Business groups make push for more transportation revenue at the State House
Nearly three dozen of the biggest business groups across the state have united behind a call for more revenue to boost public transit and roads in the state, with the hope that a new infusion of cash can help solve the congestion-related woes that vex their workers, and the debate highlights differences in state’s business community.
What it means is rates and fees are going to rise so they can be tossed down the rathole of the decrepit and neglected $y$tem. Seen this movie before, sorry.
Colonel testifies he raised concerns about Ukraine, Trump
The New York Times reports that defying White House orders, Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, a military officer at the National Security Council, center, testified to impeachment investigators Tuesday that he twice raised concerns over the administration’s push to have Ukraine investigate Democrats and Joe Biden, and that his account offered a hint to solving a mystery surrounding the conversation first reported by the intelligence whistle-blower whose complaint launched the impeachment inquiry: what Trump’s aides left out of the transcript in places where ellipses indicate dropped words.
More on him later.
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Suspect in BC suicide case accused of taking advantage of boyfriend’s depression
Inyoung You told police she tried to stop Alexander Urtula’s suicide, but investigators say that claim is undermined by thousands of text exchanges that revealed a toxic and tumultuous 18-month relationship.
Amidst the agenda-pushing promotion, 'er, coverage, is a look at how texting can empower abusers and how colleges are struggling to help growing number of students with mental health trouble in the wake of a Quincy man who was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife by running her over with minivan (what the hell is going on in Chinatown?).
For local activists, recognition of Armenian genocide ‘reminds world that we will not allow human atrocities’
We have and will commit many of them, or support those that do, but that is beside the political point being made in service to the Yinon/PNAC plan of USraeli Empire.
Armenian-American activists in Watertown and Worcester have pushed for decades for the United States to recognize the tragedy and lay blame on Turkey for the 1.5 million deaths in the early 1900s.
Are the victims of USraeli aggression going to have to wait over 100 years for recognition?
DCF moves busy offices away from city centers, making it harder for parents to see kids
The Department of Children and Families has moved two busy field offices away from city centers, and lawyers for struggling parents who have lost custody of their children say the relocations have created significant transportation hurdles for many families.
Another perpetually dysfunctional agency here in Ma$$achu$etts; however, if it is not in the headlines, all's well.
Sorry to trick you, readers, but I didn't buy a Globe yesterday.
California faces strong winds as blackout spreads
The powerful windstorm is roaring toward Southern California as utilities cut electricity to as many as 2.5 million people to prevent power lines from sparking fires.
Related:
Wildfires outside L.A. threaten homes, spare Reagan library
That was the co-lead today, and yes, something is terribly wrong (h/t) with the fires in California.
Also see:
Los Angeles prosecutors won’t charge Kevin Spacey sex battery case
So that sadistic cretin is going to get away with his sexual predations, and the Globe completely ignored the exhumation of Epstein (Bill Barr will be getting to the bottom of that).
3 killed, 9 injured in shooting at California home
Now let the New York Times introduce you to Alexander Vindman, the colonel testifying on Trump’s phone call: They fled Ukraine with their father and grandmother, Jewish refugees with only their suitcases and $750, hoping for a better life in the United States. testimony of Vindman, 44, is one of the more riveting turns in an inquiry that has been full of them. Vindman’s testimony was sprinkled with references to duty, honor and patriotism — but also his life as an immigrant and a refugee.
Turns out he is an Army Borgist and part of the Deep State as "the Democrat 'impeachment' show trial consists of a series of secret, but, of course, leaked, testimonies from a variety of 'worthies' consisting of their personal interpretations of the talk which Trump has already released the gist of, and which any American can read for his or her self. No added value in any of these testimonies, just Clintonista PR. In this case, we have confirmation from a Ukrainian intelligence asset of the basic story created by Ukrainian intelligence!"-- xymphora
The New York Times then reports that prominent right-wing media commentators at Fox News are leading the attack on Alexander Vindman as the impeachment inquiry begins:
"Vindman, who received a Purple Heart after he was wounded in Iraq, is a Ukrainian American immigrant who was 3 years old when his family fled to the United States. On her Fox News program Monday, conservative host Laura Ingraham sought to turn his ethnic background against him, noting that Ukrainian officials had recently sought the colonel’s advice about interacting with Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
“Here we have a US national security official who is advising Ukraine while working inside the White House, apparently against the president’s interest,” Ingraham said. “Isn’t that kind of an interesting angle on this story?”
Her guest, John Yoo, a former top lawyer in the George W. Bush administration, agreed. “I find that astounding,” Yoo said. “Some people might call that espionage.”
The accusation by Yoo was decried by left-leaning pundits and, Tuesday, by Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, a Republican lawmaker. “It is shameful to question their patriotism, their love of this country,” Cheney said, calling on critics to stop questioning the colonel’s loyalties.
You have to love the surreal juxtaposition of Yoo -- he who wrote the the torture memos that Bush signed into law -- arguing with the daughter of Dick Cheney.
What's even more surreal is the waving of patriotism to blunt any question of motive regarding this latest "whistleblower" after three years of calling Trump an agent of Russia and that old bag Hillary Clinton's recent insinuation that Tulsi Gabbard and Jill Stein are Russian assets.
Still, the notion that Vindman has some allegiance to a foreign country rapidly spread in right-wing circles, who apparently sensed a useful talking point to undermine testimony that is expected to be deeply damaging to Trump.
Vindman, 44, grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y.; completed basic training in 1999; and carried out numerous overseas tours in the Army, including in South Korea, Germany, and Iraq. In 2003, he was wounded by a roadside bomb and received a Purple Heart. He has served in multiple US embassies and joined the National Security Council in 2018, but online, the conspiracy theory about Vindman as a foreign agent has begun to spread."
The surreal juxtaposition never ends! You have a choice between "online conspiracy theories" or the war-promoting, agenda-pushing fabrications and lies of propaganda and perception management that comes from the AmeriKan pre$$ and ma$$ media.
More Stories
Sessions considers bid for former Senate seat
The bid is to be aborted and blocked.
Navy reduces punishment for SEAL in war crimes case
That reminds me, not one word of Baghdadi in yesterday's web Globe. He went from having a special section to leading the World section to nothing. The pre$$ buried him as soon as they slid him into the ocean!
Jimmy Carter to teach Sunday school despite broken pelvis
It's a good thing the fall wasn't fatal; otherwise, there would be a lawsuit.
Scientists triple their estimates of the number of people threatened by rising seas
Just because they say it doesn't make it true, especially since they have been wrong so often.
Activist Thunberg declines climate prize, urges more action
Here is what you kids have to do, and enjoy your new standard of living!
Grenfell Tower report faults fire brigade’s response
Why is it still standing?
World’s 14 highest peaks in 6 months: Nepali smashes climbing record
He is lucky he isn't dead.
2-year-old dies after being trapped in well for days
Never mind the war next door.
Egypt arrests train conductor after youth jumps to his death
The arrest was met with protests.
Lebanon’s prime minister to step down
Hong Kong bars prominent activist from seeking election
You win some, you lose some.
Britain sets Dec. 12 for an election in which Brexit will dominate
If he loses he can sue the Trump administration.
German restaurant accidentally serves hash cake at funeral
Had a little kick to it!
Ban could cost Mass. vaping stores up to $8 million in sales
That's the cost of tainted products that authority never wanted.
Second person dies from vaping-related illness in Mass.
So they are saying; however, as one commenter noted: There is SO much missing in all this hysteria...of the people who became ill, how many were lifelong smokers, how many had pre-existing lung conditions, how much were they vaping, how long have they been vaping, are they still smoking on top of vaping, smoking pot/vaping pot on top of vaping nicotine, etc...but all WE get....2nd person dies.....reader; fill in the blanks.
Top officials clear N.H. trooper accused of lying in drug case
State commission rejects appeal from Mass. state trooper who challenged discipline
His career is now history.
Ayanna Pressley endorses Jesse Mermell in race to succeed Joe Kennedy III in Congress
State investigating allegations that MIT has mishandled radioactive material
Buried at the bottom of the Metro section.
Time to get back to bu$ine$$:
DraftKings primed to run New Hampshire’s sports betting operation
They are taking a chance on it.
Siemens arm closes $1.1b deal for Waltham firm
Saltzman tells us the Waltham medical technology firm founded in 2002 in Israel by an interventional cardiologist and a health care executive, Corindus Vascular Robotics makes robots that can insert stents to open up blood vessels to the heart. Those vessels have been narrowed by fatty buildup as a result of coronary artery disease. The robots can be remotely operated by cardiologists.
Developer seeks to alter office/condo mix in $1.3b Winthrop Center already under construction
Sure is a lot of money sloshing around out there in the midst of massive wealth inequality.
New Balance takes Liverpool case to Court of Appeal
The self-serving Globe has an interest because John Henry owns Liverpool!
Wanna grab a flight across the pond to see a match?
New allegations on Boeing 737 Max safety released by House committee
That set the stage for the show hearing that didn't mention that the FAA subcontracted Boeing to approve the safety of their own plane safety!
US stocks cap wobbly day of trading with modest losses
That's okay because the S&P 500 hit a new high the very next day as GE’s stock surged.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Time to take the masks off!
Democrats want to hear from John Bolton, but he won’t testify without subpoena
That was bylined Associated Press while my printed copy and front page are NYT slop.
"Impeachment Investigators Summon Bolton, Who Indicates He Won’t Appear Voluntarily" by Nicholas Fandos and Adam Goldman New York Times, October 30, 2019
WASHINGTON — House impeachment investigators on Wednesday summoned John Bolton, President Trump’s former national security adviser, and two top White House lawyers to testify next week in their inquiry into Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukraine, closing in on critical witnesses as they prepare to go public with their investigation.
Bolton, a fiery foreign policy veteran, could be a marquee player in the House’s month-old impeachment inquiry. His deputies have testified that Bolton, who left the White House in September amid disagreements with the president, was angry about the efforts to pressure Ukraine to open investigations into Democrats. Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer who was leading the charge, he warned, was a “hand grenade who’s going to blow everybody up,” but his appearance is far from assured. His lawyer said that Bolton was “not willing to appear voluntarily,” declining to specify what his client would do should he be subpoenaed.
The walrus loves the spotlight, huh?
Many Democrats regard Bolton as the perfect witness, a respected conservative national security hawk who was nonetheless incensed by how the president and his inner circle were treating Ukraine, and who broke sharply with the president upon his departure from the White House. If Bolton is subpoenaed, his lawyer, Charles J. Cooper, is likely to ask a federal judge to determine whether his client needs to comply.
The fact that the Democrats have decided to align with the Deep State and the Neo-Con war hawks has caused me to abandon them forever. They disgust me.
Cooper, who also represents Bolton’s former White House deputy, advised the deputy, Charles Kupperman, not to comply with a subpoena to appear this week after the White House intervened. Instead, he filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge whether he should testify in the impeachment inquiry. A hearing on that matter is scheduled for Thursday at the US District Court in Washington. Bolton could take a similar course.
In addition to Bolton, House investigators sent requests Wednesday to two senior White House lawyers implicated in the case, John Eisenberg and Michael Ellis, who could offer important insight into the events under scrutiny. Eisenberg fielded concerns from Bolton’s deputies about apparent demands being placed on Ukraine and helped move a transcript of a now-famous July phone call between Trump and Ukraine’s leader into a secure server that limited who could see it.
That's the naked truth, and if only Clinton's server had been secure!
Eisenberg and Ellis could face similar decisions about whether to satisfy the White House directives or congressional demands. As White House lawyers, they could also be subject to certain special privilege claims to shield their testimony from Congress.
As the private phase of the inquiry marched forward, the House prepared for its first formal vote Thursday related to the inquiry, as Democrats lay out rules to begin taking their impeachment process public. There was no doubt that the Democratic-controlled body would approve the eight pages of procedures on Thursday.
‘‘As much as this president flaunts the Constitution, we are going to protect it,’’ House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern, Democrat of Worcester, said as his panel debated the procedures Wednesday.
I'm so ashamed that he is my Congre$$critter (didn't vote for him, though).
On Wednesday, Democratic and Republican investigators privately questioned two more witnesses, both foreign service officers who worked closely on Ukraine policy at the White House, advising Kurt Volker, the former US special envoy to that country.
One of them testified that Robert Livingston, a former Republican congressman turned lobbyist, repeatedly told her when she was assigned to the White House that the ambassador should be fired because of her association with Democrats.
The officer, Catherine Croft, testified that she “documented” multiple calls from Livingston about Yovanovitch while she was working at the National Security Council from mid-2017 to mid-2018. She said that she informed two other officials — Fiona Hill, then the senior director for Europe and Russia at the council, and George P. Kent, a Ukraine expert at the State Department — about them at the time.
“He characterized Ambassador Yovanovitch as an ‘Obama holdover’ and associated with George Soros,” she said, referring to the billionaire liberal philanthropist, according to a copy of Croft’s opening statement reviewed by The New York Times. “It was not clear to me at the time — or now — at whose direction or at whose expense Mr. Livingston was seeking the removal of Ambassador Yovanovitch.”
It is not clear if Livingston’s work, or those financing it, were in any way connected to efforts by two Americans with business interests in Ukraine who wanted her gone and, later, by Giuliani. Nor did Croft have anything to say about whom else Livingston spoke with.
The much-anticipated invitation punctuated another hectic day in Washington, where talk of impeachment and the shadow diplomatic efforts at the heart of the case consumed the capital. A confirmation hearing for John Sullivan, the deputy secretary of state who is Trump’s nominee to be the ambassador to Russia, was dominated by questions about the Ukraine affair.
Under oath and on camera, Sullivan confirmed publicly for the first time that Giuliani was involved in a smear campaign to oust the ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, and made it clear that he did not believe the president’s quest to enlist Ukraine’s political help was proper. “I don’t think that would be in accord with our values,” he said, when asked whether it was appropriate for the president to demand investigations into domestic political opponents.
No, it's only appropriate when Democrats do it!
Tim Morrison, a Europe and Russia expert on the National Security Council, resigned from his post on the eve of his scheduled testimony before impeachment investigators. Morrison had been considering leaving for some time, but the timing fueled anticipation that he would offer damaging information about Trump’s conduct.
The New York Times is crossing its fingers in hope and praying so!
NPR first reported his plans, and details continued to trickle out from the closed-door depositions that have been fueling the investigation. Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert at the National Security Council, told investigators Tuesday that Ukrainian officials had complained to him about Giuliani and his demands for investigations. He went so far as to warn Volodymyr Zelensky as he was being sworn in as the president of Ukraine, according to people familiar with his testimony. During a May meeting in Ukraine to mark Zelensky’s inauguration, the colonel advised him to try to avoid becoming ensnared in politics in the United States.
They offered additional information about concerns about Giuliani’s role among some senior administration officials, including Bolton, and gave intriguing new details about a campaign to smear Yovanovitch.....
After a while, you realize the New York Times is engaged in nothing more than hypocritical self-projection and agenda-pushing perception management.
--more--"
As you can see, I bought and read a printed Globe today.
They must have $ome $ort of $pell over me:
Millennials and Gen Z embrace witchy, New Age spiritualism
For millennials and Gen Zers, raised on a steady diet of “Harry Potter” and a stable connection to the Internet, witchcraft and New Age practices are a source of comfort and spirituality in increasingly fraught times. Salem witch Lori Bruno said parents who’ve lost children to drug use have begun seeking their psychic services.
So now we know what witches like to dress up as on Halloween: con artists who will do you a reading like the psychics on TV!
The Globe digs deeper for a little known Halloween fact:
"With frightful weather predicted, dozens of Massachusetts and New Hampshire communities are rescheduling trick-or-treating. Forecasters are warning of rain, high winds, and reduced visibility on Halloween night, officials said. Isolated thunderstorms could also impact Southern New England tonight. There’s bad news for adult Halloween revelers, too. The city of Salem, well known for its festivities, is canceling a few live performances and its fireworks show, Dominick Pangallo, the mayor’s chief of staff, said Wednesday....."
Good thing they no longer burn you at the stake even it is freezing cold.
No sooner do the signs go up than they come back down.
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Why Boston needs a major public art work by native son Frank Stella
The Mass. economy shrinks, the nation’s expands, and the Fed cuts rates
That's the "downside of the state’s low jobless rate."
At a Michigan high school football field, impeachment is the political line of scrimmage
In a rapidly growing western Michigan suburb, support for an impeachment inquiry into President Trump has been growing while the area shifts politically to the left after decades as a Republican stronghold.
He won Michigan in 2016 when it was supposed to be blue and hadn't voted for a Republican in nearly 30 years!
The Globe still hasn't learned!
"Trump’s Rust Belt revival is fading. Will it matter in 2020?" by Josh Boak and John Seewer Associated Press, October 30, 2019
TOLEDO, Ohio — Recent data shows manufacturing jobs are disappearing across Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Ohio, states critical to Trump’s reelection chances. On Tuesday, Murray Energy, a major mining firm with close ties to the president, became the latest of many coal companies to file for bankruptcy this year, rattling communities across Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky. The news followed recent layoffs at a prominent steel manufacturer in northeastern Ohio and General Motors’ final decision this fall to shutter its massive plant at Lordstown, Ohio.
Murray Energy is the 8th coal company in a year to seek bankruptcy, but all the talk is that Saudi Aramco shares are to start trading in December.
Related:
"US farm bankruptcies in September surged 24 percent to the highest since 2011 amid strains from President Trump’s trade war with China and a year of wild weather. Growers are also becoming increasingly dependent on trade aid and other federal programs for income, figures showed in a report by the American Farm Bureau Federation, the nation’s largest general farm organization. The squeeze on farmers underscores the toll China’s retaliatory tariffs have taken on a critical Trump constituency as the president enters a reelection campaign and a fight to stave off impeachment."
Also see:
"US businesses added a mere 125,000 jobs in October, a slowdown in hiring driven in part by job cuts in manufacturing and construction. Payroll processor ADP said that hiring in September was also revised down sharply, to 93,000 jobs from the initial report of 135,000 jobs. The October figure did not account for the strike by General Motors’ workers, which probably led to the loss of an additional 60,000 jobs, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics."
Are you sick of being lied to yet?
The turmoil in the manufacturing and mining sectors threatens to undermine President Trump’s claim to a booming economy — the bedrock of his and his Republican allies’ campaign strategy — in places where it matters most. While Trump’s economy is benefiting high-tech manufacturing and energy sectors in other regions, the manufacturing slump across the Rust Belt may test whether Trump can retain his appeal to blue-collar workers without having fully delivered on his promise to fatten their bank accounts.
The insulting elitism that has been internalized by the pre$$titute has become sickening, and I'm just wondering where are the places where your vote matters least?
Recent elections haven’t shown that angst to be aimed at Republicans. After Trump won Ohio by 8 percentage points — the largest margin of any presidential candidate since 1988 — Republicans fared better in Ohio than in many other states in last year’s midterms, nabbing every statewide office but one. Their winning formula was based on overwhelming support from working-class, white voters in small communities where a single company can anchor the local economy.
I guess Trump keeps Ohio if he is still president a year from now. What the above paragraph shows is the true divide in America: the globalist elite that hold sway in the cities, and the rest of us in rural America that make up the bedrock and heartbeat of this nation.
Trump bounded into office promising to bring back ‘‘beautiful clean coal’’ and deliver a victory for every factory worker. The message helped him pull out victories in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Ohio, where scars from the Great Recession that technically ended in 2009 were still fresh.
After Obama had eight years to fix everything?
For the first two years of his presidency, Trump oversaw an economic recovery that extended across sectors and regions — adding manufacturing and factory jobs in the Rust Belt and beyond, but recent signs show that trajectory shifting downward quickly, fueled by a slumping global economy and the trade wars escalated by the Trump administration.....
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Time to start fretting!
"Democrats fret over impeachment timeline" by Michael Scherer and Mike DeBonis Washington Post, October 30, 2019
WASHINGTON — House Democrats increasingly expect their impeachment inquiry into President Trump will stretch well past Thanksgiving, possibly forcing a Senate trial into January or later — a timeline that could complicate the final weeks of campaigning before the party starts to choose its nominee.
House leaders had initially hoped to hold a floor vote before the Nov. 28 holiday so the Senate could hold trial before Christmas, but the surprising number of witnesses agreeing to testify behind closed doors in the Capitol over the past few weeks has extended the timeline and sparked a debate over whether prolonged impeachment proceedings are politically prudent.
That's the bed they made for themselves!
I so look forward to a Republican House come 2021!
Some Democratic strategists have raised concerns that an extended process bridging the holiday season risks losing the nation’s attention or lending credence to Republican claims that Democrats have been distracted from the bread-and-butter issues such as health care and job creation that they focused on in the 2018 election.
‘‘The bandwidth and the attention span for it will be hard-pressed once the holiday season is engaged,’’ said Dan Sena, the former executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. ‘‘I think this is not something people want on their dinner table.’’
HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!
That presumes that the American public is paying attention before the holiday season!
I see no evidence of that. What I see are Americans sickened by both political parties as they serve mammon.
As for the holiday dinners, don't talk with your mouth full.
A January trial would also disrupt the final weeks of campaigning before the Iowa caucuses for candidates who are senators in Washington, while others including former vice president Joe Biden and Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., continue to rally voters on hay bales. The caucuses are Feb. 3.
House leaders plan for the first floor vote in the inquiry on Thursday, a measure that will authorize public hearings and ensure the release of deposition transcripts.
Under the constitutional process, the House would vote to impeach with a simple majority vote. The Senate would then hold a trial, with conviction requiring a vote of two-thirds of the senators present.
Other strategists have argued that Trump and the Republican Party have reacted so poorly to the investigation that a drawn-out process could be beneficial to Trump’s rivals.
‘‘He has been exhibiting all the behaviors that polling shows makes the voters who decide elections very nervous about him,’’ said Dan Pfeiffer, who was a senior White House adviser to President Obama and now co-hosts the ‘‘Pod Save America’’ podcast. ‘‘Short-circuiting the investigation to meet an arbitrary deadline is the greater political risk than having it bleed into 2020.’’
Those the same polls that told us Hillary Clinton would be president in 2016?
On Capitol Hill, interviews with more than a dozen House Democrats revealed their hope to conduct a full and complete investigation, with some expressing concern about the process extending into January.
‘‘The end of the year is the deadline still, and I certainly think it ought to happen before Iowa,’’ said Representative Ro Khanna of California, a supporter of independent Senator Bernie Sanders for the presidency. ‘‘When you run against an incumbent, you have to make the case of why to fire them. The House has done that. But you also have to make the case of how you’re going to improve people’s lives.’’
And how is this political hatchet job doing that?
Others are focused more on the need to follow the facts.....
PFFFFT!
Yeah, the Democrats are interested in the facts!
HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!
--more--"
Pelosi says ‘‘the timeline will depend on the truth line.’’
Over to the Senate we go:
"Senate Democrats question Russia ambassador pick about Ukraine, impeachment" by Karen DeYoung The Washington Post, October 30, 2019
WASHINGTON — Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan appeared headed toward Senate approval Wednesday as US ambassador to Russia, even as Democratic lawmakers questioned his professed lack of curiosity or pushback against policies on Ukraine that he indicated he opposed.
Notice how Joe and Hunter Biden have been all but forgotten by the pre$$?
At a confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sullivan deftly offered benign responses to questions on what he knew about President Trump’s conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In his current job, Sullivan said, he was in charge of shepherding US-Russia dialogues on counterterrorism and strategic security.
Sullivan generally agreed with bipartisan assessments of the threat posed by Russia, ranging from cybersecurity to Middle East expansion. He underlined the importance of arms control, criticizing Russian cheating and pledging to pursue fair agreements.
Consider the country that is coming from.
A veteran of numerous high-level government jobs — including at the Justice and Defense departments — over three administrations, Sullivan served as a senior adviser to several Republican presidential campaigns. Confirmed in his current post in early 2017, he has avoided much of the rancor directed at the leadership of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from Democrats and some Republicans, and from inside the department.
His appearance Wednesday was preceded by a letter of praise signed by dozens of former officials, diplomats, and military leaders, including former Trump defense secretary Jim Mattis and national security adviser H.R. McMaster.
Trump isn't fighting the Deep State; he's a faction of it!
Senate Democrats indicated in advance of the hearing that they relished the opportunity to question the highest-level State Department official to come before them since the House began its impeachment inquiry of Trump’s alleged attempt to condition US aid to Ukraine on its pursuit of compromising information on his political opponents.....
You know, speaking of the State Department, why are the Democrats not calling Tillerson to testify about Kushner leaving him in the dark on conversations with foreign nations and asking what is Kushner doing now?
I guess some members of the tribe are untouchable, huh?
--more--"
Related:
"George Papadopoulos’s first major political role, serving as an adviser to the Trump campaign in 2016, catapulted him into the center of an international scandal and ultimately landed him in federal prison. Now a free man living in California, Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to federal agents investigating Russian interference in President Trump’s election, is planning to make his return to politics, as a candidate for Congress. His seat of choice? The one occupied by Representative Katie Hill, a Democrat, who said Sunday she is resigning amid an ethics investigation into allegations that she had been romantically involved with her legislative director. Hill has denied the charge, but admitted to engaging in a consensual three-person relationship with her now-estranged husband and a member of her campaign staff. The freshman lawmaker, who identifies as bisexual, became embroiled in controversy earlier this month after a conservative news site and British tabloid published nude photos of Hill without her consent. The news was met with swift backlash from California State Assemblywoman Christy Smith, so far the lone Democrat in the race for Hill’s seat. Three Republicans are also running, the Associated Press reported. ‘‘If he pled guilty to lying to the FBI — how do we know he’ll tell us the truth?’’ Smith tweeted, tagging Papadopoulos. ‘‘We deserve someone from our community serving as our voice — not @realDonaldTrump’s wannabe political hack!’’ Smith later ratcheted up her criticism of Papadopoulos, sharing a video that appeared to mock the former Trump adviser over the short amount of time he’s lived in California. Papadopoulos, who is originally from Illinois, moved west with his wife after he was sentenced in September 2018."
Maybe he started the fires.
Also see:
"Former first lady Michelle Obama shared painful memories of growing up in Chicago’s South Side and gave a reminder to white people in attendance at the Obama Foundation Summit on Tuesday: ‘‘Y’all were running from us, and you’re still running,’’ she said. Obama was talking about the white flight she experienced growing up in a South Side neighborhood. White flight is when white people relocate from diverse or increasingly diverse areas. The former first lady said she noticed white families packing and heading for other parts of the city and Illinois to be away from black people. With her brother, New York Knicks executive Craig Robinson, by her side, Obama said their family was doing everything they were supposed to do and sometimes better. ‘‘As we moved in white folks moved out, because they were afraid of what our families represented,’’ she said. In 2010 Chicago had the fifth-highest combined racial and economic segregation in the nation and the 10th-highest black and white segregation, according to a 2017 study from Chicago-based Metropolitan Planning Council. Chicago is now ranked the fourth most-segregated city in the county, USA Today Money reported in July. White flight reduced the city’s capital for schools, infrastructure, and other community resources, something Obama said she noticed when she was growing up. ‘‘There were no gang fights, there were no territorial battles. Yet one by one, they packed their bags and they ran from us. And they left communities in shambles,’’ she said during her time of plugging the Obama Presidential Center to be built in the historic Jackson Park, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The former first lady said she’s still noticing patterns of white flight in Chicago, as immigrant families settle in neighborhoods. ‘‘You were running from us and you’re still running, because we’re no different than the immigrant families that are moving in, the families in Pilsen, the families that are coming from other places to try to do better,’’ she said to applause."
Maybe they just wanted to get away from you.
Trump shares altered photo of himself with hero dog
That buried brief replaced the Biden SuperPAC piece that was in my printed pos!
Related: Pentagon releases first government photos, video of al-Baghdadi raid
Now I AM convinced of their veracity, aren't you?
Judge strikes down gun laws enacted in wake of Pittsburgh synagogue massacre
GOOD!
"Erdogan: US lawmakers have no right to call Armenian deaths genocide" by Patrick Kingsley New York Times, October 30, 2019
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey lashed out Wednesday against the recognition and denunciation of the Armenian genocide by US lawmakers, deepening a rift between Turkey and the United States.
“We do not recognize this step, this decision you have taken,” Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara, at a meeting of lawmakers from his party. “The countries who have stains of genocide, slavery, colonialism, in their history have no right to give lessons to Turkey.”
He has a point there, and he didn't even mention the mass-murder based on lies over the past 18 years.
Erdogan was speaking a day after the House of Representatives designated as a genocide the 1915 killings of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, the precursor to the Republic of Turkey.
I'm wondering how that is ‘‘making the case of how you’re going to improve people’s lives’’ and not servicing some special interest or political agenda.
The American ambassador to Turkey, David Satterfield, was summoned by the Turkish government to explain the decision, which came on the same day that the House voted to impose harsh sanctions on Turkey over its military assault on the Kurds in northern Syria. Erdogan’s communications director, Fahrettin Altun, described the sanctions bill as a “direct contradiction to the spirit of a strategic alliance.”
It's still a military assault even though the 5-day cease-fire is now permanent!
Whatever, New York Times.
For years, US lawmakers avoided officially describing the Armenian deaths as a genocide, wary of angering Turkey, a NATO ally that has never acknowledged the full extent of the massacres.
Just wondering when Israel will acknowledge theirs.
The House’s decision, by a 405-11 vote, to reverse its decades-old stance reflects the extent of bipartisan anger at Turkish foreign policy, particularly since Turkish forces began an offensive in northeastern Syria against Kurdish-led forces that had partnered with the US military in fighting the Islamic State group.
The "Kurdish-led forces" contain Al-CIA-Duh and ISIS™!
Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers were already frustrated with Erdogan’s government, which is growing closer to Russia and has arrested several American citizens and employees in recent years, including a pastor.
The Turks arrested undercover CIA operatives, and not one mention of Obama's attempted coup in 2016!
Nor is there any mention of Obama cozying up to Myanmar or destroying Libya.
The Turkish administration has in turn grown steadily angrier at US support for Syrian Kurdish fighters whom it regards as a threat to Turkey’s national security. US-Turkish relations have been further strained by the recent indictment in New York of a Turkish state-owned bank that US prosecutors accuse of helping Iran to circumvent US sanctions. Erdogan is accused in the court documents of involvement in the scheme.
In his speech Wednesday, Erdogan suggested that the House vote was a political decision rather than the outcome of a sincerely held belief. “In a sense, it was profiteering,” he said.
The withdrawal of US troops from the border early this month gave Turkey the opportunity to invade Kurdish-held territory in northern Syria. That forced the Kurdish leadership to turn to the Syrian government and its Russian backers for support, and to retreat from the border.
After an agreement between Turkey and Russia, a buffer zone has since been established along the border, patrolled by Turkish, Russian, and Syrian government troops.....
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Look who rode along with the patrol:
"Erdogan: Joint patrols with Turkey and Russia start Friday" by Zeynep Bilginsoy and Jamey Keaten Associated Press, October 30, 2019
ISTANBUL — Joint Turkish-Russian patrols will begin Friday in northeastern Syria, following a Russian-brokered cease-fire that promised to have Syrian Kurdish forces withdraw to the south, Turkey’s president said Wednesday.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his ruling party that Turkey won’t hesitate to relaunch its operation if the Kurdish fighters do not abandon the 19-mile deep area or continue their attacks against Turkish troops.
Turkey invaded northeastern Syria earlier this month. The cease-fire to allow the Syrian Kurdish forces to withdraw has largely held, despite occasional clashes.
Turkey and allied Syrian fighters now control a portion of the previously Kurdish-held border zone, encompassing the towns of Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ayn, as Russian and Syrian government troops move into the rest of the Kurdish-held areas following a deal with the Kurdish force.
The war is over, folks, unless Trump wants to fight for the oil.
Meanwhile, in Geneva, delegations from Syria’s government, opposition, and civil society gathered for the first time Wednesday to discuss the country’s constitution, billed by a UN mediator as a ‘‘momentous’’ task that could help their country emerge from nearly nine years of war.
An ‘‘opening ceremony’’ for the UN-brokered, tripartite constitutional committee offered a symbolic step by bringing once-defiant sides into the same room for talks, but the substance and possible achievements remain unknown.
UN envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen called on the sides to be ‘‘patient and persistent’’ and warned of unknowns such as terror attacks or fighting that could derail the talks that have taken many months to organize.
So what false-flag fakery does the U.S. have in its bag of tricks?
The meeting has been billed as a Syrian-led process, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calling it an important step in ‘‘creating the conditions for a political solution.’’ Countries including Iran, Russia, Turkey, and the United States are keeping close watch.
Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed the meeting in Geneva as a major step toward political settlement.....
How responsible of him!
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Nothing in either article about stealing Syria's oil.
"Amid civil unrest, Chile cancels summit at which Trump hoped to sign China trade deal" by David Nakamura and Brady Dennis Washington Post, October 30, 2019
WASHINGTON — Chile has canceled a pair of major global summits on the economy and environment in the coming weeks amid unrest in Santiago, scrambling President Trump’s hopes of signing a first-step trade deal with China at one of the events.
Another covert destabilization campaign and color-coded regime change operation!
President SebastiĆ”n PiƱera announced the cancellation as his administration struggles to suppress growing demonstrations in Santiago, the capital, over issues of inequality in South America’s wealthiest nation. As many as a million protesters took part in a peaceful march over the weekend, though smaller protests have turned violent, prompting the government to declare a state of emergency in several major cities.
The agenda-pushing pre$$ just showed its hand.
Trump was scheduled to attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Santiago from Nov. 15 to 17. White House officials said he was planning to meet with China’s Xi Jinping in a bid to lock in details of a ‘‘phase one’’ trade pact that could ease tensions between the economic powers and lay the groundwork for a bigger trade deal next year.
Trump had not planned to attend the environmental summit in Chile, though a US delegation was expected.
The White House also announced Wednesday that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross would lead the US delegation to the East Asia Summit and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations gathering in Bangkok next week. Trump has not attended those events since 2017.
Chilean officials also pulled out of playing host to the Conference of the Parties, or COP, a major climate change summit.
White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said APEC does not have a backup site for the summit and that the Trump administration is waiting to learn whether it will take place elsewhere. He emphasized that the United States is still trying to finalize a trade agreement with Beijing in the ‘‘same time frame.’’
Negotiators have been meeting since then to produce a written agreement, which Trump hoped to sign in Chile, but there is no real deadline for those talks, and with the Santiago summit off the calendar, it is not clear when the phase-one deal will be finalized.....
Somehow, an article on Chile ended up being concerned about China!
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Also see:
Brazilian president lashes out over alleged links to left-wing politician’s killing
Muslim headscarf debate divides France, in climate of hate
The scene has triggered a venomous national debate that is scrambling questions over the headscarf, Islam, immigration, and radicalization, and the clamor reached a crescendo with the shooting and wounding Monday of two Muslims outside a mosque in southwest France.
[I feel I am obligated to report the full-page ad for New Hampshire Liquor and Wine Outlets on A5]
Time to shift attention to more serious problems:
Focus on immigration shifts attention from a more serious problem — cartels
The Trump administration’s obsession with preventing immigrants from reaching the United States is forcing Mexico to divert resources from the far more important work of combating cartels.
You mean when they are not working with them?
Coolidge and FDR were right about government workers and unions
TV needs to step up for people with disabilities
Boston public schools lose ground on national exam
Good thing that the state whose education spending is lagging and going to the wrong places is still #1!
Bo$ton fell because of its status as a sanctuary city. That skews the statistics.
"Trahan says $300,000 of campaign cash came from husband’s income" by Andrea Estes and Matt Stout Globe Staff, October 30, 2019
Dogged by questions about the source of a last-minute cash infusion into her 2018 campaign, Representative Lori Trahan said Wednesday that $300,000 she loaned her campaign was her husband’s income that he deposited into an account they shared.
Trahan, a Westford Democrat, offered the explanation as part of a lengthy statement she sent to donors and supporters, in which she argued that she viewed her husband’s money as her own and framed the financial maneuvering as falling into a “gray area” of campaign finance law.
Under pressure from campaign finance watchdogs and a potential primary opponent, Trahan has repeatedly said that $371,000 in money she loaned her campaign came from her own personal funds. That includes in April, when an NBC Boston reporter asked if she could “categorically deny” that her husband helped her beyond giving the maximum individual contribution allowed by law, which at the time was $2,700 for a primary election and $2,700 for a general.
“Yeah,” Trahan said then. “Look, the suggestion that I personally did not have the funds available is completely inaccurate.”
On Wednesday, she admitted she made “several errors” in her financial disclosures but defended the use of her husband’s income because they’ve considered each other’s funds as “our money.” She said she and her husband had a written agreement when they married in 2007 that all of their income would “be our marital property, and each of us would have an equal right to manage and spend it.”
Yeah, the breaking of law and underhanded political tactics are just errors that she lied about!
Good thing she is a Democrat and not a Republican!
Under federal law, spouses, like any individual donor, are barred from giving beyond the individual cap, but candidates are allowed to pull personal funds from accounts they hold jointly with a spouse. They’re generally limited to half of the amount in those accounts unless a candidate specifies how much of a financial stake he or she has in it.
Trahan didn’t report the joint account on required federal disclosure forms until after the November election, when the Globe began asking questions about the source of the last-minute infusion of cash into the campaign. She financed a blitz of television ads, winning the 10-person primary by only 145 votes over second-place finisher Dan Koh.
Trahan aides have repeatedly said the freshman lawmaker did nothing wrong. Her campaign has insisted that money she had loaned her campaign came out of her own personal funds, including $300,000 from the joint bank account and $71,000 she borrowed from a home equity line of credit.
Aides have also said that much of the money in the account came from Trahan’s consulting business, Concire Leadership Institute, from which she earned roughly $275,000 in 2018.
Trahan acknowledged Wednesday that she “could have done it differently,” including dipping into open lines of credit or saving her own income to use toward the campaign, but she didn’t give the decision of pulling the money from the joint account “much thought” because of how she and her husband structured their finances.
Just the kind of person we want in Congre$$, 'eh?
“It’s a complete admission of guilt to the campaign finance violations,” said Adav Noti, senior director with the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, which in March had called on federal regulators to open a probe into Trahan.
“The money was not Trahan’s; it was transferred to Trahan’s joint bank account for the express purpose of financing her campaign. And Trahan falsely reported the source of the funds to the FEC,” said Noti, who challenged Trahan’s description of the situation. “That’s not ‘a gray area in campaign finance law’ — it’s a very large and very illegal campaign contribution.”
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Here is a look at the the lying bitch!
Time to IMPEACH HER!
[flip to below fold]
Warren blasts N.H. Republicans for new state voting law
Aaaaaaaaaah!
In District 5, the race for City Council is a microcosm of the divide over establishment politics
MGH oversaw trial that led to first death from fecal transplant, new paper shows
The Globe is literally shit these days.
University system freezes in-state tuition
Dartmouth to spend $1.4m on microscope
SJC will continue effort to study, improve well-being of Bay State attorneys
Or else you are history.
New MS drug from Biogen and Alkermes wins approval
State puts Hurley Building, a prime downtown development site, on the market
It could fetch as much as $200 million!
"Russia tests new disinformation tactics in Africa to expand influence" by Davey Alba and Sheera Frenkel New York Times, October 30, 2019
NEW YORK — Russia has been testing new disinformation tactics in an enormous Facebook campaign in parts of Africa, as part of an evolution of its manipulation techniques before the 2020 US presidential election.
So says the New York Times, pfft.
Facebook said Wednesday that it removed three Russian-backed influence networks on its site that were aimed at African countries including Mozambique, Cameroon, Sudan, and Libya. The company said the online networks were linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Russian oligarch who was indicted by the United States and accused of interfering in the 2016 presidential election.
Unlike past influence campaigns from Russia, the networks targeted several countries through Arabic-language posts, according to the Stanford Internet Observatory, which collaborated with Facebook to unravel the effort. Russians also worked with locals in the African countries to set up Facebook accounts that were disguised as authentic to avoid detection.
You mean like Pierre Delecto, er, Mitt Romney?
Some of the posts promoted Russian policies, while others criticized French and American policies in Africa. A Facebook page set up by the Russians in Sudan that masqueraded as a news network, called Sudan Daily, regularly reposted articles from Russia’s state-owned Sputnik news organization.
We have a bunch of them on television over here, and I heard a job at Sputnik is to die for.
The effort was at times larger in volume than what the Russians deployed in the United States in 2016. While the Kremlin-backed Internet Research Agency posted on Facebook 2,442 times a month on average in 2016, one of the networks in northern and central Africa posted 8,900 times in October alone, according to the Stanford researchers.
“They are trying to make it harder for us and civil society to try and detect their operations,” Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, said of the Russian actions.
PFFT!
Are you sure it is Russia and not Israel?
The campaign underlined how Russia is continuing to aggressively try different disinformation techniques, even as it has come under scrutiny for its online interference methods. By spreading the use of its tactics to a region that is less closely monitored than the United States and Europe, researchers said Russia appeared to be trying to expand its sphere of influence in Africa, where it has started distributing propaganda and building a political infrastructure.
So says the lead disinformer on the planet, the New York Times.
Alex Stamos, director of the Stanford Internet Observatory and a former Facebook executive, said the campaign had implications for the United States before next year’s presidential election.
Yeah, if the Democrat doesn't win Russia stole it.
He said it was highly likely that Russian groups were already using the same model of working with locals in the United States to post inflammatory messages on Facebook. By employing locals, he said, Russians did not need to set up fake accounts or create accounts that originated in Russia, making it easier to sidestep being noticed.
Uh-huh.
These guys are so far over-the-top with their shark-jumping it makes one ROFL!
“We will see a model where American groups are used as proxies, where all the content is published under their accounts and their pages,” Stamos said.
For Facebook, the evolution of Russia’s disinformation techniques means it cannot afford to lose vigilance. The Silicon Valley company faced a barrage of criticism after Russians abused the social network in 2016 to plant divisive content to influence the American electorate. Since then, Facebook has set up war rooms and hired more security experts to head off foreign interference in elections, but Russia has kept up a steady stream of influence efforts on Facebook. Last week, the company revealed it had taken down four state-backed disinformation campaigns, three from Iran and one of which started in Russia.
Oh, now it is IRAN, too!
I suppose they are working FOR the DEMOCRAT, right, given Trump's tough treatment of them!
HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!
Of course, all that propaganda rests on the elitist belief that we are all a bunch of empty-headed receptacles who can't think for ourselves and are just waiting for our heads to be filled. If that were true, newspapers wouldn't be in crisis from "online conspiracy theories!"
Facebook is dealing with other issues related to the 2020 election. For weeks, it has been under attack by presidential candidates, lawmakers and even its own employees over how it treats political advertising. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, has said he will allow politicians to post any claims they want in an ad — even if they are false — in the name of free expression.
That assumes we believed what the lying politicians and their ma$$ media handmaidens are shoveling.
Facebook faces a difficult adversary in Russia. The country had previously indicated that its disinformation techniques were changing and that it was aiming to work with locals on online influence campaigns.
In Ukraine, which held a presidential election this year, local authorities announced in March that they had arrested a Russian agent in the capital, Kyiv. The agent, they said, had been ordered by his Russian handlers to “find people in Ukraine on Facebook who wanted to sell their accounts or temporarily rent them out.”
They mean Kiev, right?
The latest campaign in central and northern Africa is the first well-documented case of Russia “franchising,” or outsourcing, its disinformation efforts to local parties, said Facebook and the Stanford researchers. It is unusual for a nation to try to influence so many countries at once, they said.
Unless it is the United States with their CIA!
Shelby Grossman, one of the Stanford researchers, said that Russians in some cases set up local media organizations in the African countries to employ locals who would post the propaganda and false content on Facebook. In other cases, the Russians hired existing media groups to do so.
Look like the AmeriKan pre$$ to me.
Ben Nimmo, head of investigations at the social media analytics company Graphika, said Russia’s new tactics revealed the “dirty tricks and black ops that are underpinning the Russian outreach in Africa.” He called it “the new KGB playbook for foreign influence.”
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At least Twitter says it will ban all political ads as Putin hosts Cuban leader for talks on expanding ties.
You know, maybe I would be better off getting out from under this keyboard and getting some exercise:
"Americans as a rule don’t get enough exercise, but the notion that we’re too busy to work out is nonsense, according to a new study from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and conducted by researchers at the nonprofit Rand Corp. Instead of exercising, we’re giving over the bulk of our free time to mobile, computer, and TV screens. ‘‘There is a general perception among the public and even public health professionals that a lack of leisure time is a major reason that Americans do not get enough physical activity,’’ said Deborah Cohen, a Rand researcher and coauthor of the study. ‘‘But we found no evidence for those beliefs.’’
Why did Democrats just come to mind?
So what did the Globe drop in your bag?
