After grabbing a handful off the top:
They went to NYC to celebrate life. Instead, they were met with death
In New York, a painful echo just blocks from Ground Zero
I'm told "it felt like 9/11."
"Trump seeks to end visa program he blames for NYC attacker’s ability to enter US" by Peter Baker New York Times November 01, 2017
WASHINGTON — President Trump said on Wednesday that he would consider sending “this animal” arrested after the terrorist attack in New York to the US prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and called on Congress to cancel a long-standing immigration program that he blamed for allowing the man into the country.
A day after an immigrant from Uzbekistan plowed a pickup truck along a crowded bicycle path in Manhattan, killing eight people, Trump denounced the US criminal justice system as “a joke” and “a laughingstock.” Responding to questions by reporters, he said he was open to transferring the suspect from civilian courts into the military system set up for foreign terrorists.
Looks like a military dictatorship in the making.
“I would certainly consider that,” he said at the beginning of a Cabinet meeting. “Send him to Gitmo, I would certainly consider that, yes.”
You know who I would like to send there?
No one arrested on US soil has ever been sent to Guantánamo Bay, and no one captured on foreign soil has been sent there since 2008. Transferring the suspect from New York would raise a host of thorny constitutional and legal issues, and it was not at all clear that Trump would actually follow through on the idea since his comment was a spontaneous reaction to a question rather than part of his prepared remarks.
The remarks he had outlined in advance focused on immigration and what he called an excess of political correctness. “Diversity lottery — sounds nice,” he said. “It’s not nice. It’s not good. It hasn’t been good. We’ve been against it.” He added: “We have to get much less politically correct. We’re so politically correct that we’re afraid to do anything.”
F*** this Zionist tool. He knows Alex Jones, is supposed to know all about the conspiracies, knows the U.S. government creates, funds, and directs the terror groups, and yet he throws in with the narrative and mass-casualty event be it real or not.
The president also denounced “chain migration,” meaning the ability of immigrants to sponsor family members, and promised to toughen sentences against terrorists without specifying how. “We need quick justice and we need strong justice, much quicker and much stronger than we have right now,” he said.
Fascist f***.
Trump’s comments came hours after he blamed the attack on Senator Chuck Schumer, the senior lawmaker from New York and the Democratic leader in the upper chamber, because he supported the diversity visa program enacted 27 years ago.
“The terrorist came into our country through what is called the ‘Diversity Visa Lottery Program,’ a Chuck Schumer beauty. I want merit based,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
Schumer responded from the floor of the Senate, noting that after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, President George W. Bush brought Schumer and Hillary Clinton, then the other Democratic senator from New York, to the White House to demonstrate national unity.
They are doubling down on all this, nostalgically groping for the Bush days (more on the lack of that later, as HWs sickness has receded down the ma$$ media memory hole).
“President Trump, where is your leadership?” Schumer asked. “President Trump, instead of politicizing and dividing America, which he always seems to do at times of national tragedy, should be bringing us together and focusing on the real solution — anti-terrorism funding — which he proposed cutting in his most recent budget.”
Oh, the production is to get more funding!
At a news conference updating the public about the attack, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo of New York chided Trump for his Twitter posts, saying they “were not helpful,” were not “even accurate” and “tended to point fingers and politicize the situation.”
That is where the print copy ended and the expanded web version began.
“You play into the hands of the terrorists to the extent that you disrupt and divide and frighten people in this society,” said Cuomo, who is a Democrat. “And the tone now should be the exact opposite by all officials on all levels. This is about unification, this is about solidarity.”
The diversity visa program cited by Trump was created in 1990 by a bill supported by Schumer, was passed by bipartisan votes, and was signed into law by a Republican president, George H. W. Bush. Schumer supported getting rid of the program as part of a comprehensive plan to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws crafted by eight lawmakers and passed by the Senate in 2013. But the plan was blocked in the House by Republicans who objected to other elements of the plan that they considered too permissive.
Senator Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, who has broken with Trump, came to Schumer’s defense on Wednesday. “Actually, the Gang of 8, including @SenSchumer, did away with the Diversity Visa Program as part of broader reforms,” Flake wrote on Twitter. “I know, I was there.”
Gang of 8, huh?
The program creates a class of immigrants called “diversity immigrants” from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States. About 50,000 diversity visas are distributed annually, apportioned to six geographic regions, and no single country receives more than 7 percent of the available visas in one year, according to the State Department website. Nearly 14.7 million people applied last year, meaning less than 1 percent of those who seek such visas receive them....
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Related:
Study ranks NYC as number-one site for Amazon second headquarters
Well, not now.
Authorities Locate Second Man Sought in Connection With Manhattan Attack
It's the Tsarnaev playbook all over again!
See: FBI Interviewed NYC Terrorist About His Ties to Terrorism BEFORE the Attack
They interviewed him in 2015!!!!
He was also known to the DHS and look at where he came from.
"Central Asia is seen as breeding ground of militancy" by Andrew E. Kramer November 02, 2017
KIEV — The terrorist attack in New York on Tuesday was carried out by a young man from Central Asia, a former backyard of the Soviet Union known for poverty, isolation, and repressive governments — all elements in breeding some of the most militant Islamist activity in the world.
So that is where the CIA has the training camps, huh?
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Islamist insurgencies have erupted throughout the region, most notably in the Caucasus and the suspect’s native Uzbekistan. While those insurgencies have been mostly suppressed, often with unflinching brutality, analysts have grown increasingly concerned about Islamist radicalism spreading out of the region as young men leave in search of work.
This is particularly true, analysts say, of Uzbekistan, where a blend of repressive politics and economic failure has generated a steady outflow of both migrants and militants. Many of the immigrants have come to the United States, the American Community Survey said, with about half of them going to New York City.
Under a new president, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Uzbekistan has recently eased its iron grip over its citizens. Mirziyoyev has offered to help US authorities investigate the attack, and in a statement offered condolences.
Central Asians account for a significant portion of the foreign fighters who joined the Islamic State militant group in Syria, making their common language of Russian second only to Arabic in the group’s propaganda and communications.
While there is no saying, for now, what may have motivated Sayfullo Saipov, the suspect who is thought to have driven the truck that plowed through a bike lane in Manhattan on Tuesday, killing eight people, Central Asia’s troubled politics and economics form a part, at least, of the backstory.
Proselytizing by Saudi-financed groups advocated a particularly austere form of Islam, and a renewed interest in Islam in much of the former Soviet space sped things along.
That's about as far as they are going to go regarding western intelligence and allied involvement in all this.
“Of course, when one ideology falls, another one takes over,” Shahida Tulaganova, a former producer with BBC from Uzbekistan, and a close observer of Islamist movements in the region, said in a telephone interview.
Alarmed, the country’s president at the time, Islam Karimov, a former Soviet apparatchik, cracked down, introducing government-sanctioned mosques that were tightly controlled and banning all others. Under his nearly three-decade rule, rights groups say, thousands were imprisoned for worshiping at unsanctioned mosques.
Not surprisingly, underground religious groups formed. Members of the most prominent organization, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, were driven out of the country in the late 1990s and were active in Afghanistan and Pakistan for years, though many of its members have now joined the Islamic State’s organization in Afghanistan.
Stinks of CIA, sorry.
In one notorious instance, supporters of a group known as Akramia — named after its founder, Akram Yuldashev — were rounded up after an uprising and street protest in the Uzbek city of Andijan in 2005.
The crackdown and mass arrests that swept the country were so alarming that the United States was prompted to close an air base in Uzbekistan that had supported operations in Afghanistan.
That is such a lie. If I remember correctly it was the Uzbeks that denied permission to operate.
Then again, that is just what I would expect from the Jew York Times.
That in turn has helped create a large diaspora of labor migrants who represent an attractive pool of potential recruits for militant groups in other countries, particularly Russia. Recruitment videos in Uzbek and Russian play up the heroic adventure of fighting jihad in Syria, drawing an attractive contrast to the drudgery of migrant labor.
Who made those CIA recruitment videos?
“The propaganda on YouTube is amazing,” said Tulaganova, the former television producer. “I wonder why nobody takes it down.”
I can't argue with that and videos are being taken down.
That was where the print ended.
The Islamic State’s success in recruiting Central Asian migrants outside their home countries has already drawn the attention of researchers. The International Crisis Group, for example, has examined recruitment among Uzbek and Kyrgyz migrant laborers since 2014, and is preparing a report on the issue.
“What is a really critical factor, and what sets the Islamic State apart from others like the Taliban, is its ability to disseminate propaganda in Russian and Central Asian languages,” Deirdre Tynan, the Central Asia project director for the International Crisis Group, said in a telephone interview. “And it is available whether you are watching as an Uzbek migrant in Russia or on the East Coast of the United States.”
“Young men who left Uzbekistan find themselves isolated, perhaps not as successful as they wanted to be, or maybe just lonely,” she said. In Syria, the Islamic State’s Central Asian recruits are often given menial jobs or used as cannon fodder. She said a disproportionate number of suicide bombers in Iraq and Syria were Tajiks.
Daniil Kislov, the Moscow-based editor of Ferghana, a website that tracks developments in Central Asia, said that Uzbek labor migrants in Russia, and possibly other countries too, had long been of keen interest to recruiters. He cautioned that Saipov had lived for many years in the West and might have become radicalized during that time.
But as many analysts have warned, growing up under a suffocatingly repressive government, particularly in its treatment of Muslims, is the sort of searing experience that could make a young man like him receptive to the militants’ lure.
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Speaking of propaganda being disseminated:
"Congress releases samples of ads Russia used on Facebook" Associated Press November 01, 2017
WASHINGTON — A trove of Facebook ads made public Wednesday by Congress depict Russia’s extraordinary cyber intrusion into American life in 2016 aimed at upending the nation’s democratic debate and fomenting discord over such disparate issues as immigration, gun control, and politics.
PFFFFFFFFFT!
The ads, seen by vast numbers of people, encouraged street demonstrations against Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and fostered support and opposition to Bernie Sanders, Muslims, gays, blacks, and the icons of the Civil Rights movement.
As opposed to those calls coming from well-meaning politicians here regarding the controlled opposition protests.
The few dozen ads, a small sampling of the roughly 3,000 Russian-connected ones that Facebook has turned over to Congress, were released amid two consecutive days of sometimes caustic questioning by lawmakers about why the social media giants hadn’t done more to combat Russian interference on their sites.
Just wondering when Israeli influence is going to be explored.
US intelligence services say Russian use of social media was part of a broad effort to sway the presidential election in favor of Trump. Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating whether the Kremlin worked with the Trump campaign to influence voters.
You are KIDDING, right?
I mean, is there ANYONE IN THIS WORLD that believes ANYTHING U.S. INTEL AGENCIES SAY anymore?
I know I don't!
Many of the ads show careful targeting, with messages geared toward particular audiences.
That's more of an AmeriKan shtick, sorry!
One ad, aimed at those with an interest in civil rights, highlights a man who claims to be Bill Clinton’s illegitimate son. A video parodying Trump was targeted at blacks.
Though the social media giants were initially reluctant to acknowledge Russian success on their sites in swaying opinion, they have struck a different tone in recent weeks and disclosed steps to prevent future meddling.
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Related:
"Facebook Inc. reported another quarter of record sales, underscoring how far removed the social network’s business prospects are from the raging public debate about Russian political ads on its platform......"
I don't know about anyone else, but I DON'T PAY ATTENTION TO ADS!
The above also shows how far removed the elite pre$$ is from reality!
**********
Merging Partners, Mass. Eye and Ear would raise costs, watchdog says" by Priyanka Dayal McCluskey Globe Staff November 01, 2017
Partners HealthCare’s expansion plans suffered a setback Wednesday after a state watchdog agency warned that health care costs for consumers would rise significantly if Partners is allowed to acquire the specialty hospital Massachusetts Eye and Ear.
The Health Policy Commission said Partners, the state’s largest health care network, is likely to seek higher reimbursements for care by Mass. Eye and Ear and its doctors if the deal goes through. Because Partners is already a high-priced network, the deal would increase health care spending statewide by $20.8 million to $61.2 million a year, according to the commission.
“These spending increases would ultimately be borne by consumers and businesses through higher commercial premiums,” the commission said in a lengthy report.
The findings are the latest signal that the state’s most powerful health care system will face questions about its expansion plans in Massachusetts as policy makers remain focused on controlling costs.
The commission’s critical findings do not come as a shock, given the scrutiny the organization has faced over previous expansion plans. Partners is the parent company of several hospitals, including Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women’s, two of the largest and most expensive in the state. The hospitals are renowned for teaching, research, and providing complex medical care, but Partners has long been criticized for using its power in the health care market to extract higher payments from insurers and driving up health care costs.....
It's an open secret that they charge 3x the amount for the same procedure, but the pre$$ and politicians leave you deaf and blind to such things.
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Maybe they could sue 'em.
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Speaking of open secrets:
"New report identifies additional 15 victims of sexual misconduct at St. Paul’s School" by Danny McDonald Globe Staff November 02, 2017
St. Paul’s School has identified 15 additional victims in an ongoing investigation into sexual misconduct at the elite Concord, N.H., school, and five faculty members who are newly suspected of improper conduct, according to a report issued to the school community Wednesday.
The report, the second in six months detailing misconduct at the school, lists allegations of what school officials termed “profoundly disturbing” sexual behavior at the school over a span of 53 years, from 1956 to 2009, according to the letter to the school community.
One former student alleged that a longtime St. Paul’s staff member who died in 1992 took him and another male student to a New York City hotel to have sex with prostitutes. He had sex with a prostitute while the staff member was in the room, he told investigators. He also said the staff member had asked him and other students to take photos of their genitals.
Another student alleged that a St. Paul’s teacher and administrator, who died in 1993, pinned him to the floor during an assault in the teacher’s on-campus apartment in 1970. Another student alleged another longtime teacher, who left the school in 2009, sexually abused him during the early 1980s.
All this coming out after the pervy perps are dead and gone!
“We are inspired by the courage of those who have come forward,” read the letter sent to the St. Paul’s community. “We sincerely and with heavy hearts apologize to those who were harmed at the School. We are committed to taking all steps within our power to prevent this type of behavior and would not tolerate it today.”
Feels kind of empty and hollow.
In the letter, Hirschfeld and Cox reiterated their praise for the school’s commitment to supporting victims, enhancing the health and safety of the school through staff training, and maintaining a zero tolerance policy for adults who harm children, but news of the latest allegations drew a sharp response from observers who have watched the investigation unfold at one of the nation’s most prestigious private schools.
Yes, dear readers, the ruling cla$$ of AmeriKa is riddled with perverts!
The culture of St. Paul’s has to change, said Lyn Schollett, the executive director of the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, on Wednesday night. She said the new report shows that the culture that permitted such abuse or turned a blind eye toward it existed for much longer than previously thought.
“It’s important to shine the light on serious crimes like this so that victims know that they’re not alone,” said Schollett. “The willingness of victims to come forward shows how long-lasting these crimes can be.”
Eric MacLeish, an attorney who has represented hundreds of sexual abuse victims and is currently representing former St. Paul’s students, said the report paints a “very disturbing picture.”
“It was out of control, there were a large number of faculty members who were preying on kids,” he said.
Which means it was more the rule than exception!
MacLeish said he expects more former St. Paul’s staff members to be accused of sexual misconduct.
“This is by no means all of the people that were engaged in this conduct with children,” he said.
In July, New Hampshire authorities announced they were launching a criminal investigation of the school following new reports of sexual misconduct. That probe is examining whether the school engaged in conduct that endangered the welfare of a child and whether the school violated a law that prohibits obstructing criminal investigations, according to New Hampshire authorities.
Messages left with the New Hampshire attorney general’s office were not immediately returned Wednesday night.
St. Paul’s is the latest prep school to investigate claims of misconduct following a 2016 Globe Spotlight story that reported on allegations of abuse by more than 200 victims at 67 private schools in New England.
With the additional allegations surfacing in the new report, MacLeish said St. Paul’s has “far and away the largest” number of former staff members who stand accused of sexual misconduct of “any school that I’m aware of.”
Referring to the priest sex abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic Church and had worldwide implications, MacLeish said, “This comes close to rivaling some of the more notorious Catholic dioceses.”
WOW!!!
I mean, when you consider that Hollywood only been around 100 years.....
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"Dartmouth probing multiple allegations against 3 barred professors" by Deirdre Fernandes Globe Staff November 01, 2017
Dartmouth College has been investigating multiple, separate allegations of sexual misconduct against three psychology professors who have been barred from campus and are now at the center of a criminal investigation.
A literal mind f***.
They all worked in the same department and did research together, but the allegations against each are separate, said Diana Lawrence, a spokeswoman for the college.
On Wednesday, one of the professors tried to distance himself from the investigations into his colleagues.
Threw the others under the bus, huh?
It's nice to watch scum squirm and turn on each other.
Still, that three academics are facing inquiries on matters of sexual misconduct raises serious concerns about the environment there, said Kathryn Clancy, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who has studied sexual and racial discrimination in the sciences.....
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Maybe she would care to comment on this?
"College student arrested for putting ‘bodily fluids’ on roommate’s property" by Steve Annear and Felicia Gans Globe Staff November 01, 2017
A University of Hartford student who was arrested after allegedly bragging online that she meddled with her roommate’s personal property — including putting bodily fluids on and in certain items — is no longer a student there, according to school officials.
Brianna Brochu, 18, is white, [and her] roommate is black.
While a press release from West Hartford police did not go into the grim details of the tampering allegations, The Hartford Courant reported this week that Brochu admitted on Instagram to “putting moldy clam dip” in her roommate’s lotions and “spitting in her coconut oil.”
“I can finally say good-bye Jamaican Barbie,” Brochu said online after her roommate moved out last month, The Courant reported.
Brochu confessed to police that “she licked the victim’s plate, fork, and spoon, and smeared her own bodily fluid on the victim’s backpack” but denied the other actions she posted to Instagram. She allegedly told police she wrote those things to “appear funny,” according to The Courant.
In a Facebook Live video recorded Monday, the student who identified herself as Brochu’s roommate shared her experience living with the suspect. The video had been viewed nearly 700,000 times as of Wednesday afternoon.
The victim expressed frustration about the way university officials were handling her complaints. She said she didn’t find out about the incidents involving her roommate until after she moved out of the room. The victim was alerted to Brochu’s Instagram posts by other students, she said.
University of Hartford president Greg Woodward defended the school’s response to the allegations in a statement Tuesday, after the incident “brought about accusations of racism.”
Save that for Cambridge.
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I'm starting to stress out.
"Our biggest stressor isn’t money or work, it’s the future of this country" by Matt Rocheleau Globe Staff November 01, 2017
The most common source of stress among American adults?
It’s not money or work, but concern about the nation’s future.
About 63 percent of adults surveyed said the future of country was a source of stress, a slightly greater share than the 62 percent who said money caused them stress and the 61 percent who said it was work that caused them the most anxiety, a report from the American Psychological Association found.
The results, released Wednesday by the professional organization the represents psychologists, also showed that just under six in 10 adults said the current political climate and current social divisiveness cause them stress.
Aren't they the same guys that devised enhanced interrogation techniques for the government?
“All of that paints a picture that people are generally concerned with what’s happening in the country and the uncertainty of where the country is going,” said the association’s chief executive officer Arthur C. Evans Jr.
Imagine that. People care.
He said the association started to notice a marked rise in people reporting stress caused by national issues in the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election, in which Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton. And those stressful feelings have remained steady since.
Yup, it's all Trump's fault.
Look, I think the guy is a total a**hole, but I don't blame him for everything.
About six in 10 adults also said they consider this to be the lowest point in the nation’s history that they can recall, the study found.
“What was really surprising was how consistent that feeling was across all age groups,” said Evans, noting that survey respondents included people who lived through World War II and the Vietnam War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
There were some notable differences based on respondents’ political leanings.
The study also found that just trying to stay informed about the future of the nation these days is a stressful endeavor. About 95 percent of adults said they follow the news regularly, but a majority said that doing so causes them stress and nearly three-quarters said the media blows things out of proportion.
So THAT'S IT!
I was wondering what was causing me such stress each day.
It's READING the BO$TON GLOBE and all its agenda-pushing, war-promoting lies and distortions!
Evans cited the 24-hour flow of news, social media, and constant alerts on mobile phones as driving why so many people say they are stressed by the news. News-related content that features intense bickering and conflict may also be triggering stress.
“Our recommendation is people have to learn to turn off the flow of information,” and to consider what type of media they consume, “especially if they know this is something that causes them stress,” he said.
That's GOOD ADVICE!
There were however some silver linings in the survey results.....
Like kernels of corn in a steaming swirler of sh**.
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I wonder what they would have to say regarding the delusional media and the psychopaths they front for.
Yes, they need a candidate that will shape the city’s development for years to come.
Once they turn things around the public will be singing their praises.
"Don’t just change the rules. Change the culture" by Yvonne Abraham Globe Columnist November 01, 2017
I hope they’re terrified.
I hope that every single man in Massachusetts politics who has objectified and harassed women is losing sleep at night, worrying their names will come out. Only if they believe that inexcusable behavior has consequences will they stop behaving inexcusably.
Since I wrote last week about the harassment experienced by women who work in politics in Massachusetts, other women have come forward to share their stories. And behind them, doubtless, are many more who, for fear it would ruin their careers, have long kept quiet about being subjected to demeaning treatment, harassment, and even assaults by the men who run the state.
That would have been last Saturday, right?
One woman began that career in and around the State House over a decade ago, in her early 20s. From the beginning, she was objectified and harassed so many times she became desensitized to the inappropriate remarks on her appearance, the leering, the men getting “handsy” at events.
Then there were more egregious incidents, especially after she became a lobbyist, including unwanted sexting. Some legislators — including several still in office — half-joked that there was one sure way for her to get their vote. They said things like, “You’re lucky you’re so attractive, I wouldn’t be considering this vote otherwise.” In some meetings, lawmakers whose votes she needed described her and her interns as “hot.” In a conversation about whether she would run for office, a legislator suggested she’d definitely win if she campaigned in a bikini.
Why?
Her position as a lobbyist made her particularly susceptible, she said. Thousands of vulnerable people were depending on the laws she was trying to get passed, so she had to put her own discomfort aside for their sake.
Another woman had stories that were shocking even in the context of those that have come out so far. Working on a campaign in 2004, she met with a member of the House at a bar to talk strategy. After a couple of drinks, “things got weird,” she recalled. The lawmaker invited her to go to a hotel room nearby. She declined, and he started to act like Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, she said, by turns begging and bullying her. She recalled him saying. “Why would you meet me at night, and accept a drink?”
She got out of there, and he followed her to her car, getting into the passenger seat and lunging across the center console to kiss and grope her. She punched him and pushed him out of the car. He is no longer in the Legislature.
“I had no recourse at all,” she said. “This was somebody with a great reputation who I thought was a lovely person before that night, and I knew if I had ever said anything publicly, I would never work in politics again.”
Really, how many more stories do we need? I’ve got the one about the aide humiliated at the St. Patrick’s Day breakfast when her boss, then one of the most powerful men in the state, publicly joked that she was a prostitute. I’ve got the former server at 6B Lounge, a bar near the State House, where members of the House acted like pigs, leering and commenting on her appearance. Or the young Beacon Hill staffer who was told by a legislative leader offering to buy her drinks that her necklace made her “chest area look really nice.” I’ve got aides who say they avoid not just some elected officials and lobbyists, but also other State House personnel, and some of their peers — today — because of their predatory ways.
Enough. I’m thrilled Speaker Robert DeLeo has made a commitment to deal with sexual harassment in the House, because it seems — based on my conversations — like that is where the biggest problems lie. That may be partly because women are more underrepresented in the House than in the Senate.
“The culture of the House is broken,” said one woman, who worked closely with legislators there until a few years ago and experienced harassment.
Those who know him say DeLeo — who is not a fixture at gatherings outside the State House — is genuinely surprised and troubled by the stories that have emerged over the last week. Representative Tricia Farley-Bouvier said, “We believe the State House can be a model workplace.”
In Weinstein's case that provokes incredulity.
C'mon, Bob! You didn't want to know, did you?
The way DeLeo runs the House could also be part of the issue here. Getting ahead there means falling in line with the speaker’s priorities. That could be one reason why you’re not seeing any significant outrage from legislators on this issue — even from women lawmakers, who are ceding the platform to the boss. Across the chamber, the word seems to be that one must not make the House look bad and that complaining about harassment could do just this.
I would hate to be in his shoes.
“A culture of fear and punishment helps create an environment in which men can harass with near-impunity,” said one woman who has worked with legislators for years. “It’s all of a piece.”
That’s a big problem. You can change the rules all you like, but nothing is fixed until you change the culture, in the House and across politics in this state.....
I'm starting to become wary of this culture change agenda being pushed by the pre$$ simply because they are flogging it to death, but beyond that I'm stunned that this is happening in DEEP BLUE MA$$ACHU$ETTS!!
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Related:
"Michael Oreskes, who led NPR’s news division and was formerly a high-ranking editor at The New York Times, resigned Wednesday after being accused of sexually harassing women. Jarl Mohn, NPR’s president and chief executive, said in a memo to employees that he had asked Oreskes to resign because of inappropriate behavior. The move came a day after The Washington Post reported the accounts of two women who said Oreskes had sexually harassed them in the 1990s, when he was the Washington bureau chief at the Times. The women said Oreskes made unwanted sexual advances as they were discussing career opportunities and advice with him. After the Post published its report, a current NPR employee, Rebecca Hersher, said she had filed a complaint about Oreskes with NPR’s human resources department in October 2015. Oreskes joined NPR in March 2015. Mohn said in his memo to employees that NPR had been acting on accusations against Oreskes before the news reports were published. In a statement, Oreskes said: “I am deeply sorry to the people I hurt. My behavior was wrong and inexcusable, and I accept full responsibility.” Oreskes’ career in journalism stretches back some 40 years. He started at The Daily News, where he was labor editor and City Hall bureau chief. He joined The Times in 1981, and held many jobs in two decades at the paper, including chief political correspondent and deputy managing editor."
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
"Brett Ratner, Dustin Hoffman accused" November 02, 2017
Hollywood’s widening sexual harassment crisis has ensnared a prominent film director after six women — including actress Olivia Munn — accused Brett Ratner of sexual assault or misconduct in a Los Angeles Times report on Wednesday.
Playboy Enterprises quickly distanced itself from Ratner as his attorney denied the allegations.
I'm sure there is some sort of irony there.
The reverberations also reached back 32 years as Oscar-winner Dustin Hoffman came forward to apologize for allegedly sexually harassing a 17-year-old intern in 1985.
Writer Anna Graham Hunter alleged in a Wednesday column in The Hollywood Reporter that the now 80-year-old actor groped her on the set of TV movie ‘‘Death of a Salesman’’ and ‘‘talked about sex to me and in front of me.’’
Hoffman issued a statement Wednesday, apologizing if ‘‘anything I might have done could have put her in an uncomfortable situation. I am sorry. It is not reflective of who I am.’’
What a cess pool of perversion is Hollywood, although it does explains the content coming from that place.
Munn also complained about on-set behavior, alleging that while visiting the set of Ratner’s ‘‘After the Sunset’’ in 2004, he masturbated in front of her in his trailer. Munn described the incident, without naming Ratner, in a 2010 collection of essays.
I didn't need to know that.
Ratner’s lawyer issued a statement Wednesday in which he said the director ‘‘vehemently denies the outrageous derogatory allegations’’ and is ‘‘confident that his name will be cleared once the current media frenzy dies down and people can objectively evaluate the nature of these claims.’’
HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!
The castrations come first, Rat!
Playboy Enterprises shelved any of its projects that involved Ratner, including working on a biopic of Hugh Hefner, which was to star Jared Leto.
A biopic on that sleaze Hefner would be in bad taste now.
Ratner and Hoffman become the latest Hollywood figures to face allegations of misusing their power to harass actresses, a list that now includes producer Harvey Weinstein and writer-director James Toback. Harassment allegations have also been levied against actors Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Piven.
Police in Beverly Hills on Tuesday announced they have launched criminal investigations over complaints received about Weinstein and Toback. Weinstein also is being investigated for sexual assault or rape by police in Los Angeles, New York, and London.
His representative, Sallie Hofmeister, had no comment on the Beverly Hills investigation.
Dozens of women, including actresses Selma Blair and Rachel McAdams, have alleged that Toback sexually harassed or assaulted them.
Toback has denied the allegations. He does not have a representative to field inquiries about the criminal investigation.
Repercussions have been swift after allegations against Weinstein surfaced. Weinstein was fired from the company he founded within days after initial reports of sexual harassment were published and Netflix suspended production on its final season of ‘‘House of Cards’’ on Tuesday amid allegations star Spacey made a sexual advance on actor Anthony Rapp in 1986 when Rapp was 14.
Also Tuesday, CBS said it is ‘‘looking into’’ accusations by actress and reality star Ariane Bellamar that Emmy-winning ‘‘Entourage’’ star Piven groped her on two occasions.
Piven, who stars in the new CBS series ‘‘Wisdom of the Crowd,’’ said in a statement that he ‘‘unequivocally’’ denies the ‘‘appalling allegations being peddled about me.’’ (AP)
I wonder if the problem persists in the theater.
"Who goes to dinner wearing a costume? Rihanna, that’s who. The singer, who’s been out and about in Boston lately, dined on Halloween with her billionaire boyfriend Hassan Jameel at chef Dante de Magistris’s restaurant Dante at the Royal Sonesta Wednesday — and she was dressed as “Star Wars” character Kylo Ren. Jameel, the handsome Saudi businessman who’s been squiring the “Stay” singer around since this summer, was dressed as a penguin. We’re told the costumed couple ate heartily and canoodled throughout the meal. Before leaving, Rihanna ordered extra pasta to take with her because, she said, she often gets hungry around 2 a.m. It’s the second time in recent days that Rihanna and Jameel have eaten at Dante. It’s not clear why the couple is in town, though the charitable arm of the company run by Jameel’s family has a relationship with MIT, so it’s possible he’s in town on business. The couple sampled the bruschetta, calamari, grilled octopus, bolognese, tomato basil pasta, and gnocchi with sausage and broccoli rabe. Meanwhile, DJ Steve Aoki made a bit of a scene at the new Seaport nightclub The Grand the other night. Aoki threw cakes into faces of patron while playing the song, “Cake Face,” getting frosting all over the club’s new LED wall. Oh well. (Before the show, he had dinner at Empire with Daymond John from “Shark Tank.) We’re told Patriots owner Robert Kraft was at The Grand earlier in the evening."
He was dressed as the headless horseman for Halloween.
Related:
Aron Baynes looks comfortable as a Viking
Al Horford’s little sister not so little on Twitter
Thankfully, the crisis hasn't touched the offices of sports teams and Wall Street.
"An Ohio high school football coach has resigned after two seasons, saying he received death threats after his teams lost 18 straight games. Lance Engleka wrote in a letter to the principal that he refuses to tolerate the online death threats, attacks from parents, and verbal abuse leveled at his family and staff. He continues to say ‘‘winning and losing at the high school level should not be a life-threatening situation.’’ Superintendent Marlon Styles says he was ‘‘shocked’’ by the accusations....."
That seems to be something that is going around as the perverse corruption leaches through the media mouthpieces.
Just don't go to Mexico:
"TripAdvisor removed reports of rapes at Mexico resorts, report says" by Janelle Nanos Globe Staff November 01, 2017
TripAdvisor, the Needham-based travel company, is accused of removing hotel reviews from its site that include reports of rapes and assaults, according to an investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
If they were based in Needham why did it take a Milwaukee paper to out them, Globe?
Didn't want to give Bo$ton a black eye?
According to the Journal Sentinel report, the company has deleted dozens of postings that report instances of sexual assault, rape, and other impropriety at hotels. More than a dozen people said their online reviews were deleted after they reported information about hotels that were “determined to be inappropriate by the TripAdvisor community.” Other negative posts were removed for being “off-topic” or for delving into subject matter that was not seen as “family friendly.” The exact number of postings the company has deleted is unknown.
Shortly after Kristie Love was raped by a hotel security guard at a Mexican resort in 2010, she turned to TripAdvisor to issue a warning to fellow travelers, writing a damning review of the hotel online, the Journal Sentinel reported. But the posting was quickly deleted by TripAdvisor, which deemed its content in violation of its family friendly guidelines. Two other women who visited the same hotel where Love was assaulted also posted warnings to TripAdvisor in the years that followed, outlining instances of rape and assault. Those postings were also deemed inappropriate by the site’s standards.
Among the other users who saw their posts deleted was Wendy Avery-Swanson of Phoenix, who wrote warning visitors that she had blacked out at a Mexican resort after drinking at a hotel’s swim-up bar.
Time to ban booze.
Shelley Khan of New York saw her post disappear after writing that her Mexican hotel staff failed to honor her reservation, overcharged her to rebook a room, and then followed her throughout the premises during her stay. And Josh Resmini told the Journal Sentinel that his spa treatment at a Mexican resort resulted in a sexual assault after his massage therapist drugged him. Resmini’s account of that attack had been deleted by TripAdvisor.
The issue raises questions about the role of a hotel review site as a public forum, and the role that TripAdvisor should play as a mediator. The company hosts more than 535 million user reviews online, and is worth more than $1.5 billion
It derives much of its revenue from referrals to hotel sites, and also has an “instant booking” feature, allowing users to book directly through the site. Its relationships with hotel properties are integral to the company’s bottom line, according to an August filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission obtained by the Journal Sentinel. In it, TripAdvisor financial officers stressed the importance that the company convert visitors into “users and bookers.”
That's the most important thing.
“Advertisers will not continue to do business with us if their investment in such advertising does not generate sales leads, customers, bookings, or revenue and profit,” they wrote.
Honest reviews are the backbone of TripAdvisor’s business, and according the company’s content integrity policy, TripAdvisor uses dozens of filters to identify fake reviews. TripAdvisor employs a team of over “300 people all over the world working to manage content and to identify, block, and remove fraud.” They ultimately reserve the right to remove any postings they deem inappropriate.
“It’s important that anyone who suspects foul play or illegal activity contact the local authorities rather than use a review platform as their primary way to share their experience,” a spokeswoman told the Journal Sentinel.
Last week, the company said that it would institute a badge system that would alert travelers to serious problems at hotels, highlighting major media stories as well as any other health and safety concerns, at the properties. The company expects that it will be launched before the end of the year.
On Oct. 19, exactly seven years after she was attacked, TripAdvisor reinstated the original comment made by Love describing her assault.
“We apologize to the sexual assault victim, reported on in the article, who had her forum post removed seven years ago on TripAdvisor,” spokesperson Kevin Carter wrote to the Globe in an e-mail. He said that since 2010, our “policies and processes have evolved to better provide information like this to other travelers. . . . In fact, a simple Internet search will show numerous reviews from travelers over the last several years who wrote about their firsthand experiences that include matters of robbery or theft, assault, and rape.”
“We are horrified that this victim experienced this assault on her vacation in Mexico, and other travelers should be aware of this incident,” he wrote.
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That make you feel better about taking the trip?
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Got your bus pass?
"A commuter rail rider was arrested after a ticket check — but he had a valid pass" by Adam Vaccaro Globe Staff November 01, 2017
The MBTA’s new push to check tickets on commuter rail platforms has yielded its first arrest. Problem is, the passenger had a valid ticket — and a bit of an attitude.
Oh, the passenger had an "attitude."
Jim Yarin, a 58-year-old Acton resident and longtime commuter rail passenger, had already paid for an entire month of rides with an October pass. He was detained last week by Transit Police on a North Station platform and charged with trespassing after the ticket checkers said they could not verify that his paper ticket was valid.
Yarin concedes that he could have avoided arrest but says he escalated the situation out of principle.
Yeah, he escalated it, not the a**hole MBTA agent and his fascist mindset.
Yet his act of personal rebellion highlighted that the private operator running the commuter rail for the MBTA, Keolis Commuter Services, is taking the checks seriously, while also exposing a flaw in the new system: The checks are based on a brief visual inspection of paper tickets, plastic CharlieCards, and mobile apps, and cannot definitively determine whether a passenger has paid a fare.
That neglected, pos patronage system is scrounging around for all the loot it can get
In Yarin’s case, the checkers could not verify his $318 monthly pass because the paper ticket had faded over the course of the month.
The ticket checkers were hired by Keolis earlier this year and deployed to the three busiest commuter rail stations because the MBTA believes it is missing out on millions of dollars in uncollected or deliberately evaded fares.
Yeah, scofflaws beware!
Maybe it will replace the money lost in the investment in the hedge fund.
They ask passengers on select platforms to show proof of payment before boarding, eyeballing tickets and apps before ushering riders toward the train. Some passengers have complained that the process slows boarding and causes crowding at busy stations, whereas the old system saw passengers either show or pay for tickets once on board. (Even if passengers go through a ticket check on the platform, they still must show their tickets to a train conductor.)
Your paperz, pleaze!
Keolis spokesman Tory Mazzola acknowledged that the check is “not perfect” but noted that it is meant to condition passengers to buy tickets before boarding. It’s the first step toward a more comprehensive policy, which is expected to eventually include electronic fare gates similar to those on the subway.
They view you as livestock!
Yarin, who works as a paralegal at a law firm that he declined to identify, said he has grown accustomed to the new checks and has often passed without issue. But last Thursday, after his ticket was questioned, Yarin was directed to the North Station ticket counter to obtain a new pass.
In a fit of defiance, he refused to go, his frustration with the ticket checkers compounded by other longtime commuting complaints such as delayed trains.
Some of the details of Yarin’s standoff are under dispute. Both sides, however, agree that Yarin argued with the checkers.....
That's the one thing you can't do in AmeriKa, argue with authority.
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"House GOP scrambles to finalize tax bill amid opposition" by Marcy Gordon Associated Press November 02, 2017
WASHINGTON — House Republicans on Wednesday scrambled to finalize the first major tax overhaul in three decades amid opposition from GOP lawmakers fearful about constituents losing a cherished deduction for state and local taxes.
Top Republicans vowed to release the measure on Thursday after missing a self-imposed Wednesday deadline and dismissed rumors that the unveiling might be further delayed. The ambitious timetable calls for passing the measure in the House by Thanksgiving.
‘‘Failure is not an option,’’ said Representative Chris Collins, Republican of New York.
The emerging plan would retain the income tax rate for the wealthiest earners. But for that highest bracket, the tax writers were considering raising the minimum level of income to $1 million from the current $470,000 — a change that would reduce revenue.
The plan also would sharply cut tax rates for businesses in hopes of improving US economic competitiveness. Tax rates for individuals would be trimmed as well.
President Trump weighed in Wednesday on Twitter: ‘‘Wouldn’t it be great to Repeal the very unfair and unpopular Individual Mandate in ObamaCare and use those savings for further Tax Cuts for the Middle Class. The House and Senate should consider ASAP as the process of final approval moves along. Push Biggest Tax Cuts EVER.’’
Ya' gotta love it! Trump just confirmed what I've been saying since the day they began the attempt at repeal. They need to free up that $$$ for the tax cuts!!
The idea of repealing the individual mandate has been pushed by Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas but was dismissed by key GOP leaders since it would add political complications to an already difficult task of crafting a tax bill that can pass the House and Senate.
‘‘I think tax reform is complicated enough without adding another layer of complexity,’’ said No. 2 Senate Republican John Cornyn of Texas.....
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Also see:
"The Trump administration has quietly set aside plans to require new cars to be able to wirelessly talk to each other, auto industry officials said, jeopardizing one of the most promising technologies for preventing traffic deaths....."
It's the Navy that needs it, but don't let that $poil the optimism regarding the minivans.
"Trump’s nominee for NASA administrator comes under fire at Senate hearing" by Christian Davenport Washington Post November 02, 2017
Senator Bill Nelson on Wednesday unleashed a blistering attack against Jim Bridenstine, the Trump administration’s nominee for NASA administrator, saying he not only lacks the technical and management experience but has been a partisan warrior whose behavior is an example of ‘‘why Washington is broken.’’
During Bridenstine’s confirmation hearing Wednesday, Nelson, a Democrat from Florida, accused Bridenstine, a conservative Republican congressman from Oklahoma, of being a climate-change denier, backing legislation that discriminated against the LGBT community, and acting as a divisive force in Washington.
I'm told Nelson wields great influence over the space agency.
Supporters of Bridenstine, a Naval aviator and the former head of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum, have said that his views on climate change have evolved, and that he does not deny the effects of climate change.
It's a litmus test.
In his opening statement, Bridenstine said he would not only support NASA’s mission to explore space, focusing on a return to human spaceflight from United States soil, but to continue to study Earth’s climate.
If confirmed, he said he would ‘‘look forward to promoting the scientific community’s priorities,’’ and support efforts ‘‘that increase our understanding of the Earth as a system and can enable solutions to the most pressing issues we face on our home planet.’’
During the hearing, Bridenstine said he ‘‘absolutely’’ believes in climate change, that it is already having devastating effects and that humans contribute to it. But he deferred when asked if human activity was the leading cause, saying more study was needed. In response to questions, he vowed to protect the integrity of NASA’s research and to keep it an ‘‘apolitical’’ organization that should be driven by science not politics.
SSDA.
Since being nominated, Bridenstine has received some high-profile endorsements, including from Senators Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, and Richard Shelby, Republican of Alabama, but also from Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, and some key industry groups, such as the Commercial Spaceflight Foundation.
Did Buzz really walk on the moon, and why did he punch someone who asked?
In the House, where he has served since 2013, he has been recognized as a leader on space issues and was the sponsor of a wide-ranging bill, known as the American Space Renaissance Act, which touched on national security, how to manage space debris, and regulating the commercial space industry.
OMG! I can see why the print paper cut it!
But a growing chorus of opponents have spoken out against him, including Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, saying his opposition to same-sex marriage and the Violence Against Women Act made him unfit. ‘‘It is clear Representative Bridenstine would move us backwards not forwards,’’ she said in a statement, urging the Commerce, Science and Transporation committee to vote against his nomination.
Honestly, what do those issues have to do with NASA?
Man, does D.C. ever have the feel of 1943 Nazi Germany or what?
Nelson said he was offended by Bridenstine’s comments criticizing Democrats and Republicans working across the aisle to pass legislation. He noted that Bridenstine had not only called former president Barack Obama ‘‘dishonest, incompetent, and vengeful,’’ but that he has also supported Arizona Senator John McCain’s opponent in the GOP primary and attacked Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Fliorida, for working with Democrats on immigration.
So this really has NOTHING to do with NASA, huh?
It's just POLITICAL POINT-MAKING and POSTURING!
Honestly, I expected more from Democra...... (couldn't get through that with a straight face, sorry).
Bridenstine said his activity as a congressman, representing the interests of his district, would be very different than the way he would act as NASA administrator. Politics, he said, had no part in the space agency. He also said that ‘‘I do believe, from my heart, that every human being has dignity and worth and each person should be treated as though they are a valued member of the team.’’
But Nelson wasn’t convinced.
‘‘NASA needs a leader who will unite us, not divide us,’’ he said. ‘‘Respectfully, Congressman Bridenstine, I don’t think you’re that leader.’’
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Related:
"Politically convenient. A 180-degree change. A ploy only to secure a high-paying job. Those were some of the criticisms hurled Wednesday at Scott Garrett during a hearing on his nomination to run the US Export-Import Bank. Garrett struggled to respond to questions from both Democrats and Republicans about the change in his views on the Export-Import Bank. He said that since he made those remarks about shutting down the bank, there have been new developments including the election of President Trump and the introduction of a new agenda for the bank. Garrett, who left Congress after he was defeated in a reelection bid last year, twice voted against legislation reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank. During a debate in 2015, he called it “taxpayer funded welfare for megacorporations” and “a bank that embodies the corruption of the free enterprise system.” His negative view is shared by at least two senators on the Banking Committee, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Richard Shelby of Alabama. The two Republicans said on Wednesday that they would only vote to advance the five other candidates who are up for board positions if they were packaged with Garrett. “He’s a principled man and we need those types of people at the bank,” Shelby said. “The bank is still corporate welfare.”"
Thus it is still open for "business."
**********
Speaking of openings:
"In key step, Hamas gives up control of Gaza border crossings" by Fares Akram Associated Press November 02, 2017
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Islamic militant group Hamas on Wednesday handed over control of Gaza’s border crossings with Israel and Egypt to the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, taking the first tangible step toward implementing a reconciliation deal with the rival Fatah movement.
After a decade of Hamas rule, the group’s security forces and border control agents were seen pulling away from the crossings that facilitate the movement of cargo and people in and out of Gaza. Representatives of the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority quickly took up positions.
Hamas seized control from the Fatah-led forces of the Palestinian Authority in 2007. But after a decade of an Israeli-Egyptian blockade, Hamas’ new leadership says the group is no longer interested in governing Gaza. The blockade has hit Gaza’s economy hard, with over 40 percent unemployment and chronic power outages.
First of all, they didn't seize control, they won an election and the pre$$ knows it. So already the Israeli $lant is obvious.
As for the siege and power outrages, those were done at Abbas's behest.
Wednesday’s handover marked an important step forward. Officials hope that the handover will lead to an easing of the blockade. Israel, which considers Hamas a terrorist group, and Egypt say the blockade was needed to prevent the flow of weapons and militants in and out of Gaza.
Looks like false hopes to me.
Changes on the ground were quickly visible. Just outside the Erez crossing at the Israeli border, a large Hamas checkpoint, where people were inspected and interrogated when traveling in and out of Israel, was closed. Hamas officers loaded the furniture and equipment onto pickup trucks that rolled away. Other Hamas workers dismantled trailers used as offices.
Palestinian Authority representatives quickly moved into the area.
At the Kerem Shalom cargo crossing, trucks loaded with construction materials, fruits, and consumer goods started trickling into Gaza. Raed Fatouh, a Palestinian Authority official, said tariffs and taxes were now being collected by his government, without additional fees Hamas had imposed.
Kerem Shalom has been the financial lifeline for Hamas in recent years, generating revenue used to pay its employees.
One of the biggest tests will be whether the Palestinians successfully reopen the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, the main gateway for Gaza’s 2 million people to travel abroad. Egypt has shuttered the crossing for most of the past 10 years.
Yeah, Morsi threw it wide open and you saw what happened to him!
At the crossing, huge posters of Egyptian President Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas hung outside the departure hall, beside a giant Egyptian flag.
Hamas withdrew all of its officers from the crossing, and Palestinian officials and Egyptian intelligence officials stood as the national anthems played.
Anyone take a knee?
Azzam al-Ahmad, a senior Fatah official, said Rafah will reopen in two weeks. The hope is that a European monitoring team will be posted on the crossing, reviving an internationally backed arrangement approved in 2005. The short-lived deal had EU monitors and Palestinian Authority forces running the crossing. It grants Israel monitoring via security cameras, a move Hamas rejects.
The European Union later issued a statement reiterating ‘‘its readiness to provide its full support to the efforts to reunite Gaza and the West Bank under one single and legitimate Palestinian Authority.’’ It said that includes its readiness to redeploy its monitoring team, “if requested by the parties and as soon as the conditions allow.’’ It said ‘‘contacts with all relevant stakeholders on possible EU contributions are ongoing. ‘‘
I expect ISIS™ will be targeting Europe again soon.
Related: "For the first time in nearly two years, France is no longer in a state of emergency. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe sought Wednesday to assure tourists and the French that they will still enjoy ‘‘a good level of security’’ thanks to a new counterterrorism law that enshrines some of the state of emergency’s measures into law. Critics say the law infringes on freedoms. Philippe visited the Eiffel Tower Wednesday to mark the end of the state of emergency imposed after Islamic State attackers killed 130 people in cafes, the national stadium, and the Bataclan theater on Nov. 13, 2015. He said Tuesday’s deadly truck attack in New York is a reminder that the threat level ‘‘is high everywhere in the world’’ and promised tougher security measures at sensitive sites."
European officials have been talking to Israeli and Palestinian officials in recent weeks and sent a technical team to Rafah last week.
Mkhaimar Abusada, a political science professor at Gaza’s al-Azhar University, said the border changes would have no major impact in the short term beyond the reduction of taxes on items entering Gaza.
He said much would depend on Israel, now that Palestinian Authority staff were taking over on the other side.....
What more do you really need to know?
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"Britain should right a historic wrong and recognize the state of Palestine" by Douglas Alexander November 02, 2017
British Prime Minister Theresa May and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will join 150 guests for a celebratory dinner Thursday night in London to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the British government’s endorsement of the establishment of “a national home for the Jewish people’’ in Palestine.
The origins of this historic statement pledging that the government would use its “best endeavors” lay not only in British support for Zionism, but wartime calculations and imperial interests.
Strange to see the word Zionism in my jew$paper, and even back then the British government was nothing but a tool for Big Jew.
The Balfour Declaration, as it has come to be known, was just 67 words, but their meaning and effect continue to be contested a century later. In Jerusalem on Thursday, in a sad metaphor of this continuing conflict, separate Palestinian and Israeli Balfour conferences will be held on opposite sides of the city.
Last week, I traveled to both Israel and the Palestinian Territories. In Tel Aviv, I witnessed the dynamism of an economy so vibrant and innovative that Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Alphabet, recently called Israel “the most important high-tech center in the world outside of the US.”
Despite facing existential dangers since its establishment in 1948, Israel has built a vibrant democracy, a welfare state that supports the poor, strong and well-organized trade unions, a critical and unfettered free press, and an independent judiciary.
These are characteristics worthy of admiration and, indeed, celebration.
Yeah, whatta country!
Yet the next day in Bethlehem, I visited Palestinian refugee camps and met children who are now the third generation of displaced refugees in their families. The sounds of security forces operations in the neighboring camp could be clearly heard, while used tear gas canisters lay discarded at my feet, and the wall that today divides Bethlehem loomed behind me.
It was a painful reminder of how distant and difficult the prospect of a peaceful resolution remains, a century after Balfour’s declaration.
That must be why they don't get the same amount of attention as the Muslim migrants into Europe.
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has little prospect of offering his people meaningful negotiations with Israel in circumstances where a majority of the Israeli Cabinet have publicly stated that they will never agree to a Palestinian state.
Unprecedented rates of settlement-building on Palestinian land are not only changing the facts on the ground, but are also undermining the very idea of a two-state solution.
That's what it is meant to do until..... no chance at a Palestine.
In this year alone, more than 6,000 housing units have been approved for construction in East Jerusalem and the West Bank by the Israeli government, with a further 1,292 settler units approved last month.
Earlier this year, the Knesset voted to allow the Israeli state to seize land privately owned by Palestinians in the West Bank and grant the properties to Israeli settlements for their exclusive use.
That looks like LAND THEFT to ME!
That one-state solution is simply not a solution at all. It would mark the end of the dream of national self-determination for the Jewish people, anticipated by the Balfour Declaration, and would involve almost 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank being ruled perpetually by a minority, with different laws and fewer rights.
It would mean either the demise of Israel as a Jewish state or the demise of Israel as a democratic state.
Its demise is as certain as the rising sun, and the world will cheer when they are gone!
To rescue the two-state solution, the recognition of Israel must now be balanced with the recognition of Palestine as part of continuing steps to achieve a comprehensive negotiated agreement.
Amid the despair and disappointment I witnessed last week in Bethlehem, recognition would strengthen moderate Palestinian opinion, encourage the Palestinians to take the path of politics, reject the path of violence, and rekindle hopes that there is a credible route to a viable Palestinian state and a secure Israel achieved by negotiations.
Tell that to the Israelis and the United States government!!!!!
All the former heads of Israel’s own security agencies — Mossad and Shin Bet — support the establishment of a Palestinian state as fundamental to finding an alternative to continued conflict; 137 nations out of the 193 UN member states already recognize Palestine.
Britain’s involvement in the Palestinian tragedy is beyond dispute. The centenary of the Balfour Declaration is the historic moment to right a historic wrong a century on.
Britain should mark this moment with more than a commemorative dinner. It should mark this moment by recognizing the state of Palestine.
Statehood for the Palestinians is not a gift to be given, but a right to be recognized.
I AGREE WITH THAT!
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And who is that guy?
Douglas Alexander is a senior fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School and a former British Cabinet minister.
Related: ‘Jeremy Corbyn is taking a courageous stand against Netanyahu and apartheid Israel’
You guys better be careful:
"British defense secretary resigns after allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior" by Karla Adam Washington Post November 01, 2017
LONDON— Michael Fallon resigned Wednesday as Britain’s defense secretary after allegations about inappropriate sexual behavior.
Fallon is the first lawmaker to resign amid a growing number of claims against British politicians that have emerged in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, which has encouraged people around the world to share their stories about sexual harassment.
Coincidence?
Earlier this week, the Sun newspaper ran a front-page story about Fallon repeatedly putting his hand on a radio journalist’s knee in 2002. The journalist, Julia Hartley-Brewer, dismissed the incident as ‘‘mildly amusing.’’ But British media reported that there may be similar incidents that have occurred more recently.
Responding to the resignation, British Prime Minister Theresa May said: ‘‘I appreciate the characteristically serious manner in which you have considered your position, and the particular example you wish to set to servicemen and women and others.’’
A number of claims have been made against British politicians in recent days.
International Trade Minister Mark Garnier is under investigation following claims that in 2010 he asked his then-secretary to buy sex toys for him.
Garnier didn’t deny the claims, but said that it was ‘‘good-humored hijinks’’ and didn’t amount to sexual harassment.
He is like H.W. Bush, and notice how that is out of the discussion these days?
Stephen Crabb, the former work and pensions secretary, apologized for sending explicit text messages to a 19-year-old woman hoping to get a job in his office in 2013. The Environment Secretary Michael Gove also apologized for his ‘‘clumsy’’ joke about Harvey Weinstein during a radio interview.
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"Australia nationality crisis sparks call for lawmakers audit" Associated Press November 01, 2017
SYDNEY — Australia’s dual citizenship parliamentary crisis deepened on Wednesday with a senior member of the ruling Liberal Party resigning, as calls grew for a nationality audit of all federal lawmakers and investigations continued into decisions made by ministers found to have been ineligible for their elected positions.
Australia’s High Court on Friday disqualified five lawmakers because they were citizens of both Australia and another country, a breach of an obscure clause in the constitution that only came to light in July. Two other parliamentarians had already resigned.
I think all dual nationals should make a choice.
On Wednesday, the saga claimed its first victim from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s Liberal Party in Senator Stephen Parry.
There had previously been disquiet concerning the issue between the Liberal Party and its junior coalition partner the National Party over the latter’s allegedly loose vetting systems on checking the nationality status of its electoral candidates. But not only is Parry the first Liberal Party member brought down in the crisis, he ranks as a party heavyweight.
Critics have condemned as outdated the 116-year-old constitutional ban on lawmakers having dual citizenship in a country where almost half the people are immigrants or have an overseas-born parent.
Also on Wednesday, Liberal Party lawmaker Craig Kelly broke ranks with the government to support calls for the Australian Electoral Commission to audit the backgrounds of all federal lawmakers.....
There could be more "casualties."
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How do Britain's former colonies handle sex abuse anyway?
"Pakistani bride kills 17 in botched plot to kill husband" by Iram Asim Associated Press November 01, 2017
MULTAN, Pakistan — Pakistani police arrested a newly married woman on murder charges after she allegedly poisoned her husband’s milk and it inadvertently killed 17 other people in a remote village, a senior police officer said Wednesday.
District police chief Sohail Habib Tajak said a judge allowed the police to question the woman, 21-year-old Aasia Bibi, for two weeks to determine whether it was the woman’s decision or whether her boyfriend had incited her to kill her husband by poisoning.
He said Bibi was married against her will in September in a village near the town of Ali Pur, 60 miles south of Multan, a city in the eastern Punjab province.
Tajak said Bibi was not happy with her husband and wanted to return to her parents’ home.
She apparently obtained a poisonous substance from her boyfriend, Shahid Lashari, last week and mixed it in milk for her husband, who refused to drink it, Tajak also said.
The woman’s mother-in-law later inadvertently used the tainted milk to make a traditional yogurt-based drink and served it to 27 members of her extended family, who fell unconscious and were hospitalized.
Seventeen people died and 10 are still being treated in hospital, he said.
Bibi and Lashari appeared before a judge in the city of Muzaffargarh on Tuesday, where she told reporters that she was angered over her parents’ decision to marry her to a man against her will. They did not have lawyers.
She said her love affair with her boyfriend continued after she got married.....
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"US votes against UN resolution condemning US embargo on Cuba" Associated Press November 01, 2017
UNITED NATIONS — The United States voted against a UN resolution condemning America’s economic embargo against Cuba on Wednesday, reversing last year’s abstention by the Obama administration and reflecting worsening US-Cuban relations.
Israel joined the United States in opposing the embargo resolution, which was overwhelmingly approved in the 193-member General Assembly by a vote of 191-2. That was the same vote as in 2015.
It's USrael versus the world, huh?
Last October, then-President Barack Obama’s administration abstained for the first time in 25 years on the embargo resolution as he and Cuban president Raul Castro moved forward with the historic warming of relations between the two countries.
Diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba were broken in 1961 after Fidel Castro took power and installed a communist government.
No mention of the 50+ years of CIA sabotage, etc.
Before Wednesday’s vote, US Ambassador Nikki Haley said the United States will continue to oppose the embargo resolution ‘‘as long as the Cuban people continue to be deprived of their human rights and fundamental freedoms.’’
Haley said no doubt some people won’t understand why President Trump’s administration is ‘‘energetically’’ opposing Obama’s position.
Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez condemned Haley’s ‘‘disrespectful, interfering statement,’’ saying ‘‘she is reflecting the tenor of US politics today.’’
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Ah, you don't want to go to Cuba anyway. The chirping there is unbelievable.
"Suspect in Japan serial killer case sought out suicidal people" by Motoko Rich New York Times November 02, 2017
TOKYO — Takahiro Shiraishi’s case, involving social media suicide pacts, connections to Tokyo’s notorious red-light district, and neighbors who did not report a noxious smell coming from the suspect’s apartment for months, has the hallmarks of a grotesque thriller novel or horror movie.
Japan has the third-highest suicide rate of the world’s richest countries, after South Korea and Hungary, and its government has prioritized suicide prevention, monitoring suicide-related message boards on the internet, among other measures.
The Japanese murder rate, by contrast, is one of the lowest in the world, making the news media all the more obsessed with details of the current case.
With the police officially saying very little, it was left to the Japanese news media to report details leaked to members-only “press clubs” for crime reporters.....
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I think I will skip the story about Spain.
California family missing in Brazilian jungle found safe
That's all that is going on in Brazil, huh?
Runaway 7-year-old girl sneaks onto plane at Geneva airport
It was a USPS plane and she was headed for Syria!
**********
Now for the desert:
"Markets around the world were broadly higher as investors got more evidence the global economy is strengthening and corporate profits are climbing....."
Then all is right with the world. No $tre$$.
"US businesses added a solid 235,000 jobs in October, according to a private survey, a sign that rebuilding efforts after Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria are already under way....."
Must be why they postponed the hearing, as economic data have indicated that the economy weathered the storms without lasting damage.
"The meeting Wednesday was the first since the Fed began reducing its vast portfolio of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities, which it acquired in an effort to stimulate the economy during and after the 2008 financial crisis. The Fed is approaching the process cautiously, and so far investors appear unfazed. The central bank is paring its $4.2 trillion in bond holdings by just $10 billion per month through the end of this year, then gradually increasing the pace until it reaches a monthly rate of $50 billion....."
Let me ask you something: who would want to buy all that worthless junk the Fed bought?
They must be $toned, and "in one of the biggest shake-ups in Boston radio history.....
I've wasted enough of my time and am not going to stay up late wondering about when it might become a reality.
