreds of animals and recently welcomed a baby giraffe, didn’t use proper veterinary care, relied on expired medications, and even shot an animal as a means of euthanasia.
An opossum escaped from an improper enclosure and was found dead the next day. Lion and tiger food bins weren’t cleaned and goats and sheep didn’t have adequate shelter from sun and rain, according to the complaint.
Owner Eric Mogensen and his daughter, Meghan, were charged with multiple violations of the Animal Welfare Act at the facility, as well as two other facilities they own in Virginia — the Reston Zoo and the Virginia Safari Park in Natural Bridge. Complaints involving the Virginia facilities include euthanizing an animal by drowning and mishandling a spider monkey, which resulted in its death.
Emails and a phone message left at the zoo were not immediately returned Sunday.
The Humane Society of the United States said Meghan Mogensen pleaded guilty to animal cruelty while working at the Reston Zoo in Virginia, and was barred from making decisions about animal care and euthanasia. The Northwest Florida Daily News reports she later transferred to the Gulf Breeze Zoo.
--more--"
GULF BREEZE, Fla. — Federal officials filed a complaint accusing the owners of a Florida zoo of failing to properly care for the animals, including euthanizing them by shooting and drowning them.
The charges by the US Department of Agriculture say the 50-acre Gulf Breeze Zoo wasn’t properly supervised when a child was bitten by a camel. Rabbits weren’t separated, so their babies were eaten, injured, or had to be euthanized. The tiger enclosure didn’t have proper ventilation and other animal enclosures had rusted fences and exposed nails, according to the complaint.
The charges also allege the zoo, which houses hundreds of animals and recently welcomed a baby giraffe, didn’t use proper veterinary care, relied on expired medications, and even shot an animal as a means of euthanasia.
An opossum escaped from an improper enclosure and was found dead the next day. Lion and tiger food bins weren’t cleaned and goats and sheep didn’t have adequate shelter from sun and rain, according to the complaint.
Owner Eric Mogensen and his daughter, Meghan, were charged with multiple violations of the Animal Welfare Act at the facility, as well as two other facilities they own in Virginia — the Reston Zoo and the Virginia Safari Park in Natural Bridge. Complaints involving the Virginia facilities include euthanizing an animal by drowning and mishandling a spider monkey, which resulted in its death.
Emails and a phone message left at the zoo were not immediately returned Sunday.
The Humane Society of the United States said Meghan Mogensen pleaded guilty to animal cruelty while working at the Reston Zoo in Virginia, and was barred from making decisions about animal care and euthanasia. The Northwest Florida Daily News reports she later transferred to the Gulf Breeze Zoo.
--more--"
Monday, June 29, 2015
Sunday Globe Special: Return to Market Basket
Globe hasn't been there in about six months, and now you know why:
"One year after walkout, Market Basket is thriving; Bitter family dispute didn’t stifle growth" by Casey Ross Globe Correspondent June 27, 2015
It no longer has two dueling Arthurs at its helm, raucous employee rallies, or board meetings fit for reality TV.
But in the year since Market Basket’s near meltdown over a feud between two cousins, at least one thing at the Tewksbury-based grocery chain hasn’t changed: its ability to make money, lots of it.
The company is on track to record total revenues of about $4.8 billion in 2015, top executives say, the most in its nearly 100-year history. It is also in expansion mode, opening five new stores in the last year, some with upscale accents such as massive gourmet cheese islands, expanded organic food offerings, and outdoor cafe seating. Two new stores are under construction in Plymouth, Mass., and Rochester, N.H.
“Our business model is completely intact, and we’re running the shop with a lot less distractions,” Market Basket’s president and chief executive, Arthur T. Demoulas, said in an interview with the Globe. “We certainly see growth in the future — not just those two stores [in Plymouth and Rochester] but other locations we’re in discussions with.”
The company’s strong performance comes despite a slump of $405 million in sales amid an employee walkout organized last summer in protest of Arthur T. Demoulas’s firing as president and chief executive by a board controlled by his first cousin, Arthur S. Demoulas, and other rival family members.
The walkout severed the company’s supply chain and left its store shelves empty throughout New England for weeks as the Demoulas family struggled to resolve its 25-year feud over the company.
In buying full control of Market Basket from his relatives last August, Arthur T. Demoulas was forced to borrow about $1.6 billion. Analysts at the time predicted the debt burden would force Market Basket to either back away from its discount pricing model or curtail its unusually generous profit-sharing plan for employees.
But so far, executives say, neither has happened. More than $129 million was handed out in employee bonuses and profit-sharing contributions in the past year, which is on par with prior years. And the consumer research firm Nielsen found, in a June report on supermarket pricing, that the company’s groceries were 15.9 percent cheaper than its competitors’ in the first six months of 2015. That’s nearly a full percentage point better than the same period in 2014.
And everything is above board.
“The whole fiasco last year has done nothing but increase its business,” said Kevin Griffin, publisher of the Duxbury-based Griffin Report of Food Marketing. “It increased curiosity about the company and strengthened existing customer loyalty.”
Market Basket, with 75 stores across New England and a 4 percent market share in the Northeast, continues to grow sales despite the competition from an ever-growing list of food sellers. Wegmans, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe’s have all expanded in the region, and department stores such as Target and Walmart pose significant competition in the discount grocery market.
Last week, the Dutch parent company of Stop & Shop supermarkets struck a $10.4 billion deal to buy the conglomerate that owns Hannaford Bros. Co., a move that could boost its buying power and profit margins.
See: New rivals spur Stop & Shop, Hannaford merger
But while those and other grocery retailers battle to maintain their positions in the industry, privately owned Market Basket appears to be gaining strength.
Its new store in Waltham has a decidedly upscale feel, featuring an explosion of landscaping and outdoor seating under a pergola where shoppers can dine on everything from panini to eggrolls to gelato. Demoulas and other executives said the company is trying to freshen up stores with larger prepared food sections, modern designs, and more variety.
After being reinstated and taking control of the company last summer, Demoulas revamped the company’s board of directors, reducing its size from seven to five members. He also appointed directors who share his management philosophy.
Previously, the board had been controlled by his first cousin, Arthur S. Demoulas, who constantly battled with Arthur T. Demoulas and other managers on real estate and financial matters, often leading to explosive confrontations at meetings.
“The new board does not disrupt the flow of the company, and it’s working well for the whole organization,” Arthur T. Demoulas said. “You can conduct constructive discussions and talk about positive business issues that move the company forward in a very simple way.”
Ny basket is full, but I don't want to stop you from shopping.
Market Basket has preserved its position in the region’s grocery industry in part by sticking to its formula of maintaining clean stores, friendly customer service, and low prices without the hassles of loyalty cards and other membership programs.
The company delivers low prices and substantial profits by running on a smaller corporate staff, buying a consistent array of products in large quantities, and maintaining an experienced and extremely loyal workforce.
A large part of its formula has also been avoiding debt. But even with the recent borrowing, Demoulas said the company has not been forced to increase prices or cut employee compensation. It is unclear whether the additional debt will affect profits.
“We have a solid financial structure and favorable interest rates, and quite frankly we’re well ahead of schedule in paying down the principal on the debt,” Demoulas said. “The most important thing we were able to achieve in this past year is maintaining our competitive pricing model while providing the same level of service and type of quality.”
In the past year, Market Basket followed through on prior plans to open five new stores in Revere, Waltham, Attleboro, Athol, and Littleton. It also started construction on the stores in Plymouth, Mass., and Rochester, N.H. Company executives would not disclose plans for further expansion, other than to say several new store locations are under discussion.
The company has also kept busy renovating and modernizing its stores, and it is adding larger prepared food sections and healthy food options to keep up with surging demand in those categories.
“Healthy foods is the largest area of growth right now. We’re expanding organic food offerings and gluten-free products,” said David McLean, operations manager for the 26,000-employee company. McLean added that the chain has expanded prepared food sections in three stores and is currently renovating four others.
Business experts said Market Basket, more so than other supermarket chains, must be in perpetual growth mode to keep opportunities flowing to the loyal suppliers and longtime employees who are keys to its success. Expansion also brings in new customers and community stakeholders.
“They make sure that everyone is benefiting a little bit, and that in my eyes is the magic of Market Basket,” said Daniel Korschun, a Drexel University business professor and coauthor of the book “We Are Market Basket.”
“They look at all the pieces working together, rather than looking at one customer or one supplier in isolation,” he said. “That’s a very hard thing to do, and Market Basket does it better than anyone.”
Overall, sales are up 3 to 4 percent so far in 2015, McLean said, which is at least a percentage point better than average annual sales increases in the industry. In 2014, Market Basket collected about $4.1 billion in sales, even with the six-week shutdown that cost it $405 million.
This year, it is projecting total sales of about $4.8 billion, proving that last summer’s disruption did not erode its customer base.
“That was really the great unknown,” McLean said. “We had experienced a 92 to 93 percent loss of sales, so people were asking whether the customers would come back. Well, not only did they come back, we are seeing a lot of new faces.”
"One year after walkout, Market Basket is thriving; Bitter family dispute didn’t stifle growth" by Casey Ross Globe Correspondent June 27, 2015
It no longer has two dueling Arthurs at its helm, raucous employee rallies, or board meetings fit for reality TV.
But in the year since Market Basket’s near meltdown over a feud between two cousins, at least one thing at the Tewksbury-based grocery chain hasn’t changed: its ability to make money, lots of it.
The company is on track to record total revenues of about $4.8 billion in 2015, top executives say, the most in its nearly 100-year history. It is also in expansion mode, opening five new stores in the last year, some with upscale accents such as massive gourmet cheese islands, expanded organic food offerings, and outdoor cafe seating. Two new stores are under construction in Plymouth, Mass., and Rochester, N.H.
“Our business model is completely intact, and we’re running the shop with a lot less distractions,” Market Basket’s president and chief executive, Arthur T. Demoulas, said in an interview with the Globe. “We certainly see growth in the future — not just those two stores [in Plymouth and Rochester] but other locations we’re in discussions with.”
The company’s strong performance comes despite a slump of $405 million in sales amid an employee walkout organized last summer in protest of Arthur T. Demoulas’s firing as president and chief executive by a board controlled by his first cousin, Arthur S. Demoulas, and other rival family members.
The walkout severed the company’s supply chain and left its store shelves empty throughout New England for weeks as the Demoulas family struggled to resolve its 25-year feud over the company.
In buying full control of Market Basket from his relatives last August, Arthur T. Demoulas was forced to borrow about $1.6 billion. Analysts at the time predicted the debt burden would force Market Basket to either back away from its discount pricing model or curtail its unusually generous profit-sharing plan for employees.
But so far, executives say, neither has happened. More than $129 million was handed out in employee bonuses and profit-sharing contributions in the past year, which is on par with prior years. And the consumer research firm Nielsen found, in a June report on supermarket pricing, that the company’s groceries were 15.9 percent cheaper than its competitors’ in the first six months of 2015. That’s nearly a full percentage point better than the same period in 2014.
And everything is above board.
“The whole fiasco last year has done nothing but increase its business,” said Kevin Griffin, publisher of the Duxbury-based Griffin Report of Food Marketing. “It increased curiosity about the company and strengthened existing customer loyalty.”
Market Basket, with 75 stores across New England and a 4 percent market share in the Northeast, continues to grow sales despite the competition from an ever-growing list of food sellers. Wegmans, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe’s have all expanded in the region, and department stores such as Target and Walmart pose significant competition in the discount grocery market.
Last week, the Dutch parent company of Stop & Shop supermarkets struck a $10.4 billion deal to buy the conglomerate that owns Hannaford Bros. Co., a move that could boost its buying power and profit margins.
See: New rivals spur Stop & Shop, Hannaford merger
But while those and other grocery retailers battle to maintain their positions in the industry, privately owned Market Basket appears to be gaining strength.
Its new store in Waltham has a decidedly upscale feel, featuring an explosion of landscaping and outdoor seating under a pergola where shoppers can dine on everything from panini to eggrolls to gelato. Demoulas and other executives said the company is trying to freshen up stores with larger prepared food sections, modern designs, and more variety.
After being reinstated and taking control of the company last summer, Demoulas revamped the company’s board of directors, reducing its size from seven to five members. He also appointed directors who share his management philosophy.
Previously, the board had been controlled by his first cousin, Arthur S. Demoulas, who constantly battled with Arthur T. Demoulas and other managers on real estate and financial matters, often leading to explosive confrontations at meetings.
“The new board does not disrupt the flow of the company, and it’s working well for the whole organization,” Arthur T. Demoulas said. “You can conduct constructive discussions and talk about positive business issues that move the company forward in a very simple way.”
Ny basket is full, but I don't want to stop you from shopping.
Market Basket has preserved its position in the region’s grocery industry in part by sticking to its formula of maintaining clean stores, friendly customer service, and low prices without the hassles of loyalty cards and other membership programs.
The company delivers low prices and substantial profits by running on a smaller corporate staff, buying a consistent array of products in large quantities, and maintaining an experienced and extremely loyal workforce.
A large part of its formula has also been avoiding debt. But even with the recent borrowing, Demoulas said the company has not been forced to increase prices or cut employee compensation. It is unclear whether the additional debt will affect profits.
“We have a solid financial structure and favorable interest rates, and quite frankly we’re well ahead of schedule in paying down the principal on the debt,” Demoulas said. “The most important thing we were able to achieve in this past year is maintaining our competitive pricing model while providing the same level of service and type of quality.”
In the past year, Market Basket followed through on prior plans to open five new stores in Revere, Waltham, Attleboro, Athol, and Littleton. It also started construction on the stores in Plymouth, Mass., and Rochester, N.H. Company executives would not disclose plans for further expansion, other than to say several new store locations are under discussion.
The company has also kept busy renovating and modernizing its stores, and it is adding larger prepared food sections and healthy food options to keep up with surging demand in those categories.
“Healthy foods is the largest area of growth right now. We’re expanding organic food offerings and gluten-free products,” said David McLean, operations manager for the 26,000-employee company. McLean added that the chain has expanded prepared food sections in three stores and is currently renovating four others.
Business experts said Market Basket, more so than other supermarket chains, must be in perpetual growth mode to keep opportunities flowing to the loyal suppliers and longtime employees who are keys to its success. Expansion also brings in new customers and community stakeholders.
“They make sure that everyone is benefiting a little bit, and that in my eyes is the magic of Market Basket,” said Daniel Korschun, a Drexel University business professor and coauthor of the book “We Are Market Basket.”
“They look at all the pieces working together, rather than looking at one customer or one supplier in isolation,” he said. “That’s a very hard thing to do, and Market Basket does it better than anyone.”
Overall, sales are up 3 to 4 percent so far in 2015, McLean said, which is at least a percentage point better than average annual sales increases in the industry. In 2014, Market Basket collected about $4.1 billion in sales, even with the six-week shutdown that cost it $405 million.
This year, it is projecting total sales of about $4.8 billion, proving that last summer’s disruption did not erode its customer base.
“That was really the great unknown,” McLean said. “We had experienced a 92 to 93 percent loss of sales, so people were asking whether the customers would come back. Well, not only did they come back, we are seeing a lot of new faces.”
--more--"
Well, it is time for me to have lunch and shut it down for today.
Think I'll order vegan and have it delivered.
UPDATE: Instacart shopper sues grocery delivery startup for back wages, expenses
"One of the most remarkable work stoppages in US labor history will be the subject of a documentary film. ‘‘Food Fight: Inside the Battle for Market Basket’’ is scheduled to be released in the fall, said director Jay Childs, a New Hampshire filmmaker who has been working on the project for two years. It’s about the yearslong power struggle between cousins Arthur T. Demoulas and Arthur S. Demoulas that came to a head last summer, when thousands of nonunion workers at the Tewksbury-based supermarket chain walked off the job — not seeking better pay or benefits but because they wanted their boss, Arthur T., back. "
UPDATE: Instacart shopper sues grocery delivery startup for back wages, expenses
"One of the most remarkable work stoppages in US labor history will be the subject of a documentary film. ‘‘Food Fight: Inside the Battle for Market Basket’’ is scheduled to be released in the fall, said director Jay Childs, a New Hampshire filmmaker who has been working on the project for two years. It’s about the yearslong power struggle between cousins Arthur T. Demoulas and Arthur S. Demoulas that came to a head last summer, when thousands of nonunion workers at the Tewksbury-based supermarket chain walked off the job — not seeking better pay or benefits but because they wanted their boss, Arthur T., back. "
Sunday Globe Special: Greek Crisis Now a Concern
It had not been if you read the scroll right, and no, I don't think there will be an accident. The government will just collapse and be removed.
"Breakdown of bailout talks has Greece on brink of default" by Griff Witte Washington Post June 27, 2015
LONDON — Greece’s long-running standoff with its European creditors appeared headed Saturday for an abrupt and potentially cataclysmic ending as the continent’s finance ministers rejected an emergency Greek request to help the cash-starved country meet a Tuesday deadline for repaying its debts.
Putting aside the self-inernalized banker's hyperbole of the reporter, JP Morgan just warned it was coming to a head. Had been minimized up until now.
Greece’s Parliament voted early Sunday in favor of a motion by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to hold a July 5 referendum on creditor proposals for reforms in exchange for loans, with the country’s future in the eurozone looking increasingly shaky, the Associated Press reported.
Isn't that referendum going to be a little late, not to mention sure to be fixed like almost all western elections these days?
Reflecting the newly dire outlook, people formed lines at ATMs across Greece, seizing perhaps their last chance to withdraw their savings. Some went away empty-handed after the machines ran dry.
It's not new to those who read other things, and it's a $ign of what is coming to AmeriKa (unless the Fed keeps that printing press rolling; money won't be worth the paper its printed on and it will be something like Zimbabwe or early 1930s Germany, but who cares? Bankers need be $ated, so $addle up).
With speculation mounting the banks may lack the funds to reopen Monday morning, European officials huddled to plot out how to contain the damage of a Greek financial meltdown. The finance minister of Greece was pointedly excluded.
WOA!
That last one a BIG MIDDLE FINGER from the MI$ERABLE MI$ERS, 'eh?
The collapse of negotiations Saturday was the most ominous turn in a process that has been poisoned from the start by bitter mistrust between Greece’s radical leftist government and the austerity-minded figures who set policy in Europe.
How about that bias, huh? The "radical leftists" government against some benign "austerity-minded figures" -- that suffer no austerity themselves, the $cum.
who Wrote this And what paPer is it frOm?
Although both sides have repeatedly expressed a determination to keep Greece inside the common currency — and to avoid at all costs an uncontrollable and potentially disastrous default — that shared aspiration has not been enough to bridge the substantial divide.
Then why you been minimi.... never effin' mind!
As has become customary, both sides on Saturday blamed the other for the breakdown.
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis called Saturday ‘‘a sad day for Europe,’’ and said the decision to reject his request to extend Greece’s bailout ‘‘will certainly damage the credibility of the euro group as a democratic union.’’
Can't damage something when it's no longer there.
European officials countered that Tsipras had blindsided them by calling the referendum on a proposal that was still being negotiated, a move that effectively torpedoed any chance for a deal.
The tribe has spoken (cue music).
‘‘The negotiations are clearly ended, if I understand Mr. Tsipras correctly,’’ said Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, as the continent’s top finance officials held their fifth emergency meeting in two weeks. ‘‘We have no grounds for further discussions.’’
Varoufakis later challenged European leaders to come back with a new proposal, and signaled an openness to further talks. But the acrimony on Saturday suggested that a return to the negotiating table is highly unlikely before two critical tests in the week ahead.
The first will come Monday, when Greek banks that have grown ever-more reliant on emergency loans from the European Central Bank face the prospect of reopening for business without new lifelines.
They won't have to (see subsequent article).
The second will be Tuesday, when a $1.7 billion payment to the International Monetary Fund comes due.
You gotta pay us money so we will loan you more money you can't repay -- and they called it a re$cue!
The IMF has repeatedly said it will not offer an extension. Greek officials, meanwhile, say they don’t have the money to make the payment unless its creditors unlock $8 billion in bailout funds frozen amid the stalled talks.
Tsipras has set the referendum, although it is now unclear exactly what Greek voters will be deciding. Tsipras said he wanted to give the Greek people the chance to vote on the latest proposal, which he painted as ‘‘an ultimatum” by creditors.
That's a good way of providing grounds for a rigged vote by saying voters were confused.
Personally, I don't think there is going to be a referendum. Tsipras and Syriza will be out of power by the end of this week.
But with Greece sliding toward default and a possible break with the euro zone, there is no guarantee that the offer will stand when the vote is held.
The European Central Bank, the European Commission, and the IMF have together provided Greece with $264 billion in bailouts over the past five years to deal with sky-high debts.
Yeah, those private central bankers that put you in this fix are great guys!
After years of withering austerity policies imposed by European paymasters as a condition of those deals, Greece in January rejected the medicine and elected Syriza, a radical leftist party that promised to tear up the agreements and start anew.
Pretty much broken most of them since and scooped up all the spare cash, pension funds, savings, to make last payment. Greek people got hot about it, but I didn't see much about it in pre$$.
Greece has repeatedly demanded that Europe reduce the nation’s debt load and ease up on austerity. But European officials have been unwilling to hand Syriza a victory, and have insisted the country keep to strict belt-tightening targets.
Because then they would have to do it for everyone and they would either take a loss or lose untold riches. The jig'll be up and the living the phat life at others expense will be over. And then we eat them.
The past week began with rare optimism, as Greece submitted proposals that European officials initially welcomed as a significant step forward. But by Wednesday, the creditors had submitted counterproposals for slashing pensions and cutting spending that Greek officials rejected as going too far.
Yeah, I noted the constant mixed me$$ages I'm getting from my pre$$, and how tired I am of it.
--more--"
Not a word about the deal for Russian help, not one word.
Time to get your money out of Greek banks:
"Greece to close banks amid wave of withdrawals" by Jim Yardley New York Times June 28, 2015
ATHENS, Greece — Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced Sunday night that Greece’s banks would be closed as of Monday, as the fallout from ruptured debt negotiations with the nation’s creditors began inflicting pain on ordinary people while raising alarm in Washington, Brussels and Berlin.
Uh-oh. That's only done during depressions and those cities are the power centers of all the corrupt, too-big-to-jail banks.
Related: And So It Begins – Greek Banks Get Shut Down For A Week And A ‘Grexit’ Is Now Probable
It's where I get most of my real economic news.
The emergency measures escalated the confused and unpredictable state of a crisis that some analysts say could ripple through global financial markets and undercut European unity.
So we can blame the Greeks for the $hit economy and not the true criminals, the private central bankers!
The game's up, guys! The ma$k is off!
With so much at stake, leaders in other capitals encouraged a continued search for a way to prevent Greece from being forced out of Europe’s currency union.
I was told yesterday that there wasn't much more to discuss. Sigh!
Greece owes a large debt payment by the end of the day Tuesday, and has scheduled a referendum for next Sunday on whether to accept terms of an offer from its creditors to release bailout aid it needs to meet its financial obligations.
Tsipras announced the emergency banking shutdown, which will also close the stock exchange, and imposed capital controls several hours after the European Central Bank said it would not expand an emergency loan program that had been propping up Greek banks for weeks. The banking system had neared insolvency after panicked account holders withdrew billions of euros, a pattern that continued over the weekend.
It's called a run on banks, and my banker's books, 'er, history books say that's bad.
“It is clearer than ever that this decision has no other goal than blackmailing the Greek people and obstructing the smooth democratic procedure of the referendum,” Tsipras said in a brief televised address.
That is a STRONG STATEMENT, and youuuuuu better watch your back.
Tsipras attributed the action to the unwillingness of the country’s creditors to extend the bailout program, set to end Tuesday, until next Sunday, so that Greece could hold its national referendum. The referendum was a surprise move by Tsipras, announced early Saturday, as he declared that voters should decide whether to accept the terms of the creditors’ latest aid proposal — terms he considers onerous.
I call it odious, but $ame difference.
Greece’s creditors — the other 18 eurozone countries, the ECB and the International Monetary Fund — in effect cut off negotiations with Tsipras after he called for the referendum, raising concerns that Greece would default on its debt and potentially seek to solve its financial problems by abandoning the euro.
Maybe they want them to default. Bankers always seem the benefit from crashes. They come out $melling like ro$es on the other side, having bought cheap and then selling dear.
But on Sunday, international leaders appeared to be seeking a way to calm the situation and explore the potential for common ground with the Greek government.
I think $omeone just blinked!
President Barack Obama and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany spoke by phone Sunday and “agreed that it was critically important to make every effort to return to a path that will allow Greece to resume reforms and growth within the eurozone,” according to the White House. Merkel was expected to make a public statement Monday in Berlin.
Getting personally involved and hitting the phones, huh? Must be important.
Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, who has at times been sharply critical of Greece’s negotiating stance, released a softer statement, declaring her “commitment to continue to engage with the Greek authorities.”
$cum.
Greece must make a 1.6 billion euro debt payment to the IMF on Tuesday or risk falling into default.
Before this weekend, the four-month negotiations focused on the Greek side trying to agree to fiscal reforms, tax increases and pension cuts in exchange for creditors releasing a 7.2 billion euro bailout allotment that Greece needs to meet its short-term debt obligations, equivalent to about $8.1 billion.
That looks like blackmail and extortion.
Tsipras had consistently called for a broader, comprehensive deal that would liberate Greece from the economics of austerity. Attention will now likely shift to Brussels and Berlin.
By now you know what that means?
In Brussels, the European Commission made its own unexpected moves Sunday. Jean-Claude Juncker, the commission president, released a statement suggesting that creditors had been willing to discuss Greece’s debt load, a key demand of the Tsipras government. But more surprisingly, the commission published details of the offer made to Greece, a move intended to show the lengths to which creditors had gone to satisfy Greek demands, one European Union official said.
“This is a last bridge we are building for them,” the official said about the decision to publish the terms of proposal. The goal was to pressure Tsipras to “change course” and encourage voters to choose “yes”’ in the coming referendum, the official said, while acknowledging the chances for such a switch were slim.
Like I said, paving the ground for a rigged vote while in a most insulting fashion. These are the same crooks who screwed Greece (with collaboration from its former governments).
Perhaps the key figure in finding a compromise, assuming there is still time to do so, is Merkel, the most powerful political figure in Europe. She remained silent Sunday, with officials saying that Wolfgang Schauble, the German finance minister, spoke for the government in Brussels on Saturday. Following the collapse of talks, the finance minister declared that Germany and the other members of the euro would like to continue to hold talks but blamed the Greeks for declaring the discussions a failure.
Kind of the female version of a guy who back in the 1930....
But Schauble also indicated readiness to “do everything to prevent every possible threat of contagion” of the situation, should Greece fail to reach a deal with its creditors, reflecting growing frustration in Berlin with the government in Athens.
As if the looting $chemes of bankers were some sort of natural illne$$ -- and actually, it is!
Norbert Rottgen, a senior member of Chancellor Merkel’s party who is responsible for foreign affairs, stressed the wider geopolitical implications of what he called a “vagabond Greek government,” which could say no to the next round of European sanctions against Russia. He warned that after five years of bailouts, “it cannot just collapse over a week.”
That is what they are worried about (like that other fella with the mustac.... never mind)?
Of course, the 21st-century leaders of Western Europe are true fa$ci$ts, not the mislabeled and distorted nationalist regimes that are to be found in my banker's books, 'er, history books.
The immediate question in Greece revolved around the specifics of the emergency actions announced by Tsipras. He did not mention the stock market in his public address, but a senior official confirmed that it would also close.
The prime minister indicated that restrictions would be placed on ATM withdrawals and money transfers, but he provided no details. A legislative decree said banks would be closed through July 6 and that the cap on daily cash machine withdrawals would be 60 euros. That would not apply to tourists using cards issued in their home countries.
MORE THAN A WEEK, huh? The Greeks are gonna be in the street!
Such a small cash withdrawal limit would highlight the dire condition of the Greek banking system. Cyprus avoided a banking collapse in 2013 by taking similar steps, though the daily withdrawal limit was 300 euros. The Cypriot government also acted in concert with other European governments as part of a new bailout program, while the Greek actions were the result of a breakdown in bailout talks.
They are doing well now (after the $have and haircut!)
The ECB, if refusing to expand emergency funds to Greek banks, did not cut off support entirely, which will provide the government some flexibility in the coming days.
They CAN be flexible?
The ECB’s decision to cap the emergency loan program, as opposed to canceling it, “allows the Greek banks to remain in a sort of coma — not functioning but not dead,” said Karl Whelan, an economics professor at University College in Dublin. That way, he said, the Greek financial system might be revived if Greece secures a deal with its creditors.
Oh, yeah, that's a great progno$i$ for a patient.
And several analysts still predicted that despite the confrontation and fireworks, the two sides might well return to the table. Even as Tsipras and other members of his government are imploring people to vote “no” in the referendum and reject the creditors’ proposal, some experts predict that Greek voters, equating such a vote with leaving the euro system, will vote “yes.”
I'm one.
Raoul Ruparel, an economist and co-director of Open Europe, a London-based research group, said the breakdown in negotiations was “merely a prelude” to yet more talks in a week or so, after Greece holds its referendum.
Printed copy ended there.
“I think we are just getting started on this merry-go-round,” said Ruparel, predicting that Greek voters would probably vote to endorse proposals put forward by creditors. “We would then be back where we started, only in a worse situation.”
You can SMELL the RIGGED VOTE!
He predicted that Tsipras’ government and the creditors would need to negotiate an entirely new, and probably short-term, bailout in an atmosphere poisoned by even deeper distrust than before.
He said, “The whole thing is an absolute nightmare.”
--more--"
Gee, my banker's pre$$ $ure is $inging a different tune this week after the stock market highs of the last few months.
"Dangers loom if Greece exits euro, adopts new currency" by Peter Eavis New York Times June 29, 2015
Like what, NYT?
NEW YORK — Greece could soon find itself in the middle of a daunting economic experiment.
Since Greece became part of the euro over a decade ago, the common European currency has been entrenched in the lives of the country’s 11 million people. But as Greece’s debt crisis escalates, the chances increase that the euro may be replaced by a new, national currency.
You are not just saying that too make me feel good?
Precedents for such a transformation may not exist. Economists say they cannot think of a time when a developed country with an open economy dropped out of a shared currency and set up its own new money.
I think I can. The American Revolution.
I know, I know, bad example.
“There is no modern parallel,” said Michael P. Dooley, professor of economics at the University of California Santa Cruz. “That’s one of the reasons why there is so much hesitation to do it.”
Well, there is a first time for everything.
Much has to happen before Greece reaches the point of an exit from the euro, or “Grexit.” And there is no provision in European treaties for a nation to leave the monetary union.
Still, the probability that Greece will depart soared over the weekend.
Polls show that Greeks favor staying in the euro, and Greece’s leaders have said they do not want to leave the common currency.
Do they? Who $ays?
Indeed, fears of the consequences could be a factor that persuades Greece’s leftist government to soften its stance and, at the last minute, forge a deal with its creditors. But if there is no deal soon, a series of events could increase the likelihood of Greece tumbling out of the euro.
“If this is divorce, and not a separation, then Greece must have a new currency,” said Arturo C. Porzecanski, a professor of international economics at American University.
In recent decades, many countries have adopted a new currency, including nations in Latin America. Countries like Greece sacrificed some of their sovereignty to become part of the euro. But in most cases, these countries were leaving behind a weak currency for one that turned out to be stronger. If Greece set up a new drachma, the name of its pre-euro currency, it is most unlikely it would be stronger than the euro.
Related: "A return to the drachma could make Greek products more globally competitive in the long term"
$ay what?
A new drachma might also have a hurried and chaotic birth.
What one isn't?
When, in the postwar period, countries changed their currency, it usually took many months of careful planning. Of course, Greece may have been secretly preparing for a new drachma. But even if it has, its government has not had long to lay the groundwork.
I $ure hope $o!
“The first and most important thing to remember is that you don’t introduce a currency quickly,” said Stephen Kinsella, an economics lecturer at the University of Limerick in Ireland. “You just don’t.” Huge logistical and technical challenges could occur.
Global payments systems have to be reprogrammed.
F*** 'em!
And the task of actually acquiring a new physical currency can take months, though Kinsella said economies have shown they can operate for a while with a shortage of physical cash. That was the case in Ireland, he said, when bank tellers there went on lengthy strikes in the 1960s and 1970s.
One of the potential benefits for Greece of having its own currency is that it can keep printing it until monetary policy is loose enough to stimulate economic growth. A weaker drachma that falls in value against the euro and the dollar could also bolster Greece’s exports. And the government could pay its own bills — huge outlays like government worker wages and pensions — in the new currency.
Sounds GOOD to me!
The danger is that the government prints so much of the new currency that it falls too far, creates inflation, and soon lacks credibility with the Greek people.
What a hypocritical, pos paper. That is what the Federal Reserve has done here, enriching the 1% as prices continue to rise (something Americans do notice. Their purchasing power decreases every time those printing presses roll over).
“The moment people got it, they would want to spend it,” said Guillermo Calvo, an economics professor at Columbia. “Who knows where the exchange rate will go; it could overshoot like crazy.”
An exit from the euro could shake Greece in other significant ways. Banks might become overwhelmed with losses. This could force the government to take them over, said Raoul Ruparel, co-director of Open Europe, a think tank.
It "worked" here, I'm told by the banker's pre$$.
A barrage of litigation could also hit Greece if it were to leave the euro.
That will be tied up in court for years.
Greek companies that borrowed in euros might find it hard to pay them back if they are mainly earning a new drachma. The companies’ creditors and suppliers might refuse to be paid in the new currency.
Then $crew them.
Making matters worse, fear of the new drachma could prompt foreign companies to step back from entering into new contracts with Greek companies.
It might slow down globalism? Good!
--more--"
Of greater concern?
"China’s central bank cuts rates after sharp drop in stock markets" by Keith Bradsher New York Times June 27, 2015
HONG KONG — Acting a day after the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets plunged more than 7 percent, China’s central bank cut interest rates on Saturday and reduced the reserves that certain banks must hold.
The two measures send a signal that the government may not be eager to see an abrupt end to a stock market rally that has seen prices more than double in the last 12 months. The rally has been underpinned by speculative trading heavily financed with borrowed money.
That has a REAL FAMILIAR ring to it!
Young, often poorly educated investors have been betting on further appreciation even as business managers, with more information on the true health of their companies, have reportedly been selling heavily.
It's the Chinese ENRON! They have been sucked into the corruption!
“We think today’s move is mainly driven by the government desire to support a bull market,” Lan Shen and Shuang Ding, two economists at Standard Chartered, said in a statement on Saturday evening.
Keeping the stock market buoyant, through measures like the interest rate cut, could help the Chinese government sell part of its stakes in government-owned enterprises that have incurred huge debts.
China needs a bailout? Uh-oh.
Previous sharp drops in the stock markets this year have been quickly countered by optimistic statements in state-controlled media.
Hey, we get that all the time over here, so much so that it is in one ear out the other.
But Saturday’s moves, which included the fourth reduction in interest rates since November, were unusual in so closely following a stock market nose dive.
Yet both monetary policy moves on Saturday were carefully calibrated to limit their effect. China’s economy has already begun to stabilize in recent weeks, and the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, has been concerned that it not feed another round of speculative lending and borrowing.
(Blog editor just shakes head)
The People’s Bank cut interest rates by only a quarter of a percent, to 4.85 percent for one-year bank loans, and to 2 percent for one-year bank deposits. The central bank also told banks that specialize in agricultural loans and loans to smaller businesses that they could hold slightly smaller reserves against their deposits, freeing them to lend more.
But the central bank pointedly did not reduce the reserve requirement ratio for large banks, which represent more than half of the country’s financial system.
The lower ratio and the reduced interest rates were to take effect Sunday.
Economic measures like monthly surveys of corporate purchasing managers show that the Chinese economy remains fairly weak but is no longer deteriorating. A slide in housing prices that began in the spring of last year appears to have leveled off, and even reversed in some cities.
“The recent data that we had was definitely not good,” Louis Kuijs, the chief economist for Greater China at the Royal Bank of Scotland, said in a recent interview. “But it wasn’t a disaster.”
When they play it down be worried!
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"Breakdown of bailout talks has Greece on brink of default" by Griff Witte Washington Post June 27, 2015
LONDON — Greece’s long-running standoff with its European creditors appeared headed Saturday for an abrupt and potentially cataclysmic ending as the continent’s finance ministers rejected an emergency Greek request to help the cash-starved country meet a Tuesday deadline for repaying its debts.
Putting aside the self-inernalized banker's hyperbole of the reporter, JP Morgan just warned it was coming to a head. Had been minimized up until now.
Greece’s Parliament voted early Sunday in favor of a motion by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to hold a July 5 referendum on creditor proposals for reforms in exchange for loans, with the country’s future in the eurozone looking increasingly shaky, the Associated Press reported.
Isn't that referendum going to be a little late, not to mention sure to be fixed like almost all western elections these days?
Reflecting the newly dire outlook, people formed lines at ATMs across Greece, seizing perhaps their last chance to withdraw their savings. Some went away empty-handed after the machines ran dry.
It's not new to those who read other things, and it's a $ign of what is coming to AmeriKa (unless the Fed keeps that printing press rolling; money won't be worth the paper its printed on and it will be something like Zimbabwe or early 1930s Germany, but who cares? Bankers need be $ated, so $addle up).
With speculation mounting the banks may lack the funds to reopen Monday morning, European officials huddled to plot out how to contain the damage of a Greek financial meltdown. The finance minister of Greece was pointedly excluded.
WOA!
That last one a BIG MIDDLE FINGER from the MI$ERABLE MI$ERS, 'eh?
The collapse of negotiations Saturday was the most ominous turn in a process that has been poisoned from the start by bitter mistrust between Greece’s radical leftist government and the austerity-minded figures who set policy in Europe.
How about that bias, huh? The "radical leftists" government against some benign "austerity-minded figures" -- that suffer no austerity themselves, the $cum.
who Wrote this And what paPer is it frOm?
Although both sides have repeatedly expressed a determination to keep Greece inside the common currency — and to avoid at all costs an uncontrollable and potentially disastrous default — that shared aspiration has not been enough to bridge the substantial divide.
Then why you been minimi.... never effin' mind!
As has become customary, both sides on Saturday blamed the other for the breakdown.
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis called Saturday ‘‘a sad day for Europe,’’ and said the decision to reject his request to extend Greece’s bailout ‘‘will certainly damage the credibility of the euro group as a democratic union.’’
Can't damage something when it's no longer there.
European officials countered that Tsipras had blindsided them by calling the referendum on a proposal that was still being negotiated, a move that effectively torpedoed any chance for a deal.
The tribe has spoken (cue music).
‘‘The negotiations are clearly ended, if I understand Mr. Tsipras correctly,’’ said Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, as the continent’s top finance officials held their fifth emergency meeting in two weeks. ‘‘We have no grounds for further discussions.’’
Varoufakis later challenged European leaders to come back with a new proposal, and signaled an openness to further talks. But the acrimony on Saturday suggested that a return to the negotiating table is highly unlikely before two critical tests in the week ahead.
The first will come Monday, when Greek banks that have grown ever-more reliant on emergency loans from the European Central Bank face the prospect of reopening for business without new lifelines.
They won't have to (see subsequent article).
The second will be Tuesday, when a $1.7 billion payment to the International Monetary Fund comes due.
You gotta pay us money so we will loan you more money you can't repay -- and they called it a re$cue!
The IMF has repeatedly said it will not offer an extension. Greek officials, meanwhile, say they don’t have the money to make the payment unless its creditors unlock $8 billion in bailout funds frozen amid the stalled talks.
Tsipras has set the referendum, although it is now unclear exactly what Greek voters will be deciding. Tsipras said he wanted to give the Greek people the chance to vote on the latest proposal, which he painted as ‘‘an ultimatum” by creditors.
That's a good way of providing grounds for a rigged vote by saying voters were confused.
Personally, I don't think there is going to be a referendum. Tsipras and Syriza will be out of power by the end of this week.
But with Greece sliding toward default and a possible break with the euro zone, there is no guarantee that the offer will stand when the vote is held.
The European Central Bank, the European Commission, and the IMF have together provided Greece with $264 billion in bailouts over the past five years to deal with sky-high debts.
Yeah, those private central bankers that put you in this fix are great guys!
After years of withering austerity policies imposed by European paymasters as a condition of those deals, Greece in January rejected the medicine and elected Syriza, a radical leftist party that promised to tear up the agreements and start anew.
Pretty much broken most of them since and scooped up all the spare cash, pension funds, savings, to make last payment. Greek people got hot about it, but I didn't see much about it in pre$$.
Greece has repeatedly demanded that Europe reduce the nation’s debt load and ease up on austerity. But European officials have been unwilling to hand Syriza a victory, and have insisted the country keep to strict belt-tightening targets.
Because then they would have to do it for everyone and they would either take a loss or lose untold riches. The jig'll be up and the living the phat life at others expense will be over. And then we eat them.
The past week began with rare optimism, as Greece submitted proposals that European officials initially welcomed as a significant step forward. But by Wednesday, the creditors had submitted counterproposals for slashing pensions and cutting spending that Greek officials rejected as going too far.
Yeah, I noted the constant mixed me$$ages I'm getting from my pre$$, and how tired I am of it.
--more--"
Not a word about the deal for Russian help, not one word.
Time to get your money out of Greek banks:
"Greece to close banks amid wave of withdrawals" by Jim Yardley New York Times June 28, 2015
ATHENS, Greece — Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced Sunday night that Greece’s banks would be closed as of Monday, as the fallout from ruptured debt negotiations with the nation’s creditors began inflicting pain on ordinary people while raising alarm in Washington, Brussels and Berlin.
Uh-oh. That's only done during depressions and those cities are the power centers of all the corrupt, too-big-to-jail banks.
Related: And So It Begins – Greek Banks Get Shut Down For A Week And A ‘Grexit’ Is Now Probable
It's where I get most of my real economic news.
The emergency measures escalated the confused and unpredictable state of a crisis that some analysts say could ripple through global financial markets and undercut European unity.
So we can blame the Greeks for the $hit economy and not the true criminals, the private central bankers!
The game's up, guys! The ma$k is off!
With so much at stake, leaders in other capitals encouraged a continued search for a way to prevent Greece from being forced out of Europe’s currency union.
I was told yesterday that there wasn't much more to discuss. Sigh!
Greece owes a large debt payment by the end of the day Tuesday, and has scheduled a referendum for next Sunday on whether to accept terms of an offer from its creditors to release bailout aid it needs to meet its financial obligations.
Tsipras announced the emergency banking shutdown, which will also close the stock exchange, and imposed capital controls several hours after the European Central Bank said it would not expand an emergency loan program that had been propping up Greek banks for weeks. The banking system had neared insolvency after panicked account holders withdrew billions of euros, a pattern that continued over the weekend.
It's called a run on banks, and my banker's books, 'er, history books say that's bad.
“It is clearer than ever that this decision has no other goal than blackmailing the Greek people and obstructing the smooth democratic procedure of the referendum,” Tsipras said in a brief televised address.
That is a STRONG STATEMENT, and youuuuuu better watch your back.
Tsipras attributed the action to the unwillingness of the country’s creditors to extend the bailout program, set to end Tuesday, until next Sunday, so that Greece could hold its national referendum. The referendum was a surprise move by Tsipras, announced early Saturday, as he declared that voters should decide whether to accept the terms of the creditors’ latest aid proposal — terms he considers onerous.
I call it odious, but $ame difference.
Greece’s creditors — the other 18 eurozone countries, the ECB and the International Monetary Fund — in effect cut off negotiations with Tsipras after he called for the referendum, raising concerns that Greece would default on its debt and potentially seek to solve its financial problems by abandoning the euro.
Maybe they want them to default. Bankers always seem the benefit from crashes. They come out $melling like ro$es on the other side, having bought cheap and then selling dear.
But on Sunday, international leaders appeared to be seeking a way to calm the situation and explore the potential for common ground with the Greek government.
I think $omeone just blinked!
President Barack Obama and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany spoke by phone Sunday and “agreed that it was critically important to make every effort to return to a path that will allow Greece to resume reforms and growth within the eurozone,” according to the White House. Merkel was expected to make a public statement Monday in Berlin.
Getting personally involved and hitting the phones, huh? Must be important.
Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, who has at times been sharply critical of Greece’s negotiating stance, released a softer statement, declaring her “commitment to continue to engage with the Greek authorities.”
$cum.
Greece must make a 1.6 billion euro debt payment to the IMF on Tuesday or risk falling into default.
Before this weekend, the four-month negotiations focused on the Greek side trying to agree to fiscal reforms, tax increases and pension cuts in exchange for creditors releasing a 7.2 billion euro bailout allotment that Greece needs to meet its short-term debt obligations, equivalent to about $8.1 billion.
That looks like blackmail and extortion.
Tsipras had consistently called for a broader, comprehensive deal that would liberate Greece from the economics of austerity. Attention will now likely shift to Brussels and Berlin.
By now you know what that means?
In Brussels, the European Commission made its own unexpected moves Sunday. Jean-Claude Juncker, the commission president, released a statement suggesting that creditors had been willing to discuss Greece’s debt load, a key demand of the Tsipras government. But more surprisingly, the commission published details of the offer made to Greece, a move intended to show the lengths to which creditors had gone to satisfy Greek demands, one European Union official said.
“This is a last bridge we are building for them,” the official said about the decision to publish the terms of proposal. The goal was to pressure Tsipras to “change course” and encourage voters to choose “yes”’ in the coming referendum, the official said, while acknowledging the chances for such a switch were slim.
Like I said, paving the ground for a rigged vote while in a most insulting fashion. These are the same crooks who screwed Greece (with collaboration from its former governments).
Perhaps the key figure in finding a compromise, assuming there is still time to do so, is Merkel, the most powerful political figure in Europe. She remained silent Sunday, with officials saying that Wolfgang Schauble, the German finance minister, spoke for the government in Brussels on Saturday. Following the collapse of talks, the finance minister declared that Germany and the other members of the euro would like to continue to hold talks but blamed the Greeks for declaring the discussions a failure.
Kind of the female version of a guy who back in the 1930....
But Schauble also indicated readiness to “do everything to prevent every possible threat of contagion” of the situation, should Greece fail to reach a deal with its creditors, reflecting growing frustration in Berlin with the government in Athens.
As if the looting $chemes of bankers were some sort of natural illne$$ -- and actually, it is!
Norbert Rottgen, a senior member of Chancellor Merkel’s party who is responsible for foreign affairs, stressed the wider geopolitical implications of what he called a “vagabond Greek government,” which could say no to the next round of European sanctions against Russia. He warned that after five years of bailouts, “it cannot just collapse over a week.”
That is what they are worried about (like that other fella with the mustac.... never mind)?
Of course, the 21st-century leaders of Western Europe are true fa$ci$ts, not the mislabeled and distorted nationalist regimes that are to be found in my banker's books, 'er, history books.
The immediate question in Greece revolved around the specifics of the emergency actions announced by Tsipras. He did not mention the stock market in his public address, but a senior official confirmed that it would also close.
The prime minister indicated that restrictions would be placed on ATM withdrawals and money transfers, but he provided no details. A legislative decree said banks would be closed through July 6 and that the cap on daily cash machine withdrawals would be 60 euros. That would not apply to tourists using cards issued in their home countries.
MORE THAN A WEEK, huh? The Greeks are gonna be in the street!
Such a small cash withdrawal limit would highlight the dire condition of the Greek banking system. Cyprus avoided a banking collapse in 2013 by taking similar steps, though the daily withdrawal limit was 300 euros. The Cypriot government also acted in concert with other European governments as part of a new bailout program, while the Greek actions were the result of a breakdown in bailout talks.
They are doing well now (after the $have and haircut!)
The ECB, if refusing to expand emergency funds to Greek banks, did not cut off support entirely, which will provide the government some flexibility in the coming days.
They CAN be flexible?
The ECB’s decision to cap the emergency loan program, as opposed to canceling it, “allows the Greek banks to remain in a sort of coma — not functioning but not dead,” said Karl Whelan, an economics professor at University College in Dublin. That way, he said, the Greek financial system might be revived if Greece secures a deal with its creditors.
Oh, yeah, that's a great progno$i$ for a patient.
And several analysts still predicted that despite the confrontation and fireworks, the two sides might well return to the table. Even as Tsipras and other members of his government are imploring people to vote “no” in the referendum and reject the creditors’ proposal, some experts predict that Greek voters, equating such a vote with leaving the euro system, will vote “yes.”
I'm one.
Raoul Ruparel, an economist and co-director of Open Europe, a London-based research group, said the breakdown in negotiations was “merely a prelude” to yet more talks in a week or so, after Greece holds its referendum.
Printed copy ended there.
“I think we are just getting started on this merry-go-round,” said Ruparel, predicting that Greek voters would probably vote to endorse proposals put forward by creditors. “We would then be back where we started, only in a worse situation.”
You can SMELL the RIGGED VOTE!
He predicted that Tsipras’ government and the creditors would need to negotiate an entirely new, and probably short-term, bailout in an atmosphere poisoned by even deeper distrust than before.
He said, “The whole thing is an absolute nightmare.”
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Gee, my banker's pre$$ $ure is $inging a different tune this week after the stock market highs of the last few months.
"Dangers loom if Greece exits euro, adopts new currency" by Peter Eavis New York Times June 29, 2015
Like what, NYT?
NEW YORK — Greece could soon find itself in the middle of a daunting economic experiment.
Since Greece became part of the euro over a decade ago, the common European currency has been entrenched in the lives of the country’s 11 million people. But as Greece’s debt crisis escalates, the chances increase that the euro may be replaced by a new, national currency.
You are not just saying that too make me feel good?
Precedents for such a transformation may not exist. Economists say they cannot think of a time when a developed country with an open economy dropped out of a shared currency and set up its own new money.
I think I can. The American Revolution.
I know, I know, bad example.
“There is no modern parallel,” said Michael P. Dooley, professor of economics at the University of California Santa Cruz. “That’s one of the reasons why there is so much hesitation to do it.”
Well, there is a first time for everything.
Much has to happen before Greece reaches the point of an exit from the euro, or “Grexit.” And there is no provision in European treaties for a nation to leave the monetary union.
Still, the probability that Greece will depart soared over the weekend.
Polls show that Greeks favor staying in the euro, and Greece’s leaders have said they do not want to leave the common currency.
Do they? Who $ays?
Indeed, fears of the consequences could be a factor that persuades Greece’s leftist government to soften its stance and, at the last minute, forge a deal with its creditors. But if there is no deal soon, a series of events could increase the likelihood of Greece tumbling out of the euro.
“If this is divorce, and not a separation, then Greece must have a new currency,” said Arturo C. Porzecanski, a professor of international economics at American University.
In recent decades, many countries have adopted a new currency, including nations in Latin America. Countries like Greece sacrificed some of their sovereignty to become part of the euro. But in most cases, these countries were leaving behind a weak currency for one that turned out to be stronger. If Greece set up a new drachma, the name of its pre-euro currency, it is most unlikely it would be stronger than the euro.
Related: "A return to the drachma could make Greek products more globally competitive in the long term"
$ay what?
A new drachma might also have a hurried and chaotic birth.
What one isn't?
When, in the postwar period, countries changed their currency, it usually took many months of careful planning. Of course, Greece may have been secretly preparing for a new drachma. But even if it has, its government has not had long to lay the groundwork.
I $ure hope $o!
“The first and most important thing to remember is that you don’t introduce a currency quickly,” said Stephen Kinsella, an economics lecturer at the University of Limerick in Ireland. “You just don’t.” Huge logistical and technical challenges could occur.
Global payments systems have to be reprogrammed.
F*** 'em!
And the task of actually acquiring a new physical currency can take months, though Kinsella said economies have shown they can operate for a while with a shortage of physical cash. That was the case in Ireland, he said, when bank tellers there went on lengthy strikes in the 1960s and 1970s.
One of the potential benefits for Greece of having its own currency is that it can keep printing it until monetary policy is loose enough to stimulate economic growth. A weaker drachma that falls in value against the euro and the dollar could also bolster Greece’s exports. And the government could pay its own bills — huge outlays like government worker wages and pensions — in the new currency.
Sounds GOOD to me!
The danger is that the government prints so much of the new currency that it falls too far, creates inflation, and soon lacks credibility with the Greek people.
What a hypocritical, pos paper. That is what the Federal Reserve has done here, enriching the 1% as prices continue to rise (something Americans do notice. Their purchasing power decreases every time those printing presses roll over).
“The moment people got it, they would want to spend it,” said Guillermo Calvo, an economics professor at Columbia. “Who knows where the exchange rate will go; it could overshoot like crazy.”
An exit from the euro could shake Greece in other significant ways. Banks might become overwhelmed with losses. This could force the government to take them over, said Raoul Ruparel, co-director of Open Europe, a think tank.
It "worked" here, I'm told by the banker's pre$$.
A barrage of litigation could also hit Greece if it were to leave the euro.
That will be tied up in court for years.
Greek companies that borrowed in euros might find it hard to pay them back if they are mainly earning a new drachma. The companies’ creditors and suppliers might refuse to be paid in the new currency.
Then $crew them.
Making matters worse, fear of the new drachma could prompt foreign companies to step back from entering into new contracts with Greek companies.
It might slow down globalism? Good!
--more--"
Of greater concern?
"China’s central bank cuts rates after sharp drop in stock markets" by Keith Bradsher New York Times June 27, 2015
HONG KONG — Acting a day after the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets plunged more than 7 percent, China’s central bank cut interest rates on Saturday and reduced the reserves that certain banks must hold.
The two measures send a signal that the government may not be eager to see an abrupt end to a stock market rally that has seen prices more than double in the last 12 months. The rally has been underpinned by speculative trading heavily financed with borrowed money.
That has a REAL FAMILIAR ring to it!
Young, often poorly educated investors have been betting on further appreciation even as business managers, with more information on the true health of their companies, have reportedly been selling heavily.
It's the Chinese ENRON! They have been sucked into the corruption!
“We think today’s move is mainly driven by the government desire to support a bull market,” Lan Shen and Shuang Ding, two economists at Standard Chartered, said in a statement on Saturday evening.
Keeping the stock market buoyant, through measures like the interest rate cut, could help the Chinese government sell part of its stakes in government-owned enterprises that have incurred huge debts.
China needs a bailout? Uh-oh.
Previous sharp drops in the stock markets this year have been quickly countered by optimistic statements in state-controlled media.
Hey, we get that all the time over here, so much so that it is in one ear out the other.
But Saturday’s moves, which included the fourth reduction in interest rates since November, were unusual in so closely following a stock market nose dive.
Yet both monetary policy moves on Saturday were carefully calibrated to limit their effect. China’s economy has already begun to stabilize in recent weeks, and the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, has been concerned that it not feed another round of speculative lending and borrowing.
(Blog editor just shakes head)
The People’s Bank cut interest rates by only a quarter of a percent, to 4.85 percent for one-year bank loans, and to 2 percent for one-year bank deposits. The central bank also told banks that specialize in agricultural loans and loans to smaller businesses that they could hold slightly smaller reserves against their deposits, freeing them to lend more.
But the central bank pointedly did not reduce the reserve requirement ratio for large banks, which represent more than half of the country’s financial system.
The lower ratio and the reduced interest rates were to take effect Sunday.
Economic measures like monthly surveys of corporate purchasing managers show that the Chinese economy remains fairly weak but is no longer deteriorating. A slide in housing prices that began in the spring of last year appears to have leveled off, and even reversed in some cities.
“The recent data that we had was definitely not good,” Louis Kuijs, the chief economist for Greater China at the Royal Bank of Scotland, said in a recent interview. “But it wasn’t a disaster.”
When they play it down be worried!
--more--"
Sunday Globe Special: French Calypsos
I've noted in the past how the Sunday Globe sometimes carries a theme forward over a series of Sundays, and they seem to be on to a French theme now.
Look, if I were the elite of Bo$ton or those up in New England before heading back to the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, later on Sunday, this would be very appetizing fare. But I'm not, and thus it holds very little interest. Sorry.
"Once a symbol of adventure, Cousteau ship rots in oblivion" by Alissa J. Rubin New York Times June 27, 2015
The NYT and its brethren heading the same way.
CONCARNEAU, France — In its day, the Calypso was more than an oceanographic research vessel. It was the constant companion of the famed French explorer Jacques Cousteau, as the ship and its captain logged more than 1 million nautical miles together from the Red Sea and the Amazon to Antarctica and the Indian Ocean.
Now, all that can be seen of it is a skeletal hull, extending outside a warehouse in this small port town on the coast of Brittany in western France.
It is difficult to recognize it as the same boat that starred in award-winning films and televised adventures beginning in the mid-1950s and extending into the 1980s. Over those years, the Calypso and Cousteau turned into icons of a vibrant ecology movement, raising awareness of the wonders and fragility of the world’s oceans.
Today, the Calypso rots in the warehouse where it was brought to be repaired in 2007. Stripped of the metal and wood that once encased it, weeds curling among the wooden beams of its frame, the ship is now a symbol of how Cousteau has faded in the collective memory and how despite France’s sailing tradition, neither the government nor his heirs have found a solution for its restoration.
Cousteau, the country’s premier oceanographer and environmental advocate, was as much showman as scientist, and he astutely recognized that in order to get funding, scientific research had to appeal to a popular audience. By refining underwater filming, he did just that, creating a wealth of documentation of life beneath the oceans’ waves.
But he left little clear direction about what should become of the vessel that accompanied him in his explorations for more than 40 years when he died at 87 at his home in Paris in 1997.
Still in use in 1996, the Calypso was in the Singapore harbor when a barge accidentally rammed into it, sinking the boat to the seafloor. It took days to bring it to the surface and much longer to bring to France.
Although the Cousteau Society, a nonprofit environmental organization founded by the explorer, set out to restore it after his death, there have been lawsuits and disputes that have left the boat weathering away.
“It is depressing to see that no one has come to be its patron,” said Pascale Bladier-Chassaigne, the managing director of the Association for Maritime and Fluvial Patrimony, describing the ship as “mythic” and “emblematic” for France.
In 2014, the association designated the Calypso as part of the country’s maritime cultural heritage, but it has yet to be considered a national monument by the state.
The neglect is hardly surprising, said Gérard D’Aboville, the captain of PlanetSolar, a solar-powered research vessel. Despite France’s ample seacoast and its many island territories, the government has never shown much enthusiasm for preserving the country’s ships, he said.
The Calypso’s chances for government sponsorship have also diminished as its fame recedes into memory, he noted.
“If you ask the younger generation in France, they don’t know about it at all,” D’Aboville said.
The unresolved fate of the Calypso raises questions about what should happen to a ship when it reaches the end of its working life, especially a boat that was groundbreaking in its day.
Yet the frequent practice of chopping a boat into bits for recycling strikes many as a painful insult to a boat with such an august history.
No one was talking about such a dire option when the boat arrived in Concarneau for a complete restoration in 2007.
“When we learned that the workshop had succeeded in obtaining the order for the renovation of the Calypso, it was greeted with great joy and pride,” recalled Bruno Quillivic, the deputy mayor for ports in Concarneau, referring to the workshop of Piriou Naval Services, one of the largest employers here and one of France’s biggest shipbuilders.
But by the beginning of 2009, the Cousteau Society decided the renovations were inadequate and stopped payment. Piriou stopped working on the boat and a series of court actions ensued.
A judge ruled in favor of Piriou, saying the Cousteau Society needed to pay the shipbuilder $300,000 and to remove the boat from the Concarneau warehouse. Piriou said that if the Cousteau Society failed to remove the boat by mid-March, it would take steps to auction off the Calypso.
That date has come and gone and no sale has taken place. It is not clear if the company has the right to sell the boat and, even if it did, if there would be a buyer.
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I don't know where he last sailed, and I'd call you a cab except French transport looks real bad now.
I suppose you will just have to walk (no veil, please) and be graceful about it (she apparently didn't exist before 1946 when she just showed up! Must have been a three-week performance. Either that, or the Globe got to the ballet rather late).
"French search home of beheading suspect; Prisoner brought in bid to find any terrorism links" by Alex Turnbull Associated Press June 28, 2015
SAINT-PRIEST, France — Police investigators wearing masks escorted a man accused of a beheading to his home in southeastern France on Sunday, searching for a possible international terror link to the killing after he sent a photo of the victim to a contact in Syria, a security official said.
OMG, this is to try and get into SYRIA, where I'm sure the French will be patrolling their former area of influence. Empires die hard, and they never real die!
Yassine Salhi, 35, was handcuffed and wearing jeans, a knee-length djellaba robe, and a loose towel over his head when judicial police led him into his residence in the town of Saint-Priest, outside the city of Lyon.
The official said police were searching for Salhi’s passport, to determine if he had traveled abroad before Friday’s attack, which authorities are calling France’s first deadly terror attack since a killing spree in the Paris area in January.
According to earlier propaganda, he was well know to French authorities and was being watched.
Salhi, a truck deliveryman and father of three with a history of ties to Islamic extremists, admitted earlier to the killing of the manager of the transportation company that had employed him since March, officials said.
The official also said Salhi had sent a macabre ‘‘selfie’’ photo of himself and the victim to a man identified only as Younes, who reportedly has been in war-torn Syria since last year. Investigators have found no links to any international terror group.
They should ban those self-centered instruments.
The suspect and police spent about an hour in Salhi’s home. It wasn’t immediately clear if police found what they were looking for. Sirens blaring, the police returned him to the Lyon police station where he was initially questioned.
Another security official said authorities were looking into initial claims by Salhi to police that he had recently argued with his wife and employer, was suicidal, and had wanted to make a media splash with a killing that had the markings of terrorism.
HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!
The severing of the head appeared to imitate the practice of Islamic State militants, who have beheaded prisoners and displayed their heads publicly.
Except all those videos are ridiculous fakes!
The killing came after the militants urged attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. French authorities say Salhi had links to radical Salafists in the past.
Yeah, coming during Ramadan is a real false flag stink, and it smells mostly of Israel.
The suspect is accused of crashing his truck into a US-owned chemical warehouse on Friday, setting off an explosion, and hanging his employer’s head on the factory’s gate. He was quickly arrested. Officials had previously said he sent the selfie of himself and the victim to a Canadian mobile phone number.
???????????
French police on Sunday lifted a 48-hour secure perimeter around the site of the warehouse in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier near Lyon. Images show the damage sustained in the blast.
Like I would believe images and photos I see cited or featured in a propaganda pre$$. Sigh.
Also Sunday, after two days in custody for questioning in Lyon, Salhi’s wife and sister were released, said the officials. They spoke only on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls said ‘‘we cannot accept barbarity’’ and estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Salafists — who preach an ultraconservative form of Islam — were present in France.
No, but they can deliver it with military operations.
‘‘We are living under a major terrorist threat, and this terrorist threat is going to last,’’ Valls told i-Tele TV. ‘‘We should know we’re going to fight this terrorism over the long term.’’
Aaaaah! A French neo-con $ociali$t!
The chemical warehouse attack highlighted the scope of the threat facing France. Five months after three homegrown extremists killed 17 people in and around Paris, officials were warning the nation to brace for more terrorist attacks.
Then ALL THE SPYING and ALL THE SURVEILLANCE and ALL the LOOT to keep them safe means NOTHING, huh?
They KNOW IT'S COMING, but NOT WHERE, NOT WHEN, NOT HOW, NOT WHO, only WHY!!!!
Ooooooohhhh!
In April, Valls said authorities had, in recent months, foiled five terrorism plots.
All false flag patsies, I'm sure.
France has taken steps to bolster its counterterrorism efforts and to prevent radical recruitment, including a sweeping surveillance law passed in recent days. But analysts say the security problem confronting the country outweighs the ability of the nation’s intelligence services to respond.
Well, NSA has been SPYING on the FRENCH so maybe they could lend more of a hand?
So you SEE WHY the French needed to be exposed to a fictional beheading and false flag at this time, right?
France, which has Europe’s largest Muslim population, has seen more of its nationals and legal residents — over 1,200 — leave in recent years to join radical Islamists fighting in Syria and Iraq than have left from any other nation in the region.
BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!
--more--"
The propaganda is calypsoing as fast a WTC tower into its own footprint.
And across the sea:
"2,900 migrants saved off Libya" Associated Press June 29, 2015
ROME — Italian coast guard ships and vessels from a multination naval mission and humanitarian organizations rescued at least 2,900 migrants Sunday from 21 boats launched by smugglers from Libyan shores, authorities said.
The coast guard said the rescues were carried out by military vessels from Italy, Spain, Ireland, and Britain, as well as a boat run by humanitarian personnel.
The Irish naval vessel Le Eithne was involved in at least six of the operations Sunday, rescuing nearly 600 migrants from inflatable rubber dinghies that needed help in the waters northwest of Libya, according to an Irish military statement.
About 100 of the migrants were being taken to the tiny island of Lampedusa, off Sicily. Authorities were determining which larger southern Italian ports would receive the others Monday.
Libyan-based smugglers tend to wait out spells of rough seas and then launch many of their boats, either unseaworthy wooden fishing boats or motorized dinghies, when the Mediterranean is calmer.
Satellite phones are used to call for help from the Italian coast guard, which then requests that naval vessels or cargo ships in the area come to the migrants’ aid. Some days this year have seen thousands of migrants rescued from many boats.
Print copy ended there.
So far this year, some 60,000 migrants saved by ships in a multination search and rescue mission have been brought to Italian ports.
Many seek asylum from wars or persecution in Africa or the Middle East and hope to reach families in northern Europe.
Italy wants northern European countries to take in fixed numbers of migrants. EU discussions about Italy’s appeal have so far yielded plans for such help on a voluntary basis.
--more--"
Hitting the other shore:
"Tunisia launches search for attack accomplices; Authorities say lone gunman had help beforehand" by Elaine Ganley Associated Press June 29, 2015
SOUSSE, Tunisia — The student who massacred vacationers on a Tunisian beach and at a resort hotel acted alone during the attack but had accomplices who supported him beforehand, an Interior Ministry official said Sunday.
Yeah, massacre. Have you seen the pictures they have presented?
And this whole LONE GUNMAN EVERY TIME, that's been sooooooooo played.
Police were searching nationwide for more suspects after the slaughter of at least 38 people in Sousse on Friday, in Tunisia’s deadliest such attack.
Yeah, and two posts below will tell you why this staged and scripted event was necessary.
The attacker’s father and three roommates were detained and being questioned in the capital, Tunis, Interior Ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui said.
The attacker has been identified as Seifeddine Rezgui, a 24-year-old graduate of Tunisia’s Kairouan University, where he had been living with the other students. The attack was claimed by the radical Islamic State group.
‘‘We are sure that others helped but did not participate,’’ Aroui said. ‘‘They participated indirectly.’’
Related: TUNISIA HOTEL SHOOTINGS MYSTERY
Investigators believe the suspected accomplices provided the Kalashnikov assault rifle to Rezgui and helped him get to the scene, Aroui said.
And he hid that under a T-shirt and shorts.
Authorities have yet to suggest a motive for the carnage.
I have.
A security official close to the investigation said the student frequented an ‘‘unofficial’’ mosque in the Tunisian holy city of Kairouan for the past two years.
The official said a swimmer found the attacker’s cellphone in the Mediterranean.
This.... sigh.
The phone showed the attacker spoke with his father just before his assault, the official said on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.
Uh-huh.
Friday’s attack on the Imperial Marhaba Hotel shook this North African nation that thrives on tourism and has struggled since its 2011 revolution to be the one Arab Spring country that succeeds in transitioning from authoritarianism to democracy.
I already touched on all that. The Arab Spring is not what you think. Anytime the agenda-pushing pre$$ gives something a cute name....
The bloodshed shocked European nations across the Mediterranean worried for the safety of their citizens who populate Tunisian beaches — and about what it may mean for their own countries in an age of globalized terrorism.
This is such agenda-pushing slop and fear-mongering it's outing itself.
Of course, the bloodshed their NATO militaries are bringing to the world.... aaaah, no biggie!
British counterterrorism police official Mark Rowley said Sunday Britain has mobilized more than 600 officers and staff — one of the force’s largest counterterrorism deployments in recent years — in response to the attack.
Then nothing better happen.
*********
Tourism Minister Selma Elloumi will meet with foreign ambassadors to lay out new security measures for tourists.
That is what this is all about: the elite closing the tyranny just a little tighter to keep you poor and downtrodden away from their play.
Queen Elizabeth II said the attack left her and her husband, Prince Philip, shocked. The royal couple sent condolences to the families of those killed.
And just after they visited a concentration camp, too, those incestuous germs (shocking, I know. Live, you bastard).
Britain’s Foreign Office updated its travel advice to Tunisia, urging vigilance and warning that further terrorist attacks there are possible.
Get the hell out of Tunisia, NOW!
--more--"
"Islamic radicals attack Malian village near Ivory Coast border" by Baba Ahmed Associated Press June 29, 2015
BAMAKO, Mali — Gunmen identified as Islamic extremists attacked and briefly occupied a village in southern Mali near Ivory Coast on Sunday before security forces drove them out, officials said.
The attack was the second in Mali’s southern half over the weekend by suspected Islamic extremists, and President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita convened a meeting of defense officials in the capital, Bamako, on Sunday to discuss security.
The ghosts and phantoms of ISIS™ are everywhere!
Sunday’s attack targeted the village of Fakola, 9 miles north of Ivory Coast.
Don't they have a war crimes issue?
Mamadou Tangara, mayor of the regional capital of Sikasso, said the attackers arrived on motorcycles.
The attackers carried “a black flag of jihadists” and shouted “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great” in Arabic, a military police official said.
Oh, now I'm convinced this is all pure truth.
They burned administrative buildings as well as a building being used as a local base for military police, although those officers had left the village before the attack began, the official said.
Casualty information and details on the identity of the assailants in the attack were not immediately available.
In a separate development Sunday, officials in Chad said they have arrested 60 people, including suspects from Cameroon, Nigeria, and Mali, in relation to an attack earlier this month in N’Djamena, the Chadian capital.
A series of suicide bombings initiated that attack on June 15, killings dozens of people and wounding more than 100 others.
--more--"
That's more sub-Saharan Africa, but it's within the French theater of operations so....
Related:
"Suicide bombers kill 23 in attacks on Chad capital" by Dany Padire Associated Press June 16, 2015
N'DJAMENA, Chad — Suicide bombers on motorcycles simultaneously attacked two buildings including the national police academy in Chad’s capital on Monday, killing at least 23 people and wounding more than 100 others, witnesses said. It was the first assault of its kind since Islamic militants threatened the country earlier this year.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but suspicion quickly fell on Boko Haram, the Islamic militant group based in neighboring Nigeria that already has attacked Chadian villages along the lake dividing the two countries.
Chad has been a major military ally with Nigeria in the fight against the insurgent group. Boko Haram’s leader has publicly threatened the Chadian president with retaliation.
Information Minister Hassan Sylla Bakari called Monday’s violence ‘‘an appalling and barbaric attack.’’
‘‘These attacks aimed at striking fear in people’s hearts will not diminish Chad’s determination and commitment to fighting terrorism,’’ he said. ‘‘The government will relentlessly pursue the fight against criminals whose intention is to spread death and desolation in Chadian families.’’
I'll explain that in a moment.
Officials said there were four attackers — two at each building, he added.
One of the bombers on a motorcycle blew himself up after security officers fired at him outside a building where the national police chief is based. The second explosion went off at the headquarters of the national police academy, witnesses said.
Meaning it had to have been planted, indicating an inside job.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in a statement, condemned the bombings and praised Chad’s ‘‘courageous role’’ in fighting Boko Haram.
Print copy ended there.
In Nigeria, Boko Haram was blamed for two suicide bombings Monday that killed at least 11 people in the northeastern town of Potiskum, according to self-defense fighter Adamu Isa and an AP count of bodies.
--more--"
That's the first (and last) I've seen of it.
NDU:
"UK prime minister vows response to attack in Tunisia" by Stephen Castle New York Times June 29, 2015
LONDON — Shocked by the deadliest terrorist attack on Britons in a decade, Prime Minister David Cameron promised a “full spectrum” response Monday to the assault, which killed 39 tourists at a resort in Sousse, Tunisia, on Friday.
OMG! So that was another part of the agenda regarding this fake ruse.
At least 18 of the victims, and possibly as many as 30, were British.
Cameron sent security officials and government ministers to the scene and promised to intensify the fight against extremism in Britain. Theresa May, the home secretary, and Tobias Ellwood, a Foreign Office minister, went on Monday to Tunisia, where British officials are working with the local authorities to assess security at beach resorts frequented by European tourists.
In concrete policy terms, Cameron’s reaction was cautious, and he did not promise any immediate antiterrorism measures at home or any increase in Britain’s military involvement in fighting Islamic State militants.
So it's just a psyop?
A gunman, identified as Seifeddine Rezgui, was killed at the scene Friday, but witnesses say that more than one person was involved in the attack.
Apparently, a Mossad hit team landed on the beaches.
The Tunisian interior minister, Najem Gharsalli, said Monday that security forces had arrested several people but gave no specifics about their number or the charges against them. Local news accounts suggest that Rezgui may have had as many as 10 people help him prepare for the attack.
The Associated Press quoted a person close to the investigation as saying that seven people were arrested in at least three Tunisian cities and were being questioned in the capital Monday.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve of France, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere of Germany, and Interior Minister Jan Jambon of Belgium joined Gharsalli and May on the beach in front of the Imperial Marhaba hotel for a tribute to the victims Monday.
That was where my propaganda pre$$ left it, the fake photo-op further exposing this pos operation as a mind-bending piece of psyop propaganda for the pile.
Britain is stepping up its consular operations in Tunisia and has sent police officers to work with the authorities there, including 16 senior detectives, forensic specialists and family liaison officers. London’s Metropolitan Police Service said in a statement that “over 600 officers and staff” were at work in Tunisia and Britain concerning the attack and its repercussions.
But nothing concrete in terms of policy actions(?).
Beyond those practical steps, Cameron cast his response in terms of a battle of ideas. He called militant Islamist ideology “an existential threat” to the West and said Britain was confronting “the struggle of our generation.”
OMG, he's sounding the Zionist neo-con clarion call for war based on this poorly-crafted slop propaganda.
“It’s a battle of our values and our narrative against their values and their narrative,” he told the BBC, comparing the conflict to the Cold War.
“We have to deal with this appalling radical narrative that’s taking over the minds of young people in our country,” Cameron said. “We have to get that right, as well as the military end of things.”
Folks, I'm sick of responding to the hyperbolic and over-the-top bleating of fear from these f***ers. You know a sh** shovel when you see it.
I'm beginning to understand how a Soviet citizen would have had to read Pravda.
The assault at the resort in Sousse was the deadliest terrorist attack involving Britons since July 7, 2005, when 52 commuters in London were killed by four suicide bombers.
Also see:
May Day Memories: The U.S. Connection
Terror Expert: London Bomber Was Working For MI5
Israeli Connections to the London Tube Bombs
Kinda a kick in the head, huh, and do you know for whom Mr. Aswat and Mr. Khan worked?
The Tunisian health ministry said Monday that in addition to the 38 deaths, 39 people had been wounded in the attack, the state news agency reported. Thirty of those injured were treated and released, it said, while nine remained in care. The report added that so far, in addition to the British victims, the ministry had identified one Belgian citizen, one German, one Irish, and one Portuguese among the dead.
Even the reported numbers of casualties sounds strange, almost as if they were made up.
Four Britons who were wounded in the attack were scheduled to be flown home on a British military plane Monday, while others returned on separate flights. Cameron’s office said they would all be back in Britain within 24 hours.
The attack has prompted hundreds of other British tourists to cut short their vacations in Tunisia. The Foreign Office cautioned that “further terrorist attacks in Tunisia, including in tourist resorts, are possible, including by individuals who are unknown to the authorities and whose actions are inspired by terrorist groups via social media.”
However, after a meeting of top security officials Monday, the government decided against advising travelers to stay away from Tunisia.
They care more about things other than your $afety, $ee?
As the authorities assessed the situation in Tunisia, officials acknowledged that Britons might be vulnerable in several other countries as well. The government’s national threat level is “severe,” meaning that a terrorist attack is considered highly likely.
Yup, the same tyrannical intelligence and surveillance systems are saying the same thing over here, although such things are absent my printed Globe today.
Of course, with all the spying that, when caught they say was all for your protection, keeping the terrorists from attacking, blah, blah, now turns out to be utterly useless as they Chicken Little it again.
Ignore the Greek crisis that is now suddenly serious, ignore the never-ending escalations of wars, ignore the political cla$$ living their lavish lifestyles at your expense, ignore the pillage and looting of your futures, the government-created, funded, and directed terrorists are coming or are already here in the form of white men.
Well, IF IT DOES HAPPEN then it will be time to DISMANTLE ALL the TYRANNY because it DIDN'T WORK! Can't have it both ways, guys.
--more--"
Look, if I were the elite of Bo$ton or those up in New England before heading back to the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, later on Sunday, this would be very appetizing fare. But I'm not, and thus it holds very little interest. Sorry.
"Once a symbol of adventure, Cousteau ship rots in oblivion" by Alissa J. Rubin New York Times June 27, 2015
The NYT and its brethren heading the same way.
CONCARNEAU, France — In its day, the Calypso was more than an oceanographic research vessel. It was the constant companion of the famed French explorer Jacques Cousteau, as the ship and its captain logged more than 1 million nautical miles together from the Red Sea and the Amazon to Antarctica and the Indian Ocean.
Now, all that can be seen of it is a skeletal hull, extending outside a warehouse in this small port town on the coast of Brittany in western France.
It is difficult to recognize it as the same boat that starred in award-winning films and televised adventures beginning in the mid-1950s and extending into the 1980s. Over those years, the Calypso and Cousteau turned into icons of a vibrant ecology movement, raising awareness of the wonders and fragility of the world’s oceans.
Today, the Calypso rots in the warehouse where it was brought to be repaired in 2007. Stripped of the metal and wood that once encased it, weeds curling among the wooden beams of its frame, the ship is now a symbol of how Cousteau has faded in the collective memory and how despite France’s sailing tradition, neither the government nor his heirs have found a solution for its restoration.
Cousteau, the country’s premier oceanographer and environmental advocate, was as much showman as scientist, and he astutely recognized that in order to get funding, scientific research had to appeal to a popular audience. By refining underwater filming, he did just that, creating a wealth of documentation of life beneath the oceans’ waves.
But he left little clear direction about what should become of the vessel that accompanied him in his explorations for more than 40 years when he died at 87 at his home in Paris in 1997.
Still in use in 1996, the Calypso was in the Singapore harbor when a barge accidentally rammed into it, sinking the boat to the seafloor. It took days to bring it to the surface and much longer to bring to France.
Although the Cousteau Society, a nonprofit environmental organization founded by the explorer, set out to restore it after his death, there have been lawsuits and disputes that have left the boat weathering away.
“It is depressing to see that no one has come to be its patron,” said Pascale Bladier-Chassaigne, the managing director of the Association for Maritime and Fluvial Patrimony, describing the ship as “mythic” and “emblematic” for France.
In 2014, the association designated the Calypso as part of the country’s maritime cultural heritage, but it has yet to be considered a national monument by the state.
The neglect is hardly surprising, said Gérard D’Aboville, the captain of PlanetSolar, a solar-powered research vessel. Despite France’s ample seacoast and its many island territories, the government has never shown much enthusiasm for preserving the country’s ships, he said.
The Calypso’s chances for government sponsorship have also diminished as its fame recedes into memory, he noted.
“If you ask the younger generation in France, they don’t know about it at all,” D’Aboville said.
The unresolved fate of the Calypso raises questions about what should happen to a ship when it reaches the end of its working life, especially a boat that was groundbreaking in its day.
Yet the frequent practice of chopping a boat into bits for recycling strikes many as a painful insult to a boat with such an august history.
No one was talking about such a dire option when the boat arrived in Concarneau for a complete restoration in 2007.
“When we learned that the workshop had succeeded in obtaining the order for the renovation of the Calypso, it was greeted with great joy and pride,” recalled Bruno Quillivic, the deputy mayor for ports in Concarneau, referring to the workshop of Piriou Naval Services, one of the largest employers here and one of France’s biggest shipbuilders.
But by the beginning of 2009, the Cousteau Society decided the renovations were inadequate and stopped payment. Piriou stopped working on the boat and a series of court actions ensued.
A judge ruled in favor of Piriou, saying the Cousteau Society needed to pay the shipbuilder $300,000 and to remove the boat from the Concarneau warehouse. Piriou said that if the Cousteau Society failed to remove the boat by mid-March, it would take steps to auction off the Calypso.
That date has come and gone and no sale has taken place. It is not clear if the company has the right to sell the boat and, even if it did, if there would be a buyer.
--more--"
I don't know where he last sailed, and I'd call you a cab except French transport looks real bad now.
I suppose you will just have to walk (no veil, please) and be graceful about it (she apparently didn't exist before 1946 when she just showed up! Must have been a three-week performance. Either that, or the Globe got to the ballet rather late).
"French search home of beheading suspect; Prisoner brought in bid to find any terrorism links" by Alex Turnbull Associated Press June 28, 2015
SAINT-PRIEST, France — Police investigators wearing masks escorted a man accused of a beheading to his home in southeastern France on Sunday, searching for a possible international terror link to the killing after he sent a photo of the victim to a contact in Syria, a security official said.
OMG, this is to try and get into SYRIA, where I'm sure the French will be patrolling their former area of influence. Empires die hard, and they never real die!
Yassine Salhi, 35, was handcuffed and wearing jeans, a knee-length djellaba robe, and a loose towel over his head when judicial police led him into his residence in the town of Saint-Priest, outside the city of Lyon.
The official said police were searching for Salhi’s passport, to determine if he had traveled abroad before Friday’s attack, which authorities are calling France’s first deadly terror attack since a killing spree in the Paris area in January.
According to earlier propaganda, he was well know to French authorities and was being watched.
Salhi, a truck deliveryman and father of three with a history of ties to Islamic extremists, admitted earlier to the killing of the manager of the transportation company that had employed him since March, officials said.
The official also said Salhi had sent a macabre ‘‘selfie’’ photo of himself and the victim to a man identified only as Younes, who reportedly has been in war-torn Syria since last year. Investigators have found no links to any international terror group.
They should ban those self-centered instruments.
The suspect and police spent about an hour in Salhi’s home. It wasn’t immediately clear if police found what they were looking for. Sirens blaring, the police returned him to the Lyon police station where he was initially questioned.
Another security official said authorities were looking into initial claims by Salhi to police that he had recently argued with his wife and employer, was suicidal, and had wanted to make a media splash with a killing that had the markings of terrorism.
HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!
The severing of the head appeared to imitate the practice of Islamic State militants, who have beheaded prisoners and displayed their heads publicly.
Except all those videos are ridiculous fakes!
The killing came after the militants urged attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. French authorities say Salhi had links to radical Salafists in the past.
Yeah, coming during Ramadan is a real false flag stink, and it smells mostly of Israel.
The suspect is accused of crashing his truck into a US-owned chemical warehouse on Friday, setting off an explosion, and hanging his employer’s head on the factory’s gate. He was quickly arrested. Officials had previously said he sent the selfie of himself and the victim to a Canadian mobile phone number.
???????????
French police on Sunday lifted a 48-hour secure perimeter around the site of the warehouse in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier near Lyon. Images show the damage sustained in the blast.
Like I would believe images and photos I see cited or featured in a propaganda pre$$. Sigh.
Also Sunday, after two days in custody for questioning in Lyon, Salhi’s wife and sister were released, said the officials. They spoke only on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls said ‘‘we cannot accept barbarity’’ and estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Salafists — who preach an ultraconservative form of Islam — were present in France.
No, but they can deliver it with military operations.
‘‘We are living under a major terrorist threat, and this terrorist threat is going to last,’’ Valls told i-Tele TV. ‘‘We should know we’re going to fight this terrorism over the long term.’’
Aaaaah! A French neo-con $ociali$t!
The chemical warehouse attack highlighted the scope of the threat facing France. Five months after three homegrown extremists killed 17 people in and around Paris, officials were warning the nation to brace for more terrorist attacks.
Then ALL THE SPYING and ALL THE SURVEILLANCE and ALL the LOOT to keep them safe means NOTHING, huh?
They KNOW IT'S COMING, but NOT WHERE, NOT WHEN, NOT HOW, NOT WHO, only WHY!!!!
Ooooooohhhh!
In April, Valls said authorities had, in recent months, foiled five terrorism plots.
All false flag patsies, I'm sure.
France has taken steps to bolster its counterterrorism efforts and to prevent radical recruitment, including a sweeping surveillance law passed in recent days. But analysts say the security problem confronting the country outweighs the ability of the nation’s intelligence services to respond.
Well, NSA has been SPYING on the FRENCH so maybe they could lend more of a hand?
So you SEE WHY the French needed to be exposed to a fictional beheading and false flag at this time, right?
France, which has Europe’s largest Muslim population, has seen more of its nationals and legal residents — over 1,200 — leave in recent years to join radical Islamists fighting in Syria and Iraq than have left from any other nation in the region.
BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!
--more--"
The propaganda is calypsoing as fast a WTC tower into its own footprint.
And across the sea:
"2,900 migrants saved off Libya" Associated Press June 29, 2015
ROME — Italian coast guard ships and vessels from a multination naval mission and humanitarian organizations rescued at least 2,900 migrants Sunday from 21 boats launched by smugglers from Libyan shores, authorities said.
The coast guard said the rescues were carried out by military vessels from Italy, Spain, Ireland, and Britain, as well as a boat run by humanitarian personnel.
The Irish naval vessel Le Eithne was involved in at least six of the operations Sunday, rescuing nearly 600 migrants from inflatable rubber dinghies that needed help in the waters northwest of Libya, according to an Irish military statement.
About 100 of the migrants were being taken to the tiny island of Lampedusa, off Sicily. Authorities were determining which larger southern Italian ports would receive the others Monday.
Libyan-based smugglers tend to wait out spells of rough seas and then launch many of their boats, either unseaworthy wooden fishing boats or motorized dinghies, when the Mediterranean is calmer.
Satellite phones are used to call for help from the Italian coast guard, which then requests that naval vessels or cargo ships in the area come to the migrants’ aid. Some days this year have seen thousands of migrants rescued from many boats.
Print copy ended there.
So far this year, some 60,000 migrants saved by ships in a multination search and rescue mission have been brought to Italian ports.
Many seek asylum from wars or persecution in Africa or the Middle East and hope to reach families in northern Europe.
Italy wants northern European countries to take in fixed numbers of migrants. EU discussions about Italy’s appeal have so far yielded plans for such help on a voluntary basis.
--more--"
Hitting the other shore:
"Tunisia launches search for attack accomplices; Authorities say lone gunman had help beforehand" by Elaine Ganley Associated Press June 29, 2015
SOUSSE, Tunisia — The student who massacred vacationers on a Tunisian beach and at a resort hotel acted alone during the attack but had accomplices who supported him beforehand, an Interior Ministry official said Sunday.
Yeah, massacre. Have you seen the pictures they have presented?
And this whole LONE GUNMAN EVERY TIME, that's been sooooooooo played.
Police were searching nationwide for more suspects after the slaughter of at least 38 people in Sousse on Friday, in Tunisia’s deadliest such attack.
Yeah, and two posts below will tell you why this staged and scripted event was necessary.
The attacker’s father and three roommates were detained and being questioned in the capital, Tunis, Interior Ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui said.
The attacker has been identified as Seifeddine Rezgui, a 24-year-old graduate of Tunisia’s Kairouan University, where he had been living with the other students. The attack was claimed by the radical Islamic State group.
‘‘We are sure that others helped but did not participate,’’ Aroui said. ‘‘They participated indirectly.’’
Related: TUNISIA HOTEL SHOOTINGS MYSTERY
Investigators believe the suspected accomplices provided the Kalashnikov assault rifle to Rezgui and helped him get to the scene, Aroui said.
And he hid that under a T-shirt and shorts.
Authorities have yet to suggest a motive for the carnage.
I have.
A security official close to the investigation said the student frequented an ‘‘unofficial’’ mosque in the Tunisian holy city of Kairouan for the past two years.
The official said a swimmer found the attacker’s cellphone in the Mediterranean.
This.... sigh.
The phone showed the attacker spoke with his father just before his assault, the official said on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.
Uh-huh.
Friday’s attack on the Imperial Marhaba Hotel shook this North African nation that thrives on tourism and has struggled since its 2011 revolution to be the one Arab Spring country that succeeds in transitioning from authoritarianism to democracy.
I already touched on all that. The Arab Spring is not what you think. Anytime the agenda-pushing pre$$ gives something a cute name....
The bloodshed shocked European nations across the Mediterranean worried for the safety of their citizens who populate Tunisian beaches — and about what it may mean for their own countries in an age of globalized terrorism.
This is such agenda-pushing slop and fear-mongering it's outing itself.
Of course, the bloodshed their NATO militaries are bringing to the world.... aaaah, no biggie!
British counterterrorism police official Mark Rowley said Sunday Britain has mobilized more than 600 officers and staff — one of the force’s largest counterterrorism deployments in recent years — in response to the attack.
Then nothing better happen.
*********
Tourism Minister Selma Elloumi will meet with foreign ambassadors to lay out new security measures for tourists.
That is what this is all about: the elite closing the tyranny just a little tighter to keep you poor and downtrodden away from their play.
Queen Elizabeth II said the attack left her and her husband, Prince Philip, shocked. The royal couple sent condolences to the families of those killed.
And just after they visited a concentration camp, too, those incestuous germs (shocking, I know. Live, you bastard).
Britain’s Foreign Office updated its travel advice to Tunisia, urging vigilance and warning that further terrorist attacks there are possible.
Get the hell out of Tunisia, NOW!
--more--"
"Islamic radicals attack Malian village near Ivory Coast border" by Baba Ahmed Associated Press June 29, 2015
BAMAKO, Mali — Gunmen identified as Islamic extremists attacked and briefly occupied a village in southern Mali near Ivory Coast on Sunday before security forces drove them out, officials said.
The attack was the second in Mali’s southern half over the weekend by suspected Islamic extremists, and President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita convened a meeting of defense officials in the capital, Bamako, on Sunday to discuss security.
The ghosts and phantoms of ISIS™ are everywhere!
Sunday’s attack targeted the village of Fakola, 9 miles north of Ivory Coast.
Don't they have a war crimes issue?
Mamadou Tangara, mayor of the regional capital of Sikasso, said the attackers arrived on motorcycles.
The attackers carried “a black flag of jihadists” and shouted “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great” in Arabic, a military police official said.
Oh, now I'm convinced this is all pure truth.
They burned administrative buildings as well as a building being used as a local base for military police, although those officers had left the village before the attack began, the official said.
Casualty information and details on the identity of the assailants in the attack were not immediately available.
In a separate development Sunday, officials in Chad said they have arrested 60 people, including suspects from Cameroon, Nigeria, and Mali, in relation to an attack earlier this month in N’Djamena, the Chadian capital.
A series of suicide bombings initiated that attack on June 15, killings dozens of people and wounding more than 100 others.
--more--"
That's more sub-Saharan Africa, but it's within the French theater of operations so....
Related:
"Suicide bombers kill 23 in attacks on Chad capital" by Dany Padire Associated Press June 16, 2015
N'DJAMENA, Chad — Suicide bombers on motorcycles simultaneously attacked two buildings including the national police academy in Chad’s capital on Monday, killing at least 23 people and wounding more than 100 others, witnesses said. It was the first assault of its kind since Islamic militants threatened the country earlier this year.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but suspicion quickly fell on Boko Haram, the Islamic militant group based in neighboring Nigeria that already has attacked Chadian villages along the lake dividing the two countries.
Chad has been a major military ally with Nigeria in the fight against the insurgent group. Boko Haram’s leader has publicly threatened the Chadian president with retaliation.
Information Minister Hassan Sylla Bakari called Monday’s violence ‘‘an appalling and barbaric attack.’’
‘‘These attacks aimed at striking fear in people’s hearts will not diminish Chad’s determination and commitment to fighting terrorism,’’ he said. ‘‘The government will relentlessly pursue the fight against criminals whose intention is to spread death and desolation in Chadian families.’’
I'll explain that in a moment.
Officials said there were four attackers — two at each building, he added.
One of the bombers on a motorcycle blew himself up after security officers fired at him outside a building where the national police chief is based. The second explosion went off at the headquarters of the national police academy, witnesses said.
Meaning it had to have been planted, indicating an inside job.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in a statement, condemned the bombings and praised Chad’s ‘‘courageous role’’ in fighting Boko Haram.
Print copy ended there.
In Nigeria, Boko Haram was blamed for two suicide bombings Monday that killed at least 11 people in the northeastern town of Potiskum, according to self-defense fighter Adamu Isa and an AP count of bodies.
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That's the first (and last) I've seen of it.
NDU:
"UK prime minister vows response to attack in Tunisia" by Stephen Castle New York Times June 29, 2015
LONDON — Shocked by the deadliest terrorist attack on Britons in a decade, Prime Minister David Cameron promised a “full spectrum” response Monday to the assault, which killed 39 tourists at a resort in Sousse, Tunisia, on Friday.
OMG! So that was another part of the agenda regarding this fake ruse.
At least 18 of the victims, and possibly as many as 30, were British.
Cameron sent security officials and government ministers to the scene and promised to intensify the fight against extremism in Britain. Theresa May, the home secretary, and Tobias Ellwood, a Foreign Office minister, went on Monday to Tunisia, where British officials are working with the local authorities to assess security at beach resorts frequented by European tourists.
In concrete policy terms, Cameron’s reaction was cautious, and he did not promise any immediate antiterrorism measures at home or any increase in Britain’s military involvement in fighting Islamic State militants.
So it's just a psyop?
A gunman, identified as Seifeddine Rezgui, was killed at the scene Friday, but witnesses say that more than one person was involved in the attack.
Apparently, a Mossad hit team landed on the beaches.
The Tunisian interior minister, Najem Gharsalli, said Monday that security forces had arrested several people but gave no specifics about their number or the charges against them. Local news accounts suggest that Rezgui may have had as many as 10 people help him prepare for the attack.
The Associated Press quoted a person close to the investigation as saying that seven people were arrested in at least three Tunisian cities and were being questioned in the capital Monday.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve of France, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere of Germany, and Interior Minister Jan Jambon of Belgium joined Gharsalli and May on the beach in front of the Imperial Marhaba hotel for a tribute to the victims Monday.
That was where my propaganda pre$$ left it, the fake photo-op further exposing this pos operation as a mind-bending piece of psyop propaganda for the pile.
Britain is stepping up its consular operations in Tunisia and has sent police officers to work with the authorities there, including 16 senior detectives, forensic specialists and family liaison officers. London’s Metropolitan Police Service said in a statement that “over 600 officers and staff” were at work in Tunisia and Britain concerning the attack and its repercussions.
But nothing concrete in terms of policy actions(?).
Beyond those practical steps, Cameron cast his response in terms of a battle of ideas. He called militant Islamist ideology “an existential threat” to the West and said Britain was confronting “the struggle of our generation.”
OMG, he's sounding the Zionist neo-con clarion call for war based on this poorly-crafted slop propaganda.
“It’s a battle of our values and our narrative against their values and their narrative,” he told the BBC, comparing the conflict to the Cold War.
“We have to deal with this appalling radical narrative that’s taking over the minds of young people in our country,” Cameron said. “We have to get that right, as well as the military end of things.”
Folks, I'm sick of responding to the hyperbolic and over-the-top bleating of fear from these f***ers. You know a sh** shovel when you see it.
I'm beginning to understand how a Soviet citizen would have had to read Pravda.
The assault at the resort in Sousse was the deadliest terrorist attack involving Britons since July 7, 2005, when 52 commuters in London were killed by four suicide bombers.
Also see:
May Day Memories: The U.S. Connection
Terror Expert: London Bomber Was Working For MI5
Israeli Connections to the London Tube Bombs
Kinda a kick in the head, huh, and do you know for whom Mr. Aswat and Mr. Khan worked?
About a dozen of the victims in Tunisia who are thought to be British had yet to be identified as of Monday morning. Cameron’s office said that because the victims had been at a resort hotel’s private beach, many of them had not been carrying identification.
???? Walking around without wallets and purses? Really? That $tinks.
The Tunisian health ministry said Monday that in addition to the 38 deaths, 39 people had been wounded in the attack, the state news agency reported. Thirty of those injured were treated and released, it said, while nine remained in care. The report added that so far, in addition to the British victims, the ministry had identified one Belgian citizen, one German, one Irish, and one Portuguese among the dead.
Even the reported numbers of casualties sounds strange, almost as if they were made up.
Four Britons who were wounded in the attack were scheduled to be flown home on a British military plane Monday, while others returned on separate flights. Cameron’s office said they would all be back in Britain within 24 hours.
The attack has prompted hundreds of other British tourists to cut short their vacations in Tunisia. The Foreign Office cautioned that “further terrorist attacks in Tunisia, including in tourist resorts, are possible, including by individuals who are unknown to the authorities and whose actions are inspired by terrorist groups via social media.”
However, after a meeting of top security officials Monday, the government decided against advising travelers to stay away from Tunisia.
They care more about things other than your $afety, $ee?
As the authorities assessed the situation in Tunisia, officials acknowledged that Britons might be vulnerable in several other countries as well. The government’s national threat level is “severe,” meaning that a terrorist attack is considered highly likely.
Yup, the same tyrannical intelligence and surveillance systems are saying the same thing over here, although such things are absent my printed Globe today.
Of course, with all the spying that, when caught they say was all for your protection, keeping the terrorists from attacking, blah, blah, now turns out to be utterly useless as they Chicken Little it again.
Ignore the Greek crisis that is now suddenly serious, ignore the never-ending escalations of wars, ignore the political cla$$ living their lavish lifestyles at your expense, ignore the pillage and looting of your futures, the government-created, funded, and directed terrorists are coming or are already here in the form of white men.
Well, IF IT DOES HAPPEN then it will be time to DISMANTLE ALL the TYRANNY because it DIDN'T WORK! Can't have it both ways, guys.
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