Whitey Bulger dead
They have pinned it on inmate assassins, and one can only hope this cover story doesn't go awry.
Bulger was found beaten, with his eyes nearly gouged out, an attack that marks the final, brutal chapter in the life of one of Boston’s most notorious villains. Authorities provided few details about the killing or why Bulger, who was serving a life sentence, had been transferred to the US Penitentiary Hazelton, just weeks after a Washington, D.C., congresswoman had called for an investigation into conditions at the prison, where two other inmates had been killed this year.
It's obvious why they moved him there, isn't it?
It was so he would be killed. That's your government at work, folks.
You are forgiven for asking yourself what is really the difference between this government and Bulger's actions as a criminal, be it on the domestic or foreign front. This government acts like a mob boss, and we have a Zionist crime boss at the head of it.
Related:
The long, deadly career of James J. ‘Whitey’ Bulger
For families of ‘Whitey’ Bulger’s victims, there’s some satisfaction
In Southie, plenty of opinions on Bulger’s death
Freddy Geas, eyed in ‘Whitey’ Bulger’s killing, ‘hated rats’
Did anybody verify that?
Also see:
Bulger Found Guilty
The judge never allowed him to enter evidence against the FBI, and he should have hired himself a private dick.
Fitzpatrick’s Fibs
Just working my way back to the present without getting in too Depp about Bulger.
Former New England mob boss Frank Salemme transferred to prison in Brooklyn
He better watch his back.
As trial loomed, Harvard changed guidance for admissions officers
Looks like an admission of guilt.
[flip to below fold]
Another scary mask for you:
"Vulnerable Democratic senators jab Elizabeth Warren on campaign trail" by Liz Goodwin Globe Staff October 31, 2018
WASHINGTON — Two Democratic senators in tough reelection races distanced themselves from Senator Elizabeth Warren on the campaign trail on Monday, a preview of the challenges the liberal firebrand is likely to face uniting her party in 2020 should she decide to run for president.
The comments from the two red-state lawmakers ahead of Election Day also illustrate how the Massachusetts senator has become something of a political pinata for moderate Democrats trying to show their independence from the liberal resistance wing of the party. Republicans have painted her as an extreme liberal, pasting her image next to moderate Democrats’ faces in political ads to tie the candidate to the left.
Vulnerable Missouri Democrat Claire McCaskill pointed the finger at her colleague Monday when asked to identify the “crazy Democrats” she had referred to in a radio ad as politicians she had little in common with. McCaskill has been running as an independent-minded moderate not beholden to the Democratic Party in Missouri, a state that gave Donald Trump a double-digit win in 2016.
“Well, I would say this,” McCaskill said in an interview on Fox News Monday. “I would not call my colleagues crazy, but Elizabeth Warren sure went after me when I advocated tooling back some of the regulations for small banks and credit unions.”
Out West, Montana Senator Jon Tester of Montana took a swipe at Warren’s recent DNA test that showed evidence she had a distant Native American ancestor. Tester told a Hill reporter while at a voter turnout event with the Chippewa Cree tribe Monday that he didn’t believe she had proven her ties to Native American ancestry.
“I don’t think that would pass the test, no,” he told the Hill. “That’s a fight between her and Trump and she can continue to have that fight. The real issue here are the challenges in Indian country, especially the tribes that don’t have gaming.”
Both senators are in the fight of their political lives to hang onto their seats in states where distance from Warren could help their chances.
Warren has singled out Tester and McCaskill in the past as well, when she criticized the 16 Democrats who voted to ease regulations on some financial institutions in a fund-raising e-mail and on social media in March. That move kicked up tensions within the party, but red-state Senate Democrats largely refrained from criticizing Warren in public.
Part of that may be due to Warren’s prolific fund-raising for her colleagues. In 2018, Warren’s PAC donated $10,000 each to Tester and McCaskill, in addition to $60,000 to Missouri’s Democratic Party. She’s also sent fund-raising e-mails on the senators’ behalf. In one sent in April, she said Tester “reminds me a lot of my big brothers back in Oklahoma,” with a “heart bigger than the state of Montana.” In 2017, she sent a fund-raising plea for McCaskill. “The Claire I know is ... Tough, smart, and focused on finding solutions to level the playing field for working families,” she wrote.
Warren declined to comment for this story through a spokeswoman.
A glimpse at some of the political ads running against Tester and McCaskill back home shows how this chummy camaraderie could have ended. McCaskill appears as a bobble-head figure surrounded by the jostling faces of Hillary Clinton, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, and Warren in one ad calling her a “Washington elite.” The Senate Republican’s campaign arm featured Tester in another ad, critical of his vote against the tax bill, placing his photograph in a lineup alongside images of Warren, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Despite Republicans’ portrait of Warren as a liberal supervillain, the senator placed 64th out of 98 senators in bipartisanship in 2017, according to a ranking from the Lugar Center, a jump from her 88th place the year before. She ranks as more bipartisan than other rumored 2020 hopefuls such as Sanders, Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Senator Kamala Harris of California.
Democrats have mostly managed to shore up the deep fissures within their own party ahead of the midterms, but the nagging questions of Democratic identity from 2016 will dog them again as they start the process of seeking their new leader after the midterms.
Warren has cast herself as a fiery, unapologetically liberal opponent to Trump, one who is unafraid of going punch for punch with the president. But Warren would need to rally her fellow Democrats around her brand of liberal populism, which is still seen as politically risky in some states.
This question of Warren’s role in 2020 already kicked up fears for some Democrats earlier this month when she released the results of her DNA test just three weeks before the crucial midterm elections. The move was widely perceived to be an effort to clear the decks of one of her political liabilities ahead of announcing a 2020 run for president, but it began a heated national debate about tribal identity and blood quantum, with Trump gleefully continuing to mock her at rallies.
“It takes us off our message,” said Jim Messina, Obama’s former campaign manager, in an interview on MSNBC earlier this month. “I just wouldn’t do this now. Not 21 days before the election.”
Republican strategists said they saw a political boost from the announcement, which took focus away from health care and Trump and onto national Democrats.
“Any time Elizabeth Warren comes out and headlines before Election Day is a good day for us,” said Matt Gorman, communications director for the House Republicans’ campaign arm. “That was a time we saw some of our highest polling. We had a lot of momentum because Democrats took their eye off the ball and made things about 2020.”
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We all know the Globe is pushing her hard while making waves.
Related:
Geoff Diehl makes the case against Elizabeth Warren
Geoff Diehl lacks bipartisan bona fides, review shows
Warren, Diehl clash over guns, immigration in final debate
She is showing signs of a 2020 campaign and the answer to the big question is that the party of fear makes dark days for public discourse.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
How about a Trump mask?
Pittsburgh unites in grief, even as it splits over Trump’s visit
The protesters, some praying in Hebrew, others singing and chanting, moved around Squirrel Hill. Hoodie-wearing college students and Orthodox Jews with black hats and long beards walked alongside demonstrators carrying militant signs and middle-aged parents pushing strollers.
Not everyone in Pittsburgh was opposed to the visit. An open letter to the president signed by more than 40 “members of the Pittsburgh Jewish Community” welcomed the president and expressed “gratitude to you and your administration for your unwavering support of Israel.”
At the synagogue, Trump was accompanied by the first lady, Melania Trump, his daughter Ivanka Trump, and son-in-law Jared Kushner. They were greeted by Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, the spiritual leader of the Tree of Life congregation, and Trump lit candles in a vestibule for each of the 11 shooting victims.
Yeah, the Zionists own him, too.
Related:
Online attacks on Jews ramp up before Election Day
That was a day before the mass casualty incident.
Suspect charged in Pittsburgh synagogue attack that killed 11
Where so many prayed, and so many died
Suspect in synagogue slayings spewed online hate for Jews
Trump administration needs to call Pittsburgh shooting what it is
Gun laws had little to do with Pittsburgh attack, Trump says
Trump visit stirs debate
Trump complains of different news coverage of him compared to Obama after S.C. church massacre
Turns out that was also an agenda-pushing psyop and hoax, and then they tried it again in Kentucky.
Jeff Sessions takes his time talking about Pittsburgh
That's odd, because he was just in Boston saying he may pursue death penalty against Pittsburgh shooter.
Boston police increase patrols around synagogues
Bedford family mourns loved one lost in Pittsburgh synagogue shooting
Emotional vigil in Boston brings people together to mourn Pittsburgh synagogue victims
Baker and Gonzalez condemn Pittsburgh attack
The Pittsburgh massacre reflects a changing America
Warning the country about rising anti-Semitism
After Pittsburgh massacre, a rainbow of support
Well, we get the narrative and which is it?
PITTSBURGH SYNAGOGUE 'FALSE FLAG'
Yeah, the Department of Homeland Security Ran Safety Drills at the Tree of Life Synagogue back in March! Now they drill is being presented as real!
‘I looked up, and there were all these dead bodies’
Oh, yeah, where?
"Vice President Mike Pence defended the often-explosive language used by Trump, maintaining that the president ‘‘connected to the American people because he spoke plainly.’’ In the wake of the shooting and last week’s string of mail bombs allegedly sent by a Trump supporter targeting high-profile critics of the president, some have called for Trump to tone down his rhetoric. Pence rebuffed those calls, contending that ‘‘debate is healthy in America.’’ ‘‘We want a free and open political debate in America where everyone expresses themselves passionately and openly -- but also recognize the difference between passionate debate and acts of violence and evil,’’ Pence said. Reaction on the Sunday shows to the shooting split largely along partisan lines....."
The event is so blatantly political, occurring one week before the elections.
"Rabbi at Pence rally invokes Jesus, causing backlash" by Matthew Haag October 30, 2018
NEW YORK — At a campaign stop in Michigan on Monday, Vice President Mike Pence condemned anti-Semitism and the deadly massacre at Pittsburgh synagogue, then asked “a leader in the Jewish community” to offer a prayer for the victims and the country.
As he began his prayer, it became immediately clear the rabbi, Loren Jacobs of Congregation Shema Yisrael in suburban Detroit, would not be considered a Jew by any of the four major denominations of Judaism. In his prayer, he mentioned the “saving power” of the Lord and concluded, “In the name of Jesus, amen.”
Jacobs believes that Jesus is the Messiah, a conviction that is theologically incompatible with Judaism. Some Jews believe that the sect the rabbi represents, Messianic Judaism, is not only antithetical to Judaism but also hostile to their religion because some followers have tried to convert Jewish people to Christianity.
Jacobs, a leading figure in the denomination colloquially known as Jews for Jesus, quickly came under criticism Monday for appearing to represent Jews at the rally and for leading the only prayer by a religious figure at the event for the 11 people and six others injured in the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue on Saturday.
After the rally, Pence’s office said that the vice president did not invite the rabbi to the event and asked him to offer a prayer onstage as a message of unity.
One religious leader upset about Jacobs’s prayer on Monday was Rabbi Jason Miller, who lives in Detroit. He said on Twitter that there are more than 60 Jewish rabbis in Michigan that campaign rally organizers could have asked to offer a prayer.
“For the record, Messianic ‘Judaism’ is a branch of Christianity & offensive to the Jewish community,” Miller wrote in a separate tweet. “It was an insulting political stunt.”
Through an aide, Jacobs declined an interview request. In an explanation of his beliefs on his congregation’s website, he wrote that while Jewish people are the “chosen people,” they must accept Jesus Christ to go to heaven.
Messianic Judaism has a long, complicated history in the United States and beyond.
The modern movement of Messianic Judaism is relatively new and started to take shape with the help of mass media. Some of the first religious groups that claimed to be both Jewish and believers in Jesus of Nazareth, such as the American Board of Missions to the Jews, were transparent with their mission: Proselytize to Jews.
While the evangelizing of Jews has occurred over hundreds of years, the groups that emerged in the second half of the 20th century were well-funded, organized, and influential. Using Jewish symbols and wearing traditional Jewish prayer shawls, leaders spoke across the United States and even in Israel about Jesus Christ and the good news that the Jewish messiah had returned.
“Don’t call us converted Jews,” Moishe Rosen, a towering figure in the movement who founded the influential group “Jews for Jesus,” announced at an event in Madison Square Garden in 1972. “We are not something other than Jewish. I was born a Jew and I will die a Jew — but I am a Jew who believes in Jesus!”
“Jews for Jesus” estimates that up to 125,000 people worldwide are Messianic Jews. The largest population resides in the United States, the group said, followed by Israel.
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This must be the story of the week given the massive amounts of ma$$ media coverage, and honestly, I'm tired of Jewi$h supremacism being passed of as news.
I suppose they are only writing for their dwindling readership.
"Dairy giant Land O’Lakes announced on Tuesday that it will no longer make financial contributions to Representative Steve King of Iowa after a gun-fueled massacre at a Pittsburgh synagogue brought new attention to the Republican’s incendiary comments about race and association with white nationalism. The murder of 11 people, many elderly, in the mass shooting this weekend resulted in the arrest of a man who allegedly made anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant rants online. King has been at the forefront of a right-wing push to end birthright citizenship, a policy President Donald Trump said in an interview with Axios he would seek to enact, despite protections under the U.S. Constitution. King, who’s previously made derogatory remarks about immigrants, has also expressed admiration for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and tweeted support for his attacks on George Soros, a billionaire supporter of the Democratic Party who last week was one of a dozen recipients of mail bombs allegedly sent by a Trump supporter. The Iowa Republican also recently tweeted his endorsement of Faith Goldy to be the next mayor of Toronto. Goldy has been tied to white supremacists and was interviewed by the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer. In 2017 she attended the white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, during which a counterprotester was run down and killed. King, 69, is running against Democrat J.D. Scholten, a former paralegal and minor league baseball player from Sioux City. A poll of likely voters conducted by Change Research earlier this week shows Scholten and King neck and neck with just a week until the election, with a one-point lead for King. Trump won the district by 27 points in 2016. Through Oct. 17, King raised $739,553 and had $176,311 in cash on hand. Scholten, who raised $1.7 million, had $316,358 in the bank, Federal Election Commission filings show. “The Land O’Lakes Inc. PAC has traditionally contributed to lawmakers of both parties that represent the communities where our members and employees live and work and are also on committees that oversee policies that directly impact our farmer owners,” the company said in a statement. “We take our civic responsibility seriously, want our contributions to be a positive force for good and also seek to ensure that recipients of our contributions uphold our company’s values. On that basis, we have determined that our PAC will no longer support Rep. King moving forward.” In an extraordinary disavowal this afternoon, Representative Steve Stivers of Ohio, chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a post on Twitter that “Steve King’s recent comments, actions, and retweets are completely inappropriate. We must stand up against white supremacy and hate in all forms, and I strongly condemn this behavior.” Two days ago, however, Stivers defended the continued use of Soros by Republicans in campaign ads, despite the attempted bombing of his New York home and the mass-murder in Pittsburgh......"
They make him sound like Mister Rogers, and I'm not buying any of it:
FBI hunts sender of bombs to Democrats
My immediate reaction was how lame!
"Investigation into pipe bombs turns toward Florida as more Trump critics are targeted" by William K. Rashbaum, Alan Feuer and Adam Goldman New York Times October 26, 2018
Federal authorities investigating a spate of pipe bombs sent this week to several prominent critics of President Trump have turned their attention toward South Florida, believing that a number of the explosive devices were mailed from the area, two people briefed on the matter said Thursday.
Except the stamps were never marked!!
The focus on Florida came as at least three more devices were found in Delaware and New York, the FBI said Thursday morning. Two were addressed to former vice president Joe Biden, a Delaware resident, and a third to actor Robert De Niro, who lives and works in Lower Manhattan.
All 10 of the similar-looking packages discovered since Monday bore return addresses from Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Democrat of Florida.
The continuing wave of bombs has prompted an intense, nationwide investigation into whether people who have criticized the president and been vilified by the right are being targeted. Investigators have started focusing on Florida because an analysis of information collected by the Postal Service indicated that many of the packages were mailed from the state and processed at postal facilities there, including one in Opa-locka.
None of the devices has so far exploded on its own, and investigators have tried to determine whether the devices were even capable of detonating, but.....
Answer, they were not. No buts about it.
--more--"
It was a front page story:
"Outspoken Trump supporter in Florida charged in attempted bombing spree" by William K. Rashbaum, Alan Feuer and Adam Goldman New York Times October 27, 2018
An outspoken supporter of President Trump from South Florida was charged on Friday with sending explosive packages to at least a dozen of the president’s critics, apparently bringing to a close an attempted bombing spree that has gripped the country just ahead of the midterm elections.
The suspect, Cesar Sayoc Jr., 56, was arrested outside a car-repair shop in the Miami area after a fast-moving investigation in which the authorities said they were able to pull a fingerprint from one of the bomb packages and collect Sayoc’s DNA from two others.
He didn't wear gloves?
Sayoc, who seemed to be living out of a van in Aventura, Fla., was taken into custody on a day when four more explosive packages were found, including two intended for senators, both Democrats.
A federal criminal complaint spells out his contempt for this week’s many bomb targets, noting that Sayoc’s van was slathered with images and slogans often found on fringe right-wing social media accounts.
Can you say pathetic patsy?
The complaint identifies a Twitter account that authorities said he used to rail against Democratic figures, and it notes that both his social media messages and the bomb packages used the same misspelling — “Hilary Clinton” — for Trump’s 2016 opponent.
Sayoc also posted frequently on right-wing social media groups, authorities said. On Facebook, Sayoc published photos of a Trump rally he attended during the 2016 presidential campaign. He was wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat.
At a political rally in North Carolina on Friday night, the pro-Trump crowd broke into boos when he denounced negative media coverage and there were loud chants of ‘‘CNN sucks.’’
In a phone interview with the Globe on Friday night, a Massachusetts native said Sayoc, the suspect, worked as a delivery driver at New River Pizza & Fresh Kitchen in Fort Lauderdale for more than a year before quitting in January.
Debra Gureghian, a 59-year-old who grew up on Cape Cod, attended Barnstable High School, and lived in Watertown before she moved to Florida to care for her ailing mother six years ago, said Sayoc would spew “anti-gay, anti-black, anti-Jewish” rhetoric “every day.”
Gureghian said he told her that because she is a lesbian she is “deformed” and that she should be “put on an island with all the other gay people and burned.”
“He spewed such garbage, it was so vile,” said Gureghian, who works as the restaurant’s general manager. “There’s so much hatred today.”
Sayoc is a registered Republican whose arrest record in Florida dates back to 1991 and includes felony theft, drug, and fraud charges, as well as allegations that he threatened to use a bomb, public records show.
Oh, so he was well known to law enforcement, 'eh?
According to a police report, Sayoc called Florida Power and Light, a power company, in August 2002 and threatened to blow them up.
‘‘It would be worse than September 11th,’’ Sayoc said, according to the police report, which also said Sayoc threatened the company’s representative with physical harm if his electricity was turned off.
His criminal history from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement indicates that he listed his occupation some years ago as “manager.”
According to a 2012 bankruptcy petition filed in Miami, Sayoc resided at the time at his mother’s home. “Lives w/mom,” a handwritten note on the petition said. “Has no furniture.”
Sayoc was arrested around 11 a.m. Friday outside an AutoZone car repair shop in Plantation, Fla., about 20 miles from Aventura, officials said. The authorities also seized and towed away Sayoc’s white van, where he was apparently living.
Some residents of Aventura reported seeing a similar white van, the windows of which were plastered with a thick collage of pro-Trump stickers, often parked in the lot of a strip mall, the Aventura Waterways shopping center.
Photos of the van showed one of the stickers depicted a heroic Trump standing in front of flames and the American flag. Another was of Clinton’s face in the crosshairs of a rifle scope. A third said: “CNN Sucks.”
Speaking of vans and artwork.....
Sayoc is expected to appear before a judge in Florida on Monday.....
--more--"
Related:
"Cesar Altieri Sayoc Jr., a South Florida man charged in connection with a string of bombs mailed to prominent Democrats, appeared to have a lively social media presence, where he frequently posted in right-wing circles and shared conservative news stories and condemnations of liberal politicians....."
Mail bomb suspect found identity in resentment, lawyers say
Did they also report that his lawyer said he didn't have the intellectual capacity to be package bomber?
Mail bomb suspect had a list of 100 potential targets
Pipe bomb suspect was spinning records as FBI closed in
PFFFFT!
Someone is spinning something, all right.
Mail bombs and other threats have the wealthy cranking up security
Four shots fired into a Republican Party office in Florida
Was a buried brief!
Floridians deciding greyhound racing’s future
Looks like that race is over is over.
Four shots fired into a Republican Party office in Florida
Was a buried brief!
Floridians deciding greyhound racing’s future
Looks like that race is over is over.
Also see:
MAIL BOMB PSY-OP; CESAR SAYOC
Did you know a longtime friend of Cesar Sayoc is a former CIA officer and that crisis actors are needed in Florida for the next FALSE FLAG?!
Better check your new iPad.
"Facebook reports slowing revenue and user growth" by Mike Isaac New York Times October 30, 2018
SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook’s growth is slowing.
The social media company said Tuesday that its revenue rose 33 percent and profit increased 9 percent for the third quarter from a year earlier, roughly in line with what Wall Street had expected, but revenue growth was down from the 42 percent jump that Facebook had reported in the previous quarter, when it had also cautioned that its business was set to decelerate.
“The fact that problems keep emerging reinforces our view that the company is not as in control of its business as it needs to be,” Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research Group, said in a note to clients.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, has said there is likely to be future hits to profit margins as it works to repair systemic issues. The social network has pledged to hire tens of thousands more people to monitor content across its platform.
Going to keep an eye on things.
In a statement Tuesday, Zuckerberg promised expansion in the future, looking to Facebook-owned apps such as WhatsApp, the messaging app, and Instagram, the photo-sharing site.
“We’re building the best services for private messaging and stories, and there are huge opportunities ahead in video and commerce as well,” Zuckerberg said.
The social network has spent the past 18 months under scrutiny for the spread of disinformation, hate speech, and leaks of user data. Executives have vowed change and Facebook has scrambled to apply fixes, even as new issues surface on an almost weekly basis.....
--more--"
Related:
"Facebook is nearing the end of its toughest year as a public company. Ahead of results on Tuesday, analysts are hoping the news can’t get any worse. The social-media giant is expected to report third-quarter profit will be $5.79 billion, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg, but those projections belie another quarter of turmoil that included executive departures, a huge privacy breach, threats of regulation, and struggles to contain misinformation ahead of key US elections....."
Also see: Facebook suspends ‘inauthentic’ Iranian accounts
What do you do with an inauthentic pre$$?
"Gab, an online haven for white supremacists, plots its future" by Joshua Brustein Bloomberg News October 30, 2018
NEW YORK — For many people, the massacre in Pittsburgh on Saturday was an introduction to gab.ai, a social-media website popular among right-wing extremists. In the weeks leading up to the killing, the alleged shooter, Robert Bowers, posted a stream of anti-Semitic invective, before a final post attacking the Hebrew Immigrant Aide Society: “HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in.”
For a normal website, the idea of having played even a glancing role in such an event would likely be a moment for soul-searching. Not Gab. The company declined an interview request, but in a stream of posts on Twitter, as well as in a public statement posted to its homepage, the company dismissed the idea that it is possible or even desirable to discourage hateful speech online.
Even after taking down Bowers’s account, Gab CEO Andrew Torba told NPR he didn’t think the alleged shooter’s final post was a threat. “There’s awful content all across social media, across all of the Internet. That’s the way it’s always been.”
In a younger, more innocent age of social media, people at some social networks made some version of this argument. That has faded as the connection between online speech and real-world violence has become clearer.
Companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google’s YouTube all acknowledge the responsibility to confront extremism on their platforms, even if critics regularly question whether they’re too addicted to advertising dollars to dedicate themselves fully.
Torba, a disaffected entrepreneur who felt his support for Donald Trump made him a pariah in liberal Silicon Valley, started the company during the 2016 presidential election. He pitched it as a sanctuary for people who had been kicked off of Twitter for violating its community standards. Gab soon counted many of America’s most famous racists among its users.
As opposed to the Jewi$h supremacism that passes for news?
The company realized from the start it was on shaky ground, because it relied on mainstream tech companies both for distribution and technical infrastructure. It tried to use this vulnerability as a way to rally support. Torba railed against the market power of Facebook and Google, claiming that reasonable people on both left and right could agree their sway over the virtual public square was worrying. Gab’s only ideology was a zealous support of free speech.
Torba expresses a harsh version of right-wing populism, while also attempting to distance himself from the extremism on his site. Like a significant amount of right-wing speech online, there’s an element of joking-not joking to it.
Gab’s mascot is a cartoon frog that resembles Pepe, a meme used to signal winking support for the alt right. In the wake of the Pittsburgh shooting, Gab’s Twitter feed posted multiple messages arguing that no one but the shooter bore any responsibility — but also reposted one Tweet suggesting the attack was explained by Jewish support for liberal migration policies. (The post disappeared late Monday.)
Many vendors Gab relied on have cut ties. Google and Apple have banned it from their app stores. In September 2017, the company’s domain registrar told the site it wouldn’t host it anymore, citing extremist content on the site. Over the past month, and especially in the past few days, payment processors and other infrastructure providers have broken ties with Gab.
Many people on the far right have faced similar hurdles in recent years. Last year, the day before the white nationalist riot in Charlottesville, Gab announced the creation of the “Free Speech Tech Alliance.” The idea was to create a far-right friendly alternative infrastructure to the Internet. In a seeming sign that such efforts remain a work in progress, Gab disappeared from the Internet within 48 hours of the shooting in Pittsburgh. The company attributed it to a dispute with its domain registrar.
On Monday night, Gab said via Twitter that it planned to be back up by the weekend. The company insisted the attention it had gained would benefit it in the long run. “You have all just made Gab a nationally recognized brand as the home of free speech online at a time when Silicon Valley is stifling political speech they disagree with to interfere in a US election,” it wrote in a statement on its homepage.
Utsav Sanduja, who is Gab’s former COO and remains a supporter, said the company’s failure to take action on Bowers illustrated a lack of “checks and balances,” but blamed the company’s shoestring budget. “It’s really so hard to police everybody on the site. It’s really difficult to have that kind of oversight on a regular basis. I really feel for Gab, because they have a good mission, which is free speech,” he said.
The tumult surrounding the site does seem to require the commitment of a true believer. Over the weekend the company’s CTO, Ekrem Büyükkaya, quit, citing “the attacks from the American press.” Sanduja left in June, saying he and his wife were worn down by the constant trolling by some of the site’s neo-Nazi users. “After a while it just takes a toll on you,” he said.
That's why I've stopped reading the Globe and blogging on a daily basis.
--more--"
Yak yak yak.
Speaking of Nazis, how about a Mueller mask?
"A spokesman for Robert Mueller said Tuesday that the special counsel’s office has asked the FBI to examine claims that women were offered money to say Mueller behaved inappropriately toward them decades ago. The spokesman, Peter Carr, issued a statement saying that ‘‘when we learned last week of allegations that women were offered money to make false claims about the special counsel, we immediately referred the matter to the FBI for investigation.’’ Carr’s statement comes as Jack Burkman, a conservative lobbyist, tweeted that Thursday he ‘‘will reveal the first of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s sex assault victims. I applaud the courage and dignity and grace and strength of my client.’’ The FBI declined to comment. The strange sequence of events began about two weeks ago, when an e-mail account ostensibly belonging to a Florida woman began contacting reporters claiming that a mysterious individual had offered her money to say Mueller had behaved inappropriately when they worked together in the 1970s. Burkman gained notoriety when he promoted conspiracy theories regarding the still-unsolved killing in 2016 of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich. Those theories have been disputed by law enforcement officials. The person sending the e-mails would not speak on the phone but claimed she was offered tens of thousands of dollars to say negative things about the special counsel, who is investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election and allegations the Trump campaign conspired with those efforts. The person who has been e-mailing reporters over the past two weeks had said she was told that Burkman was behind the effort to pay those who made allegations against Mueller. ‘‘I think I’m the victim of a hoax,’’ Burkman said. ‘‘I don’t know who that person is and we certainly didn’t pay anyone to say anything.’’
Whatever happened to believing the woman?
And what does Mueller do?
Sic the FBI on her!
Looks like another set-up!
Halloween can be deadly for pedestrians, traffic study says
3 siblings struck, killed by truck at bus stop in Indiana
Court says Hopkins doctor had protection as expert witness
In North Dakota, Native Americans try to turn an ID law to their advantage
Trump wants to use executive order to end birthright citizenship
He would have to find a way around the 14th Amendment.
Zinke’s own agency watchdog just referred him to the Justice Department
I'm sure Obama's underlings will go after it with gusto.
69 percent of Americans are stressed about the future
I didn't know we had one.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Turkish president demands answers from Saudis over Khashoggi killing
Cooperation with Saudi Arabia, and particularly with Mohammed, sits at the heart of the Trump administration’s foreign policy in the Middle East. Although this latest crisis has drawn strong condemnation from both parties in Congress, there are few indications that it will fundamentally change the relationship between the two nations.
In an address to parliament Tuesday, Erdogan appeared more muted in his criticism of Saudi Arabia than in previous weeks. He did not mention Khashoggi by name and fell back on earlier talking points without upping the ante.
So everyone is falling in line.
South Korea’s top court rules Japanese company must pay wartime compensation
Rebels kill TV cameraman, 2 policemen in central India
The Maoist rebels, inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, have been fighting the Indian government for more than four decades, demanding land and jobs for tenant farmers, the poor, and indigenous communities. The government has called the rebels India’s biggest internal security threat.
India's Red Scare, just when you have the dedication of India’s new monument to its ‘Iron Man’, a $408 million gold-colored colossus also spills over into present-day politics that is seen as a trifecta for Prime Minister Narendra Modi: a nod to his Hindu political base, a landmark site in his home state, and a showcase of the nation’s growing prosperity and status as a rising global power.
Yeah, never mind the massive poverty and starvation.
"Zika is a virus spread primarily by mosquitoes that causes mild symptoms like fever, rashes, and aches in healthy adults. However, when pregnant women are infected, particularly in their first trimester, the virus has been linked to serious birth defects. India is one of more than 80 countries where the Zika virus is present, although the first confirmed cases were reported only last year. The initial two flare-ups of the virus, in the western state of Gujarat and the southern state of Tamil Nadu, involved just a handful of infections. The current outbreak is considerably larger and, for the first time, scientists found mosquitoes that were infected with the virus, indicating that it was being transmitted locally....."
Via vaccines!
The spread of this thing overseas proves its more than mosquitoes, and the only common variable is the vaccinations of pregnant women.
Indian authorities brace for worst air pollution season
The stink is coming from Bangladesh.
Related:
Sri Lanka’s political crisis turns deadly
Sri Lanka’s prime minister sacked and parliament suspended
Thousands demand president convene Sri Lankan Parliament
Was part of India once, and the British called it Ceylon.
German nurse confesses to murdering 100 patients over five years
What a horror story is that!
"Five members of the Afghan Taliban who were freed from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in exchange for captured American army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl have joined the insurgent group’s political office in Qatar, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Tuesday. They will now be among Taliban representatives negotiating for peace in Afghanistan, a sign some negotiators in Kabul say indicates the Taliban’s desire for a peace pact. Others fear the five, all of whom were close to the insurgent group’s founder and hard-line leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, bring with them the same ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam that characterized the group’s five-year rule that ended in 2001 with the US-led invasion....."
Related:
"The U.S. government was well aware of the Taliban's reactionary program, yet it chose to back their rise to power in the mid-1990s. The creation of the Taliban was "actively encouraged by the ISI and the CIA," according to Selig Harrison, an expert on U.S. relations with Asia. "The United States encouraged Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to support the Taliban, certainly right up to their advance on Kabul," adds respected journalist Ahmed Rashid. When the Taliban took power, State Department spokesperson Glyn Davies said that he saw "nothing objectionable" in the Taliban's plans to impose strict Islamic law, and Senator Hank Brown, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Near East and South Asia, welcomed the new regime: "The good part of what has happened is that one of the factions at last seems capable of developing a new government in Afghanistan." "The Taliban will probably develop like the Saudis. There will be Aramco [the consortium of oil companies that controlled Saudi oil], pipelines, an emir, no parliament and lots of Sharia law. We can live with that," said another U.S. diplomat in 1997."
We put you in, we can take you out!
"Did a small metal tube bring down an Indonesian airliner?" by Russell Goldman New York Times October 30, 2018
Divers scoured the Java Sea on Tuesday looking for clues that could explain why a brand-new airliner fell out of the sky just moments after takeoff, killing all 189 people on board.
Before Lion Air Flight 610 lost contact Monday, the plane displayed erratic changes in its speed, altitude, and direction, causing experts to speculate that a problem with the aircraft’s instruments used to calculate airspeed and altitude may have contributed to the crash.
Those indicators, or Pitot tubes, have been implicated in previous aviation disasters, but experts said that determining the cause of the crash would ultimately require the recovery of the plane’s flight data recorders, the so-called black boxes.....
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Related: 189 feared dead in Indonesia plane crash
It adds to country’s troubling record, and when was the last time you heard anything about the recent earthquakes, 'eh?
Venice flooding is worst in a decade
11 are dead.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
‘Get the duck boats ready’
For what?
Environmentalists sharply critical of Charlie Baker’s policies
They say there have been too many tornadoes.
Related:
Strong storms hit area; tornado confirmed in R.I.
Weather service says two tornadoes tore into New England on Tuesday
Nor’easter hits New England, causing flooding and some power outages
Several ski resorts in New England opening early after blast of cold air
The urgent need to save our oceans
And you do that by suing Exxon Mobil and becoming the first state to tax carbon dioxide so that recycling can pave US highways.
Also see:
Columbia Gas three weeks ahead of schedule replacing Merrimack Valley gas mains
That's odd because I was told they may not meet Nov. 19 deadline to restore service.
Columbia Gas will miss November deadline to restore service in Merrimack Valley towns
Merrimack Valley residents voice frustration with recovery effort
National Grid workers sit idle while out-of-state workers struggle to restore power in the Merrimack Valley
National Grid, locked-out gas workers remain at odds
They are not even talking.
Gas pipes damaged in Mass. with alarming frequency
About 100 people displaced by 7-alarm Fenway blaze
Cause of Fenway apartment blaze was electrical
Human error blamed in woman’s death after power cut
Family of Lawrence teen killed in gas explosions plans to sue Columbia Gas
They are taking the higher ground.
Teen leadership program launched by police officers enters its second year
Masked by a bad cop:
"Arlington police lieutenant who wrote ‘meet violence with violence’ is put on leave" by Danny McDonald Globe Staff October 31, 2018
An Arlington police lieutenant has been relieved of duty amid an investigation into controversial columns he wrote for a statewide law enforcement newsletter, in which he suggested police should “meet violence with violence.”
Lieutenant Richard Pedrini, a member of the force since 1996, was placed on paid administrative leave while the town and the Arlington Police Department investigate, local officials announced Tuesday.
“The sentiment raised by these comments is disturbing,” Town Manager Adam Chapdelaine said in a statement. “The town is taking these comments very seriously, and we will thoroughly investigate this matter.”
At issue are three columns Pedrini wrote in the latest newsletter of the Massachusetts Police Association, a nonprofit that advocates for police officers across the state.
In the columns, Pedrini referenced the recent killings of police officers in Weymouth and Yarmouth and railed against immigrants, criminal justice reform, “social justice warriors,” and Democratic politicians, including US Senator Elizabeth Warren and Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone.
“I am sick and tired of the social justice warriors telling us how to do our jobs. It’s time we forget about ‘restraint’, ‘measured responses’, ‘procedural justice’, ‘de-escalation’,’stigma-reduction’, and other feel-good [expletive] that is getting our officers killed,” he wrote.
“Let’s stop lip-synching, please! Let’s meet violence with violence and get the job done.”
In a statement posted on its website, the group said it has retracted the columns, which were published in The Sentinel newsletter, and suspended Pedrini from its executive board.
The columns “do not meet the criteria that we set for The Sentinel or the MPA as an organization,” Alan Andrews, the association’s president, said in the statement.
Pedrini could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
Andrews said the columns “were meant to be taken in a tongue-in-cheek, satirical fashion, were written for an audience of law enforcement officers and were not meant to be taken literally.”
“They were an evocative response to the raw emotion felt by all police officers around the state due to the recent senseless deaths of Weymouth Police Officer Michael Chesna and Yarmouth Police Officer Sean Gannon,” Andrews said.
Andrews also said the group was committed to “doing a better job ensuring that any public-facing messaging upholds our standards and does not detract from our mission.”
“We are not an organization that seeks political division, and we apologize for any misunderstanding or dissension that may have been caused,” he said.
In one column, Pedrini referred to a Massachusetts criminal justice bill as “100 plus pages of blather and feel-good initiatives that will do nothing to put maggot criminals behind bars (With the exception of Fentanyl/Carfentanyl dealers. We’re finally cracking down on them.)”
In the same column, Pedrini commented on the country’s border enforcement.
“The federal government is sending troops to the border and the liberals complain,” he wrote. “Then we’re told, they have no enforcement authority. Meanwhile, a ‘caravan’ of illegals is traveling up through Mexico to demand all rights of US citizens when they get here.”
In another column, he said there is a “growing group” in the Legislature “who really believes we are the bad guys and the poor criminal class just needs to catch a break.”
He also said he was rooting for a Fourth of July protester who climbed the base of the Statue of Liberty to fall on former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who has become an activist icon for protesting police brutality and social injustice.
Pedrini also blasted Curtatone for his announcement that Somerville would celebrate Indigenous People’s Day instead of Columbus Day and characterized Black Lives Matter as anti-American.
“What a farce!” he wrote. “Some folks will say anything to please the Antifa, BLM, America-hater crowd.”
Curtatone responded in an interview.
“I think those types of words pierce that veil of trust and credibility with everyone,” he said by phone late Tuesday afternoon. “It’s unfortunate that’s what was said.”
Pedrini also took exception to Warren’s comment that the criminal justice system is “racist . . . front to back” and ripped Suffolk district attorney candidate Rachael Rollins for her plan to forgo the prosecution of 15 offenses.
“Give her six months,” he said of Rollins. “Suffolk County will become a lot more like Baltimore than the nationally recognized ‘Boston Miracle.’ ”
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Better pass on the blackface:
"Megyn Kelly skips ‘Today’ as questions mount over her future at NBC" by John Koblin and Michael M. Grynbaum October 25, 2018
NEW YORK — On the Tuesday episode of her show, Megyn Kelly made remarks on blackface Halloween costumes that caused a backlash. On Wednesday, she looked into the camera and apologized. On Thursday, she did not go to work, and a rerun of “Megyn Kelly Today” replaced the live broadcast of her show.
Kelly’s absence was a sign that she is not likely to return to the NBC airwaves.
Bryan Freedman, a Los Angeles litigator just hired by Kelly, has started negotiations with NBC about her potential exit from the network, according to two people briefed on recent discussions.
With another repeat episode of “Megyn Kelly Today” scheduled for Friday, Noah Oppenheim, the president of NBC News, and Jackie Levin, the show’s executive producer, told staff members Thursday to prepare for a few days off. Oppenheim and Levin also informed them that they would be moved into new jobs at the network if the program was canceled, according to two people familiar with the meeting.
The offstage machinations took place two days after Kelly suggested, during an on-air roundtable discussion, that it was appropriate for white people to dress in blackface as part of their Halloween costumes.
Kelly apologized for her comments on two occasions this week — once in an e-mail to colleagues, and again on the air, but her demonstrations of contrition did little, it seemed, to improve her standing at the network.
At a midday meeting of NBC News staff members on Wednesday, Andrew Lack, the chairman of the news division, did not mention her apologies and said, “There is no other way to put this, but I condemn those remarks.”
Al Roker, a “Today” fixture, said on the show Wednesday that Kelly “owes a bigger apology to folks of color around the country.” The anchor Craig Melvin called her comments “racist and ignorant.”
By the end of the day, Kelly and Creative Artists Agency, the Hollywood talent agency that represented her, had parted ways. In addition, cast members and showrunners from the Netflix drama “House of Cards” had canceled their scheduled appearance on her show.
With no apparent support from her colleagues, her boss or her representatives, Kelly stayed out of the fray on Thursday, leaving her future at the network very much in doubt.
The events of the week were a dramatic shift for Kelly, who left Fox News for NBC in January 2017 in a splashy, high-priced signing. NBC gave her a rich deal through 2020 that was worth a reported $17 million a year and signaled that she would be a centerpiece of the network.
Kelly would host the third hour of NBC’s morning franchise, “Today,” and a Sunday night magazine program that would challenge the CBS stalwart “60 Minutes.” In addition, she would provide a boost to election specials and Olympics coverage. That was the plan, at least.
In the months before she made her sudden jump to NBC, Kelly had broken out of the cable news bubble by challenging Donald Trump during a presidential debate and writing critically of the Fox News chairman Roger E. Ailes in her memoir, who left the network after multiple women made allegations of sexual misconduct against him. In her book, “Settle for More,” Kelly reported that Ailes “made sexual comments to me, offers of professional advancement in exchange for sexual favors.”
At Fox News, Kelly, a lawyer, had distinguished herself over 12 years as a sometimes prosecutorial interviewer who did not shy away from third-rail topics. She was No. 1 in her time slot, sometimes rivaling her colleague, Bill O’Reilly, as the biggest ratings draw in all of cable news.
Kelly started her new venture on May 1, 2017. Within a month, Kelly’s Sunday magazine show debuted to middling ratings. And before long Kelly became the scourge of parents of the Sandy Hook shootings when she interviewed the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and posted a photograph of the two smiling together.
NBC quietly announced earlier this year that her Sunday show would return “periodically.”
The morning show, which started in September 2017, would be the source of more headaches. Throughout its run, “Megyn Kelly Today” has trailed the rival program “Live with Kelly and Ryan” by a significant margin.....
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What a witch, huh?
Related: NBC cancels Megyn Kelly’s show after blackface controversy
That is so very interesting given that Roseanne reruns are now back on the air.
"GE’s stock takes a hit after another disappointing quarter" by Jon Chesto Globe Staff October 30, 2018
General Electric Co.’s new chief executive, Larry Culp, on Tuesday took up where his predecessor left off: with another big cut in the company’s dividend, more changes to the troubled power division, and staying the course with the spin-off of the oil-and-gas and health care businesses.
Wall Street’s response? The stock dropped yet again, at one point on Tuesday dipping below $10 a share, to the lowest since 2009. It closed at $10.18, down 8.3 percent.
Left out of this kitchen-sink approach, though, is the fate of the company’s new headquarters complex in Boston. GE has been mostly silent about the fancy 12-story tower overlooking Fort Point Channel, except to say it would begin work on the new building after it completes renovations of two older brick structures next door, but over the next few years, the 300,000-person company will slim down significantly, with many business lines going their separate ways.
I only note it because there is tax loot at $take.
One of the focal points of Tuesday’s results was a $22 billion charge in the power business, to reflect its financial problems and its reduced value. GE officials said the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department are expanding their probes of the company’s accounting issues to include the new writedown.....
They are being investigated by the DoJ and SEC?
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Related: GE’s new CEO sticks to old talking points in first earnings report
Yeah, I thought I heard that before.
"GE’s Culp rally fizzles as shares sink to nine-year low" by Richard Clough Bloomberg News October 26, 2018
So much for the Larry Culp bump.
Related: The Trump bump is for real
General Electric Co. has lost all of the gains from a rally earlier this month sparked by Culp’s surprise appointment as chief executive officer.
The new slump suggests a leadership change — even one bringing in a respected chief executive such as Culp — won’t be sufficient by itself to fix the deep problems facing the manufacturer. While a broad market decline pulled down many stocks Friday, GE is facing renewed concerns about the hurdles in its insurance and power-equipment operations.
You bought yourself a lemon, Bo$ton!
GE fell 4.2 percent percent to $11.30 a share Friday after sliding as low as $11.18. That’s the worst intraday level since July 2009 — and below the $11.29 closing price on Sept. 28, the last trading day before Culp became chief executive.
The Boston-based company won applause from investors by ousting John Flannery, who had run GE for just over a year, and handing the reins to Culp, the former head of Danaher Corp. The new chief executive was tasked with accelerating portfolio changes and cost-cutting to help stem one of the deepest slides in GE’s 126-year history.
Among the challenges he faces is a deteriorating long-term care insurance portfolio, which may need billions of dollars in additional capital, Gordon Haskett analyst John Inch said in a note.
Culp has yet to give any public insight into his strategy, aside from a brief statement in a press release announcing his appointment.
--more--"
At least you know whom to blame.
Wasn't his fault anyway.
Was just caught in the downdraft:
"State Street gets caught in fund managers’ downdraft" by Annie Massa and Charles Stein Bloomberg News October 30, 2018
NEW YORK — It’s been a cruel month for US asset managers.
BlackRock Inc., State Street Corp., and rivals have seen their shares take a hit as jittery institutional investors have seized up in choppy markets. The other culprits: weak fee revenue and lackluster fund flows that were revealed in less than stellar earnings reports.
“For the next stretch it’s going to be tough going as investors are likely to shoot first and ask questions later,” Glenn Schorr, an analyst with Evercore ISI, said in a note to investors last week.
BlackRock set the tone for the industry’s rough earnings season. Its long-term net inflows of $10.6 billion for the third quarter were the lowest quarterly figure since 2016. In an interview, chief executive Larry Fink said he was “not particularly happy” with the results. BlackRock spent most of the year with its share price trading well above $500, but it hasn’t closed above that level since July.
Everyone else has been making in excess of 20% profits quarterly.
Related:
"Boeing breezed past almost all expectations for the third quarter and raised its outlook for the year on burgeoning defense spending. Steady commercial aircraft sales and a tax benefit also helped jolt profit by 31 percent. The company recently won contracts for several projects, including a new drone program and the MH-139 helicopter. The U.S. military received a major budget increase earlier this year, aimed at pilot training, equipment maintenance and new weapons systems....."
The actual quarterly profit was $2.36 billion.
Still, analysts at Credit Suisse and Edward Jones noted BlackRock’s mix of business lines will continue to help it outperform peers, because it has enough variety to withstand different market cycles.
State Street also had to answer for disappointing results. The Boston-based firm’s third-quarter revenue and earnings fell short of analysts’ estimates in part because fees came under pressure as investors cut back on risk. On the day the company reported earnings, shareholders hammered the stock price, pushing it down 8.5 percent.
The challenges facing the industry are spurring consolidation.
That's known as the death knell of Capitali$m, when they start eating each other.
On Oct. 18, Invesco Ltd. agreed to buy OppenheimerFunds, a unit of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., for $5.7 billion to gain a business that specializes in picking stocks and bonds, particularly internationally. The deal served as a bet on the future of active management, at a time when many investors are leaving stock-pickers for products that track indexes.
Lazard Ltd. CEO Ken Jacobs said last week that he might consider a sale of his company’s $240 billion asset manager if the price were right.....
Yeah, “if you are not growing you are dying,” and I'm no longer growing here.
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Related:
"US stocks climbed Tuesday after solid earnings reports from several big companies. Stocks had closed at five-month lows the day before, and groups of companies that struggled badly made big gains. Many of the best-performing stocks Tuesday came from parts of the market that have fared the worst during the market’s plunge this month. Those included smaller and more US-focused companies, Internet and media companies, basic materials makers, and energy companies....."
Also see:
Stock woes unlikely to create conditions that stymie growth
Few economists are concerned.
You know, the same ones who weren't concerned in 2008, either.
Banks lead US stock slide, extending market’s losing streak
After a long losing streak, stocks surge on solid earnings
After a 500 points-plus fall, US stocks climb nearly all the way back
Stocks tumble again on report US might levy tariffs on all Chinese goods
It's a double dip, and here it comes!!!
After elections we will have a Grand Depression and the official beginning of World War III.
"Dow plunges more than 600 points in another day of losses, officially wiping out its 2018 gains" by Thomas Heath, October 24, 2018
The Dow Jones industrial average dove more than 600 points Wednesday as another wave of volatility swept through U.S. financial markets. The blue-chip barometer bobbed in the red most of the session.
“This could be a bull market correction or something more serious,” said Michael Farr, an investment manager in Washington.
Some Wall Street experts said the steep sell-off in the last hour of trading was a scramble by sellers who are looking beyond this year and toward more modest earnings in 2019 — in the neighborhood of 5 percent growth instead of 20 percent.
They are also unnerved at the slowdown in the Chinese economy, the strong U.S. dollar and other global menaces such as a looming Italian financial crisis, U.S. tensions with Saudi Arabia and the latest domestic crisis involving homemade bombs sent to former secretary of state Hillary Clinton in New York, former president Barack Obama in Washington, and CNN’s offices in New York.
Investors are closely watching other signals, too.
You know, the real problems that effect the economy, including new inflationary concerns over tariffs and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate increases, which are coming under heavy criticism from President Trump. [This is almost a ‘too good to be true’ economy, the Fed chair says].
AT&T fell short of third-quarter profit expectations Wednesday, which pushed its share price down nearly 7 percent and added to worries about the tech sector. The semiconductor industry also has shown weakness, and the energy sector was also a heavy drag. A weakening Chinese economy has combined with an upcoming U.S. election to add to the air of uncertainty surrounding markets.
The markets are in the midst of one of the busiest earnings weeks of the year, with major blue-chip companies, including Microsoft, Visa, Tesla, UPS and Ford all reporting Wednesday.
Nancy Tengler, chief investment officer for Heartland Financial USA, said several factors are at work driving down prices, one of which is the lack of buyers jumping in to the market to scoop up deals on stocks.
Some of those buyers are the companies themselves.
“You have all these buybacks, but right now is a blackout period, so these great companies and insiders can’t buy their own shares,” Tengler said. “There’s no offsetting buyer. So when the algorithms drive the sell programs, it feeds on itself. The same thing happened when the market dropped in January.”
That can't be a good thing, right?
Just a fal$e $en$e of $ecurity.
The market’s shakiness comes despite the fact that many companies have surpassed earnings expectations this quarter, but the projected earnings growth has slowed in big blue-chips.
Tengler said current sell-off will probably end in a 10 percent correction before the upcoming midterm elections.
Trump and the Republicans are hoping to ride it out one more week.
“After the elections, the buybacks will be allowed and kick in,” she said. “We will see a bounce between then and the end of the year.”
There’s another possibility for the pullback, said Brad McMillan, chief investment officer for Commonwealth Financial Network.
He put it this way: “Now we are starting to get into an area that suggests confidence itself in the market may be the reason.”
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Related:
"Burt Flickinger, managing director of Strategic Resource Group, a retail-advisory firm, said, “You’re going to see an epic hollowing out of the retail malls in America, especially the malls that are co-anchored by Sears. It’s creating an accelerating retail ice age and an economic Armageddon of unprecedented proportions in the US.” Greg Maloney, chief executive of JLL Retail, said, “It could be a double whammy or it could be a double opportunity, it could go either way depending on the property. A lot of these developers, I don’t want to say they’re excited, but it’s a finality. Now we’re going to move on.” At this stage in the slowly unfolding retail decline, no one will say they didn’t see the problems coming....."
Well, you can always blame China.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
That's too $cary.
Let's pick out a fun mask for you.
How about going as Babe Ruth?
Who knows?
The woman who answers the door might have seen him play.
Dodgers cross a picket line and betray a proud heritage
The top story was David Price as the Red Sox trampled playoff opponents in near-historic fashion.
Unfortunately, I slept through them all.
Red Sox can stake claim as one of the greatest teams in baseball history
Yes, they were so good, so good, so good and the Globe made sure you knew all about it.
They gave you an inside look at how they made a championship team:
"Several fans noted the good vibes were particularly welcome after a brutal week that saw a gunman kill two black people in a Kentucky grocery store after trying to enter a predominantly black church, and another gunman massacre 11 Jews at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. Given the hatred and violence nationally, seeing such a diverse team play together for the championship was a reminder “of what’s right in our country,” said Robert Lewis Jr., founder of the BASE, a Roxbury organization that mentors young people through baseball....."
What lessons did you learn from that, Larry?
Businesses step up to the plate to back Worcester Red Sox
Sox fans who also love food are already winning
Other celebs at the World Series:
You can always go as a celebrity couple even after you have broken up.
"A California judge on Monday ordered Stormy Daniels’s lawyer Michael Avenatti to pay $4.85 million to an attorney at his former law firm, the first time the potential presidential candidate is being held personally liable in the case. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dennis Landin issued the ruling after turning down a request from Avenatti to have the matter moved to federal court, which the opposing side called a delay tactic. Avenatti did not appear at the court hearing and never filed opposing arguments in the case. The judge said Avenatti must pay the money because he personally guaranteed a settlement with Jason Frank, who had worked at his former firm. Frank had alleged the firm misstated its profits and that he was owed millions. Avenatti, who is toying with a possible 2020 presidential run, told the Associated Press on Monday that Frank owes him and the firm $12 million ‘‘for his fraud.’’ He did not provide details. The ruling follows a court ruling from a US bankruptcy court judge who ordered Avenatti’s former firm to pay $10 million to Frank in May. The $4.85 million is in addition to that judgment. In July, the Justice Department accused Avenatti of making misrepresentations in the bankruptcy case and said his former law firm owed more than $440,000 in unpaid federal taxes. Avenatti’s lawyer said at the time that the matter had been resolved....."
Related(?):
Lioness at zoo kills father of her cubs in ‘unprovoked’ attack
‘‘She apparently dominated him for the whole time they were together,’’ like some sort of tyranny.
I think I see another head in the crowd:
Louis C.K.’s official return
It was in Bo$ton, and it drew protests.
"A British court has barred a newspaper from revealing the name of a leading businessman accused of sexual harassment and racial abuse by employees. The Daily Telegraph said Wednesday that it had been "gagged," and predicted the banning order would "renew controversy about the use of injunctions to limit British press freedom." The case concerns allegations against an executive, identified in court papers only as ABC. The Court of Appeal said the five complainants had signed non-disclosure agreements as part of settlement packages. It granted an interim injunction until a new High Court hearing on whether to allow publication of the man's identity. The corporate use of NDAs has been under scrutiny since it emerged that movie mogul Harvey Weinstein used them to keep alleged sex abuse victims from speaking out....."
I refer you to the Manhattan DA’s Office on that one.
Then there is the Elon Musk mask.
It costs a lot, but I'm told it's worth it.
Only problem is it $tinks in$ide.
Let's see, they have a Tsarnaev, a Carman, a Wopat, and at the end of the aisle is the Aaron Hernandez.
So which one do you want to wear?
Now before you go out, I want you to play it safe in Salem because the ‘‘Saturday Halloween Movement’’ might just be the cause that can unite the country!
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Let's see what is in your pumpkin pail:
"Pecan Resist celebrates activists who are resisting oppression, harmful environmental practices, and injustice....."
And it melted just like the blue wave.
New England’s apple crop down slightly from last year
The warm, early fall weather kept some people away from pick-your-own farms, but it was still a productive year at the orchards, said Russell Powell, a spokesman for the Hatfield, Mass.-based New England Apple Association.
Better check it for razor blades.
"The Campbell Soup Co. executive who came under fire after spreading a conspiracy theory about investor George Soros on Twitter had previously been planning to leave the company and will depart in early November. Kelly Johnston, vice president of government affairs at the soup maker since 2002, told Campbell in August that he would be leaving early next month, a spokesman for the company said. The planned departure, which had not been previously announced, came to light late on Tuesday when Campbell’s interim chief executive officer, Keith McLoughlin, sent a letter to Open Society, the Soros-backed organization that Johnston accused on social media of providing “troop carriers and rail cars” to a so-called migrant caravan. McLoughlin said the remarks “are inconsistent with how Campbell approaches public debate.”
So that's what made it so heavy.
I dumped out the rest and found these in there:
New study suggests opioid addiction in Mass. is much worse than thought
Tired of waiting for Massachusetts marijuana stores?
Yeah, that was all there was.
Happy Halloween, everybody!
