"In latest White House shake-up, Priebus is out" by Peter Baker and Maggie Haberman New York Times July 29, 2017
WASHINGTON — Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff who failed to impose order on a chaos-wracked West Wing, was pushed out after a stormy six-month tenure, and President Trump replaced him with John F. Kelly, the secretary of homeland security and retired four-star Marine general.
Trump announced Kelly’s appointment on Twitter shortly before 5 p.m. and only after the president became convinced that Priebus was not strong enough to run the White House operation and that he needed a general to take charge.
Just hours earlier, the president had heaped praise on Kelly at an event in Long Island talking about the battle against the violent MS-13 gang. “I want to congratulate John Kelly, who has done an incredible job of secretary of homeland security,” the president said. “One of our real stars. Truly one of our stars. John Kelly is one of our great stars.”
He does have a strange way of speaking.
Related:
"Philip Guilfoyle, a 70-year-old Marine veteran of the Vietnam War from Allston, said he’s met Kelly a handful of times and described the retired general as a regular, personable guy with a common touch who didn’t have to speak to draw attention to himself. He would chat about the Red Sox, Patriots, or neighborhood news, Guilfoyle said. “You shake hands with him, you know your hand is being [shaken],” he said. “He’s got a good, strong grip, but it’s not overpowering.”
He could bring stability, and what is with the pre$$ obsession with handshakes?
“The president needs someone who understands the Trump constituency as his chief of staff, someone who has both administrative skills and political savvy,” Roger Stone, Trump’s off-and-on adviser, said, anticipating Kelly’s selection before the announcement was made.
The New York Times turned to him?
The announcement capped a fraught 24 hours in which the president’s advisers waited for a change they had long anticipated.
Meanwhile, Anthony Scaramucci’s wife has filed for divorce, according to the New York Post.
The paper, citing multiple sources, reported Friday that Deirdre Ball, 38, is giving Scaramucci — with whom she has two children — the axe after three years of marriage. Apparently Ball is not quite as sold on the Washington political lifestyle as Scaramucci, 53.
“She liked the nice Wall Street life and their home on Long Island, not the insane world of D.C.,” an unnamed source told the tabloid.
Another anonymous source claims clashing loyalties toward the commander-in-chief caused tension. Ball has been less than enthused about Scaramucci’s ascent in the ranks of Donald Trump’s White House. “Deidre is not a fan of Trump,” the source said.
Scaramucci was photographed without a ring at the White House Friday.....
That's the NYT, digging out the really important stuff.
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Better watch it or they will start roughing you up:
"Trump tells police not to worry about injuring suspects during arrests" by Mark Berman The Washington Post July 28, 2017
During a speech in Long Island on Friday, President Trump took a break from discussing gang violence and illegal immigration to give the law enforcement officers gathered for his remarks some advice on how to treat suspects.
The remarks, coming after Trump talked about towns ravaged by gang violence, were met with applause from at least some of the law enforcement officers gathered for his speech at Suffolk County Community College.
A group of uniform officers standing behind Trump applauded and, when he turned to face them, some smiled and appeared to chuckle.
The Suffolk County police quickly distanced itself from Trump’s comments, saying Friday that it would not accept this treatment of people in custody.
‘‘The Suffolk County Police Department has strict rules and procedures relating to the handling of prisoners, and violations of those rules and procedures are treated extremely seriously,’’ the department said in an e-mailed statement. ‘‘As a department, we do not and will not tolerate ‘rough[ing]’ up prisoners.’’
Trump’s remarks also drew a rebuke from the International Association of Chiefs of Police. In a statement, the group did not specifically mention Trump by name but appeared to respond to his speech by stressing the importance of treating all people, including suspects, with respect.
‘‘Managing use of force is one of the most difficult challenges faced by law enforcement agencies,’’ the group said. ‘‘The ability of law enforcement officers to enforce the law, protect the public, and guard their own safety, the safety of innocent bystanders, and even those suspected or apprehended for criminal activity is very challenging.
‘‘For these reasons, law enforcement agencies develop policies and procedures, as well as conduct extensive training, to ensure that any use of force is carefully applied and objectively reasonable considering the situation confronted by the officers,’’ the statement continued.
Trump’s comments were made during a dark, foreboding address largely focusing on the transnational gang MS-13. He also peppered his comments with expressions of support for police, echoing his efforts both during and since the presidential campaign to portray himself as a champion of law enforcement.
Trump has previously encouraged violent behavior during public remarks, particularly during his raucous presidential campaign rallies.....
As long as he doesn't start any wars.
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Speaking of those:
"North Korea 2nd ICBM test puts much of US in range: experts" by Eric Talmadge and Mari Yamaguchi Associated Press July 28, 2017
PYONGYANG, North Korea — This week, the Defense Intelligence Agency reportedly concluded that the North will have a reliable ICBM capable of carrying a nuclear weapon as early as next year, in an assessment that trimmed two years from the agency’s earlier estimate.
Did you see the contortions the New York Times did to sell you the lies?
A spokesman for General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Friday that Dunford met at the Pentagon with the commander of US forces in the Pacific, Admiral Harry Harris, to discuss US military options in light of North Korea’s missile test.
The spokesman, Navy Captain Greg Hicks, said Dunford and Harris placed a phone call to Dunford’s South Korean counterpart, General Lee Sun Jin. Dunford and Harris ‘‘expressed the ironclad commitment to the US-Republic of Korea alliance,’’ Hicks said, referring to the US defense treaty that obliges the United States to defend South Korea.
Abe said Japan would cooperate closely with the United States, South Korea, and other nations to step up pressure on North Korea to halt its missile programs.....
He's at 26% in the polls so he needs a war, and China will literally have the last word.
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"Russia demands US reduce diplomatic staff in new round of conflict over election" by Andrew Roth The Washington Post July 28, 2017
The evil empire.
MOSCOW — US intelligence agencies have concluded that the government of President Vladimir Putin, which has expressed hope of improved relations under President Trump, last year ordered a campaign of cyberattacks and propaganda aimed at discrediting Trump’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. The Russian government has denied the charge, and its statement Friday reflected its contention that the election scandal is mainly being driven by Trump’s political opponents.
The sad thing is the Russian government has far more credibility than either US intelligence agencies or their mouthpiece media.
The Foreign Ministry also said it would seize, effective Aug. 1, a Moscow warehouse and dacha, or vacation house, used by the US Embassy. The dacha, located in a posh suburb along the Moscow river, was often used by families of embassy workers for vacations or parties.
US embassies are CIA stations, and have been for a long, long time.
The Reuters news agency, citing an embassy source, said that about 1,100 people work at the US Embassy and the three consulates. The agency said about 300 US citizens are employed at the Moscow embassy, which is undergoing a considerable construction expansion.
Sergei Zheleznyak, a Russian member of parliament, said on state television that the US government could be forced to reduce its staff by 700, but neither Russian nor American officials confirmed the number of people who could be withdrawn. Other reports by Russian state news agencies suggested dozens or hundreds could be expelled.
The Globe's web version declassified more:
A handful of spies in the United States and Russia have been expelled in recent years, including Ryan Fogle, an American CIA agent who was paraded on Russian television wearing a shaggy blonde wig in 2013. But the last sizeable tit-for-tat expulsion of diplomats was in 2001, when the US government kicked out 51 Russian diplomats over the Robert Hanssen spy case.
Hansen, an FBI agent caught trying to make a ‘‘dead drop’’ to a Russian handler in a park in Virgina, was accused of spying for Russia since 1986. Russia expelled 50 diplomats in retaliation. The United States under Ronald Reagan previously ordered out 55 Soviet diplomats in 1986 in another case, after Russia expelled five US diplomats.
In December, Barack Obama expelled 35 Russians described as ‘‘intelligence operatives’’ and seized two Russian diplomatic compounds in retaliation for Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. Russia’s Foreign Ministry then recommended that Putin respond in kind by expelling US diplomats. But Putin said he would wait, in an apparent effort to persuade Trump to reverse the decision after his inauguration.....
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Any update on the Jonathan Pollard case?
Question: Is Pakistan a friend or foe?
Also see:
GOP blame-a-thon over health bill crash, but no clear path
Murkowski and Collins went maverick long before McCain
Fueled by Chipotle and caffeine, the Senate delivers its own surprise ending
(flip)
Trump wages a broad effort to roll back gains of transgender people
They are taking it slow.
"House moves to extend choice program, end VA budget crisis" by Hope Yen Associated Press July 28, 2017
WASHINGTON — The House overwhelmingly approved a $3.9 billion emergency spending package to address a budget shortfall at the Department of Veterans Affairs that threatens medical care for thousands of veterans.
After they were thrown $18 billion about two years ago?
The bill provides $2.1 billion to continue funding the Veterans Choice program, which allows veterans to receive private medical care at government expense. Another $1.8 billion would go to core VA health programs, including 28 leases for new VA medical facilities.
The bill was approved, 414 to 0, Friday and now goes to the Senate.
Quite a contrast to the votes on the other national health $y$tem, huh?
The Choice program was put in place after a 2014 wait-time scandal that was discovered at the Phoenix VA hospital and spread throughout the country. Veterans waited weeks or months for appointments amid phony records that covered up the lengthy waits.
One of the too numerous to mention under Obummer, and the real question is how many vets died waiting for their appointment so that some pencil-pushing bureaucrat could get his promotions and accompanying raises?
A priority of President Trump, the program allows veterans to receive care from outside doctors if they must wait at least 30 days for an appointment or drive more than 40 miles to a VA facility.
VA Secretary David Shulkin has warned that without legislative action, the Choice program will run out of money by mid-August, causing delays in health care for thousands of veterans.
The bill would extend the program for six months and devote $1.8 billion to authorize 28 leases for new VA medical facilities and establish programs to make it easier to hire health specialists. Costs would be paid for by trimming pensions for some Medicaid-eligible veterans and collecting fees for housing loans.
Major veterans’ groups had opposed an earlier House plan as an unacceptable step toward privatization, leading Democrats to block that bill on Monday. The earlier plan would have trimmed VA benefits to pay for Choice without additional investments in VA infrastructure.
Leaders of the House Veterans Affairs Committee said the six-month funding plan was urgently needed and would give Congress more time to debate broader issues over the VA’s future.
WTF?
‘‘Our priority is and has always been ensuring veterans have access to the very best health care available, and we will continue to come together to deliver the results veterans deserve,’’ said Representatives Phil Roe of Tennessee and Tim Walz of Minnesota. Roe chairs the Veterans affairs panel and Walz is the top Democrat.
Forget that political doublespeak. When are they going to get their own memorial (did you see who one of Moulton's biggest backers was), and is it appropriate?
House majority leader Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, said the Choice program has directly helped veterans who would otherwise face dire wait times at VA facilities to receive timely medical care in their own communities.
‘‘Ultimately, it shouldn’t matter where veterans get care as long as they get the care they need,’’ McCarthy said.
Shulkin praised the House action and urged quick approval by the Senate. The legislation ‘‘will greatly benefit veterans,’’ he said.
While the bill may avert a shutdown to Choice, disputes over funding may signal bigger political fights to come.
During the 2016 campaign, Trump criticized the VA for long wait times and mismanagement, saying he would give veterans more options in seeing outside providers. At an event Tuesday in Ohio, Trump said he would triple the number of veterans ‘‘seeing the doctor of their choice’’ as part of an upcoming VA overhaul.
His comments followed a warning by the leader of the Veterans of Foreign Wars against any Trump administration effort to ‘‘privatize’’ the VA. Speaking Monday at the group’s national convention in New Orleans, outgoing VFW National Commander Brian Duffy criticized the initial House plan. The VA ‘‘is a public trust,’’ Duffy said.
Shulkin announced the budget shortfall last month, citing unexpected demand from veterans for private care and poor budget planning. To slow spending, the department last month instructed VA medical centers to limit the number of veterans it sent to private doctors.
Currently, more than 30 percent of VA appointments are in the private sector, up from fewer than 20 percent in 2014. The VA has an annual budget of about $180 billion.
All for a piece of junk.
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Getting the drugs you need?
"Boston pharmacy program put on probation" by Laura Krantz Globe Staff July 28, 2017
The signature pharmacy degree program at MCPHS University in Boston has been placed on academic probation because of overcrowded buildings and not enough professors, according to the accreditors and the school.
The Fenway-based university, previously called the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, runs the second-oldest pharmacy school in the nation and has expanded to other areas of study in recent years.
Loss of accreditation, while generally rare, would be a blow to the school’s reputation and make it harder for graduates to get jobs.
Accreditors give schools on probation a period of up to two years to meet the standards. School officials said they are correcting the problems, but students are worried about how the probation could affect their ability to graduate and get jobs.....
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Related(?): Cadden's Sentence and Conviction
Also see: Wentworth earns university status, will keep its focus
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"Stock markets around the world sagged on Friday after Amazon and other big companies reported quarterly results that underwhelmed investors. A little more than half the companies in the S&P 500 have now shown how much profit they made during the spring, and the results have been mostly encouraging. Earnings for the index are on pace to be about 9 percent higher than a year earlier, according to FactSet. But expectations were high coming into the reporting season, and the few companies that have fallen short of forecasts have seen their stock prices punished. Earnings reports were the main focus for markets during a busy week, where the Federal Reserve also decided on Wednesday to hold interest rates steady and the government on Friday gave an update on the economy’s health."
Related:
Massachusetts economy surged in second quarter
Company buyouts inflated the income number as they revised the first-quarter lies upward, yet $omehow tax collections still $uck.
Still searching for a driver?
Mind if I light up?
"For the first time, the federal government is proposing cutting the nicotine level in cigarettes so they aren’t so addictive. US Food and Drug Administration chief Scott Gottlieb on Friday directed the agency’s staff to develop new regulations on nicotine. The FDA has had the power since 2009 to regulate nicotine levels but hasn’t done so. Stocks of cigarette makers plunged after the announcement. Gottlieb also said the FDA is giving e-cigarette makers four more years to comply with a review of products already on the market. The agency needs to concentrate on nicotine regulation and not be distracted by the debate on whether e-cigarettes help smokers quit, he said. Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable heart disease, cancer, and death in the United States, causing more than 480,000 deaths annually.
That's where my print paper snuffed it out; however, the important thing to take away their is despite the myth regarding Obummer and healthcare, they wanted you to keep smoking!
I suppose it would have encouraged people to enroll!
‘‘A renewed focus on nicotine can help us to achieve a world where cigarettes no longer addict future generations of our kids,’’ Gottlieb said in a speech to staff in Silver Spring, Md. Tar and other substances inhaled through smoking make cigarettes deadly, but the nicotine in tobacco is what makes them addictive. Gottlieb said he has asked the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products to explore whether lowering nicotine could create a black market for higher nicotine products and what role e-cigarettes and others forms of nicotine delivery may play in reducing harm from smoking. Battery-powered e-cigarettes turn liquid nicotine into an inhalable vapor. Gottlieb also wants new rules to address flavored tobacco products and kids. US smoking rates have been falling for decades. They dropped from about 17 percent in 2014 to 15 percent in 2015, and held about steady at that level last year."
A black market for cigarettes?
Who benefits from that?
Another alphabet agency scandal under the neglectful watch of Obummer.
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33-foot whale washes ashore on Eastham beach
‘Major’ natural gas leak prompts evacuations in Kendall Square
Boy in Buzzards Bay boating accident remains hospitalized
"A conductor told investigators in Florida that he unsuccessfully tried to stop his train when he saw a couple hug and lie down on the tracks in an apparent suicide pact. Delray Beach police spokeswoman Dani Moschella says the man and woman, both homeless and 29 years of age, remained in critical condition after being hit by the train Wednesday. Police say they are the fourth and fifth people struck by trains in the area this week and investigators say most were suicide attempts. The SunSentinel reported that Tri-Rail, which operates commuter trains, is considering using drones to monitor the tracks to deter suicides."
Poor kids.
They shouldn't take relationships so hard.
"The summit’s theme, “Chase Your Goals, Not a Post,” was chosen to teach participants the best ways to navigate breakups in the age of social media. “We know that when breakups happen, that’s a really vulnerable time,” said Monica Valdes Lupi, the executive director of the BPHC, as she opened the event. “We want to make sure you have the tools that you need to survive and thrive.”
That would be to $top buying the morning paper, and it's the Globe showing you the way to the Good Life:
Why we should tell girls they’re ‘beautiful’ less often
In this age of massive sexualization through ma$$ media, the pimping mouthpiece of the elite perverts is BLAMING the PARENTS!
Of course, if parents pushed modest clothing or some sort of head covering (or, gasp, burka), the paper would be pushing the agenda of oppression.
Maybe all the girls need is a day at the Patriots training camp, huh?
Now I will escape for the day.